sign in sign up
<<
Home , John Knox, St Andrews Castle

Reformation : Knox

This week, the great Scottish reformer , the Father of . Also this week I want to talk about difficult figures in our past. Luther, Calvin, Elizabeth and Knox all had a shadow part to their success and I want to talk about shadows today as well as success. Jesus is the only character in history who you will find does not have a shadow.

Right now in the American south there is question of how do we manage our history? What do they do with Statutes of General Lee and General Grant? There is protest and counter-protest and violence because all heroes have shadow sides, the heroes of one tribe are the villains of another. In Turkey at the moment the ANZAC story is being rewritten by president Erdoğan as a story of Christian Crusaders being repelled by Muslin jihadists. I saw in the NZ Herald a petition to have a memorial to Colonel Nixon removed from Avondale because Nixon pursued Maori as prey in the Waikato wars. Now Shane Te Pou is actually asking for the memorial to be moved to a Museum not destroyed. We live in an age where are heroes are being questioned. And we need to ask questions about the heroes of the also.

But I am also wanting to talk family. What do we do with shadow stories in our past, suppress, suppress, supress or own the truth and make peace with the past. Will we own and make peace with the story of an uncle who drank himself to death, a grandfather who was jailed, a sister with schizophrenia, unplanned pregnancies, and relatives who fought on the wrong side in the war?

I believe the models transparency to us, tell the story, own the story, but don’t be bound by the story. Jesus redeems us from our past. The key to a new tomorrow is truth about yesterday. So let me tell you some truth about John Knox.

He was born in 1505 or 1514, see straight away it’s hard to nail him down. Near and then went to University at . He started off as a Roman Catholic Priest. You see this is one of the aspects of our past that we need to make peace with. If you had a Catholic upbringing perhaps it’s time to see some fingerprint of God in your past. In two weeks’ time I’m doing an interview with Leon who teaches at Aquinas about the Catholic response to the Reformation. Knox became interested in the Reformation through a chap called Wishart, in fact he was Wishart’ s body guard for a time, and carried a two handed sword. Knox has many good points, but there are two aspects to his shadow – Violence and Misogyny. But let’s go on to understand his background. In 1546 Cardinal Beaton from Edinburgh seized Wishart and burnt him to death. Please God let us not think that we can settle our religious arguments in this way again. After that Knox fled and became a tutor to some young nobles, he tried to live a quiet life.

However, Beaton was murdered by a group of Protestants – Violence begets violence. The group who murdered him took over and quite a few other Scots gathered with them in the castle. They were a little reformation pocket in a hostile sea. Well the parents of Knox’s students wanted them to go to this shining light and so Knox ended up inside St Andrews castle with the revolutionaries. He wanted to keep quite. But they heard about him as a scholar and a preacher and asked him to be their minister.

Now here’s a crucial change point in Knox’s life. When they called him, he wept because he knew what it would cost him. But he did it anyway! And he was quite a preacher. Extreme but fiery.

Well a French army took the castle and Knox and a few of the noble men were all made galley slaves. They had to row the French ships and he was very unwell for a time. So a passionate call, and a real sense of God’s purpose in his life. I was asking you that a couple of weeks ago. Do you have a real sense of God’s purpose in your life? Because if God calls you, he will enable you, he will upskill you, he will use you – and there is no need for self-doubt. And don’t worry if things go wrong. Don’t believe the prosperity , sometimes you are doing exactly God’s will and you end up a galley slave.

Just like Joseph in Genesis, Knox’s fortunes change. A year and a half later Knox is freed and goes to . He is embraced by the English reformers and is used as a change agent there, preaching in different places. Berwick-upon-Tweed, Newcastle, and then he becomes one of the royal preachers to Edward the sixth. Remember Cate was talking about him. Henry the 8ths son. John Knox from Galley slave to royal preacher. What an exciting life. Then Edward dies.

Can anyone remember who comes next? Mary Tudor. Bloody Mary. 260 executions. Knox flees to Europe, in fact to and meets up with Calvin. Now here’s an example of his shadow side. He forms a belief that a nation’s religion should not change just because of the will of the sovereign. And he develops a doctrine that people should be able to oppose their ruler with force if necessary if their rulers are unjust. It’s a dangerous double edged sword. And his language is inflammatory. Part of me totally agrees with him, that’s why my dad left the safety of NZ to go and fight Hitler. But Knox’s shadow side showed itself in his extremist and inflammatory letters to the protestants in England. Because from the safety of Geneva he may have got a lot of people killed. Just like James says “our words can light a fire”. Having mentioned Hitler, we need to hear that Luther started with a great sympathy for the Jews but became extremely anti-Semitic in later life, promoting the most horrible attitudes towards Jews. He can still be a hero, but a hero with a shadow.

Well Knox settled in Geneva, then went to Frankfurt and finally come back to lead a Church of English exiles in Geneva for at least 6 years 1553 -59. And they loved him. He was a good pastor and great preacher. But here comes his second shadow. While there he wrote a pamphlet against Mary Tudor – It’s blatantly misogynist by our standards today. Called “The First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstrous Regiment of Women” which he writes anonymously because he knows his mate Calvin won’t like it. He was a man of his time. But again inflammatory. And it went viral on the social media of the time. He attacked Mary Tudor, but it was also Elizabeth the 1st that he offended and his inflammatory language – like a fire from his tongue - almost stops him getting help later at a key moment in Scottish history. Calvin was a great man but he approved the murder of a competitor. We need to tell the truth about our heroes, and make peace with our past.

1559 Knox returned to and was a key figure in Scotland a becoming Protestant despite the sovereign remaining Catholic. Now this is fascinating because for a short time everything hangs in the balance. Mary Queen of Scots is young, she has a regent, Mary Guise who rules for her. Mary Queen of Scots is off in France married to Francis II who is next in line for the French throne. And then it all happens. Francis’s dad dies and suddenly he’s king of France and claiming through Mary to be King of Scotland and England. For a few months there is war and Knox and the look very vulnerable. Knox turns to English Elizabeth, but she remembers his ranting. Will she come to his aid? Finally, she decides to support Knox and the Scottish protestants, then Mary Guise dies and the balance goes back. All in 1560 there is a deal struck in Scotland, Mary can come back and worship as a Catholic if the nation can be Protestant. And Knox starts to write the “” and “Books of Common Order” that enable change. He often goes and lectures Mary, but in time paves the way for Scotland to become Presbyterian. And you’ll notice that when our Queen Elizabeth the 11 goes to Scotland she worships in a Presbyterian church because the deal Knox promoted has stuck. Poor Mary, at one stage she looked like she would be Queen of 3 kingdoms, but by 1567 she was forced to abdicate. John Knox was an impassioned preacher, but just about lost the kingdom because of his rash social media post!

Then Knox is established in Edinburgh at the High St Giles. And leaves his mark on history as the founder of Presbyterianism. Knox was known for quietly exegeting scripture for about 30 minutes then turning to politics and getting very excited for a bit longer.

So let me return to the tongue.

Those who teach will be judged more strictly. Because we influence the lives of many more. Whenever we are interpreting scripture it deserves our best. That’s why the reformers were so strong in original languages and asking what did the original author mean, and how does this passage fit into all of scripture.

A ship is turned by such a small rudder. This is a positive example, good rhetoric can sway a nation, our words matter and have great weight. One of the things that has been strong in the Presbyterian tradition is the tradition of debate, of presenting all sides of a question so that the best informed decision can be made.

“The tongue is a fire”, did you notice that line, “it is set on fire by hell”. I think Hell is being used as a collective noun for the devil, for negative spiritual influence, for death and destruction. That’s really struck me this week. If I let my tongue go and say dumb things, they are not just dumb things, they can be demonically inspired destructive words intended to damage my reputation, my relationships and my relatives. Let us learn to disciple our tongues. To finish Knox was pivotal in seeing the Presbyterian church established in Scotland. What does Presbyterian mean. It means a church lead by elders - Presbyters and ministers together. Locally in a with a session, elders and minsters. Regional in a Presbytery with lay people and ministers equally represented. Not just the religious professionals. And nationally instead of an archbishop, the Presbyterian church established a general assembly with ministers and elders from every church leading the church together. A parliamentary democratic model. This is basically the model that Westminster Parliamentary democracy adopted and it has changed the world for the better.

At the heart of this model is the world changing belief that ordinary citizens should have a role to leading the nation and the church and that’s because Jesus promoted the view that his church would involve a priesthood of all believers, not just an elite few.

Finally, Church, will you be a hero, will you hear the call, will you make peace with your past, and will you move forward?

Rev. Simon McLeay