What I want to use the sermon for this morning is to think about Laurence’s attitude to the poor, and what we might learn from his attitude in our own situation.
The story of Laurence is well known here at Christ Church. In the third century in Rome, before the conversion of the Empire, Laurence was appointed chief among the seven deacons in the Roman church. In that capacity, he looked after the assets of the church, and oversaw the distribution of alms to the poor. In 258, the Emperor Valerian attempted to wipe out the church altogether, by decreeing the summary execution of all bishops, priests and deacons. (Apparently the persecution eight years earlier under the Emperor Decius, which produced hundreds of martyrs and then controversy about how Christians should deal with repentant apostates, had not been successful enough.) Before Laurence was executed, the prefect of Rome ordered him to assemble the riches of the church, for confiscation by the Empire. Laurence negotiated to be given three days to do this, and in that time managed to distribute much of the church’s wealth to the poor. [Apart from anything else, the story is told that he passed the holy chalice of the Last Supper to Proselius, a Christian soldier, for protection, with the instruction to take it to Spain, and there it remains in the Cathedral of the Assumption of our Lady in Valencia, a simple polished agate cup, adorned much later, in medieval times, with gold and pearls. We are perhaps inclined to be sceptical about such claims, but who knows! - maybe our scepticism is unnecessarily developed. ] On the third day, when the prefect asked Laurence where the treasures were which he had promised, he pointed to the poor, the blind, the sick and the
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