Let all Created things Praise the Lord

Season of Creation 1 - Year B

Earth Sunday

While many planets have solid matter that is similar to soil and rocks, it is the water and the magical mix of the right gases in our air that make life possible.  When the space probe landed no Mars, what they were most keenly looking for was signs of water – H²O – because without it we know that no life forms are possible (at least as we understand life).

These elements are the stuff of which the Earth is made.  They are also the stuff used by God in Genesis Two to create human beings.  Human flesh was wrought out of earth/dust/clay, water and air. 

So we, ourselves are intimately connected to the earth.  At our Ash Wednesday services we say those words “From dust you came and to dust you shall return” and at funerals we say “ashes to ashes, dust to dust.”  These words express that sense of connection between us and the earth.

The remarkable truth of John 1.14 is that God, the Word, ‘became flesh’.  

•     God became the very same stuff of which Earth is made. 
•     God became part of Earth, a piece of Earth, flesh! 
•     God thus joined us in the very web of creation!

But some of you will be thinking “Isn’t there another element in this ancient scheme of things?”  Well, of course there is.  The fourth element traditionally associated with Earth is fire.  

In the Old Testament the visible presence of God called ‘the glory’ appears in fire.  Moses first confronted God in a burning bush.  Then a cloud filled with fire on Mt Sinai marked the presence of God in that place, and a fiery, cloudy pillar led the people throughout their wilderness wanderings.  And wherever the people stopped that same fire cloud dwelt in the tabernacle.  Now there is an interesting link to this in John’s Gospel.

John declares not only that God became flesh—Earth, water, air—but also that in Jesus Christ the Word of God ‘tabernacled’ (or dwelt) among us on Earth.  And in Christ we see not only the flesh of Earth but also the fire, the glory of God’s presence. 

This mystery of the incarnation is also the mystery of God becoming part of Earth for us and with us.  This is something that raises within us a sense of awe and wonder and we celebrate God’s connection with us and the earth

Now that is one reason why we celebrate the Earth during the Season of Creation. 

But, wait!  There’s more!!

At the heart of Psalm 148 is a call for all created things to Praise God.  Look it up as I speak – on p.627 in the pew bibles.  If we were reading it as a congregational Psalm it might begin to feel a bit tedious after a while.  The Psalmist seems to think that every single thing that has been created needs a mention. 

And the praise is called forth not just from the animate and sentient beings like us.  Beginning with the sun, the moon and the stars, mountains, seas, fire and rain, then the whole range of creatures that inhabit the earth.  Finally he explores the whole range of humanity – kings and rulers, young men and maidens, old folks and children – let them all praise the Lord.

So today we praise God for the whole creation, but particularly this planet on which we live.  And we join with all of that creation in praising God.

The Lord be with you.

Psalm 148 

¹ Praise the Lord, praise the Lord from heaven:

            O praise him in the heights.

² Praise him, all his angels:

            O praise him, all his host.

³ Praise him, sun and moon:

            praise him, all you stars of light.

⁴ Praise him, you highest heaven:

            and you waters that are above the heavens.

⁵ Let them praise the name of the Lord:

            for he commanded and they were made.

⁶ He established them for ever and ever:

            he made an ordinance

            which shall not pass away.

⁷ O praise the Lord from the earth:

            praise him, you sea-monsters and all deeps;

⁸ Fire and hail, mist and snow:

            and storm-wind fulfilling his command;

⁹ Mountains and all hills:

            fruit trees and all cedars;

¹⁰ Beasts of the wild, and all cattle:

            creeping things and winged birds;

¹¹ Kings of the earth, and all peoples:

            princes, and all rulers of the world;

¹² Young men and maidens:

            old folk and children together.

¹³ Let them praise the name of the Lord:

            for his name alone is exalted.

¹⁴ His glory is above earth and heaven:

            and he has lifted high the horn of his people.

¹⁵ Therefore he is the praise of all his servants:

            of the children of Israel,

            a people that is near him.

            Praise the Lord. 

The Great Leveller

Sundays after Pentecost Proper 9 [14] Year B

I am very happy being part of the Anglican Church, but sometimes there are aspects of our life as a church that strike me as being unhelpful in making the gospel clear.

One of the things that comes over again and again in the teaching of Jesus is that the world’s way of power is not God’s way.  “My Kingdom is not of this world,” Jesus says to Pilate and in these words he is not referring to his Kingdom being “out of this world” which is the way many Christians take it.  What he means is that the way of the EMPIRE – of power, force, oppression – was not his way.  He proclaimed an alternative way that did not involve sucking up to people of power and influence.  He found power in weakness.

Now we in the Anglican Church sometimes forget this.  Because in Britain we were an “established” church the leaders of the church naturally rubbed shoulders with the King and politicians, and the church was filled with what we call “the Establishment”. 

And we model our church life on structures of power.  Bishops are described as “monarchical” by which we mean that whatever they say goes.  When they write official documents like my License as your priest they use the “Royal ‘WE’”.  We this is repeated in the structure of a parish.  What I say as PP goes.  I authorise musicians, Sunday School Teachers, Op Shop workers and the like – and I can stop any of them without needing a reason.  These hierarchies of power are the same as we have in the world – monarchs, governors, presidents, prime ministers, premiers.  Each uses their power to have what they want.

But the Kingdom of God is not about power – we get that very clearly from the story of Jesus as a powerless baby in our Christmas stories and as a defeated and crucified felon in our Easter stories.  Nothing could be more powerless than these two images.

Paul is grappling with the same paradox in the passage we read from 2 Corinthians 12 today.  Paul’s leadership or authority as an Apostle had been challenged by various people in and around Corinth.  It seems they claimed to be closer to the Apostles in Jerusalem, that they did amazing signs and wonders and that Paul had done none of these things.

Paul uses this as an opportunity to teach the Corinthians something really important about the Way.  He says that we shouldn’t boast like this.

He somehow learned that God’s power was most commonly found in our weaknesses.  This was a great relief to him, because it meant that he could let people judge him very simply on what he said and what he did.  The pathway of humility is the way of Christ.

Have any of you ever explored Christian meditation?  This contemplative practice of seeking God in silence has helped many people in their spiritual journeys, but one thing I have noticed about the meditation communities is that they all seem to have their gurus or people who they look to for guidance because, presumably they do it well. 

Gurus may be wonderful, but they can have a devastating effect on novices – it is almost universally the case that people struggle with meditation.  Their minds focus on ridiculous things when they try to meditate.  They can’t stop these thoughts intruding into the space and it is very easy to think they are an absolute failure because of the overwhelming feeling that “nothing happened.”

A man once told me a wonderful thing – perhaps we as a “guru” for me in that moment.  He said to me “Every time I begin a meditation I think of myself as a beginner – that kills the expectation that something will happen.  Then, when it does, it will be a surprise.”

Paul discovered that he needed a constant reminder of the need to be humble – to not get “puffed up with pride” as he says.  And don’t you find it interesting that he is able to use something that he really doesn’t want – this thorn in the flesh that he had prayed to God three times to be free of – as a “messenger from Satan” that keeps him on the straight and narrow way.

This affliction could have been thought by many as a sign of weakness.  We don’t know what it “really” was.  I like to think of it as having the flexibility to be whatever it needed to be.  So if Paul was among a bunch of people who were very, very smart philosophers then his affliction would be that he was rather incoherent.  If he was among a group of people who were big on signs and wonders like healing or speaking in tongues, then perhaps this affliction was that he wasn’t healed, or that he couldn’t speak in tongues when he was with them.

Whatever it was, Paul thought of it as a weakness through which Christ’s power became all the more obvious – since whatever may have happened, it hadn’t been because Paul was powerful, smart, whatever.  “My grace is all you need, for my power is strongest when you are weak.”  This little message he carried with him where ever he was.

So the thing I have been pondering all week is how do I keep reminding myself of this?  And I am wondering it that is something you need to think about, too.  How do you keep yourself relying on the wisdom and power of Christ, rather than your own smarts?

One thing I do know is this.  When we all understand this together the Church is a very level place – not at all hierarchical.  There is no room for celebrities or monarchs or gurus.  We are all on a level playing field in this spiritual endeavour.

The Whole Armour of God

Sundays after Pentecost Proper 16 [21] Year B

In England, the Church of England is called the Established Church.  The meaning of this is that the church and the civil authorities sit very closely together.

The Head of State is also the Head of the Church.  Bishops in England have seats in the House of Lords – that might also explain why in olden times people addressed their Bishop as “My Lord.”

What this also means is that people of power and influence in society very often exercise positions of power and influence in the Church. 

And this is still very much the case for the Anglican Church in Australia, even though the Church is disestablished here – there is a complete separation of church and state.

Because this is our “normal” so to speak, we sometimes do not notice the subversive themes in the Early Christian writings.  Much of the teaching of Jesus was a direct challenge to the Powers that Be of his day.  The designation of Jesus as “Son of God” was not just a theological statement.  It was a direct challenge to the Emperor who styled himself “Son of God” on Roman coinage.

We are not used to seeing the church as a small marginalised group of society that refuses to collude with the powers of the Empire.  As a result we often miss some of the meaning implicit in Biblical metaphors such as we read from Ephesians (6:10-20) today.

When you live in a situation of occupation or dominion by a foreign power it is very tempting to keep a low profile and be as compliant as possible so as to survive, and maybe even get on well. 

Rome held onto its position of power by military force.  What Pilate was most afraid of at Easter time was a riot that he would have to quell with disproportionate force – many would die.  But he would do it.

The political and religious aristocracy of Jesus day collaborated with the Romans and so relied on the same military force to keep their positions of influence.  But Jesus and the early Christian leaders pointed to another way.

So, when Paul raises in our minds this metaphor of the Armour of God, he is not just saying here’s a good metaphor for teaching something important.  He is saying to the Ephesians, and all others who have read it since, that we have a higher power that protects us – we do not need Roman forces.

By using this image of the protective armour of a Roman Soldier, Paul is saying quite unambiguously that we should not put our confidence in that armour – rather we should rely on the WHOLE ARMOUR OF GOD.  And the reason is clear – and simple.

Our real enemies, against whom we need protection, are not flesh and blood, as in other human beings.  The powers that range themselves against the Kingdom of God are described here as what we might call “METAHUMAN” – they may be embodied in human beings but they are best described as “the authorities” or “the cosmic powers of this present darkness” or “the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.  With these images we get a sense that that battle is with more than just human beings but with God as well.

Against these forces, we human beings must be prepared to defend ourselves.  And I must say that the meaning of each item of the armour leaves us with something pretty flimsy against the cosmic powers that seem to be in control of the universe.  What have we got?

            Truth

            Righteousness

            Peace

            Faith

            Salvation

            The Spirit, and

            The Word of God

These hardly seem to be the kinds of things that could win a cosmic battle.  Well, in truth, they do not need to be.

With the exception of the Sword of the spirit, all other items mentioned are defensive or protective.  We are not asked to take up weapons that will vanquish the foe.

We are asked simply to take up this armour so that we will be able to withstand our opponents.  The task of believers is to defend themselves and the faith against the enemies of God, speaking boldly about the Gospel whenever an opportunity arises.  The battle itself is left to God.

Let us praise God for the confidence we have in him and pray daily for the courage to face whatever forces are railed against us and our faith confident in the Whole Armour of God with which we dress ourselves each morning.

How, then, Should we Live

Sundays after Pentecost Proper 15 [20] Year B

One day a very little boy was heard by his mother saying words that he had obviously heard his older brothers saying while they were playing in the street.

Now this woman was a particularly wise woman, having a great understanding of how a little boy’s mind would work, so she took him aside and spoke unexpectedly gently with him.

“Those words you said, just then, are not really nice words for a good boy to say, but I thought I should tell you that there is one thing I never want to hear you or any of the big boys ever saying.”

“What’s that, Mummy?”

“I don’t ever want to hear you say “Rule Britannia!”

The little boy solemnly promised never to say such a bad thing.  But it wasn’t long before his older brothers heard him one day stomping his feet in the back yard shouting “Rule Britannia!  Rule Britannia!” because he was very cross about something.

We call this reverse psychology and in some situations it works.  But in my teaching experience I always found that I preferred not to teach what I wanted kids to do by showing them what not to do.  It was always much better to show them what was good or right.

Unfortunately, St Paul was not up with the latest in pedagogical theory, having learned mostly from Gamaleal some 2000 years ago who was working out of the Hebrew peripatetic tradition.  Thus we have in our selection from Ephesians (5:15-20) today something expressed quite differently from what we had last week.

Last week, he was telling us very positively what to do and why.  Over these few verses we have three emphatic contrasts drawn to our attention – but with the same purpose as we were given last week – unpacking for us what it means to be new creations in Christ; what this new life really looks like.

“Don’t live like ignorant people,” he says, “but like wise people.”  I guess we would all like to do that, but what he is really getting at is a very particularly Jewish way of thinking.  The Greek and Roman philosophers of the day thought they had captured WISDOM with their knowledge about all things and their powers of logic.  For the Hebrew mind, however, WISOM is about the orientation of your life towards God and God’s values.  So, what Paul is calling us towards is to live in keeping with God’s commands, pursuing those traits of character that make for a peaceful and harmonious life, and attending to God’s wisdom as revealed in our Scriptures.  Now that is a rather big call, isn’t it.

The second pair of contrasting things he raises for us is in verse 17: “Don’t be fools then, but try to find out what the Lord wants you to do.”  In first century philosophical thought, the opposite of foolishness would be self-possession, discipline and an independence of spirit and the will.  Paul calls us towards a very different kind of wisdom.  Foolishness for Paul is relying on your own wisdom, but true wisdom is found in trying to understand God’s will for us.

Finally Paul warns us of the misuse of that terrible spirit – alcohol.  “Don’t get drunk with wine, which will only ruin you; instead be filled with the Spirit.”  I have always been intrigued by the word play that exists for us in English by our use of the term SPIRITS to refer to strong alcoholic drinks.  I discovered that in the etymology of this term is the pre-scientific notion that what made people behave strangely when they had too much wine or beer was a spirit that had possessed them.  Indeed it was not uncommon then and now for people from various religious traditions to use alcoholic drinks or other mind-altering substances to induce an ecstatic experience that was deemed to be a means of accessing the gods.

Paul is clearly aware of this and he wants to push us towards the True Spirit – the Spirit of God – who alone can give us those truly ecstatic experiences of the divine.

Finally, Paul commends to us all the important work of thanksgiving to God – for EVERYTHING.  Since God is greater than all creation and God is in all of the creation, everything we have is a gift from God, and it is an appropriate act of reverence to thank God for that.  Likewise in our interdependent relationships with each other, the appropriate act of reverence is to give thanks for all that we mean to each other.  It is also a great way of keeping the peace.

Now I hope that these words make some sense to you.  They are a clarion call to live our lives centred firmly on God through Christ.  It is in Christ that we discover the will of God for us.  It is in Christ that we find true wisdom.  And it is in Christ that find the voice that will truly and rightly praise God, in whom we live and move and have our being.

On Being a Christian

Sundays after Pentecost Proper 14 [19] Year B

A long time ago, right after I finished High School, I was offered a place at Mount Lawley Teacher’s College.  This was a very different kind of place to a university – where the goal is to increase your knowledge about whatever it is that you were studying – maths, science, history?  Whichever.

As a Primary School Teacher, I already knew more than I would need to know – so far as KNOWLEDGE goes.  What I didn’t know yet was how to BE a TEACHER.  There were indeed some very practical teaching skills I needed to learn, but the most important work I had to do there was learning how to BE a person who would inspire curiosity in children and empower them to learn – something that is much more easily said than done.

I think that many of the early Christians knew that BEING a Christian was also something much more easily said than done.

Our selection from Ephesians this week – 4:25-5:2 – takes up a challenge laid out in the verses preceding it.

So get rid of your old self, which made you live as you used to - the old self that was being destroyed by its deceitful desires.  Your hearts and minds must be made completely new, and you must put on the new self, which is created in God's likeness and reveals itself in the true life that is upright and holy.

This, of course, invites us to ask certain questions; like

            What exactly does all this mean?

            What does this new life look like? and

            How will I know if I am living it?

I think our selection today is trying to flesh out the answers to questions like these.

There are some interesting little rules in this selection.  Some seem to be echoes of Old Testament rules, while others have echoes from elsewhere in the New Testament writings and some even have an echo of the local philosophical ideas.  None of them are particularly striking, really, are they?

But the one thing that I think is interesting about them is that six times we are given a particular reason why we should behave in that particular way; and perhaps even more interesting is that none of these reasons are in the form of a threat; they simply appeal this sense of what the Christian identity is all about.

Truthful speech becomes a requirement for the Christian community because “we are all members together in the body of Christ.”  Now you realise that “member” in this context is something far more intimate that being on the parish electoral roll.  It means being a member like a body part is a member of your body.   Being untruthful among ourselves is like the eye telling the nose that it isn’t smelling an onion – it actually couldn’t do that.  So it should not be possible for a Christian to be less than truthful.

The little rules about anger are interesting.  Anger is a really powerful emotion – you only have to see a little kid getting scared of how strong their own reaction of anger is to realise this.  We can also think of stories of road rage in our own time to understand how our anger can lead us to doing really bad things.  Here we have an appeal to beware of forces outside the community that are capable of undermining our strength.

One thing we noticed about this part on Thursday morning was that we are not old not to be angry.  We are simply told not to let that anger lead us into sin.

The next one is a bit of a surprise, isn’t it?  Anyone who used to rob is told to stop robbing, not because robbery is wrong, but because it is far better for them to earn an honest living. 

The matter of our speech is raised again.  How easy it is to utter harmful words.  However, in the Christian community, we are here encouraged to do our utmost to build each other up with our words, rather than tear each other down.  Again, we have a positive reason given for behaving differently rather than a rule that we should not do this.

Did you notice the little reference to the Holy Spirit?  I love that idea that the Spirit is what marks us a God’s forever, but this reference is right in the middle of what we have before us and it seems to me this emphasises a vital consequence of our failure to live in the prescribed way – the Spirit of God is grieved.

The last area of behaviour that is focussed on is forgiveness.  This really is a hard area of life for us sometimes.  When someone hurts us we generally hold back forgiveness for as long as we think we can get away with it.  Along with these words in which we are encouraged to see the example of God’s willingness to forgive us our failures as a motivation to forgive those who have offended us, my three year old granddaughter has a message for us all from her favourite cartoon movie – “Let it go!  Let it go!” a song from the movie Frozen. 

There is an epithet of local wisdom going around that “withholding forgiveness is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die.”  It is a good analogy because I think it illustrates well the effect upon us of the poison.  But we are called to live differently – forgiving others because God has forgiven us through Christ.

So then, all these little rules and their motivating assertions come together like a climax in the final verses of our selection:

Since you are God's dear children, you must try to be like him.  Your life must be controlled by love, just as Christ loved us and gave his life for us as a sweet-smelling offering and sacrifice that pleases God.

Elsewhere we read about imitating Christ, and there is a sense in which this could be taken to mean the same thing.  I also take it to mean that in the same way that a child looks up to and imitate the parent – mother or father – so we should look up to God and imitate all that is good in the character of God, as supremely demonstrated in the death of Jesus which is here described as a sweet-smelling offering that pleases God.

There is some lovely imagery here interweaving the idea of the Gospel and our response to it.  God’s action in Christ in a sense demands certain behaviours of human beings, but alongside these comes the gifts that make them possible to yield to: our “membership” in the body of Christ, the seal of the Holy Spirit, and the forgiveness of God and love of Christ.

What's in a Name?

Sundays after Pentecost Proper 12 [17] Year B

Some of you may have heard me tell this story before and I ask you to be gracious towards me.

I was talking with Galal about how people got their names in Sudan.  In the basic system a child is given a name when they are born and then their second name is the name of the Father, and the third name is that of their grandfather.  So Galal is Galal Angalo Bashir, but his son is Nathaniel Galal Angalo and his daughter is Najila Galal Angalo.  And of course, we all know that women do not change their name when they marry – but they do carry their father’s name and their grandfather’s name.

I asked Galal if it could ever be, did he think, that a girl child would have her mother’s name and her grandmother’s name.  I was thinking that would be a nice modern and feminist twist on things.  Galal looked at me incredulous that anyone would even think of such a thing and simply said to me “That wouldn’t work.”

Of course in Sudanese culture that patriarchal line is important in determining who you belong to and Galal tells of his grandmother encouraging him and his brothers to be able to remember the names of their ancestors for ten to fifteen generations.  I had to look at it in a book but I could go:

John, Bruce, Will, Zeph, Will, John, John, Edward and Abraham

That’s only going back 8 generations and it takes my family time back to the early 1700s.

It cannot be denied that for many generations in our culture, when she got married, a woman took her husband’s surname – indeed not so long ago, Jan over there would have been known as Mrs Alan Salter.

So given this tradition we share of claiming our identity through our fathers and sometimes our husbands, what do you make of this opening sentence from Ephesians we read today (3:14-15):

For this reason I fall on my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth receives their name.

For me, these words affirm the idea found in other texts that we are known by God in ways that precede our physical life and which will continue when this life ends.

It affirms those words of Jesus in a number of places that we are children of our Father in heaven.

Happy are those who work for peace:

         God will call them his children.  (Matthew 5:9)

and

Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may become the children of your Father in Heaven.  (Matthew 5:44-45)

But perhaps the most significant thing about this is the sense of God’s intimate involvement with us all – so intimate that it is from him that we have all received our name.

And that got me thinking.  What does it really mean that God is our Father?  

Near the end of Matthew’s Gospel he has a collection of little sayings that Jesus used probably many times and in many different places than just where this is found.  Jesus says:

You must not call anyone here on earth “Father” because you have only one Father in heaven.  (Matthew 23:9)

What I think he is saying is not that you should not call your priest “Father” but that you can call him Pastor, or even just John; rather he is saying that even your more intimate relationships on earth, like to your Father, are to take second place to your relationship to your Father in Heaven who has given you your name.

Indeed, Jesus clearly tries to distance himself from his earthly family when they come after him one time, wanting to speak with him:

 "Who is my mother?  Who are my brothers?" 

 Then he pointed to his disciples and said, "Look!  Here are my mother and my brothers!  Whoever does what my Father in heaven wants is my brother, my sister, and my mother."  (Matthew 12:48-50)

Our primary relationship is with God who is our Father in Heaven.  Next comes our relationship with each other as brothers and sisters because we all share the same Father in Heaven.

Do you think this is hard?

I think it can be, because sometimes it looks like it means we have to neglect the relationship with our earthly family in favour of our relationship with God and our siblings in God.  Some of you may know stories of a person or another who chose this way and with tragic consequences for their real family for whom they had both a natural and proper responsibility to care for.

Fortunately this is not a case of either / or.  But our relationship with God is still our primary one and one that we should nurture every day.  We will go through times, I am sure, when many many things compete with the time we need to give to our relationship with God.  But we are not to give up.  We are not to lose sight of our true Father who has given us our true name.

A New and Living Way

Sundays after Pentecost Proper 11 [16] Year B

“Something new begins when God’s powerful love and loving power are acted out.”

So begins one of the sources I used to shape my thoughts for you today.

Our reading from the Hebrew Scriptures reminds us of the special place King David held in Israel.  The effect of David’s reign as distinct from Saul’s was that it gathered together the dispersed tribes of Israel into ONE nation and established their settlement in the “Promised Land”.

God says through the prophet Nathan:

I have chosen a place for my people Israel and have settled them there, where they will live without being oppressed any more.  Ever since they entered this land, they have been attacked by violent people, but this will not happen again.  I promise to keep you safe from all your enemies and to give you descendants. (2 Samuel 7:10)

This declaration of faithfulness to Israel through David is echoed in the Psalm in these words:

Once and for all

I have sworn by my holiness:

I will not prove false to David. (Psalm 89:36)

It is clear that for Israel, David was the embodiment of God’s astonishing fidelity to Israel, assuring them that God would always attend to Israel’s well-being.

Very early in the development of thought about Jesus, the first Christians saw him in a line of descent from David – which was a way of saying that Jesus was also the embodiment of God’s fidelity to the citizens of this new Kingdom of God that Jesus proclaimed.

So when we read the letter to the Ephesians, we get a sense that Jesus is even more than what David was as an embodiment of God’s fidelity.  Through Jesus something really remarkable is brought into being – a single community of humanity which over-rides our deepest divisions.

When you think of this unity as a result of Jesus’ action among us, as an embodiment of God’s fidelity to us, then we in the church should be ashamed of our predilection to divisiveness and exclusion.  If we are “one in Christ” then we cannot afford to accommodate divisions let alone be a party to creating them.

We need to remember how remarkable this call to unity is.  In Jesus’ day the world was divided into two basic categories – Jews and Gentiles – those who were God’s people and those who were not.  And within those two groups there were sub-groups. 

When Jews spoke disparagingly of Tax Collectors and Sinners they were speaking of their own – Jewish people who were collaborators with the Romans in collecting the taxes that supported Herod and kept the Romans at bay; and those Jews who for various reasons were insufficiently observant of their obligations under the law and so were referred to as sinners.  And of course they had a definite hierarchy of despicability that applied to the various Gentile groups of people.

Jesus challenged this more by the way he lived than anything he expressly said, although some of the stories he told pointed to it.  What I am thinking of here is what we might call his “meal practices.”  Frequently, Jesus is criticised for eating with Tax collectors and sinners – which he did.  The purity codes of the Pharisees created sharp social boundaries, and people who lived by them were very careful not to eat with people whose purity status was below theirs – because impurity was contagious.

But Jesus knew that we were all sinners – and that anyone who relied on this purity code to proclaim their righteousness was just kidding themselves.  He demonstrated this by eating with tax collectors and sinners.  But I think the more important thing for us to notice about these tax collectors and sinners is that in his day these were the marginalised people, the outcasts and the untouchables. 

Jesus’ example in this calls us into participating in actions that similarly challenge social and cultural divisions and proclaim our belief that we are all in the same boat, and because of that the barriers between us are gone.

Now the passage we read today concludes with this statement:

In union with him you too are being built together with all the others into a place where God lives through his spirit. (Eph 2:22)

I think that this sense of unity we have with each other in Christ should spill over into our other relationships – beyond the church.  One expression of this is the position of Christian pacifists who will not go to war.  War, for them, is the ultimate expression of antipathy between two people, and to participate in it is to deny that we share the same humanity.  Many many Christian people have stood in that place at great personal cost.

But this unity should also be reflected in our attitude and relationships towards others in our society who are marginalised.  Who are the marginalised in your community – people you know? 

·        Are they unemployed young people who just cannot get a break with a job and are constantly being penalised by Centrelink?

·        Are they those with mental health challenges that mean they too cannot hold down a job and so face social disdain?

·        Are they those who have lived for generations in poverty and taken the view that the whole system is against them so why bother trying to get ahead?

·        Are they those whose behaviour and lifestyle challenges our view of what is normal and acceptable?

I think that the challenge of our experience of unity in Christ is to find ways to reach out to these same marginalised people in the name of Christ, because it is a fundamental expression of the nature of God as revealed to us by Jesus.

If I could just finish with a reminder of something I said at our AGM.  

I said then that I wanted us to use the words of the prophet Micah to guide our life here at Holy Cross:

What does God require of you but this?

Do Justice,

Love Compassion,

Walk Humbly with your God.  (Micah 6:8)

Jesus picks up on these very things in his ministry and teaching and lays them before us.

When you distill Jesus' teaching to a few overarching things they are this:

1.     He reveals the character and passion of God to us; and

2.     He shows us a new way of living that is truly centred on God.

The character of God that he shows us a God who is merciful or compassionate, and he says this very clearly when he puts a new slant on an old Hebrew saying:–

Be merciful as your Father is merciful. (Luke 6:36)

He also shows us that God is most passionate about Justice for his people.  All that he says about the Kingdom of God is directed at contrasting this new Kingdom with the oppression and bondage of the world the people were living i: –

he has come to bring good news to the poor, proclaiming liberty to the captive, recovery of sight to the blind and freedom for the oppressed, and to announce that the time has come when the Lord will save his people.  (Luke 4:18-19)

The new and living way that he speaks of is one that is centred on God and probably the two best images for this are the ideas contained in what repentance means and what dying and rising to new life means.

Repentance is vastly more than feeling sorry for the bad things we have done.  Grounded in Israel’s experience of Exile, repentance means to return from that exile.  The Way of Jesus involves us returning to God from that sense of exile.

But another deeper meaning in this word is to “to go beyond the mind that you have”.  In other words it is about seeing things in new ways.

This centring in God, the one in whom we live and move and have our being, is about Loving God utterly: to year for, to pay attention to, to commit to, to be loyal to, to value above all else.  Some Christians would say this is what it means to BELIEVE in God.  I want to change that slightly and say BELOVE God.  And BELOVING GOD means loving everything that God loves – the whole world.