TRANSFIGURATION - Jesus Shows us Another Way

Do you often feel like it is very hard to be a disciple of Jesus?

It is pretty normal to live with some ideas of what we should do and how we should live as a follower of Jesus.  And so often when we arrive at a time when we look back a little to see how we have been doing, we can see again and again how we failed.

Now of course this would not have happened to those great twelve apostles Jesus had in his leadership team – would it??

Well, maybe we need to look at the stories again.

You are probably very familiar with this story of the Transfiguration – and we generally focus on the amazing things that happened to Jesus and the two people – Moses and Elijah – who appeared with him in this amazing event.

But let’s have a look at these three Apostles who Jesus took with him.

These three became the premier leaders of the Church, but on this occasion, having been taken by Jesus up to a high place to pray, they fell asleep.  And they didn’t just doze off – they were “sound asleep”.  When I try to read a book after lunch, my head wobbles a bit and my eyes need matches to prop my eye-lids open.   But these guys went sound asleep.

Consequently, when they were awakened they were a little bit incoherent.  Peter sees the guests and suggests to Jesus that maybe a few tents might help mark this occasion.  The text even says as an aside that Peter did not really know what he was saying.

I imagine that later when Peter had some time to remember what he did he might have gone a bit red in the face.

But wait, there’s more.

In the very next story, a man brings his sick son to Jesus to be healed.  His epilepsy was thought to be demonic possession.  Did you notice what the man said to Jesus?

“I begged your disciples to drive it out, but they couldn’t.”

At the beginning of this chapter, Luke tells us that Jesus had given his disciples the “power and authority to drive out demons and to cure diseases.”

So how come they couldn’t do this?

Well, I don’t know, but it seems to be just another example of these disciples failing to be what Jesus expects them to be.

So, when you are feeling a bit like a failure as a disciple of Jesus I want you to remember these stories.

Now, the question is, does the story of the Transfiguration which we are celebrating today have anything to say to a wayward bunch of disciples who struggle a lot to follow in the way that Jesus is calling us?

Well, let us look at how Luke tells us the story.

Matthew and Luke follow Mark’s pattern so there must be a reason for this structure.

Just before he tells us this story, Mark tells us about Jesus forewarning his disciples about the fact that he is heading towards his death as he travels towards Jerusalem.  And while he is at it, he tells his disciples that they must be prepared to die as well – metaphorically as well as literally.

Then he tells them about the Transfiguration, followed by the story of Jesus healing the boy with the diabetic demons.

Did your eyes follow on to the next bit?  Jesus speaks again about his impending death.  Mark says the disciples didn’t understand him but were too afraid to ask.  Matthew says they were sad.  Luke says they didn’t understand because it had been hidden from them intentionally.

So, here we have the Transfiguration book-ended by Jesus speaking about his impending death and throughout the narrative we have a bunch of rather confused and inept disciples.

When most people look at the Transfiguration story they take meaning from the presence of Moses and Elijah – Moses the giver of the law; Elijah the first and greatest Prophet who did not die physically and whom the people expected to return.

When I look at these little structural things about the narrative, I have a few ideas that might answer that question about what does it all mean for us as wayward disciples.  I hope they help.

Paul had a lot to say about the Law –all too complicated to go into here – but I think we all get it that the LAW was a failure as a means of enabling us to satisfy God and live in relationship with God.

We also can look at much of what the prophets said over the centuries – calling the nation back to living with justice and in peace – and the most frequent response to the prophets was to stone them.  Even Jesus noticed that.  So the voices of the prophets did not bring the people back into that relationship with God.

This leaves us with Jesus.  Here he is in the middle of these two greats in the history of Israel, but whereas these two greats failed to give the people a way back to God, Jesus was successful.  He provides a WAY that works where all others failed.

Since earliest times, Christians have known that the death of Jesus was central to this success.  Something happened in that which was like a key that unlocked the door.  Maybe this KNOWING was born out of the way stories like these were told.

Over the centuries we have developed explanations for this which we call Theories of the Atonement.  There are many of them – some more widely accepted than others, some cast aside as no longer meaningful.  Each theory tries to make sense of one thing or another as we try to understand why Jesus had to die.  Some raise more questions than they resolve.

By way of example, the theory of the Substitutionary Sacrifice (Jesus died in our place) as an explanation of what was happening, is embedded in many of our thanksgiving prayers in the Prayer Books, but it is not the only way to make sense of it.  We might explore some of these over Lent but it is enough, I think to say today, that the execution of Jesus by the political and religious authorities when he was guilty of nor crime or heresy changed to cosmos.  God acted in the face of this injustice by raising Jesus to life and in doing this, God declares his preferential option for us all and offers his grace as a welcome – welcome into his presence even though we are all a bunch of wayward pilgrims who fail him again and again.

This is the secret to the success of the way Jesus calls us to follow.  It was the faith of Christ that saved us by God’s grace – Paul says that somewhere.  And the reason this had to rely on the faith of Jesus – rather than our faith – was that otherwise we would have been stuck in another system of works, of law-keeping, of requirements and rewards, all of which depended on our own effort.

And the reason all this was necessary?  Because we were doomed to be failures from the start.  The Law couldn’t make it for us.  Following the prophets couldn’t make it for us.  Only God’s grace given freely works, and it is given because Jesus had faith in God and us.

Living your Calling to the Full

Have you ever had a time when someone asked you to do something – maybe something really important – and your first response was “Oh, no, I couldn’t do that.”

Sometimes when we reflect back on such an event we find a sense of satisfaction in reminding ourselves that we need to always be mindful of our limitations – I know my limitations.

Sometimes this is quite appropriate.  I mean, if someone asked me to take out their appendix, you would hope that I would know that I had not competence or qualification to do such a thing, and I would admit to it straight away.

But I think many times we say NO when we really should say YES.  And I wonder why that would be the case – what makes us do that?

Either or both of two forces are probably at work here.

Sometimes we underrate our own abilities. 

This might be because one time someone ridiculed us for something we did or said we could do – and we weren’t going to offer again – just in case…

It might also be because we have misunderstood the meaning of humility – thinking this is an important Christian virtue, and always thinking of others as better than ourselves.

Or perhaps we are just not risk takers and if we have never done something before we resist every encouragement of others to have a go.

I know that I am sometimes guilty of the second and third of those examples.

Sometimes other people impose expectations and limitations on us.

One of the little stories I lived with for a long time was that I was an “average student”.  I really don’t recall what my dad meant when he said this to me.  I don’t think he meant any harm – but I do know that this limited what I was willing to undertake at school and then on in life.

Sometimes we find people in our lives who work very hard at “keeping us in our place” – for the Sudanese this means making sure we know our role in the community and not letting us do anything outside that role.

In the two selected readings from Scripture that we had today, we have examples of each of these.

JEREMIAH

The Lord said to Jeremiah: 

"I chose you before I gave you life, and before you were born I selected you to be a prophet to the nations." 

In response, Jeremiah resorts to two simple reasons why he could not possible become the prophet of God.  He says:

1.     I am no good at public speaking – I can’t do it! And then he says:

2.     And anyway, I’m too young – people won’t listen to me.

I think it is fair to say that in this case, Jeremiah really did not know what he could do if God empowered him to do it; and of course, it is clear that God saw something in Jeremiah that God knew fitted him best for this job.

JESUS

In the Gospel story we have something a bit different.  Something rather remarkable happens in this story, which follows on from what we read last week.

This story happens right at the beginning of Luke’s record of his ministry and it happens in the village Jesus grew up in.  The people in the synagogue that day were people who knew him.  They had known him as a boy.  They knew his brothers and sisters and his mum and dad.

At first everyone seems very proud of him – even after he utters those incredible words:-

“This passage of scripture has come true today, as you heard it being read.”

Luke tells us:

They were all well impressed with him and marvelled at the eloquent words that he spoke.

So far Jesus was being a good boy.

But then he went on to explain something he believed God was ready to say to them – the message from God that he had brought was not just for them, but also for the Gentiles.  And this is what made the people mad with him.  He was stepping outside of their expectations for him – and they wanted to put him back in his box – to make him a good boy again.

Unfortunately, this kind of thing happens to us all, and it always seems sad to someone outside that someone is so limited by themselves and or their family or community.

It becomes particularly sad when it interferes with our ability to respond properly to a call that God may be making in our lives. 

But the question still remains:  How do I really know what my appropriate limits are?

If you are sensing the leading of God to do something or other in your life, I think there are a couple of really good checks and balances you can rely on to avoid jumping in when you should have held back – because it really is a discerning process, discovering God’s will.

Overestimating our abilities is just as bad as underestimating them.  In order to develop a sober estimate of yourself, could I suggest a couple of things to guide you?

DON’T NEGLECT YOUR BIBLE

Someone suggested as a pre-requisite for this step a reminder that we should take to heart the affirmation that in Christ we are children of God, that we are loved and treasured by an incomparable lover – the Lord our God.

Our Bibles are an incomparable gift to sustain the faith that is growing within us.  And there is much teaching in it to guide us through these circumstances.  Remind yourself of the teaching about gifts of the Spirit – of God’s determination to equip us with all good things to serve him.

And as you continue to read the Bible, trust in the inspiration of the Holy Spirit to bring the words of the stories you might be reading to life for you.

These two things could bring some sense of clear direction for you – but you might still be unsure.

SEEK OUT THE WISDOM OF OTHERS

Talk to your friends.

Speak to those whom you think of as mentors or who inspire you in your walk of faith.

See if they agree with what you think God is saying.

Maybe in these ways we will minimise the resistance that might limit our ability to serve God.

So let us remember Jeremiah:

A young man who was called by God to be a prophet to the nation.  Despite all his fears and doubts he became a giant among the prophets of Judah and Israel.

And let us remember Jesus:

The son of a village tradesman whose lowly life meant that people did not expect great things of him, yet he defies those expectations daring to go out and fulfil his potential in a most glorious way.

God is the loving shatterer of the limitations we and others place upon our lives.  By God’s grace we can be the ever-growing children of God for whom surprising things are possible.

Founded on God's Word - PROPER 3 after Epiphany

I am always reading something.

When I left a previous parish in 2004 I joined a book club.  Before that I would rarely read a book cover to cover.  I would read relevant bits of a theology book or a commentary for a sermon.  But this book club experience changed my life.

And I love nothing better than a good complicated story.

Back in September I began reading the “Harry Potter” stories by J K Rowling.  If you read them as they were published you had a year or so between volumes.  Reading all seven in a row gives a sense of an epic tale that is well developed, complex and has you eventually racing to get to the end.  Now I am reading the Narnia Chronicles of CS Lewis – another great collection of stories that create an epic tale.  And after that I think I will get into The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings by J R R Tolkein.

I tell you this to set the scene for dipping into the Old Testament Story we read today.  We really have there something like a “screenshot” within a two-hour movie.  It is a small part of a much bigger tale, yet it captures a vital moment in the life of Israel.

The Book of Ezra is both a Sequel and a Prequel.  It is a sequel to the stories recorded in The Chronicles and a prequel to the stories that are told in the Book of Nehemiah.  They don’t exactly fit together and historians have difficulty with some of the details, but these accounts of the restoration of the Jewish Exiles to their homeland are shaped in such a way that they have much to say to us even today in this faraway place.

In a nutshell, what happened was, many of the peoples of Judah and Israel were taken from their homeland into Exile by the conquering Babylonian and Assyrian empires.  You may remember some of the sayings of the prophets reporting God’s instruction that they settle there, marry the locals, have children, and wait.

After many years, Ezra and Nehemiah were the heralds who told the people it was time to go home.  Nehemiah got the government to give him what he needed to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem.  Then he was ready for the rebuilding of the houses for the exiles to live in.

So he organised all the work to be done, despite political opposition, and then got all the people to pack up and come home.  Seven months later this happened.

I wonder if you were able to imagine the scene.  Over 50,000 people were involved in this repatriation.  Our story-teller would have us see all of these people – men, women and children – gathered just inside one of the great Gates of the City.  There, from dawn until noon, Ezra the priest and scholar of the law read to the people from the Torah (Genesis – Deuteronomy).

But much more than that happened.  Ezra was reading out in Hebrew, but the people spoke Aramaic now, so the words needed to be translated.  But because they had been away from the temple so long the words also needed to be interpreted.  I think we at Holy Cross understand the subtle difference between “translated” and “interpreted” – when I preach to the Nuba I need an “interpreter” to take my words and explain what I mean.

Some people think this story is in fact a story of the beginning of the tradition of sermons, of preaching, of taking the words of our sacred texts and explaining them so that they mean something particularly for us today.  I like that idea.

This story also marks the beginning of something that we take for granted – the idea of a divinely inspired anthology of literature that we believe expresses the will of God for his people.  The sense of this did not exist for the Jews before this or in any other religious culture.

I want to draw your attention to two important things that this story points us towards.

This story describes an event which marks the beginning of the life of this newly reunited community of Israel – and this act of “beginning” takes the form of them listening together to the words of the Law, which they heard as the very voice of God, calling them back to living in relationship with God. 

This same sense of “beginning” with the words of Scripture is found in our Gospel story where Jesus reads those famous words from Isaiah and says to the people “Today all this has come true in this place.”

I think we here, as a Community of the Holy Cross, were similarly started up with the words of Scripture calling us into being together as a community of God’s people in this place.

But there is something else in this story that we need to take notice of.  Here the word of God is read, heard but also interpreted.  This process of explanation is the bit that enables the changeless words of Scripture to speak meaningfully into our ever-changing lives and experience as the people of God.  Generally it is not helpful to just read the words and leave them at that – in fact we really can’t do that because in hearing them our minds and hearts will be “interpreting them” – looking for meaning.

This, I think, sums up the work of our life in God – that we make time to spend with these texts, listening for the voice of God for you each day.  Over the years we have developed all sorts of spiritual practices to help us do this, but it is appropriate that we be reminded time and again that we live by this divine word, ancient and fixed, yet ever new.  In hearing and obeying these things our life in God will grow every day.

As we approach Lent and Easter, I want to encourage you to see this time as an opportunity to join together, as we are planning to do, in our study of The Heart of Christianity.  In these sessions we will be exploring together what the words of the Bible mean when we take them altogether as pointing us towards the heart of our faith.  And doing this together is a vital expression of what it means for us to be God’s people in this place.  We will be listening for the voice of God.  We will be taking a few more important steps on the Way that Jesus has called us to follow him on.

CHRISTMAS DAY - The Power of Powerlessness

On Monday evening I participated in a subversive action under the watchful eye of the Australian Federal Police, the Western Australian Police Service and a Security Service Provider.

We arranged to meet around the corner from our planned action but the police tracked us down and came to give us all the once over.

Then when we gathered outside the Immigration Department Building to say prayers and sing Carols, the police took copies of our liturgies to see if there was anything subversive in them – yes they read them through very carefully.

In this day and age when the message of so many seeks to sow despair, the Christmas Story seeks to sow some hope in the hearts of people.  We have become so used to a political background of conflict and war that when the Christmas Story calls us into a peace which passes all understanding most people don’t get it – even some Christians.  Where so many want spread a message of hatred towards those who are different, the Christmas Story proclaims God’s love to all humanity.

It is in this sense that many aspects of the Christmas Story is a subversive one.  It is calling people into what is so often the opposite reaction to their instinctive reactions to the world around them.

A couple of weeks ago I asked you to put on your “Peace-Maker Glasses” so that you might be able to understand the sub-text of the story we had read about the beginning of John the Baptist’s ministry in Luke 3.

We need those same glasses on to make sense of the beginning of Luke 2 as well.  Matthew and Luke have relied on different traditions in the development of their birth stories.  Matthew’s is very much a Royal tradition – he makes much of Mary and Joseph living in Bethlehem – the Home Town of the hero-king David – and he tells the stories of the wise men coming from far away to meet this new King of Israel.

Luke’s is a People of God tradition.  In the same way that he anchors his story with the names of all those people who were symbols of the domination and oppression of the People of God – Caesar Augustus, Quirinius etc. – he uses sheep and shepherds as code language for the people of God in God’s care.

With angels as the proclaimers of the people’s liberation Luke creates a picture that stands in stark contrast to their everyday reality under the Romans and in stark contrast to everyone’s typical expectations of the actions of a God.

Last Sunday the choir I sang in did a little concert and play in which in part we sang words from a poem by Elizabeth Jennings in which she said:

          “Put memory away and watch a world

           Grown almost still because a baby can

           Convince us that he is born God and Man.”

We have come to call him sometimes “Son of Man” and sometimes “Son of God” – either is right.

When most people think of God breaking into the affairs of the world, they think of God doing so with great power and might, breaking the laws of nature so that bad things don’t happen any more.

The story Luke tells and which we celebrate today is the complete opposite – and in some ways it is subversive, too. 

The miracle of the Christmas Story was not that a man was born who was also God – embodying the omniscience, and the omnipotence we associate with God-ness. 

The real miracle is that our God put those things aside and assumed our humanity, coming as a feeble little child into a very difficult time and place – like one of the millions of children born this year into war zones. 

It is the paradox of all this that gives us the ability to turn the world upside down – to overthrow the powers of the Principalities and Powers with love, offering a peace that is not born out of force but out of love freely given.  God came among us to show us the way – and Jesus is truly the Way to God.

ADVENT 3C - God's Song of Joy

If my name was recorded in the north African or Arabic way my name would be John Eric William Zephaniah.  My Great Grandfather was born in the south of England at the beginning of the reign of Queen Victoria and his father, William Henry Wesley, named him after that rather insignificant Old Testament prophet Zephaniah. 

Because of this link I have always had a certain curiosity about this old prophet.  But every time I try to read him it seems all too awful.  He is ranting about the people of Judah/Israel.  He is ranting about the neighbouring nations.  The people of God have abandoned their first love of God.  The nations around Judah have ridiculed and abused the People of God.   In fact, these verses sound very much like the God that Richard Dawkins and others refuse to believe in – a grumpy old divine who is going to wreak destruction on humanity because we have all be so naughty.

As a result I would generally give up reading Zephaniah before I got to chapter 3 – and I should not have.

In our Good News Bibles, the section we read today (3:14-20) is headed – Song of Joy.  It is actually two songs.

The first song is in the voice of Zephaniah and he is calling the people to rejoice because “there is now no reason to be afraid.”  God has withdrawn his punishment of them, and has removed their enemies.  Zephaniah says: “In his love he will give you new life.”

After all the terrible things he had railed against this seems to be an amazing change of fortune.

Many Christians have a little saying that helps them understand how and why Jesus would ultimately die.  They say “Without the shedding of blood, there can be no forgiveness of sins.”  In the context of the sacrificial system in Israel this seems a plausible rule.

Yet here, and it is by no means the only example on the Old Testament, God’s relents from all his threats of pain and destruction.  Dawn Weaks, in a sermon on this text, says:

“Something changes.  God relents.  Zephaniah ceases words of destruction and gives birth to new hope with words of comfort.  Maybe God remembers that we humans cannot restore ourselves on our own; perhaps God’s parental heart breaks at the thought of continuing to punish these precious children.  Regardless, Zephaniah stops telling the people what they’ve done wrong and starts telling them what God is doing right.”

And words like that can only be addressed in song – hence the poetic form in our Bibles.  But it is not enough for the voice of Zephaniah to tell us this.  Half way through he says “even God will sing you a song.”

In this second song, the voice of God says “I have ended the threat of doom and taken away your disgrace.  …  I will rescue the lame and bring the exiles home.  I will turn your shame into honour and all the world will praise them.”

God here sings a love song.  And this song is for the entire world.  It turns out the God longs for joy, too, and here God steps in and does for us what we cannot do for ourselves so that we can live in joy.

Here is a source of Joy for Christmas that is not based in the sentimentality of an innocent and helpless baby born in abject circumstances.  This Joy is totally focussed on God’s gracious action in putting aside our failures so that we can know him fully as he wants to know us fully.

But wait!  There’s more.  The remaining three selections from Scripture today (Isaiah 12:2-6 , 1 Thessalonians 5:12-28 and Luke 3:7-18) seem also to be a call to joy – life may seem tough with many things stacked against us, but we are called to remember always that God will bring us peace and hope and love and joy.

It is very easy for us to forget God has given us all that we need to be able to rejoice in him.  But we are not overcome by fear or sadness.  We should never lose heart.  Clarissa Estes says:

“The reason is this: In my uttermost bones I know something, as do you.  It is that there can be no despair when you remember why you came to Earth, who you serve, and who sent you here.  The good words we say and the good deeds we do are not ours.  They are the words and deeds of the One who brought us here.”  

PEACE - Advent 2C

We all dream of peace.

We have become so used to a world in which violence is a “normal” part of the landscape that even our dream of peace has become almost a forlorn hope – I mean, we hope for it, but we know it is unlikely, at least in our lifetime.

The days into which John the Baptist was born were so similar to our time that the people of Jesus’ day could be forgiven for losing hope of ever seeing peace again – real peace.

In the beginning of our Gospel reading we have references to a whole lot of people – and we think of them as simply geographical time-markers that enable us to know when in history this story happened.  But let me offer you some peace-maker glasses – just like the 3-D ones you can get at the cinema - through which to view these people so that you can make a new kind of sense of them.

Emperor Tiberius – Among his many titles the Emperor was called “Son of God” and “Prince of Peace” and historians came to refer to the Pax Romana as the signal feature of this time.  But this peace was not true peace.  It was peace established and maintained by military force.  What a Jewish person in the Roman Province of Judaea would think of when faced with this name is the oppressive domination of their land by the Romans.  The emperor was the symbol of that domination and therefore the cause of their lack of freedom.

Pontius Pilate – As Roman Governor, he held all the powers of the Emperor in this local setting.  So, he, too, was a symbol of the oppressive Roman regime that denied them their freedom.

Herod, Philip and Lysanius – Vassal Kings of different regions within Judaea.  These men from the political aristocracy of Israel were given their power by Rome so long as they supported the domination and oppression of the people.  They too, were symbols of the lack of freedom the nation felt.

Annas and Caiaphus – These High Priests were from the religious aristocracy of Israel but they were appointed by the Governor and only held office so long as they kept the people from rebellion.  The average tenure of a High Priest during the period of Roman Occupation was about 2 years – some even shorter than that.  They, too, were symbols of the oppressive regime of Roman occupation that denied the people their true freedom.

These people then, were the antithesis of peace-makers in their time.  They supported the Roman occupation and thus were a focus of any forms of resistance.

Then came John the Baptist.  He was the son of Zechariah and he exercised his ministry in the area we now call “The West Bank” – wandering around these arid places calling people to undertake a baptism of repentance. 

In addition to this John had a message that was perfect for times such as those days.  “Get the road ready for the real LORD” he says.  “He is going to show everyone the SALVATION of GOD.”

When we hear that word SALVATION we associate it with the word SAVE.  It seems to fit in with other things that we understand about God’s saving grace.  But being SAVED is a really hard thing to describe.

Someone made a joke once about that picture of Jesus knocking on the door of our hearts.  It is in the form of what we call a “Knock, knock” joke.  It goes like this:

Knock, knock!

Who’s there?

Jesus.

What do you want?

I want to SAVE you.

From what?

From what I am going to do to you if you don’t open the door to me.

Liberation is at the heart of the idea behind this word SALVATION and to the Jewish mind of John and Jesus’ day liberation meant real PEACE.

What I think is easy to overlook is the significance of that very last phrase that is quoted from Isaiah:

          The whole human race will see God’s Salvation!

We now understand that this liberating PEACE is brought by Jesus.  It is a gift that God is offering to all people – no-one is excluded from the offer.

Every year during this ADVENT Season, we are given an opportunity to get our hearts ready to understand something new about this story we all know so well – this story of God relinquishing all his heavenly powers to become a helpless little baby human being limited by time and space just as we all are.  And God’s powerlessness continues right through the story of Jesus even in his execution by the Roman authorities even though he had done nothing wrong.  But that, of course is not the end of the story.  If it were, it would just be a tragedy.  The resurrection was a declaration by God that our true liberation can only be found in his way of powerlessness that is totally reliant on God’s grace.  It is only in him that we find liberty and peace. 

The MIGHT of Rome could not overcome this.

The MIGHT of the Principalities and Powers could not overcome this.

The MIGHT of Materialism could not overcome this.

In this story the whole human race can see the SALVATION God offers us all.

Scapegoat

Have you ever been made a scapegoat for others some time in your life?  Most of us understand the term scapegoat and perhaps we are familiar with the origins of the term, but our modern understanding of this phenomena in human society is unavoidably shaped by the thinking of a French Christian thinker, René Girard who died this week aged in his 90s.

Girard made the observation that human beings have an almost unavoidable tendency towards violence against others, often directing that violence towards a single person or a particular group of people.  Very often this tendency towards violence was a subconscious response to our own sense of failure, so rather than allow others to see our failure or weaknesses we pick on someone else – often whom we perceive as having weakness – and we even incite others to participate in that violence.  Their willingness of others to collaborate in the violence makes our own sense of personal guilt or failure even less.

So, scapegoating is fundamentally about transferring our own sense of guilt for sin onto another so that they will take it away from me.

The selection of Scripture from Hebrews today (9:23-28) takes us straight into the annual ritual for the Jewish High Priest on the day they call Yom Kippur, or the Day of Atonement.  In this day various animals are sacrificed and prayers said confessing the sins of the nation over the past year and in a final ritual act of passing on those sins, the High Priest prays over a goat, transferring the sins of the nation to it and then it is chased off into the wilderness.  Once the temple was built the practice was actually to chase the goat over a cliff to its death – so that it could not bring the sins back.  Thus the nations had a fresh start – its sins were carried away.

The writer to the Hebrews and probably other early Christians recognised some similarity between that scapegoat and Jesus and he uses the imagery of the High Priestly rituals on the Day of Atonement to try and explain the early Christian conviction that this annual violence against the animals was no longer necessary – that God no longer held our sin as a barrier between us because Jesus’ death had put an end to it.

Girard goes so far as to say that Christianity is the only exit way from these violent tendencies among humans.  He has a sociological way of speaking about it.  We have a theological way of speaking about it.  But at the heart of both explanations is the death of Jesus which does away with the need for further death.

What we understand about sin is that in and of ourselves we have no way of getting rid of it – indeed of its very essence it seems to keep us sinning even more.  The Jewish Law and Sacrificial System provided ways for the temporary alleviation of our guilt and shame – but it did not free us from sin.

The reason we so often react with fear and violence to others – perhaps who seem different from us – is a failure to apprehend deep in our being that our sin has been dealt with.  So we harbour this fear that the OTHER might show us up to be as bad as we feel we are.  That leads us to do things that will lead others to see them as far worse persons than we are – then we can relax.

The early Christians, looking at what Jesus did, saw in him an extraordinary scapegoat.  The religious leaders feared him and his message because they could see that he had a clearer and firmer relationship to God the Father than they thought they had – but they were the religious leaders.  So they harassed him – ultimately to his death.  The Roman authorities feared him because he seemed to make himself an alternative Lord to the Emperor. 

So they harassed him to his death.

Others would have fought back, perpetuating the cycle of violence, but Jesus did not.  And we stand with those early Christians in affirming that in this death – once for all – the cycle of guilt and sin and violence has come to an end.

Can you see how it works?  Jesus the scapegoat has taken away the sin of the world – once and for all.  We no longer carry the stain of sin and guilt in our lives, so when we stand alongside or in front of another fellow human being we don’t secretly think “They are better than me; I had better throw some mud at them to make me look good.”  We stand proudly alongside them saying “I know we are both less than perfect – but in Christ we have both been cleansed of the stain of sin.”  Thus the cycle of violence is broken.  Thus humankind can be freed from its greatest scourge.

The letter to the Hebrews give us a whole suite of theological imagery to explain this and perhaps we are more familiar with that imagery and language.  But at the heart of it all is this fundamental truth that in the death of Jesus, we are freed from the cycle of sin and violence that once imprisoned us, and that we are freed from it once and for all.  That is the good news we call the Gospel of Christ.