Singing Mary's Song

Luke 1:39-56

 

 

In today’s Gospel story, we hear Mary & Elizabeth sing from their hearts the call and response of hope in a troubled world. Mary has just realised who the child she was carrying was and was filled with wonder and fear. Wonder that she was to be his mother, and fear as to the consequences for both of them and their family in a world waiting for a warrior king to depose the occupying forces.

 

As a result she withdraw from her daily village life and sought solace and solitude with Elizabeth in the hill country. Elizabeth was also pregnant ad about to give birth to John the Baptist, the forerunner of Jesus and the one who would mentor and teach Jesus. The future would have looked troublesome and precarious to both women and they spent much time together reflecting on where God was and what God was doing.

 

The kinship and relationship these two women feel is signified by Elizabeth’s exclamation Luke places at their first meeting, ‘as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leaped for joy.’ Luke connects both as bearers of ‘Good News’ and also connects John & Jesus as co-creators of this ‘Good News’. Right from the very beginning they are one in what they are here to do.

Luke’s Gospel presentation of the ‘Virgin birth’, Andrew Prior suggests, “is not intending to present us with a miracle which contradicts biological truth and necessity. We make a category mistake if we believe he is even thinking about biology. He is presenting to us the intervention of God in our world; the filling of people with Holy Spirit. It is all to set the stage for Jesus' birth and subsequent ministry."

Mary's song is a song of revolution, and like all revolutionary songs it calls for the reformation of faith and story and a whole new way of living that story.

The birth of Jesus is the writing of a new story on a blank slate. Mary epitomises a humanity free enough to let go of expectation and past baggage and to allow itself to be written anew. While her song sings the story of Israel and the future of humanity as found in the freedom coming from the innocence to believe in the possibility of hope.

How we need Mary’s innocence to day. Without such innocence we will continue to live in fear of the other; to look askance at those who believe, dress and worship differently; to demonise those whose understanding of relationships, ways of life and engagement world is different to ours. More men, women and children will die in refugee camps, bombed hospitals and schools, as a result of domestic violence and gun crimes unless we begin to sing Mary’s song.

 

Stan Grant, in his excellent article, “The politics of identity: We are trapped in the imaginations of white Australians” dealing with search for identity within in the indigenous community, points out:

 

“Our struggle is too conveniently positioned as peculiar to this country. But the politics of identity are an international phenomenon – confusing and contradictory – heightened by the rush of post cold-war globalisation, the advance of new technology and the changing currents of geo-politics.

 

Patriotism, xenophobia, ethnic nationalism, sectarianism are among the many reactions to an increasingly homogenised and globalised world.

 

Look around us.

 

Islamic State has surpassed al-Qaida’s deadly ambitions, appealing to a brutal, radicalised, and selectively distorted Sunni Muslim identity.

 

In every corner of the planet people are questioning who they are. Is allegiance to state? Religion? Tribe? Politics?

 

Vladimir Putin has ridden new waves of popularity in Russia by crafting a comforting narrative of Soviet nostalgia coupled with military adventurism and intervention.

 

This has spilled over into the civil war in Ukraine, where the country is split between those who identify with greater Europe and others with allegiance to Moscow.

 

North Koreans are still defined by an unfinished half-century old war with the United States. As they construct a nuclear arsenal, and march in goose-step, they look dismissively at their cousins in the south and proclaim themselves as the true Koreans.

The Chinese speak of a 100 years of humiliation, the nation’s resurgence countering a history of foreign domination and exploitation.

 

The European Union – designed as a reaction to the continent’s bloody 20th century – is mired in mistrust and suspicion fuelling the rise of identity-infused extreme politics of the left and right.”

 

The situation expounded by Grant and experienced by each of us as we search for ourselves in this world finds hope in Mary's  song, the writing on a clean slate. Interestingly Mary’s song is not sung as a plea for something better. It is the pronouncement of the Good News which has always been present. Her song is sung in the past tense; she sings that this has already happened and now we are entering the place where each of us, in the power of self-sacrifice and the indwelling Spirit, can live out in the present what has always been here.

 

Mary sings:

“My soul magnifies the Lord, ⁴⁷and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour, ⁴⁸for he has looked with favour on the lowliness of his servant. Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed; ⁴⁹for the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name. ⁵⁰His mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. ⁵¹He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. ⁵²He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; ⁵³he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty. ⁵⁴He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, ⁵⁵according to the promise he made to our ancestors, to Abraham and to his descendants forever.” 

 

Here is our faith’s song line, Mary picks it up and sings into being justice, freedom, hope and peace. In call and response she is joins with Elizabeth and their babies within, and they now call to us across the ages to join them to sing in the Hope of the World this Advent.

 

The challenge Mary gives us is; are we innocent enough to sing her song in our relationships with other, in the way we shop and travel, in who we support and favour and in hospitality and welcome to those different in age, gender, race or creed? Are we able to connect to the forever story so as to sing the story into the present and teach others to sing it into the future, long after we are gone?

 

Our only hope is to sing heartily! Amen 

Peace Is Our Responsibility

Luke 3:1-6

 

In 1962 Thomas Merton wrote the following an an essay in the Commonweal journal entitled ‘Nuclear War and the Christian":

 “We are no longer living in a Christian world……..Today a non-Christian world still retains a few vestiges of Christian morality, a few formulas and clichés, which serve on appropriate occasions to adorn indignant editorials and speeches. But otherwise we witness deliberate campaigns to eliminate all education in Christian truth and morality. The Christian ethic of love tends to be discredited as phony and sentimental. It is therefore a serious error to imagine that because the West was once largely Christian, the cause of the Western nations is now to be identified, without further qualification, with the cause of God. The incentive to wipe out Bolshevism may well be one of the apocalyptic temptations of twentieth-century Christendom. It may indeed be the most effective way of destroying Christendom, even though man may survive. For who imagines that the Asians and Africans will respect Christianity and  embrace it after it has apparently triggered  mass-murder  and destruction of cosmic proportions?  It is pure madness to think that Christianity can defend itself with nuclear weapons. The mere fact that we now seem to accept nuclear war as reasonable is a universal scandal.”

 

Last week, at the Church of England Synod in England, the church accepted that armed intervention is inevitable in the Middle East refugee crisis. The Guardian reports:

“The Church of England has effectively backed military intervention by the UK government in Syria by unanimously passing a motion which implied support for the use of armed force in establishing safe routes for refugees, with the personal endorsement of the archbishop of Canterbury.

Armed action was “almost inevitable” in response to the crisis in Syria, Welby said. The forces that were driving people to become refugees needed to be confronted, he added.

The motion, proposed by the bishop of Durham, Paul Butler, called on the government “to work with international partners in Europe and elsewhere to help establish safe and legal routes to places of safety, including this country, for refugees who are vulnerable and at severe risk”.

Welby told the church assembly that it needed to recognise the implications of the clause. “Let us support the motion, but do so utterly realistically about its implications,” he said.

The motion – passed by 333 votes, with none opposed and three abstentions”

 

And now Britain is at war with ISIS.

In todays Gospel Luke introduces John the Baptist and his call for repentance and Baptism. This Old Testament style prophet, a ‘replica’ of Isaiah’, recognises the crisis his world was facing and calls for radical action to be taken. What was that radical action? Personal accountability for the state of relationships in the world.

 

Luke makes it clear just how dysfunctional the world was by taking care to meticulously detail the time (In the fifteenth year of the reign of Emperor Tiberius,), the key players who were recognised for the manipulation and brutality of each other and those under them (when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was ruler of Galilee, and his brother Philip ruler of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias ruler of Abilene,) and the complicity of the Jewish hierarchy ( ²during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas).

He then places John as a prophet, an outsider, who is not in cohorts with the world, but is aware of God and the role God wants each of us to play in bringing peace to the world, as the spokesman for the new world order - (the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness. )

Peace in the world is not a world without unrest, but a world in which unrest first finds its answer in our unwillingness to maintain or feed the violence, thus ensuring it continues. If we continue to feed it, the crooked ways of humanity, even the crooked ways within ourselves, will continue to wind there way into the hills and high places of violence, war and hatred.

Peace in the world is not the sole task of God. John continues the voice of the prophets, institutes a radical pattern of repentance and baptism, putting the responsibility on all humans (flesh) in the world and points to The Way (Jesus) this will be achieved.

Peace is not the sole responsibility of Jesus, his birth, life, death and resurrection. Peace is what we do with that. Unfortunately while the church continues to be embroiled in scandals or in visible and damaging conflict and in-fighting at the local level, we do not contribute to peace, but to unrest.

Peace is found in actions bringing down those in high places, unwinding the corruption and power of those committed to violence in all its forms. These actions are to be peace bringing and non-violent. No where does Jesus advocate a violence response, that would simply have ensured violence continued.

Peace requires we seek and find ways to personally untangle ourselves from the patterns and structures which are committed to maintaining unrest in the world – political parties, big business, the weapons industry and more. Perhaps finding out how businesses operate, where they source their products, how  they make their money, where is you retirement money invested and more. We then can make decisions on who we support through our purchases for example.

The announcement this week that the founder of Facebook and his wife are giving 99% of his fortune to charity over his lifetime has been applauded. Yet it comes with strings attached and carrying much baggage as Devon Maloney of The Guardian website points out:

 

Simply by creating and overseeing the world’s largest social network and one of the most influential corporations on Earth – by gathering and selling untold amounts of data under the protection of inscrutable legal jargon, by implementing shaky harassment and reporting policies that permit certain kinds of abuse, by employing 68% men and fewer than 50 black people in a company of more than 10,000 employees (to say nothing of the unholy spectre of gentrification) – Mark Zuckerberg himself continues to reproduce the inequality he and his wife are taking aim at with their pledge.

 

John the Baptist, and Luke the Gospel writer, make it very plain. What we are waiting for is not a baby but the Way and the Way requires that we engage in deep self reflection, shed our baggage through repentance and become baptised in an active role in building a new world for all. While the repentance is personal, the Baptism is communal and unless we begin to walk this Way, peace will always remain elusive.

 

Thomas Merton warned in 1962 we were sowing the seeds of future war by our actions in Asia, Africa and the Middle East. We are now reaping what we have sown. It is time to “‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.” To ensure “⁵Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill made low, and the crooked made straight, and the rough ways made smooth;” so “⁶all flesh shall see the salvation of God.’”

 May Christmas 2015 see the beginning of such peace in our world. 

This Is Not The End!

Mark 13.1-8

Noticed a cartoon recently with a man dressed in alternative clothing standing on a street corner with a sign that read, “The end” and underneath it “is not near”.

How easy is it for us to read the newspapers, watch the evening news, listen to the talk back radio shock jocks and politicians, and conclude that, in fact, the end is not just near but has already begun. Perhaps it has already occurred.

The streets seem less safe, the values we have lived by have all but disappeared and the institutions we have come to trust and disappearing all around us, including the church. The church is significant as it has been the custodian of stability, morals education and intricately connected to the fabric of government and economic life. This has and is changing faster than we would like.

We would like things to stay the same. We have liked what we had and we don’t want it to lose our position and our place in society either as a church or vicariously as a member of the church.

Yet our understanding of what ‘the same’ is, is often inaccurate and biased by where we live, who we few up with and the archetypal stories that are dominant in our domain. We want Australian values to remain and fear the changes seeming to be occur in our society, challenging what we believe the past was like. Very rarely does the past and our interpretation of it come together seamlessly.

One of the medias present fears is the refugees who appear to be introducing Islam into our nominally Christian society. Did you know that Islam in Australia pre-dates European settlement? From 1650, Muslim fisherman from South East Asia communicated and traded with Aborigines from Australia's north. Some inter-marriage occurred. In the 1860s, some 3000 camel drivers - with camels - came from Afghanistan and the Indian sub-continent contributing to the exploration of the Australian outback, working on both the railway line between Port Augusta and Alice Springs, and the Overland Telegraph Line from Adelaide to Darwin, which connected Australia to London via India. 

 

What we fear is the threat to our way of life is often not the real threat. The real threat is fear itself. It undermines relationships, casts suspicion on the innocent and brings about rifts in our society where there is no valid reason for divisions to occur.

 

Jesus points to the temple, the second temple built by Herod and an extremely impressive temple it was, and predicts its collapse, an unthinkable thought for those whose lives were intricately entwined in its existence. Herod's Temple was one of the larger construction projects of the 1st century BCE.

The old temple built by Zerubbabel was replaced by a magnificent edifice. An agreement was made between Herod and the Jewish religious authorities: the sacrificial rituals, called offerings, were to be continued unabated for the entire time of construction, and the Temple itself would be constructed by the priests. Later the Exodus 30:13 sanctuary shekel was reinstituted to support the temple as the temple tax. This was the background to the Widows Mite we read about in last weeks Gospel.

The Temple Mount was originally intended to be 1600 feet wide by 900 feet broad by 9 stories high, with walls up to 16 feet thick, but had never been finished. To complete it, a trench was dug around the mountain, and huge stone "bricks" were laid. Some of these weighed well over 100 tons, the largest measuring 44.6 feet by 11 feet by 16.5 feet and weighing approximately 567 to 628 tons, while most were in the range of 2.5 by 3.5 by 15 feet (approximately 28 tons).

How could such a building simply be torn down with no stone left in place? Impossible. The temple was not just important for Jewish worship but was a symbol of the symbiotic relationship between the Romans and the Jewish temple elite. They believed that while ever they allowed Rome to levy taxes and to benefit from the trade in and around the Temple, they could get on with their lives without risk of persecution. It was their insurance against devastation. It didn’t work. As we know in 70 CE the temple was destroyed, never to be rebuilt.

Jesus understood something others failed to see. There comes a time when political expediency requires a change of direction, old ties are cut and new ones commenced. Whatever relationship the Jewish authorities had with those in power would last only as long as it was of value to those in power. When it was not useful any more, it would cease. And it did.

A problem for the Anglican church in Australia has been its privileged position in the English hierarchy and that we are primarily a white Anglo-Saxon church. We came out with the first fleet and were tired directly to those in power. We had our position because of who we were a part of – the English authorities. We lived in and off that position even when the political and demographic landscape changed.

And we didn’t see the changes coming, which would move us from the centre of society and its decision making to the edges. We are now a church in exile. Due to the changing demographic and political landscape, the rise of secularism, the move towards radical inclusivity in terms of relationships for example, we are marginalised.

For example, a story in the Age and the SMH had the following headline on Tuesday:

A controversial religious instruction program is being taught at preschool

Special religious instruction has been scrapped from school classes in Victoria, but a major provider of the controversial program is now entering a new market: childcare.

The state's largest SRI provider, Access Ministries, is offering a religious instruction program called Explore Christianity, at Emmanuel Early Learning in Endeavour Hills.

The weekly half-hour session at Emmanuel Early Learning is run by two accredited volunteers, and is based on the school SRI program.

It teaches Christian values and beliefs, in addition to stories from the Bible.

In an email exchange with the author of that report, it was noted, and I quote:"The circumstances around the program over the past few years make it controversial. The content itself has been controversial in the past, although I don't believe it is now."

As we stand in front of St Paul’s cathedral or even out the front here we can echo the words of incredulity of those listening to Jesus. We cannot believe what we have built may, one day, exist no more. But Jesus says this is not the end, that is yet to come. Tough times are here but life is possible and a life that recognises and worships God is available to us if we partake in tearing down what we built and build something new.

 

I would suggest that Jesus was alluding to more than the bricks and mortar, but to the accommodation the Temple leaders had made to remain within the governing power base. The church today has been moved out of the centre of political and moral life and has the amazing opportunity to reinvent itself in the image of God, as the true voice of God, uninhibited by the restrictions of political expediency necessary to survive at that level.

 

Living in exile gives us permission to rethink what faith and religion looks like to abandon the assumptions that bound us to power and to reposition ourselves as prophetic, mystical and proactive in terms of social justice, inclusivity and hospitality. We no longer have to ensure we are speaking with the same voice as those in power, politically or economically. We can speak of and for God. We can, for possibly the first time, embrace and practice the companionship of empowerment.

 

For the early Christians, this was their strength. They were not implicated in the power structures of their time. They were free to be true to the Gospel and were unafraid of the consequences.

 

The challenge for our church, at all levels, is to recognise the crumbling remains of past glories and to embrace the freedom of exile. I would like to finish with two quotes from the movie, “The Best Exoctic Marigold Hotel”. The first comes from Judi Dench’s character  Evelyn who says: “There is no past that we can bring back by longing for it. Only a present that builds and creates itself as the past withdraws.” The second, and where I will finish, comes from the ever positive Sonny: “Everything will be alright in the end….if it’s not alright, it’s not the end.” Amen 

The Widows Mite

Mark 12:38-44

What a lovely story! Jesus affirms a poor widow for making a sacrificial gift to the Synagogue. He actually applauds her for giving, in real terms than all those who were rich and famous. Therefore, we extrapolate, it is not how much you give but the sacrifice you make that matters.

This passage, popularly called “The Widows Mite” pops up whenever we get to talking about giving, tithing or any kind of stewardship program. It can be used to encourage or bully people into giving or to explain why we don’t give more than we do. Talking about money and the giving of money usually makes us cough, look at our watch es and find an excuse to be somewhere else.

The Widows Mite justifies our condemnation of the rich (they should give more) and our defence of our own level of giving (every little bit counts you know).

Is that what this story is really all about? Is that what the widow has come to mean to us or is there something else at work here? John Petty suggest"She is not a positive example, but rather the (barely) living representative of a crying shame.  She represents the on-going exploitation of the poor by the Temple elite."

 

Jesus and the disciples are sitting in the temple courtyard watching the passing cavalcade that was the daily occurrence at the synagogue. People were moving around, moving in and out of the temple and others were making their contribution towards the various temple appeals including the cost of the day to day operations.

 

³⁸As he taught, he said, “Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes, and to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces, ³⁹and to have the best seats in the synagogues and places of honour at banquets! ⁴⁰They devour widows’ houses and for the sake of appearance say long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation.”

 

There were the scribes and Pharisees, visibly different in dress and deportment. Moving back and forth across the square making sure they were seen by all and sundry. They wanted to, no needed to be noticed, to be sure that others understood just how important they were and how important it was you contributed your required gifts for their benefit. These were the people who used the laws of giving to increase theirs and the temples wealth and the cost of the poor and the marginalised, and felt no guilt in relieving such as widows of their houses. They made others poor to make themselves rich and important.

 

There were the rich people, those with great wealth and importance. They too were noticed by their dress and deportment and by the great show they made of giving large amounts of money as required. There was little sacrificial about their giving. They had much and so what appeared to be a large and impressive amount to the ordinary person cost them little.

 

⁴¹He sat down opposite the treasury, and watched the crowd putting money into the treasury. Many rich people put in large sums. ⁴²A poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which are worth a penny.⁴³Then he called his disciples and said to them, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the treasury. ⁴⁴For all of them have contributed out of their abundance; but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.”

 

Then there were the ordinary people, those with little who were still required to give their share. Jesus points to a widow, a woman on her own, who came out of the shadows, a little embarrassed, a little fearful and fiddle with her purse before putting in a pennyworth of coins – 2 copper coins worth very little to the rich yet worth much to her.

 

Jesus highlights what she gives, and in the context of his comments about both the rich and the scribes and Pharisees, he is not applauding her at all. He is condemning those with the capacity to give and those who use the poor to become rich.

 

We stand condemned if we use this story to justify taking unjustly from the poor or as an excuse not to give sacrificially ourselves.

 

In our modern world we often commend the extremely rich for their philanthropy pointing to the large amounts of money they contribute to causes and programs. And yes many do give large amounts and we should be grateful. But there are at least two questions we have to answer:

 

How and from whom did they make their money? Was it by making quality products or services, providing living wages to those who work for them, and by paying a fair share of the tax bill? Or was it by selling lesser quality goods, paying the lowest possible wages, inducing people who can not afford the products and services they have to offer to put themselves at risk by buying them, exporting jobs and importing inferior goods? It would be unfair of me to single out any particular individual or corporation because the economics of business is such that most appear to be doing so. If this is the case, the giving to charities and causes by those involved is not to be commended for giving after the fact when they have avoided paying proper wages and taxes before taking the profits.

 

For a number of years I was  involved in raising funds for charities and organisations. The organisations I worked for had this idea that special appeals to the rich and famous, black tie dinners and direct approaches to those with the resources was where the money was to be had. Often they had not kept the list of the ‘little people’ who gave their regular but ‘unimpressive’ gifts to the charity or organisation. Appeals to these people were often seen as costly and not profitable.

Yet the appeals that were unprofitable were always those to the rich and famous. In terms of time, effort and resources, the returns were much less in real terms than the funds given by the small givers. And the small givers were regular, were happy to receive a thank you note and had no need for a photo opportunity in the social pages.

Around the same time I was involved in the liquor industry when old corner hotels were being tarted up and becoming boutique pubs. I suggested this might not be a good idea. To become a boutique you needed boutique clients, nit the regulars who popped in at 10, left at 5 and did that quietly and religiously everyday. I pointed out that they were the ones that paid the wages, and without them they would struggle to be successful. I was told that these people didn’t fit the image and had to go. For many establishments this proved to be a bad move.

Jesus points to the widow and says here is someone who is faithful to her commitments and responsibilities and who is being used to make others rich (those in power) and to appease the consciences of the rich (those who have the capacity to make a real contribution)

No this not a story about the widows mite, but a story about might oppressing the widow. AMen

Do We Need Saints Today?

Sunday was All Saints Day, the day we remember those who are no longer with us and whom we remember for that which they shared with us. In the Christian mind we particularly think of those who have been designated saints, examples of the life of faith lived out here on earth. Some are remembered for great deeds, others for dying a martyrs death and still others for strange and peculiar reasons we find difficult to understand. But they all lived an earthly life, not unlike ours, and all have something to share with us.

It has been noted by some that we no longer need saints and we particularly don't need to name our churches after saints. Apparently, St Oswald, you are no longer of value to those of us fighting our battles of faith on the battlefields of everyday living. Yet, we live in age where we need saints more than ever, no matter how obscure they may seem to be to a wired, consumer society.

The reason?

'Then Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead. For your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.'

We need those who have faced the depths of despair and the heights of ecstasy in faith to dispel our fears and to give us hope for the future. Lazarus's circumstances reflects both the future circumstances of Jesus and the many who lived and died following in the steps of faith laid down by Jesus. Lazarus suffered illness and died. His family, particularly his sisters, suffered loss and grief in a particular way. Those who knew Lazarus also suffered. All harboured feelings against Jesus, specifically in relation to his tardy arrival and his failure to heal some one he loved and who loved him.

No amount of reassurance of a future resurrection or the suggestion that people who believe in him never die seemed to reassure them. These must have seemed like hollow words to all involved. One has to admire the faith of the sisters while noting the touch of anger in the comment relating to Lazarus being dead four days and that there would be a stench when they opened the tomb.

Like the sisters, we have a limited tolerance of those who give oft repeated assurances and seemingly inappropriate platitudes when we are facing tragedy, failure, loss - be it personal, financial or job, the failure of a relationship or more. Unthinking reassurance only seems to confirm that no-one else understands our pain, even worse, that this has never happened this way to anyone else before.

 

Yet that is partly what this story about - the reassurance that life, even the life of Jesus, consists of trying to remain human in the midst of the challenges being human brings us. Positive psychology and the happiness project encourages us to think that all can be smooth sailing and that we can so manipulate life to ensure happiness as an entitlement. The truth is much different.

And we need saints to remind us of our resilience and capacity to remain fully engaged with life and our humanity even when bad things happen to good people, including ourselves. Alain de Botton, in his book 'Religion for Athiests' makes the case that religion understands the predicament of humanity much better than secular people, atheists, and provides a multitude of saints to light the way when the positivism of modern thinkers fail us miserably.

Rowan Williams comments that Jesus came among us to join us in the muddle of being human and muddled through based on his relationship with what he understood of the character of God via silence and stillness and through the experience of those he encountered in the Jewish scriptures. He suggests that we are to follow such an example to ensure we muddle through as well.

We have the example of the saints in today's story:

• Mary and Martha who, in the midst of their grief and their anger at Jesus, remain faithful and hopeful;
• The disciples whose minds were befuddled by the tardiness of Jesus and the Unfathomable suggestion that Lazarus is in this state only so Jesus can display God's power; 
• and those watching who simply had no idea and went away struggling with the whole scenario.

We have the examples of:

• The Old Testament saints, many of whom were so deeply involved in the muddle of violent and unforgiving cultures and traditions we struggle to understand their relevance to us today;
• The New Testament saints who lived and died violently for simply believing in the kingdom of God as lived out by Jesus;
• The many exemplary people who have recognised the spirit of God loose in the land and dared to live, speak and challenge the church and society simply based on their faith in Jesus.

Each of us will have a saint or saints who speak directly to us in ways which give meaning and purpose to our lives. For me these include Francis of Assisi, Thomas Merton, Dorothy Day, Vincent Lingari and the unrecognised workers for reconciliation and justice in our country. These are all people who have laid down a framework of hope and possibility which has allowed me to muddle through.

Some have saints who are close to home, people such as a loved one, family friends, teachers or work colleagues, someone whose example provided a light for our feet in times when darkness was all around.

Now we must remember saints are not perfect people, even Jesus was late arriving on the scene for Mary and Martha! Saints are often saints because they persevered despite moments, and sometimes more than just moments, of terrible decision making, errors of judgement and passion. King David, Peter, Merton, Day all had disasters, some we would feel it would be impossible to comeback from. But they did. Perfection is a modern day requirement which has no place in the life of a human being muddling through with Christ.

Why do we need saints to day more than ever? Because today we need to recognise that life is more than just a little difficult for the majority of the time; that happiness is a fleeting interlude between skirmishes; that the only true optimist or positive psychologist was Murphy when he wrote his famous rule, 'Anything that can go wrong, will', and muddling through as a human is more important than being perfect (whatever that is).

Our children need to understand this regardless of their age as do our teachers, coaches politicians, and most of all ourselves.

A quick look at the saints in our lives will affirm just how much we need them. Amen

And Jesus Stood Still

(Mark 10:46-52) How difficult it is for modern humans to be still! When was the last time you were really still? I don’t mean physically still but still at the centre of your being, deep down at ease with nothingness; a little while ago, a long time ago or never?

 

Riding the train into Melbourne I watched as people sat still, most not talking, most seemingly at rest. Yet this was not the case. Most had the white cords of distraction in their ears, were fiddling with the mobile communication device in their hands and sitting looking down in what appeared to be a permanent hunch, rarely were they in conversation, looking out the window or just sitting without doing anything.

 

When I got to Synod, Cheryl commented on the number of people whose heads were down, a soft blue glow lighting their faces as they stared at their mobile communication devices, reading messages, posting to their Facebook page or, heaven forbid, playing games. The gentleman across the aisle from me sent and received emails all the way through the Eucharist service, automatically responding on cue to the responses in the service!

 

I have written a small book on the experience of leading the students from Lindisfarne on 3-day silent retreats. I spoke to the publisher to see what they thought. The publishers representative said she had read it and it was excellent, but it won’t sell. I asked why? She said the idea of taking middle school students on 3-day retreats is to challenging and frightens people (adults, teachers, clergy).

 

It is sad that that seems to be so.

 

Brett Esaki in his article, ‘Desperately Seeking Silence” suggests that silence is the youth cultures unmet need.  And I would add, society at larges unmet need. He would say that those who wear the white cords in their ears do so to blanket out the noise of the world and to be alone with themselves. The music that they hear becomes a wall protecting them from the sounds of a world which is challenging, frightening and just a little bit foreign. My discussions with teenagers confirms this as the practice of young people in particular, all people in general.

 

Esaki suggests that ‘silence is the space and time to listen, where to listen is to learn, to allow one’s consciousness to transform, or to absorb.’ Silence responds to sound, it is not the absence of sound. Sound creates the environment in which silence can grow and become. Being still in the midst of noise gives permission for us to unshackle ourselves from the noise and note the learning, the message, the insight or reflections present in us and in the world.

 "The day Jesus came to Jericho Bartimaeus was sitting and waiting. All the longing in his heart cried out, and though the disciples couldn’t see past his blind eyes and his beggar’s cup, Jesus heard what was in his heart, stood still and responded.” (With apologies to Nancy Rockwell)

Jesus encounters Bartimeaus in the midst of noise. If we close our eyes and imagine the scene on the road we may imagine Jesus is moving along in the company of some or all of his disciples. They are walking along a busy road on the outskirts of town, a place where you would typically encounter beggars who were seeking support. Not much good sitting on a back road. No traffic. There would have been  any number of beggars on the road into town – the blind, the crippled, lepers, the sick and more.

 

Jesus would have attracted those who were seeking miracles, others watching out for anything sensational and newsworthy, and others wanting to catch him out. It would have been place full of the hustle and bustle of celebrity and the chaos of ordinary folk seeking extraordinary treatment. In the midst of this we encounter the power of stillness.

 

Bartimeaus is sitting still on the side of the road. His blindness makes it almost impossible for him to move without help. To move anywhere requires another to make it possible. After being escorted to his place by the side of the road, he sits. He hears the noise and attempts to sift out the message, the story the sounds tell him about what is happening on the road. Only then does he call out and not before. He calls out of his stillness and silence. It is this place of repose that informs and allows him to encounter with what is going on. He is not distracted by the noise, but is able to discern what is occurring in the noise and make contact with Jesus.

 

Jesus is surrounded by the noise. It is everywhere, people clamouring for his attention and response. But Jesus is so practised in silence and stillness, he takes this with him into every encounter. The Gospels are replete with stories of Jesus retreating into silence, stillness and isolation. He encourages his disciples again and again to follow his example. Silence and stillness are the central spiritual practices of Jesus, and because they are, they define his life in engagement with others.

 

Here he discerns the authentic voice amongst many and ‘stands still’. He does not move toward action, he doesn’t rush to see how he can solve this persons problem, he stands still. In the stillness he calls to the authentic voice who responds and makes his way to Jesus. Jesus avoids the tendency to rush in where angels fear to tread. He stands still, waits, affirms, calls and is responded to. Bartimeaus has so honed his awareness through the many years of sitting and listen that he too can hear the authentic response. They meet and Bartimeaus finds his need met.

 

This afternoon we have Shush Church and on November 7^th we have a silent retreat. I would suppose that these can be seen as challenging activities for those who have not had previous experience of such and wonder what is expected of me if I come along and take part?

 

Silence and stillness are to be practiced with out expectation. Mostly nothing happens. Sometimes something happens. And then nothing happens. It is a place of training where we simply sit with ourselves, being aware of what is or is not happening within us without trying to make something happen with in us. It is about coming into peace with ourselves, recognising the noise that is there and sitting with it so as to hear the authentic voice and response.

 

Silence and stillness is scary because we are in fact letting go of distractions and excuses and becoming open to what is really happening within us. Distractions like loneliness, anger, busyness, gossip, others and their opinions, children and grandchildren disappear as we begin to be comfortable to be with ourselves.

 

It is and does take practice before it becomes our practice. Jesus knew the power of the Psalmist’s plea, “Be still and know I am God” and the Zen koan of  “Be still, be very, very still, and above all else do not wobble”

 

I would encourage each of you to attend this afternoon or to join us at the next silent retreat. They are good places to start. Amen. 

The Human Jesus

First century theology was less sophisticated than that we have inherited through our creeds and traditions. The ideas and dogma we now take for granted either did not exist or did so in a much more primitive manner.

 

Marks gospel for example has no birth or resurrection story in it’s original form. Writers such as the one who penned the Letter to the Hebrews knew nothing of the trinity, penal substitution or of Jesus being without flaws. Their theology was a reflection of their Jewish traditions and of their personal experience, and much of it would fail to pass muster in various schools of theology today.

 

Yet it speaks clearly to us of a simplicity of thought and practice we have long let go past. Complicating the simple seems to give it an aura of truth and credibility – try reading some academic papers before you go to bed tonight and I think you will see what I mean.

 

Both Mark and the writer of the Hebrews understand Jesus and his message in simple terms. Here was a man for whom the love of humanity stood over and above love for self or some particular individual. He looked with compassion on the state of people in the world around him, not because he was divine and above them, but because he was human and one of them.

 

Jesus found himself in the place of the priest, acting on behalf of other because he was aware of his own humanity. The writer to the Hebrews highlights this by saying he was chosen to be God’s represent not because he sought that position, put up his hand or filed an application for the role and attached his cv. He was chosen because of his lived and embraced humanity.

 

He writes: “Every high priest chosen from among mortals is put in charge of things pertaining to God on their behalf, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. ²He is able to deal gently with the ignorant and wayward, since he himself is subject to weakness; ³and because of this he must offer sacrifice for his own sins as well as for those of the people. ⁴And one does not presume to take this honour, but takes it only when called by God, just as Aaron was. ⁵So also Christ did not glorify himself in becoming a high priest, but was appointed by the one who said to him, “You are my Son, today I have begotten you” (Hebrews 5:1-10)

 

This is far from the idea of Christ being predestined to be sinless and therefore the only one who could fulfil God’s economy in the world. He was chosen because he made no attempt to avoid his humanity or to pretend to be better than he was. He was human and understood the struggles all humanity were, and are, muddling through.

 

Jesus muddled through by ‘prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to the one who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission.’ He waited on the hesed, the everlasting compassion of God, and remained faithful to humanity in all he did.

The constant theme of Mark’s gospel is one of Jesus challenging those who put themselves above humanity and calling them to become subservient to the will of God for all people. His was a life lived for others, despite, in the eyes of the first century writers, just being human himself.

In Mark’s Gospel (Mark 10:35 - 45) he became a ransom for humanity, not because of a sacrifice of blood, but because of his faithfulness to the cause of humanity, the reign of God in the world. This is not about claiming the blood of Jesus as the means to wipe away my personal sin. It is to claim the obedience of Jesus to sacrifice himself so that others may have the capacity to live for the kingdom of God despite the suffering and pain that comes with that.

‘Although he was a Son, he learned obedience through what he suffered; ⁹and having been made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him,..’

And many people have continued to obey ever since, even many who would not claim him for their own. Anyone one who gives up the sense of entitlement to possess Jesus, life, position, power, and lives in solidarity with the greater mass of humanity, shares in that quality of life called eternal salvation.

It is interesting that the writer of the Hebrews asserts he learnt obedience through suffering and therefore can speak on our behalf to God. William Loader, writes: "This is first century theology finding its way of asserting that right next to God there is a voice urging compassion for those hard up against it. Later generations will develop trinitarian doctrine and find ways of asserting this primitive idea in more integrated ways, speaking of solidarity as something which God does not need to be told about but which is central to God's being."

James and John epitomise the desire to rise up. Jesus in both Mark and Hebrews epitomises the need to grow down. Growing down is growing into the lives and experiences of others, of becoming one with those who have had to accept their place in the world and the rawness of their humanity.  Refugees, children in detention, victims of addiction, those suffering mental illness and more call not for the transcendent but the immanent, a human being who can say “all shall be well’ if we remain in unity with each other.

James and John sought to rise above unity into an individual play for divinity. They wanted the special place of power, to have the ear of Jesus in glory, able to influence and bask in the reflected glory of JesustheChrist. Jesus did not seek that position. In Hebrews and Mark it is clear they understood him as an exemplary man, different in his humanity than any others they had seen. It was only later that this was confirmed as divine. Here he is simply the very best a man, a human, could be. He was given the ear of God as a result of learning wisdom and compassion though suffering in the same way as the rest of humanity.

There is something valuable here for us to grasp, something we often fail to understand. You do not need to aspire to be somebody other than yourself, your lived humanity is sufficient. Each time you work at the pantry or op shop, help out the grandmothers stall, march for refugees rights, visit your neighbour, cook a casserole for another, make a phone call to someone who is lonely, drive someone to and from church or just welcome each other at church you are living out your humanity in just the way Jesus did. These are acts that cost you something, that reflect your understanding of the important things of life learnt through your own suffering. As my daughter would say, ‘It’s not rocket science Dad”.

The writer of Hebrews brings us back to basics, it is the human that matters, and the human that matters most is the one who has learnt though suffering how to be obedient to the needs of the kingdom of God in those around them.