Reconciliation Sunday - Words That Heal

Luke 7:1-10 

Today is reconciliation Sunday, a day set aside to contemplate the history of our country, in particular, the history of the relationship between the sovereign owners of this land and those who came here by sea.

This is a contested history, one of much rhetoric, deceit, dishonesty and denial on all sides yet it is imperative we deal with it and deal with it without delay. Some think, ‘It happened 200 years ago, move on’; others think, ‘This land was uninhabited and no one was here’ the doctrine of Terra Nullius; others still think ‘to the victors the spoils’. 

To the indigenous nations inhabiting the land then and now, this was and still remains theirs and those who came here are invaders who have yet to recognise their rights and, more importantly their existence. The English clash with the indigenous people was rife with massacres, annihilation and ongoing policies to rid the land of black people. The issue then and now was about colour and the supremacy of white over black in terms of anthropology.

A couple of months ago I went back to Mudgee and took the funeral of my mother’s best friend. After the service, outside, a man came up to me and asked, ‘Your Blackfella’s young bloke, aren’t you? Your Young Blackfella!” Now this man had known me since I was born and nowhere in the conversation that followed was I referred to by name. Here I am, dressed in Anglican priests robes undertaking English ritual, and I was still Young Blackfella with no name.

The issue of reconciliation, no matter how we dress it up, is far from being resolved. The issue of colour remains central to our discussion. Growing up I understood white was equal to good, and black to bad. My father, part indigenous himself, referred to a good bloke as a “White man”. “He’s the whitest bloke I know”.

In today's gospel are two statements that may be helpful to us. I have grouped them together as one to help understand the importance of acknowledging the situation and bringing about healing and hope for all:

7“But only speak the word, and let my servant be healed.”

“10When those who had been sent returned to the house, they found the slave in good health.”

What is the word or words we must speak so God’s servant, the people of this country may be healed?

They include:

• The word of identity. Recognising, finally, that Australia was not an empty country and accepting that people existed here before the English came. The doctrine of Terra Nullius, the empty land, by definition denies the existence of the original people and therefore denies them identity as human beings. They have no name and will always remain Blackfella. 

• The word of equality. Once we accept there are and were people here who had and have sovereignty over the land with sophisticated government and land ownership structures, then they must be treated as equals, giving them the respect of being able to govern themselves and setting about coming to a treaty with them on equal terms.

• The word of reparation. Once we have recognised them and granted them respect of equality, we then must set about providing reparation, not welfare, to the original owners. Reparation means providing adequate compensation for another’s loss, loss of land, country, identity, culture and ritual. Money is but a part of this process, an important part and if a small percentage of all land taxes and rates collected were made available to the traditional owners, much of the so called aboriginal issues could be resolved.

The result of these three little words? 

Three more:

• Health. People who are recognised, respected, treated as equals and compensated find a path to physical, psychological and material well-being. We know that to be the case for all those affected by the child abuse scandal. It is no different in this case.

• Wholeness. When you live in a foreign land under another’s customs and without the possibility of returning you are a fragmented, pulled apart, shattered. The Israelites knew that experience in Babylon and Egypt, as do the Palestinians do today. Wholeness is about returning to what gives you meaning and identity and the three words begin the process to such a state.

• Reconciliation. Reconciling the split within is the outcome of these words. The split within the individual, the original owners and within those who have come here and feel the disconnect with the Australian story. Reconciliation is not about black or white. It is about you and I coming home to, and being comfortable with the truth, and being able to live out of such truth in a life giving way for all.

These are the words of hard work, dialogue and deep communion with another this country has avoided and continues to do so. The referendum of 1967, the Rudd apology and now the constitutional recognition are western solutions to an issue to which there are no IKEA DIY solutions. A culture 50,000 years old is not yet ready to resolve the difficulties on another's terms.

Vincent Lingari said, during the Wave Hill walk off, 'we know how to wait.’ They waited 8 years. It is a lesson western culture needs to learn. 

There will indeed be a moment in time when aboriginal people will welcome the newcomers into their country and they will do so without the need of voting rights, apologies or constitutional recognition. 

It will happen when we take the time to hear the words we need to say and say them. 

It will happen when we sit down and learn to wait with each other to hear these words together.

It will happen when, like the centurion and Jesus, we connect at the deepest place of respect, trust and openness, what Merton calls communion.

May we begin this waiting together today. 

Pentecost and the Pebble

Acts 2:1-21 & John 14:8-27

Today is Pentecost Sunday the day, Ryusho Jeffus suggests, "Like a pebble dropped into a quiet lake, the Spirit created a ring in the water." Pentecost, like other major festivals, are not just days on a religious calendar or festivals that signify one off events, events that have an historical date and place but are a part of the fabric of faith. They are then, now and future events directly connected to our everyday existence, as real and experiential now as they were by those who witnessed the very first event.

Pentecost is no benign event. Peter’s speech makes it very clear, the coming of the spirit is a powerful interruption to the way things are. It is disturbing, it will disturb us and the world we live in. We will not be the same. It comes not quarantine us from the dangers abounding all around us, but to empower us to remain faithful in the midst of such turmoil.

The truth about Pentecost is very simple, both for the writer of Acts and John, the coming of the spirit of Jesus into the life of the world is not about power for powers sake, knowledge for knowledge sake or presence for comforts sake.

Rick Morley suggests that “At the very least our spiritual lives are meant to be a pilgrimage, where the dangerous place is the place that gets too comfortable: stagnant." For the disciples who are need reassurance all would be well in both stories, there is no such thing if we require it to be experienced in power to have our way, knowledge to control all things or an unending comfort that protects us from the vagaries of life. It simply won’t happen.

Pentecost is the pebble in the world, the reverberating presence of the spirit stirring up life and engaging with the chaos we live amongst. The reverberating presence is a power for unity’s sake, a wisdom for compassion’s sake and a presence for struggle’s sake. The spirit empowers us to life our life to the full, reminding us our lives matter, not for what they give us as individual people but our lives matter to others and for the possibility of life for them. We do not live in isolation and Pentecost empowers us to live for others. Thomas Merton reminds us that “We do not find the meaning of life by ourselves alone - we find it with another.”

Pentecost reminds us love, or compassion, the deep care for self and another, is vital if we are to live full and vibrant lives. This is not about me first violence, I grab all for myself at your cost, I win you lose. This is truly about living a life empowering others to win, to achieve a fulfilled life, a life as full as ours.  Thomas Merton writes: “Our job is to love others without stopping to inquire whether or not they are worthy. That is not our business and, in fact, it is nobody's business. What we are asked to do is to love, and this love itself will render both ourselves and our neighbours worthy.”

Pentecost is available to us in the midst of the struggles we encounter as we work to help others gain life, as struggle to maintain a liveable world, and as we move forward together in a world that so often feels like it is falling apart. Pentecost is not a fair-weather experience. It is an experience that holds up in the roughest weather. When we feel the most powerless and out of control we are to remember we hold within us the oneness of God n the form of the spirit of Christ. We are not alone and never can be if we are directed toward the love and compassion of God in the world. People often ask me how to be sure they are doing the will of God. The answer is simple, do the loving, compassionate act, especially the costly act, the act that leaves you changed, broken and renewed.

Merton’s signature prayer speaks for us clearly on this Pentecost Sunday:

“My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think that I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road though I may know nothing about it. Therefore will I trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.”

Today we come for a baptism. What a great day for a baptism.  We will remember the vows we make and the hopes we have.  We will make a confession of faith and confession of the kind of faith we hope this young person will, at some point in their life embrace faith for themselves, live out this their feast day. May the fire of Pentecost illuminate theirs and our lives land the wind of Pentecost blow freely through our living. Amen.

Unity v's Conformity

John 17:20-26

Growing up in the country there we several things one had to do to be considered a part of society; play football (whatever brand that was dominate locally), play cricket (or tennis), drive a car, drink, have a girl/boyfriend (or at least say you were in a relationship) and get married before you were 25! There were others but these were the primary ways people could use to see whether you conformed or not, whether you were fitting in or not. Fitting in was all that mattered.

 

So you did some or all these things even though you hated sport or were not good at it, hid your love of the arts or books or preferred lemonade to beer! You simply had to conform, for conforming preserved the family’s esteem in the community so they too conformed as a good family raising “good” children who always fitted in. Some of us did, others didn’t, some of us were black sheep and others simply wore white coats for the occasion!

 

Today’s gospel reading is countercultural for modern society. Jesus challenges the concept of belonging and being with the idea that he and God are one and we are or can be one with Jesus and God. Oneness challenges the modern idea of the autonomous self and conformity to societies conventions on the one hand and oneness or unity with God on the other.

 

Jesus completely ignores the individual as we know it – and directs his remarks to the communal – unity in community. His comments could be interpreted as a direction to conform to the will of God, to act without will or mind, simply surrendering self to the dictates of tradition and interpreted scripture, law and rules. 

 

Conformity is different to unity.

 

We have all conformed, fitted into our surroundings, become a part of a group or a pervading attitude just so we get along. Children at school have to work hard at conforming to join a social group, be a part of the in crowd, to be accepted. Teenagers appropriate behaviours, fashions, ideas, music styles and more to fit in with friends, classmates, peers. Somewhere out there are photographs of your Vicar with long hair and bizarre outfits. I hope they stay hidden!

 

Adults are not immune. We accept certain ideas and behaviours from ourselves and others as being ok, to do otherwise would mean we stand out, are ostracised and, even, persecuted.  We do this politically allowing practices and ideologies to continue to dominate even when we know they are immoral, inappropriate, illegal.

 

Psychologist Hossna Sadat defines social conformity “as a phenomenon that occurs when an individual’s values, beliefs, behaviours, and attitude are influenced by either one person (minority influence), or by a group of people (majority influence) who establish norms. During conformity one changes the way they behave in response to social pressures. We have all encountered social conformity in life, whether it has been consciously or unconsciously, by accepting the dominant culture’s expectation of us. What people say and how they behave are vastly influenced by others.”

 

Conformity is not always a negative, but it is when it leads to a turned blind eye and the failure to engage with the negativity loose in the world. If we conform just to avoid diversity and difference then we find ourselves giving way to power and control, allowing those with the power and control to avoid confrontation, change and reconciliation.

 

Unity, on the other hand, speaks of integration, oneness and can, and usually does exist without conformity. Diversity is not the enemy of unity. Diversity is adds the light and shade to oneness that is missing from conformity. Integration does not mean an absence of difference; it stands for the ties binding diversity together.

 

Duane Olson suggests, "Given the widespread recent interpretation of this passage, it is necessary to state at the outset that the unity of which Jesus speaks here is not organizational unity." This is not orthodoxy or the dumbing down of hard won positions just to keep the peace. That’s conformity. Here we are speaking of essential unity, the unity found in relationship with the transcendent and lived out in relationship with others.

 

The Trinity is the pinnacle of unity in diversity. Within the Trinity we understand each as having diverse roles and responsibilities yet a unity of purpose, the reason for each to be is the same, how they fulfil that reason is dependent upon who they are. They are not diminished but enhanced by difference.

 

Jesus looks at the community who have grown around him, conscious of the incredible diversity of personalities, ideologies and passions and calls for unity, for a oneness in purpose which draws each together as a unified body of believers. It is interesting he doesn’t seek conformity without diversity. He disputes ritual laws, ideologies that exclude and people who seek power for powers sake, yet he tolerates within his community people who are zealots, conservatives, power-seekers and more. A quick read of the Gospels tells us that Jesus draws together diversity and builds unity not conformity.

 

Jesus holds out the possibility of unity with God, not as exceptional, but as normative. Just as he and God are different in their roles they are one in their being. We can be too.

 

What is this being we share, unifying us and making us one? Love in its expanded form of unfailing compassion, the unfailing faithfulness of God to humanity. Our oneness is found in our desire to live out such a love in the world for the world and for the one who gives this capacity.

 

We may differ on how we treat refugees, homeless, exploited, oppressed and victims of all kinds of persecution, yet we are to remain faithful to be the compassion of God loose in the world. We are not expected to conform to a certain line of thought of action but we are expected to allow the overriding demands of compassionate faithfulness to keeps us together.

 

We are one because of whose we are and what we hold in common, our experience of the faithfulness of God. We are to live out our unity in diversity in defiance of the pressure to conform to the faithless response of the world. Whatever our position maybe it finds its rationale in the compassionate love of God. We may express it in different ways but that is our cornerstone uniting us. 

Peace is Not About You!

On Wednesday we had a new person at our service. A local, he had come in for coffee last week and, afterwards, came into the church. He explained that as he did he was aware of this church as a place of peace and he decided to return to worship here.  He has other commitments on Sunday, caring for a sick friend, so Wednesday will be his time of worship.

  

In my time here I have welcomed many tradesmen, visitors and passers thru who have all said the same thing. This is a church of peace and warmth, of welcome and openness, of inclusivity and belonging. A recent visitor wrote to a friend, “This is truly an inclusive community, a community of the future. I will return. “ We also know that this not a perfect place and we are not a perfect people, we still have our disagreements, our history in relationships, our mistakes and errors, but it is interesting to note that our deep sense of love for God and for others shines over and above all of that.

 

It is more important to be known in such a way than for large numbers, modern worship or many social justice programs. It is more important for people to experience the peace of God than to be wowed by personalities, talents or power. The Christian story is one of peace, of being at peace, of allowing the peace of the one who came to live out God’s life in humanity to be visible, palpable and recognisable in the way we live and have our being.

 

Jesus was fully aware the disciples were about to be plunged into the excruciating experience of loss and grief, failure and disappointment and hopelessness and despair. His leaving them via the brutality of the cross would be almost too much for them to bear and no amount of preparation or discussion would make it bearable.

 

Somehow they had to understand that they possessed in their inner selves the capacity to move, go on, feel hurt and move. The despair of great grief often leaves us incapacitated, we feel as if everything has stopped, all has ceased to move, even ourselves. We are lost in a dark cloud and it doesn’t matter how much we try and move, to get out from under, we find ourselves stuck.

 

Jesus’ words were designed to remind them they already had with in them the necessary resources to move. The word peace does not refer to a place of no disruption or chaos, it isn’t about a fairy tale happily ever after ending or similar Hollywood misrepresentations of life. Peace is about an inner confidence that all will be well, indeed all is well, and all is well with life. Not that it is comfortable, enjoyable, happiness and light but it is simply ok to be in the midst of this place which makes us fearful, anxious, nervous and attentive, fully attentive to what is around.

 

Brian Stoffregen comments, "Whenever I see the word "peace" (eirene), I think that it needs to be interpreted first in a communal aspect -- the way people get along with one another, rather than in an individual sense of inner tranquillity. However, the inner sense might be implied in this verse which goes on with the command, "Do not let your hearts be troubled." So it may have a sense of the inner feelings (of the community) in this verse."

 

In a consumer world of individual entitlement, this understanding of peace as a communal experience is out of step with the conventional wisdom that you only find peace when all your individual inner needs are met. It is all about me. Yet we know that is not the case. Recent high profile ‘meltdowns’ by people who, for many reasons, have lost what gives them purpose and peace highlights the fragility of individuality and entitlement. We live conventional lives, lives attached to societies expectations of happiness and peace, and these conventions, rules, roles and models fail us especially when they are no longer relevant, when we have lost our position, power, relationships and roles by which we have maintained our own inner peace.

 

As a western society we have turned to meditation, mindfulness and contemplation as a tool to help us find our individual centre, but these too are of little assistance if they remain only as an individual entitlement.  Meditation has, throughout both its eastern and western history, been communal. It has been about attaining a peace in line with the greater community of creation and all created creatures. While it may be practiced alone it is never alone. On my i-pad is an app called Insight Timer. I use it when I meditate on my own because it tells me how many other people are meditating with me at the same time all around the world. It reminds me that I am part of a large community and my peace is communal.

 

The inner feelings of the community seem to be the purpose of Jesus words. Families, communities and societies come unstuck when the inner peace of such collapses, when people speak into them panic, anxiety, fear and hopelessness, societies begin to fray and fall apart. Jesus is mindful the disciples are about to enter such a place. Will the community, which grew up around him survive such a tumult? He reminds them they have, at their centre, personally and communally, a sense of who they are and whom they belong to. In our modern world, Jesus' community is challenged and runs the risk of capitulating to the prevailing conventional chaos unless we remain inwardly aware of the connections, the peace, which binds us.

 

A group of remote community artists visited New York to exhibit their artwork at a prominent art gallery. After a hectic week in the Big Apple, they returned to their remote community in central Australia. One stepped out of the car and took a deep breath, saying, ‘I feel sorry for the people of New York, they have nothing.’ As she looked around arms outstretched, “Out here, we have everything.”

 

Kind of says it all really.