Seeing Differently

Mathew 3

Grand Canyon by David Hockney

Today we meet the hermit from the bush. The bloke who ignores the social requirements for appropriate dress and, by the smell of him, for the use of water for something other than drinking, a man who is on the outside looking in, John The Baptist, so named after the rite he made his own.  It is interesting he wasn’t called John Camel Hair or John Who Needs A Bath or John the Vegan, but he wasn’t. He is John the Baptist.

 

John is also remembered for his aversion to sin. His baptism was predicated on repentance, the recognition of sin by an individual who then takes steps to repent of that sin through the cleansing and renewing act of baptism. Now sin got a bad name when I was growing up. It seemed to include everything that was enjoyable – eating too many lollies, drinking too much soft drink, getting your sibling into trouble, dipping the pigtails of the girl who sat in front of you in the inkwell and many more mortal acts. The last may very well have been mortal if she could run faster than you at recess!

 

Sin has been trivialised to many normal and ordinary acts of being human and it seems it is still in that place. Yet John the Baptist’s idea of sin was much expanded on that of our parents, nuns and the morality police of our youth. John refers to the systemic sins maintaining the status quo, the sins of entitlement due to right acting, of doing what was expected of you and reaping the rewards. It was the sin of identifying clearly the status of each individual, their rights and their responsibilities. It was ensuring those born into privilege maintained that privilege. It is about exclusion of others from the benefits you have based on class, skin colour, health or otherwise, gender and age.

 

²“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” In other words, the possibility of instituting the promised kingdom does not belong out there, to others or to the future. It belongs here, in you and now. It is calling you and I to make it real – to put love into action and respond to the covenant requirements of kindness – respect, justice and compassion. It is not a task of people like John or even those whom he spoke harshly about; the first is just one man and the latter group won’t change until they have no choice. It is up to you to ensure they have no choice by you own love in action for yourself, others and the world.

 

John wasn’t interested in who stole the cookie from the cookie jar, but who stole the cookie jar and who allowed the cookie jar to remain stolen. He was particularly tough on those in privileged positions and saved his strongest words for them, but he didn’t let the ordinary folk off the hook either. John’s expectation was that is if you recognised your complicity in this corporate sin, then you needed to show evidence of a change of heart, mind and action. He says: “⁸Bear fruit worthy of repentance.”

 

Bearing fruit can be as little as sharing the troubles of those who live next door, advocating for a fairer share of society’s wealth for all, ensuring those who on the outside get to come in side. There is no prescription for bearing fruit and there is no particular type of fruit – love, justice, compassion, kindness, advocacy, giving and more – all work if that is what the situation needs.

 

Ben Witherington suggests: "Repentance, or metanoia, to use the Greek word, refers to far more than a simply being or saying one is sorry for past sins, far more than mere regret or remorse for such sins. It refers to a turning away from the past way of life and the inauguration of a new one, in this case initialised by an act of baptism."

 

And this isn’t easy. Those who describe the Christian life as easy and a cop out haven’t tried to live it! It is incredibly difficult to live in such away that each day is a further step toward wholeness and another from stuff we have held onto and has held onto us. It is being prepared to shed our previous static identity and accept the uncertainty of unfinished business.

 

Crabs and other crustaceans do not grow in a linear fashion because of their hard outer shell. Up to 20 times in its lifetime a crab moults, in effect moves out of the old shell and grows a new one. This happens 6 times in the first year. It is a difficult and excruciating time, not to say a vulnerable onee. If your shell is your protection, wandering naked around the sea floor is not a comfortable place to be. Yet it must happen if it is to grow into maturity.

 

Repentance requires we shed our tough and hard formed identities both as a society and as individuals. What served us well in another time and place no longer does. What we have come to accept as the way things are, no longer is appropriate and we have to change structures, ideas, ideologies and religions.

 

John the Baptist calls that the coming near of the kingdom of God – the ever evolving recognition of a new way of seeing. David Hockney, the wonderful English artist, paints what he sees but what he sees in isn’t always what is physically there. He suggests we see two ways – physically and psychologically; physically by recognising objects, like a camera. Seeing psychologically is different. If we look at a scene we will focus on one particular element that takes our eye in that scene. Because we do, that tree, face, animal, colour becomes clearer and larger in our view and seems to be larger and more significant than the rest of the scene. There are a whole lot of reasons why this happens but we rarely if ever see what is there. We see what we see.

 

In art this works well, in community and individual life here is a glitch to be aware of. What we think is the case may not be so because we are seeing, hearing, engaging with it as we see the world – focusing on what is important to or has a specific meaning or interest to us. We may miss what is really happening. We are not called to see physically or one dimensionally as a camera but we are to be aware of the psychological pre-determinants affecting our response to the world.

 

John the Baptist calls us to confront society and ourselves to engage in the very difficult process of moulting, like the crab, and to recalibrate our seeing. In this way we begin to recalibrate the world by helping to break it out of its restrictive shell and welcome in relational wholeness empowered by love - the kingdom of God.

 

Oh and this won’t get easier when Jesus enters the picture. It gets harder, because he increases the requirements and calls more from us. “¹¹He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” Seeing through the eyes of Jesus changes everything.

 

John’s repentance is the ongoing reassessment of self and society required of all who profess faith. It requires action and outcomes and can’t be avoided. It is our vocation. How will you see differently when you leave here this morning?

Avoiding Rhinoceritis

Mark 6:14-29

 

 

In the play Rhinoceros, Eugene Ionesco, reflects a view that holds the universe to be meaningless, irrational, and absurd. The play has a series of interesting events. A rhinoceros suddenly appears in a small French town, trampling through the peaceful streets. Soon a giant wave of rhinoceroses suddenly appear; a transformation of human beings into animals. The play centers on one person who at first refuses to succumb to the crowd, but then begins to reason his way to falling into line. Berenger, the last man, remains. Ionesco leaves Berenger untransformed at the end of the play. This play is about the human condition of self delusion and absorption into the dominant culture.

 

The hero survives the capitulation of all to what Merton called 'rhinoceritis' – the tendency to run with the mob. He retained his humanity, a very flawed and less than perfect condition while the thinkers, the trendsetters and the unthinking all became rhinoceroses.

 

The point of the play is what makes a person a person, is it fitting in our standing out, being relevant or irrelevant, being perfect or imperfect or simply being yourself at the edges of society?

 

In the Gospel today we have three men who are known by the choices they made:

 

1 despot, 2 prophets and 2 deaths, one completed on which Mark reflects, one not yet but imminent, to which Mark points to, one that is always just off stage waiting to make it’s entrance.

 

Here Mark points to the fate of those who wish to live an authentic Christ life in the midst of the prevailing culture. And it’s not one of success and fulfilment, of living at the high end of town. It is one of rejection, persecution and abandonment. It is no wonder very few people are willing to embrace the life of the complete human as exemplified by Christ.

 

In a conversation over an end of year celebration, the government minister present why he became a politician. He answered that he did so because of the good he could do for the local community. He stopped, looked up and asked, “Do you want to know the real reason?’ We all said yes. He answered, “For the power, it’s why all politicians are in this game. Any one who say otherwise are lying.” Now, I am sure there will be someone who will argue with this, but it does pose some interesting questions for those of us who have to vote for them!

 

The three men in our reading are a comment on this observation. Herod lives by the art of expediency and power. Both are intertwined and interconnected. His grip on power is served by his ability to read the lie of the land and to make decisions that will reinforce his position. His first marriage, his second marriage, his feasts and pronouncements are built on expediency and power. He is a political animal and is pragmatic about having to chop off John’s head. To do otherwise would have meant he lost the respect of those who were at his table, other men driven by power and expediency. He has become a rhinoceros.

 

Unlike Herod, John is prophetic –he tells it as it is. Even when he is standing in the most confrontational space – in front of Herod – he tells it as God sees it. Why could he have not been so direct, perhaps being more tactful and less inflammatory with his criticism of Herod? Couldn’t he have made the same point and kept his head? It never entered his head. It is what is and John was not going to sidestep the truth just to win favour with the despot.

 

Jesus sides with John, and becomes a prophetic spiritual leader who avoids the expedient, despite seeing what happened to John. John was Jesus’ mentor and he set the pattern for prophetic living for the younger man to follow. Jesus would have also been aware of Elijah, Elias and others who suffered for speaking the truth into a society at odds with God. Yet there is no softening of the message, no avoiding the conflict, no attempt to barter and negotiate a win-win for all. His mission was God’s mission and God’s mission was the truth. It is what it is, and Jesus was not going to deviate to negotiate with a culture that had abandoned God.

 

We have in this story the juxtaposition of the prophet and the person who has succumbed to rhinoceritis.

A prophet, according to Dan Horan, is ‘someone whose life is so open to God’s Spirit that she or he cannot help but begin to see the world in a new way’…’to see the world as God sees it, prophets sees the world as it really is.’

 

Prophets are not about telling the future seeing reality as it truly is. The Greek word propheteia connotes the idea to speak forth, to speak into, and it happens when we are one with God, when word and sacrament imbue our lives. Here we contemplate what we read and hear in the scriptures and what we experience in the sacraments. When we so inwardly digest and align ourselves with the way, the truth, the life, we are in a position to be a prophet.

 

Prophets are outsiders. They live in that marginal space from which a different perspective is gained because that marginal space does not align with nor is subsumed into the predominant power system or structure of a given society, institution or place. Prophets become a nuisance to those who have vested interest in the maintenance of power or control. (Horan)

 

Prophets are not expedient people. They don’t play politics. They are not interested in policy, quoted positions or white papers. It is not about legislation or a win-win. It is simply about the way it is. Peter Woods suggests that "Prophetic witness and personal or political expediency do not have a good history of co-existence."

 

Prophets are mirror bearers. They hold up a mirror to the world, situation, or person and ensure it is seen for what it is.  The emperor has no clothes. The mirror provides the way into seeing how God sees things, not as we imagine we see them.

 

Prophets pay the price for seeing as God does. Emerson Powery, suggests "However one understands the relationship between John and Jesus, one thing is certain: agents of God who challenge those in power usually suffer significant consequences."

 

Mark’s Story:

Mark suggests, by placing the story here the disciples via their relationship with Jesus:

·      Are prophetic. It is not a choice. That has already been made. It is now a vocation to be lived.

·      Are to avoid the political and the expedient. They are not to get caught up in the culture and to compromise or negotiate.

·      Are to tell it like it is and if people ignore them to simply shake the dust off their shoes and move on.

 

How does that impact upon us:

·      Like the disciples, we are called to be prophets because we are one with Jesus through his death and resurrection. It is an imperative, not an option.

·      To fulfil our calling we are to develop a unity with God through word and sacrament, contemplation and prayer. Here we will let go of ideas, positions, ideologies and begin to become one with God. It happens slowly and will begin to find ourselves stepping further into the margins as we let go of the expectations of our culture and society.

·      To fulfil our calling we are to simply live out of that unity. We are to live our lives and by doing so our lives will speak forth God’s seeing.

 

In conclusion:

This is not a safe and happiness inducing vocation – we will be outsiders, marginalised for our vocation. We will lose our jobs, be bullied and ostracised, be over looked and sidelined. This is not about ideology but about seeing the world as God does. We are to seek to live on the margins for change only ever comes from the edges, rarely from the centre.

 

As an individual and as a congregation we are to live prophetically, avoiding the raging rhinoceritis all around us and speak into the world through our thoughts, words and actions. A tough job, but we have to be it.