Holy Innocents

There is a place down south called Fairbridge Farm.  It is in the outskirts of Pinjarra and was establish just 100 years ago.  

In the period from 1912 to 1982 3,500 children lived there till they were 16 or 17.  Most had come from England with their families or on their own.  This was where they spent the first years of their lives in Australia there.  In many ways it was run like an orphanage – even though some of the children would rejoin their immigrant parents in Perth as soon as they were ready.

There is a chapel in the village that was built in the 1930s.  It was dedicated by the Anglican Bishop of Bunbury as the Chapel of the Holy Innocents.

I remember being profoundly shocked by this when I first visited there only a few years ago. Over the years, some of the children from Fairbridge – as in other residential facilities for children – were betrayed by the adults looking after them and they lost their innocence in the most awful ways.  I need to say, though, that the Dedication was made years before there was any awareness of those terrible things happening to the children there.

The Dedication was a reference to one of those Texts of Terror that have been preserved for us in the Bible.  Its presence within the Birth Narrative of Matthew’s Gospel is very hard for some people to deal with.  It seems too cruel.  But we can’t help asking the question “Why does Matthew want us to remember this story?”

The slaughter of Bethlehem’s infants is a gruesome event.  Unfortunately the world we know can be just as violent.

In every place of civil strife the innocent are killed.  They are caught up in revenge and counter-revenge attacks by people who only want to inflict fear and terror on the people. 

As I was preparing for today I was intrigued to read some of the consideration of the question “Did this event really happen?”  Since it is only mentioned in the Bible, some people are cautious to say that it did.   Having said that you have to admit that it is a plausible event.  It is even consistent with the behaviour we do know of King Herod. He would stop at nothing to retain power.  He is what we would call a “nasty piece of work.”

Now it would be nice for me to say that this text is here to remind us to be kind to refugees – because Jesus was a refugee, even a boat person as portrayed in this icon on the screen here.

But this would do a disservice to the text.  It might even blind us to something very important that Matthew wants us to understand about Jesus.

This story identifies an important theme that will follow again and again in Matthew’s Gospel.  It seems that the presence of this good man Jesus – evidently even from the time of his birth – posed a threat to the powers that be.  Every force possible would be rallied against him.  This climaxed in his execution by the state at the behest of the religious powers that be.  But I think there is a more significant theme Matthew wants us to notice.

In Jesus’ day, the Jews had a few “superheroes” of their history.  These were the people who helped them define who they were or what it really meant to be Jewish.  Abraham was up there as the Father of the nation.  So was Elijah, regarded as one of the great prophets.  Of course, King David was there, too.  His story was almost unbeatable as the God-appointed King of Israel who was promised an everlasting dynasty.

But standing above all these was Moses.

Tradition held it that Moses wrote the first five books in our Bible – Genesis through Deuteronomy.  His eminence relates to his role as the Law-Giver.  He was also regarded as the only person known to have seen God face to face and lived.

This is what Matthew wants his Jewish readers to get: that this Jesus was one who would stand above even Moses in God’s scheme of things.  So Matthew relates to them events surrounding the life of Jesus that have echoes of the Moses story:

·        Herod had ordered the death of the little boys in Bethlehem.  This was just like when Pharaoh, king of Egypt, ordered the death of all newborn Jewish boys.  

·        Both Jesus and Moses escaped these slaughters because God seemed to have other plans for their future. 

·        Joseph took his wife and infant son away from danger in the dead of night.  In the same way, Moses led his people to liberty from the Egyptians under cover of darkness.

·        Joseph returned with his wife and son into the Promised Land at the time of God’s choosing.  This was just like when Moses led the people of Israel into their Promised Land at the time of God’s choosing.

There can be no doubt that Matthew wanted his readers to notice these parallels.  He doesn't want us to think that the terrible events associated with each of these parallels were initiated by God for some strange theological purpose. 

Matthew’s purpose is simple – right here in the Overture of his Gospel he wants us to now be on the lookout for all the stories that will demonstrate that Jesus is an even greater person than Moses.

You will soon see that Jesus takes what Moses has given and pushes it further:

·        The Law, as given by Moses, had become a burden, grinding ordinary people down.  They had invented all sorts of fastidious, nit-picking and exclusive rules.  Jesus challenged that with a new way.  He wanted to lift people up and say that they were no longer excluded by failure but included in God’s Kingdom by love.

·        The observance of Moses’ law had become something focussed on externals.  When Jesus came along he wanted us to go further.  Our thinking and motivation should be the basis for good living.

·        The focus of Moses law was on judgement and punishment for sinners.  Jesus came along, welcoming sinners and offering forgiveness and liberation.

·        The observance of Moses’ Law also led some to believe they could do it.  Pharisees thought they could and Jesus hated their self-righteousness.  He said none of us could do it.  The only way it was possible was by God’s grace.  That was how we would be counted as righteous and welcomed into his kingdom.

So, Matthew doesn't want us to remember this story because Jesus was saved from destruction by the miraculous interventions of the angelic visitations.  He wants us to begin thinking of Jesus as one who has come among us who is far greater that Moses.  Only Jesus will show us the sure way to find peace with God.

If this is why Matthew wants us to remember this story how do you think this should be reflected in the way we celebrate Christmas? 

You know all the tinsel and baubles we decorate the Christmas tree with.  These began as all sorts of symbols of life and fruit.  Perhaps we should start looking for the ways in which our lives show off the fruit of the Spirit.  We know they have been ripening in the lives of those walking in Jesus’ way.

I could string off a whole list of questions – but you know what this looks like. 

If you are walking in the Way of Jesus,

… if you are loving God and loving one another to the utmost of your ability,

… then you would be saying out very loud:

“Matthew!  I get it!  Jesus is greater than Moses.”

CHRISTMAS DAY - Making Room

Two thousand years ago was a long time ago, and at times we find it hard to imagine any commonality between that time and our modern day.

When we ponder the Christmas story as we have come to tell it, it is not hard to imagine the crowded inn – crowded with groups of friends and relatives, forced to travel to meet the state requirements of the Census, some of them making a party of it even if it was inconvenient.  Some people were weary and trying to sleep – whatever – and the inn was full!  There was probably lots of loud talking, maybe even dancing and singing.  And when May & Joseph arrived the inn-keeper simply stated the obvious – there was no more room.

That situation makes me think of words that are all too common in our day and age –

Do not disturb me, I’m busy!

I would like to help, but I just don’t have the time!

I can’t come to see you.  I have business to attend to!

Someone made an interesting observation about the consequences of our frequent excuses for not doing things.  They said “every time we excuse ourselves, we exclude ourselves from certain experiences.  Being pre-occupied is a great defense against anything new happening.”

When we do this we miss the coming of God.

Yet in our story the innkeeper, who really was busy and hard-pressed somehow found room.  He offered a space for Mary and Joseph – simple accommodation – and into that space came the Christ Child.

Amid all our own BUSY-ness around Christmas there is always the threat that it will overwhelm us – and we all need to confront the question – have you made room?  Well, in a sense you have – you are here to rejoice that God comes, he comes into this world and he comes to you.  We can rejoice in the mystery of the God who seeks to share in our daily lives.  We celebrate the greatest of miracles that the Word is made flesh and dwells among us.

John adds these words to that familiar phrase: “To all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave the power to become children of God.”

A long time ago there was a very wise man in Japan – Nan-in.  People would come from all over the world to seek his advice about how to live, and were constantly amazed by his wisdom and insight that was just right for each person who came to see him.

One day an American Professor came to seek some teaching from him.

As always when a guest arrived, Nan-in invited the professor in and began with the elaborate tea-ceremony.  When it came time to pour the guest’s tea, Nan-in poured and when the bowl was full he kept on pouring making it overflow onto the lacquered tray. 

He kept on pouring until the professor could no longer restrain himself.  He said to the host “Stop!  It is overfull and no more will go in!”

At this the host put the tea put down gently and looked the professor squarely in the eye and said:  “You are like this cup.  You are full of ideas and speculations.  How can I pour more in for you unless you empty your cup?  You need to make space to learn.”

In the same way we need to make space in our lives each day for our God who comes to us.  Poet Angelus Silesius puts it this way:

Though Christ a thousand times

in Bethlehem is born,

if he is not born in you,

you are still forlorn.

Thank you for making room to be here today and may Christ come to you in all his fullness and create in you a new heart to love as God is love.  AMEN.

CHRISTMAS EVE - A New Kind of Human Race is Born

One of the carols people like to sing, especially at the Midnight mass begins with the words:

“It came upon the midnight clear.”

My friend Bruce Prewer has a few lines inspired by this that can spark some important Christmas Eve thoughts for us:

It came upon the midnight clear

the groans and screams of a woman in labour,

the travail of a new type of human race being born,

and then the crying of the new born baby.

The birth of this baby marked a change in the nature of life on this planet.  It was a wonderful night – not without pain and suffering, but a night that brought to birth the brightest of human hopes; that this God among us would enable us to be saved from all the worst that humanity can be.

We know what the worst of humanity can be like and we know that even while we sing carols about “peace on earth and goodwill towards all humanity” many of our brothers and sisters are suffering at the hands of cruel dictatorships, or the madness of civil war and others are left with far too little food, water and medical supplies to keep themselves healthy.

Things were little different on the dark midnight long ago.  Caesar and Herod ruled Palestine with an iron fist, a generation later, Herod, Pilate and Caiaphus kept the people cowered under their rods of wealth and power. 

So what happened in the birth of this baby that changed the nature of life on our planet?  Well a short sentence in Titus 2 – verse 11 – says it all for us:

For the grace of God has appeared 

that offers salvation to all people. 

The birth of this baby – Jesus – is remarkable for two things; it shows us a God who comes among us as one of us; and the life and teachings of this Jesus calls us all into new ways of living in relationship with our God and Father. 

It is this that transforms us and the communities in which we live.  It is in this transformation that we are saved from the worst that humanity can be. 

And while we know that not everyone has experienced this transformation – how else can we explain the terrible things that still happen in our world – what we do know is that in the same way that a small amount of yeast can turn the world’s largest scone into soft white bread, so a few transformed lives have the power to transform the society in which they live.

So what is happening in this midnight hour is that a bright light is ushered into the darkness of our life on this planet – and when a light shines in the darkness, the darkness goes away; it cannot exist.

This is what we celebrate.  This is why we sing Alleluias.  May you carry this joy with you today and always.  AMEN.

ADVENT 4 - All Will be Welcome

I am not sure if any of you are fans of the operettas by Gilbert & Sullivan.  I know that as a small child my older sister was mad about them and collected recordings.  Then when I was in high school I had a leading role in a production of The Yeoman of the Guard.

Not surprisingly, my children acquired a taste for this kind of music, but they collected the videos of productions including the scandalously wicked Jon English.  And my son Ben even played in the orchestra for the G&S Society production of Mikado some years ago.

The significant feature of G&S operettas is the opening piece of music called an Overture.  In their genesis in 17^th century music, overtures were intended to introduce the overarching musical themes that will follow in the story.  Thus those who are familiar with the songs that will follow will hear hints and themes from those tunes woven together into a completely new piece of music.

I mention this as a way of preparing to look at the Gospel in a particular way.  I am sure that you are aware of the different kinds of literature that form the collection of writings we call the Bible – poetry, history, prophecy etc. – and to properly understand these we need to understand a little about the kind of writing we are considering.

Christine Simes, in the advent study we looked at this week said that Gospel texts operate at three levels.  They first and foremost express a remembered history – of things Jesus said and did. 

But they also have theology interwoven with the remembered history enabling the writer to shape the stories in such a way that they help us to understand something in particular from the way he has written the story.

The Gospel also operates by speaking to us in our time and place.  What it may say to us need not reflect the intention of the author, but it will reflect the prompting of the Holy Spirit in our lives, leading us into new insights for our life in God.

In recent years scholars have suggested that the birth narratives we have in Matthew and in Luke, which are both quite different in detail, want us to remember different things about Jesus as we read on into the Gospel.

In a way they are suggesting that these stories are a bit like a literary form of a musical overture, introducing us to the overarching themes that we will find throughout the Gospel stories that follow.

There are two major themes that I want to explore with you from Matthew’s birth narrative – one today and the other when we celebrate Epiphany on the nearly 12^th day of Christmas – the 5^th January.

In the first of our Bible Studies back a few weeks ago we looked at the Genealogy of Jesus as outlined by Matthew.  Matthew lists 42 generations from Abraham to Jesus – three groups of 14 generations marking the three significant periods of Israeli history – the Patriarchs, the Monarchy and the Exile.

As an aside, Luke lists just 37 generations from Jesus back to Adam (who was also a Son of God).  That might be fodder for another sermon.

In the study our attention was drawn to the names of four women included in the genealogy – Tamar, Rahab, Ruth and Bathsheba – around each of whom there was indeed some scandal and we know that three and possibly all four were not Jewish.  Tamar was a Canaanite woman, married to one of the son’s of Judah, Rahab was a Gentile from Jericho, Ruth was a Moabite and Bathsheba was married to a Hittite which she may also have been.

When we think of Biblical genealogies we think of them necessarily being full of Jewish people – but think about your own family tree; how many different countries are represented among your ancestors?  Mine are almost exclusively British, but they come from all the nations of The United Kingdom, and they have lived in exotic parts of the world, too.

So, if this is a theme that Matthew is going to develop throughout the rest of his Gospel, I wonder what it might mean. 

One of my favourite preachers, Bruce Prewer, uses a quintessentially Australian term for his hint at it – he says we are all mongrels and that Jesus was a kind of “Holy Mongrel!”  Because this term is bordering on crude for some of us, it feels a bit extreme to apply to Jesus – yet Matthew has gone out of his way, giving us information we would not normally get in a genealogy to put the case that Jesus had his fair share of gentile heritage alongside his Royal Jewish heritage. 

Within the Jewish system of Jesus’ day, that could have been cause for scandal, something to be hidden from view just as people once tried to hide the scandal of their ancestors coming to Australia as convicts.

The hint that Matthew is trying to give us by doing this, I think, is that Jesus will care about the outcasts because he himself was one.  Even the scandal of Mary’s premature pregnancy was enough to make him an outcast.

So what we see again and again in the rest of Matthew’s Gospel is Jesus welcoming the outcasts – eating with Tax Collectors and sinners, speaking to Samaritan women, allowing a prostitute to bless him, defending a woman caught in adultery.

These are the people that Jesus brought Good News to.  These outsiders are now in and it seems to me that often we forget this in our attempt to keep church as comfortable for ourselves as we can.  It is easy for us to be judgemental about people whose lives don’t seem to commend themselves to our good company, and even if we utter words that mean the opposite, our attitude towards them leaks out in such a way that they get it – I think that is why so many people outside the church type-cast us all as hypocrites.

In our Gospel reading today the Angel tells Joseph to name his soon to be soon Jesus “because he will save his people from their sins.”  This makes me wonder what you think it is that Jesus saves us from.  Our sins, certainly, but let’s think of sins, not just as things we do that are breaking the rules.  Sin is more than that.  Sin is about our failure to be the fully human people God created us to be.

I saw a cartoon in the week – a parody of the romantic 19^th century painting of Jesus standing at the door of our hearts knocking.  The conversation goes like this:

“Let me in.”

“Why?”

“So I can save you.”

“From what?”

“From what I am going to do to you if you don’t let me in.”

I think sometimes we operate as if that is about how it works, but I think there is much more that Jesus saves us from.

As God freed Israel from bondage in Egypt, so Jesus can free us today from the things that bind us – addictions, obsessions, feeling so inadequate and such things.

As God showed the way for the Israelites over 40 years of wandering in the wilderness, so Jesus shows us a way to live our life in God.

As God brought the people of Israel back home and out of exile, so Jesus brings us back to God in whom we live and move and have our being.

This is what the Good News of Jesus is offering anyone who feels that they are a bit of an outsider.  Jesus was an outside who came and lived among us as one of us – what better recommendation can there be for calling him your friend?

ADVENT 3 - There will be Joy in the Morning

My mother had a blood condition which meant that she would have difficulty having babies.  The first one would be all right, the second one might be tolerable, but more than that she should do her best to avoid.

After my brother and sister were born, she did her best for a couple of years but eventually it was clear that a third baby was on the way.  Mum did have difficulties but she carried her baby full term and when she was born my parents gave her just one name – JOY.  I think they felt that they had nothing else to say.

I might add that I was born 5 years after Joy and my mother did not carry me full term.

But there is something wonderfully joyful about the birth of a child.  We are enjoying reviewing last year’s TV series “Call the Midwives” – and every birth scene is just wonderful – a minor miracle, every time.

JOY is the blindingly obvious theme for all the selected scriptures we have this week and for the third week in a row the selection from Isaiah is one of those glorious hymns of the ancient prophetic writings of Israel.  The selection today, from Isaiah 35 is perhaps the superlative example of it.

The imagery of a desert place gushing with amazing signs of life and abundance is stated and restated in so many ways that when the final verses come we will understand when they are talking about:

But only the redeemed will walk there,
   and the ransomed of the Lord will return.
They will enter Zion with singing;
    everlasting joy will crown their heads.
Gladness and joy will overtake them,
    and sorrow and sighing will flee away.

This is an image of a future time when desolation and sadness will be a fleeting memory and when in many senses we could say that JOY RULES the universe.

A question immediately arises for anyone who hears these words – just a word really:

WHEN?????

When will this kind of unsurpassable JOY be our experience?

Well I think some of us resort to being satisfied with this as something that will happen in the far-off distant future, perhaps even in the life to come, but that is not being consistent with the intention of Isaiah in this song.  Bruce Prewer puts it this way:

“As far as the prophet could see, that joyful promiser called Isaiah, it was to be fulfilled here on earth, in ordinary time.”

So maybe we should look elsewhere for some indication of the answer.

Let’s scroll forward some 3 or 4 hundred years.

Life in Israel was no less politically turbulent than in the days of Isaiah.  The people were experiencing unrelenting oppression from foreign powers, and the people must have felt like they were living in a desert place – barren of all things that might bring joy.

The Romans were particularly nasty to any rabble-rousers who seemed to be bucking either the political or the religious system.  They took particular care to appoint High Priests who would keep the people under control. 

John the Baptist very quickly gained the reputation of a rabble-rouser, upsetting the religious leadership particularly as he drew people away from their influence.

So King Herod decided there was only one place for him – in prison.  John could still be visited by his followers, but he was not free to wander around whipping up the crowds.

No one knows how long John had been exercising his ministry – perhaps it doesn't matter – but he was certainly aware that his cousin Jesus had followed in his footsteps in calling people back to God, and he had heard some amazing stories about him.

So he sent his friends off to just double check:

“Are you the one who was to come, 

or should we expect someone else?”

If Jesus was the one, then it would clearly be the time for us all to be JOYFUL.  But how were they supposed to know.

Jesus’ response to the friends of John, I think, is something we all need to hear, and if we hear it rightly then we have every reason to be JOYFUL all the time.  Jesus simply said to John’s friends:

“Go back and tell John what you see and what you hear.”  In other words, “The signs are all around you if you have eyes to see and ears to hear.”

“The blind receive sight,

the lame walk,

those who have leprosy are cured,

the deaf hear,

the dead are raised

and the good news is proclaimed to the poor.”

If this word from Jesus to John and his friends is a word for us today, what does it mean for us?  What are the things we can see and hear that are signs that the reign of God is here right now, that despite the desert places in which we feel we live, there are unmistakable signs of life which call out of us joyfulness?

Shall I begin with signs of simple goodness? 

There is a world-wide army of people of good will who have dedicated their lives to creating the kinds of joyful things that Isaiah dreamed of in his song.  Bruce Prewer again makes a list of them in these words:

Joy to the people who make the bionic ear.

Joy to those who create the new generation of artificial limbs.

Joy to people who, like those in the Fred Hollows Foundation, give sight to the blind in many third-world countries.

Joy to those who cure lepers, nurse people with aids, or immunise against disease.

Joy to those who dedicate their lives to medical research.

And what about the signs we might see right here within our own community?

Joy to those whose lives are dedicated to the care of children and the elderly.

Joy to those who believe in the fundamental good of young people and work to give them ways of contributing to our community.

Joy to those who work to repair fractured communities so that people can live in harmony again.

But even more beautifully:

Joy to those everywhere who call people into faith and who believe that this Good News transforms people and the world in which we live.

Joy to those whose lives have inspired us to live by faith.

Joy to the people of faith with whom we live and work in this Community of the Holy Cross.

All these are signs that are there for us to see – if we have eyes to see and ears to hear – that the Holy One of God is indeed among us and in this Good News we can live each and every moment of the day in JOY.

ADVENT 2 - Peace & Justice are Good News

In our reading today from Isaiah we have a breathtaking view of a world where shalom, God’s peace, has overcome all the things we would describe as part of the broken mess the world lives in.

That Hebrew word ‘shalom’ is not about the mere absence of conflict (although in this world such would be a remarkable blessing) but the total, harmonious, well-being and fulfillment of societies and individuals. 

The picture Isaiah creates is one involving the whole of creation – all things living and created.  You will remember those words in the Genesis 1 Creation story that God looked at all that was made and said it was good – yet we have come to see some things as a bit less than good, especially if they happen to be able to kill us – wolves and leopards, lions and snakes.  But Isaiah says:

⁶ The wolf will live with the lamb,
    the leopard will lie down with the goat,
the calf and the lion and the yearling together;
    and a little child will lead them.
⁷ The cow will feed with the bear,
    their young will lie down together,
    and the lion will eat straw like the ox.
⁸ The infant will play near the hole of the cobra, and the young child put its hand

into the viper’s nest.
⁹ They will neither harm nor destroy
    on all my holy mountain,
for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.

Isaiah makes it clear, however, that this idyllic world will not be arrived at all by itself.  This vision of peace, reconciliation and fulfillment, will only come about through the work of a most remarkable person, a member of the family tree of Jesse and King David.

There shall grow from the stump of Jesse a new shoot, a new branch shall spring from old roots.

Isaiah puts his hope in this new shoot from the family tree of Jesse.

SOCIAL JUSTICE IN THE CHURCH

You don’t have to pry far into the histories of the Christian Church to discover a few people – here and there – who grasped that to correctly understand the Good News one had to be involved in eradicating injustice, wherever it existed.

The Prophets laid the foundation for it when they said over and over that all God’s people were called to care for the widows and the orphans, and the aliens among them – that God preferred a commitment to justice over religious observances.

Over the last 200 years much has been spoken and written about social justice – Great Christian voices like William Wilberforce, and Elizabeth Fry speaking out against slavery and the appalling conditions in Prisons.  William Booth spoke up against unsafe working conditions in factories and Caroline Chisholm here in Australia sought to protect vulnerable women in the very earliest days of European settlement in Australia.  The Rev’d John Flynn brought medical care and education to the remotest parts of Australia as a matter of justice. 

Most mainstream churches have social welfare services that seek to provide some redress for those who miss out in our society.  It is something to celebrate that so many Christians have been at the front in pursuing social justice.  Some of the victories in have been large; most have been small.  There is still a long, long way to go.

But the thing we all need to realise is that even if we could put right all the injustice people in our world are suffering right now, we would still not be looking at the kind of shalom Isaiah was talking about here.  

Isaiah looked for, and proclaimed, a new kind of human being and a new kind of justice.  It is a justice which is more than justice.  The transformation of the world would come through God’s action in and through a unique individual--- the new branch on the family tree of Jesse.

The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him—
    the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding,
    the Spirit of counsel and of power,
    the Spirit of the knowledge and of the fear of the Lord—
 and he will delight in the fear of the Lord.

And then comes the crunch:

He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes,
    or decide by what he hears with his ears;
but with righteousness he will judge the needy,
    with justice he will give decisions for the poor of the earth.

This is something that is really hard for us to do.  So often we find ourselves basing our judgements on what we see and what we hear – and very often these become a limiter to how much justice we are willing to dispense.

Isaiah wants to assure us that this shoot from the stump of Jesse will not deal with surface issues, nor use the world’s criteria.  He will introduce a deeper level of righteousness, a new kind of equity, a novel version of a fair go.  There will be a radical change.

JESUS: THE PERSON WHO DISPENSES ‘BETTER-THAN-JUSTICE’

Then Jesus came among us and we saw a truly unique person who saw into the lives of people differently and called into being something more than justice, a better justice.

He saw Simon Peter, a bumptious and fickle character, and told him he was going to be a rock of faith.

He saw an agent from the hated Roman authorities, Zacchaeus the tax collector, and with a justice beyond justice, Jesus went to dinner with him.

Jesus saw a woman at his feet, and heard her accusers declare that she had been seized in the act of adultery.  He saw a person who needed some true love, and sent her on her way as a forgiven person.

Others, even his own disciples, saw tough street children as a nuisance.  He saw them as signs of the kingdom of God, and placed his hands on them in blessing.

The Jewish nationalists around Jesus saw Roman soldiers as scum, but Jesus said if a soldier makes your carry his gear for a mile, be generous and willingly go a second mile.

This brand new way of seeing and living, this unique life style that is Jesus’ thing, is the way of grace.  Free grace is God’s version of justice. Grace is Divine generosity, abundant as a cup that is full and running over.  Jesus was not content that people treat each other with what we Aussies call “a fair go,” he offered much more than a fair go - grace that overflows with goodwill.

THE WAY WE MUST GO

As Christians, we are called to share in this “better-than-justice” mission to the world.

We are called to emulate this Divine generosity, to be agents of abundant grace; to be merciful even as our heavenly Father is merciful.  We are those whose mission is to go beyond what their eyes see and what their ears hear.

We are to be like the Father who welcomes home the prodigal son, even though that son had squandered any rights he once had.

We are to be like the Good Samaritan who puts himself at risk in order to help a wounded stranger by the roadside.

We are to be like the generous host who invites to his dinner parties, not those who can return the honour, but those who cannot repay him.

We are to be like Jesus, forgiving his enemies even when they have abused him, and nailed him to the cross.

Common justice is not sufficient.

CONCLUSION

The ‘grace of our Lord Jesus Christ” is radical.

Grace is something new.  

Grace is pure gift. 

This free, healing grace can finally lead us to the fulfillment of the brilliant vision of Isaiah:

⁶ The wolf will live with the lamb,
    the leopard will lie down with the goat,
the calf and the lion and the yearling together;
    and a little child will lead them.
⁷ The cow will feed with the bear,
    their young will lie down together,
    and the lion will eat straw like the ox.
⁸ The infant will play near the hole of the cobra, and the young child put its hand

into the viper’s nest.
⁹ They will neither harm nor destroy
    on all my holy mountain,
for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.

We are Pilgrims Living in Tents

There are two TV shows that come out of the BBC and are regularly trotted out on the ABC just before the evening news that I really enjoy watching.  One is The Time Team and the other is Restoration Home or Restoration Man both very similar to each other in working with old buildings and restoring them.

These came to my mind as I was reading what we have from the Gospel today in its comment about the huge stones with which the Temple in Jerusalem had been built with – it is estimated that some blocks weighed in excess of 50 tonnes.

But when the Time Team excavates an old Roman ruin what we generally see are walls of rocks seemingly just sitting on each other – no mortar is left holding them together, nor is there often any plaster covering over the rocks.  They just look like rocks.

NOTHING IS PERMANENT

Like all the prophets before him, Jesus was an astute reader of the social and political times he was living in, and I think his words in v.6 give us a glimpse of it.  He knew that if things continued on as they had been in Israel under the Romans, for much longer, there would be such a reaction from Rome that would result in the Temple being destroyed utterly.

The interesting thing for me about this temple is that it was not Solomon’s Temple.  That had been destroyed two centuries before.  King Herod the Great, appointed by the Romans as a vassal King in Judaea rebuilt the temple, as only such a king would, with every possible embellishment necessary to impress his Roman masters.  It was grand and it seemed permanent – but even it would not last.

Inevitably the same thing will happen to this temple, this church building.  Some of you have spent many years worshipping in this place and treasure it deeply. Some of the things within the building and in its gardens make it a very sacred space for you.

We have spent much energy and money on making sure its structure remains sound and beautiful. Little by little we try to beautify it. We hope that it will serve our community for generations to come.  

Yet.....yet.... the day will surely come when it will become a pile of rubble.  This house of prayer will cease to be, and who knows what will take its place.

Nothing we build or maintain has a claim on permanence.  We gravely mislead ourselves if we think it does.

WE ARE PILGRIMS WHO LIVE IN TENTS

It is a wonderful thing for us to be reminded that God’s earliest relationship with his people was when they were wandering Arameans living in tents, and that even the Tabernacle was conceived of as a tent.

This is a bit like a parable of how things should be for us as Christians.  The prime task of a Christian is not to build something permanent but to be faithful in following Christ and glorifying God in our generation.  Faithfulness is what is required; never some vainglorious attempt to perpetuate our structures into future generations.

And we create structures in much more than just bricks and mortar.  We also create organisations (even Church denominations) that we think are permanent and should be preserved as if they are our legacy for the next generation.

Most of us do want to leave something more permanent than buildings. We would like our influence to continue. We would like to think that we have contributed in a small way to progress that will go on and develop.  But maybe it won’t.

Our influence has no more claim to permanence than our buildings.  There is nothing necessarily accumulative about a good influence in society.  Each generation must again face the issues of good and evil, faith or cynicism. Even if by some remarkable mission to the world, every person was converted to the love of God, the next generation would have to face it all again.

Our task is not to build monuments of any kind but to be faithful to Christ in our time and in our situation.

HOW WILL WE KNOW THINGS ARE ENDING?

In reply to the people’s request for some idea of what it will be like when these things happen, Jesus sets out a pretty realistic world view.  Jesus warns about the troubles that will come:

Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be great earthquakes, famines and pestilences in various places and fearful events and great signs from heaven.

Luke 21: 10-11

Some people might have expected Jesus to describe a world that was getting increasing better because people of faith had lived in it, but he doesn't.  He describes a world in which persecution and suffering will be the order of the day for those who follow him. It’s a world in which both natural and man-made disasters inflict terrible suffering on God’s people. 

In effect he is telling us: Bad things will go on happening.  But don’t be misled.  Don’t be impatient.  Don’t become despairing if your efforts do not appear to achieve much.  God will travel with you through this if you are faithful.

That is what he is calling us to – being faithful.  No more is asked of us than that, nor anything less.  This is about a loving God who suffers with the world to redeem it from its folly and sin.  Next week we pause for a moment to reflect on the suffering of Jesus through which he is vindicated by God and becomes Lord of our lives – through suffering God comes to us.

SUMMARY

Two things then are warned against on this penultimate Sunday of the Church year.

1.      Thinking we know that the end is near – so many people have fallen into this trap, haven’t they? But Jesus specifically warns against it.

2.      Thinking that it is our task to lay down some tangible and permanent structure that will perpetuate the faith for future generations – if we are but faithful in our relationship with God the next generation will be taken care of.