The only hope for humanity

Here's the reflection I shared during today's lunchtime Eucharist for St Martin-in-the-Fields:

Desmond Tutu is someone whose life has been shaped by Jesus’ teaching to love your enemies as yourself. For Tutu, Christianity is the religion of the downtrodden and dispossessed in which everyone is equal in the eyes of God and those who follow Jesus are exhorted to love our enemies. He has said that, “It wasn’t easy to love your enemy when they were throwing us in prison or murdering us.” It is the most difficult of all doctrines, he says, but it offers the only hope for humanity.

I mention this because our Gospel reading (Matthew 10.34-11.1) seems to show a very different side to Jesus than that highlighted by Desmond Tutu. Here Jesus doesn’t appear to be saying, “love your enemies,” instead he says that he has not come to bring peace but a sword and that he came to make enemies of the members of families. What is going on here? Are we talking about the same person? Is there a contradiction in what Jesus was teaching? Do we have to make some kind of choice between the two? It all seems very confusing.

The important thing to be aware of in understanding these words of Jesus is that he was talking to his disciples about a mission that was specifically to the people of Israel. Jesus began his instructions to his disciples, as recorded in Matthew 10, by saying: “Do not go to any Gentile territory or any Samaritan towns. Instead, you are to go to the lost sheep of the people of Israel.” Everything that Jesus says in this chapter is in the context of that mission and when we understand that it makes a big difference to the way we understand what Jesus was saying here.

Jesus thought of his own people, the Jews, as being lost. They had moved away from God’s plans and purposes because they had not been bringing the light of God to the Gentiles. Instead, they had turned in on themselves and acted as though God was just a national God for themselves. What Jesus was about to do through his death and resurrection would blow that kind of thinking out of the water. As he said to the disciples in verse 18, they would, in future, be telling the Good News to both Jews and Gentiles. But, for now, before his death and resurrection Jesus sent his disciples only to their own people with the message that the kingdom of God – the day when Jews and Gentiles would come together to worship the one true God – was coming near. Jesus’ mission and ministry in Israel before his death was an opportunity for the people of Israel to come on board and be part of the new thing that God was doing in the world. But Jesus was realistic about the way many would react to this opportunity.

He knew that some would respond positively and embrace his message but that others would be violently opposed. His message would, therefore, bring division among the people of Israel. Some would accept and follow and others would be violently opposed. This is what he meant when he spoke about not bringing peace and the members of the family being divided. He was speaking specifically about the effect that his message, life, death and resurrection would have on the people of Israel.

We know from subsequent events that Jesus was right in his assessment of the situation. Jesus himself was violently opposed and killed by those who did not accept his message despite large numbers of Jews hearing and following him. The early Church was persecuted at the same time that it grew rapidly in numbers with both Jews and Gentiles becoming followers of Christ. Finally, Jerusalem itself was overrun by the Romans and the Temple, the focus of the Jewish faith at that time, was destroyed. That act meant that there could no longer be a solely national focus to the Jewish faith and the early Christians spread out from Israel even more widely as a result.

So Jesus, here, is speaking specifically about what would happen within the people of Israel as a result of his message and mission but he was not talking about the content of that message and mission. His message and mission was to bring the light and forgiveness of God to the whole world, both Jews and Gentiles; a message and mission of peace and reconciliation, not of violence and division. The Gentiles were viewed, at that time, as enemies of God’s people but Jesus was saying that God’s people should love their enemies and that God would bring all peoples into his kingdom. 

The good news of Jesus is peace, reconciliation and love for enemies, just as Desmond Tutu claimed and has practised. It is the reverse of violence and division but its effect in the Judaism of Jesus’ time and immediately after was division. Just as Jesus, the early Church and those like Desmond Tutu gave themselves wholeheartedly and peaceably to this mission despite the opposition and violence that they have encountered, so we must do the same as followers of Christ. That is what it means to take up our cross and follow in Jesus’ footsteps by living all out for the peaceful reconciliation of all peoples. As Desmond Tutu has said, to do so offers the only hope for humanity.

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James Whitbourne - A Prayer Of Desmond Tutu.

A prayer from St Martin-in-the-Fields

"Look with grace upon this country.

Bring wisdom in the face of haste
and humility in the context of dispute"

A prayer from St Martin-in-the-Fields reflecting the widespread concern over the nation’s political and constitutional situation.

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Taize - O, Lord Hear My Prayer.

Autumn Lecture Series 2019: The Quality of Mercy

The Autumn Lecture Series for  2019 at St Martin-in-the-Fields is called The Quality of Mercy. In a time of increasing conflict, division and blame this series will explore the concept of mercy in our world today and what part it needs to play in issues of race, equality, truth and justice and how literature, music, poetry and drama can help shift perspectives and help us see the wider world through others’ eyes.

In this series St Martin’s brings together renowned writers, artists, theologians and speakers to address how and if we can discover a mercy that will lead to a deeper humanity and true transformation. The lectures will be followed by the chance to ask questions and a reception in the café in the crypt for further discussion. For those unable to attend we hope to record the lectures so they will be available on the St Martin-in-the-Fields website and the new Heart Edge website.

We look forward to welcoming you and those you know who may be interested in coming. It is free and open to all and you can reserve a place with Eventbrite: stmartininthefields.eventbrite.com.

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Marvin Gaye - Mercy Mercy Me.

Rest from inner conflict

Here's my homily from the 8.00am service at St Martin-in-the-Fields:

Jesus calls us to be 100% for God in our lives. In his summary of the Law he says, Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength, and all your mind (Mark 12. 30 - 31). When we fail to do so, we experience internal division. It is, for example, why Jesus insists that we cannot love God and Mammon (Luke 16. 13).

St Paul describes this state of internal conflict when he writes in the Letter to the Romans: 'I can will what is right, but I cannot do it. 19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me.

So I find it to be a law that when I want to do what is good, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God in my inmost self, but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind, making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!' (Romans 7. 19 - 25)

In our Gospel passage (Luke 11.14-28) this internal dialogue, debate and division is described in the language of demon possession. We don’t find rest or peace from this internal conflict until we finally and fully surrender to God. Once that surrender has occurred, then we need to nurture and protect it in order that we do not revert back to the state of internal chaos and conflict but instead remain in the peace and rest of being given over to God.

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Pärt, Glass and Martynov 's Silencio.

The connection between earth and heaven

John’s Gospel is very different from the other three Gospels in the Bible. One of the reasons why, is that there are no parables or stories told in John’s Gospel and, instead of Jesus’ teaching being done through stories, in John’s Gospel his teaching is done through conversations. In this way, John’s Gospel suggests that God wants to enter into conversation with us. God wants to talk with us, to be in dialogue with us, in part because that dialogue can be one which transforms us; just as happened for the Samaritan woman in this story (John 4. 5 - 42).

This conversation takes place by Jacob’s well. Jacob had a vision of a ladder between earth and heaven with angels ascending and descending on the ladder. In conversation with Nathanael (John 1. 51), Jesus has already described himself as the ladder, the connection between earth and heaven and that is what we see happening in practice in the conversation Jesus has with this Samaritan woman.

In this conversation Jesus continually connects every aspect of division between him and the woman and within her own life. For this woman, he brings heaven and earth together. What divisions do I mean? Firstly, there was division between Jews and Samaritans. A history of division going back to the split between the northern and southern kingdoms of Israel and involving the Samaritans building a rival Temple to that in Jerusalem and the Jews tearing down the Samaritan Temple. With that kind of history we can understand why Jews would not use the same cups and bowls as Samaritans.

Then there were divisions of gender. “The rabbis taught that a man should not talk to a woman in the street. Some even refused to acknowledge their wives in public, while certain Pharisees sported bruises from bumping into things when their eyes were shut to avoid looking at a woman!” (R. Burridge, ‘John’, BRF 1998).

Finally, there were divisions of purity. The woman has come to the well during the hottest part of the day, which can only be to avoid others, implying that she was immoral. Later we find out that she has had five husbands, when Jews at that time only permitted marriage to three husbands, and the man with whom she is now living is not her husband.

So this conversation is “a real meeting of opposites – of Jew with Samaritan, a man with a woman, a rabbi with a sinner, the one ‘from above’ confronting the lowest of the low. It sums up all the bitterness of human separation by race, creed, class, sex, profession, status yet Jesus, alone, without even his disciples to protect him, asks her for a drink … this is what it means for him to be the ladder at Jacob’s well, bridging not only the gulf between God and the world, but also all the barriers human beings put between themselves. It was for this reason that God sent his Son into the world, and for this reason there is hope for us all, from modern Samaria on the West Bank to our daily petty differences.”

“As the conversation unfolds … Jesus gently leads her through levels of misunderstanding from the earthly and literal to the heavenly and spiritual.” Jesus begins with the actual situation (being beside a well), an everyday action (drawing water), and with what the woman can give to him (a drink of water). From the everyday, the earthly, the ordinary, he makes connections with the heavenly, the spiritual, by offering life-giving water that will never run out. He is not saying that the two are separate, distinct and different. Instead, he is acting as the connection between the two, bringing them together so that what is heavenly can be seen in what is earthly and vice versa.

There is a contrast throughout this conversation between the old and the new. Jesus is saying that if you drink from Jacob’s well, in other words, if you drink of Jacob’s religion, you will be satisfied temporarily but will thirst again. But whoever drinks of the water Jesus gives will not thirst for all eternity. Jesus’ words, “they will not thirst” literally mean ‘into the new age.’ Jesus brings a new age into the world, in him heaven/eternity are breaking through time and entering into our present moment now. In Jesus heaven and eternity are here now and begin in our lives now as we receive his love, forgiveness, and acceptance into our lives now. “The water which Jesus offers to give is the raw material of himself. It is his human body and mind and spirit; but it is alive with the Spirit of God. What flows out of him for this Samaritan woman, if she has faith, and asks for it, will be water alive with Spirit, and this will activate a similar spring of water and Spirit within herself.” (Verney, ‘Waterinto Wine’, Fount, 1985)

Once she has become captivated by Jesus’ offer, then there is a moment of personal challenge. In speaking about her personal relationships, Jesus “confronts her with herself so that her impurities can be cleaned out and the living waters flow freely.” (Burridge) But we need to understand with love and acceptance with which this challenge comes. Stephen Verney describes it in this way:

“Jesus says to her, “You have answered beautifully ‘I have no husband’. For you have had five husbands, and the man you have now is not your husband. In this you have spoken truthfully.” Some years ago I was reading these words with a woman whose marriage had broken up, and she said, “Look! Jesus is complimenting the Samaritan woman.” I had never seen it until that moment. Jesus says to her “You have answered beautifully … you have spoken truthfully.” Your sexual life is chaotic and you have one man after another – that is the reality of how you are in the flesh. But because you have brought this out into the light and recognised it, the reality of god can now enter into the reality of you. , the reality of god can now enter into the reality of you. Our flesh can come alive with Spirit. You are just the very person who is able to receive the living water. The self-righteous cannot receive it, because they do not know that they need it.”

The question the woman then asks about the place to worship God may have been a distraction, a sign that this conversation was getting too close to home for the woman, or it may have been a sincere question about where she should go with her sinful life in order to find God. Jesus says that the place is not important. God’s heavenly future is breaking into our earthly realm now and those who know this, worship in his Spirit and in truth. Jesus then reveals himself as God, the one who connects heaven and earth, the living water, when he uses the Old Testament name of God – I AM who I AM – in saying I AM he, who is talking with you.

The woman has changed through talking with God. “She came to the well in the hottest, quietest part of the day to avoid people – but now she goes to find them and tell them what has happened to her. Now the fact that Jesus knows all she has done is not something to be avoided with a theological hot potato –but the hottest news to be shared – ‘can this really be the Christ?’

The fields are white for harvest Jesus then says to his disciples and this is proved by the many in Sychar who came to believe in Jesus. The fields around us are also white for harvest and people will hear and respond if we are able to learn from the way in which Jesus connects faith with everyday life. He sits with ordinary people, listens and talks with them. He starts with ordinary life, with the things that others have to give and then reveals how the spiritual and heavenly can be seen in the everyday. He is not afraid of challenge, but his challenges come couched in encouragement, understanding and acceptance instead of condemnation. The challenge is to move on, to grow beyond the point that we have reached. This challenge is profoundly life affirming.

We plan for mission because, as Jesus said, the fields are white for harvest. Let us be in conversation with Jesus ourselves through prayer and bible reading. Let us learn from Jesus’ conversations and make connections for others between earth and heaven. Let us begin to reap a harvest.

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The Byrds - I Am A Pilgrim. 

Boundary Breaker VI

The world is full of divisions -
political, religious, national, personal -
‘them’ and ‘us’ - Jew and Gentile,
slave and free, male and female.
Tribal identities, given at birth,
with rich histories constraining love.
I am I, not you. You are a mystery to me.

Stripped, self-emptying, not counting
equality something to be grasped and held,
become nothing, become human,
become obedient to death,
crucified by my own creation.
Stepping beyond identity, renouncing
my inheritance, heritage and lineage.

I in you, you in me, one with you,
you with me, breaking boundaries,
becoming other, other becoming me.
The scapegoat removing mimesis,
the cross road uniting nations,
lion and lamb lying down together.
All roads lead to heaven,
a pilgrim people
in a new Canterbury Tale,
unresting till they enter
the green and pleasant land
of New Jerusalem.

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Hubert Parry - Jerusalem.

Spiritual Life column

Here is my latest 'Spiritual Life' column in today's Ilford Recorder:

In a memorable phrase Desmond Tutu spoke of post-apartheid South Africa as being “the rainbow people of God.” That phrase can and should be applied also to the Christian Church in the diversity of those who come together within it to form the Body of Christ.

For the Church to be seen as a rainbow people of God, the full range of its diversity of views and voices need to be heard. Specifically, in the current debate over the definition of marriage, it essential that the Church, as well as hearing the views and voices of those opposed to the Government’s current legislative proposals, also hear the views and voices of Christians in favour.

I am thinking of those who see a strong Biblical case for arguing that definitions of marriage are socially determined and not divinely ordained. Those who see Jesus as being the ultimate scapegoat signalling, by his death, the folly and fallacy of all scapegoating of those different from ourselves. Those who see a key aspect of Jesus’ ministry as being to include in the kingdom of God those excluded from the religious structures of his day, with inclusion and equality then being a central facet of Christianity. The voices and views of those who see the institution of marriage being broadened and strengthened by its expansion to include people who value the institution and wish to marry but are currently excluded from doing so.

The Biblical picture of God’s people is of difference and diversity united by our common commitment to Christ. We are not and will not be united by our particular theologies, traditions, or views on particular topics. In this current debate, as in all such debates, we need to hear and respect different perspectives while recognising that our particular views will only divide if they are prioritised. It is only when, acknowledging our differences, we recognise that, despite our differences, we are united by Christ that the Christian Church holds together as the rainbow people of God who, therefore, become the Body of Christ in the world today.

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Gungor - Let There Be.