The ‘peace lines’ in Belfast are walls that “were built in the early 60s, at the height of the “Troubles” – the hardest stage of the fight between the two communities [of Catholics and Protestants] – when Northern Ireland was at the climax of Civil War. At that period only weapons spoke and the paramilitary groups from both sides laid down the law: bombs were smashing Belfast day after day; reprisals were reciprocal ... rancour turned to hatred and life together was no longer possible. The only solution was to physically divide, and let communities close themselves into their own microcosm. Therefore, religious islands, divided by cement barriers erected by the authorities in order to stop the violence, grew up.”
A similar kind of hostility between Jews and Samaritans can be seen clearly in the New Testament. One of the worst insults that hostile Jews could offer to Jesus was to call him a Samaritan (
John 8:48). When Jesus was refused hospitality by a Samaritan village because he was going to Jerusalem, his disciples James and John wanted the village destroyed before Jesus rebuked them (
Luke 9:51-56). The parable of the good Samaritan (
Luke 10:33-37) also reveals this division because it challenges the idea held by Jews that it would be impossible for a Samaritan to act charitably. This story of
Jesus' conversation with the Samaritan woman at the well also shows up these divisions in that the disciples are amazed that Jesus was talking to a Samaritan woman (John 4:27) and the Gospel writer comments that Jews did not use the same cups and bowls that Samaritans use (John 4:9).
Samaritans claimed that they were the true Israel who were descendants of the "lost" tribes taken into Assyrian captivity. They had their own temple on Mount Gerizim and claimed that it was the original sanctuary. They also claimed that their version of the Pentateuch was the original and that the Jews had a falsified text produced by Ezra during the Babylonian exile. Both Jewish and Samaritan religious leaders taught that it was wrong to have any contact with the opposite group, and neither was to enter each other's territories or even to speak to one another.
All of which makes Jesus’ words in John 4.21-24 quite amazing: “… the time will come when people will not worship the Father either on this mountain or in Jerusalem … the time is … already here, when by the power of God's Spirit people will worship the Father as he really is, offering him the true worship that he wants. God is Spirit, and only by the power of his Spirit can people worship him as he really is.”
Jesus seems to be saying that the reasons for conflict between Jew and Samaritan are about to be superseded in such a way that both will, in future, be able to worship together. This claim is one that the writer of the letter to the Ephesians repeats in
2.11-18, on this occasion about divisions between Jews and Gentiles: “… Christ himself has brought us peace by making Jews and Gentiles one people. With his own body he broke down the wall that separated them and kept them enemies. He abolished the Jewish Law with its commandments and rules, in order to create out of the two races one new people in union with himself, in this way making peace. By his death on the cross Christ destroyed their enmity; by means of the cross he united both races into one body and brought them back to God ... It is through Christ that all of us, Jews and Gentiles, are able to come in the one Spirit into the presence of the Father.”
Both these passages focus on divisions being overcome as we come to God the Father in the Spirit. The Spirit that is being talked about is, of course, the Spirit of Jesus, the one who, with his own body, breaks down the wall which separates enemies; the one who, through his death on the cross destroys enmity and unites enemies before God. So, if we are to be ‘in the Spirit’ and are to worship God ‘in the Spirit’, we must do the same by laying down our lives in order to overcome divisions between enemies.
Gordon Wilson was the father of Marie Wilson, one of 12 victims of the Enniskillen Remembrance Day Bombing in 1987. The bombing could have provoked a response of anger and revenge; instead what emerged was an atmosphere of forgiveness and reconciliation because of Gordon Wilson and the way in which he responded to this tragedy in the Spirit of Jesus.
A few hours after the bombing, when interviewed by the BBC, he described his last conversation with his daughter, a nurse, as they both lay buried in rubble. He said: "She held my hand tightly, and gripped me as hard as she could. She said, 'Daddy, I love you very much.' Those were her exact words to me, and those were the last words I ever heard her say." To the astonishment of listeners, Wilson went on to add, "But I bear no ill will. I bear no grudge. Dirty sort of talk is not going to bring her back to life. She was a great wee lassie. She loved her profession. She was a pet. She's dead. She's in heaven and we shall meet again. I will pray for these men tonight and every night." Historian
Jonathan Bardon recounts that: "No words in more than twenty-five years of violence in Northern Ireland had such a powerful, emotional impact."
Gordon Wilson forgave the terrorists who had killed his daughter. He said that he would pray for them. He also begged that no-one took revenge for Marie's death as that could not bring her back. His response to atrocity of the Enniskillen bombings was in the Spirit of Jesus and helped to overcome divisions between Catholic and Protestant as throughout the rest of his life he worked hard to bring reconciliation between people in Northern Ireland including becoming Patron of the
Spirit of Enniskillen Trust which works to encourage dialogue and greater understanding between all social, cultural and religious traditions.
What Gordon Wilson did with his life is what we see Jesus doing in this story.
Richard Burridge writes that in this story, “we have a real meeting of opposites - of a Jew with a Samaritan, a man with a woman, a rabbi with a sinner, the one ‘from above’ confronting the lowest of the low.” It is a story which “sums up all the bitterness of human separation by race, creed, class, sex, profession, status” and shows us what it means for Jesus to be the bridge, not only of “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 Northern Ireland to modern Samaria on the West Bank to here in Dagenham.
It is a terrible irony, and an absolute gift to those who argue that religion causes violence, that Christian faith was in Northern Ireland used as means to divide Catholic and Protestant. Gordon Wilson’s words, spoken in the Spirit of Jesus, helped to turn that situation around. Could our words and actions in the Spirit of Jesus do the same?
Where are the divisions within this local area and how could these be overcome in the Spirit of Jesus? What can you, as Christ’s people here at St Cedd’s, be doing and saying in the local community that would be in the Spirit of Jesus? How can you work in the Spirit of Jesus to encourage dialogue and greater understanding between all the different social, cultural and religious traditions found in this area? Are you willing to ask those questions? Are you willing to pray those questions? Are you willing to be inspired by the Spirit of Jesus to destroy enmity, to tear down barriers, to make peace, and to unite enemies?
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U2 -
Sunday Bloody Sunday.
