January 26, 2020 Year A, THIRD SUNDAY AFTER THE EPIPHANY
The culture of the people to whom
Saint Paul proclaimed the message of the Gospel, brings to mind my holiday in
September, when I visited the ruins of Pompeii.
Pompeii is near Naples in Italy.
The outlook is beautiful and the exploration took us back to a time when
everywhere you turned there was a temple to another god. This was a time when it was considered that
humans were at the mercy of the gods. In
order to live in peace and preserve the goodness of life, there was a need to
appease the gods.
It was into this culture that Saint
Paul came with his message about Christ.
He proclaimed the Gospel… meaning Good News. The message was in stark contrast from the belief
that the gods needed appeasing, and instead St. Paul proclaimed that there was
just one true God of gods, and that He
had no need for sacrifice because peace had been achieved once and for all by
the sacrifice of Christ on the cross.
Today we also have a variety of
cultures and the message of the cross and the Good News about Jesus, is the
same today; we have peace with God through the sacrifice of Jesus. The difference seems to be that today’s
people are quick to defend and proclaim their own goodness, denying that there
exists any deity to appease. There is
very little perception of the need for a saviour with Good News about the
Kingdom of God being near. To them, our
message is irrelevant, but is it?
However, even in the days of Saint
Paul the message of the cross seemed mere foolishness, and they would scoff to
think that a deity would willingly and mercifully die for His people. Utter foolishness!
When Jesus began His earthly ministry
His message was, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near." Both Paul and Jesus proclaimed the Good News
about God’s love and forgiveness, but sometimes these words of Jesus can be
misrepresented and leave people feeling like they need to yet appease God, and
it is tied up in that word, “Repent”.
Often the word, “repent” has
connotations of sadness, guilt and shame, but the original Greek word is about
being converted and more to do with our thinking and conscious choice of
direction.
“Writing in ancient Greek the authors of the Christian New Testament
translated this concept of spiritual transformation and return to God's ways as
metanoia, a word which literally means "change of mind." These
writers meant something more profound than what we would call a change of mind,
however. Instead they were referring to a total transformation in outlook,
affecting the heart, mind, and spirit. Thus in the New Testament the concept of
repentance takes on a slightly different shape, one that places less emphasis
on guilt and regret and more emphasis on breaking through to a new way of
understanding God, oneself, and the world. In other words, the New Testament
view of repentance equates it with conversion.”
Traditionally the church has called
us to repentance and often-times it is really what we need…. To realize the
errors of our ways, to say sorry and make amends…. But that is not actually the
message of the Gospel. Instead the
message of the Gospel is to turn your heart, mind and spirit to God who IS our atonement. Out of our experience of forgiveness and being
acceptance by God – our joy of being loved by God, we do aim to make amends…. It is a subtle difference, but the atoning
sacrifice of Jesus and accepting His love comes first.
When we understand this slight
difference many things we might normally argue over become clearer and we might
not fall into the error of the Corinthians.
As the Corinthian church developed
they rejoiced in the salvation of their new understanding, but some divisions
arose. Divisions that are not so unlike
what we experience today.
Have you ever pondered the power of
culture? I was speaking with a friend
recently about how I feel there is tension in the way people perceive that life
should work. Really this is about culture.
Let me explain in practical terms; my
friend was brought up in another town and his way of doing things and sense of
the “right” way of doing things was different to people in other towns. I commented that he fitted in well in our
town because there were many similarities between here and the town of his childhood. But I also lamented that the culture of our
town has changed since I was a child. Oftentimes
people from the larger cities come into the smaller towns as the boss of a
company and impose their sense of “the right way”. Due to their position of authority, new ways
are adopted and culture changes.
St. Paul writes to the Corinthian
church and addresses the cultural tension in that place. Some were saying that they belonged to Paul,
others to Apollos, Cephas or Christ.
What they were really saying is, “I do things the way I do because I
belong to this leader and follow his way of doing things. And my way is right!”
It is good to know why we see things
a different way and conversation is helpful in understanding each other, but
St. Paul is not addressing this kind of interaction. He is addressing people who were at odds with
each other and determined to assert their view.
There seems to be an element of pride in these interactions.
St. Paul inquires whether Christ is
divided. He might well ask the same
question of us when we say, “I belong to the Anglican church”…. “I belong to
the Mackay Christian family church”… “I belong to the Lutheran Church”. The tension is real. We’ve come so far, only to be right back at
that place where St. Paul asks, “Is Christ divided?”
Each of our churches has a
culture. Which one is right?
You know, if we look to our towns and
countries for an example we might find that two different cultures can be
authentically correct but different.
Weather conditions for a start, might dictate the way we do things. For example, if it was snowing we might have
a structure for churches built with warmth in mind. If it is hot our churches might look
different because we incorporate cooling.
The problems come about when a particular culture imposes their ways on
totally different culture. I remember
being taught at primary school about how the people who colonized Australia
came with their women wearing layers of clothing, as was their custom and
considered proper…. Only to faint in our Australian heat. It was a lesson that stayed with me and I’m
reminded of it when I see the Private school children attending functions in
the middle of our summer, wearing their school jackets because it is considered
the school uniform. (Many of them end up needing medical assistance).
So many things can divide us…. Things
we think are proper. Things we think are
the correct way…. The respectable way…. But are these sacred or just us
following along with a perception of what is right?
Ways of functioning as church
differ. There are Mega churches,
Churches with state of the art sound systems and even churches that operate
more as a coffee club. We can fall into the trap of the people in the story of the Emperor’s New clothes, wanting to
appear intelligent, we jump on board the latest hype. Which just might end up being really great
marketing, getting lots of attention, until finally someone points out that the
Emperor is actually naked. Hopefully you
know the story J
Change is always fraught with grief
and upset. We will say, “I belong to the
old way of doing things”…. “I belong to the new way”…. “I belong to the hymn singing tradition”…. “I
belong to the chorus singing tradition”….
“I belong to the hard pew church”…. “I belong to the comfortable
air-conditioned church”
Now, I have to tell you, I have my
own really passionate beliefs about how church should be, but it isn’t my
church. Let me say that again and
perhaps we all should say it slowly and quietly…. “It isn’t MY church.”
Is Christ divided? We are the body of Christ and His spirit is
with us….. Let us repeat that slowly and
quietly also…. WE ARE THE BODY OF CHRIST and HIS SPIRIT IS WITH US. Is Christ divided?
We allow ourselves to be divided, yet
we know that a kingdom divided can not stand.
How can we fix our divisions?
Paul asks rhetorical questions; “Is Christ
divided? Was Paul crucified for you?
Or were you baptized in the
name of Paul?” In times like these we
need to turn our focus back to the fact that Christ was crucified for us … for
you and for me and for all who have called on the name of the Lord. This is what matters most and others things
can be debated, but always with this fact in mind; God loves and died for each
of us… that person you are arguing with is loved by God and God died for them…
they are baptized, like us into Christ and they are, therefore, with us, the
body of Christ and His Spirit is with them… and with us. Do you think this realization… this
understanding… this epiphany should change the way we treat each other?
In our world today I feel there may
be more divisions than ever. We talk a
lot about unity, but we are so divided in so many ways. This, our world, is a world where it is
becoming increasingly impolite to talk about sin and the fact that we might
need a saviour…. How dare we insinuate that people are less than perfect! But the truth is that we are less than
perfect. The truth is that we are
divided. The truth is that we do need a
saviour. Belief in Jesus as the Son of
God, God incarnate, is at an all-time low, because we don’t want to admit we
need a saviour. Personally, I do.
In all our worldly chaos and divisions,
there is a truth. Jesus was born and
died and rose from the dead and he came to bring us the kingdom of God. He died because He so loved that person out
on the street… because He so loved that arrogant media personality…. Because He
so loved… If He so loved, we need to treat
each other as those treasured by God and make love our priority too.
We are one… but we are many…. And they’ll know we are Christians by our
love.
