The position of honour

 We do not have the same culture as we did in earlier times. The Japanese culture is closer to that but it is really something we have lost along the way and that is the honour system. Rightly or wrongly the system fell by the wayside and is not as respected as it once was. Yet, some of it's aspects still remain inherent in our culture and in our faith. In some respects it is the poorer issues of the system that hang around rather than the richer nuanced understandings that have been lost. It is all wrapped around how we respect the other and how we engage with the other. If we think about the gospel of Luke's description of Christ's criticism of the invitees to a dinner we get a clear picture of what I am talking about (Lk. 14:7-14). You can just imagine everyone shuffling around trying to find the seat that they want rather than that which comes with who they are. Indeed I can just imagine that sort of thing happening at a gala function in this day and age when everyone wants to sit as close as possible to the guest of honour and shuffle their seats accordingly.

One of the Christian attributes is hospitality which is brought out a lot in Luke's gospel usually around the table or entertainment, for a better word. In the culture at the time of Christ this was of particular note especially when it came to hosting members of the community as the proper respect and honour had to be given. In the Christian faith this has translated across to the Eucharist, originally a simple meal which has been ritualised with the bishop at its head. Thus, the honour was found at the head in other words with the bishop as presider over the eucharistic meal. Yet, things have changed somewhat in that the pseudo honour is no longer a thing for us but is still somewhat present in our interactions with the other. It takes a lot of courage for an outsider to attend a worship service or a space of worship where there is already a congregation or at least a formative group. The reality is that the new person attending often will feel as if they are unwanted by the group and become 'honour' bound to sit away from the existing group. An existing congregation does this in a number of ways. Perhaps, the greatest manner in which this is done is through seating arrangements within the worship space.

Who has the place of honour at the Lord's table?

 I have been in numerous parishes and they all have the same challenge. People get used to sitting in the same place and when furniture is moved then people get upset because they do not know where to sit. Then when people from outside come to join the family of God at worship there is tension because inevitably there is someone who is sitting in "MY" seat. This results not only in loss of respect for the outsider but also a deliberate closing of ranks by those who are on the "inside" and thus the loss of opportunity to minister to the other. We fail in doing the good (Heb 13:16) as we shun our neighbour and deliberately exclude those who may indeed be more deserving than ourselves. We do ourselves no favours by insisting on "our" seats or "our" spaces as soon as we pull out that card of discriminatory behaviour we begin to turn away from Christ who is constantly with us (Heb 13:8). In turning away from Christ we turn away from God who then has every right to lament as he did in the time of Jeremiah (Jer. 2:4-ff). Indeed I wonder if God would also accuse us in our failure as Jeremiah reports (2:9), for our failures in caring for our neighbour. Each time we claim our seat in the presence of God we must be sure that we are worthy to be called if on the other hand we are hesitant about our own position then we should step back and allow others to go before us only seeking to do that which God is asking of us.

Our hospitality begins not in our homes but in the presence of God as we are invited to the Lord's table. This is where we learn the lesson of honour and find our place in God's world. It is when we go back out into the world that we announce the love that God has for all people and bring those who deem themselves unworthy into the presence of God's love through our own hospitality to the other. The other is not those we congregate with but those that are on the outside, who are feeling neglected as they feel not worthy to enter into God's place of worship. Let us remind ourselves to look at our own behaviours in our parishes and pews as we welcome those who are other. 

The laws we make

 In our faith journey we are continually confronted with change. Change that affects our lives if we are to continue to follow Christ. In that vein we are substantive as our roots and foundations cannot be shaken if we are bound to God's kingdom and Christ's rule in our hearts (Heb. 13:28-29). However, in moving into alignment with Christ there comes a time when we sometimes stop and think to ourselves "no more" we cannot continue this change that Christ has started. The reason being is that we leave behind the safeguards of law and order or at least we think that is what is happening as our anchors appear to have come adrift. In doing so we automatically start to cling to what we believe is the right and proper to the extent that we prevent others from progressing because of our own frailties and issues.

This is clearly demonstrated by Christ in the Synagogue as he is presented and heals the woman afflicted on a sabbath (Lk. 13:10-17). Supposedly going against everything that the rabbis had been teaching Christ heals on a day set aside for rest. Yet, he immediately shames them by citing the everyday things they themselves do in contravention of the very law they are citing. This is what happens when we become so bound by the things we suppose are the law or the dogma or the worship style or the pew positions until the obvious fallacy of what we are doing is pointed out to us. For us our tradition sometimes becomes hidebound and allowed to stagnate and so eventually does our own faith journey. We sometimes need to think very carefully about what we think of as tradition within our community to ensure that what we are doing is not fulfilling the commandment to love our neighbour and to love God. Especially in reflecting on this particular story from the gospels.

Christ shows us the fulfilment of the law in the intent

We are often to blame for making things more difficult for ourselves when we turn to dogma, tradition and our own interpretation of what it means to be Christian. We have a tendency at parish, diocesan, provincial and even worldwide levels to think that what has been normal and working for decades to be the law that binds rather than sets free. We too often rely heavily on our own understanding and perception of what we hear, say or do. How often, I wonder, have we said "We have always done it this way" or "The pews cannot be moved because I won't know where to sit" or similar words. Just listen to Jeremiah as he responds to God as to how he perceives himself and his ability to be God's prophet (Jer. 1:6). This is often how we respond when there is something new or something we think is not how it should be. We can almost hear the whine in Jeremiah's voice and in some respects that is how we sound to the Lord, I suspect. We fail to discern God's path not only for ourselves but for our own communities for whom we are responsible as too often we fail to listen with an open heart to God's call and direction.

The question really comes down to how do we balance our faith traditions with where God calls us? Are we misinterpreting what God is saying to us through the scriptures and through our discernment of what is around us? Perhaps, it is just a matter of actually listening. You might think that it cannot be as simple as that, well maybe not but if we were to add the word discerning as well that may bring us closer to the truth.  The issue is we seldom listen and we seldom discern. What we actually do is pretend to listen and discern our own thoughts and not those of God. There has to be a willingness to allow God to direct us in the manner that God wishes not what is in our hearts. Jeremiah was a boy and yet he allowed God in to his heart and to open his lips so that he may speak (Jer. 1:7-10). We do not want anything to disturb our own thoughts and minds as we have been led to believe in the autonomous individual. Yet, Christ demands our following in thought, word and deed. We cannot leave out the thought just as we cannot leave out any other aspects. Only when we can fully trust that God will lead us and not our own derivation of God's thinking will we eventually begin to bring Christ into our lives. We must be like Jeremiah who understands his limitations but is willing to be corrected by God and follow God's voice. In the end we either listen to God or ourselves, listening to ourselves is refusing the one who has shown us the path to salvation (Heb. 12:25), for we have then closed ourselves of from God and placed our thoughts higher than God's.

The settlement of debt

 In today's world we see an escalation of debt not only at the private level but also at the larger national and international level. When we discuss debt it is always in terms of finance rather than anything else and that is probably because we have become more and more dependent on lenders to whom we become beholden; for the car, the home, education, the move, etc. However, when we talk about debt in terms of our religious practices we are not necessarily talking about financial debt even though that features. Debt can be what we owe to God or even what we owe to our neighbours in terms of what God has asked of us. The judge towards whom we are taken is not the district court or magistrate but God who judges us not by what we have done but by what we have failed to do in terms of our faith journey. Even in the Lord's prayer the forgiveness of debt is not only that which we have garnered through our own living but that which we have garnered through our neglect.

Isaiah tells the parable of the vineyard (Is. 5:1-7) and its cultivation or rather what happens when the vineyard does not produce grapes. We are in a similar position today as members of a faith community that proposes its following of Christ, the anointed of God. In looking back over the history of the Church one has to admit that much has been done but as we say that we also must admit to our folly and our inability to adhere to the requirements of our following God in Christ. It can be seen at all levels of the church from the parish to ecclesial conferences such as Lambeth. It is our mistake to think that we can think as if we were God and totally know the mind of God in what we do and how we do it. The problem is that we often do not understand or realise which side we are actually on because we are so eager to promote our own which creates and causes the disruptions that we see. In Luke's gospel Christ speaks about the family being against each other (12:52-53), a very clear indication of our own situation within the Anglican Communion let alone other denominations, who ultimately must be considered family as well. The question that is often neglected in these situations is the question not who is right and who is wrong but rather who is actually listening to what God is saying?

A vineyard that does not produce incurs a great debt

In everything from divorce to major arguments there are always three sides and the truth. We continue to believe that we are blameless when we take this side or that side but both sides fail as neither side is listening to what is being said as each interprets what the other is saying coloured by their own beliefs. We are not God! The author of Hebrews suggests that we need to look to Christ who bore the pains of the cross and in doing so we follow the way of salvation. In doing this, what should we focus on as we journey in faith? We often think of the words of Christ and make all our interpretation of what and how from Christ's sayings. Yet Christ lived by the Judaic law and everything that Christ states is with reference to Judaic law it is often post-Christ works or interpretations of Christ's words that we look to for our faith journey. It is Christ himself we should look to and most of what we understand is that Christ embodied God's presence in the world and suffered the cross out of love. This then is our call, a call into love which is echoed in Paul and the other scriptures from Genesis through to Revelation. If this is true then we need to settle a huge debt which has accumulated through a life that has been lived as we continue to rely one way or another on those who began that debt. We need to make the correct judgement (Lk. 23:57) as to the error so that we can begin once more to live as Christ not as ourselves.

What is the error that has put us so far away from God and Christ's path? It is simplicity itself and yet it is the hardest part of our faith journey. Christ and God proclaim the way of love, not the hippie generation, but true love that works to build community and enjoys the worth of others made in the image of God. It is the love that allows us to form our own views and yet follow Christ in so many different and exciting patterns of thought, work and inspiration that it is a delight. Scripture guides us along the path but as Christ has shown it is not law if it does not encourage love and the building of community. If we are unable to dialogue and inspire each other with the vagaries of God's Spirit that blesses each of us then we have become like the scribes and the pharisees. it is not the letter of the law but the spirit of the law that should guide our faith journey allowing love of the other to shine in our communities.

The blessings of faith

 In previous weeks I have spoken about our need to be uncompromising in terms of our wealth and our love such that we do not keep such things for ourselves but give to the other (see Bound by our own wants). This is dependent on the one thing that is fragile in our lives today and that is faith. Oh, it is easy to say "I have faith" "I trust in the Lord" but do we live this to the fullest in our lives or do we allow the other to disturb us and rock us back on to our own resources and our insular lives? Are we truly able to state with total honesty that we have a faith that is encompassed by Abraham's journey (Heb. 11:8-11)? The journey of faith is one of letting go and not allowing ourselves to justify our lack through our liturgies and our attendance at formal worship. 

Faith is a fragile commodity in today's world simply because we are so reliant on our own resources and our own abilities that we no longer trust the other or the ultimate other in God. It is not something that is robust anymore. If we consider Abraham's journey we see a way of life that is embedded in everything that he does. There is a certain robustness to his journey with God that is not moved even when he comes to sacrifice his only child. He has an utter understanding of God in his life and is totally dependent on that understanding. In the modern world we do not come even close to that sort of understanding simply because those things that are spiritual in nature are no longer part of our world, at least our normal life world. We no longer depend as fully and as functionally as Abraham on the bedrock of faith but rather on the bedrock of knowing. We depend solely on our ability to know and so when it comes to speaking about God, which we know nothing, we are dependent on what we think rather than what we truly believe as the bedrock of our faith journey.

In the passage from Luke, Christ tells his disciples something so shocking for us today that it is unbelievable "sell everything" (12:33). Even at that time people would probably have just looked at him and thought that is daft. Yet, when all is said and done this is the way of faith. It is the ability to step out into the unknown and journey through life knowing that God will provide. It is not something that we are used to doing nor is it something that we feel comfortable enough in doing in our daily lives. To a large extent we would be laughed out of town and fear of being on the dole or not being able to provide for our families etc. We do not know or at least we do not experience that sort of hardship and ability to trust in something that is so beyond us that it is unfathomable. Yet, as Christians this is what we are asked to do on a routine basis and unfortunately we have lost the habit of doing so, let alone actually listening and discerning where God wants us to be. Just to take an example out of our lives as Anglicans. Synod, in all its forms, is meant to be a place that allows those who are in leadership positions or who have been discerned to have a voice in the church to discern the movement of the Spirit and direction from God. More often then not they are no more then political gatherings that obey the whim of those in power and authority. There is no time spent in discernment rather much is done on the fly or in moments of rhetorical debate that attempts to sway the opposing view.

There are many paths to take in life faith means letting God guide your path

Even if we take it away from the church we as Christians do not rely on the presence of God to make decisions but often the legacy and tradition of those that have come before. We then make our decisions not with any insight but rather with what we have been told to do, in both the political and social spheres of our lives. Just think about the last time you voted / chose something, was it because you actually made significant investigation and discernment of the choice or because that was always the way you voted /chose. Just think of the Isaiah passage, God is having a distinct problem with tradition and the way 'religion' is being undertaken (1:10-15). We need to discern what God requires (Is 1:16-17) not rely on the past in all that we do. This is what faith requires of us a total giving up of ourselves and our own beliefs as to what we should do so that God can come into our lives and we can shine as Christ's light in the world. I think that Louis Espinal put it well in is posthumously published work Oriaciones a quemarropa as translated: 

"Train us, Lord, to fling ourselves upon the impossible, for behind the impossible is your grace and your presence; we cannot fall into emptiness. The future is an enigma, our road is covered by mist, but we want to go on giving ourselves, because you continue hoping amid the night and weeping tears through a thousand human eyes"