Word made flesh

 There is a choice to made every year as to what lessons are to be heard on Christmas day. Do we follow the Lukan narrative of shepherds and inns or do we immerse ourselves in thinking hard about what the incarnation means to us through that obscure and difficult reading from John. Not many will elect John, simply because a) they do not want to get it 'wrong' and b) it is too much work to tread the boards of obscure theological thinking at this time of year. However, given the events of the past few weeks perhaps it is best for us to entertain a deeper understanding of the underpinnings of incarnation in our lives rather than the ephemeral look at inns and shepherds.

The beginning of John's gospel links back to the start of the Hebrew texts in Genesis drawing our attention to both a new beginning and also to God's power in creation. Whilst it is not apparent as such in the first passage that power, we quickly come to understand, is the power of love. New beginnings are for us spaces of tension and anxiety which often leads to rejection and division. This is clearly enunciated by John when he writes that Christ is not accepted within the community to which he comes and the world which was created in love by God. In Genesis the beginning is out of chaos and unformed void from which the cooperative power of God entices a new and powerful beginning. The formation of newness in John results in chaos and rejection from that which was formed by God.

Out of chaos God enticed form with love

Our present epoch of consumerism and selfishness continues to create the formless chaos and division that that brings. It is almost as if we are unwinding the creation story by our presence and unending needs based understanding of the world. This is the same world or rather an ever burgeoning intensification of the world into which Christ becomes incarnate. Up to the point of Christ's birth God has given an indication of humanity's consistent dwelling on the self through the wisdom of the prophets and the earlier writings of history and poetry. Now in Christ's incarnation we are able to perceive a model of God's intentions in creation yet we are still unable to move away from the chaos of our own intentions. The human emotions that bespell our everyday lives through greed, power and fame. Believing ourselves as being beyond authority and condemnation we continue to recreate our own downfall. This can clearly be seen in recent public humiliation of figures who thought they were beyond it all.

This perhaps is the important point of our celebration today. In God's incarnation amongst the people we begin to be enticed away from the chaos of our own making. Just as in Genesis God entices through love the formation of creation, God now entices us through Christ into the way that leads us towards the meaning of love that is centred in creation. It is only when we begin to cooperate within our societies that we begin to create the meaning of love in the world. Once we realise this cooperative effort we begin to be enticed away from our chaotic behaviours towards a real change in our lives and those of our communities. Communities that suffer as a result of disassociation, envy, pride, angst, depression and the harbouring of ill will towards others among many other negative feelings have the opportunity to see a new way that leads to new life following the death of our old lives.

Love is work not convenience

 It is clear with the events over the past week, from the invasion of Woolworths in Melbourne and the subsequent violence on the beach to the extreme violence at Bondi that our society both in Australia and worldwide has no conception of love. The theme for this week in our final Sunday prior to Christmas is precisely that 'love' and in the turmoil of life we are unable to express the concept in truth.

It is often too little too late when it comes to love.

For the majority of those at the Melbourne invasion, predominantly teenagers and perhaps some twenty year olds, the concept of love is likely to be the lovey dovey portrayal of romantic love (eros) found in modern cinematic explorations and the story lines promoted by Mills & Boon. They have no conception of anything else as that is all they are fed by parents and society. The concept of a love (agape) that cares for those around them is something that cannot be conceived of. Thus they show contempt for everybody and anything so long as they obtain immediate gratification through violence or theft. For those that come from faith backgrounds the enormous misunderstanding of their own scriptures has to lead us to mourn the loss of profundity and understanding that is common in many faiths around the globe.

The Christian understanding is based on love which goes beyond the misconceptions generated by the romanticism of what is promoted as love. Christian's, and all faiths of the book, promote the concept of what is proclaimed as agape. This is a love that transcends the boundaries that humanity puts in place to segregate, categorise and hate. We deal with the political rather than the reality of love as Christ commands of us in the incarnation that we will celebrate in days. Everything we do and say is often motivated by our own political agendas and fear rather than seeing the situation through the eyes of love. If the country of Israel does something morally against their own religious beliefs for which they are justly criticised, such criticism becomes labelled as being politically antisemitic because a) we have no understanding of our language and b) we follow the politics of separation in order to raise tension and destroy love.

At the end of this week of extreme violence may we begin to reflect on our own words and our own actions when we consider our communities. Christians need to grapple with the meaning of agape rather than dwelling on eros. Any person in a relationship that has managed to stay together over 20 years and longer knows the struggle associated with love. It takes time and effort on the part of two people to make this work, so how much more does it take for us as a community to bring such love into the world. In the current epoch it appears that that effort and that time is too much for us. Society has said that everything is convenient and you do not have to put in effort. If it does not work out move on to someone or something else to find your happiness.

In Matthew's gospel this dilemma between convenience and work is presented to Joseph (Matt 1.16 ff). The easy convenient route that he was about to take or the harder route that shows love. Joseph understood what God was asking and was willing to take the risk. In our lives as individuals and as a corporate entity are we willing to take the risk that God places before us. The one of convenience which allows the world around us to crumble under violence and enmity or the road of work that opens the heart to love and understanding building community in an age where the other is shunned. 

Joy expressed in struggle

 Once again we have but a singular reference in Isaiah to the concept of joy (35:2) on a Sunday that is meant to speak about joy. For most of us joy is as ephemeral as all of the other things we have talked about such as hope and peace. In today's world there appears to very little joy as people no longer seem to have that concept of "joie de vivre" but rather there is an excellence at morbidity and 'downness' even when we talk of positive achievements. It takes a lot out of a person when we try to be over abundant with our lives when the world around us seems to be heavy and strained. Even when we have extended family around us we feel strained as if through a colander. (Not every one, but I would say the majority, at this time of year put on a face).This is particularly so when relationships are strained within family and community. So, why celebrate something that there appears to be a lack of?

More and more we appear to be sinking into a morass of mediocrity that disallows the extreme feelings that come with joy and sadness and all those other emotions that we bandy about without really realising them to the fullest extent. We have lowered our expectations much as Christ chides the crowds when he asks them what they went out into the wilderness to see (Matt. 11:7-9). We do not live with great expectations and therefore we are surprised and, in some ways, negative to the exuberance of life. Perhaps the issue is that those expressing such exuberance are often only acting out so that they may achieve fame, fortune etc all for themselves. Genuine joy is a difficult concept to accept when we are so used to being in the depressed state that the world has conceived for us. Even John the Baptist, according to Matthew, is uncertain as to whether to celebrate with joy as he questions Christ's presence (Matt. 11:3). If John questions it is no wonder that in this current age we struggle so much with the possibility of joy in our world. Indeed we often turn towards the past to reflect on what was rather than to the future to see what is to come.

It is in rising to a new day that we find the future joy is here

We often yearn for a future that is filled with the joys of the past and the friendships that have been created. What we never realise is that those joys that we are sunk into remain in the past and so we never have the ability to engage with the present to create new joys out of what we perceive to be endless sorrows. It is only when we recognise that by dwelling in the past and attempting to re-create that past in the present we are creating our own melancholy and inability to move into the future. In this recognition we begin our return to new life and the joy of Christ in the world. By retreating to the past and attempting to recreate it in the present we are playing a political game that is only for our benefit, our control of the world around us, our drug of choice that pushes our own agendas without thinking of the greater whole or of Christ's life, death and resurrection. In the incarnation as it comes towards us we are reminded that we are mortal for God has created us and has become created with us so that we can live into the future. A future that as we know involves dying and in dying we let go of the past. In living into the future we recognise the elements of re-birth and newness of life as we co-create the joy of God's love. It is only when we recognise the elements of death within our own lives that we can start to let go and let God's love in recreating joy, happiness and life. It is through this healing power of understanding and anamnesis as we re-live the path of Christ that we come to the joy of new life. This letting go and re-membering needs to occur within all aspects of our life. We become hypocrites when we allow our past activities and politics to guide our present activities without first going through death to create new paths and new joys.

If we do this correctly, we mourn each death and move on into new life, this applies to parish life and life in the Diocese as much as to our lives in community. This is the upside down world of God's coming kingdom, it is we who have to mourn not others, it is we who have to suffer the death of ourselves not others, it is we who have to forgive ourselves not others. Christ gives us a clue to what healing in God's kingdom means as he proclaims those deeds that have been undertaken. The poor and the outcast are given hope and joy. The vicissitudes of life are not imposed by others but by by our own wants and needs our own rejection of the joy that is around us if we open our hearts to the other. God's kingdom comes in the irruption of newness within the fecundity of our lives as we understand ourselves and so come open our eyes to joy and love in relationships we build into the future.

Faith in a world fueled by doubt

 In the second week of Advent we light the candle that is called the Bethlehem candle or the candle of faith. A light to all the world that is lit to glorify God and show that in the midst of darkness we can hold the flame that is faith to draw others to ourselves. Faith a tenuous yet sometimes strong connection that allows us to open our hearts to the community around and show others what it means to be a Christian. Paul in writing to the Romans details out at least one of the characteristics that we need to focus on with regards our Christian journey at this time. Paul writes "In a word, accept one another as Christ accepted us" (Rom 15.7).

 This above all else takes an act of faith for us as much as the idea of God or Christ or any other aspect of our life together that involves our unseen spiritual relations. This is not a tangible although it does lead to something that is tangible within the world. We need an abundance of faith to undertake this simple act of acceptance for we act between ourselves as if we are each wolves to the others sheep. There is a barrier that we automatically erect when we have or form a community. The barrier is one of fear rather than faith. We fear the other, we are unable to accept the difference between them and us. In our fear we erect a barrier that must be broken down before we can come together as a community. Before the barrier we have erected comes down we must first build trust before opening ourselves up in acceptance. It is unfortunately a natural occurrence as we feel threatened and need the comfort of knowing we will be protected by those who are like us. This is the start of tribalism or community separation. We often operate in this way within the Church irrespective of denomination. Unfortunately, the governance structure of the Anglican church throughout the world often lends itself to this insular thinking.

A thin string of faith allows us to build rather then separate

God's way is so different, it is not about building barriers but about understanding that we are all given life by God's presence. In Isaiah we read that God's  will is for those that are opposites to come together in peace and harmony (Is 11.6). In the natural world the predator and the prey are extremely unlikely to do what is foretold. Being part of the natural world is this our fate not being able to come together in peace and harmony. Yet, God has given us a hope in this passage a hope that tells us that we can overcome the enmity that is generated by opposites. For us to live as a community of Christ means that we have to overcome this enmity that naturally occurs between two unknowns. We have to take a leap in our understanding of the other; a leap that allows us to accept each other in the faith of Christ knowing that we are each children of God. Only when we can come to accept in faith that the other is ourselves seeking out friendship and love despite our difference will we become one in Christ. This is even more so with our own governance structures as a Diocese. We can no longer pretend that each ministry unit is autonomous and does not need each other.

In the end the it is not because we live by the rules of religion that will allow us to live in harmony (Matt 3.9). We make the rules of religion to conform to what we want not what is required of us by God. Christ asks us to form our relationship in love not by rules that govern us. We need to have an acceptance of what our faith tells us so that we can overcome the barriers that we, ourselves, have put in place. Accepting our faith is accepting Christ's call for us to live in peace and acceptance of each other, so that we can each serve as Christ served. Our service is a step in faith to those around us accepting them as they are not as we suppose them to be. It matters not whether we are part of  our own select group that believes this or that but rather that we have sufficient faith to accept the other for who they are and live in harmony that each knows Christ in their lives. Yes, we have to act that out and not act what we think out and that is perhaps the harder part.