Com panis for sharing in community

 As we have seen last week, irrespective of the year, there are certain recurring stories that come from the resurrection event that are indelibly connected to the whole of the Easter period. Along with Thomas' story is the walk to Emmaus (Lk 24.13-35). This has become a triggering point for many in their journey towards Christ. There is a whole movement that is connected with the Emmaus story that brings people to Christ through their own walk via a structured retreat and companionship.

The story itself has I am sure been dissected many times and in a variety of ways to illustrate some point in terms of Christ's resurrection and its meaning for us in the modern day. Perhaps its most enduring feature is one of companionship and what that means for us as Christians or rather what it means for all those that seek to follow the Christian way. I have heard, often enough, people who say that they have no need of the Church and in certain circumstances with nuanced meaning I could actually agree with them. However, this episode in the story points us to something that has to be ingrained in humanities essence, let alone the Christian journey and path. This story tells us that we cannot, either as collective humanity or as followers of the way, keep ourselves in isolation. Yes, sometimes isolation helps us to understand what is going on, even Christ went into isolation at times. Yet isolationism is not a good state of being because for the most part the human psyche is driven towards community. One in and of its own cannot exist for any length of time and indeed cannot exist without a referral.

Companionship and community is found in the sharing of bread and food

Does the story of companionship and walking the way have a relevance for today and particularly for the ministry units and dioceses that form the Anglican church in Australia? I believe that it gives us a way forward and always has done but one that we have ignored or deliberately set aside for our own individuality. At our individual level, the answer is fairly obvious, that we cannot be on the way as a Christian without support of companions. That is not really something that can be put aside. However, what we do not do is see that companionship in a greater context. In our governance we see each parish / ministry unit, irrespective of diocese or even province, as an individual entity that must survive on its own. Despite our understanding of the body of Christ and all our scriptures to the contrary we believe that each unit is an independent entity. In some dioceses there are even units that compete against each other or see themselves as better or more substantive in the politics of the region/diocese/province. What happened to the body or at least the ability to walk together and share bread?

We are often to hung up on our theology or our individuality that we forget to see the larger picture. This to a certain extent is a carry over from the archaic parish model but has been a serious debilitating view that effects the thinking at Diocesan level and at Provincial level within the Anglican provenance. Since the enlightenment the foremost thought in our minds has been the individual. This is so opposed to the evolutionary culture of the human race which is a tendency towards community. All indigenous peoples throughout the world build their understanding of the world around community. Community means walking with each other in companionship and understanding, if not love. Christian faith has developed from indigenous groups who understood the meaning of community. In walking with Christ towards Emmaus we also begin to understand the need for community and companionship that overcomes all barriers that we place to protect our individuality.

 

Room for doubt

 I think I said last year that today is Doubting Sunday. Each year we are heralded with the story of Thomas Didymus and his doubts. I always wonder why this story above all others is something to dedicate the Sunday to, would it not be better to have a story that is filled with more than doubts but an exuberance of hope? Doubt and hope often go together and it is on this Sunday each year we see there convergence in a figure that has grown figuratively with each passing century. It is absolutely certain that no matter how we twist the story or delve into the depths of the psychology Thomas remains as one of the preeminent figures of the resurrection story and its impact on faith life. We can interpret as being a reflection of our own doubts; we can pinpoint and splurge on the absolute faith the disciple eventually displays; we can marvel at the erroneous depictions of that fate filled non-existent touch and so on and so forth.

Irrespective of how we play the scene out or how we make an effort in exegesis of this particular passage and all the hype that goes with it there is one thing that is absolutely and totally important for us and that is that faith has room for doubt or perhaps put another way there can be no faith without some doubt. I can hear murmurs of discontent in the corner suggesting that there can only be faith there is no room for doubt. It is this attitude, I am afraid that has led to much of our modern dilemma around faith and religion. It is the hard core that drive this model of faith. More often than not it turns more people away from an understanding of love in our presence which we believe is God. The insistence on people only believing what they are told by denominational dogma has led people away from the truth of faith in the hearts and minds of many. This leads to fear of tyranny whilst doubt leads to questions and truth. A truth proclaimed not by dogma but by God.

Even in science the most dominant force in our age of enlightenment and the furthest from any form of religious debate has examples of how doubt and faith our intermingled. Whilst scientists rely on method and an almost religious holding to their way of doing things the holding of doubt is time honoured as is the possibility of faith in a line of investigation. Doubt inevitably leads to investigation, we all know this or should. Doubt also can lead us into an understanding of faith that is deeper than anything that comes from following known rules and dogmatic statements. In the 1990s a PhD student doubted the historic dogma regarding the origin of benign tumours in women's reproductive organs. The doubts expressed led to investigation and eventually proof of fundamental difference which changed the dogma that had been held for hundreds of years. How does this relate to ourselves in the faith community?

Doubt leads to questioning and prayer to find God's truth and love in faith

If we think about it much of our dogmatic faith understandings have been in place for not hundreds but often thousands of years with little change. These faith understandings were created outside of our modern understanding and have not fully transitioned with time. God is a God of change but is also a God of love, a love that is transcendent and unaccountable. If our understanding of God's love is held in a gridlock for a thousand of years while God changes how can doubt not arise. This is not to say that what we believe is not right but rather that our faith must be as immutable as God's love and yet as ever changing as God's Spirit as it moves in the world. It means that in our doubt we must and are allowed to explore the veracity of God's presence in our lives in a manner that we too can exclaim "My Lord and my God" without having to lean on dogma and doctrine for proof but rather show God's love working in a new and wondrous manner. Dogma and faith have been so bound up that the freedom to believe in God has been lost to an attitude that proclaims the "true" way rather than God's presence that leads us to the light of wisdom and love in a world deprived of hope.

In our doubts we can still find room for God's grace and presence to bring the true light of love and light into our hearts as we explore with a new era of the presence of God within. Teaching us and guiding us to love in the communities in which we live and work. It is only with this risen life within us that we can truly proclaim the light of God's presence and our response in the manner and belief that is in the voice of the doubter Thomas "My Lord and my God".

Challenge and response

 So we come to our time of joy and celebration. The joy of celebrating the Resurrection to new life with Christ. The reading from Matthew's gospel is perhaps a reading of disruption (Matt. 28.1-10). The first disruption, if we can call it that, is the fact that the focus is on the women at a time when patriarchy was dominant. The second disruption is the removal of the stone which is closely followed by the third disruption which is the appearance of Christ. These three points of disruption are all for us in the past and yet erupt time and time again into the present to show us a future, which brings with it the promise of newness and further disruption of our lives. Only when we can perceive the opportunities that are raised by disruption will we be able to see the possibilities of new life in ours. Let us look at each point of disruption that occurs and plumb, certainly not all, some of the depths that are hidden in the story.

Feminist theology has been pointing out for a number of years the in built biases that are present in the scriptures regarding dominance and colonisation of marginalised groups, including women. Yet in this passage women are brought to the fore in writing that is dominated by maleness. (I am sure there are other more feminist readings that will point out a greater against the grain reading but that is not my intention here). The very fact, however it came about, that there is this specific rendering of fe/maleness in this place at this time is disruptive. It mocks our understanding of relationship and sources of theological rendering of maleness in authority and power. If we are to doubt at any time the role of women in our faith then this is disrupted here in this most important reading on this most important day. A day that tells of new life and change. How we need to disrupt our normal patterns to realise that the patterns of Christ and God are so different from our own way of thinking as we move into a future that is as yet uncertain.

The second disruption (Matt. 28.2) is where there is the appearance of an external agency to roll away the stone that closes the tomb. This is not normal in any one's imagination let alone reality but this is what confronts us in the Gospel. Is it a literary intervention to explain the absence of the closure? Mayhap, it is something to counter the rumours of theft as are recorded in sources external to the Gospels in the canon (see also Matt. 28.11-15)? No matter. We are all, always confronted by the stone that stops us from understanding with faith. There is a consistent blockage for those who live in today's world. This world is based on obtaining knowledge and proof of how things work, made, etc. Previously, our world was based on the ability to have faith and believe that it was so. In some respects we have come from one end of a spectrum to the other in one easy leap. Today, we have no time for things which appear to be fantastical or figments of others imaginations. In some respects we have strengthened the stone that bars our progress towards a relevant understanding. It often takes an intervention to move that rock, a disruption to what we believe to be possible based on proof. It is only when the stone is removed can we really transform our lives by understanding the balance that must pertain between faith and proof through knowledge only then will the stone that blocks our perception be removed.

The final disruption is of course the appearance of Christ, the first of two post Resurrection appearances in Matthew (28.9-10). The appearance is shocking for its unexpectedness as they run back to the others. Suddenly, the risen Christ confronts (not violently) the women as they rush to return. They are forced into a new pattern and set of beliefs by Christ's presence in the world.  We are confronted with the possibility, centred in Christ of new life,  beyond what we understand and know. Beyond belief and even for some beyond faith. This systemic shock to our system imperils our senses and our world. The disruption of the possibility of a new way an alternative understanding confronts us. The question remains for each of us what are we going to do about it?

The disruption of new life brings uncertainty and fear but also joy and love

 In many respects this is what we face now, as we move forward towards a different way of being as a diocese and our understanding of the world. The receivership has unexpectedly disrupted our lives and we are forced to confront a new future. Just as our thinking of inequality and injustice is disrupted by the centrality of the wo/man so all our previous thinking, e.g. our ministry units, our way of ordering things, our finances, etc. is disrupted by the presence of the receiver. Just as the wo/men were confronted with an external force lifting the barriers confronting them so to the receiver is an exterior force that is making us rethink the barriers facing us in terms of how we cope in a world beyond tradition. Can political advantage and disadvantage remain the same, can we overcome the barriers of bias in our thinking of others, etc. Lastly the disruption of Christ and our acceptance of new life lies open before us as we re-think all of our accepted practices and try to bring new life to community and neighbours in a new model of church in the world.