What is love?

 Christ's call to love is a call that is placed upon us at baptism. As his disciples we are charged with the commandment to love one another (Jn 13.34). In this commandment lies all our personal interactions within and without the community in which we live. It is the basis upon which we as Christians and Christ's followers must (this imperative is essential) produce a stability to the increasingly diverse community of the modern age. It is not something that we can neglect and it is why we empower Godparents and parents to bring up their children in an extraordinary manner. We encourage and indeed command those who take these vows on for children to live to a standard that is far beyond what is common practice in today's world.

This extraordinary means of living is demonstrated within the story of Peter in the Acts of the apostles (Acts 11.1-18). Despite the requirements of Jewish law around dietary matters God's vision is a turning point in how Peter sees the community in which he lives. For us it must also be a turning point in how we live our lives and is an instruction to those who look to guide young people in their formative years. By accepting that which we automatically shun as a result of our own inner convictions with an act of love is the true beginning of living as Christ's servant and disciple. Those who follow Christ are asked and are asking their compatriots to put aside their own deep prejudices and open their hearts to the community in which they live. To often we see this as nothing but an excuse to create havens that are conforming to our own ideals and our own believes. No leadership and no form of politics, if it is to be truly Christian, can abandon people to live without care and love. This applies to, at a familial level as much as to an international level.

Only when we come together do we expose love

We cannot abandon the least of our families, communities or other groupings for the sake of our prejudices and incoherent beliefs. The commandment that we obey is the one that is inclusive of all not just for some. This is something that we need to ultimately understand for ourselves as Christians especially within the present climate of expediency and denial that affects our everyday lives. Only when we have plumbed the depths of despair do we find the hope of the risen Christ in the love that is shared with our neighbours, in humility and hospitality. Peter destroyed everything that he knew as being part and parcel of his faith to show the ultimate love of God for those we despise. It is only when we throw away our iconoclastic views and embrace the flow of love that comes from God through Christ can we manifest the remarkable changes that God's grace brings into our lives. In the Church, we are too often divided by our dogmas and belief systems in a way that destroys the concept of God's love. We draw lines and defend our point of view such that we no longer understand the concept of love but rather create the conclaves that eventually destroy that love.

We can change the world, we may not have the will to change governmental policies that create an increasing divide within countries and between countries, but we can change the world by ensuring that the Christian message of love is carried into the future in the hearts and minds of the youngest members of society. We have been poor at undertaking the charge that Christ gives throughout the history of the Church establishment but as individuals it is up to us to ensure that the basis of our own lives within the community, not only of the Church, but also of the seculam in which we live. In doing this one thing we establish within our families and our communities the true understanding of God's love for us as we manifest God's love in our own communities. In encouraging that love in our youngest through the encouragement of godparents and parents perhaps we will strive towards a better and more loving society.

Is the shepherd heard?

 We could say that today is Shepherd Sunday as this is one of the Sundays, if not the Sunday of the year, when we discuss the proposition of the Shepherd as a model for Christ or God or Jesus.  In seeing this description we immediately think of leadership but we also need to think in terms of those who are being led.  First of all why use the model in the first place?  A bit archaic given modern farming practices and the imagery which surrounds Jesus the Good Shepherd.  Think of all those stain glass windows and book illustrations of a clean fresh faced Jesus and some clean looking sheep.

The reality in the context of the era and the Middle East is a much less romantic figure.  The shepherd, like David, was often the youngest in the family (no other occupation suits).  A loner who was often unmarried. Smelly and unwashed, sheep are not the most cleanly of animals and certainly have their own aroma. Uncouth to say the least.  Often not the owners of the sheep, normally hired hands or as previously mentioned the youngest in the family (No inheritance here).  Often apart from community and not participants in the normal everyday workings of community. This is the figure that is used in Scripture as the embodiment of leadership and of God! Why?

Well let us look at what the shepherd does.  If we picture a Middle Eastern scene where a shepherd would normally be the vision of Psalm 23 although beautiful is not exactly the true picture.  Rather it is a desolate hilly country with little to commend it self in terms of grazing.  Yet the shepherd will lead his flock through this barren landscape to areas where he knows that there is fodder and forage available to the flock.  During the trek some sheep may play up but unless they get into extreme difficulty they are often likely to re-join the flock as they know they will be looked after in the group.  The shepherd does not use force with his sheep but rather is self effacing doing what is required for the good of the whole rather than that of the individual.

The harsh landscape of Jordan with the shepherd leading his sheep (www.pinterest.com)

Despite looking as if they are amenable sheep can be ornery and recalcitrant, especially when left to fend for themselves.  So it is quite to their benefit to be known by the shepherd and follow where he leads, so they have a role to play in the flock and shepherd scene.  If they were to play follow the leader they would in all probability be like army ants, who, if having lost their nest, will follow the ant in front.  If that ant is lost or walking in a circle then they have no guarantee that they will survive.  Indeed the ant in front may find another ant in front as it circles (the tail end of its own followers).  They forever go around in circles until the majority die!! Is this what has become of the Church?

So if we are sheep who is the shepherd? and who is the under shepherd to whom authority has been given to lead the flock to the abundant pastures which are indicated in Psalm 23?  These questions have implications for us today in this Parish as we move towards our synod, for the Australian Church as it moves towards the election of a new Primate and also within Australia with the elections just past.  They are not simple questions with simple answers (God, Jesus, the Christ, etc) but they impinge on our daily lives not just our faith journey.  Working with people within the reality of our context is not the same as working with our faith journey although the two should be overlapping. What should we be looking for in our leaders when we look at the Shepherd model that scripture gives us.

Our leaders should be looking to lead the whole not just their own personal coterie (party, personal accounts, etc).  Scripture is specific about leadership being for the whole (flock) not just for the individual.  Our leaders should be those who listen to the needs of others and to the call of God our ultimate shepherd.  Our leader(s) should have the vision that leads the people (flock) to those pastures where we obtain sustenance but not as thought from the front.  Leaders know the way and call to those who are at the forefront to direct them along the way. The path should be discerned through prayer and consultation by speaking to others to smooth the way and direct us down the path.  Our leaders should not resort to violence or coercion except as a very last resort.  Leadership should be looking for solutions in conflict that are beneficial to both sides and all of God's creation.

As sheep we are also required to listen to our leaders, be persuaded to assist not forced or conscripted against our will, be able to speak against wrong doing and be heard. We should not be persuaded by popularity but by experience and results.  We must also remember that we ourselves are leaders as we too love our neighbours and so will speak out for the disenfranchised to obtain justice and lead people to the love of God through the expression of God's love in our hearts and lives.

Will we listen to God in the coming months as we discern where leadership in Australia and the diocese aims or will we succumb to the populist views and propaganda? Are we able to show the true leadership which is part of who we are as Christians and discern God's will and path in our lives?  No matter what we do, it is our responsibility and decisions that determines the leadership in the Church, in Society and in our lives.

Understanding love in a cycle of violence

 Christ's words to Peter in the last few paragraphs of John's gospel can be quite difficult to understand as the English translation in all of Christ's utterances are 'love'. However, there is a nuance in the final question which seems to upset Peter as the word in Greek is different in both order and depth, yet still translated for us as the word 'love'. We perhaps think Peter gets upset as a result of the repetitiveness of the question but what if it is around word usage as opposed to repetitiveness. There are up to eight variants of the word love in Greek but the more important ones for the present are storge, philia, eros and agape. Each of these word convey a different form of love which we miss in English unless we are aware of context, which is not required when using the Greek forms.

One of the things that the Anglican Church in Australia has been prominent in and, dare I say it, is a leader in is moving on Domestic Violence. Some years ago the Church organised an investigation and report into Domestic Violence in the Anglican Church in Australia which resulted in a task force and the Seven Commitments. Each Diocese and its parishes were asked to take up the commitments and work towards at least one of these in their daily lives and ministry. However, if we think about domestic violence, its perpetrators and its consequences we can probably, in a naïve manner, see that in many cases there is a failure of love within the familial setting. This may in part be how we as English speakers see love, i.e. as a single concept 'love', without realising that there are a multitude of interpretive ways in which we can see love acting within the family and the community. To understand the failure to love within a setting of domestic violence as stated earlier seems rather naïve but becomes much clearer if we understand love as a multiplicity rather than as a singularity. It is also perhaps something that we can teach rather than just talk about not only to children but also to those embarking on a family.

What love defines your relationships?

When we form relationships we tend to form them through a series of ever deepening processes which may or may not follow the order of the Greek words but often tend to. In other words we often begin any relationship with an empathetic bond. A bond that is formed out of empathy for the other, their situation and their context in relation to ourselves. This is what the Greeks call storge. A relationship may stop at this point and we are forever empathetic with and to our acquaintance without moving into any deeper relationship. We often take this feeling of empathy to a deeper level especially if we continue with our friendship on a regular basis such that we gather together often for social or other entertainments. we now start in towards the Greek concept of philia which is love in the bond of a continuing friendship. This is the word that Christ uses in the last statement to Peter, this is also the bond that David and Jonathon have. It is a bond that we do not often talk about but is a bond often formed in war and during times of trouble. It is closest, perhaps, to what Australians know as 'mateship'. Friendship such as this may turn into a sexual attraction which of course will culminate in the intimacy of sexual love or eros. This is of course dependent on the sexual proclivities of the individuals concerned but may often be a precursor to permanent relationships. The combination of these three deepens in a relationship that becomes more permanent that leads to the culmination of agape love or love that is self sacrificing, which is the love in the first two questions of Christ to Peter and is demonstrated on the cross.

The sequence above is one of many possibilities and more often than not the last, agape, is not common within our modern understanding of relationships as the three more ephemeral loves tend to rule our hearts and as they breakdown then we open the door to domination and power. Once we let these into such relationships we will tend to move towards a situation where domestic violence and abuse becomes more prone. Whilst the above schema is perhaps idealistic in this day and age it does assist us to understand better our own relationships and perhaps how to assist those who are in the bleak throes of an unhealthy and abusive relationship. God's relationship with us is none of the first three but is based on agape and it is this that we should be bringing into the world through our own relationship with the risen Lord. Perhaps we do not consider our side of the relationship as being agape but philia or sorge should we not therefore recognise our deficit and learn the art of agape before God?

 

Doubt is good

 Perhaps we should call this Sunday doubting Sunday as we come once again to hear the readings of "Doubting Thomas" from John's Gospel as it shows us an understanding of the presence of doubt in our own faith journey. If we read the story over I wonder if we still think that Thomas doubted at all but rather was slower than the others to believe.  After all they had the luxury of having seen the risen Christ.  Was their doubt just as marked as Thomas's when the women reported the emptiness of the tomb?

The question to ask is: Did Thomas reach out and touch Christ's side?  I think most people today would say that he did but John has a gap here in the text which we have presumptively filled with Thomas touching the Christ.  A presumption that has come from the art work of painters such as Caravaggio who portrays Thomas's finger thrust into the wound.  Perhaps it is the one thing that in this day and age we would all prefer.  Scientific method and the precepts of science have taken us down this route of physical evidence.  We cannot believe anything today unless it has been scientifically proven.  If Christ was to appear before us we would demand evidence.  A biopsy so that the tissue could be analysed.  An MRI or an X-ray would let us know more about the body, the risen body of Christ.  Doctors and scientists would have to lay out the physical evidence before their peers and we would then be satisfied that what we saw was indeed the risen Christ.

Caravaggio's painting of Thomas and the risen Christ.  Do we need to physically touch to believe?

Thomas and the disciples do none of these.  They believe when they see.  If we cannot have the physical evidence then perhaps the visual is the next best thing.  All the other disciples saw Christ so why can't Thomas not believe, he didn't.  Would you?  Is your belief such that if a person told you that they had seen the risen Christ you would without hesitation say yes I believe you?  Especially under the circumstances of having known he was buried.  Much the same as if someone told you that they had seen Princess Diana or Nelson Mandela within hours of their burial / funeral.  They do say that seeing is believing but nowadays even that is not true.  We have so many wonderful programmes on the computer that can doctor the photograph that you took.  On Facebook I have seen people's faces on various animals as people have toyed with these various programmes.  Do we really believe now what is shown to us in a photograph?  So for us is seeing believing or would we want to devolve down to touch as Thomas asked?

The disciples were told by the women that the tomb was empty (Luke) and indeed that Mary had spoken with the risen Lord (John).  Yet, the disciples did not believe.  It is almost as if there is another hole in the readings, a gap, where nothing happens until the Disciples see the risen Christ.  Even Mary does not really believe until she has spoken with the Christ.  Most of them are either totally disbelieving or unconcerned as if there is an air of unreality drifting over them.  Collective hallucinations as a result of their grief rather than an understanding of God working in the world in the presence of Christ.  If someone told you that a bomb had gone of in the middle of Sydney, would you believe them or think it was an April fools joke after the fact.  You would want to see it on News 24 or some other media circus or at least corroboration from a multiple of sources.  Truth telling has long since disappeared from the public arena such that we can believe what we hear.

In this day and age doubt has a place in our faith journey.  Doubt sows the seed of inquiry as we begin our journey in faith.  A child who comes to baptism today is a person who has been born into a world filled with certainties that are presented to them  through touch and sight.  Through physical provability and confidence in their senses. The sciences will aid them in understanding the physical world in which they live and come to maturity in.  A world that has placed its reliance on the measurement and categorisation of the world around us and is sceptical of that which is unseen and non-physical.  We are asking their parents and God parents to bring them up in faith.  To draw them into a development of that which can not be measured and categorised.  In this age of science they have a profoundly difficult undertaking, as they are asked to develop in a young child of God an ability which even we find hard to hold.  The ability to believe in something that is not able to be encompassed by our methods of proof. This is not an easy task as we all know for we are all guilty of some level of doubt in our lives.  If handled correctly however our doubt can be transformed into a faith that is as compelling as the disciples on seeing the risen Christ.  We may not have the assurance of the visual confirmation that they had of the risen Christ but we will have a growing knowledge that God is part of our journey as our doubts are answered.  We are asked to come to an understanding of God's presence in our lives that is not confirmed by our senses but is confirmed by our belief in a risen Christ.

Hearing Thomas' doubt we can see ourselves.  Hearing Thomas' words to the risen Christ we need to see the trajectory of our faith and the fulfilment of Christ in our lives.  We may be filled with doubt but our goal is in the faith that we hear Thomas enunciate. "My Lord, My God"

The risen life

 Christ is risen, he is risen indeed! Once more we have come to the space and time of celebrating the risen Christ, once more we come to celebrate the risen life. Each time that we do so we rededicate our lives to the promises that are made at baptism. Promises that commit ourselves to looking forward to a future that is filled with the truth and veracity of Christ within our lives. This is an important time for us as Christians and it is a time that should be filled with hope and joy for a fulfilment of the new life that comes with Christ. Too often though it is a time of despair and futility as we contemplate in our hearts our lacks and our inability to change from year to year creating a fugue in our hearts and souls.

This however is a time of rejoicing, our introspection should have been undertaken as we approached the cross initially. Now in the joy of seeing our risen Lord we need to acknowledge our own death so that we also can rise with Christ. What we should not do is go looking into the past that is dead to us to find the newness in life that is promised by Christ in his resurrection. Christ comes to us from the future not the past and in coming to us from the future we accept him into our lives knowing and abetting the change that this brings. We celebrate the burning away of the dead wood as we light the new fire, the fire of the Spirit in our lives as we move forward on the journey to the risen life. We pass through baptism acknowledging that we will live in truth and in Christ.

Let us not search amongst the dead and the past where they reside

In passing through the waters of death we can once more rise again leaving those things behind that belong in the past and celebrate the life that Christ gives us in the NOW. How can we find the good life in the past when Christ comes from the future? In our renewal of vows taken by our godparents on our behalf, and ourselves when we came to confirmation, we reaffirm our purpose and close ourselves of to the past. In passing through the waters we pass from death, that is now past, to a new life which is in Christ, the future. If we renege on these vows we deny Christ and look to death for our self knowledge. Only when we accept the death of ourselves in the waters of baptism do we begin to live in newness of life.

We celebrate today in the present. We allow the past to die. We begin a new life in the future with Christ. In celebrating today we need to place all our effort into fulfilling the vows that we take. Only in allowing ourselves to die will we begin to rise into something different. Unfortunately for many today this will be an exercise in futility as we do not wish to die. The horror that we feel is present in death is persuasive and denies us the support that we need to fulfil Christ's promise. In our denial we loose our rebirth and are unable to become as Christ as we bring with us the sins of the past. We immediately forget the words at the beginning of each service and the light that is re-lit at dawn, Christ is risen, he is risen indeed!

The other side of passion

  What do we think of when we think of passion and in particular when it has "the" in front of it? In some respects our understanding of passion and the Passion can become confused. In everyday usage when we consider passion we look at examples that are predicated on joy and a surfeit of or abundance of emotion. We are engaged in passionate sex or we engage our passions. Of course some of those joys and things we pursue are not desirable for the majority but more often the case we are looking at something that consumes are very being. However, when we capitalise it and put the in front of it, especially as Christians, we begin to think of Christ and the Sunday before Easter. A Sunday that traditionally calls for the reading of  the Passion, which is the full story of Christ's sacrifice on the cross. At this point we ponder the connection between what we know as passion and what the connection is with Christ's agonising decisions and consequences? There does not seem for us to be a connection between the two.

Theologically speaking in terms of the Passion we are driven to think in terms of its original usage which comes to us from the Latin passionem or the nominative form passio which means to suffer, or endure an experience. It is not about the nature of the experience it is about our resilience and our ability to endure all things and in the case of Christ it is his ability to endure the decisions that lead to the cross. Our understanding of the word passion in everyday usage does not come from this source but from the Middle English rendition to desire with strong emotion, arising from the Greek pathos and being popularised in the 1600s through into the 1700s. In some respects we all have to endure our passions or our lack of ability to indulge in them, so there is perhaps a bit of a connection there. However, it is in the original that we must focus especially at this time of year when we approach the celebration of new life at Easter.

Finding your passion is hard - allowing yourself to begin the journey is harder

We have, if we have been true to our Lenten journey, endured our time of fast to prepare ourselves for this coming week and its culmination in the risen Christ we celebrate at Easter. In some respects Lent should be for us a mirror of the last week and be our own passion. However, we seldom take these things of Lent seriously for this to occur. Perhaps though if we were serious and passionate in rendering our Lenten season into our daily lives, so that we too can be resurrected to new life, we should consider the words I state at the start of the journey. These words I convey in various ways on Ash Wednesday "What we do in Lent should be a preparation for the rest of our lives. Thus, if we give up chocolate, then the trial of Lent makes the resisting chocolate for the rest of our lives easier to achieve". In this way we select what we give or take up over the Lenten period and allow it to become a passion, a trial, and our passion for new life. Christ in his passion gives up ongoing life for himself in preference of new life through the agony of the cross for us; can we not offer a little agony in ourselves for the betterment of our lives or are we too self absorbed to see that this may change the way we think?

I have been re-reading Frank Herbert's Dune series and something from there strikes me as appropriate in this moment as we seek for Christ's passion in our lives but are fearful of the change that that will bring. Herbert writes "We do not want our ideas changed. We feel threatened by such demands. 'I already know the important things!' we say. Then Change comes and throws our old ideas away". In some ways this is what Christ does to and for us as Christ is the great Changer in our lives. Lent for us should be about change in our lives as we move towards the greatest change that Christ gave to us; New Life. Yet, we stumble at the first hurdle, we are unable to join Christ in his passion even if we have had the whole of Lent to prepare because we fear that change and what its consequences will be for our lives. This is our passion the one that Christ understood in Gethsemane, our fear of change that must and should be embraced. If we do not then we become belligerent in our fears like Putin and Trump. We become stagnated without true hope for the future like many modern politicians who live solely in the past. Today, we face Christ Passion in the reading of the Gospel but can we face our own Passion and follow Christ into newness of life?

Judas economics

 Economics is at the top of our news cycle with the imposition of various tariffs and their effects from the Trumpian dream book. Much like Judas, this appears to be our most prevalent way of looking at what it means to have and to be part of the human race. It is in reality a question of outlook as the Gospel passage from John points out (Jn 12.3-8). The cost of the perfumed oil that was used by Mary and its usage. From Mary's point of view she has given what she can to the fullest possible extent. The oil, which had probably been saved up over a long time to be used sparingly, was poured with generosity over Christ's feet. Perhaps, like many of us Judas watching from the side lines has a different view: greater use could have been attained especially if the asset had been turned into cash rather than poured down the drain so to speak. This question is one that sits close to our hearts during Lent as it is a question that we need to wrestle with in applying it to not only material assets but to our spiritual wealth as well.

To reach out in compassion is the beginning of community and openness to the other

How are we to react when it comes to the use of the assets that we posses both personal and corporate? Is it for us to determine the expenditure? Are are we to follow Christ in our compassionate outpouring of all we have towards those who are in need? The Judas effect is the one that perhaps we adopt rather than that of Mary in the Gospel story. The asset is to be taken by ourselves and used for what we believe is to be the greater good. Christ says famously here that the 'poor are always with us' suggesting that there is little that we can do in the present time to alleviate something that is constantly there but rather to pour our wealth out in worship and acknowledgement of Christ or rather God. Yes, there is very little we can do to alleviate the poverty of the nations until such time as we can alleviate the poverty that is inherent within ourselves. Both ways have there faults built in. Judas was by no means an innocent in this conversation. It is inherent in the passage that Judas meant to utilise the money for himself not in the alleviation of the surrounding poverty both material and spiritual. We ourselves become side tracked often so that we spend everything that there is in chasing our own dreams and desires rather than using what has been freely given to the worship of God and following God's requirements.

In holding on to our own wealth of time, talent, finance, worship, etc. we withhold the opportunity of those who are not imbued with these to experience God's presence and love. In facing our own desires in this Lenten period we need to face our tendency to be as Judas, hoarding for ourselves and our wants. We often do not see compassion as a response and we withhold our  compassionate response. In the Isaiah passage God says that even in the desert God will provide something new (Is 43.18-19) while we harbour our thoughts in the past. Compassion asks us to open our hearts to those around us and leave of the things that we are doing for ourselves. Leave the Judas mindset behind and allow something new to happen as we interact with compassion. We can claim anything in terms of how good we are, just as Paul does (Phil. 3.4-6), but in the end unless we write our assets of to God's presence in our lives we are nothing.

Mary's attitude is just this letting go of everything to allow the compassion of God and the love of God to reside within ourselves. In this manner we think not of our own wants and needs but we let go and open our hearts to the other. Only when we allow this to happen do we begin to see the new life of God and create the compassionate community that does not allow the poor to exist. It is our own thoughts that disabuse others as we do not open ourselves to the suffering that is around us.