A single community yet divided

 There are now many Christian denominations through out the world as there are many different faith groups all of which have different ideas of what or who 'God' is. Surprisingly, as one examines the various odd faith groups and Christian denominations throughout the world there are a number of common denominators. Of course, for Christians no matter who or what they may say they are, the one common denominator is the understanding that Christ is Lord. For faith groups including Christians there is a general understanding of the Golden rule that is one has a love for the other and will treat the other as we treat or would wish to be treated. There are of course more radical off shoots of all religions, including Christianity, who would not see these in their actions or beliefs because at the end of the day most people do not want to be killed, tortured, maimed, abused, etc, as extremists seem to think is the appropriate way to put their point of view across. In John's gospel Christ states "there are other sheep of mine, not belonging to this fold' (10:16), which leads me to ponder about the nature of the world and Christ's presence or God's presence within it. I will keep my thoughts close to the faith I know and speak with regards the Christian church (a manmade construct) throughout the world.

There are many folds that belong to Christ not just us

The Church as we know it in a Christian sense has over time squabbled and squabbled quite badly so that today we do not have a divine catholic and uniform church but a splintered and fractious church. It is, not even a possibility, the result of men's inability to agree. Yes, I did say men's, not women's for the majority of divisions, if not all, it has been a failure of men to agree on what to believe. One would think it would be simple to agree to be Christlike in our approach to the world i.e. act with love, speak with truth and care for those in need. Yet, it is a strange fact that Christians no matter where or who they are disagree not on these three things but the interpretation thereof and God. This is really the crux of our challenge of being Christian and following Christ in the world. We all agree with the sentiments of love truth and care but what we fail to do is agree on the impetus that lies behind these three things. The real question is How can we?

The reality is that we are all different not only in the physical but also in our mental shell and beliefs. This is the stumbling block for in our difference we cannot accept the other as being part of ourselves unless they start to or do agree with the mental construct we have of our reality. Once there is an agreement at this level then we begin as a collective to put in place our own rules and guidelines to ensure that our beliefs and understanding of reality is maintained to keep us comfortable. This is of course a red flag to those who are outside our belief system allowing for anger and retaliation to intrude upon our peace. So begins a cycle of violence, hatred and division the opposite of that which we are called to in Christ. Our clue must be with Christ who states "there are other sheep". We cannot maintain our own belief of ourselves as being the sole arbiters of God's truth and Christ's way unless we are willing in our hearts and minds to embrace this message of love for all people. This is the issue for us as humans as we have contend with our own pride and our own wish to be dominant or rather in a position of authority and power.

Difference is not something to be feared but rather like Christ to embrace and call our own as part of the community that is in Christ. Our over abundance of denominations within the Christian fold just reinforces Christ saying in John that there are other sheep. We are all sheep that belong and answer to Christ as such we should recognise that we are responding to Christ in our separate identities. Only those that belong to Christ will respond as we do not respond to the thieves that come in over the fence. In truly recognising that we all belong to Christ (irrespective of belief system) we should all respond in love not just to each other but to all who are made in the image of God. We should not have the audacity to say you are different and therefore you cannot belong to Christ and God. Only when we can accept at that level we will not have to have reminders of war in peace as each year we celebrate or rather commemorate ANZAC day. As it is we celebrate and remember the greater sacrifice each week and yet do little towards our common good to put aside our difference and see the family of God around us so that we may live in love.

The other side of doubt

 Last week I extolled the virtue of doubt as it is a source in our lives for the questioning of faith that we all need to have in our search for God's presence in our hearts. Just as with many things doubt is two sided and this week gives us the opportunity to look at the darker side of doubt and where that might lead. All of the Gospel stories of the resurrection contain elements of doubt that are handled in various ways. Last week, we heard John's story and this week it is the turn of Luke. In Luke's handling of doubt it is important to understand that Christ appears to criticise the presence of doubt in the disciples (Lk. 24:38b). Why, if we need doubt does Christ then criticise this feeling in the disciples?

Doubt if not allowed to move towards the positive need to query and investigate will descend into the festering hole of fear. Unless, hope is present as we quest for answers then the answers we seek will be obscured by our fear, which is enabled by doubt. Fear leads us towards the darker recesses of our humanness and encourages us to create our own answers that lead to depravity and a denial of our neighbours. It is our fear that drives the divide between those who our different as we fear that the difference may overwhelm us and make us also different. Science fiction, just like any other genre of fictive writing, can nudge our understanding of this phenomena if we allow it. In a series, by  author Michael Anderle, a very different world to our present one is described. However, what is clear in this particular series is the exaggeration that comes with fear of the other and how humanity can be driven clearly away from the love of neighbour. The fear that is present is driven by doubt and is clearly exploited by the books antagonists to rule over the population. In some respects these last few years have also shown how easy it is to manipulate a populace using the tools of doubt and fear.

Fear builds walls when we succumb to doubt

Christ challenges the doubt that the disciples feel in Luke's gospel to move them away from the fear that underlies their doubt. In all the Gospels that fear is prevalent and is overcome with the coming of the risen Christ. Yet, the harbinger of fear, doubt, is also present and in later years rears its head in many ways but can be seen most clearly in the removal of women from the leadership and power positions within the growing community. This is in reality just a symptom as underlying the symptom is the actual problem that of power and authority to influence others. Christ influences others in such a manner that their natural tendencies are overwhelmed, so that they come to understand love and the need to integrate power and authority within the community. This naturally means that all may share in the boundless love that comes from Christ. But what happens when we give in to our doubt and allow our fear to dominate. Then we set our hearts on the world as John states in his letter (1 Jn 2:15). In doing so we submit to our fears and turn away from that which calls for courage and questioning to find the way forward in faith.

Our natural tendency has always been to be ruled by our fears and thus succumb to doubt rather than be challenged to change by our doubt. In our fear we grab for what is available to us and more often then not that means grabbing and holding on to what the world gives to us. In doing so we are tantalised by the promise of more and more and thus forget that we travel with companions. In forgetting those that are around us we forget to give love and see those around us solely as means to attain our goals and our needs and to overcome our fears by ridding ourselves of that which challenges us. This is what the world asks of us; that we remove all obstacles and difference from our path to power and authority, no matter how small or great that is. Christ calls us not to succumb to the world but to cast aside our fears and allow our doubts to fuel our faith. It is only through the love that God displays that we are able to reach out over that which divides to ensure that we form the family of God in the community. Once we can let go of the fears that our doubt allows to grow, fears that are only fears of ostracisation as opposed to the inclusion that comes with love.

Faith to 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".

New life always follows death

 Easter. A time for renewal, a time to look forward with hope. The flame of hope and love has been lit once more to carry us into a new beginning. We have been there before we have seen it all and we have gone through it more than once but each year we return with new hope vibrant in the air as we greet the risen Christ. Yet, we must turn the clock back and remember that hope began in despair and betrayal. We must turn back and remember that in death and darkness the new beginning was initiated and consummated. It is fitting that this year we are reminded of the extraordinary role that women played in the resurrection story.

It is the women who bring the news of the empty tomb. It is Mary who first interacts with the risen Christ. In other Gospels it is also the women that have a prominent role to play and who engage in the new life that Christ represents in his risen glory. They express all the hesitancy and unbelief that is present in the men's story but they are still the ones that are prominent in the initial recognition of risenness. Yet also within the distinctiveness of the interaction there are anomalies that need to be addressed. Why is it that Mary is denied the physicality that is present in the interactions with the male disciples? Why is it that in the prominence of the ladies in these stories there role has been lessened over time? The last of course is obvious if we think about the patriarchal systems that inhabit the world particularly in the early years of Christendom. Indeed if we reflect on tis we can see that this matters even in today's world.

The first is perhaps more difficult to assimilate and may have something to do with the male female relationship of the time as mentioned earlier. However, there may be something else here that is worth remembering. Christ is reborn not from the womb but from God in preventing the intimate touch is this what is being signified. New life is seen as springing from the womb of the mother in Christ the mother's womb is bypassed as we move into new life only through death not through the living. In allowing the male touch Christ is indicating to us that we need to become intimate with life reborn following death. Perhaps, this is stretching it and yet there is something here that must needs be explored in more detail. The mother knows life, this is inscribed in the very nature of woman. It is an intimate knowledge and it is an innate  knowledge that comes through experience and pain. It is a knowledge that man cannot attempt to know let alone know innately or as intimately. Such pain is overcome with new life, it is not forgotten but rather sublimated behind the joy and love that is found in new life, but is carried throughout life.

The cross and tomb are empty of life. Love has moved beyond the grave and death.

Mary has already acknowledged the pain of loss of life, she knows that pain often bears life and in recognising the risen Lord Mary's pain is sublimated behind the joy of new life. She already knows this feeling as birth and death are often co-mingled in joy and love at the start of any new life. It is only dull man that needs the verification of touch to inhabit the knowledge that new life comes from death. It is not an innate knowledge of knowing pain and loss often proceed new life and love. In our present day many of us are left behind as we no longer have access to this innate knowledge as all of our needs are catered for by our knowledge and ability. The intimacy that comes with birth and death is no longer a reality in our lives. In losing this we have lost some of the impact that the risenness of Christ brings to those who are captured within the story.

Having suffered with Christ on the cross on Good Friday and passed through the devastation of Saturday we open ourselves this Sunday to the possibility of life that extends beyond the border of the known. A life that brings joy and love into the hearts and minds that witness to death on the cross and find that it only leads to hope and love beyond all expectations...if we allow it to. We can dwell too much on the death; we can dwell too much on the life but what we do not do is dwell on the transition between the two and what it truly means for each of us as we die to that which was and rise into a new hope filled future that Christ calls us to only if we are willing to step beyond our own fears and hesitations.