Words and action

 Luther is famous for stating that it is not by works alone but faith or sole fide. Indeed much of the biblical text from which Luther derives this saying is supportive of the notion by faith alone. The basis / foundation of saving grace is faith in Christ and God. This is supported time and time again. Yet, the writer of the epistle of James is correct, also, in suggesting the alternate (James 1:22). The writer is telling us here to be doers, however we must not be complacent here and accept this as "Oh, we just have to do" because it does not work like that. Indeed the writer is most pedantic in stating that we must be listeners who actually do something as a result (James 1:19-25). In much the same way Christ says the same thing in Mark's gospel when he reprimands the Pharisees with regards to eating (Mk. 7:8).  So how can we bring this seeming contrary scripture into our lives today.

Too often it seems to me that members of faith communities, throughout the world, are often just doing good things in the community. For most this is the thing to do and maybe attend church at least twice a year to be a good Christian. However, there is more to being a Christian then this and often we neglect the faith side in favour of the easier route of works that are good. The hard part is not doing but as James' author puts it "let every man (sic) be quick to hear". We allow this part of the instruction to wash over us and get on with the practical. Just like any form of education the hard part is listening attentively to the instruction / lesson / lecture / seminar, etc. Effort needs to be put in and time needs to be set aside but few allow themselves that time and energy. This deprives them of the essentials which more and more people lack as we move into newer and newer generations. It is often the case that when education is arranged for those who want to put the effort in to obtain what is freely given to enhance and deepen faith but most squander the opportunity believing that it does not concern them or we have not the time and will continue doing.

Are you listening or do you just hear the noise?

In doing and not listening we are much like the Pharisees (Mk. 7:6b) and it is incumbent on us to be ones who seek God through study and increasing our understanding of what God requires from us. A couple of times I have heard the rejection of possible fun ways to gather being rejected because either it was too high falutin or they just could not be bothered. We need to be like the bride looking for her lover and hearing his voice calling to us to rise and follow after listening to his voice constantly in our lives (Song 2:13b). It is this love that we are so lackadaisical  about when we hear the call but refrain from pursuing. We are drawn away by the raucous call of our secular lives rather than the gentle call of God's love. The promise of an instant prize or gratification rather than the long awaited gifts that come from God in surprising and often unusual ways. The insistent and persistent call of God is like that of a lover that comes quietly and unobtrusively in the early hours of the morning. We stand by the things that we do rather than taking an active listening role to endeavour to hear what God is actually calling us to and not what we think we are called to do.

The less and less we pay attention to God the less and less that we do in terms of what God calls us to. For in attending less to God we attend less to our role as listeners and doers and become simple minded doers for the sake of doing. It may seem strange to us in the modern era to seek God through the study of the scriptures and /or general study and discussion. The unfortunate thing is that in the modern era we have allowed the academy to become divorced from the reality of our lives. We also allow ourselves to choose which part of the academy we listen to and become followers of Peter or followers of Paul rather than followers of God. In other words we allow ourselves to be lured by one source over another when we should be listening to all sources so that we may find God amidst the multitude. In not undertaking the requirement to listen to God and then coming in to praise God  we are becoming even more like the Pharisee. Our lips proclaim God's glory but we do not uphold even a small part of what God calls us to do. In listening to God's call we can actively participate in what God is wanting us to do rather than just doing what we think is best.

Walking away

In the last few weeks we have been focussing our attention on Christ's sayings around the bread of life. As intimated last week the concept of eating flesh and blood was an abhorrent one to the Jewish faith. It is therefore no surprise in the context that is portrayed in the gospel that his disciples decided to give up or at least some of them did (Jn. 6:66). These are the ones that did not get what Christ was saying but here is the thing even today we have the same issue of people giving up or turning away. It is to be expected in this day and age, particularly as religion and religious belief has taken a backseat in the lives of people. We can point to a number of causes that have resulted in the situation we find ourselves in today, in terms of faith communities, but that is not really very helpful at the end of the day. Yet, we can also say that when we take up the cross that Christ demands of us the going becomes tough and irrespective of whether we want to blame other mechanisms this is the actual issue when we get down to the basics.

Simon Peter's answer to Christ is perhaps the most basic answer that we have for those who are wont to give up "You have the words of eternal life" (Jn. 6:68). For those that are on the path of faith this must be the greatest statement ever. It is in following Christ's words and actions that bring us to that point where we can grasp the eternal life that is offered. However, the greatest issue we have is in doing precisely that. Last week, I spoke of conforming to God's will and emulating Christ as we seek to ensure justice for the other and not just for ourselves. The walk that Christ demands of us as we partake of the bread and blood in the eucharistic setting is the walk of truth and justice. Above all else as we have seen in the politics of this nation, this is the hardest walk of life and the one that creates the conditions for us to take the easy road. The temptation is to skirt around the truth to your benefit rather than stating the truth for the benefit of the other. We follow along with the majority whether they are subscribing to the truth or to a convenient misdirection.

Walking away is often easier than facing the truth

In our local communities the concept of truth is even more important particularly when it comes to our faith communities. We so often understand our truths by the past and how we ourselves received an understanding of truth. For some the truth that there is a lack of people in church on Sunday is the truth that is of utmost importance. However, the actual truth of God's presence and our understanding that Christ needs to be emulated in thought, word, and deed is the truth that matters most. We pursue that which is most gainful for ourselves not that which is of importance to the other. The burdens that we bear need to be lifted before we can act for the other. Yet, when we walk in truth and justice we immediately forget about our burdens and confront the real burdens borne by others. In this we have to act with boldness and not be bound by the chains that we place upon ourselves (our burdens) but speak out in truth and peace to the community that we serve (Eph. 6:20). This for us is a constant conflict that we must struggle with on a daily basis. Paul's description of the armour of God in Ephesians takes from the military of his day (Eph. 6:14-17) and is often seen as being militaristically burdensome for a mission of peace centred in love.

Yet, if we are to walk this way then there is a certain amount of preparation that has to be undertaken. Both mental and spiritual, so in some ways the advice regarding armour is as accurate today as it was before. We could analogize this again by thinking along virus protection in a COVID world or computer tech but the essentials are the same. Truth keeps us on the right road, keeps the pants on so to speak, just like a good belt. Few people would think of going out without a shirt and when we talk about faith that shirt (no matter whether it is a Gucci or a T-shirt) should be our display of righteousness in the world. We cannot go anywhere without thongs or at least boots in the country and for a good walk we need wisdom and understanding that comes from knowledge of how to ensure peace in the community. A good Akubra hat and a short staff to assist our walk and protect us in need completes our adventuring outfit into the temptations of the world. The only other accessory that is a must, I do admit I have difficulty finding an adequate clothing analogy (handbags do not really work), so I suppose our best is that are electronic equipment best have the anti-virus shield of faith. Who can go without their phone so I suppose faith can be considered as our shield for electronic communication or rather any communication that is about God's presence in our lives, Yet, if difficulties arise these are no guarantees that we will not refuse the challenge and walk away from the path that leads us to God's presence. It is always the harder path that those who have faith must tread that is why it is so easy, like the disciples, to turn away from the path of truth and accept the path of the world.

Body and blood

 In reading the passage from John regarding Christ's saying that it is "my flesh and drinks my blood" (Jn. 6:54) creates problems not only for the disciples who follow him but in some ways for us. The issue that wells up in our minds is that initial reaction of "Yeuck, flesh and blood" and I am fairly certain that for the disciples this is the reaction in question. Yet, the Gospel was written long after the life of Christ and when we read it we read it with a long history of interpretive layering that festoons these words. It is not a simple thing to mine John's gospel in particular but all Gospels for something that has meaning for us today. Simple platitudes may work for some but at the end of the day there has to be something greater then the simplicity of "Oh this is just a symbolic gesture which is encompassed in the Eucharist". Firstly, we have to remember that these words are said prior to the institution of any form of symbolic supper. Secondly, they are spoken to some learned, but not that many, and more likely poor, humble people in the setting created by John. So what is the author attempting to convey? This is difficult and really open to the numerous interpretations that one can find but perhaps we need to think very simply in a complex sort of way.

After David's death Solomon takes the throne of Israel in his father's stead (1 Kings 2:12). Solomon interacts with God within a dream in chapter 3 (1 Kings 3:3-14) and it is this interaction that is the basis of Solomon's reign. What is of interest for us is the request that Solomon makes of God (1 Kings 3:8), the rest to a certain extent is superfluous. The ideal of good judgement in terms of justice is esteemed good by God and as such is the thing that we need to display. Again in Paul's letter to the Ephesians (Eph. 5:11-21) the crux of the passage is the notion of walking as wise people not foolish (Eph. 5: 15). If we think of this in terms of the previous passage it is walking in the wisdom and understanding of Solomon who walks in justice not in injustice. This then brings us back once more to the Gospel and Christ talking about flesh and blood. From the reading of the Gospels as we have them today one of the overarching understandings of Christ in scripture is that of a person who embodies the meaning of justice. The person who goes to the lowest of the low and ministers and ensures that they achieve justice within the community. The cured leper, who is outcast; the woman who haemorrhages, an outcast from community; the blindman who was ostracised and brought back into community; etc. All of these stories tell of a person who brings the outcast back into community simply by ensuring that they can once again be accepted.

An offering of blood for the justice of all not an offering of blood to God

So what does that mean for the words of John?  Up to and during Christ's earthly period sacrifice was common as part of the religious understanding of the time. Part and parcel of this understanding that what was being offered was the life i.e. the blood of the sacrifice along with the flesh to God. Hence the prohibitions against spilling (human) and drinking (animal) blood. Yet, Christ is offering himself, his blood and his bodily flesh, his wholeness and connection to God. In accepting this in faith and following by accepting the wholeness of Christ we are again accepted in wholeness with God. Not just earthly flesh and earthly blood but the whole being of Christ who has embodied righteousness and justice upon the earth. We cannot just pass this by with a flippant "Oh eucharistic" and forget that it implies much more than the symbolic flesh and blood of Christ. It is the actuality of the embodiment of Christ within ourselves that must become important in our faith.

The determinant for us today as we gather for the eucharistic feast is to understand that in reception we are faithfully fulfilling Christ's wish for us to embody Christ in our communities today. This means that all of our actions need to embody justice and love of the other. It is often the case that we neglect some part of our community in some form or another. Just sit back and think about those that you neglect in your daily life. It is a question of really being honest with yourself when answering this question because knowing myself there is a built in avoidance that says "Me! I do not neglect anyone." At the end of the day I am certain that all of us fail to answer this correctly, in some corner of our mind we can name at least one individual or section of the community that we have avoided. The reasons being simple, we dislike them, we had a bad relationship with them, we are prejudiced against them, we have heard stories etc. All of these are excuses for us not to reach out to the other, not to provide justice to the other, not to be as Christ and thus not to truly have eaten and partaken of Christ's body and blood. Is this what you feel happy about when you come into God's presence at the eucharist or should it be that I have given my all even to those who would not have me?

 

Bread's life

The bread of life freely given in Christ as his flesh remembered and re-lived in the eucharistic setting. The conjuration of symbol from that which feeds us in the simple diet of millions. A diet that the poorest in the world know in one form or another whether it is made from millet, sorghum or wheat it is a staple food source eaten by millions around the world. Yet, within our faith this common foodstuff has become one of the most powerful symbols of life eternal in representing Christ's life given for us and to us (Jn. 6:51). However, the juxtaposition of secular and spiritual sustenance reminds us that it is not just the spiritual that needs attention when we participate within the acknowledgement of Eucharistic life. It is also the way in which we embody and translate this into the reality that is our secular life. It is all very well to venerate the symbol, but it is the actualisation of that symbol in our very lives that is even more important. The symbol is there to continually remind us of our responsibility within the symbolic setting and covenantal values that this presupposes as they are worked out within our mundane lives.

 To be as Christ in the community is to work out the eucharistic symbolism within our lives as we show Christ's life to those who are other. So how are do we become Christ's imitators to the community (Eph. 5:1)? Too often we busy ourselves in a life of ministry and offering whilst we at the same time fail in how our lives reflect Christ seeking only power, position and authority. In this we should learn to dispossess ourselves of our normal innate behaviours that are learnt from childhood in today's selfish world. Seeking only those things that come from Christ and are spoken of as truth and love. Paul is extremely firm about this way of living as he writes to a number of disparate people. The reading from Ephesians in chapter four speaks of putting of the old and putting on the new (Eph. 4:17-24). He becomes even clearer in the following passage as he educates the recipients of the letter, stating that living a new life means putting aside lies, anger, corruption etc and living a life of truth, forgiveness and love (Eph. 4:25-32).

Bread our entry into risen life

 For those of us who live in the current era and not when the letter was written also understand how gobsmackingly difficult this is, especially when we have placed in front of us on a daily basis the corrupt behaviours of those we place in power and authority over us. It is often that we see daily prominent members of society who have power and authority (moral, spiritual and secular) behaving in ways which are the complete opposite of what it means to be imitators of Christ, and these are just those who profess some form of Christian belief. The old saying of lex orandi, lex credenda (the law of worship is the law of belief) and vice versa is as appropriate in terms of our actions in community as it is within the worship space. If we see and allow behaviour within our society and community from those with belief doing that which is contra to Christ like behaviour, then one has to wonder what or who they actually worship. That is of course not the end, because they advertise themselves as being who they are; they send a false signal of behaviour to others in the community. To counteract this, we need to ensure that we are imitating Christ in the fulness of that meaning and it begins with the bread that is offered to give life.

We are tasked with the understanding as followers of Christ that imitation or lex credendi, lex orandi in the reality of our lives is the way we need to proceed. Joab's deed (2 Sam. 18:14) is the same as the deeds of those in authority today. It is a seeking of self over other rather than placing the other over self which is what we are asked to do by truth telling. The life that bread contains cannot be thrown away in the denigration of others who have received life (maybe not Christ's) from sustenance provided by God. This is the other whom we nurture, the one who receives only physical nurture and not spiritual nurture from the same source that provided the bread. We all have a tendency to try to fulfil this within our own small enclaves rather than provide the food of life to others on the outside. The moment we attempt this we are side-lined and follow the practice of those who have gone before to our own and the other's detriment. Only when we face up to the truth that we must above all be truth tellers and comfort givers to those who are truly other will we begin to understand the benefits of bread's life.

Gifts of God for the people of God

 In the invitation at the Eucharist the priest offers up the wine and the bread and states "The gifts of God for the people of God", not only indicating the gift of God's Son but also the real gift of the grain and grape that the elements originated from, a double blessing. In seeing within the grain and the grape the mystery of Christ's offering of his body and blood we may miss the gift that is in the reality of life, bread and wine, sustenance for the physical body. We are often too focussed on the sign and the symbol to accept the reality of the gift in much the same way that those following Christ were to fixated on the sign that they rejected the food of eternal life (Jn 6:30). This is the free offering that God gives to us that is contained in the bread and the wine, life. A life that is abundant and a life that is freely given to us through God.

Wine and bread sustenance for soul and body

We cannot live without the freely given bounty of God, which we have inevitably commodified for the benefit of a few. The eucharistic meal is, among other things, a reminder to us of this free gift which we need to remind ourselves constantly of. It is a FREE gift. To our minds anything that comes to us free has a catch associated with it. We are too used to the fact that every 'freebie' has a price attached and if we think like that then we are not receiving a gift but purchasing something. We can perhaps turn to politics, and recent politics in this country, to see the effect of gifts on the political landscape. We have had in recent months this rort and that rort that seems to indicate that those in power and authority are buying our compliance with 'gifts'. However, the components of gift giving at the level that we are talking about, around life, is well beyond the pettiness of human lives and expectations. The gift of life both physical and spiritual is a gift that is beyond any capacity of ours to return in full. We can only give thanks and praise for the gifts granted to us and demonstrate our willingness to respond to the best of our conscience and free will.

Paul and other writers are very clear that not only is the gift of life freely given but also other gifts that can be termed both mundane and spiritual. At the start of the Church the gifts of prophecy and apostleship were seen to be among those celebratory gifts that come from God. But not all people are called into the same gift but all are gifted with a diversity that is beyond our understanding. Yet, as seen above we tend to commodify the gifts freely given to us by God. Using them for our own benefit rather than for the glory of God and the benefit of those around us. In doing so, we naturally will proclaim that this way or that way is better than his or her way thus those who follow are being tossed to and fro by the vagaries of popular demand (Eph 4:14). In using the gifts that God gives we should be using them first and foremost for the benefit of the community in which we find ourselves that speaks of an honesty of purpose rather than deceiving others for our own benefit (Eph 4.15), an honesty that is built on love for the other so as to improve all of those in the community. 

I am reminded just how much this effects us when we have gifts to share. In starting a new endeavour or a study group or a possible teaching mechanism we are often put off by others saying that there is no real call for it or we won't come or its to high falutin for us or other excuses. In getting this sort of feedback we actually withdraw and do not utilise the gift that we have. Yet, God has given us the gift to do with it what we will for the benefit of the other. Who is to say that the other who will benefit is part of our current community? We are so often led by the express wishes of those within our small communities that we neglect the fact that God calls us to minister to the other not ourselves. We huddle in our small communities concerned with our decreasing numbers and not celebrating the gifts that God gives to us for all. In utilising the gifts God gives to us, we praise God and give God's love back to God. We can then come into the eucharistic space with genuine thanksgiving for the gifts that we receive. The physical gift of life as well as the deeper well that comes from the entwined presence of Christ whose well of love is deep and encompasses us in all that we are and do.