Truth shows love

 We begin today where we left of last week with the fulfilling of scripture (Lk. 4:21) and then move on to the fact that the people in the synagogue wished to kill Christ (Lk. 4:29). However, in between, there is a marvellous revelation of God's spirit working in the community from the scriptures but not in the way that  those in the community expected (Lk. 4:25-27). It is here in these small stories that the truth is revealed to the people of the synagogue and they do not like confronting the truth. The same applies today in our communities as we too no longer wish to face the truth as all we have done over years is to turn away from what is actuality and how it sits in terms of our faith journey. This may seem a very harsh judgement but is in reality, I would say, as much a facing of the truth as the people in the synagogue faced. Unfortunately, sometimes this is precisely what is required for us to wake up to the reality of faith and our own journey to be shaken out of the comfortable rut into which we have fallen.

Paul's treatise on love in chapter 13 of the letter to the Corinthians is a famous passage and one that most Christians know. In today's readings we look at the very first half of the treatise, which in some respects, is perhaps the most important as it lays out what Paul conceives love to be (1 Cor. 13:1-13). I suspect that Paul's writing here is some of the most profound writing that he undertakes for us as Christians, let alone us as human beings. Paul states quite firmly what love is and therefore his expectations for those he is writing to. He takes images from the life of the people in Corinth to reinforce for them the understanding that he has of the Love of God in each and everyone of us as we embrace Christ. It is from the clanging of the brass workers (1 Cor. 13:1-2) that he forms the image to suggest that all their work is for naught unless they are actively doing their work with love. Just as within the church if all our prophesy is not prophesy that is imbued with love then it is for naught. Christ brings forth this imagery in truth and that is what we need to undertake when we allow ourselves to work in our communities.

The unpalatable truths of our times told in art and struggle

Communities are not founded on the clanging of brass and incense and our own thoughts brought into ministry but rather the truth that is brought out in love so that we understand who we are in the sight of God. We cannot lie about ourselves to ourselves we must face the truth that is in ourselves and in us as a community. In more ways then one we as a community are no more than the brass pan makers in the squares of Corinth banging away and making a noise, when we can, with no real presence of God's love. Our story of community should broadcast the truth of God's love in everything we do and say. Yet, we are ourselves unable to face the truth of who or what we are in modern society. Our truths are no longer sought after, simply due to the fact that we have debased them to clanging symbols attempting to compete with all the others present in the public square, due to our heritage and not necessarily ourselves. Whilst it is easy to see into the past and the mistakes of the past it behoves us not to repeat them in such a manner that we also contribute to the noisy clangour that has become the space of religion and prophesy in the modern world.

It is we, like Christ, who should be bringing to light the truths of the past and the present rather than hiding in the shadows and refraining like all the others from speaking in love. It is we, who should hold the truth in our hearts and ensure that it is spoken in the public square not to blame, maybe to castigate but above all to teach the Gospel message that reframes the lies of the current era into the love that is God's to give. To tell the truth of God's love in the everyday so that we form communities that are loving and forgiving as much as they are truth telling and stalwart in ensuring that the other has the possibility to achieve greatness in the sight of God. It is only when we surrender ourselves to the ability to tell the world the truth of relationship and love as Christ did, even if those truths are ugly, distressing and unpalatable, that we are enabled in being people of faith.

Scripture fulfilled

 In the gospel from Luke today we hear Christ proclaiming in the synagogue that scripture has been fulfilled (Lk. 4:21). If that is the case then where is the kingdom of God and why do we continue as we are? Well, you can see from the reaction of the people that the fulfilling of scripture is not always what people believe it to be. In the story in Luke's gospel the fulfilling of the scripture was basically a proclaiming of the year of the jubilee, which not everyone wanted. Particularly those who were involved in lucrative business deals and other more nefarious activities, which would cease with the proclamation of the year of the Jubilee. The actual proclamation by Christ is in itself a bit problematic in that one needs to ask who can proclaim the Year of Jubilee? However, this is not so much the issue or something that needs to be talked about it is the fact that Christ proclaims scripture fulfilled, in terms of the jubilee. Yet, nothing further is said about it nor does it appear to come into actual fruition. So why does Christ proclaim the fulfilling of the scriptures? Christ is proclaiming an ideal that was never instituted, as far as we are aware, to goad the people into a move towards the reception of God and what it means to behave in accordance with God's wishes.

The Jubilee is found in the books of the law and is a basic understanding of freedom from servitude and the implementation of justice so that those in debt and in debt slavery had the ability to restart their lives on property that was originally theirs but had been sold to overcome debt etc. Even the land was given a rest and it was an understanding that the year of jubilee and the following year were to be times that the people were wholly reliant on God to provide, a test of faith if you will. This would be like proclaiming today that everyone was mortgage free and debt free. This is what it means to rely on God's presence in our lives no matter how much the struggle is in terms of finance and fortitude etc. This is where the community comes in to play. If we are all in the same boat so to speak then we are all reliant on each other to assist us through the worst of the crisis. Paul's analogy (1 Cor. 12:12-31) comes into being once more at this point for if we act as one community we will bring about the fulfilment of the gospel and in Christ's words the fulfilment of scripture.

The issue as has been so ably highlighted by the 24 hour news cycle in that we do not see ourselves in this analogous community that is one. We are so divided by our fears and our prejudices that we are overwhelmed and unable to understand the simplicity of the message that is found in scripture today and yesterday and in the days to come. Paul envisages a community that is different in and of itself as it accepts each and every person as part of that community. It makes no difference as to whether you are a lowly worker or a super rich person, if we are looking as Paul, each has a place within the community. In seeing the worth in each and everyone of us within the community we see the worth of the community working together with God's love at its heart. I challenge you to point out such a community today that lives and breathes this sort of understanding. Even our most religious of people will see that they are not working together in Christ as each has their own agenda to pursue for themselves. Even in our own faith communities we are often divided within ourselves as each wants or wishes something different and rarely do we actively listen to what God wants but put forward our own ideas.

The divided community is not fulfilling scripture

In some respects we are here at the heart of what it means to be Anglican in that we are a communion, a koinonia, scattered across the globe often at odds with each other because of the way we see God and God's purposes in the world. Yet, we must by necessity come together as one body that is split into innumerable parts and beliefs to function together in the fulfilment of scripture and Christ's promise of peace and love. If we as one faith cannot rule our hearts with God's love then there is little that we can show to the world that is split by a heaving multitude of thoughts and beliefs. In following Christ we bring together the disparate in love so that we can open our hearts in communion and community to those that are different and other to show God's love working in the practical of the everyday in face of the divisive policies of COVID infection.

One body and one Spirit

 To me it is amazing how the Christian church functions in the world or rather does not function and is in fact very dysfunctional when one thinks about it. We all tend to read the same set of scriptures although some interpretations are lacking and some translations appear to subscribe to the need to Europeanise everything to such an extent that it becomes pc. Yet there are more than 45,000 different Christian denominations throughout the world. If you think about it that is am amazing number and means that we have over 45,000 different interpretations of Christ's presence and God's presence few of which can agree and indeed many of which contradict each other creating chaos. In this situation how then can we truly say that we are Christians rather than followers of our own thoughts. We may be Anglicans and follow the Anglican trajectory but until we as Christians can put away our own thoughts we fail in the aspect of God that Christ shows and that is acceptance of the other in love.

Paul puts it neatly in the first letter to the Corinthians (12:4) when he uses the analogy of one spirit. It is one of the oldest analogies that we perhaps have of how an organisation should function in terms of its ministry with God. The issue for us is that we are only human and our perception of God varies depending on our society and how we have been brought up within that society. We are generally influenced by our parents and certainly by society as we grow up. In the early days of the Australian make up the idea of mateship was predominantly encouraged and displayed within society. This idea is often touted and certainly conformed to within rural communities more than the urban conglomerations that we find on the coasts. Yet, it is not something that we can connect with as an Australian thing in more recent times. There are plenty of examples from government interactions at State and Federal level as well as the general members of public from anti-vaxxers to faceless public who have no consideration for the other. We can see that Paul's further analogy of the body and Spirit is not working in the world today as we have forgotten in our greed the basis of how God's love works.

We are so filled with our own understanding of who we think we are that we are unable to contemplate a different way of doing things and yet our faith call is just that, a different way. Those who were called first were called the followers of the way because it was a way of being and doing. This is what we have forgotten over time as our way of thinking has changed beyond that which it was. Today, we analyse we do not allow our thoughts the freedom that was prevalent at the time of Christ. Those who we deride as weird artists or odd storytellers are all that is left of this understanding. For Christians who followed the way it was a no-brainer for community to form in honesty and in comradeship far beyond that which we can see in our towns and cities today. Christians lived their faith to the utmost. Christians portrayed their faith to the utmost. Normal people would consider it inconsiderate to deny sustenance to those in need. It would be abhorrent not to look after the sick and see to their needs. Today those who have control do not look after the needs of the people but rather prefer the people to expend their own energy and financial poverty to care for the sick amongst them. Surprisingly I have yet to hear a word from the leadership of the Church on what is deemed to be political but rather is a prime directive, so to speak in loving our neighbours.

Only when we act as one body will we show God's love

It is when we begin to fulfil the analogy that Paul gives of one body and one Spirit that we will begin to understand what it means to shine the light of Christ into the world and demonstrate God's love to all our neighbours. It is only when we fully accept that we are part of one body and led by one Spirit that we begin to work towards the peace that is beyond our own understanding. We only start forming a community that is based on God's commandments when we fully accept that the gimp leg is still part of us and we cannot ostracise any person formed in God's image as we will be cutting of our limbs despite ourselves. We cannot deny someone if they are good at listening rather than doing or leading in a different manner to us because they are led by the Spirit. We cannot deny someone because they drink, even Christ enjoyed a good wine (Jn 2:1-11). Only when we truly understand what it means to love our neighbours as ourselves will we start to become a community raised in Christ's image.

Welcoming the spirit

 Christ's baptism displays for us the possibilities that occur when we accept the spirit of God into our lives. The accounts of Christ's baptism by John are interesting in the fact that the Spirit's voice and the visions seen by Christ are for him alone and not for those who are close by. Luke's gospel (Lk 3:21-22) which we hear from this year is not as clear cut as Matthew and Mark in terms of who saw what or heard the voice. However, being the synoptic gospels it is clear that the sources are similar and it is more than likely that the voice and the vision are personal to Christ rather than public. Both come while Christ is praying, in other words, he is paying attention to God. We are prone to baptise children as infants (nothing wrong here) which is why this is not something we often contemplate in terms of baptism. In lieu of this we have confirmation which is a time to allow the presence of the Spirit but often confirmation is passed of as a rite of passage with little to do with our normal lives.

Let us also se'e the Spirit's descent on us as we begin again our faith journey

Again in Acts (8:14-17) we have a similar conundrum in that the Spirit becomes available or manifest to those who are in a sense confirmed in the faith. It is something that is emphasised, perhaps for the wrong reasons by Pentecostal theology, an involvement of God's Spirit at a fundamental point in our faith journey. For Christ, the Spirit's presence drives him into solitude and then into his ministry. If we are to take this as something that we too should look for in the present time then perhaps we should pay a bit more attention to our own spiritual and faith journey, especially at its start, whether figurative or actual. Questions arise as we think about these things in terms of baptism and in terms of confirmation regarding the need for us to be close to God i.e. our prayer life. In the modern world we are to often torn apart by the ever pressing needs of the modern seculum that we forget about God's presence in our lives. A presence that is often only found when we communicate with God and make ourselves aware of his love in our everyday. Too many times our reason stands before us and denies us the opportunity that is given in an understanding of that presence that is God. 

Due to how we have developed as a society since the time of Christ and since the time of the gospels we have to a certain extent become afraid. We are afraid of expressing our innermost thoughts and our deepest connections to life. This is often not the case when we speak of the indigenous peoples of the world as their connection has not faltered. However, with the development of scientific and enlightenment thought processes we have certainly lost much. That is not to say that such thinking is incorrect but rather to say that we have not balanced our thinking in a way that would enhance our lives. Due to the consumerist nature of enlightenment thinking that tells us that innovative and new is good and must be bought we neglect the things that are intangible and said to be unreal as a result. Some of those things that we find to be intangible are love, justice and peace, attributes which are believed to be part of the God we follow. In not allowing our thoughts and minds to dwell on these things we neglect that which is close to God. We do not teach or show how to attain them simply because we have lost sight of our imaginative and faith sides that embody them in our lives. Quite honestly because of what we are taught in this world we are scared to embrace these intangibilities even though we yearn for them.

Isaiah calls out from God telling the Israelites not to be afraid (Is. 43:1-2) and we hear God's voice in that cry telling us also not to be afraid to embrace that which is other and different. For us what is other is the opposite of the current day. Those things that are tied up with faith, belief and prayer especially when it comes to our faith journey. The thing we need to instil in those who seek for something different is that turn to God and the seeking of God's voice in the midst of our journey as well as at the start. Too often we neglect those things that bring us into God's presence and Christ's actions at John's baptism is telling us to listen for and be guided by that voice that is God's.

Wisdom from the East

 Today we celebrate wisdom from the East or rather we see that the Christ can mean many things to many people if only we accept those who see Christ differently from us. What opportunities are there that we miss because of our eyes and our hearts that are directed away from God's presence by our own thinking. Just look at the Gospel story which is only present in Matthew's gospel and nowhere else to this extent (Mat. 2:1-12). Tradition suggests that it was three magi or wise men simply as a result of the three gifts, an assumption and perhaps one that does what we all do when we ass-u-me. Tradition also speaks of another fourth King / wise man who did not quite make it in time but spent all his gift on assisting various people on his journey through life (see Van Dyke's book published in 1896). So perhaps it is of no consequence if it was two, three, four or more magi it just shows that there were others in the world who accepted the presence of God within the Christ child.

For us this is the important message that comes from the story in Matthew's gospel. It is not the gifts or anything else that is connected with the story other than the fact that these were people not connected in any way to the Jewish religion who understood that God was incarnate. This extraordinary understanding that is inherent in the wisdom of these people from a different religious background, of a person who embodies everything that God wants from creation. A deep basic understanding that no matter the persons birth or their status or any other thing that we can think to divide people and communities God loves the other and the other loves God in return. We can only embody this understanding in our hearts if we truly grasp that the other is one and the same as ourselves. The wise men show us the way forward and determine our course into the future and the gifts if we must include them pave the path that we must take. The inclusion of the gifts into the story are but symbols and signs for us to read as we move along the path of life and towards God.

Welcoming the Christ child frees us from the three monkey syndrome

Let's just change things about a bit and look at the gifts from the point of view of the three monkeys. You know the ones see no evil, hear no evil and speak no evil. We start with the first of the gifts which corresponds very neatly to all of them. The riches of Gold that signifies kingship in our tradition is also truly representative of our current world experience. We just need to think of recent exposes with regards to the disbursement of grants and bribes in many places through out the world. The gold and its signifying of wealth has the dark side of preventing words being said when needed to ensure justice, for others to turn a blind eye or ear to what we see as corrupt and less then loving ways within communities and societies throughout the world. Gold's riches should encourage us to speak out for justice and never to turn a blind eye or deaf ear to those in need but rather to pave the path to communities rich in love and awareness of their neighbour. This is God's gold offered and accepted by Christ.

The second of the traditional gifts actually point to the church and indeed in many ways to the clergy themselves. This gift speaks to us of the priesthood a recognition of Christ our great high priest who ministers from the crib to those who come to adore him. Yet, when we look at this gift it so often that the church blinds itself to hypocrisy and injustice in the world failing to speak out. More often then not it is often those who should no better who, like the Pharisees criticised by Christ, lead believers away from love by not listening to truth and only believing what they want rather than what God requires. Death comes to us in many ways and Myrrh reminds us of this fact. The very point of death is that it is part of our being and should not be denied. Christ accepts death as part of the way to a new life but we so often deny death or else assist in true death rather than renewal into a new life blessed by God.  The reason we deny death is that we do not want to change or have to go through the process of change. This is what the gift of myrrh challenges us with that sometimes we have to die to ourselves and our lives to move into a new life of love and understanding. This often means change in all of its difficulties and challenges. It serves us better to accept the gift as the Christ child does knowing that change is as inevitable as death and taxes to bring God's love into the world.