Seeking justice in a time of doubt

 Today there is a remarkable number of injustices being perpetrated upon the world and its people.  From racist comments to the incarceration of those looking for new homes. From ideological maniacs seeking their own power to those who have rights blocked by bigotry and hatred, with a misplaced and unshakeable understanding that will fracture at the slightest push. In Isaiah God seems to indicate to us that his presence alone will give us the plenitude we long for even in the midst of desolation (Is. 51.1-6). Sometimes we need to assist the changes that God will bring by making a small protest to change the bigger realities. In the midst of trial and labour brought about by the rulers of the day the Israelites managed to assist life by a small protest (Ex. 1.17-20).  The world around them seemed to be falling apart for their people and yet by their simple act of defiance they allowed their people to have an opportunity at the start of a journey toward the realisation of becoming God's people. Their protest brought life not death and in doing so secured a new future for the world.

Our instinct is to protest against the injustices of the world, which is right and proper, but sometimes our instincts can lead us astray and we have to take care that we are not being led down the wrong path. However much good we think we are generating or however much we think God is leading we can and are led astray. This seems to be counter everything that we might think is right. It is often the smallest protest that sparks the road to life and not the major undertakings of change that bring about Christ's freedom in our lives by initiating God's swift deliverance rather than shouldering the issues ourselves (Is 51:5).  The midwives, in the Exodus story, did a small thing, they delayed their coming to the scene of birth and as a result allowed new life into the world contrary to the law.  In allowing life into the world they allowed the seed of hope that was Moses to become a moment of grace and change later in life.  The major protests of the world have been sparked by a small change in someone's attitude, a small protest against and injustice which has slowly built, sometimes over generations. I wonder how many people actually thought that protesting against the incarceration of refugees at off shore processing plants was a dumb idea at the time or get fed up with the protests of those wishing to see change in climate policy?

Are you a midwife of life and faith or selfishness and despair?

(https://www.stemfellowship.org/the-history-of-medicine-childbirth/)

Peter confesses Christ (Matt. 16.13-20) but just shortly after this he is rebuked by Christ as in his enthusiasm he reaches out to over protect Christ. For him a seemingly small protest but one that goes awry. Peter's protest was not a protest for righteousness but a protest for self preservation. He protested for himself and for the concern for his future not for the concerns of those who suffered. In comparison the protest of the midwifes was for a community.  In our individual lives we need to be careful about what we are protesting. Our protest, even if it is a small one, needs to be a protest for the wider oppressed community and not for our personal survival in the world. We need to be honest in our reflection of God's justice in the world.  We need to remind ourselves that at the beginning of creation God made humanity in his own image; a humanity that strives towards the life that God has given to us. The signboard outside the Gosford Anglican church is used a a small sign of protest for many things. It names for us those things that we feel ashamed of because we do not say anything. The midwives also named something because the rest were not. Each of us are capable of stepping onto the faith journey and naming the things that are detrimental to life. The moment we do this we invigorate those who are suffering and bring hope into the world and we bring God's righteousness into being. We become the midwives of new birth and new life in faith. In reflecting on the midwives and on Isaiah's message we need to ask for ourselves: In our protest are we protesting for ourselves or for the oppressed and for God's justice?

The politics of reconciliation

 In a world that is filled with hatred and violence religious and faith communities throughout the world use the language of reconciliation to try and foster peace. In the life of our faith journey it is not something that we often consider for ourselves or even practice. Embittered by division and inter-personal hatreds families, parishes and denominations splinter apart to find their own way in the world and the wounds that should have been healed before they even began fester. In the main reading set for today, from Genesis, the war between Joseph's human need to exact some form of punishment and his need to reconcile with family comes to an end when he reveals himself to his brothers (Gen. 45.1-15). In the Isaiah reading (Is 56:1-8) God's message is conveys the same meaning in terms of reconciliation of difference on a grander scale. In the Gospel there comes a turning point in our understanding of how to treat those who are different and heal the rifts of difference between race /gender / the other comes into focus with Christ's interaction with the Canaanite woman (Matt. 15.21-28). No matter who or what is the root cause of the division it is our response that matters. At the end of the day our response is a political decision, but we must be careful as the decision may be a aligned to human politics rather than God's politics.

Wait, God has politics? Yes, something we perhaps overlook is, as one author puts it, "There is no such thing as trust in a king [ruler] that is spiritually neutral or separated from one's trust in God. And there is no such thing as trust in God that is politically neutral" so no matter what we do we are political people. Choice is a matter of politics. How we choose to respond to our everyday decisions and our everyday dilemmas is a political decision. In belonging to the Church that calls God "creator" we automatically align with God as our ruler. Or we should, how can we not? If this is the case, and I for one would be hesitant to disagree, then our responses to our everyday and our human political challenges need to be responded to in a manner that is in alignment with the politics of God, that may not be Green, Labour or Liberal. Our concern must be with regards to the challenge of God's directives in our human interactions, hidden or open as the case may be.

Only by reaching across the gap of difference do we begin to be reconciled and loved.

God gave to Adam and Eve a mandate to rule over all and be a good steward to the Earth. We who are made in God's image have the same mandate but it is a mandate that is ruled by God. If we accept a triune God this means that our politics should be mirrored on this relationship of mutual understanding and interaction. Until we can meet our obligations of respecting each other as being made in the image of G-d how can we get our human politics correct on earth. The ongoing political discussion over the The Voice to Parliament shows the same either / or misunderstanding of each other and the other. The story of Joseph and his brothers and the interaction with the Canaanite woman show us how our interactions need to be not only at a local level but also at a national and an international level. Poor word choice and poor familial relationships are overcome by the judicious use of wisdom in our lives. An ability to see beyond the current debate to ascertain what is beneficial to all not just a few or rather not just me or my political cronies and our human aspirations.

Once we make the initial move towards a life of reconciliation we can move into a life of abundance. Both the Canaanite and Joseph's family come out with joy as they are prepared to embrace the fact that we can have our prejudices but see beyond to the benefit for the community and not the self is found. God offers this to all people who accept his leadership and political agenda (Is. 56.6-8). Consider some of the things that we proclaim as the Church on one hand  and yet on the other raise barriers to through our pre-judgements and our inability to see justice and righteousness. Forgiveness starts with understanding the process of reconciliation, it does not end in this process. Only by understanding that the two sides needed to be reconciled did Christ and Joseph begin to reconcile the gulf. That healing led to abundance as it followed the path of God's political agenda and not man's presumptive agenda.

Walking on troubled water

 Reliance on our own understanding often leads to issues and challenges in our lives that are frequently beyond our ability to cope. In doing so we may interpret situations and form our own interpretive story that fits with our view. Through our interpretation we form an understanding of the world around us and its impact upon our lives. Joseph's story starts, for many sources, a long and convoluted interpretation not of Joseph but of Jacob and his whole family (Gen 37.1-ff). It is a story of the loss of connection with God leading to a re-imagining of familial and community connections over time. For those interpreting in this manner it is not a simple story of betrayal and remorse but one that sees the actors as caught within God's plot rather their own individual autonomous tale. In seeing this story from this perspective our own interpretive perspective is altered as we in turn look at the story of our lives and our community.

These interpretations point to our own lack of imagination when it comes to our faith and how we engage with our communities. We are in a similar boat to Jacob in that to a large extent we seem to have lost our connection to God as a community. Not just as a parish community but as a community in the much wider sense both nationally and internationally. Peter's attempt to walk on water demonstrates that failure of the imaginative process in our own faith journey (Matt. 14:28-29). Peter is called out of the boat onto the water by Christ but is almost immediately side tracked away from the impossibility by the mundane. There is a certain amount of imagination that is needed when we encompass our own faith journey. An imagination that suggests we can do anything beyond the normal that Christ / God calls us into overcoming the mundane that pulls us away from God.

Only by our faith can we walk in our imagination

For most of us we are, like the brothers, unable to come to terms with the imaginative process so that we become caught up within the mundanity of our lives and concentrate solely on the ever increasing calls upon our time that is the world in which we live. Our response to the act of imagination that is the faith journey, is to hide it away in a hole or sell it of to become enslaved to situations that we are unable to comprehend or become involved in. The sleazy normality of the flux and flow of the ties that we have to the modern society prevents us from rising above the waves that overwhelm our lives. The very concept of retreating from the everyday into prayer or reflection or the imaginative process is abhorrent to modernity. The press of society around us is towards an evermore efficient lifestyle that is filled and, at the end of the day, exhausting of our life energy.

The retreat into the imagination to allow ourselves to take the step that enables our feet to walk upon the fluid surface of the water is an almost forgotten understanding. It s being retrieved into modern life by the more esoteric spiritual journeys of the Far East and alternative culture. The church appears to have lost itself within the fabric of modernity without realising that it has lost the imaginative process. This allows it to be divided by the self delusion that a reading of scripture is best interpreted by a literalist or someone embedded in a specific understanding and outlook. This dogmatic thinking is robust but static and does not allow for the breaking in of God's presence to lead us into the wonders that God's love brings to those who dedicate their lives in contemplation and reflection of that love. Our failure in our worship, in our lives and in our understanding of God's fluid and changing nature is re-lived in a lack of commitment to the belief that God can perform the imaginative miracle even while we shiver in the fear of overwhelming mundanity.

Transfiguring our perceptions

 The human being is under constant strain as each person changes on a daily basis in small and large ways.  These changes may be a simple as re-newing our skin each day or the more complex mental and social changes that come with the break up of a partnership.  So often at moments of stress with the implications of change to our perceptions narrow down and focus on anything we can think of to become an anchor (Mk 9.5).  Individuals and organisations all respond in similar ways by re-casting a new foundation that stops the change process and builds a new structure that can bring comfort and solace.

Yet, social change is inevitable as we continue to adapt to our burgeoning knowledge and competencies in new technologies.  This creates instability within our lives as can be seen for example by changes to the energy sector in Australia. Those who presumed that their livelihoods were in a sense guaranteed by the resource sectors burgeoning profit have become uncertain in the face of changing economic realities and the global impetus towards a sustainable energy future. There is now a vacuum in which people are existing attempting to find some solidity to their future and the future energy needs of a burgeoning society. The mountaintop experience drops into this vacuum announcing the possibilities of a new future and hope. In such circumstances the new vision / hope is subsumed into a twisted reality that falls back onto known ideals and systems that have served over decades becoming fixated in a manner that does not allow for the hope expressed to become realised.

The mountain top gives us a fleeting look at the way ahead

In the purview of religious and faith structures the same thing happens and we have a tendency to be like Peter grasping for the familiar in a new and changing landscape. In keeping with all moments of transfiguration or change the moment is fleeting and disruptive. The sudden understanding that this, whatever this is, is a momentous moment that has an lasting impact upon our lives. It leaves us drifting with no anchor and a need to find ourselves in a familiar haven. The mountain top experience is a liminal space and place that is unique in that it brings to the fore a glimpse of the hope for a future yet centering it in the uncertainty of the present. That hope is now our centre, a vision that needs to come into reality within our lives as we cement it into a new way of being / doing / thinking. Our challenge is to see the hope made reality rather than an anchor in the past to subsume the hope. The disciples are looking for an unchanged reality that they can cope with and are familiar with, rather than to formulate a new understanding based on the hope that they have seen.

The hope that appears in the mountain top experience is not necessarily something that manifests immediately. Just look at the disciples it was years before they realised that hope and only after the resurrection. The experience is but a signpost and something that invigorates us for the next part of the journey. Showing us that hope is present it is not something that needs to be grabbed but rather it is something that needs to be followed. It is a breaking into the present of an intimation of the future requiring us to acknowledge it and act upon that knowledge to bring about the hope that has been expressed. There are as many downs before the fulfilment of the hope as there are ups towards it. However, if we cling to the familiar we will never move into the future journey that brings us so much joy, laughter and love.