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Sermon
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This is exactly what the response to climate change is all about. If you want abundant life for your children’s children you must change what you do, NOW! This is the responsible thing to do. And being responsible means making the appropriate response. We will return to the discussion of abundant life, but first some God-talk. I
There are two issues of profound importance when discussing today’s reading from John. 1. “Son of God” Jesus was a Galilean rabbi (teacher) who spent the last year or so of his life moving among the poor and the outcast breathing new life into the interpretations of the Hebrew Scriptures. He was a devout Jew all his life and he inspired and rekindled the faith of vast numbers of people in the God of Abraham. He drew great crowds to hear his teaching. When people encountered him they glimpsed the living God. They found it difficult to put into words what they felt and some used the expression ‘Son of God’ which means ‘someone through whom God works wonders’. It was also a common term often used by kings and emperors to demand faithfulness in their subjects. Cæsar Augustus and Alexander the Great both used the title. These two even claimed that they were born of a virgin to inspire even greater awe. Calling Jesus the ‘Son of God’ was also a deliberate affront to the authority of Rome. If Jesus had this name, it meant that the emperor didn’t! There are two other ‘Son of …’ names used for Jesus in the gospels – ‘Son of Man’ and ‘Son of David’. These are quite clearly metaphors understood by all those in first century Palestine. No one could possibly believe that Jesus was the actual son of King David. And yet, the Christian Church, 300 years later, would go to great lengths to take ‘Son of God’ literally. 2. The “I am” sayings John’s gospel was written sixty years after Jesus’ crucifixion and is clearly very different from the synoptic gospels. It is a gospel that discusses God – what we would call God-talk or theology. It draws on the experiences of the Johannine community as in today’s reading. An important theme that recurs in the gospel is the so-called ‘I am sayings’. ‘I am the good shepherd’; ‘I am the light of the world’; ‘I am the way’ and so on. These are not the words of Jesus. Rather, they are the words of the writer of John in describing Jesus. It would be unthinkable for Jesus, a Jewish wisdom teacher, to use these words about himself. Marcus Borg says this, “For John, what we see in Jesus is the way – the incarnation, the embodiment, of a life radically centered in God.” The importance of Jesus was even expressed in this form. ‘Jesus said “I am the way, the truth and the life. No-one comes to the Father except by me.”’ In explaining what Jesus meant to them, the writer of John was saying that in their experience they did not have another way of approaching God except through Jesus. It is extraordinary that this misunderstanding has been used by some to vilify and even persecute the Jews and other faiths over the last two thousand years. To do this misses a key idea in the gospel, that God has love and compassion for the entire world. There can be no other response to this apart from we are to love what God loves. II
And now to return to our discussion of the abundant life. Today we share the joy of our brothers and sisters in the Anglican Church in Australia that they have cleared the way for the appointment of female bishops. It is therefore more than appropriate that I quote Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori in an interview she gave in 2006. This was shortly after she was invested as the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church of America. Bishop Katharine, who is the first female primate in the worldwide Anglican Communion, was asked this. “One of the things that’s unique about being a Christian today is that one now co-exists with people of many different faiths. The body that we all have to be part of has to be the body of a very diverse world. So why be Christian?” Bishop Katharine’s reply to this key question is worth quoting in full. “For
me it is the way of knowing what holiness looks like in human
form. Having
been formed in this tradition [my italics], it’s the best image I
have of
what it means to live as the most abundant human being possible. Jesus
came
among us to suffer and share with us the pain of human existence – and
to say
that God can always do something more with the worst you can imagine.
Yesterday’s ‘Age’ reported a wonderful initiative by a group
of teachers
from Muslim and Christian high schools working on a 'shared curriculum
to
combat religious intolerance among students'. This has the full support
and
co-operation of the Catholic Education Office, Australian Catholic
University
and the Muslim-run Australian Intercultural Society.I think we have an enormous amount to learn about our own tradition by confronting other traditions. The details and forms are quite different but there is a yearning for something that is common, a human quest to be at home in something more.” We live in a world that grows smaller by the day. Our respectful interaction with other faiths will be a powerful step forward in our common wish for a life abundantly filled with God’s gifts of peace and justice. III
It seems to be more common to hear people say, “I have everything I could possibly want and yet there is something missing”? There seems to be a growing awareness that there are so many wants that do not satisfy the needs that matter. This sense of missing out is sometimes expressed by people who have achieved what is deemed ‘success’ by the society. This success for them does not seem to lead to happiness. Toby
Hall, the CEO of Mission Australia, was a highly paid accountant
in 1980’s
London. He says that “I was about 24 or 25 when I started to feel there
was an emptiness
to it all.” In 1996 he and his family went to New Zealand to stay with
an
uncle. While he was studying he took a part-time job in community
development.
He met there a very unhappy middle-aged woman who eventually told him
that
she’d had a child at 15. She was ostracized by some people and left
school. Now
she could only do the most menial tasks with no hope of improvement.
Toby was taken aback. He says “Society writes some people off. It says you’re done for – you don’t get a second chance. All she’d done was have a kid. It struck me that this was the kind of world we lived in.” He encouraged her to study archiving and she took out a diploma. With a new found belief in herself, she changed completely into a happy, confident person. This profoundly affected Toby as well. He found helping people improve their lives became a passion. He describes how “seeing people change is very powerful and hugely exciting.” He later joined World Vision and worked with Tim Costello in the aftermath of the Tsunami before joining Mission Australia. This is a high profile example but it applies to everyone. We often hear these stories from people who have found a better way. And how do they describe their fulfillment? All of them are related to the rewards of doing something for others. Here are some of the things they say. It was wonderful to be able to make a difference. It was great to help. To see their spirits lifted really lifted mine as well. He enjoyed the meal so much that I started to enjoy cooking again. She was overjoyed when she found a job – and so was I. Just being there was good. A study in 1998 showed that altruistic activity increased life-satisfaction by 24%. But it is important to say that we should not be surprised by this. Almost all religions teach this. And indeed, anyone who experiences loving kindness understands it. Martin Buber was an important Jewish philosopher who died just over 40 years ago. One of his well-known phrases is “All real living is meeting.” We are approaching closer and closer to what is meant by ‘living life abundantly’. IV
One of the most common metaphors that strikes a chord in the hearts of most people today is that ‘life is a journey’. This really does capture the experience of day to day living with all its twists and turns. There is an emphasis on choosing a path and of going forward. But life is unpredictable and there are no guarantees. It is possible to wander aimlessly if we don’t accept responsibility for the choices we make. And I say again that this means to respond appropriately. The really important thing is to focus on the quality of the journey. Having said this, we need to unpack the image of the ‘gate’ or ‘door’. What does it mean in the gospel reading for Jesus to be the ‘door’? Jesus is the door through which the sheep come and go. The sheep enter into the community to be saved from harm but they are called out into the world to be saved from starvation. This metaphor is clearly drawn straight from the experience of a persecuted community. In this church we are continually reminded of the image of Jesus as the ‘door’ when we enter this building from the west. The door handles are fish – the sign by which the early members of the Jesus communities recognized each other. You will notice that our architect, Mr Rod McDonald, clearly knew this passage of scripture. There are the same door handles when we leave. This is more than the obvious functional handle on both sides. It is a reminder of Jesus in the process of our continual coming and going. There is more in our architecture because we have a recently added extension. When we go out from this enclosed space, we pass through a wooden door labeled with fish. We move into a clear, glass vestibule with more fish handles. We see the outside world with the fish floating in space. If we continue heading west through the external door, we pass under two gateless barriers – no doors, no surrounding walls – only the outline of the gate. The gateless gate is a most important idea in the world of Zen Buddhism. Martin Buber in his philosophy makes much of God being in every animal and thing. (The writer of John’s gospel would use the term ‘incarnate’.) He talks of those rare brief moments when there is a profound experience of something more – an experience in which we can encounter God in other people and in the world. Buber puts it this way, ‘He who truly goes out to meet the world goes out also to God.’ The image of Jesus as a door is such a wonderful image. What is on the other side is unknown – it is a mystery. Whenever we are confronted by a door there is an air of anticipation. Visit someone, ring the bell and wait in great expectation for it to be opened. ‘I am the door.’ In Bishop John Shelby Spong’s words, ‘Jesus is the door that invites us into the mystery that is God.’ To go through that door requires faith. And faith is about trust not propositions. “Come, follow me!” is exactly what the image of the shepherd is all about. To those of faith, there is the assurance that God is journeying with them, and can work through them to help make the world a better place. “I
came that they may have life, and have it abundantly”
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An
address presented by Robert Sanderson at St Aidan's
Uniting Church North Balwyn, on 13th April, 2008 IT MAY BE
REPRODUCED WITH ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF AUTHORSHIP. |
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Page updated 17/04/08