Readings:
Isaiah 43:16-21, John 12:1-8
Let us pray; God grant us ears to hear, minds to
understand and the hearts to responds to your word. In Jesus name. Amen.
What was it that Jesus really taught? Among the many parables, teachings, prayers,
actions, what are the non-negotiables do you think that challenge the status
quo? Now that is a mean question because
I have some time to think about this and you have just had it sprung upon
you. But it is a fair question! What are the non-negotiables in Jesus
teaching? Father Richard Rohr,[1]
a Franciscan priest based in New Mexico has asked this in the context of the
following: “Have we slowly fallen away from the core of the teaching of Jesus
and created ‘an evacuation plan for the next world’ instead of loving our
neighbour in this world”. What are the
non-negotiables in loving our neighbour? I am going to give you a moment to
think about this before we hear his thoughts.
Richard suggests
that it includes the following:
ü Peacemaking
ü Love of enemy
ü Forgiveness
ü Justice and generosity to the poor
ü A community based on inclusion for all
I don’t think that
many would argue with these – you might have different words, more to add but
in the end this is Jesus’ teaching around how we love our neighbour, now,
here.
As Rohr says: how can you listen to the sermon on the
mount, hear the beatitudes and think that we can be anything other than
non-violent – and he defines the moment where peace became a lost cause the moment
Christianity was adopted as the imperial religion by Constantine at the
beginning of the 4th century – where the faith was used to create
social order in Europe – the belonging system for Europe, he calls it.
Rohr mentions that
he hears in the American elections the new non-negotiables of some Christians –
pro-life – as defined by them, anti stem cell research, against contraception
–much as we appear to have some new non-negotiables here in this church.. When did they become the non-negotiables, he asks
with some perplexity – surely it is forgiveness and the love of enemies that
are the core values of our Christian living.
If that had been heard by the church throughout the centuries would we
not have had a different world now? But
we weren’t so interested in that but holding our selves ready and worthy for
the next world. So we became the
non-forgivers, the haters, the war mongers – none, not one of the Christian
nations have a history of being peace makers.
Rohr suggests it would only be the Quakers and Mennonites and Amish who
retain the peace witness of the Christian church as church bodies.
Generosity toward
the poor and the outsider! Page after
page in the gospel – very clear. But
again it didn’t fit with our living – huge fortunes amassed by churches,
nations people – security and safety then we might look farther afield but to
be honest we didn’t want to hear about the less well off – it didn’t fit in our
radar screen, says Rohr.
And then he
challenges us to find a story where Jesus excludes – he always names the
situation but never excludes. And in an
admittedly broad brush stroke he defines churches as exclusive institutions
where so many are not welcome or don’t fit – his exact words are that churches
are the life saving stations that have become the country club.
He especially
quotes his own catholic church and participating in the eucharist – only the
worthy, the pure, the true members may come to the table when every time Jesus
eats, he is with the ‘wrong’ people at the ‘wrong’ table or saying or doing the
‘wrong thing’.
In fact you could
say that Jesus was crucified because of who he ate with – by re-doing the
social order he upset everyone that it was possible to upset – he had to be
taken out!
And the thing is –
each of these non-negotiables that Jesus teaches, that he points us to again
and again is, in the eyes of the world, radical, topsy turvey, troubling to the
established order. And like it or not,
that is what we are part of – the established order. We work in it, vote in it, makes choices
offered by it, answer to it and are encultured by and to it. Yet Jesus non-negotiables, the Christ-filled
values we are to live by put us quite firmly outside this order.
And therein lies
the tension that we live with everyday – as have Christians and people of any
faith, throughout time. Straddling the
perplexity of living in the way of Jesus in the midst of a world that expects,
nay demands other.
Almost too hard we
might say. Be of this world and put your
faith in the world to come or withdraw from this world in community of
like-mindedness and survive that way.
But I don’t think that either of these are what Jesus’ teaching is
encouraging – he was very much in the midst, always making decisions that
challenged the set behaviour and questioned the rules of engagement, engaging
with the authorities and by his behaviour, who he ate with round the table if
you like, setting out new ways of being for us all.
So how do we do
this. Well I think that we have already
covered some of the answer – where ever we negate the non-negotiables of Jesus
teaching, peacemaking, love of enemy, forgiveness, care for the poor, justice,
inclusiveness then we are deviating from the way of Jesus. And sometimes we do – lets face it often we
do – but we try, we are aware of when we get it wrong, we are open to new ways,
better ways, Jesus ways.
When our rules for
living, which may well have started out firmly based in gospel truth by the
way, become de-personalised, overly formalised, subject to alternative values
and interpretation or simply convenient then we should be suspicious, alert,
challenging our part in them. It is a
subtle but deep trap, one that the scribes and Pharisees had fallen into and so
have we, when we continue to abide by the rules when the heart has fallen out
of them and something else has filled the vacuum. And the heart is the non-negotiable values
that Jesus demonstrated again and again and again.
A couple of
examples maybe.
On Wednesday night
we looked at generational influences in the light of the ten commandments that
Moses brought down from Sinai. We talked
about how they are to be interpreted in today’s world when the context is not
the same, the culture and world view different, even the meaning of the words
to be challenged. And for us, as
Christians, they have to be interpreted in the light of Christ – surely! The rules have to be read through the lens of
the non-negotiables of Jesus and therefore of us – do not murder or covet or
commit adultery are about being just and kind and compassionate, not
intentionally seeking to hurt others for our own gains – fairly simple
really. Love God who loves you beyond
measure - all the way to the cross actually, and seek to live in the way of
love to all.
I was in
Wellington last week for the Leadership Sub Committee meeting– and, in company
with the Moderator, Andrew Norton, we sought to find a way to get ourselves out
of the deep mire that is Assembly meeting process gone toxic – where 60% rules
and points of order, designed in the beginning to encourage fair and in good
order discussion are now being used to browbeat and manipulate debate, to
exclude and create division. How do we
find again our values as a Presbyterian Church in Aotearoa – a church that is
inclusive, peacemaking, loving of each other, examples forgiveness and
generosity and prioritises mission and justice for all? Not by this approach,
that is for sure.
And from the
reading today – yes I was going to get to it eventually – the anointing of
Jesus. From the gospel of John, we hear
that it is Mary, sometimes called the ‘ideal disciple’ who carried out this
extravagant act of covering Jesus feet with expensive perfume and wiping them
clean with her hair. And her act of
giftedness she is challenged by someone who thinks they have an understanding
of the non-negotiables – and we know through hindsight that he had a tenuous
grasp at the best – Judas says why would you do this, you who should know
better, when we could have sold it and given money to the poor. You could say that the heart has fallen out
of his interpretation of what it means to be a disciple of Jesus – he is
unaware of or impatient with the compassion and grace of the anointing, the
extravagant gesture of love to the one who will not be long with them. Jesus accepts her gift of the heart with
grace and gratitude.
So what are our
non-negotiables from Jesus? If we find that we are pretty much ending up always
sitting the ‘wrong’ people at the ‘wrong’ table or saying or doing the ‘wrong
thing’ then we are probably fairly well connected with the values that Jesus
asks us to live by in this world as we wait for the promise of the world to
come. Amen. Margaret
Garland
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