Readings: 1 Corinthians 8:1-13, Mark 1:21-28
Let us pray:
Loving God, we
pray that our hearts be open, our minds be receptive, our imagination engaged
as we seek to hear your vision for this your church. May we be assured of your grace and
encouraged in our endeavour in Jesus name.
Amen.
Friday afternoon seated at my desk, hands
hovering over the keys of the computer, I was having real difficulty finding a
way into the sermon. You see it was the
day when we would hear about whether the offer on our house had gone
unconditional. It was also the day after
a funeral – when we farewelled a faithful saint within our congregation. There was also a bunch of things to be sorted
– pastoral, meetings, emails, multiple hats..... Sure I had been reading and thinking and
forming ideas but would it come together in any shape – no way. And suddenly – as I wrote these first few words,
it happened. The perfect illustration of
what I was wanting to say today. Here I
was, thinking that to properly prepare the sermon I needed to forget (put aside) the very relationships and issues that are
part of my everyday life. I was wanting
some kind of elevated pristine space from which to launch my deep and
meaningful thoughts on these bible passages, stepping into the dangerous
territory of isolating sermon from that which form and shapes us into
community.
This is exactly
what Paul is saying to beware of. Trying
to do the knowledge bit all by itself, without love, without all the messy
stuff that is life, is just puffing ourselves up, he says – but when our
thinking and learning is informed by loving relationships, then we have the way
of Christ. If we want to play with words
perhaps we could say ‘Knowledgeable Love’ is what we are seeking.
Picture it if you
can. To a faith community well endowed
with thinkers and orators – a knowledgeable community - it was as clear as a
bell to them that this ‘not eating temple meat’ was no longer part of their
faith and they could easily and with good conscience sit down to eat it. But then Paul comes along and spoils their
party – knowledge itself is not enough, he says – you need to think what impact
this will have on your relationships with each other – those who might feel excluded
because they weren’t at that same understanding and their scruples wouldn’t
allow them to participate in the meal – and those of new faith for whom it was
a too close connection with what they had just walked away from and could
easily draw them back.
Care of others
needs to inform our knowledge. It is the
same argument, isn’t it, that says following of the rule of law without the
light of love and compassion is a slippery slope. If it is harmful especially to the weak and
vulnerable, if it is not God’s way. And
Paul says how important he thinks this is – I would soon become a vegetarian
than cause harm to one of our family by eating meat. An extreme statement meant to have impact on
those around him.
What might be a
parallel today do you think?
The one that
immediately comes to mind is that of being sure that our way is the right way
and will be the right fit for all people – they just need to catch up – or ‘get
it’. It’s a kind of arrogance of faith,
that in our learning we have found ‘the’ truth and will surge on regardless of
where others are at. For us as Church
this has enormous implications - for our intercultural relationships, for our
theological relationships, for our relationship with each other and our
communities.
Culturally we can
welcome immigrants to our community but on our terms, to our way – seeing other
ways as a bit lacking or not quite grown up or unknown and therefore to be
feared. We are better at it than we used
to be but still a way to go I think.
Or alternatively
we can come as a member of another cultural group and hold on to our ways so
tightly that no other relationship can permeate our barriers.
By doing either of
these we are devaluing and demeaning the many different strength that diversity
brings to new community, that respect and willingness to engage brings to
understanding and peaceful relationship and new ways to knowledge of God.
Theologically –
now there is an all too common example of knowledge without love dividing the
body of Christ – within our own house so to speak. I’m right – no I’m right. Bible passages quoted – hurled across the
room like spears in the heat of battle.
Forcing each other
to believe particular interpretations or be excluded. You know I did do the terrible thing, just
because I could – now that I have been in ministry over three years I thought –
I probably have a sermon on these lectionary readings – so I went back and had
a look. No – no temptation to re-use –
and you all would notice anyway, of that I am sure! But what was interesting – one thing I did
say then was that I wondered if the energy put into deciding who was right and
wrong on the issue on sexuality was in fact enslaving us to the detriment of
our relationship as a church. Today I
can say - how important was that moment at last assembly when people refused to
enter into the right and wrong debate and left the floor. You might say it is relationship triumphing
over the theological high ground. And
yet I know too that there are people who don’t agree with that stance because
we have a rule in place that excludes and which we need to get rid of. Messy place trying to live in knowledgeable
love but we need to dive into that mess if we want to be a welcoming loving
church body.
And finally I
think we can just get so self absorbed in being church, in whatever that might
mean for us, that we don’t see the messy stuff happening around. I am sure you will relate to the endless
meetings that seem to take up time and energy, that we get so involved with
running the church or producing a perfect service that we inadvertently miss
the signs of need around us. I know I
have realised after a morning tea that I have spent all the time arranging
meetings or business for the week to come and haven’t been available for those who
want to talk.
In fact that
seemed to be what was happening in the synagogue when Jesus came to teach –
that the focus and absorption was with the gaining of knowledge – to the
detriment of engagement with those who were in need. Jesus taught with authority – and astounded
the people with his knowledge and teachings
– but he also was the one to notice and respond to the man in need of
healing – how long had he been there, unattended, unnoticed I wonder.
You know on
Thursday we farewelled from here someone who might not have had much time for
theological rightness – but that was because she was so busy looking out for
everyone - Margaret didn’t leave people unattended and unnoticed that’s for
sure. She had the relationship bit
absolutely right.
We worship and
believe and discover and question and study not for its own sake, not because
we think we believe pure knowledge of God will get us closer to God, but
because the teachings of Jesus will more deeply penetrate our lives and our
choices and our acts so that we do not harm the vulnerable, exclude the
marginal, forget the hurting or ignore the needy. The heartbeat of the Church is knowledge of
God expressed in loving relationship with the people of God in the name of
Christ. Amen.
Margaret Garland
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