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Nobody ever said this business of being Christian was easy.
The people who think it is easy probably have never really tried it.
Being Christian is counter cultural. It runs counter to what we who are
brought up in our individualistic secular commercial western lifestyle
feel comfortable with.
If it doesn't, then we are probably just being English, not Christian.
It's a long time since the British Empire felt that one was equated with
the other.
And when they did, it didn't.
Jesus put his finger on it very clearly, early in Luke's gospel. "If
you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners
love those who love them. If you do good to those who do good to you,
what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. If you lend
to those from whom you hope to receive, what credit is that to you? Even
sinners lend to sinners, to receive as much again."
Christianity is easy, as long as you only have to practice it with people
who are doing what you think is the right thing. When it gets hard, and
when we mostly fall over in our faith walk, is when we are asked to practice
it in a difficult situation. But of course, that's when we find out how
real it is, in us - ourselves.
It's the second Sunday of Advent and we've just lit the candle of peace.
But I am absolutely sure that the kind of peace that this candle signifies,
that Jesus' advent signifies, isn't going to happen, simply by normal,
cultural niceness. And it has almost nothing to do with an absence of
war.
The hope of Isaiah, where the lion and the lamb lie down together is an
absurd idea. The lion wouldn't be able to eat - he'd starve to death because
Lions can't survive without meat and the lamb certainly wouldn't be lying
down by the lion, unless it had lost every self preservation instinct
that a lamb needs to survive.
The absurdity of the image suggests that both the Lion and Lamb would
have to be transformed into very different beasts if it was going to happen.
This imagery of Isaiah, as wonderful as it was, never happened for Israel.
They came into a promised land flowing with milk and honey, but there
history seemed to alternate between being the scourge of the people who
lived there and becoming complicit in their idolatry and injustices.
The grand promise and the great ideas fell apart in the face of the tests
that humanity places upon us all. And all their grand ideals and good
laws couldn't change them from behaving simply like people behave. Tribally,
violent under threat, and callous in the certainty of their superior righteousness
over the people outside of the clan, the people behaved like people always
do. And the promised land wasn't heavenly.
When Jesus came, he offered us a different way. Most of us respond in
like manner to what confronts us. Jesus didn't. The only factor in how
Jesus responded was his closeness to God. It came out in all he did and
said.
People hated him. He responded with healing.
People mocked him. He responded with love.
People crucified him. He responded with "Father, forgive them."
His disciples were a little more normally human. In Luke 9:54 he tells
the story of when the Samaritans rejected Jesus and the disciples and
they did the natural thing. "Lets bring down fire on their heads
like Elijah did to the soldiers who Ahaziah sent to arrest him" Now
if you know the story, and it comes from the Hebrew Scriptures, from the
first chapter of the 2nd book of Kings, you know that this happened twice,
two lots of men sent to arrest Elijah, two bands of soldiers consumed
by fire. And it worked. When the third band came out to get Elijah, they
were a lot more respectful. Firepower and pain work, as long as what you
are working for is for people to be too scared to oppose you, who will
respect you because of fear.
The disciples probably didn't think this through in those terms. They
simply were angry, and wanted to pay the Samaritans out, and let them
know they ought to respect Jesus.
Jesus response to his disciples???? "You don't know what kind of
spirit you are of."
The Apostle Paul understands this different kind of Spirit. In his closing
words to the Church in Rome. He says to them: May the God of steadfastness
and encouragement grant you to live in harmony with one another, in accordance
with Christ Jesus,
The Christian Church in Rome was divided between the Gentiles and the
Jews. The Jews had been expelled from Rome in 19AD by Tiberius, just after
the church had been formed, mostly as a Jewish sect, and now the Jews
they were starting to come back into Town. They'd changed. They'd been
scattered out into Asia Minor, and in this they had learned to live their
Christian life apart from all the Jewish laws. They'd learned about grace,
not law, then they came back into the church where they'd been 10 years
before, and it was still the same as it was when they left.
All the gentile Christians were still being very, very Jewish. Laws about
eating, about Sabbaths, about washing were still being observed, and the
Jewish Christians coming back in saying "Hey, you don't have to do
all this. We've been set free from all this ritual. It's about grace,
not law." And tensions grew. Camps divided the church, people on
about law and people on about grace but the tensions playing out over
all sorts of issues. And Paul, breaking his heart over what is happening
says to them,
"May the God of steadfastness and encouragement grant you to live
in harmony with one another, in accordance with Christ Jesus, so that
together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ."
And then in Chapter 16, Paul gets personal. And he more or less says
to the people "OK. Enough of the theology. I've argued my case and
how important it is to show your unity in Christ. Now it's time for action,
to put your faith into flesh and blood (and here is what he says to the
Gentile church in Rome)
Go and greet Prisca and Aquila, who work with me in Christ Jesus, and
who risked their necks for my life. Greet the church in their house.
Greet Epaenetus, the first convert in Asia. Greet Mary, who has worked
very hard among you. Greet Andronicus and Junia, my relatives who were
in prison with me;
Greet Ampliatus, my beloved in the Lord. Greet Urbanus, our co-worker
in Christ, and my beloved Stachys. Greet Apelles, who is approved in Christ.
Greet those who belong to the family of Aristobulus.
Greet my relative Herodion. Greet those who belong to the family of Narcissus.
Greet those workers in the Lord, Tryphaena and Tryphosa. Greet the beloved
Persis, who has worked hard in the Lord. Greet Rufus, chosen in the Lord;
and greet his mother-a mother to me also.
Greet Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermes, Patrobas, Hermas, and the brothers
and sisterswho are with them. Greet Philologus, Julia, Nereus and his
sister, and Olympas, and all the saints who are with them.
Paul was telling them to find the faith to cross the divides, to act in
that peculiar way Christians act, to break down the barriers rather than
colluding with them.
We lit the candle of peace today. But this peace doesn't come by being
normal human beings. That much is quite clear. This peace can only come
when our Lord's Spirit is stronger in us than is the Spirit of the world.
Jesus words to his disciples "You don't know what Spirit you are
of"
May God so work in us, each one, that we do know, in word and in practice,
what Spirit we are of. And may the Prince of Peace be known in our church,
and in our world, until there is peace on earth, and goodwill to all people.
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