Month: September 2017

Haggai and Herod 28^th September

Today’s tiny fragments of scripture, the opening of Haggai’s prophecy and a sentence about Herod, give a hint of great political events. After Cyrus, king of Persia, conquered Babylon he allowed the peoples who had been taken into captivity to return to their former homes. Naturally they wanted to restore the walls of Jerusalem and the Temple. What we heard from the opening of Haggai suggests that this prophet launched the project for the rebuilding of the Temple some 18 years later, after the returned exiles had begun to build up their own prosperity. Today we see many peoples facing displacement and wonder if they have a future. Yet look a generation on. The Ugandan Asians, expelled from Uganda by Idi Amin a generation ago have made an enormous contribution to the wealth of Britain which welcomed these penniless refugees.

Haggai calls the returned exiles from Babylon not only to rebuild their own prosperity but to rebuild their religious identity, and assert their own faith. However, what Haggai asks for is as it were, re-establishing the cultus, the sacrifices in the Temple, rather than, as the prophets did during the exile, re-imagining the heart of their faith. They, rather than turning to foreign gods, maintained that their god whom they worshipped was the only god. Their ordeal brought them to develop true monotheism. There is little of this vision in Haggai. However, to his credit, we have today’s psalm, and a number of others, which are the work of Haggai, rejoicing

O sing to the Lord a new song; sing his praise in the congregation of the faithful. Let Israel rejoice in their maker; let the children of Zion be joyful in their king.

It is a rejoicing with a moral conscience – ‘the Lord has pleasure in his people and adorns the poor with salvation.’

Haggai, then re-establishes the cult, he gives the faith its shell, rather than enriching the kernel of the nut. Yes, the shell is needed, but the seed is actually the heart of the faith.

I make this point because in Herod, in today’s gospel, we see a fabulously wealthy individual who has, to curry favour among the Jews, rebuilt the shell of the Temple in Jerusalem on a world class scale. It rivals any of the wonders of the ancient world. But in so doing it has lost its mission, and when Jesus appears his simple existence shakes Herod to the core. Herod said, ‘John I beheaded; but who is this about whom I hear such things?’ Who indeed? Here is one greater than Herod’s Temple, who represents the heart, which is missing from the Temple. The money changers have to be driven out.

To complete my story, allow me to remind you of last Sunday’s gospel in the Book of Jonah. That’s what I called it. The silly story of Jonah’s whale and the plant which grows in a night and withers is actually a story about the mission of the Jewish people. Jonah is told to go and convert the people of Nineveh who are gentiles, and he first runs away from it. But that is the real job. Not to build up the Jewish cult with a great temple in Jerusalem, but to bring their monotheistic faith to fullness. For if there is one god, and all people are made in god’s image, then god’s salvation is for everyone. So, whist building temples and churches provides and external visible sign of the presence of faith, the heart of it is in the message it gives.

Herod forgot what the faith demanded. Being political again, what did it do for ordinary people? We are in the political season.

What have years of austerity done for ordinary people? We have the Shard and temples to mammon, but people in council tower blocks suffer. The burnt out shell is a reproach. Millions of people have high rents and no security of tenure. The very shell of society looks rotten.

 

Being utterly simplistic, the shell may be the building of St. Giles. But what does it say? Perhaps that banner outside, proclaiming the God loves and welcomes everyone says more of what we believe than the stones proclaim. How many people, lots of visitors to Cambridge, have come in to worship, not because of the building, but because of the invitation to everyone, no matter who, pinned to the church wall.

 

Proper 17 There is NO wrath in God

In these past weeks we have read slowly through Paul’s letter to the Romans and today we come to one of his most beautiful passages. ‘Let love be genuine’ he says. Paul is possibly the earliest of the New Testament writers, and had no model, even a gospel, to guide what he might write, but what we have heard has clear similarities to Jesus’ words in Matthew’s version of the sermon on the Mount. What is so distinctive is the instruction about loving enemies. Matthew 5:44: “But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” For Paul and for Matthew a central theme of Jesus’ teaching is this command to love even one’s enemies, thereby overcoming evil with good. It also quotes Proverbs 25:21-22: “If your enemies are hungry, give them bread to eat; and if they are thirsty, give them water to drink”.

What Paul says could be the model for the life of St. Giles, our patron saint whom we commemorate this weekend, who lived in great humility and gentleness and seems to have begun a monastic community. Years ago I was at a church dedicated to St. Aiden, whose feast day is the 1^st September, who also lived a peaceful life and founded a community on Lindisfarne. ‘Live in harmony with one another; do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly; do not claim to be wiser than you are. Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all. If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.’

In this beautiful picture in the epistle I find one note which jars, and it shouldn’t be there. Our translation says ‘Leave room for the wrath of God’. This is, to my mind, a deliberate falsification of scripture. Paul did not write ‘wrath of God’. It is not there in the Greek original and if you look at the King James Bible, it isn’t there either. It says ‘Give place unto wrath.’ It does not say ‘Wrath of God’ and this is very deliberate. It says ‘Give place’, get out of its way, don’t make it worse, don’t get involved in wrath, stand aside, don’t get corrupted by it.

We know the dangers. Wrath is the red rag to the bull. It is President Trump’s reaction to the missile launch from North Korea. You can afford to do that from the USA, thousands of miles away. But the reaction of North Korea’s neighbours, all of whom could be hurt if the conflict escalates, is far more measured. They get their resolution through the UN but they aren’t going to stir things up any further.

St. Paul has said a lot about wrath in writing to the Romans, and he has just said ‘never avenge yourselves’. Hot anger is like a burning fire, and it can consume all who approach too closely, or those who add coals to it. But the point is, it consumes itself. The fire burns everything, including the firebrand which began it. This is not God’s wrath. Rather it is evil and it is to be left alone to burn itself out. Follow the way of our patron, St. Giles, living in simplicity and humility, founding a monastic community for people to live in peace.

The whole wrong understanding we see so much of today in misplaced violence is based on a wrong understanding of the words ‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.’ Hot headed people think they are acting for God when they are being violent. But the instruction is NOT to be violent. Leave it to God, and God lets the violence destroy itself. God doesn’t get involved.

In today’s gospel, Peter has yet to learn this lesson. Jesus is going the way of non resistance. It is Peter, in John’s gospel, who when Jesus is arrested, takes a sword and cuts of the ear of the high priest’s servant. And Jesus replies ‘Put up your sword, for those who take up the sword perish by it.’ Here, Jesus’ rebuke is even more emphatic. ‘‘Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling-block to me”. Peter is both the very devil and a scandal, a stumbling block. He has been caught up into the culture of violence that is always around. He could be the terrorist on Westminster Bridge, in Barcelona, in Paris. His reaction is that of Trump to the provocative missile launch from North Korea, whereas what Trump should be doing is sending the most daring bombing raid ever, scattering a million tiny packets of rice over the starving population as a sign of goodwill. ‘Never avenge yourselves, no, if your enemies are hungry, feed them.’

When surrounded by people hostile to Jesus, Peter is caught up in the hostility of the mob. He imitates their rage, ultimately, as Pilate and Herod would. And yet, I think, the Gospels do not seek to stigmatize Peter, or the crowd as a whole, or the Jews as a people, but to reveal the enormous power of the contagion of mob violence — a revelation valid for the entire chain of murders stretching from the Passion back to “the foundation of the world.” The Gospels have an immensely powerful reason for their constant reference to these murders, and it concerns two essential and yet strangely neglected words, skandalon and Satan. The Greek skandalon designates an unavoidable obstacle that somehow becomes more attractive (as well as repulsive) each time we stumble against it. The first time Jesus predicts his violent death (Matthew 16:21-23), his resignation appals Peter, who tries to instil some worldly ambition in his master: Instead of imitating Jesus, Peter wants Jesus to imitate him. If two friends imitate each other’s desire, they both desire the same object. And if they cannot share this object, they will compete for it, each becoming simultaneously a model and an obstacle to the other. The competing desires intensify as model and obstacle reinforce each other, and an escalation of rivalry follows; admiration gives way to indignation, jealousy, envy, hatred, and, at last, violence and vengeance. Had Jesus imitated Peter’s ambition, the two thereby would have begun competing for the leadership of some politicized “Jesus movement.” Sensing the danger, Jesus vehemently interrupts Peter: “Get behind me, Satan, you are a skandalon to me.” Satan is the stumbling block personified.

But there is truth in what Peter says; ‘This must never happen to you.’ No, it shouldn’t. Because it will be what has happened to good people from the foundation of the world, from the death of Abel, people thinking they are doing good by sacrificing scapegoat out of envy, sacrificing a scapegoat to the blood lust of the mob. No, it shouldn’t happen. The wrongness in the cross is precisely what Jesus aims to oppose and overcome in bearing it. If Jesus’ death can oppose that evil, then that is why he will do it. But that injustice is also the strongest possible argument why he should not accept it. For all the wrong reasons, Peter has hit on the weakest point of Jesus’ resolve, and played Satan’s strongest card: to go through with this trip to Jerusalem is to implicitly cooperate in the most unjust in the long line of unjust sacrifices. Why would Jesus want to do Satan’s business for him? Precisely because Jesus is innocent, the strongest temptation to deflect him from his path is the simple truth. This injustice ought not happen. It ‘ought’ to happen only if it can be unlike all the others from the foundation of the world, if it can reverse the practice. We can hardly blame Peter for not seeing how that might be. It requires resurrection, and a new spirit.

The vindication is that the Son of Man will come with his angels, and come for every innocent victim. Our faith is founded on this. We follow in the footsteps of humble, peaceful followers of Jesus, our patron St. Giles, St Aiden of Lindisfarne celebrated the day before. They are the models for all who are truly followers of Christ, the models for us and for all who would call themselves Christian today.

Proper 20 Sept 24 2017 Jonah

If I were to tell you that Jonah is amongst the greatest of the Old Testament prophets, you would probably laugh. At St. Giles’ Church Keith was generous enough to oblige. So I’ll start with two reasons why you might agree with me.

First, he is far and away the best story teller of any of the prophets.  Everyone knows the story of Jonah. I’d go as far as to say that apart from Noah’s Ark, it must be one of the most memorable stories in the entire Old Testament. Jonah is absolutely hilarious. He’s the man who, when given a command by God, runs hard in the opposite direction, and goes to sea to try to get away from God. Ridiculous stories are easy to remember.

That’s the easy bit. He is the best story teller. His message, and I would go so far as to say the prophet’s gospel, is even greater. Jonah is called to bring the good news of repentance and forgiveness to gentiles. No other prophet does this so clearly. When Jonah sulks under his shrivelled bush, God mocks him and then says ‘Should I not be concerned about Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who do not know their right hand from their left?’

This is Jonah’s message. The author, uniquely amongst the Old Testament prophets, has a message of salvation not just for Jews, but for the whole of humanity. Yes, I know there are passages from Isaiah which contain a gospel addressed to gentiles, and this is quoted in the stories of John the Baptist’s preaching. But Isaiah’s words were not heeded. The greatest prophetic writing came out of the captivity of the Israelites in Babylon. First the northern kingdom, Israel, was defeated, and then Judah and Jerusalem later. And it was in captivity that the prophets proclaimed that god was not only THEIR God, but the only God. Real monotheism only developed during this period of exile, when the captives might have been most likely to give up their faith and start worshipping the gods of those who put them in slavery. The captivity lasted 70 years and the many people returned to rebuild Jerusalem and the Temple, bringing not only the ancient books of Moses and their history in the Books of the Kings and Chronicles, but also the prophetic writings which had sustained their identity in Babylon. Instead of giving up their faith, the prophets strengthened it.

But those who returned became exclusivist. Indeed, they rejected many of their fellow countrymen who had not been taken captive and might have married foreigners. They re-established the Temple, and made it the holy place where only Jews could offer sacrifice. But the story of Jonah is of God’s command ‘Go at once to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before me.’ As we heard today, Jonah knew what God is like, that ‘God forgives.’  Jonah cries out to God ‘O Lord! Is not this what I said while I was still in my own country? That is why I fled to Tarshish at the beginning; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and ready to relent from punishing.’ But, instead of rejoicing in God’s mercy, this caricature of a prophet behaves like the worst of the Jews back in Jerusalem.

I do hope you appreciate that the real prophet is not the cartoon figure he portrays, but someone with a serious message. Of course people say ‘This isn’t real, the Jews never went to try to convert Nineveh, it didn’t happen.’ That is precisely the point. That is what they should have been doing. Once you realise that there is only one god of the whole earth, once you have complete monotheism, you need to realise that salvation is not just for you. It’s for everyone made in God’s image.

The parable which Jesus tells is addressed precisely to this kind of issue. Remember that Matthew’s gospel is written for an audience of Jewish Christians who know the Old Testament inside out. But what they will also appreciate is how exclusivist the Jews had been about their faith. They had behaved as though God was just their God and no-one else could be saved. They had worshipped God all their lives, and now here is God welcoming in these people five minutes before the last trump and letting them in to the kingdom of God with people who had prayed morning and night for a whole lifetime. And they might be thinking that it’s not fair. They might want to have a good sulk like Jonah. Jesus says ‘Are you envious?’ Here we go back to the second oldest sin in the Book. Cain murders his brother Abel out of envy.

The real difficulty with envy is that the person who commits this sin deludes himself into believing that he is RIGHT to be angry like Jonah. The person who sulks wants to make those around, usually the nearest and dearest, feel bad. The caricature whom Jonah has invented tries this on God.

The ancient sin of Genesis 4 is there. ‘The Lord said to Cain, ’Why are you angry and why has your countenance fallen?…. sin is lurking at the door; its desire is for you’

Envy is all around in public life. David Cameron’s closest colleagues turned against him to support Brexit to take over as leader. Having toppled him they fell out among themselves, leaving the only person who hadn’t entered this conflict to take over as Prime Minister. Now the battle for the leadership is on again with Boris Johnson’s article in The Telegraph and the aftermath. Still, there appears to be no plan for Brexit, just envy of other players, and increasingly envy of what the rest of Europe appears to have which Britain will be losing.

To see the silly side of envy, we find that women are spending thousands on plastic surgery to look like Melania Trump. Or we may see it in a family squabble headlined as ‘Queen adviser’s downfall ‘linked to snub’ for Prince Andrew’s daughters Beatrice and Eugenie’.

In the aftermath of the latest terrorist incident we have to ask why people given safety and a home in Britain, as well as disaffected nationals, turn against society. Could the motive simply be envy of those who appear to have a comfortable lifestyle by people who realise that achieving it is actually very hard?

At the same time life IS hard, and workers, like those in the parable, may feel there is just cause to be aggrieved.

• For public sector workers whose pay has not kept pace with inflation for many years
• For people on zero hours contracts. Their lot is worse than that of the people standing in the market place, because they can’t take a new job offer as it will make them lose the chance of the zero hours job.
• For former students paying back loans who feel ripped off by the government. Their debt increases at a high rate of interest when the bank rate is practically zero.
• For people here told that the pension age will have to rise, and people in France demonstrating against a similar reduction in what the government sees as an unsustainable benefits package.

Feeling resentment is all too easy.

Treating the story of Jonah as though it were a historical event misses the whole point of this wonderfully instructive parable. Envy is a deadly sin. Resentment at the universality of God’s love, and sulking because we don’t get exactly what we want are the pitfalls which the story reveals. We learn and remember because we laugh at Jonah, and we must learn to laugh at ourselves when we see ourselves tempted to imitate him. It is a great story for children. The line ‘God appointed a worm’ is priceless!

Like many parables, Jonah’s story seems to remain unfinished. After his first mistake, he repents (Jonah 2). But we don’t know whether he stopped sulking under his dead bush. After the prodigal son returns in Luke’s gospel we don’t know whether the older brother will join the feast, or whether he sulks like Jonah. The stories are unfinished, because the story is not about Jonah, or about two sons, or about labourers in the vineyard.  The story, and the  question are posed to you and to me. Will you, will I, be resentful, sulky and miserable because God welcomes everyone. Remember Jonah. And if necessary, laugh at your stupidity.