The love spoken about is love in action, that feeds and includes; the love of neighbour, of your enemy; the love of those who hate and despise you: the love Jesus showed dying on the cross.
Disciples of Jesus are ones who follow this example, who walk in the steps of their teacher whose love includes all and does not exclude any.
It is the Wisdom of Christ that we as people need to embody, the Wisdom that trusts, that gathers and shepherds; that lays a table before her enemies. (Psalm 23).
And this is for everyone, reaching the light that shines in each person, the light that dispels all darkness in all.
We need to lay hold of this truth that, to be followers of Jesus the message is universal and catholic: a message for everyone everywhere and about everything.
Brother Gabriel’s message this morning resulted in lots of discussion especially around the meaning of love within a religious tradition where often the love between the members feels not to be inclusive, where the rituals and rhythms that define the community’s practices turn people away. We are still struggling to understand why people who were so encouraged by our meeting now don’t attend and we are asking if the way we have organized ourselves is excluding them.
Since Jesus’ message was given in the context of the Jewish religion and the Spirit cut the early Christians away from the taboos and rules that defined that community we have the latitude to be what brings life to our times. We have a universal and catholic message and we need to embed it in our culture. Yet the expectation is that a Christian work, and its governance, is either a vestige of a long dead culture and very hierarchical or, for us Independents, depends on a way of doing things that depends on an undefined but expected liturgy, three hymns and a message, and power structure of leadership that looks very similar to the board of directors of a company. We briefly considered the 12 steps program and how it might inform our getting free from the addiction to sin and being church, a mutually supporting and anonymous organisation.
Our public relations policy is based on attraction rather than promotion; we need always maintain personal anonymity at the level of press, radio and films.
In his book The Patient Ferment of the Early Church: The Improbable Rise of Christianity in the Roman Empire by Alan Kreider we learn of the early Christains, where habitus means norms, values, attitudes, and behaviours, that Christianity drew people in because of what people saw.
Habitus of the Christians was what pulled outside observers toward this peculiar people and, when contrasted with the habitus of Roman-Hellenistic society, pushed pagans toward the church.
It is common knowledge that the early church grew rapidly, even in the face of suffering. Counterintuitively, it does not appear that fiery preaching or exhortation to convert was the impetus for growth. Rather, it was the very “strange patience” and habitus inculcated during the frequent gatherings of the community that drove the rapid church growth during these centuries. While pagan onlookers were not welcome at most Christian worship services, friends of the Christians “out in the world” could see that these people behaved differently—and in a very attractive way. Believers didn’t necessarily share aggressively much about what their faith entailed, but they certainly lived out visibly what their mysterious faith taught. And the friends and onlookers were drawn to it.
It appears according to Kreider that tasting and seeing the love in the community was what drew people in, not worship or preaching, which they weren’t invited to anyway.
Matthew 7:6New Revised Standard Version, Anglicized tells us
6 ‘Do not give what is holy to dogs; and do not throw your pearls before swine, or they will trample them under foot and turn and maul you.
How would this wisdom inform our meetings? Have we made our open meetings an idol? How angry are you feeling now?
I have often wondered if the way God ordained the building and organizing of the temple had a message for us today about how the church should look. I will leave that one with you..
Jesus life, death and resurrection deals with sin, the sin of all humanity, in all times and all places, the sin against God.
Revelation 7:17
New Revised Standard Version, Anglicised
for the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of the water of life, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.
Jesus offering up of himself for us is a once and only sacrifice marking our universe as forgiven from the beginning by the Lamb who was slaughtered from the beginning, revealed in time through Jesus Christ.
As we and all others turn from death to life, our sins are removed from us as far as the east is from the west, all of us, for all time.
And yet our habit is to fail, to miss the mark, to fall short in our selves in our world. Each of us, though the light of Christ shines in everyone to guide us, is sullied as we walk off the narrow way of peace. The privilege we have is to know that by walking in the light, turning back to it, by living together in the light we are made clean. Together in the light of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus; through repentance and contrition; through loving and being loved we are washed clean.
Through God’s faithfulness in Jesus we are empowered and our presence in the world brings peace and healing. Jesus is the Word made flesh and through our commitment to live together in the light and to abide in truth, we experience life in all its fullness, freed from sin, bound in practical love. We do this in the context of a world under the power of the evil one and this love is difficult.
Together we are bound to life and reject death. In this life we know the unity of the Holy Spirit to guide and empower us.
It is the season of lent, a season to reflect, make amends and look forward to the promise of new life, to the first fruits of spring. We have been so proud and confident, and yet we find this is our downfall. Our being right is destroying us, our trying to be everything for every person, pulling us down and so our minds turn to being kind to ourselves, kind to others and kind to the earth.
The gathering of Christians was built on brokenness. We are formed into a body, a commonwealth gathered to a table, breaking bread and sharing the fruits of the earth. Life to the full. Yet in our companionship, the breaking of bread reminds Christians of the brokenness of Jesus’s body on the cross, and the wine, the pouring out of his life. Knowing our brokenness brings us before God. Our God saves us from despair, and to coin a word, rightwiseness is a gift, true peace.
Come let us boast in the goodness of God. Come let us love God. Come let us love one another, friend and enemy. It begins with us knowing our need, the need of humanity and the need of the Earth; a seed sown in good soil, that we might grow not wither.
God’s discipline is in giving us up to our own ways. It’s standing beside us when we muck up, being there, ready, when we choose to turn back to the right path, realise we’re in the long grass on the road to nowhere. The gate to where we want to be, I believe, is Jesus’ cross, the place of brokenness, the beginning of victory.
The cross becomes at once the place of slaughter and the throne of God’s love. The light of life is God’s presence in all creation, drawing us to peace.
So in this season of moving from darkness to light, you might consider sharing a hot beverage with us at the chapel on a Sunday morning at 930am or a bowl of soup on a Wednesday evening at 7pm. Yes, religion will follow, but you don’t have to stay!
Daily Readings from Lectionary
Takeley Chapel 