The
readings on
which this
sermon is
based can be
found at:
http://frsparky.net/a/r109.htm
s109g15
Sixth Sunday
of
Easter
10/5/2015
‘I chose you
.. and I
appointed you
to
go’
John 15:16
When we say
morning prayer
together, my
wife reads the
OT lesson from
Eugene
Peterson’s
translation:
‘The Message’
and it is
always
interesting to
see how he
brings the
sense into a
contemporary
idiom.
Recently she
read from
Exodus chapter
20, where he
translates
those well
known words:
‘No using the
name of God,
your God, in
curses or
silly banter;
God won't put
up with the
irreverent use
of his
name.’
(1)
And I
recognise that
this is the
way we think
this is the
sense of the
words - not
using God’s
name as an
expletive,
when we
proverbially
hit our thumb
with the
hammer rather
than the
nail.
Of course
these days
such words are
going out of
fashion, as
others
describing
sexual
intimacy have
replaced them.
But this lead
me to think
that the real
offence of the
third
commandment -
of which the
more usual
translation,
not taking the
Lord’s name in
vain is not
much more
helpful - is
to not use the
name of the
Lord to
marginalise,
alienate or
condemn
others.
The ultimate
misuse of the
Lord’s name
was when God
was invoked to
have Jesus
crucified.
Here I see a
parallel
between Jesus’
summary of the
commandments:
love God and
neighbour, (2)
with
acknowledging
the oneness of
God and not
misusing the
Lord’s name.
How often does
our conception
of
‘christianity’
implicitly
marginalise,
alienate and
condemn those
who do not
describe
themselves
thus?
This points
again to the
seemingly
eternal
propensity of
every religion
to be used for
essentially
selfish
purposes,
christianity
no less
frequently
than any
other.
Indeed this
points to the
vital
importance of
this third
commandment -
directed not
towards the
outsider - but
towards those
who count
themselves as
religious.
And the
question has
to be asked:
Would not the
world be an
infinitely
nicer place if
religious
divisions
didn’t exist -
if the name of
God was not
misused to
marginalise,
alienate and
condemn
others?
I rejoice to
have
conversations
with some very
intelligent
people who
think about
their faith;
sometimes
these
conversations
are face to
face,
sometimes by
internet.
Often I
reflect that
the atheist
has thought
far more about
his or her
disbelief than
the devout
christian has
ever thought
about his or
her
belief.
The ability to
think, to
question and
to choose is
one of the
things we
recognise as
distinctively
human, and so
we are
quintessentially
human when we
think rather
than when we
comply or
submit.
One theme has
been about why
Jesus chose to
die, he could
have walked
away.
The church’s
answer: for
the sins of
the world -
conveniently
contains the
seeds of
mostly
unrecognised
moral
manipulation,
a method that
surely points
to a
desperately
lonely god,
not one I
would worship.
So Jesus
didn’t come
and be
crucified to
forgive my
sins and
massage my
insecurities,
but to choose
individuals
and the church
to go and make
society free
from religious
divisions.
There seems to
me to be
little point
praying to God
for peace
between the
various
warring
parties, when
we in the
church have
deliberately
chosen to
remain in our
holy huddle,
rather than
going as we
have been
chosen to do,
to rid society
of religious
divisions.
In this sense
John Lennon
has done more
of the Lord’s
work when he
sang: ‘Nothing
to kill or die
for / And no
religion too /
Imagine all
the people /
Living life in
peace. .. You
may say I'm a
dreamer / But
I'm not the
only one / I
hope someday
you'll join us
/ And the
world will be
as one’;
(3) more than
Billy Graham
and all the
converts he
made.
But Jesus’
words tell us
that this is
no dream, but
a commandment,
and we can’t
blame God if
the world
still suffers
through our
continuing
misuse of the
Lord’s name.
Again, those
words of St
Paul, ‘the
wages of sin
is death’ (4)
- not our
death, but the
marginalisation,
alienation and
condemnation
the exclusive
church
inflicts on
others in the
name of the
Lord - is
sin.
It was a sin
Paul was only
too familiar
with, for he
was the chief
persecutor of
others before
he travelled
that road to
Damascus.
And after his
conversion he
was hounded
from town
after town,
from Jerusalem
to Rome, by
religious
people
invoking the
name of the
very same god.
The power of
words is
immense.
I used the
word
‘monopoly’ in
last week’s
sermon in the
context of the
exclusive
church.
(5)
Monopolies are
notorious for
benefitting
those in the
monopoly and
disregarding
the needs of
those
outside.
(I am sorry,
it happens
that our
internet
connection has
suddenly
become the
‘speed’ of the
old dial-up
and getting
references is
painfully
slow, hence I
can’t give
examples.)
But various
legislatures
have laws
protecting
society from
monopolies, so
when will
society - and
more
importantly
the church -
recognise the
evil inherent
in their
presumed
monopolisation
of the
divine?
If
Christianity
is just
another sect
claiming a
monopoly on
orthodoxy and
consequently a
monopoly on
the grace of
God, what
makes this
claim
credible?
Time and
again, in both
the Old and
New
Testaments,
God is
portrayed as
caring for the
other - ‘the
orphans and
widows’.
(6)
Of course it
is convenient
for the church
to limit these
to the natural
orphans and
widows, and
not extend
care to those
who have lost
their heavenly
parentage.
It is again
convenient for
the church to
look at the
increasingly
secular
society as
backsliders,
obsessed with
consumerism,
and fail to
see that
society has
seen through
the church’s
pretensions to
a monopoly and
know that this
never can be
ordained by
any god worth
worshipping.
And the
essence of
Jesus’
ministry, and
in the end why
he was killed,
was his
association
with the
tax-collectors,
prostitutes
and sinners.
(7).
So I return to
my
text.
This is no
dream, it is
what we are
chosen and
commanded to
bring about.
1.
20:7
http://www.biblestudytools.com/msg/exodus/20.html
2.
Matthew
22:37-39
3.
http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/johnlennon/imagine.html
4.
Romans 6:23
5.
http://frsparky.net/a/108g15.htm
6.
Deuteronomy
14:29, James
1:27
7.
Matthew 9:11,
21:31