When Brexit challenges a preachers ability to forgive - what next?

I have been a while since I shared my thinking in my preaching mode. In part that is because I have been placed on less preaching engagements recently, something that I have to say I am secretly relieved at due to my current postgraduate education studies and work commitments.  

There have also been some other significant changes in my personal circumstances.  Those of you who have followed this blog before will know that about 3 years ago I suffered a period of severe depression.  Well the good news is that I have come off my antidepressants. A side effect of this is that I am learning how to cope with emotions again that are stronger again since I have stopped taking the drugs. I have always wished that I could emulate the logical thinking of my role models Spock of Vulcan and Sherlock Holmes. Holmes of course had his own weakness to be found in an opium syringe and Spock was more emotional than he would ever let on.  Learning to cope with emotions as they surface though is something that I am now having to share with my beloved Vulcan and something that I am taking on a day to day basis.

Attached is a sermon I gave today in Maidstone; the County town of Kent.  My country is just over 30 days away from disastrously exiting the EU (in my opinion anyway), and when I wrote the sermon I was forced to reflect on my own difficulties concerning forgiveness; especially those who are in Westminster and have the capacity but not it seems the will or the morality to stop the process.  How do I face this? How do I find the power to forgive the likes of Rees-Mogg, Farage, Johnson or May.  

Read on and share some of my journey if you wish :)

Sermon Union Street 24.02.2019

Our second reading from the Gospel of Luke is a segment of one of perhaps the most famous snapshots of Jesus’ life: The sermon on the mount.  I’d like to ask you at this point, what springs to your mind when you think of the sermon on the mount?

Do you think of Robert Powell’s Jesus - a figure dressed in white preaching to large numbers of people who seem ignorant?

Do you see a figure in the distant or close at hand?

What do the words Sermon and Mount bring to mind?

In the 21^st Century a sermon is viewed as a static affair, with the preacher standing in a place of “honour” expounding on ancient scriptures to people who are feeding on every word.  Well, perhaps not quite like that but you get the gist, it isn’t likely to be viewed as a discussion or a tutorial. How many of you would have been prepared to come to church to discuss the scripture readings?  Less than those expecting to be spoken at by a preacher and then to have the service over in an hour to get the things done that are on our various “to do lists” I suspect.  How we view a setting can easily affect how we approach something. If we come to this scripture with an understanding of a sermon as a passive venture, how far will we go to struggle with the scripture, to challenge it, to listen to it, to grapple with the meaning? 

We see it as a major preaching event on a mountain, but what if the sermon on the mount was more like a discussion on a hillside. What does that picture paint in your brain? 

First off, it appears in 2 out of the 4 gospels. Mark and John don’t actually mention the event, so just how critical is it, and more importantly why do Matthew and Luke include it in their gospel narratives.  The fact that is doesn’t appear in all the gospels doesn’t mean that it isn’t important of course; we need to remember that the gospels are not written to reflect an unbiased biography of Jesus’ life.  If you want an unbiased book, go read the telephone directory.  No; the gospels were written with a clear purpose in mind; one that they often make clear at the outset. Luke, the writer of the gospel we have listened to today, introduces his work as a personal account to an individual called Theophilus, IN ORDER THAT Theophilus may know the truth of what he has been instructed in. Mark introduces his book as the “beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ”. The point of the gospels is to help the reader realise what Jesus was about.  It is a given for the writers that something significant has happened and they want to guide the reader in order that the reader can “get it!”  IF we stop for a moment and take that on board, then each point the authors make is designed to impact on the reader, to assist us in realising who and what Jesus is.

Let us then for a moment compare the two excerpts of scripture today. In Genesis, Joseph forgives his brothers for their earlier attempts to kill him, which looks like it fits with Jesus’ message of forgiveness. But, there is a difference, let us take a closer look.  Joseph when he forgives his brothers is a major player in Egypt; second only to the Pharoah.  It is like being the Vice President in USA or a senior politician in the UK.  He has power.  He therefore chooses to forgive his brothers, but he does so from a position without personal risk.  What has Joseph got to lose?  What we see here is a transaction. He can regain a relationship with his brothers and with his Father but it is on his terms.  I will argue to you that this is significantly different from what Jesus is mandating in his teaching. Jesus takes the concept of forgiveness, the idea of not holding a grudge, of not setting ourselves up as judge and jury. He takes this idea of forgiveness and stretches it to the limit.  Like the cleanliness laws that Jesus shows up for their hypocrisy; Jesus demands forgiveness from positions of weakness as well as strength. What good does it do you to like your friend? Love your enemy – that shows you are serious.  What good does it do to you to forgive your best friend. Forgive instead your parents or your boss, forgive a government who wreck your opportunities.  Forgiveness from a position of weakness when you have nothing to gain and everything to lose shows you are serious.

Luke has a scenario where Jesus calls people being struck on the side of a cheek to show the other. We have this in our language today and it has become part of what is said. Jesus had something particular in mind for his audience. If someone strikes you with the back of their hand how do they do this. Picture it in your mind.  It isn’t a slap, it is violence with the back of the hand. It shows a total disregard for the person being hit. If you are hit like this you are worthless in the eyes of the perpetrator.  Jesus calls for his audience not to fight back but to offer the other cheek!  There is probably a whole sermon in that one sentence. Jesus is setting a picture as usual to show what he is asking for. To be different. I doubt if he was suggesting that a woman allows her partner to strike her and then offer to do it again by the way!  No, he is asking his followers to understand the picture.  Those who would strike with the back of their hand would likely be the occupying forces; the Romans. Jesus is therefore calling for passive resistance, for peaceful resistance. Not to choose the option of the zealots and fight back but to choose a different path.  This speaks directly into the idea of forgiveness from a position of weakness. Jesus’ audience would have known exactly what Jesus was talking about, they lived the life of occupation, where the wrong look could lead to violence, the wrong word could lead to much worse – something Matthew refers to when he has Jesus exhorting his followers to go the extra mile if ordered to walk a mile. The reference to the word Mile being a clear reference to the Roman Army. If you were “asked” to walk a mile, it would be under guard on the way to your execution.

Luke’s gospel highlights particularly the right of the outsider, not only the refugee, but also those deemed to be on the edges of the community; those who didn’t fit in. Today this might be those with an invisible disability such autism, chronic pain, anxiety and or depression. It might be someone who is LGBT.  The Kingdom of God is shown by Luke to be inclusive, and followers of Jesus are required to be the image of God to all. We should therefore imitate Jesus in the way we approach the world.  We are called to stand for the underdog, to defend the rights of the dispossessed. 

We are called to be merciful and forgiving and to risk doing so from a position of weakness. Does this mean that we let oppressors have their own way?  With the current political uncertainty and upheaval in both UK and USA, it is difficult to see how we should respond in the wake of scripture such as this?  Jesus never of course backed away from difficult scenarios and was often the first to highlight hypocrisy among the ruling classes. Somehow we need to follow his lead and do so whilst avoiding the temptation to become like those we are required to criticize. Rather we are charged with trying to become an imitation of Christ.  How we do this I can’t tell you; but I can say that the more you reach out and into the mind of God the more you will be able to follow that path. 

May Jesus help us all in the coming weeks as we try and follow his example

In Jesus name

Amen