There is no greater proponent of religion that is bad and religion that is good than Saint Paul!

Transcription

1 There is no greater proponent of religion that is bad and religion that is good than Saint Paul! This amazing person has always intrigued me. Paul s writings are some of the oldest in the New Testament and they predate the Gospels by years, even decades. Indeed, Paul has significantly shaped our understanding of Christian faith and it s true to say that no one more than Paul has exercised such an influence over the way we interpret and understand our faith today. Paul was born around the same time as Jesus in Tarsus on what today is the southern cost of Turkey. He was a Jew, a Pharisee, a Roman citizen and Greek speaker who was educated in Jerusalem under the high priest. Our earliest physical description of Paul comes from a somewhat unknown second century Christian writing called The Actsof Paul and Thecla. It s a writing that never made it into the canon of scripture and the story centers on a beautiful, wealthy young woman by the name of Thecla who is so taken by Paul s preaching that she broke her engagement to follow Paul. And in this document there is description of the apostle: And he saw Paul coming, a man small of stature, with a bald head and crooked legs, in a good state of body, with eyebrows meeting. full of friendliness; for now he appeared like a man, and now he had the face of an angel Well, we really do not know if that rather gratifying description is correct. However, one important way of describing Paul is that he was very much a person of paradox. For you see, Paul was born and raised Jewish. But he travelled extensively in the pagan world. He bore a Jewish name Saul and a Roman name Paul.

2 (2) Paul was a Pharisee who was educated in Jerusalem. Yet he was also a Roman citizen. Paul adopted and passionately proclaimed a faith that he formerly persecuted with absolute zeal. A messenger of mercy and grace who was called and commissioned by Jesus Christ, Paul was arrested for disturbing the peace. He was transported to Rome as a prisoner for trial where he was said to have been beheaded under the Emperor Nero and buried in marble sarcophagus in what is now the Basilica of Saint Paul Outside-the-Walls in Rome. And as a rigorous, fervent defender of tradition, Paul persecuted the small group of people who followed Jesus of Nazareth, people who bore witness to Jesus as the crucified, risen Messiah. But, then, Paul went to on to proclaim that same Messiah as Saviour of the world! In or about 37 C.E. Paul was officially commissioned by the high priest in Jerusalem to travel to Damascus in Syria where he was to arrest, imprison and even execute members of the Jesus movement who had fled the Jerusalem under persecution. On this road Paul had a dramatic, heavenly vision as Jesus stood before him and commissioned Paul to make a 180 degree turn from persecuting the followers of Jesus to becoming an apostle of Christ and a bearer of the Good News. But there is much more to this. For, the risen, heavenly Jesus also commissioned Paul to make a 180 degree turn from defending an exclusive faith to becoming an apostle to the Gentiles an apostle to the pagans, the outsiders or, to use a modern idiom, the infidel. Now this was a big call because religious tradition held to the notion that God s people were the chosen ones of Israel. Those outside this small inn-group were people beyond the reach of God. But now, Paul, the exclusive, zealous religious leader, is commissioned by Christ to bear witness to ALL people. Paul is to further the work of Christ, the one he vigorously opposed, by becoming Christ s Apostle to the Gentiles. Friends, it s often hard for us to really comprehend what is going on here. For we claim we live in an open, egalitarian, tolerant society. But in Paul s time people were identified and defined in terms of degrees of purity. And all of this was sanctioned by the religion of the day.

3 (3) Those on the inside, those who were pure and acceptable to God were classified over and against those who were outsiders, those who were impure and of no worth or consequence to God. Indeed, the divisions that occurred in Paul s time could be likened to the ancient caste system of South Asia or the former apartheid system in South Africa. Meanwhile, the tragic divisions created today by extreme fundamentalist elements of Islam between believers and infidels and the fatwa issued by the warriors of God against the West is probably a more accurate assessment. And this is bad religion! Friends, Paul s transformation from being a rigorous persecutor of those who followed Jesus to becoming one who proclaimed the saving power of Christ, Paul s conversion from a being a zealous defender of tradition to becoming a trail blazer who tore down the walls that dived Jews and Gentiles and opened the way for a ministry that is inclusive of all people - is a case of bad religion becoming good religion. And it s a significant point really worth contemplating! In Acts 22:3-4 Paul says: I am a Jew, born in Tarus in Cilicia, but brought up in this city at the feet of Gamsaliel, educated strictly according to our ancestral law, being zealous for God, just as all of you are today. I persecuted this Way up to the point of death by binding both men and women putting them in prison, Here we witness the testimony of a person who is, dare I say, fanatical about his faith and his particular understanding of faith. Here we encounter a faith that is based on the notion of pleasing God through a zealous effort to defend and protect God s divine laws at any cost. Indeed, in all of this we see a person engaging with a faith that is staunch and brittle a faith that is closed and must be defended at all costs! Paul s encounter with Christ on that road to Damascus alters all that. For here Paul moves on. Paul s perspective is changed, his passion is transformed as Paul looks beyond a rigid set of rules and a faith that is purely insular, completely exclusive and self-righteous to bear witness to a God who totally open, whose love, mercy and grace is offered freely to all people. In our text from Philippians today Paul acknowledges this in his reference to the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord (Philippians 3:8) as he moves from being a persecutor of the church to one who says I press on towards the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus (Philippians 3:14). Many years ago a former director of a religious affairs program on national television suggested to me that religion brings out the best and the worst in people. By this he indicated that faith can easily turn into fanaticism. Faith can turn nasty. It can become ugly. Commitments can be blinded and the scriptures can be held captive to a fear of change. Faith can fall victim to a lack of grace and compassion as a zeal for truth and perfection take centre stage. Today we see this in the rise of fundamentalism among religions of many kinds. For, here faith is turned back on itself to justify the status-quo or to act as means of making people conform.

4 (4) Faith becomes a closed system that says people are made for the Sabbath rather than the Sabbath being made for the people. This kind of faith often serves to define insiders and outsiders allowing it to justify uncharitable acts, even violent and unjust policies towards others. Religion that is bad seeks to control rather than liberate. It becomes preoccupied with self and remains inward- looking. In an extreme form, religion that is bad justifies hate and, in the name of God, practices and perpetuates violence. And Paul, in his passion and zeal to serve God, became a victim of such religion. Today we witness extreme examples of bad religion as those hostages, James Foley, Steven Sotloff and David Haines, were beheaded by extremists in the name of God. Now decapitation is sanctioned in the Koran. But, then the Bible also sanctions mass killing as the Old Testament exhorts those defenders of the one true God to act against those who are guilty of idolatry with the instructions: you shall put the inhabitants of that town to the sword, utterly destroying it and everything in it even putting its livestock to the sword. All of its spoil you shall gather into its public square; then burn the town and all its spoil with fire, as a whole burnt-offering to the LORD your God. (Deuteronomy 13:15). And we are also informed that: Whoever would not seek the LORD, the God of Israel, should be put to death, whether young or old, man or woman. (2 Chronicles 15:12-13). Now, I am not endeavouring to play the kind of game Christopher Hitchens does by selectively picking bits out of the Bible to support a preconceived agenda. But it s important to acknowledge that religion can become ugly and even destructive. Indeed, even the faith we proclaim and live can become bad. This is why Paul s story is just so important to us. For you see, Paul experiences what it means to move from a faith that is narrow, closed, inwardly focused and intolerant of others to a faith that is looks beyond itself, is open, inclusive, gracious and accepting of all people. And the remarkable thing that happens here is that Paul did not change religions. Paul did not experience a conversion in that sense. Rather, Paul s understanding of the faith he so passionately proclaimed is transformed. Paul s Jewish faith is turned around from being a narrow, legalistic intolerant one to one that is open, inclusive and liberating. In other words, Paul s faith was not dumped. It was not jettisoned. Rather, Paul s faith, and the Jewish tradition that is important to him and to us, is profoundly transformed. And this all happened through an encounter with Jesus Christ. In other words, Jesus Christ turned bad religion into good religion! Friends, bad religion can be most easily seen among the extremists and the bigots of this world. And there are many horrendous examples! What s happening in Syria and Iraq, indeed what happened in the Crusades and what happened in the religious wars of Europe are poignant examples. But Paul s experience of moving from a faith that was bad to a faith that was good is a reminder to us all to consider carefully where we all stand.

5 (5) Does our faith cause us to turn in on ourselves? Does our faith exclude others? Does our faith serve to justify and defend the status-quo even when there is need for change? Does our faith sanction things that run counter to the love, mercy and compassion of Jesus? I believe God calls each and everyone of us to a life that is lived, not for ourselves, but for others. God calls us to a way of being that is totally open, not to an ongoing practice of defending the way things have always been but to the leading of God s spirit, a spirit that takes us in new and unexpected directions. Indeed, church as we know it today is the new Israel, a new community of God s people who hold strong to the to scriptures as received in the Old Testament or Hebrew Bible, but are brought into being in Jesus Christ, the one who comes to renew, to transform and to empower us for the future. So, the defining characteristics of who we are as Christian community ought to focus on a willingness to go beyond ourselves - to reach out to others in an unconditional way. Here we are to be a radically inclusive community grounded in the love, mercy and grace of Jesus Christ. Secondly, our defining characteristic ought to be one that is continually open to the leading of God s spirit - who often takes us into new and risky territory. In this sense, we need to be a community that does not look back over our shoulders to what happened in the past, but to be community that is always open to the possibilities that are before us. Thirdly, our defining characteristic is to be radical and bold rather than cautious and conservative. Here I am not talking about politics. I am not referring to the political spectrum of radical and conservative, of left and right. Please do not get me wrong here! What I am saying is - a faith which is lively and good is a faith that lets go and lets God. It s a faith that is able to let go of things, when necessary, that may be sacred to us, and may be holding us back, for the sake of God s kingdom and the purposes God has in store. And here I believe God is calling us to be both an evangelical community and an ecumenical community. By evangelical, I believe we are to be community focussed on, and committed to, proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ to others. For the euangelion is the disclosure, the announcement of God s Good News of forgiveness and healing. It is the informing or telling of God s wondrous acts in rescuing us from everything that demeans and destroys. By ecumenical, I believe we are to be focussed on, and committed to, being the church in the world. For ecumenical derives from the Greek oikumene meaning the whole inhabited world. And this is a world without borders, a world where every human being, no matter what their race, culture, nationality or creed, is a child of God - and is to be valued, cherished and cared for as a person made in God s image. West Epping, like the church in every place, lives in critical times. Today I have distributed material for us all to consider concerning an approach to refugees and asylum seekers. Should we receive refugees and asylum seekers unconditionally? Should we hang that banner welcoming them?

6 (6) And this afternoon we will discuss an extremely challenging paper on marriage and how the church understands Christian marriage. Same-gender marriage is controversial is it right? Does it or does it not have a place in the church? Meanwhile, right now the Synod of NSW and ACT is discussing a financial crisis that has hit the church. Should we sell property? Can we sustain ministry? Are we willing to make sacrifices and experience some painful transition? What kind of shape and form will the church take in the future? I do not have simple, straightforward answers to all these issues. But as your minister I do believe we can and must trust God. I do believe in letting go and letting God, of listening to God s spirit that is within our midst and to embracing the unconditional love, mercy and compassion of Christ that renews, transforms and takes us forward into the future. Friends, I am confident that, within the murkiness and the confusion of life, that within the uncertainty of these challenging times, God calls us, indeed, God equips us to live a faith that is open, inclusive and liberating. And for me, that s the direction we need to go for this is, indeed, good religion. It is good religion for all! Amen John Barr 28 th September 2014