Hinde Street Methodist Church 11am Sunday 8 th April 2018 Revd Val Reid. Acts 4: John 1: 1-2:2 John 20: 19-31

Transcription

1 Hinde Street Methodist Church 11am Sunday 8 th April 2018 Revd Val Reid Acts 4: John 1: 1-2:2 John 20: On Easter Monday Winnie Mandela died. Her death has sparked some liberal hand-wringing in the UK. What are we to make of her? How are we to remember her? Winnie s parents were devout Methodists, and she was brought up to respect Christian values and traditions. But the way she was taught that respect through serious beatings by her mother might lead us to question just what she learned. Because while she was the Mother of the Nation, an active freedom fighter, a loyal supporter of her husband Nelson Mandela through his long imprisonment, she was also notoriously the leader of the Mandela United Football Club, her personal bodyguards, who beat and killed 14-year-old Stompie Moeketsi. Radical daughter of the revolution? Courageous opponent of Apartheid? Survivor of state torture? Or vicious bully? How many times have we got caught up in this tension? Speakers at the funeral mass for Cardinal Keith O Brien, on Wednesday this week, recognised his bias to the poor, and his many acts of goodness, courage and simple kindness. They also recognised the accusations of abuse from young men, and the hypocrisy with which he opposed gay relationships. I went with my son to see the Picasso 1932 exhibition last week. Artistic genius? Or serial adulterer and perpetrator of sexual abuse of the women who modelled for him? Both of course. So how do we respond to the flawed-ness of human nature? When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews. It s still Easter Day. 1

2 Only that morning Mary Magdalene had encountered Jesus in the garden. And Peter and the other disciple had witnessed the empty tomb. Mary had shared the message she received from her risen Lord. But none of them knew what was going on. Presumably they didn t quite believe her news. Because the doors were still locked. Jesus comes and stands among them. And the first thing he says is: Peace be with you. Not: why didn t you believe Mary? Not: why are you still hiding away? Not: where were you when I was crucified? Not: Peter how could you? But: Peace be with you. Jesus knows that we get scared. That under pressure we all do things that don t reflect our best selves. That we break our promises. But still his greeting is Peace be with you. After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Jesus knew just what fear and betrayal and denial could lead to. He bore the wounds. But his message is peace. This is the Johannine Pentecost. The moment when the disciples receive the Holy Spirit. The word emphysao, to breathe, which occurs only here in the whole of the New Testament, is clearly intended to remind us of something. Right back at the beginning of time, when God formed a human being out of mud, A-dam, God breathed life into the creature he had made. Emphysao. This is a new creation. A fresh start. A clean slate. These imperfect disciples are entrusted with the rebirth of the gospel story. And it s interesting what this rebirth might look like. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; If you retain the sins of any, they are retained. Back in the mid 16 th Century, the Council of Trent, determined to shore up the authority of the Catholic Church in the face of the Protestant reformation, used this verse to justify the role of priests in the sacrament of penance. 2

3 Only ordained clergy could grant absolution from sins. Jesus said so. So just be careful when you criticise priests But that is clearly not what Jesus is saying here. His words are addressed to the whole faith community. The forgiveness of sins is the work of that whole community, not the gift of one special person. And in John s gospel, sin hamartia is not a moral or behavioural transgression. It s not doing a bad thing. Sin, for John, is being blind to the work of God in Jesus. Shutting our eyes to the way God reveals God s presence in our lives and in the world. He was in the world, and the world came into being through him, yet the world did not know him. That s the real sin. That s why healing the blind is such an iconic act of Jesus. So the gift of the spirit to the faith community is the gift of being able to open our eyes. To recognise God at work. To let go of our tendency to judgement and blame, and to live out of the confidence that God can breathe new life into even us. And Jesus offers to each person what they need in order to access this confidence. This new life. To Mary, in the garden, that morning, he speaks her name. To Thomas, who was not there for that first encounter, he offers the sheer physicality of his wounds. There is no sense that we are criticised for our shortcomings. For our doubts. For our human neediness. Flawed as we all are, Jesus breathes peace into our lives. And Jesus calls us yes us, the faith community here at Hinde Street to live as witnesses to resurrection life. So why aren t we living like the early church? Why aren t we all sons or daughters of encouragement like Barnabas? Now the whole group of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one claimed private ownership of any possessions, but everything they owned was held in common. With great power the apostles gave their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. There was not a needy person among them. That seems rather a long way from our own wrestling with a deficit budget this year. Why can t we live in that idealistic socialist utopia that Luke describes in the book of Acts? 3

4 Well, many scholars believe that like the hymn we sang earlier Luke s picture of the early church is aspirational rather than realistic. Let us build a house where love can dwell and all can safely live, a place where saints and children tell how hearts learn to forgive. Built of hopes and dreams and visions, rock of faith and vault of grace; here the love of Christ shall end divisions: All are welcome, all are welcome, all are welcome in this place. Even though we ve signed up to Inclusive Church, and put up the posters, and asked every group and committee to report to Church Council on their progress towards inclusivity once a year can we put our hands on our hearts and say this is 100% true of everything we do? Just as Barnabas is an icon of good practice in this faith community, so Ananias and Sapphira, at the start of the next chapter of Acts, are icons of what can go wrong when human insecurity and control freakery get in the way of our desire to live a spirit-filled life. And they pay a high price for it. So what sort of community should we be? Should we be vigilant for poor practice, ready to denounce those who won t or don t or can t live the resurrection life? I ve been fascinated and appalled to read about what s going on in China recently. Sesame Credit is a Chinese online credit rating system that unlocks access to credit cards, loans, buying things via your smartphone, renting a car without a deposit, or even fast-tracked European visa applications. Credit ratings are calculated using a complex algorithm. But the algorithm goes a bit wider than your financial transactions. Buying video games gets you marked down. Being friends on Facebook with lower-rated people gets you marked down. And the Chinese government plans to extend this online monitoring to all its citizens. Not caring for your parents, or dodging fares on public transport, will earn you a lower rating. And what about admiring the art of Ai Weiwei? Or reading suspect western literature? The Chinese government rhetoric states that the system being developed will: Allow the trustworthy to roam everywhere under heaven while making it hard for the discredited to take a single step. 4

5 Is that a blueprint for Utopia? Or yet another a step closer to the terrifying world of Big Brother? Let s go back to our passage from John s gospel. And remind ourselves that the message of Jesus is not about blame. Not about marking down those who failed to live up to their calling. Not about making it hard for the discredited to take a single step. Just the opposite! It s about breathing new life into flawed and discouraged individuals. About inviting them to create a new community based on their shared sense of forgiveness. Recognising that we are not and never will be perfect. As the writer of 1 John reminds his readers: If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. But we are reminded that the truth will set us free. If we can be honest about our flaws and failings to God, to each other, perhaps, most important of all, to ourselves then he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. We are called to live out of grace. So what does a community of the resurrection look like? If it doesn t look like a holy huddle of saints? (and it certainly doesn t) And it doesn t look like a hyper-vigilant network of ethical spies? (and it certainly shouldn t) Is there somewhere in between which we might realistically inhabit? On May 25 th Ireland will vote in a referendum on abortion. Technically, they will vote on whether they want to repeal article known as the eighth amendment which since 1983 has given unborn foetuses and pregnant women an equal right to life. And has, in effect, meant a ban on abortion. But what is interesting for me, is the way in which the government came to a decision about the referendum in the first place. Back at the end of 2016 they set up a Citizens assembly. Ninety-nine random strangers were selected. They included housewives, students, truck-drivers, teachers. They were chosen to represent a wide range of views some were passionately opposed to abortion, some were pro-choice, some were undecided. The group met for five weekends over five months in an anonymous Dublin hotel. They talked and talked. They drank endless cups of coffee. They heard speeches from interested parties on all sides of the debate. They heard personal testimony, and professional medical and legal opinions. And they talked about what they had heard. Most of their discussions were broadcast live on the internet. 5

6 After all the talking, the Citizens Assembly voted on what they thought should happen. Two thirds of them thought abortion should be available without restriction up to a twelve week limit. And in the light of their conversations and their conclusion, an all-party parliamentary committee recommended a referendum along those lines. We don t yet know how the people in Ireland will vote. And I imagine that there are a variety of views on this issue within our church. But I am left with a rather heartening image of ninety-nine people who talked. And more importantly listened. To the research. To the personal experiences of those directly involved. To each other. People who were prepared to engage in a conversation and an ongoing conversation over many months about a controversial topic. With respect. And with openness. In a recent E Lab conversation we thought about the art of listening. How do we listen to each other? We were invited to take note during an ordinary day, of four different ways of listening. Do we listen at a fairly shallow level just out of habit, just waiting to get our own views in? Do we listen out for information, for facts, for the useful, practical stuff? Do we listen with sympathy, connecting emotionally with the other person? Or perhaps sometimes rarely do we listen at the deepest level, where our own sense of self is shifted, where new ideas are generated, where a new future might emerge? For me, this offers a kind of icon of what our community of the resurrection might look like. Most of us are not Winnie Mandela. Or Cardinal Keith O Brien. Or Picasso. Neither great saints nor great sinners. Just ordinary, flawed human beings. But we are all called to be part of this God-breathed community of the resurrection. Not by pretending to be perfect. Not by giving up on the whole holiness project. Not by being judgemental about the minutiae of other people s lives. But by being realistic about who we are, and who we might be. By receiving that quiet breath of the spirit, and letting it do its work in our lives. By talking and listening to each other, and recognising that together we can do far more, and be far more, than we can on our own. This is what new life looks like. Amen. 6