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Pentecost 12
15/8/2021

Ephesians 3:7-21
John 6:51-58

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In a sentence
God gives us a new name by making us part of God’s own family

Every one of us has been given a name. Some of us have had the responsibility of giving names to others, and some of have changed their name at some time. Clearly, we need names. Yet recent changes in how we name ourselves indicate that the seemingly innocuous necessity of having a name is rather more charged than it first appears.

It was not so long ago that a child would almost certainly be named to honour a grandparent or an aunt or a king, so that names like John or George or Mary or Elizabeth have had a very long history and been quite common (at least, in Western English-speaking society). This is not because they necessarily sound nice or mean much in themselves, but because they placed us within a certain family, tradition and culture. The same kind of thing happens when women change their family name on being married.

Today, however, a kid can be called anything from Apple to Tiger Lily to Zeppelin, or once common names will be assigned with a spelling no one could possibly guess. This probably reflects a shift from the desire to be associated with another named person – a name as giving communal identity – to a desire to stand out from all other names: naming as individuation. In a similar way, an increasing number of women retain their family-of-origin name when marrying. Retaining a family name after marriage claims an identity which is not to be reduced who your husband is.

These shifts in naming reflect changes in what we think we are, how we stand in relation to each other, and where our value comes from. How I name myself reflects what (and who) I think I am: our names place us, locate us.

The implication of this is that the ‘same’ thing can be quite a different thing if its name is changed. Naming is a process of association – a process of linking one thing with another – and these associations matter for the reality of a thing – for our reality.

Paul touches upon a naming in the prayer at the heart of today’s reading, where he identifies God as ‘the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name’. A more literal translation would run like this: ‘… I bow my knees before the Father, from whom all fatherhood in heaven and on earth takes its name’. This language is ingloriously patriarchal but is important for understanding what Paul means. His intention is not to be patriarchal, despite all the possible abuses which might be built upon the language of ‘Father’ for God in the New Testament. What Paul is doing is challenging the way in which we name ourselves, and undermining patriarchy along the way.

Paul wrote in a time when who we were, what was expected of us and what we might ourselves expect out of life was starkly determined by what might broadly be called our ‘family’. That these families – whether clans or religions or nationalities – were very often patriarchal was just how it happened to be. But precisely because it was that way, Paul takes the ‘fatherhood’ of our race, culture, clan, religion and nation – our assumed way of naming ourselves – and contrasts this with what it means to live under the ‘fatherhood’ of the God of Israel, the God of Jesus Christ. Paul does then what he always does: he calls us to consider whether our lives are built upon what God sees in us and calls us to be, or whether they are built upon what we call ourselves and see in ourselves. Which name and corresponding set of relationships is most fundamentally ours?

We believe, of course, that we already know who we are, and that the real question is only what we do. This is why, when it comes to matters of belief, we are more interested in action than in talk, more interested in doing than in ‘merely’ being. In the three chapters up to this point in the letter Paul has been giving an extended and rich account of what God has done for Jew and Gentile alike. This tells us who we are – we for whom God has done this – and what we have become through God’s work.

With today’s passage we come to the turning point in the epistle, and from here Paul moves to the question of ‘how then should we live?’ Yet the ‘then’ matters: how therefore, should we live? To understand what we are to do, we have to understand what has gone before – Paul’s account of who we are – else the ‘therefore’ makes no sense. Paul means that to ‘do’ properly, we must ‘be’ properly – we must know our true name.

But this is not easy, and so Paul is moved to prayer:

¹⁸ I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, ¹⁹ and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

¹⁶ I pray that, according to the riches of his glory, he may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through his Spirit, ¹⁷ and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love. [NRSV]

Paul prays here that we might learn the name by which God would call us. To name ourselves is both necessary, and only a guess at what we are from the vantage point at which we stand. Paul prays therefore that we might yet comprehend – might yet see – with breadth and length and height and depth, that we might know what surpasses knowledge, coming to know more than can be known.

To know more than can be known is to be. Knowing how God renames us is to become something different: children. For God’s naming of us does not just re-label us, it makes us what we are called – children. We hear what Jesus hears: ‘You are my children; today I have ‘begotten’ you’ (cf. Ps 2, Mark 1).

The manner of love God has shown us is one which does not simply ‘forgive’ or ‘heal’ or ‘promise’ – does not merely re-label us – but claims us as children, as those who have in common nothing other than God’s love, and Jesus as Brother, and the Holy Spirit who makes this so.

In our lives many things make us who we are: what my father did to me, what I experienced in school, what my children haven’t done for me, or that I don’t have children, or where I work. Even if they are not the heart of what I am, these things are important because they mark me off as someone unique, for no one else has experienced what I’ve experienced, felt what I’ve felt. These things are part of my name, and give colour to the history which my name brings to mind.

But these details are not yet me, and neither can they be the final ground of my relationship to you, for you are different in the same ways.

Yet our difference from each other is not the most basic thing we have in common; this is the argument of the radical but unreflective inclusivism which abounds at the moment. Rather, as we are children of our parents, children of our age, children of what has happened to us, so now, by God’s grace, all our families are brought together under the one name as sons, daughters, children and siblings.

The miracle at the heart of Christian belief is not this or that wonder or spectacle – whether the healing of a blind person or the raising of a dead one. Rather, the heart is what these ‘lesser’ miracles refer to: that the secret of what we really are in all our living and dying is that God would make us his children, that our naming of our many and varied lives might be coloured by God’s name for us, a naming which declares that we are God’s, and God is ours.

This is the gospel: that, whatever has been the quality of the ‘fatherhood’ or ‘motherhood’ we have known, this God embraces, surpasses and perfects. We have a new name.

This is indeed something far more than we could ask or imagine – being filled with all the fullness of God – and yet the power of God is present to make it happen.

This fullness is the meaning and goal of all that we are and do.

Let us then, be and do as the children of this God, sisters and brothers in this family, that all human families might become one.

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Pentecost 11
8/8/2021

Ephesians 2:1-10
Psalm 34
John 6:35, 41-51

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There is a story that comes out of Poland around the time of the Second World War.

In a certain village there was a man who was not particularly wealthy, nor a native of the village, nor did he attend the village church. Yet, if a stranger came to the village and needed a place to stay, this man would offer a cot in his little home. If a village family ran out of food, he was among the first to offer a loaf of bread or some flour from his own meagre supplies. If someone was in trouble with the authorities, who by and large oppressed the citizens of that nation, or if the Germans or, later the Russians, were performing a sweep of the village to collect up the young men for either imprisonment, or conscription, or worse, he would help hide the would be victims in the woods outside town or in some other way.  He was loved very much by the villagers on account of all these things and many more.

Finally the man died.

The villagers asked the priest to perform the burial service and to bury the man in the church cemetery. The priest, who knew and loved the man as much as did the rest of the villagers agreed to conduct the funeral Yet he insisted that he could not bury the man inside the church cemetery because he was not baptised. ‘Our cemetery is hallowed ground’, the priest said, ‘He must go where those who are not baptised are buried.  These are the rules of the church and I cannot change them.’

The villagers appealed even more earnestly to the priest, saying that this was a good man and surely loved by God as much as any of the baptised on account of all the good that he had done. The priest agreed about the virtues of the man but insisted that the protocols of the faith were clear and could be not be broken.  Yet he proposed a compromise. ‘In recognition of your love for him and his love for you and all of God’s people in this village’, the priest said, ‘I will bury him on church land, near to those who have gone before him – those whom he has loved – but it will have to be beyond the fence that surrounds the consecrated ground of our cemetery.’

And so it happened.  A grave was prepared just outside the fence surrounding the cemetery, and the body of the man was processed by all the villagers to the site, where the priest conducted the ceremony. The grave was filled and a stone placed before the night fell.

During the night something beautiful happened – something that became apparent when the priest went to the church next morning to conduct morning mass.   The fence that surrounded the cemetery had been moved by some of the villagers – so that it now took in the grave in which the man had been buried.[1]

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• That is, undeniably, a lovely story. We might even say that it’s a very ‘Uniting Church’ kind of story. It tells us how a certain group of people overcame what was felt to be an unfair prejudice in their community and religion. And yet, as moving a story as it is, what do we think it teaches? Who is it who causes the problem in the story? Certainly most in the modern liberal West would consider the villagers to be on the right track. They recognised in someone different from them a humanity they wanted to embrace, and to identify with.

Our reading from Ephesians this morning spoke of a fence which divides people: listen again for the word of God in this section from what we’ve already heard:

Remember that at one time you Gentiles by birth…, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, [were] strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.

But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace; in his flesh he has made both groups into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us.

He has abolished the law with its commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new humanity in place of the two, thus making peace, and might reconcile both groups to God in one body through the cross… So he came and proclaimed peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near…

So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone.

This all sounds very similar to our story. And yet there is an important difference between what we heard in the story of the cemetery fence and what Paul says about what Christ has done in his crucifixion. In our story, the townsfolk want to say that they have seen in the man who died a goodness independent of his being baptised or a committed member of the congregation: ‘So what if he wasn’t baptised, or a Christian, he was still a good man.’ This is the argument of no small number of funeral eulogies even today.

But in what Paul says, the dividing wall between us is not overcome by our deciding that others are like us, and so we’ll treat them nice; it is overcome by Christ who brings together peoples who don’t care for each other at all.

We know that the church could often benefit from being reminded that there are ‘good people’ outside the boundaries of the church, and this reminder is scarcely needed only in the churches

But the gospel would remind us that what the church calls good is not actually this or that moral act, but God’s reconciling work in Christ. The first word Paul speaks here is not ‘be reconciled to one another’ or ‘move the fences out’ but ‘you are reconciled to one another’ or ‘there are no fences’.

The importance of this becomes apparent when we test our fence-adjusting will. Suppose the fellow who had died in our story had not had so good a reputation in the town? Suppose he was not a bad person but also not notably good. Who would have pleaded for him then? How good is good enough to ‘deserve’ to be buried in heaven’s cemetery? Or suppose he was baptised but scarcely impressive as a Christian. What then is the case for burying him inside the fence if we wonder whether baptism might not be enough? Questions like this remind us that we who can move a fence out to include can also move it in to exclude. And, if we are honest, we would like to move a few fences in.

But when Paul says that Christ is our peace – that Christ will be the source of true peace among us – he is saying that true peace comes not from us trying to get over each other’s little foibles or working out who is good and who is not – who is inside the fence and who outside. Paul’s point, rather, is that God moves fences, whatever we think we are doing with them. No one comes to me, Jesus said in our gospel reading today, unless the Father draws him. The only question, then, is who is drawn in this way by God, or where God sets the fences.

Perhaps unexpectedly, the fence around the hallowed ground of that cemetery – or the sacrament of baptism – does not declare who is good and who is not. It indicates only who knows – or who should know – that there are no fences with God. To baptised is not yet to be good. It is, rather, to have given up all hope of goodness apart from what God bestows.

This is not to say that we leave it all to God, as if we have no part in the work of reconciliation! We must move (out!) all the cemetery fences we can, so to speak! But watch out when you find that there are people you’d be happy to leave outside the fence. There may be a sign here that there is something between you and another which is beyond your ability to overcome, and yet it must be overcome if there is to be true peace and right relationships between us – if, indeed, God has removed all the fences.

And watch out if there are some inside the fold you wish were buried a little closer to the fence so that you could move it in a bit, so now they are outside! Some Christians are the worst! An interesting thing about a line like that in a sermon is that preachers have to decide beforehand who they will be looking at when it is uttered. By a curious twist of fate, via this medium, I’m looking directly at all of you at once, and myself as well!

‘For he is our peace, in him the fence between the ‘ins’ and the ‘outs’ – the hostility between us – has been broken down.’

This is not a naïve or blasé dismissal of the problems which beset us. It simply indicates our investment in fences, our confidence that we know who is righteous and who is not.

To say that God has torn down all fences is to say that God loves with ‘undistinguishing regard’, as Charles Wesley put it – without even the distinction we draw between the good and the bad.

We desperately want to be good, and to discover an imperative to doing good in the gospel. This is, indeed, part of Christian discipleship. But we first become disciples of Jesus when we discover that, whatever we have been, we are now drawn by God to Jesus as his sisters and brothers. This is to say that we now share in Jesus’ own experience of the liberating love of God. And so, like him, everything we then do and say is to be said from that liberation.

Jesus is our peace. Jesus is our promise of God – the promise indeed of our very selves, restored not only to God but to each other.

We wait, of course, for the full realisation of that promise. But we do not wait passively. We wait in that active prayer which tears at the walls within us, that there might be no walls between us.

For what God has done and will do – that we might know him and be a part of each other, without distinction – all thanks and praise be given.

[1] Story from Richard Fairchild, http://spirit-net.ca/sermons/b-or16su.php

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Pentecost 10
1/8/2021

2 Samuel 11:26-12:13a
Psalm 51
Ephesians 4:1-16

Sermon preached by Rev. Dr Rob Gallacher

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Therefore is a significant word throughout the Bible. The prophets in particular used it like a fulcrum. Because of this therefore that.

Consider Hosea 10: 13-14 for example: “Because you have trusted in your power and in the multitude of your warriors, therefore the tumult of war shall rise against your people.” Amos, Habakkuk, Micah and Zephaniah all use it in the same way.

And there it is at the beginning of our reading from Ephesians 4:1 “I, therefore, … Beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called.” It is a little different from the prophets. It is more positive. But the pattern is the same – Because of this, therefore that.

Paul takes three chapters to describe the supremacy of Christ over all things.

1:9 “God has made known to us the mystery of his will …that he set forth in Christ, as a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and on earth.”

1:20 “God put this power to work in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion….”

And the prayer in the third chapter which leads into the “therefore”, 3:21, “I pray that you may be filled with all the fullness of God … therefore.

Because of the greatness of Christ, lead a life worthy of your calling…. One specific of this worthiness is “speaking the truth in love” (3:15). It is a phrase frequently taken out of context, and with the assumption that the truth referred to is the way you feel, venting your spleen, speaking your mind, like people do on social media, … in love of course.

But the truth Paul refers to is not about your feelings, but the truth about Christ, as described in those first three chapters. We are not very good at this kind of truth speaking. Once a lady returned to the Uniting Church after a sojourn with the Assemblies of God. She observed to me that the difference between the two congregations was that after a service the charismatics talked about the sermon, whereas here people talk about the football. This wasn’t at Mark the Evangelist, of course. But as a denomination we seem to be reluctant to name the name. Therefore our care agencies are just called “Uniting”, our financial service “Uniting Ethical” – It’s starting to sound like chapter 4 of Ephesians without chapters 1-3.

During this lockdown week I had a friend in Cabrini hospital. Unable to visit, I rang the hospital. The lines were busy and I was put on a recorded message which, from memory, went something like this: “Cabrini hospital is owned and run by the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The hospital is an expression of the care and compassion of Mother Frances Cabrini and seeks to bring the love of Christ to the world.” I thought, ‘That’s pretty full on, but it doesn’t seem to be doing them any harm!’

It can be dangerous to speak Paul’s kind of truth. The danger we seem to be afraid of is that non-believers will think us odd, religious fanatics without credibility, or perhaps likely to offend Moslems, or indigenous people, or Buddhists or the devotees of Star Wars. But to say nothing is to say something. Nihilism is real and not uncommon

But there are many times and places where the risk is much greater.

When Nathan approaches David he could well pay with his life, as Uriah did. David has done a despicable thing in the eyes of God. Therefore Nathan rebukes him with a parable. Then we read (2 Samuel 12:10)” Now, therefore, the sword shall never depart from your house…” And, instead of anger and violence, David responds with contrition. Psalm 51 is introduced with “A Psalm of David when the prophet Nathan came to him after he had gone in to Bathsheba.” Scholars say there are a few anachronisms in this version of the Psalm, but it may be an embellishment of something David wrote.

There are many examples of Biblical figures confronting oppressive and powerful rulers with the word of God. Think of Moses, or Elijah or Jeremiah or Daniel, or Esther, or Peter, or Steven or Paul. Here’s an exercise for you to do over lunch. How many more people can you think of in the Bible who took the risk of speaking God’s truth? And when you have done that, see if you can name a few historical figures like Ambrose, who was so upset by the Roman Emperor, Theodosius, for sanctioning a needless massacre in Thessonolika that he made the Emperor wait in the snow for three days before granting absolution. Or Martin Luther with his “Here I stand” in front of the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V. Or Martin Niemoller, the German pastor who at first supported Hitler, but then turned and defiantly opposed him. On one occasion he was asked how he survived when so many other pastors were executed. He replied; “When I was brought before Hitler the conversation became tense. I leaned across the table and said, ‘God is my fuhrer’. Hitler was furious. He thumped the table and shouted, ‘Never let me hear the name of this man again’. So when the death lists were prepared for Hitler to sign, my name was always removed.

In my own lifetime I have seen figures like Martin Luther King, and Archbishop Desmond Tutu confess the truth of Christ and say therefore this oppressive situation must change.

The World Council of Churches is active in many situations where human rights are threatened and there are organisations with an even broader base supporting people in prison. P.E.N. is celebrating its centenary. Founded in 1921, in the aftermath of World War 1, it advocates for imperilled writers around the world. Currently it has just on 1,000 poets, essayists and novelists on its books. When Amnesty began its operations in 1960, it consulted PEN’s constitution and broadened its concern to include all kinds of prisoners of conscience. Now it is a worldwide, international body.

We are well off in Australia. As I posted our last letter to Maurice Payne, criticizing the government for not signing the Nuclear Ban Treaty, it coincided with news of a journalist who had been shot on her front doorstep and I thought that in many countries we would be arrested for less.

But we do need to be vigilant. At the last meeting of Hotham Mission Board attention was drawn to a bill which is currently finding its way through parliamentary process. If passed it will ban all charities for making any comment that is critical of Government policy. Board members saw this as a suppression of truth telling, and unanimously decided to speak out against it. So letters are going in many directions, but especially to the Independents in the Senate, for this is where it could be voted down.

We, who have glimpsed the grandeur of Christ, as Paul describes it in those first chapters of Ephesians, therefore engage in the world, putting God’s power to work. Some of us work at peacemaking, some of us are ecumenists, stressing our unity in Christ, some have a passion for justice, some tackle the problem of food deprivation in our local community, and so on. But wherever that “therefore” takes us, we are all sustained by the bread of life, the living presence of Christ, who is all in all, and received by us in Word and Sacrament.

So go on “thereforing” with boldness and enthusiasm, speaking the truth of Christ in God’s love for this post-modern, secular and troubled world.