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Sermon - Letting God In - 21st October 2007
St Aidan's West Epping 8:30 am
Readings: Jeremiah 31:27-34; Psalm 119: 97-104; 2 Timothy 3: 10 – 4: 5; Luke 18: 1-14
“An Aboriginal leader in Australia , who in his youth had been thoroughly trained in European thought patterns, tells the story against himself that he was once addressing an Aboriginal community and that one of the elders sat on the ground beside him. After a while the elder became agitated and started constantly interrupting him with the advice, ‘Talk in pictures, talk in pictures'. This is the way of the Aboriginal people and of many other peoples, and it was the way of Jesus.
I quote from an important new book by an Australian Catholic bishop, Geoffrey Robinson, he goes on to say, “Much Christian preaching on Sundays would vastly improve if preachers paid heed to this advice rather than spoke in abstract ideas.” The Aboriginal leader who told the story against himself is Patrick Dobson.
I continue the quote from Bp Geoffrey Robinson as he illustrates a vital point from the stories of the Hebrew people being led by Moses towards a new future. “Scholars of the bible believe that the people who fled from Egypt were utterly convinced that they had experienced a genuine action and the presence of their god in their escape and in their coming into the land of Israel . Most scholars now believe that they then told the story of this escape, not literally, but in vivid, imaginative, powerful and highly effective stories. What we find in the bible, therefore, is neither a literal account of exactly what happened nor pure fantasy, for the authors told of a real and divinely-assisted escape from slavery, but they did so by ‘talking in pictures'. The evidence we can gain from all sources supports this view and is so strong that it can no longer be sustained that Christians must believe that each one of these stories tell the literal truth of what happened. The ancient Hebrews, like many other peoples, told their factual history through pictorial stories, and many Christian problems began only when people began to reverse this process and take the stories as factual history.”
In the reading from the Second Letter to Timothy, we heard that, “All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction and for training in righteousness, so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient, equipped for every good work”. Note that when Paul (or whoever it was) wrote those words the only writings that were regarded by the followers of Jesus as specially “sacred” were the documents of what we call the Old Testament, the Hebrew Scriptures. When it said that all the sacred writings of the Jewish scriptures were inspired and useful, it did not mean - as it is so often falsely claimed today - that they are to be read literally as a factual or historical report of what happened or the words of God or a law for all time.
The first reading from the prophet Jeremiah expressed the agony, disillusion and despair of people who had been conquered by the super-power of that time. They had interpreted it as God's punishment of them. Jeremiah shares their distress but points to a new future when people will have inner spiritual resources to meet with those external forces that neither they nor we can control. “No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, ‘Know the Lord,' for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord.” Out of his own experience of ‘a Power beyond his own power', Jeremiah pointed to the truth implicit within the stories of Abram and Moses, Joshua and Elijah and all the other people - who lived and suffered - and were regarded as leaders because of the inner faith they had.
I want to share with you a story I was led to discover 19 years' ago and used at the Baptism of our first grandchild. If you have been in a village in the Middle East or if you have seen the fascinating musical “FIDDLER ON THE ROOF” , you will be able more easily to picture the scene.
Once upon a time, there was a Jewish Rabbi. He used to gather every morning with his villagers. They would share their joys and sorrows, their dreams and disappointments, their ups and downs. And this one morning the Rabbi looked at the villagers and asked them a question, “Where does God dwell?” [Or as people today might ask, Where is God?]
And the villagers thought for a moment, and thought for a moment; and then a twinkle appeared in some of the villagers' eyes, and there were smiles and giggles and laughter. Finally one of the villagers said, “Rabbi, what a silly question to ask! Is not all the world filled with the splendour of God?”
It was then that the Rabbi looked at these villagers with love, and answered his own question and said, “ God dwells wherever we let God in”.
That story invites us to think again. What happens to us depends critically on who and what we choose to let into our lives.
Those to whom Jesus spoke, like people today, had all sorts of different images of “GOD” and what it means to be “spiritual”. As we read again the Gospels according to Mark, Matthew, Luke and John, and especially Jesus' parables and what he said about the “ Kingdom of God ”, which was the core of his teaching, we begin to get a clearer picture of his understanding of God.
In today's Gospel reading we heard two of Jesus' stories, both about prayer. The first gives us insight about God whom we may let in or exclude from our lives. The second about two very different men in the Temple , standing which was customary posture for prayer.
Picture the scene of Jesus' first story. “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor had respect for people…” The outsiders, the poor and powerless are easily ignored by human systems. Our mind's eye can identify with this when so often justice is not done by the legal or administrative systems, under which we live because officials and bureaucrats not infrequently seem they can't be bothered about God or having respect for people. Like the judge in Jesus' story, they are lazy and only when confronted by persistent lobbying will act to find better processes; for example, in recent years, refugees including children treated as criminals and mentally traumatised; the distorting, slanderous, convenient lies like the “children overboard” incident; or, in NSW last week again, police chasing stolen cars causing death to either the stupid thieves or to innocent bystanders; or, as we are observing now the imposing short-term politically- motivated “solutions” to problems in remote areas of Australia without respectful dialogue with Aboriginal communities.
Jesus in his parable says that even the unjust judge eventually comes to his senses when sufficiently inconvenienced! Then Jesus asks us, will we facing distress, deprivation and danger, persist in prayer, seeking the presence of God in the midst of the turmoil?
With Love to the World , the daily reading and prayer guide that prepares those who use it for worship with the church community each Sunday, has a most helpful comment on today's Gospel:
“Every day Christians around the world pray [in “Our Father prayer], ‘Save us from the time of trial'. One of the trials that confronts us, is the trial of being patient in the face of delayed justice. This specific trial came to Rumi, the [Islamic] Sufi mystic. He payed and kept on praying but with no result. [The story goes that] Satan spoke to him, “Don't waste your time saying prayers. There is no sense in this praying business.” Rumi felt the pain of these jibes but later in his reflection realized that God was in his cry, his plea, his prayer, his longing . In what has been described as one of the great passages of mystic love in the face of God-forsakenness, GOD replies to Rumi , Your shout, “O God” is my shout, “Here I am”. Your pain and your imploring is but a message from me. Your striving to reach me is a sign that I draw you to me.”
Harsh experiences of life can easily bring us to the time of trial where, unlike the widow in Jesus' story, we do not ‘keep going'. But strangely, there rises within us, if ever so weakly, the response “Yes”, there will be faith on earth.
“God dwells wherever we let God in”. Whenever a person of whatever culture, colour, race, gender, sexual orientation or religion, intelligence or impaired ability, lets God in, God is there. The Spirit of God is not confined by our human attempts to objectify or define.
Jesus told two parables in the Gospel reading for today. The first, about God being present to those, like the woman who was desperate and went on asking. The second about two people who went into the Temple . One stood by himself and went through the motions of praying, but there was no encounter with God because he was rehearsing his own opinion of himself. ‘God I thank you that I am not like other people….' I keep the rules… [unlike others], I fast…, I give a tenth of all I earn to charity… He was so full of himself, that there was no room for God. There was no encounter with the Divine, because he had not yet come to the point of letting God in. But the other man was an outcast because, in order to earn money to feed, clothe and provide a home for his family, had taken a job working for the hated Roman occupiers of the land. Caught in a system he could not beat, he was beating his breast and saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!' There in his unhappiness and sense of rejection that man encountered God.
Jesus drew from this story the lesson for us: all who humble themselves will be lifted up by God.
1. Confronting Power and Sex in the Catholic Church: Reclaiming the Spirit of Jesus by Bishop Geoffrey Robinson, Auxiliary Bishop in the Archdiocese of Sydney 1984-2004; publ. by John Garrett Publishing 2007, p.52
2. See article by my wife Ruth Norton on http://www.womenforwik.org/ click Viewpoints at top. This website gives access to a large range of opinion and analysis on the current situation.
3. Reconciliation - is dialogue enough? Patrick Dodson delivers the annual lecture for the Centre for Dialogue of La Trobe University - proposing a new way forward for reconciliation. Saturday 20 October 2007 http://www.abc.net.au/rn/awaye
4. Rev Grahame Ellis , a retired UCA Minister of the Word living in Sydney , NSW, commentary in With Love to the World : A daily Bible reading & prayer guide based on the Revised Common Lectionary, Vol 11, No.12, 19 Oct 2007. Enquiries and orders for 64 page booklet published quarterly, contact Mrs Roberts: With Love to the World, 62 The Boulevarde, Strathfield, NSW 2135. Ph. (02) 9747 1369; wlwdbrg@bigpond.com
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Enquiries, comments and criticisms are invited; also requests for additional copies of sermon scripts or permission to quote / reproduce.
The Reverend Clive H Norton , phone 9411 8606; fax 9410 2069;
7 Dulwich Road , Chatswood, NSW 2067.
Email: chnorton@bigpond.com