Postkiwi

Where Two or Three are Confronting

My HR colleague at work has just taken the staff through a process of dealing with bullying and other unethical behaviour. Unfortunately I missed the session because of illness. But I still have the notes from last year.

It’s interesting that a church organisation needs to provide this kind of training every year. However, from my experience, it’s vital that we have strategies for dealing with abusive behaviour rather than pretending it doesn’t exist, or throwing our hands up in despair and putting up with it.

A lot of the principles we have developed as an organisation (The Uniting Church in Australia) are based on this passage from Matthew 18: 15-20, in which Jesus gives very practical instructions for confrontation and reconciliation.

If another believer sins against you, go privately and point out the offense. If the other person listens and confesses it, you have won that person back. But if you are unsuccessful, take one or two others with you and go back again, so that everything you say may be confirmed by two or three witnesses. If the person still refuses to listen, take your case to the church. Then if he or she won’t accept the church’s decision, treat that person as a pagan or a corrupt tax collector.

“I tell you the truth, whatever you forbid on earth will be forbidden in heaven, and whatever you permit on earth will be permitted in heaven.

“I also tell you this: If two of you agree here on earth concerning anything you ask, my Father in heaven will do it for you. For where two or three gather together as my followers, I am there among them.”

So how is my behaviour being affected by Jesus’ words?

First, I’ve learnt that confronting someone for the first time, no matter how petty, is best done in the context of a private conversation, in which amends can be made and face can be saved. The fear of public humiliation makes it very difficult to achieve any change in behaviour without lasting shame and resentment.

I still remember as an eleven year old on a school camp being hauled over the coals in front of 60 of my peers for leaving a half eaten sandwich in my drawer. Oh, the shame, the shame, of being made a public example without any means of making things better!

However it’s no easy thing to confront a bully face to face when you suspect that your words will be ignored or set against you in return. I’ve learnt that agreeing to meet together in a neutral space makes a huge difference. In retrospect, I’ve also learned that it could be helpful to have a tape recorder ready at a moment’s notice!

I went through mediation with a colleague some years ago, as we discovered we were undermining each other. We clearly needed to sort things out if we were both going to be effective in our roles. We found someone who was skilled enough in mediation. In fact, two people. One to document and one to facilitate. As painful as it was, I highly value that morning when the two of us shared our stories, our experiences and values, and sought to find ways to understand the best way to work with each other.

Sometimes, more serious interventions are needed. I think of Edwin Friedman’s fable, The Friendly Forest. A tiger approaches the residents of a forest about coming to live with them. They are mostly quite excited - they’ve never had a tiger before. The lamb is not so sure. However they form a covenant in which the tiger must accept all the other residents of the forest. The lamb discovers however that despite not being eaten, the tiger is engaging in threatening behaviour that becomes unbearable for her. She tells the other residents that she must now leave. Some of her friends in the forest wonder what she’s doing to provoke the tiger. Others say she needs to just accept that tigers are by nature threatening and get used to it.

The lamb thought there was something wrong with the notion that an agreement is equal when the invasive creature agrees to be less invasive and the invaded one agrees to tolerate some invasiveness.
One of the animals, not concerned about being politically correct, suggests that there is only one way for a lamb and a tiger to coexist in the forest. Cage the tiger.

There is a time for corporate confrontation, in which unacceptable behaviour is named, along with consequences.

So how do we treat pagans and corrupt tax collectors? How did Jesus treat them? I suspect that it might involve starting all over again.

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Live, Struggle, Pray!

Part II in a series on the Lord’s Prayer

In the inspiring movie Molokai about the true story of Father Damian, a missionary priest to a Leper Colony of Hawaii, there is a powerful scene (actually there are heaps - this is just one of them), where Father Damian goes into a liquor house to bring back a young girl who has been helping him. As Father Damian berates the crowd for turning to despair and alcohol the crowd jeers and brings forth one of the most horribly disfigured lepers (the actor in this scene is a real leper who lives in the modern leper colony at Molokai) hoping that Father Damian will be repulsed. Instead Father Damian lets the leper kiss him and then cradles him in his arms while speaking words of love, an act which brings an awed silence to the room. This scene (in fact the whole movie) to me is a lived out example of the words

Your Kingdom come

Your will be done

On earth as it is in heaven.

For in the story of Molokai we have the story of a man, Father Damian, who has found life through the gift of Jesus. In response, Father Damian seeks to live out the truth of his new life - that he belongs to heaven not earth. So where ever he goes, he tries to live, struggle and pray in a way which seeks to bring the reality of heaven to the earth which he walks. So in this scene, we have Father Damian confronted by a hideously disfigured leper, and Father Damian responds not in the way of the world with horror and pity, but as a citizen of heaven. He does not see a leper but a child of God who has been alienated and isolated from love and compassion, and in heaven, there is no place for alienation - only love. So Father Damian lives out the Kingdom of his God and reaches out to hug and to love - to cross over the bridge of alienation to make real the love of God to one of God’s children.

Your Kingdom come

Your will be done

On earth as it is in heaven.

We pray these lines every week, but do we know what we are committing ourselves to? Do we recognise the foolishness of what we pray? To pray these lines is to say

“I am committing my life to a struggle with this world and its powers where I refuse to accept the world as it is now. I will not rest until this world and my life is in obedience to God’s will”

This of course will never happen in our life, or indeed in any time until God renews the whole of creation through the coming again of Jesus. So why bother? Why would we commit ourselves to something that we know cannot happen? Why not compromise?

Compromise. This is in fact what Western Christianity has done. We have said that we have no faith in what Jesus taught us to pray, so we settle for being comfortable with the world (what can we do anyway?) and put our attention into adding a few people here and there to our local churches.

And why would we do it when we know that we won’t fix the world? Why? Because of love. Because in Jesus God first loved us. Because to love Jesus is to necessarily love our neighbour. We don’t do this because it may or may not work in our lifetime. We don’t do it because it is or isn’t practical. We do it because God loves us, and through his love in our lives how can we not love those around us, those who share this world with us?

Your Kingdom come

Your will be done

On earth as it is in heaven.

Your Kingdom come. There have been times in my life when I have caught a glimpse, tasted - just for a moment- that Kingdom that Jesus spoke of. It has been in those times when my eyes have been opened, my heart stretched when I have seen or experienced some amazing act of God’s kindness and grace to me or someone else. Those times when I have read the words of Jesus and known in my heart that HE is my home, my beginning and my end, when the words that I read become more than words but a living picture of reality - not the reality I know - but the TRUE reality - that is of heaven - of God’s Kingdom, here but masked and hidden, breaking out in patches of mystery in my world. It is this Kingdom that has come and claimed my life in Jesus. For he is the reality of God’s Kingdom. Jesus is the one who has lived out those words. In Jesus God’s will was done on earth as in heaven for the first (and only) time in history. When we see Jesus, we see God’s Kingdom in action.

Your Kingdom come

Your will be done

On earth as it is in heaven.

So to pray these words is to pray for that reality that Jesus proclaimed to be reality now - the reality where there is Good News for the poor, release for captives, sight for blind, freedom for the oppressed, healing for the sick, forgiveness of sins, salvation for the lost, healing for the hurt and sick. It is to pray for that place that we know as heaven, to become reality now. No more pain or sorrow.

For this indeed is God’s will.

And it is God’s will for earth as well as heaven.
This is the Good News that Jesus proclaimed. God does not just care about our soul - but our bodies and lives as well. God wants to redeem ALL of us, ALL of this world. This means that ALL violence, poverty, abuse, environmental degradation, injustice, lies, deception, greed, SIN is against God’s will. This means that God will call to account ALL Governments, corporations, institutions, churches as well as individual people on whether they acted in accordance or opposition to God’s will. There is no out clause. No place where Governments, institutions, corporations, churches are exempted from this because ‘it is not practical’.

It is not practical. How many times has this been used to nullify the will of God?

Honesty? Not practical in politics.

Care of the poor? Not practical for economics.

Justice? Not practical for corporations.

Caring for the environment? Not practical for our country.

Living out God’s will? Not practical for our churches.

Well, whether we like it or not, whether it is supposedly ‘practical’ or not, Jesus has taught us this prayer, and to pray it, is to be called to live it.

So to pray it is a call to Live, Struggle, Pray.
LIVE

First and foremost we are to live according to the truth of who we really are. That is that it is no longer us that live, but Christ that lives in us. We are to live not as citizens of this world, but as citizens of heaven, who through our very lives show what God’s will is.

But this is not primarily a call about being individuals - it is a call for us to live as community - as church in a way that witnesses to God’s Kingdom. To be a people who when we meet forgive sins, tell the truth, look after the sick, care for the poor, break down racial barriers, love each other and BE through the Spirit what God has called us to be.

STRUGGLE

And as God’s people we are called to struggle with this world we live in, with its ‘powers and authorities’ (Governments, corporations, religious institutions etc…). We are called to struggle with them, to remind them who is their God whether they acknowledge it or not, and to call them to be not what is ‘practical’ according to this world, but to be what God wills them to be for the sake of God’s world. We are called to enter into a holy struggle of love for this world and all its people, for God loved this world that he gave his only son Jesus that the world might know him and believe in him and find life.

PRAY

Lastly we are called to enter into prayer for this world. To pray the Lord’s Prayer as our life and our words. To lift up our world and our lives to the One to whom we belong, knowing that this is God’s Kingdom, God’s will, and that this is ultimately God’s work, we are just God’s children who want to please our Father by being a part of what he is already doing through his Spirit.

Amen.

Q’s for reflection

1. When have been times that you have glimpsed the Kingdom of God?

2. Why do Christians so often let Governments, corporations etc.. of being obedient to Jesus’ teachings by saying ‘It is not practical’?

3. What is a situation in your own life where you could live out God’s will and so demonstrate God’s love to others?

4. What is an issue in this world that you can remind the relevant Governments, corporations etc.. of who is their God and how they should act?

5. What can you start praying for regularly?

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WE are your family now …

The first in a series of 5 on The Lord’s Prayer

An excerpt from the Marilyn Manson fansite webpage …

Join the Marilyn Manson Family

And become a most unholy missionary for AntiChrist Superstar

“The righteous father wears the yellowest grin.”

Lo, as you walk through the valley of the shadow cast by a god who promises mercy and forgiveness but delivers none, will you fear or be feared? Marilyn Manson’s Church of AntiChrist Superstar would like to make that decision an easy one for you to make… Become a missionary for AntiChrist Superstar: Join the Marilyn Manson Family and ensure the salvation of your immortal soul. You will belong to an elite group of individuals who are strong and prepared enough to withstand and retaliate against the terrible tortures which will befall all who have not accepted AntiChrist Superstar into their hearts and heads with complete and utter reverence. Believe in AntiChrist Superstar, Our Lord and Savior, and you shall be saved!Loose your ancestral stanchions. Children, you shall no longer bow your heads in shame and self-repression…. be FREE! You shall no longer falter under the weight of the pious and the guilt they would heap upon you for living your life as you see fit. You shall no longer feel alone and unwanted: you are WANTED here…. you BELONG here…. WE are your Family now….

http://www.dewn.com/mm/member.htm

Does the quote above disgust you?

So it should, the preying on young people’s alienation to join a wierd cult is sickening - especially when it is done cynically just to boost cd sales to earn money for the above so-called ‘artist’.

However, disgusting as the above maybe, we can learn something from this.

You shall no longer feel alone and unwanted: you are WANTED here…. you BELONG here…. WE are your Family now….

The above quote from the website is meant to create a sub-culture of young people whose allegiance is NOT to their family, or peers, or country or economy, or culture - but to radically re-create these people with a new identity in a new culture - a new family (however sick that ‘family’ may be).

Because this example is so anti what we take to be acceptable and right, it actually serves to give us a window into what it would have meant for early Christians to pray these words:

OUR FATHER WHO IS IN HEAVEN, HALLOWED BE YOUR NAME;

For the first stanza of this the most well known prayer in the world is in fact a statement similar in intent (though obviously wholly different in content) to the intent of the Manson website - that is to create a people with a new identity that radically disconnects them with their old way of being and changes them into members of a NEW family with a entirely different way of life to what they are used to.

We are so used to Christianity being an accepted part of our western world that we take for granted that we can be loyal to both God and our culture, our country, our economics and our family. However this is a lie.

The early Christians knew that to pray this first stanza of the Lord’s prayer meant that their only obedience was to God, and that to the rest of the world they were ‘aliens and strangers’.

To pray this prayer was to radically re-create their identity in a new community - the community of Jesus.

Because of this - the early followers of Jesus were treated by their societies/families with reactions similar to what we have to the Manson website.

If we are to learn what it truly means to pray this Prayer that Jesus taught we must start with the understanding that what it calls us to is a fundamental break, a disconnection with this world and what it tells us we must be to be good citizens. We must learn that the first line calls into question our very allegiances which we are told must be foremost in our lives - our western civilization, our countries - even our very families.

With this opening line, Jesus was showing his disciples - you are part of a new family now - a radically different family to anything the world has seen before, and the rest of the prayer goes on to show just how this new family is to live and how it is different.

Let’s take a more detailed look at this first stanza

OUR - the very first word reminds of the fact that we are first and foremost people of a community - not individual believers. In our society we are so used to thinking of faith as a personal, private matter - but here there is no ‘My Father’ it is only ‘OUR Father’. To be a follower of Jesus is to necessarily belong to a new family - a new community. But who is the ‘OUR’ referring to? First and foremost it is Jesus. For Jesus is the one who prays and fulfills this prayer - when we pray OUR we are are referring to our and Jesus Father - Jesus father is our father, so we are brothers and sisters to Jesus. Secondly, we then become brothers and sisters to whoever else prays this prayer (it is estimated that 2 BILLION people worldwide prayed this prayer last Easter sunday!). So we pray OUR we cannot help but be reminded that we are first and foremost not individual believers, but brothers and sisters of Jesus who are joined to other brothers and sisters of Jesus

FATHER - It was common in Jewish prayers for God to be reffered to formally as Father in Hebrew, but standing behind this FATHER is not the formal Hebrew, but the Aramiac term ‘abba‘ - ‘daddy!’ So with this second word we are not being invited into a formal structured family arangement, but into an intimate relationship. The person we are addressing in this prayer is like a daddy to us. With this comes the sense of a relationship of itimacy and childhood innocence - Jesus tells us that we must become like children to enter the kIngdom and this can be seen to here have connotations of the innocent, all-trusting relationship that should exist (but tragically so often doesn’t) between a dad and a child. The child depends completely and fully on the dad, the child seeks to make the dad happy, the child knows that they are loved unconditionally (though they have no idea what the word means!). To address God as our daddy is to be invited into a intimate and personal relationship.

NB. to refer to God as FATHER is in no way to claim that God has a male Gender - God’s FATHERHOOD is not like human fatherhood and encompasses the qualities of human motherhood (nurturing, forming, truth telling etc …)

WHO IS IN HEAVEN - but here we are reminded that the person that we are invited into this intimate relationship with is no ordinary person. This FATHER resides in heaven - is wholly different to who we are. This FATHER who we are invited into relationship with is none other than the LORD of history and creation. This reminds us that the new family that we belong to is no ordinary family. It is not a family that belongs to this world - rather it is a family whose head lives in heaven. It is a family whose only true home is heaven - the Kingdom of our God. To belong to this family is to belong to a family whose strength cuts through every other allegiance. This family is constituted in heaven, and nothing in this world can claim to have a stronger or higher hold on us. To claim allegiance to the family whose Father is in heaven is to claim a bond that nothing else can break - not angels, powers, principlaities or even death.

HALLOWED BE YOUR NAME - and this is not a relationship to be entered into lightly. Even though it is a relationship of intimacy, it must also be a relationship of awe - to know God as HOLY - that is different/separate to us. The only true consitution of this relationship can be in our worship and adoration of our FATHER as we declare his hallowedness (holiness). To then worship our Father as holy is to recognise that we too must holy, and for us to be holy means that we must be obedient to the calling and command of our Father (and his command … ‘this is my son [JESUS] - LISTEN to him!’).

You shall no longer feel alone and unwanted: you are WANTED here…. you BELONG here…. WE are your Family now….

To pray this first stanza then is to recognise WHO is our true family, and WHO we truly belong to and WHERE we truly belong.

To pray OUR FATHER, WHO IS IN HEAVEN - HALLOWED BE YOUR NAME

is to say I belong to a NEW family - my TRUE father lives in heaven and I am his child. He is holy and I must be like him. This is my true - my only allegiance. I belong not to this world, to its governments, idols and powers - I belong only to my daddy in heaven and first and foremost I will seek to make him happy.

AMEN

Q’s for reflection

How much of our faith reflects MY rather than OUR FATHER?

What can we do to be a people who are a people of OUR FATHER rather than MY FATHER?

What is the balance between awe and intimacy with OUR FATHER - how do we maintain both aspects?

How can we be a people who are HOLY that is set-apart yet at the same time live the radical genrosity and inclusive love of Jesus for the outcasts/the lost?

In what ways does the world seek to undermine our true and only allegiance to OUR FATHER? How can we recognise and fight against these attempts to compromise us?

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Christmas Checklist

Here’s a few checks for the differences between Christmas traditions and what is actually written in the gospels about Jesus’ birth.

1. The date of December 25. ‘Christmas Day’ was attached to the Saturnalian festival held on December 25 - a way of connecting Christian faith with the local culture.

2. How did Mary and Joseph travel to Bethlehem? The Christmas cards usually show Joseph walking and Mary riding on the donkey. In fact there’s no mention of a donkey in Matthew and Luke, the two gospels that cover the birth of Jesus.

3. Did the innkeeper tell Mary and Joseph there was no room in the inn? Actually there’s no mention of an innkeeper, though we can assume that someone told Joseph and Mary they could use the hay. The stable isn’t mentioned anywhere - it’s just assumed that because Jesus was put down to sleep in a feeding trough that it was in a stable.

4. Which animals does the Bible say were present at Jesus’ birth? Cows, sheep, goats, donkeys? There’s actually no mention of any animals.

5. How many angels spoke to the shepherds? Just one.

6. What’s a heavenly host? A host is an army. So we’re not talking about the angel choir, we’re talking about an army of angels.

7. There is no mention of how many ‘wise men’ there were - just that there were ‘magi’ from the East who had consulted the stars - in other words astrologers.

8. The magi found Jesus in a house with Mary. We assume the house was in Bethlehem.

Matthew 1:18-25 (Contemporary English Version)
This is how Jesus Christ was born. A young woman named Mary was engaged to Joseph from King David’s family. But before they were married, she learned that she was going to have a baby by God’s Holy Spirit. Joseph was a good man and did not want to embarrass Mary in front of everyone. So he decided to quietly call off the wedding. While Joseph was thinking about this, an angel from the Lord came to him in a dream. The angel said, “Joseph, the baby that Mary will have is from the Holy Spirit. Go ahead and marry her. Then after her baby is born, name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” So the Lord’s promise came true, just as the prophet had said, “A virgin will have a baby boy, and he will be called Immanuel,” which means “God is with us.”
After Joseph woke up, he and Mary were soon married, just as the Lord’s angel had told him to do. But they did not sleep together before her baby was born. Then Joseph named him Jesus.

Luke 2:1-7 (Contemporary English Version)
About that time Emperor Augustus gave orders for the names of all the people to be listed in record books. These first records were made when Quirinius was governor of Syria. 3Everyone had to go to their own hometown to be listed. So Joseph had to leave Nazareth in Galilee and go to Bethlehem in Judea. Long ago Bethlehem had been King David’s hometown, and Joseph went there because he was from David’s family.
Mary was engaged to Joseph and traveled with him to Bethlehem. She was soon going to have a baby, and while they were there, she gave birth to her first-born son. She dressed him in baby clothes and laid him on a bed of hay, because there was no room for them in the inn.

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Sphere of Influence

A Story about Three Servants
The kingdom is also like what happened when a man went away and put his three servants in charge of all he owned. The man knew what each servant could do. So he handed five thousand coins to the first servant, two thousand to the second, and one thousand to the third. Then he left the country.

As soon as the man had gone, the servant with the five thousand coins used them to earn five thousand more. The servant who had two thousand coins did the same with his money and earned two thousand more. But the servant with one thousand coins dug a hole and hid his master’s money in the ground.

Some time later the master of those servants returned. He called them in and asked what they had done with his money. The servant who had been given five thousand coins brought them in with the five thousand that he had earned. He said, “Sir, you gave me five thousand coins, and I have earned five thousand more.”

“Wonderful!” his master replied. “You are a good and faithful servant. I left you in charge of only a little, but now I will put you in charge of much more. Come and share in my happiness!”

Next, the servant who had been given two thousand coins came in and said, “Sir, you gave me two thousand coins, and I have earned two thousand more.” “Wonderful!” his master replied. “You are a good and faithful servant. I left you in charge of only a little, but now I will put you in charge of much more. Come and share in my happiness!”

The servant who had been given one thousand coins then came in and said, “Sir, I know that you are hard to get along with. You harvest what you don’t plant and gather crops where you haven’t scattered seed. I was frightened and went out and hid your money in the ground. Here is every single coin!”

The master of the servant told him, “You are lazy and good-for-nothing! You know that I harvest what I don’t plant and gather crops where I haven’t scattered seed. You could have at least put my money in the bank, so that I could have earned interest on it.”

Then the master said, “Now your money will be taken away and given to the servant with ten thousand coins! Everyone who has something will be given more, and they will have more than enough. But everything will be taken from those who don’t have anything. You are a worthless servant, and you will be thrown out into the dark where people will cry and grit their teeth in pain.”

Matthew 25:14-30 Contemporary English Version

Reading this through to the end leaves me with a few questions. The master doesn’t sound like God. Looking at the Greek for this passage there’s no reference to the ‘kingdom of God’ at the beginning. So, as one friends asks, is this Jesus talking about the way the world works or the way God’s kingdom works? And if he’s using the story to talk about the kingdom of God, what’s the heart of the story? The crying and gritting of teeth in pain? Or the challenge of taking what we’re given and working with that, no matter how insignificant we feel that to be?

Working with fellow leaders through this passage we took the phrase ’sphere of influence’ as one of the keys to the parable. We’re each given a sphere of influence. We don’t need to copy someone else’s sphere. It’s unfair of a travelling evangelist, with a sphere of thousands across the country, to project his or her hopes onto the lives of people who stay in one place and influence the lives of a few who live nearby. Likewise it’s just frustrating for a person with widespread ministry to try and squeeze it into one place.

One of us first heard the phrase, “fear of influence”. In some ways that is what’s going on in the story. The guy with one thousand coins is afraid of what he might achieve and what he might not achieve. Fear of failure paralyses him. And perhaps fear of making a difference in the lives of others.

Back in June I used a quote at Pacific Highlander when writing about spiritual gifts:

“Our greatest fear is not that we are inadequate, but that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that frightens us. We ask ourselves, “Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, handsome, talented and fabulous?” Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We were born to make manifest the glory of God within us. It is not just in some; it is in everyone. And, as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

Marianne Williamson
Return to Love

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Ready or Not

A Story about Ten Girls

The kingdom of heaven is like what happened one night when ten girls took their oil lamps and went to a wedding to meet the groom. Five of the girls were foolish and five were wise. The foolish ones took their lamps, but no extra oil. The ones who were wise took along extra oil for their lamps. The groom was late arriving, and the girls became drowsy and fell asleep. Then in the middle of the night someone shouted, “Here’s the groom! Come to meet him!”
When the girls got up and started getting their lamps ready, the foolish ones said to the others, “Let us have some of your oil! Our lamps are going out.”
The girls who were wise answered, “There’s not enough oil for all of us! Go and buy some for yourselves.”
While the foolish girls were on their way to get some oil, the groom arrived. The girls who were ready went into the wedding, and the doors were closed. Later the other girls returned and shouted, “Sir, sir! Open the door for us!”
But the groom replied, “I don’t even know you!”
So, my disciples, always be ready! You don’t know the day or the time when all this will happen.

Matthew 25:1 to meet the groom: Some manuscripts add “and the bride.” It was the custom for the groom to go to the home of the bride’s parents to get his bride. Young girls and other guests would then go with them to the home of the groom’s parents, where the wedding feast would take place.

Matthew 25:1-13 (Contemporary English Version) (CEV)
© 1995 American Bible Society

I’ve heard a few strange interpretations of this parable. Like the one where we’re told we shouldn’t sleep. ‘It’s a sign of disloyalty and laziness’. I don’t think so. After all, sleeping is an excellent way to prepare for action. When the time for action comes, don’t sleep.

What does make sense though is the call to invest in relationships with God and with one another now - while we have the opportunity.

From the context of Matthew 24 and 25, Jesus appears to be asking his followers to be prepared for his second coming. If that’s the case, we need more than an individual preparation for the contingency of Jesus returning in our lifetime. We need a ‘Body of Christ’ approach that keeps the fire burning over many lifetimes.

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What Is Important

The Most Important Commandment

After Jesus had made the Sadducees look foolish, the Pharisees heard about it and got together. One of them was an expert in the Jewish Law. So he tried to test Jesus by asking, “Teacher, what is the most important commandment in the Law?”
Jesus answered:
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind.” This is the first and most important commandment. The second most important commandment is like this one. And it is, “Love others as much as you love yourself.” All the Law of Moses and the Books of the Prophets are based on these two commandments.

Matthew 22:34-40 (Contemporary English Version)

First question - how did Jesus make the Sadducees look foolish? Looking at the previous story, Jesus appears to have outclassed these guys in a debate over life in the future world. He’s made it clear that they’re using categories that are too small to deal with life after death.

Second question - what are the categories from which this ‘Pharisee’ is operating? It would seem his vision of human life is derived from interpretation of the written codes and guidelines of the Hebrew Scriptures.

Jesus here opens up the perameters by which people can develop their expression of God-honouring humanity. By giving us the big picture of loving God and loving one another he gives us room for cultural interpretation.

I spent part of yesterday with a colleague who was reflecting on the distinction between discipleship and socialisation. Much of what we think is obedience to God is in fact conformity to the codes of politeness we’ve inherited from our families and churches. Take for example our codes on swearing, drinking, smoking, tattoos and dress code. Can you have a swearing, drinking, smoking, tattooed, roughly dressed person who loves God and loves others as him/herself? Sure thing.

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Sheep and Goats

When the Son of Man comes in his glory with all of his angels, he will sit on his royal throne. The people of all nations will be brought before him, and he will separate them, as shepherds separate their sheep from their goats.

He will place the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. Then the king will say to those on his right, “My father has blessed you! Come and receive the kingdom that was prepared for you before the world was created. When I was hungry, you gave me something to eat, and when I was thirsty, you gave me something to drink. When I was a stranger, you welcomed me, and when I was naked, you gave me clothes to wear. When I was sick, you took care of me, and when I was in jail, you visited me.”

Then the ones who pleased the Lord will ask, “When did we give you something to eat or drink? When did we welcome you as a stranger or give you clothes to wear or visit you while you were sick or in jail?”

The king will answer, “Whenever you did it for any of my people, no matter how unimportant they seemed, you did it for me.”

Then the king will say to those on his left, “Get away from me! You are under God’s curse. Go into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels! I was hungry, but you did not give me anything to eat, and I was thirsty, but you did not give me anything to drink. I was a stranger, but you did not welcome me, and I was naked, but you did not give me any clothes to wear. I was sick and in jail, but you did not take care of me.”

Then the people will ask, “Lord, when did we fail to help you when you were hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in jail?”

The king will say to them, “Whenever you failed to help any of my people, no matter how unimportant they seemed, you failed to do it for me.”

Matthew 25:21-45 (Contemporary English Version)

I like the approach taken by William Loader, in his presentation to a worshipping community at Bishop’s College, Calcutta in 1999. This was just after a supercyclone had devastated the neighbouring region in the state of Orissa to the south. He tells the story from the perspective of a fictional goat. Here’s an excerpt from his web site:

He said to the red people who were on his left: ‘Come and live with me in my father’s city. For I was an outcaste and you welcomed me into your home; I was in Orissa and you sent me help; I was trying to bring change through politics and you supported me; I was a child labourer and you found me another way for me to live; I was a woman burnt by her husband and you gave me refuge.’ They all said, ‘When did we see you as an outcaste, or in Orissa, or a politician, or a child labourer or a burnt woman and come to your aid?’ He said, ‘You did it to them; it was like you did it to me.’

Then he turned to the people in blue who also called him, ‘Lord’, but the situation was much less happy. They had kept themselves pure and had not helped the outcaste, the people in Orissa, the politician, the child labourer, the burnt woman at all – or anyone else for that matter. There was no room for them in the city.

Just then it started to rain and the vision went away. We were left to ponder what we had seen.
Nanny, who was standing beside me, said, ‘I know. If I am a human being in my next life, I shall pretend I see the shining one in everyone I see. I shall help all those needy people like I’m helping him. That way he will reward me with a place in his father’s city.’

I was thinking about that when from the other side her sister – they always used to argue – said, ‘No, no, no! Don’t you see it was all a surprise. They didn’t care for people because they saw the shining one in them. They cared for people because they were people. They did it naturally. It was their way. Only later were they surprised to learn that they had also cared for him.’

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Vineyard Truths

Jesus told the chief priests and leaders to listen to this story:
A land owner once planted a vineyard. He built a wall around it and dug a pit to crush the grapes in. He also built a lookout tower. Then he rented out his vineyard and left the country. When it was harvest time, the owner sent some servants to get his share of the grapes. But the renters grabbed those servants. They beat up one, killed one, and stoned one of them to death. He then sent more servants than he did the first time. But the renters treated them in the same way. Finally, the owner sent his own son to the renters, because he thought they would respect him. But when they saw the man’s son, they said, “Someday he will own the vineyard. Let’s kill him! Then we can have it all for ourselves.” So they grabbed him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him.
Jesus asked, “When the owner of that vineyard comes, what do you suppose he will do to those renters?” The chief priests and leaders answered, “He will kill them in some horrible way. Then he will rent out his vineyard to people who will give him his share of grapes at harvest time.”
Jesus replied, “You surely know that the Scriptures say,
‘The stone that the builders tossed aside
is now the most important stone of all.
This is something the Lord has done,
and it is amazing to us.’
I tell you that God’s kingdom will be taken from you and given to people who will do what he demands.

Matthew 21:33-43 Contemporary English Version

The image of absentee landlord is a troubling one. Is Jesus referring to God here? The creator who is no longer present? Or are we getting a critique of abusive landlords? Or a critique of revolutionary practice by peasants?

The difficult reality we face is that in many ways God is absent. Yes there are moments when we feel close. But most people I talk to who have a faith in God, spend most of their time without a sense of intimacy with God.

Equally troubling is the idea that the vineyard owner might kill the abusive workers. It’s the answer given by the pharisees based on the realities of life. Murderers do tend to be dealt with severely.

Jesus is very clear in his challenge to the religious leaders who cannot accept his capacity to teach. By rejecting him they face the likelihood of losing their own authority and responsibility. Jesus is just as clear about the opening up of responsibility to new workers.

I note here that Jesus is talking about people who will do something in response to God’s call. Not just people who will trust in what he has done.

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Questions For Jesus

A Question about Jesus’ Authority

Jesus had gone into the temple and was teaching when the chief priests and the leaders of the people came up to him. They asked, “What right do you have to do these things? Who gave you this authority?”

Jesus answered, “I have just one question to ask you. If you answer it, I will tell you where I got the right to do these things. Who gave John the right to baptize? Was it God in heaven or merely some human being?”

They thought it over and said to each other, “We can’t say that God gave John this right. Jesus will ask us why we didn’t believe John. On the other hand, these people think that John was a prophet, and we are afraid of what they might do to us. That’s why we can’t say that it was merely some human who gave John the right to baptize.” So they told Jesus, “We don’t know.”

Jesus said, “Then I won’t tell you who gave me the right to do what I do.”

Matthew 21:23-27

Why did these men need to know where Jesus got his authority from? It seems to me they just couldn’t fit him into the hierarchical structure they were used to. They knew where their authority came from. It came from an established system of chief priest, priest and acolyte, teacher and student, leader and follower. But to their bemusement, Jesus refuses to buy into the ‘up-down’ pecking order of authority.

Questions I’d ask Jesus

So how did you discern your call? With whom did you tease out the challenge of being true to your God-given responsibility to live and proclaim the reign of God? Was it really a private matter between you and God? Or were there others with whom you confided and from whom you gained confidence to speak on behalf of God? Your parents? Your friends? Your disciples?

And what about John? Was his call to baptise something sorted out between him and God alone? Or was there a community of baptism who moved with him?

Am I missing the point by seeing your life through the lense of ‘discerned call’?

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