Sermon by Fr James Heard, Sunday 9th October 2016, at St George's Church, Campden Hill
Sermon by Fr James Heard, Sunday 9th October 2016, at St George's Church, Campden Hill
Tribalism runs very deeply within us – it goes back
millions of years. We see it in football teams, between classes, and there is a
strong tendency for our religion to be tribal. Of course, tribalism is what
helped primitive humanity to survive in a tough and often hostile environment.
Other tribes were considered a threat. And the tribe that was closest to you
was the one you most fiercely opposed. This is quite understandable if the life
of the community, the tribe, depended on scarce food provision.
Today in 2016 it is obvious that tribalism hasn’t gone
away. We can see it today in the rivalry of football teams – Man City vs Man
United; Celtic vs Rangers. When I went to see Chelsea play, I was with a friend
in the ‘hard core’ Chelsea supporters end, and when they stood up and chanted,
‘Stand up if you hate… [whatever team they were playing]’ only the most
foolhardy didn’t stand (and there weren’t any of those!).
It’s the same in religion – there are those who are
deeply tribal. Again, those nearest to you are your worst enemies. We see it in
a humours way in Monty Python’s film, The Life of Brian – Brian asks a
group at the colosseum, ‘Are you from the Judean People's Front?’ John Cleese:
‘the Judean People's Front’ (I won’t quote his response). This was most
certainly not to be confused with the People's Front of Judea. A classic moment
in the film.
More seriously, we have Shia vs Sunni Moslems blowing
each other up; traditionally there was rivalry between Roman Catholic and
Anglicans, who did the most horrific things to each other. And what a moment
this week with Archbishop Justin and Pope Frances.
Many Christians, however, still remain fiercely tribal,
perhaps because this tribal instinct runs so deep within us. Many have tended
to use Jesus in a competitive way instead of a cosmic way. Others then hear our
Gospel at a tribal level, “Come join us—or else” (using fear as the sales
pitch). In short, they make Jesus Christ into an exclusive saviour instead of
the totally inclusive saviour he was meant to be.
Our biblical readings today teach us to think
differently, radically differently, from the tribalism that we often expect
from the Bible. The readings
show how God speaks and acts in shocking ways and places, far beyond our
pathetic little tribal boundaries.
Our OT reading tells the story of Naaman. He was a
military officer of a major enemy of Israel — Aram. The narrator praises Naaman
in glowing terms: "He was a valiant soldier, a great man in the sight of
his master and highly regarded." Then he adds a shocking detail:
"through Naaman the Lord had given victory to Aram." Just a minute,
that can’t be right: God gave victory to Israel's enemy through a pagan
officer? Yes.
[To capture how shocking this is perhaps consider this
re-reading. Ancient Aram in central Syria is modern Aleppo, one of the oldest
continually inhabited cities in the world. "Bashar al-Assad was a Syrian
military general, praised by all as a valiant warrior and a great man. The Christian
God had granted victory to Muslim Syria through Assad." No, that can’t be
right.]
Of course, this is not where the story of Naaman ends,
the story ends with his conversion to ‘the one true God’, but it's definitely
where it begins. It makes for very uncomfortable reading.
Then there’s the Gospel reading. Luke is the only Gentile
author in the Bible. Matthew’s Gospel starts with Jesus being called "the
son of David, son of Abraham". Luke describes him as "the son of
Adam". In other words, Jesus is not just the king of the Jews, he's the
son of all humanity. Luke is the one who universalises his gospel narrative.
Yet throughout the gospels, the Jewish Jesus embraced
unclean Gentiles – the Roman centurion, the Canaanite woman and her
demon-possessed daughter, the woman at the well in John 4, the good Samaritan,
and in this week's gospel the healing of the ten lepers. The thing to remember
about lepers is that:
·
They
were considered unclean
·
They
were excluded from every part of community life: they couldn’t live, eat, talk
with ‘normal’ people. They had to watch – from forty paces – a life just
outside of their reach.
·
Lastly,
they were excluded by God because the Temple, the most sacred place, and the
inner part the holiest place where only animals without blemish were offered.
They were barred from this and thus far from salvation.
Yet today’s hero is the healed leper, an outsider
Samaritan, the only one who gave thanks to Jesus for his healing. This detail
is not an accident or coincidence. Luke is making a theological point and it’s
this: God grace is limitless. It’s not reserved for the unblemished pure
priests; it’s not restricted to the Jewish community; the gospel of God’s love
is for all.
Our readings today reminds us to look beyond the tribal
limitations of our own little worlds, and to consider the strange ways and
places that the creator of all the world is at work. The theological
roots for this radically inclusive approach is the Trinitarian Creator God we
worship. Richard Rohr puts it like this:
Once Christians learn to recognize the
Cosmic Christ as the original metaphysical identity of the second Person of the
Trinity—an identity much larger than the historical Jesus—then Jewish, Muslim,
Hindu, Buddhist, and spiritual-but-not-religious people have no reason to be
afraid of us, nor we of them. They can easily recognize that the Cosmic Christ
includes and honours all of creation—including themselves—from the very
beginning of time. [2]
We might start with a tribal sort of faith, but we are
invited to grow, to mature and develop, perhaps through rational and
conflictual situations, until our soul is led to a true non-dual non-binary
consciousness that’s characterized by empathy, selflessness, and freedom from
self and fear. Our inner experience of union with the creator Trinitarian God
will moves us toward compassion, justice, and inclusivity.
An uncomfortable question we might ponder today is who
are the people we exclude? Whilst reflecting on it this week, I discovered that
a dear friend of mine, a priest, had gone and got a tattoo. Apologies for those
who have one… but my friend, a tattoo? Really? Could I still be friends with
him? Well, I discovered my prejudice. Who else might we exclude from our hearts
and minds.
Today we are invite to open our hearts and minds, to know
that God’s love is for all, however unworthy we feel that might be. We are
invited towards a faith that is calm, knowing, patient, inclusive, and
self-forgetful. It is the very goal of mature adulthood and mature religion.
Reference
‘A Theology of Geography’, Dan Clendenin, 2 October 2016.
Richard Rohr, Second Naiveté, Sunday, October 2,
2016