The parable from Matthew’s Gospel today (25:14-30) is generally read as either an eschatological warning (“Be prepared for the end times!”) or ethical instruction (“Use your talents”). William Herzog (Parables as Subversive Speech 1994) asks us to read it from the perspective of the poor.
In this reading, the hero of the story is the third servant—the one who stands up to the domineering master who expected them to exploit their friends and neighbours for monetary gain. The parable becomes a story of the prophet who stands up to power and is punished for it; of a servant who shows to the truth to power and is destroyed for it.
This reading of the story carries a different sort of warning—a warning about expecting to be rewarded for following the way of Christ. Doing God’s will means standing against the corrupting influences of powerful people and the lure of money or prestige; and copping the results of that audacity.
So what does that mean for how we understand mission?
It doesn’t paint a picture of the grand success of wealth, popularity and status. Instead, the result of speaking the truth to power is destruction.
God’s mission in our world is not about the people of God being wealthy or popular or adulated. God’s mission in the world is about the reconciliation of Creation—all Creation. And that means the powerful need to be called to account; and the powerless given their status as the beloved children of God.
Through God’s graciousness, we are enfolded into God’s work in our world—it’s not our work, it’s God’s—but it’s not God’s if it’s not God’s—if it does not demonstrate the values of God’s realm—justice, peace, reconciliation.
How then do we assess our role in the mission of God? It’s got nothing to do with how many we are, how much we own, how popular we are, how much money we raise… It’s all about how we act in and for God’s world… and for that, we can never have any expectation of reward!
Thursday, November 10, 2011
You Have Made Us Your Friends!
We lift our eyes to you, O God:
it’s what seems natural to worship the great Creator,
the faraway God of our beginnings
and so that is true, but it is not all of you.
This tendency to look up searching for you
means that we miss a lot of who you are.
What would happen if we just looked a little sideways,
or perhaps down—would you become more real then?
Have mercy on us, God, we cry as your servants,
and so we are, but that is not all of us either;
and it is certainly not all that you would have us be.
In Jesus, you have called us friends.
In Jesus, you have made us look sideways to our neighbours
and to our enemies.
In Jesus, you have made us see you in humility
and even squalor.
Nothing is too depraved; no-one is too despised
to be your dwelling-place.
And when we look up, because of Jesus, we see,
not an arrogant god on a ridiculously majestic throne,
but a life given for our sake,
and the healing of your whole Creation.
Forgive us when we fail to speak truth to power
and miss out on authentic relationship with you.
Forgive us when we bemoan our own predicaments
while neglecting the plight of the oppressed.
Forgive us when we spend so much time congratulating ourselves that we are your servants,
that we completely miss your invitation to companionship.
When arrogance masks itself as humility,
Lord, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.
When self-pity blinds us to real poverty,
Christ, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy.
When fear pretends to be prudence,
Lord, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.
Expand our vision of you to a 360⁰ view
that we might find ourselves in the sort of relationship with you
that you envisaged at our creation, right there in the beginning,
when you dared to make creatures who would speak with you.
Through the influence of your Spirit,
help us to be friends and partners, not slaves or crazed fans.
Work through us as your colleagues in creativity and compassion
for you have gifted us with your image,
and in Jesus, you have made us your friends. Amen.
it’s what seems natural to worship the great Creator,
the faraway God of our beginnings
and so that is true, but it is not all of you.
This tendency to look up searching for you
means that we miss a lot of who you are.
What would happen if we just looked a little sideways,
or perhaps down—would you become more real then?
Have mercy on us, God, we cry as your servants,
and so we are, but that is not all of us either;
and it is certainly not all that you would have us be.
In Jesus, you have called us friends.
In Jesus, you have made us look sideways to our neighbours
and to our enemies.
In Jesus, you have made us see you in humility
and even squalor.
Nothing is too depraved; no-one is too despised
to be your dwelling-place.
And when we look up, because of Jesus, we see,
not an arrogant god on a ridiculously majestic throne,
but a life given for our sake,
and the healing of your whole Creation.
Forgive us when we fail to speak truth to power
and miss out on authentic relationship with you.
Forgive us when we bemoan our own predicaments
while neglecting the plight of the oppressed.
Forgive us when we spend so much time congratulating ourselves that we are your servants,
that we completely miss your invitation to companionship.
When arrogance masks itself as humility,
Lord, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.
When self-pity blinds us to real poverty,
Christ, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy.
When fear pretends to be prudence,
Lord, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.
Expand our vision of you to a 360⁰ view
that we might find ourselves in the sort of relationship with you
that you envisaged at our creation, right there in the beginning,
when you dared to make creatures who would speak with you.
Through the influence of your Spirit,
help us to be friends and partners, not slaves or crazed fans.
Work through us as your colleagues in creativity and compassion
for you have gifted us with your image,
and in Jesus, you have made us your friends. Amen.
Lift Your Eyes to God!
Lift your eyes to God:
in the highest heavens, we see your glory, Great Creator.
Reach out your hands to Jesus:
in the compassion of an enemy, we know your love, O Christ.
Feel the breathe of the Spirit:
in our sinews and in our souls, the Spirit whispers hope.
Let us worship the God who reigns,
by entering the depths of our humanity
and setting the humble soaring on the wings of the Spirit
for the sake of eternity.
in the highest heavens, we see your glory, Great Creator.
Reach out your hands to Jesus:
in the compassion of an enemy, we know your love, O Christ.
Feel the breathe of the Spirit:
in our sinews and in our souls, the Spirit whispers hope.
Let us worship the God who reigns,
by entering the depths of our humanity
and setting the humble soaring on the wings of the Spirit
for the sake of eternity.
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
What does it mean to be Christian?
Christians are people who have accepted God’s unconditional love for themselves and for the whole Creation; and, in response to God’s graciousness, have responded to Jesus’ call to costly discipleship. Through the sacrament of Baptism, they have been incorporated into Christ’s body, the Church; and seek to follow in the way of Christ every day of their lives.
Christians are not perfect. We have received the message of the Good News (gospel) in Jesus Christ that God loves us despite ourselves and God forgives us no matter what. All we need to do is to acknowledge our dependence on God, Holy Trinity, Creator, Christ and Spirit; and, in the power of the Holy Spirit seek to live out our new life in Christ everyday.
Christian discipleship calls us to love God with our whole hearts, minds, bodies and souls; and to love our neighbours (whether friends or strangers, allies or enemies) as we love ourselves.
The Christian Life is one of worship, witness and service. As the body of Christ, we worship God together and, through that worship, are formed as God’s people. In the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, we are fed as God’s people on the way.
In the whole of our lives, we are called to live out our identity as the people of God. Being Christian has implications for how we live in our families; the way we do our work; the issues that are important to us; our hopes for our children, our friends, our communities… Christians seek to live out the values of God’s realm—justice, peace, reconciliation and the integrity of Creation. The Beatitudes (Matthew 5:3-12 NRSV) have long been understood as a powerful and poetic statement of what that might mean:
Christians are not perfect. We have received the message of the Good News (gospel) in Jesus Christ that God loves us despite ourselves and God forgives us no matter what. All we need to do is to acknowledge our dependence on God, Holy Trinity, Creator, Christ and Spirit; and, in the power of the Holy Spirit seek to live out our new life in Christ everyday.
Christian discipleship calls us to love God with our whole hearts, minds, bodies and souls; and to love our neighbours (whether friends or strangers, allies or enemies) as we love ourselves.
The Christian Life is one of worship, witness and service. As the body of Christ, we worship God together and, through that worship, are formed as God’s people. In the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, we are fed as God’s people on the way.
In the whole of our lives, we are called to live out our identity as the people of God. Being Christian has implications for how we live in our families; the way we do our work; the issues that are important to us; our hopes for our children, our friends, our communities… Christians seek to live out the values of God’s realm—justice, peace, reconciliation and the integrity of Creation. The Beatitudes (Matthew 5:3-12 NRSV) have long been understood as a powerful and poetic statement of what that might mean:
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be filled.
Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you
and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.
Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven,
for in the same way they persecuted the prophets
who were before you.
Saturday, October 29, 2011
Servants Not Slaves
Alan Joyce, the CEO of Qantas, has announced that the company is grounding its entire fleet and locking out its employees in the face of union demands for pay increases and better working conditions, and workers’ fears about the threat of jobs being outsourced to overseas labourers at lower rates of pay. Wasn’t this the same Alan Joyce who was granted a 71% pay increase earlier this week, putting his annual earnings over $5 million? Who is Alan Joyce serving—the company, their clients, their employees or himself? And what does it all mean for a society increasingly influenced by a corporate culture where profit is everything, people are nothing, and everybody seems to be in it for themselves, particularly if you’re a CEO earning an obscene amount of money per annum?
In the meantime, other parts of the media have been in a bit of a frenzy around the royal visit with the big news for at least a while being Julia Gillards’ failure to curtsey when, in fact, contemporary royal protocols do not require that particular act of deference to the sovereign anymore.
And let’s not even mention the hoo-haa around the Melbourne Cup, fashions of the field, and which celebrities will be attending the cup and why.
Our society seems to have some funny ideas about what is important and who matters, as do the religious leaders of whom Jesus speaks in today’s Gospel reading. Despite being important teachers and significant mentors in the faith, as Jesus acknowledges, even they too get what’s important wrong in their actions. They are concerned with knowing the things of God; but miss the incredible irony of those things when they seek to show just how godly they apparently are.
Jesus describes religious leaders who are trying very hard to live out their ideas of what being faithful to God is all about; but who, in the process, only tie themselves up in knots—taking on themselves unnecessarily heavy burdens. They wear extra long fringes on their prayer shawls, and large phylacteries (small leather cases holding passages of scripture) during prayer times. They seek places of honour at banquets and in synagogues, and signs of respect in market places. They want people to know and to acknowledge their godliness.
But according to Jesus all this play-acting is futile. It means nothing in the values of God’s realm for “All who exalt themselves will be humbled, and all who humble themselves will be exalted.”
“All who exalt themselves will be humbled, and all who humble themselves will be exalted.” The message is a disturbing one.
Partly, the message is disturbing because we know we can’t live up to it. Partly, it is disturbing because it is a message that has tended to be distorted in various ways. The message of the humility of discipleship in Christ is a familiar one, but I don’t think it’s really an easy one for us to understand.
Sometimes people have claimed humility for themselves while furthering their own interests at the expense of others. Sometimes people have heard the message of humility as an order to humiliate themselves--to treat themselves as less than the valued children of God whom we all are. And probably we all do a little of each of those things most of the time, because we are the frail, fragile, fallible human creatures we are.
But when we interpret the message about humility and exaltation in these kinds of ways, we’re pretty much heading in the direction of the scribes and the Pharisees ourselves—we think we know, but our actions belie our claims.
Of course, in our contemporary world, we know that people who like to make a show are generally looking for support and encouragement, for affirmation. They don’t need to be noticed because they are successful. They need to be noticed to prove that they are successful. Their problem is usually not pride. More often, it’s lack of self-esteem. When you don’t value yourself, you have to keep proving to others how significant you are by wearing and having the right things, and by doing the proper things, or the daring things, or the trendy things, in the biggest and best possible way.
The religious leaders about whom Jesus speaks are really a very sad bunch indeed. They are a sad bunch because they don’t know that they are important to God as themselves not for what they do or who they are in their society. They are special to God because they are God’s children, unique yet fallible and frail human creatures.
When you don’t feel very good about yourself, it’s hard to get your priorities right. When you don’t feel very good about yourself, it’s hard to remember that it’s okay not to know everything, not have everything, not to be everything that you think you should know, have or be. But Christian discipleship has never been about knowing or having or being more than you are. It’s never been about being honoured or respected or showy. It’s always been about being the beloved children of God—God’s frail, fragile, fallible human creatures.
In 1960, Valerie Saiving wrote what is now regarded as a ground-breaking article. In it, she suggested that the reason there was so much emphasis on sin as pride, and love as selflessness in Christianity was probably due to the fact that much of Christian theology had been written and devised by men. She suggested that for women, in their tendency to give up themselves completely to the needs of others, it was probably necessary to regard sin as self-effacement, and love as the need to value one’s self. She also suggested that as our society was becoming more feminised, it was likely that the issues of self-effacement, or lack of self-esteem would not simply be a female concern, rather it was a concern for the whole of contemporary society. Further comments on Saiving’s work have been made since that time, and it seems that she was probably right, that in emphasising sin as pride in the Christian church, we have failed to recognise the underlying impetus for what presents as pride, and that is not the overvaluing of self, but the undervaluing—perhaps those male theologians just got it wrong for themselves as well rather than actually being guilty of being proud. When people have no internal sense of self-worth, they seek it from external sources, making bigger and bigger displays of who they are and how important they can be.
That kind of information puts a different slant on our Gospel reading for today. If when we talk about people who exalt themselves, we are really talking about people who don’t feel very good about themselves, who do not know their worth as children of God, then of course, it is likely that they will be humbled, because it is impossible to receive the kind of external affirmation required to keep them feeling good. If when we talk about people who humble themselves, we are talking about people who do not need to prove their place as beloved children of God because they have accepted it—they have accepted God’s love for them, then of course they will be more comfortable with themselves, and more ready to try new things, and to take new steps in discipleship with Christ. It’s common sense really. If you feel secure in your identity, then you feel able to try new things, to learn new things, to risk being laughed at or ridiculed or considered a fool. Wasn’t Jesus just such a person? Ridiculed and derided and considered a fool, because he didn’t have to prove his worth before God.
Humility is not humiliation or neglect of either self or others, rather it is learning to value ourselves and each other as the beloved children of God and frail, fragile, fallible human creatures. In Christ, we are called to confident but not overconfident discipleship, to humility but not self-effacement.
Self-esteem and the way we see our world are BIG issues for our time. They are integrally involved in the suicides of young men in rural communities (perhaps because they see themselves as failing to attain the right way of being male in our society). They are involved in issues of domestic violence where women, and sometimes men, allow themselves to be abused because they are unable to accept themselves as the people whom they are and to make different decisions in order to protect themselves; and where men, and sometimes women, abuse others as a way of taking out their frustrations about their own apparent inadequacies. The issues of self-esteem and the way we see our world are probably even involved in the kind of corporate culture that has developed in our society—a culture where bigger salaries, greater profits, less costs are somehow a marker of the worth of the CEO or the Board or the Senior Management etc.
Attempts at grand displays of worth are not confined to religion. They are present in every aspect of human life: government, business, community, social and sporting organisations. People are people. Wherever we are, we like to be noticed, acknowledged, and recognised. Unfortunately, a lot of our fussing comes from the fact that we really do not think a lot of ourselves, and have to keep proving ourselves to ourselves and to other people.
The text in Matthew seems to be talking about pride, but when you know that some people’s attempts at getting attention are really cries to be loved and cared for and needed, then this passage is also about knowing our value in God.
In Christ we are called to recognise our value to God. As children of God we are called to be servants not abused slaves; and that cannot be achieved through self-abasement. You have to value what you have to offer in order to serve. Nor can it be achieved through self-aggrandisement even when that comes from a poor sense of self-esteem. You have to recognise your limitations in order to offer the service that you can offer and not something other than that. In Christ we are called to know how God sees us—yes, frail, fragile, fallible and sinful; but the very much beloved children of God.
And when we are able to accept our worth before God, then we just might understand what it means to be humble and yet be exalted, what it means to be the greatest and yet a servant. And we will no longer need to seek others’ acknowledgement that we are of worth.
In the meantime, other parts of the media have been in a bit of a frenzy around the royal visit with the big news for at least a while being Julia Gillards’ failure to curtsey when, in fact, contemporary royal protocols do not require that particular act of deference to the sovereign anymore.
And let’s not even mention the hoo-haa around the Melbourne Cup, fashions of the field, and which celebrities will be attending the cup and why.
Our society seems to have some funny ideas about what is important and who matters, as do the religious leaders of whom Jesus speaks in today’s Gospel reading. Despite being important teachers and significant mentors in the faith, as Jesus acknowledges, even they too get what’s important wrong in their actions. They are concerned with knowing the things of God; but miss the incredible irony of those things when they seek to show just how godly they apparently are.
Jesus describes religious leaders who are trying very hard to live out their ideas of what being faithful to God is all about; but who, in the process, only tie themselves up in knots—taking on themselves unnecessarily heavy burdens. They wear extra long fringes on their prayer shawls, and large phylacteries (small leather cases holding passages of scripture) during prayer times. They seek places of honour at banquets and in synagogues, and signs of respect in market places. They want people to know and to acknowledge their godliness.
But according to Jesus all this play-acting is futile. It means nothing in the values of God’s realm for “All who exalt themselves will be humbled, and all who humble themselves will be exalted.”
“All who exalt themselves will be humbled, and all who humble themselves will be exalted.” The message is a disturbing one.
Partly, the message is disturbing because we know we can’t live up to it. Partly, it is disturbing because it is a message that has tended to be distorted in various ways. The message of the humility of discipleship in Christ is a familiar one, but I don’t think it’s really an easy one for us to understand.
Sometimes people have claimed humility for themselves while furthering their own interests at the expense of others. Sometimes people have heard the message of humility as an order to humiliate themselves--to treat themselves as less than the valued children of God whom we all are. And probably we all do a little of each of those things most of the time, because we are the frail, fragile, fallible human creatures we are.
But when we interpret the message about humility and exaltation in these kinds of ways, we’re pretty much heading in the direction of the scribes and the Pharisees ourselves—we think we know, but our actions belie our claims.
Of course, in our contemporary world, we know that people who like to make a show are generally looking for support and encouragement, for affirmation. They don’t need to be noticed because they are successful. They need to be noticed to prove that they are successful. Their problem is usually not pride. More often, it’s lack of self-esteem. When you don’t value yourself, you have to keep proving to others how significant you are by wearing and having the right things, and by doing the proper things, or the daring things, or the trendy things, in the biggest and best possible way.
The religious leaders about whom Jesus speaks are really a very sad bunch indeed. They are a sad bunch because they don’t know that they are important to God as themselves not for what they do or who they are in their society. They are special to God because they are God’s children, unique yet fallible and frail human creatures.
When you don’t feel very good about yourself, it’s hard to get your priorities right. When you don’t feel very good about yourself, it’s hard to remember that it’s okay not to know everything, not have everything, not to be everything that you think you should know, have or be. But Christian discipleship has never been about knowing or having or being more than you are. It’s never been about being honoured or respected or showy. It’s always been about being the beloved children of God—God’s frail, fragile, fallible human creatures.
In 1960, Valerie Saiving wrote what is now regarded as a ground-breaking article. In it, she suggested that the reason there was so much emphasis on sin as pride, and love as selflessness in Christianity was probably due to the fact that much of Christian theology had been written and devised by men. She suggested that for women, in their tendency to give up themselves completely to the needs of others, it was probably necessary to regard sin as self-effacement, and love as the need to value one’s self. She also suggested that as our society was becoming more feminised, it was likely that the issues of self-effacement, or lack of self-esteem would not simply be a female concern, rather it was a concern for the whole of contemporary society. Further comments on Saiving’s work have been made since that time, and it seems that she was probably right, that in emphasising sin as pride in the Christian church, we have failed to recognise the underlying impetus for what presents as pride, and that is not the overvaluing of self, but the undervaluing—perhaps those male theologians just got it wrong for themselves as well rather than actually being guilty of being proud. When people have no internal sense of self-worth, they seek it from external sources, making bigger and bigger displays of who they are and how important they can be.
That kind of information puts a different slant on our Gospel reading for today. If when we talk about people who exalt themselves, we are really talking about people who don’t feel very good about themselves, who do not know their worth as children of God, then of course, it is likely that they will be humbled, because it is impossible to receive the kind of external affirmation required to keep them feeling good. If when we talk about people who humble themselves, we are talking about people who do not need to prove their place as beloved children of God because they have accepted it—they have accepted God’s love for them, then of course they will be more comfortable with themselves, and more ready to try new things, and to take new steps in discipleship with Christ. It’s common sense really. If you feel secure in your identity, then you feel able to try new things, to learn new things, to risk being laughed at or ridiculed or considered a fool. Wasn’t Jesus just such a person? Ridiculed and derided and considered a fool, because he didn’t have to prove his worth before God.
Humility is not humiliation or neglect of either self or others, rather it is learning to value ourselves and each other as the beloved children of God and frail, fragile, fallible human creatures. In Christ, we are called to confident but not overconfident discipleship, to humility but not self-effacement.
Self-esteem and the way we see our world are BIG issues for our time. They are integrally involved in the suicides of young men in rural communities (perhaps because they see themselves as failing to attain the right way of being male in our society). They are involved in issues of domestic violence where women, and sometimes men, allow themselves to be abused because they are unable to accept themselves as the people whom they are and to make different decisions in order to protect themselves; and where men, and sometimes women, abuse others as a way of taking out their frustrations about their own apparent inadequacies. The issues of self-esteem and the way we see our world are probably even involved in the kind of corporate culture that has developed in our society—a culture where bigger salaries, greater profits, less costs are somehow a marker of the worth of the CEO or the Board or the Senior Management etc.
Attempts at grand displays of worth are not confined to religion. They are present in every aspect of human life: government, business, community, social and sporting organisations. People are people. Wherever we are, we like to be noticed, acknowledged, and recognised. Unfortunately, a lot of our fussing comes from the fact that we really do not think a lot of ourselves, and have to keep proving ourselves to ourselves and to other people.
The text in Matthew seems to be talking about pride, but when you know that some people’s attempts at getting attention are really cries to be loved and cared for and needed, then this passage is also about knowing our value in God.
In Christ we are called to recognise our value to God. As children of God we are called to be servants not abused slaves; and that cannot be achieved through self-abasement. You have to value what you have to offer in order to serve. Nor can it be achieved through self-aggrandisement even when that comes from a poor sense of self-esteem. You have to recognise your limitations in order to offer the service that you can offer and not something other than that. In Christ we are called to know how God sees us—yes, frail, fragile, fallible and sinful; but the very much beloved children of God.
And when we are able to accept our worth before God, then we just might understand what it means to be humble and yet be exalted, what it means to be the greatest and yet a servant. And we will no longer need to seek others’ acknowledgement that we are of worth.
Thursday, October 27, 2011
The Labour is God's!
God remembers your labour, brothers and sisters;
you work night and day, so that you might not be a burden
as you proclaim the Word of God.
God is our witness:
we have sought to be upright and blameless.
You urge and encourage the leading of a life worthy of God.
Like a father with his children,
we call each other to God’s glorious realm.
You have received the Word of God,
not as a human word but as what it really is, God's Word,
which is also at work in you as believers.
We pray that God remains at work in us
for it is not we, but God who labours
and brings God’s realm to birth.
It is indeed God who gives birth to new life within us.
Let us proclaim our God!
you work night and day, so that you might not be a burden
as you proclaim the Word of God.
God is our witness:
we have sought to be upright and blameless.
You urge and encourage the leading of a life worthy of God.
Like a father with his children,
we call each other to God’s glorious realm.
You have received the Word of God,
not as a human word but as what it really is, God's Word,
which is also at work in you as believers.
We pray that God remains at work in us
for it is not we, but God who labours
and brings God’s realm to birth.
It is indeed God who gives birth to new life within us.
Let us proclaim our God!
Your Coming Is Not In Vain!
Sisters and brothers, you’re coming here is not in vain!
Though our faith is ignored and rejected by others,
with courage, we worship God!
You do not come with deceit or impure motives.
With God as our witness, we come to worship God!
So deeply do you care for each other
that you come to share the Gospel again and again.
God calls us to gentle witness as apostles of Christ.
So, let us worship God!
Though our faith is ignored and rejected by others,
with courage, we worship God!
You do not come with deceit or impure motives.
With God as our witness, we come to worship God!
So deeply do you care for each other
that you come to share the Gospel again and again.
God calls us to gentle witness as apostles of Christ.
So, let us worship God!
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