RCL Lent 3B
11 March 2012
Saint Faith's Anglican Church
Vancouver BC
Will
you persevere in resisting evil and, whenever you fall into sin, repent and
return to the Lord?
In the fall of 1964 I entered grade six at Zebulon Pike
Elementary School in Colorado Springs.
There had been a surge in the student population of our neighbourhood so
our class was lodged in a portable on the northeast side of the school. Our teacher was Mr Schiff and I remember him
as one of the more important teachers in my education.
The fall of 1964 was election time in the United
States. Just one year prior John F.
Kennedy had been assassinated and Vice President Lyndon Baines Johnson had
become President unexpectedly. He had
been chosen primarily to balance the Democratic ticket with a solid 'southern'
Democrat with long experience in Congress.
He was now running for President on his own merits and the Republicans
had chosen Barry Goldwater of Arizona as their standard bearer.
Mr Schiff decided that we should study politics by staging
our own presidential debates. Much to my
relief I was chosen to represent the Democratic Party, the party my family had
been members of as long as I could remember.
You may remember that the United States was in the early stages of the
Vietnam War and this became an election issue.
President Johnson supported providing South Vietnam with military
supplies and advisers rather than a commitment of U. S. troops. Senator Goldwater, on the other hand,
supported using the full might of the U. S. military to defeat the North
Vietnamese even the use of tactical nuclear weapons.
I gave a passionate speech, for an eleven-year-old, pointing
out the lunacy of such an approach. I
cannot remember my opponent's comments, but the class ended up solidly behind
President Johnson. It was my first taste
of debate and public speaking and it revealed one of my personal flaws --- a
passion that sometimes overcomes my better nature. It is a flaw I continue to battle.
I tell you this story because it marks the beginning of an
important relationship that has continued in various ways throughout my
life. You see, Mr Schiff was
Jewish. He was the first Jew I can
remember coming to know in my life. He
was quietly observant and his influence on my life continues to this day in
ways that I cannot fully discern. My own
commitment to an observant Christian life as an Anglican was evident even then
and I think that this was an early dimension of my exploration of
Jewish-Christian relations.
One of the frequent ways some Christians use to describe the
difference between Judaism and Christianity is to characterize Judaism as a
religion of law versus Christianity as a religion of grace. This view of Judaism as a religion concerned
with external obedience to law has contributed to societal and cultural
attitudes towards Jews that have led Christians to persecute Jews and to
collaborate in atrocities throughout the centuries.
But in today's reading from Exodus we learn that God's
covenant with the Jewish people is not about legalism. The covenant made with the people on Sinai is
a covenant of grace-filled response to God's free act of liberation and love.
Exodus tells the story of the liberation of the Hebrew
tribes from their slavery in Egypt and their journey towards becoming a people
in covenant with the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. It is this God who sends the plagues that
compel the Egyptians to let the Hebrews go free. It is this God who parts the waters of the
Reed Sea so that the people may pass through safely. It is this God who sends manna and quail to
feed the people and who brings forth water in the desert.
God takes the initiative and God acts, not in response to
any Hebrew obedience to a set of laws, but because God chooses to do so. God has rescued the people from slavery and
now chooses to enter into an eternal covenant with them. The Ten Commandments and all the laws that
derive from them are a faithful response to God's grace. To follow the law is an act of gratitude for
all that God has done and is doing for the Hebrew tribes.
Did you notice that there are no punishments for
disobedience mentioned in the Ten Commandments?
God does not say, "If you don't do this, our covenant is
over." The Hebrew people as well as
you and I are asked to choose obedience freely with no threats for our failure
to comply. What God desires from us is
not slavish obedience or rote recitation; God desire our love and love can only
be given freely not under compulsion.
Neither Judaism nor Christianity hold to a faith based in
legalism. We celebrate a faith in the
God who enters into covenant with us and who then offers us the choice to
follow a way of life that embodies that free covenant of love. Are there consequences for not following the
covenant? Certainly there are. They are the consequences that come from
choosing badly rather than choosing wisely.
They are not God's punitive acts.
God is sorrowed when we fail to live out our covenant promises. But God welcomes us back and rejoices when we
return to our right minds, a choice that leads to fullness of life rather than
its counterfeit.
The second commitment of the baptismal covenant is that you
and I will persevere in resisting evil and, when we fall into sin, we will
repent and return to the Lord. This
commitment begs at least two questions:
What is evil?
What does it mean to repent?
What
is evil?
Some years ago I was one of the featured speakers at the
annual conference of the British Columbia-Yukon Anglican Youth Movement. I chose to talk about the baptismal
covenant. When I reached this
commitment, I asked the young people, "What is evil in your lives? In your schools? In your communities?" Immediately one of the youth leaders jumped
up and said that we really should not be talking about such things with young
people. Before I could respond, there
was a chorus of young people who made it very clear that they wanted to talk
about evil and that they were going to do so in a serious fashion. And so they did.
In our baptismal liturgy we begin with a three-fold
renunciation of (i) Satan and all the spiritual forces that rebel against God,
(ii) the evil powers of this world which corrupt and destroy the creatures of
God and (iii) all sinful desires that draw us from the love of God. With this renunciation we recognize two
important dimensions about evil. The
first dimension is that there are forces in the world that actively seek to
corrupt and destroy the creatures of God.
These forces are real, whether we think them spiritual or physical, but
they do seek to destroy not to build up.
Whenever those who have power work to maintain their control even if it
means poverty, loss of dignity and death to others, we are seeing evil at work. Whenever one person is used to further the
self-interest of another, then we are seeing evil at work. It falls to us to name the evil and to use
all our power to bring it to its knees.
The second dimension is this: Evil creates waves and currents that catch us
all and can sweep us away. But the good
news of God in Christ is that we are not leaves left in the thrall of powers
over which we have no control. We are
God's beloved, made in the image and likeness of God. We can choose to free ourselves from these
sinful desires and show forth in our lives the love and graciousness of God.
What
does it mean to repent?
We free ourselves from the grip of the currents of sin and
evil that exist in the world by seeking God's perspective. This is what is meant by the verb, 'to
repent', in Christian thought. The Greek
word translated here is metanoia, a
word which can be translated as 'change of perspective' or, as I like to put
it, 'look at the world from God's perspective'.
To repent is to look at the world from God's
perspective. And how do we do this? We do this by reading and reflecting on the
Scriptures. We do this by participating
in the worship life of our community. We
do this by deepening our life of prayer.
We do this by 'practicing what we preach'. By this I mean we sometimes do
something in order to begin to feel something.
Let me give you an example.
I find it very hard to take time off.
I fall easily into the trap of always working, always doing
something. The consequence is that I can
become tired and ill and lose my ability to be patient. So what shall I do? I take my day off. I resist all unnecessary pressures to fill it
with things to do. Perhaps this
discipline will eventually teach me to relax and simply be.
Let me give you another example. I sometimes talk too much. If no one is going to say something, you can
make a safe bet that I will eventually break the silence. So I will sometimes attend a meeting and put
a 3" by 5" card in front of me which reads: "Listen!
Wait until everyone has spoken.
Then consider whether you have anything new to say." I do not always succeed, but I am trying!
Resisting evil and repenting is not about fearing God's
wrath. It is about learning gratitude
and realizing that no one in her or his right mind wants to be known as an
ingrate. You and I have been the
recipients of so many gifts from the God who loves us. To turn our faces away from such graciousness
and to ignore our baptismal commitments is to deny who we truly are and to miss
the opportunity to become more fully that person.
On Sinai God speaks ten words to Moses, words we know as the
Ten Commandments, and invites the people to observe these words in order that
they might become who God truly wants them to be. At the font God speaks words of love to us
and invites us to observe five commitments in order that we might become who
God truly wants us to be. It is not fear
that draws us nor is it any spirit of legalism.
It is gratitude for all that God has done, is doing and will do for us
and for all God's children.
Come, let us walk in the way of the Lord and be
grateful! Amen.
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