Communities of Peace
Psalm Psalm 30
Explore what Luke and Galatians might offer us as we seem to spiral down with so many issues dividing us
What do we offer all this?
The Sermon1.
Introduction:
As I read the newsfeeds on the internet, and
am bombarded on Facebook and Instagram, it feels like our world is so broken at
the moment. I guess it always has been. It’s just that social media and the constant
news stream makes it a lot more visible. And the issues seem more intense with passions
burning bright in America around gun violence and availability of assault weapons
and the decisions of the Supreme Court around that and overturning Roe vs. Wade.
Not to mention the Congressional hearings around January 6th. And through
social media it’s not just over there. We
can be part of that discussion/argument too. It’s harder to stay out to be
honest.
And we have our own issues. With issues like race
relations at the fore, for example with Tauranga being named as racist and the reaction
to that. The controversy around Bethlehem College changing it’s charter and it’s
official position on gay and transgender students. Not helped by the attack on
some of the students at an antibullying rally. And we have the burning Rainbow
Youth and Gender Dynamix's Tauranga office at the Historic Village
Some how we Christians seem involved in some
very unhelpful ways. Ways that don’t seem to line up with what we are told in
our readings, especially Luke and Galatians.
2. Jesus’ diverse crowd
One of the obvious things when you read
gospels is that Jesus spent time a lot of time with all kinds people
- -
Ordinary people
hoping for better
- -
Rich and poor
- - Pharisees
- -
Tax collectors
- -
Prostitutes
- -
Gentiles
- -
Romans
- -
Samaritans
Eating with some of these people, accepting hospitality
from them and honouring them as he did so gets him into all kinds of trouble. People
aren’t happy about it. They crucify him for it.
His followers are also a diverse bunch
- - Zealots – being anti Roman to their core
- -
Tax collectors - Roman
collaborators
- -
Pious and devout
Jews
- -
Not so pious and
devout Jews
- -
Men and women
- -
Wealthy and poor
- -
People of high honour
and no honour
These are not people who would normally be in each
other’s company. Imagine having zealots and tax collectors in the same room.
Something about Jesus; who he was, how he related
to people, and what he taught, allowed them to be together despite their deep
differences. If only we could learn from him.
3. Luke 10
And maybe today we have an example of that, of
Jesus finding ways of allowing very different people to be together.
We have previously heard of Jesus sending his close
followers, his disciples, out to further his ministry. And last week we heard
about some of the reasons why people struggled to follow - struggling to let go
of what had been of central importance.
This week is a much bigger group. I am not
sure what you picture when you think about Jesus’ followers. But in Luke there are
more than the 12. At the very least there are all the women who are bankrolling
this affair. And this is a really diverse group. And Jesus sends out 70 or 72
of them.
The story we heard today is set as Jesus
begins his journey to Jerusalem and all that means. That is an important detail
we sometimes overlook. He sends them out in pairs and without their own resources.
As they journey out they are now all equal, all equally reliant on each other,
and all equally reliant on the welcome, generosity and hospitality of others.
I am reading a book on Interfaith leadership,
and last week read a story about a group of young people at Outward Bound in
America. The particular group included people of different faiths; Jewish, various
versions of Christianity, Muslim, among others. They were spending time
together tramping. Before they set out they introduced themselves to each
other. The very conservative Christian guy introduced himself by saying that
the world was going end soon and that unless they all accepted Jesus they were all
going burn in hell, the Muslims in the hottest hell. Not the best way
introducing yourself to group of different faiths, including Muslims
There was no water on the track, so they had
to carry all their own water. So the two largest guys were chosen to carry the
water. One was this Christian guy, and another a Muslim. The conversations were
pretty frosty to start with. But on the first morning, when the Muslim got up
in morning for first prayers he saw the Christian
guy already up doing daily prayers. They had something in common. It allowed conversation
and each grew in respect for the other. If one slept in the other would nudge
them awake for prayer. They found what they had in common and left what held
them apart.
I wonder if in part this is what Jesus is doing
here in this story.
These are the people who will carry on the
mission of God, living the nearness of the Kingdom of God after the
resurrection. These are the ones who will build new communities where the old ways that tear
us apart were set to one side - some of ways we heard about last week from Debbie.
And Jesus sends them out in pairs; without their
own resources, all equal, all equally reliant on each other, and all equally
reliant on the welcome, generosity and hospitality of others. That I one way to break down the
things that divide us and to find what they have in common. Interestingly they
don’t go to persuade people of the rightness of what they were saying. If they
are not welcome and people don’t want to listen they simply leave, brushing the
dust of their feet as they go, either as a sign rejection or as a sign that
they wanted nothing from them in the first place.
They didn’t set out change people’s minds.
They set out to create new communities by simply accepting the hospitality
offered – or not. And in return they offered God’s peace, God’s shalom, wholeness,
completeness.
Like the sending out of the 12, this is also as
much about the shaping the 70/2 as it was about what they did. This is about
them being shaped in God’s peace, so that they can gather communities based on
God’s shalom in the future. It was about them learning humility to work and
trusting others who were so different from them. And having the courage to keep
offering communities of God’s peace even when they were rejected, as Jesus was
rejected.
4. Paul
Building new communities is really hard to do.
Most people don’t want to know. They do ways of division are too comfortable,
and it is hard to imagine another way. It is especially hard once you involve people
that did not know the founder first hand. It was hard enough for those first
followers. Once the message gets out beyond Judah and Galilee it becomes much
harder. Just read Paul. The pull of division is one of Paul’s great struggles.
The constant pull back to how things were. Once again establishing rules for
who is to be included and who is not to be included.
Paul was adamant that God’s love reaches out
to all people without discrimination and seeks to bring them into new way of
being. It is at the heart of so many of his letters. We hear it again today in his
letter to Galatians. His dream of new communities of peace. Where there is no Jew or Gentile, no distinctions
between male or female, no differentiation between slave or free. God’s love
reach out to all without discrimination and invites all to live in this love
equally.
We still struggle to find what holds us
together and to let go of what separates. We struggle to live out Paul’s vision
of this community. We allow what divides us to hold sway.
But imagine those kinds of communities today
in the midst of these deep divisions, where our interactions are not marked by proving
how right we are, but by the fruits of the Spirit, that we listened to last
week. “Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
gentleness, and self-control.”
I was struck as I read the passage for today
by Galatians 6:2 where Paul writes, “Carry each other’s burdens and so you will
fulfill the law of Christ.”
I wonder then what difference it would make if
we sought to carry each other’s burdens rather than be right.
I wonder how we can bring God’s peace into so
many of the divisions we ae experiencing at the moment.
What is it we can offer?
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