A still more excellent way
Ordinary Sunday 23: 7th September, 2008
Fr John Davis, Vicar of St Peter's, Eastern Hill
Love does no wrong to a neighbour; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law. (Rom 13:10 NRSV)
Love is the one thing that cannot hurt your neighbour; that is why it is the answer to every one of the commandments. (Jerusalem)
Two different versions of part of the epistle set for today. Two perspectives on the one teaching that is perhaps at the centre of Christian ethics; on the living out of the Christian faith in all the daily acts of life. We are brought back to this teaching about the primacy of love again and again, whether here by St Paul or in the gospels themselves in the direct teaching of the Lord; 'love God and love your neighbour as yourself' he said. (Mt 22:28) Every weekday mass I offer I include that summary of the law. We remember too the teaching in the parable of the Good Samaritan (Lk 10:29) ending not with an answer to the point of law type question 'who is my neighbour', but rather the presenting of a new question 'who proved to be a neighbour' to the one who was in great need? Go and do likewise was the direction.
It is sometimes really difficult to reconcile the clear thrust of these central declarations of what it is that needs to be there to characterise a Christian and what is actually seen or perceived to be the concern of many Christians. Is this what people see when they look at us, either as individuals or as a group? That needs to be the question. And certainly rather than criticising others our first priority needs to be to put our own house in order. This is a gospel imperative that we have recognised in our Parish Vision Statement. We work to move from aspiration to actuality, from future hope to the observable present.
In our own parish life this year we have ourselves been involved in projects and events that have offered support both near and far. This includes our ongoing substantial support for the Church in Papua New Guinea, including assisting in the payment of clergy children school fees. Last Sunday the Bishop of Port Moresby reminded us of the enormous ongoing challenges facing the PNG Church. In the last year we have been called to be generous. This included emergency response to cyclone and flood in Papua and to the drought in country Victoria. It has meant responding in generosity to the urgent travel needs of the Soma family at a time of sudden family bereavement. We have been able to offer care and compassion. In this we ourselves grow. In addition the bequests of some who have gone before us here have made it possible for us to do even more, both for those in need and for those who are preparing for ordination and for ministry training: two key parts of our mission. We have trust funds in these two areas, which we do indeed use.
So much of the ministry that is based here reaches out well beyond our own particular community of faith. We do not at all just look after our own, though of course we try to do that well too. But hospital and university chaplaincies, the St Peter's Bookroom, the hundreds of people who in any week will be using our halls as meeting places for 12 step programs, the schools groups who come wanting to know more — these are obvious ways we are reaching out or making good use of the material resources we have. And our biggest effort in both time and resources relates to the homeless and the needy right on our own doorstep in the city through our Lazarus Centre breakfasts every day of the week and the associated emergency support schemes. This is a great partnership with Anglicare. Parishioners are part of the volunteer team each day in a task that is not always easy.
That is just this year, and it does not include all that we try to do. But I note this, not in order for us to bask in self-satisfaction, but really rather to say that with one like Our Lord as the one we follow, we can do no other. This approach is a given, a requirement, a joy and a hope in a world that needs much more of this, always.
Paul's letter was full of guidance to those Christians in Rome that he was shortly to join and later to die with. His instructions were not just about living within the community of faith. They were broader in their application. Today's gospel on the other hand does have as its focus the vexing problem of dealing with when things go badly wrong within the community. A pattern and an approach is actually suggested: seeking to talk things through, working one to one and then if necessary in groups, seeking to discern the best path for the common good and yes, finally exercising responsibility, together. Some of that is potentially very painful. But as in all relationships also very necessary.
So today's texts of Scripture remind us of careful process, of our inter-connectedness and our interdependence, and above all call us again to work for lives that are guided and shaped by love. These are texts that are worth really grappling with in a week that includes September 11th. Those who would call themselves Christian have this as an obligation.
Next Thursday on September 11th we will inevitably call to mind the events of that date in 2001 with the attacks on New York and Washington with hijacked aeroplanes full of passengers. The horror of seeing those events unfolding before our eyes on our TV screens does not go away in just 7 years. It is one of those days that you remember where you were when you first heard about it. The wars that followed are still going on. People at war are notoriously unable to use the language of love for enemies. Yet of course the Lord did. (Mt 5:43,Lk 6:32) — 'love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you'. And when those whom we are opposing are little known or understood and easily made into cardboard figures of caricature, that task is even easier. We can move easily towards a highly motivating fear. We have to balance that against that necessary defence for survival of all that is held dear. To be having this reflection in the week that includes our commemoration of the deaths of our New Guinea Martyrs only serves to underline the complexity of the issue.
But the Lord does, to use Paul's words in the introduction to the passage about love so often used at weddings in 1 Cor 13, constantly 'show us a still more excellent way'.
This is advice that speaks of that gift of love that flows from God: to apply in relationship certainly, but also surely as a way of attempting to engage with those who oppose us in Church politics. That I think can be seen to be at the heart of the difficult gospel passage we have this morning. which certainly names the possibility of enduring separation and division. It may even involve God being with more than one 'two or three gathered in God's name'. That is for God.
Nevertheless, the confronting challenge put before us this morning is a proposition that has potential application across every area of our living.
Love is the one thing that cannot hurt your neighbour; that is why it is the answer to every one of the commandments. (Rom 13:10)
The Lord be with you.
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