Come unto me, all that travail and are heavy laden...
Ordinary Sunday 14, 6th July, 2008
Fr Matthew Healy
Assistant Priest, St Peter's, Eastern Hill
In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
From the Liturgy of the Lord's Supper in the Book of Common Prayer 1662:
Hear what comfortable words our Saviour Christ saith unto all that truly turn to him: Come unto me, all that travail and are heavy laden, and I will refresh you.
In the past week there has been much in the media about the outcome of the gathering in Jordan of conservative, pre-dominantly Evangelical Anglicans. A document they named "The Jerusalem Declaration" contains 14 Articles which they believe are now available to Anglican Churches around the world to assist them make their stand and so distinguish themselves as "Confessing Anglicans." This is to contrast themselves with other Anglicans whom they perceive as having lost their way in the sea of liberal western secularism. I believe there are more than a few problems with their select criteria of being a "true" Anglican. More so I believe that the way and manner in which they have deliberately worked outside the 'Instruments of Communion' to arrive at their own "Confessional Declaration" of what it is to be "true Anglicans" deserves nothing else but condemnation. The actions, tactics, rhetoric and outcome should come as no surprise with the maverick Archbishop of Sydney's finger prints clearly visible in the planning of the conference, in the finer theological subtleties of its declaration, and in the overall hubris of the conference.
At issue is an observation made by Archbishop Jensen about the present Anglican Church, which he joined after becoming a Christian at a Billy Graham Crusade some fifty years ago or so. He said disparagingly of the Anglican Church that is not what it used to be. A surprising observation from a person who has placed so much of his time and energy dismantling what would be considered as theologically and liturgically normative by most Anglicans throughout the world! He and his select conservative Evangelical friends argue that the Anglican Church has replaced biblical orthodoxy with heterodox liberal theology constructed upon the foundations of revisionism and relativism.
Whilst it is true that much has changed in the Anglican Church in comparison with fifty or so years ago, it must also be equally asserted that much has also changed within our own western society to which the church has the duty of proclaiming the Gospel; and our society has truly changed far more in those fifty years than the Church! The Church's call to be vigilant in reading 'the sign of the times' and to be engaged with the contemporary issues facing women and men in their ordinary lives is of critical importance for proclamation of the gospel in today's world. Jensen complains that the Church has gone too far and that it has blindly followed the lead of the ungodly world and with its perverted societal trends. In particular he would argue that the Church has used methods of interpreting the Bible which have watered down its moral precepts and relativised human morality, especially in regard to human sexuality. From his perspective God's law has been engraved in holy Writ for all time and its literal meaning remains objectively true despite the radically differing cultural, racial, societal, political and religious context of the biblical times in comparison with our own contemporary world's self understanding; hence any interpretation which deviates from the plain reading of the written Word castes you out upon the bonfire of the damned.
The issue really then is about how we as a Church interpret the Sacred Scriptures. Archbishop Jensen is no fool and neither are the biblical scholars at Moore College in Sydney. They do however belong to a particular tradition of biblical scholarship which is radically driven by principles shaped by a conservative assertion of certain selected reformation ideals which on the main have been mostly abandoned by the mainstream Protestant churches and by Anglican biblical scholars. The reformation agenda is no longer the lens through which we look at the world and at other Christians. And this is getting close to the heart of the division we are potentially facing within our Communion - the interpretation of the Sacred Scriptures as determined by a particular view of the Reformation agenda. But of course we run into all sorts of problems once we attempt to concretise, or isolate and canonise, one method of biblical interpretation.
The Sacred Scriptures is the gift of God to his people, the Church, revealing the reality and truth of the Divine, put into human words under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. But to as to revelation itself, Jesus Christ the fullness of God's revelation; he is "The Word" made flesh, dwelling among us full of grace and truth. This truth about Jesus makes Christians therefore not a 'religion of the book', as mistakenly asserted by many, but a religion of a person, Jesus Christ, God and Man, incarnate and living. Without Jesus our biblical texts are a dead letter, void of meaning and incapable of revealing anything of the Divine purpose for each and every successive generation of Christians. Jesus is the eternal Word of the living God who through the Holy Spirit, opens our mind to understand the Scriptures. Yet whilst it is true that Jesus the Christ is the fullness of God's revelation, through whom we view our past, live for in the present, and anticipate our future, it is likewise true that this revelation has not been made completely explicit; for the church is given the task of proclaiming the Gospel throughout the course of time through its continuing mission to grasp more fully, and so proclaim, the truth of Jesus, and especially his significance for "the present time" as humanity moves through successive generations.
The task of contemporary biblical scholarship is to interpret the Sacred Scriptures as contextualised by the assumptions of both the ancient past from whence the text came and to the contemporary situation wherein it is to be freshly proclaimed. The Rev'd Dr Nicholas Taylor states that
Critical scholarship is increasingly of the opinion that the tradition of interpretation which prevailed until recently cannot be supported on the basis of the biblical text alone, but depends on cultural assumptions in human societies, ancient and contemporary.[1]
In today's Gospel we hear Jesus call us to new life, a life not restricted or burdened by the excesses of religious observance or of religious traditions with superfluous demands beyond the capacity ordinary people. The "Come to me" of Jesus' call implies that there are others offering something else, and within context of the 11th, 12th and 13th Chapters of Matthew's Gospel, Jesus' words speak of 'the others' as being those who rejected him and his message — namely the religious authorities. It is the religious authorities who are placing upon people such a rigorous interpretation of the Torah (the Law) that its yoke, its observance, is impossible to fulfil; their requirements are a strain on life of people; hence by their interpretation of the Torah the religious authorities have made for God's people a yoke impossible to bear. Jesus offers to the people himself as "the Torah"; a yoke that is easier to bear, a burden that is light. Our own Anglican documents reflect the same of call of Jesus to reject the impossible demands created by such a rigorist and legalistic interpretations of the Sacred Scriptures. This is clearly stated by Article six of the 39 Articles:
Holy Scripture containeth all things necessary to salvation: so that whatsoever is not read therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not to be required of any man, that it should be believed as an article of the Faith, or be thought requisite or necessary to salvation.
I do not think I am wrong in assuming that many people who are gathered at Mass today could think of a person, who for them, the Christian Church has been at times a painful encounter in which Gospel and its life has been anything but the Good News. The church and some of its members have made the Gospel into a legal system making impossible demands upon people. It is to such as these people that the Church has become not only "weary and burdensome" but the conveyor of bad and sad news — a gospel that denies life, rather than bringing them new life. This, by no means, is about a Gospel of cheap grace — an open-ended, free and easy way of life. The Christian path is a narrow, it is difficult, but it is not impossible nor is it burdensome. The invitation of Jesus most surely requires the Church constantly to review its edicts and structures through which it duly proclaims the Gospel so as to be more effectively able to teach her ideals in the concrete historical expression of the day, and to see whether or not its interpretation of the Gospel is indeed given for life or for the denial of life. It is here that the vital task of biblical interpretation comes alive with vigour and fresh insights into the Sacred Scriptures as the eternal Word, Jesus, continues to call people to himself and be relieved of extraneous religious burdens, and take him up as their yoke, a yoke that is easy to bear and the burden that is light.
If our Anglican Communion is seriously reviewing how it understands and perceives the complexities and dynamics of human sexuality and relationships, among many other issues including gender, the environment and global fiscal responsibility, then I firmly believe it is being more faithful to the Gospel imperatives of Jesus than it would be by remaining fixated in one particular narrow way of interpreting the Sacred Scriptures. Old questions and old answers belonging to former biblical periods of history are not the same questions that are now been presented by our contemporary world; and if we really do believe that Jesus became one with us in the flesh, incarnate, and that he abides with us now, then we ought to have the confidence, and be brave enough, to allow these new questions to be brought forward by each and every successive generations of Christians. It by seriously grappling with these new questions and through research and prayer we are able to discern more clearly what the Spirit is saying to the Church, and so proclaim the Gospel profoundly afresh for new life in today's world.
God give us the grace not to lose sight of the vision and the hope of Jesus as "The Word made flesh," who is our ultimate vocation and calling as the Anglican Communion.
Blessed Lord, who hast caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning: Grant that we may in such wise hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, that by patience and comfort of thy holy Word, we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life, which thou hast given us in our Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.
Note:
[1] Nicholas Taylor, "Some Observations on theological method, biblical interpretation, and ecclesiastical politics in current disputes in the Anglican Communion", Theology (July/August: 2008) 251-257.
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