12th September 2021, Trinity 15
Jesus asked his followers a question, so let’s ask ourselves a question:
‘Do you believe in God?’ I wonder how you might respond. At first glance, such a question requires a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer. ‘Yes I do’, ‘no I don’t’, or ‘it depends on the day or week’. The former Bishop of Durham, Tom Wright, suggests one response that I’ve found helpful. What do you mean by the word ‘God’. The word ‘god’ can be loaded with all manner of ideas, many of them quite awful: jealous, petty, vindictive, angry, intolerant, to name just a few. When I hear new atheists describing this sort of god, I want to affirm that I don’t believe in that sort of god either.
Another related question: Are you a Christian? Do you hesitate to identify as a Christian in your workplace? On social media? In the company of your classmates, your neighbours, your extended family?
I’ve been discussing this for a year or so pastorally with someone and we’ve come to the conclusion that this also is rather a loaded term. What do you mean by Christian? We’ve felt that there is all manner of qualifications we would want to add. Yes but… Yes but, we’re ashamed of the shadow side of faith. The terrible things Christians have done — and continue to do — in the name of Jesus. The blood Christians have shed, the lies we’ve preached, the voices we’ve silenced, the powers we’ve abused — we can’t pretend that this doesn’t affect us and the perception of our faith.
During the Museum of the Moon installation at St John’s we had many conversations and phone enquiries. One person asked, ‘Am I as a gay person welcome to visit?’ That it was felt this had to be asked is totally depressing – because a large part of the church has become known for exclusion rather than inclusion and embrace.
Are you a Christian? Well, it depends what you mean. There are different ways of being Christian. There are different ways of being the church.
Returning to the joke. The Anglican answer could be seen as a typically wishy washy response – that anything goes. I like to see it much more positively. That, with all our faults, Anglicans have the openness to recognise that there are other views and perspectives. That our theology, our understanding of God, is provisional. And, that we don’t need to be fearful or threatened by other Christian views, or indeed other religious perspectives.
This brings us into the territory of theological methodology and the role of scripture, tradition, reason and experience. It also raises profound ecclesiological questions – how our church life is shaped. This is important as be return again to our Mission Action Planning. What sort of a community are called to be? What sort of Christian faith do we want to see embedded in this community? I think it’s worth ending by briefly reflecting on this.
Rowan Williams offers some wonderful insights to help us. In our individualistic Western culture, a community of mere individuals is hardly a community at all. It’s a place where egos are jostling for advantage, competing for much the same goods, held together by a set of rules. But, on the other hand, the church isn’t to be a community of people who have all been educated into complete conformity. A place where everyone marches to the same step.
The church is meant to be a community which has distinctive vocations. Where real human difference is nourished. Not simply a place of welcome for all races and cultures. That goes without saying, and there is plenty of room for improvement. But when we look around in church, are there any unusual, or bizarre or eccentric characters? (Apart from me of course.)
Because an unhealthy church is one in which unity is about homogeneity of opinions and habits, and where there is a ‘sameness’ in the way people talk, dress and behave. This is an important question to ask of ourselves.
A musical metaphor of tone is helpful here, because it includes different voices, different instruments…. But an intelligible and beautiful result. To change the metaphor, this isn’t simply about letting a thousand flowers bloom.
That feeds into the individualistic paradigm. It entails reminding all baptised believers that because of our baptism, we are bound to the patient, long-term discovery of what grace will do with us.
It includes a vulnerability to each other that can only come with the slow building up of trust over time. Alcoholics Anonymous, and other similar groups, have something to teach us here. It’s what they do week in week out.
If the church can manage this, it will be a prophetic challenge to the subtle pressures of individualistic consumerism and to the tyranny of totalitarianism.
The invitation is to be transfigured by the personal communion opened for us by Jesus, and to grow into the likeness of God. And to see a church community that is open, welcoming to the eccentrics, generous with other differing views, and on fire with love for God and neighbour.
Reference
Rowan Williams, Where God Happens, p.64-68