Sermon for the 5th of February, 2023 - 3rd Before Lent

A couple of weeks ago, I went, with a Jewish friend, to a service at a synagogue for the first time. This was followed by a visit to the Holland Park synagogue for Holocaust Memorial Day last week. Two quite different experiences, one Reformed and the other Orthodox. It’s led to interesting discussions about how much we have in common as welA couple of weeks ago, I went, with a Jewish friend, to a service at a synagogue for the first time. This was followed by a visit to the Holland Park synagogue for Holocaust Memorial Day last week. Two quite different experiences, one Reformed and the other Orthodox. It’s led to interesting discussions about how much we have in common as well as challenges on how best to pass on the faith to the next generation.

So often in life, we rely on caricature. Our perspective of the Jewish tradition is one example – Jews, we think, are held captive to the Old Testament laws. Many Christians view the Old Testament God as angry, vindictive, genocidal – and compared this to the New Testament God of love. Both oversimplified caricatures. Marcion, a 2nd century theologian, thought Christians should scrap the OT completely.

We need to get beyond the simplistic Old Testament God bad; NT God good. The Hebrew scholar, Walter Brueggemann, writes: [we need to…] ‘start with the awareness that the Bible does not speak with a single voice on any topic.’

It is written by all sorts of people and it’s impossible to harmonise many passages. There is the challenge of books like Leviticus with its 613 rules and regulations – some of them quite bizarre to us today.

However, if you look more deeply into the Hebrew Scriptures, and into the law, you get a glimpse of what they were really about and why the Jews see them as a gift from God to his people. The law, from the Hebrew word Torah, isn’t simply a legal corpus of laws to follow, or even technically the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, the Pentateuch. It’s more broadly to be understood as a story about the life of God’s people under the covenant.

 The Jewish scripture is arranged differently from the Old Testament we read. Our Bibles have the prophetic books last so as to lead into the New Testament. However, for the Jewish community, the prophets follow the Pentateuch, as a commentary on it. And what did the prophets say?

They gave plumb lines - or barometers - in discerning what is good and right and wise. The Jewish community were exhorted to choose life. The two paths set before them were clear: life and prosperity, death and adversity. If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God, if you love the Lord your God, walk in his ways, then you’ll be blessed and will flourish. If you don’t, you’ll suffer the inevitable consequences of alienation from God.
 
Rejection of the truth of God’s love leads to the dehumanising of the weak and vulnerable. It also degrades the powerful too; their ill-treatment of others strips away their own dignity. The image of God in them is marred. This path doesn’t lead to truth and life. The prophets reminded God’s people to follow their vocation. As we’ve heard in today’s reading, it’s when they feed the hungry, when they help the homeless, the widow, and the orphan, that his ‘light shall break forth’ and ‘the glory of the Lord’ shall be their ‘rearguard’ (Isaiah 58.8).

In sum, the Hebrew Scriptures presents two paths before the Jewish community and, indeed, for us: and we are encouraged to choose the path of life, the path that makes for human flourishing.

If that’s the case, what do we make of Jesus rather lax attitude with regard to the law. In our Gospel reading, Jesus is in conflict with the religious leaders – the scribes, the lawyers, the Pharisees. They want to know Jesus’ views on the commandments. They thought Jesus was a libertarian. He mixed with the wrong people (women, children, foreigners, outcasts – many of whom would make him ritually impure). Jesus would go to the wrong places (at parties, on the streets) on the wrong days (the Sabbath) and in the wrong way (without the priests). (John Pritchard)

So what does Jesus mean when he says that he hasn’t come to abolish the law, but to fulfil it?

Like the Hebrew prophets, Jesus is inviting his hearers to reflect more deeply on the commandments. He actually intensifies some of the commandments – it’s not enough to not physically kill. Even to look with hatred at a brother or sister is to kill. Jesus challenged the religious leaders’ perspective on simply being rule keepers. He showed us the way to transcending legalism – which is a temptation for every religion.

When the law is imprinted on your hearts, as the prophet Jeremiah puts it (Jeremiah 31:33), when you live this way as a community, you will become salt and light in the world. And what we know about salt is that it’s meant to enhance, to preserve, to add flavour.

In conclusion, a few thoughts on our call to be salt and light in the world.

Everyone knows that whilst salt can add wonderful flavour, the minute you oversalt food it becomes inedible. It’s not supposed to be the dominant flavour but rather enhance the food already there. Many people today see the church as being too dominant - hoarding its power, judging, being too legalistic. Is it any wonder that many people want nothing to do with us. We are too often known for using words to burn, exclude and shame rather than heal, welcome and bless.

Some time ago, a gay man popped into St John’s and asked Fr Neil if he and his partner was allowed in? That he had to ask this question is shocking. This, surely, is when the salt has become overpowering, domineering, when it stings. This is not the way that Jesus lived, it is not the way of covenant and it is not living life in its fullness.

Whilst the church is still deeply divided on a number of issues, my prayer is that we will see an ever-increasing openness to the full inclusion of the LGBTI community, and that everyone, no matter who they are, will feel welcomed, included and blessed by the Church of England.

Salt at its best sustains and enriches life.  It pours itself out with discretion so that God’s kingdom – or God’s way of doing things – might be known on the earth.

May we shine as lights in the world to witness to a kingdom of spice and zest, a kingdom of health and wholeness, a kingdom of varied depth, flavour, and complexity, offering to all the healing love of God.l as challenges on how best to pass on the faith to the next generation.

So often in life, we rely on caricature. Our perspective of the Jewish tradition is one example – Jews, we think, are held captive to the Old Testament laws. Many Christians view the Old Testament God as angry, vindictive, genocidal – and compared this to the New Testament God of love. Both oversimplified caricatures. Marcion, a 2nd century theologian, thought Christians should scrap the OT completely. 

 We need to get beyond the simplistic Old Testament God bad; NT God good. The Hebrew scholar, Walter Brueggemann, writes: [we need to…] ‘start with the awareness that the Bible does not speak with a single voice on any topic.’

It is written by all sorts of people and it’s impossible to harmonise many passages. There is the challenge of books like Leviticus with its 613 rules and regulations – some of them quite bizarre to us today.

However, if you look more deeply into the Hebrew Scriptures, and into the law, you get a glimpse of what they were really about and why the Jews see them as a gift from God to his people. The law, from the Hebrew word Torah, isn’t simply a legal corpus of laws to follow, or even technically the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, the Pentateuch. It’s more broadly to be understood as a story about the life of God’s people under the covenant.

The Jewish scripture is arranged differently from the Old Testament we read. Our Bibles have the prophetic books last so as to lead into the New Testament. However, for the Jewish community, the prophets follow the Pentateuch, as a commentary on it. And what did the prophets say?

They gave plumb lines - or barometers - in discerning what is good and right and wise. The Jewish community were exhorted to choose life. The two paths set before them were clear: life and prosperity, death and adversity. If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God, if you love the Lord your God, walk in his ways, then you’ll be blessed and will flourish. If you don’t, you’ll suffer the inevitable consequences of alienation from God.

Rejection of the truth of God’s love leads to the dehumanising of the weak and vulnerable. It also degrades the powerful too; their ill-treatment of others strips away their own dignity. The image of God in them is marred. This path doesn’t lead to truth and life. The prophets reminded God’s people to follow their vocation. As we’ve heard in today’s reading, it’s when they feed the hungry, when they help the homeless, the widow, and the orphan, that his ‘light shall break forth’ and ‘the glory of the Lord’ shall be their ‘rearguard’ (Isaiah 58.8).

In sum, the Hebrew Scriptures presents two paths before the Jewish community and, indeed, for us: and we are encouraged to choose the path of life, the path that makes for human flourishing.

If that’s the case, what do we make of Jesus rather lax attitude with regard to the law. In our Gospel reading, Jesus is in conflict with the religious leaders – the scribes, the lawyers, the Pharisees. They want to know Jesus’ views on the commandments. They thought Jesus was a libertarian. He mixed with the wrong people (women, children, foreigners, outcasts – many of whom would make him ritually impure). Jesus would go to the wrong places (at parties, on the streets) on the wrong days (the Sabbath) and in the wrong way (without the priests). (John Pritchard)

So what does Jesus mean when he says that he hasn’t come to abolish the law, but to fulfil it?

Like the Hebrew prophets, Jesus is inviting his hearers to reflect more deeply on the commandments. He actually intensifies some of the commandments – it’s not enough to not physically kill. Even to look with hatred at a brother or sister is to kill. Jesus challenged the religious leaders’ perspective on simply being rule keepers. He showed us the way to transcending legalism – which is a temptation for every religion.

When the law is imprinted on your hearts, as the prophet Jeremiah puts it (Jeremiah 31:33), when you live this way as a community, you will become salt and light in the world. And what we know about salt is that it’s meant to enhance, to preserve, to add flavour.

In conclusion, a few thoughts on our call to be salt and light in the world.

Everyone knows that whilst salt can add wonderful flavour, the minute you oversalt food it becomes inedible. It’s not supposed to be the dominant flavour but rather enhance the food already there. Many people today see the church as being too dominant - hoarding its power, judging, being too legalistic. Is it any wonder that many people want nothing to do with us. We are too often known for using words to burn, exclude and shame rather than heal, welcome and bless.

Some time ago, a gay man popped into St John’s and asked Fr Neil if he and his partner was allowed in? That he had to ask this question is shocking. This, surely, is when the salt has become overpowering, domineering, when it stings. This is not the way that Jesus lived, it is not the way of covenant and it is not living life in its fullness.

Whilst the church is still deeply divided on a number of issues, my prayer is that we will see an ever-increasing openness to the full inclusion of the LGBTI community, and that everyone, no matter who they are, will feel welcomed, included and blessed by the Church of England.

Salt at its best sustains and enriches life.  It pours itself out with discretion so that God’s kingdom – or God’s way of doing things – might be known on the earth.

May we shine as lights in the world to witness to a kingdom of spice and zest, a kingdom of health and wholeness, a kingdom of varied depth, flavour, and complexity, offering to all the healing love of God.