by Rev. Dr John Evans
Exodus 12:1-14
Romans 13:8-14
Matthew 18:15-20
Last Friday week I stood in a cark park at Fulham – a hamlet, just this side of Sale. One way I looked out there were cows grazing – roaming free. The other way there was a high fence, razor wire and humans in large enclosed areas, and cells. Of course, I was standing outside the Fulham Correctional Centre. A gaol. It was not some reversal of nature – this was the response of our society to actions and deeds that were forbidden and punishable by law. I was there for a baptism: the celebration of a new life in context of guilt and sin.
In a civilised society, we are governed by law administered by courts. People have rights; one is not subject to the whim of a particular person or group. If there is a breach of the law, particularly the criminal law, there are consequences. There is a penalty. Some people go to gaol. In a strange way, it is a measure of our civil and democratic traditions we have gaols. Sadly, not all nations on this earth are the same. Last week in a news report coming out of Somalia it was described as lawless; a failed state. During the week I spoke with Kerry Enright, the senior executive of our Uniting International Mission. He had just returned from the Philippines and was quite despairing. Thirteen ministers or lay people of the United Church of the Philippines – our sister church – have been murdered this year. His assessment was that the government was literally funding vigilante groups to silence any opposition . . . and our partner church was at the forefront of that opposition.
You may be puzzled what this all has to do with our three lectionary readings. I see however, a particularly strong link in that they each deal with the question of order and structure, and how we are to live, not as individuals, but as people in community.
The famous, perhaps difficult passage about the last and the most gruesome of the plagues or signs offered to Pharaoh, is our Exodus reading. This reading about the origins of the Passover, and what the children of Israel were to do that evening the angel of death passed over, becomes very significant for Christians as we use the image of the blood of the lamb, in thinking about the death of Christ. The cross also offers us freedom and salvation. There is much to be mined from the passage if you look at it in that light, however, we also can take a broader view. Egypt as a civil state, a kingdom, had failed many of its people. It had chosen to oppress an ethnic minority, even ‘ethnically cleanse’, as we would say today, the Hebrew people. What were the options? Stand and fight, rebel – lead a revolution – which would only lead to civil war. Today the conflicts around this globe – all those brutal, bloody little wars, are like this. The other option was to be flee, to leave; to be a refugee as we say today. Again an option millions are taking as we speak.
Our reading about the Passover, was the last step leading to a people escaping bondage. It was about God fulfilling that covenant made all those generations previously to Abraham, about God being righteous and just. It was also important that these people had a sense of identity and were bound together as a community. In the words of Paul Keating in talking about the current government, they needed to have a narrative. A story. So we have verse 14:
This day shall be a day of remembrance for you. You shall celebrate it as a festival to the Lord; throughout your generations you shall observe it as a perpetual ordinance.
The annual celebration of the Passover was to be a constitutive act of the Jewish nation. This was a perpetual ordinance. They were once slaves, now they were to be free – remember and celebrate it – forever!
If we then fast forward to Paul’s letter to the Romans, we have one of the most significant texts in all of Scripture about Christians’ attitude towards society and the state. John O’Neil, the Melbourne-born biblical scholar, who wrote the Penguin commentary on Romans, has said that these opening verses in Chapter 13 of Romans have caused more unhappiness, murder and oppression than any other verses of the New Testament by the licence they have given to tyrants, and the support the church has felt obliged to offer to tyrants. Cruel and bitter regimes, from the Nazis and Fascists of last century, to at times the horrifying power of the Christian Right in the United States under the Bush presidency – have used these verses to justify brutality and vengeance.
Of course we know this is not the only “model”, if I can use that word, on how the church is to relate to the state or civil society that is set out in the Bible. Indeed there are many. There is the very model of the Children of Israel themselves, of where religion and faith, and the very organs of society were one. The King had a God-given role within the state and the faith, and vice versa. A theocracy, we say. On the other extreme, we have a different view coming from that strange letter of 2 Peter or the Book of Revelation, where the infant church is obviously under great pressure, even persecution, from the Roman authorities. The message here is for the church to draw apart “from the corruption of this world” and “escape from this and participate in the divine nature”. The sectarian response – like say, the Amish of North America.
But perhaps Paul is not so much advocating a model of how church and state are meant to relate, but making an observation, that for there to be a community (in which the church exists) – there does need to be some structure, authority, law and at least someone, or some group governing. This applies to wider society, as much as it applies to even the Church itself.
This is where the rather flat and prosaic passage of Matthew 18 fits in. These few verses are very different to all other parts of this gospel and, indeed, the other gospels. For a start, they are not about Jesus and his ministry and coming reign of God. They are about the church, and what happens when “a member of the church sins against you”. It, bluntly put, is a “dispute resolution” manual for a church. This passage, and the one we had about Jesus establishing his church in Caesarea Philippi a couple of weeks ago, are the only passages in all of the gospels which deal with, even use the word, church. This is not a passage of profound insight into the human condition – it is what to do if you have a dispute in a congregation. It is good, sensible stuff.
1.Try and sort out the problem yourselves.
2.If you are successful, great; if not, then take one or two others along with you to try and get to the bottom of the “sin against you”.
3.If that is not successful take the matter to the whole church – presumably a body like our congregational meeting.
4.If that is unsuccessful – well, that person can be excluded.
Here, it is the church, and not just Peter, which can bind or loose on earth.
Even within the life of the body of Christ, a highly spiritual expression or notion – if ever there is one, there are very practical laws, rules and structures. Indeed it is in the very hard-nosed, practical context of exercising rules about dispute resolution we have the famous verse
Where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.
It is not a verse about only having a few folk turn up to church, as if that is all right; it is a verse about God’s blessing on structures and laws which have to deal with human sinfulness.
From all of this I believe we can draw some significant conclusions for our life together and our role within the community.
- We are communal creatures; we have a personal relationship with God and we are important as individuals; but it is just as important we relate with others. There is a sense of loss, a sadness in the gospel reading, and even in the Romans reading, if we don’t get on with each other. If we fall out with someone, we want to, we need to, restore that relationship. Margaret Thatcher’s view that there is no such thing as society; we are just all individuals at the end of the day – is just wrong, it is heresy.
- Order and structure are important if humans are to live together in community. You might expect a lawyer to say that, but I think it is clear. We need rules and structures – this is what the ten commandments endeavour to do – create a community; and what Jesus was on about in how we handle disputes in the church; and why Paul wants order and authority.
- Human community is a God-given gift. In each of our passages – Exodus, Romans and Matthew – the sub-plot, not very far from the surface, is that it is God’s will that we are able to live in community . . . and God will support us. Yahweh sees the injustice of Egyptian society and so acts, but creates a new community, a new nation, with a new narrative and ritual in the process. Paul expresses the view – there is, at the end, “no authority except from God”, and those authorities that do exist have been instituted by God. If there were no authority, no structure, there would be anarchy, no community, and the fullness of our humanity would be diminished. And of course from Matthew you have the promise of where two or three are gathered together, there God is in the midst.
- And, from at least Paul, we see what this structure or law should be based on love. The law is summed up: “Love your neighbour as yourself.” “Love does no wrong to a neighbour; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law.” That is the challenge of organisations, institutions – whole nations – that “love does no wrong to a neighbour; love is the fulfilling of the law.
So for us what does it mean?
As a church, the body of Christ in this place – our own organisation and structure is important. It is not everything. It should not dominate our life together. Our law is not an end in itself. The end is being a community, which loves and serves our neighbours – but that does not just happen because we each feel good about our relationship with God. The organisational aspect of the church needs your contribution and involvement too! Today there is a troubling falling away in the membership of community organisations – community groups, sporting groups, service clubs, trade unions, political parties and churches. Our social capital is being diminished. We all just want to be amused and entertained. We have become sceptical of all institutions. We are all too busy. Whatever. We suffer, and our society suffers. So – our church needs you and your contribution.
And this becomes the second challenge from today and our readings – what are we on about as this congregation here in Carlton?
First we must ourselves be a growing, vibrant community of Christ’s followers; but as that community we need to be concerned for, and be vital in creating and enriching our community in Carlton.
Carlton’s community can be very fragmented (it’s great, I like it) – but the ghettos of our estate and international students, the rich young professionals absorbed in their own life and careers, the ambiguity of the institutions in our midst the universities and hospitals which are more interested in their own life and survival – and the endless streams of tourists to Lygon street. Carlton needs the gift of community.
We have a gift we can offer and that is God-given life in community. I would hope that would be our role of living in human community and goal of showing that to our suburb and region.
