Delivered by Rev Dr John Evans
Sunday 4 July, 2010
2 Kings 5:1-14
Psalm 30
Galatians 6:(1-6), 7-16
Luke 10:1-11, 16-20
Here is something to ponder. Has the cross, just the plain cross, become more than a just Christian symbol. Yes it is a Christian symbol, but is it actually now secular? Consider jewelry, road side shrines – those white crosses marking where someone has died, or war cemeteries. Has the cross been secularised . . or at least its symbolism secularised?
Just a couple of weeks ago the US Supreme Court had to consider this matter. (Today is the 4th July so there is some American flavor!) The dispute concerned a large plain cross which was a war memorial in California’s Mojave Desert. The US, at least according to its constitution, endeavours to maintain a separation between church and state. Certainly the state cannot establish any religion. So could this cross remain as a war memorial? On a split vote, the Supreme Court ruled that it could. Justice Anthony Kennedy, in speaking for the majority said “one plain cross in the desert evokes far more than religion . . . it evokes thousands of small crosses in foreign fields marking the graves of Americans who fell in battles.” In other words, the cross is more than a Christian symbol.
The decision has been greeted rapturously by conservative evangelical Christians. Here was permission for a Christian symbol to be used in a public place. Here was a sign that the US was a Christian nation. God was winning the battle! This was a victory for the Christians. And perhaps quoting from our gospel reading – “the harvest is plentiful and the labourers are few” (Luke 10:2) they saw this as another sign of winning more souls for Christ.
There was a minority view also expressed in the case. Justice John Paul Stevens simply observed “making a plain, unadorned Latin cross a war memorial does not make the cross secular.” In other words, it still was a religious symbol and there should be separation of church and state.
The cross of Christ features prominently in our reading from Galatians. We have here the final postscript to this controversial and fiery letter Paul sent off to the Galatians community. Up until this point, he had been dictating the letter to a secretary, or some assistant. He however, now just wants to conclude by taking over the letter himself – see I write in large letters!
A couple of weeks ago, I looked at the background to this letter. Today’s little postscript is a summary of Paul’s argument. It is a succinct statement just to make sure that the Galatians have got the message.
Paul’s concern was that after he had been with the infant church in Galatia, another group – a group of Jewish Christians, had convinced the Galatians that they had to be Jews first, before they could be Christians. In particular, for the blokes – they had to be circumcised. As we have seen over recent weeks Paul was furious – this was a diminution, nay more than that – a complete abrogation – of the freedom Christians have because of Christ.
So this is Paul’s last “go” at the Galatians for following these Jewish-Christian missionaries. However, how he does this is interesting. Listen to Eugene Peterson’s take on what Paul saw as being the real problem.
“ 11-13Now, in these last sentences, I want to emphasize in the bold scrawls of my personal handwriting the immense importance of what I have written to you. These people who are attempting to force the ways of circumcision on you have only one motive: They want an easy way to look good before others, lacking the courage to live by a faith that shares Christ’s suffering and death. All their talk about the law is hot air. They themselves don’t keep the law! And they are highly selective in the laws they do observe. They only want you to be circumcised so they can boast of their success in recruiting you to their side. That is contemptible!””
So not only had these later missionaries to Galatia got their theology wrong (they misunderstood that Jesus actually means freedom); their motive for what they are doing was contemptible. They were just “wanting to look good before others”. What do we call it – pride! Looking good before others is an easy thing to do – if religion and faith is all about numbers, bums on seats, or observable phenomena – like how many people have been circumcised; or how many you have gained in the harvest of souls. It was their motive that Paul sees here as being a problem.
You may remember TS Elliot’s play Murder in the Cathedral about the martyrdom of Thomas Becket. Three tempters confront Becket attempting to dissuade him from his act of defiance to the King. An act of defiance which will most certainly cost him his life – and as it happens, does. He rebuffs each of their advances. But then a more interesting, subtle Fourth Tempter arrives. “What is your counsel?” asks Becket. The Tempter urges him to embrace martyrdom.
But think, Thomas, think of glory after death.
When king is dead, there’s another king,
And one more king is another reign.
King is forgotten, when another shall come:
Saint and Martyr rule from the tomb.
Think, Thomas, think of enemies dismayed,
Creeping in penance, frightened of a shade;
Think of pilgrims, standing in line
Before the glittering jewelled shrine,
From generation to generation
Bending the knee in supplication,
Think of the miracles, by God’s grace,
And think of your enemies, in another place.
Thomas is thus urged to succumb to martyrdom, but to do so in the grip of the cardinal sin of pride and the longing for vengeance.
What can compare with the glory of Saints
Dwelling forever in the presence of God?
What earthly glory, of king or emperor,
What earthly pride, that is not poverty
Compared with richness of heavenly grandeur?
Seek the way of martyrdom, make yourself the lowest
On earth, to be high in heaven.
And see far off below you, where the gulf is fixed,
Your persecutors, in timeless torment,
Parched passion, beyond expiation.
It is the temptations that are couched in religious terms which are the most powerful. It was the allure of martyrdom for Thomas. Now having martyrs is not a bad thing – however, martyrdom is not something a person believes they are choosing. That is for others to determine, it is for God to see, that your selfless sacrifice is indeed martyrdom. Death in a religious cause does not equal martyrdom.
And so also having a more overtly Christian flavor to the public square seems laudable – that’s not a bad thing. And it is not a bad thing to have more card carrying Christians around, however, with the US Supreme Court case about the cross – we risk an enormous diminution, no abrogation – of what the cross actually means if it just becomes yet another cultural symbol.
And also for the people at Galatia, as Paul was at pains to argue – the Jewish law, the covenant with Moses, were not bad or wrong things. They had their purpose – remember, Paul says the law is like a tutor who would guide you to achieve a personal goal in life. But Paul also wants to say, you Galatians have been used by people who just want to show before others how good they are. They just do not understand the essence of the Christian message. . . which is the Cross of Christ.
Again lets us hear from Peterson.
‘14-16For my part, I am going to boast about nothing but the Cross of our Master, Jesus Christ. Because of that Cross, I have been crucified in relation to the world, set free from the stifling atmosphere of pleasing others and fitting into the little patterns that they dictate. Can’t you see the central issue in all this? It is not what you and I do—submit to circumcision, reject circumcision. It is what God is doing, and he is creating something totally new, a free life! All who walk by this standard are the true Israel of God—his chosen people. Peace and mercy on them!
17Quite frankly, I don’t want to be bothered anymore by these disputes. I have far more important things to do—the serious living of this faith. I bear in my body scars from my service to Jesus.”
Paul is dramatically advocating – as we used to speak of in the 1960’s, and I think which never really understood – “religionless Christianity”. The essence of the faith – without all the moralizing! Paul wants to attack these judaisers, these missionaries, who probably were good people – because all they were peddling was religion and morality. Paul wants to say, the gospel of Christ is different. It is about creating all things news. A new creation! It is the cross – the cross of Christ which is at the heart of the Christian message. . . not religion and rules. It is the cross which destroys pride, like we see with the Fourth Tempter of Thomas Becket. It is the cross which challenges all what we might see as accomplishments – position, wealth and power and numbers. The most insidious temptation – the one faced in Galatia – is the temptation to boast of moral or religious superiority. The cross destroys such boasting and focuses our eyes upon Jesus and his self giving, and the truth of God’s love for us. The truth of God’s love for us. This is why Paul, again and again in his letters says that he can only boast in the cross of Christ; nothing else.
This is why there is a new creation. The breaking in of God’s redemptive power has triggered this conflict with the old order – with the powers and the vested interests of the way it used to be. This is the freedom we have in Christ. This is my understanding of what it means being a liberal Christian, and not being, say, a conservative Christian. A liberal being a person who understands about freedom. It is all about the freedom as a result of the cross of Christ.
Of course as Paul shows this is not easy. . .and he, as always is not backward about giving advice. So he reminds his hearers that his body bears the scars from his service to Jesus. The essence of his life – is his serious living of this faith. And it is why, as Paul shows earlier in this final chapter to the Galatians – that the Christian community becomes so important. . . it is this community which has to interpret and be – this new creation. So Paul suggests a new model – to patterns of power and structure which have always been in religious organisations. For him the church becomes an extended family of mutual responsibility – bearing each others burdens and fulfilling the law of Christ. It is not by outward shows of religiosity, as the Galatians had slipped into – it is by being a faithful community of love, support and fulfilling the law of Christ.
So is the cross a secular symbol? Well Perhaps.
It however, remains at the centre of the Christian faith.
