Readings: Numbers 9.15-23; 1 Corinthians 7.17-24
Friedrich Nietzche famously declared ‘God is dead’! Less famously he also named religion, and particularly Christianity, as ‘the revenge of the weak upon the strong’. Instance the Beatitudes, “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth “. For Nietzche such a statement subverts the achievements of the powerful, holds back the strong from fulfilling their talent – which in his view is a disaster. He called this thinking ‘slave morality’. For Nietzche non-egotistic qualities such as compassion and self-denial reflect ‘stagnation, nostalgic fatigue, and a will that has turned against life’, heralding ‘the advent of ennui’ in the triumph of failure.
Of course we have seen and see plenty of the exact reverse: an insistence by the powerful on submissive moral virtues: patience, humility, diligence, temperance, kindness, complete with the promise of ‘pie in the sky when you die’, all firmly geared to keep the masses quietly working hard.
Either way, it seems to me there is a whiff of such patterns of thinking in both our readings this evening! And like Nietzche, I rather rail against what feels like manipulation! Led by the fiery pillar – sometimes a cloud: 23 At the command of the LORD the people of Israel encamped, and at the command of the LORD they set out; at the command of the LORD by Moses.
And then Paul in his first epistle to the Corinthians: 20 Every one should remain in the state in which he was called – called to be a Christian that is. 21 Were you a slave when called? Never mind. In any case, he who was free when called is now a slave of Christ. Slaves we are then. And I guess many of us baulk at Paul’s seemingly clever manipulation. Obedience is the catch-phrase. Obedience to the clear tenets of Scripture come what may. This is the call of those who would resist progressive thinking in the Church. But are they right?
As the vicar so importantly reminded us last week, we need to go back to the beginning and learn how to read our Scriptures. Read them together listening deeply to one another. For every reading of Scripture is an interpretation of the text. This is as much true of the fundamentalist who believes the plain meaning is there flat on the paper, as it is for the theologian who brings the eye of critical scholarship to what he or she encounters.
For there are tensions, seemingly conflicting perspectives in the Bible, New Testament as well as Old: does faith alone save us regardless of our actions – if we will only believe as Paul would have us do? Or will we have to account for our choices through life on Judgement Day – as in Matthew’s terrifying account.
Predestination, chosen by God – or personal responsibility to choose relationship with God? In the Old Testament which takes priority: the theology of the Book of Deuteronomy, and its version of Israel’s history in Joshua, Judges and Kings: we are responsible for what happens to us, we reap what we sow. Suffering is not sent upon us by capricious gods and slighted spirits.
Or the perspective of the Book of Job which addresses the conundrum that ‘bad things do happen to good people’. What we reap is not always what we have sown.
The sixth commandment given to Moses out in the desert: Thou shalt not kill. How does this sacred commandment sit with God’s apparent instruction to Joshua: go up and slay the people of Jericho, man, woman and child?
Changes in thinking over recent decades pretty much accepted by all British Anglicans today, include: the use of contraception, allowed in the Fifties, the remarriage of divorcees becoming commonplace in the Eighties. And more recently, the quiet dropping of the preaching of Hellfire. The reality is all these things are interpretations of the biblical text, and we do indeed, have contrasting strands through the Bible we need to hold in tension together. Understanding that we all have our favourite texts, our favoured strands of Scripture, which we ‘foreground’ in our thinking. We then see other parts of Scripture through the lens of these chosen texts. For instance, evangelicals tend to be ‘Pauline’ Christians, seeing the gospels through the lens of the apostle’s letters, and the succinct doctrine of ‘justification by faith alone’.
Liberally minded Christians tend to focus on the gospels, Jesus’ teaching, his life and actions. His fierce moral teaching on social justice. His radical inclusion of outsiders.
We were also reminded last week that for the very first centuries of the Church, this emerging community lived their Christian lives without our New Testament scriptures. With the Hebrew Scriptures, and their shared personal experience of Jesus and his disciples, they were led by the Spirit into all truth – as we read in John’s gospel is promised by Jesus. The catholic wing of the Church sees this as an on-going process which continues today. The evangelical wing of the Church believes this open-ended work of the Spirit was completed with the closing of the canon. That is, the final decision as to which texts count as Scripture among the many circulating, decisions concluded in the year 382. Interpretation is now also fixed. Of course this decision to see the ending of fresh understanding of truth, is in itself, a purely human, if indeed deeply considered, decision. And the choice about how to read Scripture remains a human choice.
We cannot understand our Scriptures without understanding the first context into which they were given, and the particular issues in that context to which they attend.
Then we need to remember that the revelation of God in the Bible is an evolving one, developing through successive generations. If they did not believe in many gods, what does the first commandment given to the people of Israel mean: ‘You shall have no other gods before me’? It is only with the prophecy of Isaiah in exile in Babylon, that we get the first clear statement of monotheism, that the God of Israel is not simply ‘top god’ but the only God.
The Book of Leviticus sets out myriad regulations for how to make a sacrifice, sacrifice that is, of animals on an altar, a pyre. The prophets Hosea, Amos and Micah, and a teaching recalled by Jesus, make it abundantly clear that what God requires of us as right worship, is living with mercy and justice, and kindness towards one another. We need to be looking for the ‘movement of thinking’ through Scripture. What new things, like monotheism, trump earlier perspectives? Jesus calls us to love one another – as we love ourselves. Calls us to put ourselves in the shoes of the other, and do as we would be done by. He constantly broke petty regulations which had become excluding of particular groups, and radically included them, even when doing so, he made himself ritually impure. Touching lepers, engaging the woman with a haemorrhage.
Jesus was passionate about social inclusion, his sternest reprimands reserved for those who excluded others, laid heavy burdens – unnecessary burdens, on their shoulders.
Finally, as we wrestle with a particular scripture, we can think about how often a command – or a perspective, a particular ‘truth about life’ is repeated. So where does all this leave us with the sizzling hot potato that is human sexuality and equal marriage?! A mere six references in the entire Bible. Far from enough to put together a binding church doctrine. Neither is excluding particular groups of people the direction of the tenor of Scripture. Then the context of those six references are orgiastic ritual, part of pagan fertility rites practised in temples. They are not a reference to loving committed relationships. And how does justice, mercy, and loving kindness figure here?
Where is the Spirit leading in our world today? Paul wrote his epistles to various nascent Christian communities in the full expectation of the end of the world in his own lifetime, or very shortly thereafter. In these circumstances therefore, there was little point in putting your energies into changing your social environment or position. We may still be called to be ‘slaves of Christ’ here tonight, but we need to think very carefully what this actually means in today’s world. Certainly not that of obedient unquestioning submission to the diktats of another. And what is it to live with justice and mercy and loving kindness in our context here in Hampstead today?
What about obedience to that signal in the sky, be it cloud or fiery pillar. Living in an age of great superstition, and under life-threatening trials, it would be important to move within an ethos of swift compliance with the leader, rather than individuals chasing any sudden whim of their own. To survive in the desert obedience was essential. The tribes of Israel needed to be pulling together if they were to overcome the privations of their long journey. In times of crisis we may need to choose our leader wisely and then follow without too much wavering. We need the application of prayerful wisdom.
This deep thinking around Scripture is what we hope to do here at Hampstead Parish Church. There are pearls of great price out there in the one field, waiting for us. Amen.
Jan Rushton