Earlier this month the Lambeth Conference, the meeting of the bishops of the Anglican Communion, came to an end. To the relief of most people at least, it ended without the Communion having torn itself apart during the conference by reopening it’s arguments about human sexuality and perhaps especially about same-sex relationships and marriages. However, that doesn’t mean that these issues weren’t discussed at the Conference – they were, as an article in The Church Times made clear.
Quoting one of the bishops in attendance at the Conference, the article stated that,
“Justin (the Archbishop of Canterbury) very clearly said that to bless civil partnerships and gay marriages, in most parts of the Anglican Communion, would mean the end of the Church, because there would be no credence or credibility whatsoever. Similarly, if in the West we were not to do that, exactly the same thing would apply.”
I’m not going to comment on this particular issue itself, but I think there is an issue, a very serious concern in fact, with at least part of what the archbishop is reported to have said.
“…if we in the West were not to do that, exactly the same thing would apply.
In other words, if we in the West were not to do these things, the Church in the West would have no credence or credibility, that is, it would be unacceptable and be neither trusted nor believed in. This reminded me of a statement made a number of years ago by another Anglican bishop about another contentious issue, the ordination of women to the priesthood. That bishop said, if memory serves me correctly,
“If we don’t do this, the Church will be unacceptable to society.”
The issue with these statements, the very serious concern these statements raise, is that they’re tantamount to saying that, when the Church has a decision to make about what to do, perhaps even about what to teach, it should look at what the world does, or at least at what that part of the world in which the Church finds itself, that society, and then follow suit. What these statements imply is that the Church should do what its own society finds acceptable and what that society thinks the Church ought to do.
But since when has the Church been called to be acceptable to the world, or to any human society? Surely the Church is called, both corporately and individually, to be acceptable to God and to Christ. The Church is called to make disciples of people, not by adopting and following the world’s ways, but by teaching them the way of Christ. The Church, and the individuals who make up the Church aren’t called to live according to the norms and values of the society it finds itself in, but to live by the teaching and example of Christ. And to do that means to be unacceptable to society, and to the world because the way of Christ and the way of the world are not the same and are very often incompatible.
How often do we find in the Scriptures God’s way being contrasted with the world’s way? How often in the Gospels do we hear Jesus instructing his disciples that they are not to do things the way that things are done in the world? We find two examples of this in this morning’s Gospel.
In the world, in most walks of life, it often pays to push yourself forward doesn’t it? How many people do we know, for example, who’ve got on in life, got a job or been promoted perhaps, not on merit but because they have what we often call ‘the gift of the gab’? They get on, not because they can do a good job, but because they can talk a good job and convince those in authority that they’re the best person for the job. I myself have been told on many occasions to push myself forward more, to make people more aware of my abilities, so that I can get the recognition and promotion I deserve. That happened during my time in industry, but it’s also happened since I’ve been ordained, which I think says something about the way the Church, and the individual Christians in the Church have adopted the ways of the world. Because this is the way of the world.
But Jesus tells us that this is not the way Christians should do things. Quite the opposite in fact. In this morning’s Gospel, Jesus tells us that those who push themselves forward for the praise and acclaim of the world are simply setting themselves up to be humbled by God. In God’s way, Christ’s way, it’s those who don’t push themselves forward, those who don’t seek worldly praise, the humble, who in the end, will be exalted and rewarded by God.
Something else we often find in the world is that people get on in life, at work and in business simply because they’ve done something for those in authority; they get on simply because they’ve curried favour with the high and the mighty. How many scandals have there been in this country, for example, about people receiving honours, knighthoods, OBEs, MBEs and so on, simply because they’ve done a favour for someone in government, perhaps made a donation to their political party, or perhaps because they’re a personal friend of someone in government? We sometimes call this nepotism, favouring family and friends over others. We sometimes say things like this are simply a matter of one good turn deserving another, but it’s more often seen, I think, as a case of ‘you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours’. I’m sure this is something we’ve all seen too, again, probably in the workplace because this is the way of the world. But in this morning’s Gospel, Jesus tells us that this isn’t the way to gain the eternal reward of the virtuous which comes from God. We gain that, not by favouring those who can do something for us in return, but by favouring those who can’t return our favour.
If we think about this, it’s not really too hard to understand why this is God’s way and why Jesus tells us that it should be our way. If we do things for those who can do something for us, our motive might simply be self-interest. I’ll do this for you because I want you to do something for me. But, if we do things for those who can’t return the favour, our motive can’t possibly be self-interest because, in worldly terms at least, there’s nothing in it for us. If we do things for people who can’t do anything for us, our motives can only be love and charity; we’re doing something for someone for no other reason than because they need it. That’s God’s way, that’s the way Christ said it should be with his disciples and so this should be our way and not the ‘you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours’ way of the world.
This morning’s Gospel makes it quite clear that the Church and the individual Christians who make up the Church are not called to follow the way of the world. We’re called to follow the way of Christ, because that is God’s way. We’re not called to do what the world, or any society in the world, does or wants and expects us to do, we’re called to do what Christ did and taught. Anything we do, either corporately as a Church, or as individual disciples of Christ, our first concern should not be what the world or the society we live in thinks is right, but whether what we’re doing, or even thinking about doing, is in agreement with Scripture and especially in agreement with the teaching and example of Christ.
Of course, the Scriptures were written a long time ago and times have changed. Some questions we’re faced with now aren’t directly answered in the pages of Scripture, and Jesus made no mention of them in his teaching. Nevertheless, we must look there first and try to find an answer if we can. And in so far as we can find an answer, we must do what the Scriptures and what Christ tell us to do. When there’s no clear answer we need to find one through prayer and theological reflection. These things might, and often do, result in different answers for different people because we might interpret what the Scriptures are saying to us and what God is saying to us in different ways. Sometimes we will have to accept that, because there is no one, clear answer to the question, there might be more than one way of answering it. But what we must never do is deliberately distort the Scriptures and Jesus’ teaching to make them say what we want them to say. We must never claim that God is telling us to go down one particular road simply because that’s the road we want to go down. We must never change the word of God, however that comes to us, to make it fit the way of the world, or the way of the society we live in even if that does mean, as it undoubtedly will, that at times the Church will be unacceptable to the world and to various societies in it.
When we’re faced with questions that need to be answered and decisions that have to be taken about the way the Church should go, and what we as individual Christians should do, we always have to remember two things. We have to remember that, as Christians, we’re called to be in the world but not of it and that means we’re called to do things God’s way and Christ’s way, not the world’s way, whether that’s acceptable to the world or not. We have to remember too, that our reward, our eternal reward, doesn’t come from being acceptable to the world or to our own society, it comes, and only comes, through being acceptable to God and to Christ.
Amen.
The Propers for the 22nd Sunday of Ordinary Time can be viewed here.
Parish Church of St Mark Chadderton 