Mike Flynn
(Vicar - January 2021)
Jesus was regularly arguing. The song that proclaims gentle Jesus meek and mild is not the picutre of Jesus the original biographers of his life have left us. And he is still disagreeable! If our progressive leanings want Jesus' emphasis to be upon love without dogma then he confounds us by teaching that love without truth was not love. If our conservative leanings ask him to emphasise truth without compassion then he says we are proving ourselves to be in as much in need of help as those who break the rules (Luke 15:11f).
Jesus was an apologist, someone who did not shrink from giving arguments for his views, and part of what it means to follow him is to also be ready to offer a defence of the hope we have in him (1 Peter 3:15). Therefore, in our Lenten series this year year, as we prepare for Easter with humility and reverence, as some of us prepare for baptism and confirmation as some enrole in new Alpha courses to learn more about this Jesus, I want to go back to where it all began; to the arguements of Jesus that still challenge us.
The series begins in February and runs till Easter Sunday with the following themes:
The poor (Luke 10:25f the story of the good samaritan) - here Jesus unpacks the social obligations God requires in a healthy society. In Jesus teaching he points out that how we treat the poor and defenceless is a measure of how we value ourselves as well as God.
Authority (John 5:16f) - our culture is suffering a crisis of authority. In 'woke' Melbourne we are learning that to insist there is no aboslute is itself an absolute statement and a powerplay by those who are opposed to more traditional values. Jesus teaches we are right to be nervous about authority because we have seen it abused. Even so, Jesus reminds us of our need for tested and reliable authority while pointing to an authority that serves those it rules.
Resident evil (Luke 11:37f) - We are obsessed with being on the correct side of people's judgements of us. We want our lives to be justified in other's eyes and we contort our excuses to justify ourselves to oursevles. We are habitually drawn to the simplicity of saying that a certain group or class or people is where wrong resides. Jesus, radically for his day and ours, points to our inner lives as the home of wrong. So, it is not Republican v Democrat or Proliteriat v Buregois or even Collingwood v Hawthorn that is the problem. As G. K Chesterton responded when asked what was wrong with the world: "I am". The question Jesus answers is what to do with that realisation.
False freedoms (Luke 15:11f) - Jesus tells us that the approach of the conservative, responsible and hard working is as flawed a method of gaining a fulfilled life as the approach of the progressive, radical and freedom loving. That what truly brings us home is being known by love.
Wanting hell (Luke 16:16f) - In his famous parable of Lazarus and the rich man Jesus answers many questions about the power of hell in our lives now and after our death. That we live in hell by our own choice now and that evidence for God is available to us now, but perhaps not in the way we demand it.
An unjust gift (Luke 18:9f) - Every uplifting film I have seen for years has promoted a commitment to our self salvation. To quote the lead character from Interstellar: "There is only us, there has always been only us." In other words, we must and do save oursevles. For Jesus, every part of life is literally an undeserved gift, we neither give ourselves life nor sustain it nor can we provide for life after this one. We certainly cannot claim to deserve life. Here Jesus challenges our cult of self esteem and gives us reasons for accepting grace.
Natural or supernatural (Luke 20:27f) Like the sadducees, secular culture has promoted the idea that natural explanations are adequate to explain life and religion. Jesus points out that materialism (only material explanations) is as naive as superstition (only spiritual explanations) and both profoundly misunderstand the nature of the Biblical God. In other words, our contempary versions of atheism have designed a god they can comfortably debunk - but that is not reality.
The end of time (Luke 21:5f) In the wider Mediterranean world of Jesus day it was thought the universe was endless (eternal) or subject to a cycle of birth and rebirth. In our day we have been been cut off from eternity by our science that has taught us (to paraphrase T.S. Elliot) that though the universe began with a Big Bang it will wind down in an entropic wimper. Jesus contradicts both views by teaching that this is an accountable world, a world where humans will need to answer for what has occured on it.
Denying God (Luke 22:1f) As Jesus institutes one of the most sacred rites of Christianity he is surrounded by betrayal and denial. Denying God is not new to us but even in the middle of our hardness God calls us to a better self awareness and a deeper understanding of who he is.
Killing God (Luke 23:26f) The British author Dick Lucas once wrote that Good Friday means that given half a chance, humanity would kill its creator. Here is the story of a sacrifice we did not anticipate or want but which we deeply need. How God uses the worst that we can be to give us the best of who he is. For Jesus, this is not an unjust and cruel offering - it is the very definition of what God means by love.
Life after, life after death (Luke 24:1f) What happens to us after we die? Does our conscious existance end with our death? Will humanity continue? Will our planet survive? The resurrection of Jesus begins to answer our questions about our own future and the long term future of our world, our society and our environment.
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