fighting for integrity

REFLECTIONS FROM AN ATTIC

SHARED WITH A COMPUTER and a CAMERA

an INTERNET and YOU

(in that same friendly way)

ORDINARY SUNDAY 11 (June 14th) 2020

(one of those irritating pieces of writing that had to be re-written after I accidentally hit the power button - and discovered auto-save wasn't switched on ... ah well ... I hope there's a thought or two in for you as we begin a different phase of the church year)

READINGS

Genesis 18: 1-5

Psalm 116, 1, 10-17

Romans 5:1-8

Matthew 9:35 – 10:8

When Paul wrote to Rome he was desperately fighting for the integrity of Christianity – as we are today. Paul has few credentials in his own eyes, but he is prepared to point to his sufferings as a stamp of his credibility as a follower of Jesus. He is effectively saying “Guys, girls, I’m blowed if I would go through all that if I didn’t think this stuff was real.” That conviction was borne out by his deep sense of the Spirit making the risen Lord known to him in fellowship, ritual and reading, and by putting his life where his mouth was.

Paul fought hard against opportunists and charlatans throughout his ministry. There is no guarantee in the Christian journey that manipulators and opponents of the gospel, including those ostensibly within the church, won’t shout loudest. Yet Paul does his best, touting his credentials, but only insofar as they point to the work of the Spirit of God in his life. The Spirit of God does not wave magic wands: Paul was having to do hard spade work. Suffering was his credential, integrity was his trademark.

In the end he won the day – though he probably did so at the cost of his life and may never have known the degree to which he silenced the voices of distorters and pretenders. His writings survived despite his struggles with liars, manipulators, charlatans. We too can trust his integrity, though his world was often vastly different to ours, as he fights with questions of sin, with what he calls the “flesh,” questions of law and righteousness.

But what are these concepts? What is this “sin,” what are these struggles and distractions of which Paul writes? What are the challenges that Matthew’s Jesus warns his apostles and evangelists of? What are demons, what is it to heal the sick or raise from the dead? What is the peace the Christ-bearers of Matthew are to proclaim and embody? Is our world the same as theirs?

We have to translate much to make sense of it in our world. Sadly many peddlers (Paul’s word, not mine) of Christ so distort key words that they become an abomination. When some Christians shape to speak the word “sin” the word “sex” falls from its lips. Obsessions with genital correctness, embedded in obfuscations about who may have sex with whom, and by over-demonizing abortion, these blot out words of compassion or love. Integrity and responsibility, education and wisdom in sex and sexuality, yes. But such obsessions with externals drown out Jesus’ invitations to the lost and the lonely, those considered by society to be not good enough. There are forms of sexual injustice and predation, as the #MeToo movement and the current Royal Commission remind us. But let us not of sex and sin make synonyms.

Similarly when the so-called liberal wing of the church speaks of sin the words “e-coli” or “micro-plastics” or “global warming” form on its lips. Often there is no differentiation between the message of Jesus and the message of a left-wing activist. Yes, there are forms of economic predation, as Living Wage militants remind us. There is health and life expectation disparity marked by skin pigmentation, as George Floyd has tragically reminded us. (So too, lest we forget, did Rodney King and Emmett Till before him). Most recently, Covid-19 statistics around the world are grimly reinforcing the message that survival odds were not created equal (despite the astronomical efforts of health care professionals). And pigmentation continues to be a life quality indicator in this country too. General health, education, incarceration, domestic violence, and life expectancy statistics continue to tell us that opportunity is more equal for some than others. There is no room for complacency. “BlackLivesMatter” is a borderless reminder that the image of God is not pink skin. Righteous rage must be maintained, for street marches too often have a short half-life. But gospel and social activism do not a synonym make.

God’s bias is to the disadvantaged, as the Magnificat makes abundantly clear: God raises the humble and meek. But the (often illiberal) liberal wing of the church will all too often espouse fine theories about economic justice without ever sharing a chardonnay with or knowing the name of or holding the hand of a poor or disadvantaged person, black or otherwise.

To have integrity Gospel proclamation must stand with those who cry out for justice. Gospel proclamation must ignore the colour-blind obfuscation of those who mumble “all lives matter.” Fire fighters concentrate on burning and “at-risk” houses, not on safe villas further up the street. Privileged Christians like my pink-skinned self must constantly recall that the embrace of Jesus always reached beyond chic safety zones to restore the lives of those that were considered not to matter. Social change without change in human hearts is worthless: I can spout all I like about the poor or the homeless as a concept but, as one activist noted, if I cannot name a poor or a homeless person then my words, as Paul might say, are as a noisy cymbal or a clanging gong. It is worth noting that the funeral of George Floyd voiced personal and social hope.

Which in the end brings us back not only to Paul but to the apostles sent into the towns and villages by Jesus. All the big social matters can be – are – matters to which the gospel must be addressed. But Jesus precedes his commissioning of the twelve with demonstrations of love and compassion, then goes on to warn the apostles of their call to integrity. Paul stands no chance with the skeptical Roman Christians if his life has not already shown him suffering for his faith. Few of us will suffer more than the inconvenience of getting out of bed to worship occasionally – hopefully frequently. But the expectation of integrity remains, lest we become a clanging gong or noisy cymbal that we too often are.

We will continue “to leave undone the things we should do, and to do the things we should not do.” We must surrender our lives again and again to the Jesus we encounter in scripture, in fellowship, in faith. We know when we fall short of the call of God upon our lives. In weeks to come we will delve deep into the words of scripture, not by waving a bible in front of a church that we do not attend, but by excavating the teachings of the one in whom there was no integrity gap.

The Lord be with you.