Sunday 18th Nov 2007TRINITY XXIV
Fr David Cherry
Malachi 4 : 1 – 2a ; II Thessalonians 3 : 6 – 13 ; Luke 21 : 5 - 19
“Brethren, do not be weary in well-doing.”
The judgement of Jesus is to bring us into a new imagination, to release us from bondage into a new way of living, a new relationship in his Father’s world.
I spoke a few weeks ago about the apocalyptic imagination that is
being undone by Jesus and this ongoing effect of the Gospel through
history. This imagination is a violent imagination which sees
violence as the only means – but to what end?
To Girardian theologians, the opposite of the apocalyptic imagination
is the eschatological imagination – an ability to recognise and
see the Spirit of God drawing all things to himself, the reconciliation
in the midst of distress; an imagination filled with hope.
One, the apocalyptic imagination, leaves one fretting about whether one
is saved or not;p while the other, the eschatological imagination, is a
steady confidence that God is at work in our midst drawing all people
and all Creation to its fulfillment. It is this imagination which
enables us to hear and find one’s call to participate in
God’s work of reconciliation.
As the now muted lights - energy efficient, we hope - go on in
the High Street, we also need reminders that rampant consumerism of the
earth’s resources and other people’s lives is also a kind
of violence, part of an apocalyptic imagination too, that all we can do
is consume more and more; that there is no other way; and its okay.
The Gospel, the gracious words of Jesus and actions in this material
world, his manner of being put to death – loving to the end
– is a judgement on this violent way of living. We see our
God in Christ shoved out and put to death, God’s love consumed,
discarded like waste on a rubbish heap outside Jerusalem. We are
judged by love – as Zaccheaus was judged by Jesus standing below
him asking to be admitted to his home : allow me in.
And God’s judgement does not mean condemnation. Judgement,
like the word ‘discrimination’ has got a bad name. We
pray for a ‘right judgement in all things’ to see the
truth, the truth of how one has been and how one could be in the
future. It is the opening of a door into a new imagination, to
begin to imagine what one’s life could have been like. One
stumbles into a new way of seeing – seeing the opportunities for
love, co-creation, healing.
I must be one of the few clergyman who returns from a Deanery Synod
inspired. Yes, it was worth it. Very high on our
bishop’s and on the diocesan agenda is “Greening our
Churches.” There is a short address by Chris Brice,
I’ve printed for you to take away. And I see the Guardian
front page yesterday had something to do with climate change too.
So I feel a nudge – a nudge from God. The PCC, early next
year, I hope, will address our small part to play in this.
In that short address by Chris Brice, some shocking facts are laid bare
and theological reflections which assure us that our small part is
valid and right and good.
Brothers and sisters, let us not be weary in well-doing.
And faced with today’s gospel, one of those passages relished by
medieval and evangelical preachers through the ages who insinuate that
Jesus is prophesying some kind of cataclysmic punishment because of
human wickedness and assuring a remnant they will be spared for being
good, you and I need to remember that Jesus is doing no such
thing. He is holding up a mirror – this is how you imagine
things to be; and this is what you do. It is human violence that
leaves not one stone upon another.
The judgement of Jesus is to bring us into a new imagination, to
release us from bondage into a new way of living, a new relationship in
his Father’s world. It is this we must listen to and open
our eyes to as we approach the crowning feast of the Christian Year
next Sunday, when we proclaim Jesus Christ the Universal King of All
Creation.
His kingdom is to emerge from the raw material of Creation; out of your
life and mine; out of diverse societies and faiths at peace with one
another; out of Creation reverenced and given time and space to
rejuvenate as something in its own right and not just for the produce
of human consumption.
It is in this world that eternity bursts forth ‘shining like
shook foil’. And it is happening around us.
For all this nature is never spent…. writes Hopkins
There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;
And though the last lights off the black West went
Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs –
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.
Here in mere bread and wine, the Presence of the Creator God,
Christ’s Body and Blood, to make you whole, to make me anew; to
make my imagination sing with hope and restoration and to give me the
will and power to act upon it.
Brothers and sisters, let us not be weary in well-doing.
Amen