Notes for Reflection

February 9                              NOTES FOR REFLECTION

Texts:  Isaiah 58:1-10; 1 Corinthians 2:1-16; Matthew 5:13-20*

[*Note.  Our first challenge this week is to consider how much is enough of each of our lessons, the Lectionary giving us shorter and longer options.  I’ve gone for a compromise in respect of the Isaiah reading, because the imagery in 10b ties in nicely with the theme of light and darkness that has been so much a part of our readings in the last few weeks.  However, with St Paul on such fine form and in full flood I think we should let him go to the end of the chapter.  If you want to cut him short, be it on your own head!]

Theme:  From time to time I get exasperated by people who tell me that they are not into religion, they’re into spirituality, which is rather like someone saying they are not into botany, they are into plants.  So given our readings this week I’m tempted to suggest that we all stand in our sacred places and scream something like, “Listen, you knockers, this is all about spirituality!”  If you are tempted to join in such an unusual start to this week’s worship (and please do not mention where you got the idea from) you may wish to focus on our second lesson, in which case something like “The Wisdom of God” should suffice.  Matthew is entering into a period of teaching drawn from the Sermon on the Mount, and also starts with an exhortation to be noisy and visible.  So “Coming Out for Christ” comes to mind, though it might be open to misinterpretation.  And as for Isaiah, what about “Get Real!”  Come to think of it, I think that last one might get my vote: “Getting Real” is surely the very essence of spirituality.  Or what about going for broke and simply using his opening line: “Shout Out, Do Not Hold Back!”  (Perhaps not suitable for an 8.00 am service?)

Introduction.  The short snappy paragraph intended for discussion of possible themes seems to have morphed into something more like an introduction, so just a few (relatively) brief comments here.  I like the heading given to chapter 58 of the Book of Isaiah in the NRSV – “False and True Worship”.  No one is more devastating than Isaiah in denouncing “rote” worship, which is a constant danger to Anglicans with our commitment to written liturgy and set prayers.  (How many of us have suddenly realised that we have recited (rather than prayed) the Lord’s Prayer while our mind has been on other things!)  Here, Isaiah is pointing to another common complaint that can also strike any congregation – the disconnection between our Sunday-morning faith and our rest-of-the week practice.  St Paul reminds us that his teaching is not something he or some philosopher has dreamed up – it is the wisdom of God revealed through the Spirit.  And Matthew reminds us that spirituality might begin at home (or anywhere else) but it is never a private deal between God and a single worshipper.  We are called together to preserve and illuminate the world.  How’s that for an example of what sports commentators used to delight in calling “A Big Ask”?

Background.  I have often noted the astonishing ability Scripture has to comment on the events of the week through readings chosen months if not years ago.  This week it has really come up trumps.  I am writing these notes on Waitangi Day, with the events on the Treaty Ground once again filling our news media.  Isaiah provides the perfect passage for reflecting on all that.  It is, we are told, the annual opportunity for people to express their displeasure with the Government of the day; and so there is plenty of shouting out and not holding back, announcing rebellion of all sorts.  It is easy for us who are looking in from a distance to start talking about “they” rather than we, while hardly drawing breath before proclaiming that we are all one nation.  Can we really claim that if we wish to exclude those who offend us on OUR national day?

Look especially at verses 6 and 7.  Can we not hear something of the marae hospitality in these verses – a place open to everyone, a willingness to feed whoever turns up and in whatever numbers?  Why doesn’t it all break down in the way that we see so often with vast numbers inviting themselves and gate-crashing social functions?  And yet – what are we to make of the so-called “break-through” being celebrated this week as women are allowed to speak for the first-time.  Surely what we have here is a reminder that all cultures reflect that dual capacity of human beings to be so contradictory – to be capable of wonderful openness and generosity on the one hand, and terrible narrowness and mean-spiritedness on the other.  As we marvel at the hospitality of a marae perhaps we should wonder why it has taken so long to break that one particular yoke.  

And perhaps we should look at our own homes and our own churches.  Are we as hospitable and welcoming as we could be?  Are there particular yokes we still need to break so that others may be free?

The second issue that received somewhat excessive attention this week was the battle of the jackets.  It would be easy (especially for men!) to dismiss it all as silly political nonsense – surely proof that the idea that more women politicians would lift the behaviour of the House is pure myth!  But there is an issue here that Isaiah would recognise.  Can we advocate for the poor without being one of them?  Isn’t it an essential part of the Gospel of Christ that he gave up everything to become one of us?  Wouldn’t his so-called “social teaching” have a hollow ring if it had emerged that he had salted away millions in a Swiss bank account – or if he had worn an expensive designer-label tunic as he preached the Sermon on the Mount?  This is not about Metiria Turei’s lifestyle – it’s about ours.  Hear what the Spirit is saying to THE CHURCH!

And so to St Paul and the new Leader of the Act Party!  Act have chosen as their new leader a professional philosopher!  How’s that for synchronicity!  What would St Paul make of that?  Read the whole chapter and marvel; or if you are in a hurry and want a cheap laugh, just read verse 6.  Again, I must add a disclaimer: this is not about the Act Party or its new leader.  It’s about us, and the perennial temptation to substitute our own wisdom for the revealed wisdom of God.

As I pondered this remarkable week as a whole, I found myself coming back to the famous question we find from time to time in the gospels: “what must I do to be saved?”  I’ve always thought that the question itself is fundamentally flawed.  Taken literally, the answer must be: there is nothing you can do  - that’s why you need a Saviour.  A slightly better question might be: what must I become to be saved?  That at least would point us in the direction of the Sermon on the Mount.  Become like that and you will be saved.  But even that isn’t quite right, is it?  We must let God become in us what he became in Christ.  That’s more like it, I think.  On that, Isaiah, Paul and Matthew are in agreement.  They should have our vote, whatever they’re wearing.

Isaiah.  You may be tired of my raving on about the marvels of Isaiah, but I’m not, so brace yourself.  Here again is another passage of sheer brilliance in which all his gifts are on display.  Feel the passion as he warms to the subject.  Cringe at the lash of his satirical tirade (verging on sarcasm) in verses 2 and 3b.  Above all, see him thrust a mirror in front of us as he demands that we take a look at ourselves, at our hearts, and at the authenticity of our worship.  It is one thing to hail Christ as the light coming into the world, but now it is our turn (10b).

Taking It Personally.

·        A thorough checklist for the state of our spirituality, individual and collective, as we head towards Lent.  Go through the passage very slowly, asking the Spirit to highlight any word or phrase you particularly need to focus on.

·        Do you delight to know God’s ways?  And if you do, is it head-knowledge that delights you?  Is there any disconnection between your knowledge of God’s way and your commitment to follow those ways in your daily life?

·        Turn now to verse 3a.  Reflect on the subtext. Is there any element of seeking to earn God’s reward in your worship?  Do you want God to notice what you are “doing for him”?  Or are you giving praise and thanksgiving because of his love and goodness, regardless of whether God is watching and listening or not?  In short, is your worship self-serving or God-serving?

·        Verse 4 invites us to reflect on our relationships with others in the faith community, so how are they at the moment?

·        Verse 5 challenges are propensity for privatising our spiritual practices.  How do you respond to that challenge?

·        And verses 6-10 just plain challenge us!  Don’t be too hard on yourself, but let the Spirit be as hard on you as he wishes to be.  This exercise should never be about self-flagellation, but a quite brave openness to the corrective therapy of the Spirit.

 

Corinthians.  Has there ever been correspondence quite like that we find in St Paul’s letters to the Corinthians?  They were a proud, bumptious and self-admiring lot – not the easiest of people to teach.  Obviously St Paul feels that not all of them respect him for who and what he is; so one of the threads we find throughout these letters, and in this passage this week, is St Paul’s attempts to defend himself.  We always have to construct the views of his critics from what he says to them in rebuttal, but as in the opening verses of this passage, that’s not usually too difficult.  Presumably, St Paul did not have a commanding presence – he did not ooze personal charisma.  He was not over-endowed with the gift of the gab – he had not kissed the blarney-stone, as the Irish would say.  Worse still, what he taught seemed to the intelligentsia of his day (as it still does to those of our own day) to be childish nonsense.  St Paul makes no apology for that, attempts no watering-down of his message, and never adds any verbal sugar-coating.  To do so would be quite wrong because the message is not his to change.  He is only the spokesman – he is, as it were, simply quoting the original author’s words.  The message is God’s.  To understand it, we need, not higher mental powers, but wider spiritual openness.

 

Taking It Personally.

 

·        Have you ever attempted to “explain” your faith to someone who just doesn’t “get it”?  Does this passage help you to understand what was going on in that encounter?

·        What image do you have of St Paul?  Now read verse 3 again.  How does that fit with your image of him?

·        Can you recall reading something, or listening to someone preaching or teaching, and suddenly the penny dropped?  Something that you had never understood or accepted suddenly made sense?  Is that an instance of what St Paul is writing about here?  Do you try to hear what the Spirit is saying to the Church (or to you)?  If you preach to or teach others, do you think of something to say, get something off the internet, or try to hear what the Spirit wants you to say others?

 

Matthew.  As we go through this period of teaching this week and the next three weeks, we should remember that we are really being led deeper into the Beatitudes.  We can, perhaps, divide this reading into two halves - a scary half (verses 13-16), and a surprising half (verses 17-20).  Yet another simple temptation we can often fall into is the dismissal of the Law (the Old Testament) as irrelevant to us.  The Lord teaches that the Law is not repealed by him, but fulfilled in him.  We should not criticise the Pharisees for trying to keep the Law, but for failing to surpass it.

 

Taking It Personally.

 

·        In what way are you salt of the earth?  Have you lost your saltiness?

·        How do you “let your light shine before others”?

·        Reflect on “The Summary of the Law”.  In what way might it answer the question, “what must we do to be saved?”

·        Compare the Beatitudes.  In what way might they answer the question, “what must I become to be saved?”