Fourth Sunday in Lent—-St George’s East Ivanhoe 2018
As part of my reading for Lent I have been rereading and using as a meditation guide a book by Rowan Williams former Archbishop of Canterbury, entitled ‘Christ on Trial, How the Gospel unsettles Our Judgement.’ Rowan writes with deep theological insights and his book speaks to me as we approach the core and central truth of the Christian claim that Christ died, as a result of human sin and rose again to be the bearer of hope and the unconditional love of God.
Over the past few weeks we have been reading from Mark’s gospel how Jesus challenged the religious and political leaders of his day, troubled his disciples by speaking about his forthcoming death and at times seemed troubled, apprehensive ambivalent and disturbed about what lie before him. Non-the less he remained focused and committed.
Rowan William’s book portrays the trial, conviction and death of Jesus some 2000 years ago writes about how this narrative resonates with the experiences and trials of our present time. Christ is still crucified every day in many parts of the world.
Each day we hear of new abuses and atrocities at home, including killings, home invasions and violence. The events of the war with Syria and other troubled hot spots have heightened our awareness of the brokenness and pain of people in many parts of the world. Although at times we seem desensitised to these atrocities. While they are not crucified, as Jesus was, their deaths, murders, killings, brutalization and humiliation are at the hands of those who call themselves just and righteous on both sides of the conflict. I am sure we have all been moved in some way by the pictures on the front pages of our newspapers and as shown on television. Rowan Williams in his book looks at the trial of Christ and opens up for us how this historic event continues to ‘challenge what we believe and how we live.’
Trials of one sort or another are part of our everyday life. We are on trial for a probationary period when we commence a new job. In a sense your new vicar will be on trial when he or she commences. It is often said that the best vicar was the last one.
The most common understanding of trial revolves around the law and what happens in court when a person or organisation has committed an offence and the media regularly reports on the sensational or celebrity trials.
During my teenage years Perry Mason was always a winner in discovering the truth. Today the lawyers in “Law and Order” always appear to have the upper hand.
If we take the reporting of trials as they are reported on in the media, truth, too many of us, often appears to lack justice, is arbitrary and inconsistent. Many would say there appears to be one rule for the powerful and another for the rest of us. Further it seems that certain radio, television commenters and editorial writers believe that they have the truth and know better than any one else especially when they have prejudged and decided the person is guilty on their own assessment or suspicion.
Rowan Williams suggests that we can look at the whole of John’s gospel as a trial story. Jesus constantly faces questioning about his mission and identity facing hostile antagonists and doubters. In all of these encounters Jesus points to a new covenant and relationship with God the Father that challenges and contradicts the religious and powerful authorities of the day. It is a covenant of openness, inclusiveness, compassion and respect for all.
John’s is writing his account of Jesus, his struggles and mission from the context of a struggling community of believers searching for truth and justice, up against the powerful community of the synagogue. Like each of the Gospels we need to read John as an “evangelist, storyteller and theologian in his own right’.
A simple reading may suggest that John’s work is a tirade against the Jewish people, a claim often made as a basis for the horrendous persecution of the Jews over many years. It is difficult not to avoid such a claim but a closer reading of John I suggest points to something much more fundamental. Rowan Williams says it this way;
“Repeatedly, John’s theme is that those who consciously identify themselves as the ones who believe or really know are also those who cannot bear the light which comes from Christ: and those who identify themselves as Abraham’s children, children of election and promise, prove unable to live in the trust Abraham showed. The fundamental issue is to deal with the insider.’
John is posing two profound questions to those who claim to be his follower. The first, who is Jesus and the second by what authority is the claim made that he is the truth of God? Both questions are as relevant to us inside and outside the church today as it were in John’s time. How we answer such questions defines our response to many of the pressing and complex issues we face in the world today. Our experience to date is varied and so are the actions that follow.
The search for truth continues to be a difficult task. I am sure everyone of us in listening to the radio, watching television or reading the newspapers on the war with Syria, irrespective of whether we support the war or not will be struggling to find the truth about the many claims and counter claims being made about the progress of the war, the resilience of the Syria people and the number of casualties, and with the advent of so called fake news where is truth?
As we move through Lent the Drama of the trial of Jesus begins to unfold. Today’s Gospel is the 2nd of the 3 great dramas we are reading over these three Sundays during Lent. Last week we read the story of the encounter between Jesus and the Temple authorities. In this account Jesus makes it clear that he was replacing Temple worship with his own body. From now on the focus of worship would be his risen body. The political and religious leaders are becoming increasingly alarmed, concerned and apprehensive as the crowds following Jesus begin to grow and I suspect more vocal and assertive against them. They are bewilded by his miracles and challenges to their authority. They do not understand his reference to rebuilding the Temple in three days.
In today’s Gospel John takes his witness from an earlier passage in the Old Testament. “The Son of Man must be lifted up as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so that everyone who believes may have eternal life.”
The passage is a reflection of the conversation that precedes today’s passage between Jesus and Nicodemus. Remember Nicodemus; a Pharisee comes to Jesus in the middle of the night. He recognises Jesus as a man of God but is troubled. In his questioning of Jesus he puts him on trial to justify his actions and teachings. Jesus then challenges Nicodemus, to choose.
What is truth, Pilate asks Jesus at his trial. The answer for the Christian rests with the eternal God the source of all being. It is to be found in the one who calls all to live in harmony and to love one another as he loved us.
Truth is not to be found in the exclusiveness of political ideology or race or economic or social power but rather in the humbling experience of self-giving. Nor can truth be simply equated with tradition. The postmodern scientific and rational search for meaning since the Enlightenment has challenged such a viewpoint with much success. Democracy itself is one of the outcomes of the challenge to the theory of the Divine Right of Kings.
Religious faith and tradition does however have a place. We believe that all we do and say cannot be separated from the eternal God. Truth for Christians is to be understood in relation to this God and how we know his continual presence as one seeking to create a harmonious and just world.
The challenge for us is to discover in the traditions and scriptures handed down through the ages what God is calling us to do at this time, and in a way that resonates and embodies all that is good. It means rigorous intellectual discourse with texts, issues and others of differing perspectives. The outcomes may be challenging and disturbing.
In the trial of Jesus we see the Lord of the universe guilty of failing to embrace the exploits of the power brokers of the world. He refuses to bombard his foes. Instead he reaches out, on the cross to the thief and invites him into the kingdom. Is this just a dream? Or is this where truth resides, so often on the other side or where we do not expect to find it. The challenge for all of us, not just the clergy, for we are not the church alone, is to find this truth of God as expounded by John’s Jesus which many of those who heard him found disturbing, and just so may we. I invite you this Lent as we continue our journey to the cross to stand with Jesus, just as the Samaritan woman and the blind man did as the truth of God’s enduring presence, justice and faithfulness, reminding ourselves that the victim of injustice embraces the grace and forgiveness of God to the perpetrators. What a different world we may have if we did likewise? Amen .
Ray Cleary