Who are we? - head, heart and hands

Evening worship – 26 August 2012 led by the Rev Dr Graham Adams

Readings: Joshua 24: 1-18

                  John 6: 52-69

Head: Who are we?

Who are we?

It’s a constantly important question for the church,

because we need to reflect on who we are as a community of disciples of Jesus

in order to remind ourselves of our calling and our mission –

who we are informs how we should live and what we should do,

and as we face challenges in each new age, we need to reflect on this question time & again.

This evening I’ll break it down into three sections – head, heart and hands.

Head is about thinking the issues through,

heart is about committing to the kind of relationships and community we aim to be,

and hands is about our actions; what are we going to do about it?

So we begin with our heads.

Who are we?

In particular, to start with, who are we in these Bible passages? – a question we often ask.

Who do we most identify with? – and why do we identify with ‘this group’ & not ‘them’?

This question stood out for me, in relation to these 2 Bible stories, because of a problem:

In the Old Testament passage, we’d probably want to identify ourselves with the Jews –

the ones rescued by God, the ones who God travels with, & who God promises much to;

after all, as Christians our story is rooted in the ancient story of the Jewish people,

primarily because Jesus himself was Jewish and its heritage obviously shaped who he was,

but in particular in this story, the Jews commit to serve the Lord, and to reject false gods –

so we presumably want to identify ourselves with them, and not with ‘the others’. Do we?

But when we turn to the New Testament passage, we see the Gospel-writer poses us with a problem

because he contrasts ‘the Jews’, who are troubled by Jesus, & Jesus’ own followers –

not least because he was writing at a time when the emerging Christian community

was increasingly in tension with the synagogues, as the differences were becoming clearer,

so the relationship was under stress…

so if we ask ‘who are we?’, can we be ‘the Jews’ in one story but ‘not the Jews’ in the other?

Now on the one hand, this doesn’t necessarily cause us any problems,

because it reflects the ambiguity which is at the heart of being Christian:

for we are rooted in Judaism and yet quite distinct from it too.

But on the other hand, we should take care identifying ourselves with one group not another:

for what about those others: whether the Egyptians, or the Amorites, killed in God’s name,

or those disciples who ended up turning away, or ‘the Jews’ in John’s Gospel?

If we see ourselves very clearly as being like ‘them’, that group, but different from the others,

are we doing that for the right motives, and what does it say about those others anyway?

For example, if – by identifying ourselves with the Jews in the Old Testament passage –

we are saying ‘we’re nothing like the Egyptians, who kept people in slavery, & ended up being killed’

or ‘we are nothing like the Amorites, who tried to resist the advance of God’s people’

then we should take care!

In fact, Joshua himself realised that the story wasn’t one-sided, for the Jews themselves

had a habit of taking on false gods and failing to serve the true living God,

so it’s dangerous to see ourselves only as ‘the good guys’ – it won’t ring true;

and we shouldn’t only see ourselves as being like the Jews who suffered slavery

just because it is preferable to think of ourselves as the victims of other people’s power,

for the truth is that other people in the world have been & remain the victims of our power,

whether we realise it or not.

We live in a messy world – with structures and systems with untold effects on many people,

and we are part of these things which bring both freedom & captivity simultaneously.

Similarly, if we identify ourselves in the New Testament story with the disciples who commit to Jesus and therefore dissociate ourselves from those who end up turning away from him,

we once again tell a half-truth,

because surely there are times when we effectively turn away, & others when we commit:

we are human, life is messy, we make mistakes, our motives are mixed,

we sometimes hurt each other, and sometimes choose the easier road to suit ourselves.

All these things suggest we should recognise that we’re not only like those who say ‘Yes’,

for we also say ‘Maybe’, ‘in a moment’, ‘it depends’, ‘what’s the catch?’, and ‘not so sure’.

But this is good news, because it reminds us that, when we find the going gets tough,

we’re not alone – others have walked similar paths and made similar mistakes,

so don’t despair!

Because even though we’re not always perfect & our actions have unforeseen consequences;

even though our lives sometimes reflect allegiance to false gods (security, wealth, or pride),

& we’re not always so cleanly on ‘the right side’ of an issue – life isn’t like that; & we’re not;

still we can take comfort, because the Bible shows us that disciples are a mixed bunch –

so we don’t need to be one-dimensional, always getting things right, or with perfect faith:

no, Jesus shows us God’s love is for all of us, including with our muddles & mess. Thank God!

Heart: ‘Choose this day (who to be)’

So, we’ve been thinking through the issues with our heads

and I’ve suggested that it’s a bit of a problem if we try to identify ourselves

with one group, and not another, with ‘insiders’ (or ‘the good guys’) as opposed to ‘outsiders’,

because that might leave us feeling under pressure to get everything right to stay ‘inside’,

as though we can never be honest, or ‘real’ or ‘human’ or complicated, or many-sided.

Instead, I want to suggest that something at the heart of who we are as Christian people

is an acceptance that we shouldn’t only see ourselves as ‘insiders’,

on the right side of every argument – like the disciples who got it right with Jesus –

but that it’s also absolutely appropriate to recognise the ways in which we are ‘outsiders’,

sometimes getting things wrong, worshipping false gods, or effectively turning away,

because what we see most of all in the ministry of Jesus

is a ministry towards those who were on the outside.

So, not only with our heads but with our hearts too, let us affirm that we are messy people,

sometimes right, sometimes wrong, sometimes on the inside, sometimes on the outside,

sometimes living our lives in accordance with the ways of the living God,

sometimes living our lives in the light of some kind of false god,

but still God welcomes us, time & again, with open arms, and gives us purpose. Thank God!

And by affirming this, we are better placed to come alongside one another

and alongside those who find themselves feeling like outsiders, unsure, & in need of grace.

It can be tempting to think that everyone has to fall in line, & believe everything ‘just so’,

and of course we try to have standards which reflect some core Christian values –

but right at the heart of our core values is Grace: love which cannot be earned

but which makes a world of difference to people’s lives.

It is this which lies at the very heart of who we are, or who we are called to be – Grace! –

because it is grace which has drawn us here, made us feel we belong even though we are imperfect; it is grace which gives us a part to play even though we make mistakes.

So, not only with our heads, but with our hearts, let us choose this day to be people of grace:

to aim to be a community which knows we’re sometimes a bit like the Jews, sometimes not,

we’re sometimes right, sometimes wrong, sometimes gracious, often not, but always in need of grace:

so let us choose to extend our welcome even to disciples who sometimes turn away,

including each other and ourselves.

Hands: ‘We will serve the Lord’

So what might our commitment be, in terms of our hands, our actions, as a result of this?

As a Christian community, the church, I suggest we strive to be generous –

not only welcoming to those who fit in, who get it right, who behave like the best of us,

but welcoming to those who struggle, who need more grace, just as we too need grace;

not only welcoming to those who play by the rules but to those who cause us trouble;

not only welcoming to those who believe everything they’ve been taught

but also to those who ask many hard questions.

But this applies in our own lives too: don’t expect perfection of each other –

recognise that we’re all a bit messy, we’re all a bit complicated, we’re not one-dimensional

so we need to give each other that allowance, understanding that we’re not consistent.

Let us, with our heads, understand that who we are as Christian people, & as human beings,

isn’t straightforward: we’re all a mix of things, insiders, outsiders, committed, turning away;

and let us, with our hearts, commit to be that kind of community which allows for this, in love,

which does not expect perfection, but affirms this is a place for all sorts of people, always;

and let us, with our hands, work for a world which practices this kind of hospitality & grace,

let us practise this kind of understanding and love which doesn’t stop at the walls of the church

but extends outwards, to all people.

This, I suggest, is at the heart of what it means to ‘serve the Lord’ – the Lord of love,

whose love for us is always gracious and which gives us this sense of who we are:

as people of grace.