Readings:
Jeremiah 29.4-14; Ps 33.12-21; 1 Thessalonians 5.12-24; John 8.31-36
May I speak in the name of God, always Creating, Redeeming, and Sanctifying. Amen.
What an excellent set of readings for a day like to today! I struggled to figure out which reading to start with. But I’ve decided we start with the gospel.
Jesus tells his followers in Jerusalem that if they continue in his word then they are truly his disciples. Then they will know the truth, and the truth will set them free. Now, these people who had believed in him complain, saying they’ve never been slaves, spiritual speaking. Notice they choose Abraham as their ‘father’ rather than Moses. And Jesus tells them, ‘everyone who commits a sin is a slave to sin.’ But that the Son of the household can set them free.
So, we have three good words here: ‘Word’, ‘Truth’, and ‘Free.’ In John, Jesus, is the Word. And here Jesus is saying that by continuing in his word, i.e. him, then disciples will know the truth. Later, in John chapter 14 Jesus identifies himself as ‘the Truth.’ “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.” Life in Jesus, the Word, will open our hearts and minds to the Truth, and that Truth will set us Free.
Free from slavery to sin.
Free for proper worship of God and therefore, proper life together.
Our life together is the focus of the Hebrew and New Testament readings.
Let’s look at Jeremiah. Chapter 29, verse 7.
“Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf,
for in its welfare you will find your welfare.”
As far as I can find out, this is the only time that the people of Israel are told to pray for their pagan neighbours, and in this case, their captors. In Babylon’s welfare, they will find their own welfare. This makes so much sense. You want the place where you are living to flourish, because if it doesn’t then you’re your wellbeing is not going to flourish, is it?
How often do we pray for the leaders of our country especially when we disagree with them?
To pray for the flourishing of a person whom you dislike, or a leader of any kind, or for our country as a whole, cannot mean that we are not also praying for ourselves. Because, when something flourishes it brings life to everything around it. Flourishing is of God, and anything that is of God is good.
Someone’s worldly success that comes at the cost of others or of the earth, is not flourishing. That is greed. That greed will make a slave of them.
What about the letter to the Thessalonians? They are being called to a flourishing life together. Respect, encourage, admonish where appropriate. Have patience with everyone!
See that no one repays evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to all. Rejoice always; pray without ceasing; give thanks in all circumstances; Do not quench the Spirit; Do not despise the words of prophets, but test everything! Hold fast to what is good and abstain from every kind of evil. Again, we see seeking each other’s good is of God.
I really love the part about not despising the words of the prophet. It doesn’t stop there, does it? “Test everything.” Don’t despise, but test.
The words of prophets are never easy to hear. Because of that, they are easy to despise. But heading back to our gospel, Jesus tells us that the truth will make us free. So, when you hear of something that challenges you (and I include myself in that ‘you’), don’t despise it, not the bearer of such things. Rather, sit with it and learn about it.
Australia Day has become increasingly polarising in our country and I suspect this is because the two ends of the spectrum (there’s a whole bunch of people in the middle) are not listening to one another. For our Aboriginal brothers and sisters this date marks the anniversary of a hostile take-over.
It was an invasion.
It was violent.
These lands were never ceded by the people who lived here. There is no treaty. They were forcibly removed and disempowered. That is historical fact. I know that that is historical fact is uncomfortable to hear. Do not despise the words, but test everything.
In some ways is remain violent because of old structures of power.
Have we listened to their lament?
Truly listened?
With patience?
Do we pray for their healing? Do we pray for their flourishing? Don’t forget, our welfare is tied up with theirs, just as their welfare is tied up with ours.
I know that there are members of our congregation who have ancestors who came out as convicts on the First Fleet. Maybe some others have other convict ancestry (I do). I think about what they are recorded to have endured on the trip over and as they were prisoners here. And I’ve been to Port Arthur and gone through that place. To see and be in some of those buildings and to read about what happened there is very confronting. Again, it makes us very uncomfortable to think that these things have happened. But they have.
These people were forcibly removed from their homes and families, never to see them again. They were used as forced labour to build the colony, and then if they were lucky, released to eke out a life on foreign land. That these people were able to make a life for themselves and their descendants is amazing, and we hold that in the tension of the Frontier Wars. Knowing one thing does not negate the other, we hold them both in tension with each other.
There is much to be grateful for living in Australia in the 21st century.
We have civil liberties. Our land is not without its injustice, we know, but when we look at the world scene we can see just how privileged we are. Sometimes that means that people are emboldened to say things that are hate-filled. Late last year on the steps of the Victorian State Government masked men dressed in black unrolled an enormous banner filed with anti-Semitic rage and hate. And they stood there for three minutes spewing their hate all over the steps of that building. The goodness in that story is the passers-by; the people who saw it, regular citizens, and shouted them down. They said, This is wrong! You cannot say these things because we know exactly what kind of violence that leads to.
Since the anniversary of the October 7 (2023) terrorist attack on Israel, so that’s only a few months, there have been over 100 anti-Semitic attacks in Australia. Attacks on places of worship, businesses, and homes.
We condemn these attacks.
Hate has no place in Christian life. Violence has no place in Christian life.
And when it comes to anti-Semitism, Christians must be very careful, especially when we have readings like today. You may have noticed that I changed the word ‘the Jews.’ I chose to say ‘Judeans’ and there is a very specific reason for that. Etymologically, the word Jew means a person from Judea. So technically, the translation of Judean as Jew is correct. But today, “Jew” also encompasses cultural, and religious identities, not just coming from a particular region. This reading today is concerned with what the Judeans believe, what the people from Judea believe. Just as chapter three is concerned with that the people from Galilee believe, and chapter four is concerned with what the people from Samaria believe. Galileans, Samaritans, Judeans.
We have to be careful when reading scripture that talks about ‘the Jews’ because of the very long, Christian, anti-Semitic history. Christians have a very strong responsibility to speak out against it because we bear a lot of the historical responsibility.
So, with great privilege comes great responsibility. Everybody sitting here today is privileged. We might have privilege of different kinds and in different ways, but no matter who you are, if you live in Australia, you are amongst the wealthiest in the entire world.
So we have great responsibility.
Responsibility to:
Pray for the flourishing of each other and all who live in our country.
To be patient with everyone,
to listen to those who say things that are difficult to hear…
and to test it.
Responsibility to admonish where necessary, like those by-standers did with the med who rolled out the banner on the steps of parliament house.
Responsibility to Rejoice always,
to pray without ceasing,
to give thanks in every circumstance,
to hold fast to what is good,
and to seek that good and flourishing for all.
Amen.