Sermons

Sun, Mar 14, 2021

"Right" repentance

Series:Sermons
Duration:12 mins 35 secs

A fortnight ago…

a conference called “the Church and State Summit” was held up in Brisbane.

A number of prominent figures from Australia’s ‘Christian Right’ gave speeches…

encouraging those who attended––

physically or virtually–– 

to become more politically active…

and to join the Liberal and National parties…

in an effort to influence the Coalition’s agenda.

As the Queensland Liberal-National MP… 

George Christiansen… 

told them…

“The more people that you have…that are from the conservative Christian wing, the more it’s going to lean in that direction”.

One of the key speakers, of course…

was Martyn Iles––

the current head of the Australian Christian Lobby.

Speaking about how that group had campaigned against the recent ban on sexual conversion therapy in Victoria…

and how important he thought that transgender issues were going to be going forward…

he claimed…

“I’m actually seeing people rising up more and more and more…

Give this a couple of years and we’ll be able to put such a shockwave through any Parliament in the country they won’t even know what hit them. And we’re almost at that point”.

But he didn’t stop there.

Our governments, he claimed, have “given up [their] God-given duty…to punish those who do evil and reward those who do good”.

They should say “‘that’s wrong, it’s out’, and ‘that’s right, it’s in’…What’s happening is the opposite”.

Later, he joked that his father used to say, “we need a good war”…

and suggested, “there’s a little bit of truth in that”…

because we wouldn’t be so concerned about issues like climate change… 

and gender identity… 

if we were at war with China.

At that point, apparently, the conference coordinator interjected… 

“We’re not advocating violence or revolution… today”.

To which Martyn Iles responded, “Not yet… 

that’s down the line”.

 

I’m not sure whether I should laugh…

or cry…

or just be angry.

It’s an agenda straight out of the Dominionist Theology playbook.

The Religious Right in this country wants to take over the government…

either by stealthy insurrection…

or––

just kidding––

by more aggressive means…

because they feel slighted…

even persecuted…

because all of us godless heathens don’t share their anti-science and conspiracy-laden ideas…

their selective Biblical literalism…

their Taliban-like morality…

and their prehistoric values.

And they want the power to impose those beliefs, values, and morality on the rest of us.

But, of course, they’re only doing it for our own good.

After all, they’re just being faithful Christians.

They’re simply following the Bible.

They’re simply following the will of God…

and doing what He wants.

They’re trying to do what’s “right” not what’s “wrong”.

They’re trying to do what’s “good” not what’s “evil”.

But it’s got shades of Margaret Atwood’s A Handmaid’s Tale about it…

hasn’t it?

It would be laughable if it weren’t so tragic…

or, potentially, so dangerous.

 

Our reading this morning

from the Letter to the Ephesians­­­­––

which was written in the name of Paul… 

but a generation or so after Paul’s death­­––

is something of a hotch-potch of early Christian traditions.

Despite the way that it comes across in many of our English translations…

in the original Greek…

it’s a bit of an incoherent ramble.

The first seven verses are all one long sentence!

And…

despite how it’s translated…

the first three verses are a series of relative and participle clauses…

and the main subject…

which is actually God, not “you” or “us”…

isn’t mentioned until verse four!

And that, I think, is important––

as we shall see.

 

It’s often thought that the author has drawn upon phrases and ideas from a well-known hymn…

or, perhaps, a baptismal liturgy…

in composing this piece.

Certainly, some of the language would fit a baptismal context.

But there’s another tradition underlying it––

one that informs its worldview and its ideology––

that is, the Hebrew “apocalyptic” tradition.

That’s a tradition that––

out of a sense of frustration and despair…

along with a lived experience of suffering and oppression…

even persecution––

came to see everything as a huge dichotomy;

came to see everything in starkly black and white terms.

And, it especially came to see people––

“us” and “them”––

in starkly black and white terms.

We’re right.

They’re wrong.

We’re good and holy.

They’re evil and demonic.

We’re saved.

They’re destined for damnation.

Unlike Paul, himself, the author sees the world very negatively…

very pessimistically––

without Christ, he suggests, humanity is utterly helpless;

without Christ, the world is doomed.

(As an aside…

though…

if that’s true, then what’s our excuse?)

But…

the author claims…

this evil is not just the product of errant human behaviour… 

or wanton immorality.

Rather, he understands it, essentially, as a cosmological problem.

Behind the evil of this world, there are dark cosmic forces at work.

Given that––

given this whole black-and-white mindset…

given this whole “us” and “them” dichotomy––

he advocates a strongly sectarian response.

The world is irredeemably evil…

but we are called to be pure.

Salvation, then, is only possible by denial…

renunciation…

and withdrawal.

Salvation, then, is only possible within the Christian community.

And salvation can only come from the Christian community.

In so writing, the author is trying to encourage his readers who… 

it would seem…

feel helpless and oppressed.

He wants to reassure them that they are loved by God;

that they are made alive by God;

that they have been and will be saved by God;

and that they have nothing to fear from the evil powers that seem to rule their lives.

 

And yet, the corollary of such thinking is––

or could be––

a sense of smugness.

We’re saved.

We’re okay.

Even if the world, and everyone, else isn’t.

It’s the sort of deluded and smug self-righteousness that breeds people like Martyn Iles.

Not only is it a “we’re right, you’re wrong” attitude.

It’s an attitude of “we’re right…

and we know we’re right…

even if you don’t…

so we’re going to save you whether you want us to or not”.

In the end, it’s the same sort of attitude that has bred patriarchy…

colonialism…

and Apartheid…

and been used to justify wars and invasions.

It’s at the heart of the white-saviour complex.

There is so much here that is potentially dangerous and destructive.

There is so much here that is open to abuse.

 

And yet…

if we step back from the apocalyptic dualism––

from the whole “us and them” mentality––

and focus on what is the actual subject of this reading…

namely… 

God…

then what do we see?

 

The author affirms a God who is “rich in mercy”

who “loves”

and, more specifically, who works to bring life out of death.

That, in the end, is the point.

The whole story of Jesus Christ…

the whole story of God’s interaction with humankind––

and with the world––

is a story of love…

not hate and damnation;

a love that has often been unrequited…

misunderstood…

spurned…

and rejected;

but a love that has never given up on us––

even at our worst;

even when, in a sense, we have been our own worst enemies;

even when we choose the way of death––

for ourselves…

or for our world.

 

Perhaps, then, Lent is a call to repentance from thinking that––

as Christians––

we know what’s best.

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