Sermons

Sun, Feb 12, 2017

We are all diminished

Series:Sermons

It’s been a pretty rocky start for President Trump’s administration.

This week the US federal appeals court upheld a suspension on his Muslim travel ban––

the third court ruling against it.

The court action opposing the ban––

which was brought by the state government of Washington, among several others––

follows widespread protests that were held at numerous airports across America…

in the wake of the ill-conceived ban.

The ban was also widely criticised and condemned by the leaders of most Western nations––

not just because it was blatantly xenophobic…

nor biased and selective…

but because it’s the very isolating and marginalising action…

which is known to foster radicalisation.

In response to another one of Trump’s executive orders––

one which prohibited foreign aid from supporting family-planning organisations…

in third world countries…

which promote abortion––

the governments of the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, and Canada…

have stepped up…

and offered to meet the expected seven hundred and fifty million dollar shortfall in aid.

As the Dutch foreign minister noted,

“Banning abortion does not reduce the number of abortions”…

it just makes them more dangerous.

And the speaker of the British parliament has announced…

this week…

that President Trump would not be permitted to address the British parliament…

on his forthcoming visit…

because of his blatant racism and misogyny.

The speaker’s decision came after he was presented with a petition…

signed by two hundred British parliamentarians.

Opposition to Trump…

and his policies…

is not just confined to his political opponents at home.

The things that he says…

and the things that he signs…

have effects internationally.

So it’s only right and proper that responsible governments stand up to him.

But it’s right and proper that we all stand up and say, “No!”…

for, as Martin Luther King jr, reminds us…

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly”.

This is a point that King made time and time again:

all of humanity is inter-connected.

I can never be who I ought to be until you are who you ought to be.

Anything that devalues another human being––

anything that impedes or impairs their freedom or their growth––

impedes or impairs me.

Because, in the end, we are all children of God.

We are all––

in the rich mythological and metaphorical language of the Bible––

created in the image of God.

Consequently, to deny freedom to another human being;

to deny them justice…

or respect…

or the hope of change;

to deny them the very necessities of life;

to treat another human being––

any human being––

as less than fully human…

is a blasphemy against the God whose children we all are.

And it doesn’t make a shred of difference if those denials and deprivations are enshrined in civil law…

and justified by official government propaganda.

To the extent that we even tacitly or implicitly allow such denials and deprivations to occur…

we are, effectively, denying God.

 

And I think that’s what Paul is also trying to say…

in our reading, this morning, from first Corinthians.

In the context of the in-fighting in the Corinthian church…

with the well-to-do battling each other for power and influence…

pulling each other down…

using all of the resources at their disposal…

and using the poorer members of the church, who were indebted to them, as pawns…

Paul chides them:

“I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for solid food. Even now you are still not ready, for you are still of the flesh. For as long as there is jealousy and quarrelling among you, are you not of the flesh, and behaving according to human inclinations?”

Teasing out some of the nuances in the Greek terms that Paul uses––

when we engage in petty bickering and rivalry…

when we harbour animosity or hatred…

when we act out of jealousy, envy, selfishness, or spite…

Paul suggests that we are acting in a “fleshly” or “worldly” way.

Whenever we use people––

especially the poor and powerless––

as political pawns…

or as disposable and expendable in the maintenance of my comfort, power, or way or life…

then we are acting according to our human…

not our godly…

inclinations.

In other words, we are not motivated by––

we are not living out––

our identity as spiritual beings.

We are not living as children of God.

We are, effectively, denying God.

Or, in the words of Rowan Williams––

the former Archbishop of Canterbury:

“God is not to be known unless we grasp the depth of our freedom and our unfreedom, unless we give up fictions about our purity or our innocence and become committed to searching out those we exclude and suppress, creating with them the promised community of mutual gift”.

Unless we search out––

unless we include…

unless we embrace wholeheartedly––

those who are excluded and those who are denied freedom and justice…

we will never know human community as it was intended to be;

nor will we ever understand God.

As a community…

as a society…

as Church…

unless we include the excluded––

those denied justice or dignity or full-inclusion because of their race…

their culture…

their religion…

their age…

their gender…

their sexuality…

their education…

their social class…

their disability…

where they came from and how they got here…

or any other difference that is turned into a barrier or an excuse––

unless we include the excluded…

we will never really know God;

we will never really understand the God who loves impartially and indiscriminately.

Unless we re-humanise the de-humanised––

whoever they are––

we will never know or understand the God who revealed God’s self in Jesus––

a God of gentleness and peace…

a non-violent God of justice and forgiveness…

and a God who preferentially cares for the poor, the excluded, and the oppressed.

Whenever we cling to our comfort and privilege at the expense of others…

whenever we act with latent violence and hostility…

whenever we silently acquiesce to unjust laws and policies that cause harm…

whenever we judge some humans more worthy than others––

either overtly, or simply by what we say or do or how we live––

then we demonstrate that we have not understood God or God’s ways.

Nor have we really understood what it means to be fully human.

And, in the process, we are all diminished.

 

In light of this, then…

our nation’s appalling treatment of asylum seekers is…

I believe…

the greatest moral issue of this generation.

When we continue to detain broken and vulnerable people in offshore gulags…

where they are subjected to physical violence and sexual assault…

and deprived of the sort of basic medical care that we take for granted…

it is a stain or a cancer on our souls––

individually and collectively.

Not only are we further traumatising already traumatised individuals…

but, in the process, we too are diminished.

By denying them their full humanity,

we denigrate our own.

We will not grasp our full humanity…

we will not know what it means to be children of God…

until they are free to do so as well.

It’s as simple…

and it’s as serious…

as that! 

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