Sermon Archive
How come you weren't drowned then?
Sermon preached by Donald Reid at Holy Communion on 22 August 2004
Isaiah 5.1-7, Luke 12.49-56
I wonder if you've heard the one about the cheeky wee boy who, impressed with the great age of his venerable grandmother asked her, 'Granny, granny ? were you on Noah's Ark'?
To which his granny replied somewhat tetchily 'I most certainly was not!'
And the wee boy looked genuinely puzzled and said 'So, how come you weren't drowned then?'
Of course, we can breathe a sigh of relief that if such thing were to happen now, the wee boy would be issued with an anti-social behaviour order.
'How come you weren't drowned then?'
It has to be remembered that for the people of Israel both at the time of Isaiah in the 8th century BC (our first reading) and at the time of Jesus in the 1st century AD, there was a collective folk memory of the great flood, when God decided the creation he had made was irredeemable and he had, basically, to start from scratch.
Whether the Great Flood actually happened is beside the point. It was in the psyche of the people that a collective failure in obeying the will of God would result in catastrophe. It's hard for us to get inside their minds but I suppose it was a bit like that background fear we all lived with for 30 or 40 years or nuclear holocaust: that something terrible could overtake us, something apocalyptic as a result of a collective failure. After a decade when that fear had subsided perhaps it has returned with the growing fear of terrorist action. Is that also linked to a collective failure to act as God requires, that some madmen receive succour for their extremism?
Anyway, that's how the people then saw it: that vcollective failure could result in catastrophe, in being drowned in the waters of chaos, descending into hell. The God of Israel could be a God of wrath too. And thus the line of prophets reminding the people of their responsibilities to God with bloodcurdling warnings.
For example Isaiah in todays reading, haranguing the people for their faithlessness - a beautiful passage speaking of Israel as a vineyard which their beloved [God] had cleared, digging it and clearing it of stones and planting choice vines, and protecting it ? and what does he get? Instead of good grapes, it produces wild grapes; or, as the prophet explains, God expected justice but saw bloodshed; righteousness but heard a cry.
And then there is a catalogue of dire consequences following on Israel's failure to do what God requires.
Perhaps then in that context it is easier to understand the jarring words of Jesus in today's Gospel 'Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division'.'I have come to cast fire on the earth'. Fire, of course, is a symbol of judgement. So Jesus is speaking in the tradition of the prophets before him about the judgement for Israel's collective sins.
So it would appear that terrible judgement awaits those who act unjustly: those who do not understand the demands of loving your neighbour as yourself. It's very important to see these hard words of Jesus in the context of this prophetic tradition demanding love, justice and humility because there are many who would cite these words of Jesus to justify their own divisiveness and injustice.
For example there are Christians who would argue against equality for women, or for minorities or against tolerance of people of other faith ? or even for war! - who would justify this by proudly quoting Jesus saying 'I have not come to bring peace but a sword'.
There is a book which has just been published called 'America Alone: the neo-conservatives and the global order' which describes the neo-conservatives behind the present American government as a sect who have captured the White House and who have used the terrible tragedy of 9/11 as a pretext for putting into effect a preconceived plan to impose a new order in the world: and a sect which uses scripture as justification. These are our Christian Taliban. The book is the more damning because it's authors come from the right wing of politics.
This use of scripture this way is of course a complete inversion of what was intended: it is used as a justification for violence and injustice rather than a warning against them.
And the result? Do we not still produce bloodshed instead of justice, a cry instead of righteousness?
And what about all the honeyed words about debt cancellation, poverty reduction and free trade? The fact is we don't produce these fruits of love and justice, these grapes: but wild grapes, counterfeit initiatives which use the rhetoric but continue to grind the poor into the earth.
It's hard not to conclude that those who use scripture in this way either do not understand it or do not believe in it. Because if they truly did believe in judgement as a consequence of collective sin, would they act is such ways? Casting fire on the earth as if they were God?
I think Jesus means something else than smart bombs when he talks of casting fire on the earth. He means the holy spirit, of truth, love and justice. This is picked up in our liturgy when, in the prayers at communion, we ask God to send the Holy Spirit on the bread and wine and upon us, that 'we may be kindled with the fire of God's love and renewed for the service of God's Kingdom'.
It seems to me that in God's Kingdom we see power used to serve rather than to crush; power given away rather than accrued. Sacrifice rather than self-interest.
So when one day a small boy asks us 'how come you weren't drowned then?' the answer will be because despite our temptations to impose our will on the world we chose justice rather than injustice, mercy rather than ruthless pursuit of our own interests, and humility in claiming to act for God, rather than arrogance. May that day come when we produce good fruit rather than wild fruit.
Spirit of truth whom the world can never grasp, touch our hearts with the shock of your coming and fill us with the desire for your peace; and fire us with longing to speak your uncontainable word, through Jesus Christ. Amen.
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