Sermon for July 2nd 2023
Parish of
the South Coast
This picture is from an old building on the coastal path. What do you see here?
What is this
sword of which Jesus speaks? Is it sword
of revenge, of execution or assassination? Is it sword of maiming and
disfiguring? Is the sword of war ready to deter, to destroy, to defend?
Why is peace
withheld and why the promise of hostility? The Greek verb which we translate as
‘set against’ means to make hostile. If this was not enough the enemy is within
and the preceding verses speak of whispers in darkness and those who come to
kill.
Let me move
to another sword metaphor in the Letter to the Hebrews 4:11. The logos
ton theo, the word of God ‘is something alive and active: it cuts more
incisively than any two-edge sword: it can seek out the place where soul is
divided from spirit, or joints from the marrow; it can pass judgement on secret
thoughts and intentions of the heart. No
created thing is hidden from him’ (New Jerusalem Bible translation)
Jesus is the
compassionate High Priest described as sharper than sharp, the two mouthed who
is called here the word of God. Christ is the Word of God.
So then how
do we approach the words of Jesus in Matthew’s Gospel? ‘Do not think that I
have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a
sword’
In
responding we must acknowledge that the predominant image of God in the western
Church is that of God as the judge in the law court. French Protestant monastic theologian Daniel
Bourguet says:
‘for our
contemporaries, before anything else, and almost solely, God is a judge; one
whose time is spent condemning, or should the case prove better, forgiving: but
always as judge’
(p37 Spiritual Maladies)
Yet Jesus in
the Gospel is the healer, the word ‘save’ means to heal and to make whole. So
when Matthew moves from describing healings to this passage about the sword we
can understand that the sword, an instrument of death is here the scalpel held
by the great Physician. The Risen Crucified one continues to heal our inner
self as doctors, medical professionals and psychologists help in the healing of
mind and body. The false peace is the
hidden disease, the long-held resentment, the unacknowledged addictions, the
hurt, shame of the past or perhaps a secret betrayal that we hate ourselves
for. If we turn back to today’s Gospel, we can remind ourselves of the
hostility and indeed violence in human relationships including all too often in
families. Church communities too can be
places where people are bullied or hurt in other ways.
Pastor
Daniel Bourguet noting the atrophy and abstraction of much of western theology reminds
us how much stronger in eastern Christian theology the theme of Christ the
physician is. For so many Christ is the stern judge of
the law court or worse still the angry, punishing God whose wrath falls on
Jesus rather than on us much more reflects our hostility and inner conflict. For so many Christ imprisons us in our shame and hurt rather than setting us free to live in the joy and generosity that willingly assists us to discern the right way to offer the 'cup of cool water'
That is not
to exclude appropriate judgement, but the judgement becomes the discriminating skill
of the specialist in diagnosis, facing the patient with the truth and where
necessary operating, cutting away or amputating a diseased limb or excising a
cancer. Then assisting with the often painful and confronting journey of
rehabilitation. The power of the sharp scalpel
blade may indeed hurt but it is necessary if we are to recover from our
spiritual illness.
Our two
other readings today also speak of God as our healer. A woman is healed of her infertility through
the prayer of the prophet. Infertility in the ancient world was always the
shameful fault of the woman. Here in response to her hospitality her body
becomes a place of hospitality for a new life, one for whom she had longed and
prayed. Her yearning had not made her bitter, she made a space for the prophet
of God. Paul writes of God’s hospitality in Baptism and the renewal we have
through the healing work of the Spirit seeking to be born through the labour pains
of our desires and our hopes.
Our passage
today is set within a series of sayings about the hospitality of God which we
are called to reflect. Gospel communities become places of welcome and true
healing. Former Archbishop Rowan Williams writes: “we feel the edge, the
ache in human anger and human suffering. And we recognise it can be taken into
Christ and into the heart of the Father. It can be healed. It can be
transfigured” ((Being Human page 93)
Let us place
ourselves wholeheartedly into the care of God who calls us into the fullness of
life. Christ calls us to truthfulness and through grace generosity and
compassion are in evidence. May our
little community be a place of true healing and hope where joy is present as we
seek to be healed and to heal.
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