“Are We There Yet?”

Doug Lambert 24/05/2020

Reading - 1 Peter 4: 12 – 14; 5: 6 - 11

“Are we nearly there yet?” “How much longer will it be?” These whinges bring to mind many a car trip with small, and not so small, children. They are also akin to comments which I overhear from adults when I have ventured out recently to the shopping centre, people who are seeming to find our present internment a real burden. It’s true that we are surrounded by a media blizzard of images and sound seemingly designed to sustain the idea that we are suffering greatly from the restraints imposed upon us. The deprivations of internment impact in differing ways depending on where you live and what you need to do. I suppose that living with a couple of kids in a tower block would not be something I would want to contemplate for too long. On the other hand most of us in the northern suburbs live in comfortable houses with room to move, surrounded by lawn and garden. One can draw one’s own conclusions about the whinging, but it seems to me that at least to some extent, internment is a state of mind.

My answer to the “are we nearly there” cry is “yes we are.” Next Sunday is Pentecost and we arrive at a new season of the Christian calendar. Today concludes the Easter period, it marks a community reborn and that fits very comfortably with where we are at in our community. Our period of internment is over and we are out on parole. As we slowly get back to whatever normal means, many in the community are breathing a sigh of relief. I really hope we will not return to normal. I hope that through this period of internment we have been enabled to see the possibilities which exist for a world which is less fractious, less focussed on assigning blame, more attuned to seeking solutions to problems, keener to construct a caring community. Now, I am not at all naive about such a prospect, furthermore, I am also very conscious that living faithfully means to have consistency between what we believe and how that belief is expressed in our lives. Clearly, there is a role for me and for you in moving the world in which we live towards the goal of a just society.

Use of that first hymn today was to mark an occasion but it necessitates a comment regarding the use of hymns and songs in worship. The hymns with which we grew up were written for enthusiastic congregational singing, it was music which made you want to sing. If we had been gathered together today we would have responded joyfully to the tune. The plethora of hymns written by Charles Wesley and many others, were an integral part of the revival movement which swept late18th century England. They were written for communities which enjoyed singing, choirs played an important role in community life. You can still experience vestiges of these traditions at English football matches and community gatherings. It’s also important to note that much of that enjoyable church music utilised the popular melodies of the day. To most of us here in Australia singing is almost a foreign concept, we do not really sing as a community. That is a pity. However the yearning for some of the melodies we love must be weighed against the content of lyrics are often theologically wanting and in some cases nonsensical. It seems to me that there is a need for the whole church to seriously review what it sings and why it sings. After all, we are not a glee club, we gather to worship and if we are to continue singing, and I hope that we do, then the lyrics should reflect our beliefs and values, leaving room for the occasional nostalgic relapse.

The lectionary reading from 1 Peter has application to our present circumstance. This letter was written in or around 60-63CE, which means it is amongst the earliest of the apostolic epistles. Peter was writing to communities of Christians living in Asia Minor along the shores of the Aegean Sea. It was at a time when persecution was looming, andwe know from history that threat was well and truely realised. The Romans had tended to treat the Christians as a Jewish sect, and therefore a permitted religion, even as the synagogues worked hard with the authorities to disavow them of the relationship. The primary impetus for change came with the great fire of Rome in 64CE which burned ferociously for several days. The population were coming to the view that as the emperor Nero had a passion for building great edifices he may have wanted to raze the city and rebuild it, so he just let it burn. There are sufficient historical records to allow us to suppose that there could be some truth in those rumours. The resentment of the people over what had been destroyed was bitter and as Nero had to divert suspicion from himself a scapegoat needed to be found. The Christians with their weird practices and beliefs fitted that need. The ensuing persecution was widespread and perpetrated by the authorities and by the mob. It quickly spread beyond the city of Rome and raged throughout the empire. From that time on Christians were in deadly peril. There would be periods of stability and then some trifling irritation or animosity would trigger another more local onslaught.

As William Barclay puts it,

“That is the situation at the back of First Peter; and it is in face of it that Peter calls his people to hope and to courage and to that lovely Christian living which alone can give lie to the slanders with which they are attacked and which are the grounds for taking measures against them. First Peter was written to meet no theological heresy; it was written to strengthen men and women in jeopardy of their lives.”1

This appalling State sanctioned terror has been replicated countless thousands of times over the centuries. The world has continued to experience abuse of poor in one form or another and at times outright persecution. The church is far from innocent in this abuse. Our appreciation of such circumstances can only be at a superficial level, regardless of how proficient our history and current affairs knowledge might be. One needs to experience the reality of such trauma to appreciate the depth of the fear and degradation that it harbours. All we can do in our comfortable environment is try to empathise with what others have experienced and understand it as yet another reality of our religious tradition.

In the face of genuine oppression, possibly terror, what comfort and hope is there? Peter proposes that the pattern of Christ’s life becomes the pattern of hope, the pattern for a way of living. That solidarity with others is part of the answer, just as it was most probably a factor in engendering the oppression. He goes on to talk about order and leadership, what he is really promoting is working together and not engaging in power plays; about lowliness, which I must emphasise does not in any way equate with being silent. Peter is talking about simply being oneself. What matters most in the time of oppression, or internment, or just ordinary life, is compassion. It is in compassionate self-giving that we find fulfilment.

Needless to say the world has changed significantly during our lifetimes and much of that has been very positive. Over those years there have been many opportunities to pause and reflect, to view a circumstance from a different perspective. At various stages one’s children will have taken the opportunity to encourage one to view life quite differently. This can be stressful at the time, but it generally has positive outcomes for all parties.

We all re-shape our views from time to time, be they political, temporal, theological, it stems from the influence of lived experience, or observation, or learning, times when we pause to reflect on significant issues and then change our view, or direction, or intention. Or, resolutely determine to hold our ground.

Margaret Mead’s famous little observation that “the world in which I was born, is not the world in which I will die” could just as easily be transposed to “the person I was at 21 is not the person I am now, nor will it be at my end”.

Over the next few months things will not completely return to how they were, for some that will produce varying degrees of nostalgia, for others a sense of loss, and for some it opens up the prospect of a new adventure. This means new relationships, new opportunities, new ways in which to be part of life in community.

The 1 Peter reading encourages us to be open in life to new possibilities, to be able to see that the future can be different; that hope rests on and in the God of Grace, it is something which is open ended, something rooted in God, not the individual. At its essence the gospel message is one of hope through life in community, in a relationship with the divine and with one another.

AMEN

1 The Daily Study Bible by William Barclay p150Doug Lambert. 24 May 2020 Page 2 of 3