Thank you to Rev Neville Watson who put together much of this worship material, to Rev Dorothy McRae McMahon who’s beautiful liturgy and inspired many of us.

 Musings for a Third Sunday

Doug Lambert 19 April 2020

Lectionary reading: John 20:19-31

I can’t say that I deeply miss church on Sunday morning. Like most people I have adjusted to the fact that from time to time it is possible to do other things at that time. On the other hand I do actually miss the fellowship of familiar faces, the ordinariness associated with church on Sunday.

There is another aspect to this period of internment. It seems to me there is a marked difference between having a plethora of worship options on Sunday, but not wanting or bothering to attend, and not being able to join in worship because there is no service to attend. Of itself that brings an entirely different perspective to the situation, one whichseemstomakethelossmoreintense. Itshouldalsobringtomindthosepeople living in rural and remote areas who may only have an opportunity to gather and celebrate in worship at lengthy intervals.

The last time I led this congregation in worship, back in early February, we briefly canvassed some of the issues associated with living in a changing world. Our present predicament was far from my mind. Yet it has actually happened, we have all been interned and our ordinary goings and comings restricted. For possibly the second time in the life of our nation the people have been prohibited from gathering together to worship God (the first was during the 1918 Spanish Influenza pandemic).

Our response - quiet compliance to this affront to this our most basic of freedoms. Who has been out marching in protest, who has written in high dudgeon to their MP, or even the papers? No, we have quite properly accepted the rationale for this imposition and look forward to a full and early conclusion. Through our compliance we render to Caesar that which is Caesar’s, through gathering in our present form we render to God that which is God’s

It is gathering together as a community, as the body of Christ, which lies at the centre of our Christian experience. It is in the gathered community where we are refreshed and replenished for our presence in the world; and from here we are sent out to practice our understanding of what it means to follow “the way”.

Holy communion is a sacramental practice which is closely controlled by church authorities. Both the celebrant and the liturgy have to be authorised, although there are many clergy who have found more culturally meaningful rituals than those set out in the “Book of Offices”. However, whatever form in which Holy Communion is observed, it is a sacred memorial. Notwithstanding what I said about worship attendance at the outset, I have to say that I miss our celebrating holy communion together. Today is the third Sunday in the month and would have been just such an occasion. Whilst we cannot be physically gathered we are still a community of faith, thanks in no small way to the benefits of modern technology and notwithstanding the challenges and frustrations which accompany that technology.

Last week on Easter Sunday the prescribed gospel reading was from John 20: 1 - 18, the story of the empty tomb and Mary Magdalene’s meeting with Jesus. This week John takes us on further with other appearances to the disciples, including Thomas.

There have been, and will continue to be, various explanations and beliefs as to what actually transpired in those tumultuous days. I make no attempt to explore that phenomenon from our 21st century perspective. Regardless of your theological perspective what emerges from the gospel accounts is that whatever form the events took they had a profoundly life changing impact upon the disciples of Jesus, one which went on to change the world. What is more, that experience has confronted, challenged, enticed, countless men and women over the ensuing centuries to follow the Jesus Way, doing so inexpertly, falteringly, groping along in the general direction.

In her study on John’s gospel Val Webb has this to say under the heading,

“God’s Work Never Stops
The story of Jesus the man ends for John when the man dies, but the story of ‘God at work’ in the world does not. It is obvious from John’s stories that the appearances to the disciples after Jesus’ death were not the human (born of the flesh) Jesus back again. They did not recognise him as one they knew until he spoke (20: 14-17, 19-20, 26).
What they then experienced with certainty was that the life of abiding in God they had shared with Jesus on earth had not been destroyed by death. While Jesus was no longer with them in the flesh, the Logos that had been at work in him was now in them as a community, together with the commission to do the work that had been Jesus’ human task (20: 21- 23). They were now the human story of ‘God at work’ – the story of a loving relationship with the eternal.”1

For me, this is where the focus has to lie, the intimate detail of the events are of less significance than their meaning and purpose. So where does that leave us today, living in a world which has grown in complexity beyond our capacity to properly understand. A world obsessed with superficiality, deeply suspicious of any move toward genuine community, reluctant to engage with any proposal which might have real impact on one’s lifestyle.

Richard Rohr provides a critique of Christianity in these terms,

“It seems to me that it is a minority that ever gets the true and full Gospel—in any denomination. Most of us just keep worshiping Jesus and arguing over the right way to do it. The amazing thing is that Jesus never once says, ‘Worship me!’ whereas he frequently says, ‘Follow me’ (e.g., Matthew 4:19).

Christianity is a lifestyle – a way of being in the world that is simple, non- violent, shared, and loving. However, we have made it into an established ‘religion’ (and all that goes with that) and avoided the lifestyle change itself. One could be warlike, greedy, racist, selfish, and vain in most of Christian history, and still believe that Jesus is one’s ‘personal Lord and Saviour’ ... The world has no time for such silliness anymore. The suffering on Earth is too great.”2

1 John’s Message - Good News for the New Millennium by Val Webb page 27

2 Adapted from CAC Foundation Set: Gospel Call to Compassionate Action (Bias from the Bottom) and Contemplative Prayer

We have a strong cultural attachment to the organised church. The Uniting Church and its predecessors have played an important part in our lives and we should be grateful for the many positive things, both personal and corporate, which have emanated from those institutions. Following “the way” takes us beyond all of the structural, doctrinal, strictures of conventional religion to the essential truths reflected in the life of Jesus the Christ and which John was seeking to describe for his local community and beyond.

The precepts we are using to guide our living are not bound up in buildings, or ecclesiastical rituals, or doctrinal statements, all of which have a place, but they are not at the centre. The central manifestations of our faith lie in the manner of our relations with other people, in our sharing of our resources with those in need, in speaking truth to power. You might recall that catchy little song from Sunday school,

The phone call, the casserole, a lift to the shops, wherever the need is perceived, those gifts to another human being, those outpourings of humanness, are where we find ourselves in communion with the divine, where we reveal in our actions God’s love for the world.

In this time of communal internment our discomfort needs to be kept in perspective. Think of people in Italy, or New York, or contemplate the impact of Covid-19 on the middle eastern refugee camps; aged relatives in care homes prevented from having any family visitors. Then there are those who die alone, or nursed by a stranger, for families unable to say their farewells or make their own peace.

We have accepted a call to what Richard Rohr described earlier as “a way of being in the world that is simple, non-violent, shared, and loving” something which will undoubtedly call on our ingenuity in finding new ways to be a community of Christ.

If we were having a closing hymn today I would have “Now let us from this table rise” which concludes in verse four ,

“Then give us grace, companion God, To choose again the pilgrim way,
And help us to accept with joy
The challenge of tomorrow’s day.”4

Rejoice that this present internment will pass, and we will again gather to celebrate the great feast together, even if it isn’t a third Sunday.

“The church is not a building;

the church is not a steeple;

the church is not a resting place;

the church is a people.”3

3 “I am the church, you are the church”. Donald Stuart March, Richard Kinsey Avery. Hope Pub Co.4 TIS 530 verse 4