August 16, 2015

Susan Adams

Ordinary Sunday 20

Video available on YouTube, Facebook

As a preacher the Gospel reading today is one of those that makes me want to say. "Oh dear, whatever is this all about?" More bread stories and more what to do instructions. So much for the simple stories about Jesus that we 'long to hear'!

Just so you know, I am share with you my thinking about this couple of readings as it is unfolding. So I am very happy to talk with you over morning tea if you are interested in pursuing any of the ideas further.

I thought initially that I would cheat and only address the Epistle. This seemed straight forward, and as relevant for us today at St Matthews as we think about who we are as a congregation of faith in the city, as it was when Paul wrote it to the infant churches in Ephesus.

You will know by now, if you didn't know before, that Ephesus was a cosmopolitan commercial centre. There were many religious traditions practised there, many languages, many cultures and races – a bit like Auckland today. Paul is writing to the various embryonic groups of Christians in Ephesus. His concern, as expressed in this letter, is to remind the groups that though they may be made up of people amongst whom there is great diversity, they need each other. And what is more, the charge to them as Christians is to uphold unity and peace notwithstanding the differences and diversity amongst them. This, he says, would be achieved more readily if they treated each other with humility and patience, respecting the range of skills and abilities amongst the various people, and doing their best to model themselves on the one they had come to call the 'Christ' (Paul seldom speaks of Jesus).

In our reading today, we hear Paul telling them to be wise about how they live, not to be naive about what is going on around them, and to hold fast to what they know about God's vision for humanity in the midst of the complex social environment they live in. All that seems relevant to us here at St Matthews – don't you think – as we keep reminding ourselves of these characteristics.

But as the week unfolded, and my brain cogitated on the two readings, it didn't seem enough to focus on Ephesians and I thought I had better have a go and see what I could make of the Gospel. I had become curious about why there were so many readings from John's Gospel paired with Pauls letter to the churches of Ephesus. I began to think about them in a bigger framework than the particulars of biblical exegesis, or even trying to shape a logical deconstructive argument (which is often what those of us who want to claim the 'progressive' label are wont to do.

The Ephesians reading is about behaviour, how we behave ourselves, and how we behave toward others: it is action oriented – directive and unambiguous. By contrast the Gospel of John is much more esoteric, it is image laden and shocking – cannibalistic even today! John has been going on and on attempting to unpack for us the bread image that is used so frequently in the scriptures – from Moses to Jesus. John wants us to be in no doubt that while Moses fed the people in the wilderness with mana to sustain their physical bodies in a time of great need, it was God that provided what was necessary, and, it is God that provides Jesus, as sustenance for the nourishment of our faith: bread of life; 'living' bread as it were. This bread John tells us will give us not just physical life but eternal life: not quantity or never ending life (that would be terrible, hellish for most of us), but access into 'God's life', eternal life, or into the elemental substances and energies of all that is – for now and for always. Eternal life: quality not quantity is what he reminds us Jesus offers.

But all this is very difficult for us to unpack. It always seems to me to be complicated theological stuff; material that I say 'yes' to because it sounds good and I think I should, and then I skip on, or alternatively, I say "that doesn't make sense, it requires more mental gymnastics that I am prepared for, so I'll give that bit a miss!"

Today, however, I want to suggest that that this reading from John's Gospel, and those we have been hearing in this cycle of bread readings, had a deeply significant impact on the Christian community as it took shape, and consequently on us today.

I want to suggest that in these readings from John, the logos – the word of God – and the mythos – the big behaviour-changing story about God – come together. And, what is more, it is the 'behaviour-changing' story, or the myth, that we are bringing to life each week as we celebrate the Eucharist – sharing together, symbolically, the 'life-giving bread' in remembrance and with thanksgiving. This myth, this big story shapes who we are. It helps us to tell ourselves who we are, and to tell others who we are, and in so doing it shapes the culture, the ethos, of who we are. It shapes how we comport ourselves, how we seek to relate to one another, and what our values are.

Now please do not mishear me. A myth is a very important story about something that, in some way, once happened and now has the power to change lives and behaviour through people remembering and re-enacting that story. However, without regular re-telling and re-enactment the story loses potency, it becomes just words, just a 'once upon a time' story. But if subsequent generations retell and re-enact the story it gathers life and power, and its significance grows and changes as it speaks to successive generations differently in their own time.

A grand-child once asked me as I was reading a bed-time story "Is it a true story?" They knew the story was not reciting events of history, but they were listening for resonances of 'truth' as they knew from their life experience.

That is what we do with myth – we listen for the resonances of truth that tell us who we are (our best selves), they tell us what is important, and remind us where we fit in the scheme of things alongside others.

Today we will retell in words and actions the death and new-life story of Jesus, we will retell and re-enact the story of life-giving bread available to be shared amongst all people.

Myths usually take place at the very edge of our human understandings, they push us to the very edge of our human certainties, to the liminal places where imagination kicks in and change can occur if we dare to ask "what if...".

The 'bread of life' story of Jesus, that we retell and re-enact – this story where word and action meet in the potential for change – is for me at the edge of my capacity to comprehend, it is here I am glad of the behavioural instructions that Paul provides in his letter to give me guidelines to be going on with till I come to trust my companions. We could say that Paul is providing for the Christian community, through his behavioural instructions, the ethos of who we are as the 'living body of Christ' of which he spoke previously. In a way we are being invited to ask "what if we lived this way?" Then to test it out by stepping into the unknown to see!

So, I want to say that logos and mythos come together in ethos: that what we say about the story that shapes us is acted out in how we live together: in what we do with one another and for one another and amongst those who are different from us but with whom we share the earth. The vision statement that has been developed by a process of consultation and refinement amongst this community seeks to put some contemporary shape to the story for now, here. How we act it out will tell if it reflects the truth of who we are or not.

It seems this is so for us as a nation as well as a community of Christians. If we listen to the words that are used by leaders in our nation we can hear the current story that is being shaped about who we are and the values and priorities that we espouse. We may or may not like this emerging story, we may or may not be trying to counter it with a different story. But it will be in how we enact the story or counteract the story, that the values and the ethos of our nation will be demonstrated.

For me, and I hope for you, this weekly celebration of the story of 'life-giving bread' is both deeply reassuring (for which I am grateful), and uncomfortably challenging.
 

The story is a story of compassion and concern, it is one that seeks to value diversity and respect, it is one that seeks honesty compassion and peace.

I am convinced, as Paul was, that we need each other as companions, able to support each other in living into the life-changing challenge of the Christian story, because, it isn't just about the coming together of myth and logos to produce the ethos of who we are as a Christian community. It goes further. It goes to the place where courage is required, and imagination, and faith in the life-changing power of the story we tell; it leads us into the place where our ethics are shaped, where we are required to actively pursue justice-making love, peace and compassion.