Readings:
Sermon:
We all want to believe that we are right; that our motives are honourable and our reasoning just. None of us wants to believe that we are leading anyone astray, or that we might be being deceitful or acting without integrity in any way.
When Paul writes to the Thessalonians, he is seeking to protect them from false teaching. In those days we were still trying to work out the full implications of Jesus’ life, especially the events surrounding his death and resurrection. We were trying to understand how to live faithfully in relationship with God through the Holy Spirit; given that the previous covenantal relationship through the Law of Moses had run its course.
What we read in the Bible are the winning ideas, but the false teachers whom Paul was warning about, thought they were being faithful too. They were our christian brothers and sisters making honest mistakes in their theological reasoning. We must cut them some slack, given that we too will certainly be guilty of that same error of ignorance, in holding faulty theological ideas.
Paul warns the embryonic church about false teaching, and we must always be on our guard for the presumptuous sin of assuming that what we teach in our groups, our sermons, and our evangelism is absolutely sound in every respect. There will be at least some small element of our understanding that will prove to be false in the fulness of time. We will always, to some extent, be false teachers.
When the Sadducees test Jesus about the marital arrangements in heaven, they are stretching a point of disagreement. Sadducees were an aristocratic sect, with some power over the operation of the Jewish Temple. Unlike the Pharisees, whose teaching was frequently similar to that of Jesus, the Sadducees didn’t believe in resurrection or an afterlife, nor in supernatural spirits or angels. Interestingly, their name, Sadducee, is etymologically related to the verb ‘to be right’.
Their question might be appear to be about marriage, but really it’s a challenge to the belief in resurrection. Saint Matthew (Mt 21:33-46) and Saint Mark (Mk 12:1-12), in their accounts of this event, add that Jesus scolds the Sadducees for not knowing the scriptures thoroughly enough; before he points out that God is the God of the living (a god of the dead would be no god at all), and so the basis of their question is unfounded.
There is grave danger in lacking the humility to admit the possibility of our errors; great arrogance in assuming that we are always and absolutely correct. There’s a toxic impatience in failing to listen to those who have come to different conclusions to ourselves. Like many others in these days, I see great danger for the world in arrogant and impatient extremism which exists not just between nations, but increasingly between neighbours in our communities.
None of us likes to admit that we are wrong, and yet all of us are wrong sometimes. Like David, in today’s Psalm, we might plead with God to examine our heart, to look upon our faith, motives and reasoning, and to protect us from those who oppose us. We should perhaps remember that the other side is praying that same prayer!
What do we really expect God to do? Perhaps to remind us all, that God is a God of justice. When we fail to acknowledge our fallibility, when we take sides and shore up strongholds, relationships break down, which is the origin and cause of all sin.
This Remembrance Sunday we remember the tragic sacrifices of those who, because of human brokenness and sin, had their lives cut short, or irrevocably changed, as a result of war.
Intransigence, extreme standpoints, the failure to listen and to understand another’s grievance, sin - it all leads to conflict and to death. The Gospel is that it does not have to be that way. The Gospel is that God holds out to us the power and the opportunity to rebuild relationships, even after extreme hurt and tragedy.
Whenever Jesus is tested or challenged, he resorts to some common values. He turns to love, human dignity, the desire for justice, to liberation and salvation. He turns to these things, because he knows that these are the yearnings of humanity. At the heart of even the most extreme views, you will find these deep needs - desires which are both human and divine. So we should seek to abandon the rhetoric, and look for these kingdom values. Step back from the clamour and start seeking the peace: and that demands that we too silence our own extremism and anger - embrace patience and humility.
Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father who loved us, and through Grace gave us eternal comfort and good hope, comfort your hearts and strengthen them in every good work and word. (2 Thessalonians 2:16-17)
Questions:
- What aspect of faith are you least sure about, but that you talk about with confidence?
- Which aspects of following Jesus are you most stubborn about? and, why do you hold to that? (Keep asking yourself ‘why?’, like a toddler, until you get to the core value at the heart of it all)
- What are your top tips for silencing your own extremism and embracing patience?