Playing with Fire

Our Old Testament reading from the apocryphal Ben Sirach puts the matter of our relationship with God very starkly, “If you choose, you can keep the commandments, and to act faithfully is a matter of your own choice. He has placed before you fire and water; stretch out your hand for whichever you choose”. It would seem an easy choice, who wouldn’t choose the refreshing water, except that fire can be so enticing! Our neighbours across the road at the fire station have a wonderful mosaic on the side of their wall that faces our church that depicts the moment in Greek mythology when Prometheus stole fire from Zeus and brought it to earth - and human beings have not been able to resist playing with fire ever since!

I expect Ben Sirach’s metaphor suggests a choice between good and evil.  It is a choice that should be obvious to all of us and therefore easy to make.  But I want to press his metaphor further. At the core of this seemingly easy choice is a challenging conundrum of human existence.  We face many choices every day we may not always know if we are playing with fire. For some our life choices seem as black and white, as cooling and burning as presented by Ben Sirach, but for others the choices are not so obvious. 

Instances abound of the emerging complexity of our moral choices.  Changing attitudes toward authority, social responsibility, work, marriage and relationships are some of the more prominent examples. These changes challenge not just our own choices but also our attitudes towards the choices of others.  This morning’s epistle speaks into a situation in the early church in which personal choice and attitudes towards the choices of others sparked conflict. 

St Paul seeded and nurtured a small Christian congregation in the Greek City of Corinth.  Although his ministry was itinerant he kept in close contact with the churches he founded.  Corinth was a cosmopolitan city, a melting pot of ideas and practices. People from all walks of life found their way to Corinth and they brought with them their philosophies and religions.  Paul and his gospel were among the multitude of voices vying for attention.  Word got to Paul that conflict had arisen among members of the church between those who adhered to one or another of the prominent expressions of the Christian faith.  Some might find it scandalous that there should be any disagreement between Christians about the meaning of the Gospel. Differing views of Jesus and his Gospel have been around at least since Jesus posed the question to his disciples, “But who do you say that I am?” A more pressing and disturbing issue is that those who held these different expressions of Gospel seem to have claimed superiority over the others. It is the age-old power play: we are right and therefore you must be wrong. Spiritual one-upmanship brings some powerful negative influences into play that can be put simply: I am right and therefore saved. You are wrong and therefore damned. Certainly, I have over simplified the arguments but not the outcomes.  As through the centuries the Church grew in power as an institution, exponents of this logic took hold in in frighteningly ferocious ways. For example, in the 13th century the 4th Lateran Council declared:

Catholics who assume the cross and devote themselves to the extermination of heretics shall enjoy the same indulgence and privilege as those who go to the Holy Land. …[1]

Then there is the temptation to turn the hyperbole of gospel saying into the tools of inquisition.  In the longer version of the Gospel reading from Matthew chapter five we hear this morning words like - If your eye causes you to sin pluck it out and if your hand causes you to sin cut it off and throw it away. This graphic and violent illustration calls us to examine our own behaviour rather than that of others.  If we look past the literal descriptions of self-mutilation and take these words as part of the Sermon on the Mount as a whole we can hear a call to uplift the other and humbly embrace diversity. It is hard to imagine, when we take seriously Scriptural references that focus on our unity in Christ, how utterances such as those of the Lateran Council ever came about.   But when fear of others takes hold we are most prone to reverting to tribalism in a search for security - and nothing strengthens tribal security more than naming and vilifying an enemy and these might be considered fearful times. For all our technology and wonderous scientific achievement we can still be frightened by our inability to cope with climate change, viral attacks that threaten pandemic, natural disaster and global politics.

The Gospel of Christ impels Christians to overcome the fear of differences we see in others.  The lepers, the gentiles, the poor were all foundational members of the church, our church.  St Paul’s response to the diversity he witnessed in the early Church was to emphasise our essential unity in Christ and to celebrate the differences as long as people used their God given gifts to build up the Body of Christ.

Later this year the Archbishop of Canterbury will host the Lambeth Conference. This instrument of our communion draws bishops of the Anglican Communion together but in doing so also highlights our diversity.  Ahead of the Conference to be held in July the Anglican Journal reported on the emerging controversies and the strategy for approaching them put forward by a meeting of primates:

The communique from the primates meeting stated that “as we gathered as Primates, we were acutely aware of the ongoing tensions within the Anglican Communion. However, we were also profoundly conscious of the Holy Spirit in our midst, drawing us to walk together.”

https://www.anglicanjournal.com/primates-meet-in-jordan-ahead-of-lambeth-conference/

Walking together amid such tension will be indeed very challenging. We can give thanks that our leaders think enough our communion, of each other and of us to try this difficult task on the international stage. I hope though we don’t “beat each other up” too much about our differences.  To embrace diversity means each person’s differences are appreciated not just those of the dominant voices.

For encouragement in our every-day Christian pilgrimage I leave a final thought in the form a story from the Rabbinic tradition.  A rabbi once asked his students how they could tell when night had ended, and the day had begun.  One student ventured an answer.  “Could it be when in the distance you can tell the difference between a sheep and a dog?”  “No.” answered the Rabbi.  “Could it be when you see a tree in the distance and can tell whether it is a fig tree or a peach tree?” “No.” said the Rabbi. “Well then,” demanded the students, “When is it?” “It is when you can look into the face of another person and see that he or she is your brother or sister. Because if you cannot do that, no matter what the time, it is still night.” [2]

So, Ben Sirach tells us that God puts before us water and fire and it is up to us to choose. There are decisions in life that are that stark but not all.  The Christians of Corinth made choices that set them against one another.  We too hear voices that are demanding our attention and allegiance. Let’s prayerfully make our choices and be prepared to stand by them, but let’s also be prepared to accept those who differ from us so that no matter what the differences we may look into their eyes and see a brother or a sister.

[1] H. Bettinson, (ed.) Documents of the Christian Church, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, Second Edition, 1963), 133.

[2] P.J. Wharton, Stories and Parables for Preachers and Teachers, (New Jersey:Paulist Press, 1986), 26.