These first two
readings are beautiful and generous, and are at the heart of Easter and the joy
of an Easter people. The reading from Acts tells of the Gentiles receiving the
holy spirit - representing the reconciliation of God and non-Jews. The reading
from John recounts Jesus calling the disciples friends not servants,
emphasizing that God’s love in not hierarchical. Both the passages describe
incredibly powerful moments in the relationship between Christ and his
followers. And at these points the disciples had a couple of choices – they
could see this as the setting them aside in an exclusive club or they could see
it as both a generous invitation and command to go and do likewise. Most
Christians know that the second view is the more Christ-like.
But
there’s a third New Testament reading today which made me uneasy because of its
focus on ‘the world’. There are Various New Testament passages that rail
against ‘the world’. A earlier section
of Johns’ letter makes it clear why victory over the world is so important:
Don't love the world or anything that belongs to the world. If you love the world, you cannot love the Father. Our foolish pride comes from this world, and so do our selfish desires and our desire to have everything that we see. 1 John 2: 15-16
This idea
of the world being evil has played out in the media recently. Those of you who
watch Campbell Live will have seen the stories it has been running on the
Gloriavale community on the West Coast. For those who haven’t, Gloriavale is a not
closed but very secluded community of about 500 people. It is run like the
early church, with all belongings held in common. People don’t go out to work,
instead they live and work in the community, usually in farms, or doing cooking
and cleaning for the community, caring for children. They take a very literal
approach to the Bible. Women are not able to be leaders, birth control is
forbidden. They have their own school and higher education is not encouraged. On
entering, members are required to sign over all their possessions and earnings
to the community.
The
stories about Gloriavale have covered people who have recently left the
community, an act which leaves them disowned by their families, and with no
resources and very frightened. Frightened because they have been told all their
lives that the outside world is ‘evil’. Further stories about Gloriavale have
explored issues such as bullying, financial exploitation, sexual and physical
abuse, particularly of children and young people. It’s been very painful to
watch.
The low
point was a scene where a young woman who’d left, Julia, tried to visit Gloriavale
in order to contact friends and family. Before she can get there she is stopped
by her father, who tells her: ‘‘I don’t want to see you unless you want my God.
That’s the only thing we have in common.” And: “the only reason I’d love you,
is to see your soul saved. I don’t love you for any other reason.”
I don’t
believe this is a Christian community. I don’t believe a man who can say that
to his daughter knows anything about love. And on Mother’s Day, a day that
celebrates the love and sacrifice of parents for their children, this feels
particularly foul.
But think
again about that passage from John’s letter about the world and we can see
where this attitude might come from. And let us acknowledge that there are
passages in the Bible that lend themselves to that belief. Jews, Christians,
and Moslems all have to recognize that their holy books contain passages that
can easily be interpreted as teaching prejudice and violence, and in fact
reading them in any other way is quite difficult. And in Gloriavale, bible
verses about separating from the world are the justification. As I say,
passages about the world make me feel uneasy. Because this same world that is
so evil is the same world that God so loved that he gave his only Son to it.
It’s the world that God created, that Jesus commanded us to go out and serve.
When I read these passages I want to shake the writers and say “what do you
mean when you write ‘the world’? Don’t you really mean ‘sin’ or ‘selfishness’? If
so, just stop using ‘the world’ as a convenient shorthand!”
Because to
me, it’s a call to the urge to see ourselves as an exclusive club. Gloriavale
is an example of taking the exclusive approach to extremes and the result is a
sick society. They do no good to the outside world, and they do no good to
themselves. Abuse grows and is justified as keeping people in line. Free
thought is stifled as being likely to give rise to dissent. Their power
corrupts the leadership. Love, the command of Jesus for us to love one another
takes a very secondary place to the need to control. Julia’s father, faced with
two conflicting Biblical commands – ‘love one another’ and ‘shun the world’ has
chosen the cruelest.
The
Gloriavale community claims that they do not ‘interpret’ the Bible – they take
it literally. But everyone interprets the Bible in their own way – even the
decision to take it at face value is an interpretation. And when there is a
conflict between texts – what do you do? John Wesley used four sources when
coming to theological conclusions – scripture; traditions of the Church;
personal experience; and reason. I suspect Julia’s father did so as well – but
the traditions of the church and reason were both warped by his experience in
Gloriavale and drowned out the calls to love coming both from scripture, and
the natural love of a father for a daughter.
Love one
another is rightly recognized as one of Jesus’ most important commands, if not
the most important, and all the rest of scripture should be read through that
lens. Love is acceptance and a desire for the best for the person loved. And
that also means allowing them to be free, as the mother in the poem I read
earlier* knew. Love requires thought and interpretation. Many of the mothers I
know have told me that they have had to adjust their parenting style for their
different children. What worked with one child didn’t with the next, or one
child posed completely different issues to the other. Love required them to
take into account ‘scripture’ (parenting books?), tradition, personal
experience, and reason.
And
thinking of love in scripture sends us back to Acts – the generous gift of the
Holy Spirit to the Gentiles, those previously apart. And to John. Love is
trust, love is friendship, love is service. Amen.
*Poem: A wish for my children, by Evangeline Paterson
On this doorstep I stand
year after year
and watch you leaving
and thing: May you not
skin your knees. May you
not catch your fingers
in car doors. May
your hearts not break.
May tide and weather
wait for your coming
and may you grow strong
to break
all webs of my weaving.
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