Sermon Preached at St Bartholomew’s Anglican Church

Sunday 14 June 2020

2nd Sunday After Pentecost

A critical look at the gospels, and the rest of the bible for that matter, informs us that we cannot take everything literally. There are too many internal inconsistencies to allow that with any degree of rigour.

Rather we need to listen with the ear of the heart, tease out the broader concepts and intentions, so that the spirit of the gospel, the deep wisdom, will penetrate the soul, thence the mind. In my experience, that only comes in the fathomless spaces of deep silence, in which only pure things can gather and coalesce.

Easier said than done. Now for me, the heart of today’s gospel reading is this.

As you enter the house, greet it. 13If the house is worthy, let your peace come upon it; but if it is not worthy, let your peace return to you.

The greeting, of course, is the greeting of peace, the common greeting of the Semitic world. The Greek word for peace is eirēnē (εἰρήνη), which gives rise to the English name Irene. It is also the name of one of the Greek goddesses of the seasons.

In 379 BCE the citizens of Athens erected a votive statue in her honour. The original bronze is lost, but the Romans carved marble copies, perhaps the best of which[1] depicts the goddess Peace cradling her child Plutus in her left arm – Plutus, the god of Plenty. The statue was, in fact, an allegory for Plenty prospering under the protection of Peace; and it represented a public appeal for good sense.

That is the appeal when you enter another’s space. The words “Peace be with you” are an appeal for good sense and all that goes with that. So, to stretch a point somewhat, “Peace be with you” can also mean “Have some sense”.

And, to stretch it even furthur, “Have some sense”, as a protest in another context, has the connotation of “I can’t breathe”; words uttered by more than one indigenous person in the world, as they lay dying under the crushing weight of several hefty law enforcement officers; in Australia, David Dungay Jr; in the United States, George Floyd.

There is a perception in Australia, Alison Whittaker wrote recently, that Indigenous deaths in custody are inevitable or natural. Despite 432 Indigenous deaths in custody since 1991, no one has ever been convicted.[2] All this a consequence of racist silence and complicity endemic in the legal system itself, together with the way such cases are portrayed in the media; together with a lack of political will; together with the frozen deafness of our leaders. Justice is extremely difficult to obtain in this circumstance.

In fact, we only hear about the indigenous lives lost in custody “because of the persistence, expertise and courage of their families and communities who mourn them. But it is not enough to hear about justice, justice must be done."[3]

There is no good sense and certainly no peace is this sector of our national life. Marcus Borg has cogently argued that liberation from bondage is one of the central meanings of salvation;[4] but here there is no liberation, and the bondage is palpable.

It goes without saying, surely, that Jesus’ teachings and behaviour “reflect an alternative social vision” [5] that operates on the basis of good sense, liberation and peace.

The heart of the matter, in Borg’s words, is that,

God wills, comprehensively, our well-being – not just my well-being as an individual but the well-being of all of us and of the whole of creation.[6]

Our task is to give wings to this and make it real. “How?” is my prevailing question. Each of us have skills in different areas. None of us are perfect in the exercise of those skills. But all of us can try as best we can to use the gifts we have in the service of liberation and justice. That is Gospel.

As one of our latter-day prophets, Leonard Cohen, said/sang,[7]

 

The birds they sang

At the break of day

Start again

I heard them say

Don't dwell on what

Has passed away

Or what is yet to be

Yeah the wars they will

Be fought again

The holy dove

She will be caught again

Bought and sold

And bought again

The dove is never free

 

Ring the bells (ring the bells) that still can ring

Forget your perfect offering

There is a crack in everything (there is a crack in everything)

That's how the light gets in

So be it.

Doug Bannerman Ó 2020

[1] Now in the Munich Glyptothek

[2] See The Conversation, June 3, 2020

[3] ibid

[4] See http://jeankimhome.com/Documents/Resources-Commentaries/BORG-SALVATION.pdf

[5] See https://marcusjborg.org/quotes/

[6] ibid

[7] Anthem, by Leonard Cohen. His 2008 performance in London is stunning.