Original Thinking
I was walking through Battersea with the Archdeacon when a man accosted me. He seemed not to have noticed that the archdeacon was also a man of the cloth, but set himself to testing me and whether I knew some basic things such as the Ten Commandments. He was a very angry man and, as a priest, you learn a certain wariness, when people start shouting at you aross the street. At one point he made as if to punch me in the face to see if I would turn the other cheek, At which point the Archdeacon and I began to inch away. But as his diatribe took shape, it emerged that he considered himself to be an entirely original thinker, whereas I only thought ideas I’d been taught to think. I did try to explain, as we backed away, that originality is a peculiar thing to aim for in the realm of ideas, especially as he insisted on being extremely well read. Christianity is a tradition that goes back thousands of years; one individual is probably better advised to try and understand and make sense of that deep well of thought, than gaze into his own mirrored shallows.
Now we might think that Jesus would be an exception here, as the Incarnate Word, he might express himself in an original way; As, some would say, the founder of a new religion we’d expect something a bit different. But what we see time and again, here, is a typical rabbinic approach, and, it might seem odd to say, but in many respects it is St Paul who has the better claim for founding Christianity. Jesus’ teaching is not something new and radical, but a recalling of the people to essential truths and a reformer’s criticism of abuses of power. So in today’s Gospel the teachers wonder at his learning, but his reply is ‘my doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me.’ The Jews do not have him killed because of his originality but because he threatens their authority by presenting the faith authentically. Even in the epistle, by which time, Christianity has taken some steps away from the accepted Jewish practices, the abiding message is ‘hold fast that which is good.’ And those theologians who tried to draw a line between the Old and New Testaments, were defined as heretics. The teaching of Jesus and St Paul can only be understood within the context of Hebrew Scriptures and must be regarded as a continuation and interpretation of it.
When I did catechesis for Confirmation in Swansea, I remember learning the Ten Commandments. They are often printed in the sanctuaries of churches. The Gospel is not the end of the Law but its fulfilment.
So yes, Jesus’ central teaching to love God and neighbour is there in the Old Testament, The concept of the Messiah as a suffering servant who suffers for his people, the scapegoat who becomes the nation’s sacrifice, the revelation of God as love – love for the created world, love for God’s people; it’s all there in the Old Testament. The Gospel gives us a more direct account and demonstration of God’s nature and teaching, and a refined emphasis and prioritising, but God’s self-description is unchanged.
However, here we must pause, as what I’m not so sure about, is that our idea of God is derived from the Bible at all. It’s from philosophy and eighteenth century rationalists that we have an abstract conception of a god as the embodiment of power and knowledge, of omnipresence and abstract goodness, a remote and dispassionate god of law and perfect justice, a god above and beyond. A god who marries with the authoritarian figures of the kings and emperors of ancient civilisations, a god of coronations.
It is a wrench to turn back to Scripture and see that God is revealed only in figures of weakness and poverty; That God is found not in conquest but in reconciliation; Not in power but in sacrifice; That we need not think of God as far away or high above, But in the love we sense in creation, that we read in Scripture and that we come to know in the friendship of the Christian community.
The God revealed in Scripture is not an object – however distant, however different. St Augustine famously described God as closer than I am to myself. And God is not abstract or indifferent. You exist because God wills it.
Today is Back to School Sunday where we’ll be blessing the little darlings as they head off to new adventures, full of wonder and open minds. The teaching of the faith, our attempt to approach those timeless truths that matter more than anything, is better if it’s not new or original, But it’s a work to allow ourselves to be drawn back to what is revealed in Scripture – Even in its most fundamental categories. It asks us to keep our minds open and our capacity to wonder alert. The eyes of humans are always drawn to power, to knowledge, to control; But the faith teaches us to look to what is small, what is little in this world, but especially to those people and places that exist for the sake of others. To find God not in what is grand and great and good, But in humility, compassion and service. Amen.