sermon

David Chaytor and Eric Illsley are names which have become notorious in relation to cheating public trust. Both of the former MPs have found themselves with custodial sentences after convictions relating to their parliamentary expense accounts. There may still be others who will suffer similar fates and there have been several public apologies from MPs.

When the scandal first began to rage a couple of years ago Rowan Williams wrote an article both urging calm in dealing with our elected government but more importantly question whether we now live in a culture where many people push rules as far as they will go, bending regulations to see what they can get away with. In an article in the Times in May 2009 he talks about the run of public scandal which has surrounded various bankers and politicians - the constant mantra when figures come to light seemed to be – but no rules were broken, but, he says, this culture of “what can I get away with,” has no real integrity.

In today's Gospel Jesus begins to teach the difference between a rather stark and bare legalism and what it truly means to be living into relationship with God. The rules for religion were complicated and religion had become the rules. Jesus is not simply saying, ignore the rules –but instead of becoming walls to the building of religion, inside which all sorts of things can be hidden in legalism, they become a skeleton – the basic rules of living – don't kill other people, don't cheat, take marriage seriously are still the same but they will be fleshed out in community living, not ticking boxes on a long list of dos and don'ts.

What Jesus says is – of course you don't kill, that is obvious, but then you need to ask the question , then what do you do? Simply not killing could still leave us with a pretty miserable existence. It is only a starting point for community. What does it mean to live together as God's people. What does it mean to be under God's judgement?

This latter word, judgement, makes the whole thing a little bit frightening. After all it seems a little harsh that we would be facing hell for calling a brother or sister a nasty name. But what Jesus is talking about is not so much the physical act of name calling it is the whole process of community. What is our process of community – is it based on politeness and avoiding inter-personal catastrophe or is it based on something more radical, a reconciliation which sees the other as equally important, and right relationship with the other, as who we are in Christ.

There is no work to rule, no legislation in seeing other people as essential to who we are, in seeing community as profoundly entwined with who God made us to be. Again and again Jesus challenges the insipid sense of duty which has been allowed to pervade Judaism and insists on something deeper and more soul reaching.

If you have had anything very much to do with children you will know that a favourite excuse when they get in trouble is to say,
“Well, you didn't tell me not to.” Innocence by ignorance may work for young children but Jesus is moving people on from and “It doesn't say not to...” mentality to one where things and people are, indeed, linked together. Where other people with us form the fabric of religion – woven together as God's creation. This is not about another, stricter, form of legalism, it is about a radical transformation of their internal landscapes – a turning of heart towards the God who had called Abraham from the desert so long ago.

Abraham had moved from a literal wilderness to community, the Judaism which Jesus faced was community in crisis finding itself in a profound spiritual wilderness – tied and bound by rules, compliance to which gave no real hope and no real sense of who that Voice of Covenant had ever been.

Perhaps our society is blighted by that same poverty of spirit – especially when the mantra of “I can because it does not break the rules” becomes “I should because I deserve everything” we have lost the ineffable – we have lost that breath which makes us human.

Being human is where we find ourselves in God and God in us – that is what we are made for. Christianity is not a sort of bolt on module for living, not a mere accessory to life, it is much more than that.

Life in Christ is very differenct from minimalistic legalism – as Rowan Williams says – we have to develop a sense of doing things because we are glad to do them, not just because we have been told to do them – we must find tasks which we perform because in doing them we find ourselves.

This is a huge and challenging change from the prevailing mindset of our culture. Getting away with it is hugely embedded in our psyches whether it is dodging speed cameras in our cars or treating people we find difficult with a minimalistic sort of compassion, through a Welfare State which feeds them, but in a society which accepts ghettos of poverty, ill health and lack of opportunity as given.

So what does it mean to be in community, what does it mean to allow otherness into our lives and into our Churches?

Where I walk to church every day there is a house on a corner. There is a double yellow line on a piece of the corner designed to stop a car pulling too far forward and blocking the end of the pavement. But every day there is a car there. That self same house had a piece of freshly dug earth next to the pavement – of course because the pavement was blocked by the car people had walked across the earth instead of around the car on the road. A furious sign appeared telling people to stay off the earth – if I had had a pen I might have left a note saying – no one wants to walk on the dirt – but you are blocking the pavement.

So where do we start. Todays Gospel is clear – it asks us to look at what the rules really mean, to understand implications and to look at other people. Jesus does not remove the heart of the law – he wants to turn the heart of the law outwards towards the God of Covenant, the God of promise and to really take other people on board.

We have that same level of challenge. We have held faith in this nation for hundreds of years but sometimes we struggle to see our own relevance or place. Sometimes in that struggle we hunker down into a corner of traditionalism and sometimes we try to dilute the Gospel down as if it was bad medicine.

The Gospel is not bad medicine but the only real way to show that is to live it. None of us are perfect examples of humanity but that does not excuse us from retreating into minimalism for fear of making a mistake. There is a huge difference between relying on rules which we ourselves have written and relying on God and if the Gospel is clear about anything it is that simply keeping sets of rules is not enough. Yes, there are times when they are important, there are times when we need discipline and guidance, but we must also realize that there is more besides.

If not killing, says Jesus, becomes an excuse not to see and love the other then you may as well give up, you have missed the point, the point of value, the point of a God who stands in flesh, the point of humanity – created and loved. If not killing becomes a burden to be skirted around then it is just words. Covenant is about joy and fulfilment – covenant is about being and becoming who we are in Christ.