Sermon – July 10th 2011 Wellington Church
Romans 8.1-11 and Matthew 13.1-9, 18-23
NB - This owes much to a sermon by Fleming Rutledge published in Not Ashamed of the Gospel:
Sermons from Paul's Letter to the Romans, Publisher: William B Eerdmans Publishing Co (2007)
and the Merton quotations were found online at:
http://www.patheos.com/community/carlgregg/2011/06/30/jesus’-seed-parable-and-merton’s-“newseeds-of-contemplation”-a-progressive-christian-lectionary-commentary-for-sunday-july-10-2011/
and the atmosphere/environment was in an Expository Times published sermon.
“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of
the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.”
Preamble on guilt – real and imagined. Actual and over-conscientious?
Do I/we really in our hearts believe/trust that 'there is no condemnation...?'
Atmospheres and Environments – Toxic or Healthy?
How would you describe the atmosphere of the times we are living in? Of our age?
The social, emotional, spiritual environment in which we live?
These past few days I have been pondering guilt and innocence and how it appears to me
that there are crowds crying guilty and people protesting “It wisnae me!”
MPs expenses. Journalistic, Corporate and business ethics.
When is something in the public Interest and when is it gossip writ large?
What is the role of the electorate, the public and the market in these?
We read the salacious details of people's not so private lives. And all get caught up in a
whirlpool of gossip, slander, indignation, protested innocence, blame and guilt.
All with a wee doze of nosiness... As laughing Leonard Cohen sayings:
“They'll put a meter on your bed which will disclose .... what everybody knows.”
And as we all indulge or try not to, in our songs of innocence and experience, as we dance
around protesting innocence and pointing out other peoples' guilt, I have in mind the
Courtroom Dramas of TV and Cinema. 12 Angry Men, Perry Mason, etc etc.
and the often comforting romantic hope that a Henry Fonda figure in the jury or a
campaigning defence lawyer will speak up and make the case for the defence...
But is it not a lot messier than that...
Two books occurred to me. To Kill a Mockingbird and The Fall, two characters, TKAM's
Scout and The Fall's Jean-Baptiste... two stories... innocence falsely accused and guilt
claiming innocence
To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee,
set in the American South, Scout remembers:
“I saw something only a lawyer's child could be expected to see, could be expected
to watch for, and it was like watching Atticus walk into the street, raise a rifle to his
shoulder and pul the trigger, but watching all the time knowing that the gun was
empty.
A jury never looks at a defendant it has convicted, and when this jury came in not
one of the looked at Tom Robinson,. The foreman handed a piece of paper to Mr
Tate who handed it to the clerk who handed it to the judge....
I shut my eyes. Judge Taylor was polling the jury: 'Guilty... guilty... guilty ...' I peeked
at Jem: his hands were white from gripping the balcony rail, and his shoulders
jerked as if each guilty was a separate jab between them.” (H Lee, TKAM p215)
“Tom's dead”....
“The shot him” said Atticus, 'He was running.” p239
“Mr Undwerwood didn't talk about miscarriages of justice. He was writing so
children could understand. .... Mr Undwerwood likened Tom's death to the
senseless slaughter of songbirds by hunters and children, ...” p 245
“Atticus had used every tool available to free men to save Tom Robinson, but in the
secret courts of men's hearts Atticus had no case. Tom was a dead man the
minute Mayella Ewell had opened here mouth and screamed.” p245
* An atmosphere, an environment where there is much goodness and kindness yet
it is made toxic, poisoned by racism and by the poverty trap.
The Fall – Albert Camus
Jean Baptiste. 'Something of a superman' until walking home he witnessed a young
woman on a bridge and head her throw herself into the river below. Although
hearing her cry, he does not stop, nor does he report the incident.
“I couldn't deceive myself as to the truth of my nature... It was not love of generosity
that awakened me.... but merely the desire to be loved and to receive what in my
opinion was due to me.”
“Above all the question was to avoid judgement”.
'People hasten to judge in order not to be judged themselves. What do you expect?
The idea that comes most naturally to man, as if from his very nature, is the idea of
his innocence. From this point of view, we are all like that little Frenchman in
Buchenwald, who insisted on registering a complaint with the Clerk, himself a
prisoner,.... the clerk ... laughed: “Useless, old man. You don't lodge a complaint
here”. ”But you see sir,” said the little Frenchman, “My case is exceptional. I am
innocent!”
We are all exceptional cases. We all want to appeal against something! Each of us
insists on being innocent at all cost, even if he has to accuse the whole human race
and heaven itself .... The essential thing is that (we) should be innocent .... As I told
you, it is a matter of dodging judgement.
... believe me, religions are on the wrong track the moment they moralise and
fulminate commandments,. God is not needed to create guilt or to punish. Our
fellow men suffice, aided by our selves.... God's sole usefulness would be to
guarantee innocence.
I'll tell you a big secret, mon cher. Don't wait for the Last Judgement. It takes place
every day.”
* An atmosphere, an environment of denial, self delusion. Bad faith. I am the
exception. Let me be not guilty, not complicit.
The atmosphere of TKAM where the innocent is killed trying to escape
The environment of The Fall – the guilty, the complicit pretend innocence.
There is guilt. There is responsibility
G-d is dealing with, well sorry to spoil a nice Sunday, but the only word is 'sin'
and its cousin death. The dominating powers that are much in business today ...
Moral panics – when it is al 'us and them' clear lines. Them and us.
The good and the bad.
Nice and neat. Our case is exceptional – we are innocent. They are guilty.
Aye. Right.
Aye. Righteousness...
Because God has and is dealing with the problem.
And good ol' St Paul.
He learned the hard way. When he though he was being good he was a persecutor.
Even the good stuff is bad. And the bad stuff is forgivable.
And a new thing is happening.
And despite vulnerability, shallowness, stoniness and defensiveness
The new thing is here, is now, is happening...
Despite misunderstanding, superficiality, resistance and distraction
The new thing is here, is now, is happening...
A new atmosphere to be breathed... “freedom, spontaneity, and love.”
Thomas Merton writes:
Every moment and every event of every person’s life on earth plants something in
her or his soul. For just as the wind carries thousands of winged seeds, so each
moment brings with it germs of spiritual vitality that come to rest imperceptibly in the
minds and wills of men and women. Most of these unnumbered seeds perish and
are lost, for such seeds as these cannot spring up anywhere except in the good soil
of freedom, spontaneity and love.
Unnatural, frantic, anxious work, work done under pressure of greed or fear or any
other inordinate passion, cannot properly speaking be dedicated to God, because
God never wills such work directly. God may permit that through no fault of our own
we may have to work madly and distractedly, due to our sins, and to the sins of the
society in which we live. In that case we must tolerate it and make the best of what
we cannot avoid. But let us not be blind to the distinction between sound, healthy
work and unnatural toil.