York Minster

In him we have our being

Date: 27th April 2008
Preacher: The Revd Canon Jeremy Fletcher

Last week the Joseph Rowntree Foundation released a report on “Social Evils”. In 1904 its first such report had listed the social evils of the day as: poverty, war, slavery, intemperance, the opium trade, impurity and gambling.

Today’s list includes: Decline of community; Individualism: Consumerism and greed; Decline of values. Specific evils were identified as:

The decline of the family; Young people as victims or perpetrators; Poverty and inequality; Immigration and responses to immigration; Crime and violence.

Most people agreed that social evils were influenced unhelpfully by Government, the Media, and Big Business. But what about religion? To quote the report:

Religious faith itself was not seen as being a social evil. Instead, the way that some religions were organised and practised was seen to be problematic. Religious extremism was perceived as a significant contemporary problem.

Others felt that social evils were exacerbated by the decline in religious belief and practice. The media reported this in a variety of ways: at the greatest extreme the Sunday Times was keen to tell the world that religion was a social evil in itself: such a deliberate distortion that I hope the Foundation has gone to law.

A characteristic of religious belief is that it is either too easily contained, in which case it becomes empty idolatry, or it is uncontrollably demanding, in which case it becomes dictatorial fundamentalism. Both of these extremes put religion firmly in the frame of contributing to social evil. The lifelong task of the Christian disciple, then, is to steer the narrow path between the idol and the dictator, and to walk the way as a child of God and friend and brother of Christ.

In Athens, in Acts 17, Paul immerses himself in the intellectual and religious beliefs of the day. His conclusion is that there is great worth in the religious and philosophical thought he encounters, but that it is directed down a variety of attractive dead ends. He finds that worship is enthusiastically practiced, but that devotion is offered to objects which ultimately cannot satisfy. Just like the psalmists and the prophet Isaiah before him he looks at idols and altars and sees them to be lifeless and limited to the extent of the imagination of the people who made them. The demonstration of religious faith before them is admirable but fruitless.

There is much religion practiced in the general expectation that nothing significant will happen as a result. Many take a welcome refuge in visual beauty, in linguistic depth and in musical complexity, and even if that is offered in the name of God it is done in such a way that it is the religious practice and its outward demonstration which is enough. Paul would say that this is good as far as it goes, but there is much more to being a Christian disciple. Simply to be comforted, pleased or stimulated in worship is not enough. The God revealed to us in Jesus Christ offers us relationship: the object of our worship is not a statue which pleases with its line and shape: we worship the God who has made us his offspring, whom we call father, who walks alongside us and fills us with his power by the Holy Spirit. We worship one who does not just relate to us, but who fills us, indeed, we worship the one in whom our whole being exists. This God cannot be contained: through worship and prayer and discipleship we are welcomed into God’s presence and released to work for his glory. Paint pictures, make windows, write icons, create anthems, write poems if you will, but try and contain God in them at your peril.

Paul talks to the Athenians about the effect that our relationship with the living God should have on the way our whole life is lived: the need for repentance, and to live in a way which pleases God. Jesus, in John 14 says that the distinguishing feature of those who love him will be that they obey his commands. Such a living out of our faith can bring its own dangers also: to be overwhelmed with belief can lead people to believe that the most amazing things are absolutely the will of God. But the all too well known excesses of religious fundamentalism should not put us off aiming to live out our faith: it would be dreadful if we did nothing about what we believe because some people take faith to excess and give discipleship a bad name.

God loves us. God loves our brothers and sisters. How then can we stand by and see them harmed and oppressed? If they are hurting, so are we. Our cue should be the selfless and sacrificial love of Christ, in a life lived for the glory and praise of God. We do God down if we stand by when the world is unjust, when human life is demeaned. A God who is an idol might not demand anything from us in this regard: the God of Jesus Christ weeps for Jerusalem, for Darfur, and for Zimbabwe for which we are called to pray and act today. We are connected to all this. Thanks be to God that a simple gift to Christian Aid, using an envelope you cannot escape as you go to coffee, can make an immediate difference to people who are being made less than human. I’m a member of the Mother’s Union. A meeting celebrating Lady Day in Zimbabwe was attacked by riot police last week. For the love of heaven – this is the MU. Four million people need food. Helping them is not dangerous religious enthusiasm, nor fundamentalism, nor any other dodgy ism. It is what we do as Christians. It is part of the love of God.

It would be possible to treat this sermon in the Athenian way: to look at it as a piece of religious discourse, to find what it says about God, and offer a criticism of its construction. Some of you are good enough to speak to me after I do this, and say nice things, and that’s affirming. Today, I’d rather you didn’t just do that. I’d rather you did something about your belief, and aimed to make a difference to a hurting world. Those who make religion contribute to social evil might well go out and do more harm. You can go out and do good. They who have my commandments are those who love me, says the Lord. It is time – it is always time – to make that happen.