Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Meanwhile Down on the Farm


Meanwhile Down on the Farm

A sermon by David Moore

The story of Jesus at the house of Simon the Pharisee is a fantastic piece of storytelling. 

Jesus is out to dinner.   A gatecrasher turns up at the party who is making an exhibition of herself.   She has latched herself on to Jesus.

The host, Simon the Pharisee, a man committed to a rule-based tradition, appears to be playing by his own rules - not following the normal rules of hospitality - no water to wash the visitor’s hands and feet!  And added to this Simon appears tolerant towards a woman with a questionable reputation who is ‘molesting’ his principal guest.

Jesus challenges his host with a story, the simplicity of which exposes a critical truth.   It is a story about what matters most of all in life.  The moral of the story according to the Gospel is:  the one who loves the most is the one who is forgiven the most!

So, at the Dale Farm Travellers’ Site in Essex today who is in line for forgiveness?  Is it the saints or is it the sinners?  

Basildon Council says the law is the law and our hands are tied.  The law is the law says the local MP.  One rule for us and for them, say local land and property owners.

In the Gospel reading for today, Jesus is suggesting there is something higher than the law - mercy, forgiveness, love.  

Presumably the Councillors, the Bailiffs, and local residents will be satisfied with the symbolic shedding of blood that has appeared (caravans leaving) and they will sleep in their beds in peace knowing that right is right and the law, in the end, will prevail.

The question I have for myself is ‘where is God in all this?‘  

My judgment is that God is locked up tight in the overwhelming silence of the Faithful, and that it has been left to a few scruffy and one or two posh protesting ‘angels’ to remind us that God is love and love is the ultimate obedience of law.

The TV News, with mass delivery of fences, the diggers, the hard hats, the apparent meticulous planning, eerily reminds me of the hard time the Gypsies had under the rule of the Third Reich.  (Most German Christians did not see what was coming as they welcomed Hitler).

Luke, in his record of Jesus being led away for crucifixion, has him speaking these words:  If such things as these are done when the wood is green, what will happen when it is dry.’

Over the next hundred years, whatever happens with global warming, the dominance of Europe in the world economy is bound to shrink - life will become less juicy for most of   us.  We do need to be clear what matters most of all.

This story from Luke alongside the events at Dale Farm not only put my ecumenical vision into an uncomfortable perspective but also re-awaken Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s question ‘who is Christ for us today?’ or who is Christ for the Travelling Community in Britain?

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