So, yeah, the lectionary was a bit unforgiving this week in terms of my being compelled to address controversial topics to an audience who might take nuanced views on the subjects discussed. I was pretty nervous throughout (and it was already pretty warm in the church, and the children's hymn had actions) so it made for a sweaty morning.
But I tried to be honest and clear, and got complimented afterwards by two theologically-inclined fellows after the service; a former Anglican priest I had met when he visited our booth at St. Albert Pride, and a retired gentleman in town for the Blues on Whyte Festival who is returning to theological studies in hopes of becoming a chaplain. And still no raw produce thrown before or after, so I am chalking it up as a win!
SAF
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Rule of law - I believe in it!
But this obedience cannot be a given - what about when laws are demonstrably unfair? If laws are unjust, they should not be obeyed.
This is not a new concept; there is a long tradition going back to St. Augustine of Hippo: ("nam mihi lex esse non videtur, quae justa non fuerit") "for I think a law that is not just, is not actually a law"
Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. said “One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws.”
But how do we discern injustice from inconvenience? How do we sift justice from simple preference? We can look back with confidence at Rosa Parks, sure, but what about people who try to block pipeline development? Or shut down abortion clinics? Or defy vaccine or mask mandates?
Canadians have a right to protest, but Albertans can be arrested if their protest compromises infrastructure. Is this Justice?
Or consider John Calvin - son of a prominent Hamas leader who attacked him with a knife when he discovered he had converted to Christianity, and who came out as gay to his father over the phone while in Canada as a refugee. But in 2014 he received a letter of deportation from our federal government, leaving it a tossup as to why he would be killed where he came from - for his apostasy or his sexuality. Deporting him may have been the law, but was it justice?
Everyone seems to have a different idea about what makes a rule or law unjust. Earlier this year we saw scores of transport vehicles paralyze our nation’s capital in response to what they thought was an immoral curtailing of human freedoms, but which the actual majority of Canadians felt were reasonable safety standards during a global pandemic that had killed over 5 million people at that point. Where some people saw a Freedom Convoy standing up to an oppressive state, I saw a ‘Flu Trux Klan’ exerting unreasonable pressure on a city and nation’s capital in an attempt to change the elected government.
Last week former Governor General Adrienne Clarkson called out these same folks for what she described as the “desecration of the War Memorial in Ottawa and the defilement of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.” In an opinion column in the Globe and Mail entitled “Canada’s War Memorial is a reminder of selfless sacrifice, not a vaudeville stage for loud-mouthed ignoramuses,” she writes, “That the memorial to the selfless sacrifice of over 100,000 Canadians in two world wars, Korea, the Balkans and Afghanistan should be a vaudeville stage for loud-mouthed ignoramuses using the word “freedom,” when they are actually taking away fellow citizens’ liberty by occupying and fouling community space, is repugnant.”
I am probably biased, but to me, those sound like words God has put in her mouth.
In the case of Jesus, he gets called out for healing a woman on the Sabbath, a proscribed day of rest that no work should be done on. But Jesus calls out the hypocrisy of his accusers, saying they would not hesitate to lead an animal to pasture or water on the Sabbath.
Jesus clearly places the helping of others ahead of even well-established behavioural rules, and Luke underscores it here to reinforce the rightness of Jesus’ actions. Throughout his gospel, Luke emphasizes Jesus’ works and teachings and takes steps to ensure Christ is depicted as a teacher rather than a magician. In this story, his defiance of the rabbis takes centre stage, not the miraculous healing or expulsion of demons. Why is this? Maybe because most of us don’t have the skills to exorcise evil spirits or heal folks, but we are all of us able to call out hypocrisy and stand up to unjust rules. You might even say we have a responsibility to do so.
The Hebrew scripture we heard today from Jeremiah has the author trying to avoid the authority and responsibility God is giving him, but to no avail. In the end, Jeremiah is told in no uncertain terms that the messenger is not as important as the message God has given him. As the Creator puts it, “‘Now I have put my words in your mouth. See, today I appoint you over nations and over kingdoms, to pluck up and to pull down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant.’”
Now, the downside of passages like this one is that it can potentially be used to justify all manner of bad acting in the name of doing what is “God’s will” or “right” or just.” And working out precisely what is just and fair and right, as we all know, can be a tricky proposition fraught with peril and opposition!
But nowhere in our scriptures are we told that there will be no consequences for the things we say and do, even -or sometimes, especially - if they are done in God’s name. Jesus tells us in John’s Gospel that “If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you.”
St. Augustine is said to have excommunicated himself prior to his death as an act of public penance and a show of solidarity with other sinners.
Martin Luther King Jr. wrote one of his best treatises on civil rights while in jail with other protestors for refusing to obey a blanket ordnance prohibiting “parading, demonstrating, boycotting, trespassing and picketing.” King famously said “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere” and that “any law that uplifts human personality is just. Any law that degrades human personality is unjust.” He was also fully aware of the potential consequences and risks of such actions and eventually paid the ultimate price for his stand.
Our theology is much more about unsettling questions than it is about comforting answers, so accordingly there is very little precise guidance in determining if a law or rule is unjust.
But there is a good chance you feel it in your heart. And if you feel it in your heart, and your head nods in accordance and your hands clench or your fingers fidget as you wonder how best to act, then it is possible you are on the right path. If you are acting for the well-being of strangers, that is another great indicator.
If you take the time to discuss, to reflect, to investigate, and most importantly, to listen for the small, still voice of God, the way may be clearer, and the path to change may be shown. You may say you are unready or unworthy, like Jeremiah, but Let God put his words in our mouths.
The comfort of the status quo can be stagnating and stultifying, and must be continually re-examined. Our own United Church must proceed cautiously in this regard; remember that while we were standing up for the rights of sexual minorities to participate in church sacraments and even ordination, we were still involved with Indian Residential Schools! Even today we vacillate between standing up for environmental stewardship and preservation and refusing to address racist national policies in the middle-east.
And how ironic is it that our denomination was once called “Canada’s mainstream Protestant church” and had the ear of multiple national governments, grew out of what was itself a protest movement (hence the name!) and which itself grew out of a faith that began as secret cult and persecuted sect!
Like a lot of scriptural proclamations, today’s readings prompt more questions than answers, but Luke’s example of Jesus healing a woman despite the objections of those who maintain the sanctity of rules over human compassion gives us a clear illustration of our responsibilities as Christians: to look after others.
Going back to John Calvin’s story, there was a time there when it looked like churches in the Edmonton area might be asked to offer literal sanctuary to John Calvin in order to prevent his deportation and likely murder. This meant someone might have to stand at the door of a church and tell the authorities that they were not welcome, and face the very real prospect of arrest and incarceration.
I had never had a cause appeal to me strongly enough to risk such an outcome, but imagining this poor guy just trying to live his own life in a way that felt morally consistent to him and facing death at the hands of his own family for doing it? I told myself that if they called for volunteers I would do it.
Who knows if I would have actually had the courage to follow through or not? John Calvin fled to the US instead, where he was granted asylum in New York City, which he still calls home. But for a brief and glorious time, I was finally ready to put my actions firmly behind my beliefs. As the saying goes, “if they don’t cost you anything, they aren’t really principles.”
Populism is a notoriously poor guide to what is truly just, but perhaps we can still take heart in the spectators in Luke’s story - after admonishing his critics, we are told “the entire crowd was rejoicing at all the wonderful things that he was doing.”
There are hard miles ahead on the path to Justice to be sure, but here’s to all of us working towards a fair and joyful future, like the one Jesus has outlined for us in his teachings!
Amen
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Jeremiah’s Call and Commission
Now the word of the Lord came to me saying, ‘Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.’
Then I said, ‘Ah, Lord God! Truly I do not know how to speak, for I am only a boy.’ But the Lord said to me, ‘Do not say, “I am only a boy”; for you shall go to all to whom I send you, and you shall speak whatever I command you. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you, says the Lord.’
Then the Lord put out his hand and touched my mouth; and the Lord said to me, ‘Now I have put my words in your mouth. See, today I appoint you over nations and over kingdoms, to pluck up and to pull down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant.’
Luke 13:10-17
Jesus Heals a Crippled Woman
Now [Jesus] was teaching in one of the synagogues on the sabbath. And just then there appeared a woman with a spirit that had crippled her for eighteen years. She was bent over and was quite unable to stand up straight. When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, ‘Woman, you are set free from your ailment.’
When he laid his hands on her, immediately she stood up straight and began praising God. But the leader of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had cured on the sabbath, kept saying to the crowd, ‘There are six days on which work ought to be done; come on those days and be cured, and not on the sabbath day.’
But the Lord answered him and said, ‘You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger, and lead it away to give it water? And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen long years, be set free from this bondage on the sabbath day?’
When he said this, all his opponents were put to shame; and the entire crowd was rejoicing at all the wonderful things that he was doing.
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