Village Shepherd

Reading the letter pages of the "Church Times" can be a depressing experience. I had two weeks to catch up on when I returned from holiday, but two week's worth of typical "Church Times" letters can be somewhat indigestible.

Letters to the editor tend to be written by earnest Christians, and perhaps that's the problem. The letters are often full of moral outrage over such items as the Archbishop designate, women priests, homosexuals within the Church, or various other people who apparently fall short of the moral high ground of the writer. But there's rarely a voice raised in protest over the millions of people subsisting in abject poverty or over the exploitation of the poor by big business or over the failures of capitalism to address the miseries of the world.

But what I find even more depressing than all of that, is the conspicuous lack of humour. Letters are deeply serious, with hardly ever a glimmer of fun or merriment. It seems that earnest Christians take themselves and their religion so seriously that there's no room for lightness or laughter. The message seems to be that there's no fun in religion and that Christians don't enjoy themselves.

On reading the letters, I usually find myself wondering what happened to the Good News? What happened to the promise of eternal life? Or is eternal life serious and earnest as well? It's as though we're still back in the dark days of the Old Testament, and the life and example of Jesus Christ has made very little difference to people's lives. Often, people who write letters to the Church Times still sound as though they are full of fear and desperately anxious that the Church should remain unchanging, especially over certain moral issues.

What a contrast to St Paul's letters! St Paul is at pains to constantly point out how the old ideas of the Old Testament have have been superceded because of Jesus. For instance, the old system of sacrifices in order to communicate with God, is no longer appropriate. Now, we human beings are "sacrifices" ourselves. Rather than dead animals, we're living sacrifices, able to communicate with God directly through ourselves and our own bodies.

St Paul goes on to say that although Christians must be part of this world, we don't have to conform to the ways of the world. Christians should be non-conformists! If we have the discernment and the strength and the courage to stand against some of the ways of the world in line with Jesus' teaching in the gospels, then not only our lives, but our society too will be transformed.

But it isn't easy to determine which aspects of modern life are opposed to gospel teaching, because it's difficult when you live in the middle of a forest, to see the wood from the trees. For instance, when looking back over the distance of several centuries, it's easy to see that slavery is wrong, and perhaps we wonder why on earth everybody didn't realise it was wrong back in the 19th century. But although Christians led the fight to abolish the slave trade, some of the loudest voices raised in protest against the abolition, were church voices.

There are equally abhorrent sins endemic in our own society, but on the whole, we either fail to notice them or else feel overwhelmed by the size of the problem and thus helpless to do anything about it. Future generations will probably recoil in horror when they look back at the 21st century and see how a few people kept all the wealth and the food for themselves, allowing millions of other people to die in poverty. They may also recoil in horror when they see how Western society was based solely upon economic considerations, or when they see how some people became an "underclass" because of their colour or sexual preferences or religion, or when they see how the earth was all but destroyed by our greed for natural resources and all that which produces material wealth.

But as Christians, we must begin to notice such things. "Do not be conformed to this world," said St Paul, "but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God--what is good and acceptable and perfect."

The one influences the other. By refusing to conform to the standards of this world even though continuing to live within the world, we become transformed. As we obey God's will, so our minds become renewed and we're more and more able to see what's good and acceptable and what isn't.

But the great thing about following Jesus is that as this transformation happens, so we discover the huge delights that God has available for us. Life which is transformed by Jesus is life which is free. Free from the constraints imposed by the customs of society, free from the old habits which we don't really want to do but can't help doing, free from the need for more and more wealth, free from the need for constant novelty in order to be happy, and so on. The transformation brought by Christ brings total freedom, and that freedom brings complete inner happiness and peace. This inner happiness and peace is always present, even when outside circumstances cause anxiety or fear or pain, for the happiness and peace is deep within, below any suffering or pain, supporting and sustaining us.

This wonderful existence is available to everyone, and is what Jesus called "eternal life". We can enjoy eternal life now on this earth, and in its completeness after death. As we begin to enjoy eternal life, so our gifts and talents become clearer and clearer. We begin to work together as a team, where everyone has their rightful place and everyone contributes their unique gifts without rivalry or jealousy or upset. You can begin to see how society would be transformed.

Perhaps we could start right now, in a small way, with ourselves and our community here in church. Once eternal life is experienced, nothing else will do, nothing less will satisfy. So eternal life within a community soon grows and spreads. It's an exciting prospect, and it's ours for the taking. We have only to take the time to open ourselves to God and allow him to work within us. He does all the rest.