Rev Andy Braunston
Introduction
As you may know last week I worked with our congregation in Cologne. We’ve had a church in Cologne for many years now but it has always struggled. There are many reasons why its struggled – lack of trained leadership, most MCC resources are in English, lack of money, and a culture in Germany which is both post Christian and suspicious of anything which isn’t Catholic or Lutheran. Over the years our little congregation there has struggled on. 18 months ago they received some denominational funding which meant they could re-evaluate where they were going and pay for someone to come and offer them training. As a result I spent four weekends there last year working with them on conflict management, roles and responsibilities, maturity, discipleship and other assorted areas. Last week I paid a follow up visit to them and was please with how they have taken on board so much of what was taught, how more stable they are and how mature they are now in their ways of handling disagreement and organising themselves. This was great, but I was also reminded of my first full day in Cologne last year.
I remember it well as it was so awful! I didn’t know Cologne either as a city or as a church and was looking forward to exploring the city.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I like Leonard Cohen, he is a highly skilled musician and poet and you will find one of his songs cropping up in a sermon before too long. But the combination of feeling under the weather, feeling damp, not being able to communicate, being a bit bored and being by myself all fused with some of his darker songs to make me feel very low indeed!
We Do What is Bad for Us
Once I realised what the combination was that effected me so much I was able to do something about it – and switched quickly to something a bit more cheerful!
The episode, however, got me thinking about how we end up doing things which are bad for us. I know the gym is good for me – and not just for the optic nerve - but I prefer to spend my free time sitting down and not exercising! I know that cheese and chocolate may be divine in moderation but I seem to want to over indulge. We know that too much alcohol is bad for us but many struggle to moderate their consumption. We know that nicotine is bad for us yet we struggle to stop smoking. Many in our community see nothing wrong with taking drugs to help them play and party yet deep down they know that chemical induced highs are bad for us.
Some time ago I was talking to a young gay man who is in his mid 20s, attends one of our congregations, grew up in a very conservative Christian family, still believes and is sure about his faith yet thinks nothing of taking ecstasy to enjoy a good night out; in fact he even gets some for his friends. He knows, better than most, what’s right and wrong, yet carries on doing the things that are bad for him.
We’re not surprised really when we think about it as it’s one of life’s mysteries about why we do that. St Paul sums it up when he says that “the good I want to do I don’t do and the bad I don’t want to do I do”. It’s part of being human and, as such, is incredibly infuriating and makes us ask questions about why we were created with this weakness, this desire to do what is bad for us.
The Human Condition
Of course this is a question which has taxed humanity for years. The earliest story tellers of the Jewish people tried to explain the dichotomy that, on the one hand, we are highly gifted and skilled and, on the other, we always end up hurting ourselves and others with our awesome talents. We’re the flawed pinnacle of God’s creation.
The story they told to explain this we now know as the Garden of Eden story in Genesis. There we read of Adam and Eve who can live in paradise as stewards of God’s creation but who are forbidden to do only one thing – they should not eat the fruit of one particular fruit. We know the story – how the serpent tempted Eve who, in turn, tempted Adam to eat. Having eaten, and being discovered by God, they found themselves ashamed of their bodies and with a new found ability to blame others for their own actions.
We need to remember that humanity is flawed. We’re the pinnacle of God’s creation but the gift we were given of free will was a gift with a sting in the tail. We enjoy our freedom but then resent the consequences when we misuse that very same freedom.
In the myth of the Garden of Eden Adam and Eve were asked not to do just one thing – to eat of the fruit of a tree – but they were able to choose whether to obey or not. We know what is good for us and what is bad for us and we often choose the wrong thing.
The theological idea behind this is “the Fall” Humanity is like a diamond or piece of stone with a flaw in it, something which weakens the whole structure but which is still beautiful.
We choose what is bad for us because we are flawed; we sin because we are sinners.
Managing our Flaws
In today’s reading Paul is addressing a local church full of people like us and who had a Jewish as well as gentile background. He uses the imagery of sacrifice which was common to both. In the Judaism at the time sacrifices were offered daily in the Temple in Jerusalem as a thanksgiving and as a sin offering to God. In pagan temples sacrifices of animals were also offered as a way of appeasing the gods. The people of Paul’s day were, therefore, able to understand the idea of sacrifice in more clear way than we are.
Paul urges them to offer, not animals, but themselves as living, not bloody, sacrifices to God. This didn’t mean going along to the Temple and having themselves killed but doing all the things we’ve been thinking about over the last few weeks – using our gifts, attending worship, caring for each other, giving to the work of the church, making the effort to be here. All these things involve offering ourselves as living sacrifices to God.
He also urges them to be transformed through the renewing of their minds. Paul lived in a number of different mental and actual worlds. He was a Jew and was, of course, steeped in the theology and traditions of the Jewish people. He was a Roman citizen and so understood much about the Roman way of viewing the world; he was proud of his Roman citizenship. He was also a Christian which offered a different view of the world than Rome and a different view of faith than did the Judaism he left behind. He was used, therefore, to being critical of a particular culture, he had the gift of being a prophet – he could see what was wrong with a culture.
We live in our culture and we are, in varying degrees, comfortable with much of it. Yet we also stand a little aside and critique our culture with the values of the Gospel and the values of diversity and inclusion which are dear to us. Our minds need to be transformed by God so that we can see ourselves, God and the world as it really is. There is much we can do to help God transform our minds:
They are light hearted examples but what we read, what we listen to, the programmes and films we watch, the company we keep all effects how we think and how we then feel about ourselves, and others. We know instinctively that youngsters who watch violent films designed for adults will be wounded and effected by what they watch, this will effect the way they behave and then the way they think. It’s the same for adults.
Paul also urges us to develop a realistic view of ourselves – neither too good nor too bad. Often Christians have an inflated view of themselves – we can be a bit self-righteous. Often those of us who are lgbt and Christian can have a too lower a view of ourselves – we fixate on being unworthy worms and struggle with guilt. The truth is we have to be realistic – we are loved and accepted by God who created us in His own image, and, at the same time, we are flawed creations. Flawed, but not ruined.
Conclusion
Paul urges us to be transformed through the renewal of our minds. We know that how we behave and how we think are intimately linked and effect each other. We need to co-operate with God in this process of transformation as we learn to see the world, and ourselves as God does – with compassion, love and realism.
This sermon was first preached in the Metropolitan Community Church of Manchester. Click here for further information.