God hates the world - not! Easter 3

LUKE 21: 1-19

A few weeks ago, I watched a documentary entitled “The most hated family in America.” In the documentary, Louis Theroux spent some time living with the Westboro Baptist Church, a one church denomination, who are dominated by the Phelps family, especially the ageing patriarch, Pastor Fred Phelps.

This church had for some time been infamous for its militant anti gay position and this has led it to a position of stating that the US is under God’s judgement which they see being exercised in events such as 9/11 and the quagmire of Iraq.

Not surprisingly, the have attracted considerable detestation for their picketing the firstly the funerals of gay people and more recently servicemen killed in Iraq and Afghanistan and they have just revealed their intention to picket the funerals of students killed in the Virginia Tech massacre.

Now, they have put a video on the net in which they parody Band Aid USA’s song, “We are the world” which was aimed at helping a humanitarian disaster in East Africa with their own warped religious understanding, “God hates the world”

So it is no big surprise to see them described as “the most hated family in America.” And just as they are swift to condemn and picket other churches, I am relieved to be able to say that I have never heard a word in support of this cult by any of my American Christian friends.

Now of course, these people are an easy target. Nobody with intelligence or compassion could conceivably endorse their stuff of nonsense. And yet, I have a concern that dates back into my childhood that sometimes Christians can give the impression not so much that God hates the world but that God sees the world with some reservations.

A more optimistic understanding of our relationship with God comes from Desmond Tutu who continues to radiate joy despite a battle with prostate cancer. Not so long ago, a book was written to celebrate his seventy fifth birthday. In it there were essays by quite a range of mostly distinguished people. But possibly, the most interesting of these essays is one written by Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury. In it he refers to an evening when he was at birthday party of a mutual friend at which Tutu was speaking. Reflecting on how his mind couldn’t wander in Tutu’s company, Williams goes on to write of “an unprompted insight that Desmond Tutu enjoys being Desmond Tutu.”

Now, I guess that this might seem like something of a barbed compliment for people who enjoy being themselves can be egotists who lack feeling for others and all too often manipulate them. But Rowan Williams is not making such an accusation against Desmond Tutu but is instead suggesting that Tutu being glad actually makes space for other people to enjoy being themselves.

But how is Desmond Tutu so delighted to be Desmond Tutu. I like what Rowan Williams suggests as to how we can be delighted to be ourselves. Listen to this gem.

“ I suspect Desmond’s answer would be that you have to be utterly convinced that you exist because God wanted you to exist. And that because God wanted you to exist and God wanted you to exist at your creation God liked the thought of you. In which case there is not much alternative really but to go along with what God wanted - to give thanks for being yourself and to rejoice in it. When we delight in ourselves we are not passing an uncritical approving judgement on all we do suggesting that we need no improvement and that we need not face any radical challenge in life to stretch us. We are acknowledging with joy the fact of our unique existence, a delightful unique existence willed by God.”

Ain’t that great? Does it not make us want to shout out Hallelujah? For what Rowan Williams is telling us is that we are just so incredibly special in the sight of God. We are each as it were the apple of God’s eye. And if we’re special to God, then surely it follows that so are others and it is our task to help enable others to be delighted to be themselves because they too are so so special to God!

Now some of you may by now have picked up that I haven’t as yet mentioned the Bible. And so, I turn to our Gospel Reading. Jesus has been raised from the dead, God’s Yes to all that Jesus has said and done, God’s Yes to a ministry that has given value to those who were on the margins.

But those disciples who had been closest to Jesus are not sure what the future holds. And so they go back to old ways, to the trade that had sustained them before they met Jesus and quite possibly they revisited from time to time during the time they were with Jesus. They quite simply go fishing. And at first it goes all wrong. That is until, Jesus turns up with some advice. And John tells us that in a mighty catch, they land one hundred and fifty three large fish. One hundred and fifty three! But why should we be interested in a precise number? Well this has long had the scholars speculating. The two most interesting theories are the one that dates back to St Jerome that suggests that there were one hundred and fifty three different types of fish in the sea and another theory that at this time there were thought to be one hundred and fifty three ethnic groups in the world. Either of these understandings would suggest an understanding that Christ if for all the people of the world. He does not belong to one nation, one race, one type of person. No! He is the One who delights in all of us. Sure, Jesus may want each of us to grow in grace but ultimately in him we see God, far from hating the world, loving the world and all peoples with a passionate love.

But then, we see the essential good news of the Gospel, that God who we see in Jesus, loves us when we are least deserving. We saw it on the cross when in the face of torture and abuse, Jesus cried out:

“Father, forgive them: for they do not know what they are doing.”

And now, just as he forgave those guilty of violence, he offers forgiveness and restoration to the one who had been so close to him but who had let him down at the crucial time. You see, Peter had always thought he was up to the challenge. Even at the Last Supper, he had said to Jesus;

“Though all become deserters because of you, I will never desert you.”

And yet as Jesus endured the agony of the Garden of Gethsemane, Peter fell asleep. And soon afterwards in a courtyard, out of fear he denied knowing Jesus on three occasions. He had failed. He had fallen short. And he knew the pain of this all too well. His sense of worth was now in tatters. No wonder he is uncomfortable when on three occasions, Jesus asks him that penetrating question;

“Simon son of John, do you love me?”

And yet as struggles to answer, on three occasions comes the call to be one who feeds the people of God. For where so often, people are discarded at their points of failure, the way of Christ is to lift up the life that has been shattered for failure and to equip that life to move on and to learn from past errors. What a contrast to the culture of shame that so often permeates our society.

And please take note of how this Christ calls us to be in communion with others. As our lives are mended, so are we called to be the means by which other lives are put together, that all Gods children might delight in being who they are.
And this means that wherever people are marginalized, demeaned or intimidated, the voice of Christ says and bids us to shout out loud;

“Enough!”

When men, women and children fear a visitation of the scars of warfare, the voice of Christ says and bids us to shout out loud;

“Enough!”

When people are treated cruelly on grounds of race, faith or sexuality, the voice of Christ says and bids us to shout out loud;

“Enough!”

When people run from one land to another in search of safety and find not a welcome but a deportation to a place of danger, the voice of Christ says and bids us to shout out loud;

“Enough!”

When people are cynically exploited by those who would use their weakness to hoist the means of addiction upon them the voice of Christ says and bids us to shout out loud;

“Enough!”

And when gang culture stalks the streets creating fear, and when the medication that would save life or give life a new quality is denied, the voice of Christ says and bids us to shout out loud;

“Enough!”

For the Risen Christ bids us to see all people as somebodies. The Risen Christ bids us to see in each person the presence of the image of God that all may be drawn into the Divine circle of love and celebration, each delighting in being precious to the God who is the author of our very lives. Who we are and what we have been, cannot block this Divine miracle of grace

Oh Yes, Easter is a time when we celebrate something that the folk at Westboro have missed out on, that God has loved the world so much that he has sent his Son not to condemn the world but to save it. As we celebrate
The good news that Christ is alive and unleashed on our world, we rejoice in our share of that love and our delight at sharing with others in such delight.

For as Desmond Tutu so beautifully puts it;

“All belong. All, all are meant to be held in that incredible embrace that will not let us go. All!”

This sermon is for Bideford Methodist Church on Sunday April 22nd 2007