KEEPING CHRISTIANITY CHRISTIAN
John 12:20-26
"Sir, we wish to see Jesus!"
Our daughter
Jeanelle recently drew our attention to an article in the British newspaper, The Guardian" (25 April) titled
"Why I answered the call of convent life" in which it was reported
that an increasing number of young women in England and Wales are becoming
nuns. This is a surprising turn of
events for not so long ago the number was rapidly shrinking. But during the past two years the number of Catholic
women entering convents was seventy-four, that is a 25-year high compared to
only seven who joined ten years ago. And already this year 420 people have registered
an interest in becoming monks or nuns in the Church of England Community of St.
Anselm in London. In trying to explain
this growing number of applications, the prior of the Community simply says
that "they want to be all out for Jesus" in the life of the world. They choose their vocation not to escape the
world, but because they want to devote their lives more fully to serving the
needs of others.
There is so
much in the history of Christianity that fills us with both sadness,
despondency and even anger. I need not
list all the horrors associated with Christianity from crusades and
inquisitions to colonial conquest. We
all know the story, one which, tragically continues today when Christianity
becomes confused with the interests of empires and nations, or identified with
religious intolerance of others and narrow bigotry. All of which is a contradiction of what Jesus
taught, the life he lived, and his death of the cross. So it comes as a welcome
breath of fresh air to read about this new generation of monks and nuns in
Britain who "want to be all out for Jesus" in a way that seeks to
serve the real needs of the world. And
they are not alone. There are many more younger
people like them who are doing the same in different ways across the globe
without becoming monks and nuns. It is
this rejuvenation of commitment to serve Jesus by serving others that keeps
Christianity Christian.
According to
the gospel reading today, some Greeks came to the festival in Jerusalem to
worship in the Temple during the week that Jesus was crucified. They had heard about this Jesus of Nazareth
who had raised Lazarus from the dead, they had seen him in the distance, but
they really wanted to meet and get to know him.
So they came to the disciples and said "We wish to see
Jesus!" So the disciples introduced
them to Jesus, and he in turn told them about the meaning of what was happening
to him and what it meant for them to follow him.
This cameo
of a story is a wonderful description of the task of the church. Like those first disciples, it is enable
others to "see Jesus" so that they can discover for themselves who he
is. For it is only as people discover
Jesus for themselves and follow him that Christianity remains Christian. Yes, of course, like all religious movements,
Christianity needs institutions and traditions to ensure that the story of
Jesus is passed on from one generation to the next, but too often in the
process Jesus disappears from sight. Outsiders
cannot see Jesus; all they can see is the trappings of another religion which
hides Jesus from view.
It is just
like sport. You cannot keep cricket
alive without cricket clubs, coaches, match fixtures and making cricket balls
and bats, just as a nation cannot function without those institutions of state
that enable it to do so. But it is not
the sports clubs or the parliaments that keep the spirit of sport or of a nation
alive and well. Often they become
corrupt and serve their own interests instead of the spirit of sport or the
needs of society. It is the passion and
commitment of sports men and women that keep the game alive; just as it is
people committed to the common good that keep a country on track. In the same way, Christianity needs its
institutions and traditions, but it fails to be Christian if Jesus disappears
from sight. What keeps Christianity
Christian is people who follow Jesus.
On several
occasions in his letters St. Paul describes the church as the "body of
Christ." This has often been
misunderstood, especially when the church as an institution claims an authority
and acts in a triumphalistic way in the name of Christ as though it were the
Lord rather Jesus, the servant of
others. What Paul means is that through
the work of the Spirit of Jesus, the church becomes the real presence of the
risen Christ in the world. It is the
Spirit of Jesus that makes and keeps the church the body of the risen Christ.
We
misunderstand the resurrection of Christ if we simply think of it as something
that happened two thousand years ago to Jesus of Nazareth. Yes,
something did happen that first Easter morning.
I believe, with the first witnesses, that when Mary and Peter and the others came
to tomb it was empty. Even so this
cannot be proved simply by historical analysis; it is an event shrouded in
mystery as is evident in the various stories in the gospels which tell of
Jesus' appearance to his disciples. Jesus
is real, but his reality is different to what it was previously. They recognise him as the Master with whom
they had walked and talked together, but he is now in a different dimension. A spiritual dimension which which certainly
touches their lives, but he is beyond their grasp and only known to faith. Through the resurrection, the Spirit of Jesus
has been let loose in the world.
There is, in
other words, an inseparable connection between the Easter message and Pentecost
when the Holy Spirit takes hold of people and they begin to witness to Jesus. The
resurrection of Jesus as the Christ is the releasing of the Spirit of Jesus in
the life of the world in an act of new creation that continues to have a
transforming impact on the world. So the
proof of the resurrection is is seen in the lives of ordinary people who are
transformed by the Spirit of Jesus and bear witness to all that he said and did. And it is precisely this that keeps
Christianity Christian.
John de Gruchy
Volmoed 30 April 2015
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