In the time before the Covid Lockdown, we Christians used to do a house to house collection for Christian Aid, trying to knock on every door in our area, asking people to give money to help the poor and starving of the world. You can see and her me give this Homily on Youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XN7VJTfsaE
This surely is a good thing to do, so I was shocked a few years ago, in the place where I then lived, when some people suggested that this collection should no longer take place. What shocked me was the reason they gave : they had found that some people were being rude, even abusive to them, for being Christians, and they wanted to avoid such conflict in the future.
I was shocked, because they seemed to have totally ignored the message in our Gospel today, (Matt 10:26-33) and in many other places, where Jesus predicts that those who follow him will inevitably face conflict. Of course, in some parts of the world Christians are used to facing conflict with others, but this is a new thing in the UK, and there are sadly too many British Christians who just want to be private Christians, who just don’t want to face being upset in any way, by getting into conflict with others. Thus we choose the bits of the Bible that make us feel good but ignore the real challenges, such as “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven.” (Matt 5:11-12)
Now although, in that famous passage, Jesus is encouraging us; in our Gospel today Jesus adds a warning. Remember what he says ? “The one who disowns me in the presence of men, I will disown in the presence of my Father in heaven.’ In other words, if we fail to “declare ourselves” for him and thus by implication disown him, then he will have to disown us. Of course, we all know that we will sometimes fail that test, that there will be times when we will simply keep quiet about our faith. That’s surely why so many of us are fond of St Peter because he too, in a moment of fear, disowned Jesus; and yet in the end he was forgiven. Our problem here in the UK, is not St Peter’s fear of death of course, but simply our fear of being different, of not being liked. Notice that what Jesus also says about this is, that even if we keep quiet, or cover up our real feelings about something, so as to avoid upsetting someone, or getting into conflict with them, in the end “Everything that is now covered will be uncovered, and everything now hidden will be made clear.” The great danger therefore is that what we think of as being diplomatic, can easily be seen by others as being devious. Our only solution must therefore be to try to work out how to explain our views in ways that that offend people as little as possible.
To do this we have to face up to our fear, because unless we face the fear, we will either blurt out our views aggressively, or end up so frozen in the fear of always trying to be respectable that we will sadly end up, as I said, by being thought of as devious. Remember how many times Jesus said, as in our Gospel today, “Do not be afraid.”? Now I’m sure Jesus doesn’t mean by this that being afraid is wrong; he knows what fear is. We only have to think of him fearful of the pain and death he knew he had to endure, as he prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, just before he was arrested. Jeremiah too, in our 1st Reading (Jer 20:10-13) also faced fear, and showed us how he overcame it, because as he prayed he reminded himself that God was “By his side”, and not just by his side, but by his side as, “A mighty hero” – words that Jesus would have known well. So surely the words of Jesus here, “Do not be afraid” are meant to encourage us to face fear, for as soon as we admit we have fear and begin to turn to God to help us to face it, the more likely it is that God will show us the best way of facing it.
So, how can we be true to what we believe and yet avoid unnecessary conflict? Well I certainly know that confronting people directly is unlikely to be successful. We will rarely persuade someone to follow Jesus by simply confronting them. I always find that if I do try that way, I can feel their brick wall of opposition rising up, so that whatever I say, however reasonable, will be rejected. So when someone tells us that our faith is a load of rubbish, it is pointless getting angry, for then we are putting up our own brick wall. It is far better to try to find out what they mean, rather than simply arguing back. It is for example sad that so many people think all Christians care about is telling people what they should or should not do. “Oh No” I say “That’s the religion of the Pharisees in the time of Jesus – the very people he argued with most” The message of Jesus and his followers, as I am sure you know, is all about love not about condemnation; yes even the most loving words may lead to conflict, and we have to accept that if it comes, but faced with such things let us always remember the words Jesus says from the cross, of the people who have crucified him, “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do”
So what I do sometimes is to try to turn the argument round, and instead of banging on about God, I ask them what they do believe in. Often, they then point to acts of great love: firefighters fighting for people’s lives in the face of a dreadful fire, or the quiet caring shown by nurses and doctors to a relative of theirs who was dying, or the love they have for their family, or receive from someone who loves them. If they say this kind of thing, I then say how much I agree with them, but explain that our only difference is that every time I see love of that kind, I see God; and then maybe I add that perhaps they have been rejecting a very different kind of God from the one I believe in, for I believe that God is the source of all expressions of love. In fact, I believe, as it says in the Bible that “God is love.” (1 John 4:8)
That’s surely the main message of today. Whatever we have to face, we need to know that that power of love underlying the Universe, will be with us and within us. It is good to remember this every time a fire engine or an ambulance goes past us with its sirens going and its blue lights on. Then is the time to make the sign of the cross; not just to pray for those in trouble, but also as a reminder, that there rushing to care for others, goes love. And if love is there, then there is God.
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