Third Sunday of Advent,15 December 2019
Austwick, Clapham
‘Blessed is anyone who takes no offence at me’ - said Jesus to the disciples of John.
And the church leader James instructed his flock, ‘Don’t grumble against one another, so that you won’t be judged.’
But we love a little grumble, don’t we? Election-time is a great time for grumbling, things like, “voting won’t change anything,” or “I'm sick of hearing about Brexit,” or “all politicians are as bad as each other.” And Christmas-time brings out the grumbles: about the length of the queues at the one-till-that’s-open-at-Booths; about the price of postage stamps; about the parish council’s choice of village decorations; about the music at the carol service; about how much brazil nuts cost. Grumbling helps us let off steam when we’re stressed out; grumbling helps us feel a little better about ourselves, and particularly how much better we are than the people we’re grumbling about.
‘Blessed is anyone who takes no offence at me’ - said Jesus to the disciples of John. Knowing well how the grumbling against him had already begun. For the disciples of John had seen Jesus as John’s brightest hope, the one to rise up from their ranks and save the people from their subjection to Rome. They liked what they saw in his healing miracles and his radical message of good news to the poor - for surely that meant them. They had him lined up as their all-conquering Messiah. But when he started preaching loving one’s enemy and praying for one’s persecutors the grumbling started in earnest. When he spoke against the use of violence and walking the second mile and turning the other cheek - they took offence.
They weren’t the only ones who took offence at Jesus. His home-town crowd at Nazareth took badly to his prophetic speech and tried throwing him off a cliff. The religious establishment were scandalised by his Sabbath-day healings. When at the Jerusalem Temple he protested against those who had turned the holiest place into a marketplace, those with vested interests plotted how to silence him permanently. King Herod took offence at Jesus even before he was born. And even his own disciples took offence at him, when he started talking about his forthcoming death.
Why is Christianity so unpopular? Maybe it’s because people take Jesus seriously. When people take the words of Jesus seriously, when people take the words of Jesus at face value, they’re bound to take offence. For Jesus’ teaching, if followed through, pinpoints how we’re each no better than the people we grumble about - in truth, we’re often worse. Jesus’ teaching, if we take it seriously, shows us that to become better we need to turn our ways completely around. That offends a lot of us. And that’s why most of us, most of the time, prefer to avoid Jesus, or worse still, pay him lip-service instead.
But - ‘Blessed are those who take no offence at me’.
Blessed is Mary, small-town-teenaged Mother of God, who with her great fears and anxieties might have turned her back on the angel, shut her ears and her heart to Gabriel’s message, but who embraced it all, in faith, instead.
Blessed is Joseph, caught in the centre of a moral scandal not of his own making, who seeking to protect his own reputation might have walked out on Mary and never returned, but who acted exceptionally, opened his heart, held his nerve, took on the responsibility.
Blessed are the shepherds, seated comfortably on the ground, who in their terror might have turned and fled at the sight of the heavenly host, but rather listened to the voice of the angel, conferred together and took the walk of faith downhill to Bethlehem.
Blessed is the innkeeper who might have done what all his peers did and shut the door on a couple of migrants with a high-risk pregnancy, but who chose to make a generous and precarious act of hospitality instead.
This week, I say:
Blessed are those who decide to stop moaning about the garish Christmas lights in the house windows opposite, and cross the road with a bottle to share with their neighbours instead.
Blessed are those who don’t avoid the Big Issue seller on the freezing cold street, but stop for a few minutes of conversation.
Blessed are those who chuck away their newspaper telling them nasty tales about the feckless poor bringing problems on themselves, and instead spend a day volunteering in the foodbank, listening to the real stories.
Blessed are those who respond to that inner voice telling them to clear the snow from their elderly neighbour’s path, however much they’d rather be indoors by a nice warm fire.
Blessed are those who bury their differences over the family meal-table at Christmas - and commit to rebuilding broken relationships next year.
And so….
Blessed are we, if we do not take offence at Jesus, and his challenging, life-changing words.
Blessed are we, if we put an end to our grumbling and let it give way to grace.
Blessed are we if, in faith and hope and joy, we commit to become better people, to turn our ways around.
Comments