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Isaiah 61: 1 – 4; Revelation 21: 1 – 4; Romans 12: 1 – 3

Christians are people of the book. Christians are people who gather round a text – a story told; a story read. Jews and Christians have been doing this for 2600 years. Ever since the Jews went into Exile in Babylon in 586 BC we have learnt to gather round a text rather than a sacrifice. We gather to hear and understand the text.

Today in this service we have heard three different texts or stories. This is unusual so I thought I might gather them together for a moment and see how they interconnect. The story of the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well [John 4] tells us of a marginalised person experiencing God’s acceptance and finding deep joy. It is a story of acceptance, love and joy.

The second story, which our children are reflecting upon, is the Noah story with the focus on God’s promises never to destroy all of creation again. The rainbow is a sign of God’s promise. The ancient Noah story reminds us of our potential to self-destruct and of God’s gracious response as God-the-surgeon who cuts out the deep core of our sin.

These stories remind us of two important things. a) The joy of meeting Jesus. b) The reminder that sin is in and all around us.

Our third set of texts with a focus on Matthew 5:

speak about the happiness of the person who mourns, that is, the person who is heavy with sorrow. Now this seems to contradict what we have just heard in the first two stories. And isn’t contradictory to speak of happiness and sorrow in the same breath? How can one mourn and be happy? The text demands our attention. This second beatitude is the second characteristic of Jesus’ disciples.

In our first reading of the text we naturally, and mistakenly, take ‘mourning’ to refer to personal sorrow: death, loss, breakdown of relationships, and tragic news, ill health or failure. But he is not talking about personal sorrow. Jesus is speaking out of a rich tradition that the prophets understood. [Is 40:1f]. This tradition speaks of the sorrow about humankind acting badly and the injustice in life. The Jews exiled in Babylon understood their exile to be due to their unfaithfulness. So their sorrow includes a sorrow for their unfaithfulness and a sorrow for the destruction of their city, temple and its people. Martin Luther, the German monk and reformer, translated the Greek word for sorrow with the German word, Leidtragen, which literally means – sorrow-bearing. This is a good translation for Jesus is saying those who are sorrowful about the suffering of others, the world, and their own sin, will be comforted. This is a sorrow about the sad plight of humanity and creation. It is a sadness about the war, the poor, the exploitation of people and the environment. It is a sadness about the fear and alienation that breaks families, community and destroys nations. It is a sadness because the earth groans. It is a sadness about the nations that cannot come to an agreement for a fairer trading system. It is a sadness about our fear that protects our things at all costs. It is a sadness about our failure to understand that to be human means we must let others be human. It is a sadness about the blindness that cannot see that fighting terrorism with terror is also terrorism.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, German theologian and pastor who opposed Hitler’s Nazi socialism and racial genocide and was executed for his part in wanting to overthrow Hitler wrote in his book, The Cost of Discipleship; "The world dreams of progress, of power and of the future, but the disciples (of Christ) meditate on the end, the last judgement, and the coming of the kingdom."[Cost. P. 98] Jesus calls his followers to walk to a different drumbeat than the drumbeat to which the world marches. Let us draw some distinctions.

Christianity is not about church attendance and good behaviour. It is not about our children having good values. Christianity is about marching to a different drumbeat. And when the Christian meditates on these things s/he cannot but become sad about the way things are. I carry a deep sadness in me. It’s about the Church, I don’t mean Burwood, and it is about the church at large and our denomination. Read the latest edition of Crosslight, the newssheet of Synod of Victoria. Our Church to my mind has reduced the Gospel of Jesus to social justice, has misplaced evangelism, has lost its theological rigour, thinks our current programmes just need money rather than deconstruction, and that our ministers will be part of the solution when there is a crisis of faith in the ranks. I carry a sadness about this world. I couldn’t cry for the people who died in the 911 tragedy in 2001 as I had run out of tears for the starving people of Africa whose starvation is exacerbated by politics and trade, and the endless violent conflict in Palestine. All this and more saddens me, but I am also saddened by my own sinfulness of acquisition and covetousness.

Blaise Pascal, 17^th Century French mathematician and religious thinker said; We can only know God well when we know our own sin.

Gillian and I went to see a production of Shakespeare’s Hamlet the other night. I said to Gillian I don’t enjoy Hamlet it is so dark. Shakespeare did something very significant in Hamlet. He shows how someone who is outraged at the injustice of the murder of his father, the king, by his uncle and his mother who marries soon after his uncle. Hamlet is not a happy character at all. Outraged he wants justice. But all his actions are coloured by his egotism. He is overwhelmed. Hamlet is his own enemy. He is on his own. He chooses to be on his own. He acts emotionally and without reason. He is egotistical but does not believe in himself. Hamlet represents those who when faced with the stark reality of injustice and inhumanity cannot act. They cannot act because they have nothing to believe in, either themselves or in God. So they self-destruct and take others with them.

Hamlet is successful in killing his mother and uncle for the murder of his father, but also manages to destroy six others including his lover and himself. I looked the stage at the end strewn with bodies and thought Bruce Willis in the "Die Hard" series of movies would be proud of this stage. At least Bruce Willis lives to tell the tale. Hamlet is a dark play that portrays how humans can be driven by anger and fear to the point that they destroy life – they continue the cycle of despair and death.

I refer to Hamlet because our rage against the injustice, inhumanity and evil can make us unable to act like Hamlet. I refer to Hamlet because it shows that without hope, faith and love we humans become part of the injustice and inhumanity and evil. We become part of it because we don’t act against it. We become part of injustice, inhumanity and evil because we respond with outrage and fear.

Now Jesus teaches that the bearers of sorrow are happy for they are comforted. Jesus says his disciples have happiness as they bear-the-sorrow, because they have him and Jesus is our comforter. Jesus enables us to act. The word "comfort" in Jesus’ time was another name for the Christ. Jesus is saying when we become sorrowful, deeply sorrowful, because we look and see the world as it is, there is a high risk of becoming lost in the sorrow. It can overwhelm us as it did Hamlet. That is why most of the time all of us superficially look upon the reality of suffering in the world. We cannot look on the reality of suffering all of the time. It is too much to bear. And that some of us all of the time look upon the world superficially. So Jesus’ disciples will bear-sorrow but they will be blessed.

Lord Shaftsbury was one of the great reformers of the 19^th Century. He possibly did more for ordinary people and especially children than any other reformer. When he was a boy at Harrow, he came across a poor man’s funeral. The coffin was the cheapest and was carried on a wheelbarrow. Four men who were drunk pushed the barrow. As they pushed the barrow along they were singing ribald songs and joking. Going up a hill the coffin, more like a rough box, became unbalanced and fell off bursting open. It was an awful picture. Some may have laughed more out of embarrassment, and others may have turned away. But Shaftsbury looking on said to himself; When I grow up I’m going to give my life to see that things like that don’t happen. So he dedicated his life to caring for others. Like other reformers such as Wilberforce, Shaftsbury was a devout evangelical Christian who looked upon the real world and resolved to change things with the help of God.

Christian character not only acknowledges its helplessness before God, it includes sorrow-bearing for God’s world. A sorrow about the sin of the world, our part in it, and what it does to humanity and all of creation. It is a sorrow that moves the disciples of Jesus to turn to God and act against the injustice, inhumanity and evil in whatever way that is possible. This world still needs a lot of little "sorrow-bearers".

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Peter C Whitaker, BUC: 10/08/2008

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