CITIZENS of HEAVEN on EARTH 20Th Sunday After Pentecost (October 18 • 2020)
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CITIZENS OF HEAVEN ON EARTH 20th Sunday after Pentecost (October 18 • 2020) BIBLE READING Matthew 22:15-22 REFLECTION People say that there are two things that are certain in life: death and taxes. Yes, we cannot avoid taxes as much as we cannot avoid death. Last year, a family in Tasmania was ordered by the court to pay over $2 million to the tax office. They were fined because they failed to pay income tax. They believed that paying taxes went against God’s will. For them Australian tax law was against God’s law, which was the supreme law of the land. “Transferring our allegiance from God to the Commonwealth would mean ... breaking the first commandment,” they said. They further argued that all the disasters that had happened in Australia were the results of people disobeying God’s law. But, the Judge, who gave the sentence, rightly disagreed. He reminded them that there nothing in the Bible that says, “Thou shall not pay tax!” 1 In the Judge’s view, the Bible says that “civil matters and the law of God operate in two different spheres.” 1 Unfortunately, this family’s behavior is not exclusive to them. There has always been a tendency amongst people of faith to separate themselves from the world. One of the most influential theologians in the 20th century is Richard Niebuhr He is well known for articulating five paradigms that Christians use to relate to the world: 1. Christ against culture. 2. Christ of culture. 3. Christ above culture. 4. Christ and culture in paradox. 5. Christ transforming culture. Many Christians, however, like to emphasize the first paradigm: Christ against culture. Again and again, there appears, amongst us, the tendency to be different from the world. We view the world as an evil place that needs to be avoided at all costs. As such, we love to create a Christian sub-culture. We listen only to Christion songs and artists. We watch only Christian movies. 1 Phoebe Hoster, Christian family who argued taxes ‘against God’s will’ ordered to pay $2.3m bill, on www.abc.net.au (Posted Wed 17 Jul 2019 at 6:06am, Updated Thu 18 Jul 2019 at 4:54am) 2 We send our children or grandchildren to Christian schools. We read only Christian books and magazines. We support only Christian politicians or political parties. I was once told that, as a Minister, I should not listen to ‘secular’ radio channels. I should only listen to Christian radio channel. In Perth, there is only one Christian channel that I know of: Sonshine FM. Now, I love listening to Sonshine FM, but it doesn’t mean that I don’t listen to other radio channels. I think it’s important, as followers of Christ, that we listen to a broad range of media channels. Why? Because we need to be well informed about public affairs if we want to respond appropriately. In our reading today, it seems that Jesus asks us to do something really difficult. He wants us to be the children of God as well as the children of the world. (That’s typical Jesus: he doesn’t give us an easy answer; he wants us to take the narrow road.) Indeed, if we close ourselves from the cultures around us or if we are hostile towards them, there is a danger that we will be known only for what we are against not by what we are for. But Christians are not called to hate the world; we are called to love the world. 3 30% of charity groups in Australia nowadays are faith-based groups.2 I suspect the majority of them are Christian. In the past, Christian missionaries were well known to be pioneers in education and health. They built schools and hospitals for disadvantaged people. No, they were not perfect. Some made mistakes: terrible mistakes like supporting the government program to remove aboriginal children from their families. At the same time, we must not forget the good things that these people had made for the society. One of the much-loved charity groups in Australia today is the Royal Flying Doctor. It provides free medical service for people in remote areas. In 2018, it was named Australia’s Most Reputable Charity. It held the ranking for 8 years in a row.3 Many of you would know that the charity had a humble beginning in the person of Rev. John Flynn. He was a Presbyterian Minister who served the Smith of Dunesk Mission at Beltana, 500kms north of Adelaide. 2 Data from Australian Charities Report 2017 from Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission 3 RFDS once again named Australia’s Most Reputable Charity to Conclude 90th year on www.flyingdoctor.org.au (Published: December 18, 2018) 4 There he witnessed first-hand the daily struggles that people in the outback faced. At the time, there was no medical care available for both the residents and travelers in the outback. In 1917, he received a letter from a young airman who suggested that airplanes should be used to bring medication to the outback. This man was Clifford Peel and he would later die on an air patrol in France during WWI. Peel’s suggestion, however, became the blueprint for the Royal Flying Doctor. Rev. John Flynn took up his idea and began campaigning for an aerial medical service. His vision was to provide a ‘mantle of safety’ for people in the bush. His dream became a reality when he received big donations from his supporters to start the experiment. Rev. John Flynn died in May 1951 of cancer. His ashes were placed at the Flynn Memorial, west of Alice Springs – at the very center of the vast territory he served. Sir William Slim, a former Governor General of Australia, once said of Rev. John Flynn: “His hands are stretched out like a benediction over the Inland.” In 1994, the Reserve Bank of Australia printed the face of John Flynn on its twenty-dollar note.4 It is still there until today. 4 John Flynn Biography on www.flyingdoctor.or.au 5 Friends, as those who follow Christ, we are not to separate ourselves from the society. We are to show that we are as concerned about and as involved in the world’s affairs as everyone else Yes, we reserve our ultimate loyalty to God. But being loyal to God should not stop us from fully engaging with the world. We are as affected as everyone else by the issues that are affecting our world today. Yes, we must not neglect our obligation to God. Yes, we must nurture our relationship with God. But we are also to shape the world according to the values of the gospel of Jesus Christ. No, we don’t have the face of Caesar on our dollar notes or coins. But we have the picture of someone like John Flynn whose life becomes a testimony of the God he served; whose life becomes a blueprint of how a believer in Christ should live by serving other people. Friends, the early Christian communities lived as marginalized and persecuted people. They lived in a hostile environment amongst people who saw them as a threat. One civil servant who served as a governor of Bithynia in Asia Minor, Pliny, once called 6 Christianity as a depraved, excessive, and contagious superstition. When two-third of Rome was burnt in 64 CE, the Emperor, Nero, blamed the Christians for the fire. He used the event as a reason to initiate the first persecution against the Christians. Yet, Christians were called to love their neighbors, even those neighbors who persecuted them. They must show that they too were good citizens who sought for the betterment of their society, just like everyone else. This was beautifully captured in the letter to Diognetus. The letter was a work of apologetics from 2nd or 3rd century CE. It captured the spiritual direction of Christians in those eras. Let me read a short excerpt of my adaptation of the letter (and I quote): “Christians are indistinguishable from other people either by nationality, language or customs. They do not inhabit separate cities of their own, or speak a strange dialect, or follow some outlandish way of life. ... With regard to dress, food and manner of life in general, they follow the customs of whatever city they happen to be living in, whether it is Greek or foreign. And yet there is something extraordinary about their lives. They live in their own countries as though 7 they were only passing through. They play their full role as citizens, but labour under all the disabilities of aliens. Any country can be their homeland, but for them their homeland, wherever it may be, is a foreign country. ... They pass their days upon earth, but they are citizens of heaven. Obedient to the laws, they yet live on a level that transcends the law. Christians love all people, but all people persecute them. Condemned because they are not understood, they are put to death, but raised to life again. They live in poverty, but enrich many ... They suffer dishonour, but that is their glory. They are defamed, but vindicated. A blessing is their answer to abuse, deference their response to insult. For the good they do they receive the punishment of malefactors, but even then they rejoice, as though receiving the gift of life. They are attacked by the Jews as aliens, they are persecuted by the Greeks, yet no one can explain the reason for this hatred.