Epiphany 3 • 22 Jan 2017

Isaiah 9:1-41 Corinthians 1:10-18Matthew 4:12-23

Rev. Chris Udy

Last week there was a small kerfufflewhen a billboard promotingan event for Australia daybecame the targetfor complaints and threatsand the advertising company (QMS)decided to take it down.When they heard about the threats,and the advertising company’s decision,a number of people launched petitionsto have it restored,and Dee Madigan, an advertising executive,set up a project on ‘go fund me’to put similar billboards in capital cities across Australia.The Uniting Church has contributed to the project,along with more than 4 thousand other donors,and in 2 days they raised more than $150k (now $165).

For most people,and certainly for people in the Uniting Church,the response wasn’t about Australia Day –in fact many of us are ambivalentabout celebrating Australiaon a date that commemorates a tragedyfor the First Peoples of Australia.And it wasn’t about Islam either.Although the billboard was targeted with threatsbecause the girls on it are wearing hijabs,the reactions weren’t about religious beliefor even about fashion –for me, and for the Church,and I think for most who supported the project,it was about the kind of community,and the kind of worldwe want to live in.

Those people who used threatsto have the billboard removed,and the advertising companywho caved in to their pressureseem to want a communitywhere only people like them belong,and they seem to want to live in a worldwhere anything that’s different,anything they don’t understand,is kept away behind borders and wallsand undeserved punishments used as warningsto anyone those threatened and threatening peoplewant to keep away.

Over the last few years it seemsthat threats and fear have been shaping the world,and a world that’s formed by fears and threatscan only be chaotic and fragmented.In a world like thatall energy and “treasure”goes into weapons and schemes and rigid defences,while homes, and farms, and schools and hospitalsget the little that’s left over,and those who can afford itchoose to look only after their ownand forget that the worldthey think they’re building for their childrenwill also be full of desperate,hungry and angry neighbours.

But thankfully there’s another wayto respond to threats and fear,and that’s at the heartof what we’re doing here today.Thankfully also,while some of the voices in the conversationhave been cynical and strident,when it comes to the billboard, at least,it’s clear that those of uswho don’t want to live in broken worldare certainly not alone.It was good to see Minister Peter Duttoncome out with a statement -in the Murdoch media no less –endorsing the billboard’s messageand describing the image of the girls as ‘great’.And by Friday afternoon nearly 10,000 other peoplehad signed the ‘change.org’ petitionto have the billboard reinstated.What they’re doing might be limited, and symbolic,but it says that there are manywho don’t want the worldthey pass on to their daughters and sonsto be defined by bigotry and bullyingand power used to maintain the very fewat the expense of very very many.

What we’re doing today –celebrating baptism for Eddie and for Maggie –is also part of that responseto a fearful, fragmented world –and for Maggie, and for Eddie,it involves an affirmationand a promisethat love, and not fear,is the power that shapes a world worth living in,and trust, and hospitality, and forgiveness -the disciplines and values that can reconcile and redeem,are what we need to learn and teachto keep them safe and healthy.

Today we read part of a letter Paul wroteto the Christian community in Corinth.“Now I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, “ he wrote,“by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,that all of you be in agreementand that there be no divisions among you,but that you be unitedin the same mind and the same purpose.For it has been reported to me by Chloe's peoplethat there are quarrels among you,my brothers and sisters.What I mean is that each of you says,"I belong to Paul,"or "I belong to Apollos,"or "I belong to Cephas,"or "I belong to Christ."”

Corinth was a cosmopolitan place.It was a busy, prosperous city with two harbours,attracting people from all over the Roman Empire.When Paul arrived there,he lived and worked with Aquila and Priscilla,both tent-makers like Paul,who had come to Corinth from Rome.They, and all other Jewish people,had been expelled from Rome by the Emperor Claudius,possibly because the Jewish community therehad been stirred up and dividedby the arrival of Jewish Christians from Judea or Galilee.That was in the year 49AD -and it was just the year beforePaul first arrived in Corinth.For the next 18 monthsPaul worked with Priscilla and Aquilaand taught in the Synagogue,where the congregation grewto include, not only Jews,but Greeks, and Romans,and people of many nationalities and cultures.

But not everyone was happywith Paul or with a multicultural synagogue.In AD51 Paul was arrested, charged,and put on trial before the local magistrate.The case was dismissed,but Paul soon left Corinth anyway,moving on to Ephesus,from where he wrote a number of lettersback to the community in Corinth.The one we call 1 Corinthiansis probably the second letter he wrote -urging them to live in unity,and to work together“in the same mind and with the same purpose”.Paul was worriedbecause he’d heard reports “from Chloe’s people”that the congregation was in conflict.Other preachers and teachershad come to Corinth after Paul -one named Apollos,possibly also Peter - or Cephas - and Barnabas,and there may also have been others.Each one appealed toand attracted different people,and over time,factions had developed in the congregation.Some maintained their loyalty to Paul,others followed Apollos, or Peter,others again seem to have decidedthat they were the proper Christiansand said they belonged to Christ -and it looks like each little faction identified itselfdepending on which teacher had baptised them.

As we read today,Paul urged and encouraged themnot to be divided,and to remember that their baptismwasn’t in the name of Paul, or Peter, or Apollos -but in the name of Christ,and that baptism into Christwas baptism into the cross.

For Paul, the crossis the complete and final demonstrationof the power of God –and it’s power that’s used to reconcile and redeem.For some it may look like weakness and foolishness:for those who are perishing, Paul says,it looks like death - the ultimate failure.“But to us who are being saved” he writes,“it is the power of God”.

The power of God is not revealedin divisions and party spirit.As soon as we give our loyaltiesto anyone or anythingthat splits us into factions,up against and over aboveand opposed to other peopleinstead of seeking the forgiveness,reconciliation, healing and peacethat Jesus lived and died for - Paul would say -as soon as we claim loyaltiesto anyone or anything lessthan the God who claims us allas his daughters and sons -anything less than the God we seerevealed in the life of Jesus -we put ourselves outside and beyondthe saving power of God.

It isn’t what we have, or what we know,or what we say or believethat leads to life.Life is God’s gift, and it always comes to usfrom beyond our boundaries –from beyond what we already are or what we have.God’s gift of life comes in babies,like Maggie and Eddie.It comes to us in neighbours, and community –the people who liveon the other side of our fences.It comes to us in new ideas,fresh insights, different tastes –and sometimes they take timeto appreciate and understand.If we get suspicious and frightened;if we close ourselves off,and try, with grim determination,to put barriers and wallsbetween ourselves and other people,if we try to isolate ourselves from our neighboursand from the world -then we will perish -we will shrivel up and die.But if we’re open;if we forgive and seek forgiveness;if we live with trusting respect;if we extend the kind of hospitalitythat we see in the life of Jesus -then God’s gift of life is renewed in us,and we are being redeemed.

We are called to hospitality –and genuine hospitalityis a reciprocal thing;we open our tables,our homes and our lives to others,to people whose experience of life and of Godwill not be the same as ours,and it’s in their difference -it’s in their new insights, their new perspectives,new wisdom, new skills, new recipes …new energy and dreams -that we also receiveGod’s power for renewal and redemption.It’s when we make space for guests in our lives,when we share what we have,and accept what we’re given in return,that we build communityand preserve our commonwealth.

So whatever we’re going to celebrate this week:Survival Day or Invasion Day,or Australia Day –or simply a quiet day with neighbours and familybefore all the holidays end -may it be hopeful and peaceful.May all our celebrations beboth relaxing and inspiring:as we give thanksfor the place we’ve found a welcomeand been given a home;as we recognise and honoursome of those who’ve lived lives of service;as we reflect on our history -both in light and shadow;and as we affirm that all good giftsbegin with God,and that it’s only when giftsare exchanged and sharedthat they find their purposeand lead us into life.