Back to index for April-July, 2008   WHAT IS CHRISTIANITY FOR? by Dafydd Jones Substance of a talk given at the Three Horseshoes Thursday 12th June, 2008     THE BASIC CHORD In music the basic chord is the triad that starts on the tonic note. So you have doh mi soh and then you finish it off with top doh. But doh mi soh sound better together than one a time. So I have a triad tonight which I have to play one at a time, though I would rather I had the ability to sound all 3 notes to sound together. Apart from the 3 key points I'm going to make, there is a great deal I'm going to have to leave out, for lack of time. And I'm also going to have to omit a lot of the evidence for what I'm going to present. and maybe there'll be opportunity to say more about evidence in the discussion at the end of the presentation.   THE FIRST NOTE - DOH. So we start with doh? What is Christianity for? Its purpose is to enable us to be human beings. To enable us to be human beings. You might say: but aren't we all human beings already? However, "human" is a rather complex phenomenon and a complex idea. We are born human, yes, but we also talk about people being inhuman. And some people at least are aware that we can become more human. There are profound links between human. humane and humanitarian. That is the positive side of humanity. We also used the word human negatively, Oh I'm only human, as though that were an excuse that could cover anything. Christianity recognises the negative side of being human, which is sometimes appallingly strong ­ individual selfishness and cruelty leading to massive social injustice and war and so on. But Christianity also has an amazingly high estimation of human potential in the ethical and spiritual sphere. Without shutting our eyes to the tragic and disastrous and wicked nature of much of human life Christianity offers a way to become more truly human, to fulfil this ethical and spiritual potential, by offering the vast ethical and spiritual resources needed to bring this about. Christianity's focus on becoming more human is a dual one: it's about both the individual and society as a whole. What does it mean to be human? How does Christianity envisage the goal of deeper and greater humanity? I'll have more to say in answer to these questions in my second and third points but what I want to set out now is centrality of Jesus. For Christianity, the humanity of Jesus of Nazareth is what gives us our vision of the human individual each one of us can become, and of the human society we can create. And secondly the humanity of Jesus of Nazareth is the major resource our faith has to offer in enabling us to travel down that route.     THE HUMANITY OF JESUS OF NAZARETH. There are real limits on what we know about Jesus but we know enough for him to provide us with both the goal and the resourcing of our spiritual and ethical journey. So here are some things we know about Jesus. First of all he was an artist. He was a consummate story teller and poet. There's a wide range to both his stories and his poems so when I give a couple of examples now I don't want you to think they represent the whole of his work. Firstly let me summarise one of his longer short stories. What's hell about he said? I'll tell you who's going to hell ­ it's all those who haven't fed the hungry, clothed the naked, given a drink to the thirsty, and visited and cared for those who are sick or in prison. Now this is a story not a piece of doctinaire dogmatic theorising ­ he never went in for that sort of thing. And the point of the story is to pierce the bubble of our human self-satisfaction, complacency and pride. Because if the criterion of ethical and spiritual endeavour is have we avoided evil, well we can mostly all of us tick the boxes of not being serial rapists or taking part in mass genocide. But if the question is have we always done every bit of positive good that we could have done in our lives well then it's a different matter. Jesus' story focuses the attention on how much positive good have we done and what is positive goodness in any case - a point to which I shall return. Now one of Jesus' poems that sets out his way of life in all its incredibly risky generosity. Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt. Do to others, as you would have them do to you. If you love those who love you, what's special about that? If you do good to those who do good to you, what's special about that? If you lend to those from whom you hope to receive, what's special about that? But love your enemies, do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return. Your reward will be great, for you will be just like the Most High God; for he is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. Let me move on to some of the spiritual qualities of Jesus' own life. He was remarkably free of all anxiety for his own status position, financial resources and in the end he was free of anxiety for his very self and his life. He didn't ignore any of these important considerations including his own life. His life was under considerable threat for quite some time. And he guarded and protected it; he escaped from his enemies many times until he decided was the right moment to go into their stronghold and deliver himself to them. His freedom from anxiety brought him huge courage in the face of fear. It also brought other huge spiritual and ethical benefits. He gave other people a very high place on his personal agenda. Not the highest place ­ because if you give other people the highest place they'll walk all over you. And if you give yourself the highest place you'll live with selfishness, anxiety and fear. The highest place in his personal agenda Jesus gave to God and that got everything else into a balanced perspective. Jesus gave the poor and vulnerable a very high place in his life. And Jesus personally changed the world for the people he encountered and after his death and resurrection he changed the world for everyone. Because Jesus changed the world for his contemporaries. he ended up crucified. Nobody bothers to crucify an effectual wet rag. Some examples: defending a bent over old woman, who was completely unvalued by society Jesus said she's high status ­ his actual words were she's a daughter of Abraham and high status is what that phrase meant. Defending a cheat, a traitor and a quisling in an enemy occupied country, Jesus said he's a son of Abraham. Just because that particular man had been a hopeless specimen of humanity up to that point Jesus saw that that he didn't have to remain like that for ever. Jesus saw there was more to him than first met the eye. And examples like this could be multiplied again and again. Although the Gospels are not spiritual biographies of Jesus there are enough hints in them to make it clear where all the courage and the freedom and the vigour and the generosity of his actions came from. It came from his inner life. It would be possible to talk about the place of reflection and meditation and prayer and fasting in Jesus life. There is plenty of evidence to enable us to offer some description of his inner life and his relationship with God. But it is too big a subject for me to say any more about now. The picture of Jesus the miracle worker has obscured the fact that the New Testament presents him as completely human, though we need to discuss what we mean by the word human. Again there's little time to explore this important point now and it can be raised in discussion afterwards if anyone wishes to. Let me just say for now that there is a great deal of deeper significance in these in quotes "miracles" than is often realised. For instance there's a well known story about Jesus waling on the water. This is not a story about defying the laws of physics. Rather, a choppy sea is a powerful symbol of fear in all its many guises. Jesus walking on the waters of the sea is about what Jesus has to offer to ordinary human beings who are afraid. There is much to say about Jesus that there is no time for now and may be some further points will be raised in the discussion. But let me emphasise one point: everything the NT says about Jesus is based upon the evidence and experience of his life as a human being. What was seen and heard and touched and felt in his adult life, his death and his resurrection. The whole of our faith is based on those events and on nothing else. Let me recap this first key point. What is the purpose of Christianity? To enable us to be human beings. How do we understand humanity and how are we enabled to become more human. Everything depends upon the humanity of Jesus himself?   THE SECOND NOTE - MI Now for the second string to my bow, the second note of my triad. What is Christianity for? To enable us to be human by promoting among us and within us the ethic of Christ himself? What then is distinctive about the ethic of Christ? Let me offer one qualification before answering the question, by telling you a personal story. When I was in Sunday school my Sunday school teacher told us about Mahatma Gandhi. I don't know if it's a true story, my only authority is my Sunday school teacher. Apparently, Gandhi was asked why aren't you a Christian? Gandhi replied, "I like your Christ, but not your Christians." I expect we understand where he was coming from. I for one am often deeply embarrassed, ashamed and angered, by what is done by some people bearing the name of Christian. But in outlining Christ's distinctive ethic I am not claiming that Christians are necessarily any better than anyone else. In fact to my despair I often wonder if the church in 21st century Britain even knows in its heart and soul what this ethic is, let alone puts it into practice. But the distinctive nature of Jesus' ethic is to touch the untouchable. This has personal, social economic and political dimensions to it. I can't go into them in detail, but they are all there. Let me offer some evidence for saying that touching the untouchable is the central ethical point of our faith. The crucial evidence is precisely that ­ it's crucial ­ to do with the crux ­ the Latin word for cross. Christian faith has always been focussed on the resurrection of a man who was crucified. He died as an untouchable man. He died naked or as good as, he died humiliated and tortured. Abandoned by human beings. Whatever WE think of God, to people at that time, including Jesus himself, God was very important. To every single one of his contemporaries the manner of Jesus' death was proof that God himself had abandoned him. His enemies meant to rubbish him and in that they succeeded. He had spent a few short years publicly and deliberately touching the untouchable in every way that was open to him. And so his death sums up his life. And his resurrection shows the truth of what he had always said and lived out: that new life with boundless new opportunities comes when we open the door on the untouchable places within ourselves and touch the untouchable people around us. A few examples of Jesus touching the untouchable: he touched lepers and healed them, he sat down to supper with social, religious and political outcasts and clearly enjoyed their company, he would not let old women and young children be treated just as nuisances. He paid them real attention. I've already referred to his story about hell with its implication that the criterion for ethical behaviour is whether or not we touch the untouchable. Do we feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit and care for those in prison and so on. And the heart of this story applies whether or not you believe in God, heaven, hell or any other aspect of religion. Have I clothed the naked? This is not about charity at arm's length. It's about my direct and personal behaviour and yours too. It's not a comfortable story for any human being because if we take it seriously it highlights our ethical and spiritual bankruptcy. Jesus' actions ensured that words like this were taken seriously. No wonder he was crucified! But he showed in his adult life what became spiritually superabundant in his resurrection - that touching the untouchable brings power, dynamism, hope and new life. And allowing ourselves to be touched in our hidden untouchable places changes each of us dynamically too.   THE THIRD NOTE - SOH Right, doh, me and finally to soh, and this is soh for spirituality. Not everyone accepts today that human beings have a spiritual dimension, but tonight I'll mainly take it for granted. I think it's up to those who doubt it to prove their case against the vast majority of the human race throughout all history including today. But I can't see any widely accepted view of what human spirituality is. So naturally I'll explore it from a Christian perspective. And let me keep bang on target with my title. What is Christianity for? To enable us to be human beings. And that means recognising the spiritual as the underlying foundation of our beings and creating space for it to develop and grow. But first: does the human perception that we are spiritual beings have any connection with reality or is it a delusion of the human brain? This question is outside my scope tonight but I want to recognise it as a valid question. But IF human spirituality is a real objective fact, then it follows that the spirituality of all life, of planet earth, and of the entire universe is a real objective fact. Because like everything else on this planet and in the whole universe, we are made from the dust of stars. And if human spirituality is real then the universe has been spiritual from the word ago. We are all bound up together. As always the bible expresses this through story, poetry and song. In the beginning it says -at the spiritual foundation of creation - the Spirit of God moved over the chaos and turbulence of deep dark waters and God said let there be light and light shone in the darkness of unfathomable chaos. The symbols of the spirit and the spiritual are light and word and also wind. For the very Hebrew word for spirit is the word wind and this is echoed in Greek; and Latin and English have taken their cues from here. Within Christianity it is the Eastern Orthodox church that has always been particularly good at remembering that the Spirit of God is present in all creation and in all humanity and not just narrowly in the institutions of the Christian church. So the distinctive purpose of Christian spirituality is to enable us to be human. Now in order to develop this point I need to say something first about that very little but very loaded word God. There is much that Christians need to make a collective apology for today and the failure to communicate what this word God means is one of the most serious. We have often given the impression that God is the Fat Controller of the universe and the ultimate moral enforcer. He has been there to strike fear in people's hearts and to make sure that people stay on the moral strait and narrow. He is there to cause flood, earthquake, and storm damage and tsunami. This is to a large degree the God who is rejected by those who say they do not believe in God. Let me say that I reject this God too and I believe in someone and something far more real. What is Christianity responding to in the spiritual encounter that is at the core of our faith? Two classic technical words from the central traditions of Christian theology. The first is the word immanent, Latin for indwelling. We have an encounter with one who is indwelling within us as individuals and interwoven within the whole human race and the whole of creation. This is God in the depths of our being and in the depths of all creation. The second word is transcendent ­ Latin for going across. Ascend to go up, transcend to go across. But what are we going across to? The answer is not a Latin word but an English one: other. As we encounter the One who spiritually indwells us we discover that this one and only is completely other than what we are, other than everything we perceive with our five senses, other than the whole created order. Meditating upon this indwelling and other God, St Paul is led to exclaim: neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present, nor thing to come, nor powers nor height nor depth nor anything else in all creations will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. We come to the heart of Christian spirituality. Christian spirituality promotes our humanity both as individuals and socially and politically and economically through relationship with the God who loves us. But how does Christian spirituality promote relationship with God so that all the powerful love of his spirit can blow into human life? To answer that question would involve an examination of words like meditation, prayer, fasting, reflection, space, and spiritual discipline on the individual level; and mutual support, encouragement, confession, burden-bearing and upbuilding on the social level of the body of Christ. And to explore those words would probably requite a 10 weeks series of talks and discussions on their own and this present talk is rapidly coming to an end.   THE FUNDAMENTAL CHORD   There is much that is very important that I have not said. I have not used let alone explained words like death, heaven, sin, eternal life, forgiveness, salvation, redemption. But I have achieved my basic aim which is to strike the fundamental chord in C Major. What is Christianity for? it is to enable us to be human. What is Christianity for? It is to focus on the ethic of Christ and touch the untouchable. What is Christianity for? it is to join our spirit to the Spirit of the immanent and transcendent God who offers us through his love all the resources we need to become the human beings he has created us to be.