The way of Transformation

 8^th November - Remembrance Sunday – 3 before Advent

Amos 5: 18-24. This famous piece from Amos criticizing the sacrificial cult in Israel as ineffective as long as it was disconnected from justice and righteousness in society is as true for all modern worship today as it was then. Personal piety must be linked to just achieving justice in society so that at least for Amos religion and politics definitely do mix!

1 Thessalonians 4: 13-18. A piece of scripture often misinterpreted by fundamentalists and given to refer to what they call “the rapture”. This is actually a piece brimming over with hope concerning the future of fellow Christians who had died before the return of Christ which in the very early church Christians thought was imminent. Paul uses the only linguistic tools he has at his disposal, the language of “Jewish apocalyptic” informed by his belief in Jesus as the Messiah to try and explain what was happening  They were of course wrong in the prosaic physical sense – Jesus did not return - but right in the wider spiritual and theological sense that God wills the salvation of all things, so it doesn’t matter when you die. The guarantee of our own resurrection is based in the fact of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Matthew 25: 1-13. In this parable one could say (and I do!) that the ten bridesmaids represent all Christians and the fact they all fell asleep means that they all died before the return of Christ (see 1 Thessalonians above). But some had oil in their lamps, and some didn’t. Oil here represents the oil of good works – the outworking of faith in our character and actions without which our faith probably isn’t worth very much - The book of James has much to say on this point! This is not a parable to predict the number and fate of the damned but an exhortation to Christians to respond to Grace (the bridegroom) with the genuine light of goodness (the lamps)

 

 The overarching theme of today’s readings is transformation. Personal transformation in the case of the gospel parable, societal transformation in the case of the prophet Amos, and all based on that ultimate transformation from death to new life that underpins the entire Christian revelation.

On a day when we commemorate the millions who have died in warfare it is so obvious that such wholesale transformation is sorely needed.

Let’s start with the gospel parable which is directed towards Christian believers ourselves. The marriage feast is a symbol of the final consummation of all things and the bridegroom is Jesus. But the bridegroom is delayed (he doesn’t return immediately) and all the bridesmaids fall asleep which is a Biblical idiom meaning that they all died before Jesus returned.

When he did return, not all of them had oil in their lamps which means the oil of good works which makes them shine as lights in the world. And as a result Jesus didn’t recognise them as his own because they hadn’t allowed the Grace of God to transform their characters and their actions.

So this is a parable urging the change in people to become more Christ-like so that Christ himself will recognise himself in us.

This is no way negates the fact that we are saved by Grace, but Christian believers must surely respond to that Grace.

This is the major theme of the letter of James which I encourage people to take a look at, especially chapter two which ends with the famous verse “faith without works is dead”

But not only James. Paul too says of course, and it is axiomatic to our understanding of salvation that we are saved by Grace and this grace is made effective in our lives through faith.

As changed people we will naturally want to model the society we live in according to the same principles that guide our own lives which is what Amos was writing about.

He derides the Jerusalem cult for operating in a bubble completely divorced from the injustice, cheating, deceit and exploitation going on in Hebrew society as though it didn’t matter. Their personal piety was the only thing that mattered, even though the society in which it was situated was corrupt.

Amos writes, “Let Justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream”

So we have personal and societal transformation but why? Why should we want either and what basis for either change do we rest on and draw our strength and resolve?

They are both based on our faith in the resurrection of Jesus Christ which has always underpinned our faith. This is basically what Paul is saying. He states it within the context of people fretting that their friends were dying before the expected return of Christ and they were worried about what would be their destiny?

Paul asserts that they all share the same destiny because the Grace of God is all sufficient for all things whenever they died and whether Jesus has returned or not.  

And that message is a powerful one for remembrance Sunday. While we lay wreaths and commemorate their service and sacrifice and mourn the manner of their death in such terrible circumstances, we can be sure that our destinies are shared. Jesus died and was raised for the whole world. In death we are undivided.

For this act of remembrance to be effective in our lives it would force us to confront the systems, politics, and cultural norms that led to their untimely deaths in the first place.

We would let the grace of God flow though the very act of remembrance and allow it to change us and through the change effected through us, to subsequently change our societies.  

That is the overarching rationale of the Christian Way.