An island of peace

PAUL Brady from Strabane, one of my favourite singer/songwriters, could have written The Island in Galilee in the first century. Remember those haunting lines: "Up here we sacrifice our children to the worn-out dreams of yesterday".

In Jesus's time, the people around Tiberius had experienced major atrocities which reinforced their sense of corporate identity and moral outrage. All the elements with which we are familiar were present.

Galilee, you see, was the heartland of ethnic nationalism. And, whether our brand is Irish or British we can identify with it. The Romans had ultimate authority, but it was the Herodians, those at the court of Herod Antipas, who controlled the region on their behalf.

The Zealots, paramilitaries, represented those who believed that a just solution could be achieved through guerrilla warfare. Their arsenals were probably hidden in bunkers around Capernaum.

The Pharisees saw themselves as the true custodians of Jewish traditions. They were honoured and revered. They had maintained the sacred traditions of their fathers.

There had always been a strong religious dimension to this nationalism, but secularism was also a phenomenon. Listen to Rabbi Yohanan ben Zakkai, who declared in his frustration at the time, "Galilee, Galilee, you hate the Torah."

Nevertheless, deep within the psyche of the Jew, whether secular or religious, was the hope that one day Shalom, peace, would come. The Messiah would appear and destroy the enemies of the people. So the wicked would be punished and the righteous would be vindicated. Justice would be established.

It is into this painful cauldron of ethnic nationalism, religious piety and cynical secularism that Jesus comes. It is to Mark, the gospel writer, that I want to turn to show you what happens.

What strikes us immediately is that the ministry and message of Jesus was so shocking and radical that within the first few chapters of Mark's account, Jesus provokes an unholy alliance between the religious and political establishment. Chapter 3 vs.6 "Then the Pharisees went out and began to plot with the Herodians how they might kill Jesus. They hated each other but now they hated Jesus even more."

The gospel can only be heard in the 21st century if we realise that we in Ireland, North and South, have got it entirely wrong.

Here on this island, our expectations, our agenda, the paradigm within which we think and act, the attitudes and fears and prejudices which we have imbibed from our mothers milk, in fact all of those things which have fed and nourished an ethnic and political tribalism, of these we must repent if we are to believe and live and share in the good news of the kingdom.

Let us remember that Mark, the gospel writer, is not primarily a story teller or a reporter. He's a teacher. He is self-consciously selecting material and almost certainly from the eye-witness accounts of the apostle Peter, in order that we might understand who Jesus is and what he is about. It is at this point that Mark deliberately establishes the heart of Jesus's message over and against the prevailing view of the religious establishment, specifically that of the Pharisees.

The Pharisees have had a bad press. They had a noble history from the 2nd century BC as people who had preserved with honour, the traditions of their fathers.

They had a genuine concern for what was "right", both in terms of the keeping of the law and in opposition to such practices as a social class system. They had among them men of integrity like Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimithea.

But, at the heart of their thinking and behaviour was a religion based on law. When you did what was right (according to the law) God rewarded you. When you did what was wrong he punished you. It's still a popular theology, even today. Their assumption was that the more they sought to keep the law the more righteous they were and the more God would hear their prayers. Specifically, he would fulfil their messianic dreams and would bring peace to their land. Sounds familiar?

The clear implications were that their political and national aspirations were dependent upon the keeping of the law. That is if they did what was right they would receive what they deserve. Their enemies too would get what they deserved. They would be defeated and a new day would dawn.

In comparison and contrast, and that's how Mark tells it, the message of Jesus is totally different. Instead it is declaration of complete forgiveness.

What he offers is not for those who have kept the law but for those who have broken the law. It is not for those who are in the right but for those who are in the wrong. It is not something we have merited it is something that we do not deserve.

That is why we have at this point in Mark's Gospel the story of the paralytic. This poor man is brought by his friends and, because they cannot enter the house, a hole is made in the roof and he is lowered to the feet of Jesus. When Jesus says to him "your sins are forgiven you" the teachers of the law, the Pharisees, are appalled.

For them this is blasphemy. Only God can forgive sins. Of course, they are right. But to reinforce what is at the heart of Jesus's ministry, he asks them, "what is easier to say, `your sins are forgiven you or get up and walk"'. Of course it was easier to say "your sins are forgiven". Nobody can see what is going on inside our hearts. So therefore, says Jesus, (and this is the key verse of this entire section) in order that you might know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins "stand up, take up your mat and walk." And immediately he gets up, grabs his bed, and walks off.

Here Jesus establishes clear water between his ministry and that of the establishment. Jesus above all else is in the business of forgiveness. This is central to his life and mission. For the simple reason that this is our greatest need. It is our greatest personal need and it is our greatest social need. This is not because we are suffering from what Freud described as a pathological condition of guilt. It is because we are all morally responsible. And all of us have failed.

In forgiveness, the one who is offended embraces the pain which the guilty deserves. And then he offers a total pardon from our past, an opportunity to wipe the slate clean, and to start all over again.

This is the Jesus way for Shalom, for peace. It is in total contrast to those who want only the wicked to suffer and the righteous to be rewarded.

Having focused on the priority of forgiveness as central to his ministry, Jesus now proceeds to do something even more outrageous to the establishment, he creates a community of the forgiven and the forgiving.

For the good Jew there two types of people: the righteous - those who sought to keep the law -, and the sinners. Sinners referred to those who were unacceptable they had neither the education, the time, nor the inclination to keep the law. They were the "am -haaritz", the ordinary people of the land.

So when Jesus wants to create a community of the forgiven who does he go to? That's right, a tax collector. Levi. Jesus says to him "follow me" and immediately he drops everything and follows him. Being a rich man he decides to celebrate this with his friends, other tax collectors and sinners who have also received forgiveness and have come to follow Jesus. In his home, the 1st Presbyterian Church in Capernaum, a gathering of radical dissenters is formed.

They have a marvellous party with Jesus as their chief guest. As you can imagine, the Pharisees are appalled. This is just plain wrong. The Mishnah, the encyclopaedia of Pharisaeic legalism, is quite specific. "A Pharisee may not be the guest of one of the people of the am-haaritz", the people of the land.

So they ask the question: How can a man of God eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?

Jesus response is "those who are well do not need a physician". He says, I have not come to call the "righteous" but "sinners".

Here then is the sign of how things ought to be. Jesus begins to establish this new community from the alienated and lost in society. He does not begin with the nice people, but with the tax collectors and prostitutes and paramilitaries and then moves to Samaritans and Roman centurions. He invites women as well as men. He brings in the slaves and the free. And he invites his followers to make disciples of all nations, from all the wrong sort of people.

Is it any wonder that in Galilee, this small but potent, radical new society was such a threat to the religious and political establishment and "the Pharisees began to plot with the Herodians to kill him."

LET me address my fellow Presbyterians for whom I have some responsibility in leadership during this year.

In the light of God's word, I want us to rediscover our role and calling on this island at this time in two areas.

Firstly, if we were to ask most people what we stand for, they may not answer in exactly such terms, what they would mean is that what we believe in is "the law". The impression is that we are against so many things. We are opposed to this and unhappy about that. It is an image of negativity.

The irony of all this is that the Reformation was about the rediscovery of something positive and joyful - that salvation was sola grati (grace alone). In other words, that our total and complete forgiveness, the pardon of all our sins, was not for the deserving but for the undeserving.

No community, including our own, is immune from suffering or wrong-doing But, because we have received mercy, now is the time for us to reach out our hand to those who have caused us pain and to offer forgiveness.

Secondly, we need to rediscover what it means to be radical dissenters, that is part of the church catholic but not part of the establishment. From the 16th century we have been a movement for reformation and renewal. We have been thran, awkward and difficult at times. In our history we have defied prelates, priests and popes.

On occasions, we have defended monarchs or encouraged rebellion. But, the one controlling factor in all of this was that we would not accept any other ultimate authority except Jesus himself.

In these momentous days in the history of Ireland, we have an opportunity to see emerging congregations, Presbyterian churches, that are different from the tribal allegiances of the past. Women and men who are Celts and Anglo-Saxons, Republicans and Unionists, those who feel comfortable speaking Irish, or Ulster Scots or English, Hurlers and cricketers, IT consultants and welders, held together not by cultural identity or political aspiration but, as in that little church in Capernaum, only that they are followers of Jesus.

They have been forgiven and are forgiving. Such communities will represent on this island the true radical dissenting tradition and without a doubt, as in our Presbyterian past, they will be extremely unsettling to the political and religious establishment.

All of this might seem unrealistic and in the light of Irish history impossible. Where "we have tried to carve tomorrow from a tombstone". But our situation is, in essence, no worse than Galilee in the first century. It is the same Jesus who can change things. He is here.

As Christians, we in Ireland in the 21st century have an apparently impossible task. We have as neighbours and friends, ordinary people who are paralysed by sectarianism or are in bondage to secular materialism or, to use the language of the apostle Paul, are just spiritually dead. There are days when we just seem to be enveloped in oppressive, hopeless darkness. The greatest need of this hour is for Irish women and men to hear again the powerful liberating word of Christ: for listening to his voice new life the dead receive.

If we are a reformed church, ecclesia reformata, semper reformanda, i.e. reformed and always reforming, then as we plan strategically for this new millennium there ought to be no political traditions that we will not question, no cultural customs that we will not challenge, no sacred cows that we will not sacrifice, so that this generation will not only see Jesus but hear the faith empowering word of God.

This is an edited version of Dr Morrow's first address as Presbyterian Moderator, delivered in Belfast earlier this month.