28 April 2024 | Frank Gillies
Three days ago, we marked ANZAC day, commemorating the fallen of the wars and conflicts we have been in since the time of the Australia New Zealand Army Corps actions in WWI – supposedly ‘a War to end all wars’. Humans as a species are certainly optimistic. Wars have not stopped – today it is a very troubled world. There are major conflicts in the Middle East; now centred on Gaza, Palestine and Israel, but also a brutal civil war in Sudan, an ongoing war of aggression by Russia on Ukraine, and other conflicts and oppression mainly in Africa and Asia.
Human beings seemingly have difficulty living in peace. Humanity cannot save itself because of struggles for power by the few; those who live and think only about themselves, those who hold the idea that ‘might is right’.
The answer to all the violence and conflict can be found in the teachings that Jesus gave us: to have an unselfish caring and generosity; wanting for others what you want for yourself; seeking to live in justice and mercy; and having forgiveness, so as to bring about healing and peace. The reality is: humanity needs God’s help to save it. And God has helped by sending his Son to live and die among us. Jesus fulfilled the Old Testament prophecies: all that Israel was destined to be, yet failed to be, Jesus was – the true, ideal Vine, producing fruit for God in His life on this planet, and in the lives of His disciples 2000 years ago and His followers – ourselves – today.
Many people have not heard Jesus’ message or have heard it only partially and do not realise the hope it contains, not understanding his teachings. Yet people everywhere long for, would welcome, the peace that knowing and following Jesus could bring. How do we explain Christ to someone who wants to know, is seeking to understand, just like the Ethiopian in the Gospel reading, to explain the Good News that is found in Christ? How to share with someone an understanding of Jesus’s message and relevance today? A message that humanity needs to hear. Jesus’s message of selfless love is what can save humanity from its self-created problems.
You may not be a gifted speaker or preacher, or know the scriptures well enough to explain Jesus to a stranger, as Philip did to the Ethiopian court official, but all of us can share Christ, and show Christ to others by our actions – in how we live – so that others may see some of the light of Christ in us, and perhaps, drawn to that light, Jesus can be illuminated to them. We can show something of Christ by confronting injustice; by caring for others as we wish to be cared for; by having the courage, despite potential ridicule and opposition, to say and proclaim our faith. To say that yes, we believe that Jesus rose from the dead and is God made human.
Recently the Vatican published a document Dignitas Infinita (Infinite Dignity) which underscores God’s help to us: “Christ, by becoming incarnate, confirmed the dignity of the body and soul” (19), and, in His rising, revealed to us that humankind’s dignity rests “above all on the fact that he is called to communion with God (20).”
Jesus taught us that God is a God of Love, that God has not given up on us, that God loves us unconditionally and asks us to live our lives likewise, in loving God back and caring for others. In the first letter of John is the great affirmation: that ‘God is Love’ and ‘love one another, for Love is of God, and whoever loves is born of God and knows God.’ (1 John 4: 7-8)
This love that Christ talked of is not a romantic or physical attraction or a friendship, but the total self-giving of having a care for others – of that divine love we see in the willingness of Jesus to suffer and die for humanity – to redeem us, because if left to ourselves humanity would undergo self-ruin as we seem incapable of living in peace full-time. That example, in the crucifixion, of God’s willingness to suffer for us … “no greater love has one than to lay down one’s life for their friend” … that is divine love. It is the love that Jesus showed to us and has for us.
He is the true vine from today’s gospel reading and the branches were first the disciples, but now are us all. This metaphor of the vine and the branches shows both the disciples’ and our dependency on Jesus for spiritual life and growth, and Jesus wants us to bear fruit from him in how we live and in that way become his disciples. St John uses the word ‘abide’ several times – it has a meaning of ‘remain’ but it’s more than that as it emphasises an intimate connection describing interdependence between Jesus and his disciples – ourselves – that is the divine love that Jesus offers.
Perhaps we can also be inspired in showing Christ to others by some of the pledges in Martin Luther King’s commitment card for civil rights marchers among which are: ‘Walk and talk in the manner of love, for God is love’ and refrain from ‘the violence of fist, tongue or heart’, and ‘seek justice and reconciliation — not victory’.
Many in today’s secular society are distracted by an escapism that diverts them from the spiritual – an escapism that promotes materialism and the attractions of living for the present in pursuit of self-pleasure. It is an escapism that masks a desire to search for purpose and a meaning in one’s life. It is in Jesus and his teachings that I believe anyone, if they are open to it, can find true purpose and fulfilment in this fleeting life. The greeting of Christ when he appeared to his disciples following his resurrection – “Peace be with you” – is something all need to hear.
The world needs more of the examples that Christ gave us. So let each of us, in our own way whenever opportunity arises, try to show the virtues that Jesus showed, and so show Christ to others. We started this morning’s service with the hymn ‘He came singing love’, which included the line, ‘For the love to go on we must make it our song’. Let us all strive to make it our song.
AMEN