Conversion of a Fundamentalist - St Paul : 25th January 2015 – Addingham St Peter’s Readings : Acts 9:1-22 / Matthew 19:27-end Prayer : Be thou my vision, O Lord, of my heart - be all else but nought to me , save that thou art – Be thou my wisdom, be thou my true word – be thou ever with me & I with thee, Lord. Be thou my great Father & I thy true son; be thou in me dwelling, & I with thee one. Amen. St Paul wrote in that famous passage in 1 Corinthians 13 - the passage on Love – “When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known. But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love.” St Paul – the great champion of the Christian faith – the missionary statesman & the apostle to the Gentiles declares all his previous knowledge – all his achievements, his academic & spiritual progress was just garbage/rubbish/trash compared to the knowledge of knowing Christ (Phill 3:8-10) Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ and become one with him. I no longer count on my own righteousness through obeying the law; rather, I become righteous through faith in Christ. For Gods way of making us right with himself depends on faith. I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead. Here was a self confessed fundamentalist – a radical preacher – a religious extremist – a Pharisee of the Pharisee turning his back on all his old learning, his friends, his status & security – making a fool of himself by identifying with this break away minority group – a cult that actually worshipped a crucified man. What could have happened to him ? He became a joke amongst his former colleagues. We read about it in Acts chapter 9. Have you ever had a change of heart ? a change of outlook - to radically change your opinions – to tear up your preconceptions & start again – back to the drawing board – back in the beginners class - just when you think you have got everything sewn up & the world banged to rights – when you thought you knew the World & your place in it ? It comes as a shock to realise things aren’t as black & white – as simple as you first thought. When you have to revise your hypothesis based upon new evidence – you can do one of two things – you can ignore the evidence & spend all your time refuting it, preferring the safety of your own theory – or you can put your cherished beliefs on the side, examine the new evidence & then over time – seek to evaluate & incorporate what you now know with what you knew before. What was known in philosophical terms as the Hegelian Dialetic – Thesis – Antithesis - Synthesis. (Theory – Anti-Theory – Adapted Theory). As Hegel stated, the purpose of dialectics is to study things in their own being and movement and thus to demonstrate the finitude of the partial categories of understanding”. The job of any scientist is to test that their theories work in practice. Here faith & science are one – to re-evaluate personal knowledge based upon experience & to test all theories by taking them out on a road test, to see if they produce the results they promise. That is why Theology, the study of God has been known as the Queen of Sciences – not just studying creation, but the Creator Him or Herself. We have much evidence in the world today of fundamentalists – those who believe blindly - hanging on to their set beliefs despite all evidence to the contrary - willing even to resort to violence to maintain their control on the hearts & minds of their followers. There are none so blind as those that claim they can clearly see – living in darkness, denial & defensiveness. Jesus called the religious leaders of his day Blind guides – leading their flocks into hidden dangers whilst claiming to know the way : Jesus said he was the Way – He was the truth & the Life but that following him meant leaving behind the prestige, the comfort, the security of being part of the flock…of detaching yourself from the herd & making new tracks by a different unknown way – adopting him as the new shepherd - to be led …risky business – what if you got it wrong ? Taking a gamble that may or may not pay off .. Yesterday I was taking my dog Sam through a field of sheep – scattered throughout a big field - each happily munching on its own grass. Yet as soon as Sam appeared on the scene – they started to huddle together – it was amazing to see how they all gathered as one – into one herd, as if they were controlled by remote control – herd instinct – crowd control – they acted as one. They had been happy munching in their own patch & now suddenly they were like one mass – one mass marked with the same distinctive markings made by the Farmer – blue bottoms & orange painted heads. They watched Sam closely & then went as one body, into the neighbouring field as if they were being herded by invisible sheepdogs. It was amazing to see. Sometimes we can be part of a herd mentality – following on the people ahead of us – gathering together in common defense against what could be conceived as a common enemy. Were they right to do so ? Was it self preservation or learnt instinct ? Where was the right of each sheep to its own self-determination – to break away & disagree with the herd & to go in a different direction.. How likely was it that they would do this ? As we see how the World is currently reacting to perceived terrorists, as people amass together in condemnation against religious terrorists – can we identify the leaders & the independent thinkers, those willing to take a risk, a gamble & chose a different way from the predictable, from the known, tried & tested – into new ground - into thinking & living outside of the box ? Jesus was one such thinker – radical, unconventional, challenging the norms & values of his day & calling others to follow him in radical dis-obedience, even at the cost of his life. St Paul also saw the light & re-evaluated his position, his theology , his direction in life & his assumptions about what was right, honourable, pure & correct. He did not stop being a Jew but he was confronted by the new reality of Christ – risen from the dead & so had to go back & re-interpret his scriptures to find a new way of living – of being & doing.. He had to revise his conclusions. We also have to be open to new evidence that demands a fresh verdict – to re-open our closed text books of previously thought reality & ask God to lead us in new ways – to fresh discipleship – to take risk in exploring the unfamiliar & asking God to lead us to new light. Are you prepare to take that risk in following Christ ? Jesus said ‘Blessed are those who know they are poor in Spirit – for theirs is the Kingdom of God – Blessed are those who hunger – those who weep – Blessed are the persecuted & the reviled – for they shall see God – whereas those who thought they were fed & rich, well liked & secure will mourn & lose what little they thought they had. So the message this morning – don’t follow the herd – think on your own feet, re-examine the evidence – be open to new surprises – to be taken in new directions – to take risks& not be constrained by what you knew before – to hear the voice of the True Shepherd when he calls to you & so - not taking anything for granted – be blessed.May God bless you all. Amen. I value any comments or questions you may have from this talk – David Austin (Rev) dsj.austin@hotmail 01535 211043
Posted on: Sun, 25 Jan 2015 01:09:43 +0000
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