The following is a reworked sermon from a few years back, originally delivered to an Anglican society.
I want to begin by making a few observations about being Anglican, then to talk about Good News in Mark’s Gospel and in today’s world, and finally say something about the Kingdom of God in today’s world.
Being Anglican
Some years ago I purchased a wonderful commentary on the Book of Ruth by Tamara Cohn Eskenazi and Tikva Frymer-Kensky (The JPS Bible
Commantary Ruth: The Traditional Hebrew Text with the New JPS Translation
Commentary, Philadelphia: Thew Jewish Publication Society, 2011).
This
Jewish commentary has the text in Hebrew and English and its introduction is a
comprehensive, well written coverage of a number of issues in Ruth.
One
issue my eyes were opened to is this: Ruth is a Moabitess but I had not known
that in the Mosaic Law there is a striking and decisive condemnation of
Moabites in relation to Israel.
Deuteronomy
23:3-4, 6 says this:
No Ammonite or Moabite shall be admitted to
the assembly of the Lord. Even to the tenth generation, none of their
descendants shall be admitted to the assembly of the Lord, because they did not
meet you with good and water on your journey out of Egypt, and because they
hired against you Balaam son of Beor, from Pethor of Mesopotamia, to curse you.
[6] You shall never promote their welfare or
their prosperity as long as you live.
By
contrast the next verses in Deuteronomy 23 go on to instruct Israel not to
abhor any of the Edomites nor any of the Egyptians.
How
come Ruth the Moabitess has a story told about her which is included in the
Scriptures of Israel, indeed in our Old Testament, despite her marrying Boaz,
an Israelite in Israel in contradiction of the Law?
That this is a problem is readily seen when we see
what rabbinical commentators have said through the centuries. They have argued that the Deuteronomic prohibition applied solely to
men and/or that Ruth converted to the faith of Israel (as a possibility open to
Moabite women but not to Moabite men) (pp. xlv - xlvii).
Eskenazi
and Frymer-Kensky observe that within Scripture there are "competing
traditions" about Moabites:
"Interestingly,
Deuteronomy also preserves a different tradition about the Moabites in which
the Moabites welcome the Israelites during their wilderness trek (Deut.
2:26-29). The coexistence of competing traditions suggests that the debate
about Moabite status was already embedded within Deuteronomy and reflects
different hands or changes in attitudes over time." (pp. xlvii-xlviii)
That
is, the deeper we dig into what Scripture says, the more we have to ponder
about how the "one" Scripture nevertheless includes "more than
one" perspective on matters of importance.
The
Book of Ruth also figures, in respect of competing traditions about
intermarriage.
It
is well-known, for instance, that biblical accounts in Ezra-Nehemiah strongly
oppose intermarriage between Israelites and people of other nations.
On
the one hand, this "post Exilic" writing reflects the vulnerability
of Israel settling in its own land.
On
the other hand, it is not the only post Exilic voice which reflects on Israel
among the nations. Eskenazi and Frymer-Kensky note that, in contrast to the
exclusivity of Ezra-Nehemiah,
"Isa.
56:3-7 (also likely from the fifth or fourth century B.C.E.) promises the
foreigner a venerable place in God's house." (p. xli)
In
respect of Ruth, our commentators observe that,
"her
story functions as a counterpoint to the negative attitude toward Moabite and
other foreign women in the biblical accounts in Ezra-Nehemiah. In its own
biblical context, then, the Book of Ruth exemplifies a way that a Moabite woman
can marry a Judean and join the community, despite what we read in Deut. 23.
Rabbinic sources will seek a basis for reconciling the tension between Ruth's
place in the Jewish community and Deut. 23:4-7 regarding Moabites." (p.
xlv)
In
other words, on the questions of (i) intermarriage between Israel and other
nations, and (ii) exclusion or otherwise of Moabites from existence within
Israel, the Scriptures of Israel (the Christian Old Testament) do not speak with
one voice.
It
is not so much that we then conclude the Old Testament contradicts itself as
that we observe that within the Old Testament there are signs of lively debate
on matters critical to Israel's identity as God's people.
Within
the New Testament we also see signs of lively debate - not all of which is
resolved neatly (see, for instance, 1 Corinthians 11:16 on a particular, but
relatively small matter concerning men, women and their hair in congregational
settings; and Romans/Galatians and James on a relatively large matter
concerning salvation via faith and/or works, with considerable importance for
major theological difference within Western Christianity, between Protestants
and Roman Catholics).
One
of the questions for the church in the world today, which all too often seems
to want to present binary solutions for discussion with a disposition to choose
(or impose) but one option for permanent solution, is whether
"faithfulness to Scripture" is understood as openness to lively and
continuing debate among Christians bound together through shared
commitment to the one Christ.
For many Christians who identify as Anglican, to be Anglican is to understand the church as an accommodation of different voices. And this is very much in keeping with biblical tradition itself since the Bible is an accommodation of different voices in the scriptures of Israel and of the church.
What is Good News? What is "the Gospel"?
Back
to the Book of Ruth. One of the great themes in that book is “chesed” or loving
kindness:
1:8:
The Lord’s loving kindness is hoped for;
2.20:
the Lord’s loving kindness has blessed Ruth and Naomi with the guardianship of
Boaz;
3:10:
Ruth is praised by Boaz for her loving kindness towards him.
Chesed speaks both of undeserved kindness and of loyal kindness – that is, of grace and faithfulness. Ruth is not only the story of the lineage of David from whom the Messiah will come, it is also a story of the grace of God which the Messiah will both announce and enact through dying and rising for the sake of God’s people.
Before
getting to a response to the questions in the sub-heading above, I came across a statistic the other
day:
“%
of Americans who say they believe in God
1͟9͟8͟1͟-͟1͟9͟8͟4͟ No: 2
percent Yes: 96 percent
2͟0͟1͟7͟-͟2͟0͟2͟0͟ No: 22
percent Yes: 76 percent”
(World
Values Survey Association, https://t.co/4MHSYrjfCI?amp=1 )
It
is worth thinking about that decline in belief in God in the USA. Through those
26 years there has been no shortage of Americans preaching the gospel,
communicating the gospel by many means (e.g. through TV and social media), and
yet the upshot is fewer Americans believing that God even exists.
Of
course, we have more than a few statistics of our own like that here in these
islands of Aotearoa New Zealand.
This
is a challenging time for Christians keen to communicate our faith. We are
battling disinterest in the Christian message (whatever answer we give to the
question What is the Good News?) and facing the loss of common ground with our
hearers: the common ground that both we and they believe God exists.
Mark’s
Gospel, as a Gospel for the Roman world, sets out to announce the Good News of
Jesus Christ to people inclined to believe the world is governed by one God
(the Jews) or full of divinities – of gods (the Greeks and the Romans).
Mark
tells the story of Jesus who works mighty deeds and teaches authoritatively
about divine things, advancing the argument that the true divinity is the God
of Israel now made manifest in the Son of this one and only one God. This
Markan telling of the story of Jesus is Good News for Jews, Greeks and Romans
in at least three ways.
First,
this Son of God is powerful. He undertakes mighty works of healing, control
over nature, deliverance and feeding crowds. He even forgives sins.
Secondly,
this Son of God is compassionate. Jesus cares for the problems and pains of
people and goes about solving the problems and dealing with the pain.
6:34: “As he went ashore, he saw a great
crowd; and he had compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a
shepherd; and he began to teach them many things.” (And, then, when the crowd
was hungry, he fed them. Jesus lived out the chesed of the Book of Ruth.)
Thirdly,
this Son of God is the antitype of the usual Greek and Roman divinities,
whether the gods from heaven or the deified caesars and kings in their palaces:
10:45: “For the Son of Man came not to be
served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.”
In
other words, Jesus offers a new deal for the world: a world which is different
in respect of power and love, with Jesus living out a new way for this new
world: the power of love as vital to a better life rather than the love of
power.
The
way into this world is simple: repent, believe, follow. (Turn to Jesus, trust
in Jesus, travel with Jesus).
The
possibilities in this world are magnificent: sins are forgiven, sicknesses
healed, hunger fed, and demons delivered.
Jesus
offers a better life than either the Roman authorities or the teachers of
Israel can offer.
The
Good News is an announcement that this new world is not a dream about the
future but a reality beginning here and now.
God’s
best life is available today, a life which is experienced in a new world which
God is creating through Jesus. That world is the kingdom of God.
The Kingdom of God in today’s world
There is an irony within the stories the gospels tell. Jesus comes because God loves the world so much that in Jesus Christ, God enters the world to save it. There is a hugely social dimension to this love: God loves us all and loves us as “the world” and not as a series of individuals.
Yet in the gospels, encounters with Jesus are often (but not always) encounters between individuals and Jesus who invites or even directs each individual to follow him.
Cue a feature of Christian history in which being Christian is a private experience of individuals, sometimes manifest in remarks such as “You don’t need to go to church to be a Christian” or “My faith is very private to me and I prefer not to talk about it.”
That such privatization of the faith is not what Jesus intended is seen when we remember that what Jesus taught most frequently about was the kingdom of God.
And “kingdom” by definition is about
people in their plurality and not individuals in their individuality.
So, to announce the kingdom is to announce a new world which God is making, a world filled with people loved by God and responsive to that love.
What Jesus works for, when he is teaching publicly, explaining privately, healing all comers and feeding crowds is a new society – a new community of God’s people committed to the rule of God as King of the kingdom.
Individuals are called to follow Jesus but as followers they are called to be together, to be a community and a family.
The Kingdom is made up of communities of God’s people.
In each of our communities - parishes, para church organizations, other ways of gathering together as Christians, our challenge is to be a community which represents, illustrates and advertises all that is good about the Kingdom of God – all that exemplifies godliness, outward facing love, enthusiasm to share the message of Jesus, and passion to expand the kingdom through growth in people who become its citizens.
Conclusion
A Kiwi scholar, Douglas Campbell, in a recent book said a couple of things which I think are relevant to thinking about the Good News as an Announcement of the Kingdom, and I will conclude with these:
First, “Jesus did not write a book; he called disciples.” (The Triumph of God’s Love: Pauline Dogmatics (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2020), p. 69)
Then, in an exposition about the great
theme of his book The Triumph of God’s Love, Campbell raises this likely
question in the mind of someone hearing about God’s great love for humanity:
“It’s all very well to speak of a personal God of love definitively revealed in Jesus, yada, yada, yada, but where exactly do we meet Jesus and this overpoweringly benevolent and kind God? I haven’t met Jesus personally myself. So how do I get this deep internal conviction that he was God living among us, loving us, and dying for us? After all, he lived a long time ago.” (p. 56-57)
Campbell then proposes that this is the answer Paul the Apostle gives, as found in his New Testament writings:
“We meet God through people like him – that is to say, through the
community [community of Christians], and especially through its designated
leaders. And we learn from this phenomenon that Jesus’s followers mediate God’s
revelations.” (p. 57)
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