Epiphany 5 Year C
Equality and Empire
The Rev Diane Gilliam-Weeks

After calling Simon and James and Andrew and John to follow him – so he can teach them to catch people with the message of the Gospel…

Jesus goes on to preach in the synagogue at Capernaum and then on and on…
to the neighbouring towns and villages. As Jesus says…to proclaim the message there too;
for that’s what I came out to do.

To catch people…to win people over…to get people on board with the good news…
the truth about God’s love and God’s purpose of peace and wellbeing for all humanity.

A full twenty-five years later…in his letter to the infant church in Corinth…
the apostle Paul identifies the same purpose for his life…

‘I’ve become all things to all people, that I might by all means… win some. I do it all for the sake of the good news, so I may share in its blessings.’

What blessings? the blessings of living in the Messianic age…when instead of fear and the oppressional of a punishing transactional God…Jesus proclaims a different God…one of grace…one who loves…and seeks shalom…the peace and wellbeing for all people.

Jesus extends himself…he goes out…our text reports … so more people can learn…
that the time for the reign of this God is now…even if Caesar thinks he’s god.

Jesus walks and talks and restores people to health and to community
by sharing this message of Good News

And the same for Paul…blending in… adopting the language and the culture
of the Empire around him…becoming a slave to all…a Jew to Jews and a gentile to gentiles…and even showing his weakness to the weak. Why?

So as to remove any and every stumbling block…which could get in the way…
of people hearing the good news that God loves everyone and that changes everything

To expand their powerful Empire…the Romans would confiscate any part of the known world they wanted…for their own use and enrichment…

Of course… Caesar proclaimed…there could always be peace…As long as the conquered people…remember their place…in the scheme of things.
As long as they don’t get above their station.
As long as they don’t demand equality with Roman citizens.

Anyway equality was unthinkable…not even in their vocabulary …nor their religion…
not even between men…let alone men and women…or slaves and their masters.

And to complicate things…Jewish religious authorities had long since forgotten
the original insight of their faith that all people are made in the image of God…
long since ignored the call of the prophets…to care for the stranger and the widow and the orphan. Neighbours outside the faith are labelled unclean…and untouchable foreigners.

So in my interpretation anyway Jesus… and then Paul…extend themselves…
to bring the message of God’s love for everyone…to everyone…on every side…of the political and religious equation.

Jesus enters the forbidden territory of people labelled sinners…or un-clean…he dives right into their midst … to announce the good news… to those who’ve been marginalised by their community

Harvesting corn…healing on the Sabbath…touching a bleeding woman…

Jesus tears down legal restrictions and rejects definitions of who is clean and unclean.

And Paul…inspired by what he’s learned of Jesus’ teaching… becomes a subversive chameleon…among the diverse cultures of the Empire…so absolutely no people-group…
would miss out… on the good news.

This would mean that for the early Christians…everything they did required discernment.

Every decision about…. how they were to live…has to pass muster against this good news
of justice and peace and wellbeing for all people… in other words everything they do…
has to contribute to a world where all are loved…

Jesus and his followers have to discern what is pro love if you like… and what is anti-love.

Constantly using the good news…the gospel…to critique political…religious and economic powers in every culture they encounter…

The gist of Jesus message…both Roman occupiers and occupied Jews …
need to wake up their ideas…

And repent…change their minds…and repent of their attitudes…
and extend this loving reign to the ends of the earth.

But this loving movement intended for everyone…didn’t last…did it…Why…

because the human lust for power is the antithesis of love…and its equalities. [pause]

Caesar Constantine of Rome would convene the Council of Nicaea and half a century later
Caesar Theodosius of Constantinople would declare the God of the Nicene Creed
to be the God of the Roman Empire…

Popes and kings would then play ‘who’s on top’ who’s the most powerful until the lust for power reached a crescendo in 1452,

when Pope Nicholas the Fifth wrote these words “invade, search out, capture, vanquish, and subdue all Saracens, Pagans whatsoever. Reduce their persons to perpetual slavery.
Convert them to his and their use in profit.”

This formal proclamation…this Papal Bull and others written afterward till 1493
collectively became known as what we now call ‘the Doctrine of Discovery’.

The Doctrine of Discovery… is essentially the church in Europe saying to the Catholic nations of Europe,

“Wherever you go, whatever land you find not ruled by Christian rulers, those people are less than human, and the land’s yours for the taking.”

Not at all what Jesus and Paul were thinking…

The Church’s Doctrine of Discovery quite literally gave ecclesial authorisation for European nations to colonize the continents of North America, Africa, Asia and the Pacific
and enslave their people. And easily justified if they weren’t fully human.

This was not the good news announced by Jesus in the Nazareth manifesto…

And precisely at the ends of the earth… a hundred and eighty-two years ago…a treaty would be signed between an occupying nation and the people who arrived first…
a treaty…deftly brokered by Christian missionaries…

A treaty meant…to eliminate hostilities and tensions between British settlers and the people who already lived here.

The treaty was written in English and Maori…with help of Christian missionaries who…like Paul… had immersed themselves in the language and cultures of foreign lands… to bring them the good news.

The English text guarantees protection of Māori interests from encroaching British settlers
while allowing settlement to proceed…and establishes a government to maintain peace and order.

The Māori text suggests the main promise of the settlers Queen is to provide a government… while securing rangatiratanga…Māori autonomy and authority over their own area… and land ownership as long as they wish to retain it.

Peace and wellbeing was to be ensured for all parties.

The more optimistic of the missionaries hoped perhaps Aotearoa New Zealand could even become a model …for the kingdom of God proclaimed by Jesus Christ.

Well that was 1840

In 1866… without warning or consultation with any tribes in the Bay of Plenty…
the British Crown confiscated all the territory from the coast… inland…for ten kilometres.
all the territory

While they did this to punish another tribe…half the best land of the Tuhoe people… was also seized –

Tuhoe is the tribe with whom we…the Presbyterian Church has had our primary mission partnership. None of this land was ever returned.

This transgression against their mana and dignity… embeds itself… into the consciousness of the Tuhoe people.

The loss of half their finest land…has devastating consequences…on their wellbeing
some Māori retaliate against the confiscation… so the Crown sends in troops to arrest the ringleaders and restore peace… in the chaos of the fighting…women and children are killed
homes and crops and taonga… are destroyed.

Yet somehow the good news taught by Jesus of Nazareth finds its way…to the mountains of the Urewera and the ears of the Tuhoe people.

In 1887…a young Rua Kenana…joins a shearing gang on the East Coast. During this time he studies the Bible and develops a sense… of prophetic vocation.

Returning home… Rua forms a self-sufficient community at Maungapohatu…which he calls the ‘New Jerusalem’… Eventually his followers number…almost a thousand.

Rua was one of many Māori prophets in this messianic movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Rua Kenana set about deliberately to usher in the reign of the God of love among the people of the Urewera… many say he owed his influence to the great skill with which…
he applied the teaching of Jesus to the daily lives of his followers.

You see inspired by the Jesus’ good news…Rua’s community…like Te Whiti’s in Taranaki…
was steadfastly non-violent…and shared all their possessions in common as did the early church.

The few Europeans willing to risk the tough journey inland to Rua’s mountain settlement…
would praise the enthusiasm of the faithful people Rua was leading… towards an enlightened and equitable life… on ancestral Tuhoe lands.

But…alas…it seems Rua allowed the gospel to influence his politics a step too far for the Crown to tolerate … during World War I…Rua tried to keep his people out of military service…

holding to the beatitude…blessed are the peacemakers… Rua insisted it was immoral
to fight for a Pākehā king and country… who carried out so much injustice against Māori.

Rua was charged with sedition for his gospel commitment to non-violence…and this gave the Crown the excuse they needed…not only to arrest Rua…but to raid his community

Yet while he was imprisoned…other practitioners of the good news … weren’t deterred by the criminal branding of the Tuhoe people and their leader… nor were they put off by the isolation of their settlements…

like Paul… these missionaries became slaves to all… in their service of the good news

…chief among them Deaconess… Sister Annie Henry and her contemporary the Rev John Laughton. Known as Hoani…together they shared the load across the Urewera and into Taupō.

Hoani Laughton became a recognised scholar of the Māori language…and played a major part in revising the Maori translation of the Bible.

when Rua Kenana was released from prison…mutual trust and friendship formed between the two men… Together they developed a concept of unity based on the belief that one God
was the authority for all peoples.

Their relationship forged an on-going connection… between the Presbyterian Church and
Rua’s church of the Iha rai ra…the Israelites…

When Hoani Laughton died in 1965 the Moderator of the General Assembly, said ‘No words of mine can convey the sense of loss our Church will feel on the passing of this great and humble man … I believe history will speak with deep gratitude of his leadership and the solid foundation he has laid… for a true and practical expression of Christian faith and deep harmony in race relations in New Zealand.

How are we doing…do you think? As a nation…was the treaty of Waitangi between equals
or between conquerer and conquered.

It took one hundred and forty-eight years… Only 8 years ago for the grievances of the Tuhoe people to finally be acknowledged by the Crown…for their claim for justice under the Treaty to be recognised…

My prayer is that this Waitangi Day…
we repent of the sins of our ancestors…
we repent of our indifference to history and its legacy…
we repent of our unwillingness to play our part in bringing about the reign of a loving God in our land…

Let us each be signs of the good news
in our speech and in our actions…
in our families…our church…our community…
and in our world…

 

 

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Audio of selected readings and reflections

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Audio of the complete service