Friday 28 October 2016

Psalm: Psalm 117

Background

'Us' and 'them'. How often do we define ourselves as 'not them'?It was an uncomfortable feature of the recent EU Referendum debate.Here, in this passage, it is "you" versus "the world", where "you"and "they" are in opposition. But who are "they" in this context"?"They" are 'the Jews', whom John, in his Gospel, portrays as theenemies of Jesus and of his followers. This represents asignificant and, some would say, regrettable move from the earlierGospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke where Jesus is very much Jewish,and his followers are Jewish.

There are differences, of course: for Matthew his church isexclusively Jewish, which non-Jews can only join on Jewish terms,whereas for Luke, following Paul, his idea of church embraces bothJews and non-Jews on equal terms. But for John, his church in notjust non-Jewish, it is anti-Jewish, reflecting a time at the end ofthe first century when Christianity had largely separated from itsJewish roots and was increasingly seen, not as a radical groupwithin Judaism, but as a separate and distinct religion in thewider Roman world, and (sometimes violently) at odds with the, nowdespised, Jews. 'We', on the other hand, "love one other" and have"the Spirit of truth" (v. 26).

Now, I've explained this in some detail because it's importantto understand just what is going on with a passage like this beforewe extract the bits that suit us or which fit the theme of asermon. Maybe, for example, we need to think very carefully abouthow we identify 'us' and 'them'. Who do we call "they"? It is goodto "love one another", but what about our neighbour who is not "oneof us", in social, cultural, racial or religious terms? How certainare we that we have "the Spirit of truth", and they haven't? EvenChristians sometimes make these judgements about fellow Christians,claiming the authority of Jesus as they do so. The history of theChurch is littered with 'us' and 'them'.

To Ponder

• Are there any risks for Christians to say 'we love one another'and claiming that they have 'the Spirit of truth'? What might theybe?

• Does 'the world hate you'? Why?

• If you are 'you', who are 'they'?