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Life within love
What is a proper Christian approach to the dilemmas of renewed freedoms
(John 6.35,41-51)?
Context
As we emerge from the Covid epidemic we are urged by the government to be cautious in a constantly changing situation. Should Christians, in practical contexts, approaching their recommended dynamic risk assessments with caution inflected by a desire for ‘unlimited life’, pay attention to media reports with other focuses – for example, the economy and the alerts regime or travel restrictions; or family reunions, or even the end of it all?
Ideas for sermons or interactive talks
- As coordinator of Covid precautions in our re-opening church premises I am increasingly aware of our diverse Christian ‘assumptions’. Good church members, trying to set the ground rules now the legal limits have gone, can either be over-assertive or supine. For some, dissenting opinions, especially any ‘non-Christian’ ones, are manipulating our need to ‘love our neighbour’ (Mark 12.21) to the detriment of our integrity; for others, a Christian attitude means we should always give way when challenged, humbly considering others better than ourselves (Philippians 2.3).
- The loss of a layer of legal protections has obliged us to look deeper into how our beliefs shape the postures we take towards our sometimes non-Christian neighbours. Translating ‘life without limits’ into the secular context of food banks and homeless lunches, yoga groups and children’s dance classes, requires our concept of spiritual freedom to expand to include the willingness to offer freedom for all to promote health or social justice, to educate, to make friends, to enjoy life, and, yes, to earn a living by teaching tai chi, or baby-signing. ‘That everyone may know’ (John 13.35). And yet, uncertain risks remain. And people’s needs conflict.
- From a modern perspective we may see Jesus and the disciples happily jettisoning the baggage of family expectations. No carpentering or fishing: they leave the rat-race and hit the road. But Jesus asked men, and women, to leave a safe place in family pieties backed by the fourth Commandment. What alternative did he offer? He asked his disciples to see him as their bread (vv. 50 -51), to let their lives revolve around him and his teaching as it had formerly revolved around feeding their families. He asked them to consume his teaching so it became part of their inmost selves, and they would never know the insecurity of spiritual hunger or thirst (v.35).
- For us the legally backed Covid rules were a safe place. We kept the law. We ticked the boxes. Now, the government instructs us to use our own judgement as we embrace freedom. Can we so own our faith that we know intuitively what Jesus’ teaching demands of us? Can we have empathy with all the diverse groups and individuals who surround our church communities so we truly endeavour to do right by them? Can we really live by love and not by rules and be properly confident about it? And can we go on doing it, having learned a lesson valid not for an epidemic but for life?
- Explore the teaching of the self-giving (v.51) Jesus, ‘the bread of life’, as the constant for assessing the opposed perils of reckless freedom and life-refusing caution as we open up to post-Covid life.
Questions for discussion
- Face-covering or no face-covering? Why? Did your faith influence your decision?
- How do you react to the idea of compulsory vaccinations for certain occupations
(e.g. transport, hospital and care-home staff) or for students returning to university?
- Sticks or carrots? How would you improve vaccine take-up? Or are you anti-vacc?
Brenda Vance is a retired university teacher and an elder and member at Christ Church Lewes, a Local Ecumenical Partnership (LEP) with URC and Methodists. She coordinates bookings in the halls there.
Check-in
Connecting faith with everyday, real-life issues for young people
This week we saw the return of Simone Biles, the American gymnast, to the Olympic stage after a turbulent time at the Olympic Games. Biles, one of the greatest gymnasts of all time, was expected to return home with armfuls of medals, having qualified for all four individual finals as well as the individual and team all-around events. However, after a shaky vault at the beginning of the team all-around, she withdrew from the event – and the subsequent four. In a press conference afterwards, she said, ‘I have to focus on my mental health…We have to protect our minds and our bodies and not just go out and do what the world wants us to do.’
What assumptions do you think people have made about Simone Biles both before this year’s Games and after speaking out about her mental health? What do you think the ‘world’ wanted her to do? A little bit of research reveals that the athlete has not had an easy life, suffering from childhood hunger, living for a time in foster care, being subjected to sexual abuse within the gymnastics world, and seeing her brother charged with and acquitted of murder.
Do these facts alter any of the assumptions people might make about her?
In this week’s passage from John 6, we see the people’s assumptions about Jesus, based on his background and family. Jesus demolishes those ideas by declaring himself to be the bread of life: indicating that he is the one who sustains us and not the assumptions and opinions of others. How easy is it to separate ourselves from the assumptions and expectations of others? How easy do you find it to be sustained by Jesus alone?
Commenting on Biles’ decision, ex-gymnast Beth Tweddle said, ‘She was strong enough to say: 'I'm just not right today’, prioritising her own wellbeing and proving she was able to remove herself from the expectations and assumptions of what the world hoped she was capable of.
What can you learn about yourself and the ways that you respond to the world’s assumptions about you from Simone Biles’ story and Jesus’ words in John 6?
Jenny Cheung is a choir nut and missional pioneer (www.thevoiceprojectscotland.co.uk) and mum to three teenagers.
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