Letting them in or keeping them out!
CROSS PURPOSES # 96
31 August 2007
Most Aussies are familiar with “The Rabbit Proof Fence”. Of course it’s a true story movie about indigenous girls escaping from forced separation by trekking 1500 miles through harsh country in Western Australia to get home to family. It’s also deep in the Australian consciousness because it expresses the determination to stop the spread of rabbits into West Australian farming areas! Rabbits were a plague that threatened to kill off viable farming and so were to be kept out at all costs.
Fast forward about one hundred years to the centre of good old Sydney, where in early September 2007 there’s a meeting of the APEC Forum (Asia-Pacific nations). It is high security so the authorities are erecting a 3 metre high, 5 kilometre long fence, made of steel and concrete. The fence will run through the CBD and nearby parks to establish a ‘secure zone’. It will keep ‘unruly elements’ out!
It was very clever, and no surprise, that some wag from the Press dubbed it “The Rabble Proof Fence”. How apt!
Anyway, that name for the fence got me thinking about a verse in “The Message” translation of John’s Gospel. It comes after the Temple Police have been told to arrest Jesus – who was standing outside the Temple – saying seditious things like “If anyone thirsts, let him come to ME and drink… (John 7: 37).
The Police came back empty handed! The High Priests and the Pharisees demand to know why they haven’t brought Jesus in. They reply: “Have you heard the way he talks? We’ve never heard anyone speak like this man”.
Now just note the answer”
The Pharisees said, ‘Are you carried away like the rest of the rabble? You don’t see any of the leaders believing in him, do you? Or from the Pharisees? It’s only the crowd, ignorant of God’s Law, that is taken in by him – and damned” (John 7: 47-48 – The Message).
Do you see it? The spiritual leaders of Israel had erected a fence to keep the rabble out! Not a visible wall to be sure, but real nevertheless, and their exposure in having such a wall drips with contempt and dismissal. The ignorant rabble certainly aren’t “in!”
Ignorant of the finer details of the Law the rabble might be. But the “rabbling” crowds flock to Jesus and hear his words gladly. His heart is open to them. Even though he is the original giver of the Law, the leaders won’t receive him, or accept any claim he makes. But in his presence and words, manner and actions the rabble discerns God’s true intention. It’s to embrace, not to exclude. To welcome and not to wall off. To forgive and not to flay way. To restore and not to repel!
Sometimes I wonder. I wonder, I wonder. I wonder if the way we have the truth, hold the truth, guard the truth and police the truth – well, whether it isn’t doing the exact opposite of what Jesus intended? Just as many of those who were drawn to Jesus didn’t have lives that were in order and beautifully sorted, so now, in our day, there are loads of people (rabble if you like) dialoguing with us on the edges, sussing us out, who are very sensitive to whether they are hearing Law or Grace.
Churches are famously brilliant at succumbing to a Law approach – full of judgement and criticism – and thereby repelling those who seek forgiveness and grace.
Please let’s not got there. Please keep the truth and Spirit of Jesus Christ to the fore – love those who seek God with sincere and repentant hearts. Love those who haven’t got their lives in order but who are searching earnestly.
But there’s more! There are also those in the rabble who actually hate Jesus, his cause and his name. And grace can get hold of them too. Think of Saul of Tarsus who became Paul the Apostle! History has many more.
Let’s not acknowledge any Rabble Proof Fence that Jesus wouldn’t acknowledge. Let’s not be part of building such Rabbit Proof Fences. If Jesus wouldn’t build them, we won’t either. In fact as Jesus the Christ sought to cross those fences in the “wrong direction”, well, let’s do the same! May our churches be a holy rabble.
Bless You
Fred
31 August 2007
Most Aussies are familiar with “The Rabbit Proof Fence”. Of course it’s a true story movie about indigenous girls escaping from forced separation by trekking 1500 miles through harsh country in Western Australia to get home to family. It’s also deep in the Australian consciousness because it expresses the determination to stop the spread of rabbits into West Australian farming areas! Rabbits were a plague that threatened to kill off viable farming and so were to be kept out at all costs.
Fast forward about one hundred years to the centre of good old Sydney, where in early September 2007 there’s a meeting of the APEC Forum (Asia-Pacific nations). It is high security so the authorities are erecting a 3 metre high, 5 kilometre long fence, made of steel and concrete. The fence will run through the CBD and nearby parks to establish a ‘secure zone’. It will keep ‘unruly elements’ out!
It was very clever, and no surprise, that some wag from the Press dubbed it “The Rabble Proof Fence”. How apt!
Anyway, that name for the fence got me thinking about a verse in “The Message” translation of John’s Gospel. It comes after the Temple Police have been told to arrest Jesus – who was standing outside the Temple – saying seditious things like “If anyone thirsts, let him come to ME and drink… (John 7: 37).
The Police came back empty handed! The High Priests and the Pharisees demand to know why they haven’t brought Jesus in. They reply: “Have you heard the way he talks? We’ve never heard anyone speak like this man”.
Now just note the answer”
The Pharisees said, ‘Are you carried away like the rest of the rabble? You don’t see any of the leaders believing in him, do you? Or from the Pharisees? It’s only the crowd, ignorant of God’s Law, that is taken in by him – and damned” (John 7: 47-48 – The Message).
Do you see it? The spiritual leaders of Israel had erected a fence to keep the rabble out! Not a visible wall to be sure, but real nevertheless, and their exposure in having such a wall drips with contempt and dismissal. The ignorant rabble certainly aren’t “in!”
Ignorant of the finer details of the Law the rabble might be. But the “rabbling” crowds flock to Jesus and hear his words gladly. His heart is open to them. Even though he is the original giver of the Law, the leaders won’t receive him, or accept any claim he makes. But in his presence and words, manner and actions the rabble discerns God’s true intention. It’s to embrace, not to exclude. To welcome and not to wall off. To forgive and not to flay way. To restore and not to repel!
Sometimes I wonder. I wonder, I wonder. I wonder if the way we have the truth, hold the truth, guard the truth and police the truth – well, whether it isn’t doing the exact opposite of what Jesus intended? Just as many of those who were drawn to Jesus didn’t have lives that were in order and beautifully sorted, so now, in our day, there are loads of people (rabble if you like) dialoguing with us on the edges, sussing us out, who are very sensitive to whether they are hearing Law or Grace.
Churches are famously brilliant at succumbing to a Law approach – full of judgement and criticism – and thereby repelling those who seek forgiveness and grace.
Please let’s not got there. Please keep the truth and Spirit of Jesus Christ to the fore – love those who seek God with sincere and repentant hearts. Love those who haven’t got their lives in order but who are searching earnestly.
But there’s more! There are also those in the rabble who actually hate Jesus, his cause and his name. And grace can get hold of them too. Think of Saul of Tarsus who became Paul the Apostle! History has many more.
Let’s not acknowledge any Rabble Proof Fence that Jesus wouldn’t acknowledge. Let’s not be part of building such Rabbit Proof Fences. If Jesus wouldn’t build them, we won’t either. In fact as Jesus the Christ sought to cross those fences in the “wrong direction”, well, let’s do the same! May our churches be a holy rabble.
Bless You
Fred
posted by PastorFredVeerhuis at 3:15 PM
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