As people with good news about Jesus we sure read a lot of bad news about our church. This week news outlets reported on the Anglican Synod (church parliament) and reported Archbishop Glenn Davies as saying:
'Please leave us': Archbishop tells same-sex marriage supporters to abandon Anglican church (SMH, Michael Koziol, Oct 15, 2019)
I think the Herald heard poorly, failed to fact-check and misreported. You can hear the Archbishop explain his own words on ABC 702 in a generous interview by ABC journalists. Listen from 2:20. Well done, Aunty.
There Archbishop Davies explains that he was pleading with bishops who are revising the Anglican doctrine of marriage as expressed in the scriptures and breaking national agreements to leave.
But he makes clear he was not talking to you who are members of churches and have any form of sympathy with same-sex marriage, to you who are same-sex-attracted, or I might add to you who just fear looking like a frumpy conservative among progressive friends. Please do stay. Let’s talk.
His statement clearly does have implication for anyone who would desire a platform to teach a changed theology of sexuality in Anglican churches in Sydney. I hope to spell out what I believe that implication might be in a following article.
However you judge the reporting of this, I think any three-word statement that is not ‘we love you’ can jar. So let’s say a little more than three words. Let’s follow three forms of Jesus’ greeting of people in Matthew’s gospel under three headings - welcoming, joining, and leaving.
WELCOMING
Jesus gave many welcomes. He was known for wide-open meals with large crowds of mixed reputation. For this reason some said of him ‘here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.’ Matthew 11:19 They didn’t mean it as a compliment. But it was the finest compliment possible! No-one there was perfect but Jesus. All were marred by sin, and he invited them in. Everyone needed the transforming love of God, and he offered it at his table.
So too we hope to offer an immediate welcome to everyone at St John’s, and hope we come to look more mixed and messy than we do now. This will show more clearly what we are - mixed and messy sinners in the presence of a gracious Lord. No-one arrives finished and perfect, and everyone is a work in progress. Welcome!
JOINING
Those Jesus welcomed he welcomed ‘further up and further in’ (C.S.Lewis) - to join in the life of grace under him. He invites us to join following him, saying, ‘Come to me all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me…’ Matthew 11:28-29
Jesus is like a farmer who places his cattle under his yoke so they will tread a right path. It is a good path, a light and easy path. I know, you are thinking it may be hard at some times and in some ways, but it is so very good and is his path of rest. He’s with us in it and we should consider the awfulness of any alternative!
So too we invite all we welcome to come further up and further in - to join with us in following Jesus. We pray many will and we know not all will. There is a difference between feeling wonderfully welcome and deeply joining with. There is a spiritual unity of faith in Christ within the broader welcome of the community of St John’s. Some people remain among us for many years without ever joining under Jesus. And they are still so very welcome. But we will never stop saying, like Jesus, ‘Come, join!’.
LEAVING?
Jesus did not always give a welcome. Shock. Horror. Truth.
One memorable time Jesus revealed that in the end, he will say to some who now say ‘Lord, Lord’ - ‘Away from me you evildoers’. (Matthew 7:21-23).
And this was not just for later. He warned the crowds around him of some other teachers to avoid right now. These were teachers who were not with him. Unlike his offer of an easy yoke, these teachers would ‘tie up heavy burdens’ (Matthew 23:1-4) and place these untrue teachings on others. Jesus said to them (most unwelcomingly to my eyes): ‘Woe to you!’.
So we have permissive evildoers who must leave Jesus’ company in the end, and legalistic religious abusers who are beyond the pale now. Jesus didn’t exactly say ‘please leave us’, in the words of our Archbishop – but he did not share a real unity with either of them. I don’t think those teachers felt any kind of easy welcome by Jesus, ever.
Let’s be clear about Jesus. Jesus possesses the most remarkable welcome, the most searching invitation, and the most stern correction. Why do anything less than Jesus?
I hope I am not mind-reading, but I think the Archbishop would confirm all the above. It’s just hard to do in three words.