There’s no pleasing everyone! Proper 9A 20230

There are some people you just can’t please! They’re never satisfied. I’m sure you’ve heard that – many times. I’ve said it myself, but the unspoken bit is always “ I’m not one of those people.” The saying reflects a very common human trait– and one that we seem to be able to see more easily in others than in ourselves. We often make judgements about other people who grumble about what we see as perfectly acceptable. We’re also inclined to think that our opinions about what makes a good environment to live in are reasonable – everyone should be able to see that! And when someone bursts onto our horizon making off the wall statements or suggestions about how we could do, or be, better, our hackles go up.

Take our city of Christchurch. I’m sure we’re not unique in having a thousand different opinions about every project that impacts on the public. In my lifetime we’ve had protracted arguments about roads encroaching on Hagley Park; about where the art gallery should go, and then about what its design should be, about what shape the museum windows should have; about whether you should fish off Brighton pier. Post- earthquake phase we had views about the future shape of the city (and the schools) –we were all sure that ours were the right ones. Even though we know, underneath, that we weren’t thinking about the public good, not really – we expressed our own preferences! I, for instance, think the covered stadium is a total waste of money – but then I haven’t watched a rugby match since I was in the Fourth Form. And I’m really perfectly well aware that my desire to hear orchestra concerts in a truly adequate venue is a minority view!

Our rather odd gospel text picks up some aspects of this quirk of human nature – this desire for something other than what we have, that isn’t necessarily what someone else – some person of status – proposes. Theoretically, Israel desired to be in communication with God through the prophets. Theoretically, Israel desired to hear that the Messiah was about to come. Times were hard. A foreign power had oversight of the land – and a stranglehold on its economy, and the ruler favoured by the Romans was hardly satisfactory. Israel mourned lost greatness- although whether in fact there had ever been a golden age is a moot question. And yet – when John came proclaiming the coming of the Messiah, the people turned away. John was too harsh and too judgmental. Nobody likes being harangued. Nobody likes being called ‘a brood of vipers’ – that’s hardly the way to win hearts. Moreover John didn’t even seem to be talking about good times. He wasn’t going to sing and dance and have fun. Also, he wasn’t respectable! He was interesting, maybe. OK as an afternoon’s entertainment down by the Jordan, but that man wasn’t really ‘one of us’. No need, then to take him seriously.

And then, along came Jesus. He welcomed people. He was gentle with them – mostly. He was ready to sing and dance. He was happy to join in celebrations, like wedding parties – why, he’ even been known to provide the wine! He liked good company, especially at the meal table. He had friends. But then, what about those friends and followers? They weren’t very impressive, some of them –not even respectable. What about those dinners when everyone was welcome on equal terms. Who would want to sit down with some of those people? Inclusiveness is an interesting idea, but let’s not take it too much to heart. We have standards to maintain after all.

In our gospel passage, we have a Jesus who is at first exasperated. He says, you resent people who dance and play, but you won’t join in with the mourning when it’s appropriate to grieve. You didn’t like John because he was too dour and too much given to pointing out your failings which you didn’t want to admit to. You don’t like me because I meet everyone on equal terms – and so you refuse to acknowledge the gifts I offer, because I offer them to anyone who asks – anyone at all, including people who don’t deserve them.

We gain more from the example Jesus used if we pause a moment to put it in its context. He’s using an image of children playing their version of adult customs. Our children do that. Jesus talked about the boys dancing like men at a Jewish wedding and sneering at the girls who aren’t dancing. The girls wailed as they copied women mourning at a funeral and in their turn jeered at the boys for not following their example. This, says Jesus, is exactly the sort of needless quarrel that adults indulge in and moreover, it’s an irrelevant diversion from what really matters.

And before we feel smug because this, after all, isn’t the sort of behaviour we indulge in, think again. We, the descendants of colonists, too often take exception to the traditions of the tangitawhenua. We have a recent history of making entry for refugees increasingly difficult. We don’t come very high in the quota tables when compared with other first world countries. There’s continual criticism directed indiscriminately at beneficiaries. And here, where the earthquakes effectively wiped out most of the rooming houses that could be found inside the four avenues, for the poorest among us, what have we building in the central city? Upmarket apartments for young executives and expensive rentals, that’s what. No matter how often we get news items about the plight of our homeless?

Matthew’s gospel recorded a time when there was argument about the contrasting styles of John the Baptiser – whose diet was Spartan in the extreme – and Jesus, who was criticised for his feasting and drinking with inappropriate company, and Jesus’ reply to the sniping was: “Wisdom is vindicated by her deeds.” The style of ministry is not the ministry – the works done as a consequence of following the call to ministry are their own justification. John and Jesus had very different styles of ministry, but that certainly didn’t mean that one or the other had to be rejected.

It’s a warning to later generations not to pour scorn on those who have chosen other paths of enlightenment – other ways to engage with the mystery that we name ‘God.’ Unfortunately, we often choose to ignore the warning and carry on feeling superior both as individuals and groups. Even within our own denominations we can set up boundaries and rank those outside our community as unsatisfactory.

God’s ways are not our ways. God is not reasonable, and moderate in our eyes. Fortunately for us, God is not a person. And God offers unconditional love to all. We say we are made in God’s image – and that does not refer to any physical characteristic but to a whole way of being in God’s creation. And what follows from that, is that we are challenged to offer that same unconditional love, and that’s a whole new way of being.

Every generation has to find its own way through the challenge of living out the way of Christ, and there is no future in trying to re-create past ways of being church. We’ve all probably been involved in workshops and discussions at which the focus was, how is your parish or congregation working through the challenge of being Christ’s hands in our rapidly changing environment? What is your mission to your neighbourhood and what challenges are you facing in carrying it out? That includes all the issues around what to do with buildings. For my inner-city parish of Durham St, it was, first of all, what shape will the city take, and how will the parish and the building respond to the needs of that environment?  Now that we are finally in our new buildings, we have new challenges and opportunities – and new people from entirely different backgrounds joining the community!

Jesus met different needs in different ways as he walked the roads of Palestine. Sometimes he was thanked. Sometimes he was rejected. But he didn’t stop responding to need. That’s the path we are called to follow. We need to remember that we don’t ever go it alone. It’s not the business of any one of us to save the whole world. It’s not even our business to know the end of the story of every encounter we make along the way – that’s God’s business. It is our business to be open to those we meet – to build relationship.

For every parish, it will be the same. We may have a vision of our mission, but I’m sure there will be criticisms. I’m sure we’ll make mistakes. I’m sure we’ll need to keep reminding ourselves of God’s promises to walk with us. All of us fall at times. All of us have times of grief and near despair. All of us need that constant reassurance of God’s love and care. Long ago, the Psalmist sang:

The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.

The Lord is good to all, and his compassion is over all that he has made…..

The Lord upholds all who are falling, and raises up all who are bowed down. (Ps 145: 8,9,14)  

And Jesus says to us today:

‘come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

Notice that he does not say, put your burdens down. The promise is that the work we do won’t be soul-destroying. It matters – we have a purpose that needs the best we can offer. And we have a companion on the way.

Rev Barbara Peddie