1^st May 2010

 

Rev Dr Max Champion at St John's UCA Mt Waverley (ANZAC Day 2010)

Lessons -- Psalm 23; Hebrews 13:20,21; John 10:11-18

Jesus said, 'I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.' (John 10:11,15,17)

These words, repeated three times in this short passage, are apt on Anzac
Day when, for once in the Australian community, we are reminded of
sacrificial action that challenges our natural desire to have our needs
met immediately. They remind us that 'dying for others' is a selfless act
of love, courage and goodness in the service of God and humanity.

On this day words about 'laying down of life for others' are particularly
relevant as we recall the terrible cost of war and the sacrifices made by
millions of people, including family and friends, who tragically died for
their fellow Australians and for humanity in the fight against tyranny.

Often though they are taken out of context to suggest that dying for one's
country is the highest form of sacrificial love. This conviction is
expressed in inscriptions on Returned Services League and Church Honour
Boards that 'They made the Supreme Sacrifice' for 'God, King and Country'
or 'God and Empire'.

It does no dishonour to the memory of those who have died in war to say --
emphatically -- that the sacrificial love of Christ must not be mistaken
for heroic deaths lost in a national cause -- no matter how necessary,
tragic or just.

In 'The Four Loves', CS Lewis describes the importance of love for one's
country while pointing out the dangers. Patriotism fosters commitment to
citizenship beyond the individual, a sense of history and identity, love
for real neighbours (rather than for abstract 'humanity') and a deep
affection that both laughs at national foibles and weeps over national
disgrace and humiliation. It is dangerous and demonic, though, when it
fosters racial superiority or blindness to national faults -- and the
faults of those who died in battle.

Lewis reminds us that, while we should appreciate the heroic sacrifices of
those who died fighting tyranny, we must also think about those who died
because they challenged national ideals in the service of the 'Good
Shepherd who laid down his life for the sheep'. For Jesus did not die for
his country on the battlefield. Unlike Mohammed, he did not lead an army
in Holy Jihad. Unlike Judas Maccabeus (168 BC) he did not return the
Temple to its true purpose by military means. Jesus was crucified by his
fellow countrymen as the enemy of the State, the Church, humanity and God.
Unlike national heroes, Jesus died a dishonourable death!

Such a fate was completely unexpected. The 'Good Shepherd' would bring an
end to Jewish suffering by withstanding evil and defeating its
perpetrators in a 'Righteous War' in which their faith would be
vindicated. Messiah would bring military victory against the forces of
godless tyranny. Christ's sacrificial action in 'laying down his life for
the sheep' adds a completely new and shocking dimension to the traditional
picture of the 'Good Shepherd'. Where David the Shepherd-King risked his
life to defend Israel in war, Jesus dies 'for the people' without use of
military force. In this unique way the sacrificial love of God is
displayed in Jesus.

This is very puzzling. We don't have comparable examples to help us make
sense of the strange power of divine love through death. Even the most
heroic deaths, in peace or war, do not adequately describe the
significance for us of Christ's sacrificial action on the cross.

No analogy is adequate for an event that is without parallel in human
history: when by his death Christ, the Good Shepherd, frees the whole of
humanity from the power of evil and death. However, Anzac remembrance of
the 'wounds of war', in which soldiers died to free us from tyranny, can
help us to understand something of the way in which terrible suffering has
a healing effect in the life of the community. We are reminded that
freedom and human dignity were restored because of sacrificial actions 'on
behalf of others' in the face of evil.

Anzac remembrance can help us to think about what it might mean to be
'healed by Christ's wounds', but it can't break through to understand the
unique reality that Jesus is the sacrificial self-giving of God for all.
For, where Anzac Day commemorates the sacrifices of often flawed heroes
who upheld noble ideals and worthy causes, the Church celebrates the
healing power of the One whose sacrificial life and death occurred without
pomp and ceremony or public recognition.

Yet, because Jesus Christ died in love for all flawed people, not only our
fellow countrymen, he has healed the deepest rift in the human community --
the rift between us and God. His sacrificial death, therefore, has
greater power to transform our lives than even the noblest of heroic
deaths. For he loves the ungodly of every nation, challenges the sin of
every person and community and, remarkably, graciously restores us to
fellowship with God.

Therefore on this increasingly important day in Australian public life,
when we rightly give thanks for the bravery of men and women who died for
our country in the cause of freedom and human dignity, let us give thanks
even more for the One who 'laid down his life for the sheep'. The fact
that he was crucified outside the walls of political and religious
respectability is the mark of the absolute difference between his healing
love and every other form of sacrificial action.

This unparalleled form of sacrificial action is what the Church is called
to proclaim in word and action -- on Anzac Day and all other days.

It is very surprising therefore that we pay more attention to heroic
sacrifices on behalf of national or humane causes than we do to those who
have been put to death in the service of the crucified Jesus. Perhaps, as
CS Lewis noted, we have unconsciously confused heroic deaths in war with
those of the martyrs?

Regrettably in our Protestant traditions, and not like Roman Catholic,
Orthodox and Anglican Christians, we don't celebrate the lives of 'martyrs
of the faith': people of courageous faith who have died because of their
profession of faith in Christ and their refusal to obey national and
military ideals.

As the Religious Liberty Network reminds us, many Christian communities
around the world suffer persecution and killing on a daily basis. This
should alert us to the cost of following Christ the Good Shepherd and to
remember with gratitude martyrs of the Church whose examples as shepherds
of the flock have enabled them to stand against forces of religious and
political tyranny.

As today we remember national suffering caused in military battles, let us
not forget that the battle for faith in the sacrificial love of Christ is
even more difficult and costly -- remembering it especially in a country
like Australia where until recently hostility has been more subtle.

Let us not forget the distinctiveness of what Jesus the Good Shepherd has
done in 'laying down his life for the sheep'.

Perhaps something of the 'supreme sacrifice' of this Good Shepherd (John
15:13) may be seen if we transform familiar stories of heroic deeds in
ways that we can scarcely imagine or comprehend:

* If Private John Simpson had crossed behind enemy lines on his donkey to
rescue Turkish soldiers and died protecting them from Australian gun-fire,
we would have a better parable of Christ's death .

* If an Australian POW, having been appallingly mistreated by a Japanese
officer, nevertheless saves him from death at the hands of a fellow
prisoner, we would have a closer parallel to the death of Christ.

This is not to denigrate heroic and sacrificial actions in war. But it
does mean that the primary battle which the Church is called to fight is
for the soul, heart, mind and will of our fellow countrymen. It is the
battle to show others that the Good Shepherd, who is Lord of heaven and
earth, died on the Cross for people of all nations -- including our
national enemies!

'Now may the God of peace, who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus,
the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant,
equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in you
that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be
glory for ever and ever, Amen.' (Hebrews 13:20,21 RSV)

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Rev Dr Max Champion is minister in the St John's Uniting Church, Mt
Waverley, Victoria, Australia. Dr Champion is Chair of the Assembly of
Confessing Congregations within the UCA.