5^th March 2013

Rev Dr Max Champion at St John's UCA Mt Waverley Sunday 24 February 2013

Lessons - Psalm 27; Philippians 3:17-4:1; Luke 13:31-35.

'We are a colony of heaven, strangers in the land.' (Philippians
3:20, JB Moffat)

Our text has a most 'unworldly' tone. The idea of the church having its loyalty 'in heaven' seems outmoded. Today the church fits into main-stream society so easily that such talk is unsettling. We do not want a faith that is 'otherworldly' but one that is 'this-worldly'.

Strange as it may seem, however, the calling to be a 'colony of heaven' is a calling to be responsible in the 'world'. A 'colony' is a body of people who settle in a place where the local people do not share their values, beliefs or customs. It is an 'outpost' of a distant community with different values and traditions that, for good and ill, unsettle the locals.

The failures of 'colonialism' are well documented. This should not stop us using the image to focus on the Church's calling to speak an 'unsettling word' to communities in which it has 'settled down'. Our first loyalty as citizens is not to popular State-approved beliefs and practices, but to the God whose 'heavenly Kingdom' has been embodied in the 'humanity of Christ'. The Church is to be an 'outpost' of his earthly grace - a 'colony of heaven' on earth!

In the past, Christians have realised this in relation to 'foreign missions' where we have set up outposts of Western Christianity. But we have been slow to establish colonies within Western nations. In fact, we usually do not think of the Church as a 'colony of heaven' set within a society whose beliefs-and-practices we do not share! We tend to think of ourselves as part of Christendom - as a Christian nation with churches at the centre of public life and local communities which is respected by most of our fellow citizens. The idea of being a 'heavenly outpost' in an alien world is unthinkable!

If we are to respond faithfully to our calling to be a colony of heaven, we must resist the temptation to retreat from the world to become settled in our private faith or religious club. Too often outposts have become ghettos! This is true of sectarian groups, like the Amish or Exclusive Brethren who believe heavenly purity must not be contaminated by worldly unbelief.

Mainline Christians may laugh at this mistaken view, but fall into the opposite trap of becoming so 'settled' in society that the calling to witness to a heavenly reality that is earth-shaking is forgotten. When Christian faith is attacked by powerful ideologies that are at odds with God's self-revelation in Christ, churches often retreat from the battle or merge with the majority point of view.

If we are to avoid these mistaken ideas about what it means to be a colony of heaven we must re-think our understanding of 'heaven'.

At the start of the gospel reading we learn that 'the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand' in the coming of Jesus. The 'heavenly future' foreseen in Revelation, where evil is trumped and love reigns, is not to be thought of apart from Christ's 'earthly ministry'. In him 'heaven' has been 'embodied on earth'. In his incarnate, crucified, resurrected and ascended body the love of 'our heavenly Father' for every sinful, broken person has been decisively displayed. In him God's mercy and healing has been embodied as a sign of hope for 'all the earth' and everybody.

Seeing 'heaven' in Jesus' 'body', the Church is called to see that 'heaven' is honoured in the bodily life of the Christian community and the community at large.

Paul tells the tiny group of Christians at Philippi to stop copying their neighbours who are obsessed with 'earthly things' and 'bodily desires'
that are too awful to mention or so well-known that they need not be mentioned. But he does not urge them to retreat from the world.

They must live in the world with a love for the earth and other people that is free from infatuation with themselves and their own sensual desires. They must live in the light of 'Christ's crucified and risen love for the sinful world'. (v18; Luke 13:32)

Being a 'colony of heaven' means taking our earthly responsibilities more seriously than those who are appointed to public office or become leaders of public opinion. Inevitably, it entails unsettling some community values that are popular or approved by the State.

First, it means that our 'heavenly work' is to 'honour the body'. We are
to:

* enjoy our bodies, the beauty of the earth, friendship, work and so on
without being self-indulgent;

* uphold the dignity of every-body in work, family, leisure and church and demand integrity in business, politics and church;

* re-affirm the splendour of creation as male and female and the sanctity
of marriage and resist pressures to redefine our sexuality;

* work for peace and reconciliation and against terrorism, the brutality
of war and the abuse of refugees and marginalised groups; and

* heal the sick and troubled, feed the hungry and destitute and oppose those who ignore, maim or kill the weak, including the frail elderly and the unborn.

As members of a Christian 'outpost' in Australia, we must not under- estimate the increasing power of the State to sanction and legitimate values and rights that shape our society in ways that demean our truly- human, God-given splendour.

Second, we must pray for courage to withstand relentless community pressure to conform to such 'values'. As Paul says, we must 'stand firm in the crucified and risen Lord' (para 4:1).

Third, we are to be a community of hope. The context in which Paul reminds the Philippians to be a 'colony of heaven' is his hope in Christ's coming again in power to transform their 'broken bodies' into the image of his 'glorious body' (3:21). In Christ, there is hope for everybody and all bodies, including those who have been damaged by self-indulgence or by abuse by others.

As a little 'colony of heaven', therefore, we are called to confess the glory of God, and to:

* participate in the community of Christ's broken and re-made body;

* protest against every attempt to retreat from speaking Good News to the
world by forming ghettos; and

* resist equating the Gospel with values and beliefs that the majority of our fellow citizens have settled on.

This incredible calling is only possible when, by the power of the Holy Spirit, we are enabled to see in Jesus - incarnate, crucified, risen and ascended - the embodiment of 'heaven on earth' and the sign of the heavenly future that awaits humanity in the fullness of time.

If we see 'heaven' in Christ, then, as members of his Body, we will see our own situation in Australia with greater clarity. Also we shall be free from nostalgia about the so-called halcyon days of Christendom and the illusion that we can settle down to a quiet life of faith that dodges the demand to unsettle the status quo.

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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.