8^th February 2011

Rev Dr Max Champion at St John's UCA Mt Waverley Sunday 30 January 2011

Lessons -- Psalm 15; 1 Corinthians 1:26-31; Matthew 5:1-12

Rejoice and be glad! Happy are you when people persecute you and
speak all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account; for the
kingdom of heaven is yours. (Matthew 5:10-12)

Surely you would have to be deluded to call this happiness! It seems psychologically unhealthy -- and likely to cause a mental breakdown when the tension between how we are treated and our efforts to maintain a positive outlook becomes unbearable. Surely, to be happy and count our blessings means to experience pleasure, satisfaction and peace of mind -- not hardship, unpopularity, failure and persecution. It doesn't make sense. Why would you be glad about rejection?

Such an approach to life doesn't come naturally. Today everyone wants to be happy. Spruikers are only too happy to accommodate our desire for earthly bliss. 'Don't worry, be happy' is their sales-pitch, packaged to get us to experience true satisfaction by buying their product or life- style.

Yet true happiness is elusive. Some of the most successful people, who are often portrayed as role-models to which we should aspire, are deeply unhappy. Their outward 'joie de vie' often hides sorrows and regrets from which they can't escape. Like us, they must keep up the appearance of being happy in their few short years on the earth.

The way we think about 'happiness' has changed dramatically over the years. Since the eighteenth century the 'pursuit of happiness' has come to be considered as a basic human right. True happiness was to be found in being public-spirited -- looking to the well-being of others, as well as oneself. JS Mill said that the utilitarian standard 'is not the agent's [person's] own greatest happiness, but the greatest amount of happiness altogether (of all concerned)' and that we should be concerned to secure the 'greatest happiness of the greatest number'. (Paul Ramsey, Basic Christian Ethics, pp113, 237)

Until recently this public-minded view was generally accepted in our society. It is a recurring theme in the eulogies of old people who regarded it as a joy and privilege to take responsibility in the community, Church and nation. Happiness meant contributing to the well- being of society. Such an approach to life is still found today where people value friendship, family, Church and community involvement.

Increasingly, however, happiness is identified with whatever satisfies the individual's desires (and the desires of their groups). Satisfying my pleasure has become the main distinguishing mark of the modern quest for happiness. As Bishop Lesslie Newbigin has said: it has 'no definition except what each autonomous individual might give it. (And) each individual has the right not only to pursue happiness but to define it as he/she wishes' (Foolishness to the Greeks, 1986 p27). Mere 'choice' is now said to be what makes us truly happy.

Christians aren't immune from this radical shift in understanding happiness. There is much talk about 'my faith' and 'my spirituality', the emphasis being on what 'I' believe, think or feel. Woe betide those who challenge these self- centred beliefs. The Church also wants to please the widely held view that diversity of choice is ultimate. We are happiest when community leaders speak well of us for our contribution to the general well-being of society -- especially when we don't let our faith in Christ get in the way of being tolerant of everybody's choices.

How different this is from the happiness about which Jesus speaks! The 'blessings of discipleship' flow from deep happiness that God's grace-and- goodness toward humanity has been uniquely embodied in Jesus. He was happy to do his Father's will, shunned self-centred happiness, and so made people very unhappy with him because he insisted that 'mere choice' is
harmful to human dignity.

It is very important to see that these forms of happiness can't be properly understood apart from our relationship to the rejected, crucified and risen Jesus. Otherwise, they would bring great misery. We don't naturally connect happiness with poverty, humility, sadness, meekness, purity or mercy. We may admire people who hunger and thirst for righteousness or work to bring about peace in the midst of conflict or stand up for their faith. But in seeing the personal toll of such bold
actions, we are unlikely to think of them as being happy.

Surely happiness is the absence of deprivation, sorrow, strife, persecution! Even those who value community-based happiness don't think that such costly actions are the way to true happiness.

We must guard against any tendency to glorify misfortune. Critics often accuse Christians of being glum, morose and life-denying. Being happy and being Christian are said to be mutually exclusive. What would you expect from disciples of a rejected, suffering and crucified man? Sadly, Christians who make a virtue out of their sufferings look like life has been drained out of them. Unhappily, they don't look happy!

It is important therefore to put what Jesus says about happiness in context. He has just called the first disciples from their secular jobs, not so that they can join a miserable cult, but to share in God's outgoing love for the world. As we shall see more fully next week, he calls them to be 'salt of the earth' and 'the light of the world' (5:13,14).

Certainly they have given up a lot to follow him. In the eyes of their neighbours (5:1) self-denial and happiness don't go together. How can they be happy when they relinquish the good things of life?

In the company of Jesus, however, what they renounce in the eyes of the world is actually a glorious, life-affirming freedom. It is liberating to see through the shallowness of what passes for happiness and to stand firm against the tide of popular opinion in his strength. That brings a deep and abiding joy -- even in the face of ridicule and persecution.

This is not said lightly. Our fellow Christians experience awful persecution in many parts of the world. But it needs to be said in a country where we are apt to think that, if only we made the Gospel more attractive and avoided conflict in and outside the church, people would flock to church. Then everybody would be happy -- just like the 'good old days'.

Our reading dispels such illusions! To be 'happy' in the company of the One who, in love for sinful humanity, came among us and, for the joy that was set before him, endured death on the cross, is to be 'unhappy' with
the state of the world (and the church) which has turned away from God.

For some time now in Australia the Christian heritage has been under fierce attack. Not that you would know from the lack of coverage in the media! In Federal and State Parliaments reports are being written and legislation is being passed to legalise euthanasia, abortion on demand and same-sex 'marriage' and to end discrimination by curtailing religious freedom, particularly where churches are involved in health, welfare and education.

These developments have been made possible by the way of thinking about happiness which has permeated our society to create what John Paul II rightly calls a 'culture of death'. This shallow, self-centred view of happiness dishonours the humanity of Christ and demeans the humanity for which we have been created in his image. Others speak of the 'dictatorship of relativism', a return to 'the dark ages' or the 'eclipse of God'. It is a most unhappy situation.

The churches in Western countries like ours are not exempt from this misery. In Losing my Religion: Unbelief in Australia (2009) Bishop Tom Frame says that, because Christianity has largely been reduced to living a good life and respecting others (p295), mainline churches will continue to lose members. 'Left-leaning, cause-driven, liberal Protestant churches that lack doctrinal vigour and are preoccupied with the promotion of social justice and cultural inclusion will be the first to go. Their place will be taken by secular advocacy groups with tightly defined constituencies and social policy expertise.'

It is not hard to see which churches he has in mind: churches that promote the ultimacy of choice and diversity of belief and life-style! At the same time he is in no doubt about the importance of standing against this trend. 'For the congregations that survive there will certainly be greater conflict with the host society. This will prompt faith communities to renew their commitment to resisting some aspects of popular culture and heighten the importance of their beliefs and customs. (p299)'

Sadly, many congregations are happy to maintain their own fellowships, timidly hoping to dodge the conflict which is part and parcel of being Christian. But we are at a point in our history where the faith of the Church needs to be strongly re-affirmed in order to set forth the splendour of the Good News that has come among us in Jesus. We do not do this glumly out of a sense of duty but gladly in a spirit of gratitude for what God has done in the crucified and risen Christ to reconcile the world to himself.

We will not always be happy with what happens in the Church or our society and must speak on crucial issues where God's grace and goodness is held in contempt. At the same time, we shall be happy to pray for those who are hostile to the Gospel in the hope that they too may come to experience something of the happiness to be found in the company of Jesus.

And we shall not forget what is made clear in the Beatitudes. Our happiness now is a foretaste of the future that awaits the Church and the world when Christ's reign comes to a glorious fulfilment: when idolatry, inhumanity, deprivation and hostility shall be at an end.

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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.