One of the most popular hymns in use today is John Newton's Amazing Grace which is an autobiographical comment on his faith journey from slave-ship captain and trader noted for his cruelty, to Christian faith and ordination as a priest in the Church of England.
In tomorrow’s reading from Galatians, St Paul talks about grace and the alternative life that is made possible by God’s limitless generosity to us.
He argues that the richness of the Christian life is not earned by ticking boxes and keeping religious rules. Indeed it is not earned at all; it is given and the sign is that “it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me.”
This week in America various events are being held to mark the 50th anniversary of the death of African American civil rights campaigner Medgar Evers who was murdered on June 12th, 1963, by a white supremacist driven by blind hatred. Evers was involved in a campaign to overturn segregation at the all-white University of Mississippi when he was killed. An observer describes the reaction of his wife Myrtle: “She was 30 years old, her black face streaming with tears beneath a black hat, a grieving body cloaked in a black dress, white-gloved hands holding on to her weeping son.”
Myrtle Evers had reason to let bitterness and anger take control of her life but this deeply religious woman was given the grace to choose a better way: “Over the years I have personally moved from being hurt, seeing my children damaged, being full of hate, determined to pay back society, to finding ways to help my state, my nation.” Her positive contribution to American society was recognised when President Obama invited her to lead prayers at his inauguration last January, the first lay person to do so.
We need to face up to what hate really does. It corrupts people; it destroys lives and breaks people’s hearts. It is the ultimate contradiction of what Christianity, the gospel of love, is about but somehow we never learn. We label those who are different and find reasons to dislike them or worse without ever knowing them. And the “we” includes not only the bully boys or the slogan writers but people who consider themselves cultured and even religious but whose polite conversations can be quite menacing when they discuss those they disapprove of. The gay community is a prime example – by no means the only one – of groups and communities that are treated as if they don’t somehow belong.
Tomorrow’s Gospel reading is quite relevant in this regard. A Pharisee is entertaining Jesus when a “woman in the city who was a sinner” intrudes and shows genuine care and respect for Jesus. The Pharisee is not pleased.
He is a prime example of the religion that Paul dismisses in the Epistle. He knows and keeps the rules and considers himself to be a holy and religious man and in fairness is probably very sincere. But he cannot cope with this “kind of woman” or anyone else who does not measure up to what he considers to be right and proper. He criticises Jesus: “If this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what kind of woman this is who is touching him– that she is a sinner.” He has nothing but disdain for the woman. In a way he has become his own god.
The end of the encounter is significant. Jesus sees the potential for good in this woman because she has a generous and kind heart but also recognises her need for forgiveness and is forgiven.
The Pharisee on the other hand, locked away in his self-sufficient, self-righteous world, cannot cope with the example of Jesus that shows that genuine religion is not just about our relationship with God but also about our relationships with each other. Dom Helder Camara put it simply: “How could we be filled with hatred, if we live night and day in God who is love?”