What is the most powerful thing we have created? You might think of the atomic bomb which has the power to destroy a city. But I would argue that an idea is more powerful. Allow me to illustrate. Yes, an atomic bomb unleashes enormous destructive energy, but the restraining idea of mutually assured destruction (appropriate acronym MAD) has meant that no nuclear weapons have been used in war for over 80 years. There is an academic discipline called the history of ideas which stresses the impact of an idea on human civilisation.

I would like to talk about some of the ideas introduced in the Judaeo-Chr tradition that has benefited our Western culture in the last 2000 years. Usually we don’t notice the difference because we are unfamiliar with the Roman world into which Christianity was born. As LP Hartly said, “The past is a foreign country.”

1. Our Understanding of History

I want to illustrate this with our sense of history. This changed because of a shift in Hebrew thought which we see in the Old Testament. All cultures tended to have a cyclic understanding of past ages. There was not a sense of progress in history, just repeating ages. But the ancient Hebrew people understood that God acted in history in creation, to call Abraham, liberate his people in the Exodus and later the judgment of exile, and the anticipation of the Messiah. There was a before and after in history. This has been called by theologians ‘salvation history’ but note that it is history in which events can be recorded. This is simply an example of something that is now universally accepted but we have largely forgotten the origin of such a powerful idea.

In a couple of sermons I would like to explore some culture changing ideas which have had enormous impact. 38.9% of people in Australia reported no religion in the 2021 Census and it would seem that most of these Australians have little appreciation of the positive benefit that a Christian faith can bring to society.

Story told of two Aussies in a pub. The first said, “I’m a better educated bloke than you.” 2^nd “I bet you $10 you can’t say the Lord’s Prayer.” 1^st “Gentle Jesus meek and mild, listen to a little child. Pity my simplicity.” 2^nd “You win, here’s $10.”

• Equality

A question, “Are all people equal?” That is regardless of gender, race, citizenship, education, social status, wealth, age, sexual orientation, or any other distinguishing feature. I would expect you to say, “Yes, of course.” Almost everyone, Christian and unbeliever, would acknowledge this. But the origin of such an idea is in the Judaeo-Christian tradition.

Specifically, Genesis chapter 1, verse 26: “Then God said, ‘Let us make human-kind in our own image, according to our likeness, and let them have dominion’.” This is a powerful theological statement that all humans are made in the image of God. The clear implication is that we are all equal in value. It is very different from other creation stories which usually involved battles between various gods, with humanity an after-thought.  

Plato, the father of Western philosophy believed that lives that people were not of equal value: some are men, some are women; some are Greeks, some are barbarians, some are free and some are slaves. Yes, I know slavery was accepted in the Bible but eventually Christians like Wilberforce changed laws making it illegal to own slaves. In the USA a civil war was fought on the issue. Creation in the image of God was foundational to such struggles.

Additionally, the question of the value of human life was not universally acknowledged. Plato was typical of educated people in his time who saw humans as simply part of nature and nothing special. If we believe that every human life is sacred, we are standing in the biblical tradition.

It is obvious from history that most civilisations have been organised on profoundly different principles. As an example, consider the modern Communist China which has an ideology of economic equality, but treats its ethnic peoples as second-class citizens.

At present we have a profound emphasis on human rights. But this is coming under fire for example from people like Richard Dawkins with disturbing debates on the use of medical and social resources. Think, for example, about COVID and the allocation of ventilators.

• Compassion

It is hard for us to appreciate just how brutal the ancient Roman world was at the time of Jesus birth. Yes, there was political stability, what is been called Pax Romana which lasted two centuries ? but at a high cost. For example, Julius Caesar bragged about killing a million and enslaving million Gauls (that is people living where modern France is on the map). Death by crucifixion was reserved for slaves and anyone who revolted against Roman rule.

The killing of infants was widespread in the Roman world usually by exposure. Aristotle recommended it for anyone born defective. The Christian emperor Valentinian forbade the killing of infants for any reason.

The Roman version of mass entertainment was blood sports. Literally. We have seen enough movies to know about gladiatorial conflict and Christians being killed by wild animals, but it was their ‘entertainment’ and astonishingly brutal. One of the early critics of Christianity said, “You do not attend our shows.” Arena sports ceased in AD 401 by the edict of a Christian emperor Honorius.

Compassion is a Christian virtue. It is exemplified by Jesus. The early Church took up collections for the poor and sick, not just their own but for those in need in the surrounding culture. The bishops of the early church presided over distribution centres of food and care. And the history Christian mission has been remarkable, just one example is the Benedictine Order who established over 2000 hospitals in the middle-ages in western Europe. The spirit of mission continues strong in all expressions of Christianity.

• Sexual Consent

 The question of ‘who has sex with who’ is a matter of consent. We recognize the importance of this and teach it in our schools. Appropriately, “No means no”.

I apologise for the next section of my sermon which probably deserves an M rating, but this is necessary to give you a realistic picture. In the Roman world it was not a question of yes or no, but who was saying the words. Slaves were owned, and this included their bodies, so there was no right of refusal. If you didn’t the own slaves, then the sex industry was ubiquitous. The cost of a visit was about the price of a loaf of bread. And in the pagan world, prostitution was often associated with temple ‘worship’.

If you think of a hierarchy of power, on top of the pile was the wealthy male Roman citizen. Few restraints were placed on him. Next in power was high born women and wives. They could be citizens, but could not vote or hold public office. Sexual expectations for women were strict, and chastity was protected at all costs. This was probably to guarantee inheritance: that the offspring who inherit were the actual son or daughter of the male. However, there wasn’t much opportunity for pre-marital sex since most females were married by age 12. Ironically, a profound influence of Christianity was to expect a similar sexual ethic of both males and females.

Another significant change related to consent was the involvement of children and youth in sexual activity. In the Greek and Roman world such sexual activity was not only tolerated but celebrated by various writers. Christians were vocal opponents being uniformly disgusted by the practice. Pagans called such sexual activity pederasty (love of children) but Christians called the practice paidophthoros (destruction of children). The Christian emperor Justinian  (d565) outlawed the practice and it could be prosecuted well after the abuse took place.

Note the role Christians took in defining abuse. As Glen Scrivener noted, “For abuse to be abuse we have to believe certain things: that body should be treated as temples, that sex is sacred and that children are valuable, and that the powerful should not exploit the weak but serve them.” (p100, The air we breathe, TheGoodBook Co., 2022)

I cannot defend the churches record in all these areas. We have not treated people equally, power and exploitation have often been part of the equation. There have been outrageous violence inspired by church leaders such as the Crusades and inquisition. Some Protestants persecuted women under the banner of witches. And our recent record with child abuse has been an international scandal that has tarnished the reputations of almost every denomination. Yes, acknowledged. And there have ideas such as democracy which came from ancient Athens. But I think that the fair assessment of the overall record would show that the influence of the church has been of enormous benefit to Western civilisation. This applies in various areas including welfare, distribution of wealth, education, health and human rights. While it is not often acknowledged, it has shaped our culture for the good of all. We can be proud of the good since it outweighs bad – in any fair estimation.

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The Rev’d Dr Bruce Stevens is the supply minister at GUC 2022-2023.

Before the birth of Jesus, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” (Matt 1:20)

There is nothing greater for Christians than the birth of the long-awaited messiah. And this was announced to Joseph in a dream. He was challenged to remain with Mary, to not shame her because of the pregnancy and to remain her husband (closer to our understanding of remaining engaged because he was not yet living with her. In the Bible dreams mark important events. So too in our lives, if we pay attention we can how important transitions are highlighted by significant dreams. 

What I learned from the Dream Research Project

I did a self-analysis of 40 dreams I had recorded over the years. This was published in a peer reviewed journal: Bruce A Stevens, (2014). The self-analysis of dreams: Does it work? Psychotherapy in Australia, 20(2), 46-51. 

It was a qualitative study with the goal of a ‘rich description’ of what is studied (Baker, Pistrang and Elliot, 2002).  It encourages a process of discovery. 

My creative interaction with dream material was patchy.  Sometimes it seemed to flow, but equally progress could be arduous or not existent.  It seemed valuable to be in an intuitive, almost ‘receptive’ mood, for dream interpretation.  In order to enhance my understanding, I needed to enter into a like process to the creative process which created the dream.  Maybe ‘like understands like’.[1]  The challenge seemed to be to find a similar mental state in waking life to approach the dream.  In contrast, coming with a reductionist attitude seemed to miss what the dream had to say.  

I wondered how to play with my dreams? (Ogden, 1990, 241) This was suggested by a Jungian analyst.  Another parallel might be cognitive flexibility in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (Hayes, 2006). 

I tried five different theoretical approaches and each had benefits.  All generated a kind of check list.  This countered some natural laziness and brought a more disciplined and comprehensive approach to understanding a dream.  It was beneficial to incorporate other perspectives, “Oh, I will look at it from that angle too.”

At times insights were surprising.  Something was seen that felt powerful and genuine.  When an insight or relevant connection was made, what might it suggest about understanding a dream?  It can feel like it comes from a transcendent source. Or even God.

Gradually the realization came to me that I experienced dream interpretation as a kind of self-therapy.  Like keeping a journal, it takes my relationship to me seriously and strangely it had a similar feel to being in therapy.[2]  This seemed crucial.  It was not just a matter of hearing a message from my unconscious. 

The sense of doing ‘dream work’ was something I took from this study.   

After working on the 40 dreams, I thought it might be valuable to apply what I had learnt on a more recent dream.  When I began looking for a dream ‘to try out the method’ I had what I thought was a very significant 41^st dream.

15 March 2011 The Ochre Man

I am driving around Canberra and I come to a quaint village, there are small but elaborate mud houses. Some have a number of stories with stairs up the side. The road becomes rougher so I avoid some streets and eventually find a place to park. There are some faded colours but mostly dusty brown. Then I meet Ken who is made of mud and says to me, “Hello Dr Bruce, thanks for sending people to me.” He offers to show me around. He is in charge of the place, “my shift” maybe for years.  He said that the village has been there since Lazarus and I think of Biblical times. He wants to know my last name but I will not tell him because I fear that it may give him the power to keep me there. It turns to dusk and then night but with more colour in the street-scape. There is social life with people and dining places. I understand that if I stay, I will become part of the place, maybe for ever, so I intend to leave. I make the observation to Ken that he is trying to trick me and he laughingly agrees.

• Give the dream a name: “The Ochre Man.”
• Have an initial impression (about 5 minutes): I was puzzled by what this dream might mean but it felt very important.  The title became the “Ochre Man” (after Ken).  Maybe Ken was half alive but coming to life.  The risk was to be imprisoned in the village.  What did this mean?  Should I join or must I escape?
• An extended reflection (about 30 minutes). I thought about the cost of belonging.  Every community has a cost. The people were made of mud like in the Biblical account of Adam, the first human, created from the dust (Genesis 2:7).  I was told that the village dated back to Lazarus, whom Jesus brought back to life.  This seemed significant.  What does it mean to be alive?  Are the people inanimate or animate?  Sterile?  There was some ambiguity.  Another puzzle was in relation to what Ken said to me, “Hello Dr Bruce, thanks for sending people to me.”  How could I do this having only just discovered the place?  A more alarming thought was that my work, as a psychologist, sends people to the mud village and somehow made them less alive – possibly trapped there forever?  But this society became more alive and engaging at night.  I was apprehensive that I could be captured by the place and unable to leave.  There was a primitive fear in having my name known which evoked superstition with magical overtones.  Did I have to leave before midnight when ‘I could become a pumpkin’?  Ken reminded me of the male Barbie doll.  Might this have been my destiny if I made the wrong choices, perhaps staying too long in the mud village?  Was I already of becoming a resident of the mud village?

 Dr Kate Stewart asked, after the Empathink conference (Canberra, 3 March 2012), “Funny that both you and Ken knew each other by first name only.” This final comment struck me and I wondered about the extent to which I tolerate trivial relationships? 

It is curious that this dream has not readily yielded up its secrets.  The 41^st dream seemed the most important dream that I have ever had and yet it proved to be the hardest to understand.  I struggled to find an organizing theme.  The following were tried out:  mortality, what of value is to be discovered among the familiar, life choices to be made, the denial of my creativity, the unknown consequences of my actions, my relationship to spiritual values, as a multi-faceted portrayal of my inner self and what blocks my growth.  It was of course amusing that I should spend a year on a research project and then try to apply it but only to grind to a halt!

Comment 2023: It is now 11 years after I dreamt The Ochre Man. There been some huge changes in my life such as retiring from academia and counselling work, return to part-time Christian ministry, and facing the diagnosis of a chronic illness. I suspect that some dreams have an embryonic period and have to be birthed with later understanding. Sometimes you grow into an understanding. Sometimes there is a change in perspective, for example I recently stopped seeing people for counselling and I have expressed an intention to do more ministry work in the next couple of years. This opened the way for a different understanding.

It is 5 January 2021,I woke up this morning and had the thought that this dream was about the limits of my work as a clinical psychologist without a more spiritual or ministry perspective. This seems to click, to feel right. So it is a spiritual confirmation of my return to supply ministry – after an extended detour in academia.

Conclusion

Dreams are ephemeral things.  We give them shape by recalling them, doing dream work and applying the insights in our daily lives.  Dreams are spiritually significant. It is a realm in which angels inhabit. Messengers from God awakening us to depth and providing an opportunity to discover a new direction in life.

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[1] Shakespeare noted “Like doth quit like, and measure still for measure”, Measure for Measure, Act 5, Scene 1.

[2] This insight led me to understanding the self-analysis of dreams as serving a selfobject function. 

Paul in the book of Acts was doing missionary work and establishing the church in various places. He was in what we know now as Turkey, and we read, “During the night he had a vision: there was a man of Macedonia (now Greece) pleading with him and saying, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” When he had seen the vision, we (including Luke the physician) immediately tried to cross over to Macedonia, being convinced that God had called us to proclaim the good news to them.” (Acts 16: 9-10)

It is interesting that Paul the Apostle and leader of a missionary team has a dream, and it becomes the way God directs them. They immediately respond to follow a new direction in ministry.

It is interesting that:

• One of the ways God speaks is through a dream.
• God speaks to the leader, in this instance the Apostle Paul.
• It is expected that God will direct followers in their work of mission.
• They discuss, conclude that God had spoken, and change their plans to go to Macedonia.

Do we expect God to do this in GUC? When was the last time council asked Jenelle if she had a dream to direct the mission here? Now I am not suggesting a change in policy but simply observing the way early Christians valued dreams and sought divine guidance by this means.

There is nothing more personal than a dream.  The dream is my creation, your creation, on rare occasions our creation. Is there any value in the self-analysis of dreams?

Johnson’s Four Steps in Dream Interpretation

When you read Inner Work, there are a raft of Jungian concepts such as archetypes, individuation and myths. You may find these helpful, or not; I find them interesting but generally not persuasive. Hence, my approach is to use the practical outline of Jung’s approach, and to not get distracted by theory generally whether Jung or Freud.

• Associations. Every symbol in the dream is the unconscious providing an opportunity for association that explain the symbols meaning. So, we begin by recording the dream, underlining the key symbols and then writing out every association you have with the dream image. A dream may contain persons, objects, situations, colours, sounds or speech each of these is a distinct image which needs to be looked at in its own right. Look at each and make your associations. An association is any word, idea, mental picture, feeling or memory that pops into your head as you examine the image in the dream. It is literally anything that you spontaneously connect with the image. Usually, an image will have a number of associations. Once you’ve written down all the associations, then go to the next image and begin the same process. Often the first connection, one that seems obvious, is not the one that will work best for you later in the process. Be patient and be prepared to do the work. Remember that it is your association, since the dream comes from your unconscious.

It may help to think about the image as the hub of the wheel with spokes going out to various associations. Now which association is the most significant? You have the idea that an association will “click” as this will have the most energy for you. There is a feeling that it fits. Johnson also talks about archetypal amplification but this is not a technique that I have used.

• Dynamics. In this step we connect each dream image to a specific dynamic in our inner lives. We identify parts of our inner self that appear as images in the dream. This involves going to each image, one at a time and for each image to ask what part of me is that? Where have I seen it functioning in my life lately? Where do I see the same trait in my personality? The scope of this is large because it can include an emotional vent such as a surge of anger, and in a conflict or an inner personality which appears to be acting through you, feeling, an attitude or a mood. Essentially, we are asking ourselves: what is going on inside me that this dream speaks of?

• Interpretation In this step we ask questions such as, “What is the central most important message in this dream is trying to communicate to me? What is it advising me to do? What is the meaning of the dream for my life?” Johnson gives some principles for choosing an interpretation: (i) Choose an interpretation that shows you something you didn’t know. (ii) Avoid an interpretation that inflates your ego or congratulates you. Dreams are aimed at the unfinished business and your life, showing what you need to face next, what you need to learn. (iii) Avoid interpretations that shift responsibility away from yourself. Your dreams are not concerned with pointing out faults of others. (iv) Learn to live with the dreams over time, fit them into the flow of your life. On occasion everyone has a big dream which gives a panoramic view of your life. It is a good thing to learn to live with dreams like this and to return to them regularly. As time goes by our understanding increases. Johnson said, “Such dreams come from the frontiers of your consciousness. They are joined in some way to the future, the seeds which are contained already and you now. Give yourself time and experience, keep interacting with the symbols, return to the dream from time to time and all will become clear.” (Page 96)

• Rituals A ritual is a physical act which enables the dream cross from the psyche to the physical. This is a way of honouring the dream and its message to you. Small things work best, for example picking a flower, hugging your dog or sending a card. Think about something that seems appropriate. Johnson gave an example of a man who had a dream about junk-food so he bought a cheeseburger and buried it in his backyard. The best rituals are physical, solitary and silent. If you can’t think of anything to do, Johnson recommends lighting a candle.

Word of Advice

Remember that the language of dreams is symbolic. Sometimes a dream will try to get our attention in a dramatic way. So it may use the symbol such as the death of the personally love. Or committing a crime such as breaking into a house, or even worse committing a crime such as murder. Or having sexual activity with a taboo person. Do not let this put you off looking at your dreams or trying to interpret them. For example, a death may symbolize a need for change.

I will challenge myself this week to think about a repetitive dream I have had (and tell you next time I preach if I had any new insights). As I write this 12 Dec 2022, I dreamed again last night about my father. He died in 1976, but my dream is that he left the family without any reason given, went back to USA for a number of decades. He then returned to Australia and our family, and resumed his place in the family without any explanation for why he left. I have had this dream many times over the years.  It is puzzling!

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Home work: Take a dream fragment and apply these steps to it. Reflect on the experience, has God got a message for you?

Dr Bruce Stevens is an endorsed clinical psychologist and the supply minister at GUC.

The Bible is the most realistic of books. Human society is shown in all its complexity. Everything is there: wars, murder, sexual infidelity, political corruption, incurable diseases and idolatry with spiritual perversions. Ecclesiastes summarized it long ago: “The days of trouble come, and the years draw near when you will say, ‘I have no pleasure in them’.” (12:1) If you are old enough to be out of primary school, then you know something of what life ‘dishes out’. The Bible reflects life and has some surprisingly relevant insights.

How can we say something honest, real and of some practical benefit?  Facile is easy; tough minded is hard. But it is a task I will attempt in this brief sermon.

Into the Light?

It is easy to equate Christianity with being in the light, “God is light and in him is no darkness at all.” (I John 1:5) It is risky to walk in the dark with the ‘lights switched off’. But darkness as a symbol is not bad – though it seems paradoxical.  The most familiar of Psalms the 23^rd. “Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no evil for you are with me.”  How can we learn to walk in the dark?

I know a little about darkness.  In ministry I became familiar with spiritual darkness.  In pessimistic moments still I see our world shrouded in spiritual darkness, with inequalities of wealth, corruption and political oppression. Stalked by plague. I spend 25 years as a clinical psychologist in sessions with people in the greatest of distress: emotionally overwhelmed, confused and even suicidal when the pain feels too much to bear.  I saw both victims and perpetrators of significant crimes.  Too often I have had to assess the complete failure of parenting when an agency removes children from parents.  The failures of family life, of relationships and friendships – when desperate people do desperate things.  This, of course, would equate with anyone’s definition of darkness.

Also, I know what darkness feels like when it is within. I have reached out for pastoral care, my own spiritual direction and therapy numerous times over the years.  But then we all know this darkness. The only place to begin a spiritual journey is where we are. If we are in darkness: How do we learn to walk?

There is a curious promise in Isaiah, Yahweh said, “I will give you the treasures of darkness” (45:3). What are these treasures of darkness, when the church speaks mostly about coming into the light?  The writings of Barbara Brown Taylor are instructive in this regard.  A few years ago she featured in Time Magazine with her recent book Learning to walk in the Dark (2014). As a spiritual writer she contrasts this with what she calls “a full solar church” which can be recognized by “its emphasis on the benefits of faith, which include a sure sense of God’s presence, certainty of belief, divine guidance in all things, and reliable answers to prayer. Members strive to be positive in attitude, firm in conviction, helpful in relationship, and unwavering in faith.” 

Nothing wrong with this?  Right, that is until some darkness falls on your life: You lose your job, your marriage falls apart, your child acts out in an attention getting way, you pray hard for something that doesn’t happen, and you begin to doubt. Or you get old.Taylor notes that when you first begin to express reservations about God you will probably get a hearing, maybe some understanding, but ultimately the message will be that you do not have enough faith.  She concluded, “Having been on the receiving end of this verdict more than once, I do not think it is as mean as it sounds.  The people who said it seemed genuinely to care about me. They had honestly offered me the best they had.  Since their sunny spirituality had not given them many skills for operating in the dark, I had simply exhausted their resources.  They could not enter the dark without putting their own faith at risk, so they did the best they could. They stood where I could still hear them and begged me to come back into the light.”

Darkness and light.  What do we do with such polarities?  I could go on: Good & evil, saved & lost, church & world, spirit & flesh, sacred & profane, and of course light and dark. It is easy to guess which side most people see as closer to God.  But are these so neatly in opposition? Who knows anything about heaven without knowing hell? Or as Taylor noted, “Who knows the spirit without also knowing flesh?  Is anyone all together good or altogether evil?”  She has discerned that it is time for the spiritual skill of learning to walk in the dark.

A Psychology of Darkness

If simplistic answers are pervasive in the church, what about psychology?  For about ten years I was an academic. I convened a training program for 60 graduate students in clinical psychology. Psychology in with its ‘evidence based therapies’ finds it easy to have a triumphalist attitude to banish psychological dysfunction.  Negative thoughts are maladaptive.  Anger needs management.  Unrelenting psychopathology needs medication.  While there is a point to using therapies with a proven record of being effective such as CBT, no therapy works every time.  Or with every person. 

We need to go beyond such half-truths. Indeed, some new trends in psychological therapy can help teach us how to walk in the dark. These would include practicing mindfulness (being present and aware), clarifying values and goals of committed living, self-compassion and radical acceptance.  These psychological resources are relevant for learning to walk in the darkness. 

I will give an example with mindfulness. It is now a big theme in psychological treatment with therapies such as Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and demonstrating considerable effectiveness.  Mindfulness is simply paying attention to present experience.  You could mindfully count the bricks in a wall or books on a shelf. This can be helpful when our minds are full of ‘speeding thoughts’, we can become grounded and present and not tossed around by errant thoughts often leading to a low mood. 

We often find ourselves on auto-pilot or with ruminating thoughts.  So a first step is to reclaim awareness. We can most easily do this with our usual daily activities: eating, house-hold chores such as washing dishes or having a shower.  These can be done mindfully. For example experiencing the sensations of water hitting our bodies. I walk Truff twice each day. He challenges me to be more mindful because he notices every smell, stopping to investigate and only reluctantly, with a pull of the leash, does he move on.

There are some useful spiritual practices which can be practiced mindfully.  These are found in the contemplative tradition.  I have never been particularly good at contemplative practices, being too impatient to be active, but even I have gained some benefit.  This includes:

• Mindful breathing.
• Christian mantra such as “In the beginning God” (Gen 1:1) or “The peace of God passes all understanding” (Phil 4:7).

This can be done with an openness to God, or an amorphous spiritual dimension, or even the ‘best-in-us’.  Perhaps address the Holy Spirit who blows where she will (John 3:8). One of the opportunities of getting older is to find creative ways to use time. It can be a challenge to try something different both psychologically and spiritually.

Mindful about Darkness

I believe that we should change our relationship to all that is dark.  This may include a complete reappraisal of our spiritual pathway.  Let me suggest an activity: write a brief account of your spiritual journey.  Divide it like God divided the light from the darkness Gen 1:4 (in our digital age this might be a different font or highlighted).  Then list what you learned about God and yourself under two headings: in times of light when all was well and in times of darkness when things were going terribly wrong. I will not make any prediction or state what might be obvious even when you begin to think about it.  

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The Rev’d Dr Bruce A Stevens (PhD Boston U, 1987) was Wicking Chair of Ageing and Practical Theology (CSU 2015-2019), he is a supply minister at GUC 2022-23.

Today I have brought in my bible, which I requested as a gift for graduating high school. It is embarrassingly underutilised, and I wish I could blame the accessibility of online translations. But I’ve brought it up here because it is a parallel bible, and shows each verse as both the NIV translation, which was the norm in my childhood, and the Message translation, which is known for being a tonal translation more than a literal one. This is something I requested because my mum’s bible is like this, and I really liked it.

Part of why I like having both is that I feel that being asked to sit with the imprecision of translation is good for us. Our protestant tradition is built on the legitimacy of translation, of access, and I would argue that that can be a graceful reminder of the complexity, of the historical context, of the living word.

As well as the value of being reminded that our holy text is very old and very alive, I think that the differences of translations can add something to the reading. Blue and red 3D glasses are low tech compared to whatever is going on in the cinema world nowadays. But I think we understand how they work: We have two offset versions of the same image – one visible through the blue lens, one through the red, and when wearing one on each eye we can see a depth that wasn’t there before.

All of that is the long way to say, I am going to read some of the verses we have already had today, but in two translations.

To begin: Micah 6:8.

[CEV] The Lord God has told us what is right and what he demands: “See that justice is done, let mercy be your first concern, and humbly obey your God.”

[Message] But he’s already made it plain how to live, what to do, what God is looking for in men and women. It’s quite simple: Do what is fair and just to your neighbour, be compassionate and loyal in your love, and don’t take yourself too seriously—take God seriously.

This is a beautiful striving goal. It is so simple, and it is so hard. Summarised on a T-shirt Bec has as “do justice, love mercy, and humbly obey your God.”

And when we put on our 3D goggles, I think that overlapping the last clause is especially interesting. At first glance, “don’t take yourself too seriously—take God seriously” feels flippant compared to the solemnity of “humbly obey your God”. But I have spoken before about my belief that taking yourself too seriously is the opposite of humility, and is a very comfortable form of pride for a lot of us. So if we, as a church, had become comfortable with a form of obeying God which performed piety well, but did so to stoke our own egos then seeing both translations is a reminder that that is not humble.

Similarly, linking a definition of “obeying God” to “taking seriously” creates a lot of questions around both those terms. Can you flippantly try to obey God? How do you avoid that? Can you take God seriously and disobey them? When someone appears to take God seriously and disobeys them, which clause is up for reconsidering: are they not serious or not disobeying?

And the deeper question which is sitting in the service with us today, sitting in all of today’s readings: What does it mean to take God seriously? What does it mean to obey God? What does your faith ask of you?

There will be no compulsory discussion time, no writing down, but I would like you to ask yourself this. What does your faith ask of you? Does it ask anything of you?

For now, we will move to the Galatians reading. I encourage you to have a speedy google for the message translation of the whole of Galatians 5, because you can really hear Paul’s frustration. But we will start with what is one of my favourite verses, in its message form, Galatians 5:25-26.

[CEV] God’s Spirit has given us life, and so we should follow the Spirit. But don’t be conceited or make others jealous by claiming to be better than they are.

[Message] Since this is the kind of life we have chosen, the life of the Spirit, let us make sure that we do not just hold it as an idea in our heads or a sentiment in our hearts, but work out its implications in every detail of our lives. That means we will not compare ourselves with each other as if one of us were better and another worse. We have far more interesting things to do with our lives. Each of us is an original.

For me, there is value in this verse affirming that my faith does ask something of me. That it is not only an idea in my head or a sentiment in my heart. That it has implications for every detail of my life. So for me the question of “what does our faith ask of us” cannot be “nothing”.

But I feel that sometimes in progressive spaces it can be simpler to function as if our faith asks nothing of us. This is a defensive reaction to the legacy of shame in the church. Shame is a consuming emotion. It takes us over. Unlike guilt, which says “I did something bad”, shame says “I am bad”. And that is a paralytic emotion.

This faith of Christianity, and the bible itself, can be effective purveyors of shame. Verses like these today included.

So to add to your question list: Does your faith shame you? Presently? Has faith previously been a cause of shame? Does that shame still live in you?

Popular psychology today, and the progressive church, tend to be in general agreement that shame is bad. That it hurts the people who are experiencing it, and if others have been hurt by them, then shame doesn’t promote the growth or change that would be needed to stop this. It is punishment for punishment’s sake. Shame is bad at apologising. It can be good at digging in heels. Or it can be good at self-flagellating. But not at growth and not at apology.

I believe that sometimes people use shame unintentionally. And I also believe that sometimes people use shame intentionally, without fully understanding the fire they are playing with. And I also know that strong emotions, especially that feeling of righteous fury, can make shame feel just. Appropriate. None of these origins for shame are necessarily malicious. But I believe that the seed that they plant is a burr in your foot. Nothing good. And so I am glad to see the church uproot these non-malicious sources of harm, whenever I see this.

And that can look costly. Non-shame motivations are often harder to use, harder to harness. I personally believe that that is why there are fewer young Christians in progressive Christian spaces than young conservatives in theirs: we have so successfully released people from fear and shame that they feel able to leave and so they do. (A note from this, is that if our response to people leaving is that this is inherently bad, then we risk wishing for shame.) It is far more valuable to create a place some people want to be, than to be jealous of a place many people fear to leave.

In an attempt to avoid shame, we can fall back on the idea that our faith does not ask anything of us that we would not easily want to give. Easily be able to give. But are those the only options?

Let us consider some of today’s potentially-shame-prompting verses: Galatians 5:19-21.

[CEV] People’s desires make them give in to immoral ways, filthy thoughts, and shameful deeds. They worship idols, practice witchcraft, hate others, and are hard to get along with. People become jealous, angry, and selfish. They not only argue and cause trouble, but they are envious. They get drunk, carry on at wild parties, and do other evil things as well. I told you before, and I am telling you again: No one who does these things will share in the blessings of God’s kingdom.

[Message] It is obvious what kind of life develops out of trying to get your own way all the time: repetitive, loveless, cheap sex; a stinking accumulation of mental and emotional garbage; frenzied and joyless grabs for happiness; trinket gods; magic-show religion; paranoid loneliness; cutthroat competition; all-consuming-yet-never-satisfied wants; a brutal temper; an impotence to love or be loved; divided homes and divided lives; small-minded and lopsided pursuits; the vicious habit of depersonalising everyone into a rival; uncontrolled and uncontrollable addictions; ugly parodies of community. I could go on. This isn’t the first time I have warned you, you know. If you use your freedom this way, you will not inherit God’s kingdom.

When we sit these together, with our 3D goggles on, Galatians 5 feels less like a statement of “these people are bad, they will be punished”, and more a genuine acknowledgement of causality.  Saying “trying to get your own way all the time leads to loneliness” isn’t shame, necessarily, it is guilt. These verses do not have to be a list of ways to be a bad person. They can instead be inviting us to live a life that is kinder to ourselves and others.

I believe that my faith will ask things of me, including things that are not easy. But that it does so without the threat of shame. It calls me to grow, not paralyses me with my own insufficiency.

However, when we have experienced a lot of shame, any identification of guilt, causality, the consequences of our own actions can trigger shame. Or it can trigger a defensive rejection of responsibility to avoid shame. Being acclimated to shame makes it difficult for the brain to receive negative feedback as anything else.

So if, for now, your relationship to shame is such that your faith needs to ask nothing of you then I wish you an overwhelming volume of self-compassion. Maybe revisit the asks of your faith later, when they are no longer threatening.

But personally, I believe strongly that my faith asks things of me, that I am to work out its implications in every detail of my life, and that it asks things of us, as a community. I also believe that that ask is not shame. Cultivating shame in our lives and our communities harms ourselves and others. We need to be able to consider what our faith asks from us, how we are to humbly obey our God, without being driven by or resorting to shame.

Do justice, love mercy. Don’t take yourself too seriously—take God seriously.

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JJ Hamilton
29 Jan 2023