Sunday 18 January 2015

Meditation: CHRISTIAN CHARLIES by John de Gruchy

CHRISTIAN CHARLIES


Galatians 5:1, 13-15
Matthew 23:13:24

For freedom Christ has set us free...only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence...you shall love your neighbour as yourself.

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  For you cross sea and land to make a single convert, and you make the new convert  twice as much a child of hell as yourselves.

A new slogan has been violently born: Je suis Charlie! I am Charlie, an  outcome of the  murderous attack by militant Jahadists on the satirical French magazine, Charlie Hebdo last week.  Within hours Je suis Charlie was adopted around the world by millions of people who came out in solidarity with those who had been killed and in defence of the freedom of speech.  Yesterday over five million copies of the newspaper were sold, and it was as defiant and outspoken as ever.

Charlie Hebdo (Hebdo means a weekly magazine.)  was founded  in 1969 with the name Hara-Kiri Hebdo. In November 1970 it was banned when it joked about the death of former French president Charles de Gaulle.  It then published under its present name inspired by Charlie Brown of Peanuts fame, and became Charlie Hebdo.  By 1981 Charlie had closed down for lack of support, but ten years later it restarted and began attacking religious fundamentalism, in fact, religion of any kind, and declared itself to be an atheist paper.  In 2006 it gained global notoriety when it published images of the Prophet Mohammed drawn by a Danish cartoonist.  Muslims in France were deeply offended and took Charlie Hebdo to court but lost the case.  Four years later its offices were fire bombed after naming Mohammed their "editor-in-chief" and saying: "100 lashes if you don't die of laughter".  Charlie also depicted Pope Benedict XVI in amorous embrace with a Vatican guard; former French President Nicolas Sarkozy looking like a sick vampire; and an Orthodox Jew kissing a Nazi soldier.

Now you might well be asking what has this to do with a meditation at the Eucharist, so let me refer to the gospel passage we read today in which Jesus pours scorn on the hypocrisy of the religious fundamentalists of his day. ”Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  For you cross sea and land to make a single convert, and you make the new convert  twice as much a child of hell as yourselves." The whole of chapter 23 in Matthew's gospel has the same message.  And on several occasions Jesus pokes fun at religious leaders and practices which dehumanize people and corrupt politicians who line their own purses.  No wonder he was attacked in return and accused of blasphemy, a charge which soon led to his death.

Christians have good reason, then, to support those who satirize corrupt rulers or bad religion, and make us cry tears of laughter at human folly.  When the comic strip Charlie Brown was at the height of its popularity someone even wrote a book called The Gospel according to Peanuts.  In fact, Christ depicted as a clown, as Charlie if you like, is part of Christian tradition precisely because it is through being foolish that he reveals the wisdom of God.  In Dostoevsky's great novel The Idiot, Prince Myshkin, the idiot, is a figure of Christ. So we  Christians can say with a good conscience "I am Charlie!" and salute cartoonists like Zapiro, and satirists like Pieter Dirk Uys.  And we should not take umbrage when Christianity is lampooned if we deserve it.  We do well to laugh at our foibles, misdeeds and idiosyncrasies.  But even if some caricatures of Christ are blasphemous,as they might well be, we do not kill those who draw them, or stone people who take his name in vain .  And we don't do so for Christ's sake who taught us to love even our enemies.  How foolish can you get!

Christ has set us free to be Charlies, then, but we are called not to abuse our freedom. The freedom Christ gives us is not to do what we like irrespective of the consequences, but the freedom to act responsibly for the common good.   This means that our primary concern is loving our neighbour, building relationships, nurturing community, working for reconciliation and a just peace.  After all, even the founding principles of the French Republic are not just liberty, but also equality and fraternity, and fraternity is about love for the neighbour if it means anything. There are, in other words, boundaries and limits to freedom which are determined by love for the other. 

So in defending the freedom of speech and the freedom of the press, as Christian Charlies we draw the line at what is deemed hate speech, speech which denigrates and dehumanizes others, speech which puts the lives of innocent people at risk.  It may be difficult sometimes to draw that line because who is to say when it has been crossed.  But as Christians we have to risk making a judgment if we are to be followers of Christ.  In the current euphoria of being Charlies, we dare not lose our critical faculties and that means being critical of Charlie Hebdo if necessary.  As one of the leaders of AVAAZ, the on-line human rights pressure group that stands for the freedom of the press,  has said, some of "the cartoons in Charlie Hebdo are offensive, racist and purposely inflammatory."  

While we must applaud the remarkable show of unity amongst the millions who marched in Paris in support of freedom, bringing together Jews, Muslims, Christians and secularists, something that will hopefully lead to better relations in France and elsewhere, we should not be blind to the hypocrisy in evidence.  There were some political leaders who led the march who are not defenders of free speech, and are many others who are using the attack on Charlie Hebdo to stir up anti-Islamism in pursuit of their own dubious agendas.  And let us not forget that some of those responsible for this awful deed in Paris were of Algerian descendent, and that Algeria was for long a colony of France often ruled by violent force.  The French Foreign Legion, the shock troops in the region, were mostly criminals and  by no means  paragons of virtue.  In fact, the Algerian war of not so long ago, was brutal, and we are now witnessing some of its consequences. This does not justify in any way what the Jihadist criminals did in Paris or elsewhere, nothing can do that, but it reminds us that the cycle of violence that arises out of conquest, resistance and repression lies at the heart of the crisis we face.  It is not a conflict between religions, but the abuse of religion in serving other agendas through destructive rhetoric and violent attacks on innocent people.  The crisis we face is certainly a clash between fundamentalism and democratic values, but it is also the consequence of the brutalization of a generation of the dispossessed.

We live in sobering times.  As Christian we need to defend the freedoms we have and support those who exercise them.  But we need to use our freedoms responsibly, seeking to speak the truth in ways that humanize rather than dehumanise, build up and not just break down, reconcile and not alienate.   Jesus calls us to break the cycle of violence in the struggle for justice, and the healing of human and social brokenness.   We are Charlies, to be sure, but we are Charlies for Christ's sake. 


John de Gruchy

Volmoed 14 January 2015

Monday 12 January 2015

BLESS YOU

II Corinthians 13:11-13
Matthew 5:1-8

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

There are some days when, on awakening, my first words are "bless you!"  It's not because I am being pious or even expressing my affection for Isobel even on our 54th Wedding Anniversary; it is because the abbot who lives next door has woken up the Valley and me with a loud sneeze! 

Why is it that we say "bless you!" to someone who has just sneezed?  I went in search of an answer this past week and discovered that, according to legend, the custom began with Pope Gregory the Great in the sixth century during a plague that was ravaging Rome.  People who were showing signs of the plague, one of which was uncontrollable sneezing, were brought to him for healing.  So the practice began: you sneeze, I bless!"  That already gives us a clue to its meaning.   There is, in fact, a long list of words used in virtually all languages, from Albananian to Zulu, in response to people who sneeze, and they invariably mean "may you be healthy." To be blessed is about well-being.  To bless others is to pray that God will make them whole.

As children in Sunday School we use to belt out a chorus "Count your blessings, name them one by one, and it will surprise you what the Lord has done!"  Back then I had little idea about what blessing really meant.  I assumed we were taught the chorus to keep us grateful for mom and dad, my dog Chippy, my Mechano set and bicycle, and for food on the table.  So we asked a blessing before meals, my parents gave me their blessing when I set off into the wide world, just as they gave my sister their blessing when she got married.  And then on Sundays we had even more blessings when the minister blessed babies with the time honoured Aaronic words: "The Lord bless you and keep you..." And then sent us on our way with a final blessing: "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all!"  Yes, there was every reason to count and name my blessings one by one because somehow they made you feel good.  And that is another clue to its meaning.  To be blessed is not only to be well, but also to be happy because you can be well but not happy. To be a blessing to others, to take it one step further, is to help make them truly happy as well.

But what is happiness?  People will differ in their definitions of happiness, and philosophers have long debated its meaning.  So it is not surprising that Jesus taught his followers what it truly meant for him in what we call the Beatitudes which Matthew records in his gospel.   Each one begins with the Greek word makarios which literally means "happy."  The happy are not the rich and powerful, but the humble peacemakers who work for God's justice in the world.  The happy are the pure in heart, that is, those who seek to do what is right and good.  Even those who mourn or are persecuted are called happy.  Clearly Jesus has turned happiness upside down and in so doing given happiness a much deeper meaning than normally understood.

Isobel and I received a very special blessing recently from a lady named Hannah van Rensburg we don't even know.  She wrote us a letter and  this is what she told us.  She is now 85 years old, but she was born and brought up in the Hemel en Aarde Valley on a little farm called "Dawn" -- the name of her mother.  From this small farm she walked everyday along the old sand road to Braemar School, now the office of the Hamilton Russel Wine Farm, where she was taught by Aunt Chrissie Havenga.  Her father, Andries de Villiers, planted the original blue gum trees along the road to provide shade for the children as they walked to and from school.  Most people in the Valley, white and coloured were poor but they learnt to share what they had.  Each day drinking water was brought to the farms on donkey or horse drawn carts.  Her mother drove a large Cape cart pulled by Clydesdale horses to take wild and garden flowers from their farm into the hotels in Hermanus.   "It was during those years" she wrote, "that a very deep love grew in my heart for the Hemel en Aarde Valley."She continued:  "On or near Volmoed lived Oom Lisa and Aunt Bessie Langenhoven who took a very keen interest in this little, sickly child."  Sadly, she told us: "When "Dawn" had to be sold as my parents were getting on in years, my mother, after signing the Deed of Sale and approaching "Dawn" with the cart, looked up at "Dawn" and prayed:

Dear Lord, please bless little "Dawn" and let it be a blessing to others too."

"Dawn" later became the Rudolf Steiner School and then Camphill.  So how come we received this lovely letter with all its blessings.  The clue came next in her letter:  "When I read the Volmoed Journey (that is, the book Isobel and I wrote for the twentieth anniversary of Volmoed) I find myself once more in 'my' valley.  In my mind I walk up to my 'klipkoppie' behind the old 'Dawn' homestead where I used to pick 'Painted Ladies.'"  Then she exclaimed "Isn't God wonderful!  Even to this day he is blessing 'Dawn' and my whole valley with his love and kindness...I am so happy to know that God has blessed Mummy's little prayer of so many years ago so beautifully.  Thank you so much for looking after our beloved valley with so much love."   Isn't that a remarkable letter out of the blue from a lady of 85 who lived as a child in our Valley, and whose mother asked a blessing on all who might come to live here? 

When, at the end of our worship we say the grace together, we are asking for God's blessing on each of us as we leave this place in a very special sense.   In doing so we turn to each other because we are saying to each in turn may God make and keep you happy and healthy, but not in any superficial way.  We may not always be happy or healthy in the way we would like to be, but God's blessing goes beyond that.  God's blessing rests on us in sickness and in health, for richer and poorer.  God's blessing is the giving of his grace, love and Spirit for our journey no matter what might come our way.  It is about health and happiness, but at a deeper level than we might first think.  We do not know whether 2015 will bring us the health and happiness we would like, we hope that it will, but we also pray that as we journey into the coming days we will be blessed with grace, love and strength to live in ways that might renew our souls and help us be a blessing to others.  Greet one another, as Paul says, with a holy kiss!  And may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. And may we all have a blessed New Year. 


John de Gruchy

Volmoed  8th January 2015