2004-2010 - an article from Aelred

Agatha Christie, in 1938, wrote Appointment with Death. Two of her characters, Gerard, a psychologist and Sarah, a doctor were standing on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem on holiday:

Gerard said slowly: 'I do not believe that when once the mania for power (and the lust for cruelty) has taken possession of a human being it can spare anybody - not even its nearest and dearest.'
He was silent for a moment, then he said: 'Are you a Christian, mademoiselle?'
Sarah said slowly: 'I don't know. I used to think that I wasn't anything. But now - I'm not sure. I feel - oh, I feel that if I could sweep all this away' - and she made a violent gesture - 'all the buildings and the sects and the fierce squabbling churches - that - that I might see Christ's quiet figure riding into Jerusalem on a donkey - and believe in Him.'

The archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, in his Easter sermon this month in York Minster said,

The reality and effects of the Resurrection miracle are seen in the living community which grew from his rising from the dead. A community whose life continued and continues to grow, because of the eternal life from which it began. ... What we need is not more doctrines and arguments about dogma, but to live our lives in that free and transformed community, drawing others into the light of the reality that Jesus who died, is risen and is alive with us. ... And sadly, the Church of Jesus Christ, with its message of new life, forgiveness, reconciliation and hope, has veiled this good news with morality, dogmatic statements, interminable debates and services, when what we should have been doing is offering people God's invitation to come and become friends with God and with each other in Jesus Christ.

Friendship is perhaps the most cherished thing in life. But friendship with God? To begin with, the religious obstacles seem to be endless. Not only the ecclesiastical squabbles and competition on the Temple Mount but, as the archbishop says, the proliferation of dogmatic ideas which began in Christianity perhaps as soon as 30 years after Jesus' death. The modern churches depend on statements of doctrine which reflect 'definitions' of God and Jesus which have been inherited from centuries of debate and struggle. Exploration into ideas of God and Jesus can be so fruitful and become part of any possibility of friendship with God. But, like many of our human achivements can, in the end, become a barrier to going forward into the richness of life.

Then, friendship with the divine is often, in experience, seemingly mocked by our context in life. It may be the appalling disasters - earthquakes, terror bombings - or the personal defeats in daily life which leave us vulnerable. Even the beauty surrounding us - like the two photographs on this page of my garden! - or the heights of human achievement in the arts and science, can seem, at times, to be 'hollow'. There is nothing new in these remarks, at least for the Christian person. Faith always has doubt as her partner in discipleship if we are to be true to ourselves. But for the 'onlooker', the 'Sarahs' of this world, it is different.

From Sarah's point of view the churches have buildings, and dogmas beyond comprehension, to keep people like her out. This is the archbishop's point. In order that anyone may become the friend of God doesn't, of course, depend on us! Christians have no control, despite what we may often think, over who shall be touched by God and Jesus. But beyond what people outside the churches may associate with us as Christians - the buildings, the appalling petty quarrels, the mediaeval dogmas - it is, in the long run, what they may see in us as those for whom the friendship of God and the risen Lord is a reality.

Friendship, in the long run, cannot survive on superficialities - sensual attachment, posture and language. To the contrary it has truth as its basis - the truth of enquiry and reasoning and open-eyed acceptance of others. The Christ of John's gospel expressed this in direct language:

"This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you." (John 15: 12-15)

Our problem, over the centuries, has been how to express Jesus' love and commandments in ways which could be accessible to others (as well as to ourselves!) We have been more concerned with fortifying the graceful friendship of God to preserve it for ourselves than with extending the hand to others. And that, as we know from well-meaning efforts of those over the centuries who understood Jesus' commandment as the command to 'convert' others, is a delicate matter. The delicacy of friendship, transparency towards others, truthful enquiry into what we believe rather than what we are told to believe by the churches' traditions.

' ... friends with God and with each other in Jesus Christ.' Despite our human context, wrestling doubt and the seeming mockery of external appearances, there is, within, this clarity of the Gospel - to extend the truth that is known in Jesus, the risen Lord, into all aspects of our lives: come what may - as it did with him. For it is through these daily experiences in mind and body, that we are strengthened in that discipleship which is the friendship of true love - for him and for others.

' ...he is our peace, who has made us both one, and has broken down the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in his flesh the law of commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace ...' (Ephesians 2: 14-15)