"As he died to make men holy, let us live to make men free" (June 16)

Readings, 2 Cor 5: 6-17 and Mark 4:26-34
Image, The Last Moments of John Brown (1883) Thomas Hovenden

So if anyone is in Christ, new creation! Everything old has passed away; see everything has become new!
 
For the Christian, the story of God and the world pivots on Christ. The event of Christ marks a staggering and irreversible shift in all things. Because, we are convinced that one has died for all; therefore all have died. Christ’s death is the monumental rupture in the story of humanity. His death is all of our deaths; the moment that we, each and all, are lowered into his death, so that the life of Jesus may be made visible in our mortal flesh.
 
As the parable suggests, we are sown upon the ground, buried in the soil that is Christ.
 
Christ has died for all (and therefore all have died), Christ also rises for all (and therefore all shall rise). And in rising we are raised to new life; which we live for the one who died us. So radical is this shared death and resurrection, that it is nothing short of new creation.
 
As the parable suggests, we are sown upon the ground, buried in the soil that is Christ, so that in Christ we may grow up as the greatest of all shrubs.
 
Here the world begins anew and in the face of such forcefulness of life everything old simply must pass away. Those in Christ become the site of the new creation, our life together signifying the urgent welling up of the new. From this moment of death and resurrection, this ever-present moment of new creation, we begin our work.
 
For as the parable suggests, we are sown upon the ground, buried in the soil that is Christ, so that in Christ we may grow up as the greatest of all shrubs and put forth large branches so that the birds of the air can make nests in the shade.
 
 
I was reading a discussion asking what is the greatest line in a Christian hymn. And before I reveal the emphatic favourite of those involved, does anyone want to shout out their vote? Any all-time favourite lyrics? My vote might have been for I trace the rainbow through the rain, and trust the promise is not vain (which we sung yesterday at Dorothy’s funeral), or Pleased as man with man to dwell (from Hark the Herald). But in this discussion, the overwhelming favourite was Julia Ward Howe’s line from “Battle Hymn of the Republic”: As he died to make men holy, let us die to make men free.[1]
 
I bring up this lyric, because it captures so well the movement of this section of 2 Corinthians and the theme of the sermon so far. That Christ died to make humanity holy (a new creation reconciled to God), we ought now die - or at least live - to make others free (by taking up the ministry of reconciliation and become the righteousness/justice of God). The lyric captures how, on becoming aware of what Christ has achieved for us, we are commissioned to seek the material benefit of our neighbour. Having died with Christ we live no longer for ourselves but for him who died and was raised for us (now found in the least of these struggling for freedom, connection, dignity, and survival).     
 
Christ’s reconciling act ushers in the new creation, and everything old passes away, and see everything becomes new. Now, it takes little to realise this passing away and becoming, while having occurred at a cosmic/spiritual level, has clearly not been completed in the flesh. We are thus called to live as new creations within the passing away and becoming; as if the old is truly vanquished and the new vibrantly present. This is not easy, for we live in a society that still regularly teaches us to regard one another from a human point of view. A point of view held captive by worldly judgments, prejudices, stereotypes, and fears.
 
Therefore, to live as a new creation often involves standing against the grain, pursuing God’s righteousness and human dignity in the face of worldly norms and expectations. It means pointing bravely to the new, which heralds justice and freedom. This may bring scorn and derision, and thus we have Christ with us and the Church beside us. For the church ought to be that communion of saints who have likewise discerned that as Christ has died to make us holy we live to make others free, who have likewise discerned that he who knew no sin, became sin so that we might become the righteousness of God, who have likewise discerned that the kingdom of God is such that even the small seeds of justice may sprout like the mightiest of shrubs and offer shelter for many.
 
 
Before Julia Ward Howe composed lyrics for the Battle Hymn of the Republic, the tune was known as John Brown’s Song. The song was inspired by the radical abolitionist John Brown, a passionate Christian who believed ardently that God had called him to oppose and dismantle the system of slavery in the US. This, unsurprisingly, was a deeply unpopular opinion within white America, and one which required him to stand against church and government. But John Brown took the call of the gospel seriously, and fought for other’s freedom even to his death (Brown was hanged for treason for inciting a slave insurrection in Virginia). Julia Ward Howe hemmed close to the mythos of the John Brown Song in her own lyrics and one can imagine few who took as seriously the cry, As he died to make men holy, let us die to make men free as did John Brown.
 
John Brown and his rebellion were unsuccessful, but his efforts, along with other abolitionists, and enslaved and freed Black Americans were planted into soil. These small seeds of a movement, in a society stridently committed to regarding others by a human point of view, grew into a mighty shrub that procured the end of slavery.
 
The struggles in which we are engaged differ from times such as Brown’s. And yet, we are no less called to the work of freedom, no less commissioned into the ministry of reconciliation, no less equipped to point to the new thing God is doing, and no less made to become the righteousness of God. For the love of Christ urges us on, reminding us that we no longer live for ourselves but are called to make visible the life of Jesus on our mortal flesh, pursuing reconciliation and righteousness in such a way that our words and actions might grow in the soil of Christ and the church into the greatest of all shrubs.    
 
So if anyone is in Christ, new creation! Everything old has passed away; see everything has become new! Now, as he died to make us holy, let us live to make others free.

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[1] This, like my choice from Hark, are lyrics of such compact intensity that despite their gendered quality are so difficult to find equally impactful gender expansive re-revisions (which is important and vital work). “Please with humankind to dwell” doesn’t have quite the same poeticism, at least in my opinion. We need a better one-syllable gender neutral term to take the place of men/man which captures the expansiveness and fluidity of human gender without disrupting the metre.