Settling for lesser laws

Sermon for the fifteenth Sunday after Trinity

Do you feel part of the Church? Do you feel part of Society? Can you be part of both?

The relationship between the Church and the secular world has been very rocky and it is perhaps not surprising that many people who say that they feel part of the Church feel marginalised or even outcasts from Society.

In Australia, one state is passing a law to try and force priests to report any instances of child abuse mentioned to them in the confessional.

Members of the Church are appalled.

Victims of abuse are relieved.

What do you think?

[PAUSE]

In many ways the government of this Australian state are trying hard to protect the vulnerable and so we should not blame their intentions.

Indeed, were certain priests following their calling and not their sinful ways, were certain bishops better at dealing with abusive priests, were certain establishments more willing to engage with the problem than sweep it under the carpet, the need for this law would not be necessary. 

However understandable this new law may be, it is not right. The seal of the Confessional must not be violated. Those who do so leave the Church completely and cut themselves off from God.

We have a choice: God's law or secular law.

[PAUSE]

St Paul is quite clear on the solution to this.

"walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour. But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints; Neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient: but rather giving of thanks."

The Church has been given higher standards than the world. These standards tell us about God and what He is like. They tell us how we must behave in order to live out the life of Christ.

It is not illegal to commit adultery, but it is contrary to Christian living. Stealing is illegal but if we follow the commandment not to envy one another, we are less inclined to steal. The less we engage in filthy talk the less we will destroy the reputation of our neighbour.

The more we commit to the standards of Christian living the more irrelevant the laws of society become for us because we are committed to following God and not Man. Following God will usually mean obeying secular law and will always benefit Society. Where the law of God differs from the law of Man, we follow the former and take the consequences willingly as a sacrifice to God.

[PAUSE]

Of course we are not perfect. We have to accept the consequences of our sin, but the Church also believes in forgiveness. Forgiveness is the way we accept people back into the Church when they fall from God. Forgiveness is the way that the Church demonstrates its belief that human beings can be transformed into the likeness of God. The standards of Christian living do not change but human beings have to grow.

What must not happen is that the Church adopt the standards of the world. The standards of the world are motivated by power, pleasure and greed. The standard of the Church is Love and nothing less. Where members of the Church have followed Society as in the cases of slave trading, divorcing spouses or engaging in sexual immorality, that is where the Church is damaged in the eyes of the world. It is where St Paul's warning demonstrates its force.

[PAUSE]

The world will never love the Church and we must accept this. The moment that we prefer lower standards, the further we distance ourselves from God. The more we decline to forgive the more we will in turn be denied forgiveness.

We are the Church destined for a transformed world as people transformed into the likeness of God. Why settle for anything less?