Benedictine Reflections: Obedience

It is fortunate that this Sunday's propers seem to fit my reflections on Benedictine principles... or perhaps it is providence! I make no apology for combining my sermon with my blogging.

Sermon for the Third Sunday after Trinity

Submit?

That's not a very twenty-first century word. Indeed, we seem to have spent the last Century overthrowing regimes that demand our submission. we have seen Czars and Dictators toppled within the living memory of those who are now in treble figures. We have seen women throw of the shackles for the kitchen sink, seize the right to vote and, lately, protest against the dehumanising treatment of the unwelcome advances of certain powerful men. Submission is something that goes against human dignity, is it not?

And yet...

St Peter says, "ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble."

And famously, St Paul says, "Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord."

He also says, "Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God : the powers that be are ordained of God."

You can understand why Christianity has been seen as being backward looking, can't you? Karl Marx calls religion the opium of the people because it prevents the oppressed from wresting control from the fat cats.

How do we obey God and still allow wives to be equal partners in a marriage?
How do we submit to governments as ordained by God when they are corrupt?

[PAUSE]

The trouble is that we are so politically minded. We see obedience as a form of slavery. Too much we have the history of revolutions in mind where the oppressed finally rise up and conquer the oppressor. This struggle is always in our mind. We want to fight for the oppressed to go free. We are obsessed with privilege: those who are privileged must be made silent so that the underprivileged may rise up.

The question is, "who are the oppressors?"

Governments come and go. Regimes change. Revolutions happen. And yet, there is always oppression. There is always an unjust imbalance of power where the underclass are always reviled by a small minority of those in charge. The Lord Himself says, "ye have the poor always with you; but Me ye have not always."

And that's the point.

[PAUSE]

There is only one King, only one God, only one Whose justice matters. It is God who judges whether a government or power is just or unjust. We can only discern who is truly oppressed by seeing who is being deprived of the freedom to become the person that God wants them to be. It is to God that we must be obedient.

And this means submitting to other people in love.

When a wife submits to her husband, she does so trusting that her husband will support her, will her good and make her happy. She trusts her husband not to dehumanise her or treat her as his property but rather treat her as part of his very self. God made male and female not one to dominate the other, but the one to cherish and love the other, the more powerful to protect the weaker, the more capable to support the other, and both to bear children bringing them up in the fear of God. Take out the politics, and St Paul's teaching for a wife to submit to her husband becomes a statement of true love.

Likewise, we obey those set in authority over us because as Our Lord says to Pontius Pilate, "Thou couldest have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above: therefore he that delivered me unto thee hath the greater sin."

Does this mean that Christians cannot revolt against an unjust government?

No. If the government is clearly unjust, then the Christian must seek the most moral path to resist based entirely on love for God and love for neighbour. We must be ready to die for what we believe - not ready to kill for what we believe.

[PAUSE]

The Benedictine Monk promises his obedience to the community. In so doing he ensures that he is completely committed to the good of the community to the whole. Just as a husband and wife make vows of undying commitment to each other likewise, the monk commits himself in trust to the community. It is possible that the community may mistreat him or even - God forbid! - abuse him, but it is also possible that the community will support him, build him up and bring him fully to a greater, deeper relationship with God. He will not know unless he is prepared to trust and keep trusting through thick and thin.

Likewise, the Christian is bound to be obedient in all things lawful and honest to the Bishop. Again this is an obedience in love, setting aside one's pride so that the Church can flourish and become a place in which those wounded by sin may find support and recovery in the Hospital of Souls. If we are asked to do something we do not want to do that is lawful and honest, we have to swallow our pride without complaint, even complaint within ourselves, and just do it.

In seeing the authority of love in each other, in learning to trust each other, in putting away our pride, we bind ourselves to each other more closely, and we bind ourselves more closely to Christ Himself to Whom we must be truly obedient if we want Him as our King!