Love’s Obedience 24-12-2017

Love’s Obedience.

Romans 16: 25 – 27; Luke 1: 26 – 38

Obedience is the fruit of faith; love the bloom on the fruit.

I want to talk about obedience today. There is the story of Charlie and his teacher. His teacher said to Charlie. ‘This is the fifth time this week that I have had to punish you. What have you to say for yourself?’   Charlie replied timidly, ‘I’m glad it’s Friday?’

There is wisdom in children, as we know.  Three-year-old Bobby insisted on standing up in his highchair although his mother had reprimanded him to stay seated. She did this twice reseating him. After the third time, little Bobbie remained seated but looked at his mother and said, ‘Mummy, I’m still standing up inside.’

Yes, there is coerced obedience, which lasts as long as the power of coercion lasts. Then there is the obedience that is true and remains so even in the face of great threat: indeed in the face of the ultimate threat. That’s a special kind of obedience. Then there is the shallow obedience that is given to social conventions, traditions or cultural habits. This obedience is given with little thought and no commitment. Then there is the obedience that is based on that erroneous view that God requires us to obey religious and secular authorities.  I wish to focus on an obedience that emerges out of a deep faith and love.

 

In 1940 the order had gone out that incurables and the insane were no longer to be a burden on the Reich. Three high officials descended upon the Bethel institution (a huge hospital for epileptics and the mentally ill).  ‘Herr Pastor ‘, they said, ‘the Fuehrer has decided that all these people must be gassed.”  Pastor Friedrich von Bodelschwingh, Junior, looked at them calmly and said; ‘You can put me into a concentration camp if you want; that is your affair. But as long as I am free, you do not touch one of my patients. I cannot change to fit the times or the wishes of the Fuehrer. I stand under orders from our Lord Jesus Christ.’  In checking this story I came across this note: According to the noted psychiatrist Karl Stern‘s memoir, The Pillar of Fire (page 119), “There was a famous Lutheran pastor, Bodelschwingh, who built up a huge colony of feeble-minded, idiots and epileptics in Bethel in Western Germany. During the war, when the Nazis carried out the slaughter of all mental patients, Pastor Bodelschwingh insisted that he would be killed together with his inmates. It was only on the basis of his international fame that the politicians let him get away with it, and let him and the inmates of his colony live. This was a kind of last-ditch stand of Christianity.”  In another reference it was the high esteem with which general public had of Pastor von Bodelschwingh and his family that caused politicians to re-consider the decision to kill the clients of the Bethel institute. 

Pastor Von Bodelschwingh stood in the tradition of countless Christians who faced death with courage for their faith and obedience to Christ Jesus. The pastor stood in that long line of tradition that began with Peter and John before the Sandhedrin when they chose to obey God rather than the religious authorities [Acts 4: 19f]. 

I would add that the young Mary, the mother to be of Jesus, also had such faith that led to her obedience. Whatever we may think of the story of the Virgin birth of Jesus – a mystery it is – we cannot dismiss the faith and obedience of Mary, and Joseph.  Mary stands out.  Scholars – some with blind belief others blinded by cynicism have critically examined the story of Jesus of Nazareth’s birth. I do not want re-visit those discussions. I not sure that such scholarly discussion finally help us in our faith journey. The story of Mary tells us some core truths.  The story tells us that Jesus was fully human; that Jesus’s birth was the work of God; and, that Mary was a faithful and obedient person.  Whatever the precise circumstances are we have a young woman, namely a virgin, who is pregnant with child before her marriage. There is something courageous in this woman who accepts her lot. There is much faith in this young woman who senses the divine has touched her life in a very special way.  Her response is an obedient response.  It is an obedience born out of a faith in God and a love for God. Mary responds positively to the task that lies ahead.  I think Mary’s obedience to God is what the final doxology of the letter to the Romans means when it says, to bring about the obedience of faith to the only wise God, through Jesus Christ, [Rom 16:26]

It is a strange thought that faith demands obedience to God. Let pause to unpack this thought for a moment. At the first level this concept, the obedience of faith, means that what we believe determines our decisions. What we believe is what we value. The beliefs and values we hold will shape our decision making process. If we believe that a polite society is of great importance it will shape our decisions and responses.  If we believe truth is of great importance that will shape how we respond to life situations. If our faith is in Divine Transcendence, then that belief will shape our decisions. 

Firstly, we must say that obedience is the fruit of faith. It is faith in God, who is the beginning and end of all things, who we believe in and therefore whom we obey. This is a higher obedience because there is a higher being who holds our life. Whether we call this transcendence, God or Christ or Life, it is that which transcends all else. To disobey goes against our very being.  That is why Pastor von Bobelschwingh and countless men and women have stood true to God rather than compromise their belief and enter the darkness of unfaith. 

Secondly, obedience is motivated by love. It is what we love and whom we love that will gain our true obedience. Think about it. Why are we surprised that we live in a society that has become so self-centred. It is not that self-centredness hasn’t been there before. My view is that we are a more self-serving society because we have raised a few generations of children with the view that they are most important and have rights. Their responsibilities to others has come a long second. We have provided them with increasing amounts of gifts and benefits, which have fed an expectation that this is their entitlement. Entitled people will behave differently to people who have imbibed a sense of community and responsibility, and learnt to value service to others. What and whom we love is so important to shaping our decisions and forming our ethics. 

Our obedience to God arises not only from our faith in God but our experience of God’s love. We are loved. We are loving people. Obedience to those we love is joyful.  It is not a burden to obey whom we love. 

Jesus said; ‘If you love me you will obey my commandments’.  So as much as faith produces obedience, love inspires obedience.  Obedience to God is an expression of our love for God.

For the Pastor to stand against the evil in the Nazi party was courageous, yes, but it was inevitable. It was the inevitable response because of his faith, beliefs, values and love of God. Although he loved his country his love of God determined his ultimate decision. 

Mary is like this too.  Mary the faithful Jewess loved God. The awesome responsibility of bearing God’s special child was great. With a smattering of historical knowledge she would have known that God’s great leaders always suffered much and lived lives filled with danger. Whether she understood this or even could articulate this, she would have intuitively understood that to bare God’s Son was to carry a great responsibility. Her faith and love led to her obedient response.

*******

Peter C Whitaker, Leighmoor UC:  24/12/2017

pcwhitaker@icloud.com

 / www.leighmoorunitingchurch.org.au