First Sunday of Creation Time

Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple.

Well at first sight, that’s certainly me ruled out of discipleship and I would guess the majority of you as well. But if we are not disciples of Jesus, then I’m not sure who qualifies. So let’s try to unpick what’s going on here. Hate is such a strong word, I think perhaps particularly in our contemporary context, that, if we’re not careful, we get stuck there. We might not often feel hatred ourselves, but we see examples day by day on our media of the consequences of hatred. We see people being encouraged by others to express negative sentiments, to de-humanise others. Is that really what Jesus meant? My guess is that hate is one of those words whose useage in common parlance has changed over the years. One of those words that has taken on a much wider meaning than it originally had. The Aramaic and Hebrew words that were probably translated as hate actually mean ‘to not prefer’. That brings a totally different perspective and perhaps allows us to think much more widely about what is being said here.

One translation I read suggested that the text was really trying to say something like: they must love and respect me above their fathers and mothers, wives and children, and so on. So, to be a disciple we are asked to put our connection and relationship with the Divine first, put it before, even, our relationships with the people who we are closest to. That’s a far cry from being asked to hate people, with all the baggage that comes with that sentiment.

Rather than thinking about how we might not prefer our human family, might not prioritise our own life even, let’s think for a moment about what it might mean to actively prefer God in the form of Jesus Christ; what it would take for us to turn at least some of our attention away from our human relationships and towards our spiritual relationships.

What’s important about reading the command this way round is that we are being asked to do something positive and life giving. Something that helps us to grow and journey in faith. Something that doesn’t have a negative impact on anyone else. And that feels important.
Throughout the Gospels, we are reminded that we are all God’s people; that we all have value; that we are all to be treated with dignity and respect. Hatred certainly doesn’t nurture those principles. Preference does.

Let’s just go back to that verse that we started with. I suspect if it had said that we were to hate anonymous people who treat us badly; to hate those who we perceive to live self-centred lives; to hate those who appear to worship false gods, we would find it easier to read and perhaps to consider. But we’re not talking about some anonymous group of people who we may or may not ever meet, we’re talking about family. And family, in whatever form, is usually pretty important for us. The people we call family may be biological family; they may be the people who brought us up; they may be a group of people we connect with who offer us the unconditional care and love that we imagine comes from our families. Being loved regardless of who or how we are; being loved in spite of our flaws and our weaknesses is something important, something that gives us life.

However we define family, it says something about belonging. Something about being more than the sum of our unique DNA. Something about past and present and future. Something about rootedness, about deep connections. That rootedness is something that can sometimes take us by surprise. The connection we discover back to the land of our ancestors. The preference for foods that we discover were a part of our cultural heritage. The safety we feel when we are part of a group where people look or speak or think like us.

But we are more than just the product of our heritage. We are more than that cluster of cells that defines how we look and what colour hair we have. We are formed and shaped by our experiences as we journey through life. We are formed, and like Jeremiah’s pots, re-formed as life impacts on us and as we learn to live in more God centred ways.

We are re-formed as our interests and priorities change, as we understand more of what it means to be disciples, to carry our cross, to make the choices that prioritise our relationship with God over all others.
This week is the beginning of Creation Time, a time of year when we are asked to turn our focus to the gift of our created world, to turn our focus to our responsibility for that world. And in doing so, we can quickly find ourselves not, perhaps, in a place of hatred but certainly in a place of anger. Anger with those big corporations that appear to have no concern for their impact on the planet. Anger with climate change deniers who don’t see the evidence that is before them. Anger with governments that appear to be very cautious in their ambition. But what if we apply the same principles we were exploring a moment ago to this. What if rather than looking at the negatives we were to find ways to celebrate the positives. To celebrate the progress we’ve made with re-use and recycling. To celebrate the new technologies that are coming on stream. To celebrate the opportunities that changes in our lifestyles might present. How would that impact on how we feel? On how we go about our daily business? On how we respond to people around us. Angry people are, on the whole, not great to be around. People who find the positives, even those whom we think might be a little naïve, are usually inspiring to be around.
If we are to take seriously the message of this morning’s Gospel, then we are being asked to put the things of God first. Yes, our relationship with God and our commitment to discipleship. But that means nothing if it doesn’t translate into action, if it doesn’t impact on the choices we make and the things we prioritise. I would suggest that there is nothing more crucial for us as a race than the responsibility we have for our planet. Whatever else we are concerned about, and in many situations quite rightly concerned, none of it will matter if we continue to journey towards the destruction of our planet. There was a political slogan not so long ago that said: the time is now. The time really is now. I don’t need to spell out the evidence.

As we hear the call to love and respect God above all others, so we have a responsibility to hear the call to love and respect all that God has gifted to us. All that we, and only we, can protect and preserve.