Saturday 25th June 2011
James began his talk in typical style by creating for us one of his helpful metaphors for the event which was Christ. He asked us to imagine a smug, self-satisfied potentate; the ruler of some fictitious Star Wars type planet. This ruler has been dispensing justice according to rules which were established many years ago. Gradually, a speck appears in the sky which is noticed by the people of the planet. The speck gets bigger and, eventually, it becomes clear that this is an approaching star which is on collision-course. The people know that the approaching star will change everything but the potentate, though worried, continues to dispense his justice according to the old laws. As the approaching star passes, the people realise that the course of their own planet has been irrevocably altered. The potentate has been wrong all this time: he failed to see the fact that their previous course would have led them to a ‘black hole’ of annihilation.
James’ metaphor suggests, in graphic terms, the impact of God’s bursting forth upon the world in the shape of Jesus Christ who comes to overturn the established way of looking at the world – a world shaped by laws which condemn and which convict us of sin. James continued by offering us the idea that sin is not only that from which we can be forgiven, but also that from which we are being forgiven. He drew comparisons between Catholic culture and Puritan culture, suggesting that Puritan culture oscillates between Nice but Naughty, and Boring.
Original sin, James maintained, is the ‘out-of-kilter’ starting point for all human beings. We are being drawn from our unstable, out-of-kilter starting place into the exciting train of the new star passing by. We were being sucked into a black hole (original sin), but Jesus promises us the Spirit who will break the power of cancelled sin and set us free.
But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. When he comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment: 9about sin, because people do not believe in me; about righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; and about judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned.
John 16:7-11 New International Version (NIV)
We were wrong about sin, about judgement, about righteousness but it is a radical step forward and Jesus informs us:
I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear.
John 16:12 New International Version (NIV)
The promise of the Holy Spirit is a growing awareness of the extent of our error concerning sin: we need to understand how to accept forgiveness and the new life which follows from this understanding. We don’t need to worry about ‘getting it right’ – God wants us as we are, “As I love you.”
James further suggested that sin is the resistance to being creative and that this resistance always culminates in the search for goodness. The search for goodness stifles the creative drive. We must undo the patterns of desire for goodness: they will be fruitless. The real problem, however, is false goodness. We grab at false goodness, instead of allowing goodness to be created in us. When we allow this creative process, we can relax (“you cannot bear it yet”), but the struggle for goodness stifles our enjoyment of the real goodness, flowing from the Love of God. The call to be creative requires a step away from the comfort which is provided by rules which condemn us as sinners. Original sin is the resistance to being created; to the real danger of being creative. So, how should we deal with this discomfort?
Referring specifically to the LGBT audience, James repeated his helpful description of Gay people: we are a regularly-occurring, non-pathological, minority variant within the human condition. We want to love and that love is a configuration of desire. We do not know what shape this will take since all previous ideologies of what is ‘natural’ are collapsing. “The shape of the humanising of desire” (Pope Benedict) is emerging….can we stay long enough to see what comes?
Finally, James offered a view of those virtues by means of which our fear of openness to The Spirit and His transforming power might be reduced.
By Faith: a belief in God’s love for us – not falling back into the ‘goodness-drive’ – eschewing boundaries and limits. God believes in us so that we may believe in Him.
By Hope: living in the tension of the ‘not yet’. Allowing God to build in us – not getting scared of the uncertainty of life.
By Love: because God loves me I do not need to seek approval of others.
Self control – as identified by St Paul as one of the fruits of the Spirit – is simply that ability to regain control of our true selves once we have set ourselves free from compulsions.
for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.
2 Timothy 1:7
James urged us to avoid the temptation to regard people now as what they are (homophobic). What they can become is the far more exciting and creative option. Unlike Islam and Judaism, Christianity doesn’t see law as the main structure; it’s a help, but Jesus the victim of the law puts us beyond that. We should not presuppose God as essentially a Lawgiver; we are loved and forgiven.
Compiled from notes taken at the conference by Nicholas Coulton and Michael Donovan
For more about James Alison visit jamesalison.co.uk
