Responding to the Immigration Riots: You are what you eat

 Reading: John 6.35, 41-51

You are what eat – or so the saying goes.  Which if it’s true means that I am rapidly turning into a Greggs sausage roll, with a light frosting of white chocolate, hydrated by a delicious room temperature ale.

 ‘You are what you eat’ is supposed to encourage us to eat healthily, such as fruit, vegetables, something called couscous and other such things that I understand might be available to the general population.  Can’t say I’ve ever tried any.  But the idea is that if you eat healthily, your body will be healthy.  Well, my friends, I may not know much about healthy eating for the body, but I can tell you a little about healthy eating for the mind, and for the soul. 

When Jesus says that he is the bread of life – he’s inviting us to feed on his teachings, and on his wisdom.  It’s important that we understand this.  Too many Christians think that feeding on Jesus means making some kind of woo-woo spiritual connection with him, or stating their faith in certain theological statements about him.  Recently, we’ve experienced the shocking horror of people who claim to be Christians, and to be defending Christian Britain, terrorising their neighbours.

And of course, both kinds of people miss the point entirely.  Let’s look together at what Jesus himself says, from this morning’s Gospel reading (John 6.35,41-51).  Take a look at the middle of the reading, and start with the line ‘It is written in the prophets….(verse 45):

It is written in the prophets, “And they shall all be taught by God”.  Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me.  Not that anyone has seen the Father, except the one who is from God; he has seen the Father. Very truly, I tell you, whoever believes has eternal life”.

Can you see what Jesus is driving at?  In answer to incredulous complaints from the Jews about his claim to be bread from heaven, Jesus points his listeners to necessity of learning from him, about God.  He reminds them of the Hebrew Bible’s promise that the people shall be taught by God…and here he is, God’s own Son, standing among them to teach them.  This is a theme taken up by other passages of Scripture, too, notably Matthew.  He records Jesus saying, “take my yoke upon you, and learn from me” (Matthew Chapter 11).  In Jesus time, students of a rabbi would take on their master’s yoke.  It was a metaphor – like being yoked to a plough, a student would yoke themselves to their Master’s teaching. 

We might then ask what does Jesus mean when he says ‘whoever believes has eternal life’?  Well, to answer that, we need to do a little Greek scholarship.  The word for ‘belief’, in Greek, is pisteuōn – which most Bible translators have rendered as ‘believe’.  But it can equally be rendered as ‘to trust’ or ‘to put one’s trust in’ someone or something.  The fact that many translators choose the word ‘belief’ says more about their own theology than it does the plain reading of the text in its context.  Jesus says this word, pisteuon, with his promise of eternal life, at the very end of his teaching about the necessity of being taught by God.  Do you get it?  Jesus is saying – learn from me, take my teachings seriously, trust in them – and you will have life that goes on for ever.  He saying, ‘I don’t want you to believe things about me – however clever the religious teachers are.  No…I want you to follow me, learn my teachings, and walk my path.

Which is why I get so frustrated – no, angry – when I see far right thugs misappropriating the word Christian either for themselves, or for their country.  Being a Christian has nothing to do with waving the flag of St George.  It certainly has nothing to do with beating up refugees, and setting fire to their hotels.  No-one who does such things has the right to use the term Christian.   

A Christian is the one who has taken the rabbi’s yoke upon their shoulders.  The Christian has heard, and learned, and applied the life-giving words of God, from the mouth of his Son.  The Christian is the one who has taken seriously the command to give away their spare tunic to the poor.  The Christian is the one who has not piled up excess wealth, and who does not dine on the finest food in their gilded palace while their brothers and sisters starve.  The Christian is the one who takes Jesus seriously when he says that the peacemakers are the blessed ones.

Crucially, for the recent events in our country, the Christian is the one who instinctively knows that the parable of the Good Samaritan is meant to teach us hospitality and care for all our neighbours.  By using the example of a Samaritan, Jesus leaves us in no doubt – he actively and deliberately means that we must care for our foreign neighbours.  Jesus builds on the Hebrew Bible, which has (by my count) nine specific teachings and commands from God about the way we should treat strangers and ‘aliens’.  Here’s just a selection:

“You shall also love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.” (Deuteronomy 10:19)

“The alien who resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among you; you shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.”  (Leviticus 19:34)

“Cursed is anyone who withholds justice from the foreigner…’  (Deuteronomy 27:19)

The Lord watches over the strangers; he upholds the orphan and the widow, but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin.  (Psalm 146:9)

For if you truly amend your ways and your doings, …if you do not oppress the alien…or shed innocent blood in this place…then I will dwell with you in this place. (Jeremiah 7:5-7 - edited)

You shall allot [land] as an inheritance for yourselves and for the aliens who reside among you and have begotten children among you. (Ezekiel 47:22)

Thus says the Lord of hosts…do not oppress the widow, the orphan, the alien, or the poor. (Zechariah 7:9-10 – edited)

Now, of course, I realise that translating these principles – this heavenly teaching - into policy is not easy to do.  I understand, of course, the pressures of excess migration on our housing and healthcare.  (And I could go on at some length about the policy choices which have led us to that point).  But I absolutely refute, deny, and will vigorously oppose anyone who claims to be Christian while calling for any treatment of others which is less than the treatment we ourselves would want and expect.  After all, what is the second of the great commandment, the second great command of our divine teacher and Lord, the one whose yoke we wear?  Love your neighbour as you love yourself! 

You are what you eat.  Feed on the word of Jesus Christ, and you will have life, and have it abundantly.  Amen