To be perfectly frank
A lot of life is about how we address one another. The Yorkshire, “to be perfectly frank” is a pitch for truthfulness. But perfection? Surely not. A friend’s “Now how can I say it?” is to avoid being misunderstood. The person-to-person meeting in any form – direct, on the phone – “our call is important to you”, through writing, e-mail, Twitter, Facebook or in a crowd has important timbres, because people are meeting.
Churches have complex, and rich, styles of mutual address. We greet, welcome, hug the peace, exhort, preach, crawl in repentance, avoid offence, pontificate (not just a catholic word), confess, share, chat, give testimony, admonish. Because churches are one of the last direct communal gatherings not shaped by money, they reflect deep interpersonal relationships involving personal crisis, joy, marriage, birth and death, value, faith and love. Most of the people who slag off churches just have not gone.
Churches are followers of Jesus Christ, and every Christian is therefore deeply involved with the interpersonal modes of address of Jesus. Here we enter a set of challenges for all of us as deep as life itself.
God is no respecter of persons and Jesus treats leper and High Priest as more than equal. He respects every choice, even that of Judas. He asks questions that probe to the soul. The bruised reed he does not break; the broken Peter disowning Christ to save his skin receives counselling and restoration after the resurrection. He celebrates with Mary, after Lazarus is restored with her, in a haze of perfume, with the couple at Cana in lavish wine. He teaches idiots, whom we all are, patiently. He forgives, empowers, heals, restores and loves. He always has time. He is the man for all seasons.
Though he teaches about himself, it is not about himself, even on the road to Emmaus, but about us, so that through friendship with Christ we can know God. All of this dwells in churches to our good.
Jesus is also perfectly frank. This is not to suggest (as some would) that he came from Yorkshire, but he has a mode of address that is direct and may be deemed rude in polite society. It does not require much thought to see that polite society, then and now, might be the problem, not Jesus. He is invited by a Pharisee to a meal and commends the prostitute’s weeping gratitude against his host’s failure to recognize his own need for forgiveness. He goes before Herod Antipas during his trial and ignores his judge. Herod is a “fox” and under judgement, even though he rules. Jesus does not allow an iota of flattery.
“Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” This man seems to be asking exactly the right question, because Jesus alone is good, but No. “Why do you call me good? No one is good – except God alone.”
This man, a rich ruler, does not properly understand who Jesus is, and his statement is therefore false as he says it. There is no small talk.
This directness is principal. It is against power and those who would control the lives of others. It is disarming, not in the “a soft answer turns away wrath” sense, but it insists that the mighty will be brought low. Lazarus, not the rich man, is in God’s Kingdom. Woe to those who put burdens on others. Woe to those who claim status and self-righteousness. Woe to you, hypocrites, who close out people from God. Woe to you who use the temple system to heap up your wealth. Woe to you who swallow evil, but spit out incidentals. You whitewashed tombs – dead inside but respectable outside. You snakes, vipers, who go along with persecuting, killing wise and true people so that your evil may flourish.
This is confrontation. This is the same gentle Jesus, meek and mild. It is perfect frankness. It clears out bunkum, as the moneychangers were cleared from the Temple. It is true. It kills all dissimulation. It is the Spirit of truth speaking to and with us.
We are mere followers of Jesus. We have no authority of our own. But we are followers of Jesus. We are not called to be mealy mouthed. Supremely in the Gospel a spade is a spade because it has to be Good News for everybody. When Cameron says, at a 10 Downing Street Easter reception, “The Bible tells us to bear one another’s burdens. After the day I’ve had, I’m definitely looking for volunteers” he has not got the point.
When people assert that their work is worth a hundred times another person’s pay, they are economically illiterate, and the parable of the workers in the vineyard counters their unwarranted belief. The Church has also to be God’s frank people.