Good Old George = George Lansbury a modern prophet!

Just before I left Bideford at the final meeting I was able to attend of North Devon Anti Cuts Alliance I was given a book by my good friends Doug and Jim Lowe entitled Good Old George which is Bob Holman's biography of George Lansbury.

There is a story behind this choice of book. At a “Tough Choices” meeting in Bideford organised by Devon County Council as an act of seeking to create the illusion that the cuts the council ruling group had decided on had public support I had been one of a number of protestors. That night I had a real go at County Council leader John Hart quoting Magnificat to him and telling him to get of his knees and fight for the people of Devon like a real man. I also reminded him of councillors in Poplar led by George Lansbury who in 1921 had in defending their people gone to jail uttering the slogan “Better to break the law than break the poor!” Jim has told me since that such was the fury of my onslaught that he thought I was going to hit Councillor Hart – it has to be added the thought of doing so had not occurred to me!

Jim and Doug did however know that I was fascinated by Lansbury who was 100% Christian and 100% socialist.

So how has the book impacted on me?

Firstly I found myself drawn to the very ordinariness of Lansbury. His background as the son of a timekeeper in a firm of railwat contractors in Suffolk was solidly working class. Unlike many of today's politicians he never lost touch with his roots. His political career was very much based on a conviction that the people amongst whom he grew up deserved justice. Indeed while he went on to represent the people of East London where he lived subsequent to an ill feted spell in Australia he remained very much a man of the people with a home that was open to people in need in a way that one cannot imagine being the case with today's politicians. No wonder children called him “Good Old George.”

At a young age Lansbury became a Christian and whilst he drifted away from the church for a period of time in his younger days, the teachings of Christ held great influence over him. Examples of this are his passion to combat poverty which led him to be a Poor Law Commissioner at a young age where his actions significantly improved the wellbeing of residents in the local workhouse and which later fired him as Labour leader in the 1930s when a National Government was permitting mass unemployment with its attendant sufferings. His commitment and passion is that which we need from today's opposition leaders! In between as as leader of Poplar Councillors in 1921 he was imprisoned for defending the interests of some of the poorest people in the country – hence the slogan “Better to break the law than break the poor!”

The same Christian influence made him an inveterate opponent of war. Whilst in recent years the Labour Party has been led by a man who cajoled them into supporting an illegal war sold on false premises, Lansbury heroically and at some cost in terms of being physically attacked, opposed the slaughter that was the First world War. He believed that Christ tells us in word and example that to kill is wrong. This commitment to non violence would eventually be destructive in terms of his leadership of the Labour Party. He knew that faced with the radical evil that is Nazism his principles would be unnacceptable to the party he was so committed to. He was willing to step down but persuaded not to do so until Bevin administered the final and ruthless coup de grace. He carried on making efforts to avert a war but was to sadly die early in the Second World War.

What can one say about this? In a way he was unlucky to lead the Labour Party at a time when the most radically evil force in modern history was threatening all that was decent. Many said that on the peace matter he was not practical but his opposition to the First World War had been practical and if heeded might have saved the world from the horrors not just of 1914-18 but also 1939-45. Still in a world today when so much of politics is conducted by “dessicated calculating machine” type politicians playing a game I find something very attractive about a man who demonstrated deep principles rooted in Christ. Certainly a question that comes from studying Lansbury is how one handles seeming contradictions between real politics and faith. In the case of war Lansbury himself is aware that pacifism has its costs and needs to be conducted with bravery. Yet who can say that war is without cost and often contributes to a continuation of the cycle of violence and destruction.

Lansbury stands out on other issues as well. He was a supporter of womens' suffrage at a time when many in the labour movement regarded it as a side issue. Lansbury even resigned his Parliamentary seat over the issue to fight a by election which he lost. Another example it might be said of principle winning out over political judgement. Equally he stood firm in a conviction regarding the advantages of total abstinence. It is likely that this concern regarding alcohol came from having a father who drank rather too much. The later George Thomas who was later to be Speaker of the House of commons recalled with thanksgiving a visit by Lansbury to his constituency to speak against the demon drink which both men felt had destructive effects on many families.

Of course Lansbury made political misjudgements. Yet I see him as an inspirational follower of Jesus. His life reminds us of the twin gospel imperatives of being in solidarity with the poor and opposing the very principle of war. These stances built on Jesus are stances that Christians and Socialists today would do well to emulate. Every time I read more than a page or two of scriptures I come to the conclusion that to neglect these emphases is inconsistent with being follower as opposed to fans of Jesus.

In the next few weeks I will re read the book with more care than I managed on my first reading. I want to reconnect with the vision of a man whose politics were of the greatest nobility. But then as a follower of Jesus I know that for me discipleship means being in solidarity with the poor and being an inveterate enemy of war even if such a path is countercultural.

God's honouring - A non lectionary sermon based on matt 5: 1-12

And so today we come to those beatitudes spoken by Jesus with which Matthew begins the Sermon on the Mount. As a means of wisdom beatitudes were hardly unknown at the time of Jesus. Normally they were commonsense sayings which reflected the widely held wisdom of the day. But spoken from the mouth of Jesus they stun us with their audacity for they turn norms upside down. They herald a view of the world that is in essence counter cultural then and indeed now.

But before we go any further we need to pause and look at the word “blessed.” Some translations use the Greek word “makarios” differently. The Good News Bible which has many merits translates it as “happy” which seems a tad trite when talking for example of the poor or those who mourn. It does not work. A French translation of the Jerusalem bible translates it as “debonair” which stretches the imagination somewhat. Even “blessed” seems to give us a less than clear understanding. The translation that seems to me to be both accurate and helpful is “honoured.”

To fully appreciate this, it helps to appreciate that the world in which Jesus lived was dominated by an “honour” culture. Your connections especially family connections determined your own importance. Come from a poor family and live without meaningful patronage and you belonged at the bottom of the pile. Who you were connected to was vitally important. And to lose those connections was a devastating experience both materially and in terms of your social standing.
Remember this was a time when wealth, health and success were seen by the religious professionals and doubtless most people as being evidence of god’s approval.

So when Jesus speaks his beatitudes what people hear stuns them. This is no boring shopping list. This is not the way they have normally heard it. Indeed to many of those listening what they hear makes about as much sense as the glorious mishearing in “The Life of Brian” - you know the one “Blessed are the Cheesemakers.”

So this morning as we hear whom God honours let us prepare to be both stunned and challenged.

The first beatitude speaks of honouring the poor in spirit. I draw your attention to the word for “poor” in the Greek translations. That word is “ptochos.” This word means destitute to the point of being forced to beg. And that was a painful reality at the time of Jesus. After all this was a time when landowners were able to expand their estates by forcing peasants into indebtedness. Commentators reckon that close on 20% of the people were in this state of destitution. Furthermore a good 60% lived with a real danger that a bad throw of the dice would put them in such a situation. The danger of extreme poverty was all around. And given the makeup of those who followed Jesus, we can be in no doubt that such as these were well represented in the crowd that surrounded Jesus. But “in spirit” is something we are often tempted to spiritualise away. We can after all then make it safe. But I think Mark allen Powell probably gets nearer the truth when he writes;

“In Matthew’s Gospel the poor in spirit are not people who trust in God because they have no reason for hope in the world. They are people who have no reason fro hope in this world, period. The presence or strength of their trust in god remains unaddressed in this beatitude, although if anything, the implication of the Matthean phrase would be that it is slight.”

So I suggest to you that what Jesus is speaking of here is the dehumanising effects of poverty. And as an aside this should never be far from our minds as even in our nation and the continent of Europe, people are increasingly experiencing this reality - after all is it not said that most people are but a couple of steps from the poverty that casts them out of community life. So here Jesus speaks in solidarity with the poor just as Old Testament prophets had done so often in their confrontations with the Kings of Israel and Judah. God honours the poor rather than the successes who drive others to poverty!

The next beatitude concerns those who mourn. Certainly by the time Matthew’s Gospel hit the Christian communities, they knew what it was to often be rejected within their own families. Family was important. It was at the heart of identity. So the loss of family, especially parents through death or disownment came with a heavy price. And Matthew’s community would have contained many who had been rejected by family because they were followers of Jesus. Yet Jesus here suggests that they and indeed those whose experience of life is wretched, too are honoured and can rely on his comfort when there are no other arms to embrace them.

The third beatitude addresses the matter of the meek . The Greek word here “praus” can be translated not just as the “humble” but also as the “humiliated.” This may be the result of poverty or rejection amongst other things. But first and foremost this refers to those who have been denied a fair deal in God’s world. They have been the “nobodies” in so many eyes. And yet now they receive the promise that they inherit (no need to earn it) their reward from the God who values and honours them in a proper sense.

And then Jesus turns in the fourth beatitude to those who long for justice to the point of literally being hungry or thirsty. In a way this beatitude underlines those that have gone before. This sums up all that is in the previous three beatitudes allied to a dream of a world in which all are honoured and none are put to shame.

These first four beatitudes speak in terms of God honouring those who lack justice and a positive experience of life. But now comes a change of emphasis. Jesus turns his attention to those who dare to work for justice.

So the fifth beatitude speaks for the merciful. Mercy is sometimes in short supply in our world. During the past week we have seen reports of the execution in Georgia of Troy Davis for a killing 2 decades ago concerning which most of the prosecution witnesses had changed their mind. But mercy there jolly well wasn’t - only cold blooded state murder from a justice system that sets itself against justice! But mercy is a much wider concept than the commuting of a death sentence. It is about the active compassion that doesn’t just feel sorry for the sufferings of others but which actively seeks to alleviate it. It is about the active compassion that is for the undeserving as well as the deserving. Think for a moment of Sister Helen Prejean an American nun who has been alongside many on Death Row, both the guilty and the innocent, whose desire that their final experience in life be of love, a woman whose story is told in the book and film entitled “Dead Man Walking.” Yes here we see Jesus telling us that those who exercise this active compassion are honoured by God.

The sixth beatitude speak of the pure in heart. Now please do not get excited. This is not so much about naughty thoughts and the likes which when preached on tend simply to leave people with awful guilt complexes. The Greek word “kardia” is more about resisting pretence. It is about having an undivided heart or a single passion for God and God’s ways. It is in reality about resisting the drumbeat of conformity to tattered and destructive orthodoxies but being open to the mind and heart being transformed by God into a whole new way of being.

And then the seventh beatitude speaks of the peacemakers. This is those who bring god’s shalom into the world. But once again we find the Jesus way is a challenge to the orthodoxies of the day. You see at the time of Jesus the myth was that the real peacemakers were the Roman army. “Peace through victory” was advocated - about as coherent a philosophy as chastity through ceaseless promiscuity! Octavian who became Augustus Caesar had been proclaimed a “peacemaker” after his victories ended the Roman Civil War. But this view was not the peacemaking of Jesus and his followers. For at least until it was subverted by Emperor Constantine’s takeover of the church in the fourth century, Christian came to see peacemaking as being about the righting of wrongs and the treating of all peoples with dignity. And that remains at the heart of true peacemaking today.

As for eighth beatitude it speaks of those who are persecuted for the cause of justice, the ongoing story of those who work for the dignity of others. It was his speaking for justice amongst other things that made Jesus some very dangerous enemies who would ultimately execute him. And the pursuit of justice has always meant colliding with vested interests. Think for a moment of the violence meted out on the early campaigners against the transatlantic slave trade well before the Willberforce Act went through Parliament. Or think of the American nuns who helped the poor of El Salvador in their struggles againt gross exploitation by the dominant landed families and the death squads, nuns who were eventually raped and murdered for being true followers of Jesus. On that dark night when they were slaughtered, talk of them being honoured must have seen hollow but that is precisely what Jesus says they are by God.

And then finally in the very last of the beatitudes, Jesus turns his attention from the third person to the second person. Now he tells them and by implication Matthew’s community that they are honoured when reviled and persecuted on his account. To Matthew’s community this must have been precious. In so many ways the practices of the early community of Jesus followers had moved far away from many of the hitherto norms of society and historical writings suggest that Christianity was regarded as a “despised sect.” But through the many trials they could know that they were honoured by God. And as we follow Jesus that may well become precious to us.

So here is Jesus offering a new and counter cultural vision. His followers are set free to see the world in a new way. The poet James Russell Lowell puts it well:

“They are slaves who fear to speak
For the fallen and the weak;
They are slaves who will not choose
Hatred, scoffing and abuse,
Rather than in silence shrink
From the truth they needs must think;
They are slaves who fear to be
In the right with two or three.”

This morning we gather as those granted freedom by God revealed in Jesus. So I ask you but two simple questions. Firstly, will you honour those whom God honours? And secondly will you be those whom God honours?