Some of the ideas in this sermon have been inspired by this week's daily reflections from Richard Rohr which drop into my in-box each morning. The readings it's based upon are Luke 15.1-10 and 1 Timothy 1.12-17 - oh, and repeated watching of all Star Wars films (yes, even the prequels) over my 41 years on earth.
If you’ve spent more than a few minutes in our vestry at St Michael's you may have noticed a little poster on the wall explaining the Japanese art of kintsugi, which is repairing broken pots with gold. You may very well have heard this analogy before where the repaired pot is often even more lovely from having been broken and then made whole again in such a beautiful way.
It's the process of being made whole that I want to consider this morning. I’m sure that like me there's some Star Wars fans in here today, may the force be with you, and Star Wars gives us a great metaphor for balance and wholeness. In Star Wars mythology there's the light side of the force and the dark side of the force. Now it's not just bad if the dark side dominates, it's bad if the light side does too. We find completeness when both sides are balanced.
To give the Star Wars writers their due this is pretty good Jungian psychology which in very basic terms speaks of us having our ego, the side we choose to share with the world, and our shadow self, the stuff we keep hidden or unacknowledged. Our shadow self is what we keep locked away, the stuff maybe only we know about ourselves, the stuff we would be ashamed to admit to, the stuff we may even be too fearful to admit to ourselves and may not have even given a name to yet. And we all have a shadow self, because wherever there’s light shadows are cast. Light can't exist without shadow.
You might be wondering what Star Wars, Japanese pots and psychological theory have to do with Jesus’ lost sheep? The parable of the lost sheep and lost coin are incredibly well known, they feature heavily in children's books of bible stories because of the simple imagery and easy to grasp message that God loves us and will do anything to return us to his family. Cyril of Alexandria writing in the 5th century believed that the numbers involved- 100 sheep and 10 coins- are really significant because they represent wholeness or completeness. We're not complete without God, but just as equally God isn’t complete without us.
In the gospel reading there’s a clear difference between how the pious people respond to those who’re identified of falling short of the rules of holy law and how Jesus responds to them. The pious scribes and Pharisees reject the tax collectors and sex workers, whilst Jesus welcomes and loves those who’re rejected. He loves them as they are but our call to holiness is a call to wholeness. If the word repentance means a turning around it's a turning around to face ourselves, to confront what's in our shadow, to reconcile our light side and our dark side to create a new wholeness and a new holiness.
Jesus's response to sin is never rejection, it's patient and loving action, no one is ever written off, the potential of each and every person is seen and given opportunity to flourish, if we're willing to put the work in on our side. We see in the parables of lost things patience, care and diligence in pursuit of what's lost, missing or misplaced. There's never an easy pathway and confronting our own shadows is something we have to be ready to do. It takes insight and courage.
The effects of what happens if we don't work upon reconciling the light and the dark we have in us can be seen in today’s readings and in the world around us. When the darkness dominates, we can see ourselves as worthless, in this week where we've marked International Suicide Prevention day this is particularly poignant. As well as poor mental health we may find ourselves making choices which are harmful not only to us but to those we share our lives with.
Yet if we embrace the light without acknowledging the darkness within us this can be equally damaging. The pious folk in the temple are so scared of confronting their own shadows that they reject any darkness they see in anyone else, the most extreme example of this is Paul before his own conversion and reconciliation. His extreme persecution in God's name of those identified as not living according to holy law is something we still see today. The persecution, condemnation, imprisonment, torture and even death of those thought to be on the wrong side of the dominant belief of what’s “right" is still seen all over the world.
It can often be true that those with the power to decide what's good and bad or right or wrong may in fact be railing against the things they see in their own shadow but are too scared to confront. The Irish Christian poet Padraig O Tuama has spoken openly about his experiences of gay conversion therapy in his late teens. He eventually was able to reconcile that being gay was part of who he was and made him no less loved by God but years later he bumped into the man who’d been his therapist- the therapist was attending one of Padraig's recitals with his husband. The man had previously not been able to reconcile his own sexuality and so had gone down a path which led him to persecute it in others.
The things we hate or fear in ourselves can often be the things which we hate or fear in others, often unconsciously. We need the insight and courage to face these things in ourselves if we want to have any chance of beginning to make whole the fractured world around us. So much of the division and hatred we see, the polarising opinions and hate speak, are a direct result of an inability or unawareness to reconcile our ego and our shadow.
Our call to repentance is our call to work upon making ourselves whole, to reconcile the darkness and the light within us. This work, our soul work, is the gold repairing the cracks in the pot, bonding the broken pieces back together to create something beautiful and precious, something transformed.
Through this journey towards wholeness we have a God, as demonstrated in these parables, prepared to go to any lengths possible to give us the opportunity to become this fully whole, transformed person we’re capable of becoming. And yet wherever we are, whatever stage we’re at in this process, Jesus welcomes us and holds us, and actively works to draw us in. We’re never rejected, and we’re never separated from God’s fathomless, endless love. True wholeness is the reconciliation of all things to God and God to all things.
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