Introduction: The Politics of Holiness
Derek Poole

Comment
David McMillan

From the Director
David Porter

Boundary Markers
Heather Morris

A Passion for Holiness or Dangerous Purity
Bishop Harold Miller

In the Flowing Tide
Steve Stockman

Holy Sectarianism
Alwyn Thomson

Book Reviews
Alwyn Thomson

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HOLY SECTARIANISM
Times were difficult for Simeon, indeed for all the Jewish people. It was only ten years since the Jewish uprising against the Romans. The city of Jerusalem was desolate, the land scarred, the Temple lay in ruins. Could the Jewish people survive such a blow?

Rabbi Yohanan ben Zakkai and Rabbi Gamaliel II were determined that the people would survive. The need of the hour was consolidation around a clearly defined Jewish belief and practice. Judaism was too diverse, there were too many extremes, too many dubious beliefs and practices. What the people needed was a single clear understanding of the faith, taught through the synagogues. Only in this way could the nation survive.

Simeon could understand - even sympathise. The trouble was that those who did not conform to the Rabbis' definitive teaching were to be expelled from the synagogue - effectively cut off from their roots, their families, their community. They would be declared non-Jews. Already the synagogue liturgy had been adapted to make it harder for those who did not share the Rabbis' beliefs to say the prayers. For most it presented no problem. For Simeon and his friends however, it was a huge problem, for they were Christians. The promise and covenant, theirs as Jews, had reached their fulfilment in Jesus. But now, others were trying to exclude them from their heritage. The rabbis were saying clearly - "you do not belong to Israel".

Simeon and his friends needed guidance. What should they do? For that they turned to John, their pastor, and he taught them. John, whose mind and heart and life were shaped by the mind and heart and life of Jesus, his Lord, told them the story of a world divided and a Christ who divides.

Light has come into the world, he said, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Those who do evil hate the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed.

It was uncomfortable but it was the truth. God had sent his light into the world, to his own people, the people of Israel, yet they did not receive him. Yes, the law was given through Moses, yes, salvation is of the Jews, but when the Father sent his Son into the world bringing grace, truth and light, bringing that salvation, the world turned on him and killed him.

Yet, though the world was in darkness, there was light. God in his grace had called his own people out of the darkness into the light, out of the world into a new community of love and service. The world, their own people, the synagogue leaders had expelled them and rejected them, declaring them outside the bounds of God's covenant people. God, in Jesus Christ, had made them branches in the true vme, had placed them in a new community, a community in which Jesus remained with them through the gift of the Holy Spirit.

In Jesus they had come to know the bread of life, the light of the world, the good shepherd, the resurrection and the life, the way the truth and the life, the true vine. In Jesus they had come to know the one who fulfilled all the hopes and expectations of God's people. The tragedy was that so many had failed to recognise him. The challenge John set before his congregation was to hold on to Christ, to stay in the light instead of seeking the comfort and security of the familiar darkness.

John's words were words of hope, comfort and security; they were also words of warning. There was a starkness, a rawness in his words. He pointed them to a world divided, a world in darkness, a world of hostility, a world of hatred that hated Jesus before them and that hated them now.

What were they to do? How were they to live in such a world? Their Jesus demanded response, demanded absolute allegiance. There could be no going back, no compromise. In a world of darkness, where all around Jesus was rejected and hated, where they were only a few and often subjected to hostility, where the comforts of community, tradition, identity were being denied to them they had to hold on to Jesus and to one another. The world was dark, the world was hostile. They were the community of life, the community of light, the community of truth.

This community of Christians had some choices to make. Faced with hostility the easy option would have been to retreat from this world and slam the door behind them. They could have proclaimed themselves the only bearers and defenders of truth. They could have adopted an attitude of suspicion towards everyone and everything in order to maintain their purity and preserve themselves and the gospel.

But this temptation carried with it tremendous risks.

In a world of hatred:

This community was to be measured by its difference. In a world of hatred it was to be a community of love. John wanted his church to be aware of the world's hatred and to be prepared for it. He did not want it to reflect that hatred in its own life. Fear and suspicion could too easily have given rise to hostility and hatred.

In a world of darkness:

These Christians might have been tempted to assume that only they had come into the light. They might have assumed and proclaimed that there was any truth to be found beyond the boundaries of their community. They might have rejected the possibility that they had anything to learn from others.

In a world of falsehood:

They might have been tempted to protect the truth by codifying it until the formulas themselves became the objects of their belief.

Given the risks of John's strategy, should they have adopted a more 'enlightened' view of the world? Should they have rejected the absolutes of truth and falsehood, darkness and light? Or is there a legitimate kind of sectarianism - a 'holy sectarianism'?

Is John a Sectarian Gospel?

Before pursuing this line of thought we need to define what we mean by that much used - perhaps overused - word, 'sectarianism'. I take it to refer to a group with a strong sense of identity, part of which is defined with reference to a hostile world. In this sense a number of writers on John have indeed concluded that John's church is sectarian:

They are "a small group of believers isolated over against 'the world' that belongs intrinsically to the things below". (Wayne Meeks)

It is a community marked by "a sense of exclusiveness - a simple delineation of the community from the world". (D Moody Smith)

It is "an embattled brotherhood" that "withdrew further from the world and clung to the new commandments of its Lord". (R Alan Culpepper)

"The gospel is a 'sectarian' document and the Johannine community a 'sectarian' group. (Fernando Segovia)

A Radical Challenge

Yet this profound sense of otherness, of separation from the world, need not necessarily lead to the kind of consequences noted above. This sense of separation, this identity in conflict with the world can be a positive and constructive thing, for, as David Rensberger argues "precisely because it sees itself alienated from the world, its commitment to the world is attenuated".

A church that is too at home in the world, too comfortable with its situation,too compromised in its relationship is in grave danger of becoming an upholder of the status quo. Such a church, because it has a stake in the political, social or religious order of society, is in danger of losing its prophetic voice. Such a church is in danger of seeking the favour of human institutions rather than God. Such a church is in danger of allowing the voice of the world around it to drown out the voice of the Spirit.

John's church, having no stake in the world, possessed a radical freedom to criticise the world and proclaim to it the challenge of Jesus Christ.

A Radical Commitment

At the heart of John's church and at the heart of its difference from the world was its commitment to Jesus Christ. In the gospel Jesus constantly confronted men and women with the need for decision. They could believe and accept the gift of eternal life, or they could reject and place themselves under God's judgement.

The absolute demands that Jesus made were too difficult for many people. Yet absolute demands were the only kind that Jesus made. Inevitably, faithfulness to Jesus resulted in separation from the world.

Moreover, this community's focus on Jesus is reflected in the depth of understanding of Jesus portrayed in the gospel. Jesus was the One sent from God, the Word made flesh, the Son of Man lifted up, the bearer of light, life, truth, glory, the bread of life, the vine, the saviour of the world.

The Jesus these Christians worshipped was no dogma but the living reality at the heart of their world. Their Jesus could be expressed through a host of images and metaphors but he could never be reduced to any one of them, nor could all of them together fully express him.

The living reality of Jesus in their midst freed this church from the need to find its meaning or reality in the world. They were a separated community, called into relationship with Jesus, taught and sustained by the Spirit.

This community's deep insight into the person of Jesus and its absolute commitment to him set it apart from the world and enabled the community to challenge the values of the world.

A Radical Mission

Clearly, though, this church still had to live in the world. How were they to do so? Should they huddle together behind the walls, occasionally throwing open the doors to launch a raid on the world outside? Should they rush out proclaiming the world's doom and calling men and women to salvation and then retreat once more to the place of security - displaying their trophies - and slamming the door behind them?

No. This is not Jesus' way, nor is it John's way. Here is how disciples are to live in a hostile world: as the Father sent the Son into the world to save the world (3.17), 50 the disciples are sent into the world (17.18). As the Father testifies to the Son (5.37>), 50 the disciples testify to the Son (16.27).

Jesus himself is our model of how we must relate to and live in a hostile world. And who is this Jesus to whom the disciples must bear witness and in whose name they are sent into the world?

He is the Son sent from heaven at the gracious initiative of the Father breaking down the barrier between God and humanity, bringing those who were in darkness into light through believing in him.

He is the saviour of the world who broke down the sectarian barriers between Jew and Samaritan (4.1-16,39-42), barriers that were not just spiritual but social, political, economic.

He is the one who broke down the barriers between those considered faithful Jews and those considered compromisers who had gone to serve at the court of the Roman stooge, Herod (4.46-54).

He is the one who broke down barriers between those considered faithful Jews and those considered sinners (9.1-2).

He is the one who broke through the geographical barriers between Judaea, Galilee and Samaria.

In his life and teaching Jesus was uncompromised and uncompromising. He was ever aware of the hostility of the world towards him, towards his Father and towards his message. Yet Jesus was not an isolationist, his life was not marked by fear suspicion or hostility. Jesus was sent by God to a world that God loved. In a world marked by hostility and division – personal, ethnic, political, economic - Jesus broke through the barriers that men and women built. As he is sent, so we are sent.

Not only did Jesus break the world's boundaries, he also challenged the tendency of his own followers to build barriers. Even within the community of faith darkness could still work its evil. Against this Jesus provided a model for his followers of love resulting in service (13.1-11) and challenged his disciples to display this kind of love and service in their own relationships (3.12-17; 15.12-17).

Moreover, there is an intimate connection between the internal relationships of the community and its relationship with the world, for it is by the love that the Christians have for one another that the world will know and recognise the presence of Jesus Christ (3.34-35).

How then should we live? Simply by being the church - a community distinct from and freed from allegiance to the world; a community centred on Christ; a community marked by love and service.

There is a fundamental separation in John - separation from unbelief, from darkness and evil. But that separation is not the kind that marks the sectarianism of Northern Ireland. The community of Christians in John's gospel are sent as Jesus is sent, to testify to the love of their Lord, and to break through the same boundaries as he did.

Hatred, says Jesus, is of the devil (8.44). Christians are to separate themselves from it. Instead they are to be a community of love, loving one another and loving a world that hates them and hates their Lord.

Alwyn Thomson is Research Officer with ECONI and is currently involved in the 'God, Land & Nation' project. He is author of number of ECONI publications including his most recent book, 'The Fire and the Hammer'.