Blessed are you who are vaccinated
Based on Luke 6:17-26
On
Monday I drove to Ngāmotu New Plymouth to deal with some whānau matters,
primarily scattering my late brother’s ashes. And I had just passed Sanson
when I saw an extraordinary sight.
I
saw a man on a motorcycle, with a small flagpole somehow attached to the
back of his bike. He was flying a large New Zealand Ensign, and he was
riding into a strong headwind. Despite knowing what he was up to, I almost
felt sorry for him for about two seconds.
As I
continued on my way, I passed more vehicles displaying various nationalistic
and other insignia, but I saw the bulk of them pass by in Hawera, where I
stopped for lunch. I saw several small groups of locals out in support. A
car sporting a Confederate flag and white supremacist slogans was doing
circuits. And I was disturbed to see local Māori cheering them on.
They
were of course part of the Freedom Convoy that descended on Parliament,
ostensibly to protest against vaccine mandates. You may well oppose the
mandates yourself. If so, please rest assured it is not my intention today
to challenge your views on this subject.
While it appears that the organisers were acting with genuine intentions,
this convoy was attempting to replicate a similar event in Canada, which we
now understand was instigated by the extremist Q-Anon conspiracy fantasy
movement. And it is all but certain that the original organisers of the
local convoy have lost control.
Reliable sources indicate that the original organisers instructed the
protestors to leave Parliament on Monday. Many did, but some remained, are
still camped out there now, and have caused damage to Parliament Grounds
that I would estimate will take tens of thousands of dollars to repair. And
I believe there is a background of manipulation by overseas political
interests, who feel threatened by a liberal democracy being successfully led
by a highly capable young woman. But I digress.
I
have not been in Wellington for over a week, so I have not seen the shambles
outside Parliament for myself. But I have heard some disturbing eye
witnesses accounts from friends who have been there. And these include both
people who support the vaccine mandates and people who oppose them.
I
have heard eye witness accounts of school girls being blocked from getting
on public transport and spat on for being a “Jacinda expletive-deleted.”
Death threats being made against journalists and anyone who looked like they
might be one.
Anyone wearing a mask being abused.
And
some truly disgusting things being said about our prime minister. I cannot
help but wonder what their mothers would think if they heard them talking
about a woman like this.
I do
not have the time to analyse all the complexities of this situation today.
But I will say that it demonstrates a clash of two conflicting ways of
thinking.
One
is the view that we are all in this together and that we should look out for
each other. In the context of the current pandemic, this includes getting
vaccinated where possible, wearing masks, maintaining social distancing, and
generally looking out for each other. And understanding the basic common
sense that facing minor inconvenience for the common good does not
constitute oppression. And these values are reflective of the caring
Aotearoa New Zealand I grew up in.
But
these values now have competition. Building on the self-centred doctrines of
the far right fringes, we now see rampant individualism, selfishness, fear
of science, anti-government sentiments, and hatred of the media. And
unshaking trust in utterly irrational and mind-blowingly bizarre conspiracy
fantasies.
Now
I am not suggesting that those currently camped outside Parliament are
acting out of selfishness. The appalling behaviours I described earlier
aside, most of them genuinely believe in what they are doing and think they
are acting for the good of the rest of us. I know this because I actually
know some of them, and they include people I cannot remember ever
disagreeing with on anything in the past.
But
the misinformation those occupying Parliament are acting on certainly is
sinister. And all the good intentions in the world do not justify the
violence and abuse I referred to earlier.
We
have just listened to a reading from a section of the from the Gospel
According to St Luke often that is often referred to as the Sermon on the
Plain. It has many parallels with the better known text we know as the
Sermon on the Mount in the Gospel according to St Matthew Both begin with a
series of blessings we know as the Beatitudes.
But
here is where the similarities end. Mathew contains eight blessings. Whereby
Luke contains only four blessings, but these are followed by four woes,
which in reality are the flip side of each blessing. “Woe” is an overly
dramatic translation; “Alas” or “How dreadful” might be better. It should be
seen as an expression of compassion and regret. Not a judgmental threat.
Each
blessing and each woe state a condition and a result.
Those who are poor now are blessed, because theirs is the kingdom of God.
Whereby those who are now rich have had their reward.
Those who are hungry now are blessed because they will be filled. Whereby those who are now full will be hungry.
Those who now weep are blessed because they will laugh. Whereby those who are now laughing will mourn and weep.
And
those who are hated, excluded, and reviled for being followers of Jesus will
be rewarded like the prophets who were persecuted before them were, while
those who are spoken well of face an unspecified woe.
So
what are we to make of all this?
Jesus was living in a time when material wealth and comfort were seen as a
sign of God’s blessing. If you were rich, well fed, happy, and had a good
reputation, this was seen as being favoured by God. Whereby if you were
poor, hungry, sad, or reviled, you had probably done something to deserve
it.
And
unfortunately, this believe still persists in some expressions of
Christianity today. There are churches – although I would call them sects,
and dangerous ones at that – who believe that not only is prosperity a sign
of God’s blessing, but the way to achieve it is by giving them lots of
money, with the promise that you will in turn be blessed by God many times
over. But what of course happens in practice is that the leaders of these
sects become very wealthy at the expense of their followers, who are more
often than not extremely poor.
But
Jesus was radical and counter-cultural. He threatened the religious and
political powers that be of the day. He suggested the outlandish idea that
loving and caring for others should take priority over wealth and power. Not
only did he accept and include those that the rest of society rejected, but
he also often deemed them to be more worthy than those who rejected them.
He
put the needs of the many ahead of the perceived rights of the individual.
No wonder the religious and political powers of the day had him killed.
And
if we are to be his authentic followers, we need to be as radical and
counter cultural as he was and prioritise the values of his kingdom over
those of the world.
This
is his message in the blessings and woes. Those who are poor, hungry,
weeping, or reviled for following his way, are blessed in his kingdom. While
those who are motivated by selfish desires now rich, full, laughing, and
well-spoken of and think they have it made will have a rude awakening when
they realise their priorities were all wrong.
Which brings us back to what has been happening in Wellington. As I said
earlier, most of the people who have been protesting outside Parliament are
sincere in their beliefs and genuinely believe that they are on the side of
good. Not that this excuses any of the appalling behaviours that we have
seen. But regardless of what convoy’s initial aim may have been, it has been
hijacked by a fringe whose extreme philosophies have no place in Aotearoa
New Zealand.
Neither do they have in place in the kingdom that followers of Jesus the
Christ are building up here on earth. And I would like to leave you with an
alternative rendition of the blessings and woes from Luke.
Then
he looked up at his disciples and said:
‘Blessed are you who wear a mask,
for yours is the kingdom
of God.
‘Blessed are you who are vaccinated,
for there is far less
chance you will get sick or pass the virus onto others.
‘Blessed are you who accept minor inconvenience now,
for you will be free.
‘Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile
you, and abuse you for keeping each another safe. Rejoice on that day and
leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven; for that is what
their ancestors did to those who spoke the truth.
‘But
woe to you who refuse to wear a mask,
for you have had your
time of easy breathing.
‘Woe
to you who are healthy now,
for your refusal to be
vaccinated will catch up with you.
‘Woe
to you who are celebrating your freedom,
for you will be a
prisoner of your ignorance.
‘Woe
to you when you they praise you for resisting the mandates, for that is what
their ancestors did to the spreaders of misinformation.
Darryl Ward
13 February 2022
(This was 17 days before the occupation of Parliament
Grounds was eventually dispersed.)