Readings: Jeremiah 1:4-10; Hebrews 12:18-29; Luke 13:10-17
I recently endured a day in bed. It was fortunate enough that it was a Friday and I was able to read The Guardian Weekly slowly and deliberately instead of my usual skimming at breakfast. On this occasion I had the whole day to read, learn and inwardly digest.

I read of the devastating floods in Pakistan, the inept government being unable to cope and the aid being supplied by the Taliban and terrorist organisations.

I read of the elections in Rwanda, where a military man rules with an iron fist and is expected to get 95% of the vote.

I read with particular interest of the riots of the garment workers in Bangladesh, where western retailers like Walmart, Tesco, JC Penny and Marks and Spencers say they cannot afford to pay the living wage of $10 per week.

I read of the position in Iraq where the former and prospective Prime Minister Ayad Allawi says, `Right now, if you ask an Iraqi what do you think of democracy, they will say it is blood, stagnation, unemployment, refugees and cheating.`

I read of protesters in Kabul saying that although they didn`t want the return of the Taliban, the Americans were making the position worse. With their huge army they had been unable to do anything in the last ten years. The unwillingness in high places to apply intelligent thought or consider historical precedent beggars belief.

I read many more things in The Guardian Weekly and then I came to what was probably the most significant. `We have become very good at collecting tidbits. We are also forgetting how to sit back, contemplate and relate all these facts to one another.`

I particularly like the use of the word `contemplate`. It relates to what we in the Church refer to as Contemplative Prayer. Contemplative prayer is about experiencing and deepening our awareness of what we sometimes call `ultimate reality` – that which really counts. Prayer is about seeing and from that seeing, everything else proceeds. And we must never presume we see. We must always be prepared to see anew, to see beyond the hypnotic cultural trance in which most of us live and move and have our being. What we seek to do in contemplative prayer is to break free of that reality and become aware of a greater reality. As Einstein said, `No problem can be solved by the same consciousness that caused it.` Contemplation is the cleansing of the lens of perception so that we can see things as they really are.

The Guardian Weekly of 6 August nicely brings together the issues and it also makes me grateful for the privilege of being able to occupy this pulpit, of being able to shout back at all the issues that emerge every day in the media. Without it, I think I would go mad!

What then is it that I want to shout about today? It is about the political process and how we live our lives according to predetermined patterns under the heading of law; and what we should be doing is to be constantly assessing and contemplating life under the heading of love. The way of love vis a vis the way of law.

What is the difference between law and love? Law works from the outside in; love works from the inside out. The drug culture that bedevils our society illustrates the difference. The legal approach is to limit the supply and punish the offender, whilst doing nothing about the question of demand: of looking at the question of why people resort to drugs. The legal approach is from the outside in, the other approach is from the inside out. Controlling the supply is not going to solve the problem. But this is the way we invariably operate. The practice of glassing, using a broken glass as a weapon, is on the increase. The solution being proposed is to remove the glasses. It is laughable. The problem is alcohol-fuelled violence – not an inert piece of glass. We remove the glasses and think we have solved the problem. The mind boggles at the logic of the legal approach!

Of the way of law I know a little. I have been what is called a `Legal Practitioner` for over fifty years. I have also been convicted of breaking the law more times than I can remember. Last year when I was attending the Scarborough Police Station, a considerate constable informed me that because of the passage of time I could now apply to have my criminal record `expunged` – police language for `erased`. I almost exploded. `Don`t you dare touch that record! It is my pride and joy. I have little enough to show for my eighty years on this earth. Do not take my criminal record away from me.` In the name of love, the law must sometimes be broken. Law is not the final arbiter. Love is the final arbiter – life from the inside out, not from the outside in.

One of the tragedies of our day is that the Christian faith is equated with being a law abiding citizen. Wherever we got this idea from it certainly isn`t from the story of Jesus. `We have a law,` they shouted. `And by that law he ought to die!` – and this he did. And I must confess that when I heard John Howard`s performance at the last election I was reminded of those words. `We have a law and we will decide who enters this country. We have a law and by that law they ought to die.` The rule of law is not the most important thing! The ultimate reality is not that of obeying the law – it is responding in love – and the two are very different.

The relationship of law and love is very complicated. Jesus is certainly not an anarchist. He does not do away with the law. He speaks for example of the law of love, the commandments of loving God and loving one`s neighbour. Law and love are intertwined – but when the two come into conflict there is no question of what is more important. It is the concept of love. The political process – which is in effect the making of law – is important. It is not all important – and that is something that we and our politicians need to remember today.

The relationship of law and love is a huge subject. And our own Bill Loader is a world authority on it. In essence, he maintains like St Paul that, `love is the fulfilling of the law`. God`s chief concern is not to be obeyed. God`s chief concern is love and care for people and creation. Of the passage we read this morning, Bill says, `Jesus is not challenging the Sabbath law. He is defending his practice of meeting human need as appropriate to the Sabbath.`

This is what the passage is about. It is not about a miracle being performed by Jesus. The woman represents human need, twisted and bent with very limited vision, and it is of course couched in first century words and concepts when illness was seen in terms of demon possession vis a vis the Spirit of God – a concept which we discarded centuries ago for which I am personally thankful. Give me any day the skill of the surgeon`s knife rather than some priest holding a cross and exorcising the demon within me. The story reflects the first century and, as I never tire of saying, `We need to rethink these stories in the light of insights and understanding not available to earlier generations.`

The point of the story is not a miracle. It is when Jesus is accused of being a law breaker and he replies with some of the most devastating unparliamentary language. `You hypocrites` – you `two-faced actors` – that`s the meaning of the word hypocrite – an actor wearing different masks. And Jesus says of those who accuse him of breaking the law: `You hypocrites`.

So how do we see Christian law breaking today? Martin Luther King in his Letter from a Birmingham Jail gives a practical outline to law breaking, or civil disobedience as it is more politely referred to. There are four factors to be considered:

1 A consideration of the facts

2 A consideration of the law and the possibility of its being changed

3 What he calls `self purification` – the getting rid of all feelings of hatred and revenge, and a preparedness to accept the consequences

4 Then and only then is it justifiable to peaceably break the law through direct action.

This sounds very complicated. It isn`t really, and I could relate incident after incident of how simple it is – whether it be scattering ash on the carpet of Honeywell Limited, the manufacturer of the fuel air bomb, or occupying a government minister`s office and hanging a plumb line from the ceiling, or walking on to the beach during the Hillarys Defence Spectacular with a banner `War Kills Kids` – all of which resulted in arrest and convictions. There were many, many others. I have gathered some of them together in a booklet available at the front door.

How then to sum up? Let me do so by asking an interesting question. Who in the story do you think most needed to be healed? It was the one who upheld the law vis a vis the sacredness of love. It was the ruler of the synagogue who needed most to be healed – as do we who put our trust in the political process and the rule of law. Let`s then not despair too much about the coming election. Let`s sing about how

The love of Christ alone can make us free
And love is the fulfilling of the law.