From the Chaplains

What do we do when someone does not value our understanding of the Sacred?

This week is Harmony Week and we are reminded that living in Australia is a wonderful gift through the theme ‘Everyone Belongs’. Our diversity gives us an extraordinary opportunity to learn and to grow together, as we take the richness from many cultures and experiences and make it our own.

One of the challenges of this diversity, however, is that we show respect in different ways because our different faiths, cultures and traditions place value on different things. What is respectful for one of us, can be disrepectful to someone else.

For people of faith living in a broadly secualar society this can be hard. Our faith is deeply personal. When our particular expression of faith is not valued it hurts. At best we feel sadness. At worst we question our own belief and sense of self.

So what do we do when we feel like something that is sacred to us has been not been valued by someone else as it should be?

The Parable of the fig tree (Luke 13.1-9)  is an example in the scriptures that can help us.

In the Gospel of Luke the parable of the fig tree follows directly after what can only be describes as a horrific act of disrespect to the people of Jesus. It was intentional and cruel, and the disciples are struggling to understand. They are even questioning whether their belief and the traditions associated with it are worth upholding any more.

Jesus uses the image of a dormant fig tree to give them hope. Rather than giving up on their belief and allowing others to cut them down, Jesus encourages the disciples to wait and to use their sadness, the ‘manure’ as Jesus calls it to nurture and feed themselves. In time, Jesus suggests, this waiting and ‘manuring’ will produce fruit on the tree if that is what is meant to be.

I think what Jesus is saying is that when we find ourselves in a situation where we feel disrespected we need to do the same. Firstly to wait before reacting by cutting someone (perhaps the person who disrespected us) or something (our belief) down.

Wait and take time to think through what has happened, and to understand why we are so sad.

And then, when the right time has passed, and we are ready to respond to the situation we shuld use our sadness to nurture the situation in a way that is helpful and gives life. This may be by approaching the person and speaking respectfully with them about why they have hurt you. It may be by offering to educate others in your class about your belief so that they can better understand the gifts of diversity among them. It may even be by re-thinking what is most important in the situation and re-planting your faith in a different way.

For the diciples it meant a range of those things as they continued on the way to Jerusalem.

May your waiting be blessed and nourished as your Lenten journey continues.

Reverend Danielle Hemsworth Smith

College Chaplain