Having completed the WONTOK conference series, that I shared with you in last week’s column, I find myself in Sydney at the onset of winter; with the tiredness of facilitating six conferences in six cities in 12 days taking its toll on my immune system. I am glad to be sitting in the warmth of the New South Wales State Library, undertaking some long overdue research.

On Monday, I was in an elevator and noticed a notice on one of the walls. It had the date, temperature and weather for the day and a “Word of the Day”. The word of the day for Monday was “Metanoia”.

Metanoia is a Greek word, which means “a profound, usually spiritual, transformation.” Another meaning is “conversion”.

As a Christian minister, I speak often about conversion from a religious perspective. However, there is a deeper understanding of this process of profound transformation that while, often described as spiritual or metaphysical, is not necessarily religious. To illustrate this point, I share with you parts of my sermon, preached last Sunday evening at Leichhardt Uniting Church, which has a young and vibrant and social justice oriented congregation. While I was the guest preacher, I was not the only guest that evening. Uniting Church in Australia President Stuart McMillan, who will be attending the Methodist Church in Fiji Annual Conference this year, was also present; as was Rob Floyd, the head of Uniting World, our church’s mission partner in Australia, which has raised around half a million dollars for STC Winston recovery programs to be run by the Methodist Church.

A note to secular readers — this is a sermon but you still may find it interesting.

I preached on the Gospel reading for that Sunday which is from the Gospel according to St. Luke, chapter 7, verses 1 to 10. The story in this text is about Jesus healing the slave of the Roman Centurion. As this story is usually well known to Christians and preached from the perspective of the faith of a gentile, I reflected instead on Jesus’ act of healing in the context of power structures — experienced by the Jews and the occupying force of Rome — the relationship between oppressed and oppressors, God’s grace and the challenge to still love your enemy while speaking out and working for justice.

The background to this story is that Jesus has just finished his “Sermon on the Plain”. He has healed all who have come to him by emanating his Spirit-filled life-force and pronounced the Beatitudes (blessed are you who…) empowering the oppressed of his day as well as the “Woe to you” statement, challenging those who enjoy the status quo of comfort while many suffer, wealth while many are poor, and status while many are oppressed. He goes on with some challenging instructions for those “who would listen” — love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you — all of which require a metanoia, a deep transformation of how the oppressed respond to the oppressor.

Jesus then goes onto suggest non-violent forms of resistance that empower the oppressed of his day — the turning of the other cheek; the giving of one’s undergarment to those who demand the outer garment; and the releasing of possessions when demanded, or forcefully taken without claiming return or compensation. These are not calls to submission but a way to bring shame to the oppressor. Nevertheless they would have been challenging words for the oppressed and dispossessed.

Jesus also shares the Golden Rule, the most common practice advocated in most religions of treating others as you wish to be treated.

Then he enters the village of Capernaum and our text and the healing story actually begins.

Capernaum was a village on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee. Capernaum means “field of repentance” and “city of comfort”. There was a Custom station there where taxes were collected, with a Roman military presence. The soldiers in this cohort would have actually been Jewish and not foreign, serving as Custom officials and police force. They were however under the command of a Roman/gentile centurion.

Here we find a different type of relationship between occupiers and the occupied — one of respect and perhaps even love. This centurion is different from others. He is not corrupt or oppressive. Instead he is kind to the community and has even built a synagogue for them. He observes their customs, respects their religion and is known to be a “God-fearer”.

Yet he keeps slaves and represents a force of oppression – especially in other parts of Galilee and Judea.

He is respectful of Jesus, who has been teaching things that in our day would be seen as highly political and even seditious. He sends emissaries from the Jewish community to speak on his behalf seek Jesus’ help, which they do in glowing terms. He sends another group to ask that Jesus simply heal by command, so as to defile himself as a Jew, by entering the home of a Gentile. Jesus does just that. The slave is healed.

This is a challenging text in many ways.

The oppressed entreat Jesus on behalf of this kind oppressor. Jesus, who has proclaimed himself as coming to set the captives free, heals the slave with no mention of liberation. Jesus is extending his love and power beyond those to whom he was traditionally expected to reach out and minister — his own kind.

Then there is the challenge of the centurion’s relationship with the slave. Is his healing requested because he is valued for his work in the household of the centurion? Is it because he is, as highlighted in St. Matthew’s Gospel version, loved as a son? Or is he, given that centurions were not allowed to marry and many had homosexual relationships, loved as a lover, as a number of biblical commentaries suggest? What does Jesus’ healing say to these relationships and our views?

Is every act of unconditional love a manifestation of God’s grace?

This text challenges us in many ways.

How is our relationship with those on the other side; those who are not really on our side and those who are supposed to be on our side?

I recall the story of Martha Mullen, after the not so distant Boston Marathon Bombing. She was devastated by this violent attack in her hometown. However on hearing that one of the Boston bombers’ body was lying unclaimed in the mortuary and the anguish of his family, she arranged for his burial, even though she was ridiculed and reviled. Why? Because, as she said, “we must still love our enemies”.

Both the centurion and the slave are recipients of God’s grace through Jesus.

Pope Francis once spoke about the culture of encounter — where believers and non-believers can meet in that place of doing good.

In Australia where it is National Reconciliation Week, what does that encounter look like in the context of recognition and sovereignty for First Peoples and hurt land?

In the context of climate justice, how do we — those who are suffering and seeking justice — encounter those whose actions and inactions are behind the drowning of islands and destructive weather patterns we experience?

What kind of encounter can we have when Fiji (and Australia) reach out to accept the hand of friendship of Indonesia, when its military rebuilds a cyclone damaged school – beginning with its chapel while perpetrating human rights abuses in West Papua?

How do we encounter those who may be completely different from us in behaviour, worldview, gender and age, and yet are the most vulnerable to discrimination and abuse?

How do we encounter and speak truth in love, act as agents of God’s transforming grace in our society?

I don’t have the answers to these questions. What I have is a challenge for us to engage in a continuous reflection on the complexities of living together in the household of God, where some live in fellowship, some live in destructive relationships of inequality and exclusion and find ways to encounter others in that place of doing good, of sharing healing love.

It may be an encounter that brings healing, creates relationships, fosters understanding and leads to liberation.

“Simplicity, Serenity, Spontaneity”.

* Reverend James Bhagwan is an ordained Methodist minister and a citizen journalist. The opinions expressed in this column do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Methodist Church in Fiji or this newspaper.