FaceValues - RESPECT : Respect and Respectibility
Sermon preached at Barclay Church, Edinburgh by Rev D. Graham Leitch
based on materials provided by FaceValues
29 September 2002

I mentioned in the course of the third of the present series of FACEVALUES services last Sunday that, as part of the present FACEVALUES campaign, a series of posters is being used nationwide.

The aim of the posters is to challenge us to reflect upon the kinds of values that inform our judgments and shape our behaviour - not just as individuals in our private lives but in the civic sphere - in society, in public life as well.

What kind of country do we want to be? What kind of foundations will support a just and compassionate, stable yet creative, healthy and happy environment not just for the wealthy, or the so-called “lucky” but for all? What kind of society are we becoming and what kind of civilisation or uncivilisations shall we bequeath to our children?

FACEVALUES - SO FAR
The FACEVALUES campaign - supported by a coalition of Christian churches and organisation and co-ordinated by the Evangelical Alliance - is an invitation to consider, pray about reflect upon, these very important questions.

A couple of weeks ago the theme of our service was FORGIVENESS. Last week it was LOVE - and the poster it was based on showed the bruised face of a woman - a victim of domestic abuse.

WHO DO YOU RESPECT?
The subject of our service today is RESPECT. And the question on the poster is “Who do YOU respect?” The image is of a homeless person or rough sleeper.

“Just look at him!” a passing woman comments, looking down her nose. Some simply pretend not to see him. Others give him a wide berth. Most rough sleepers are no stranger to the cold-shoulder and contempt of passers by!!

Who DO we respect? And why?

The rough sleeper in our picture has a notice in brown cardboard propped up in front of him - it says “I am a person!” His dog has no need of a notice though - everyone knows a dog when they see one!!

The rough sleepers notice isn’t to remind him he’s a person - it’s there to remind others, because some will discount him, write him off. He even gets the feeling sometimes he’s worth less than his dog!!

RESPECT is about the esteem in which we hold a person, the honour or deference we accord them - whether we VALUE them or not. Everyone one doesn’t see things the same way when it comes to respect.

Young people may not just respect but idolise “pop stars” and “sports celebrities.” Older people tend to respect the professions; not so much in the city but still in the country the squire or the laird is deferred to - and with older people the Royal Family tends to get a higher rating.

In the “respect stakes” politicians, whose skill at not answering the questions they’re asked is matched by their capacity to face two ways at once and lie convincingly - tend not to score too highly.

Who, then, do we respect? And why?

In general, it’s probably true that people tend to respect those who are SUCCESSFUL - provided that their success is the result of hard work and honest effort and is worn lightly. That is, the higher up in the pile you are, the more RESPECT you gain.

But, of course, the problem with this is where it leaves the rough sleep in our picture - perceived as lying at the bottom of the ladder - a “layabout” not even on the bottom rung!!
One of the radical challenges of the Bible and of the teachings of Jesus is that their notion of RESPECT leans more in the direction of the rough sleeper than the self-made man. In Christian thinking we are to respect others because of WHO they are as human beings - not for what they have achieved.

IN HIS IMAGE
The Bible tells us at its beginning, in the Book of Genesis, that God created human persons “in his image” Though defaced by the human disobedience the Bible calls sin, though distorted, this image remains. It has not been destroyed. It is over-written, but it has not been obliterated!!

The words IN HIS IMAGE are written into the warp and woof of humankind. Nowhere does the Bible say that God’s image is only borne by some. It is, rather, an inherent characteristic of human-ness regardless of race, colour, age, gender or any other distinction

The rough sleeper’s “I am a person” is thus to be seen as a statement of his unique worth and value as an individual which is dependent not upon wealth (which is not copious), his intellectual capacity (which may be dubious) or social status (which is obvious) but upon his identity as an individual made in God’s image - the crown of His creation.

In what is practically a New Testament “Charter of Respect” Peter in one of his letters tells us:

“Show proper respect to everyone; love the brotherhood, fear God, honour the king.”

We have particular duty of love towards one another as Christians; we have a particular towards God, we are to hold Him in great reverence; we have a particular duty towards those who rule or govern too

But notice what Peter mentions first - that we owe PROPER RESPECT to “everyone” - or to say that a bit differently “to every ONE” - to every single unique person on this planet from greatest to least.

To be sure, some people may merit greater respect, just as some may be more easily admired. But EVERY PERSON stamped IN HIS IMAGE is worthy of RESPECT!

This is clearly not how it is in Great Britain today. Just as in the church that James wrote to long ago, in a letter preserved in our New Testament, favouritism is often shown towards the wealthy or powerful and discrimination shown against others -in the case James was discussing, the poor.

Writing to condemn this affront, James reminded the Christians that such discriminatory attitudes and actions are incompatible with what he called “the royal law found in Scripture, ‘love your neighbour as yourself.’”

Because EVERY LIFE is given by God and EVERY LIFE reflects His image, prejudice and discrimination are unacceptable.

It is one of the marks of a healthy society that a PROPER RESPECT for all is maintained. The radical nature of Peter’s “everyone”(“Show proper respect to everyone”) is easily missed:

For one thing, in his day women were commonly treated as sub-human. Jews regarded gentiles as scum and treated them with contempt. And the 60 million slaves in the Roman Empire were defined in law not as persons but as things with no rights whatsoever!

EXHORTATIONS TO RESPECT
The Bible is full of exhortations to respect - children are exhorted to respect their parents and the young the old; equally parents are to respect their children and treat them with consideration. In the Christian scheme of things, marriage is sustained as much by mutual respect as by erotic love and affection. Women are to be honoured, not abused and slaves (employees of the day) are to be treated with humanity and compassion.

In Jesus’ life and teachings, in particular, we see a special respect for the reject and self-denying love for the unlovely.

The question is whether the criteria we use to decide who we respect are inclusive enough.

Too often those with no respect for themselves suffer because no-one treats them with dignity, respects them or affirms their divine origin or human value. Christians today should be at the forefront here and Christian history affords inspirational examples:

FRANCIS OF ASSISI
Francis of Assisi came from a background of privilege and wealth. His promising military career was cut short when he was captured and imprisoned for a year. In prison he fell ill and almost died. Reflecting upon his own mortality, he considered deeply the meaning and purpose of life.

After his release he began to explore Christianity and eventually gave his life to Christ.

Soon after he met a leper on the road. Initially revulsed he then saw the leper through redeemed eyes - it might be said with the eyes of Christ - and so, with great openness, he embraced the leper and immediately gave him all he had.

Thereafter his whole life - like the Franciscan order named after him - was devoted to the unconditional love of the poor, outcast and rejected.

WILLIAM WILBERFORCE
William Wilberforce is another example- the son of a rich merchant who became a Christian in his adult years, Wilberforce was elected to Parliament in 1780 where he defended the rights and needs of oppressed minorities for 45 years. But he’s best known for his commitment to the abolition of slavery and the slave trade. In this he was opposed by powerful and wealthy vested interests but he persevered and the reason is simple:

He was convinced that the bestial trade in human beings was “contrary to the principles of justice and the law of God” Trading in human beings is the opposite of showing them respect.

THE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY
Lord Shaftesbury was another Christian politician driven by a conviction that every human being should be accorded dignity and treated with respect as made in the divine image. During his political career Shaftesbury was responsible for three Factory Acts which raised health and safety standards, a Coal Mines Acts which stopped the degrading treatment and employment of children underground. He also pioneered the Ragged Schools Union -now known as the Shaftesbury Society - to provide elementary education for orphans and the children of poor homes.

MOTHER THERESA
Or there’s Mother Theresa - probably one of the best known contemporary examples of an individual who showed respect to those whom others ignored or regarded as outcasts.

Born into an Albanian Catholic family, she eagerly served the poor even as a child. At the age of 18 she joined a mission in Calcutta where she spend most of the rest of her life. To begin with, armed only with bars of soap and faith, she simply began to teach mothers hygiene and how to wash their babies. By the end of her life her work had expanded to teaching children to read and write, opening schools for the poor and the work in Calcutta’s slums for which she is now famous - caring for people who were dying, according them respect as individuals made in the divine image - the impoverished, the leper., those stricken with aids, the lonely and the unborn.

To emulate them and be for our gerneration what they were for theirs is the Christian’s calling today!

The pioneering Christians whose lives we focussed on earlier have one thing in common - their lives were given to God and their actions inspired by the belief that, from the greatest to the least, every human person has the dignity of being “godlike” and is entitled to respect, regardless of their social status or human condition.

That respect led them to care for the poor, to seek justice for the defenceless, to confer dignity upon the outcast and to fight for the rights and cpmmit themselves to the care of the disadvantaged - those upon whom the rest of society had trurned their back.

HOW CAN WE BE LIKE THEM?
The capacity to show respect to people who are different from us - who don’t conform to our behavioural norms, is essential in a world in which “difference” is ever more evident. Respect for others is an essential value if society is not to fragmented and end up at war with itself - especially in a multi-cultural society.

It’s strange that in a society which places such an emphasis upon freedom and self-expression; in a society which bends over backwards to be tolerant -there is sometimes so little RESPECT.

The fact that we admire the pioneering and persevering work of Mother Theresa doesn't mean that we emulate her. An obvious example is the way most of us responded to people with AIDS until Princess Diana showed us up.

In churches we often appear to expect people to behave like us before we accept them - before we are prepared to allow them to belong. But being treated as an unwelcome outsider is not the best way to help people to hear the good news and come to faith. So our attitudes towards others is of critical importance in helping or hindering the birth of faith and the beginnings of Christian discipleship in others.

THE HOMELESS
If we are honest, the rough sleeper in our poster is unlikely to receive a warm welcome and be shown respect in many churches. The reasons why people sleep rough are, of course, complex. It’s prejudice that leads us to suspect that most are simply “wasters” for (as Bethany and other Christian agencies working in the field testify) many are fleeing from violence or abuse at home, have mental health problems or suffer from addictions - and low self-esteem is common.

THE DISABLED
Another group of people sometimes denied the respect they deserve is the disabled. Society, thankfully, has taken certain steps in law to improve the situation and to prevents discrimination but often popular attitudes lag behind.

People with disabilities have sometimes been pushed to the margins of society and prevented from realising their potential.

There are Christians within our own fellowship here who are professionally involved in supporting and caring for those with severe mental and physical disabilities - affirming the dignity of those who must too often live in a twilight world, hidden from view.

ETHNIC MINORITIES
In the same way members of ethnic minority populations still suffer daily insult and abuse which is unacceptable and this lack of respect only tends to hit the headlines when high profile football stars are its target.

Meanwhile it is the case that qualified people from ethnic minority groups are more likely to be out of work; that complaints to the Commission for Racial Equality about job discrimination have doubled in the past ten years; and that black people under 25 (though as British in everything except the colour of their skin) are three times more likely to be unemployed that their white peers.

RACISM is unacceptable in any form and the church - by which I mean the churches - individual congregations including our own - should should be in forefront - leading by example in countering prejudice and building mutual understanding and respect.

IN HIS IMAGE....
Of all these the rough sleeper in our picture is a representative - and to them, as to every human life - a healthy society accords an equal dignity as “god-like creatures”(John Stott) made IN HIS IMAGE.

It is not our calling to see others with the eyes of prejudice or personal preference, but with the eye of God for the sake of the Kingdom of His Son Jesus Christ.

TO THIS WE SHOULD COMMIT OURSELVES. TO THIS WE SHOUD GIVE OURSELVES. FOR THIS WE SHOULD DENY OURSELVES!

Amen