The joyful but heavy cost of discipleship

 ‘…Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. ..’ (Luke 14:27)

Luke 14:25-33 (Year C: Trinity+15)

Living in troubled times

At the time Luke wrote this gospel – very approximately 40 years after the life, ministry, death and resurrection of Jesus – the nascent Christian community (some scholars use the expression ‘Jesus movement’) was under fire on all sides. Many families, friendships, synagogues were split down the middle.  The appearance of Christian communities in many of the seaside towns of the Eastern Mediterranean posed challenges not only for the Jewish diaspora in places like Corinth or Rome but for the Roman authorities who had only one King and their own imperial gods. Who was Luke writing for? This passage is unique to Luke and suggests that life was particularly stressful for his audiences and sources. There is, however, a similar saying in Matthew 10:37 although the latter omits any mention of a disciple’s spouse and, instead of having the word ‘hate’ it uses the expression ‘love more’. Luke, clearly, drew on Matthew or some source common to Luke and Matthew. Did Luke lay on the emphasis and list of forgoing persons in light of the author’s audience or actual political situation confronting gentile Christians in around 70 A.D.?

Mention of taking up one’s cross is found in all three synoptic gospels and was part of our everyday language up to a generation ago.  As in all the four gospels, to follow Jesus openly or in secret was no picnic to use a modern colloquial phrase.  Perhaps it was not terribly unlike the predicament of hundreds of thousands of Christians, today, in Pakistan, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Egypt …. not to mention the other persecuted minorities or majorities as the case may be including millions of Muslims. 

Following a leader and pioneer like Jesus takes guts and lots of passion and love.

A discipleship that makes demands of everyone

The really tricky part of Christian discipleship is that it makes demands on us in both private and public spheres. It makes demands of us in the ‘market place’ of economics, politics, commerce, etc. That we denounce injustice, live to our principles and work tirelessly for the coming of Kingdom values in our earthly kingdoms is one thing. To face the challenges of Christian discipleship in our own personal, private, familial and intimate lives is a whole different story. That’s where the ‘rubber hits the road’. 

The word ‘hate’ is a strong word. Yet, that is how those who translated the saying of Jesus in this passage of Luke wrote it. The notion of ‘hating’ anyone but especially ‘father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters’ seems repugnant to us. But, wait for it – hear that Jesus refers to hating ‘even life itself’ as a mark of discipleship. Taken literally and without context, these verses can be used (and are used) by dangerous religious cults to justify all types of ungodly and inhuman behaviour. This is not the purpose or meaning of this passage of Luke.  The point is that in following Jesus we must be prepared to put this following before all else. For some it may mean following a community path of lifelong celibacy in some specific calling. For others it may mean undergoing enormous risks to one’s life even if others are implicated as well. A family man, saint Thomas More said just before his execution, in 1553, ‘I die the King’s good servant, but God’s first”. He was not to succumb to persecution.  Likewise Thomas Cranmer who was on the opposite side of the reformation refused, ultimately, to succumb to persecution from the other side of that great tragedy.

There is a place in every person’s heart and informed conscience where only God can go and where our final, ultimate decisions are made in the face of God and for which we take full responsibility no matter what.

Perhaps a more faithful translation of the sense of the original Semitic saying lying behind the Greek word misei for ‘hate’ in Luke 14:26 is ‘to love less than’.  Discipleship is, indeed, a very costly business and in the ultimate of situations we are called upon to be ready to sacrifice even our very own lives. Thankfully, not many of us will be called on to do this, literally. But, we are urged to lay down our lives in love for each other and that includes those in our immediate families and circles.

What we have started we must finish with God’s help. The sight of unfinished buildings was familiar to many in Ireland after the Great Recession of 2008-2010. So it is in the life of discipleship – we should be ready to take risks and not to count the cost. Then again, we should reflect on the possible or likely cost at the outset in discerning a particular discipleship path to follow lest we start only to leave the job half-done. After all discipleship was never an easy thing or an extra hobby. It is a life-long, life-wide and life-deep learning with joys and tribulations on the way as the original word signalled.

Living from now on without regrets

Jeshua (he-who-saves), Jesus, came to save, to redeem, to restore, to unite, to reconcile. Yet, his message and his sending of us can, sometimes, have the altogether unintended and tragic consequence of disrupting and tearing people apart because not everyone will accept this message. Moreover, the message may be ‘lost in translation’ or even cancelled out by the very bad behaviour of many Christians over the ages and today. I am not sure about you but I think that many of us would ‘do things differently’ if we were able to go back to the beginning of our lives. But, it took many years for us to learn this!  And, we still have a chance to start again today, now in such a way that we do not have regrets at the end of our lives whenever that will be.

“I slept and I dreamed that life is all joy. I woke and I saw that life is all service. I served and I saw that service is joy.” Kahlil Gibran

Servant of all

 ‘…For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted,..’ (Luke 14:11)

                                                      Pic: Carmelites online commentary on mass readings

Luke 14:1-14 (Year C: Trinity+14)

No mincing of words

This week’s account from Luke has Jesus in more trouble with the religious authorities. It never ends. In last week’s reading, he stood up to them on the question of the Sabbath. Now we have another story set on the day of the Sabbath. This time, Jesus is sitting to dinner while the hosts are ‘watching him closely’. Among the pleasant company at that meal were the ‘lawyers and Pharisees’ whom Jesus had already put in their place on more than one occasion. Jesus did not mince his words in last week’s story by using the words ‘you hypocrites’ (although it should be pointed out that Jesus did not speak in English – not even Elizabethan English) to some of the synagogue brethren.  Surely not an approach to win many friends and influence the influential!.

Although this Sunday’s reading is edited to omit verses 2-6 which involved yet another miracle – this time of a man with dropsy (nowadays referred to as a condition of swelling due to excess water caused by some failure in the body) who was healed on the spot and sent away – the healing story links last Sunday healing story with this Sunday’s teaching by Jesus on the role of true authority and service. Someone with a condition of bodily swelling was possibly excluded from the festive table on the Sabbath on grounds of ritual impurity. In those times many persons were excluded for one reason or another just as they are today but for the same or different reasons.  Added to the story of the healing of the man is a parable about a banquet where someone presumed a place at the top table only to be shown where to go. Tagged on is another parable about banquet invitations. Jesus commends open invitations with a preference for the poor, the dispossessed and the marginalised – all of whom cannot ‘repay’ the host.

So, there is a thread running through all of this – compassion trumps a false moral absolutism; compassion leads us to service and not self-promotion; and in service we seek out those in need and not those who will advance our agenda of self-interest. It is about others and not us.

Playing hierarchy

In the parable, the guests were already lining up and taking their places at table in rank order.  Just like a wedding or funeral ritual in many cultures. So-and-so must sit beside the Mayor while the priest’s husband must sit beside another so-and-so and so on… Humans love this sort of thing and nothing like a bit of liturgy for dressing up and playing hierarchy! (see Mark 12:38-39). Moreover, in the Greek, Roman and Jewish customs of the time place of honour, social respectability and family belonging were everything. To ‘lose face’ especially in being demoted to a lower place in the social hierarchy was a big deal.   Jesus was not necessarily attacking the ritual of social hierarchy such as it was or may be today. Rather, he was making a fundamental point that anyone who finds himself or herself in a place of honour by virtue of social status or education or anything else is there to serve the common good. This is service leadership and its goes to the core of Christian discipleship. 

Like the mother of John and James (see Matthew 20:20-28) one might seek the ‘first place’ or the ‘top place’ – we are only human – will we, however, accept the call to serve, to suffer, to follow, to be with, to be behind, to be ahead, to go against the current and to bear the pain and price of some role of leadership and ministry-service (same word really)? Will we allow ourselves to be led in relation to where the community sees our service than presume it for ourselves? Will we respond to a call to ‘do good’ and ‘save life’ (Luke 6:9) in the communities where we are planted and, possibly, beyond following discernment? Will we see the value and necessity of what is to done in this frail community at this opportune time and in this way? Perhaps not what we thought or expected? Or, will we seek to ‘choose the places of honour’ (v.7)?  We might choose our own place but God, working through others, has a remarkable capacity to undo some of our choices.

And after all that we might walk away because ‘it is too hard’ or because others have told us that it is too hard and that we are not right for the task by virtue of our height, our age, our sex, our accent, our level of formal education, our disabilities and fragilities, our orientation or our past life. The Holy Spirit has ways around man-made rules and perceptions and standards and surprises us all the time.

Choosing the last place

So, if we seek fulfilment of our deepest wishes to be of service then choose the ‘last place’ and do no presume anything else. God will look after the rest. He is present in our churches – challenging as that may be to see at times. The ‘reward’ for love is love. Knowing that we have loved and that we are loved is everything when we come to the eternal banquet at the end of our lives.

The evangelist Mark (9.35) sums up what Luke is telling here by way of parable:

Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.

In a different context St Paul writes (1 Corinthians 9:19):

For though I am free with respect to all, I have made myself a slave to all, so that I might win more of them.

Seen, called and healed

‘…Woman, you are set free from your ailment ..’ (Luke 13:12)

Luke 13:10-17 (Year C: Trinity+13)

Sundays yesterday and today

Sunday used to be a time to meet up, to rest, to enjoy, to converse, to visit, to savour, to have a sing-song in a neighbour’s house and marvel at nature.  That is, Sunday in the rare auld times it might be said before 24 hour shopping, multi-channel TV and web surfing arrived. In secular France it is still a bit like Ireland in the rare auld times at least on Sunday mornings thanks to Gallic stubbornness in the face of global market pressure.

Here in Ireland, the political anoraks revel in gloomy current affair arguments first thing on Sunday morning while Ma and Da are frantically driving here and there to children’s sports events 50 Km away at 10am on Sunday morning. The regrettable arrival of ‘Saturday night mass’ in the early 1980s for the dwindling minority that attend church every Sunday was the last straw for Sunday morning gatherings especially in some areas and traditions (notwithstanding the good intentions and liturgical propriety of beginning – but not terminating – a celebration of the Lord’s resurrection on the eve of Sunday).

Of course, in addition to retail, hospitality and other Sunday workers there are millions of nurses, police officers, transport workers and others across the world doing essential work that we can often assume or take for granted until we find ourselves in a particular need.

Setting the scene

healing on the sabbath

This Sunday’s story is unique, among the Gospels, to that of Luke. You have already guessed correctly: a woman features in this story.  It is a Saturday when every Jew is expected to rest and do no ‘work’ (in modern day Israel the ‘weekend’ comprises Saturday and Friday the latter being availed of by Muslims). And Jesus lands himself in trouble – again – and it is over what a decent and respectable Jew should be doing or not doing on a Sabbath day (see, for example, another Sabbath spat with the religious authorities in Luke 6:6-11).

Now the word Sabbath is derives from the Hebrew word Sabat which means to stop, to cease or to keep.  And, so we have the seventh day of the week or the seventh week after every seven Sabbaths or the Sabbath year in which the land is left to rest from sowing. And after 49 years there is a Sabbath year during which, in biblical times, slaves and prisoners were set free and debts forgiven. God rested on the seventh day after ‘six days’ of creating. We, too, need to rest and stop regularly. Some of us are enjoying the August sabat here in the Northern Hemisphere.  Christians, in a way, still acknowledge the ‘last day of the week’ or the Sabbath that Jesus valued. After all, our ‘first day of the week’ – the day of the resurrection when we meet, hear, give thanks, break bread and are sent out again – begins liturgically on Saturday evening and lasts until Sunday evening.

So, what was Jesus doing on this particular Sabbath? He was ‘teaching in one of the synagogues’.  That’s what any decent Jewish Rabbi would do. But, a woman arrives on the scene. We are told that ‘a spirit’ had ‘crippled her for eighteen years’ and that ‘she was bent over and was quite unable to stand up straight’ (v. 11). There followed an extraordinary episode and conversation. Jesus ‘saw’, ‘called’ and ‘set free’.

• He saw a person in pain and in a prison of social disdain.
• He called that person over in front of everyone.
• He set that person free from her ailment to the astonishment of all present.

The woman who was healed stood up straight in confidence.  She was able to stand her ground now and would never forget this moment. She immediately ‘began praising God’ (v. 13

We see and yet we don’t see. To see/guess/intuit the need of another next door, by the bus stop, in the pew at church is a great gift. We don’t need to be fussy busy bodies stirring up conversations or gestures that are more annoying than helpful. Yet, to offer a smile, a helping hand or even just a look to acknowledge the check-out worker at the supermarket and not just some anonymous being is a work of compassion.

Compassion first

The point about Jesus healing on the Sabbath is that proclaiming the world of God, reaching out and healing are all linked in. The authorities that Jesus had to contend with had forgotten the meaning of Sabbath or, rather, had turned it into an absolute thing to which all else including human compassion must bow. This was the death of true religion – the placing of good principles and laws on a pedestal to the exclusion of all else.  Religious persons had forgotten that what God wants is mercy, compassion, and love. Yes, Jesus could have waited another 24 hours or so before healing this woman. But that was not the point.  Jesus was showing them and us that God is master of the Sabbath and along with it the 100s of other rules and conventions summed up in one command – to love God with all our heart and to love our neighbour in the here and now.  We, too, are in need of healing. Perhaps we need healing from our false gods?  Do we need to be healed from absolutes, reified traditions, literalism and disregard for real people in our present day real world? If we think that we are confronted with an awful choice between ‘obeying God’ means and genuinely helping someone then the answer is clear: to help someone in need is to obey God!

The keeping of the Sabbath is one of the Ten Commandments for all Christians and Jews alike. However, Jews and Christians, alike, have 9 other commandments to work on in such manner that all is in harmony!  In a letter to the early Christians in Rome St Paul writes (Romans 13:8-10):

 Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. The commandments, ‘You shall not commit adultery; You shall not murder; You shall not steal; You shall not covet’; and any other commandment, are summed up in this word, ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ Love does no wrong to a neighbour; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law.

There is the meaning of Sabbath – it means stopping from our normal routine and work but not stopping to offer help, support, encouragement and – who knows – healing as well. 

The special place of the Eucharist in healing

Thinking about healing – we may ask what is the special place of the special weekly gathering for Christians on the day of the Lord’s resurrection? That place in the weekly calendar is a very precious moment in our busy weeks to come before a compassionate God who delights to see us, hear us and touch us. This is why, for many Christians, the idea of celebrating the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus on the Sabbath day with the Eucharist make complete sense. We know from Acts 2:46 that the disciples met to break bread and pray together very regularly (it reads as ‘Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home [some translations have ‘from house to house’] and ate their food with glad and generous hearts’).

While the New Testament does not specify how often the early disciples met to break bread it was a normal and regular part of their gathering and the association of what was to become the new Sabbath of the ‘Lord’s own day’ and the Eucharist is testified in a number of early sources such as, for example, the Didache (14.1) we read that

And on the Lord's own day gather yourselves together and break bread and give thanks, first confessing your transgressions, that your sacrifice may be pure.

I approach the matter not as some obligation laid down but, rather, a wonderfully amazing opportunity to be part of such a celebration week after week. How could one not resist taking part!  Of course, there are many Christians who cannot participate in the Eucharist for one reason or another (an ordained may not be available within 100 KM or one may be confined to a hospital or a nursing home without access to the Eucharist or in some parts of the world Christians risk their lives meeting together). However, we have little excuse not to celebrate the Eucharist on Resurrection Day if we, as a community, have the means to do it. And what more excellent way to warm up for the Eucharist than a Vigil or early community morning prayer just before the Eucharist!! Some Eastern Christian traditions do Sunday in style by focussing on one major community celebration that is so good that it lasts for hours not including the socialising, partying and eating afterwards! They have never encountered the ‘clear the carpark within the hour’ syndrome.

For those among us who might hesitate ('it has been so long' or 'I am not sure' 'I'd be something of a hypocrite to go and receive' etc.) there is comfort in the following:

‘The Eucharist, although it is the fullness of sacramental life, is not a prize for the perfect but a powerful medicine and nourishment for the weak’ (Pope Francis in Evangelii Gaudium, p40)

No more excuses!

Welcome changes in practice

We may rejoice that there is a renewed appreciation of the Eucharist as ‘the source and summit of the Christian life’ and in the case of some churches in the reformation tradition  the practice of a weekly Sunday Eucharist as the principle service has been recovered. I say recovered because I am not aware of any evidence that the ‘mainstream reformers’ in the 16^th century sought to make the reception of holy communion less frequent. There was a legacy of bad pastoral practice from the late middle ages whereby lay Christians did not receive communion except once or twice a year after a thorough spiritual scan and virus fix!. Given the difficulty of breaking this habit it is understandable that Sunday services omitted the Eucharist for most weeks of the month in the reformation traditions because Eucharist meant a meal as well as a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving.

Meeting today, in the breaking of the Bread and the Word we can be confident that each one of us is personally welcomed and:

Seen
Called
Healed and 

restored to a point where, like the woman in this story, we can stand up with honour and self-respect and are ready for whatever lies ahead.

There is one Chief Host at every eucharistic gathering and He invites us as we are - repentant, seeking and ready to receive and begin again.

The Eucharist can be a great time of healing because it is physical and ‘real-time’ in the way of a sacrament that involves outward signs and actions as channels of inward grace and healing.

It is time to hear the call this morning and go there. What a privilege if we have legs to walk, ears to hear and mouths to speak and receive and a place to meet where Word and Bread of Life are broken and the Wine of Joy is poured. 

For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. (1 Corinthians 11:26)

Happy Sabbath!

Why our churches are often empty?

 ‘…I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! ..’ (Luke 12:49)

Luke 12:49-53 (Year C: Trinity+12)

Religion never had a great press. Yet, contrary to the ‘death of religion’ claimants religion refuses to go away. Neither technology, science, economic growth, state coercion or the latest wave of ‘religiously’ motivated hatred and terrorism has succeeded in removing religious consciousness and belonging from the landscape.  In fact, history might suggest that in some cases the best way to secure a country for a particular religion may be to outlaw it entirely or persecute its followers as Britain, to its peril, discovered after the reformation and especially on the other little island to the west of it. Countries like France and Spain had more success in securing their territories and expelling (if not liquidating) Protestants a few of whom settled in Ireland. Switzerland and Germany resolved the matter by means of war and population segmentation. Here in Ireland a cruel, destructive and anti-Christian form of ethno-religious cleansing was in operation until the 1960s. It was called Ne Temere. Even when the rules were relaxed in the early 1970s many dioceses in Ireland continued with a rigorist application of norms that had been abandoned in other countries.

Today, religion is undergoing something of a revival in many parts of the world. For example, in Latin America millions are flocking to various evangelical and Pentecostal churches. Here in Dublin house churches and Sunday bible meetings are silently and discretely springing up across the city. The periodic World Youth Days among other events point to a vibrancy in the Roman Catholic church.  Yet, there is clear and undeniable attrition in church attendance and this is affecting all the mainline Christian churches. The trend is bucked here and there and there are ‘fresh expressions’ as well as more traditionalist revivals in a few places. But, there is no mistaking it – European countries have seen a dramatic shift in religious practice and belief in the space of one generation and Ireland is now fast catching up.

When I grew up in the 1960s and early 1970s it took a courageous person to not go to mass every Sunday or attend Church as the case may be. Today, especially among the very young, to declare that one is a regular church-goer takes courage. In some places and churches the age profile of congregations has shifted so much that hardly anyone between the ages of 15 and 35 are in regular attendance. In these cases, easily over 50% of a dwindling congregation is over the age of 50 (and 100% if the service is before 10am!).

A lingering thirst

But, there seems to be a lingering, unquenchable longing among people young and old to believe in something, to belong to something, to hope for something. Ireland is now ripe for mission except it will take a radically different approach to what was used in the past. Certainly, bible-thumping, episcopal edicts, censoring and excommunications will not work (did they ever?)

Add to this the drip-drip of scandals emanating from religious houses and hierarchies. If it is not about Sex it is about Doctrine with a large D (or people’s notion of Doctrine).  And if it is not about Sex and Doctrine (but it usually is), it is about Power. While it would be unfair to blame the male species in general for this sorry state of affairs there appears to be some link between ideas of dominance, power, sex, maleness and Correct Teaching. Yet, ‘religion’ according to its root meaning is to religare – to bind together in relationship.  A false dichotomy of ‘religion’ and ‘spirituality’ – though popular – is misleading. Religion needs spirituality to connect us to God and one another. Spirituality needs religion because we are social beings and we need ritual, tradition and formal togetherness.

Luke 12 is relevant

So, to hear Jesus proclaiming in Luke that he had come to bring division and not peace is shocking. It almost fits the 21^st century Dawkinsian stereotype of religion. However, we know from our thoughtful and prayerful reading of the scriptures as well as our lived experience together in the world today that the Christian religion – as with other great religions including Judaism, Islam, Buddhism and others – is about bringing people together in belief, thankfulness and worshipfulness and in ways that should help everyone to live better, more wholesome (which is what holiness is really about) and more fulfilling lives.  Just because a few nutcases – and some very evil nutcases in still fewer cases – continue to give religion a bad name we should be mindful of the ‘good news’ that not only has God come to save and to set free but the overwhelming witness and impact of the Christian gospel when it is lived out in the world is very, very positive.

The point of the Christian religion is that Jesus came to save and that is what he does today in our personal lives, relationships and societies around us. In what sense, is the Christian message a source of division? The reality is that not everyone sees this way. Moreover, people mispresent and ill-judge what we say and what we do and what we do not say and do not do (but should say and do). Sadly, it can happen that our following of the way of Jesus according to those specific inspirations, talents and very personal insights gives rise to scandal, controversy, division and even ‘schism’. Thus it was so at the beginning of the Jesus movement in the 1^st century and thus it shall be when we are long gone and others will take up the mantle.

Peace not division

To repeat – the purpose of Jesus Christ is not to bring division, disharmony and conflict. Rather, it is to save and to enkindle a freedom, a peace and a joy in the heart. But it will happen that through human frailty and limitations (ours and that of others) discipleship including discipleship poorly applied may lead us into situations of disharmony, disunity and conflict.  If this was the experience of our Lord then we are not above this experience ourselves. After all, did He not say:

and one’s foes will be members of one’s own household (Matthew 10:36)

It is inevitable that if we wish to follow the path of discipleship without compromise then we will face opposition, judgment, exclusion and misunderstanding. The spirit of contention and rivalry is not absent from our churches and associated communities. However, the grace to keep going, to keep believing and to keep positive is given to those who will turn to God in prayer early, late and often. In the frequency of prayer, friendship of soul and recourse to the sacraments we can hold on and be witnesses to a reconciliation and trust where we are. But, the key to a church community that is really alive and therefore reaching out to others as a sent people is love.

What is the meaning of ‘fire’?

The point about fire is that it can bring warmth, energy and light. It can also destroy, hurt and kill. Then again it can purify, cleanse and separate.  In Luke-Acts we read of fire, the Holy Spirit and prayer all in one go. 

Jesus said he has come ‘to bring fire to the earth’. He ardently longed that this fire were ‘already kindled!’ (v. 49)

So, that fire was not kindled at least when Jesus spoke to his disciples, according to Luke.  Could Jesus say of us today in our homes, workplaces and other places of gathering:

‘how I wish it were already kindled’ (there)

…and in our churches and places of worship, ministry and mission. Now to be ‘on fire’ does not necessarily mean dancing around the place and speaking in tongues and helping animate uplifting gospel rock concerts (it could indeed mean all these things in the right measure, time and place). ‘To be on fire’ means that no authority on earth can prevent the community gathered in the name of Jesus from proclaiming his love and power. It means facing the real danger of death as huge numbers of our brothers and sisters do this morning when churches are bombed or burnt down (a daily occurrence that receives little or no attention in the Western media). It also means living in such a way that others can truly say, viz, that we really love on another (John 13:35) and the pagan world was forced to say ‘see how they love one another’ (Tertullian). Christianity spread in the first place, not by conquering (that sadly did happen over time) but through the power of its attraction to everyone around. Unconditional love ‘unto death’ was real and palpable just as it is today and not just in those war-torn places where believers are being martyred daily. The reality that we must face, here in the West and in the Northern hemisphere, is that worship, ministry and mission are largely empty unless they are accompanied by the witness of Christian communities that are fully alive in such manner that the Dawkinsians have to acknowledge ‘see how they really do love one another’.

If someone, somewhere wants to renew a seminary, a parish committee, a marriage or a relationship, an organisation where do we start? The answer is in John 13:35

 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.

That is not to over-simplify the matter because over and beyond all the theories, reports and action plans it is as simple as that.

Just imagine that we lived as Christians who really loved one another?

Just imagine that we welcomed one another showing appreciation, love and respect?

Just imagine that our homes, schools, churches and workplaces were places of genuine kindness and concern for others?

Just imagine if we sought the common good rather than our own selfish interests?

Just imagine if we gave priority to the weakest, the despised, the excluded, the poor, the odd, the ‘not-one-of-us’?

Just imagine if we really welcomed all people into our communities and places of worship?

Just imagine if we actually listened, together, to God in his Word and not our own constructions of meaning and groupthink?

Just imagine if we were so much on fire with the love of God poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit that people saw it, heard it, touched it, were touched by it, witnessed it and felt it in the way we treated each other and others not of our persuasion?

Just imagine if we spoke to each other in a way that encourages and builds up rather than tears down or belittle?

Just imagine if a fire were already burning in our hearts and in our churches …

Then would our lives be fulfilled

Our churches full to overcapacity

Our neighbourhoods and workplaces transformed

Our vision renewed

Our faith restored.

What you least expect

 ‘…Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. ..’ (Luke 12:32)

Luke 12:32-48 (Year C: Trinity+11)

Something that makes life interesting and challenging is uncertainty.  Nobody can predict what tomorrow will bring.  Suppose someone had predicted, for example, thirty years ago on the 7^th of August 1986 that:

• The Berlin Wall would be gone within 5 years (and pretty much ‘without a shot’ being fired);
• The Republic of Ireland would be among the richest in the world within a generation (measurement problems aside);
• Some of the main protagonists in the ‘Troubles’ in Northern Ireland would be sharing Government in a place called Stormont (with the British Union Flag still flying there at least some days of the year);
• Within thirty years a referendum to approve equal marriage rights for gay and straight in the Republic of Ireland would be overwhelmingly passed across the Republic of Ireland (with all constituencies, bar one, approving the proposal);
• Within a generation we would be able to see, listen to, and talk with our friends and loved ones on the other side of the globe by means of a little gadget in our pocket called a ‘smartphone’….(and be able to predict the time of the next bus with an accuracy of a minute– one remembers those long waits in the rain for what seemed like hours in times past)…..

Such a person would be regarded as a complete fantasist.  Yet, the unimaginable happened while those things we most feared did not (at least from the vantage of summer of 1986) from the very real possibility of a nuclear holocaust before the end of the last century or the possibility at least some years prior to that in the 1970s of an escalation in the ‘Troubles’ in Northern Ireland to an all-out civil war across the whole island.

So it is in life. That which we fear and worry about the most very often does not happen or materialise. That which we never thought of or imagined happens. Life is full of surprises – joyful, pleasant, horrible and all else in between.  We cannot control the flow of world events. Neither can we control what is happening around us in our families, personal relationships and neighbourhoods. However, we can do something about our response to unexpected developments. We can also think and act and speak in such a manner that paves the way for different outcomes or possibilities, if not now, then in the future. We can also trust in a higher love and purpose.

The thrust of this week’s long passage from chapter 12 is the use of parables and conversations to emphasise three things:

• Peace of mind
• Trust
• Readiness

Take peace first. We worry about this and that from putting any food on the table (and lets face it many of us don’t have worries in that regard) to worry about the future of the world with all that is happening. The good news is that it was always like this and we need to get used to uncertainty.  The not so good news is that we can only be certain of three things in life (aside from taxation!):

• Getting older
• Getting sick
• Dying

Charming!  To the one who has no expectations beyond the seen world of this life it is a question of ‘living life to the full’ while one has it. Nothing wrong with that.  However, there is a more to life than the standard lifecycle of development and mile-stoning from cradle to grave. There is a silent current running through our lives making sense of it and gently nudging us forward and landing us in surprises and challenges we probably never thought of in the past. Look at it this way – whatever is worrying me will either happen or it will not happen. If there is something you can do to avert it then do it. If not why worry? It might not even happen. But if it does we have faith to cling on to that all is for the better in the long-run and God-who-is-love will see to it that ‘all shall be well and all manners of things shall be well’ (as the famous English mystic, Julian of Norwich, wrote in the 14th century (in Chapter XXVII of Revelations of Divine Love).

So, this gospel invites us to:

• Be patient
• To wait
• To trust
• To be ready
• To keep on going as we wait and seek

We only have so much time in this short life.  This truth becomes more and more apparent as the years and the decades roll by for us who are of an age. But, age is in some ways illusory and so is time. Culture and Commerce dictate that someone must work or must retire and such and such an age set by German actuarial analysis in the 19^th century. Time is relative and so is age. Much has been given to us (verse 48) and much is rightly expected of us.  May we be open books and the change we wish to see no matter what stage of our journey we are on. However, it is certain that you, reading this, and me writing this, have 365 days to enjoy/serve/love/create here in this world than was the case in August 2015. #JustSaying as it says on twitter!

Nowadays people do time management courses.  In other words they take up time to study how better to use it. The odd thing about the incarnation is that God chose his son to spend around 33 years of life in a backwater of the Roman Empire among a specially chosen people. However, of these 33 years some 30 years were spent in relative anonymity and obscurity while 3 years were spent preaching, healing, declaring and assembling.  And then the whole matter was resolved in three days after which the rest is living history. So there we have a lesson in time management!  If we stick with our core, essential and life-affirming goals every day and keep these rocks in the jar then the sands of other things may be poured in if there is space.

Another way of looking at this is to relate the act of being ready and vigilant to being totally given in the present moment. Think of a child playing on the beach this somewhere this August as she creatively makes castles and homes. She is completely absorbed in the pleasure of task. Past is not relevant. The future is not there. Just now.  That child is you, me, us at some point in our own journey perhaps many decades ago.  Now we see the child as an adult – racked by the past and the future and everything besides. Unable to focus properly, to listen, to receive, to give. Pinned on a cross with the past to the left side and the future to the right.

building castles of hope

But, in Luke 12 Jesus shows us the way to restore a presence in the now.  To live the present moment is to live in that moment in freedom and G.R.A.C.E. – Grounded, Relaxed, Attentive, Calm and Enthusiastic. Self-mastery is the fruit of living thus.  But, worry can never be exorcised – at least not entirely.  Only trust in a better future, in a noble purpose and in a higher being can carry us along. In this way, the past is healed, restored and transformed in the here and now.  The future is created only in the present moment. The present moment is the sacrament of God’s loving presence. No need to travel far, to undertake onerous spiritual exercises, to engage in many prayers, to strive and strive again. Rather, see, taste, breathe, hear, touch the present moment.  There God meets us – really. If you are fortunate by reason of means and health to enjoy a vacation at this time of year then enjoy it and build your sand castles of hope!