What is going on?
A child gets upset with its parent and screams “I hate you! You don’t love me! My life is terrible!”
News Corp, deadly prison break in Mexico, Libya, Syria, Somalia, Sudan, South Sudan, Israel and occupied territories, Tibet, second Japanese nuclear reactor closed down, eight European banks failed a stress test, last heir to the Hapsburg Empire has died, Colin & Chris Weir have won £161m, Italian MPs approve a tough budget, Kurdish rebels kill 13 Turkish soldiers, troops kill Kashmir ‘militants’, Afghan blast kills five civilians, Citigroup profits jump as bad loans turn good ....
Some people face seemingly impossible choices, as Abram did when commanded by God to take his son Isaac for sacrifice.
How are we to make sense of all that is going on the world? So much beauty, so much love and joy, but at the same time so much pain and bewilderment.
Does it mean that all that we see around us is meaningless and random? Should we abandon our trust in an all-loving, all-powerful Father? Or should we retreat into a siege mentality that takes great comfort in the beliefs and practices of our faith, but fails to see how they connect with the realities that we see around us each day?
Jesus and Paul in our readings today show us a different way.
Jesus paints the vivid picture of a farmer subject to industrial sabotage; he has planted wheat and an enemy has also scattered darnel seed, a weed, to clog up the crop. This is a merciful and encouraging parable; Jesus is telling us that there will be a good crop, but that we cannot tell what it is before the final harvest. Judgement will come, and it is a good thing that murder, rape, selfishness, theft, lying, and all the rest will not be left unpunished. Salvation will come for all who have responded to God’s kind offer of eternal life. We, however, do not know or cannot tell who will fall into these categories.
What we do know, however, is that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, who are led by the Spirit of God. We are Spiderman, not Batman: in other words, we do not strap Christianity on like a set of useful gadgets, but we live the life that wells up within us. Paul addresses all of us who would like to come through the judgement: if we have the Spirit in our lives, then we are children of God and we will live forever, because we are united with Christ. Everything that is true of Christ is true of us. He will live forever, so will we. He calls God “Abba, Father”, so do we. He reigns in glory, so do we, at least in principle, in foretaste. Colin & Chris Weir have won £161m; it very probably is not in their bank accounts yet, but they have already started mentally spending the money – they are counting on it. In the same way we are basing our whole existence on being united with Jesus; his Spirit buoys us and comforts us and encourages us. We are one with him.
This means that we are one with his sufferings. The scripture tells us that Jesus suffered and died on the cross for us, once, at a particular moment in history, and our forgiveness and new nature comes to us from that bright flash of salvation history. In a real sense, however, his sufferings go on, in the face of every starving child, abused wife, unjust legal decision, tsunami and earthquake. The whole of creation, marvellous and wonderful, is out of sorts, is imperfect, falls desperately short of what God created it to be.
We do not fully understand why this has been allowed. However, the fact that we feel concern, sorrow, outrage, shame, desperation, is a confirmation that we are truly human. We are echoing the love and concern of our God, who sent his Son, and of Jesus who freely chose to come, and of his Spirit, who feels with us a longing, and an agony to see this world remade as it truly should be.
The word for this is hope, a certainty that God will cause things to turn out well, even though we do not know all the details. It is again to be fully human. It is why stories and films point (nearly) always to the happy ending – we cannot help ourselves, it is the way that God has made us and the way that we have been remade in Christ.
What can we do about this? In one sense, nothing, but to rely upon the work of God’s Spirit in our lives. In another sense, there are tried and tested ways that we can live and walk in the Spirit.
Members of the Community of Aidan and Hilda live by a ten point way of life.
Point 6: Care for Creation
We affirm God's creation as essentially good, but spoilt by the effects of human sin and satanic evil. We therefore respect nature and are committed to seeing it cared for and restored. We aim to be ecologically aware, to pray for God's creation and all his creatures, and to stand against all that would seek to violate or destroy them. We look upon creation as a sacrament, reflecting the glory of God, and seek to meet God through his creation, to bless it, and to celebrate it.
Point 4: Spiritual Initiatives Through Intercession
The Community affirms a world view that recognises the reality of the supernatural and of spiritual warfare. As Cuthbert and others 'stormed the gates of heaven', so we also need to engage in and to become familiar with intercessory prayer. We do not project on to the supernatural what belongs to the sphere of human responsibility. We affirm national initiatives in intercessory prayer.
We can make a difference. This may be in the relatively small ways, becoming a FairTrade Church and paying attention to recycling. It will be in the bigger ways, by committing ourselves to individual and corporate prayer, to see God’s kingdom come, his will be done, on earth, here, now, as it is in heaven. This is to live in hope.
Discussion Starters
1. What novel or film sums up for you a “happy ending”?
2. For you, is this world more a hopeful place or a place of concern?
3. What does it mean to you to be “led by the Spirit”?
4. What particular concern, personal or global, would you like others to join with you in prayer about? Do it now.
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