Who would like the secret of
being rich? How many of us have received
a letter or an email from a wealthy resident of an African country who has
money in a sealed account that they want to get out of the country? If you give them your bank details they
promise to send you a large amount of money, some of which you can keep? Years ago there was a spate of round robin
letters; send the letter to ten friends, £10 to the name at the top of a long
list and in a month or so thousands of pounds will be sent to you.
When a voice in the crowd
calls out to Jesus to help him in a family dispute about an inheritance, we are
treading on familiar ground. The closest
of families can be divided by fallings out over money. The reality is probably that there was
distrust there before, and our attitudes are revealed – brought to the surface
– by how we respond to material things.
So Jesus tells a story. The rich man obviously feels he is giving
himself good advice. He seems to have
large estates and he is maximising his potential for earnings, savings and growth. He is future proofing himself. Or so he thinks. He makes no reference to God or the needs of
others; it is all about him. He thinks
that life – true life – consists of an abundance of possessions, and he is
wrong. He thinks that he is rich, but he
turns out to be poor.
Jesus is not against eating,
drinking and being merry; in fact he is frequently criticised for enjoying food
drink and company. He is concerned that
we encounter God and grow in him.
Paul takes up this theme in
his letter to the Christians living in Colossae. Where is Jesus? He is seated at the right hand of God
(3:1). He is also in us, the settled
promise of glory to come (1:27). Paul
follows on from Jesus’ story about a man who set his heart only on earthly
things with the advice that we set our hearts on “things above”.
What does this mean?
I do not think it means that
we should be “so heavenly minded that we are no earthly good”. “Above” does not mean vertically
higher. The same word is used by Jesus
when he says that we should be “born from above”; it is a struggle to translate
and is often rendered as “born again”. I
suspect that the meaning is something like be “born from the other”. And here in Colossians Paul is telling us to
live our lives with reference to “the other”.
The other? We live in two overlapping worlds. How can we explain this? On 1 September 2006 I set off on pilgrimage
to Santiago de Compostellar. But the
truth is that the pilgrimage really started the year before, when the decision
was made to go. For months I carried on
everyday life, but part of me was researching, planning, preparing. I was rubbing cream on my feet, buying maps,
calculating distances. I was thinking and
praying like a pilgrim.
I suspect something similar
happens when a wedding is announced. The
bride seems to enter a dual universe where life continues as normal, but at the
same time every decision is made with reference to the approaching nuptials.
Much more significantly,
when we were baptised, each of us entered into a new world where Christ reigns
supreme but where we also live amongst those who do not acknowledge this. There is a temptation to go with the rich
farmer and live only on an earthly plane, laughing off any concept of the spiritual
having any effect on the way that we live or make decisions.
There is an equal temptation
to retreat into a spurious spirituality, a parallel world that has no contact
with or relevance to “real life”. Put
bluntly, our worshipping life here can be separated from what we do at home, at
school or at work.
However, we are servants of
Jesus. “For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible
and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through
him and for him.” (1:16)
God “has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death”. (1:22) We
are to celebrate “the glorious
riches of this mystery, which is
Christ in you, the hope of glory.”
(1:27) Again and again we see this
apparent paradox of Jesus bridging any gap between heaven and earth;
simultaneously he is Lord of all.
If
Jesus unites heaven and earth, then so do his followers. We are called to walk with him and in him, open
for all that he has for us. We are
learning fresh ways to think and plan and evaluate. Suppose you are given a luxury world cruise
to look forward to. But you have already
made a reservation at digs somewhere cheap.
Is it not time to cancel that reservation?
There
are those who contend that we are merely highly evolved animals. If that were true, then our chief
preoccupations would properly be procreation and nutrition. In fact we are more caught up in the
corruption of the world as we carry our interest in money, sex and power to
ever greater heights, or depths. Our
task is to live in this creation, revelling in it and enjoying it as a gift
from our Father God, giving him thanks and praising him for it. This is to honour the first commandment, to
have no other Gods before him.
Our
temptation is to find ourselves taking some aspect of the creation and placing
it at the centre of our thoughts and desires, so that our whole being revolves
around it. This is to break the second
commandment and to become idolaters.
How
can we become rich towards God? Open
your eyes to all that he has given you.
Receive gladly forgiveness, a home in glory, and the freedom to choose
now the life of the kingdom. Paul says
that he continually asks “God
to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and
understanding that the Spirit gives, so that you may
live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way:
bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God” (1:9,10). That is something that God does in us and for
us.
Later he says “ Let the peace of Christ rule in
your hearts, since as members of one body you were
called to peace. And be thankful.
Let the message of Christ dwell among
you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through
psalms, hymns, and
songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts.” (3:15,16)
That is something we can do, choosing to school ourselves to follow him
in a daily, hourly pattern of praise and thanksgiving and openness to his word.
No comments:
Post a Comment