The contrast of the weather on this small island is truly astonishing. Long forgotten waterways which have been erased from the land by mans ability to landscape, suddenly re-surface when the ground is so waterlogged. Properties that appear landlocked can suddenly emerge as islands in their own right. Our reaction to the storms of life can also be like this. Our fragile personalities, patched together with a number of emotional plasters that keep our public disposition together, can be overwhelmed when the adhesive gets worn out and a new plaster needs to be applied.
This post-Christmas period has been an odd mix of anticipation for the New Year, alongside the continuing worries for what has happened in our lives over the last one. We check out our battlements for any damage against the siege works that have been attacking our inner peace and try to make repairs. We can also see these types of actions taking place in all walks of life. Only this morning (January 2014), right wing newspapers are linking the ability of Romanian and Bulgarian workers to come to the UK and work, as a worrying sign for the future, proving that UK plc. should leave the European Union in order for it to protect its own. Other commentators speak of the amazing work-ethic of Eastern European migrant workers, compared to that of native born British workers, who grumble about doing a full day’s work for their pay.
I suppose it is a similar position to that which the Jews faced when Jesus challenged their birth right as children of Abraham; he questioned their automatic right to the inheritance God offered them for their obedience to the Law. Jesus pointed out that the promise was no longer exclusive to the Jews but open to anyone who believes in him; even those who were previously excluded. It is also reflected in the bible story that Jesus tells of labourers being picked for employment by a vineyard owner who wanted to pay all of his casual employee’s equally:
“God’s
kingdom is like an estate manager who went out early in the morning to hire
workers for his vineyard. They agreed on a wage of a dollar a day, and went to
work. Later, about nine o’clock, the manager saw some other men hanging around
the town square unemployed. He told them to go to work in his vineyard and he
would pay them a fair wage. They went. He did the same thing at noon, and again
at three o’clock. At five o’clock he went back and found still others standing
around. He said, ‘Why are you standing around all day doing nothing?’ They
said, ‘Because no one hired us.’ He told them to go to work in his vineyard.
When the
day’s work was over, the owner of the vineyard instructed his foreman, ‘Call
the workers in and pay them their wages. Start with the last hired and go on to
the first.’ Those hired at five o’clock came up and were each given a dollar.
When those who were hired first saw that, they assumed they would get far more.
But they got the same, each of them one dollar. Taking the dollar, they groused
angrily to the manager, ‘These last workers put in only one easy hour, and you
just made them equal to us, who slaved all day under a scorching sun.’ He
replied to the one speaking for the rest, ‘Friend, I haven’t been unfair. We
agreed on the wage of a dollar, didn’t we? So take it and go. I decided to give
to the one who came last the same as you. Can’t I do what I want with my own
money? Are you going to get stingy because I am generous?’ (Matthew 20:1-16,
The Message)
So here in Matthew’s gospel we read of a similar story to that of our own today. A situation which Jesus had observed in the life of Israel at the time of his ministry. Whenever there is governance, there is taxation. Tax collection was demanded from King Herod who was the nation’s monarchist head of state and also from Caesar, the Roman emperor whose occupying army had captured Jerusalem with Pontius Pilate as Praetor. Taxes were also requested from the Temple authorities so that they could carry out their priestly duties. With this many speculators vying for a slice of their income, it's no wonder that they all wanted to be paid for a fair day’s work and so the story still resonates today.
The story is about the division of wealth and the fairness in distributing the wages as a representation of the number of hours of work provided. In the parable we find that it does not matter to the land owner, when the person began the work, rather that they actually began to work when asked. All were promised payment for working and all received it equally. What is questioned here is the fairness of the landowner’s judgement to offer a full day’s pay regardless of the hours spent working. This really confuses our capitalist society used to hourly rates: the more hours you work, the higher the reward… but this story represents God’s generosity as a fair and honest provider to all people, regardless of how they started the journey.
It is a reminder to Christians that faith isn’t simply about works, rather our work is an expression of faith. The early morning employee’s in the story, faithfully agreed to a payment that the land owner offered and worked according to that agreement. This is the same duty that all Christians have; to be faithfully obedient to use whatever resources available for the building of God’s kingdom within our churches and the communities that we live. In doing so, we reveal more of God’s glory in the lives that we live, than can be gained solely through the amount of persuasive argument we can bring to others about the truth of the Gospel.
Migrant workers want to come to the UK because of the Christian social values that inaugurated the great institutions that make up our civil life. The NHS, education, social security, pension… the list of protections that have been won for people, often at great cost to those involved, is testimony to the humanity of the UK towards the people whom the political leaders are stewards over. This is what is attractive to others about the UK: people have value and will be rewarded for contributing to the society that they are part of.
Many argue that these workers should not have access to all of the benefits available, just as those in the Bible story. They haven’t met the criteria that I had to fulfil, so why then should they be allowed access to full benefits? All I can say is that here in Southend, the whole high street shopping area was restored and repaved due to European money; the seafront itself has had millions of pounds of European money spent to regenerate the area where no government money was available. So yes, UK Plc benefits from EU money and in return, we look after those citizens who chose to come and offer their services to us.
We must always be aware that another’s plight may not be due to their circumstance but rather a necessity. The UK for example, who were keen to go into Syria with a military presence were handicapped by a public vote not intervene in a situation what has now become a civil war. I am in no position to know all of the facts regarding the theology of Muslim doctrine, but it seems similar to that of which the UK suffered between Catholic Christians and Protestant Christians. The religious debate was woven within a political debate for sovereignty over land occupied by rival groups.
The UK government seems to have divorced itself from the conflict by refusing to offer asylum to those Syrians under threat from the civil war. Like in many divorces, some try to win others over with money rather than direct action. However, we can all see from our TV screens, that the level poverty and the desolation of the refugee camps, is something that the people caught up in the conflict should not have to contemplate. I have fussy eating habits and a level of hygiene that when compared to those living in the refugee camps, I have no grounds for complaint. I am relatively pampered considering that I have clean hot and cold water, heating, shelter from the elements, food, I am relatively healthy, and I am not imprisoned for something I have not done. We haven’t got a clue what it means to be persecuted, yet in the UK at least, we moan about all sorts of hardship that is relatively inconsequential when compared to what these refugees endure.
What is terrifying is the level of violence that the warring factions seem to warrant as being justified, often in the name of God. My experience of God does not command me to take up arms. Jesus was the epitome of this when he was arrested and falsely accused by those in the temple, of having a different hermeneutic to that of their own. The consequences being that Jesus was put to death on a cross, fulfilling over 400 prophesies concerning the birth of a Messiah, his death and his resurrection. What was so revelatory about Jesus is that, just as in the parable of the vineyard workers, all who accept his offer, are welcome to receive it and all who make themselves available to be used by him, are worthy.
There is no order or rank for those who choose faith. However, those that do not choose faith are inevitably outside of the grace that God offers. Jesus talks about those being in him as being like sheep following a shepherd and those who choose to remain outside of God's grace as being like goats. Each is treated differently due to their nature. Christians are encouraged to be transformed by the renewal of our minds through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit; to become Christ-like in our attitudes towards all that life throws at us. This has consequences because there are times when we do well at this commission but more frequently, we are found wanting… I know I am often conflicted by my human nature battling with God’s will for me.
We can all blow hot and cold about our faith but do I always choose to do the right thing by God, despite my conflicted emotions? I can tweet one thing but say something completely contrary. I can encourage people in my Facebook messages and my blogs but I can fall at the very first hurdle. A good example of this is the test I experienced this week: On checking my blog post audience within the blogger website, I can see where the people who visited my site have come from. I can also check how the people who have read my blogs, found my little corner of the internet. You can click on these IP addresses to find out which websites my ‘blog-post’ was searched from.
Unfortunately, the link took me from my blog page to a pornography site! I was shocked at the images displayed because I did not expect to find a link using my blog address to access a porn site, or vice versa. Perhaps the link hid the pornographic site from the authorities? I was left with the concern that my post’s had been high-jacked and the security of my blogs were compromised.
What do I do about it? Is it just an innocent link or is it more sinister? What if someone reads my blog and inadvertently goes to the pornography site? What if someone thinks I have ‘hosted this page? I had to make an instant decision to avoid checking my blog page in this way again so that I am not exposed to this type of association. Stealing my ‘url’ or my computer identity to harvest this type of activity is not something I have any experience of.
More importantly for my own spiritual well-being, I need to avoid being lured into this type of activity that acts as a cancer on many men, as well as devaluing the identity of women and putting the innocent exposed to human trafficking in danger. Some might say: ‘you are over-reacting and it is harmless...’ but I don’t agree. There are many men who view women according to their assessment of their body shape and the condition of their libido! Lust is a dangerous desire to feed, regardless of what the focus of your attention is. It corrupts relationships and marriages and destroys that which is wholesome and good.
So I am presented with a choice – an action. I am telling this story so that I put into action, a layer of accountability… the first layer being honesty. It is important to expose that which is hidden to the light of Jesus. We can then sort the bad from the good and turn to God for guidance and direction and avoid having to apply another emotional bandage. As my brothers and sisters in Jesus, it is important that we all learn from each other about how these types of temptations can draw us into unforeseen actions that we later regret and how we can practically deal with it. So together in our church communities, we all have a part to play within the ethical choices that we can make; a kind of conscience… a moral barometer for what is healthy and what is not.
God has revealed
through his son Jesus, the way in which we should seek to live out our lives,
resting in his good grace. As the parable suggests, we are like sheep following
the good shepherd. His way provides the best conditions for our survival in a
world full of predators, preying on our vulnerabilities would want to trip us up at every turn. The shepherd defended the
sheep from every type of attack, providing new pastures and fresh water, moving
to different locations dependent on the season… The shepherd is our best and
only hope for survival in this world so it is in Jesus that I also place my trust
for my journey in the next. The true shepherd is Jesus who gave up his life as a ransom for the sheep.
There is an implication
then in the analogy of sheep and goats, that there will be a time when Jesus
will select the sheep from the goats… that there is a difference between the
two. The difference between the sheep and the goats is reflected
in the decisions that we make in choosing to follow him or to reject his invitation. If I was to choose to
dwell in the pornographic imagery that the web-link brought to my attention
through my blog posts, then I would have made a choice to reject that which is
wholesome and good for my character, in favour of something that would
ultimately corrupt it... I become a goat!
If I ‘knowingly’ choose to linger on the site I had uncovered, clicking through the images and lusting after a sexual encounter with those on the screen, then I have led myself into sin and I instantly shame my God, my wife and myself in that gratuitous lustful action. The fact that I know it is wrong is testament to God’s truth dwelling within me, leaving me with a choice to make. Do I follow the shepherd or follow the herd? Following the herd who might argue '...It's only natural' or suggest 'everyone else does it...', implies that there is nothing wrong with looking at pornography. However, I would argue that the connections we make within our conscious thinking by allowing ourselves to become a voyeur of pornography, has consequences when we deal with people in our ‘real’ encounters within the everyday and the now.
There will be a
multitude of situations presented to us in our every day lives, where we have to choose to be obedient to God. Our ability
to honour Jesus who hung on a cross for our sakes, should always be my number one
choice. Anything else will be second best. Every time I choose second best, I create a fresh wound that needs bandaging, causing further division
between myself and God. At some point, with his help, I will need to dismantle
these bandages through his grace. We can be so blinded by our pursuit of what we feel is right, that
we are unaware of the damage we are causing to ourselves and often, to others.
At some point we
will need to deal with this damage because life on earth is short and we all
need to bring to account the meaning of what our lives have represented. I’m
sure that in old age there are many regrets for what could or might have been.
Jesus would love to protect us from experiencing these regrets but at times we
can be strong willed and believe we are making the best choices, thus rejecting
his help and leaving us exposed to harm.
We are called to
look after the weak and poor, those orphaned and widowed, those who have
experienced great suffering… to these we should show the kind of generosity and
kindness that Jesus spoke of in the parable of the Samaritan man, who came to the
aid of a man he did not know. In the parable, Jesus describes the type of
people who could have helped this man who had been robbed and beaten and left
for dead, but chose not to. Each person described could have been anyone of us
and yet help comes from the most unlikely of places. In the story about the one who would have
been considered an outcast by the Jews who were listening, we find
the message of the Gospel.
“There was once a man traveling from Jerusalem to
Jericho. On the way he was attacked by robbers. They took his clothes, beat him
up, and went off leaving him half-dead. Luckily, a priest was on his way down
the same road, but when he saw him he angled across to the other side. Then a
Levite religious man showed up; he also avoided the injured man.
“A Samaritan traveling the road came on him. When
he saw the man’s condition, his heart went out to him. He gave him first aid,
disinfecting and bandaging his wounds. Then he lifted him onto his donkey, led
him to an inn, and made him comfortable. In the morning he took out two silver
coins and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘take good care of him. If it
costs any more, put it on my bill—I’ll pay you the difference on my way back.’
(Luke 10:30-37, The Message)
Jesus tells this story because he was asked to
identify who his ‘neighbour’ was. Jesus had used Leviticus 19:18 to explain
what the greatest commandments were. The first being to love God with all of
your heart. The second being to love your neighbour as yourself. The Pharisees,
Chief Priests and teachers of the law were always challenging Jesus and his
interpretation of the law, as they felt that they had the only true meaning for
the scripture. So they tried to trip him up with traps regarding the interpretation
of the Law of Moses, given to the Jews by God on Mount Sinai. If Jesus
disregarded the law that Moses wrote down, then he would truly be a heretic or
as some suggested, of the devil.
Jesus, knowing their motive, not only honoured the
Law but came to bring a fresh revelation of its meaning regarding what was
written in the law and how it should be lived out. This question is still true
today. Who are our neighbours… the refugee from Syria, the economic migrant
from Bulgaria? Are not all men bound together in peace through our mutual
humanity? This is what Jesus seems to be suggesting here in this story. There
will always be those who use deceit to get what they do not deserve – this is
our human nature – to take what we want. Each culture has a veil of civility
that masks our true nature: when the western allies invaded Iraq to remove a
brutal dictator whom the west seemed to have neglected to remember, had helped
to procure power, where they not in reality, securing the supply of oil?
We honour God
through our actions as we live out our faith. Our faith compels us to action
rather than just observe what goes on with a passive shrug of our shoulders. We
can all be instigators of peace in whatever circumstance we face today. In
Matthew 25:34-46 Jesus gives us a glimpse of what is to come in the future when
this world is at an end and all of history is brought to account for what has
gone before it.
Jesus identifies six conditions of humanity where we as
Christians are compelled to act. These are: Hunger, thirst, homelessness, shelter,
sickness, and those in prison. Confused by the meaning of these categories,
Jesus identifies that this list did not refer to himself, as the
observers who were listening were inclined to think but indeed, anyone who calls
on the name of Jesus, who finds themselves in any one of these conditions.
As in the parable
of the Samaritan, who was considered to be an alien in a foreign land yet had
the heart to help a relative stranger, we too should be on the lookout for all
those who are in need. We will then not simply be following the law of God, but
be actually living it. State schools teachers are always encouraged
to think of education as being more than a job… a vocation: An act of
service that transcends mere work for financial reward; where employees feel
compelled to offer all of themselves in order to meet the needs of those being
educated.
This is the same
for all Christians. Our faith is a vocation. We are compelled to see the
purposes of God’s kingdom worked out here on this earth through the power of
the Holy Spirit. There are many circumstances that in reality, we are ill-equipped
to deal with, yet through the grace of God and the power of the Holy Spirit alive
in us, we can bodly go into those situations to work together for good. It is
not in our strength that we can endure the many distractions of this world, but
through his will for our lives: when we are weak, then he can be strong in us for the building up of the church.
'Not by might nor by power, but
by my Spirit,' says the LORD Almighty. (Zachariah 4:6, NLT)
By God’s divine grace,
the church can accomplish all things for the good of all who seek Jesus. God
can accomplish this without us… yet he chooses to use us so that we can be part
of the revelation of God here on earth until his return. I am constantly amazed
at how God does this today. I have spoken before of the Storehouse which is
part of Southend Vineyard. The manager of the Storehouse John, has had it on
his heart for some time, to restore furniture to raise money for the charity
and to equip those who use the centre with a set of skills. He had researched a
paint technique that could be used to modernise old, second hand furniture and
had trained up some of those out-of-work, to restore the furniture. John
applied for a grant for this activity but it was declined. Believing that the
project was worthwhile, he put up one piece of restored furniture for sale on eBay.
Meanwhile, a
local estate agent had a client approach them with a redundant shop situated in
the heart of a ‘trendy’ shopping area in the town. They wanted to offer it for
use by the Storehouse so that it could be used to raise money. So ‘Restore’
set-up-shop and quickly sold ALL of its stock in one week! John’s faith in the
benefit of the Restore project led to him doing what Joshua in the Old
Testament did – he put his feet in the water as a demonstration of intent and
God did the rest.
At the same time,
a friend was made-redundant from his employment. His ‘trade’ was in retail… you
might be ahead of me here. After enduring a number of months of uncertainty,
worry and hardship, God worked through that family to bring all things
together. Restore now has a member of staff who can use his retail skills in the
setting up of the shop and bring further success to a project that began with
uncertainty. God does work through all things for good.
And we know that God causes
everything to work together
for the good of those who love God and are called according to his
purpose for them
(Romans 8:28,
NLT)
Each morning when
I wake up I am met with a new day and a new set of circumstances in overcoming my
wife’s level of anxiety. I have prayed all of my best joined-up prayers and
have exhausted my confidence in what I know to be true, yet I still believe
that God will honour the work he has begun in my family at this time. I am
assured that God has our best interests at heart and that our faith in Jesus
is what guarantees our salvation by the renewing of our minds, even if for a little
while we have to endure hardship.
He will not give
us more than we can bear, nor will he give up on us if we go astray – he is the
good shepherd. As we present ourselves willing to do his work on the earth, we
are also prepared for the refiner’s fire who will restore us to a full and
satisfying relationship with the father. Without this work deep down in our
hearts, we will not be brave enough to expose our locked away and hidden hurt
to the light of Christ.... it's time to stop dressing the bandages. In doing so, we gladly surrender to his will and look
forward to the restoration of our soul… ‘I
tell you the truth, unless you are born again, you cannot see the kingdom of
God.’ (John 3:3, NLT).
Only when we
truly understand the truth that God is the author and perfector of our faith,
will we be in a position to trust him in all things that occur in the world and
with our whole self. So let us make use of the scripture below to start this new year with a new resolve:
Therefore, since we are
surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip
off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us
up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us.
We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus,
the champion who initiates and perfects our faith. (Hebrews
12:1-2, NLT)
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