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Thought for the
Week Sunday
21 October 2007 – The 20th Sunday after Trinity Psalm 121 2 Timothy 3, 14 – 4, 5
(omit this reading if only two are used)
Luke 18, 1 – 8 The new
boss was making a tour of the works, nodding and smiling at each busy worker,
with an encouraging word here and there.
Then he saw a young man sitting on a chair with his feet up on a
crate, reading a news Today’s
readings are all about expectations. A
major problem for Luke was that the Lord had not come back. Luke was writing about 80 – 85 AD, some
fifty years after the first Easter, and there was a general expectation that
Jesus would return to rule the whole world directly, within the lifetime of
those who had known Him during his earthly ministry. But they were starting to die off, and
people were losing their faith. For
Jacob, the problem was slightly different.
He was the heir of the promise to Abraham and Isaac, and he was to be
the father of God’s chosen people. All
the expectations were wrapped up in him.
But our Old Testament story is difficult to understand, because it
comes from the time before the nation and faith of It has the following features of paganism
and animism in particular:
At the
same time it has other features that it shares with the rest of the Books of
the Law of the Old Testament:
Stories
of guard-spirits at passes and fords are common in paganism. You will find such concepts today in Hinduism,
and many other ancient religions. Yet
this spirit is claimed also to be “Elohim”, or in English, “God
almighty”. The
children of Our two
readings are really brought together by the idea that you cannot hold on to
God. He will not be brought down to
the human level, and He will not undertake to meet our expectations. He is God.
He will establish the covenant with his chosen people in ways that He
chooses, not ways that the children of For us,
there is a huge difference between prayer and magic. Magic is trying to make God do what we
want. Prayer is us trying to do what
God wants. In the ancient pagan world,
this division is far less clear-cut, and in our own society today, the edges
are once again becoming blurred. “New
age” is anything but new – it is a return to a primitive and pagan form of
religion, even if it is dressed up in nice green ecological clothing. The
Gospel reading today contains another negative parallel, usually known as the
parable of the importunate widow. The
unjust judge eventually does what the importunate widow requires, though his
commitment to justice seems at best shaky.
God is absolutely not like that.
He is about absolute justice, and because He is love, he hears his
children all the time. So why does He
delay? Why does He not come down to
earth and set all things right for ever? This
question is unanswerable, because we, his creatures, cannot know the mind of
God. Saint Luke gives us a few clues
though. In the first place, a few
verses before today’s reading, Jesus tells the Pharisees that God’s Kingdom
is “among you”. Perhaps this means
that it is inside the heart of each individual, but more importantly, it
means that God’s Kingdom is a social Kingdom.
It comes when two or three of us gather in his name, seeking to hear
his word and do his will. It comes
when we do the least little thing to help another of God’s children. It comes every time we express the love of
God to those around us. Now, if
God’s Kingdom is something that we do together, that we bring about on earth
together, then it follows that we must support his Church, the Body of Christ
on earth. Just as Jesus came down from
the endless realms of heaven to be born in a stable at But
this has a cost. We cannot reduce our
expenditure further without cutting these things, which God requires us to
do. At present, our income does not
cover our expenditure. We have no help
from outside this Chaplaincy. Indeed,
we have to contribute to the running costs of our Diocese, and of our
Archdeaconry. Both of these
organisations are already stripped down to the bare minimum. In some areas, particularly training new
clergy, the Diocese simply does not have enough resources to do what we need
to do to maintain our ministry, let alone expand it as the number of
Anglicans living outside Briton, but in To do
all this, our Chaplaincy needs you and your support. During this month of October, at the end of
each service, the Stewardship rep will outline the need, and the ways in
which you might be able to help, both in terms of money, and of commitment of
time and abilities. Yes, we need
regular giving, preferably planned, through virements or standing
orders. But just as important, we need
help with running our services, and keeping the life of our congregations
going. For those of you reading
this on the website, here
is a link to our stewardship page. We
cannot hold onto God, to bring Him down to our level, but if we strain to
hear his word, and we seek to do his will, He will bring us up to his level,
to Heaven. It is not that we can earn
a place in heaven – even Jacob, who wrestled the Elohim to a stalemate was
not given a free ride to heaven! But,
if we take our belief in God seriously, then we must express it in our
lives. We must love other people, day
by day, and support his Church, which is our Church. Together
we are called to pray the way that Jesus taught us, bringing about God’s Kingdom
on earth, and proclaiming his love to all his people. As for Jacob, and for the Disciples who
first heard the parable of the importunate widow, we must ask not what God
and the Church can do for us, but what we can do for God and our Church,
which is his Church before it is ours.
And may God bless you more and more, and fill you with joy, as you
pray for his kingdom to come in your life and in your heart, and in our life
together as the Church, the Body of Christ, in this place. Amen. Fr. Charles Howard: Anglican Chaplaincy
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