Who is Your God?
Who is your God?
Who is your
God?.
We live in a
world that has seemingly lost its sense of balance and rhythm. Cities are awake for 24 hours a day. The internet never stops. Media companies vie with each other to
bombard us with news, alternative news and fake news, controlling how we think,
what we like or dislike, and how we are likely to vote. Perhaps something to bear in mind as we
prepare for another General Election on 8th June
I don’t know
about you, but I find the internet to be a sometimes very challenging
experience. Hugely useful on the one
hand – keeping up to date with the latest evidence in the world of medicine,
physiotherapy and drugs would be much, much harder without access to Pubmed,
Medline and things like secure emails. I
can check all the NICE guidelines at the click of a mouse, not that I would
really want to look at ALL of them.
On the other side
of the coin, it can also be extremely addictive. How many people have used their computer or
phone to look up something only to get distracted and end up remembering what
you wanted to do only after you have turned the computer off or put the phone
back in your pocket!
In those moments,
do I inadvertently lose my focus? Has facebook, twitter, Linkedin (yes I am on
ALL of them) become a god in that moment as they claim my full attention, and
sometimes drag my attention from the matter at hand?
This is not to
argue for an instant that the internet is bad, just that sometimes, as usual,
we manage to misuse God’s gifts for our own selfish pleasure, and in so doing
miss the point.
Paul in the
passage from Corinthians that we heard today, was explaining to the Church in
Corinth (a church with some rich members who wished to keep the riff raff at
arms length), what is meant to be an apostle.
I strongly suspect that Paul didn’t mean explicitly one of the twelve
here, after all he already considers himself to be one, so the term has
evolved. In fact, Paul talks of
trustworthiness and in a phrase that mirrors Matthew Ch 7, he advised the
church not to be caught by the trap of judging others or indeed in judging
themselves. It has become clear to Paul
that this is a societal habit that only leads to trouble, where we should
reflect instead that we have only one judge and that is God.
Does he mean that
we shouldn’t correct error. I don’t
think so, but rather doesn’t it mean that we should bear in mind our own
limitations in trying to make accurate judgements. We can’t make an accurate judgement without
having all the information, and since having all the information about someone
else is not possible much less about ourselves then we ought to be extremely
careful in casting judgement. We may
have misread the situation. In the end,
the best we can do is make an educated guess.
The real problem with putting ourselves in a place of absolute judgement
is that perhaps without meaning to, we actually are saying to God; “We don’t
need you anymore”.
Is that what we
really want to say?
Matthews Gospel
reading today has in many ways a similar theme.
That’s probably why it’s on the lectionary! Jesus says that you can’t serve two masters
and everyone immediately thinks of money, but Jesus immediately widens his
scope out to speak of worry. I have
often thought long and hard about this passage.
Why? Because suffering with chronic anxiety, I too worry.
Perhaps the
translation into the word worry isn’t the most appropriate. If we focus on the word worry, then those of
use who live with and suffer with long term anxiety, often on a daily basis can
end up worrying about worrying. So, what
happens if we instead of the word worry, insert the word concern. The word concern can mean “to worry”, it can
also mean “ a matter of importance to someone”.
If our clothing,
finance, health, diet, or social media presence, is so important to us that it
fills our attention and we become obsessed with it, then have these creations
of ours taken the place of God as our proper focus. It is reported that Jesus said. “Strive first
for the Kingdom of God”, echoed by his transliteration of Deuteronomy 6:5 into
his magisterial pronunciation of the whole of the law riding on two
commandments; the greatest if which was “to love the Lord your God with ALL
your heart, with ALL your soul and ALL your mind”.
If we love money,
or fashion, or status in such as a way that we allow it to control our time and
attitude then how can we keep this commandment?
What parts of
your day can’t you do without? What are
the habits that you have developed that you cannot possibly not follow? Are they getting in the way of you living
your life to it’s fullest potential?
If this is so,
then reach back and strive once more for the Kingdom of God, and his
righteousness and everything that you need will be given to you as well.
Don’t concern
yourselves with what may or not happen tomorrow; focus instead on today, focus
on the now, for tomorrow will have enough challenges of it’s own.
Just one more
thought, reflecting on the traumatic events in Manchester at the beginning of
this week. Jesus, with his death and
resurrection, announced the inauguration of the Kingdom of God on Earth. If we say the Kingdom of God is here, then
how is it that such atrocities continue to occur, how is it that big business
can all too easily lie there way to financial success, how is it that the most
powerful country in the world can’t sign up to an accord on climate change?
It’s worth asking
those questions, because it is only be allowing ourselves to be deeply
challenged that we might then hear the voice of God amidst the war and the
strife. I would say this, The Kingdom of
God is here amidst all that is happening, but those that have had their power
usurped at Calvary, though beaten will still push back. The limited power that we see in their push
back, just shows the extent of God’s ultimate victory. God has done the part that only God could do;
it is now down to us with the help of the Holy Spirit – God him/herself, to
continue the work of growing the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth. It will involve pain and struggle, and will
be cross shaped, let there be no doubt about that, but it is not a war to be
fought with weapons, we are called to fight this war in ways of peace, love and
mercy. It is those weapons that the
adversary has no answer to.
In the name of
the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit
Amen
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