1 Corinthians 15: 12-20; Luke 6: 17-26
How are you feeling?
Whenever we turn on the news, the Church of England seems in the headlines for all the wrong reasons. Bishops resigning in the midst of allegations of abuse and harassment. Allegations of bullying, cover-up and evasion of responsibility. A complex set of debates at General Synod leave the national press running stories that the church is ignoring the voice of victims and watering down calls for independent safeguarding.
How are you feeling?
On Friday I spent a large part of the day at a school where a serving member of staff has died. It was unexpected, and it has been shattering for many there. I led prayers, and spoke to staff and pupils as they came to terms with their loss as a school community.
How are you feeling?
The Priory has leaks. The walls and tower are moving. The floor is unstable in places and the drains have collapsed. Despite our best efforts, we’re still spending more each year than we have money coming in. Repairing and restoring the Priory building will be a major project taking years to complete and requiring successful applications for millions of pounds from the heritage lottery fund and other charities.
How are you feeling?
In our gospel reading, we pick up the story of Jesus beginning his ministry. He comes down the mountain from where he has been praying and choosing the Twelve apostles from the disciples. And there gathered at the bottom of the mountain are a multitude of people waiting for him. They’ve come from everywhere you can think of – everywhere that counts as Jewish, from the area around Jerusalem to 300 miles further north in modern day Lebanon. They’ve come because they want to hear him teach. Because they’re sick. Because they’re troubled and struggling with demons, whether we want to think of those as real or metaphorical – I don’t think people at the time bothered to draw the distinction. And Jesus heals them, and casts out demons, and teaches them.
And he looks at these sick, troubled, confused people, people with problems, and the ones who came down the mountain with him, who’ve left everything to follow him. And he says ‘You people, with all your troubles, you’re blessed. Because the Kingdom of God is yours.” And sure, they’d just seen miracles, and people healed. But I bet part of them still found it hard to believe that was true. Because he didn’t say ‘the Kingdom is coming and people like you will be part of it and God will solve all your problems.’ He said ‘You are poor and weighed down by problems, and here and now in the midst of all of that you are living in the Kingdom of God.’
And that’s a hard sell, even if you’re just seen some miraculous healings. It’s such a hard sell that when Matthew writes his version of this he changes the language - makes it clear that at least part of what Jesus is saying is ‘you’re poor *in spirit* and so you are living in the kingdom’. Because it’s easier to understand if what Jesus is saying is ‘humble people live in the kingdom of God’.
But that’s not all Jesus is saying here. He is still very clearly saying ‘you’re poor, you’re hungry, you’re weeping, you’ve been overwhelmed by the world, and the world will turn on you and persecute you because you’re following me’. And yet, ‘yours is the kingdom of God. And that’s a kingdom of being satisfied, and laughing and being honoured like prophets of God.’ He's not saying ‘things are bad now, but one day you’ll get your reward in heaven’. He’s saying ‘this is what living in the kingdom is like – the problems and the blessings go together.’ And on one level we have probably all experienced something of this. If you were to look back on your life and think about when the times were that you have felt most sure of God’s love and care for you, it’s probably been the times when you’ve been wrestling with problems.
And the reverse is often also true. As Jesus goes on to warn – when you’re rich, and satisfied, and happy, and everyone speaks well of you – watch out! It’s then that you’re often in the most spiritual danger. Fame, success, popularity, wealth - these can be dangerous things. These things can insulate us from life, from other people, and from hearing God. The people we honour as true prophets of God, says Jesus, were the people who in their own day were unpopular, were cast out and persecuted.
But the false prophets, the ones who just said what people wanted to hear, in their own day those were the ones who were praised and honoured. Don’t go around wishing you were like them! If we’re spending all our time wishing we could be less poor, have more of our needs met, feel happier, have people like us more, maybe we’re yearning for the wrong things.
So how are you feeling?
Confused? Overwhelmed by problems? Unsatisfied with how things are? Weeping? Misunderstood or disbelieved? Yours is the kingdom of God. Even if it doesn’t feel like it. Especially when it doesn’t feel like it.
Because when I watched the debate at General Synod I saw people shaken by all that’s happened and determined to make a difference. People committed to making the church a safer place. People who aren’t just wishing it could all go away, but working to change things for the better.
When I spent time with those who were grieving the loss of a teacher and colleague, I found people profoundly changed for the better for having known her, whose sorrow brought them closer together, and who were newly sensitive to each other’s needs.
And it makes me wonder what blessings are wrapped up with the problems we face as a Priory community. So don’t let’s wish our problems away.
Ours is the kingdom of God.
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