A Tale of Two Kingdoms

We are living in strange times.  As I type, my country is in partial lock-down.  The global pandemic of Covid-19 is affecting every life on this planet in some way.

This morning, as I took a breath, I was musing about the times we are in and the behaviour we see in people around us, and humanity's response in a time of global/universal crisis.

Firstly, I have to categorially state: I do not believe God has sent a virus to punish us.  I do not believe that if we paint the blood of a lamb on our doorposts that death will pass over our households protecting the faithful, and smiting those who reject God.  Why do I not believe this?  Clearly this illness is affecting all of humanity, regardless of faith and belief.  A virus doesn't discriminate by race, gender or religion.   Secondly, to understand God, I always look first at Jesus.  His ministry was one of healing and love.  He didn't walk around casting plagues on sinners.  He healed the leper, he cured the disease, he restored the spirit... he even raised the dead.  We see the attitude of God revealed in the life of Jesus.  I believe in a God who loves us all passionately, and I believe Jesus is a universal saviour.

Returning to my musings... the last few years has been very disconcerting.  Across the world, we are seeing shifts to extremism.  Far right governments and political parties are gaining power.  Nationalism is taking the place of internationalism.  Walls are being built and bridges are being burned.  Immigrants are being demonised.  Foreigners are being treated with suspicion and as outsiders.


Deuteronomy 24:10-15; 17-22

When you make a loan of any kind to your neighbor, do not go into their house to get what is offered to you as a pledge. Stay outside and let the neighbor to whom you are making the loan bring the pledge out to you.  If the neighbor is poor, do not go to sleep with their pledge in your possession.  Return their cloak by sunset so that your neighbor may sleep in it. Then they will thank you, and it will be regarded as a righteous act in the sight of the Lord your God.

Do not take advantage of a hired worker who is poor and needy, whether that worker is a fellow Israelite or a foreigner residing in one of your towns.  Pay them their wages each day before sunset, because they are poor and are counting on it. Otherwise they may cry to the Lord against you, and you will be guilty of sin.

Do not deprive the foreigner or the fatherless of justice, or take the cloak of the widow as a pledge.  Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and the Lord your God redeemed you from there. That is why I command you to do this.

When you are harvesting in your field and you overlook a sheaf, do not go back to get it. Leave it for the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow, so that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands.  When you beat the olives from your trees, do not go over the branches a second time. Leave what remains for the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow.  When you harvest the grapes in your vineyard, do not go over the vines again. Leave what remains for the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow.  Remember that you were slaves in Egypt. That is why I command you to do this.

In these ancient words for an ancient people in ancient times, we see the heart of a God who cares about the vulnerable, the foreigner, the orphan and widow (those with no protection and security).

And when I contrast what I see in the news before the virus outbreak with what I see during it, the difference is huge.  We are now seeing humanity working together to care for the vulnerable.  We see people loving their neighbours.  We hear of communities coming together, people helping strangers, reaching out to the housebound.  A few months ago, the conservative and increasingly right wing UK government was judging people's value to our country based on their income level.  The talk was of points-based systems to judge the value of a human being to our society.  Thousands of carers and other low paid but hugely critical roles were being told they weren't wanted.  We want high earners to pay higher tax.  Those are the ones we want.  Bring in the bankers and throw out the cleaners.

Yet today, in the midst of our crisis, we now talk of key workers.  People are being protected and prioritised who would previously have failed to meet the "skilled workers" definition.  We are praising the cleaners, the child minders, the teachers, the hospital workers.  Our world has turned upside down, but in some ways, it has reverted to the right way up.  

While I do not believe God causes natural disasters, I do believe, like the famous painting of Michelangelo in the Sistine Chapel, that God reaches out to us and asks us to reach out to him.  And when we connect, we feel the compassion and love that God has for all humanity.   We feel the call to bring love and compassion, to heal and bring hope.  God asks us to partner with him as agents in his Kingdom to bring peace to this earth.    And God does not limit his power to those who worship him.  I believe God is working through the nurses, doctors, scientists, teachers, carers... every spark of human compassion for our neighbour comes from the image of God within each of us.   We are created beings, but we face a choice.

I can sit with the questions: Did God cause this?  Did he allow it?  Is it part of a greater plan?  I will let the theologians argue amongst themselves on that one.  Rather, I can choose to answer a different question:  What does God want me to do about it?

Which Kingdom do we want?  A Kingdom of love, hope, compassion, grace, forgiveness, mercy, justice and the building of bridges, or a Kingdom of hate, greed, lust, abusive power and the building of walls to divide us?

As Jesus taught, may our prayer be "Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come."  Let's work with God to make his Kingdom of love for all a reality.

Aggressive extremes

The other day, I was walking with a Christian friend after having had breakfast together.  And like every good conversation, we began musing...

I asked her a question:

Monk:  Do you think, if all religious people were like us, then agressive atheism would exist?

Friend: I think it's not the atheists who would have problems with us...

At this point, I laughed aloud.  She was making a very valid point, that the people who might find our views more offensive are the very conservative Christians.  Of course, there was a flaw in her reasoning, as the initial premise was us being the template for all Christians, but nevertheless a very thought-provoking reply.

It got me musing.  Would aggressive atheism exist if fundamentalist or extreme conservative religion didn't?  Does one force produce another?  In politics, there can be times when extremes of a spectrum begin to look quite similar.  I am not sure I would always be able to tell a right wing extremist from a left wing extremist.

I confess, there was an inherent arrogance in my question.  It assumed that my friend and I were somehow wonderful examples of faith for all to follow, and that is an uncomfortable distance from humility.

Then I began to muse about the effect of aggressive atheism on fundamental religion.  Could those atheists be in part responsible for an opposing force of fundamentalism?  I suspect the relationship is indeed two-way.  The world is a tribal place.

I find Jesus' recorded ministry fascinating.   Jesus can hardly be described as a moderate.  His approach was revolutionary.  It led to his crucifixion.

[for a fascinating abstract on crucifixion, published in teh US National Center for Biotechnology Information, see here: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14750495]

However, his focus appeared to be twofold.  To those who were outsiders, he showed love and compassion.  He continued the Old Testament theme of responsibility for our neighbour, and challenged us to consider who our neighbour actually is.  The story of the Good Samaritan played a large part in this boundary shift.  Who would be the Samartian of today?  Might it be the atheist?  Which of us is showing love to our neighbour?  The person who looks the part, dresses the part and says the right words, or the person who rolls up their sleeves and shows love in action?

To those who were inside the religious establishment, he showed his anger.  The brood of vipers.  The sellers in the temple.  The Pharisees and their laws that put up barriers to love (how dare you heal on the Sabbath!).

This is not to say that Jesus wouldn't have been angry towards an abusive atheist, any less than a hypocritical Jew.   But his message was one of God's love for humanity and to reach out to the world in love.    In our desire for tribes, we encourage tribal warfare.  It takes strength to lay down our arms and embrace our brother and sister.   Perhaps our tribe is bigger than we realise, and includes all of creation.   Who is our brother and sister?  There's a clue in a story of a man from Samaria...

The Anger of a Loving Father

I was sitting, reading in my room one day, when I heard my daughters playing in the room next door.  At first, the play was collaborative and friendly.  Then it became over-excited.  Then I heard a thud, followed by silence.

A moment later, I heard my youngest daughter crying.  Parents become quite skilled at recognising different cries.  Some are the cry that is just looking for attention.  Some are the cry of the fear.  Some, like on this occasion, are a cry of blended pain and distress.

Then the Lord told him, “I have certainly seen the oppression of my people in Egypt. I have heard their cries of distress because of their harsh slave drivers. Yes, I am aware of their suffering.
Exodus 3:7 NLT

What happened next triggered a deep emotional response in me.  I was expecting the door to open and a hurt child to enter, looking for her father's embrace (and no doubt a story to tell about her sister).   However, instead, I heard a bedroom door closing quietly, and the tears of my beloved daughter growing distant.  I went to investigate.

My eldest child had accidentally hurt my youngest.  Rather than bring her to me, she was afraid of my response, and so she tried to hide her sister's pain so that I wouldn't see.  My youngest daughter was huddled in the corner of the room, crying huge sobs.  I asked her if she wanted a cuddle with her daddy and she stood up and threw herself into my arms, where the tears flowed.

Her sister looked at her feet, ashamed.

In that moment, I felt a deep anger.  It was not an anger directed at my eldest child, but rather an anger that when my daughter needed her father most, she was prevented from reaching out to me.  I heard her cries.  I was aware of her suffering.  Yet a barrier was put up, preventing her from running into my arms.

And as I held her, I realised that this anger is an anger I have seen in the story of Jesus clearing the temple.  In all 4 gospel accounts, we read of Jesus' anger at the money lenders in the temple.  In Matthew 21, we read that Jesus said "'My house will be called a house of prayer,’ but you are making it ‘a den of robbers'."

I remember wrestling with this passage as a younger Christian.  Surely this anger was not godly.  Why did Jesus allow his emotions to overcome him?  Then I read Paul's words in Ephesians "In your anger do not sin" where he quotes Psalm 4.   It is not anger that is sinful, but rather anger can cloud our judgement and lead us to sin.  Why was Jesus angry?   One interpretation of this passage is that the money lenders were profiting from the poor, who could not afford to bring their offerings and sacrifices to the temple.  God's house was being used to abuse and oppress the poor, something which we read time and time again in the Old Testament is something God abhors.   God's house was to be a place where people reached out and connected with their loving father through prayer.  Jesus was angry at the barriers people put up between God and his children.

Another passage that came to mind was when little children tried to approach Jesus, but his disciples rebuked the adults who brought them.  Jesus chided his disciples, saying his famous words from Luke 18:  "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these."

This is where denominations which practice infant baptism, such as the Presbyterian Church of Scotland, build their theology of baptism.  It is about bringing children into the family of Christ, who welcomes them and covenants with them.  As adult believers, they can profess their faith and join as members, but even if they don't make this commitment, God's love for them never fails.

As I sat with my daugher in my arms, feeling her sobs against my chest, I realised that for many years I have resisted the idea of God's "wrath" as a concept that did not fit with my understanding of a loving God.   Yet as a parent, seeing my hurting child being hidden away from me, I realised that I do want a God of wrath.  Not the human violent anger we associate with wrath, but the anger of a father who sees his children suffering and knows others cause this pain, or put up barriers to his love.

I was not angry at my eldest daughter, but I was angry.  I called her over to us.  I told her that I loved both her and her sister.  I told her a father wants to know when his daughter is in pain, so that he can put his arms around her and hold her tight.  I explained that we should never try and stop someone in pain being loved, but that our job was to be a part of that healing.  I invited my eldest daughter into the embrace.

What barriers do we put up in our world today?  Do we allow people to believe they are not good enough for God's embrace?  Are they too sinful?  Are they too homosexual?  Too socialist?  Too unimportant?  Too unsuccessful?  Too insignificant?  Too different from our theology?  Too atheist?

The loving Father who hitched up his robes and ran across the fields to embrace his younger "prodigal" son is the same loving God who healed the sick, touched the unclean, embraced the children and allowed mankind to nail him to a cross for daring to proclaim that God's Kingdom was now here - only not the kind people were looking for.  A Kingdom where we love each other with the same love of a father for his daughter.