Today’s Old Testament Readings are full of doom and gloom. We are told that life is meaningless. We toil and work hard to accumulate wealth only to leave it to others when we die. At funerals, as we celebrate and mourn the life of the departed, we also have an opportunity to reflect on our own death and how we use aright the time we have left on this earth. It is an interesting exercise to write our own epitaph. Mel Blanc wrote for his ‘That’s all folks’, Frank Sinatra ‘The best is yet to come’ and Al Capone ‘My Jesus, mercy’.
In response to inheritance causing strife between brothers, Jesus tells the story of the rich farmer who accumulated so much grain that he needed more and more barns to store it in. Often the more we have the more we want. We get on the treadmill of never ending wants and needs and of never being satisfied. We live in a world full of advertising, convincing us that we need more and more material possessions that will enhance our lives. Then we worry about who we will leave it to and that can often cause upsets in families.
Our wealth is a gift given by God to promote his kingdom on earth. We are called to be good stewards of what God gives us. The rich farmer had speculated to accumulate, worked hard and looked forward to a comfortable retirement. However, he died before he could benefit from his labours. His mistake was that he did it his way and not God’s way. He did not have an attitude of gratitude and share what he was given. He put his faith in possessions for his security rather than faith in God. Jesus repeatedly warns that greed can get in the way of our relationship with God. ‘Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions’ . We are called to share in God’s mission by using our gifts to further God’s kingdom, not our own. God’s kingdom is an upside down one. Jesus said ‘Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the Kingdom of God’
God’s kingdom is eternal. Nicodemus, a highly educated teacher of law, asked Jesus what he should do to inherit eternal life? Jesus told him that he would need to be born again, not in an earthly way but in a spiritual way. When we live according to the Spirit of God within us and not our own wills we join in the kingdom dance and our priorities change. We see things differently knowing that we have access to all the security we need through the creator of the universe. We cease to rely on ourselves for our security but on God’s provision. At Jesus’ Baptism the Holy Spirit descended on him like a dove, a symbol of peace that comes from knowing God is in all situations. As Julian of Norwich said: ‘we shall be tempest tossed but not overcome’.
We have the resurrection hope expressed in Colossians: ‘Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things’. The large stained glass window in St. Peter’s shows heaven and earth with a thin divide between them, depicting that God’s kingdom is both now and not yet. Sometimes unexpectedly, amongst all our earthly strife, we have glimpses of heaven on earth. The angel hosts are with us and if we have our minds on things above we can find something good in everything we see and when the time is right we too will cross the stream into heaven.
Angela Stewart, Lay Minister