Reflection for 1st August 2010

Year C Proper 13 1 August 2010
Hosea 11: 1-11 Psalm 107: 1-9, 43 Colossians 3: 1-11 Luke 12: 13-21

Feel like your life is like a wilderness with you wandering around trying to find your home?
Psalm 107 “4 Some wandered in desert wastelands, finding no way to a city where they could settle. 5 They were hungry and thirsty, and their lives ebbed away. 6 Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress. 7 He led them by a straight way to a city where they could settle.”

The readings this week are about finding home. Remember, “Home is where the heart is”. Our problem is that modern society seems to have lost connection with their heart, denying it with our ambitions, and feeding it materialism when it is hungry. But this is not ever going to truly satisfy our hearts.

We live in a world that still embraces idolatry. Even our Government acknowledges it when they put debates on at a time that doesn’t clash with “Master Chef”. Our churches acknowledge it when they carefully avoid church meeting clashes with football games. But there is a whole lot more to idolatry that these things that we kind of laugh about – and these things are far more subtle, insidious and just as culturally accepted.

Our 2nd reading from Colossians 3 tells us: “5Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry.” You don’t have to watch too much television to realize that these things are no longer considered sin by our society, yet the scriptures warn us that because of these things God’s wrath is coming. Ooo! We don’t like to acknowledge that God might have wrath do we? We’d much rather talk about the God of love and infinite mercy.

While many people believe that the Old Testament times was when God was wrathful and now He is a loving God, this is not the truth as God is the same always and forever. If He was a God whose word was to be feared once then He is still a God to be feared... Proverbs tell us that the Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, indeed it is. If we are warned about these things then we need to seriously heed that warning.... Monitor not just your behaviour but also your thoughts... take care in what television shows you watch and what images you hang in your sheds, and what emails you forward. Guard and search your heart for evil desires and greed. These inner things that we may believe to be harmless are the insidious roots of evil. There used to be a computer term that puts it very well, G.I. - G.o. meaning Garbage in – Garbage out.

We also find the exhortation in our reading from Colossians 3 :8 “But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips.” These are all too easy habits to slip into. Certainly St. Paul was the victim of Malice and slander and knew the damage that it could cause in the Church. We need to check ourselves constantly.

It is a strange turn-around, that in this week’s readings we find the infinite mercy of God being declared in the Old Testament, and the wrath of God being mentioned in the New Testament.
From Hosea11:8 “My heart is changed within me; all my compassion is aroused. 9 I will not carry out my fierce anger, nor will I turn and devastate Ephraim. For I am God, and not man— the Holy One among you. I will not come in wrath.”

When Jesus walked on Earth he came to save. It is often not God that caused devastation but our own evil and greed. In the words of the singer Jewel, “good golly we’re mad, that God kills children with our very own hands”. Meaning that we fail to see the consequences of our own action and when things go wrong, as they inevitably will, we blame God.

If we continue in our normal earthly behaviour of rage, malice, slander and greed etc.. our community is no better off than a non-Christian community and in fact it is far worse as we are misrepresenting God. In this way we are not only sinning against each other but also against God.

Our Gospel reading tells the story of the rich man whose crop went very well and with his abundance he built bigger barns to store his grain, however that night his life was demanded from him. We are exhorted to be rich toward God rather than store up riches for ourselves. It’s all a matter of where home is.

In our baptism we chose to have our life buried in Christ. Many of us may not remember that day and so we need to consciously be aware and constantly remind ourselves of this. In baptism we are also gifted with Christ’s life and resurrection. So... Christ is our life. Colossians 3:1 puts it this way, “1Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. 2Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. 3For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. 4When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.”

Our life being hidden with Christ in God is an amazing thing as it means our sins have been buried – gone. Notice there is no “Maybe” in the last sentence, “when Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.” This is the Good News that we proclaim and celebrate.

Our problem, and the place where we need to start, is in realizing who we are in Christ. When we do understand, then we will be “Home” as our life is in Him. No more wandering in the desert wasteland... well... I think we have an Earthly inclination for the desert but that is what our message is for this week, to put to death what belongs to the Earthly nature and make our home securely in Christ.