Author: philipmcparland@hotmail.com

We all need some hope in our lives.  People look for hope in different places.  One place to look is the Gospel.  During the few weeks into Christmas we celebrate the season of Advent.  The season of Advent is often called the season of hope.  So what kind of hope does Advent offer us?

Advent is clear that no matter what we are going through, no matter what difficulties and problems we are dealing with, things will eventually get better.  Sooner or later things will improve.  There is a brighter future.  According to Advent, God will see to it that the good will win out, that light will dispel the darkness, that rough ground will become smooth.  The reason for this hope is the utter fidelity of God.  God is faithful to His creation, especially to His people.  God is not going to abandon what God has created and redeemed.  The coming of Jesus into the world is proof of that.

Advent also reminds us that we do in fact already possess a treasure. This treasure is not a treasure made of silver and gold.  It is the treasure of love and it is to be found inside us.  Inside us there is a Presence living and loving.  This Presence is the Presence of Unconditional Love. Because of it we do not need to look for happiness in things outside ourselves, in things like possessions and work and the approval of other people.  Because of it we can love ourselves as we are and grow in self-worth.  The greatest love of all is to be found within.  Advent invites us to look for it there with confidence. 

According to Advent another source of hope is in fact our dependency.  We must be willing to seek and accept the help of others, including the help of Jesus.  Going it alone and attempting to sort out our problems by ourselves does not work.  This is called self-sufficiency and it is a form of pride.  We need others and they need us.  We also need Jesus.  There is something liberating about our willingness to acknowledge that we are helpless and powerless.  This is the foundation of the AA recovery programme.  It is also the basis for creating real community between people.  And perhaps this is what we need more than anything else as we face the future – a recovery of the sense of community.  We are here to look after each other, not just to look after ourselves.  When our lives are built around genuine care and concern for others then there is always hope.

If there was one prayer you were given the opportunity to make what would that prayer be?  For some people the prayer they would choose is the request of the man known as the Good Thief as he hung on the cross next to Jesus on Good Friday: “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”

This short prayer is both powerful and beautiful.  It is a prayer that is inside each and every one of us.  It is a prayer that is deep in our hearts.  Perhaps this is the reason why some people are not able to express it until the twelfth hour of their lives.  “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom,” is a simple and honest request to Jesus not to forget me, not to overlook me, not to exclude me, not to condemn me, but to grant me a place, any place, in his kingdom.

Why is this prayer made to Jesus?  Because Jesus is King of the eternal kingdom which we desire to belong to.  Jesus is the one who rules over us.  He is the one whom God the Father has appointed judge of the living and the dead.  He is the one to whom we will give an account of ourselves when we die.  This is why on the last Sunday of the annual church year the Christian community celebrates the feast of Christ the King.

But what kind of King is Jesus?  We get some idea from his response to the request of the Good Thief: “Indeed I promise you, today you will be with me in paradise.”  These are not the words of someone who is critical and judgemental.  They are the words of someone who is compassionate and forgiving.  Jesus wants us to be with him in his kingdom.  Indeed, he does everything he can to make sure that we will be with him in his kingdom.  This is why the poet Francis Thompson described him as the Hound of Heaven.

When we are able to pray the words, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom,” with conviction, we can be confident that Jesus, our King, will respond to us in the same way he responded to the Good Thief on the cross: “Indeed I promise you, today you will be with me in paradise.”

I once heard God compared to a mother who took her three young children to the seaside on a summer’s day.  The children spent most of their time on the beach playing in the sand.  Each of them built a sandcastle, according to his or her ability.  When they had finished their work, their mother came to look at what they had done.  She praised each of them individually for their achievements.  On returning home the mother fed her children, washed them and put them to bed.  Then she sat down to relax.  She was happy with the day at the seaside; pleased that her children enjoyed themselves on the beach and that they were safe.  And in the meantime the tide came in and washed away the sandcastles her children had built.

It is November.  It is the month when we remember the dead and when we think about our own death.  For all of us life is passing; it is transient.  Death is inevitable.  We have here no lasting city.  The thought of our mortality at wintertime gives us an opportunity to get things in perspective.

To get things in perspective it is helpful to ask ourselves some questions. One question we could do to ask ourselves during November is this: What will we have to leave behind us when our earthly life is over?  Among the things we will definitely leave behind are the sandcastles we have built.  Our sandcastles are more than the buildings we own.  They are our projects, our investments, our businesses, our wealth, even our achievements.  All these things may have preoccupied us in life, but they will be of little benefit to us in death.

Another question November brings is one that gets to the heart of the meaning of life.  What will we take with us when our time in this world is over?  The poet William Blake provides the answer: “We are put on earth a little space that we might learn to bear the beams of love.” What will endure are the relationships we have built, including our relationship with God.  Relationships are the most important thing in life.  It is the investment we make in relationships that we will take with us into God’s other world beyond the grave.  It is love and only love that will last.  When we meet the Lord face to face in death the thing he will look for is the love in our hearts.

So, “if you tend to get overly serious about your work and your responsibilities remind yourself that the most common deathbed regrets have to do with neglected relationships, not unfinished business” (The Little Book of Calm).

Low self-esteem is very common in our culture.  Within most of us there are powerful negative voices telling us that we are not good enough.  It is absolutely essential that shame does not become the only experience we have of ourselves.   We need to find a way that will allow us to experience ourselves differently.  

One way can be summed up in the three rhyming words: name, claim, tame.  We begin by naming our unfulfilled longing.  There is deep longing in every human heart.  It is difficult to know what this longing is about.  Not only can it take time for us to acknowledge our longing.  It can also take time to discover what it is for.  Eventually we come to realise that our unfulfilled longing is a longing for unconditional love.  Each and every one of us needs to know that we are loved and lovable as we are.

The good news of Jesus is that unconditional love is available to us.  Unconditional love is available to us in the relationship that God has with each of us.  God who is love, loves us as we are, without conditions, without expectations, without requirements.  This is the core truth of the Christian Gospel, beautifully described by the late Henri Nouwen as our belovedness.  But it remains academic unless we claim it.  Sooner or later we need to start claiming the unconditional love that is inside us.

Claiming our belovedness is one thing.  We also need to tame what we call the ego or the false self.  The false self is built around conditional love.  It keeps us in the bondage of accumulation, achievement and the need for human approval.  Because of it we tend to find our value in what we have, in what we do and in what other people think of us. Taming the false self is a process of awareness and surrender.  First, we recognise the many subtle and manipulative ways the false self is at work in ourselves and in the world around us.  Then, we invite the Holy Spirit to tame the power of the false self.  Only the Holy Spirit, the Spirit that unites Jesus and his Father, can break the control which the false self has over us.

If we name our unfulfilled longing, claim our belovedness and tame the ways our false self is active in our lives, we will begin to experience ourselves in a positive and liberating way.  

Jesus has been described as a man of prayer and a man of compassion.  This is certainly the way he comes across in the Gospel.  Indeed, for Jesus prayer and compassion were like twin sisters that could not be separated.  

Jesus needed time to be alone.  He needed times of quiet, of silence in his life.  These times of silence gave him the opportunity to pray, to nourish his relationship with the one whom he called Abba.  For Jesus, times of silence were an experience of solitude.  In the silence he was intimate with Abba.  Times of silence were so important to Jesus that he was prepared to get up very early in the morning to have them.

Jesus was also a man of compassion.  He responded to human need when he found it, in the form he found it.  Jesus was deeply aware of the burdens that people were carrying, of the pain, sickness and anxiety in the lives of those he came into contact with.  Jesus not only sympathised with people, he also empathised with them.  His own humanity enabled him to know the humanity of others.  Jesus’ struggle with his own human weakness allowed him to understand what human weakness can do to the lives of others.  “For the high priest we have is not incapable of feeling our weaknesses with us, but he has been tempted in exactly the same way as ourselves” (Heb 4:15).

The word connect is used a lot nowadays to describe the benefits of the internet and the mobile phone.  In our modern world we certainly have a variety of types of connection.  But not all of these bring depth to our relationships.  Prayer enabled Jesus to connect with his Father at a deep level.  Compassion enabled him to connect with other people at a deep level.  The human heart is made for deep connection.  We are made for friendship, friendship with God, friendship with our sisters and brothers.  Prayer feeds our friendship with God; compassion feeds our friendships with other people.  We can learn from the life of Jesus about the importance of prayer and compassion. We can also learn from Jesus not to separate these two beautiful and life-giving sources of connection.

“What do you want me to do for you?”  These are the words Jesus addressed to Bartimaeus, the little blind beggar who came running to him (See Mark 10:46-52).  Bartimaeus had been calling after Jesus, “Son of David, have pity on me.”  Even though others told him to shut up, he wouldn’t stop shouting.  He had huge desire for healing and he recognised that Jesus was the one who could fulfil his desire.

Jesus continues to speak these words today. In fact he speaks these words to each one of us. “What do you want me to do for you?”  With these powerful words Jesus is inviting us to name our deepest desire.  He is asking us to name the thing we most need in our lives.  We know what Bartimaeus’ deepest desire was.  The Gospel tells us that he wanted to see again.  Born with sight, Bartimaeus had obviously lost it at some point in his life and he desperately wanted it back.  He had no problem naming his deepest desire in the presence of Jesus.  As a result he got back not just his physical sight; he also received the light of faith.  The gospel passage puts this beautifully: “Immediately his sight returned and he followed Jesus along the road.”

Like Bartimaeus, it is important for each of us to be given an opportunity to name our deepest desire in the presence of Jesus.  This is the very place where Jesus meets us.  The place where Jesus comes to us is the place of our deepest need.  When Jesus asks you, “What do you want me to do for you?” do not presume that your first answer to this question is the deepest.  People who pray with this gospel story often find themselves coming up with different answers.  It is only after a number of attempts that they discover what their deepest desire actually is.  It is necessary for us to give the question some time.  The question will only awaken what is really going on inside of us if we allow it to gently move deeper and deeper into our hearts.  There is often a difference between what we long for and what we settle for.  Jesus wants to help us experience the thing we truly long for. This is our deepest desire.       

In all four gospels we find Jesus having a real go at the group known as the Scribes and Pharisees.  He didn’t like their religion.  He didn’t agree with their religion.  Jesus’ own religion was very different.  Let me try to contrast both.

The religion practised by the Scribes and Pharisees emphasised a distant and demanding God, a God removed from human experience.  The religion practised by Jesus emphasised a loving God, a God who offers friendship, a God who is personally involved in the lives of his people. 

The religion practised by the Scribes and Pharisees focused on observance of the law, on keeping rules and regulations.  The religion practised by Jesus focused on relationships, on being in right relationship with ourselves, with other people and with God

The religion practised by the Scribes and Pharisees was about making ourselves holy by our own efforts, by fasting, by penances, by acts of purification, by ritual sacrifices, by saying long prayers.  The religion practised by Jesus was about accepting salvation as God’s gift, a gift given to us in Jesus himself and through our surrender to the action of the Holy Spirit.

The religion practised by the Scribes and Pharisees was judgemental and exclusive. It created distinctions and divisions between people on the basis of a hierarchy of holiness.  The religion practised by Jesus was compassionate and inclusive. It sought to break down barriers between people by creating a community of equals.

The religion practised by the Scribes and Pharisees was restrictive, burdensome and oppressive.  The religion practised by Jesus was liberating, life-giving and challenging.

In summary, the religion practised by the Scribes and Pharisees was a requirements religion.  The religion practised by Jesus was a relationship religion.

What is our religion? Is it the religion of the Scribes and Pharisees or the religion of Jesus?  I think that for many of us our experience of religion is a mixture of both. This mixture of both can be a cause of the struggle that is going on inside each one of us. We desire the relationship religion of Jesus but something within pulls us into the requirements religion of the Scribes and Pharisees. Whatever this something is, it needs to be named, faced and dealt with. Because Jesus is clear that the two religions cannot exist together.  To try to integrate both does not work.

He says, “No one sews a piece of unshrunken cloth on an old cloak; if he does, the patch pulls away from it, the new from the old, and the tear gets worse.  And nobody puts new wine into old wineskins; if he does the wine will burst the skins and the wine is lost and the skins too.  No! New wine, fresh skins!” (Mark 2:21-22).

In the Gospel of Luke we find two very different responses to a woman in need (see Luke 7:36-50).  We are told that the woman had a bad reputation in the local town.  This probably meant that she was a prostitute.  It is obvious from the gospel story that the woman is hurting inside, unhappy with her lifestyle, longing for love and forgiveness.

The Pharisees who prided themselves in observing the Law and in being faithful to religious practice saw this woman as a public sinner.  For them she was a source of contamination and defilement, someone to avoid and keep at a distance. In the eyes of the Pharisees this woman was an outcast, unforgivable and unredeemable.

In contrast, Jesus had a very different attitude to the woman.  He did not see her as an evil person.  For Jesus she was a child of God, a person who had sought love in the wrong places, who longed for forgiveness and an opportunity to make a fresh start.   Jesus felt the pain in the woman’s heart.   He allowed her to touch him.  He accepted her expressions of tenderness.  He forgave her.

The Pharisees rejected the woman; Jesus accepted her.  The Pharisees condemned the woman; Jesus showed her compassion.  It is obvious which response made the difference.  Through her encounter with Jesus the woman got her heart back and her life too.  She found peace and she found hope.

So what can we expect from Jesus?  The very same things the woman received.  We too can expect acceptance.  We too can expect mercy and forgiveness.  We too can expect to be treated with tenderness and affection.  The same Jesus who responded to the need of the woman is present in our lives today.  Jesus does not change.  We may change, but he doesn’t.  His love remains strong and constant.

As we journey through life we meet with difficulties and disappointments.  Often we wander off track and fail and fall.  Sometimes we feel that nobody really cares, other times we experience a judgemental attitude similar to that of the Pharisees.  Whatever our experience, it is important to keep coming back to Jesus.  He never gives up on us. He is a friend, faithful to the end.

Even a brief look at the gospels reveals that a constant theme in the teaching of Jesus was the Kingdom of God.  Jesus made it clear that he had come to establish the Kingdom of God in the world.  His ministry was to practice and preach the Kingdom.  The mission of Jesus was to bring about the reign of God in our lives. 

For Jesus, the Kingdom of God is not a place or a territory.  It has nothing to do with geography or nationalism or indeed political power.  It is clear from the example and teaching of Jesus that the Kingdom of God is a way of life; it is about the values we chose to live by.  In particular, it is about the way we relate to each other.  In a word, it is about love.

Who then belongs to the Kingdom of God?  It would seem those who are sincerely trying to live what is known as the beatitudes in their daily lives.  These are the peacemakers, the gentle, the humble, the merciful, those who work for justice, those who are persecuted in the cause of right, those who have mellow and grateful hearts.   Jesus preaches a religion of the heart and his religion is about developing attitudes that create a right relationship with ourselves, other people, the environment and of course God.

It is important for us to realise that those who belong to the Kingdom of God may be members of a church, but they may not. We cannot limit the Kingdom of God to church membership. To do so would be exclusive and misleading. Obviously, a church is a community where we are meant to experience the Kingdom of God, but there are many people who belong to the Kingdom of God who do not belong to a church.  Indeed, there might be people who belong to the Kingdom of God and who do not have a conscious awareness of God in their lives.  We could call these ‘anonymous Christians.’  Kingdom people are sincere people who show kindness and seek to do good. They try to make the world a better place, often working quietly in the background.  Kingdom people are a leaven in society.  They may not have a public profile but their positive influence is significant, reaching well beyond themselves and beyond even what they dare to imagine.  

Towards the end of St Matthew’s Gospel (chapter 25) Jesus makes it clear that we will be judged by the way we treat our neighbours, especially those who are struggling and suffering.  Surely this is the yardstick for deciding who belongs to the Kingdom of God.

God is certainly persistent.  God never gives up on anyone, no matter who they are and what they have done.  God keeps pursuing us, reaching out to us, drawing us back, leading us home.  God is, in the words of Francis Thompson, ‘The Hound of Heaven.’

Why does God pursue us so persistently? Because God is merciful.  The heart of the Lord is mercy.  The gospels, especially the Gospel of Luke, are full of stories about the mercy of God.  Perhaps the best known is the story of the prodigal.  The word prodigal can mean two things.  It can mean wayward and it can mean lavish.  The love of the father for his wayward son was lavish in the extreme.  It was a love that was expressed in and through tender mercy.

One of the plays I studied in secondary school was ‘The Merchant of Venice’ by William Shakespeare.  For some reason the words I find easiest to remember in that play are those spoken by Portia to Shylock the merchant intent on getting his pound of flesh:                                    

“The quality of mercy is not strain’d,
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath: it is twice blest;
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes:
‘Tis mightiest in the mightiest.”

The quality of God’s mercy is never strained; it is never measured, never weighed on a balance.  Because of God’s unlimited mercy we are forgiven when we fail, followed when we stray and found when we are lost.  It is the mercy of God that turns our feelings of guilt into feelings of peace. Many of us have inherited a judgemental and critical God, a God who is demanding and difficult to please, a punishing God who exacts justice.  Let’s be clear. This is not the God of Jesus.  This is not the Abba Jesus spoke so affectionately and intimately about.  Like Shylock, we humans may want others to pay for their wrongdoing but let us not project this on to God.  God is way beyond our desire for vengeance. God is mercy, pure and simple.  For each and every one of us who are constantly failing and falling, God’s unlimited mercy will have the last word, the final say.  In death we will simply fall into an ocean of mercy.