Faith Venture

Some groups of people seem to make all the noise. They know how to manipulate media, sometimes even while deriding it.

“The Media”–to whom I often refer as “mainstream media”–are as gullible as many evangelical Christians. They’ll fall for anything. I turn to NYU professor Jay Rosen for reasoned critiques of The Media. Look especially at his latest post about Meet the Press.

While I consider it a necessary spiritual discipline to avoid getting sucked into media drama, I notice who gets the press time (we used to say ink, but now it’s also pixels).

There are many more people who are actually out in the communities and world doing what Jesus actually commanded. Getting into relationship with God and into his kingdom. Going out amongst strangers and feeding the hungry, healing the sick, helping the poor, bringing comfort to the ailing, justice to the oppressed.

It’s the same in all organizations, both religious and secular, where we hear the negative, the nihilistic, the mean, the hate, the ego. Those make the headlines.

The people doing the work, well, we don’t hear much from them. They are too busy doing. Where are the algorithms that spread that word? Oh, they don’t sell ads?

Are you a Christian; or, are you a follower of Jesus? We know you by your love.

I’m traveling for the holidays, and therefore on a different daily regimen. Which means, I read my news feeds before thinking for the day.

There were stories of greed, deception, lying, pride, ego, power seeking.

These were also the stories of 2,000 years ago. This could describe the Roman Empire and Jewish leaders.

And it describes the antithesis of the kingdom that Jesus described. The kingdom that turns it all on its head by putting love and humbleness and ethics at the center.

It’s not that we’ve lost. It’s just that every new individual born into human society must decide which kingdom it will reside in. And as we often say, failure to decide is in itself a decision.

Will we decide to enter, or just slide into, the kingdom of following our emotions and agree to manipulation?

Or, will we decide to enter the kingdom Jesus introduced?

Choose wisely.

The kingdom of God is here.

Mr. Rogers was after my time. But I enjoyed how every movement and word he shared had a meaning. And there was his phrase.

In the times when Jesus lived people everywhere had a longing for spiritual meaning. There were different cultures and attitudes, but the feeling of a hole in their life that needed to be filled had spread throughout the Mediterranean region.

And Jesus popped into the scene. He told people there was a God, and God desired to be in relationship and fill that spiritual hole. And heal people of their anxieties, illnesses, drifting through life.

He told people it was OK to relate to God. He said we should love one another and by doing so we were getting closer to God. In his way, he asked, “Won’t you be my friend?”

An amazing number of people spreading from the epicenter of Palestine even to Rome on one side and India on the other bought into the message and experienced changed lives.

Like Carole King sang, “Ain’t it good to know, you’ve got a friend?”

This season is when we celebrate that Jesus came. So, go celebrate.

There are many who are enkindled with dreamy devotion, and when they hear of the poverty of Christ, they are almost angry with the citizens of Bethlehem. They denounce their blindness and ingratitude, and think, if they had been there, they would have shown the Lord and his mother a more kindly service and would not have permitted them to be treated so miserably. But they do not look by their side to see how many of their fellow humans need their help, and which they ignore in their misery. Who is there upon earth that has no poor, miserable, sick, erring ones around him? Why does he not exercise his love to those? Why does he not do to them as Christ has done to him? — Martin Luther

Sometimes our emotions are aroused by things we’ve read from centuries long past. Sometimes just last week. “I would have done that differently,” we tell ourselves.

Yet in present moments, we walk past those in need without a thought or acknowledgement.

Indeed, why do we not do to them as Jesus has done for us?

The irony of these words lies in Luther himself, who at one and the same time discovered God’s grace and sparked a revolution causing hundreds of years of bitter wars throughout Europe. Vestiges exist to this day in the religious divisions of American Christianity.

Celebrating, as we do at this time of year, the coming of Jesus and the kingdom of heaven, perhaps we could begin looking by our side to heal the divisions and the wounds. Beginning one person at a time.

Of course, the kingdom of heaven is here. I’m sure it actually existed long before Jesus. But when Jesus came, he pointed everyone explicitly toward it.

What have we learned about the kingdom of heaven?

It starts out small but grows to encompass all.

We can choose to participate or not.

We choose not by what we say but by how we act.

When we enter the kingdom of heaven, we are rewarded with a better life–love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

That is something to celebrate.

What shall we learn from this story about the kingdom of heaven?

Like the early stories, it is the place where we live. And it is the master we serve. And there are people who follow the master and people who do not.

And some put their time, talents, and energy to use to make the kingdom better. And some are lazy, fearful, unimaginative and therefore hide.

I’ve been thinking of Advent as a time to prepare for the coming of the kingdom of heaven. Of course, that happened when Jesus came and announced it. But Jesus “went away” and will “return” as this story suggests.

Will he find us living the values of the kingdom of heaven, and thereby reaping the fruit of the spirit? Or, will he find us hiding in our fears and emotions and thereby not living a fulfilled life?

Looks like we get a choice–use it, or lose it.

At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish and five were wise. The foolish ones took their lamps but did not take any oil with them. The wise ones, however, took oil in jars along with their lamps. The bridegroom was a long time in coming, and they all became drowsy and fell asleep.

“At midnight the cry rang out: ‘Here’s the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!’

“Then all the virgins woke up and trimmed their lamps. The foolish ones said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil; our lamps are going out.’

“‘No,’ they replied, ‘there may not be enough for both us and you. Instead, go to those who sell oil and buy some for yourselves.’

“But while they were on their way to buy the oil, the bridegroom arrived. The virgins who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet. And the door was shut.

“Later the others also came. ‘Lord, Lord,’ they said, ‘open the door for us!’

“But he replied, ‘Truly I tell you, I don’t know you.’

“Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour.

Jesus is often confusing. Sometimes he clearly implied that the kingdom of heaven appeared with him and was accessible to all who cared. Sometimes we can read into the story that perhaps he was referring to a “second coming”.

But we can take away two things from this story without trying to stretch the meaning.

If we wish to enter the kingdom of heaven reap all those good things in our life that I discussed yesterday, we must:

• Be prepared
• Be vigilant

We prepare through study, meditation, and prayer.

We are vigilant by honing our awareness.

We also learn that many who think they know Jesus and will enter the kingdom do not, for they are neither prepared nor vigilant. Don’t be one whose life is shut off from the source of life.

“What do you think? There was a man who had two sons. He went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work today in the vineyard.’

‘I will not,’ he answered, but later he changed his mind and went.

Then the father went to the other son and said the same thing. He answered, ‘I will, sir,’ but he did not go.

Which of the two did what his father wanted?”

“The first,” they answered.

Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you. For John came to you to show you the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes did. And even after you saw this, you did not repent and believe him.“

Tell me, what is more important–what you believe or the practices you do to put your belief into action?

We must meditate on this–what have we done yesterday and what will we do today to show we are in reality followers of Jesus rather than just carriers of words without meaning?

We now know about entering the kingdom of heaven. It is up to us.

Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.

What is of the greatest value to you? A person? Place? Thing?

Wouldn’t a life that includes love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control be worth something great? Being humble, yet a strong leader? Gentle, yet strong in the face of adversity?

Leaving a life of anger and agitation for a life of calm is worth many times more than the price of a meditation habit to obtain it. Or putting aside a life of ego to let others shine?

Such is the kingdom of heaven.