The Kingdom we were made for

This weekend, whatever the outcome of the referendum, we’ll be thinking about the way ahead.

Depending on our point of view, it will be a weekend of elation, dejection or perhaps simply relief. Some of us will need to work on relationships with people we’ve argued passionately with in recent weeks. As a nation, we’ll be working on Scotland’s relationship with the rest of the UK – either as a continuing part of the larger whole, or as a soon-to-be independent state.
 

This piece is just a mosaic of thoughts I’ve had recently. Our Youth Minister at Hilton Church is encouraging the young people to read through the New Testament in a year, and each morning posts on Facebook a video sharing his thoughts on the day’s passage. These videos address all of us, not just the under-20s.

Last week he highlighted Jesus’ teaching to ‘Seek first God’s kingdom and his righteousness and all these things will be given to you as well’ – ‘all these things’ being everything necessary for daily life. One of the things Jesus’ words mean is we should seek in Scotland in the days ahead the values close to God’s heart – justice, peace, inclusive love, wisdom, a spirit of reconciliation and many more.

On Wednesday I was at a church service attended by two people I hadn’t met before. They looked a bit different, and I caught myself fleetingly thinking ‘What are they doing here?’ before realising how wrong this was. Christ stood beside me in these men, bending his head in sincere prayer, yet I had been dismissive of them.

My point is this: it’s one thing for me to know that humility is a value close to God’s heart and to seek in theory to be humble. It’s quite another to be shown my lack of humility, to sense an awakening in me both of a sorrow at my attitude to two Christian  brothers, and a truly humble joy at having been taught this lesson yet again.

It’s one thing to know the values of God’s kingdom, one thing to claim to build our lives on them, one thing to be convinced these values will make Scotland the best Scotland can be, one thing to devise projects and plans to implement these values. It’s quite another thing for these values to flow spontaneously from the well at the heart of our being.

In his video, Jonathan emphasised another meaning of those words ‘Seek first the kingdom’ – Jesus urges us to seek to cultivate our spiritual lives through prayer and reflection on the Bible. We seek the kingdom when our hearts pursue God in the appointed places where God meets with us – in bread and wine, the life of Jesus, the Bible and in the constant dialogue with God we call prayer.

Sunday’s sermon was about the classic story of Noah. His name, we were told, means ‘Rest’. Against a background of civic chaos one man, Noah, was sufficiently still to listen to God, to seek first the kingdom. We need a nation of Noahs in Scotland in the days ahead. People who will listen to God and encounter God, people who hold close to their hearts the values close to God’s heart.

One of the Bible readings at the Wednesday service was the passage from St Paul where he encouraged his readers not to become ‘engrossed’ in the things of the world, because it is passing away.

There’s much to love in our beautiful, broken world – love and beauty and joy, creativity, our uniqueness as human beings, the challenge of change including political change, Scotland – whatever that word means to each of us.

But Christians believe in a future when God’s kingdom will fully come, when all of humanity will live out the values close to God’s heart, united in brotherhood and sisterhood, united in peace, united in worship.

On last Tuesday’s BBC Radio 4 Thought for the Day the Sikh broadcaster Lord Singh shared an old story about people leaving family and friends and going up a mountain to seek God. A visiting guru tells them the world is suffering because they’ve deserted it. ‘God isn’t found in the wilderness but in the service of your family and fellow beings.’

In contrast, Jesus modelled the need for both mountain and valley, both contemplation and action, and in both we are seeking the kingdom.

As we help build the Scotland of the future, our faith tells us not to become so preoccupied with the present that we forget the coming kingdom, and neither to become so preoccupied with the future that we forget our present responsibilities. As in partnership with all people of goodwill we build a better society, Scotland will increasingly resemble the kingdom we were made for.

(Christian Viewpoint from the Highland News dated 18th September 2014)