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)

Scotland: Yes or No?

Last week Church of Scotland Moderator John Chalmers hosted an event in Glasgow in which two leading politicians debated their opposing views on Scotland’s future. It seems that the whole of Scotland is caught up in the big debate.
 

For a long time, opinion polls suggested that the ‘No’ option led by an unassailable majority. But over the last few weeks we’ve realised with apprehension or excitement depending on our point of view that a ‘Yes’ majority is possible.

It means that every one of us is having to consider our own position seriously. Some listening to the debate are growing convinced that independence would a divisive option, fraught with incalculable risk. Others are realising that an independent Scotland could be made to work – for them, what seemed unwanted and impossible is now desirable.

But on such an important issue why is someone not articulating a clear Christian view? Why are there Christians on both sides of the debate?

The reason is that the Bible (our key resource for shaping our thinking) and Christian theology don’t give hard-and-fast guidance on this issue.

This is expressed well by Dr Jamie Grant from the Highland Theological College in an article outlining some relevant biblical principles.

The Bible’s main emphasis, he argues is on inclusion, rather than division. The most desirable way of governing a nation is the one which enables it to reflect and honour the values of God’s spiritual kingdom of which all believers are part – values such as justice, goodness and integrity.

According to the Bible, Jamie continues, there’s no room for the divisive nationalism which scorns others because of their country of birth. Finally, Christians will seek the way of being Scotland which most enable us not only to embrace God’s values, but to express and share our faith in Jesus Christ.

These are principles which all Christians accept. In the days before the 18^th, if we have not already done so, we will evaluate the case for ‘Yes’ and ‘No’, and consider the options in the light of Jamie Grant’s four points.

But Jamie also reminds us that the God of inclusion is also a God who rejoices in national uniqueness and cultural identity. God, we believe, cares about Scotland.

This is the God to whom the future is present, a God who knows both the future that will be, and the future that could have been, a God who discerns the consequences of whichever decision we make as a nation on the 18^th, a God who knows which option is best for Scotland’s future.

So why, given all our talk as Christians about sensing the prompting of God in our lives, the inner voice saying ‘This is the way to go’, why does God not make clear to us what that best choice is? Why does one prayerful Christian reach one decision and feel a familiar inner peace about that decision, while another prayerful Christian’s opposing decision is similarly baptised in a sense of peace.

Is God playing games with us? Doesn’t it make a mockery of our claim to be the people of a God who speaks?

We believe that one of the most precious gifts God gives us is freedom to choose, freedom to make mistakes. And so, facing next week’s vote, we are truly and scarily free. We can choose either option. 

Perhaps the way we choose – in reflective prayerfulness, taking the long view of what is best for Scotland, rather than prompted by self-interest, or mindlessly following the crowd – matters more than what we choose.

‘Yes’ supporters are brilliant at articulating the dream of a better, fairer society. But it’s easy to dream of better things lying beyond dramatic change; much harder to fulfil the dream in the reality on the other side of 18^th September.

It’s true that government policies affect a nation’s prosperity and ability to care for those who need help. But however Scotland is governed in future, it will be a better place only when people on the ground commit to fulfilling the dream of a better society – in their care for others, their seeking the good of others, their tough love, generosity, their self-sacrificial spirit.

Or to use Jamie Grant’s language, when as individuals we embrace the values of God’s kingdom. Scotland will change when we are the change.

Again, we are free to choose but this time there is no doubt which choice God – the God who inspires and strengthens us in fulfilling the divine dream – urges us to make.

(Christian Viewpoint column from the Highland News dated 11th September 2014)