In many ways this reading is just a different way of saying the same thing Jesus said in last week's gospel. Subverting the notion of "insider" and "outsider", giving tax collectors and prostitutes the priority over the professionally religious. The trouble is we are so used to hearing this kind of story are we capable of even "hearing" this truth any more?

The most important point being made here is that a true follower of God is someone who "does", not necessarily someone who believes/practices/prays but still does not "do". The way of God, the way of Christ, is a way of being. Premised on beliefs it may be but the way of being is the way to truly follow God. There is only one authentic Christian spirituality - and that is how we live and the spirit and energy we exude. I was not with you in Barnard Castle on Sunday because I was in Liverpool trying to sort my life out. But I want to share something that was said to me there. When people in my group found out I was a vicar, they told me they had just been talking about Christians before I got there. Apparently there had been a group of Christians the previous night and they shared with me that they had been quite judgemental and obnoxious - a bit unpleasant to be with. Not exactly a good advertisement for the faith. Those decent ordinary people  have had their view of Christianity tarnished by a brush not with boorish militant atheists but with a group of Christians. We really do have to try to be the change we pray for in the way we relate to people. As a compliment to the gospel reading from Matthew, try this one on for size from James (2: 14-19).

"What good is it my brothers if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes or daily food. If one of you says to him "Go I wish you well; keep warm and well fed" but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself , if it is not accompanied by action is dead. But someone will say "You have faith, I have deeds". Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do. You believe that there is one God? Good. Even the demons believe that - and shudder".

Last week I told you that last Thursday would have been my 26th wedding anniversary. Well I miscalculated - yes I know, a typical man....It would have actually been 27 years. I made a rare visit to the graveside and decided to read again "Living Buddha, living Christ" by Thich Nhat Hahn. A curious choice you might think but I needed something more penetrating than what so much of Christianity has to offer in this area. I really do want to recommend this book to anyone who is spiritual and wants a fresh renewing insight into Christianity. From his Buddhist position he evaluates and draws out all the similarities between these two great religions and the insights he provides are truly profound. His writings about death and "inter-being" a Buddhist concept that transcends notions like birth and death give the most lucid explanations of the concept of eternal life I have ever read. On this day when I needed something that could reach me and speak to me, this is where I looked and this is where I found it. Don't be nervous. It may challenge you but if you are open it can enrich you and your perception of the true values and content of the Christian way and not detract from it. Hahn's goal is not to convert you to Buddhism but to allow you to see deeper into the truths that lie within our own tradition when we look a little deeper.

Yesterday someone said that they liked the comparisons I made between Eastern and Western Christianity. Well one of the Orthodox maxims is that "God became man, so that man could become God". That seems like a huge step for most westerners to take but innate divinity is a given for Eastern spirituality. In fact the goal of our Christian journey on earth is "Deification", to become like God. A sharp intake of breath from all of us who thought our goal was to sing in tune and not drop the chalice.......As ever the Orthodox think at a deeper more penetrating level that most westerners. In our human frame, heaven and earth meet. We are both Spiritual and material. Bishop Kallistos Ware puts it like this in his book "The Orthodox way".

The human being is a mirror of the whole of creation, a little universe, a microcosm. All living things have their meeting place in him. Man may say of himself, in the words of Kathleen Raine..

Because I love

The sun pours out its rays of living Gold

Pours out its gold and silver on the sea

Because I love,

The ferns grow green, and green the grass, and green

the transparent sunlit trees..

Because I love,

All night the river flows into my sleep,

Ten thousand living things are sleeping in my arms,

And sleeping wake, and flowing as at rest"

Being microcosm, man is also mediator. It is his God-given task to reconcile and harmonise the spiritual and material realms, to bring them to unity, to spiritualise the material and to make manifest all the latent capacities of the world"

The Lord’s Prayer

This is a model for prayer given to us by Jesus himself. Most of us can say it without thinking but what does it mean?

 

“Our Father” - God wants us to think of him as being very close and personal to us. He thinks of us as his children. He loves us just like a good human Father. It does NOT mean that God is a man. God is neither a man nor a woman.

“Who art in heaven” – Heaven is a name for the Spiritual world. There are two worlds, the one you can see and touch – the material world; and one which you can’t – the spiritual world. But they are not separate places, they overlap and inter-penetrate each other.

“Hallowed be thy name”. There is nothing greater than God. Save the word “awesome” for God and don’t use his name lightly.

“Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven”. God’s peace and love, healing, mercy and cooperation are marks of the Spiritual world. Here we pray that this same peace and love, mercy and cooperation will grow here on earth as well, manifest in our own lives.

“Give us this day our daily bread”. We  trust and thank God for all our practical needs as well. Spiritually, eating bread can be seen as communion with all things and a way of communing with God, as in the Eucharist - "Inter-being".

“Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us”. -  To Trespass is to do wrong to another person. Forgiveness is divine, but in return we are asked to forgive other people who hurt us as well.

“Lead us not into temptation and deliver us from evil”. We are all tempted to do wrong things and treat people badly every day. We ask God to help us turn away from those things and do good things instead.

“For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory, for ever and ever”. Everything in the universe both spiritual and material belongs to God, from the moment of creation to the end of time. Everything we have, including life itself is a gift from God.

“Amen”. – So be it. That’s true. We agree!

 

Love and peace

 

Martin