An 8.00 reflection on Proper 13C, 4th August 2019 at Coventry

If you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above...Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth

That sounds like pretty clear advice – and indeed, Paul is a past-master at viewing the world in black and white binary terms...As he addresses the Colossians, he is asking them to draw a firm line between their former selves and their true selves, those selves that are hidden for now, only to be revealed when the Kingdom breaks in in all its fullness.

The only trouble is that, when I look at my own life, that opening “IF” feels like quite a significant word.

Yes – I was baptized as a baby, went through that symbolic drowning of all the old order, the original sin, if you like...and what's more my parents went on to honour the baptism promises, doing everything in their power to help me realise that to be a Christian was to live a different kind of life. And yes, I long to love God with all my heart, soul, mind, strength and to love and serve my neighbour selflessly...And I take the call of God on my life, and the joyful obligations of priesthood very seriously indeed but (oh, goodness, why is there ALWAYS a but?) that IF brings me up short every single time.

IF I have been raised with Christ – then surely my life should look very very different.

If the only evidence there is for a Christ-like transformation is the way that I spend my Sunday mornings and the institution that employs me, then I rather think I'm doing it wrong. Please don't think that I'm fishing for compliments if I say that I don't honestly think there is very much that distinguishes me from my atheist friends, whose lives are every bit as moral, every bit as free from Paul's catalogue of evils as, on a good day, I aspire to be.

So – if my transformed life is buried treasure,hidden with Christ, then sometimes it feels as if it's rather better hidden than I’d like...I find myself asking “Where’s the evidence, Fleming?”

I know myself quite well, by this stage...and I know that often my actions are shaped by anxiety rather than trust...I can all too easily imagine myself delighting in having stored up supplies for a rainy day (in fact, I might as well admit that yes, I do have a Brexit cupboard – though I take some comfort in the fact that my initial motivation was to be sure that I have something in reserve if life gets so bumpy in London that my family need to return home).

I want to feel safe – and to be able to ensure the safety of those whom I love.

But I’m working on it.

I know that while I might not always have enough for all my WANTS I have infinitely more than my basic needs...And that in any case, all those THINGS aren’t actually what matters.

The parable of the rich man with all those barns might well be a parable for 21^st century life. For decades we’ve worked on the assumption that more is better – and that there will always BE more...that we can carry on expecting growth in every area...that somehow a money tree WILL grow, that our poor beleagured planet will shake itself and continue to meet all our demands, even as we strip it bare of so many precious resources. Now we are, perhaps, reaching the crunch point – the point when our souls are required of us. Too many of us have done very nicely thank you, at the expense of others…- those in the global south whose lives are being decimated by climate change – those in our city who find themselves turning again and again to the Food Bank as our society seems intent on cutting costs by making life ever harder for those who are already vulnerable…

I may not be alone in recognising a tendency to think “Somebody should DO something to make things better...” without accepting the responsibility to do something myself – right here and right now.

There’s something grotesque about the rich man talking to himself “Soul...relax, eat, drink, be merry” - for the soul is not sustained by anything you might find stored in a barn. Instead the life and health of our souls is found in Christ alone – and the choice is ours...to live into this as the central truth that shapes our lives, or to turn aside, and pin our hopes on the things of here and now.

Let’s pray for the grace to make Kingdom choices and so live that it’s clear for all to see what we really value – Christ, our life.

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