In today’s bible passages we are reminded very clearly that as individual human beings we all have choices about how we live and the road that we take our life down. While there are accidents in life, the direction our life takes is not an accident and is determined each day by decisions taken consciously or unconsciously. Choice about those we form relationships with. Choice about the principles that we live our lives on. Choice about what or who we decide to live for.
All the passages today are about taking decisions that keep us in relationship with God and living as a member of the Kingdom of God.
The imagery from the Jeremiah passage compares the stunted shrub in the desert which has no water and is dried up and withered, with the tree planted by water, sending out its roots by the stream which does not fear when the heat comes because its leaves will stay green.
The people of Jeremiah’s time had turned away from trusting in God, and the sharp imagery of the shrub in the desert away from water, the source of survival for plants, is a very clear message. “Cursed are those”, Jeremiah declares, “who trust in mere mortals and make mere flesh their strength, whose hearts turn away from the Lord”. The message of the imagery presented of the dried up shrub and the tree planted by water is that when people turn away from the real source of their life, God, they do not bear fruit.
In contrast, Jeremiah tells us, ‘Blessed are those … whose trust is in the Lord. They are like a tree planted by water, sending out its roots by the stream. The passage powerfully lays before the nation of Judah the decisions they have to make if they wish to live a fruitful life within God’s Kingdom.
The Psalm today has an almost identical message and image. Happy are those who do not follow the advice of the wicked, declares the Psalm, but whose delight is in the Lord. The trees planted by streams of water yield their fruit in its season and their leaves do not wither. By contrast the Psalm declares, the wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away.
The message from the Old Testament is clear – stay in touch with and close to the source of life. This is illustrated in the tree/shrub need for water to thrive. For the people of Judah the need was to stay in touch, or more accurately to get back in touch, with the Lord.
It’s against this background that we have to learn from the teaching of Jesus in Luke. These are very hard words from Jesus:
o Blessed are you who are poor
o Blessed are you who are hungry
o Blessed are you who weep now
o Blessed are you when people hate you
And:
o Woe to you who are rich
o Woe to you who are full now
o Woe to you who are laughing now
o Woe to you when all speak well of you
I don’t think that Jesus is telling us in these challenging words that we will only be able to lead happy and fulfilled lives if we are poor or hungry or weeping or having people hate us. And, I don’t think that Jesus is telling us that if we are ‘laughing now’ we had better stop because otherwise we will later mourn and weep. This Gospel passage is a picture of contrasts: that of living within the kingdom of God OR living outside of it.
The parallel passage for this story from Luke is in Matthew’s Gospel in the Beatitudes. It talks of the ‘poor in spirit’ and those who ‘hunger and thirst for righteousness’, rather than those who are literally poor and hungry. So we need to read this passage within the overall text of scripture. We can best understand this passage in the light of that 5th verse from Jeremiah 17 – “Thus says the Lord: cursed are those who trust in mere mortals and make their flesh their strength, whose hearts turn away from the Lord”.. In other words, those in this life who place their TRUST in their riches, or their personal happiness or their desire to please others have separated themselves from God and do not inhabit the Kingdom of Heaven.
On the other hand, those who put their TRUST in God,
and stay close to the real source of life, will regardless of the circumstances
of life, be blessed and rewarded as members of the Kingdom of Heaven.
The
message of Jesus throughout the New Testament is “follow me” – put your
trust in me. Throughout our life, we have choices to make. Some
choices are one-off and very significant for what happens to our life. Most
choices are made day-by-day as we face the myriad of decisions about how
we act, how we treat other people and how truthful we are. Every time
we choose to do something, the path our life takes modifies for better or
worse - whether the decision is one taken consciously or unconsciously,
How then can people ensure that the decisions taken are good ones that keep us on the right path for our life? For the Christian, this can only by staying close to the real source of life. It can only come by staying in an intimate relationship with God.. It is this relationship which enables us to take decisions, both conscious and unconscious, that are guided by our membership of the Kingdom of God. A tree needs water every day, if it is to survive and bear fruit and we need to maintain our daily relationship with God and our regular worship, if we are to bear fruit for the Kingdom of God.
Most of us in St James, and in Britain lead a privileged life in comparison to most of the rest of humanity on our planet. And, as members of the kingdom of Heaven, we have great responsibility for our daily decisions, to lead a life that is in keeping with being members of the Kingdom of Heaven.
But our decisions are not just about leading a life that is morally good in our dealing with other people. It is also fundamentally about using what God has given to us for the benefit of God’s people throughout the world.
Those of us, who live in the Western world, live a life of rare privilege compared to most of humanity, so the words of Jesus when he says woe to the rich should challenge us very strongly to look at the decisions we make about the money we have. As Christians, as members of the Kingdom of Heaven, we, like the trees and bushes, need to bear fruit from our connection to the source of real life.
Let us pray that God will show us this week how we can bear more fruit for the Kingdom of God.