Psalm 15 and John 15
H,
I know it is just as
important that we speak of the other side of things. There is no hiding from
the dark nature of the world we currently live in. It is not as easy as knowing
what to do and then doing it. It is that simple in terms but not in practice. The
honest tale is if you stand for something you will stand against something. There
is an opposition and an accuser for everything we seek to become in God.
Now, this is not the kind of
thing that goes down well. On many writing afternoons at home here I experience
the expression of taking that part and making it the whole thing. I hear
bellows from across the street that purport to cast out demons from every soul
that exists. You and I are not strangers to the esoteric matters of spiritual
warfare but this, I fear, makes the point of Christianity the engagement of
fire (over and over again) against the likes of poverty, decay, unemployment,
singlehood and a host of other crimes against our own enjoyment[FB1]  of
God. The thing this sort of thing sets up is the old pleasure and pain
principle. It makes the point of life to avoid pain and to enhance pleasure. This
is not a bad bet when grappling in the dark. Who does not want to do this? The crucial
point is some pain gives life and some pleasure brings death, not healing, in
its wings. We have to be watchful not to mix it all in.
This is not even the main
thing we face. Christianity is conditioned to thrive in opposition, in pain, in
scarcity, in sorrow and in pain. The only thing it is not made up to do is
stop. To stay in one place and become stagnant. It is supposed to grow our
hearts and not necessarily our pockets. The quality of the Christian life is
not in things that go bigger but things that go deeper. It is like the rich Christian.
We have been warned about the eye of the needle. We all know how money warps
the mind. It always blurs the line between wants and needs. It enlarges the
taste for things and before you know it you cannot remember the simple things
so simply anymore. It has to be this or the whole world will crumble. Life has
to be framed in comfort or else it is a life less than ordinary. It is subtle
and it is powerful and it is an escape (or defence) but not a very good one. We
carry the full armour of Christ into battle. Money is not a piece of the war
ensemble.
I do not mean the knock
money so much. God knows you need to send me some soon. Hehehe. But you get the
point, Hectore? It is not only that. Anything out of context keeps us off the
road. The sneer of apparent success, the foibles of romantic love, the idolatry
of worthy themes or the desecration of what is sacred in our lives. You could
almost pick anything that is in life and once put above the path, the glory,
the light and our journey home, it will fizzle out our joy and leave us somewhat
addicted to the mundane.
So these are the demons
within. They do not need a fire other than the cleansing fire of being
connected to the vine. We will get to them one after the other and choose. Sometimes
we will choose wrongly but we will get another chance to choose the other way. The
vital thing is not to give up. We may look at the world as stealing our shine
and making us vulnerable to the dark but the real battles happen inside. Implicit
in the call of the Gospel is a guaranteed right to choose how you will live. You
may not choose the circumstances that you live in but you will choose the heart
you approach it with. You will choose if you keep moving toward the glory or
recede into the old fable of the dark.