prophecy – James Robert Kitson

The Dangerous Mind

The co-editors of the book The Syria Dilemma have written in a New York Times opinion piece that there is an abundance of food just a few miles away from the blockaded areas where thousands upon thousands of Syrians are starving. Danny Postel and Nader Hashemi note that, according to the United Nations, about 800,000 Syrians are currently under siege. This sad state of affairs bears out the truth of a pattern of human behaviour described symbolically in the Book of Revelation, chapter 6. Conquest (white horse) brings conflict (red horse), leading to scarcity (black horse) and death (pale green horse).

We will all decry this situation as cruel and tragic, but we need to recognize that, on a personal level, our own mindset can also be cruel and tragic, when our mindset is controlling and manipulative. Let’s be honest; there’s some control freak in all of us. But some people actually know this about themselves and think it is well and good because, just like some leaders on the world stage, they have convinced themselves that their contolling behaviour is for the greater good, without realizing or caring what kind of damage they do, inevitably in the process. The controlling mind is a dangerous mind.

The Privileged Many

Summary of message at Fallingbrook Presbyterian Church, Sunday, December 15 2013 (Advent 3). Scripture: Matthew 11:2-11.

It is often observed that this is a time of year when people who are down may feel even more down. There can be disillusionment – both with personal circumstances and from observation of the world. Where is the peace and joy of which Christmas speaks? It may seem any sort of success in life is for an elite, a privileged few. Christmas actually brings the message that we can be part of the privileged many – privileged to be part of God’s kingdom brought in Christ.

From Matthew’s telling at the beginning of chapter 11, it seems John the Baptist may have been suffering some disillusionment. He who had been first to recognize and point to Jesus as Messiah was in prison, and did not see from his vantage point how anything was different. He sent friends to ask of Jesus, “Are you the one who is to come, or should we wait for another?” Jesus replies by pointing to what is happening: massive healing, a sign of the kingdom’s breaking into the world in and through him. And he adds, as great a figure as John the Baptist is, having been foretold as the one to point to what is happening, the least in the kingdom is greater than he. This kingdom is both now and forever.

So what about us and our disillusionment? We need, like John, to see beyond our own circumstances to perceive the bigger picture of what God is doing in the world, and what he can do for us personally, especially as we accept the special fellowship that rest from our striving (end of chapter 11) can bring. We can handle pretty much anything with the right support.

Most importantly, our part in Christ’s kingdom gives us our true identity, which is not to be equated with our particular roles in life that can bring us disappointment and disillusionment. Our identity is wrapped up in Christ, who will not fail us. And we find we are already on what Isaiah celebrated as the highway of the redeemed (Isaiah 35:1-10). We are among the privileged many.

Suddenly

Summary of message for Sunday, December 1, the first Sunday of Advent, at Fallingbrook Presbyterian Church, Toronto. Scripture: Isaiah 2:1-5; Matthew 24:36-44.

The patrons at a Glasgow pub Friday night could have had no idea what was going to transpire there that night. Some lives ended. Others will have been changed forever, and not for the better. I could mention other places and events – Lac Megantic, Tacloban in the Phillipines – places and events that experienced sudden and traumatic change. I suspect that, more often than not, when we think of sudden events, unexpected news, we tend to think of disruptive, unwelcome things. …

Jesus spoke of his coming at the end of time as we know it in t erms of suddenness. But this is meant to be good news, the best news. It is the fulfillment of the wonderful picture painted by Isaiah, a time of wonderful “shalom” – peace and fulfillment for the faithful. On this first Sunday in Advent, it is customary to have Scripture with such an apocalyptic theme, embracing the news of Christ’s coming again, with the effect that in celebrating his birth at Bethlehem, we will come to knowledge of hiim who is yet to come. And this ought to transform all our expectations. As in the times of Isaiah, there are still stark realities all around us, but also the experience of the unexpected in wonderful ways – a message for a season that we do think of, after all, as one of expectancy.

Jesus spoke of the sudden nature of his coming, as opposed to answering the “when” question. Not the angels, not even he, knew this, he said. This is in keeping with his self-emptying character, divesting himself of divine glory so as to experience what we experience on earth. And in this humility may be a clue as to how we are to be prepared for his coming – and for the unexpected in everyday life – by being like him in h is humility. Not all, he made clear, would experience his return as good news. Given any two people, he said, one will be taken up into the new reality, the other, well, not. It is those who share in his own character will be in sync with his coming kingdom, a kingdom described earlier in Matthew in terms of peacemaking, mercy, humility.

Perhaps we can demonstrate such humility and Christ-likeness by just not being so sure about so many things, or thinking we should be – even to the point of thinking we can predict what Christ himself said he did not know – the time of his return.. We can and should be sure of God’s love. Our loved ones should be certain of our love for them. But we insist on being certain and right about many things that just put us at odds with others. It is a large part of the increasing nastiness and polarized factions in our common life. Certainty is at the heart of all fundamental isms, and they are all destructive. We then effectively judge ourselves and make ourselves unfit for the kingdom of grace.

We are invited by our Lord to his table today. He freely gives himself to us. We join in taking his nurturing, transforming character within us. So now maybe we will experience new kinds of suddenness. Yes, we will still have tragedies, unexpected disruptive news and such. But the experience of his presence in our hearts and in each day brings a new kind of disruption: the inbreaking of grace, and beauty, and love. Such new kinds of suddeness will come readily and freely to those in whose hearts his love flows.

Seeing Green

Right now the way along this “greenbelt” isn’t terribly green. They say there is beauty in everything, but it’s a little hard to see it here – I guess unless you get right down and marvel at the movement of awaking bugs andvthe like. But I can, at least, see in it what is to be. In the next few weeks things will get greener and greener. Some people look at their path right now and find it looks drab and dismal; in fact they might not see a path at all, at least not to anywhere good. We need to pray for them to experience Easter, and that we might find the way to share it.