More like Him, day by day

I heard of a man who had preached one day about an economic crisis in the country – at the end of the service he was approached by one of the congregation who told him that he hadn’t enjoyed the sermon at all as he came to church to get away from thinking about news and politics…

This week I suspect many of you will have heard quite enough about Brexit, whatever side of the debate you may find yourself on and you might be pleased to hear I’m not going to talk about it really except to mention a news crew who approached a homeless person this week asking what they thought about how the Brexit negotiations were going…

 If the homeless person knew much about the current debate they certainly didn’t care – living to the next day was what was important. Their hope was very different to those who might plan ahead a long and secure and successful future… 

And this, as I thought about today’s readings really made me think about what they’re saying to us today as well as to the homeless person and the politician… 

Today in the gospel reading (Mark 13:1-8) Jesus came out of the temple and one of his disciples commented on what an amazing place it was – and it really would have been an immense structure, improved and developed by Herod not too long before. His motives of course had nothing to do with God, but to try and keep the Jews on his side… 

And as the disciples looked at this amazing building, Jesus really put a dampener on things by saying it was going to be destroyed… Now Jesus may well have been talking about many things here and particularly perhaps about the end times of the world, but I think it is a great lesson for us today as we think about ourselves, about those politicians and about that homeless person… 

First of all, let’s think about that homeless person – day to day is just a struggle, life is often just a fight to survive… A grand temple, a great looking church, a discussion about Brexit means very little unless it affects them where they are at that particular time. And I think Jesus had something to say about this. In a way he was warning his disciples about the trappings of material things because they don’t last, what mattered was a faith and hope in him. He was warning them about the future to enable them to live more focused in the present… 

And he was suggesting that these magnificent stones mean nothing if they are not helping to further God’s work and when a homeless person looks at a magnificent church building, they’re much more likely to see what the people there do to help them and how they welcome them… The person who is really struggling doesn’t see a magnificent building, he doesn’t see the possibilities or otherwise of Brexit, he or she sees teatime as the next objective and this is a real challenge to every church to consider what we do to care for those who are struggling, what we do for those in need… 

And now let’s think of the politician, and this isn’t party political. I actually think most politicians do a tremendous job and work very hard. Senior politicians I’ve known or met really do commit themselves to the work they’re doing and whether we agree with them or not there has to be some respect for what they do…. 

Having said that, they too must be challenged by our readings today, because too often politicians will fight for their political lives by trying to promise all kinds of material things to people… Politicians are called to a magnificent role, a hugely responsible role and they have to be constantly aware of the danger of being scarred by offering short term promises of success when that success is so often represented by material wealth… 

In the church we have sometimes gone down the role of employing consultants or advisors, when so often much of the work upon which they’re consulting or advising can’t be done from a desk in an office, but only by being involved every day. 

In the letter to the Hebrews (10:11-14,19-25) that we heard part of, it began by saying about the priest in the temple standing offering sacrifices day after day, but these sacrifices were not going to do anything magic – it was only Jesus that could take away sins, it was only he could offer the miracle of being made right with God… In our context today, nothing has changed, it is only Jesus that can offer a real, lasting and secure strength… 

We need to pray for our politicians who, as I said, have a really tough job and face enormous and often unfair criticism, but we need to work with them to ensure that care for those who can’t vote for them, for all kinds of different reasons, remains a priority… 

And so to us, as Christians today, and perhaps this is the most uncomfortable bit of all… When Jesus talked about buildings not lasting, he wasn’t suggesting they would all literally fall down, he wasn’t suggesting that the end of the world was coming immediately, but he was reminding his disciples that nothing lasts effectively without him and as churches we need to focus so much on that message…

We need to find more and more ways of helping those who are struggling and we need to pray for those who have huge responsibilities both in government and in the church, but we also need to be and share good news to all around us… 

One night at a dinner a man fascinated his companions by telling of his experiences in a little town named Flagstaff. The town was to be flooded, as part of a large lake for which a dam was being built. In the months before it was to be flooded, all improvements and repairs in the whole town were stopped. 

What was the use of painting a house if it were to be covered with water in six months? Why repair anything when the whole village was to be wiped out? So, week by week, the whole town became more and more untidy and derelict. Then he added by way of explanation: "Where there is no faith in the future, there is no power in the present." 

The faith we have in the future is not about painting a house to look good, it’s not about making our church look more and more wonderful, but about focusing on Jesus. 

If he is at the very centre of all we do, and all we are, then we can’t go far wrong, because when he is, we will seek to be more and more like him, messing up regularly perhaps, but still trying to be more like him in seeking to care for those who are struggling, in being active in looking out for those who are in need in any way, and offering them practical help and a reminder that they are loved, they are cared for… 

And it will challenge us to be involved in the political world because they need our support but they also sometimes need to be held accountable… And we need to be good news – when we say we have a hope in the future because Jesus is our present and our future, we need to look and act like he makes a difference to us… 

To finish, just a thought back from our reading from the letter to the Hebrews… The priest stood there in the temple, day after day after day, but it didn’t help… all that work, all that energy and it wasn’t working, but the letter says, ‘When Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, ‘he sat down at the right hand of God’…. I love the imagery of someone toiling away day after day but not achieving anything because they’ve missed the fact that Jesus has done it all… 

As we celebrate his love, as we celebrate his presence, may we commit ourselves to living and loving more like him day by day. AMEN