Kings and those in authority

 The last week and a half has naturally been taken up on television and in newspapers with news about the death of the Queen. Much has been reported about her incredible faith as well as her devotion to duty which have offered an example for people to follow. Today in our New Testament reading from Paul’s 1st letter to Timothy, (1 Tim.2:1-7) there is a call for us to pray for those in authority, for Kings and all who are in high positions it says. Again, it seems a particularly appropriate time to be reminded of this. 

Lots of us in our own prayer lives might offer prayers for other people, but those prayers often begin with those closest to us and work outwards from there - Paul is not saying this is wrong but is reminding us that those in authority, who sometimes may seem a little bit distant from us, are as much in need of our prayer as anyone else. The decisions they are making don't affect just us or our families and friends, but can affect whole nations or even the world. 

And so this reading is talking of a big picture - a need to recognise the gifts we have and to use them wisely perhaps, but also a need to recognise the role of others and the importance of prayer in supporting them.

And then we come to the gospel reading (Luke 16:1-13) and it seems extraordinary. Here, Jesus, the man of supreme justice, compassion and love, seems to offer some sort of praise to a dishonest manager. It doesn't look good, and many people have discussed its meaning for many years.

First, the basics of the parable - a man realises that his manager has been acting corruptly with his property and so he tells him that he will be sacked. There was no real benefit system and the man seemed to have very little in the way of other qualities, and so he came up with a plan. In order to get some friends to support him he would use his last actions as a manager to forgive parts of the debts that were owed to his boss, and thereby he would win himself some friends who would support him when he was sacked. 

It was a cunning plan… But he got caught! Then in a real twist, instead of being angrier, the man praised his manager for being so shrewd... 

So was Jesus saying that it’s ok to be dishonest as long as we're shrewd ? I suspect not. But he did make a lot of points in this parable which are of use to us. Firstly I think we need to recognise that Jesus was capable of surprises. Here, in a rather ironic way, he was making the point that sometimes the ‘children of this generation’ as he says are wiser than ‘the children of light’. 

Here he was suggesting that sometimes a person who is streetwise may actually be a little smarter than the children of light - another name for Jesus' followers. And perhaps that is still sometimes true. We've all watched or heard of arguments in the church over things which are not of huge importance but which have made news headlines and hidden the true message of the gospel.

While Christians are arguing over things which are pretty trivial at times the world outside watches and shakes their heads, or perhaps even worse still, they’ve stopped watching altogether.

In the church there is a need to be smart, to meet the needs of an age where people won't just sit and take what's been said but will want answers and explanations, and above all where people want authenticity - one critical example is that when we talk about loving each other - we have to mean it and we have to be seen to do it !

In recent days I think the relevance of the church and our faith has become more apparent to a wider audience. Following the death of the Queen, many people have turned to faith, they’ve attended churches, whether for services or to light a candle or to sign a book of condolence. People are connecting with the church who may not have done so for years and the Queen’s faith is being talked about publicly and positively. 

Sometimes we’re shy about doing that - but we can’t be. We’re called to share our faith, to share good news, to share a message of hope and peace and love. To be people of hope and peace and love. 

Another message of this parable is similar to the first. The manager when faced with a crisis thought of a plan. He wasn't strong enough to be a labourer and he didn't want to beg. What he knew best was trading, and so he traded off some of the debts to get himself some friends. In other words he used what he had in order to benefit others. 

Now Jesus wouldn't approve of the way he did it, but he was again making the point that some people know how to use the gifts they're given to benefit others, whilst others don't. 

As Christians we are recipients of amazing gifts from God, of huge amounts of grace; we are recipients of his love; we see the wonder of creation; we can feel the warmth of fellowship; the support of prayer; the comfort of the bible and so on... And we need to show it. 

As we are blessed so abundantly we need to share those blessings... 

Life can be hard at times - it isn't easy to always smile and be joyful, but if we can constantly look at the blessings we know about - that unbreakable bond of love, that offer of life for all eternity, that comfort of knowing a Saviour who walks alongside us every moment of every day, then we will be able to reflect at least a degree of the joy that God wishes for us. 

And then, the third message of this parable and that is forgiveness. The dishonest manager didn't have any right to forgive these debts and his motivation for doing it wasn't good, but I wonder if Jesus was saying that forgiveness isn't always straight forward, and it certainly isn't always easy. 

People who forgive others who have hurt them or who have hurt a loved one often become centres of news stories, and that happens because its often so remarkable - think of Gordon Wilson whose daughter Marie was killed in the Enniskillen bombing… Heartbroken, his response to the bombing was, 'I bear no ill will. I bear no grudge'.

Think of some quotes :  Martin Luther King said, 'I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear' and Mother Theresa, 'if we really want to love, we must learn how to forgive.' 

In this parable Jesus was emphasising the importance of forgiveness, of how essential a quality it is. In the Lord’s Prayer we say, 'forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive... those who trespass against us...'

This isn't an easy parable to understand and I’m probably not supposed to say this, but sometimes I think Jesus could have offered more of an explanation for this one ! 

But if we consider the need to be people who live as Christians and are respected as Christians in a world which sometimes turns its back on Christianity; if we recognise the blessings we have and seek to share them with others in word or in action and if we seek to forgive those who hurt us as we hope to be forgiven when we make mistakes, then we will have learnt a lot from these words.  

Tomorrow, much of our country will be closed as the Queen is remembered. Her remarkable reign of 70 years will continue to be celebrated no doubt, but let’s also hope that there is another legacy, one of which I imagine she would have approved, and that is that we are more willing to talk about our faith as she did, we are more willing to recognise the blessings we have and how we can use those blessings to be a blessing to others as she did and we can take the opportunity, however difficult it might be to forgive - to forgive those who have wronged us, but also to know that we are forgiven by God…

May God inspire us to be people who can change the world by a small deed or word, who can change the world by our love for God and our love for other people.  

It’s slightly off the mark of the readings here but one thing that struck me as I read through them was that however much we offer to God in terms of material things, it’s never enough, but that’s not what God wants. We try to please him by doing things, by being busy, by giving money to things and so on – all of which are right and commendable, but all the time I think God is still saying ‘I want you’… 

God doesn’t make huge demands of us – there is nothing we can give him that he needs except ourselves, our lives, our worship, our prayer and our love for him and for others. Are we prepared to offer those things ? 

Amen