The Kingdom of Heaven is like a wallet that a foolish driver left on his roof having paid for his petrol at Morrisons. He drove off without a thought to his cash or his cards let alone the gift it had been one Christmas from a relative who brought it from a start up company who had made it from a recycled fire hose.
Yet the Lord heard a prayer before it was uttered and sent two angels who noticed the drivers licence in the wallet and followed the sat nav until it led them to the Vicarage.
There are times when i struggle with my faith and wonder where God is but i also struggle at the other end of the scale – how to trust people. My faith in people is easily shaken. It only takes another scam phone call or email to make me foolish and blush with anger at how I almost fell for that. But this parable is one of those where God restored my faith in people, even strangers.
I’ll head the cautionary warning to stay close to my wallet but I will also look out for the whispers of the Spirit nudging me into paying it forward, into a random act of blessing another.
Last night a friend cautioned me against doing too many blog updates – afterall at what point does it become work, a burden, a responsiblity? Good point. So I assured him that i would only write sometimes and not guilt myself over a daily thought.
This is where we find the odd juxtaposition of Guilt and Gratitude. When something good happens then sometimes some part of me feels guilty – who am i that this kindness should happen to me? (Think of Peter’s phrase – Away from me Lord, for I am a sinful man). And another voice in me calls me to respond in gratitude.
So i have this gift of a sabbatical, and that means drawing closer to God. It does not mean that i will come back with a nice pre packed vision and mission action plan – to do that would be a little rude to you and how we together are called to proclaim the Gospel afresh, but also would be to put back on to my shoulders the burden of work and that would be missing the point.
Moses was called up the mountain to get the 10 Commandments. God said, and Im told the hebrew is a little odd here, Come up the mountain and up the mountain come. The Rabbis pondered this unnecessary bit of redundancy and concluded that God was asking Moses to just be. I’ve done it before. Walked up Helvelyn and then said that looks nice and within 5 mins i’m walking back down. God didnt want Moses to get to the top of the mountain and then immediately start thinking about coming down. So the Sabbatical needs to allow me to come up and just be. We are human beings but i am more of a hman doing and its not healthy.
So i took the wallet back with much gratitude to the angels and the Lord and only a shiver or two at how disastrous that could have been. And i will take the Sabbatical with gratitue.
Peace. (photo of two angels, not to scale)
James