In Luke the “treasure” he speaks of is the Kingdom of God
and is reminiscent of a parable in Matthew when he writes “The Kingdom of
heaven is like treasure hidden in a field” (Matthew 13:44).
Note: Matthew, being
more “Jewish” than the other gospel writers always substitutes the word “heaven”
for” God” because traditionally “God” is too holy to us, but the meaning is the
samee.
Kingdoms of this that
or the other really tell us where final authority rests. So if you are a
conscious subject of the Kingdom of God – this is a way of saying that you
acknowledge the authority of God in your life so it is incumbent upon you, as a
willing part of that kingdom that you will follow and act in accordance with
God’s will and character.
What is God’s will and character and how should we act? Well
of course in Christianity we say that God’s way of doing things and character
has been revealed and modelled by Jesus, in what he did and the way he did it.
Following the way of life modelled by Jesus is therefore the same thing as
being a part of the Kingdom of God.
That way of life of self sacrifice, forgiveness and
compassion has been modelled by other religious figures I’m sure but we are
culturally Christian so Jesus is our
model of how to live in the light of a close relationship with God. That is my
definition of what it is to be a Christian.
We follow as best we can with varying levels of success, and
when we see our failures we ask for forgiveness and carry on.
Being ready, alert, watchful etc which comes up a fair deal
in the gospels is expressed again in our parable today. Keeping the light of God burning in our lives
through prayer and good deeds despite all that assails us is the task at hand,
because if we relax – thieves can break in and steal our treasure away. In real
terms this means we will backtrack and become again more self serving because
we will replace God at the centre of our lives with something else – usually
our own ego, or power or possessions.
Passages like this one have also traditionally been
associated by the church as exhortations to keep the faith while we waited for
the second coming of Jesus – a second coming, the final judgement and the end
of the world usually understood in starkly literal terms. Historically when the “second coming” did not
happen the idea of the presence* of Jesus with his people was sublimated into
the Eucharist – he was with us – truly present - that way.
*Note: The phrase “second
coming” is not Biblical and is simply an English extrapolation. The Greek word
is “Parousia” and means “Presence”. The theology of presence is very close to
my heart
Later on, that view has developed and conflated so whenever
the Spirit of God is present and acted on in our lives we can say that Jesus is
present. When we emulate the Jesus way it is as if Jesus himself were doing it. Jesus becomes present – he returns – when we act like Jesus. We become Christ for
the other person.
So it is circular. When we acknowledge God as our Father and
act in his Spirit, as Jesus did, we become Christ, and God’s presence and
character are revealed and made known. The Kingdom of God has come near.
Christian acts or deeds are the oil in our lamps, keeping the light of God
shining in the world. With no good deeds, with no oil, the lamp goes out.
And just to be clear – doing good does not buy anything from
God. Doing good doesn’t make anyone more loved or move anyone further up any
sort of pecking order. Instead, doing good is a natural outflowing from within,
flowing out of a knowledge of God’s love and presence within us.
When we talk of building the kingdom of God, or as in that
famous hymn, building Jerusalem in this green and pleasant land we want people
to acknowledge the fruits of the Kingdom but also to acknowledge the source of
the fruitfulness. The two must go hand
in hand I’m sure.
My training vicar in Margate always used to say. We are only
called to the faithful not successful. But what does faithful really mean? When
I read the New Testament what I see is a call to bear fruit. It’s a call to change
and transform. That for me is what being faithful really means.
Following the way of Jesus – doing what he might have done –
we make Christ present in the world.
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