Check your balance

 In the past week we have seen the so-called peace process take a tumble. Yet again we face another uphill struggle in the search for reconciliation and stability.

And in Kashmir the figures are mind blowing with thousands of people lost. They are talking about a lost generation. It’s yet another natural disaster. Someone said ‘compassion fatigue’ is threatening to hinder the relief effort.

The other day I attended a charity book launch. The story helps young children face distressing situations in the family, say when a parent is diagnosed with an incurable disease. One of the speakers said that the book showed how determined everyone was not to loose hope.

When the would-be tricksters tried to undermine Jesus and trap him in a political minefield he recognised their evil purpose and rose above it with a determination and insight that left them speechless.

Jesus made no bones about it. Our duty and responsibility as citizens are, as we say, inextricably linked to our duty to God.

Jesus lays down the principle of double citizenship. A failure in good citizenship is a failure in our Christian duty. And of course good citizenship may mean challenging the powers that be over issues.

But what does it take to give to God? What is the stuff of Christian service? What gives genuine Christian living its backbone and purpose?

In his struggles to set the early church on a sure footing and to guard it against hypocrisy and attacks from all kinds of vested interests and factions, St Paul ‘stickability’.

He determined to run the race and to keep going because he was under the authority of his Lord. In his giving to God he wrestled with real issues and faced dangerous situations with courage and a certain resolve that would not be discouraged.

In his letters he is constantly using the phrase “Now concerning this……. now concerning that.” He wrestles with the issues, not least in Corinth, and gets to the nitty gritty, almost like a parish secretary!

He described himself as “a steward of the Gospel” and he stressed how in ordinary everyday life “ a man should be found faithful”. He spoke of being entrusted with the tasks in hand.

Giving to God is an immediate obligation, a necessary action, something that needs to be done now.

“Teach me my God and King
In all things thee to see
And what I do in anything
To do it as for thee”

In Paul’s giving and mission there is also a great emphasis on the role of the Church working and witnessing as a body with many parts together in obedience to God.

He urged Christians to be ‘faithful servants’, and the word he used for ‘servant’ has a Greek root, which means “rower”, as in someone who rows a boat. Paul was thinking of the great galley ships that had hundreds of rowers pulling on the oars and moving the ship through the water.

The essential thing was that they rowed together, in time, under authority, with direction, discipline and purpose. Rowers who did not recognise or take account of the authority of the ship’s captain soon caused confusion and chaos.

Giving to God as ‘stewards of the Gospel’, as members of His Church, demands the disciplines of team players and the willingness to put self interest aside and to work for the greater good.

“Pulling together” in the face of divisive factions, in responding to the cries of the suffering, in reaching individuals in distress. This is Paul’s vision of practical Christian faith. “Pull together”, he says, as servants under the authority of Christ.

Of course it’s not easy. Christian service expressed in the church, in society, in the public services, in humanitarian action is riven with mixed motives and political agendas.

As someone said it often seems that many people seem to want to serve God – but only in an advisory capacity!

Self-interest and petty disputes get in the way.

I like the story of the founder of a very successful American company who put his picture in the corporate annual report. The picture showed him down on the factory floor wielding a mop and bucket. It was said that in his company an MBA did not mean “Master of Business Administration” but rather “Mop Bucket Attitude”!

For this chairman the important thing was in the attitude of employees, including him. The kind of attitude that got on with the job and did what needed to be done.

“Give to God what belongs to him”. Give to God the right attitude, the determination that is not overcome with compassion fatigue, the practical help that gives hope.

When an airline captain was preparing to take off one of the stewardesses came into the cockpit and cheerily announced that there were four aviation experts on board so everything would be all right.

The captain looked at her with a wry smile and said: “I’m not so sure, I’d rather have four good engines”.

Individually and together we are called to be ‘engines’ that respond and generate a power for good. Giving to God is about movement of heart and mind, about actions that work out the obligations of genuine service, that are in tune with the Mind of Christ.

So Jesus calls us to check our balance and commitment both to earthly and heavenly citizenship, pulling together as faithful servants of the Lord.

Amen.