Readings: 1 Samuel 8:4-20, Isaiah 26:7-10, Luke 19:12-27 (see also John 1:1-18).

The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. Our heavenly King was with God in the beginning, His temple in heaven was opened and the Word came to us, like the man of noble birth who went to a distant country to have Himself appointed King and then to return.

Though the world was made through Him, it did not recognise Him. As the Lord said to the prophet Samuel, the people who asked for an earthly king to lead them had in fact rejected God as their King. In this judgement the people were looking to the world, looking at earthly power and prosperity, because they wanted someone who could be seen to fight their battles for them. The desire of their hearts was to journey along the road that tempts us to compete with each other for success often in a cruel and selfish way – which is to walk by sight and not by faith – they wanted a king to take responsibility and do their work for them – they were hoping for good times from idleness.

Despite the warnings from God that they would become captives, that an earthly king would claim rights over them, and they would be bound in duty to him – they insisted on becoming like other nations – they wanted to be seen as belonging to the world, and be lifted up, becoming great by its standards. But God’s ways are not worldly, His way is a ‘high’ way, a way over the cities which we inhabit. God’s ways are a becoming like Him – a way that is above and not below.

So why does Jesus use money in this parable to teach us the righteousness of God. God cares that we have enough to meet our needs (2 Peter 1:3), but He has said it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God. He also drove out the money changers from the temple courts. The world values money, so we must ask what has value in the Kingdom of God? Life, love, wisdom, knowledge, service, work? Yes – all these things and much more – but what they have in common is that they are all gifts from God. So, we are talking about grace, for “everything is grace because everything is God’s gift,” said St Therese of Lisieux.

Created in His image, to walk with Him in the garden of Eden, the breath of this life was our first grace, now through Christ we receive that grace again by His death and resurrection. Out of God’s fullness we all receive grace upon grace.

Jesus has restored our privilege to the life He intended us to have in the beginning. Jesus frees us from our earthly captivity, frees us from being bound to duty, we are instead restored to our perfect freedom – our freedom to choose – to become by God’s grace who we are given to be. In our choosing we keep His ways, walking upon His path and not our own.

Our God who created the particularities of time and space and whatever is beyond them, is somehow in perpetual motion and yet still. Somehow empty of Himself and also full. Our Creator set the universe in motion, and we synchronise our own movement in harmony with Him. I do not see this as conformity, but instead like the moon where its orbit and rotation are the same, it always keeps one face toward us – so we too move always facing forward, our eyes fixed on Jesus.

“Turn away my eyes from looking at vanity, and revive me in Your ways.” (Psalm 119:37)

St Thomas Aquinas says grace is a matter of people coming to share in God’s life, he says it is nothing other than a certain participation in the divine nature. By this, we find ourselves walking upon that higher way – the Way of Holiness (Isaiah 35:8).

God’s grace is an investment in His purpose of love. What God gives us by grace is not to be hidden, or put under a bowl. What we are given is to be realised, or seen in equal measure. Whatever is given is not ours to possess, but is to be shared, to actualise and make known. There is then a tension in this process of self-actualisation – that it is not for our glory but Gods. What we are freely given, we freely give, and by giving we provide a return on God’s investment which builds His Kingdom on earth as it is in heaven.

Love opens the door between heaven and earth, so that we become the channels of His gifts to the world, so that His purpose of all things working together for each other is made manifest, that God’s love works for all whom we encounter on this journey.

St Augustine said, “Men go abroad to wonder at the heights of mountains, at the huge waves of the sea, at the long courses of rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean, at the circular motion of the stars, and they pass by themselves without wondering.”

Because of our impact on the environment, it is at the forefront of our minds that we need to be good stewards of creation, but we must also look at what we carry within us.

Our impermanence makes us custodians of these gifts for a time. At the end of this journey, love and life are the treasures we take with us but are also what we leave behind in the hearts of others.

Proclaiming the wonders of the Lord is done by the way we choose to live our lives, by what we keep within our hearts. Whatever is written on our hearts we write on the hearts of others, so what we say and what we do matters – so, let us ask – what are we writing – what will we leave behind?

We are most fulfilled and loved when we actualise our potential – and this can only be achieved in relationship. Our purpose of love is realised together.

But when grace is shown to the wicked, they do not learn. The wicked servant in this parable does not recognise God’s grace, but believes in his own strength, begrudging even the sacrifices required by the Law of Moses. The wicked servant is ungrateful, and selfish, wanting to keep what he has been given for himself (Luke 19:21). So, what grace he is given is taken away – if we cannot be faithful with the small things, how can we justify being given more? The Gospel reading teaches us that God will not turn away from His judgement, for He is righteous. Our lives were bought with the precious blood of Jesus. Jesus gave all that he had, so that we may belong to Him. The good news is, that by our acceptance of Jesus, and of our becoming in the ways of His love, we are taken into the embrace of our heavenly King.

So, let us ponder – what we will have to give Him when He calls us to come home?

Amen.