Righteousness

The faith of the righteous forms a bubble of certainty around them,
from which they proclaim truth in the knowledge that they are right,
and that all those around them are in agreement.

Prayers pour from their mouths praising the work that God has done in them
and pleading for the sinners around them, those who have "fallen away".
Prayers pour forth demanding that God fulfils His part of the bargains
that they have made for Him to agree to.

In the chrystaline bubble of the righteous there is no room for doubt,
nor acceptance of variance from whatever has been taken as the fount of all truth;
whatever wayward interpretation of the words of scripture has been taken as authentic,
as authorised to be the key to the Kingdom of Heaven, or the route to eternal existence.

It was so in the time of Jesus. It is so today.
Doubtless it has always been so, and sadly it probably always will be.
The rule-bound life of the righteous provides a personal security that will always be valued
by those who stick to the book, close their eyes and ears, and ignore the reality around them.
But Jesus came to open the eyes of the blind and let the deaf hear.
How difficult of him!

Yet it is only with opened eyes that we can see the potholes in the highway of conformity.
The way is not straight, nor is the route well signed.
There are confusing side-roads and many roundabouts.
Even Jesus, in his many parables, struggles to clarify the Kingdom of God:
a tiny seed, a flavouring, a lost coin.

But that Kingdom is not a mighty empire.
It is not victorious, nor glorious, nor conquering.
It is not bound in robes and majesty, nor in honour and glory
It is not the tight rule-bound world of the righteous, of any generation.
But, maybe, it could lie in the humility of those who know that they have got it wrong,
but keep trying anyway, trying to spread love, rather than righteousnessness, in this world;
Saying, as they do so, "Have mercy on me a sinner".
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THEMES FROM THE PARABLES