Today’s scripture seems full of contradictions.
Then the Gospel reading starts: ‘Sir, will there be only a few saved?’ Jesus said to them, ‘Try your best to enter by the narrow door, because, I tell you, many will try to enter and will not succeed’.
Does God really want all to come to him?
Then the letter to the Hebrews spoke of ‘the Lord… punishing all those that he acknowledges as his sons’.
Does God really love us?
35 years ago I worked in Guyana, South America which is where Anne and I were married. Besides Cricket and Anglicanism there is a third binder between England and its former colonies - did you know? Gilbert and Sullivan - yes it still goes on in Guyana and across the Commonwealth though a bit incorrect nowadays. As a youth I acted in the Pirates of Penzance where Frederick, apprenticed to the Pirates, prepares for freedom on his 21st birthday. Then Ruth, his fierce protectress breaks the news that he is not 21 but only 5 and 'a little bit over' since he was born on 29 February.
They sing the great 'Paradox' duet, which marks the necessity for Frederick to remain a pirate until he is 84. The chorus runs:
‘How quaint the ways of paradox, at common sense she gaily mocks…’
Paradoxes are amusing mentally. They 'mock common sense' by provoking us to look at things two ways at once and get different answers.
Christianity is famous for its paradoxes - God is Three yet One, Jesus is God yet Man, Christ has died, Christ is risen…
When God comes among us into the world he wants to be the same as us - so he plumbs our human depths. He suffers.
Yet in coming to us as God, so very different to us, he is able to open up our humanity to generous, endless vistas in the revelation of resurrection glory!
Christianity is about the bursting out of resurrection glory from the Risen Christ as shafts of light so often diffract from the sun through dark clouds.
What a picture - darkness and light together showing each other off!
So God shows himself off to us in Christ crucified and risen! God shows himself off in full splendour and lifts our poor humanity in the process, making it a vehicle and instrument of divine glory.
I love paradox. The dictionary states that a paradox occurs when two statements that are contradictory in logic must be held together in experience.
Back to the contradictions I noted earlier in today’s scripture linked to mission and discipleship. ‘The Lord says: I am coming to gather the nations of every language… to take their places at the feast in the kingdom of God’ yet he also says: ‘enter by the narrow door, because, I tell you, many will try to enter and will not succeed’.
I love GK Chesterton’s reflection upon the narrow door. The church’s door looks narrow, yes, he wrote, but when you lose something of self to squeeze into church you will find plenty of space inside. The physical image doesn’t quite fit St Bartholomew’s because we have both a large door and a lot of space inside. The big Church in Bethlehem by contrast has a door so small everyone has to bow to enter throughit. This recalls how Christians bow or kneel in the Creed at the words associated with Christ’s birth.
God’s mission is to bring all people into relationship with him but this isn’t automatic on account of the gift of free will. Heaven is a gift to be sought through the narrow gate, dovetailing with the other paradox, as we volunteer to be trained up in holiness. That training is about looking away from self to God in worship, prayer, study of the Bible and the Saints, service to others and regular reflection to keep those main things the main things.
Does God really want all to come to him? He does and he wants us to play our part in welcoming them here at St Bartholomew’s from the good foot fall through our large door. We have an opportunity to draw people into our building and into worship thanks to the church watch team which always welcomes new members.
Does God really love us? Our circumstances are a training ground for children of God. ‘My son, when the Lord corrects you, do not treat it lightly; but do not get discouraged when he reprimands you. For the Lord trains the ones that he loves and he punishes all those that he acknowledges as his sons. Suffering is part of your training’.
Joy and Sorrow are our inseparable bedfellows in this paradoxical Christianity of ours. When you struggle with your faith imagine a world without this mystery you struggle with. It's not very hard to imagine it because such a world is all around us!
Misery or mystery is the choice, really. Take away one side of the paradox and where does it leave you - the mystery of life is reduced to a bare contradiction. Our Lord brings mystery instead of misery - he fills out the picture of life for us - and he can fill out the picture of life for others as we share the good news.
Let us enter that mystery now in the sacrifice of the Mass for Christ is risen! God is coming here, shrouded in mystery, to make a difference to us and to the whole world!
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