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Reflections of Unsettled Seasons Sophie Mill. WOMAN S O P H I E M I L L Reflections of unsettled seasons Copyright © by sophie mill. PID Library.
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• What Was “The Good Wife” Really About?
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• POETRY AND RESOURCES IN EMAIL FORM
• The Project Gutenberg eBook of Some Reflections Upon Marriage, by Mary Astell

They refused to buckle to the pressure of a king who resorted to torture in his efforts to force them to eat pork. Their commitment was to God. Their cause was their religious faith and they were not going to let the king force them into compromising their integrity. The courage they invested in that cause was admirable and truly heroic. But apart from that, their lives seem to lack meaning and passion.

They seem not to have grasped that life has an intrinsic value; that God has loved us all into life for a purpose, but not one that has been pre-planned by God. We have been blessed with freedom and creativity, and know that we have been created to love. To lose sight of the fact that our lives are meant to be an adventure, characterised by excitement and drama, with a focus on wholesome relationships and service of others, is to fail to appreciate the God-given gift that we are. People who are trapped into thinking that life is all about getting to heaven will find it difficult to be captivated by causes, however worthy they may be, even the cause of Jesus and the Gospel.

The issue that confronts us all is not a matter of whether we will end up facing death with hope in a life hereafter. The real issue is whether our way of facing life here and now has the mark of authenticity about it; is valid, genuine and effective. It just might be that the way we live our lives now will be the way we live after we die. If we live now full of our own importance, locked up in ourselves, motivated by self-interest, refusing to love and care for others, we are already shaping the future we are choosing for life after death.

The choice is ours, for life after death may well be a continuation of the kind of life we are already choosing here and now. In considering this gospel reading, I suggest we need to read the text carefully and tread warily in interpreting it. This is one of the few stories in Luke in which the central figure is actually named. Perhaps Luke is tricking his readers into making the same assumption as the crowd seems to have made in the story: that all the tax collectors of the time were dishonest, and doubly so because they worked for the Romans.

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It is a common human failing to attribute stereotype qualities to people who practice occupations and professions that have fallen into popular disrepute. Secondly, I suggest we look at what Zacchaeus is reported by Luke as saying when Jesus invited himself to dinner with him. Note that he neither expressed sorrow nor begged for mercy. Moreover, Jesus himself made no reference to repentance, forgiveness or change of heart, and no comment about swindling anybody. Maybe, we have to allow that, while Zacchaeus is pursuing a career that has been popularly equated with dishonesty, he is a man of integrity and Jesus is actually vindicating him in the presence of the very crowd that has contributed to giving him a reputation for being corrupt.

There is a popular English expression used to describe people who are in a difficult position. His shortness of stature meant that he had to set aside the dignity expected of one in his position and climb a tree if he wanted to satisfy his curiosity about Jesus.

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Did he sense that this was a cross-roads time in his life, a time when all that was being said about Jesus called for going to see for himself? Doing that would mean taking the risk of being seen in public by a crowd that had already misjudged him and catalogued him as crooked. It seems as though Zacchaeus took the double risk of setting aside the dignity of his public position by climbing up a tree for there was no other way for a man of his small stature to see Jesus for himself and exposing himself to public insult and abuse from a volatile crowd.

It might call us to voice an opinion that stands in stark contrast to that of the majority, it might mean speaking up when we see injustice being meted out to a minority group, it could be as insignificant as joining a protest march in support of releasing refugees and asylum seekers from detention or deportation. This gospel story also puts in front of us a mirror in which to gaze at ourselves. Are we with those who are quick to misjudge others because of their family history, their ethnicity, their sexual orientation, their profession or occupation, their past failures and mistakes?

Are there people in our society whom we want to see locked in cells and never to be released? He was a true ambassador for peace and died with 15 others in suspicious circumstances while en route to engage in negotiations for a cease-fire in the Republic of Congo. Their plane crashed and burned near Ndola, Northern Rhodesia now Zambia. There were no survivors. Secretary General.

But at some moment I did say yes to Someone - or - Something - and from that hour I was certain that existence is meaningful and that, therefore, my life, in self-surrender, had a goal. I suggest that Zacchaeus had a double experience of surrender - surrender to self and to Jesus. Of those who do participate, many, especially the men, seem to favour the back half of the church.

Are the back seats now a reserved section for would-be publicans, proudly boasting about their sinfulness? We all know that honest self-appraisal can be commendable and beneficial. However, it was not self-appraisal that landed the Pharisee in trouble. Are they not making secret comparisons of themselves with those who regularly line up at the front? In doing so, they lose the kind of impact that the tax-collector in the original story has on us.

He looked at himself and at the goodness and mercy of God, and that was all that mattered. The guru invited the professor to share a cup of tea. The professor watched the cup overflowing until he could no longer restrain himself. How can I teach you holiness and wisdom until you first empty your cup. Come back when your cup is empty. He does not compare his faith life with that of anybody else. Observers and commentators might do that. But Paul does not stoop to comparisons with anyone.

He speaks as though there have been no others in the race he has run. The gospel story has made the point that comparing ourselves with others is pointless and counter-productive. It is our own personal integrity or lack of it that we need to consider.

And what if our own self-appraisals lead us to the accurate conclusion that we are faithful, sincere, generous-hearted and even loveable? We have all come across people who carry the burden of low self-esteem. We have met barbers, bishops, bus-drivers and barmaids who suffer from this affliction. They cannot help running themselves down. They conduct themselves as though that is what is expected of them. It has nothing to do with the Gospel, for it stops people from ever accepting that they are loved, even by God.

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Those who keep running a measuring gauge over their flaws and failures end up struggling with all their relationships because they constantly see themselves as inadequate to manage anything and certainly unattractive to anyone. They are even ill-equipped to reflect healthily on their own sinfulness. They end up having hope in neither themselves nor God. It is already given to us free and unconditionally.

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Our self-disclosures of fragility, human weakness and personal sinfulness are meant to lead us to hope in a God who constantly loves us, who is always chasing after us, who has a deep respect for us and who places an adult confidence in us. God has no need and no desire to build a reputation for justice and mercy by pretending that we are worse than we really are or by nudging us to make declarations of that kind ourselves. Once we grasp that God is a God who extends a warm welcome to people like the tax-collector, there is no pressure on us to be anything other than totally honest in our self-appraisals.

We might even admit that we have qualities that others actually like and appreciate. The parable about the widow and the unjust judge is a puzzling one, and becomes more puzzling as we dig into it, despite its brevity. But it also explores the link between the quality of our prayer and the depth or shallowness of our faith. This he did fairly regularly as a way of getting away from the affairs of state.

On this particular day, however, he had had no success with the hunt, and his dream of returning home with a good deer for the evening meal was quickly fading. Almost before he realised, the time for prayer arrived and the whole party was soon kneeling on the grass, their heads touching the ground. His thoughts were divided between the challenges of leading his people and his hope that Allah, the Compassionate one would send a prize deer in his direction. Elsewhere in the forest, an elderly woman was beginning to worry about her husband, who had been away for much longer than she had anticipated.

Just as Akaba and his servants were beginning their prayer, the woman, unable to contain herself, rushed off to search for her husband. Without even noticing, she came to where the men were all praying and, as she ran by, she tripped over Akaba. Quickly, she picked herself up and hurried on her way.

A little upset, Akaba finished his prayer, got to his feet and ordered his soldiers to go in search of the woman who had stumbled over him and rudely departed.