Hello and welcome to Thursday’s podcast. We are looking at the second half of Luke 17 today.

But before we start let me remind us about what we’ve been looking at this week. On Monday we thought about living the Jesus way, not just the way of the world. On Tuesday we considered the bigger picture of life and the reality of heaven… yesterday we looked specifically at the value of forgiveness. What God has been speaking to me about as I have re-listened to these recordings is the message of Jesus is beautiful and the world needs to know it ASAP.  I’ve definitely found myself looking outwards and not just inwards… life is too short to hold unforgiveness, people need to hear about Jesus. Life outside of God’s love sounds awful, people need to hear about Jesus. I’m certainly feeling a sense of urgency again today to live well and gossip God wherever I can. I wonder, what has God been saying to you this week already? Pause the podcast if you need to have a think.

REFLECTION:

In a moment we will pick up Luke 17 – looking at the coming of the Kingdom of God. Jesus is being quizzed by some Pharisees about where and when will the Kingdom of God come and how it works. And he replies like this… I am going to read v20 & 21 now.

Once, on being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, “The coming of the kingdom of God is not something that can be observed, nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ because the kingdom of God is in your midst.”

I don’t know what comes to mind when you hear these words but I instantly think of the Peter Kay sketch where he caricatures a popular opinion about “friends looking down on us giving us signs”. He caricatures: “that was Connie, she was there” in the sunshine as the coffin was lowered. He replied “wasn’t it just the weather?” And the jokes go on to a guy called Billy… “our Billy loved cheese and onion crisps, couldn’t move in our house for cheese and onion crisps… especially Quavers. He loved Quavers… and on the day he passed, she promises that she saw an empty packet of Quavers blow past the house…” “that was Billy… he was there.”…

As funny as that is… he has put his finger on something that is probably a common response when people die. For example, when a celebrity or musician dies there are often comments that they are looking down upon us and playing their guitar. For a generation of people that are not on the whole actively engaged in conversations about life after death – it does seem somewhat odd that people would think this way. Is it just false comfort or is there something more to it?

I’ve also heard heaven and the Kingdom of God described not as “pie in the sky when you die… but cake on a plate while we wait”.

The message that little rhyme is trying to get across marries with Jesus’ words that we read earlier. People will no longer be able to announce its arrival… (like counting the days down in a calendar as the Message version puts it) – we can’t do that because the kingdom of God is already here. Jesus has already announced its arrival. We actually looked again at the start of this season’s GROW project. It’s based out of Mark 1:15 “The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news”! Perhaps we could go back and look at those simple video presentations that kick started this term’s modules.

At the end of this recording we will be able to hear the Bible reading read for today’s podcast in full. I won’t repeat it now… but the story goes on to basically outline people who are not aware that Gods kingdom is at hand. And how they are missing out.

Today let’s try not make that mistake. For example, we could look for signs of God at work and in faith join in. Not signs of crisp packets blowing down the street.