A radical following of the rule of God (which is what the translated phrase ‘the kingdom of God’ really means) will inevitable lead to risk a confrontation with human injustice and tyranny. In such a confrontation the disciple is inevitably going to suffer, examples can be seen in the news every day. You don’t need two pieces of wood to be crucified, and Jesus’ vision of humane government will not be won and kept without cost. Alexei Navalny is just one of many hundreds of crucified men and women of many religions and none who followed Jesus ‘on the way’.

A Nebraska banker whose bank went into failure during the depression came home and told his wife that they were going to lose everything. She said, “what shall we do?” He replied, “maybe we should pray.” She said, “Has it come to that?”

Freedom – it’s all about freedom. Release from imprisonment, from behind the prison wall; freedom to love. The narrator of the section of the Song of Songs we heard this morning is inside her parent’s property, kept for safety’s sake, kept for the demands of propriety. Her parents will find her a match, they will decide who the appropriate suitors are to be. But she has other ideas – as does her beloved.