10th December 2023
Reflection (Readings following on below)
How do we comfort the people of Gaza or the people of Israel?
How do we comfort the people of Kenya afflicted by drought and floods? The people of North Sudan caught up in civil war? The millions of refugees across the world who are homeless and struggling? How do we comfort farmers whose crops have failed, whose livestock have died?
How? By preparing a way through the wilderness of our current world. By levelling a pathway we can all journey along together.
We need to level up the conditions in which people live. Everyone needs and – if we truly care our neighbour this should be unquestionable – should have clean water, a safe home, heating or shade as appropriate, sufficient and wholesome food, access to medicine, to education, the means of communication and transport, access to reliable energy supplies, life affirming work or a purposeful occupation. We also know – or should know – that we all need to live in a world rich in biodiversity so levelling up must involve the natural environment. A biodiverse rich world is one in which resources are used and garnered sustainably – and indeed where natural resources are enriched – regenerated.
When the present UK government stood for election, it did so with a manifesto that promised levelling up for the more disadvantaged parts of the nation. But what it did not talk about was levelling down. You cannot level up without levelling down.
To fill up the valleys the hills and mountains had to be brought low. The world’s resources are finite. Even those that are renewable are only renewable within certain time frames. To renew a field of wheat takes a year, to renew a forest will centuries.
Levelling up and levelling down: the key is to redistribute resources and wealth more equitably. That has to mean the rich having to forgo some of their privileges and give over some of their wealth and use less of the world’s resources just as Mary says in the Magnificat: “He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty”. It is a biblically based and unavoidable imperative.
This year it was reported that the richest 10% of the global population currently takes 52% of global income, whereas the poorest half of the population earns 8.5% of it. Billions of people face the terrible hardship of high and rising food prices and hunger, whilst the number of billionaires has doubled in the last decade. Between 2019 and 2020, global inequality grew more rapidly than at any time since WW2. (1) To compound the injustice, the richest 1% of humanity is responsible for more carbon emissions than the poorest 66% and it is the poorest who are suffering disproportionately the adverse affects of the climate crisis.
But even within nations there is inequality. Here in the UK the richest 1% of households have fortunes of at least £3.6m, whilst the poorest 10% of households have just £15,400 or less, with almost half burdened with more debts than they had in assets. (ONS January 2022). One in ten households face food insecurity; one in five have to choose between eating and heating. Typically on any one night 2,400 people are sleeping rough, 15,000 people are in hostels or supported accommodation and nearly 250,000 are living in temporary accommodation – most of whom are families.
Advent is a time of waiting for the coming of the reign of God. It is not about passive waiting, but, as the parables of the kingdom season demonstrated, active waiting. A waiting that involves carrying on doing the work with which we have been tasked by Jesus until he comes again with the full glory of the kingdom of God. Advent is a time to be diligent in living lives of “holiness and godliness”. A time to be living lives that “bring good news to the poor…. proclaim release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.”
It is a time to level up the low places and level down the high places, whether that is through personal actions, through the support of charities, through campaigning on issues of wealth and taxation, and on issues on injustice, or through advocacy and prayer. Then when Christmas comes we may perhaps more confidently hear again the words of the angel: “See I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is the Messiah, the Lord.”
Isaiah 40:1-11
Comfort, O comfort my people,
says your God.
Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,
and cry to her
that she has served her term,
that her penalty is paid,
that she has received from the Lord’s hand
double for all her sins.
A voice cries out:
“In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord,
make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
Every valley shall be lifted up,
and every mountain and hill be made low;
the uneven ground shall become level,
and the rough places a plain.
Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed,
and all people shall see it together,
for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”
A voice says, “Cry out!”
And I said, “What shall I cry?”
All people are grass,
their constancy is like the flower of the field.
The grass withers, the flower fades,
when the breath of the Lord blows upon it;
surely the people are grass.
The grass withers, the flower fades;
but the word of our God will stand for ever.
Get you up to a high mountain,
O Zion, herald of good tidings;
lift up your voice with strength,
O Jerusalem, herald of good tidings,
lift it up, do not fear;
say to the cities of Judah,
“Here is your God!”
See, the Lord God comes with might,
and his arm rules for him;
his reward is with him,
and his recompense before him.
He will feed his flock like a shepherd;
he will gather the lambs in his arms,
and carry them in his bosom,
and gently lead the mother sheep.
Psalm 85:1-2, 8-13
1 You have been gracious to your land, O Lord, *
you have restored the good fortune of Jacob.
2 You have forgiven the iniquity of your people *
and blotted out all their sins.
8 I will listen to what the Lord God is saying, *
for he is speaking peace to his faithful people
and to those who turn their hearts to him.
9 Truly, his salvation is very near to those who fear him, *
that his glory may dwell in our land.
10 Mercy and truth have met together; *
righteousness and peace have kissed each other.
11 Truth shall spring up from the earth, *
and righteousness shall look down from heaven.
12 The Lord will indeed grant prosperity, *
and our land will yield its increase.
13 Righteousness shall go before him, *
and peace shall be a pathway for his feet.
2 Peter 3:8-15a
Do not ignore this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like one day. The Lord is not slow about his promise, as some think of slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a loud noise, and the elements will be dissolved with fire, and the earth and everything that is done on it will be disclosed.
Since all these things are to be dissolved in this way, what sort of persons ought you to be in leading lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set ablaze and dissolved, and the elements will melt with fire? But, in accordance with his promise, we wait for new heavens and a new earth, where righteousness is at home.
Therefore, beloved, while you are waiting for these things, strive to be found by him at peace, without spot or blemish; and regard the patience of our Lord as salvation.
Mark 1:1-8
The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
As it is written in the prophet Isaiah,
“See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you,
who will prepare your way;
the voice of one crying out in the wilderness:
‘Prepare the way of the Lord,
make his paths straight,’”
John the baptiser appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him, and were baptised by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. Now John was clothed with camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. He proclaimed, “The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. I have baptised you with water; but he will baptise you with the Holy Spirit.”
The Green Tau 