Choices – The Green Tau

Proper 15, 12th Sunday after Trinity

Reflection with readings below

It is with Wisdom that God created world. Wisdom is following God’s commandments. It is with Wisdom that people gain understanding. But Wisdom is still about choice. We are not automatically filled with Wisdom, we are not programmed to unvaryingly follow Wisdom. There is always the opposite figure, that of Folly which we may pursue. Indeed later in chapter 9 of Proverbs, we come across Golly inviting people to step aside into her house!

Throughout the Bible there is alway choice. The choice to follow God or ignore God. To do what is right or to do what is wrong. To choose what is life giving or what is life-defeating. Adam and Eve make choices. Noah makes a choice. Abraham makes a choice. The people of Israel make a choice. Those who hear the cry of John the Baptist make a choice. Those who believe in Jesus make a choice. Yet the choices we make are not unalterable. If we find we have made a bad choice, we can repent, turn round and make a better choice – as the parable of the prodigal son so colourfully explains.

In today’s first reading we have a dinner invitation. The description of Wisdom preparing the meal, and sending out her invitation to would-be guests sounds very similar to a couple of Jesus’s parables about people preparing sumptuous feasts and then sending out the invitations to the guests. How one receives the invitation becomes the process of judgement. Those who seek a good life, who seek peace and happiness – who seek God’s kingdom – are the ones who accept the invitation positively. Those who turn aside to enter Wisdom’s house have made the right choice; by eating and drinking the meal she has prepared, they internalise Wisdom.

The psalmist also reminds us to make the right choice: “Turn from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it.” And suggests that our approach to God should be one of fear – or as we might phrase it – one of awe. Both awe and fear can sharpen our senses, prompting us to seek out and make the right choices – and not to be lackadaisical. The writer to the Ephesians suggests ways in which we can live our lives wisely and fully – singing songs and praises, giving thanks for everything in the name of Jesus. In other words responding positively to all that God offers us – and thus we will be filled with the Holy Spirit.

It all sounds so very simple and yet we can find it such a hard discipline to stick to. Is being wise simple or complicated? Is shaping our lives according to God’s will straightforward or difficult? Is becoming one with Jesus easy or ever so tricky?

If we look back over John’s Gospel we see that for some people the decision to follow Jesus was so simple. Andrew realises straight away that Jesus is the Messiah. Philip too follows him without any hesitation, and when Nathaniel meets him, he straightway recognises him as the Son of God. But then we have people like Nicodemus, teacher and leader of the Jews. He cannot get his intellectual mind around who Jesus is and how one might enter the kingdom of God. Nicodemus cannot understand how things can be both earthly and heavenly, how there might be such a fluid interconnection between heaven and earth.

Spiritual food cannot be separated from physical food. Physical food cannot be set aside from spiritual food. We cannot just be satisfied by eating physical bread – we need to understand it spiritually. There is nothing we eat that does not ultimately come from God who is the creator of all things. We need to acknowledge that in giving thanks to God. But neither will we be satisfied with just an intangible spirituality. When we seek the spiritual we need the groundedness of things physical. Baptism comes in the medium of water and the spirit. The Eucharist comes in the medium of bread and wine as well the medium of Christ’s flesh and blood.

And we can chose to accept Jesus’s invitation to share the bread that is his body and the wine that is his blood, as a simple gift – or we can choose to convert it into a complicated conundrum, one which then allows us to create barriers and exclude others.

As we prepare to eat and drink the gift of Jesus, we will remember that all that we have – both physical and spiritual – is a gift from God and that is is only with what God gives us, that we can return our thanks. And this perhaps brings is back to where we began – with Wisdom. Through choosing that invitation, by entering that house and following that way of life, we can live the way God wishes – Wisdom that calls us to care for the earth, for all that God has created, to use and share it wisely with one another, to live simply so that all may simply live.

Let us take that wisdom into every aspect of our lives this week and see how it changes the way we treat others, the way we buy and sell, make and take, give and share, teach and listen, sing and give thanks – to the glory of God the Father and in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. He

Proverbs 9:1-6

Wisdom has built her house,
she has hewn her seven pillars.
She has slaughtered her animals, she has mixed her wine,
she has also set her table.
She has sent out her servant-girls, she calls
from the highest places in the town,
“You that are simple, turn in here!”
To those without sense she says,
“Come, eat of my bread
and drink of the wine I have mixed.
Lay aside immaturity, and live,
and walk in the way of insight.”

Psalm 34:9-14

9 Fear the Lord, you that are his saints, *
for those who fear him lack nothing.

10 The young lions lack and suffer hunger, *
but those who seek the Lord lack nothing that is good.

11 Come, children, and listen to me; *
I will teach you the fear of the Lord.

12 Who among you loves life *
and desires long life to enjoy prosperity?

13 Keep your tongue from evil-speaking *
and your lips from lying words.

14 Turn from evil and do good; *
seek peace and pursue it.

Ephesians 5:15-20

Be careful then how you live, not as unwise people but as wise, making the most of the time, because the days are evil. So do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. Do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery; but be filled with the Spirit, as you sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, singing and making melody to the Lord in your hearts, giving thanks to God the Father at all times and for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

John 6:51-58

Jesus said, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”

The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” So Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day; for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them. Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like that which your ancestors ate, and they died. But the one who eats this bread will live forever.”

Counting On … Day 113

23rd May 2024

Utilising the power of the consumer pound. When we spend money, we use our money as if it were a vote with which we can show our support for the most ethical product or service – which might be because it is fair trade, because it is plastic free, because its producer pays a living wage and/ or fair taxes, because its a B Corp, because it supports a local business, because it protects the environment etc. To help make these decisions we have a subscription to Ethical Consumer – https://www.ethicalconsumer.org/

Using the power of the consumer pound also means not buying certain things or not buying from particular retailers or producers. For example we don’t buy from Amazon, nor from Starbucks.

Lent – choice & tipping points

24th February 2024

The desert and the parched land will be glad; the wilderness will rejoice and blossom like the crocus Isaiah 35:1

You Lord, are the source of all good things:

We praise you.

You call us to tend and care for your creation:

May we strive to do your will.

You have made us as brothers and sisters with all that lives:

May we live together in peace.

A reading from Deuteronomy 30:16a, 19 I command you this day to love the Lord your God and to keep his commands, decrees, and regulations by walking in his ways…. Today I have given you the choice between life and death, between blessings and curses. Now I call on heaven and earth to witness the choice you make. Oh, that you would choose life, so that you and your descendants might live!

A litany of tipping points

Adam, Eve and the fruit that was good to eat:

Eat and be self-determined?

Not eat and be God-determined?

– A tipping point.

Moses, Pharaoh and a river of blood:

Let the people, these troublemakers go?

Follow the call of this troublemaking God?

– a tipping point.

A people, a rule of life, and a golden calf:

Accept the short-termism of humanity and give up;
Plead God for mercy and start over afresh?

– a tipping point.

Exile, return and rebuild a new future:

Same old temple, same old rule-bound exclusivity;

New heart, new faith, an openness to others?

– a tipping point?

Repent, good news, healings and miracles:

A charade, a charlatan, a feel good non entity;

Revelation, reformation, real life born afresh?

– a tipping point?

Rebellion, deception, execution:

Confrontation, subjugation, might is right;

Confraternity, transformation, God is right?

– a tipping point?

Empty tomb, close encounters and reunions:

Disbelief, cynicism and a hasty coverup;

Joy, mystery and real life resurrection?

– a tipping point?

Tipping points are many and varied.

Some good, some bad.

Help us life, affirming God,

to see the tipping points we face,

to see the hazards to avoid,

the new routes to ride.

Help us, life affirming God,

to heed the words of your present day prophets,

the pleas of your children across the globe,

and the anguished cries of the earth.

Inspire our hearts and empower our actions,

that we may be a tipping point for good.

Help us, life affirming God,

to see again in the life and resurrection of Jesus,

the example we should follow,

to know once more that Christ’s gospel

will continue to transform the world.

Amen.

Proper 24, 20th Sunday after Trinity

22nd October 2023

Reflection (readings follow after)

Two kingdoms, two alternative ways of living. For Jesus’s contemporaries it was the choice between the rule of Caesar and the rule of God. Whose system are you going to subscribe to, whose rules are you going to follow?

Was that the situation being faced by Moses and the Israelites in the wilderness? Were they going to be the followers of God, God’s new people? Or were they going to return to what they had been, a people tied to slavery and the rule of the Egyptian pharaoh? And Moses asks the question, if they follow God, will their lives be different? Will they look like a people who have chosen to follow a different path?

God reassures Moses that he and the people have found favour with God, that they will know God’s mercy and God’s presence with them. By following Moses, the people will be following the one who has seen and knows God. In Hebrew the words for presence and face are interchangeable. To know God’s presence is to see God’s face.

The people – the church – of Thessalonica are constant and committed, in a life of faith and labour, to the kingdom of God. They know Jesus Christ as the face of this Kingdom, and have chosen this way over and above that of false idols. Their joy and satisfaction from this choice, spurs them on to advertise this new way and to encourage others to join them, so expanding the kingdom of God on earth.

So what then of us today? What are the choices on offer? What faces do the alternatives present to us?

Last week London was host to the Energy Intelligence Forum which was a meeting of key figures from the global oil and financial industries. (It was previously known as the Oil and Money Conference). The world they represent, is one based on the continuing extraction and use of fossil fuels. A world in which oil rich countries such Saudi Arabia, and oil based companies such as Shell, will continue to make profits. A world in which the cost of energy will continue to rise. A world in which pollution from oil and carbon emissions will continue to increase. A world in which less powerful countries will continue to be poor. A world in which less powerful people will continue to be oppressed. A world in which social injustice will continue to thrive. A world in which care for the environment comes second place.

There is an alternative world. A world in which decisions are not made by a powerful elite. A world where money doesn’t determine every decision. A world which uses non polluting sources of energy. A world which listens to the cry of the poor – and responds. A world in which individuals matter, in which justice overrides power. A world in which everyone takes care of the environment and uses its resources with care and respect.

Two alternatives ways of living, two alternatives kingdoms. We do have a choice as to which we support.

The people inside the conference were those paying service to oil and money. The people outside, the protestors, were those paying service to climate and social justice.

Exodus 33:12-23

Moses said to the Lord, “See, you have said to me, ‘Bring up this people’; but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. Yet you have said, ‘I know you by name, and you have also found favour in my sight.’ Now if I have found favour in your sight, show me your ways, so that I may know you and find favour in your sight. Consider too that this nation is your people.” He said, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” And he said to him, “If your presence will not go, do not carry us up from here. For how shall it be known that I have found favour in your sight, I and your people, unless you go with us? In this way, we shall be distinct, I and your people, from every people on the face of the earth.”

The Lord said to Moses, “I will do the very thing that you have asked; for you have found favour in my sight, and I know you by name.” Moses said, “Show me your glory, I pray.” And he said, “I will make all my goodness pass before you, and will proclaim before you the name, ‘The Lord’; and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. But,” he said, “you cannot see my face; for no one shall see me and live.” And the Lord continued, “See, there is a place by me where you shall stand on the rock; and while my glory passes by I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by; then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back; but my face shall not be seen.”

Psalm 99

1 The Lord is King;
let the people tremble; *
he is enthroned upon the cherubim;
let the earth shake.

2 The Lord is great in Zion; *
he is high above all peoples.

3 Let them confess his Name, which is great and awesome; *
he is the Holy One.

4 “O mighty King, lover of justice,
you have established equity; *
you have executed justice and righteousness in Jacob.”

5 Proclaim the greatness of the Lord our God
and fall down before his footstool; *
he is the Holy One.

6 Moses and Aaron among his priests,
and Samuel among those who call upon his Name, *
they called upon the Lord, and he answered them.

7 He spoke to them out of the pillar of cloud; *
they kept his testimonies and the decree that he gave them.

8 O Lord our God, you answered them indeed; *
you were a God who forgave them,
yet punished them for their evil deeds.

9 Proclaim the greatness of the Lord our God
and worship him upon his holy hill; *
for the Lord our God is the Holy One.

1 Thessalonians 1:1-10

Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ:

Grace to you and peace.

We always give thanks to God for all of you and mention you in our prayers, constantly remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labour of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. For we know, brothers and sisters beloved by God, that he has chosen you, because our message of the gospel came to you not in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction; just as you know what kind of persons we proved to be among you for your sake. And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for in spite of persecution you received the word with joy inspired by the Holy Spirit, so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia. For the word of the Lord has sounded forth from you not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but in every place your faith in God has become known, so that we have no need to speak about it. For the people of those regions report about us what kind of welcome we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols, to serve a living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead– Jesus, who rescues us from the wrath that is coming.

Matthew 22:15-22

The Pharisees went and plotted to entrap Jesus in what he said. So they sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that you are sincere, and teach the way of God in accordance with truth, and show deference to no one; for you do not regard people with partiality. Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?” But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, “Why are you putting me to the test, you hypocrites? Show me the coin used for the tax.” And they brought him a denarius. Then he said to them, “Whose head is this, and whose title?” They answered, “The emperor’s.” Then he said to them, “Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” When they heard this, they were amazed; and they left him and went away.

4th Sunday after Trinity, Proper 8

2nd July 2024

Reflection (readings follow on below)

‘How long, O Lord?’ How often has that been said or thought? I’m sure it is as much now on our lips as it was when the psalmist was writing. We live in a world which is imperfect, which incorporates suffering in some form into every day life – whether that is the pain of childbirth, or the suffering when nature’s predators are successful, the suffering that accompanies earthquakes and floods, or the suffering caused by war, by oppressive regimes, by uncaring systems that permit starvation etc. Not all suffering can be avoided but a lot can if we have the will and the power. We can with medical intervention reduce pain and suffering. We can with good ecological practices reduce the suffering that arises from climate change. We can with investment and good education reduce wars and conflicts. We can improve the systems that distribute food, create jobs, administer justice, provide loans and grants etc. We can cultivate communities and societies where love and compassion prevail. This maybe what Paul means when he writes ‘present your members to God as instruments of righteousness.’ We can use our lives, the skills and capabilities that we have, to do what is righteous – what is right and true. To do so is to be alive in the truest sense, to be alive to God and to be alive in the way God wishes. To do so brings us joy.

Not all choices we face in life are easy. Sometimes the best option feels as if it is in reality the least worse option. Sometimes the options do not have clear cut outcomes and we may feel that we must start off with hope, not knowing what the final outcome will be. Is this where faith comes into play? Is this how Abraham felt as he climbed Mount Moriah?

How can we as Christians, as churches, help and support those facing difficult or impossible choices? How do we build up hope?How do we embolden faith? How do we strengthen the confidence needed to take the longview?

Every time we come together to pray, every time we come together to share bread and wine, we are reminded that Jesus’s teaching was that strength comes through helping one another, through sharing in fellowship, through union with God.

Genesis 22:1-14

God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” He said, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains that I shall show you.” So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and his son Isaac; he cut the wood for the burnt offering, and set out and went to the place in the distance that God had shown him. On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place far away. Then Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey; the boy and I will go over there; we will worship, and then we will come back to you.” Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. So the two of them walked on together. Isaac said to his father Abraham, “Father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” He said, “The fire and the wood are here, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” Abraham said, “God himself will provide the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” So the two of them walked on together.

When they came to the place that God had shown him, Abraham built an altar there and laid the wood in order. He bound his son Isaac, and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to kill his son. But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven, and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” He said, “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.” And Abraham looked up and saw a ram, caught in a thicket by its horns. Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. So Abraham called that place “The Lord will provide”; as it is said to this day, “On the mount of the Lord it shall be provided.”

Psalm 13

1 How long, O Lord?
will you forget me for ever? *
how long will you hide your face from me?

2 How long shall I have perplexity in my mind,
and grief in my heart, day after day? *
how long shall my enemy triumph over me?

3 Look upon me and answer me, O Lord my God; *
give light to my eyes, lest I sleep in death;

4 Lest my enemy say, “I have prevailed over him,” *
and my foes rejoice that I have fallen.

5 But I put my trust in your mercy; *
my heart is joyful because of your saving help.

6 I will sing to the Lord, for he has dealt with me richly; *
I will praise the Name of the Lord Most High.

Romans 6:12-23

Do not let sin exercise dominion in your mortal bodies, to make you obey their passions. No longer present your members to sin as instruments of wickedness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and present your members to God as instruments of righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.

What then? Should we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God that you, having once been slaves of sin, have become obedient from the heart to the form of teaching to which you were entrusted, and that you, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. I am speaking in human terms because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to greater and greater iniquity, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness for sanctification.

When you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. So what advantage did you then get from the things of which you now are ashamed? The end of those things is death. But now that you have been freed from sin and enslaved to God, the advantage you get is sanctification. The end is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Matthew 10:40-42

Jesus said, “Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. Whoever welcomes a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward; and whoever welcomes a righteous person in the name of a righteous person will receive the reward of the righteous; and whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple– truly I tell you, none of these will lose their reward.”

Counting on… day 1.121

15th May 2023

As consumers we can make choices that change the pattern of life – through where we choose to shop, what we buy and indeed whether to buy at all.

The RSPB has set up a certification scheme Fair to Nature which seeks to promote farming practices that support biodiversity: –

“GIVING NATURE LOVERS A VOICE

By choosing Fair to Nature Products, you’re supporting farmers and businesses who are taking positive action and making a real impact on improving biodiversity and reducing their carbon footprint.”

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