Tag: diversity

16th July 2023

Reflection (readings are below)

Last week’s reflection looked at what makes people good, what helps us do the good things we know and want to do. Ultimately the answer is in our relationship with God. In accepting God, trusting in God, being responsive to God – letting God be at work in us.

In today’s story from Genesis we meet two people – Jacob and Esau – who are the same and yet different. They are both the children of Isaac and Rebekah, both conceived as a result of prayer. But where one pushes forward, the other is more patient. Where one is hairy, the other is smooth skinned. Where one loves hunting and the great outdoors, the other loves the quiet, orderly way of domestic life. Where one lives in the moment, the other is planning for the future. Later in the story we will learn that one is his mother’s favourite, whilst the other is his father’s favourite. 

That people are different (not necessarily meaning better or worse, and actually everyone has their faults) is a repeated narrative in the Bible: Cain and Abel; Joseph and his brothers, Moses and Aaron; Peter and Paul, Mary and Martha. Being different, having different skills, different insights, living through different experiences, is key to God’s creation of the human race. When we work together utilising those diverse skills and experience life is enhanced. When we oppose each other, despise our differences, make them a means of discrimination, then life is diminished. 

Another continuing narrative of the Bible is that biggest, strongest, first, is not always best. God chooses small people from small tribes, like Gideon and David. God chooses unpopular people like Jeremiah and Saul of Tarsus, and those from unpopular or despised professions like Matthew the tax collector and Rehab the prostitute. God chooses unreliable people like Thomas and Peter. God chooses insignificant people like Ruth and Mary. God chooses outsiders like Abraham the Aramean  and Cornelius the Gentile. We might say that God chooses upside down values that are not the way of the world. The first shall be last. The rock that was discarded will become the corner stone.

The last verse from the Genesis reading could be translated as ‘He did not esteem primogeniture’. Maybe there was more to Esau response than just hunger.

People are different but sometimes those difference change – are even reversed – over time. Later in the story of Esau and Jacob we hear that Jacob flees fearing his brother’s anger – indeed Esau has threatened to kill him. But later yet in the story, and we see Esau full of welcome and forgiveness for his returning brother. Likewise the arch persecutor Saul becomes the ardent convert Paul. The rash and unreliable Peter becomes the strong rock. The retiring widow Judith becomes the courageous assassin. The ability to change and develop, to be adaptable and flexible are useful traits that God uses to good effect. 

The working together of people who are different, the constructive use of diverse skills, the ability to change and adapt, are all going to be essential as we as a human race work with God in facing up to the climate crisis we have created, and thus working together in  transitioning to a net zero carbon world And not just net zero carbon, but net zero pollution, net zero injustice, and net zero biodiversity loss too. As we pray in the Lord’s Prayer, May your kingdom – ie God’s rule, God’s reign – come on earth as in heaven.

So what then do we make of the parable in today’s Gospel? Sometimes it is called the parable of the Sower, or the parable of the seeds or even the parable of the soils. It is a parable about difference but it starts with sameness – it is the same seed that is being sown everywhere by the sower. But everywhere the seed lands is different. The  parable suggests that everywhere that the seed lands, the soil has the potential to allow the seed to grow. It is not then that the soil is different but that the circumstances, the environment surrounding the soil and the seed, that determines what fruit the seed produces. These environmental factors do not give the seeds an equal chance, an equal opportunity, to flourish. Does that sound familiar? How often do we hear that people do not have successful lives because they have not had an equal opportunity to flourish? The different circumstances of their back ground, of the environment they have grown up in, has put the, at disadvantage. Their skills and characteristics have not been discerned or have been despised as unsuitable, unwanted. Maybe hearing this parable today, we should be hearing a challenge to ensure equally opportunities for all, a challenge to value diversity, a challenge to nurture flourishing for all God’s creation? Can we scare away the ‘birds’ that prey on others? Can we remove the obstacles of poor diet, low educational standards, lack of green spaces and places to exercise? Can we provide an attractive alternative to the consumer driven market? Can we in this way also experience the reign of God?

Genesis 25:19-34

These are the descendants of Isaac, Abraham’s son: Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac was forty years old when he married Rebekah, daughter of Bethuel the Aramean of Paddan-aram, sister of Laban the Aramean. Isaac prayed to the Lord for his wife, because she was barren; and the Lord granted his prayer, and his wife Rebekah conceived. The children struggled together within her; and she said, “If it is to be this way, why do I live?” So she went to inquire of the Lord. And the Lord said to her,

“Two nations are in your womb,
and two peoples born of you shall be divided;

the one shall be stronger than the other,
the elder shall serve the younger.”

When her time to give birth was at hand, there were twins in her womb. The first came out red, all his body like a hairy mantle; so they named him Esau. Afterward his brother came out, with his hand gripping Esau’s heel; so he was named Jacob. Isaac was sixty years old when she bore them.

When the boys grew up, Esau was a skilful hunter, a man of the field, while Jacob was a quiet man, living in tents. Isaac loved Esau, because he was fond of game; but Rebekah loved Jacob.

Once when Jacob was cooking a stew, Esau came in from the field, and he was famished. Esau said to Jacob, “Let me eat some of that red stuff, for I am famished!” (Therefore he was called Edom.) Jacob said, “First sell me your birthright.” Esau said, “I am about to die; of what use is a birthright to me?” Jacob said, “Swear to me first.” So he swore to him, and sold his birthright to Jacob. Then Jacob gave Esau bread and lentil stew, and he ate and drank, and rose and went his way. Thus Esau despised his birthright.

Psalm 119:105-112

105 Your word is a lantern to my feet *
and a light upon my path.

106 I have sworn and am determined *
to keep your righteous judgments.

107 I am deeply troubled; *
preserve my life, O Lord, according to your word.

108 Accept, O Lord, the willing tribute of my lips, *
and teach me your judgments.

109 My life is always in my hand, *
yet I do not forget your law.

110 The wicked have set a trap for me, *
but I have not strayed from your commandments.

111 Your decrees are my inheritance for ever; *
truly, they are the joy of my heart.

112 I have applied my heart to fulfil your statutes *
for ever and to the end.

Romans 8:1-11

There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do: by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and to deal with sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, so that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For this reason the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law– indeed it cannot, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

But you are not in the flesh; you are in the Spirit, since the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit that dwells in you.

Matthew 13:1-9,18-23

Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea. Such great crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat there, while the whole crowd stood on the beach. And he told them many things in parables, saying: “Listen! A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seeds fell on the path, and the birds came and ate them up. Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and they sprang up quickly, since they had no depth of soil. But when the sun rose, they were scorched; and since they had no root, they withered away. Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. Other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. Let anyone with ears listen!”

“Hear then the parable of the sower. When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what is sown in the heart; this is what was sown on the path. As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; yet such a person has no root, but endures only for a while, and when trouble or persecution arises on account of the word, that person immediately falls away. As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the lure of wealth choke the word, and it yields nothing. But as for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.”