Tag: Generosity

23rd March 2023

Reflection with readings below

God does see the suffering that happens in the world and desires that it should not be so, that it should not continue. In the reading from Exodus, Moses is open to a relationship with God and understands God’s desire that the Israelites be brought out of the place where they are suffering and be released from the oppressive power of the Pharaoh. And Moses agrees to do what is necessary to effect this. 

God’s saving work did not stop with the rescue of the Israelites from Egypt, nor was Moses the last person willing to undertake  effect God’s will. Ensuring salvation is an ongoing task as in each generation we humans still fail to truly love one another; we still fail to share the Earth’s riches equitably; we still allow hate and envy and greed to distort relationships; we still fail to be open and receptive to the presence and wisdom of God. 

Last year I was invited to share in a Passover meal. The words we used came from The Legacies of Resistance: an Anti-Zionist Haggadah for a Liberation Seder, which refreshes the traditional words and thinking to reflect new theological understandings. When speaking of Egypt it used the Hebrew word ‘Mitzyrayim’ which translates literally as “a narrow place”. This is seen as “a metaphor for all

which is in opposition to life, justice, connection and sustainability.” Just as the  Passover celebrates how the people of God left Egypt – left the narrow place which confined and imprisoned them – so the Passover celebrates how we all, whether as individuals or as communities, can escape from those narrow places that confine and imprison us. 

Moses was open and receptive to seeking God, and willing to enter into a relationship with God. The psalmist too extols the virtues of seeking a close relationship with God. That is what we need to cultivate – indeed that is the enduring message that runs through the scriptures – if we are to escape the ‘narrow places’.

Today’s Gospel reading has an important message that our politicians should embrace! People who succumb to tragedy, whose lives involve suffering, are not more sinful and no less deserving of loving kindness – which is mercy – than anyone else. Rather says Jesus, those who are suffering, those whose lives do not seem to be flourishing, are all the more deserving of loving care so that they can live fruitful lives. People who are struggling because of disabilities, people who are struggling because of a lack of opportunities, people who are struggling because of because they are victims of an intolerant system, people who are struggling because they lack the physical necessities for daily life – they need to be given care and opportunities and the necessary wherewithal so that they can thrive as children of God. And those who have in abundance should be willing to give to those who do not – whether through self motivated generosity or through a just taxation system. 

We should not be creating systems that constrict and trap people in ‘narrow places’ whether that is in within social and economic systems of the UK or globally.  We need both in just and effective systems that provide aid and development for those who are in need. We need just and effective systems that enable trade and finance to flourish for the equal benefit of all we need just and effective systems that establish and enforce international agreements, ending war and conflict. We also need a culture in which we all act out of generosity, with love and empathy and compassion.  

We must, to quote Micah, “act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with God.”

Exodus 3:1-15

Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian; he led his flock beyond the wilderness, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of a bush; he looked, and the bush was blazing, yet it was not consumed. Then Moses said, “I must turn aside and look at this great sight, and see why the bush is not burned up.” When the Lord saw that he had turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.” Then he said, “Come no closer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” He said further, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.

Then the Lord said, “I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters. Indeed, I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them from the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the country of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. The cry of the Israelites has now come to me; I have also seen how the Egyptians oppress them. So come, I will send you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.” But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” He said, “I will be with you; and this shall be the sign for you that it is I who sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall worship God on this mountain.”

But Moses said to God, “If I come to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?” God said to Moses, “I am who I am.” He said further, “Thus you shall say to the Israelites, ‘I am has sent me to you.’” God also said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the Israelites, ‘The Lord, the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you’:

This is my name forever, and this my title for all generations.”

Psalm 63:1-8

1 O God, you are my God; eagerly I seek you; *
my soul thirsts for you, my flesh faints for you,
as in a barren and dry land where there is no water.

2 Therefore I have gazed upon you in your holy place, *
that I might behold your power and your glory.

3 For your loving-kindness is better than life itself; *
my lips shall give you praise.

4 So will I bless you as long as I live *
and lift up my hands in your Name.

5 My soul is content, as with marrow and fatness, *
and my mouth praises you with joyful lips,

6 When I remember you upon my bed, *
and meditate on you in the night watches.

7 For you have been my helper, *
and under the shadow of your wings I will rejoice.

8 My soul clings to you; *
your right hand holds me fast.

1 Corinthians 10:1-13

I do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptised into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ. Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them, and they were struck down in the wilderness.

Now these things occurred as examples for us, so that we might not desire evil as they did. Do not become idolaters as some of them did; as it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink, and they rose up to play.” We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day. We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did, and were destroyed by serpents. And do not complain as some of them did, and were destroyed by the destroyer. These things happened to them to serve as an example, and they were written down to instruct us, on whom the ends of the ages have come. So if you think you are standing, watch out that you do not fall. No testing has overtaken you that is not common to everyone. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tested beyond your strength, but with the testing he will also provide the way out so that you may be able to endure it.

Luke 13:1-9

At that very time there were some present who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. He asked them, “Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were worse sinners than all other Galileans? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish as they did. Or those eighteen who were killed when the tower of Siloam fell on them–do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others living in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish just as they did.”

Then he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it and found none. So he said to the gardener, ‘See here! For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and still I find none. Cut it down! Why should it be wasting the soil?’ He replied, ‘Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig around it and put manure on it. If it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.'”