neighbours – The Green Tau

Proper 5, 3rd Sunday before Lent

16th February 2025

Reflection with readings below

“Cursed are those who trust in mere mortals” In whom then or where should we place our trust?

As Christians, the answer is obvious: in God! In that wisdom of God, revealed to us in Christ Jesus, that we should love and care for other. And as part of the living planet, the answer is equally obvious, in nature.

Nature – the world and all its flora and fauna, its natural resources and self-sustaining cyclical systems – is what God has (and is) creating. It is God’s art work, God’s gift. It is good! And it is to be trusted! The world, all its natural resources, can feed and sustain all living beings – if we humans do not misuse or abuse it.

Those who trust in God, says Jeremiah, are like a tree planted by a stream. Trees are amazing things – with roots that embrace the earth, that interconnect with the soil and communicate via mycorrhizal fungi. Through their roots they feed and sustain each other and also the soil on which they depend.

Trees grow branches from a secure base that provide strength and support, lifting up their leaves to reach the sunlight from which they produce life-giving energy and release oxygen. Trees create and sustain that hospitable atmosphere that allows all of us creatures to live. Trees provide homes and living spaces for a multitude of other beings – flora and fauna. They create essential microclimates. They create rainfall in the right places and limit flooding. They nurture the soil and ensure the stability of the ground.

Just imagine what the world would be like if we humans could achieve even half of that! A world where people communicate with one another – the good news and the bad which really means telling the truth. A world where people help each other, they support the ones who provide food and shelter, those who sustain life. A world where people protect each other from harm. A world where people focus on the common good, on the wellbeing of the community.

And isn’t that what Jeremiah is saying we can be like if we trust enough in God’s wisdom? Jesus is giving us the same message. When he says, “Blessed are the hungry for they shall be filled”, Jesus is not saying just wait a while and God will wave a magic wand and food will appear. No Jesus is saying when you are true to God’s way, when you live the way God desires, then by virtue of your ability to live righteous lives you will perforce never let anyone go hungry. You will never let anyone go uncared for. You will never let anyone go uncomforted. You will share your riches: then no one will be rich and all being poor will be blessed!

But instead humans seem dead set on looking only after themselves. We seek only what profits us, and any riches we gain, we keep only for ourselves – stashed away so that no one else can benefit from what we have ‘earnt’. We humans eschew cooperation, and decline to go out of our way to help others unless the reward to us is even greater. We are not driven by love but by profit, and we seem unable to envisage any different sort of economy.

Last Friday I took part in two actions. One inviting the Church of England to take the lead in rewilding to address the UK’s position as one of the most nature-depleted nations. The other calling on the government to stop subsidising the burning of trees at the Drax power station.

If it is in God we trust, and if it is the natural world that God has given us that provides us with a safe, provident and beautiful, habitable home, then why are we not doing more to protect trees in particular and biodiversity more generally?

If all we do is seek riches, then maybe we will deserve the woes that Jesus foretells?

What can we do this week to align ourselves with God’s wisdom, to love and cherish all our neighbours, to love and restore biodiversity – to value the common home we share – and to pursue justice not profits, to place our trust in God?

Jeremiah 17:5-10

Thus says the Lord:

Cursed are those who trust in mere mortals
and make mere flesh their strength,
whose hearts turn away from the Lord.

They shall be like a shrub in the desert,
and shall not see when relief comes.

They shall live in the parched places of the wilderness,
in an uninhabited salt land.

Blessed are those who trust in the Lord,
whose trust is the Lord.

They shall be like a tree planted by water,
sending out its roots by the stream.

It shall not fear when heat comes,
and its leaves shall stay green;

in the year of drought it is not anxious,
and it does not cease to bear fruit.

The heart is devious above all else;
it is perverse–
who can understand it?

I the Lord test the mind
and search the heart,

to give to all according to their ways,
according to the fruit of their doings.

Psalm 1

1 Happy are they who have not walked in the counsel of the wicked, *
nor lingered in the way of sinners,
nor sat in the seats of the scornful!

2 Their delight is in the law of the Lord, *
and they meditate on his law day and night.

3 They are like trees planted by streams of water,
bearing fruit in due season, with leaves that do not wither; *
everything they do shall prosper.

4 It is not so with the wicked; *
they are like chaff which the wind blows away.

5 Therefore the wicked shall not stand upright when judgment comes, *
nor the sinner in the council of the righteous.

6 For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, *
but the way of the wicked is doomed.

1 Corinthians 15:12-20

Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say there is no resurrection of the dead? If there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, then our proclamation has been in vain and your faith has been in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified of God that he raised Christ–whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised. If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have died in Christ have perished. If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.

But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have died.

Luke 6:17-26

Jesus came down with the twelve apostles and stood on a level place, with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea, Jerusalem, and the coast of Tyre and Sidon. They had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases; and those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured. And all in the crowd were trying to touch him, for power came out from him and healed all of them.

Then he looked up at his disciples and said:

“Blessed are you who are poor,
for yours is the kingdom of God.

“Blessed are you who are hungry now,
for you will be filled.

“Blessed are you who weep now,
for you will laugh.

“Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven; for that is what their ancestors did to the prophets.”

“But woe to you who are rich,
for you have received your consolation.

“Woe to you who are full now,
for you will be hungry.

“Woe to you who are laughing now,
for you will mourn and weep.

“Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is what their ancestors did to the false prophets.”

Trees as Good Samaritans

24th August 2024

And the Lord God brought forth of the ground all manner of trees, fair to behold, and pleasant to eat. Genesis 2:9

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 story based on an idea by Jesus as recorded in Luke’s gospel.

There once was a sojourner who, going about their daily business, was beset by disaster upon disaster: floods and drought, heatwaves and colds snaps, hunger and thirst.

Politicians, as they passed, turned to look the other way. Church leaders buried their noses in their prayer books. The wealthy trusted money as a get-out clause.

Yet in the midst of it all, were the trees. They kept on breathing in carbon dioxide and releasing oxygen; they even helped clean the air of pollutants. They collected rain with their leaves to slow its fall, and collected more between their roots, reducing the risk of flooding. Their leaves provided shade and, as they released moisture, so they cooled the air. They caught energy from the sun and turned it into useful materials, food and even medicines. They welcomed other visitors, fauna and flora. They offered green spaces that calmed the anxious and the weary.

Who was the good neighbour to the sojourner?

Holy God,

we have not loved our neighbours as ourselves.

We have ignored the plight of others.

We have not stood in solidarity with those who need help.

Rather we have spurned those who are our neighbours.

We have cut them down in their prime.

We have cut away at their roots

and have poisoned their lifeblood.

Have mercy.

Have mercy,.

Heal us and have mercy.

A reading Leviticus 23:39-41 (The Message)

On the fifteenth day of the seventh month, after you have brought your crops in from your fields, celebrate the Feast of God for seven days. The first day is a complete rest and the eighth day is a complete rest. On the first day, pick the best fruit from the best trees; take fronds of palm trees and branches of leafy trees and from willows by the brook and celebrate in the presence of your God for seven days—yes, for seven full days celebrate it as a festival to God. Every year from now on, celebrate it in the seventh month.

God of the oak and the tamarisk,

we praise you.

God of the palm tree and the olive,

we praise you.

God of the fig tree and the vine,

we praise you.

God of the cedar and the myrtle,

we praise you.

For the wonder and beauty of trees,

we praise you.

For leaves and shade, for seeds and fruit,

we praise you.

For rootedness and stability,

we praise you.

For maturity and heritage,

we praise you.

For carbon absorbed and oxygen released,

we praise you.

For community and interconnectedness,

we praise you.

God of wisdom,

teach us to understand and value

the world you have created.

Teach us to recognise that what you create is one family,

that all its people, its plants and creatures,

are our brothers and sisters.

Teach us to love them as our neighbours,

and give us the grace

to receive the love they bestow on us.

Amen.

The Lord’s Prayer

Reflection Sunday 18th July

Readings for proper 11: Jeremiah 23:1-6; Psalm 23; Ephesians 2:11-22; Mark 6:30-34, 53-56

Reflection

“Woe to the shepherds”. What is the role of the shepherd, what do they do?

They look after the sheep, providing them with food, water and health care. Hopefully there is empathetic care such that shepherds see them not as any old sheep, but as their sheep. Shepherd as provide security, protection from danger: wild animals, thieves, bad weather. Shepherds hopefully plan ahead, ensuring that when they move their flock they will be moving them to new pasture with plenty of grass, or in the winter plenty of shelter and in the summer plenty of shade. Shepherds need to pre-empt situations requiring extra input: lambing time, shearing, the rut. Shepherds need to keep their flocks together, not letting the sheep stray apart, becoming lost or isolated.

Good shepherds do all this with love and willing self-sacrifice (because it is their raison d’etre). Bad shepherds on the other hand are uncommitted to their flock, distracted by self-interest and easily loose the plot. The message that Jeremiah preaches is that God sees the short-comings, the wickedness of the bad shepherds and their treatment of God’s flocks. And in response God will raise up new, good shepherds and God’s flocks will be revived and will flourish.

In the next paragraph, Jeremiah’s words speak of the coming messiah, the one we know as Jesus who is the ultimate good shepherd. This image of good shepherding is reprieved in today’s psalm.

But what does good shepherding look like today? Who are our shepherds? What if our shepherds were our political leaders?

Do our political leaders ensure that everyone has enough food and healthy food? Or do they let some people go hungry and malnourished? Why are there so many food banks? What standards of nutrition are provided in schools, hospitals, prisons etc?

Do they ensure we all have access to clean water and do they ensure safe disposal of sewage (even if they have contracted this out to the private sector)?

Do they ensure everyone who is ill, whether physically or mentally, receives prompt treatment? Do they provide preventative treatments and programmes to promote well being?

Do they ensure the security of their ‘flock’? Do they have resources in place to prevent race and hate crime, to prevent traffic accidents, house fires – and fires in tower blocks? Do they maintain a properly funded system of law and order that offers everyone the right to justice?

Do they plan for the future? For the knowns such as climate change, and the unknowns such as pandemics?

Are they motivated by self interest or by a desire to care for their flock? What is the source of their motivation, their vocation?

Maybe it is not just politicians that are our shepherds, what about our business leaders, our civil servants, diplomats? The police and emergency services, the armed forces, medics and Carers, GPs? What if they are our farmers, environmentalists, teachers, researchers and scientists? What if they are our neighbours – and if so are we their ‘shepherds?

I rather suspect that God must look on us with dismay. If in Jeremiah’s day, God called out prophets to speak the truth, to expose the shortcomings of those in power, I am sure that God is today calling out to those willing to become prophets. Those prophets maybe you and me, for even if onl9y in small ways, we can call out the short comings of those in leadership roles, we can sign petitions, join marches, we can create prophetic actions in the tradition of the Hebrew prophets and in the tradition of the actions of Jesus – who fed the hungry, healed the sick, questioned the authorities and challenged unjust interpretations of the law.

If in Jeremiah’s day, God was promising to raise up new, good shepherds, ones who would be in due time be followers of the Son of David, then I am even more sure that today God is still seeking out and raising up new leaders who will follow the example of Jesus, who are willing to commit body and soul to the well being of their fellow beings – both humans and creatures, flora and fauna. And it may well be that you and I are being called to be such leaders or shepherds, even if only in small ways. A Shepherd is perhaps the better image as it links us back to the calling that God gave Adam in Genesis 2, to tend and care for the earth and all that it contains.

The passage to the Ephesians reminds us of the importance of inclusivity. Jeremiah talks of God bringing together disparate, scattered flocks to create one unified whole. When we look around us, we see the damage caused by separating people into them and us groups, of pushing people into haves and and have-not groups, of working against each other rather than cooperating, of seeking self interest rather than the common good. So it is good to be reminded that it is by working together that we create God’s dwelling place on earth.

The passage from Mark’s gospel records how the disciples returned, having completed their mission to preach and bring healing to the inhabitants of the neighbouring towns and villages – of which we heard a couple of weeks ago, when they went out in pairs with neither purse nor spare clothes. It would seem that they return tired but perhaps also with lots of stories and questions that they want to share with Jesus. So Jesus takes them away to a quiet place – admittedly they don’t get long there before their rest is interrupted – as however much we want to be good shepherds, good missioners, good disciples, we are not superhuman, we need time to rest and recharge, to unload our burdens and to be refreshed.

Take time to unburden yourself with God – as in today’s psalm, God wishes to let you rest in green places and walk by quiet waters.