Tag: poor

Proper 11, 5th Sunday after Trinity

20th July 2025

Reflection with readings below

In today’s reading from the prophet Amos, we hear of God’s warning to the people of the consequences of pursuing profit whilst ignoring God’s ways: vis suffering and calamity 

Do not the same threats hang over our world, over our economic and social systems today? 

Here in the UK, we  do “trample on the poor” – think of the two child benefit cap, the reduction of benefits for the disabled, the practices that favour landlords over tenants such that rents become unaffordable, those tax breaks that benefit the rich but not the poor, the low wages that benefit the employer not the employee, those subsides that benefit fossil fuels companies not energy consumers etc. And more widely we bring ruin to the poor with international policies that place heavy debt burdens on poor nations from which we benefit, with policies that do not meet the needs of those countries suffering the impact of climate change which we have caused at their expense, with trade policies that are stacked against the smaller nations and smaller companies. Truly the rich and powerful in our world use “false balances” – ie weighing scales – that favour us and not the poor.  

(NB an Ephah is a measure of weight, shekel a unit of currency).

It is not just people but the environment that we wilfully damage and we are already seeing the initial consequences of this with heatwaves and droughts, flash floods and wild fires. The Earth is a delicate ecosystem – a life support system – which is being damaged by our greed and misuse. July 24th will be 2025’s Earth Overshoot Day (last year it was 1st August). That is the day when globally we will have used up a year’s supply of the Earth’s resources. Our extraction of water will exceed the rate of renewal. Our use of the atmosphere to absorb carbon dioxide will exceed capacity (without causing further global temperature rises). Our use of the soil’s capacity to produce food will exceed the rate at which its fertility can be maintained – leading to reduced crops yields in the future. Etc etc. Do check out the Earth Overshoot website to understand more about this situation. Here in the UK, we had used up our share of the Earth’s resources by 20th May, so already our lifestyle choices are being made at the expense of poorer people across the world and future generations. 

The Earth Overshoot website has one section entitled solutions. Here it says “While our planet is finite, human possibilities are not. The transformation to a sustainable, carbon-neutral world will succeed if we apply humanity’s greatest strengths: foresight, innovation, and care for each other.” (1) Here is the invitation to live differently – and for those of us who are Christians, that surely means living according to God’s commands, living according to the values of God’s kingdom. The phrase ‘care for each other’ sharply echoes last week’s gospel story of the Good Samaritan. 

Today’s Gospel reminds us of the importance of spending time and attention on Jesus’s teachings. We can rush around being busy, thinking that being busy will solve the world’s problems, but unless we are     following Jesus – doing God’s will – our efforts may prove fruitless. We also run the risk of burnout. Burnout diminishes our ability to love our neighbours. Jesus set us the example in his own daily life of taking time out to be be in nature, to spend time with God, to be refocus and re-energised. In today’s gospel that is Jesus’s advice for Martha – and it is good advise for us too.

Maybe the extract from the Letter to the Colossians should be a reminder to us that we are not solely responsible for saving the world (a deceit I can be guilty of). Rather it is in and through Christ that salvation is being effected. Our contribution will only ever be but a small part within the the greater whole which is the body of Christ – a fellowship that is empowered by the Holy Spirit. It will be together  in Christ that we will see the salvation of life in Earth being as it is in Heaven.  

  1. https://overshoot.footprintnetwork.org/solutions/

Amos 8:1-12

This is what the Lord God showed me– a basket of summer fruit. He said, “Amos, what do you see?” And I said, “A basket of summer fruit.” Then the Lord said to me,

“The end has come upon my people Israel;
I will never again pass them by. 

The songs of the temple shall become wailings in that day,”
says the Lord God; 

“the dead bodies shall be many,
cast out in every place. Be silent!” 

Hear this, you that trample on the needy,
and bring to ruin the poor of the land, 

saying, “When will the new moon be over
so that we may sell grain; 

and the sabbath,
so that we may offer wheat for sale? 

We will make the ephah small and the shekel great,
and practice deceit with false balances, 

buying the poor for silver
and the needy for a pair of sandals,
and selling the sweepings of the wheat.” 

The Lord has sworn by the pride of Jacob:

Surely I will never forget any of their deeds.

Shall not the land tremble on this account,
and everyone mourn who lives in it, 

and all of it rise like the Nile,
and be tossed about and sink again, like the Nile of Egypt? 

On that day, says the Lord God,
I will make the sun go down at noon,
and darken the earth in broad daylight. 

I will turn your feasts into mourning,
and all your songs into lamentation; 

I will bring sackcloth on all loins,
and baldness on every head; 

I will make it like the mourning for an only son,
and the end of it like a bitter day. 

The time is surely coming, says the Lord God,
when I will send a famine on the land; 

not a famine of bread, or a thirst for water,
but of hearing the words of the Lord. 

They shall wander from sea to sea,
and from north to east; 

they shall run to and fro, seeking the word of the Lord,
but they shall not find it.

Psalm 52

1 You tyrant, why do you boast of wickedness *
against the godly all day long?

2 You plot ruin;
your tongue is like a sharpened razor, *
O worker of deception.

3 You love evil more than good *
and lying more than speaking the truth.

4 You love all words that hurt, *
O you deceitful tongue.

5 Oh, that God would demolish you utterly, *
topple you, and snatch you from your dwelling,
and root you out of the land of the living!

6 The righteous shall see and tremble, *
and they shall laugh at him, saying,

7 “This is the one who did not take God for a refuge, *
but trusted in great wealth
and relied upon wickedness.”

8 But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God; *
I trust in the mercy of God for ever and ever.

9 I will give you thanks for what you have done *
and declare the goodness of your Name in the presence of the godly.

Colossians 1:15-28

Christ Jesus is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers– all things have been created through him and for him. He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together. He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross.

And you who were once estranged and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his fleshly body through death, so as to present you holy and blameless and irreproachable before him– provided that you continue securely established and steadfast in the faith, without shifting from the hope promised by the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven. I, Paul, became a servant of this gospel.

I am now rejoicing in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am completing what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church. I became its servant according to God’s commission that was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known, the mystery that has been hidden throughout the ages and generations but has now been revealed to his saints. To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. It is he whom we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone in all wisdom, so that we may present everyone mature in Christ.

Luke 10:38-42

As Jesus and his disciples went on their way, Jesus entered a certain village, where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. She had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to what he was saying. But Martha was distracted by her many tasks; so she came to him and asked, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her then to help me.” But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her.”

Third  Sunday of Easter

14th April 2024

Reflection – readings follow on below.

The Psalmist expresses my frequent cry: ‘Oh that we might see better times!’ I look at the damage caused by climate change, the damage caused to the environment by greed and over-consumption, the poverty that arises from injustice, the suffering of war and armed conflict – and I despair. 

To which I think Peter would reply, ‘Why do you wonder? Faith that is through Jesus, the Holy and Righteous One, the Author of Life – to whom you are a witness – is the means of healing what is broken!’ 

If we are not following the teachings of Jesus, or if we are not following the will of God in tending and caring for all life – whether consciously through Christian fellowship or intuitively through natural wisdom – then what do we expect?

Nevertheless I do see that the process of healing – of salvation – is a slow process one because  so often we reject what Jesus – God’s chosen one, the Christ – teaches us. That we should love God and in so doing honour God’s creation, and that we should love our neighbour as ourself without reservation. Which makes it all the more important that we do witness to what is going right in the world – those actions which match Jesus’s teaching, which are the Good News – and witness to what is going wrong through ignorance and sin.

Here I want to give three examples.

We can witness to the example of Jesus feeding the 5000 and to the valiant efforts being made to feed thousands in Gaza by groups such as the UN World Food Programme and World Central Kitchen. And we can witness to the actions of the State of Israel in impeding the delivery of such aid.

We can witness to the many examples of Jesus healing people in mind and body, and in restoring people to their communities – such as Legion – and to the work of groups such as the Red Cross and the Red Crescent, and Médecins Sans Frontières in bringing healing to many caught up in war zones. And we can witness to the actions of the suppliers of armaments and armed groups that instigate and perpetuate armed conflict. 

We can witness to the many examples of Jesus challenging those with wealth and skills to use them for the common good, and  to the work of organisations such as Oxfam, Practical Action and Just Money in creating situations where wealth and skills are used to raise up the poor and to bring down the mighty. And we can witness to the actions of corporations such as Barclays and Shell and Amazon in perpetuating policies that disadvantage the poor and vulnerable. 

Just as in the gospel, so today, the risen Jesus says to us ‘Peace be with you’. 

The word in Greek translated as peace is eirḗnē which draws from the verb eirō with the meanings be joined, tie together, make  whole. The peace that Jesus offers us is that which joins us together, as a community, as a team. Together we can support each other and create a whole that is greater than its parts – that which St Paul describes as the body of Christ. As we celebrate Easter and the resurrection,  let us draw on that peace that can – even if slowly –  create the better times we and the whole world wants.

Acts 3:12-19

Peter addressed the people, “You Israelites, why do you wonder at this, or why do you stare at us, as though by our own power or piety we had made him walk? The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, the God of our ancestors has glorified his servant Jesus, whom you handed over and rejected in the presence of Pilate, though he had decided to release him. But you rejected the Holy and Righteous One and asked to have a murderer given to you, and you killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses. And by faith in his name, his name itself has made this man strong, whom you see and know; and the faith that is through Jesus has given him this perfect health in the presence of all of you.

“And now, friends, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers. In this way God fulfilled what he had foretold through all the prophets, that his Messiah would suffer. Repent therefore, and turn to God so that your sins may be wiped out.”

Psalm 4

1 Answer me when I call, O God, defender of my cause; *
you set me free when I am hard-pressed;
have mercy on me and hear my prayer.

2 “You mortals, how long will you dishonour my glory; *
how long will you worship dumb idols
and run after false gods?”

3 Know that the Lord does wonders for the faithful; *
when I call upon the Lord, he will hear me.

4 Tremble, then, and do not sin; *
speak to your heart in silence upon your bed.

5 Offer the appointed sacrifices *
and put your trust in the Lord.

6 Many are saying, “Oh, that we might see better times!” *
Lift up the light of your countenance upon us, O Lord.

7 You have put gladness in my heart, *
more than when grain and wine and oil increase.

8 I lie down in peace; at once I fall asleep; *
for only you, Lord, make me dwell in safety.

1 John 3:1-7

See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is. And all who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.

Everyone who commits sin is guilty of lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. You know that he was revealed to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. No one who abides in him sins; no one who sins has either seen him or known him. Little children, let no one deceive you. Everyone who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous.

Luke 24:36b-48

Jesus himself stood among the disciples and said to them, “Peace be with you.” They were startled and terrified, and thought that they were seeing a ghost. He said to them, “Why are you frightened, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? Look at my hands and my feet; see that it is I myself. Touch me and see; for a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.” And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. While in their joy they were disbelieving and still wondering, he said to them, “Have you anything here to eat?” They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate in their presence.

Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you—that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled.” Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, and he said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.”

Counting on … day 82

9th April 2024

Carbon Tax – 2

Carbon taxes are often criticised for impacting most on the poorest or the most vulnerable. People and businesses with wealth can more easily buy their way out of the situation either by absorbing the tax or through buying alternative products and services that avoid the tax. For example a richer person can more readily buy a new efficient electric car, where someone with less wealth may have to pay more on petrol to continue using their older car. A richer person can more readily afford a heat pump (powered by renewable electricity) and home insulation, whilst a less wealthy person – or someone who is rented accommodation- will have to pay more for running an existing gas boiler in an un-insulated home. 

Such issues need to be addressed. Improving public transport, implementing scrappage schemes for old cars and boilers, offering grants for insulation and heat pump installations – including for rented accommodation – are key. At the same time introducing a carbon tax incrementally over time to ensure users can plan and adapt, is also important. 

Given the urgency of the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to address the climate crisis, maintaining the status quo is not a good option. It is certainly not a good option for the poorest or most vulnerable as they are the ones who are – and will be – most affected by the impacts of the crisis.