I know the two old testament readings are not supposed to be used together, but they seem to address a similar situation from opposite sides. In habbakuk, the prophet speaks of the pain of those who suffer injustice and long for God’s intervention. Isaiah addresses the corrupt people and spells out what God needs if justice is to happen. Don’t waste time on worship if you are unwilling to fix your lives.
In the gospel reading, jesus approaches the outcast zaccheus. That in itself conveys the message, all the more because jesus needs zaccheus and his hospitality. That is kingdom community living, give and take, mutual dependence.
We are in Canterbury at the moment, and the phone is eating battery whenever it’s on mobile data. Here is yesterday’s walk from Broadstairs to margate…
… and the previous from Canterbury to Shepherdswell…
… and this is some random crepuscular stuff…
The walks have been good. And it’s been good to see Hannah and Toby.
This was yesterday morning… …as it happens there was a picture on the TV weather forecast last weekend taken from the same spot: it’s always nice to see Bottoms on the television, and the reservoir is looking good when the weather is nice.
Today is different. A drizzly, small, dense rain has started, and it’s hard to see very much at all. I find comfort, though, in the grey blanket, and the promise of water for the ground after a bit of a dry spell. However, this time the dry spell has been very brief, and tomorrow’s promised rain is very heavy. We need rain, but not in daft amounts. Here’s an old prayer for rain… “O GOD, heavenly Father, who by thy Son Jesus Christ hast promised to all them that seek thy kingdom, and the righteousness thereof, all things necessary to their bodily sustenance: Send us, we beseech thee, in this our necessity, such moderate rain and showers, that we may receive the fruits of the earth to our comfort, and to thy honour; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.” The Book of Common Prayer has some nice bits like this, although I couldn’t bring myself to join the celebrations for its anniversary that fell a few years ago. There was no mention in those plans of the cost of everything that happened in 1662. My predecessors were unceremoniously chucked out, with no chance of flying bishops or anything like it.
I don’t see much chance of “moderate rain and showers” in our planet’s future. God may do all he can to keep our climate nice, but he’s fighting Big Oil now.
A surprising thing I learnt from a meeting last night was how bad buses were in generating carbon dioxide per passenger mile. (Sorry I wasn’t taking notes and so I don’t have the figures). But I’m still going to use buses, and this is why… The figures we were quoted last night (not sure of the underlying assumptions and what towns/nations were surveyed) were poor because buses often run nearly empty. If I get on a plane, there’s a good chance I’ll bump up demand enough to cause another flight. If I get on a bus outside the rush hour, there will be no extra cost in fuel burning. The more people use buses, the better buses will be in terms of emissions per person. Also it gets cars off the road, with their associated emissions. Also, with the resulting lighter traffic, buses are a better option because they are not held up (ever tried to get from Stalybridge to Hadfield on a 237 on a Friday afternoon?). Also, buses cost me nothing now, a privilege that needs to be extended to more people, maybe even everyone.
Why drugs are bad Much of the debate about decriminalising street drugs is around the medical effects of addiction and the criminality that comes from drugs being illegal. But there is a deeper problem about drugs. It may sound odd, coming from someone as unsociable as me, but people need people. That is the foundation of our life as human beings in society. Look in the Bible, and you’ll see, right through the from the beginning to the end, from the prophets to Paul, that living right with one another is a fundamental part of living right with God. And if people stop needing people, and turn instead to needing a substance, then it undermines the basis of all society. This applies to all drugs, including alcohol – although in the case of alcohol and some others there can be times and social conventions by which the drug can bring people together. Notes 1) Am I right in thinking there was a Doctor Who about this? ISTR a hypercongested highway and people selling happiness patches from booths. 2) Among the most scary moments I can remember are the ones when it’s a summer afternoon and I’m on my pushbike waiting for the lights to change. A car draws up beside me with its windows open and it stinks of cannabis. And I’m thinking to myself – “I have to share the road with these clowns!”
Luke 18:9-14 18:9 He [Jesus] also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt: 18:10 “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 18:11 The Pharisee, standing by himself, was praying thus, ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. 18:12 I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all my income.’ 18:13 But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even look up to heaven, but was beating his breast and saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ 18:14 I tell you, this man went down to his home justified rather than the other; for all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted.”
There’s a communal dimension to the smugness of the Pharisees as well. They were the ‘in’ people, part of a group who supported each other and validated each other’s religion. The tax collector ‘standing far off’ is on his own, without that kind of support. Christians look to their churches for support and comfort. I want to suggest that maybe Christians too should watch out that they/we don’t get too smug about our ‘righteousness’, just because they/we have the comforting blanket of being with like-minded people. If we want to find Jesus, maybe we should look ‘far off’, away from our community of people ‘like us’ and seek the lone and ‘contemptible’.
Nice walk the other day. A couple of dams are out of bounds to walkers at the moment, so some routes are not possible. Here’s Rhodeswood Reservoir partly drained to facilitate work on the dam wall (at the other end)…
I’m still working out what this retirement thing is going to be like. I have to think the best is yet to come. – When I was young all things seemed possible. I had loads of talent for sciencey stuff. But looking back on my paid life, I haven’t really contributed anything. Maybe I never would have been able – I have character flaws, like a lack of courage and a lack of anger. I still feel as if I ought to have done better, though. So yes, maybe the best is yet to come!
Janet had a meeting in Manchester yesterday, so I went with her on the train, then walked off towards Boggart Hole Clough. I’d been past the entrance before, but never explored it. It was pleasant in the autumn sun, but foolishly I turned back before getting to the boating lake…
On the way I noticed an advert for car credit. It adds to the impression that things are more expensive when you are poor – like prices in the local shop, compared to a distant supermarket. This is how the ‘invisible hand’ works, it seems….
I also passed some blocks of flats clad in material which changes colour depending on where you stand to look at it. A photo wouldn’t have conveyed the way this shiny stuff inspired a childlike awe and wonder in me. I only hope it doesn’t burn.
For various reasons I’ve been wondering about the idea of ‘conflict of interests’. MPs have to declare any financial interests they have, so people know whether their view of an issue is biased. A name I remember from my childhood is Ernest Marples. I’m sure he was scrupulous in declaring his interests, but in what universe was it a good idea to put a man who made his money from roadbuilding in charge of the railways? And now we’re struggling to get enough railway capacity for our needs – all the more important as the realisation dawns that we can’t burn fossil fuels like there’s no tomorrow.
Jeremiah… It’s sometimes challenging to see the ups and downs of fortune as being in God’s hands, especially when they’re down. But here there’s the promise of something better. And the passage ends with this, which to me is beautiful, speaking of an end to the religious elite… “31:33 But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 31:34 No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, “Know the LORD,” for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the LORD; for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more.”
Psalm 121… take a look at this… … it is on a stone on a hill overlooking the M62 as it snakes towards Lancashire.
Genesis and Luke… God in Jeremiah seems to have his ways and stick to them – although I guess the idea of ‘covenant’ itself is bipartisan. But in Genesis and Luke, in different ways, it seems to me we get pictures of God and people bargaining with each other – God, the Almighty, the Timeless, who also responds to us.
2 Timothy… Living in an era of fake news, I can’t dispute the truth of this… “4:3 For the time is coming when people will not put up with sound doctrine, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own desires, 4:4 and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander away to myths.”
We all love a lie, so long as it suits our prejudices. But this leaves us with the problem of discernment. What is sound doctrine? Do we accept the authority of the white men who lead most churches? Surely in many cases this is discredited, both because of maleness and whiteness (I am white and male BTW). Is the Bible self-explanatory? Not in my experience. I think my approach is to muddle through, use some enlightenment-style scepticism, learn from as many different people of different backgrounds as possible, use my vestigial commonsense, be ready at all times to be challenged by what I read in the Bible and in the signs of the times.
The Jeremiah reading, about a people in exile in a foreign land (who have lost most of what makes them them), suggests that while there’s life, there’s hope.
In the Luke reading, the story of the people who were healed from a skin disease, it’s the Samaritan, the outsider, who has thanked Jesus for what he has done for him: the others didn’t. Jesus is offering people a new home, a new identity, the Kingdom of God.
The writer of 2 Timothy is holding up Christ as the centre of the Christian’s identity.
FWIW it feels to me as if my identity as one of a people is breaking up, dissolving. The UK has always sat uncomfortably between the US and Europe in many ways. ISTR that things like economic equality and life expectancy here aren’t quite as good as most of the rest of Europe, and not quite as bad as the US. Now we have chosen which way to go, it doesn’t cheer me a great deal. But I have another focus for my identity: in Christ.
Great visit to Coventry earlier this week, in which we met up with a friend. Yesterday there was this Tree Of The Day…
…today is gloomy, though. I just thought you’d like to know.
“1:1 The oracle that the prophet Habakkuk saw. 1:2 O LORD, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not listen? Or cry to you “Violence!” and you will not save? 1:3 Why do you make me see wrong-doing and look at trouble? Destruction and violence are before me; strife and contention arise. 1:4 So the law becomes slack and justice never prevails. The wicked surround the righteous– therefore judgement comes forth perverted. 2:1 I will stand at my watchpost, and station myself on the rampart; I will keep watch to see what he will say to me, and what he will answer concerning my complaint. 2:2 Then the LORD answered me and said: Write the vision; make it plain on tablets, so that a runner may read it. 2:3 For there is still a vision for the appointed time; it speaks of the end, and does not lie. If it seems to tarry, wait for it; it will surely come, it will not delay. 2:4 Look at the proud! Their spirit is not right in them, but the righteous live by their faith.”
It’s a terrifying vision of a nation that has forgotten justice. “The wicked surround the righteous”. Everything the prophet sees is wrong-doing and trouble. But later on we read that “there is still a vision”. Actually the vision must’ve already been there in chapter one, because the prophet could recognise wrongdoing when it was visible. There was a TV programme about the rise of Hitler a few days ago – and the idea of a world controlled by no other principle but the will to power scares me.
I want to say now before I forget, that poor people and excluded people still matter, treating one another right still matters, powerless people still matter, minorities still matter, and that hurting majority among us who are women still matter. Christ among us still matters. And to that end, we should maybe be thinking more of Christ beyond us and his claim upon our lives.
Something that happens sometimes, when you’re walking from one end of the country to the other, is that you get part of the way and your confidence drains away … “I don’t think I can do it”, you say to yourself. It happens to football teams as well – what had previously been an energetic, dynamic team finds all its terrier-like qualities have vanished. The advice to Timothy is “don’t give up on this”. Encouragement is really important – actually I believe we all need it.
Prayer
Pray through the news headlines… (at this time, the Conservative Conference, flooding including the Isle of Man, Hong Kong, negotiations about a Brexit deal, dangers to the Northern Ireland peace process…)
Living God, help us to recognise in our world the need for justice, and the way of Christ. Strengthen us to live by our faith.
