Month: July 2021

Please pray for Germany and Belgium and neighbouring countries as they experience devastating floods.
Please pray for England as COVID deaths and cases rise steeply.

Sunday’s Lectionary includes this from Jeremiah, “Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! says the LORD.” The job of leaders of God’s people is to care for them, like shepherds care for the sheep. Surely this is the standard by which all leaders are to be judged… Do they give a ****?

We are connected, as strands of a web.
God help us to know
our dependence on others,
and their dependence on us.
Help us to live
as those who love
and are loved;
as you love us
in Jesus Christ.

Not hot at all today, nevertheless I still wanted more fairweather cloud to cover the sun.

Don’t blame beeching. He was working to his terms of reference. I blame whoever though it was a good idea to put Ernest Marples in charge of transport. Putting someone who made loads of money from building roads in charge of the railways is like putting a fox in charge of the chickens.

I had forgotten just how busy the roads can get.

I was at an excellent service this morning, about climate change. As we were hearing about the merits of electric cars (so long as the electricity itself is renewable), a hydrocarbon fuelled car outside was receiving attention from the AA.

But it would have been rude to point I guess.

According to Psalm 24 in tomorrow’s lectionary;-
“Who shall ascend the hill of the LORD? And who shall stand in his holy place? Those who have clean hands and pure hearts, who do not lift up their souls to what is false, and do not swear deceitfully. They will receive blessing from the LORD, and vindication from the God of their salvation.” (3-5). And yet our experience is that people who lie and cheat do have vindication. Since we’re thinking about football, ‘the hand of God’ has played a part in several important matches. So what does this verse mean? Is it;-
(1) The ramblings of an optimist
(2) The truthful receive vindication because the winners write the most widely read histories, so that liars have become ‘truthful’.
(3) There is a deeper kind of vindication, maybe not so immediate.
I’d like to think it was the last of those.

One thing that is particularly toxic is the allegation that because you have lost out, you must be in the wrong. It must be obvious to anyone that b*****ds do in fact win, often because they are what they are.

When all this is going on, just keep faith.

Also the brilliant performance of our national football team and the priorities and demeanour of its manager have almost made me proud to be English (sic) again. But not quite. Not so long as patriotism is in the hands of the Nietzschean wing of the Conservative Party.

In my book, believing in England and believing in the UK is about believing in the weak as well as the strong. Otherwise it is nothing.

I seem to remember that problem number 1 in the little book, “Cavendish Problems in Classical Physics”, written by Professor Brian Pippard in the late sixties or early seventies, related to a cyclist travelling along the road at a certain speed and using a certain amount of power to keep going. A crosswind of such and such develops, and the question is, “By how much must the cyclist’s power output increase to maintain the same speed”. “Cavendish problems” seems an oddly prescient title.

Anyway, good luck to him today. Just one step away – so near and yet so far!!

In Sunday’s Lectionary we read about the prophet Amos. He was deeply unpopular because God’s message was something the people didn’t want to hear… and Amos was a foreigner too. So, it’s not much fun to be a prophet. How much easier it would be to tell people what they were itching to hear.

Sometimes we need to hear the truth – even though it doesn’t sell newspapers or get a following with our chums on social media. Our dislike for the truth is a millennia-old problem for the human race. Sometimes the consequences become urgent – as now when we are facing a worsening of anthropogenic climate change. We’d rather hear either that it’s not really happening – or that a big technological fix will save us from having to change our lifestyles – or some other stuff that will keep us comfortable.

And the people of Israel didn’t really want to change their ways – so, ‘Amos, effoff back to Judah!’

Just saw a Twitter from Swiss tourism… “Aujourd’hui, c’est la #JournéeMondialeDuChocolat”. This is an idea I like, although not all chocolate is Swiss – other brands are available. Maybe you could get more agreement about chocolate being nice than you could about faith, or football, or political philosophies. But even agreement about chocolate would not be total, because for instance, some people are allergic, and others find that overindulgence threatens their health, and others can’t afford much chocolate, and others just aren’t that bothered. Maybe interest in chocolate is also gendered. Nevertheless, chocolate has some claims to be a global delight, and a World Chocolate Day is not a bad idea.

Chocolate is also global in another sense. Chocolate production is part of the global network of trade, and typifies its strengths and weaknesses. The cocoa / cacao is mostly produced in countries that are poor – and the growers don’t usually get a great deal for a foodstuff that ends up in some quite expensive items. Fair Trade chocolate spearheads the whole Fair Trade movement. It’s about letting everyone, including the growers, get a fair and sustainable payment for what they do.

I like eating fairtrade chocolate. During COVID, we’ve been getting most by post from fairtrade suppliers – but I think it’s also good (maybe better) to buy fairtrade stuff in normal shops, so they see the advantage of fairtrade to their sales figures. It sometimes seems to me that our spending is the only real vote we have – which means I have more votes than some people, and many fewer votes than others – this cannot be fair!

Living God, in this wonderful world
of sun and rain and plenty,
may everyone have enough.

PS – Fair Trade is not the same as organic, although they may appeal to the same demographic.