Month: September 2021

One of Sunday’s Lectionary readings is part of the introduction to the book of Job. We read in chapter 2 verse 3, “The LORD said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man who fears God and turns away from evil.” But we also read in the first chapter (missed out in the Lectionary verses) that Job was wealthy.

One of the issues that the book tries to address is this perceived connection between good behaviour and good fortune. Job is a good man, but suffers extreme misfortune. This must have made the readers think. Even today, many public utterances still speak of this connection between being good and being wealthy. “He deserves to be wealthy because he works hard.” “She deserves to be poor because she is lazy/a scrounger.” But I find this hard to take. It’s not poor people who spend their afternoons on the golf course. It’s not rich people who are juggling caring responsibilities and three cleaning jobs in different parts of town.

So I struggle with the premise of Job, that people are invited to believe at the beginning, that Job was both wealthy and good. How did he become so wealthy, without doing some dodgy deals?

Later the writer invites us to see that misfortune can happen to good people.

But I struggle with the end too, that Job has his fortune restored. It doesn’t fit experience. Surely this is not the end of the story – Job’s story as ours, continues.

I could also point out that the beginning and the end don’t read like the blood and guts reality of the middle section. They may not all have been written together.

Went for a walk this morning (via the pretty way) to the giant Tesco at Hattersley. Still not a big fan of Tesco’s, but it’s noticeable how much cheaper you can shop there compared to the local Tesco. Life gets more expensive if you don’t have access to transport of some form.

I’d rather be in the Co-op, for their ethical stance, but since the one in Glossop closed, it’s further to go, and the next nearest shop is smaller and more limited. The nearest ones of decent size are New Mills one way and Mossley the other.

When I was a small child, there was a kind of test we used to do on each other. You’d pick a buttercup, place it close underneath your friend’s chin, so as to catch the daylight; and if there was a yellow patch of light on your friend’s chin, it meant they liked butter.

The test was almost always accurate. But think about it this way;- if 9 out of 10 children like butter and 90% of children get the yellow patch of light on their chin, even if the relationship between the two is completely random, you will get a correct test 82% of the time and a misleading test 18% of the time.

Statistics are wonderful, but you have to know, and care, how to use them. Scientists take a great deal of care over this kind of thing, but not everyone is so careful, or knowledgeable.

Also, the whole process of doing the buttercup test is fraught with opportunities for bias.

Anyway, just a bit of fun.

God of creation,
as you call your people
to be honest and just;
so give us grace to be
honest and fair with numbers:
help us resist the temptation
to skew them in our favour,
or to speak without understanding.

Sunday’s Lectionary includes Psalm 8. We, like the Psalmist, look at the magnificence of the universe and feel small. And yet…

… God has made us wonderful, “crowned … with glory and honour.” Even with our snot, our warts ‘n all, we are still wonderful.

No walking today, except the journey to church. Having looked at the weather, I reckon not much walking tomorrow either. Starting to miss it a little bit.

Woodhead Reservoir this morning. A generous wind from a long way south is bringing warm, moist air to us. There were lots of insects out in the dawn twilight. The beam from a head-torch lights up even the tiniest things – like water droplets only just big enough to go downwards.

From Sunday’s Lectionary… “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, O LORD, my rock and my redeemer.” (Psalm 19:14) – seems quite a tall order to me.

It seems from the news on natural gas price rises that we’re still a long, long way from reducing our dependence on fossil fuels.

The moon is now quite high in the misty dawn sky. At this time of year, the full moon sets much later each morning, whereas it rises only a little bit later each evening. This is why the ‘harvest moon’ is such a familiar sight, rising at a similar time for a run of successive evenings.

As it happens, this equinox-day ends with 100 days to go in 2021. Who knows what the last 100 days will bring? A new Johnson government, elected before there’s been an inquiry into COVID? More shortages of natural gas – that fuel that we all want now because it’s marginally less polluting than coal? A trade agreement with the Maldives? Undeserved pain, terrible suffering, undeserved good fortune? Nobody knows.

But we put our trust in God anyway.

God help me to take seriously
people of other Christian communities,
to value what they are contributing,
to be honest when we cannot agree,
or when what they are doing seems harmful.
Give us all
genuine respect.