Bob Warwicker's blog

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.

I like rain as part of a varied diet of weather. Maybe we’ve got used to the changes of the weather. There are probably people out there who have seen the evidence and know the answer to this – but I have an impression (no more) that part of climate change for the UK is an increasing tendency for weather patterns to get stuck (although having said that, the most notorious bit of stuckness in my lifetime was way back in the winter of 1962/63).

If my vague impression were true, then we might be in for more long spells of wet or dry, which would not be good news for farmers or anybody really.

Everyone has some kind of inheritance; maybe and maybe not money, but also biological inheritance, cultural inheritance, memories of the way our father or mother or auntie or grandparent did things, or said things, things that have filtered through into our lives. Some people’s inheritance is quite meagre, though; one thinks, “what have I got, what history am I part of?”

Inheritance is a big deal in Judaism. In Sunday’s Lectionary, the writer of the letter to the Ephesians says that inheritance is a big deal for Christians too – not in the traditional way, but through Christ and the community of his people. Disinherited and disenfranchised people, the outsiders and people on the margins, can be something now, in Christ.

In next Sunday’s Lectionary, there are stories about David and about John the Baptist. They both annoyed powerful people as a consequence of their faith (it’s two powerful daughters in the stories, but if the politics of the Holy Land was anything like current Westminster politics, there may be some blame management going on here).

What do we do when our faith brings us into conflict with the rich and powerful? Maybe we sometimes lack even the imagination to see where God is leading us, and such conflicts don’t come up very much. May God give us guidance and strength.

The government is ‘consulting’ on its plans for charging people in their early to mid 60’s for prescriptions. I looked up how much it was (it was £6 or £7 the last time I had to pay). It is now £9.35 per item. I wonder if anyone in government has any conception of just how much money £9.35 is.

In a few months, E10 car fuel will be available. This is both good and bad;- good, because it means we burn a fraction less fossil fuel, replacing it with fuel from a plant source; and bad because the resources given to growing this fuel crop could have been used to feed human beings. So it’s hard to know what to choose. As a binary choice, this stinks. But maybe there are other options. A different mode of transport – or a car fuelled by electricity from renewable sources for instance. I’m reminded of Jesus weighing in to the old controversy about whether to worship God in Jerusalem or on the Mountain, by saying worship in spirit and truth.

God help us with difficult choices-
may we be wise,
may we have the imagination
to see things a different way.
May we be inspired by your spirit.
Be with us as we struggle
with what to do next.

When water is actually blue, it becomes a news item. Look downwards on most areas of water, and most of what you see is the darkness at the bottom. (I’m guessing that Google Maps colours in large bodies of water with blue for clarity). Some waters bring down pale blue stuff from higher up, especially coming from glaciers that are wearing away the rock. Our local reservoirs look as dark as peat – or darker- on Google. If the water is shallow enough, you might see a colour more similar to its bed.

But when you look at a slanty angle, you see better reflections – and if the sky is blue the water might look bluer. Memories of blue waters are likely also to be memories of blue sky and fair weather.

Myself, I quite like the sea, that greyish whooshing mass in constant motion under the grey windy sky. It’s all part of God’s creation.

The same sun that blesses us,
and makes the plants grow,
also bears down on Canada
with suffocating heat.
The same rain that the dry lands
cry out for,
also brings boulders
tumbling down the riverbed
and crashing into houses.
Living God, in your complicated
and beautiful world,
help us be gentle
with the Goldilocks
atmosphere,
and understand it more.

Here’s a sign with a couple of warnings…

Do we heed warnings, and when is a warning a threat? The second warning is about a physical inconvenience, and it would seem sensible to use the bridge here…

…and very thoughtful of someone it is to have provided this. The first warning might also need to be heeded I don’t want to damage the moorland or harm livestock or lose the way. But things are not always simple. The public use of open spaces is not a given. Ever since the start of the Peak and Northern Footpaths Society over a hundred years ago, and then the Kinder Mass Trespass in the 1930s, things have been in a state of flux. Even now, there are complex negotiations about the Pennine Bridleway…

Fans of spin may have spotted that this notice is completely silent about the fact that pedestrians have a longstanding right to walk on the footpath across these fields.

It seems to me that part of the problem about access is that farmers will always (rightly) point to the actions of inconsiderate walkers, especially those with dogs. And as for people who take barbecues onto the open moor…

There are many instances of warnings/threats in the Bible. The reader is usually shown whether or not it would’ve been a good idea to heed the warnings/threats. And we can usually work it out with hindsight. But if you’re in a dangerous situation, it can be hard to think straight.
Sunday’s Lectionary, for instance, includes the bit about Jesus telling his disciples to shake the dust off their feet when they leave a village that has rejected them, as a ‘testimony against them’. There seems in that statement less of the usual hope for repentance when people are given a divinely approved warning.

Please pray for the Methodist Conference

In Sunday’s Lectionary, the reading from 2 Corinthians features Paul going on in his sometimes tortuous way about his own experiences of weakness and strength. It comes to an end like this…
“Three times I appealed to the Lord about this, that it would leave me,
but he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.” So, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.
Therefore I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities for the sake of Christ; for whenever I am weak, then I am strong.” (12:8-10)

The fourth of July sees the birthday of the most powerful nation the world has ever seen. And maybe humility is something the powerful need to learn – for people (and nations) who are oppressed or in positions of weakness already know well enough how dependent they are. Remember it was Jimmy Carter who took as his motto Micah 6:8…
“He has told you, O mortal, what is good;
and what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,
and to walk humbly with your God?”

Just a reminder of how much we owe to those prepared to endure “insults, hardships, persecutions and calamities”…

… for the sake of others in this case, rather than Christ – we owe them a debt nevertheless.

Please pray on Sunday for the United States of America.