AI, Alexa, or Adam?

Love and loyalty will always by nature face tests.

Reflecting on the rich young ruler of Matthew 19: 16-30

 (Mark 10:17-31 Luke 18:18-30)

The creation narrative outlined in Genesis is a rich mine for understanding human nature, work, sex, our relationship to the cosmos and God's overarching plans and purposes. All this is set within the framework of a creator God whom we discover is a perfect community of reciprocal love from which creation naturally flows.

And in creating humans ‘in our image’ – imago dei’ God did not want AI or Alexa but an Adam and Eve.

This introduces choice and free will. Love must always be able to say no, I do not want your love, I have no desire to reciprocate.

Arising from this and the Genesis narrative an important lesson we learn is that love and loyalty by nature will always face tests.

The story of the first human couple tell of their being placed in a prefect garden, one in which God was able to walk around and converse with the human couple.

This human couple are made in God’s image and likeness and given a vocation to fill the earth and subdue it. One imagines that although the potential for the rest of the world was for good, it still required management. Like an overgrown or wild garden that requires attention to bring out the best.

With freedom of choice Adam and Eve face a test of love and loyalty. God gives them every tree bearing fruit to eat.  (But no animals to eat, that comes later, see Genesis 9). 

However, there is one tree, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil that they are given strict instructions not to eat from.

We know how the story unfolds, the tempter comes and sows’ seeds of doubt, they eat of the forbidden fruit, and all hell breaks loose. Well not quite all hell, but certainly the beginning.

They have failed the test of love and loyalty. They have chosen their own will and way.

This sets a pattern of facing tests that we find repeated throughout the rest of the Bible.

Some fail, some pass, some fail one test but pass a further test. 

With Adam and Eve's 'failure' we see another underlying Biblical theme set in place in the creation narrative, repentance, forgiveness, and restoration.

The ‘rebellion’ of Adam and Eve reveals their nakedness. (Genesis 3.10)

God in mercy and love covers their nakedness with skins, Genesis 3.21. I think it is an acceptable assumption that these were animal skins.

And animal skins would seem to suggest a dead animal, an animal sacrificed to cover up the nakedness of humanity caused by their rebellion. (See 1 John 2.28 where we find  that we can be clothed with Christ and therefore not ashamed of God’s appearing.)

Back to tests of love and loyalty now played out not only in relationship to God but in human relationships. 

Hot on the heels of Adam and Eve we have the story of Cain and Abel, and here hell begins to develop yet further, now stained with innocent blood.

Cain is facing a test of love and loyalty because for reasons we are not told his offering to God is not acceptable.

⁶The Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why has your countenance fallen? ⁷If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is lurking at the door; its desire is for you, but you must master it.” 

 Genesis 4: 6-7

Many more stories follow, here are just some of the better-known ones and not by any means an exhaustive list.

Noah – he passed the test and built an ark in the desert.

Abraham and Sarah – failed by not trusting God and having a child by their servant, Hagar. But then Abraham passed the enormous test of being willing to sacrifice the child of the promise, Isaac.

Moses – passed many tests but then failed by striking the rock twice to produce water after God had told him that he must speak to the rock.  (I like the reflection here of Jesus, having once been struck, we now only to need to speak to him to produce life giving water)

Jonah – failed but then passed, failed, and passed.

Job – a huge story, but he came through in the end.

David failed with lusting after Bathsheba, but then passed and became ‘a man after God’s own heart.’

Solomon son of David passed many tests but failed by introducing idolatry into the kingdom though his many foreign wives.

Gideon – passed the test and reduced his army in compliance to God’s will.

Peter failed, was restored and then passed.  

Jesus, especially as we see him in the desert following his baptism passes the tests. Also, when in the Garden of Gethsemane. ‘Not my will be done, but yours, he said.’  Echoing the prayer Jesus had taught his disciples.

Then the rich young ruler of Matthew 19: 16-30 (Mark 10:17-31 Luke 18:18-30)

This is the test for this man, riches as Jesus points out, will always bring a challenge to love and loyalty and here is an extreme example that call for radical surgery.

‘Give away all that you possess to the poor and come and follow me.’

No compromise, no haggling, no well, what about 50%. He failed and in love Jesus let him walkaway rich in earthly possessions but poor in heavenly abundance.

(Perhaps we might be thinking about St Francis of Assisi here!)

Love and loyalty will always face tests.

Some of those tests will be life changing and transformative if we can face them down and make the right choice. Others will be more ‘mundane’ and yet none the less important.

Brother Lawrence was a 17^th monk who is perhaps best known for his little book, ‘The Practice of the Presence of God.’  Lawrence was able to say that after disciplining his mind to consider Christ presence he found that to be true no matter where he was and what he was doing.

Psalm 24. ‘The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it;’

Love flourishes and creates when reciprocated, but we will always have a choice. We can choose to say to God, ‘your will be done, or God says to us, your will be done.’

And like the rich young ruler God will out of love respect our choice!

 

 

 

 

TAX - to pay or not to pay, that is the question!

Sermon – St Matthew & St Oswald’s 20^th October 2020

Matthew 22:15-22

To say that the current political atmosphere in America is toxic is something of an understatement.

When the two candidates went head to head in a live debate recently one might have hoped for some carefully honed and thought out questions. Something that might put your opponent on the backfoot as they struggle to answer. Knowing that answer could sway the undecided voter.

Instead, sadly what happened was more playground than presidential election of one of the worlds most powerful and influential nations.

And it is power and authority that lies behind our Gospel story and the question about tax payment.

But first let me say something about this tax.

It was in 64 BCE that Rome conquered Syria and in 63 BCE, Jerusalem. So, by the time of Jesus there had been about 100 years of Roman occupation.

This tax was a business venture created by Julius Caesar, General Pompey and a wealthy Roman nobleman, Marcus Crassus. They formed the first triumvirate as Rome developed into an empire.

Marcus Licinius Crassus

The basic plan was that Crassus would invite wealthy friends to invest in the army. The army, under Caesar and Pompey would go and conquer countries who would then have to pay taxes to pay for the army who had conquered them.

So, it was not so much a tax as we might think of it, to pay for public services, but to pay for a business venture for wealthy Romans.

Little wonder it was hated and during Jesus’ childhood a tax revolt was led by a rebel leader called Judas. And with typical Roman brutality the rebellion was crushed and the hills around Galilee covered with crosses.

In Matthew’s telling of the Jesus story, he, Jesus, has entered Jerusalem in what we know as Palm Sunday. He was proclaimed as King, Son of David, Saviour by the crowd.

We then have the cleansing of the temple and a series of discourses Jesus has with the Temple authorities. 

On one of these occasions we see what might lie behind this question about taxes.  Jesus was asked directly by the Temple authorities on whose authority he was doing these things. Jesus answers this question with a question about John the Baptist, which they are unable to answer. So, he refuses to tell them by what authority he is doing things.

More sharp parables follow, check them out in chapter 21.

And then the ‘committee question.’ What a strange alliance happens here between the Pharisees and the Herodians.  That is like in the US the Republicans and the Democrats coming together to plot to overthrow a common enemy.

You can see what both sides bring to the table to frame this question that is going to put Jesus in a no-win position.

The Herodians as their name suggest, support the puppet king, Herod. And have in all respects embraced Rome and working with Rome. So, the part of the question they bring to the table is that it is right to pay the tax to Rome, no question about it.

The Pharisees are more a movement than an organised group or party. But as we know, they were keen on every jot and tittle of the law being kept. So much so, that they expanded the laws they already had, adding more causitory laws.

So, they have their question, and they approach Jesus oozing false flattery that rather gives the game away.

They did not want an answer, but rather wanted to prove a point. If he says, do not pay the tax, he can be arrested as a rebel against Rome. And if he says yes, pay the tax, then he will lose his popular support. The support that is stopping the Jewish authorities arresting him in public.

Jesus begins his answer by asking them to show him the coin used for paying the tax.

And it is important to note that Jesus asks them to bring him the coin used to pay taxes to the Romans.

The coin Jesus is given is a denarius, bearing the image of Tiberius.

It also has an inscription around the edge ‘Son of God’ – ‘High Priest.’

Can you imagine anything more detestable to a first century Jew?

They were forbidden to make any graven image, and certainly the inscription would be nothing short of blasphemy.

The fact they have one to hand implies that they have accepted the rule and governance of Rome and therefore are obliged to pay for that privilege in a tax.

Jesus is not going to fall into the trap of denouncing the Roman occupying force and give license for open rebellion.

That would only lead to bloodshed and slaughter, such as was to fall upon Jerusalem within a generation of Jesus’ crucifixion.

But Jesus seeks to bring in the Kingdom of God by a loving revelation, not a bloody revolution.

And so, whilst he cannot be accused of fermenting rebellion, he is saying in effect give this odious coinage and all it stands for back to whom it belongs.

A deep intake of breath and then comes the punch line…

   ‘and give to God what belongs to God.’

And what belongs to God?

The people there would that morning have recited the Shema…

"Hear, O Israel: the LORD God, the LORD is one"

They would also have known the call to love LORD God with all their heart, all their mind, and all their strength.

They would also have known the call to serve no foreign god – including Roman Emperors.

‘…and give to God what belongs to God.’

Well, what does belong to God?

The answer as they would have known, was everything. As the Psalmist declares…

The earth is the LORD's, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it; Psalm 24.1

Perhaps that is why it is we read this in 1 Timothy 2.1-3

First of all, then, I urge that petitions, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgiving be offered for everyone— for kings and all those in authority - so that we may lead tranquil and quiet lives in all godliness and dignity. This is good and pleasing in the sight of God our Saviour…

Although the Herodians and Pharisees put the question not to elicit an answer, but as a trap, the question they posited remains an interesting one for us to ponder upon.

To consider if there are circumstances when our call to the Kingdom of God means, that while we may continue to pray for the ruling authority, we might actively oppose them.

However, we do need to be careful not to take a text out of context and a pretext.

In this story we see Jesus simply answering a question and not giving any kind of ongoing mandate about the relationship between church and state.

Such an idea could not have been entertained anyway. Because broadly in one way or another, everyone was a theist until the rise of deism in the 17^th century.

However, over the course of history there are some who have made great play of this paying taxes story.  Calling for a clear demarcation between Church and State, as for example in America as it developed.

The danger with that is that the Church retreats into dealing with ‘spiritual’ matters and let government get on with the stuff of the world, roads, health care, defence, etc.

But such a view is not a Biblical view which is much more holistic, and the stuff of life and the stuff of heaven exist in a symbiotic relationship.

So, a question…

Allegiance to the ruling authority or allegiance to God?

Thankfully, I do not imagine that such a conflict would arise for us in the UK. However, this is a reality for some of our brothers and sisters of the Faith. We do well to remember them and pray for them. And pray to God that should we be brought to such a test we would remain faithful…

           ‘and give to God what belongs to God.’

Planning or Providence?

Farming Community Network  www.fcn.org.uk

Harvest Service Flecknoe 27^th September 2020

First Reading:  Deuteronomy 8 v 7-18. Second Reading:  Luke 12 v 13-31.

 

As we approached my retirement last year my wife, Jane, and I had some bit decisions to make about a whole raft of issues.

The Church of England have a good pension scheme, especially if you can get in all the required years for full benefits. Therefore, I worked on until I was 68 because I was able to negotiate an extension on my contract with the Lichfield Diocese.

One of the issues was how to take the benefits. Lump sum, monthly allowance, or an admixture. One of the things we kept bumping into is simply not knowing how long I might live so we could forward plan accordingly. I have x number of years and so we will require x amount of income.

The farmer we meet in the parable Jesus told is not thinking about mortality.  He has a cash crop which he hopes to realise so that he can takes his ease, maybe early retirement.

But having made his plans everything comes crashing down around his ears and another harvester appears on the scene, the grim reaper. 

I often end my emails if I am making plans to meet someone or be somewhere with Deo Volente or DV for short.  This is Latin for ‘God willing’ and we find the idea in Proverbs 27.1 ‘Do not boast about tomorrow for you do not know what a day may bring forth.’  

It is particularly fleshed out in James 4:13-17 

‘You should know better than to say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to the city. We will do business there for a year and make a lot of money!” What do you know about tomorrow? How can you be so sure about your life? It is nothing more than mist that appears for only a little while before it disappears. You should say, “If the Lord lets us live, we will do these things.”  Yet you are stupid enough to brag, and it is wrong to be so proud. If you don’t do what you know is right, you have sinned.

Now I do not think for one moment this, or Jesus’ parable, or the encouragement to learn lessons from birds and lilies is saying we should not plan.

At the moment the farming industry is facing massive changes and there are many challenges ahead. The variable weather we have had over the past year has meant that for many it will be an extremely poor harvest. Added to the challenges of Covid-19 which has closed many of the outlets in the service industry. Just imagine the milk that Costa alone uses across the country every day.  Most of that gone in a stroke. Ahead, there is the massive uncertainty of Brexit, a new Agricultural Bill, new technology and a real push from the green lobby. This is to be welcomed and indeed it is by most farmers.  But as I heard recently you can’t turn green if you are in the red.

The FCN is a little like the Emergency Services. We hope we are not needed but need to be ready to respond should the case arise.  We have linked up with several other farming charities and have a raft of measure being rolled out over a five-year period. We have a strategy.

One of these initiatives is called ‘Time to Plan’ where we hope to help farmers plan for all the changes. Particularly those running small farms or who are elderly.  For them quite often the technology and everything being on-line is often baffling.

Simply put, a failure to plan is a plan to fail. Most of my ministry was spent as an itinerant evangelist helping churches draw up Mission Action Plans.  

So, no I don’t think planning is in itself a bad thing and as I said, I don’t think that is the point Jesus is making.

It is when, like a big barn builder, we take God out of the equation. When we think this is all down to me. When we think look at what I have achieved. Now it is time to reward myself as I have got an abundance all laid up and waiting. Now I can take it easy; eat drink and be merry.

Perhaps what our friend had failed to do recently was to read something like the story we heard from Deuteronomy…

‘When you become successful, don’t say, “I’m rich, and I’ve earned it all myself.”  Instead, remember that the Lord your God gives you the strength to make a living. That’s how he keeps the promise he made to your ancestors.’

And aware of the danger of trying to milk too much out of this parable (bad pun I know, but it is a harvest service) might we ask should this big barn builder have lived, would he have been able to relax?  What about a volatile grain market, what about theft, what about natural disasters?

If he is reliant on himself to make money, he then has the anxiety of keeping it. St Francis who embraced Lady Poverty said, if you have nothing, you have nothing to lose.  That was a challenge to his 13^th century and remains a challenge for us in the 21^st century. 

Have we really got our priorities right?

Are we following to much the patterns and precepts of the society around us?

One of the largest number of cases the FCN handle is health and in particular mental health issues. We know, sadly, that on average one farmer a week takes their own life.

Those who are farmers here today don’t need me to tell you about the enormous stress involved in farming. Yet, despite that I have met no end of farmers for whom farming is not about making money and building bigger barns. They want to make a living, yes, but it is as much a vocation as anything else. 

However, however, however, if we heed Jesus words carefully. And if we read our Scriptures aright, all of our Scriptures that is, we learn that always and forever and, in all circumstances, underneath, undergirding and upholding are the everlasting arms of God.

Perhaps heeding the words of Mother Julian of Norwich, ‘all shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well.’ 

Today we come specially to give thanks for all the good gifts around us, and to be reminded that all good gifts are sent from heaven above, or better put from God.

 Don’t keep worrying about having something to eat or drink.  Only people who don’t know God are always worrying about such things. Your Father knows what you need.

Bear in mind that Jesus is speaking here to people who lived at, or even below, subsistence level. Many of whom would have only the clothes they stood up in and eked out a precarious living.

The big question for those first hearing Jesus saying this and for us also, is, do we trust that our heavenly Father will provide for all our needs? 

As I have said, I do not think we are to simply pull up a chair and have a few beers outside a brand-new big barn for our friends last night and leave God to provide.

You may have heard the story of the vicar walking his patch and stopping to admire someone’s garden. The vicar said to the person whose garden it was, isn’t God’s work wonderful. To which came the reply, ‘well I’m not so sure about that. You should have seen this garden when God had it all to himself.’

We are called to participate and to partnership with God. That story is outlined in the opening passages of Genesis and the vocation of the first human couple to partner with God. To tend the garden and make it fruitful and multiply.

That God given vocation to humanity remains the same.

However, we must remain faithful and learn to trust in God’s goodness. Not to say, look at what I have achieved and what my hands has brought about.

We make our plans carefully and prayerfully. We learn to trust in the goodness of God. We learn to be thankful for all of God’s good gifts and to say thank you. Especially can I make a plea we get back into the habit of saying grace before meals, even if we are out in a social distanced pub setting. We learn that today, each moment, each breath, is a gift, a precious gift, so let’s not squander it but embrace it for what it is.

Above all and most importantly of all…

Let’s seek God’s kingdom first - and then, these things will be ours as well.

 

 

 

 

Give Us Today Our Daily Bread

The parable of the workers in the vineyard Matthew 20: 1-16

A familiar enough parable, perhaps too familiar as we can easily read it, pass over it, saying yes, I know what that is about.

This parable sits in the context of Jesus heading determinedly to Jerusalem for the last time and wanting to get some of the wrong headed thinking out of the disciples about what kind of Messiah he was and what kind of Kingdom he was inaugurating and proclaiming.

Some of that wrong thinking imagined that the Messiah (who they had no concept of being divine) would be a Priest King type. They would usher in the Kingdom outlined in the prophecies and re-enacted every Passover. Israel would be brought back from exile, they would be free, the law would go out from Zion, and the pagan nations would be brought under God’s judgment. And several other things as well.  Absolutely no thought of any kind of heaven as another realm but rather this earth and heaven being combined as outlined in Genesis. What happened in the Temple, the earth heaven realm in microcosm, would be enlarged to encompass the whole world.

And the disciples are jockeying for position in the cabinet, for a seat on the front bench.

Matthew 18 begins this section and it always worth remembering chapter and verses were added in the 16^th century. Here Jesus presents the least in the current society as the greatest in the Kingdom of heaven. (Matthew has ‘heaven’ rather than God but means the same thing) This ‘none’ person is a child. This ‘children’ theme is picked up again in chapter 19v13-15.

Just before the parable we are reflecting on we have the hyperbolic saying about camels going through the eye of a needle which is nothing about a small gate into Jerusalem but is all about thinking about the unthinkable.  

Remember this was a time when there were mainly a small percentage of extremely rich people and a much larger number of poor people. 

‘The rich man in his castle the poor man at his gate, God made them high and lowly and ordered their estate.’

Then immediately before the parable, possibly the trigger for the parable, is Peter saying what they have given up in following Jesus and asking what they might expect in return.

Jesus gives an enigmatic response that may well have been taken literally by the disciples, lining up with their Messianic expectations of a real King and real Kingdom in this time space continuum.

But we are still turning things upside down – or perhaps the right way up.

I do wonder if the mother of James and John reflected about the request she had made of Jesus for her boys to have key cabinet positions when she witnessed Jesus climbing not a throne but a cross with two thieves crucified either side of him.

To the parable itself…

And one key reflection, the payment of a denarius. This was a day’s wage for a labourer. Is your mind thinking of zero hours contracts?

This payment had to be made at the end of the working day so the person could go and get food.

Deuteronomy 24.15 ‘You shall give him his wages on the same day, before the sun sets (for he is poor and counts on it), lest he cry against you to the LORD, and you be guilty of sin.

All those hired received a daily wage – ‘give us today our daily bread.’

We see people are hired early in the morning, later in the day, around noon at 3pm and finally almost the end of the working day – and all receive enough to allow them to get their daily bread.

Are you concerned like me when you hear of 3,000 people applying for one job in a pub? Are you like me concerned when you hear the Chancellor talking about removing the triple lock on pensions and welfare? Are you like me concerned when we continue to be fixated with employment linked to financial remuneration and often linked to status and the value placed upon a person? Are you like me concerned that there appears to be little creative discussions about a world without paid employment for an increasing number of people? Are you like me concerned when you hear of the exponential increase in the use of food banks?

Now I know this parable is about God’s outrageous grace, acceptance, love, and the upside-down Kingdom. However, I would argue having considered it in its context we are a given license to make a current application. What better current application could we make than to argue that everyone without exception should have enough to purchase their daily bread and to purchase that bread with dignity not opprobrium for being feckless.