This was for the Aberdeen Press and Journal for last Saturday 12 March. Nothing in the current world news requires it to be edited or changed.
Saturday Sermon
With saturation news coverage from all directions it’s impossible to avoid the hard thoughts and distressing images that war brings. Why the wicked prosper, or how it comes about that one man can command an army and threaten world peace. Far less can I understand the broken hearts of mothers shielding their children from missiles, with no one able to stop the bombardment; or figure out how it’s possible to bring about a peace which is more than the surrender and oppression of an entire people, culture and nation.
What I do see, clearly and unwaveringly, is God’s call to us to care for the broken, and to share the burdens of suffering, to give generously to purchase and procure food, medicine, clothes and shelter. And yes, to pray without ceasing for peace, and the justice and righteousness that alone makes peace possible.
In the face of suffering on a scale beyond our experience and imagining, it seems trivial to talk about what we are giving up for Lent. So instead, let Isaiah the Prophet readjust our ideas of what matters, and what matters most.
“Is not this the fast I have chosen, to loosen the chains of injustice, and untie the cords of the yoke….is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the wanderer with shelter.” (Isaiah 58. 6-7) These are the values of the Kingdom of God, the moral landmarks of the Christian church. These are the key objectives of our praying, giving, protesting and active discipleship as followers of Jesus. This isn’t about what we give up, it’s about what we give – to others.
That is what we pray for in those words that now need to be hoped and lived, “Your Kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven…” I know. It’s hard to even imagine something we can actually DO that will end the brutality and danger of war. But don’t underestimate the power of the prayers of millions, the moral force of courageous acts of protest, and the strategic value of financial kindness.
Someone defined charity as “reading statistics with compassion.” Refugees, millions of people, are being processed. The statistics make grim reading. Isaiah tells us the humane ways and human values that are evidence that we read statistics with compassion, and answering actions.
Some Afterthoughts.
Today a good friend told me he and his daughter Charlotte designed a cookie cutter in the shape of a map of Ukraine. Charlotte who came up with the idea is happy for me to tell the story, and sent a couple of pictures. Cookies were baked and iced with blue and yellow icing for the flag of Ukraine. Sometimes it's the young who have the sharpest eyes and the imagination to dream of making the kind of difference Isaiah dreamed about too.
The cookies are being sold by the church and in the community. The cutters can be downloaded for 3D printing at this link for as little as 50pence! the link is here, just click
All proceeds going to the European Baptist Federation Appeal which delivers aid direct to refugees on the Polish-Ukrainian border and other immediately responsive locations.
Charlotte's dad (who is also quite clever) told me "our cookie cutter was downloaded by someone in Lviv yesterday." In case you don't know, Lviv is one of the cities currently under missile and artillery attack. And someone is baking cookies in the shape of their country. Just think about that.
“Is not this the fast I have chosen, to loosen the chains of injustice, and untie the cords of the yoke….is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the wanderer with shelter.” (Isaiah 58. 6-7)
Isaiah didn't say anything about cookie cutters. He left that to the imagination of those who look for ways of living his words!
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