May the words of my lips and the meditations of all our hearts be now and always acceptable in thy sight O Lord our strength and our redeemer. Amen
Tonights readings as well as the Psalm which is printed on the sheet speak of law, speak of Justice and doing what is right as well as spreading the burden.
Our first reading speaks of the importance the Israelites whilst they were in the wilderness placed upon doing things right, and judging of cases. Moses father in Law made sure that responsibility was spread out.
Our psalm which we didn’t read
Let your tender mercies come to me, that I may live, •
for your law is my delight.
78 Let the proud be put to shame, for they wrong me with lies; •
but I will meditate on your commandments.
In our Gospel reading ‘In everything do to others as you would have them do to you; for this is the law and the prophets.’
As I have thought and prayed over all of this … I am reminded of the many injustices in our world today … how can we live in such a world where there is poverty and pain and injustice … where so few have so much, where resources are so injustly shared.
This summer I have been so challenged and as the team have come back from Zambia they have expressed this anger and these issues. I wonder have you ever grappled with this yourself. The fact that there is such an inequality … can the situation ever be changed?
HIV/AIDS, Poverty, hunger, Malaria, lack of water, lack of access to education, rich, debt,
The dream is one where these are turned on their head, where our everything we do to others, we would have them do to us. Imagine being caught in the spiral of poverty, injustice what would we wish someone to do for us.
As I read the Bible, I know God has a heart for the underdog, the poor, the marginalised, the one who needs justice. What are we doing about it. Our faith has to go beyond simply saying Oh that’s terrible … we are called to action … to be people of action in our world … things will only change if we change them.
I don’t know what this means for each one of us … but I do know that we are called to do something. Yes we come to church, yes we partake of Holy Communion but we are then sent out to action, to live out what we say we believe - fearlessly and radical.
When I read of the disciples & the early church, I read of a church which is reaching out in power and deterimation to widow and orphan, to sharing of resources as each had need.
In our world … which today is a global village … who are we called to help? whose suffering or issues are we called to allieveate … who needs justice,... who can we speak up for?
You and I have tremendous power … and in this ever connected world we are called to work for those who going through troubling times.
Whether it be people in our circle of family or friends who need our skills to help them with an issue they are going through - we are called to fight injustice
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| From Zambia |
Perhaps it is a cause which we need to support in terms of world poverty by supporting / working for …
The big dream is that there would be justice, peace and the renewing of creation.
We pray for peace, we pray for justice … in our small ways we try to live out peace and justice but sometimes we ‘ve got to take a stand. How can we make a difference … The big question which I have been challenging the parish with recently is … What can we do … when faced with these big issues … are we shrugging our shoulders and saying what can we do? or are we rolling up our sleeves and asking “right, what can we do?”
We all have something which we can contribute to our world. Let’s just do it!
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