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In touch

Up-to-the-minute jumping-off points for sermons, linking the reading to the latest news and global issues

Achieve or be blessed?

Are we called to be indifferent to how our achievements are viewed (Luke 6.22)?

Context

• We enter the week with Prince Charles noting his mother’s ‘achievement’ of seventy years on the throne.
• At the same time The Guardian reports a mixed assessment of the esteem in which our Prime Minister is held, and Nadine Dorries defends him (scroll down to view the video) by pointing to his ‘achievements’.
• Should ‘achievement’ determine how we view people?

 

Ideas for sermons or interactive talks

As we remembered the Prime Minister pictured in company in the Downing Street garden thereby allegedly breaking the rules, we were many times given the picture of the Queen embodying rule-keeping, sitting alone at her husband’s funeral in solidarity with the nation’s other grieving widows, an achievement which, it was claimed, validated the esteem in which she is held.

Behind these images lie perhaps a self-indulgent path, and a self-denying one. Is it actually harder to embody the precious values of Christian life, to choose to sit alone, or to forbear from partying at an inappropriate time, than to do things that will be counted as achievements? This week’s Gospel emphasises the significance of making the choice to embody your values.

Especially, it says, the lack of wealth, food, joy, or esteem, is to be relished (Luke 6.20-22). Does this suggest that it is easier to look beyond an uncomfortable present than a privileged one to the real blessings of the Christian life? Is it perhaps harder for a Queen or a Prime Minister to think beyond present comfort to the greater good? The Queen could have chosen to focus on the privacy denied to her by her public role and not the opportunity opened to her. She could have opted for special treatment to compensate for her exposed position. Do we often give too little credit to this kind of achievement?

Someone else might choose to tick off achievements and forget examples. Do we collude in this, setting too much store by successful projects, such as Brexit done? Does this lead to ‘stuff to get on with’ being prioritised over a chance to show exemplary dignity and integrity?

My church has an ambition to strive for an Eco-Church award. I admit to being somewhat unsympathetic to the preoccupation with ponds, bee-friendly flowers, and bug-hotels when I suggested that, before pursuing these desirables, we should tidy up the corner of our property where the somewhat polluting debris from a shed long blown down still lingered. Since then, we have acquired our very own rough sleeper, who arrives irregularly, and has built herself a little shelter out of the discarded plastic sacks and broken pallets. Do we have the courage to see her as an opportunity to live our values, offering real welcome – she is adamant she doesn’t want to be found a hostel room – or are we too hung up on the ‘stuff to get on with’? Are we more comfortable ticking off approved green projects? Are we being pointed down a narrow path to particular community-sanctioned ‘achievements’ in defiance of the gospel injunction to rejoice in whatever befalls us as a potential blessing, and to turn spontaneously towards our neighbours?

 

Questions for discussion

• What do you think are your most important achievements in life?
• How easy do you find it to ‘take life as it comes’?

Brenda Vance is a URC Elder and retired university teacher living in Sussex.

 

Check-in

Connecting faith with everyday, real-life issues for young people

This week, many will celebrate Valentine’s Day with cards, chocolates, teddies and roses. Retailers tell us ‘You’re blessed when you receive a large box of chocolates or the largest teddy on the shelf.’ TV and film narratives tell us ‘You’re blessed when your mailbag is full of oversized cards from admirers.’ In other words, you’re blessed when you get, get, get.

Jesus came with news of a topsy-turvy kingdom whose message is as jarring and unsettling today, as it was to those who first heard it. ‘You’re blessed when you have not, get not, go without.’ His kingdom message is ‘You’re being blessed when you’re in the place of not, because here God is with you, and is everything.’

In some countries, Valentine’s Day is a time of giving love to all; primary-aged children take in cards to give to their whole class, special meals are shared with whole families, chocolate boxes are emptied in a collaborative chocolate feast. What would it look like if we took this approach to blessing?  Coming from our own place of emptiness and loss, having encountered the God who is with us and blesses us, can we spread the love more widely and be a blessing to our community?

Becky May is Founder of The Resources Cupboard 

 

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