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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

Grant me justice

The people of God must stay constant in prayer, crying out for God’s justice in an imperfect world (Luke 18.3).

Context

Liz Truss launches a charm offensive after the most disastrous start of any Prime Minister in the history of the UK. This is likely to include a reversal on uprating benefits in line with inflation and attempts to listen to feedback.

However, there are still likely to be deep cuts to public services in order to reduce the debt. There is no ‘charm offensive’ that can cover over the diminishment of public services that the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) warns are necessary to fill a budget black hole. One member of the Office for Budget Responsibility is suggesting that cuts will be so deep that it ‘could finish the NHS’.

The impoverishment of our lives by the destruction of nature in a dash for growth is prompting many to ask whether the cost of growth is too high, given long term harm to the environment.

Amid concern that the energy price rise could increase child poverty, TV chef Jamie Oliver has asked that all children whose families are in receipt of Universal Credit should be given free schools meals. Conservative MP Tim Loughton says he doesn’t support this idea: ‘Giving free school meals to everybody...is not the best use of scarce resources’. Resources, we could argue, are not scarce but unequally distributed. Some have made millions since the ‘fiscal event’.

 

Ideas for sermons or interactive talks

Is the church part of the anti-growth coalition? If not, should we be – given that we are on course to use up approximately four times the resources that the Earth contains and going for growth is possibly not the best way of living within the planet’s means? Our current lifestyles and consumerism are not sustainable if we want to save the planet and our wellbeing; indeed our very survival, is intimately connected to living in sustainable ways on the earth.

Some people have argued that measuring growth by GDP should not be the only measure. Do we need a national debate about the services and ‘public good’ that we want society to be built upon and consider alternative ways for this to be funded? Given the decline in the wellbeing of children highlighted in the ‘Good Childhood’ report from the Children’s Society and the growing sense of doom at the lack of serious action on the climate emergency, the call to persistence in prayer, crying day and night for justice, is a huge challenge to any complacency.

Most people would want to see decently funded education, health, social care and welfare. That is part of living in a just society. We want schools where children learn and flourish. We want a world where children’s lives are not blighted by poverty. We want a properly funded NHS and social care that supports those unable to live independently or care for themselves. That might be any one of us one day. We want libraries and parks, museums and culture and adequately funded local services and local government that can support communities. We want a planet to hand on to future generations. Or perhaps not?

What would it be like to measure growth not in terms of GDP but in terms of the services and provisions that enrich our lives; in terms of the wellbeing and hope of a nation's children and young people; and in terms of all that enables human beings to flourish? What would we want on our list of indicators of growth of this different kind? Are unfunded tax cuts, especially ones for top earners, really the only way to pay for a just world?

Eternal growth and trickle-down economics do not seem to redress the balance of justice in favour of the poor. Justice would surely involve a better distribution of wealth. Justice seems to ask us to invert the system and place the needs we want growth to provide at the forefront rather than blithely hoping growth will (eventually) trickle down into environmental sustainability and all the valuable things in life that we are told that growth will create. The situation may be different by the weekend, if more U-turns are decided. But the intentions and instincts of the current government have been laid bare.

What should we say in our prayer about this? The persistence of the widow in today’s Gospel reading tells us that prayer is hard work. Seeking a more equal society is costly. Yet we come to our God in whom all our desires are known. There are no easy answers although God promises ‘he will quickly grant justice.’ So much relies on us not losing heart and being persistent ‘whether the time is favourable or unfavourable’ (2 Timothy 3.4).

Sometimes, we seek justice for ourselves but often the people of God are called to seek justice on behalf of others. The widow was powerless and up against an uncaring and powerful judge. She was an outcast up against someone embedded in structures of power. Sometimes society’s structures are stacked against justice. Sometimes injustice is structural and endemic. We are still called to pray in hope and with tenacity. Women in Iran are currently persisting in their call for justice. We may find ourselves victims of unjust systems as we seek to assert the values of God’s kingdom. The widow in the Gospel reading and many others in history who have brought about change have had dark days and hard times. Nevertheless, they persisted. How much more should the people of God persist? – since we know what it means to be part of God’s kingdom of justice and mercy for all. In the middle of imperfect systems and with deeply flawed leadership, our eyes have always to be lifted to the one true source of justice that we can rely on.

 

Questions for discussion

• How persistent are we in prayer? How can we encourage one another to persist in hope?
• What can we do in our local communities to challenge unjust structures?
• Should material values dictate our understanding of growth? What would we include in our vision of a more just world?

Diane Craven is a freelance education and spirituality consultant and a Reader in the Church of England.

 

Check-in

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

Last Monday was World Mental Health Day. Tuesday was Face your Fears Day. October is Black History Month. These events have one thing in common. They attempt to draw attention to apparently insurmountable issues in society.

The number of people with mental health issues is growing and yet people are reluctant to talk about them and those who suffer fear stigma. Individual fears range from those which cause minor inconvenience to those that utterly blight people’s lives. Black History Month is an attempt to redress the balance of how we look at the past and see it from a different point of view.

The aims of these events may seem insurmountable and yet the parable of the Widow and the Judge reminds us of the power and importance of prayer.  The widow’s life is changed as a result of her persistence and our lives and our world can be changed if we are persistent in prayer.

Nelson Mandela said ‘The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear. Prayer can help in the conquest of that fear.’

• What are the fears that challenge you?
• What are the most important issues that our world is facing right now?
• How can you be more persistent in prayer?

Stuart Wild is the Superintendent Minister of the Blackpool and South Fylde Methodist Circuit.

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