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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

Tricky questions, tricky choices?

Give to God the things that are God’s (Matthew 22:21)

Context

• We can hardly ignore wars in Israel-Palestine as well as Ukraine, let alone Myanmar, Sudan and Haiti. In all these cases, but perhaps especially Israel-Palestine, things may change between the time I write this and Sunday. As I write the US President and Secretary of State are seeking to reduce the risk of the conflict widening into a regional war, partly by seeking to persuade the Government of Israel to moderate its invasion of Gaza while Israel evacuates part of its territory. Much of the rest of the world is taking sides. Most readers of this will favour seeking a just peace; but in these circumstances what do ‘justice’ and ‘peace’ mean
• Meanwhile it seems that Poles have voted to oust a right-wing government while a week earlier Slovakia did the opposite. The US House of Representatives is frozen because it cannot agree on a new Speaker. The real world of politics is often full of tricky questions - indeed I have often argued that one reason why we need politicians is precisely to deal with questions for which there are no black-and-white answers. But how might we respond to the real tricky questions is today’s world?

 

Ideas for sermons or interactive talks

• People in public life often face tricky questions. Jesus was asked a question by Pharisees and Herodians - two groups who were probably looking for different answers. A definitive ‘yes’ would have angered the Pharisees and a clear ‘no’ would have upset the Herodians. As he often did (think the Good Samaritan story for example), effectively he answered the question with another question.
• We often don’t like it when politicians fail to give straight answers - but Jesus often failed to do so, and not just to deliberate trick questions like this one. What he was often doing was turning the choice back to those who were questioning him. The challenge is for us to do the hard work of thinking the issues through. The search for, or expectation of, simple answers may be illusory.
• War and peace clearly raise tricky questions but there are tricky questions also in local churches and in the lives of individual Christians. My own Methodist Church is seeking to be a Justice-seeking Church; resources to support this can be found on the linked web page:

‘As Christians we’re called to seek God’s justice. Justice that enables everyone, and all creation, to flourish. Justice that removes everything that diminishes people, that oppresses or exploits them. Justice that enables us all to grow in relationship with each other and with God.’

Other churches have distinct but similar approaches.

• Underlying the question in first century Palestine may have been one about the fairness of the taxes imposed by the occupying power. Such questions also arise today; the Just Money Movement has ‘a vision of a world where money shapes a fairer, greener future’. Formerly the Ecumenical Council for Corporate Responsibility, the Just Money Movement encompasses Church Action for Tax Justice and a wealth tax campaign.

 

Questions for discussion

• What are the tricky questions you face in your personal life currently?
• What are the tricky questions which your church and your neighbourhood face?
• What answers might Jesus have given if asked about those tricky questions? Or might he have asked further questions to encourage you to think the issues through yourselves?

Dudley Coates is a local preacher in the Yeovil and Blackmore Vale Methodist Circuit and a former Vice President of the Methodist Conference.

 

Check-in

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

We live in what often seems like a very polarised binary world. You’re expected to be on one side or the other: Israel or Palestine; Christian or Muslim; North or South; City or United; God’s or Caeser’s.

And in a world seemingly driven by social media, where everything is condensed into 280 characters (or less) or a 30 second video, it’s very hard to get across a nuanced viewpoint without getting jumped on by others.

And yet we know, deep down, that life and the world is much more complex and blurry than that. Was God saying that we could belong to both God and Caeser? Could God really support United as well as Wednesday? Is it possible for us to show support for people in Israel, Gaza, Palestine and the surrounding countries – as well as Ukraine, Russia and the countless other wars going on across the globe - without being vilified by others?

Can we have contradictory views to someone yet be united with them as part of the same family?

In a world which seems full of shouting, my prayer is that we can all find a space where genuine conversations can take place. Where people can be genuinely heard and listened to; and that as they are heard and listened to, a new way forward emerges, leading to peace.

Jonathan Buckley is Youth Coordinator for Sheffield Methodist Circuit

 

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