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Up-to-the-minute jumping-off points for sermons, linking the reading to the latest news and global issues
Critical faculty alert!
Let’s focus on what may be keeping us (Matthew 25.13) from following Christ’s exhortation to peace-making.
The parable of the bridesmaids urges watchfulness and self-awareness. Humanitarian horrors in Gaza and heartfelt demonstrations in Israel batter our emotions as they point us first to one set of innocent, civilian victims, and then another. We may seem neutrals - neither Muslims nor religious Jews - but this is our Holy Land too. With the raw pain in Israel and Gaza continuing to dominate the thoughts of many and surging emotions among the closely concerned inevitable, measured accounts from one side or the other are helpful. But, as Remembrance Day approaches, there has been a disturbing shift in Britain around what is deemed urgent. Domestic political considerations seem to have shifted attention to government voices opposing a pro-Palestinian march planned for Sunday as hateful, un-British, and unpatriotic and, on the opposition side, to resignations, actual or threatened, trying to push their leader further left and fully behind the call for a ceasefire.
Ideas for sermons or interactive talks
Has the Holy Land’s pain been hi-jacked in the cause of a contested, to some merely nostalgic, view of Remembrance Day? Should this day perhaps be particularly appropriate for contemplating the raw horror of war and the painful dilemmas it poses? I was at the Lewes Bonfire Parade (with its gestures towards Remembrance) last Saturday. I was relieved that the effigies presented to the crowds related to only home-grown controversies.
As ever in the ‘radical town’ there was political bias. The local Council, Sunak, and Braverman were cheerfully derided. Beforehand I feared that Israeli or Hamas figures might be given similar treatment. But the Gaza conflict is just too serious, too complex, too demanding of a collective exercise of our sense of justice to become political fodder or entertainment. Ordinary Sussex people showed, wittingly or not, some sensitivity. Not so some politicians and journalists bent on obscuring real and sensitive moral dilemmas for narrow political ends.
Can a Christian response to all this remain one distinguished by emotion used sparingly, and as carefully in the cause of justice as the wise virgins used their oil?
Can we avoid herd-instinct and, like the wise virgins, remain free agents with our own resources of moral ‘oil’?
Can we set aside a previous preference for the incompatible aspirations of either Zionists or Palestinian Arabs to do thoughtful justice to what appears to be an existential crisis for both?
Can we keep on the alert, constantly monitoring our sense of what is proportionate, necessary, and ultimately likely to be effective in bringing peace to Jews, Muslims and Christians alike in the Holy Land?
Questions for discussion
Are we ready for some self-examination, separating out the actual rights and wrongs of the situation from our natural (if we have racial or cultural links) or our acquired and unexamined preference for one side or the other and only then deciding what actions we should be calling for from our government and/or international bodies?
Would the resulting assessment find us meeting Christ’s demand to love our neighbours as ourselves?
Finally, are there any active steps – apart from prayer – that we should be taking?
Brenda Vance is a URC Elder and retired university teacher living in Lewes.
Check-in
Connecting faith with everyday, real-life issues for young people
What is important now?
The beginning of November is a season of remembering. We have All Saints and All Souls day, when we remember saints and all the faithful departed. Then there is November 5th when we remember and give thanks for our parliamentary democracy. We conclude with Armistice Day and Remembrance Sunday when we remember and give thanks for those who have been killed or injured – physically or mentally – in conflict or as a result of serving in the armed forces.
Why is that important and what has that got do with five bridesmaids who fell asleep and missed the wedding? It is important to remember. The past has shaped the present, and that shaping could not have happened without the sacrifice of millions of people. Their commitment and dedication played a part in making the world a better place.
Jesus praises the bridesmaids who stayed awake because they were alert. They were ready when the call came. On Remembrance Sunday we remember those who were ready when the call to serve their country came.
It is important however that remembrance is not rooted in the past. The bridesmaids were ready in the present and prepared for the future. At present there is still so much conflict in our world. It may be that the terrible events in the Holy Land have knocked Ukraine off the headlines, but that conflict continues. Every day women and men, boys and girls are traumatised, maimed or killed as a result of war. It is important that we are alert to this as the bridesmaids were.
It is also important that – through our prayers and the way we live our lives – we remember and celebrate those who sacrificed so much, not simply by thinking of them but by committing ourselves to strive, as they did, to make the world a better place. In order to achieve that we need to be alert, prepared and ready for the call of Christ to serve him in ways we might expect or ways that might take us by surprise – and to trust God to show us what is truly important.
Revd Stuart Wild is Superintendent Minister of the Blackpool and South Fylde Methodist Circuit.
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