In touch	Check-in	Intercessions
In touch begins immediately below	Scroll down or click for Check-in	Subscribers only: see intercessions

 

In touch

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

 

Seeking peace

Christ came to save the world, and we are the body of Christ (John 3:17).

 

Context

• Years ago, as a student, I saw an image of a small child holding a toy gun standing next to a soldier holding a real gun, with the caption, ‘The toys change. The behaviour doesn’t.’ This image haunts me every time I encounter reports, photographs and footage of armed conflict. In the 1990s, a flurry of negotiations saw the end of conflicts in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cambodia and Mozambique and, while no one could claim the solutions were perfect, at least they largely ended the slaughter; and some dared to hope that diplomacy might be starting to take the place of overt or covert warfare.

 

• Since about 2012, however, there has been an increase in armed conflicts, between Armenia and Azerbaijan, between Russia and Ukraine, between Israel and its neighbours, in Ethiopia, Gaza, Libya, Myanmar, Sudan, Syria and Yemen. Moreover, among the major powers, politicians and military leaders are using the changing relationships among China, Europe, Russia and the US to deliver ominous statements about the prospects of further war, and even of nuclear war.

 

• Whatever our personal allegiances, however, surely the overwhelming majority of rational people must wonder if there isn’t a better way of settling our differences than through the destruction of life, limb and livelihood. In his 2001 Nobel lecture, the then United Nations Secretary General, Kofi Annan, stated that, ‘Peace must be sought, above all, because it is the condition for every member of the human family to live a life of dignity and security.’ And in February this year, his successor António Guterres, still felt confident enough to assert that, ‘People want peace and security. People want peace and dignity. And, frankly, they want peace and quiet.’

 

Ideas for sermons or interactive talks

• Trinity Sunday is unique among the Church’s other festivals and observances. Instead of celebrating a person or commemorating an event, Trinity Sunday celebrates God alone. Other days are set aside for pondering God’s deeds of creation and redemption, but Trinity Sunday provides a space in the liturgical calendar to contemplate God’s being and God’s nature: a chance, even, to make our own attempts to describe God.

 

• ‘God is love,’ states the writer of John’s first letter. It’s a simple statement, with profound and limitless implications. One of these implications finds its fulfilment in the doctrine of the Holy Trinity, which presents us with the truth that at the very heart of reality there lies a mutual relationship of unbounded, self-giving love. If this is God, and God is love, then love is reality’s origin, existence and destiny. Any thought or word or action that tends towards love or fosters loving relationships is godly. Anything that tends away from love or fosters hatred is ungodly.

 

• In the light of our understanding of God, then, how should we respond to conflict? We are taught to believe that it’s God’s world, not ours. It’s strange, then, that we tolerate or even take sides in conflicts about who owns which bit. It’s strange that we allow some of the people God creates to be treated well and others badly. It’s strange that we cling to unequal shares of the world’s wealth. It’s strange that we exploit the world rather than cherish it. It’s perhaps strangest of all that the Church has historically been implicated in all these strange things. If God in Christ came to save the world as the Gospel reading states, and if we are the body of Christ as we so often state, then we must think and say and do whatever tends towards saving the world.

 

Questions for discussion

• If you see a child hitting another child with a stick, should you:
  • give the other child a stick to hit the first one with
  • start hitting the first child
  • insist the two children find another way to settle their quarrel?
• What are the differences between being childlike and being childish?
• What will I leave behind?
• What will our Church leave behind?

Robert Beard is a freelance writer, NHS worker and Church of England priest.

 

Check-in

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

At this time of year, it can be easy to lose sight of God. Many of us are sitting, or have been sitting, exams – be they SATs, GCSEs, Nationals/Highers, A-levels, or end of year tests. Stresses and anxieties are running high and can easily skew our perspectives. We forget that God is all around us, ready to help. We doubt ourselves and our abilities, and we doubt God. In short, we can live in fear. Often, our refuge is in social media – mindless scrolling on our phones, involving ourselves virtually in the ‘perfect’ lives of others so that we can forget our own. We stop using our senses to connect to real life and can miss what God has to say to us and what God wants us to do.

This week, the challenge for all of us is to notice: pay attention and notice evidence of God in the world.  Take five minutes to focus on the wonderful, worthy being God has created in you. Use your senses to touch, taste, smell, hear, see, and perceive the things around you. Recently, we have seen amazing pictures of the aurora borealis, but there are smaller, daily displays of beauty through which we can glimpse God – in nature, in other people, in art and in music. As you experience these things, ask God to guide you and help you in your life. God has a plan for each one of us - bigger than tests and exams - and when we pause, listen, and come back to ourselves and to God in deliberate, perfect stillness, we will hear it.

So, instead of being overwhelmed by life, let yourself be overwhelmed by the greatness and holiness of God. Listen for the plan and be ready for action!

Heather Davey works on a voluntary basis with young people at Wimborne Minster.

 

Views expressed are the authors' own. Hypertext links to other websites are for the convenience of users only and do not constitute any endorsement or authorisation by ROOTS for Churches Ltd.

The week in focus is also available via Twitter and facebook.

ROOTS publishes weekly lectionary-based worship and learning resources online and in two magazines. FIND OUT MORE.