Shalom!

As I explained in my introduction, today is Peaver, if you have a copy of the Plan, you will have seen that this month is also designated the Season of Creation. The two are very far from mutually exclusive, of course. The word “Shalom” does mean peace, but it’s not just peace in the sense of the absence of war. The easiest way to describe it is to quote an American theologian called Cornelius Plantinga, who writes: “The webbing together of God, humans, and all creation in justice, fulfilment, and delight is what the Hebrew prophets call shalom. We call it peace but it means far more than mere peace of mind or a cease-fire between enemies. In the Bible, shalom means universal flourishing, wholeness and delight – a rich state of affairs in which natural needs are satisfied and natural gifts fruitfully employed, a state of affairs that inspires joyful wonder as its Creator and Saviour opens doors and welcomes the creatures in whom he delights. Shalom, in other words, is the way things ought to be.”

“Shalom, in other words, is the way things ought to be.”

The way things ought to be. Wholeness. Reconciliation, not just within families, within the church, between denominations, between nations, but reconciliation between people, God and nature. Wholeness. And it’s the wholeness of creation, the wholeness of ourselves within it. You know what, when we wish each other God’s peace on Communion Sundays, that’s what we wish each other. We say, rather muttering it, “Peace be with you”, but we are really wishing each other all of God’s wholeness and reconciliation. Even though “Shalom” is a common greeting in Hebrew, it is still what people are, consciously or not, wishing one another.

But we know our world is not whole, however much we wish it were. There is always war somewhere; the whole situation in Afghanistan just now is very unclear, but will probably lead to yet more war there. The war in Syria has been going on for several years now, and hasn’t stopped just because the pandemic and Afghanistan have moved it off the front pages. You know what? I looked up a “list of ongoing conflicts” on Wikipedia when preparing for this sermon, and honestly, it’s frightening just how little peace there is in the world.

And of course, our planet is broken. We are in a period of rapid climate change, arguably exacerbated by human activity. We have seen all sorts of extreme weather conditions this summer, from monsoon rains to extreme heat waves. And very strong hurricanes causing damage that takes weeks, if not months, to repair.

The powers that be tell us that it is All Our Fault, although natural climate change is also a thing. Nevertheless, two hundred years of industry really haven’t helped!

You can’t watch a nature documentary these days without being told that it is All Your Fault that certain species are declining due to habitat loss, or a documentary about the planets without being told that climate change is All Your Fault. It gets old, very fast, I find.

Of course, we can all do our very small bit towards lowering our carbon footprint, and arguably we should – trying not to use single-use plastic bottles, for instance, reusing things like ice-cream boxes or take-away containers. Reusing shopping bags, rather than buying a new one every time you go to the supermarket, and using public transport where possible – and perhaps taking the train instead of flying when you are going somewhere, if that is at all feasible.

But really, it is the big corporations that will make the most difference to carbon dioxide emissions, and to be fair, some of them are already trying to. Not all, but some! If only because government legislation – often rather aspirational rather than practicable, I think – if they are going to be fined for not trying to lower their carbon emissions, then they will try harder!

In many ways, the idealised wife that we read about in Proverbs, summarises “Shalom”. She isn’t a real person, of course – if we had read the whole chapter, we would have seen that this is the mother of King Lemuel talking to her son. Lemuel may or may not be code for Solomon, but the point is, it is Mum giving good advice to one who is, or who will be, King. You don’t go spending good money on loose women, nor do you get drunk – you don’t need wines and spirits, so give them to the hospitals and hospices for those who do need them. And look for a wife like this…. And then the description of the ideal woman, who is more valuable than rubies. Not surprising – she is probably rarer than rubies, too!

So she is a model rather than a template. We don’t have to imitate her – we couldn’t, anyway – we who live in Lambeth don’t exactly have access to fields and vineyards to buy and rent out for profit, nor do we have access to flax for spinning, although you can buy unspun wool from some wool shops. But the thing about the idealised woman is that she is whole. All parts of her life are in balance. She isn’t trying to juggle work and childcare. She isn’t fretting because she has no paid work but must stay home with her children. She makes the best of what she has, and, I imagine, when she focuses on one thing, she isn’t constantly looking round to wonder what else she ought to be doing, but that child, or her husband, or the piece of work she is focussing on, take her full attention. Being mindful, I think is what they call it.

Mindfulness is no bad thing. It is the beginning of shalom. When we are fully in the moment, we can’t be worrying ourselves ragged about everything else. I used to ice skate, and I always found that skating was far and away the best thing to do when you were worrying about something, as you simply had to concentrate so much that you couldn’t fret.

Our New Testament reading takes up this theme. St James reminds us that “the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere.” That sounds like shalom to me, doesn’t it to you? Wisdom that comes from heaven, pure, peace-loving, considerate, submissive and so on.

And do note that it comes from heaven! It is not something we can manufacture within ourselves, any more than we can manufacture any of the other fruits of the spirit that St Paul describes. Jesus reminded us that he is the vine, and we are the branches, and if we abide in him, we will bear much fruit. And definitely shalom will be one of those fruits.

St James goes on to point out that our fractiousness comes from not being whole, from wanting this and that and seeing no way to get it, so quarreling and being generally unpleasant. And, as he says, we need to ask God for what we want, but to be quite clear, God isn’t Santa Claus – we aren’t necessarily going to be given loads of toys to maintain an unsustainable lifestyle.

Having said that, of course, God is nothing if not generous. Do you remember how, when the prophet Nathan confronted David after he had committed adultery with Bathsheba, God said through him, more or less, “Look at all I have given you. And if you’d wanted more, I’d gladly have given you twice as much! But no, you had to have that which belonged to someone else!” The bit where he says “If you’d wanted more, I’d gladly have given you twice as much” always jumps out at me whenever I read this passage, as I am apt to forget just how loving and generous God is. All that wine at Cana? All those basketsful of leftovers after he’d fed the five thousand? Is God ever anything but generous?

But, of course, we want to be part of what God is doing, not outside it, so we don’t – or shouldn’t – ask for our own selfish ends. At least we do, and often God will give us some of what we ask for, if it will not harm us and our loved ones, because God is love. But in an ideal world, we will be so reconciled with God, attuned to God, aligned with God, that our prayers will reflect that.

In our Gospel reading, Jesus reminds us, again, that if you want to be great, you must first become the servant of all, and that when you welcome children, you are welcoming God. And think how many children are still anxious and miserable, having missed so much school these past two years, and worried about Covid-19 and people dying from it. And many have picked up a bit about climate change, and are worried. And the far too many children who are refugees, terrified and confused by a situation not of their making.

How can we welcome the Father by helping these children, by listening to their concerns, and maybe changing things? How can we be peacemakers in this noisy world?

As we allow God more and more into our lives, as we become more and more attuned to God, more and more aligned with God, more and more the person God designed us to be, so we will experience more and more shalom, peace, wholeness, in our lives, and be more and more able to spread it round our communities, and perhaps further. Shalom: the way things ought to be.

After all, you don’t have to be very big or very important to make a difference – think of Greta Thunberg or Malala Yousafzai, both of whom were only children when they started to remind us, respectively, of our need to live more sustainably and of women’s and girls’ right to an education. They had no idea, when they started, that what they said and did would make such a difference. But they followed the promptings of their consciences, and look what happened!

Now, that probably won’t happen if you or I start to follow the promptings of what we believe God may be asking us to say or do, whether that is to live a more sustainable lifestyle, or to be arbitrators for peace in our families, our churches, our circuits. We may only make a very minor difference – but sometimes, that, too, can set the world alight. For now, though, we need to seek God’s peace, God’s wholeness, God’s shalom. Remember that Jesus is our peace, and it’s not something we can manufacture for ourselves. Mindfulness helps, but it’s only part of it. For the rest, we need to receive God’s good gifts, and then maybe we will see things beginning to be the way they ought to be. Maybe we will experience the wonder and delight that is shalom. Amen.

Creation and Education

I apologise for the child coughing towards the end of the sermon!  I am not quite sure what the Powers that Be were thinking of when they asked us to combine the Season of Creation, Education Sunday and the readings for today – the 24th Sunday in Ordinary Time. It does make it very difficult for us poor preachers. So you will forgive me if I inadvertently use a “proof text” or two – something I hate doing as a text without a context is, as we all know, a pretext!

The thing about observing the season of creation is that we are all, as you know, in a period of rapid climate change, arguably exacerbated, if not caused by, human activity. You can’t watch a nature documentary these days without being told that it is All Your Fault that certain species are declining due to habitat loss, or a documentary about the planets without being told that climate change is All Your Fault. It gets old, very fast, I find.

As for education – well, after the past two school years, when everybody’s education has been disrupted, I know we are all hoping and praying that this year will be back to relatively normal. Even though kids are still catching Covid and missing a week or so of school every time. At least their friends only have to stay off if they, too, test positive. Both my grandsons have been isolating this week, as they tested positive; in one way, it is a relief as it means they are unlikely to catch it again, but a week off at the start of the school year is not ideal. Still, it can’t be helped, and it’s a great relief to other parents, I’m sure, that the whole of the class doesn’t have to be off, too. And, incidentally, thus far the vaccines seem to be doing their job, and neither parent has tested positive all week!

So what do our Bible passages today have to say to us about all this? Well, the reading from Proverbs seems almost aimed at those who are destroying our planet, doesn’t it?

"I will mock when calamity overtakes you –
when calamity overtakes you like a storm,
    when disaster sweeps over you like a whirlwind,
    when distress and trouble overwhelm you."

Wisdom, here, incidentally, is one of the few female names of God that we have; there is a long-standing tradition of praying to God as “Lady Wisdom”, and some of you might find that helpful – not all of you, I know, but it is one of the names of God, and as valid as praying to the Rock or the Judge or the Shepherd.

Anyway, where was I? Oh yes, Wisdom, reminding us that we need to heed God’s word, and failing that, disaster will probably overtake us, and God can do nothing! We are required, right back in the book of Genesis, to look after our planet and the life on it, and we probably never have. I am interested that the writer picks out storms and whirlwinds as examples of the distress and calamity that might befall us – we are seeing an increase in the number of bad storms, and look at the torrential downpours we had early last summer. I remember saying at the time that if the choice, in the summer months, was between monsoon-style rains and heatwaves, I’d really rather have the heatwaves, thank you very much.

However, we do not get a choice. The weather happens, and if much of the recent increase in extreme weather is being driven by climate change, then so be it.

Where we do have a choice, however, is in our response to it. We can shrug, and say there is nothing we can do; or we can do our own little bit to help – not using single-use plastic bottles, for instance; taking our own carrier bags to the supermarket; arguably eating less meat – although in many ways a wholly vegan diet is almost as bad for the planet. We can refuse to buy food that has been airlifted in from across the globe. That sort of thing. We can even look carefully at our use of transport, and decide whether we really need a car – many people do, of course. And what is the balance between buying a new, electric car, and running our current petrol or diesel one into the ground? Some of us won’t get a choice, of course, as from 25 October we can’t take vehicles with certain emission limits inside the South Circular. And if we do have a car, do we really need to use it as much, or is it just a convenience and public transport would do as well?

That sort of thing. But, of course, all we can do is really so much spitting in the wind; if we all did what we could, it might make a difference, but for so many people that’s impossible. It’s really down to the big corporations to do what they can to minimise carbon emissions, to use sustainable energy, and so on. And, to be fair, I think they are beginning to realise that, but it might take longer than we actually have for it to make a difference.

But then again, God is in charge! It is God’s creation, after all, and God does not abandon it. Individuals may or may not be abandoned, but only if they choose to be. God will not abandon the whole of creation. And one of the things we can do is to pray to be shown how we, you and me, can help overcome this destruction of our planet.

One of the ways, of course, is education. In our Proverbs reading, the Lady Wisdom mocks those who hate knowledge and are complacent in their ignorance. And our second reading, from James’ letter, reminds us that teachers have a terrific responsibility to get things right! We probably all know people who would like to deny that Covid-19 exists, and that vaccines, if they are not part of a huge global plot to have us all microchipped like dogs or cats, are terribly dangerous because they are untested. Which isn’t actually true, by the way, as more people have been vaccinated more quickly than ever before, so actually, the vaccine has been tested in the field more widely than any other in history!

You can’t fix stupid, and you can’t teach those who refuse to listen. And St James points out that you can’t tame the human tongue, either. Teachers have a huge responsibility – not just teachers in school, but preachers like me and others, and those responsible for lifelong learning – a huge responsibility to get it right. Those who listen are going to pick up what we said and, if they believe it, may well tell other people, and before you know it, misinformation and fake news has swept round the community, and, in these days of social media, has swept around the planet.

This, of course, means that we all, whether we teach, or learn, or do both, have a responsibility to discern what is true and right from what we read or see on social media, or what our friends tell us, or what our teachers and preachers tell us. And that isn’t easy, although discernment is, or can be, one of God’s many gifts to us.

And it is our responsibility to change our minds as new knowledge comes along. We have seen, over the past eighteen months, the way science works – you try one way of doing things, and that isn’t what was wanted, so you try something else. It’s been really interesting, I think – normally, scientists have long since discovered, for instance, how to treat many different illnesses, and know exactly what to recommend people do if there is an outbreak. But this time, we were dealing with something completely new, and they had to try a great many different approaches before they found ways to help people recover from Covid-19. But it has worked – the death rate, which was so very alarmingly high last winter, has dropped now to about what you would expect in a bad flu year – incidentally, it will be important to get a flu vaccine as soon as we’re offered it, even more so this year than before. There wasn’t much flu last year, because people were mostly at home, but scientists are afraid that this may be very different this coming winter.

I don’t know why I’m going on about the virus. We’ve all had to live with it for the past eighteen months, and will have to go on living with it, in different ways, for the foreseeable future. But one of the main things that happened was that our children’s education was badly disrupted. Twice, schools were closed for extended periods of time. It was all very well for those who could afford computers and tablets at home, and had high-quality broadband, as they could join in such lessons as their schools were able to offer – not much at first, but a full timetable, from some schools, in the second. But trying to share out one smartphone with a cracked screen among four or five schoolchildren? At that, trying to feed said children when they weren’t getting their main meal at school? Not so much. And our children suffered, badly, from being stuck indoors and missing their friends.

But that is, we hope, over now, although individual children still have to isolate for ten days if they test positive. And this year, our teachers will have to deal with the fallout from those missed terms. For many children the problem won’t be academic so much as social; for others, it will be both.

You know what? This sermon appears to be full of doom and gloom about the future of our planet, and our children. But there is hope, you know. God does not, has not, and will not abandon creation, as I said earlier. God is still in charge. It may be difficult to see, sometimes – but I don’t know about you, but I did see God’s hand at work during the pandemic, as we learnt different ways of being church together. And God has promised to work all things together for good for those who love him. All things – that includes the good, but it also includes the bad things.

I don’t know how God is going to work the current climate disasters and the pandemic and its consequences for good – but I do know that this is what the promise says, so this is what will happen! Let’s hold fast to that. Amen.