by Reverend Matt Harbage
Readings: Isaiah 55:10-13; Psalm 65:1-13; Romans 8.1-11; Matthew 13:1-9,18-23.
Such a wonderful collection of readings this morning, all drawing from the everyday miracle that is creation. I know for many of us, and for me too, spending time in nature can lead to profound encounters with God. That’s not the way most of us would put it though; standing on the top of a mountain, often it’s more of a feeling of just how small we really are, and that feeling of our breath being taken away. Or walking in a forest and being overwhelmed by the variety of colour: more shades of green and brown than we could articulate. Or sitting by the sea, and watching the infinite flow of waves crashing onto the shore, one after another after another…
Genesis 1-2 are a great place to start when it comes to thinking about ourselves and nature. We are of the soil, made of dust. We depend on the ecosystem which God ordained and set in place. Although we might not say Genesis is a scientific explanation of our origins, it nonetheless contains deep truths about who we are, where we came from and the role we are to play.
In a nutshell, we are called to be stewards of the planet but we are making a mess of it. I suspect we can all agree with that statement. From the Blue Planet documentary illustrating plastics clogging up our oceans to human caused climate change which has led to record temperatures in the Artic and contributed to those enormous Wildfires at the start of this year.
Something is out of balance. What’s more, the injustices between human beings: be it poverty, or misogamy are another side of this same imbalance. Looking at this from an economic point of view I want to share a short, 2 minute video from Kate Raworth, a new kind of economist who I think captures the situation well:
If you want to explore more about donut economics, I’d recommend the other 6 short 2 minute videos on Kate’s website: https://www.kateraworth.com/animations/
Now, I’m no economist. But looking at this donut and the shortfall and excesses: The failure to share what we have, and to cause unsustainable excesses would traditionally be called ‘sin’ in Christian tradition. We are failing to be good neighbours and good stewards of the earth.
The donut zone, is perhaps what the Bible calls ‘shalom’: Shalom is a Hebrew word meaning ‘peace’, but more deeply, it means ‘right relationship’. The search for shalom is a search for right relationship with everything else: peace between people’s at war, peace between siblings & partners, peace with ourselves, and peace with our environment – the earth.
Our First Reading, with the trees of the fields clapping their hands offers a vision of shalom. The end of the psalm also reflects this harmony.
This word ‘shalom’ is a powerful one, and a helpful lens because recognising that everything is related means that by improving our relationships in any one area of our lives will contribute to a right relationship between other areas. Rather than doing a Bible study on Shalom in the OT, I wonder if I can help illuminate the idea with some examples in my life where I was not seeking Shalom.
As a student, I remember getting very excited if I could find cheap meat in the supermarket. I didn’t really think too hard about it, because I didn’t want to factor in the ethical dilemmas. Were the animals looked after well before being slaughtered? Did I have a desire for their welfare? Did the meat need treatment such as intense antibiotic therapy because the farm was not living in right relationship with its environment and was breeding disease? How far did the meat have to travel to arrive in my supermarket?
How sustainable was the whole process?
All these things are about relationships – and the need for shalom, peace, between different parts of our web of interactions. Perhaps I could have asked myself, am I living within the donut?
Or take another example, our relationship with our possessions. Too many and we’re frustrated by full garages, and packed storage boxes. I know what that’s like. We don’t know what we’ve got, and have too much to let go of anything. Or as one film once put it, “the things we own end up owning us”. Equally, too few of the possessions we need for life isn’t peaceful either. Some of us will know what it’s like not to have enough money in the bank. I was chatting to someone the other week who didn’t own an oven. Living that way is painfully difficult, and expensive when you can’t make as much use of the essentials like rice or potatoes.
Shalom, right relationship with our possessions means having enough, but not too much. It means holding things lightly, but still having the things necessary for life.
What would our society look like if we could all share shalom?
So, if you’ve followed me so far I do want to make it clear that I’m not saying we should all become vegetarian (although we might want to give that some thought), or that we shouldn’t own things, but rather that we need to foster right relationships with our environment and with one another.
So where is the good news in all this?
First, that God is with us: His Holy Spirit hasn’t just left us to it, but is actively at work in our world and society and our bodies to lead us towards shalom. Each step we take to cherish the earth counts. And even more wonderfully, Jesus Christ has already achieved the biggest peace-making act of all: restoring our fractured relationship with God the Father.
As we were exploring last Sunday, through Jesus Christ we are beloved, forgiven, treasured sinners. Shalom in our identity, means discovering in Christ forgiveness and liberation from the things that threaten to steal our peace: feelings of not being enough, feelings of shame or crippling guilt. Shalom gradually transforms us, inside and out, secure in the right relationship we have with God that Christ achieved for us by his Cross and Resurrection.
In our Gospel reading today, Jesus is the figure who sows the seeds which bear fruit for the kingdom of God. I pray that we would know that fruit in our own lives and our local community. Perhaps Kate Raworth’s Donut Economics might encourage us to reject “the lure of wealth” which Jesus says chokes the Word of God, and find new excitement instead for God’s vision of shalom and right relationship with our neighbours and our planet.
Amen.
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