September 11, 2022

One of the things that people are celebrating about the Queen’s life is her great sense of humour. You may have heard, for example, this story making the rounds:

A favourite story about the queen … involves the time when she was asked by an American tourist who was hiking near her Balmoral estate … Had she ever met the queen? “I haven’t,” said the queen. [Perhaps she was incognito wearing her babushka and sunglasses?] Then she pointed at her protection officer Richard Griffin and said he “meets her regularly.” … the hiker grilled Griffin on what the queen was like — “Oh, she can be very cantankerous at times, but she’s got a lovely sense of humour,” he replied — the hiker asked for a photo with the bodyguard and handed the queen a camera. [And she took the picture.]

In today’s readings one of the first things that caught my eye was the phrase in Jeremiah where God says about the people that “they are stupid children”. I admit that there are times when I resonate with that phrase in my own life as a mother; and who knows perhaps the queen did as well, but she’d be much too polite to admit that in public. I was curious how this verse 22 might be translated differently, and here's the whole verse from The Message version of the Bible: “What fools my people are! They have no idea who I am. A company of half-wits, dopes and donkeys all! Experts at evil, but klutzes at good.” ….. Hmm, not sure whether that’s better or worse, but equally colourful anyways. The next verses we heard from Jeremiah speak of how the earth is ‘waste and void’ and the mountains are quaking – did they do oil fracking in those days too? All the birds have fled, the fruitful land is a desert, the cities are in ruins; and there’s desolation everywhere. This sounds like an important climate crisis message except for one thing – the prophet thinks that God is causing all these things in anger against the people. But by now we know better than to blame God. We have lots of scientific details as to why our current climate catastrophes are largely caused by human greed and disregard for nature, which the Creator lovingly created.

Not only is nature harmed by these rapacious human activities, but many people are also harmed, especially the poor. That’s a big reason why there are so many migrant families desperately fleeing their homelands despite the terrible risks involved. Another big reason, of course, is the horrendous violence of so many kinds of wars in various countries. Our psalm speaks of “the evildoers who eat up my people like bread” and how their “aim is to confound the plans of the afflicted, but the Lord is their refuge.” Nature seems to have turned against humans in many places, after all the harm we’ve done to her. The world news in prayer this week speaks of the dry places:

“Source of life, water is scarce in your beloved creation. Entire regions of countries filled with your beloved people have now faced weeks and months with little to no water. The forecast is grim. Northern Italy is enduring its worst drought in seventy years. Forty-three percent of the United States watches the sky, day after day, for signs of relieving rain. Portugal, Somalia, Ethiopia, and Kenya cry from thirst. Hunger is borne of land that thirsts; the very earth cries out for rain.” https://us7.campaign-archive.com/?e=580ed6b7cb...

And then of course there are devastating FLOODS in Pakistan and other places. The level of human suffering in our world is beyond disturbing; and it certainly helps put many of our own much smaller problems into perspective. I think it was for the Cop 26 global climate conference in Glasgow last fall that the queen’s speech not only encouraged stronger efforts to reduce human harm to the earth, but she also pointed out that her husband and eldest son were strong supporters of climate change mitigation. I’m eager to see this highlighted in the reign of Charles III.

Our gospel today is from Luke 15 which William Barclay tells us is the most beloved chapter in Luke: ‘the gospel in the gospel’. The overall message, that God searches for us when we are lost, is comforting. Firstly, we note that these two parables about seeking lost things are told by Jesus in response to his being criticized by the Pharisees and scribes for welcoming and eating with tax collectors and sinners. In Jesus’ time and place the tax collectors worked for the Roman occupying enemy forces, and they often exploited the poor, and financially crippled the workers.

Jesus explains why he’s in such company by telling the familiar stories of the sheep owner searching for the one lost sheep, and the woman searching for her one lost coin. Barclay explains that one silver coin “would have been worth more than a whole day’s wage for a working man in Palestine”. Wow, I didn’t realize that it was that valuable! No wonder she lit a lamp and thoroughly swept the house to find it. The part about leaving the 99 sheep behind in the wilderness always bothered me, though, so I was glad to read this further context in Barclay’s commentaries:

Many of the flocks were communal flocks, belonging, not to individuals, but to villages. There would be two or three shepherds in charge. Those whose flocks were safe would arrive home on time and bring news that one shepherd was still out on the mountain side searching for a sheep which was lost. The whole village would be upon the watch, and when, in the distance, they saw the shepherd striding home with the lost sheep across his shoulders, there would rise from the whole community a shout of joy and of thanksgiving. https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/eng/dsb/luke-15.html

It was also good to read in that same commentary about a Jewish scholar who saw the idea that God searches for us when we are lost -- as an absolutely new idea about God – an idea that no Pharisees had ever dreamed of. And God searches for us even, I’m sure, when we’re emotionally or spiritually lost as well – when we feel hurt or rejected or abandoned and so on. What a relief when an unseen ‘angel’ swoops in and shows us that we are indeed loved, though perhaps not by those whose love we especially sought. This week’s Season of Creation notes also speak of the need for an ecological conversion – a transformation of hearts and minds toward greater love of God, each other and creation. May God’s love abound in our lives in all these ways, especially when we feel lost, Amen.