Rev elations

Worry, Jesus quite rightly identifies is toxic and ineffective – worrying does not lengthen life, indeed it may actually shorten it, it certainly limits it. But, worry we might say is endemic in contemporary society, it comes under various names like anxiety or stress, but its pervasive atmosphere in one of the wealthiest nations in the world suggests that the accumulation of wealth does not bring an end to worry. But to tell us not to worry, surely that is the craziest of teachings. Who can live a life without worry? How does Jesus explain such a commandment? To worry that our basic needs won’t be met, Jesus argues, is to doubt the essential blessedness and goodness of the creation. It’s not that Jesus asks us to live a life of blind faith, but to recognise that God has created a world in which even the lilies of the field are clothed in splendour. In linking his argument about trusting in God to the created world, Jesus is explicitly referring us to the role of God as Cr...

We all know the story of the wooden boy who longs to be a real boy, but who has to learn to be good in order to achieve his dream. The story of Pinocchio. If you were Pinocchio, would you be one that longed to become a boy or would you rather counsel acceptance of one’s reality? One position might be summarised as ‘I am a wooden toy, accept it and enjoy my lot’ and the other ‘I am a wooden toy, I want to be a boy’. It might be that the first position is the wiser one. What sort of existence would it encourage?  The second position may only lead to disappointment. What sort of existence would it encourage? The contrasting Biblical texts that we read today (see below) present two very different understandings of what it means to be human in relation to God. They encourage us to reflect on our own expectations concerning the nature of human or ‘created’ existence. They ask us to consider what the end of human life is- The first Biblical text, from Ecclesiastes, presen...