Rev elations

In the readings for Sunday 13th Sept 2015 (see below) we are encouraged to seek wisdom. In the New Testament, the suffering of the cross is presented as a new kind of wisdom, which centuries of Christians and theologians have tried to understand. Some time ago, St Francis for example, said that he felt called to be ‘ a new kind of fool in the world’ and that ‘ God does not want to lead us by any other knowledge than that’ . St Paul similarly talks of Christ crucified: ‘ a stumbling-block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles,   but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.   For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength’ (1 Corinthians 1 23-25). How do we interpret the suffering of the cross as wisdom for today? If we are to take Jesus’ teaching and his action seriously, then we have to understand that the wisdom of the cross is all about letting go – and that i...

One of the most obvious things about our society and about any society is that the poor are generally treated badly. To be poor means to experience objectification and rejection; it is to experience blame and judgment. ‘The poor’ experience other people’s fear of them as hatred and attack; poverty on the outside is to be feared and judged, because it represents human failure and suffering. None of us really wants to be poor and so the poor are on one level always to be feared. The flip side of this is that most of us are drawn towards success and wealth, as success and wealth project the image of human happiness and well-being. Wealth and status are attractive. The wealthy are seen to be good because they represent our dreams about what human happiness looks like; wealth and all that it can bring: learning, friendship, autonomy, choice, status, power, influence and control are the things that we as humans seek and desire. So, why are ‘the poor’ God’s chosen ones? (Has not Go...