This morning’s Disturbing Thought had me looking at a well known passage in a way that I have never looked at it in the past.

All the nations of the world will be gathered before him, and he will separate them into two groups as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. The Son of Man will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. Then the King will say to the people on his right … (Matt 25:31)

The word I had not noticed, but drawn out by Bodenheim is nations. It is nations here that are arranged to the left and right, not individual people as I had ‘heard’ before. I am not sure what that means for us today!

It is interesting to see, as well, that neither set of people, the goats and the sheep, has any idea as to why they are being judged as they are. As Bodenheim points out, there is nothing about professing faith, or claiming Jesus as Lord; the believers are not separated from non-believers. Instead nations who show compassion are separated from nations that do not.

Today I have been disturbed by this and as the day draws to a close wonder if this is really all about how we use the power that we have to help the poor and neglected? Do we, instead get embroiled and use our power to attempt to win arguments in the stuff that God is not that bothered about while we dismiss the issues that clearly God is concerned about, such as how we treat the weak in our societies?

“The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that a man planted in his field.
That seed is the smallest of all seeds, but when it grows, it is one of the largest garden plants. It becomes big enough for the wild birds to come and build nests in its branches.”

I think it is true that many of us look at injustices and wish things were not as they were.

Most transformations in society occur when a community decides to bring about change. If that is to happen, usually an individual has to make a stand and take the initial step of speaking out, or asking a question, or writing a letter. That tiny act, or seed of transformation, starts to grow as others with similar views join the initial person and a community of transformation is born.

AS I think back to the Burma protests I am intrigued as to how it actually started. Who was the first monk who dared to speak, and in doing so risked condemnation, oppression and even death. How did that monk feel?

If individuals do not speak out, things do not change.

As a Christian I am challenged to think about those instances where I have not spoken out, or taken a stand. Those times when I’ve known what the right thing to do is, but have chosen to ‘choose my battles’ and stay quiet. It’s honestly disturbing my complacency as its easy to pretend I’m living quite well if I do not reflect on how my life is in reality. I’m wondering whether the adage of ‘choose your battles’ is a cop out?

The words of Edmund Burke have been echoing in my head today:
“The only thing required for evil to triumph is for good men to (say and) do nothing.”

The Wednesday reflection during Advent is always about money. Today in particular my thoughts have focussed on how the west demands third world countries to restructure to receive aid. As many have became aware through initiatives like Make Poverty History, this restructuring does more than harm the country, it enables the rich western capitalism machine to continue to grow nd gain momentum while our poorer, hungrier, colder brothers and sisters become penniless, starving and dead.

We can help in these situations. We can give. We can campaign. We can purchase wisely and ethically.

Do we carefully give only what we will not miss, while we happily admire the widow who throws in her last two coins?

As Christmas gets closer, I feel uncomfortable today about how I use my money.

‘If we buy a Bible and claim it ‘mine’, we claim ownership and with ownership comes the belied that we can do what we like with what we own’ says todays Advent thought.

I have been mulling over the accuracy of this statement throughout the day. It is true that we can use the Bible to say what we wish it to say. Indeed in the past, and even currently, the Bible has been used to justify sexism, abuse of a marital partner or child, refusal of medicine or birth control, condemnation of sexuality.

I remember earlier in the year I had the privilege of being part of the congregation in Westminster Abbey at a service to commemorate the end of the slave trade. One of the the things I find most shocking about that horrible abuse of humanity is that mainstream church and government were able to justify such a trade by using the Bible.

That is shocking!
It’s hard to believe how they read that from the words on those pages.
It’s hard to believe how they could think a Jesus of compassion, love, with a preferential for the poor, would ever condone such an act.
But they did.

As I sat in Westminster Abbey I began to wonder how the Christians for the future would view us. What would they be amazed by? What would they be shocked by? Would they look back on us and ask ‘how on earth did they allow that to happen and justify it with the Bible?’

‘Do we use the Bible to oppress, or do we use the Bible to liberate?‘ asks Bodenheim. The problem is if we let the Bible be the only voice of God we hear we limit God again. The Bible is what God has said in the past and it is important for today, but God also continues to speak today and indeed for the future. Listening to just one aspect of God’s voice allows the abuses of history to repeat themselves and occur in our age.

If the Bible does not point us toward God, but instead speaks for God, then it has become our god. (Bodenheim)

Todays Disturbing thought focussed on money.

In particular asking me to think on how my money, and the money of my country, is used globally. Initially I started to think that there is not really a lot I can do, which is a pretty complacent thought.

As I focus on waiting during Advent, I started to think on those in this country and other places where the waiting is not the advent sort, but rather is the wait for justice. Jesus brought justice, Jesus will bring justice, during Advent we could embody justice in our locations.

In the UK, at least, our leaders in parliament seem to have closed their eyes to what is happening in the world using the excuse of protecting ‘our countries interests’ with biased trade deals on an unfair market.

Rather than complacent resignation to one person not being able to ake a difference maybe I should write more letter, pray more earnestly, donate more money or shout more loudly. After ll, Mr T. Blair knows only too well that one person with one vote can make a big difference.