May 25, 2008

Denise Kelsall

Pentecost 2     Isaiah 49: 8-16a     Matthew 6: 24-34

Carpe diem – ‘seize the day’ is a familiar phrase and one which I have sometimes invoked when anxiety or worry afflicts me. It reminds me that this very day, this very moment is actually the only reality – this moment that holds the memory of life past and the projection of hopes and dreams for the future. These include looking back on the mixed bag that is life which contains joy and wonder and pain and regret at the same time – a source of reflection and hopefully a source for a growing wisdom. And in a forward direction, projections of what perhaps life could be, what we think is possible, probable and maybe a sneaky outside hope that we might never admit to but is nevertheless very much part of our inner world

I am a child of my generation, of this time in history of multi-tasking where the more we can pack into a day the better. The maxim is that it is good to be busy, on the go, to be productive and achieve so that we can have more and live better, afford that extra tuition for the kids, have an occasional blowout at a fabulous restaurant, maybe take the family to Fiji or Australia for a holiday, buy that luxury trifle because you do really deserve it. I’m not necessarily decrying this life as I am part of it and can see the logic in our small corner of the world.

Don’t worry about it – as Jesus says in our gospel reading today, don’t worry – tomorrow is another day and life has its own pace and seasons. There is little to be gained from worrying.

But I do worry. Not so much about my own comfortable life filled with minor and occasionally major anxieties but about what is happening to our world, this earth which sustains us and of which we are a part. We humans are special – we alone are the manipulators of our environment which is becoming deeply, perhaps mortally wounded by the machinations of the God of wealth.

In 2003 a film called ‘The Corporation’ was released to wide acclaim from those who care about this planet. It told us that the corporation came into legal existence just after the abolition of slavery, using the same legalese to justify its personhood. A Corporation is legally a person, one designed to pursue profit legally and without regard for human consequences. The film vividly exposes how this person is a dangerous destructive psychopath without a conscience.

It is this person, the corporation, that like a virus spreads its particular sickness across vast continents and controls the food and water on this planet.

We all read about food and water crises which are killing tens of thousands to perhaps millions of men women and children each year. According to world-renowned activist and scientist Vandana Shiva this is a direct result of the power and control of these corporations and the concomitant greed of the super-rich. As she writes, countries of the South like India that could once feed themselves and where small farmers could make a living, are now rife with poverty, dispossession and desperate suicides. As corporations dictate and control world markets we also see and hear their muscle in false propaganda and orchestrated media releases about food and water shortages and price rises. These shortages and rises are the direct result of these avaricious and amoral corporations that give rise to globalization, which over the last 15 years has spread like a pestilent and deathly virus throughout the world. Its agents are the World Bank and the World Trade Organisation which override national sovereignty and promote the illusory idea of ‘free trade’ which is paradoxically and utterly ‘unfree.’ Corporations are harvesting obscene profits while people die of hunger.

I ask myself continually what we, as Christians, should be doing, thinking and praying about this. Should we be like Jesus in the Temple and get physical like those three protestors recently at Waihopai who burst the bubble on intelligence gathering? Do we write and support those who protest globally? Do we talk and pass on information about these vital and life threatening issues within our own social gamut? Or are we as numbed as the next person on the street?

While I often lament the demands of modern communications, namely, the internet – I am also thrilled at how the access to information is democratized and we can collect knowledge and share information globally so that criminal legalized injustice such as this can be exposed and condemned for the deathly sentence it brings in its wake.

In light of this global catastrophe it is salient to examine today’s reading from Matthew. Jesus says we can’t serve two masters – God and money – he’s right, we can’t. For us God and money are both essential for living but serving money instead of God leads to greed and serving one’s own ego. Serving God means listening and caring, not ignoring the plight of others on this earth, and to be vigilant and aware of insidious and sinister structures that trade in money for death.

Jesus says not to worry inordinately about the trivialities that can consume us like ‘what will I wear – does this look good on me – what’s for dinner. I say inordinately because I too do all those things, but they should not be the lynchpin or the centre of our lives. Jesus exhorts us to look at creation, the beauty and timeless seasons that we see in birds that fly east or north for the winter to return in the spring, to lilies that are reborn in their regal and velvety magnificence year after year without any concern. Jesus says don’t worry.

In a way this gospel passage reminds me of that great philosophical book of the Bible – Ecclesiastes. The familiar phrase that extends into a poem – ‘To everything there is a season” comes from that short and very readable book and it’s true. There is no point in worrying about life that contains its own rhythms and stages that are common to us all, rich or poor.

But it is also true that Jesus asks us to strive. To strive for the kingdom of God and for righteousness – or goodness as I prefer to understand that outmoded word. Then we will stop worrying, will we?

This striving, struggling, yearning, trying hard, doing ones best is a mark of the Christian life.

It is a daily reality for us all in ways big and small whatever our station or stage of life – there are always new and different challenges to be met as the world and our lives twist and turn. This can often take the form of anxiousness and worrying. Jesus says don’t. I believe he is speaking about our personal lives and is telling us that it is quite normal but hey – be cool – we are all in this together and if we look around us it is beautiful.

For me, when I am anxious I go to the gym or maybe walk my dog, or go to a good movie that engrosses me and somehow shifts my perspective. Last Saturday afternoon I took myself off to St Helier’s beach where barefoot I rolled up my jeans, bought a double ice-cream and waded in the water’s edge for a quiet meditative couple of hours in the sparkly autumn sunshine. It was a deep time of spiritual renewal for me where I listened to the murmurings of my heart and just let them be.

However, on a global scale I do have this sneaky outside hope that we can, miraculously, as people who follow in the way of Jesus strive together and impact upon a world that is riven with greed and injustice that blights and desperately worries the lives of so many. Those real people who become statistics in our information overload era, those victims we must speak up for in solidarity with all life.

Earth Democracy, Justice, Sustainability and Peace, Vandana Shiva, 2005.