People, Look East!
‘Look toward the east, O Jerusalem, and see the joy that is coming to you from God.’ Baruch 4:36

Orientation
Are you one of those people who can never remember the points of the compass? Do you have to mutter to yourself, ‘West is on the left, when you’re facing north’? That’s if you can even work out which way is north!

Do you find it difficult to get yourself orientated? Ah, there’s a clue there. Oriens is, I’m reliably informed, the Latin for ‘rising’. An oriental is someone who comes from the east, where the sun rises. If it’s morning, the sun will be in the east, and in the evening in the west. Not that that would’ve helped much today — it’s been so grey you could barely see the sun.

There’s a sport called ‘orienteering’: it’s the art of making your way quickly across country with the aid of a map and a compass. Even in the days I could move quickly, I was pretty hopeless at it as a sport — it takes to long to say, ‘West is on the left, when you’re facing north’!

But, in theory, as long as you’re able to fix where one direction is — east, for example — you can get orientated.

The Middle East
In the UK we think of the people of Israel or Palestine as living in what we call ‘The Middle East’ — they think of us as ‘the near west’. For them, ‘the near east’ is Syria, Iraq, Iran, and Saudi Arabia.

In Biblical times these eastern nations were called Assyria and Persia. When the Jews were exiled to Babylon, that was in the east; when Jerusalem hoped that her exiled people would return, they were told to look east.

When Persian astrologers came to worship baby Jesus in Bethlehem — at that first Epiphany — they were called ‘wise men from the east’. And when they told Herod ‘we have seen his star in the east’ — the Orient — that could equally be translated as, ‘we have seen his star at its rising’, or even ‘in the ascendant’.

Baruch
There’s a striking phrase in the book of Baruch — which we could’ve heard from this evening, as an alternative to our Old Testament lesson from Isaiah — it says: ‘Look towards the east, O Jerusalem, and see the joy that is coming to you from God’ (Baruch 4:36).

Baruch was the name of the scribe who copied down the words of the prophet Jeremiah in around 600 BC. But the book of Baruch is in the Apocrypha, not the Old Testament, and dates from much later than Jeremiah’s time, probably about 150 BC.

It’s easy to see why it’s offered as an alternative reading for Epiphany, when we think about the wise men from the east bringing their riches to Baby Jesus.

Different cultures
There’s a real difference between the cultures of people who live in the eastern and western hemispheres. Eastern people, in general, think mystically; western people think materialistically.

Oriental philosophy’s concerned with states of being, in the West we think in terms of laws and logic. Oriental religions provide for peasants scraping a meagre living year after year from the soil, and think of time going round in an unending circle. Western religion’s for pioneers striking out to discover new frontiers, and thinks of time as a straight line.

Westerners think of Orientals as having no sense of time; Chinese and Indians pity British and North American people going round, as they put it, ‘strapped to a wristwatch’!

These are rather superficial distinctions for a very complex subject — which I certainly couldn’t really claim much genuine understanding of.

Judaism and Christianity, although they pioneered the western idea of time as progress, are in other respects basically eastern religions. Or they were, until Saint Paul and others started translating them into Greek ideas.

Never the twain shall meet?
So we of the West have much to learn from the people of the East. We’ve forgotten our traditions of mystical prayer, so that young people look to eastern religions, unaware that mysticism’s there already in Christianity.

Brooke Fosse Westcott, the author of a well respected — some would say greatest in the English language — commentary on Saint John’s Gospel, wrote that we must wait for someone from the East, who understands Saint John’s mystical outlook, to write the really definitive commentary of his Gospel.

People from the East who’ve become Christians have brought great riches of music, dance, literary form, art, and architecture, and laid them at the feet of the infant Christ.

Rudyard Kipling was only partially right when he wrote:
     Oh, East is East, and West is West, and never the
          twain shall meet,
     till Earth and Sky stand presently at God’s great
          Judgement Seat.
In Christianity the best of eastern and western cultures have already met.

People, look east
Eleanor Farjeon wrote a great hymn, looking towards Christmas, which begins, ‘People, look East’. We need to keep our eyes fixed to the east, towards Bethlehem, where the love of God came to earth as a babe in a manger.

Perhaps we should also look further east, to that great world of oriental culture which the Persian magi brought into the Christian faith. We need to get oriented.

Epiphany of the Lord
Readings: Isaiah 60:1-6 & Matthew 2:1-12

Following a star
Isn’t it amazing in this sophisticated and scientific age that we’re all so interested in stars, horoscopes, and astrological signs. All of us are pleased when we read that something spectacular will happen.

The Magi’s journey across mountains and deserts, following the star, echoes in our hearts. We feel that we have our own star to follow — a yearning deep down within our being for meaning, truth, and happiness — an individual path in life which we alone are called to tread.

When the Magi found the child Jesus, it was highly unlikely that they saw an infant with a halo who was clearly recognisable as God’s Son.

Eyes of faith
I believe that they saw just another tiny child, because that was all their bodily eyes could see. However, with their eyes of faith, they were able to see beneath the surface of appearances and recognise, in this child, God’s light which had come into the world. Ever afterwards, they weren’t guided by a star in the sky, but by the light of this child, who they saw as the Saviour of the world.

We too have been given the eyes of faith to keep us on course as we follow Christ along the highways and by-ways of life, across desert paths of loneliness, pain, failure, and illness.

Wise Men
There is something beautiful about the story of the three Kings. Those Wise Men of yesteryear represent all of us on a spiritual adventure which goes on as long as life lasts.

We’re to be Wise Men for our day, making Jesus visible to the whole world as its Saviour and Redeemer. Our special role is to make Jesus known along the pathways of life by being receptive to his word. The Lord needs our commitment in furthering his work.

The Wise Men didn’t come to the Lord empty-handed, but with gifts specially chosen which expressed the reason for their search, and neither must we come empty-handed. We may not have gold, frankincense, or myrrh, but we can bring the gift of ourselves, as human beings grafted into Christ. This gift of self is something more precious, as it never wears out.

Two journeys
The Church wants us all to rejoice today. The Epiphany is the day when we proclaim to all the world that Jesus came to save everybody, and that his influence isn’t restricted to any one culture.

Christmas is about making two journeys. The journey to Bethlehem, and the way home by a different route. We’re all making our journey home through life.

Having found Bethlehem, let us hope that at the end of life’s journey, we’ll be met once more by Jesus.

God is to be found right before our eyes
Readings: Isaiah 62:6-12 & Luke 2:8-20

An appealing freshness
There’s always an appealing freshness about the Christmas story. We never tire of hearing how the infant Jesus lay in swaddling clothes in a manger at Bethlehem.

The shepherds guarding their flocks on the nearby hillside were filled with awe as the chorus of angels broke the silence of the night with their joyous song of praise: ‘‘Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace”.

The great feast of the nativity celebrates the closeness of God to us, born into our ordinary life. It’s a mystery which stretches our minds beyond their limits, moving us towards that horizon where time touches eternity. We’re amazed and surprised that God should come among us in such humble circumstances.

The simplicity of it all challenges us to get rid of falseness and pretence, otherwise we’ll never realise our need for a Saviour, who will open a door and give us a fresh start with glorious possibilities. To make this new beginning we need to rediscover our lost innocence, and acknowledge our dependence on God.

We are not alone in our struggles
Christmas is the promise that we’re not alone in our struggles. Christ didn’t remove himself from the brokenness of our human condition, but experienced our poverty.

From his birth in a stable as one who was homeless, to his death on the cross as a common criminal, Jesus always identified with the spiritually, physically, and materially poor of this world. The child who drew his first breath on a covering of straw in Bethlehem, was the Christ of Calvary who gave his life, so that we might have everlasting happiness.

Many of us are disappointed, because in our search we tend to look for God in the spectacular, but the Christmas story tells us that God is to be found right before our eyes, in the ordinary, in the people and situations we take for granted.

Above all, we can experience his presence in our hearts, providing we make room for him by removing the barriers and obstacles that get in his way. God often visits us, but most of the time we’re not at home.

If the glory of God that comes to us as a child in the manger is not to be lost, we must ask God for the grace to do things his way. By softening our hearts and sharing what we have with the needy, we lessen the gap between what we are, and what we should be.

Forgiveness
Forgiveness is the hallmark of Christmas. As well as expressing sorrow for our sins, we must rid ourselves of bitterness, and open the doors of forgiveness to those with whom we need to be reconciled. This is a time for healing rifts, for mending broken friendships, and for letting bygones be bygones.

Spare a thought for those who’ve been bereaved. The pain of loss always surfaces during this feast of the family.

Whatever we do out of love for God will not be lost, and the joyful peace of Christmas that descends on us, will never be taken away.

In Your Midst
‘Sing and rejoice, O daughter Zion! For lo, I will come and dwell in your midst, says the Lord.’ Zechariah 2:10

Here all along
Have you ever searched for something you’d lost, and hunted all over the house, only to discover it was right there where you’d been sitting? ‘It was right here all along,’ you cry in exasperation. ‘How could I have missed it? Right under my nose!’

One particular time something like it happened to me often comes to mind, probably because it was so silly! I was doing my school homework, which rather dates it. I’d been busy writing, then stopped to read it back. When I wanted to write some more I couldn’t find my pen. I searched high and low for it, even in places it couldn’t possibly be. It was nowhere to be found.

The only thing I could do was get another pen, and use that to carry on with my homework. Next time I paused to read what I’d written, I put the pen down carefully — I didn’t want to lose another one.

When I was ready to start writing again, I took the pen I’d been chewing on out of mouth — yes, the first pen; it was, quite literally, right under my nose!

It often happens, whether you’re looking for something small or something big, that what you’re looking for has been under your nose all the time, only you didn’t see it.

People travel to oriental lands to study mysticism and meditation, and then they find that there’s a great history of these things in European Christianity, only they didn’t know about it. People travel to far-off places in search of mental peace and healing, when they could have found it by staying at home and learning to relax.

People go on pilgrimages to find somewhere where their prayers will be answered, and discover that God’s invisible presence has been with them throughout the journey. Particularly when looking for God, what we’re searching for is often found to have been here all along.

Transcendence
Yet how can this be true, we wonder? Surely God is too great and wonderful to be found in as humble a place as my home!

And it’s true. God is transcendent, higher than the highest heavens, greater than the universe he made. The nature of God passes our understanding; our little minds can’t even begin to understand his greatness.

It’s a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the living God, because our sinful souls would shrivel up in the light of his moral purity. The immensity of the divine is displayed by the majesty of the mountains and the distances of space.

How can we even think about a transcendent God like that, let alone speak to him?

Good to talk
Yet the astonishing thing, which the Bible reveals, is that God wants us to speak to him. We could never have guessed that if God hadn’t told us so himself.

It’s good to talk — it builds up relationships. And it’s good to talk to God, because by prayer we learn to trust him, to depend on him, and to rely on him. By prayer we learn how much God loves us, and we learn to love God in return.

But how can we pray to a God who is greater than we can even imagine? The mind boggles at our presumption in even trying to speak to a transcendent God like that. It’s a real problem.

Incarnation
So God decided to do something about it. He wants us to hold on to our belief in his transcendence. But he wants us to learn that he’s close to us, as well.

So God decided to become one of us. The immeasurable God shrank himself, smaller and smaller, until all his transcendent greatness was contained in a foetus in the womb of a young woman in Nazareth.

When that baby was born, he wasn’t some mighty prince. The Creator of the universe became an ordinary, tiny baby, without even a proper roof over his head. Astonishing!

But that was how God wanted to show us that we can talk to God, in spite of his greatness. All we have to learn to do is speak to Jesus of Nazareth, a human being like us.

If we talk to Jesus, we’re talking to God. It’s as simple as that. The transcendence and the immanence of God are brought together in the God-Man of Galilee.

In your midst
God had promised in advance that he’d do this. Think of the promise of a child who’d be born and called Emmanuel, ‘God-is-with-us’. And in the prophet Zechariah (which we heard from in our Old Testament lesson this evening): ‘Sing and rejoice, O daughter Zion! For lo, I will come and dwell in your midst, says the Lord’ (Zechariah 2:10).

We ought to have been ready for his coming. But instead we travel the globe looking for God, and scan the heavens with our telescopes hoping to find him. And God was there all along, right next to us, only we didn’t pay him any attention.

The Babe in the manger is the end of our quest. There in our midst. Only he seemed so ordinary that we didn’t even notice him.

God wants us to talk to him. And it isn’t difficult, because he’s right here listening for us to speak to him. ‘God was here all along,’ we cry in astonishment.’ How could I have missed him? Right under my nose, here in the midst of us!’

I Waited Patiently for the Lord
‘I waited patiently for the Lord : and he inclined unto me, and heard my calling.’
(Psalm 40:1 BCP)

Unanswered Prayer
Have you ever prayed desperately, asking God for something you really need, and nothing happened? I imagine the answer to that is probably, ‘Yes!’

You didn’t get the healing, or the job, or the partner you really wanted. Perhaps you began to ask yourself, ‘What’s all this that the Bible says about God answering prayer?’

But nowhere in the Bible are we promised that God’s answer to prayer will be immediate. He may not be ready yet, and God’s time is always best. God may know that you’re not ready yet, and he’ll give you what you need when you can make the best use of it.

God always answers prayer, but the answer may be ‘yes’; or ‘no’, because what you’ve asked for may not be what’s best for you; or it might even be ‘wait’.

Waiting
Advent is the season for waiting. We wait for Christmas, and, because of all the planning, and the shops starting to sell Christmas goods earlier every year, sometimes it seems as though it’ll never come.

Just think of all those people in the Old Testament who waited for the coming of the Messiah, and died without seeing his birth. Think of Simeon, the old priest who blessed baby Jesus in the Temple, and Anna the prophetess, who both spent all their lives waiting for God to show mercy to his people, and recognised in this tiny baby the answer to their prayers.

Who are we, then, if God’s answer to our prayers seems a long time coming? We must learn patience.

In our life
We wait for God to intervene in our own lives. God promised justice; why does he allow all the injustices in the world? God promised guidance; why do we flounder for so long in the mire of doubt and indecisiveness? God promised healing; so why do so many people fall sick, and die unhealed?

To all these questions, God answers, ‘Wait’. Wait patiently, and wait in hope. God will intervene, when he’s ready. It may not be in the way that you asked him to; and if you’re not alert, you may not recognize God at work when he comes to you.

But if you’re ready for the ‘God of surprises’ to do the unexpected, and willing to co-operate with him when he calls you to, there’s no limit to the good things you and God may be able to do together.

Then, if what you specifically asked for doesn’t actually come to pass in this life, but you’ve waited in faith, hope, and love, God will come to you when you die, and reward your patience. Eternal life will be so wonderful; it’ll completely overshadow your temporary disappointments.

The end
In Advent we wait for ‘the End’, but people never stop arguing about what this means. Does it mean a second coming of Jesus to earth? Does it mean the disintegration of the physical universe, a sort of ‘anti Big Bang’? Or is it just a poetic image?

Perhaps that doesn’t need to concern us, as long as we’re ready for anything. Jesus said, ‘The end is not yet’ (Matthew 24:6). So don’t be disappointed, there’s plenty of work to be done in the meantime, in caring for the needy and spreading the good news of God’s love.

Advent hope
Advent is also a time of hopefulness — patient hopefulness.

A fine prayer for hope is found in the, Book of Common Prayer, Collect for this Sunday. The Common Worship lectionary, which we follow here, has moved it to the Last Sunday after Trinity, which is often celebrated as Bible Sunday.

Archbishop Thomas Cranmer, who wrote the first Book of Common Prayer in 1549, translated most of the Collects from the Latin Missal. But on the Second Sunday of Advent he wrote an entirely new prayer, based on the Epistle for the day, which we just heard read from the Letter to the Romans. It’s a super prayer:

A psalm
The same message of hope drawn from the promises of Scripture is in Psalm 40 — which we sang earlier:

Patience
Here are some more quotes about patience:

And a couple of anonymous verses:

Finally, one I’m sure you’ll recognise:

Come to my heart
Patience is a grace that only God can give. This Advent, will you wait patiently for the coming of Jesus at Christmas, in moments of challenge, as you are dying and at the end?

Will you welcome him when he comes at last in justice to right all worldly wrongs?

Then sing in the words of the hymn: ‘O come to my heart, Lord Jesus, there is room in my heart for thee.’
(465 — New English Hymnal)

I’m Sorry

‘After that, King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision, but declared . . . to those . . . throughout the countryside of Judea, and also to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God and do deeds consistent with repentance. (Acts 26:19-20)

I’m sorry
Were you brought up to say ‘sorry’?

Or like P. G. Wodehouse do you believe it’s ‘a good rule in life never to apologize; the right sort of people don’t want apologies, and the wrong sort take mean advantage of them’?

Lord Charles Beresford sent a telegram to someone he disliked, in reply to an invitation, reading: ‘Very sorry can’t come. Lie follows by post.’ Here the word ‘sorry’ suggests regret for disappointing his acquaintance, though the word ‘lie’ shows he never wanted to come anyway.

Gelett Burgess wrote two poems. The first reads:

Later he wrote this sequel:

Oops! Please don’t tell him I just did. Sorry about that!

Apologies
The word ‘sorry’ in the second poem means I regret having done something stupid.

But it should mean I’m sad that something’s upset you. The hurt may not be my fault; but if it is, I need to say sorry I’ve offended you. I take on personal responsibility for my hurtful actions, even if they were thoughtless, with no deliberate intention of causing pain. If I don’t apologize, that’ll spoil our relationship; you’ll never be able to trust me again.

But don’t expect me to realize the harm I’ve done, if you’re not prepared, in the nicest way, to explain to me that my words or actions have damaged you in some way. If it’s serious, and was intended to hurt, I shall have to express genuine repentance, before God as well as you.

Repentance
Repentance begins with a feeling of deep remorse.

But that’s supposed to be only temporary — once I’ve apologized, I must accept your forgiveness, and God’s, and not dwell on it.

I shan’t ever forget what I’ve done, but going over it again and again in my conscience paralyses me from doing good things in the future. I must learn my lesson, resolving to do the right thing from now on, and carefully avoiding the circumstances which led me to do wrong before — temptation, inebriation, anger, and so on.

Repentance implies willingness to make a fresh start in life.

Ancestors
We sometimes read articles calling on us to repent of things our ancestors have done, such as colonialism, slavery, the Holocaust or the Crusades. I’m not sure it’s possible to repent of what other people have done; though if we want to be proud of some of our nation’s actions in the past, we must also be deeply regretful of some of the harm that was done in our name.

We must certainly make sure that no prejudice against other races remains in our own hearts, and that we’re not continuing to benefit in some way from the oppressions of the past.

But any talk of apologizing or compensating is going to involve difficult calculations of how much hurt was caused on both sides in the wars of the past, and apportioning the blame, which might cause even more bad feeling. Instead, let’s concentrate together on eliminating present-day discrimination and oppression, anywhere in the world.

Consistent with repentance
Saint Paul spoke about his conversion on the road to Damascus, continuing, ‘I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision, but declared first to those in Damascus, then in Jerusalem and throughout the countryside of Judea, and also to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God and do deeds consistent with repentance’ (Acts 26:19-20).

Saying ‘sorry’ isn’t enough, he says. Your repentance must bring you back to the feet of God, recognizing your need for his forgiveness, and your dependence on God’s grace to avoid sin in future.

Then you have to prove that your repentance was genuine, and not just a sham, by changing your behaviour. Your actions must prove you meant what you said when you apologized.

So let me say to each of you here this evening, if I’ve harmed or hurt you in any way, I’m deeply sorry, and I’ll do all that’s possible to avoid repeating the offence. I trust you to do the same for me. And God have mercy on us all.

Take up your cross
Then Jesus told his disciples, ‘If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.’ (Matthew 16:24)

Peter is reprimanded
Peter found it difficult to accept that the mission of Jesus would end with the cross and crucifixion. He didn’t see why pain and suffering were necessary for discipleship, and was anxious that the Lord avoid this course of action. He was outraged at the idea that such happenings should take place.

Like most of us, Peter failed to grasp the role of suffering in God’s plan. He thought that being part of the kingdom was a matter of power and success. Words were powerless to rid him of the idea of a Messiah of earthly splendour and glory. Peter had yet to learn that the standards of Christ were not those of prosperity and privilege.

The outcome was a reprimand from Jesus, who cautioned him against adopting the standards of the world, ‘for you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things’.

The gospel ends with a challenge from Jesus to welcome hardship and embrace pain and personal suffering, for to hold on to this life is to lose eternal life and everlasting values.

Suffering is a reality of human life
In the grand scheme of things we’ll face a whole series of tests. The road is never a straight one and suffering is a reality of human life. Our earthly pilgrimage is so beset with trials and tribulations that it’s sometimes aptly named a ‘valley of tears’. We’ve all experienced our share of hardship in the form of sickness, loss of job, or death in the family.

Down the ages the problem of pain has been the debating ground of so much human thought, and the torment of so many noble souls.

When things go wrong and affliction comes our way, we cry out and protest in bitter rebellion. It’s a natural tendency to turn our back’s on trouble; but running away from pain can never bring joy, for to hide from it, is to pretend that it doesn’t exist.

A demanding honour
Being a Christian is a demanding honour, because God’s way of doing things is contrary to human expectations. In the gospel, Christ tells us plainly that discipleship involves denying ourselves, taking up the cross in trust and confidence, and following his footsteps across the hill to Calvary.

It’s a hard teaching, but the measure of greatness in the kingdom of heaven is the standard of the cross.

Our commitment to Christ
This is an occasion to reflect on our own commitment to Christ, because it’s easy to lose sight of our final goal in life.

Our hearts are tempted to seek comfort in material things, and to avoid hardship.

And yet, we don’t want to be like some church-goers, who think only of themselves and reluctantly give God an hour on a Sunday morning. But if they were asked to identify themselves, they would profess to be Christian.

We all need to remember, especially when times are at their hardest, that being a Christian is for life, not just for Sundays.

Who do you say that I am?

He said to them, ‘But who do you say that I am?’ Simon Peter answered, ‘You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.’(Matthew 16:15-16)

Peter
Peter must surely rate as one of the more interesting characters in the gospel.

In many ways it’s amazing that Christ selected him as the leader of the church, because his record wouldn’t even have impressed his own contemporaries. By human reckoning he was a disastrous choice and should never have been appointed.

You could hardly describe him as a stable person. There were times he was brave, but there were also occasions he displayed complete cowardice.

During Christ’s arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane, Peter was hotheaded and cut off the soldiers ear with his sword. Some time later, however, in Pilate’s courtyard, when taunted by a servant girl, he was so weak that he denied ever knowing Christ.

Peter appointed to lead the Church
Yet on the road to Caesarea Philippi Jesus appointed Peter as leader of the Christian community. His call to lead was a most important step in the development of the Church.

Christ had confidence in him, released a great power within his being and entrusted him with a mission which was crucial for the continuation of his work.

The choice of Peter as head of the church is an example of the power of God at work — using the weak things of this world to confound the strong. Before his encounter with Christ, Peter’s life had little meaning.

Our life’s pilgrimage
On life’s pilgrimage, it’s a source of great comfort that God has invited us to be members of his church, built upon the rock of Peter. On the whole, people of every age still listen attentively to the leaders of the church because of the promise Jesus made to Peter.

There’s a very human aspect to Peter’s life story to which we can easily relate. His weakness and moments of betrayal are common-place in our own lives. However, his deep-seated trust in the person of Christ more than compensates for any failure, as will a similar trust on our part.

‘Who do you say that I am?’
The question put to Peter by Jesus, ‘Who do you say that I am?’ resulted in an inspiring declaration of faith. As followers of Christ this question confronts us daily and calls us to judge ourselves, and how we’re living our lives.

What’s the point in saying the word of the Lord is our light and our strength, if we don’t live accordingly?

Being Christian commits us to live in a particular manner and involves having moral standards which differ from so many in society.

One thing is certain — a neutral stance to Christ’s vision of life isn’t possible, because to follow him is to live decisively and to take an active responsibility for our behaviour.

Care for the Needy

‘The wife of a member of the company of prophets cried to Elisha, “Your servant my husband is dead; and . . . a creditor has come to take my two children as slaves.” Elisha said to her, What shall I do for you?”‘ (2 Kings 4:1-2)

Elisha
Many stories are told about the prophets of the Old Testament, and the times they lived in. It’s probably fair to say that compassion wasn’t a common virtue in those bloodthirsty days.

However, there are enough stories told about Elijah, Elisha and other prophets, to show that they regarded the care of the needy, as an important part of their service to God. Today’s Old Testament reading tells about the widow’s jar of oil, or, in the words of the Authorized Version, ‘the widow’s cruse’ — nothing to do with boating holidays! You mustn’t ask, with these traditional miracle stories how the trick was done — the story-tellers weren’t interested in that.

But notice the very opening words. One of the community of prophets had died, and in those days before social security, that meant the widow had no income. Worse still, she owed money to somebody, who threatened, unless she paid up, to take her two children and make them slaves. Result: a life of misery for the children; and guilt and worry for their mother.

Elisha was deeply moved by their predicament, and cut straight to the heart of the problem: ‘What shall I do for you?’ he asked.

Compassion
The key to compassion is the ability to put yourself in another person’s shoes, and see the problem from their viewpoint. You may hear the statistics of poverty. But until you’ve put flesh on the figures, and thought about the grief of individuals, you haven’t a strong enough motivation forcing you to do anything about it.

God loves the whole world, and every person in it. Thank God, he cares deeply about you and me as unique people. So we, too, must care for the needy like that, seeing the worldwide problems of today in terms of individuals.

Statistics
So here are some statistics for you to think about. They’ve been gleaned them from various sources on the internet, so some may be out of date or inaccurate, but I think they’ll give the general picture.

I suggest you try to imagine what each problem means for one suffering person, or one parent; then try and imagine that pain multiplied by these colossal figures.

Poverty

• People living on less than $10 a day — 80% of the human race.
• People living on less than $1 a day — over 1billion people — a billion is 1000 million.
• The wealthiest 20% of the world’s population account for over three-quarters of the world’s total private consumption.
• The poorest 20% of the world’s population account for 1.5% of the world’s consumption.

Homelessness

• The number of children made homeless because of war over the past ten years is 12 million.

Water

• Inadequate access to water — over 1 billion people.
• Lacking basic sanitation — 2.6 billion people.

Schooling

• Primary age children who never go to school — 72 million.
• People who can’t read or write — nearly 1 billion.
• What would put every child in the world into school — less than 1% of what the world spends every year on weapons.

Deaths

• HIV/AIDS: of over 40 million people in the world presently living with HIV/AIDS, 3 million die each year, and 15 million children are orphaned.
• Tuberculosis: one-third of the people in the world are infected by TB, with 8 million new cases each year, and 2 million die each year.
• Malaria: up to 500 million new cases each year, of whom 1 million die each year.

Child Deaths

• Due to poverty — 25,000 children die each day.
• Due to diarrhoea — nearly 1 million children die each year.
• Each year, 10 million children die before reaching their fifth birthday.

Can we ignore it?
Can we ignore it? If your mind’s boggling, like mine, the temptation is to close our minds, because world poverty’s too big a problem for us to worry about. But in times of recession, when people in rich countries have to forgo some of their luxuries, third-world people are driven to despair, wondering where their next meal’s coming from.

A Story
I want to tell you a story. You may have read it, or heard it, before. I’ve used it a couple of times on my blog. I didn’t write it, though it is written in the first person.

Making a difference
If enough of us start to throw starfish back into the ocean we can make a difference: if enough of us start to do even small things towards helping with the world’s problems we can make a difference.

Don’t be overwhelmed by the hugeness of the task, just concentrate upon the bits that you can effect. It’s all too easy to be overwhelmed, and do nothing; but every little bit can make a difference — especially when added to lots of other little bits.

This week
We’ve seen some of that on the streets of our cities this week. There’s no doubt about it that events of the past week or so have brought to the fore an awful problem in our society. I think it’s going to take us a long time to sort through the myriad reasons for what’s happened. And I don’t intend to try and explain it all here, because I don’t know the answers any more than you do.

But in amongst all of the terrible things that have happened, there have been some positive things too — people not being overwhelmed by the wider problems that none of us can yet explain, but concentrating instead on the bits they can effect.

Some of the most striking images, for me, were of the hundreds of people turning up with brooms to begin the clear up, after their communities were wrecked. I’m sure they were all asking themselves, “Why?” — just like the rest of us. But they put those questions to one side, and concentrated on the bits they could effect, and so helped to bring some hope back to their communities, and the individuals living in them.

The prophets showed us that God has compassion on suffering individuals. Surely we can do no less.

The Queen of Sheba

“When the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon, (fame due to the name of the Lord), she came to test him with hard questions.” 1 Kings 10:1

Legend or history?
How much of the story of King Solomon in the Bible is history, and how much is legend? It isn’t easy to know with any certainty.

The books of Kings divide Solomon’s reign into two phases: in the early years of his reign he led the newly united kingdoms of Judah and Israel to a peak of prosperity.

He erected the magnificent Jerusalem Temple, and many other public building works. Of course, we say Solomon erected them, but he didn’t do it personally: he would’ve had thousands of slaves to do it for him. I’ve always been confused why we use that particular turn of phrase in the English language.

Solomon was internationally famous for his wisdom, and his skilled international diplomacy; and this is why the Queen of Sheba came to visit him.

Then in the second part of his reign, he allowed his foreign wives to build altars to their local gods. And as punishment, the Lord allowed the kingdom to split in two, Judah and Israel.

Recently, some archaeologists have doubted whether the magnificent building attributed to him in the Holy Land could possibly have been erected in Solomon’s reign. So perhaps the stories were written up at a later period, with the aim of uniting the two kingdoms, and bringing them both to worship at Jerusalem.

In other words, the stories of King Solomon probably have a historical core, but have received a little patriotic embroidery.

The Queen of Sheba
Where does that leave the Queen of Sheba, then?

The great wealth of Sheba, or Saba, came from the export of frankincense. It was probably in Southern Arabia, and later established a colony in Northern Arabia.

Recently, archaeologists have excavated the remains of a large city at Mareb in Yemen, at the southern tip of Arabia, and near the port, which used to be known as Aden. This city, known today as Mahram Bilqis, dates from around the time when King Solomon ruled in Jerusalem.

Mahram Bilqis was obviously very wealthy, and could easily have been the home of the Queen of Sheba. But there are no written records to tell us the names of its rulers.

The Qur’an
The Qur’an, the holy book of the Muslim religion, gives the Queen of Sheba a name, Bilqis or Balkis. It says she came from a people who worshipped the sun. A spirit controlled by Solomon brought the throne of Sheba to Jerusalem “in the twinkling of an eye”. The Queen came looking for it, and Solomon introduced her to the worship of Allah.

Ethiopia
The Jewish historian Josephus, calls her Nicaula, and says that she was the Queen of Egypt and Ethiopia. There’s some evidence that certain Semitic people migrated from Arabia to Ethiopia; and the Ethiopian people believe that the Queen of Sheba, who they call Makeda, moved there after visiting Solomon, and bore him a son called Menelik. They claim that he was the first emperor of Ethiopia, so that all their emperors down to Haile Selasse are descended from King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba.

Elsewhere in the Bible
In the New Testament, Jesus warned the people of his generation that they’d be judged by ‘the Queen of the South’ (Matthew 12.42) — even she, a foreign idolater, was a better person than those who rejected Jesus.

And a verse in Isaiah says, ‘All those from Sheba shall come. They shall bring gold and frankincense, and shall proclaim the praise of the Lord’ (Isaiah 60:6). So the Queen of Sheba’s visit to Solomon was seen by Christians as foreshadowing the visit of the wise men bringing gifts to Jesus.

Christians have also assumed that the Song of Solomon in the Bible, was sung at his wedding to the Queen of Sheba. So it’s been regarded as a metaphor of the spiritual marriage of Christ to the Church.

Us
This is all very interesting, but what’s it got to do with us?

I think we’d do best to focus on the Queen of Sheba’s search for wisdom.

Solomon prayed for wisdom, and regarded it as a gift from God. This wasn’t scientific knowledge, but tact and insight in handling people and their relationships.

You can’t learn wisdom from a course at university; it only comes from loving people, with all their human quirks and foibles.

Left to ourselves, we soon give up on people; but God loves everybody, eternally. And only he can give us the power to do the same.

So search for wisdom, as the Queen did, and ask God for it, as Solomon did. Maybe God will also give you prosperity, as he did to them.

But surely the ability to spend your money wisely; spend your time wisely; and spend you love wisely, is worth more than any amount of wealth — isn’t it?