Rivertown United Reformed Church

Minister’s Letter – November 2009

“God’s Economy”

I was talking to someone the other day who had spent her whole life in the same house. She had reached the stage of realising that she now had an awful lot that she really didn’t need. I am a hoarder by nature - but our regular moves as a manse family have made regular clearouts not only possible, but welcome. In a sense God does not have this problem. God never moves house! But God does not waste anything. Whilst walking the dog in Wepre Wood one beautiful sunny day I was struck by the canopy of trees, the multicoloured carpet of autumn leaves in red, orange, gold, yellow, green, with a smattering black dots. Nothing is wasted here. Everything plays a part – and by recycling helps growth the next year. One leaf by itself, through beautiful, cannot hold a candle to the sight of all the leaves thrown together. But we need to stop, and look. And listen, for alongside the picture show there were spotlight shafts of sunshine, birds singing,\leaves rustling and squirrels and other creatures dashing about. What a theatre!

But God’s Economy is not limited to nature. Throughout out lives different experiences – happiness sadness, loss and gain, new life and bereavement, success and failure and the rest all cram their way into our hearts and minds and become part of us. Sometimes they can almost overwhelm and unbalance us – and that is where we need God, to take from us from we don’t need to keep. The negative feelings of guilt, regret and so on, from which we have already learnt and on which we have acted. If we learn from our mistakes, I reckon I should have a PhD by now! But God forgives, and allows me to leave my “rubbish” there. God is no mean refuse collector, I can tell you! But once again, we all need time – to stop, look at ourselves, and listen to the voice of God in our lives. And dreams – are they God’s way of getting things out of our system?

Neither is God’s Economy limited to nature or memory. The Bible resounds with the message that God’s love and care are for all human life. There is to be no wastage of human life; no one is to be, or even made to feel, redundant, unnecessary – for in God’s plan and vision , everyone is needed, everyone has a contribution to make. From the miscarried baby, to the lifelong paraplegic (or “invalid” - what a word if you pronounce it the other way!), to the Aids sufferer, the abused, the war widow, the schizophrenic or bi-polar sufferer, the tragically killed, and so on. After all, wasn’t that just what Jesus did – called everyone as they were to follow him? As a society here we are beginning to take that in, but still there are so many on the fringes. Violence and war will continue while world finance and trade are skewed for the benefit of the rich – but here too we are beginning to learn how truly interdependent we are as nations. Once again we need to stop, look, and listen to the voices of the under-developed nations of the world. And think (pray) hard.

This is the month of Remembrance. So many young, and older men and women drawn into horrendous situations by their own willingness to give everything. If only we could devote as much effort to fair finance and trade as we do to protectionism and war, then perhaps we would begin to see some of the green shoots of reconciliation we so urgently need. Young people, forces, everywhere, every citizen of every country needs to know they are not mistakes, not irrelevant – but part of the solution. We were never meant to go building ever larger barns at the expense of others. For, just like the house or shed with too much in it, in time it becomes overwhelming – and we collapse. God help us to stop, look and listen – to nature, to others, to our own hearts, and to God. And see what a difference it makes!

Your minister and friend,

Colin