Happenings 3 October 2019

We had a lot of fun last Sunday night at ‘faith@6:30’. Thanks to Simon, Elisha and Matt for all their efforts! They had prepared a simulation game where everyone was given a new identity that covered gender, ethnicity, employment and marital/parental status. So, a young male student may suddenly find he is a middle-aged female Asian janitor(!) and during the course of the night he was treated as such (being paid and treated differently depending on his new identity etc.). The purpose of the night was to give a very small taste into issues of injustice in our country – how some people are treated unfairly simply on the basis of who they are rather than what they can bring. It made me reflect - in my own life, I have noticed that the times when I am most sensitive to the needs of the poor are when I have little resources myself. Conversely, I have noticed that increasing wealth tends not to make me more generous, but to make me more insensitive … more removed … from those in need. Have you noticed this too? It is something, I think, we need to actively combat. Simon gave a great insight at the end of our evening together from the parable of the sheep and goats in Matthew 25. There, a phrase is repeated four times – a sure sign that it is something important!  “When did we see …” The ‘righteous’ were those who ‘saw’; who were sensitive to the needs around them, and because they were sensitive, they acted. The ‘unrighteous’ were those who simply did not see. They did not act because their own self-imposed blindness made them unconscious of the needs around them. Both the righteous and the unrighteous lived in the same world but they lived dramatically different lives based on their ability to see. Let us be those who do not live blind to injustice. Let us be those who see and then who act.

In Him,
Murray