The book group met in the Chapel at St Chad's. The discussion ranged far and wide; I have listed here a few of the main points that were raised:
- Money has power and it often has power over us.
- Mammon is more than just money. It also has power over people, nations, companies and appears to influence the electronic age considerably.
- The Governor of the Bank of England has been pictured reading Archbishop Justin's book whilst commuting on the tube.
- What we see we value. This can be both positive and negative.
- The Raising of Lazarus - Is this a story that turns the reader off, is it too unbelievable to be taken seriously?
- If we value something we can't obtain, then we devalue ourselves.
- See with different eyes. Learn to look through the eye's of Jesus, beyond the visible, beyond just things.
- Children live in a world of attainment and the pressure to be something more.
- People are almost addicted to retail, it is often seen as a quick fix to life's problems. It's like a drug. Consumerism has huge power over our live's.
- It's important not to make money equal to God.
- Have we lost our moral compass? What kind of society do we want to be?
- Love of money. What is mine, is mine!
- We value what is visible and what is confident.
Towards the end of the session, our focus turned from the wider effects of Mammon on society and we considered the effects of God's over generosity on our live's as individuals. One or two told stories where God's glory and grace had touched their hearts in ways that brought hope and joy. Where gifts of money had arrived unexpectedly to solve financial problems to the penny! Another spoke of a bleak situation in prison, where the sight of a Golden Oriole perched high in a tree top, had spoken of God's creative love in ways that sustained and healed beyond all imagination.
Even in the darkest places of our lives, God's glory can fill our hearts.
The 'see with different eyes' thread of thought was with me yesterday evening during the Ash Wednesday service, most particularly in your reading of the Gospel, and the story of the shamed and accused woman brought to Jesus. His reaction to the angry mob was simply to crouch down and write in the dust. Twice we were told that he continued to write in the sand...
ReplyDeleteHow I yearned to be able to look over His shoulder and see what He was writing!
His powerful retort - "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone" drove the accusers away one by one until there was none left but the woman. But was it just His spoken words that drove them away? Or was it more, something in the writing in the sand?
Yes, it's an amazing story. Something in the presence of Christ enables people to see with different eyes. The Scribes and Pharisees think they have got the measure of Jesus and they expect him to concentrate his focus on the sin of the woman. Instead he turns their vision upside down and the focus falls on their own sin. Was he writing anything or just showing through his posture, a total disregard for their vision of Him as a Judge and the woman as an irredeemable sinner? I wonder if there is a link with the writing on the wall incident in the book of Daniel?
ReplyDeleteAre there any other references to writing in the sand in the gospels? I can't think of any. Just found a reference to priests having to write the law that an accused person was said to have broken before passing judgement. But by the law both the man and the woman should have been brought together to face an accusation - was Jesus reminding the Pharisees of this?
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