8 February - Come rain or shine...

If you followed us last year, you may remember that, for Lent 2024, I took as my focus Matthew Chapter 5, v.44-45: “But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to raise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.” [NIV]

And, that I prefer the following, loose, translation – a favourite limerick from childhood:

The rain it raineth on the just
And also on the unjust fella.
But mainly it raineth on the just,
‘Cause the unjust has stolen the just’s umbrella.

It’s not done with me yet. It’s also today’s Verse of the Day from Biblegateway.com.

Last time, I was struck by the impartiality: we all receive the sun, the rain, not on merit, but simply through existing. This time, the partial part resonates. We are challenged to care, even though we get no extra sunshine, avoid no showers. It’s a very Jesus-y ask. I just finished a podcast on John 15, on the honesty, equivalency and rawness of what Jesus promises his followers. I feel it also here.

Matthew Chapters 5 – 7 are called “the Sermon on the Mount”, brilliantly parodied by Monty Python: “I think he said: “blessed are the cheesemakers”.” “What’s so special about the cheesemakers?” “Well, obviously, this is not meant to be taken literally. It refers to any manufacturers of dairy products.”

Given how we are currently seeing “Christian values” represented in the world, this Chapter, indeed the whole sermon, needs to be read into the record. Please find it. Sit with it. It is a sobering, inspiring, practical guide to an honorable, enriching attempt at humanity.

Chapter 5 ends: “If you simply love those who love you, what reward will you get? Don’t even the tax-collectors do the same thing? And, if you welcome only your brothers, what’s extraordinary in what you’re doing? Don’t those in other nations do the same thing? So, be what you were meant to be, be complete, as your father in the sky is complete”. [Sarah Rudin’s translation]

In Chapter 6, Jesus gives the gift of the Lord’s Prayer [Rudin]:

“Our father in the skies,
Let your name be spoken in holiness.
Let your kingdom arrive.
Let what you want happen
On earth, as in the sky.
Give us today tomorrow’s loaf of bread,
And free us from our debts,
As we too have set our debtors free.
And don’t bring us into the ordeal,
No, rescue us from the malicious one.”

Jesus is clear about focus and priority. Less is more.

Chapter 6 ends with one of my mother’s favourite Bible quotes, which she would always say in KJV translation: “Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.” Or as Rudin puts it “… Today’s aggravation is plenty for today”.

As we prepare for pilgrimage, it is good to be grounded in weather, family and a wise conception of plenty.