A transformation of character

Here's the sermon this morning at St Catherine's Wickford and St Mary’s Runwell:

‘In the 1953 film, The Million Pound Note, Gregory Peck is a poor sailor given a £1 million note. Whenever he tries to spend it, people treat him like a king and give him everything for free. Yet in the end the £1million almost costs him his dignity and the woman he loves.

We don’t know why the rich ruler asked about eternal life (Mark 10.17-31). Unhappiness? After all industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie noted long ago that millionaires seldom smile! One of the problems of rising affluence is that ‘enough’ always means just a little more – TV and advertising make sure of that! And money can get in the way of the relationships which are so essential to our happiness.

Whatever the reason Jesus challenges him to give his money to the poor but the price is too high. The rich man walks away, broken-hearted, knowing what he leaves behind. We think of money as opening doors but here it closes the door to life, not just eternal life but to the life of this new community of disciples who put Jesus before their financial choices. He is invited to let go of his money because we can’t travel light with heavy baggage, or engage with others when we are full of ourselves.

This story challenges us about how we live with money, the choices that we make. And the challenge to generosity is one that we cannot duck. A generous heart and a generous lifestyle will open doors for other people in need. It will also open doors for us to new life in Christ and in relationship with his people, his disciples. But following Jesus with our money is not easy. It has to cash out in our day to day living and attitudes. Some years ago Fr John Dresko, an orthodox priest, wrote the following which has not been translated from the original American:

“My gift to God is a genuine reflection of my heart. If I give $400 per month to the bank on my car loan, but think the church is fleecing me for $20 per month, I have a heart problem. If I do my grocery shopping and write a check when I leave for $100 so my family can be fed, but think $20 per month is too much for the Bread of Life, I have a heart problem. If I can go to the package store and drop $20 for a bottle of liquor but gripe about the costs of sharing the Blood of Christ, I have a heart problem. If I cheat the church out of regular giving by pleading about my ‘cash flow’ while ignoring the fact that the church has the same bills and the same ‘cash flow’, I have a heart problem.”’ (Sermon Reflections by Peter Howell-Jones, Vice Dean Chester Cathedral)

The New Testament scholar Tom Wright identifies this heart problem with a call to a transformation of character. He writes that ‘Jesus is challenging the young man to a transformation of character.’ It is worth our while staying with this idea and the way Tom Wright unpacks it in relation to this encounter:

‘The young man has come wanting fulfilment. He wants his life to be complete—complete in the present, so it can be complete in the future. He knows he is still “lacking” something, and he is looking for a goal, a completion. Jesus suggests he needs turning inside out. His life is to become part of a larger, outward-looking purpose: he is to put God’s Kingdom first, and put his neighbour (especially his poor neighbour) before his own fulfilment and prospects. Here is the real challenge: not just to add one or two more commandments, to set the moral bar a little higher, but to become a different sort of person altogether.

Jesus is challenging the young man to a transformation of character.

And the young man isn’t up for it. He turns and goes away, sad. Here is the gap between theory and reality, between command and performance. Jesus has told him how to behave, but the young man doesn’t know how to do it. The question hangs, disturbingly, over the rest of the Gospel story. What is the path to God’s new age, to the new time when God’s Kingdom will flood the world with justice and peace? How are we to be the sort of people who not only inherit that world but actually join in right now to help make it happen?

But what we notice in Mark 10 is something which seems to operate in a different dimension. For a start, it is a call, not to specific acts of behaviour, but to a type of character. For another thing, it is a call to see oneself as having a role to play within a story—and a story where there is one supreme Character whose life is to be followed. And that Character seems to have His eye on a goal, and to be shaping His own life, and those of His followers, in relation to that goal.

All of this suggests that Mark’s gospel, with Jesus Himself as the great Character who stands behind it, is inviting us to something not so much like rule-keeping on the one hand or following our own dreams on the other, but a way of being human to which philosophers ancient and modern have given a particular name. My contention is that the New Testament invites its readers to learn how to be human in this particular way, which will both inform our moral judgments and form our characters so we can live by their guidance. The name for this way of being human, this kind of transformation of character, is virtue.

What does it mean to be virtuous?

The dynamic of “virtue,” in this sense—practicing the habits of heart and life that point toward the true goal of human existence—lies at the heart of the challenge of Christian behaviour, as set out in the New Testament itself. This is what it means to develop “character.” This is what we need—and what the Christian faith offers—for the time, “after you believe.”

When we approach things from this angle, we are in for some surprises. A great many Christians, in my experience, never think of things this way, and so get themselves in all kinds of confusion. Virtue, to put it bluntly, is a revolutionary idea in today’s world—and today’s church. But the revolution is one we badly need. And it is right at the core of the answer to the questions with which we began. After you believe, you need to develop Christian character by practicing the specifically Christian “virtues.” To make wise moral decisions, you need not just to “know the rules” or “discover who you really are,” but to develop Christian virtue. And to give wise leadership in our wider society in the confusing times we live in, we urgently need people whose characters have been formed in much the same way. We’ve had enough of pragmatists and self-seeking risk-takers. We need people of character.’

The fundamental answer to the question what is supposed to happen “after you believe” is that ‘what we’re “here for” is to become genuine human beings, reflecting the God in whose image we’re made, and doing so in worship on the one hand and in mission, in its full and large sense, on the other; and that we do this not least by “following Jesus.” The way this works out is that it produces, through the work of the Holy Spirit, a transformation of character.

This transformation will mean that we do indeed “keep the rules”—though not out of a sense of externally imposed “duty,” but out of the character that has been formed within us. And it will mean that we do indeed “follow our hearts” and live “authentically”—but only when, with that transformed character fully operative, the hard work up front bears fruit in spontaneous decisions and actions that reflect what has been formed deep within. And, in the wider world, the challenge we face is to grow and develop a fresh generation of leaders, in all walks of life, whose character has been formed in wisdom and public service, not in greed for money or power.’

So, Jesus’ challenge here is not simply about our use of money or about our own stewardship - should we give five per cent, ten per cent, or twenty per cent or everything (as with the Rich Young Ruler) – but about developing a generous heart and a generous lifestyle that will open doors for other people in need. It is about becoming like Jesus, who laid down his own life that others might truly live. May it be so for each one of us. Amen.

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Pink Floyd - Money.

Bank Churches Lent Course

Is money wealth? Bank Churches Lent Course
Join us we discuss the Archbishop of Canterbury's Lent Book 2017
Every Tuesday in March
6pm (45mins)
Hosted by: Bank Churches at St Margaret, Lothbury, EC2R 7HH

07/03 - Session 1: What we see we value (Jeremy Crossley)

14/03 - Session 2: What we measure controls us (David Parrott)

21/03 - Session 3: What we receive we treat as ours (George Bush)

28/03 - Session 4: What we master brings us joy (Sally Muggeridge)

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Writz - Luxury.

Start:Stop - Do amazing things in the most unlikely places

Bible reading

‘... a man, going on a journey, summoned his slaves and entrusted his property to them; to one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away. The one who had received the five talents went off at once and traded with them, and made five more talents. In the same way, the one who had the two talents made two more talents. But the one who had received the one talent went off and dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money. After a long time the master of those slaves came and settled accounts with them. Then the one who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five more talents, saying, ‘Master, you handed over to me five talents; see, I have made five more talents.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and trustworthy slave ...’ And the one with the two talents also came forward, saying, ‘Master, you handed over to me two talents; see, I have made two more talents.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and trustworthy slave ... Then the one who had received the one talent also came forward, saying, ‘Master ... I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours.’ But his master replied, ‘... you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and on my return I would have received what was my own with interest.” (Matthew 25: 14-30)

Meditation

In the story people at work are ‘entrusted with vast sums of money and expected to use them in commercial ways.’ One talent is sixteen years’ wages, five is eighty years’ worth. ‘That’s a lot to entrust to a slave ... Slaves, those way down the pecking order, were here entrusted with huge wealth. The master didn’t entrust the talents to his fellow owners or to his friends, but to his slaves.’ In that sense, ‘this parable is more about equality, at least of opportunity, than it is about inequality. Slaves, if they can handle it, are as worthy of being trusted as the leaders of society.’

In the story ‘people are given assignments, they have responsibilities, and they have to report back to the boss, who then assesses them and rewards them with further work responsibility – or punishes them with demotion (or the sack). The relationships are business relationships. There is one worker who obviously has real commercial smarts, another who is not quite as high-powered but still does pretty well, and then there is the one who has no commercial savvy at all, and who lets his employer’s money sit in the ground doing nothing. So we have the successful risk-taker and the conservative, risk-adverse colleague who’d much rather do nothing than try anything.’

The parable ‘upholds commercial activity – even ... banking’ and, more specifically, ‘Jesus does indicate that – in the right settings – using money to make money is completely acceptable.’ ‘For Christians in the workplace that is welcome and affirming.’ Despite this, ‘the parable doesn’t tell us that money is good, or that we will be doing God’s work if we earn more talents for Him by any means we wish as long as we end up increasing the amount.’

However, ‘done well, done properly, these activities will validly contribute to the building up of the kingdom. As a result we must be open to the possibility that God has placed them there for us to use in this way. If we approach the workplace with the idea, the preconception, that good cannot possibly be achieved there, then the chances are that it won’t be. But if, in part thanks to this parable, we are open to the possibility that God can work through instruments such as money and in the workplace, then who know what might happen? ... God can turn up and do amazing things in the most unlikely places.’

So, the ‘parable of the talents is about whether we try to be the best we can be, working with God to build His kingdom, heal His creation, including the workplace – which, like everything else, will be perfected at the end of time. It’s about being ourselves, not trying to be people we’re not. It’s about doing only what we are capable of doing, but doing it very well. It’s about a God who entrusts us with things of enormous worth – the possibilities of being His co-workers – and who will love us for what we have done unless (... unless we hide the gift, don’t ask Him for help using it, and then turn around and tell Him it was all His own fault anyway).

Prayer

Lord Jesus, you entrust us with something of enormous worth; the possibility of being your co-workers in building your kingdom. Enable us to be ourselves; doing only what we are capable of doing, but doing it very well by trying to be the best we can be.

Work through instruments such as money and in the workplace. Do amazing things in the most unlikely places.

Show us how commercial activity and banking done well will validly contribute to the building up of the kingdom of God. You have placed commerce and banking there for us to use in this way, so them and us to heal and perfect your creation, including our workplaces.

Work through instruments such as money and in the workplace. Do amazing things in the most unlikely places.

May those who are way down the pecking order be given equality of opportunity through being entrusted with responsibility. Enable those in this situation to know that, if they can handle it, they are as worthy of being trusted as the leaders of society.

Work through instruments such as money and in the workplace. Do amazing things in the most unlikely places.

Blessing

Entrusted with being co-workers in building the kingdom of God. Given equality of opportunity. Enabled to be ourselves and do what we are capable of doing very well. May these blessings of God almighty, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, rest upon us and remain with us now and always. Amen.

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Michael Been - World On Fire.

Stewardship: The Widow's Mite

I wonder how many of us think that we have a lot to give to God. My guess is that most of us actually think we have very little we can give to God.

We may think that we have nothing special in terms of our talents. We may think that we have little the way of time because of the many pressures that we face in life. We may think that we have little spare cash because of the significant costs of living. As a result, we often think we have very little to offer and may hold back from offering at all as result.

This is a particular issue when it comes to the suffering and distress that we see on our TV screens around the world, whether through conflict or lack of resources and relief. Global issues seem so huge that the contribution we could make pales into insignificance and we think there is no point doing anything ourselves as our contribution will simply be a drop in an ocean.

It is easy for us to think that big is best and that what we have and are is too little to make an impact but today’s Gospel reading says otherwise (Luke 21. 1 – 4). Jesus sees and values the contribution which the widow makes. Everyone else gave from their surplus wealth, but the widow, from her poverty, contributed all she had, her whole livelihood. So Jesus uses her example as a challenge to the wealthy and well resourced who often give less proportionately while the less well off give more of what they have.

A New York Times Magazine article in 2010 highlighted the myth of philanthropy and the “benefits to the poor” of having the super wealthy. 'What this well-researched article revealed was that the super wealthy, the wealthy and ostentatious “scribes” of today, actually give less than those who have middle and lower incomes. Most absurdly, what Jesus observed in his day remains true today — those with the least continue to give more, by percentage of their resources, than the wealthy!' So this is a message that needs to be heard in these times of austerity where budget cuts are often focused on the poor rather than the wealthy.

Small is beautiful, as E. F. Schumacher reminded us, and as the images we have been viewing this morning state, our small actions or contribution, combined with those of others, can then have a big effect. The butterfly effect which is found in Chaos Theory and the multiplier effect in economics both show, on the basis of research, that small changes and small contributions can have significant effects.

Stewardship month is an annual reminder to us that that is so when it comes to the contribution we make as Christian disciples; when it comes to the money we give back to God, the talents we use in his service, the community contribution we make and the environmentally-friendly actions we take.

Jesus valued the Widow's mite and took the small meal that one child offered using it to feed more than 5,000 people (Matthew 14. 13 - 21). Rev. Conwell took Hattie May’s 57 cents and used in to build a church, a University and a Hospital. We need the contribution that you can make to St John's, however small it may seem to you, and in whatever way you can make that contribution. The mission and ministry of this church is the combined effect of the contributions that each of us make. St John’s needs you, now more than ever. God has given you resources, time and talents, this Stewardship Month I encourage you to reflect prayerfully on all that you can and do give back to him in order that together we can combine our individual offerings to make a bigger impact for him.

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Supertramp - Give A Little Bit.

Andrea Büttner: The Poverty of Riches

One of the BP Spotlights currently at Tate Britain is a selection of work by Andrea Büttner:

"The work of Andrea Büttner (born 1972) includes woodcuts, reverse glass painting, sculpture, video and performance. She creates connections between art history and social or ethical issues, with a particular interest in notions of poverty, shame, vulnerability and dignity, and the belief systems that underpin them.

Büttner’s work often makes reference to religious communities, drawing attention to the relationship between religion and art, and between religious communities and the art world. The video Little Sisters: Lunapark Ostia focuses on a sisterhood of nuns who manage an arcade in a small amusement park in Ostia, near Rome. The nuns speak about their work and respond to questions posed by Büttner concerning happiness, spirituality and spectacle."

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The Frames - Pavement Tune.

Inequalities of wealth and power

Yesterday's Guardian had some excellent Comment pieces on the extent to which wealth and influence are unequally distributed as a result of the way political and market forces operate in the UK.

Polly Toynbee took on the Government's unthinking and unevidenced mantra that privatisation is always right and always best:

"There is no evidence about how well contracting and privatising work: the best experts can find is 1980s assessments of early contracts for simple local services. At the very least, there should always be a state comparator. NHS contracting is galloping ahead, with no centrally gathered monitoring for comparison. Other privatisations rush on – probation and the court fines collection service – while companies built by cashing in from the state, such as G4S, A4E and Serco, are in disgrace. While Serco is being investigated by the Serious Fraud Office after overcharging on tagging, it emerges that its finance director sold £2.7m shares two months before the share price tanked on a profits warning.

This is the world David Cameron assumes always does better than public service, as a matter of unproven conviction. Laying out his Open Public Services policy, he said everything was up for sale, with "a new presumption" that "public services should be open to a range of providers competing to offer a better service". When he said: "The old narrow, closed state monopoly is dead," he forgot to say that services sold or contracted would become private monopolies making handsome profits at our expense. The dogma driving these privatisations wilfully ignores past experience."

George Monbiot calls Britain the new land of impunity because no matter what the criticisms made or damage done, fat cats and politicians seem able to cling on to the rewards of power and wealth:

"There has seldom, in the democratic era, been a better time to thrive by appeasing wealth and power, or to fail by sticking to your principles. Politicians who twist and turn on behalf of business are immune to attack. Those who resist are excoriated."

These specific and evidenced UK-related accusations are set against the background of debate regarding Thomas Piketty's Capital in the Twenty-First Century with its powerful argument about wealth, democracy and why capitalism will always create inequality:

"When the maelstrom surrounding Thomas Piketty's Capital in the Twenty-First Century dies down, as all such publicity storms do in the end, its lasting achievement may be to give economics back its sense of proportion. Diligently and unnoticed outside his field, Mr Piketty – together with Emmanuel Saez and Tony Atkinson – spent years mining international tax records to demonstrate how, in Britain and the US, the portion of the national output gobbled up by the richest had first fallen by two-thirds or more in the 60 years after the first world war, but had then, from the 1970s on, more than doubled again. Having settled one century-long story, in the new book the professor moves on from top incomes to (even larger) top wealth and traces this through more than 200 years of data, while discussing how population growth and the march of technology have shaped capital's place in society since antiquity. This long view discourages worry about passing matters such as individual elections, or for that matter recessions."

In one of it's leaders from yesterday, the Guardian suggests:

"Where mainstream culture had precious little to say about inequality during the long years in which the economic gap opened up, post-bust and post-bailout, a different mood has taken hold, and rage against the rich is now part of the zeitgeist. So fashion is playing its part here. But if the fashion is for finally facing up to a maldistribution of resources previously unnoticed, then that is all to the good."

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The Clash - Working For The Clampdown.

What is the role of the commons in the economy?

Rev. Canon Peter Challen of the Christian Council for Monetary Justice is one of the organisers for an intensive social innovation project of 12 interrelated seminars in 12 days involving leading NGOs and thinks tanks. What is the role of the commons in the economy? will foster an educational and research collaboration for facilitating transition to a more equitable world. It will demonstrate how differing starting points can lead to a commons ground. You can participate in one or more of the seminars.

James Quilligan is a globally renowned commons theorist/activist, policy analyst, and founder of the Global Commons Trust. He writes: "Modern economics has turned labour into a utility of the market and government. But the principles of the commons (people's negotiation of their own norms and rules for the management of social and natural resources) show us how to transcend utilitarian economics by transforming the traditional division of labour. New forms of value are already being created by these commons, whether they are traditional (irrigation ditches, pastures, indigenous cultures) or emerging (intellectual property, social networks, collaborative innovation)." To learn more about Mr. Quilligan’s work, click here.

James Quilligan's work on managing local and global commons is developing understanding of how in a commons-based economy:

• consumers become the producers of their own resources
• trusts set a cap on the extraction and use of a resource to preserve it for future generations
• businesses flourish by renting a proportion of the resources outside the cap for extraction and production
• governments tax a percentage of these rents, funding a basic income for citizens and the restoration of depleted resources
• the power of decision-making returns to the people, enabling them to participate in the decisions that affect them directly
• the traditional property ownership model is eclipsed by a trusteeship model of sustainability, quality of life and well-being
• the lessons of community based resource management have major implications for post-liberal forms of multilateralism and global governance.

He will present a series of 12 seminars, workshops and other educational events during his 12 day visit to London in the Spring. (Look up details here.) Those events will be convened by a variety of organisations. Confirmed conveners include:Finance Innovation Lab, School of Economic Science, St. James Piccadilly, IPPR, NEF, Civil Society Forum, and School of Commoning.  The kick-off seminar will be hosted in the House of Commons.

Starting from many different points of engaged intellectual and scholarly concern, research and practice, the various seminars will explore the understanding of the Commons as perceived from each seminar’s perspective, guided by James Quilligan. Together, they represent an emergent curriculum of theoretically grounded and action-oriented studies in the key economic, political, and social issues of the Commons.

During his visit, these seminars will examine together such questions as:

• Economically, what steps are needed to adjust the rules of the present interest-driven, debt-based economy to the sustainable targets of our natural, social and cultural commons?
• Politically, how can the philosophy of individual wealth (ownership, division of labor, reciprocity) be reconciled with the interests of collective wealth (trusteeship, the unity of producers and consumers, complementarity)?
• Socially, would it be possible for people's trusts to create sustainable limits to protect our commons for future generations, then rent the remaining resources to business for production and distribution, and provide these revenues to government for the funding of social dividends and the restoration of the depleted commons?

The vital and complex questions introduced in these seminars do not have easy answers. The investigation into how the “commons” may connect and synergise the economic, social, philosophical, spiritual, and political spheres, and facilitate the great transition to an equitable and sustainable world, is an ongoing challenge.

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Pink Floyd - Money.

It's time to Close the Gap

Today, Church Action on Poverty has published It's Time to Close the Gap: the Basic Case, a new free booklet. 11 prominent Christians have been asked to reflect on different aspects of the gap between rich and poor, what can be done to address them, and why the church must get involved.

With a Budget coming up, there is an opportunity to call for action to Close the Gap and Church Action on Poverty hope this publication will help to galvanise more people in the churches to speak out and take action.

Doing the following will help ensure it has a significant impact:

1. Click here to download and read the booklet for yourself.
2. Make sure other people in your church and community get to see it too - and encourage them to act.
3. Click here to make your own Pledge to spread the word - and get more free resources to help you mobilise others in your community.

Church Action on Poverty works with church and community groups across the UK to make tackling poverty a priority. Their work involves: educating churches about poverty in the UK; enabling people in poverty to speak for themselves; working for policies to eradicate poverty; promoting reflection and action for social justice.
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Flying Lizards - Money (Thats What I Want).
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Covenant of Noah: Conditions for life

What legacy will we pass on to those we leave behind? In what way can we hand on the torch of faith to future generations? What does my life say to others and what do I want it to say? These are all questions from sermons preparing us for Lent and questions that will recur as we study our Lent course ‘Handing on the Torch’ together.

In 2008 the Chief Rabbi Sir Jonathan Sacks gave some remarkable answers to questions of this sort in an address to the Lambeth Conference based, in large part, on today’s Old Testament reading (Genesis 9. 1 - 17). What he had to say has not been given sufficient attention although it unpacks a neglected part of the story told within the Bible and so I want to share with you today some of what he said.

He began by speaking about power and wealth. The state is about power, the market is about wealth, and they are two ways of getting people to do what we want them to do. One way is to force them to do it – the way of power; the other one is to pay them to – the way of wealth.

Imagine, for a moment, you have total power, and then, in a fit of craziness you decide to share it with nine other people. How much power do you have left?  You have 1/10 of what you began with. Suppose you have a thousand pounds and you decide to share it with nine other people. How much do you have left? 1/10 of what you had when you began.

But now suppose that you decide to share, not power or wealth, but love, or friendship, or influence, or even knowledge, with nine others. How much would you have left? Would you have less than when you began? No, you would have more; and why is that - because love, friendship and influence are things that only exist by virtue of sharing them with others? These are what we can call covenantal goods – covenantal goods are the goods that, the more I share, the more I have. And that makes covenant different from wealth and power.

In the short term wealth and power are zero-sum games. That means if I win, you lose. If you win, I lose. Covenantal goods are non-zero-sum games, meaning, we both win; the more I give away the more I have – we both win. And that has huge consequences.

Because you can see with wealth and power, economics and politics, the market and the state, they must be arenas of competition but covenantal goods are different because they are arenas of co-operation.

And the question is where will we find covenantal goods like love, like friendship, like trust, like influence? You won’t find them in the state, you won’t find them in the market, but you will find them in marriages, in families, in congregations, in communities – you will find them in society, so long as you remember that society is something different from the state. If we're searching for the big society, this is where we will find it.

Another way of thinking about this is to think about the difference between a contract and a covenant. A contract is an agreement between two or more individuals, each pursuing their own interest, and they come together to make an exchange for mutual benefit. So you get a commercial contract that creates the market, and you get the social contract that creates the state.

A covenant is something different. In a covenant, two or more individuals, each respecting the dignity and the integrity of the other, come together in a bond of love and trust, to share their interests, sometimes even to share their lives and, by pledging their faithfulness to one another, to do together what neither of them can do alone.

And that is not the same as a contract at all. A contract is a transaction but a covenant is a relationship or, to put it slightly differently, a contract is about interests but a covenant is about identity. And that is why contracts benefit, but covenants transform. Economics and politics are about the logic of competition, covenant is about the logic of co-operation.

Now let’s turn to our passage from Genesis 9. The world had been almost destroyed by a flood. All humankind, all life, excluding Noah's Ark, shared the same fate. God says to all those who survive, those who will build a new world: “I promise I will never again destroy the world. But I cannot promise that you will never destroy the world – because, you see, I gave you free will. All I can do is teach you how not to destroy the world.” 

How? Well, the answer is found in the covenant about which we read in Genesis 9. 1 – 17, a covenant of human solidarity, which is known as the covenant of Noah or the Noahide covenant.

The covenant of Noah has three essential dimensions. Number one: “If anyone takes human life, he will be punished ... [because] Human beings were made like God”; that is about the sanctity of human life. As creator, God is universal. We are all in God's image, formed in His likeness.

Number two: look carefully at Genesis 9 and you will see that there are five times in that one chapter emphasizing that the covenant of Noah is not merely with humanity alone, but with everything that lives on the face of earth. Five times; the covenant is not just with human beings but with all of nature. So the second element of the covenant of Noah is the integrity of the created world; what today we call the Environment. As human beings, we are fellow citizens of the world God made and entrusted to our care.

And number three: the sign of the covenant is a rainbow; the white light of God fragmented into all the colours of the spectrum  or as Sacks puts in the title of one of his books ‘The dignity of difference’. The miracle of monotheism is that unity up there creates diversity down here. 

And so these three elements - the sanctity of human life, the integrity of the environment and respect for diversity - are the three elements of the global covenant that God made with Noah and still makes with us.

All three elements of this global covenant are currently in danger. The sanctity of human life is being ravaged by political oppression and by terror. The integrity of creation is being threatened by environmental catastrophe. And respect for diversity is imperilled by what one writer has called a clash of civilisations. 

So Sacks says that the call of God in our times is to renew this global covenant, the covenant that began with Noah. We have to honour this covenant now, in our time, in order that future generations will be able to live. To come back to the questions with which we began, Sacks is saying that: we will not have a legacy to pass on to those who come after us; we will not be able to hand the torch of our faith on to others; our lives will not have anything to say to others, if the sanctity and diversity of life is not respected and if environmental catastrophe occurs. The covenant of Noah precedes the covenants made with Abraham and Moses and precedes the New Covenant made through Jesus. This covenant creates the conditions in which life and faith can flourish because before we can live any faith we have to be able to live and this covenant is about the fundamentals of life itself; the sanctity of life in all its diversity. 

Sacks is saying that there are fundamental moral truths that lie at the basis of God's covenant with humankind: that co-operation is as necessary as competition, that co-operation depends on trust, that trust requires justice, and that justice itself is incomplete without forgiveness. Morality is not simply what we choose it to be. It is part of the basic fabric of the universe, revealed to us by the universe's Creator, long ago.

He is also saying that the nature of covenant shows how to fulfil the covenant of Noah: respect for the dignity and the integrity of the other, coming together in bonds of love and trust, sharing our interests and our lives, pledging faithfulness to one another in order to do together what none of us can do alone.

What legacy will we pass on to those we leave behind? In what way can we hand on the torch of faith to future generations? What does my life say to others and what do I want it to say? When we pass on covenantal goods we fulfil the covenant of Noah.

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Peter Case - Put Down the Gun.