Living Faithfully in the Time of Creation pages 3b.qxp_Summer 02/08/2021 08:12 Page 17
Lectionary reflections
15th Sunday after Pentecost (B) Reading If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,’ and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead. (James 2:15–17, NRSV)
Reflection This isn’t about ‘earning salvation’, an impossible task. It’s about showing how our faith and belief affect our behaviour. We are following Jesus and trying to put what he taught into practice, not hoping a supernatural hand will fix everything. Praying and then trying to be part of the answer to prayer. Grateful that God loves us unconditionally but wanting to do our best for the one who knows what we are capable of and understands our limitations. Loving our neighbour as ourselves. Most in the UK are used to seeing shop shelves full of food. Whether we can afford what we need or want is an important but separate issue. Whether the food is good for us isn’t always the point, although of course it matters. We assume the food will be there and complain if it isn’t. How long would it take for complaint to turn to understandable panic? In spring 2020 the island of Mull off the west coast of Scotland received a one-off large delivery of food from FareShare, the charity which redistributes surplus food via other charities. The non-perishable food was destined for the newly established foodbank. But there was enough fresh fruit and veg that a high proportion of households received a good-sized bag; nothing to do with whether we could or couldn’t afford it but because, in the early days of lockdown when more people were trying to shop without leaving the island, most shops were struggling to source enough fresh produce. Mull has lots of green space, some of which is wild and could appropriately be wilder, some of which is grazed by sheep, cows and deer. A few people keep poultry but none on a big enough scale to supply the shops. Local meat, fish, seafood, cheese, biscuits, jams, honey, wool, etc. are available at a fair
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