Habakkuk and COP26

No, until this afternoon, I don’t think I had read Habakkuk either; in fact if you had asked me if there was a book bearing his name in the Bible, I might have struggled to give an honest answer. He is what is known as a “minor prophet” and the name says it all. It is a short book, buried in the middle of the Old Testament surrounded by other books that rarely get read.

The book was written in response to a great catastrophe that was about, or had just, befallen the Jewish nation; probably the destruction of Jerusalem. But Habakkuk did not just see this as the fall of a city or even a nation; he saw it as the destruction of all of creation, the end of the natural world;

“Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls”

In spite of this, he had hope:

“yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Saviour. The Sovereign Lord is my strength;  he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to tread on the heights.”

Habakkuk had faith, that God would provide the resources for his people to rise again.

Today, his fears sound particularly appropriate for the climate crisis we are facing, where trees do not bud, crops fail and livestock dies. But just as in the days of Habakkuk, God does not abandon us. As in those days, he gives us resources, human ingenuity to devise solutions. But just as in the days of Habakkuk, this relies on us taking advantage of those resources.

Rev David Poyner

Valuing Others

The news last weekend was dominated by the murder of Sir David Amess, the MP killed during a routine meeting with constituents. This brought back memories of a few years ago, the killing of Jo Cox, another MP. Both lost their lives by simply doing their job, as elected representatives of us all.

Politics thrives on debate and argument. MPs can expect to be criticised for the views they hold; on occasions it may be appropriate to offer personal criticism, if for example, they say one thing and do another. But, from what I can see, this is uncommon; most MPs have integrity. What we (and they) should not do is to use language that degrades their humanity; I worry when I hear words such as “scum” or glib judgements that “they are all the same”. They are not; each is a human; in Christian terms, a unique person in the image of God.

From a book I have recently read, I understand that in Zulu, “sawubona” is a greeting; its meaning covers seeing and recognising a fellow human. The response “shiboka” can be translated “I exist for you”. The authors of the book make the point that when a Benedictine monk meets another person, the monk bows to face the ground; this is an acknowledgement both that God is within that person and that they and the person they have met share the same earth. These truths apply to all we meet, whatever we may think of them.

Rev David Poyner

The Old Evil

In recent days, Israel and Jewish identity has been in the news. The main headlines have been for the author Sally Rooney, who refused to allow her Israeli publisher to translate her latest novel into Hebrew, because she felt it did not dissociate itself from the actions of the Israeli government. But, as a university teacher, what I noticed was that Bristol University has dismissed one of its professors for harassing Jewish students.

There can be difficulties in opposing the actions of any government without targeting all those who live in that country. It would be wrong of me to comment on the specifics of these cases as I do not know the full facts. But I am uncomfortably aware that all too often the Christian Church has been complicit in acts of discrimination, particularly against Jews, on the totally spurious basis that they somehow killed Jesus. Jesus lived and died a Jew; the first Christians considered that they were Jewish. As Christians, we accept the authority of the Old Testament, the Jewish bible. There can never be any excuse for anti-semitism. It was not the Jews who killed Jesus, it was a religiously-minded mob, orchestrated by their priests. And, as a priest, that is an uncomfortable truth I have to face whenever I put on my dog collar.

Rev David Poyner

Nobel Prize Winners

This time of year is always of interest to me, as it marks the announcement of the Nobel Prizes. Yet again, inexplicably, I’ve not had the phone call from Stockholm… But I take some reflected glory from, over the years, having met/known prize winners and on one occasion, actually publishing with one. I’ve also met a number of people who fall into the category of “why-have-they-not-been-given -Nobel-prizes”; the judgement of the committee is always subjective and I suspect had one person been able to give better lectures, he would have had a prize.

This fleeting acquaintance with scientific greats has made some mark on me. It has shown me what a really great intellect looks like; an important lesson in humility for myself and a useful guide for identifying those who think they have a first-rate mind but actually don’t. The people I have met also have another characteristic. Not all scientists are noted for their modesty; sometimes you have to take this side of their personality alongside the merits of their work. However, the Nobel laureates (and the near-misses) that I have known do not have this edge. Perhaps I have been fortunate, but they have all been modest and thoughtful individuals. Whilst I do not think any would consider themselves remotely “religious”, they may have grasped that compared to the wonders of the natural world, or what I would loosely term “creation”, personal humility is the only appropriate response.

Rev David Poyner

Lessons from the Garage Forecourt

As I write this, I am possessed with the smugness that comes from having a full tank of petrol in the midst of a fuel crisis. Just a couple of hours ago, that is not at all how I was feeling…

There is nothing like a panic about shortages to show us truths about ourselves. On Friday (tank full), I lamented the short-sightedness of those queuing at the pumps when the crisis was all media-hype which would surely be over in the space of a few days. On Sunday (tank not full) I was taking furtive glimpses at filling stations as I went past them, so I could surreptiously fill up. I still had over half a tank, didn’t really need the petrol, but I wasn’t wearing my dog collar and frankly my greed was more important than others need. Lesson 1; living in the Kingdom of God is not easy. And lesson 2; I am a hypocrite (see previous Thought for the Week).

Today, I learnt lesson 3, via Thought for the Day on Radio 4. The speaker, another vicar, confessed to exactly the same reactions as mine. But she turned to the Bible, to Jesus’s teaching on anxiety. Famously he told his listeners to think of the lillies of the field, which neither toil nor so, but which God still cares for. He told his followers not to be anxious about what the day would bring, because God cares for them. Significantly, he did not tell them they would not run out of petrol, or indeed more serious things would not happen. And the peasant-labourers to who he was speaking did really have far more pressing things to worry about than a full tank of petrol. But Jesus was telling them to live in the present. The future is always unpredictable and belief in God is no protection against harm. But his message is that we can afford to live in the present because whatever happens in the future cannot cut us off from God and his love.

Rev David Poyner