By Geoff Serpell

Scripture Reading: Mark 9:33-37

Our introduction to the subject of eating together came from Youtube and by searching for “#Eat Together Commercial”.

Having family and friends to share a meal usually involves fellowship and bonding. You all will doubtless recall relatives coming together for special occasions such as Christmas and birthdays, maybe involving travelling long distances, on trains.

I vividly recall such events over 75 years ago over several years whilst my Mother’s Mum was alive, traveling from Melbourne to Sale in Gippsland by steam train with the track sometimes almost covered by flood waters in places. Uncles, Aunts, parents and cousins rejoiced in a Christmas meal numbering at least 20 seated around a very large dining room table.

I wonder if you would get behind the idea of inviting a friend next time, we have a church lunch outing at the Cheltenham RSL?

My friend, Eddie Askew, onetime President of Leprosy International, wrote a book of meditations and prayers based on meals with Jesus, called “Cross Purposes”. His introduction captures pictures through the Gospels of Jesus eating with people, sharing the lives of his friends and followers. Sometimes he is criticized for it and often misunderstood.

Accepting an invitation at Matthew’s home, he is asked why he eats with sinners. Faced with more than five thousand hungry people, a disciple tells him it is impossible to feed them. At dinner in Bethany, there is criticism about the cost of perfume. The disciples quarrel about precedence before supper in the upper room. There were hurt feelings on the beach at breakfast as Peter is restored to his discipleship. In each situation Jesus acts with love and insight. Living out his life within the purposes of God. He faces his critics with integrity and when they are at cross purposes with him, he steadfastly faces death rather than compromise; the purpose of his cross to cancel out the cross purposes of the world. Today many people are rediscovering the value of meditative prayer in personal worship and retreats.

Considering matters of food and meals, The International Day of Awareness of Food loss and waste informs us that 631 million tonnes of food was wasted by households in 2022. We are asked to schedule a weekly ‘Use it up day/meal to make the most of any leftover ingredients. Have an ‘eat me first’ shelf in your frig. Keep to your written shopping list whilst shopping and avoid the promotions. Put food waste in the green bin for composting.

A response to poverty is to consider subscribing to “Compassion” , a Christian International holistic child development organization. Currently more than 2 million children are being released from poverty by people donating $10 a month. Poverty is described by the World Bank as living on US$1.90 a day, all 736 million throughout the world where half are children. Along with poverty goes poor health, violence, malnutrition, water scarcity, exploitation and a lack of access to education which leads to lifelong destructive patterns.

Closer to home, a convention on Saturday, October 5 at the Uniting Church Centre for Theology and Ministry called: “Give us this day our Daily Bread”. A brochure is on the Narthex table.

Food production is of course being affected by climate change. Extremes of heat, bush fires, floods and storms all impact on the growing of food. Recently a Prof. david Lindenmayer spoke of his lifelong care and research into our forests. Logging in our city’s water catchment is an issue. Native animal habitat is another. Storing carbon in forests is vital as is planting plantations for local timber use.  You can watch “Meet the author with David Lindenmayer” on YouTube and buy his book “The Forest Wars”.

A key element in combating global warming is for everyone to find ways and means to influence against continued financing for fossil-based fuels. I urge you to find out if your bank is continuing loans to involved mining companies. Which company shares do you hold? Are their policies ethical and truly green? Is your superannuation fund still financing companies associated with coalmining? It is not difficult to switch your super to an ethical or responsible fund after getting financial advice. This action will send a strong message about not investing in fossil fuels.

You may like to check out the resources of The Australian Religious Response to Climate Change at https://www.arrcc.org.au/go fossil free individual.

Private sourced money is urgently needed to deal with climate transition and to support poor countries. Our Leighmoor church has a banner hanging on the tennis court stating that our policy is action by 2030. Other banners could well be “God didn’t create a Planet B” and “Killing the planet is against our religion”. I am very wary of giving support to nuclear power stations. Apart from the risk of regular earthquakes, the disposal of nuclear waste and inordinate timeframes and cost to build, I am skeptical enough to think that promoting nuclear is just an excuse to do little else.

I also believe that our country should have a national environmental protection authority. To police approvals and compliances consistent throughout our land. Watch out for this issue to be voted on, noting the opposition from vested interests.

Could we all hope and pray that we can work in partnership with our church so we may witness the wonder of God’s mission to all creation by living simple, compassion-filled lives that protect and nurture creation and call for climate justice for all peoples. The lives of our grandchildren & beyond may very well depend on this.

Today concludes the World Council of Churches World Week for Peace and Justice. In Palestine the dead exceed 10,000. In Ukraine there are One million casualties, adding those from both Russia and Ukraine. In the public domain you may search for “Mark Twain War Prayer.” I cannot spell this out, it is too gruesome. The gist is about churches during the Philippine-American War, praying for success on the battlefield. During one such service, a stranger interrupted such a prayer and reminded the congregation just what they are praying for. He spells it out: “soldiers being torn apart, wasted humble homes, little children wandering homeless, all this to achieve victory!! This is as applicable today as it ever was during past world conflicts such as wars to end wars. In Twain’s storey, the interrupting stranger was deemed a lunatic.

Reflection: Dear God, may we hear your gentle voice, saying “Come as you are” and don’t even bring a bottle to the party, just turn up shining your light in our very small corner of the world and have us plan to do something, in your name, dear Jesus. Amen”