“THE COW,
THE TREE AND THE BLANKET”
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A sermon preached Readings:
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John 3:16-24, John 10:11-18 |
Today is the start of Christian aid Week,
and much of this year’s
Christian Aid material focuses on Sri Lanka
–
So let me tell you an old Singhalese story :
An old man was dying, so he called his two sons
and told them:
‘I am going to leave you everything I have,
but you must be sure to share it between you’.
In his will he left them
a cow, a tree and a blanket.
The brothers decided that they should exactly
share all three.
The older brother had the front half of the cow; the younger brother had the
back half.
The older brother had the bottom half of the tree; the younger brother had the
top half.
The older brother had the blanket by day; the younger brother by night.
But things did not work out the way they
planned.
The older brother found he was spending all his money feeding the cow;
the younger brother was getting all the milk.
The older brother was putting all his effort
into watering the tree;
the younger brother enjoyed the fruit.
The older brother spent the day washing and
drying the blanket;
the younger brother kept warm under it at night.
The older brother asked for a meeting
and explained to the younger one how unfair he thought it was.
But the younger brother announced that he had no intention of changing anything
because he liked the deal he was getting very much.
So the older brother grew more and more despondent.
Eventually he couldn’t see the point of feeding the cow any more, so he
stopped.
The cow died.
Then he couldn’t see what use it was watering the tree, so he stopped.
The tree withered.
Finally he lost the will to wash the blanket any more.
The blanket got covered with mildew and was too disgusting to use.
When the younger brother realised that he wasn’t
getting any milk or fruit,
and that he was shivering at night, he demanded to see his brother.
He was furious with him for stopping work.
But the older one didn’t see it that way at all.
He was livid with his brother for not sharing the good things
that the cow, the tree and the blanket could do for them.
The anger grew into a ferocious quarrel.
And then the brothers and their children and their grandchildren argued for 100
years.
How could brothers be so
stupid?
And yet we know the story is about ourselves –
the cow, the tree and the
blanket are the planet given us by God –
with enough resources for everyone to share and enjoy.
What has gone wrong is the way they have been divided up –
so that some of us seem to get all the benefits –
health care, education, food, shelter, clean water -
whilst others get little or none.
The Scriptures are clear about this –
God has given us the planet in trust - we are called to share the good things
of life –
with our brothers and sisters
In the words of today’s epistle –
‘How does God’s love abide in anyone who has the world’s goods
and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses to help?’
(1 John 3:17).
190 years ago, back in the year 1813,
the very first Mint Methodist Church opened on this site.
In the same year,
as Methodist worshippers made their way to the Mint for
the very first Christmas services that year,
Thomas Coke and six fellow workers were setting sail from Portsmouth
in ships of the EIC to sail to Sri Lanka – or Ceylon as it then was –
to set up the first Methodist Missions in Ceylon.
Back in 1813 Methodist work and witness in
Exeter
went hand in hand with Methodist care and concern for Sri Lanka
and for the whole world.
And that never has – and pray God never will –
change.
We are now getting into the really exciting
stages of our redevelopment project here at the Mint,
and we now have three of the five architects’ initial thoughts for you to study
over coffee –
But now as then
redeveloping here goes hand in hand with living out Gospel values across the
world.
That is why yesterday we were raising money for
our redevelopment
and today we are raising money for Christian Aid.
They are not alternatives – they go together.
We are seeking to redevelop this site precisely
as a place
where worship and prayer, study and debate
will lead to the changing of the world.
This year’s Christian Aid campaign focuses on ordinary people
whose quiet heroism has started to change the world.
We’ll be thinking about them in our prayers in a few minutes.
As individuals we may not always feel much like heroes.
But God works through ordinary people like you and me.
We’ll be using a striking prayer later in the
service –
it also comes from Sri Lanka and derives from the tea industry –
it is a prayer which talks about pouring boiling water on dry tea leaves.
And of course when you do that you suddenly find that
what looks dried withered and worthless, is transformed –
its hidden potential and flavour
and sustaining power are released.
So it is with you and me –
ordinary people, not seemingly worth much –
but if the Spirit falls on us, then we become new in the power of the spirit,
and we can bring refreshment and joy to others.
Nancy and Trevor and Harriet will be singing one of Nancy’s songs later
–
its all about “Letting go our false securities and trusting
in God”.
As individuals and as a Church community we have a choice -
to keep ourselves safe and secure like a packet of dry tea at the back of the
cupboard –
or whether to take the risk –
to let the transforming power of the Spirit loose in our lives to change the
world.
I
don’t know if you remember the very moving Holocaust memorial service
which was broadcast from Westminster Central Hall a couple of years ago.
I remember one of the speakers said she was a little
girl in Czechoslovakia in the 1930s -
and with the help of a kind man in England,
her parents managed to get her out to England.
She said the first thing her foster mother said to
her when she arrived was
”You shall be loved –
And these are the most important words a refugee
needs to hear”
“Years later I asked my foster father why he took me
in –
He said:
I knew I could not save the world,
That I could not stop a war starting,
But I knew I could save one human soul”
When life is hard, God our heavenly father comes to us
Like an ever loving shepherd of the sheep
And says “You shall be loved”
For I have come that all may be saved.
And as a Church and as individual Christians
He asks us to share in his work –
That by small acts of love and heroism
We should play our part in saving the world.