On Focaccia, Priorities and Justice (Jeremiah 22.1-9, Luke 14.27-33)

Having moved to Sprowston very recently, thanks for hiring me by the way… I’d never been to big Tesco. I’d hear stories of Big Tesco, fables, tales about it. Hev'yeh bin up big Tescoo yet? Someone asked me.

You’ll be pleased to hear that I have had the quintessentially Sprowston Experience of Big Tesco. That and getting the 11 bus into town.

But I find Big Tesco overwhelming, I hate going in there. It’s just too big. There are too many choices. I can’t prioritise what I want, that’s why I’m a Lidl man. I don’t mean short, I mean there’s fewer choices and I actually prefer it. It’s less overwhelming, the bakery’s good as well, I’ve been known to polish off a goats cheese foccachia every now and then.

Anyway my point is this. Priorities, choice we’re surrounded by them.

What are our priorities? I ask this question not in a judgemental way but in a spirit of genuineness, what are our priorities? What choices do we face?

We’re surrounded by priorities, choices, lives, mess. Decisions. Some of them small, others big.

We all have to decide what side we are on, what our priorities are, it’s part of life.

I think both of these passages set out God’s priorities very clearly.

Firstly, justice and caring for the poor. Secondly Following God.

We must radically re-think our priorities to be Christian. As Christians it is our responsibility to care for the poor, refugee and oppressed. We cannot leave it to someone else. It’s not enough for us to act one way and do another.

This is partly what Lent is about, and it’s never been more relevant. As we heard in the hymn;

“Take up thy cross the saviour said, if thou would’st my disciple be. Deny thyself, the world forsake and humbly follow after me.”

Part of our Lenten journey is about re-addressing our priorities. Or perhaps even re-membering them. We deny ourselves. Not to punish ourselves, or just out of duty, but to try and come closer to God. In Lent we take time out from some of the things we enjoy. It’s reminder of how lucky we are we can do that. We’re lucky to have pleasures and things we can so easily enjoy. One need only look to Kiev, whose residents a matter of weeks ago were living normal lives in a European lifestyle, much like us.

We take time out so that our priority can be on God. As disciples we are trying to follow in Jesus’ footsteps.

This isn’t a very popular thing is it? It’s often treated as if it’s a ‘holier than thou’ thing to do. To deny ourselves. We’re always told to live a little, go on you deserve it! But actually there’s something important about denying ourselves sometimes.

As Christians we cannot do what we like, when we like, however we like to whoever we like because we do not believe that’s the way society should be, and it’s not the way Christ taught us to live.

Yet we can see it so much in capitalist society that people’s lives are treated as expendable. The mega-rich can do exactly whatever they want to whoever they want, as it was in the beginning is now, and ever shall be.

But as Christians we say no.

No to the destruction of homes in war, no to the rampant pollution of the earth, no to the mega-rich. Why? Because that is God’s priority. It should be ours too. We’re called to be a people of justice.

We can see that in our Jeremiah reading.

“This is what the Lord says. Do what is just and right. Rescue from the hand of the oppressor the one who has been robbed. Do no wrong or violence to the foreigner, the fatherless or the widow and do not shed innocent blood in this place.”

It’s amazing how a Bible passage that’s thousands of years old can speak into our times right now can’t it? Something written all those years ago to express something of anger and grief at oppression and the powerful exploiting people. It’s also sad that it’s still relevant. I’m sure all of us can see the obvious parallels to the Ukraine situation.

But it’s not new, Ukraine is dreadful, barbaric, but so is Yemen. The civil war that has been going on there since 2014. An estimated 223,000[1] have died in that conflict. And Britain is currently arming human rights abusers Saudi Arabia in this conflict. Helping fuel the world’s worst humanitarian crisis and indiscriminate attacks on civilians. Nearly five million people are on the brink of starving in Yemen.

There’s something wrong with these priorities aren’t there?  

On the Ukraine situation earlier this week it was reported that refugees fleeing the conflict had to do this simple procedure in order to get a visa to come to the UK.

Step 1 Create an account on the Home Office website and fill in an application form.

Step 2 Upload proof that a qualifying member of their family has permanent British residency.

Step 3 Upload proof they have been living in Ukraine since before 1^st January this year

Step 4 Provide evidence that they are related to the qualifying family member in Britain such as a birth certificate. If they can’t be provided they’ve got to explain why not. (I think fleeing a war might have something to do with it.)

Step 5 Translate all the above documents into English and upload them to a website.

Step 6 Book and attend an in person appointment at a Home Office visa application centre in Poland, Hungary, Romania, or France so that biometrics can be taken.

Step 7 Wait while the application is decided by caseworkers in the UK and security checks are carried out.

All while they are fleeing for their lives from a war, probably with little more than a suitcase.

There’s something wrong with these priorities. Instead of welcoming the stranger and rescuing from the hand of the oppressor, our govt are actively putting up barriers against human beings safety. For me that’s just not Christian. It’s not right.

When we look at our text from Jeremiah we see three main sections. 1. You’re not doing what you should be doing. 2. There will be consequences and bad things will happen. 3. Your Greed will destroy you. Know me says God.

It must’ve been a pretty unpopular message, there’s a reason Prophets often never got to withdraw their pension.

The things we cling to, the stuff, the cedars, the spacious house, the things we want, it’s all meaningless.

What matters is how we treat others, and the biggest problem in our world right now is a lack of empathy.

We’ve seen from toiletpaper gate, remember that at the beginning of the pandemic? We cannot buy our way out of a crisis.

What should our priorities be? Justice. Pure and simple.

To follow Christ, to take up our cross requires us to hunger for justice.

Give up the narrative that oppression is okay.

Give up our wrong priorities.

Give up shopping unethically as much as we can. Live with inconvenience for the sake of other people.

Lord knows I am a bad example of a disciple, but we must affirm our priorities of justice.

Because God loves us, wants us to live full lives, and the only way that happens is not through stuff, but through faith, hope and justice.

Faith to follow and know God in defending the poor, hope that there is a God of justice who knows us and our pain, and justice by striving for it. “Take up thy cross the saviour said, if thou would’st my disciple be. Deny thyself, the world forsake and humbly follow after me.”

So perhaps I’ll go beyond big Tesco, and maybe give up that foccachia.

Photo by Brett Jordan from Pexels

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[1] https://www.cfr.org/global-conflict-tracker/conflict/war-yemen