Back at 'er

Someone asked me if my holidays went by fast. In a way, I said, I supposed they did, and in a way they didn’t. The measuring of time is funny that way. Spending hours with your favourite person goes by way faster than a 10 minute sermon. Or, at least, that’s what I find, and I include my own sermons in that.

I think that my response to the question, however, has a great deal to do with my eagerness to return. I am eager. I see lots of activity in our church-community. But activity is not a useful measure of anything, really.

We measure the value of our activity by the outcomes. Right? Well, maybe not. In the economy-minded world we live we are always figuring whether we got value for our money, or whatever we put into an activity. Jesus calls us to something different. Jesus calls us to value love, justice, forgiveness and mercy. And to value these things for other people. Yes, of course we desire these things for ourselves, but Jesus, on the cross lost all of these things, plus his own life, so that we could have them, and in abundance.

Let’s measure our busyness by the value it achieves for others. That is, for example, exactly what the labour movement did, people gave up work and wages, they risked detention and death so that their neighbours and people they would never meet could have a fair wage, fair treatment and safe working conditions. The labour movement didn’t stop there, it went on to achieve all sorts of things that make up the key elements of our social safety net. In short, if it weren’t for the labour movement, children would still be working in sweatshops for 12 hours a day.

Who am I fooling? Children still work in sweatshops. Perhaps not in this countries but in many places. Rather than being pessimistic about the usefulness of the labour movement today, let’s get back at ‘er, join forces and be as Christ would be in the world, making sacrifices for others.