I’ve always tried to be an advocate of William Temple who said that clergy should preach with a Bible in one hand and a newspaper in the other!

There’s been a varied selection of news articles over the last week; sixty years of the state of Israel, Fritzel in Austria, the millions of pounds we throw away in waste every day, which seems appalling at the start of Christian Aid Week. There was Northern Ireland WAGS; you have to remind me to tell you the story about the NI WAGS! And what about “QI”? Have you ever seen that programme, and its complete dismissal of Christianity in one fell swoop by comparing it to a bloke called Mithras? Perhaps that’s for another day! The Olympic torch on Everest! I even had it in mind to talk about Shavuot, the Hebrew festival of Pentecost, the late cereal harvest to mark the time God gave the Ten Commandments at Mount Sinai. There seemed to be a host of topics I could choose from!

But as the days went by, news became more and more dominated by the humanitarian disaster in Burma as the result of Cyclone Nargis. No doubt, there will be more and more questions asked; deep, searching questions, once we get over the immediate crisis of helping so many people, even against the wishes of a military junta.

I know only bad news gets in to the papers and on to the television, but it’s trying to make sense of it all that scares me. And the more you think about it, the worse it gets! Intellectualising something doesn’t get ride of the problem

(You know well that the Burma military government has pressed ahead and held a constitutional referendum despite the devastation. Burma’s state media claims that 23, 335 people have died, but the UN fears the toll could be about 100,000).

 

Human nature never ceases to amaze me; I think that’s why I’m still in this job! We are capable of demonstrating to each other such love and compassion, yet we are also capable of causing such harm and destruction to each other.

 

I know that this is going to be a challenging week for our Christian Aid collectors. You need to be a mature Christian to stomach some of what you will encounter. I know the stories, I even know the people, and it would shock you (and them) if I told you some of those stories this morning, which I’m not going to do

We are such a varied and complex set of human beings! We are separated by a myriad of things; language, culture, tradition. The Tower of Babel, in Genesis 11, scattered everyone to the four corners of the earth and we have hardly been speaking to each other since! Sometimes, it seems to be easier for us to help people we don’t know, than help people we do!

Whatever the questions we can ask, Christian Aid and every Relief Agency have a job on their hands. We can ask the questions later. But after the infamous Tsunami on 26th December 2004, there were a lot of words and explanations offered. A phrase I will remember came from Canon Tom Wright of the Church of England, whom I heard say,

“If you think you have all the answers, then you must be asking the wrong question!” Where do you take it from there?

Do you know about the bright young student from Harvard University who journeyed to the mountains of Tibet? (Another news item!). There he met a monk who so influenced him by his way of life that he joined them. The monk had said, “Life is not a competition! Give it up. Come join us in an atmosphere where we share, live in harmony, and love one another. Here you can find true happiness!”

The Harvard student had worked hard to be where he was, but he wrote to his parents to tell them he would not be coming home; that he is at peace. He said in his letter, “Here there is no competing, no hustling, no trying to get ahead of everyone else. Here we are all equal, and we all share. This way of life is so much in harmony with the inner essence of my soul that in only six months I’ve become the number two disciple in the entire monastery, and I think I can make number one by June!”

The only thing that changed for this bright young student was his environment. On the inside he was exactly the same.

The coming of the Spirit at Pentecost unites people who were once separated. The event of Pentecost reverses Genesis 11, where people are brought together in a common language, a common cause and a common love for our Lord. But if we suddenly think we have found all the answers, we have to make sure we are asking the right questions.

When separating out the sheep from the goats in Matthew 25, the only questions Jesus asked were, ‘When I was hungry, did you feed me? When I was thirsty, did you give me something to drink? When I needed clothes, did you clothe me? When I was sick or in prison did you visit me?

Good questions? If you think you know everything, you’ve a lot to learn!