Camels Magazine (Queen Camel, West Camel), Corton Denham News, Village Magazine (Sparkford and surrounding villages)
Editorial - Easter 2017
The devil met a food supplier, hungry for profits, and said to him, ‘Why don’t you substitute horsemeat for beef?’ And the supplier said, ‘That sounds like a profitable idea, I’ll give it a try’.
Then the devil showed a retail executive all the world’s kingdoms, saying, ‘I will give you all this power and glory, if you do things my way, exploiting the land and the poor to maximise your profits.’ And the executive said, ‘Show me the contract, I’ll get our lawyers to approve it straightaway’.
Then in a supermarket, the devil said to the customers, ‘If you wholeheartedly consume food full of additives, fat, sugar, and calories, fear nothing, for the angels of God will protect you from cancer, heart disease, obesity and tooth decay.’ And they said, ‘I believe you, here’s my loyalty card’.
The temptations of Jesus in the wilderness we still succumb to today: manipulating nature for our own gain, thus troubling our delicate relationship with the earth; ceaselessly pursuing power and authority, wealth and status, troubling our delicate relationship with others; and believing that however heedless our lifestyle we will flourish, troubling our delicate relationship with God.
‘Soil, soul, and society’ are the three fundamental elements in each of our lives, their interdependence intrinsic to our well being. So I think that Easter is expressed just as truly through eggs and chicks as it is through the old rugged cross. Increasingly I believe simply this: that God is like Jesus. Jesus whose protests against those gluttons for power exploiting the earth and the poor got him crucified (to the agony of his loving Father). Jesus whose life puts death in its place - as a mere element in the cycle of eternal life which he invites us all into.
“What came first, the chicken or the egg?” and “What came first, the crucifixion or the salvation?” These questions are equivalent. The deep answer is outside their frame of reference: it is that chickens and eggs, crucifixions and salvations are each part of the life of creation, the gift of the Creator whose life, death and resurrection we celebrate at this time of year, the One whose life and teachings inspire and equip us in the ongoing work of restoring our balance between ‘soil, soul, and society’.
John Davies
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