Revelation 21.1-6, Psalm 148, John 13.31-35
The Fifth Sunday of Easter, 15 May 2022: Christian Aid Week
Austwick, Clapham, Eldroth
Janet Zirugo smiles when she sees her grandchildren’s faces light up as she hugs them tight. Janet has a big heart. Many of the children in her family are orphans, and she is their sole provider. ‘In my family, children look up to me and I must give them food. I am more than glad to share what I have,’ she says. In her village in Zimbabwe, Janet has seen how drought pushed her family into desperate hunger.
‘One year, there was so little food. Rains had not fallen. We ate things which we wouldn’t eat in normal times. I made porridge and gave it to the children, then removed a portion and put it down for the dogs. The children picked up the dogs’ share because they weren’t full. When I saw this, I knew the situation had become unbearable. My heart was so painful thinking that my family would die. By God’s grace we did not die. We soldiered on.’
With faith, hope and love, Janet brought her family through this painful time. Thanks to supporters of Christian Aid, Janet was given drought-resistant seeds that can grow in that harsh climate. You’ll be happy to know her farm is now bursting with life. She is proud of the food she has grown – bowls full of groundnuts, wild fruit, golden corn; a rainbow of colour. Janet has built a storeroom to keep her harvest safe and secure, to help her bounce back in future droughts.
‘My life is changing,’ she says. ‘This project is lifting us up. We are thankful. It makes me happy to see my family are strong and well fed.’
And the one who was seated on the throne said, ‘See, I am making all things new.’ Also he said, ‘Write this, for these words are trustworthy and true.’ Then he said to me, ‘It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give water as a gift from the spring of the water of life.’
Jessica Mwedzi, a loving mum in Zimbabwe, fears her family won’t eat tonight. When food is scarce, she can only give her children one bowl of porridge a day. She shares her heartbreak, saying: ‘My children crave a decent meal, but I can’t provide. It pains me to send them to bed hungry.’
For Jessica, drought means every day is a struggle for survival. Like many women in Zimbabwe, she toils on her farm, but no food can grow on her ashen dry land.
‘One year, we had no rain. The scorching sun burnt my crops just as they were about to bloom. It was so painful and disheartening.’
It’s unjust that drought robs Jessica of the power to provide for her family. Her husband is unwell, so she is the only breadwinner. She says: ‘Women are at the mercy of climate change and hunger.’ Once before, when things were desperate, Jessica asked her neighbours for food. But she came home with nothing.
Jessica is hungry. Hungry for a good meal. Hungry to earn a decent living. Hungry to provide a more hopeful future for her family.
Christian Aid supporters are helping Jessica grow seeds that thrive in the drought.
In the months to come, she’ll turn these seeds into fresh food like tomatoes, beans and cucumbers to sell and feed her family. She’ll have the joy of seeing her children grow up happy and healthy.
Jessica’s love for her family gives her courage to stand strong against the threat of drought. ‘My children give me the power to go ahead,’ she says. ‘I pray they have a better future.’
I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them; he will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away.’
John’s book of Revelation offers a vision of how God intends the world to be, not only in the future but here and now. It was written when the Roman Empire was advancing, grabbing more and more political and economic power, and demanding of the colonised peoples that they worshipped the emperor and the Roman gods. John’s vision encourages the early followers of the Way of Jesus to keep faith and resist these powers that would suppress the Kingdom of God; and his vision challenges us today to not settle with the ways of our contemporary global empires but to seek to understand what it means for us to live in, and help to grow, a ‘new heaven and new earth’, which God indwells, the home that earth was always intended to be.
For Janet, Jessica, and the dry earth itself: they cannot be well if we are not well. And we are not well and cannot be whilst this world is out of balance with the land, its creatures and its peoples exploited and suffering for the gain of a few. [2]
When we visit a river, and see it, and notice its condition: whether clear and clean or murky and polluted, consider how much we need it to be healthy so that we may also be healthy; how much its health contributes to the health of the tree, who contributes to the health of the sky, and to the earth, so that we and Janet and Jessica’s families may also be healthy. [3]
The earth is God’s home; it is Janet, Jessica and their children’s home, which we share. From the high heavens to the depths of the sea it is home to God and all creatures. We human beings and the entire world will come to fulfilment when we are ‘at home’ with each other – more precisely, when we see that God is dwelling in this world, and is always active wiping away every tear from the eyes of the suffering, gifting water to those who are thirsty for drink, and offering the spring of life to those who thirst for goodness, justice and peace. [4]
When we join with the angels, the sun, moon, stars and clouds, with the creatures of the sea deeps, the wild beasts and cattle, insects and birds on the wing; when we join with the elements themselves, the rivers and streams, the mountains, hills, and trees; when we join with all peoples of all ages, places and conditions, to exalt the name of God - then and only in that way will we find our deepest fulfilment and purpose; then and only then will our thirst in life be salved.
We are made to live in harmony with the land, the creatures and all the peoples of this world, not in competition but in celebration of this joyous gift of existence. [5]
Janet, Jessica, and the dry earth itself cannot be well if we are not well. But all shall be well and all will be well in this world when we treat it as our common home, shared together with God. [6]
Notes
[1] Janet and Jessica’s stories and the commentary on Revelation are sourced from Christian Aid, Sermon Pack for Christian Aid Week 2022 [PDF].
[2] ‘You cannot be well if we are not well. And we are not well.’ James W. Perkinson, Coronavirus Cacophony, in Jione Havea (ed), Doing Theology in the New Normal: Global Perspectives, p.225. Quoting Kristin Flyntz, An Imagined Letter from COVID-19 to Humans [Text] [YouTube].
[3] Kristin Flyntz, An Imagined Letter from COVID-19 to Humans [YouTube], paraphrased.
[4] Christian Aid, Sermon Pack for Christian Aid Week 2022 [PDF], paraphrased.
[5] “I don’t think existence wants you to be serious. I have not seen a serious tree. I have not seen a serious bird. I have not seen a serious sunrise. I have not seen a serious starry night. It seems they are all laughing in their own ways, dancing in their own ways. We may not understand it, but there is a subtle feeling that the whole existence is a celebration.” - Osho, quoted in GoodReads.
[6] ‘All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well’. John Skinner (trans), Julian of Norwich, Revelation of Love, pp. 54–55, 124.
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