Video for July 23rd, 2026.
Hello everyone and welcome to this week’s video.
This is the last video for the summer accompanied by the gentle sound of the phosphate laden soup that is the River Wye flowing gently beneath me. Dealing with it confronts us with a dilemma. The deterioration in the quality of the water and the terrible effect it has had on wildlife must be addressed. But the causes of the pollution are multiple and addressing some of them will have significant impact on people’s farming practices and livelihoods. It is unfair to expect local farmers to pay for these things out of their own pockets without national support.
Jesus was confronted with such dilemmas all the time. They were mostly from clever religious people trying to catch him out. The Sadducees tried to trap him with a clever hypothetical situation about marriage. If a woman’s husband dies and she marries again, indeed marries again in the same situation seven times, whose husband will she be after the resurrection. In response he reframes the question, demonstrates their world view is completely wrong and uses it as a teaching opportunity.
On another occasion he is asked whether it was right to pay taxes to the ruling Roman authorities or not. It was intended to draw out one of those dammed if you do, dammed if you don’t type of answer. If he said, “yes”, then he was a quisling. If he said, “no”, he was a revolutionary. Again, his response is brilliant. “Give unto Ceasar that which is Ceasars and unto God what is God’s”. There are other situations when he was asked straight questions and the time wasn’t right to answer them. So, when Pilot asks him during the trial, “are you the King of the Jews?” He equivocates. “Is that you saying that, or did someone put you up to it”. He was still at a point in the journey to crucifixion when a clever answer or a denial might have put it off. Later when asked the same question by the Jewish religious leaders. His response at that point is clear, “yes, it is as you say”. By that time crucifixion is inevitable. His clear response simply piles on the guilt of those responsible.
Those in positions of leadership know about dealing with dilemmas and the need for correct timing. Andy Burnham will discover this as Prime Minister when he has access to the full range of information on which decisions on national security need to be based. Some of that information for good reason will be top secret. Decisions incorporating that information will be judged by others solely on the information they have. To them the decisions will appear wrong. They won’t be, but the basis on which they’re not wrong will not be shared. He will have to live with the judgements that result. Perhaps an inability to see that truth is the reason why we’ve had so many Prime Ministers over the last few years, although there has been a certain incompetence as well in some cases.
The dilemma problem is especially acute when trying to act as mediator. I felt that keenly in the recent Synod debate about Palestine. Nuance and language were vital in the final vote. In the end Synod voted to hear the experience of both sides of the conflict whilst not necessarily agreeing with the convictions that underly different positions. The Kairos 2 document which Synod voted to hear rather than receive is a case in point. The Archbishop in her speech made it clear that hearing didn’t mean agreeing. I believe there is further to be said on the bits we don’t agree with. The Israeli Palestinian conflict is far more complicated than a simple binary. Jewish people have a range of views as do their Arab neighbours. Across the middle east people Palestinian and Jew have been traumatised by the actions of others. It is possible to disagree with the actions of the Israeli government and settlers in Gaza and the West bank and not be anti-semitic, objecting in the strongest possible terms to accusation of complicity in these actions by our Jewish friends here. It is possible to be outraged by the actions of Hamas over many years and their determination to destroy the Israeli state whilst at the same time seeing the response of the Israeli government as disproportionate. To critique the serious faults in the Kairos 2 document, faults that will likely undermine dialogue rather than foster it, does not in any way diminish the pain of the Palestinian people and their crying need for justice.
True friendship seeks to speak truth. The vote at Synod is our attempt to be friends to all sides of an intractable conflict. From the responses to that vote there is still much work to be done.
On that note, I’ll sign off for the summer. If you are having a break, I hope it will be a blessed one. If you are spending more time with family and friends may that be enriching. May the Lord be with us, refreshing us and equipping us better for his service. I will be back the first week in September.
+Richard