Sunday 22 May 2022
Rogation Sunday
Revd Nicholas Mercer
At Christmas, I received an unexpected present from my wife
It was a book entitled “Human Kind” “A hopeful history” and was written by a Dutchman called Rutger Bregman
The book posed a simple question
“How would your life and view of the world change if you knew that people were good”
As the title suggests, the book tries to examine the world through the lens of human kindness
And sets out to be a radical reappraisal on how we see the world
The Book starts by examining the novel “The Lord of the Flies”
We all know the story – a group of school boys get stranded on a desert island and soon descend into barbarism
It is, of course, a work of fiction but sold millions of copies around the world
Its success is based on the notion that it reveals a fundamental truth about the human condition
Namely, that the veneer of civilisation is only wafer thin
And it has proved immensely popular even to this day
However, the author of the book wanted to examine this proposition in greater detail
And found his own real life story of a group of boys stranded on an island
In the 1970’s, six schoolboys had decided to run away by taking a fishing vessel and became marooned on an island south of Tonga
However, rather than descend into barbarism, the opposite happened
The boy co-operated with each other instead
They set up a commune, worked in teams to keep the fire alight and to collect rain water etc
They tended a garden, ran a communal kitchen and even adopted a system for settling disputes
When they were rescued a year later, they were found to be in excellent physical condition
Although we all like to buy into the narrative of the Lord of the Flies, the reality is, perhaps, very different?
I was fascinated with the approach of the book
The author sought to overturn our preconceptions about the world and look at it afresh
However, the book also recognised that we are fed a constant diet of stories about how base the human condition really is
He observed that this constant feeding creates a false appetite,
Which then becomes part of the problem itself
When it comes to false appetites, I have long had a problem with consumption and consumerism
It might have something to do with my age but I often rail at the television
I don’t want to buy a car at 9/10pm at night
I don’t want a sofa or some pro-biotic when I sit down in the evening
It is not about the individual product per se, but about the constant pounding
To buy, buy, buy, consume, consume, consume
It is on the television, the radio, plastered over walls, roads, railways and airports
The internet is now also saturated with advertisements
And such is the ingenuity of advertisers that they can now track your browsing preferences and target you specifically
They create a false appetite -an appetite which constantly needs feeding
And to generate even more money, the goods we purchase are designed to have what is termed dynamic obsolescence
In other words, they are designed to go wrong after a certain amount of use
And then we have to buy again
Capitalism is a voracious beast that is never satisfied
To this end, the author of the book told a parable about an old man and his grandson
The old man says to his grandson
There’s a fight going on inside me. It’s a terrible fight between two wolves
One is evil angry, greedy jealous and arrogant, the other is good, peaceful, loving, modest, generous and trustworthy
The grandson said to his grandfather, which wolf will win?
The old man smiles and says “the one you feed”
I recently picked up another book called “Enough is enough”
Fifty years ago a group of academics from the MIT realised that the endless appetite for consumption would end in tears
They realised that the interplay of factors such as population, industrial capital, environmental pollution and finite resources
Would eventually lead to disaster
As the authors said “Virtually no one will argue that material growth can go on for ever”
Yet we go and and on, plundering the earth, and trying to generate yet more and more wealth to consume
And, as result, we have polluted the planet to such a degree, that just one more degree could lead to economic and environmental disaster
They were right fifty years ago but we have only just bumped into that reality
I just hope that it is not too late…
Today is Rogation Sunday
When we asking for God’s intercessions for agriculture and offer prayer “For God’s blessing upon the earth and human labour”
The reading from the Book of Joel describes a world where we are so immeasurably blessed
Where the soil rejoices, the tree bears fruit and the vine gives its full yield
But this is now all in jeopardy because of our greed and our insatiable desire for consumption
Like a plague of locust we are in danger of bringing famine to our land
But I return however to the story of the boys at the beginning of my sermon
Are we like the boys in Lord of Flies or those Tongan Island?
Are we hell bent on destruction or co-operation?
If the author of the book on human kindness is right, then rather than drive ourselves to destruction the opposite might be true
If he is then, like Joel, then we can proclaim with certainty “Do not fear, O soil; be glad and rejoice, for the Lord has done great things”
If he is wrong, then I leave it to you to decide our fate
After all, we are all on this Island together