I've been thinking about packaging recently.
Last weekend I was preaching at a harvest thanksgiving service. It was lovely to see so much in the way of fruit and vegetables in a very natural state - some of the veg still had soil on them, some of the apples were a little bruised. I guess they were windfall apples. There were freshly picked flowers, wheat, corn from someone's garden. All local, beautiful and natural.
Very far removed then from the way we see our fruit and vegetables packaged in supermarkets. The plastic, cellophane wrappers were nowhere to be seen in the church.
The food we buy nowadays often comes to us in very brightly coloured packaging. People in the world of marketing certainly know how to prepare products that will tempt and attract us. And they spend many Euro making it that way because their research shows that a product with be a failure if it is not presented to us in a way that MAKES us buy it. So packaging is important.
It does mean, though, that many of us are far removed from our food in its natural state and when it comes to harvest thanksgiving, we "forget" the people and industry behind our pork chops in their plastic containers. Our food is packaged and prepared so that we simply have to heat it up! How many of us have bought carrots that are washed and sliced into batons or mixed casserole veg ready to "throw in the pot" so that we don't have to wash off the muck.
It isn't only our food in supermarkets that we judge by packaging. It is sad, but true, that we judge people that way too. How someone appears on the outside is used by us to make judgements in all sorts of ways, not least on whether the person before us is worthy of our attention. And we spend much time preparing ourselves to be seen by others, preparing ourselves to be judged by them in a way that we want to be seen.
I don't think that is how Jesus lived his life. Packaging doesn't see to have been important to him. He spent time with and got to know the leper, the demon-possessed, the prostitute and the tax collector. And he spent time with and got to know the pharisee and the rich young man. There's packaging of all sorts and conditions on that list!
Over the next while in Christ Church, we are going to be thinking about aspects of the old monastic ways of life that can inspire us today in our lives (see a previous posting for details of these meetings). All are welcome to come and take part in this programme, whether a part of the cathedral community or not.
As we see who gathers together in community, maybe we might be inspired by St Francis, who, in the early 1200's created a new community. Michael H Crosby in
Finding Francis, Following Christ, says of Francis, "All who followed his Gospel interpretation of life in its various forms were to live as brothers and sisters, equal children of their common Father in heaven." (p145)
Might we endeavour to be more intentional about not concerning ourselves with packaging, but instead look at one-another equally? And might we be more intentional about recognising where our food comes from and how it is produced and give thanks for all who work on the land or on the sea?
I pray that we might.
