Thought for the Week

25 May 2008 – First Sunday after Trinity

Collect:	O God, the strength of all those who put their trust in you, mercifully accept our prayers and, because through the weakness of our mortal nature we can do no good thing without you, grant us the help of your grace, that in the keeping of your commandments we may please you both in will and deed; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, Who is alive and reigns with You in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God now and for ever. Amen.
Readings:	Leviticus19, 1 – 2, 9 - 18
	Psalm 119, 33 - 40
	1 Corinthians 3, 10 – 11, 16 - end (omit if only two readings are used)
	Matthew 5, 38 - end

Visitors to Gibraltar will be familiar with the steep and winding road that leads to the Top of the Rock. Earlier this month [3rd May] the Gibraltar Field Gun crew pulled their Gun and Limber from Devil’s Town Camp through the town and up to the Top of the Rock. It was an awe-inspiring spectacle – members of the British Forces units heaving and straining as they pulled 2200lb of wood and metal uphill, urged on by their Field Gun Officer.

The team were preparing for the 101st anniversary of the Brickwoods Field Gun Competition which will take place in Portsmouth on 7 June. The competition is held to commemorate the relief of the siege of Ladysmith in South Africa, during the Boer War. In that operation, Royal Navy sailors hauled 12 pounder Naval Guns across land on makeshift trolleys.

In order to reach the top of the Rock, the Gibraltar Field Gun crew had to work as a team. In order to win they had to give every last ounce of their energy and strength. They had to give unselfishly. All their efforts paid off and they beat the existing record by 3 minutes, reaching the Top of the Rock in 54 minutes!

The Gibraltar Field Gun crew is unique amongst the 23 teams that will take part in Brickwoods Field Gun Competion. Whilst the others are mostly Royal Naval units with some teams from the Army and RAF, the Gibraltar team is a blend of Royal Navy, RNR, Territorial Army, RAF and the Royal Gibraltar Regiment. These men, coming from different disciplines, are habitual rivals. As a team, they have must work together under the command of the Field Gun Officer.

Initially, the commandments in Leviticus and Matthew seem to contradict each other. Leviticus tells us to love our neighbour; it is the most important commandment. Matthew tells us to love our enemy. One instruction seems feasible, the other sounds ridiculous! We might be tempted to think these rules don’t apply to us because they are from a very different era. Few farmers today would leave part of their crops for the poor to come and glean because the poor are living in the cities and would not benefit. Few of us hold onto anyone’s coat as surety against a loan. But most of us instinctively want to protect ourselves and our families against poverty and hunger – even if it means that someone else may be even poorer or more hungry. It’s much easier to give away our scruffy old clothes to the charity shop than it is to give away a shirt or set of underwear that have never been worn. It’s easier to ignore the disabled than to make sure they have access to all the amenities we take for granted. It’s often easier to condemn our neighbour for their un-neighbourliness than it is to befriend them and resolve the conflict. The earthquake in China and the cyclone in Burma are powerful reminders of our need to treat neighbours and enemies with the same degree of respect and care.

These rules of life set out by Moses and Jesus may seem outdated to us but they are the foundations for living as community. This is how God wanted the Israelites to live. It’s also how Jesus wanted his followers to live, and it’s the way we too must live if we are to live in the light of Christ.

Tough, yes! Possible, yes! But how? By treating everyone as we would wish them to treat us. By remembering that God loves each of us unconditionally. If God loves the poor and the oppressed, and we are supposed to be the body of Christ here on earth, then it is our responsibility to help the poor and the oppressed. Like the Gibraltar Field Gun crew we can only do this if we work as a team, as a community.

Thought for the week:

Who is your neighbour? Who is your enemy?

May God give you the generosity of spirit to love each of them as much as you love yourselves. Amen.

Revd June Hutchinson: Assistant Curate, Anglican Chaplaincy of Midi-Pyrénées & Aude

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