What’s a Life Worth?

 I felt sad on Wednesday. In our post was a flyer from a local supermarket, the headline blazoned “Turkey, 87 cents a lb”. As I read it, with an incredible feeling of sadness, I thought is that all a life is worth. Eighty-seven cents a pound for the life of a magnificent bird. I have had the privilege of meeting turkeys — actually our annual practice at this time of the year is to sponsor one or two at Farm Sanctuary. These birds like to be stroked, have unique personalities and have a natural life span of about ten years. Each year in the US alone 68 million turkeys are bred and slaughtered at less than a year old. And these lives are only deemed worth 87 cents a lb. 

 

To make me even sadder yesterday’s (Saturday) junk mail and flyers included an advert from another supermarket who proclaimed their worth of the lives of these young birds. For them they are only deemed worth “48 cents per lb.” 

 

Many years ago, Andy and I decided we would not eat anything that, to quote Linda McCartney, had a face. It was our personal choice. As I read the lectionary passage for this week my mind was already whirring with thoughts about the worth of a life and personal choice. 

 

Interestingly, the text (John 18: 33-37) is the Gospel of John’s account of Jesus examination before Pilate prior to the crucifixion. 

 

It made me wonder about the worth of a life in the eyes of those who had handed Jesus over to Pilate wanting execution. Perhaps, my thoughts on the worth of a life are all the more poignant this weekend with the trial of Kyle Rittenhouse and all that led up to it. 

 

Ultimately, as the gospel story continued, the chief priests were offered a way out, a way to save a life but they held firm. They wanted the life of Jesus. This was their choice. 

 

 

Today’s text also made me muse a lot on choice. I’m not really thinking about little, everyday choices like which sweater to wear today but on big choices that change the future direction of one’s life. When one reads all four gospel accounts of Jesus before Pilate it is fairly clear that Pilate did not want to have Jesus put to death but bowed to the pressure from those who demanded his death.  

 

On re-reading the account of Pilate’s interrogation in this week’s passage I think Pilate had some serious choices to make. This part of the interrogation was all about the sovereignty of Jesus. If I was thinking critically about this text, I would be inclined to ponder how each gospel writer included this conversation as a technique to emphasize the notion of Christ as sovereign to their early readers.  

 

However, today I want simply to view the conversation as an attempt by Pilate to avoid a difficult choice. In other words, he wanted a confession from Jesus which would remove from him the necessity of making a hard choice.

 

Choices can be really hard, especially if they go against the status quo. As Pilate found it can be difficult to make the right choice when the crowd is shouting for the decision to go the other way — to be a lone voice shouting for justice. Pilate was ultimately unable to do so. 

 

So, I have two important issues to muse on this week — 

What is the worth of a life? And

Can I have the courage to make the right choice even if it goes against majority thinking.

 

 

 

Reflections on the Samhain Retreat 2021

Today sees the conclusion of our weekend exploring this year’s theme of a balanced life. For the last two days the community has looked at what it means to be balanced, how it affects us — both spiritually and physically — when we are out of balance. Next the discussion moved to prayer, the first of four elements of balance — prayer, work, study and rest. As always at our retreats, I was amazed at the depth of experience and insight shared. I hope everyone enjoyed the conversations — I certainly did.  

 

As we discussed various aspects of prayer — who we pray to, where we pray, the various form the prayers take, etc., etc. I was again aware of the diversity within the community. Some prefer liturgy, some prefer free prayer. Meditation is helpful to some, others like movement. Some have created special places to pray, while still others love to be outside experiencing creation. Some use prayer beads, others don’t. It all wove together like a rich tapestry. No way is better or superior to any other, it is all about each person communicating with God in the way that is most meaningful to them.

 

But, why do we want to live a balanced life? Of course, part of the answer is we want to be healthy, both physically and spiritually. Yet, there is also an outward reason — we want to live a balanced life so we can love, serve and forgive others (sound familiar!).

 

Today, the lectionary text talks about four men who dropped everything to go and love and serve others in their communities. In Mark, the calling of the first four disciples comes right at the beginning of the Gospel (1:14-20). I am always intrigued by the placing of various stories and difference in the details within the gospels. This tale is particularly interesting as the account mirrors the one the Gospel of John which places it as a post-resurrection story. 

 

Today, I simply want to mention that these men left everything to follow Jesus. I do wish that there were such clear stories, names and collective memory about the women who also abandoned everything to follow Jesus — sadly, their stories are just hinted at occasionally in the gospels. There is also no mention of the women who were left behind to tend families allowing the men the freedom to follow — again just blurry hints.

 

However, I’ll lay that aside for now and simply acknowledge the strength of calling that made these men drop everything to follow Jesus. I can’t really say whether they had balanced lives or not, but the text does hint that they were leading normal, functional lives. Presumably, as Jewish men in the first century, prayer was a significant part of their lives. They worked as fishermen, who had quite successful careers. The text tells that James and John left both parent and hired men. So obviously a commercial enterprise big enough to support several people. For some reason, maybe from artwork, one often thinks that the disciples were poor, obviously this was not the case in this text.

 

I do think each of us has a calling, it may not be as dramatic as walking off the job and abandoning family to follow Jesus. The thing about callings is they always change lives and add direction as happened to the four young men in today’s story. Our callings are probably much more mundane than theirs, yet they changed and continue to change the direction of our lives. They are manifest in the jobs we do, the people we care for, the causes we support, the kindness we show to those we meet. These are all really important. Maybe, these callings are summed up in our community prayer, “that I may be as Christ to those I meet: that I may find Christ within them”.