Friday 28 August 2026

Psalm 112

Background
John uses strong language – hate. It recognises that being God’s people and loving people as we are loved by God will bring confrontation and conflict. To affirm that love makes life different and better for everyone will bring conflict, particularly if those who have wealth and power feel threatened. We see this on a global stage: the powerful seeking to gain more power; the wealthy looking to gain more wealth. The price though is injustice, inequality and the creation of a mindset where some are thought to be more important than others.

My experience of life isn’t one of experiencing hate. My more common experience is one in which I encounter indifference and apathy. I meet people who are so caught up in the pressures of surviving – needing to hold down multiple jobs, struggling to meet bills, struggling to meet their family's needs – that they have nothing left to do something different. Those who live precarious lives, not sure if they have homes or even food, needing recourse to foodbanks and other places of charity have even less capacity to respond.

So often the wealthy want to hold onto what they have – why should we help others, they think? Selfishness, indifference and apathy are common responses to the challenge to love. In a world full of inequality giving is hard when you have nothing to give or little capacity to help. Yet the Christian message demands that we do something radically different – that we love others and make life better for them even in the light of opposition and indifference.

To Ponder:

• So often we feel powerless and impotent in the light of the injustices and imbalances in our world. Immigrants will sail on small boats to seek something which they see as better. We wonder why people will take risks to travel the way they do. We lack an understanding of why, and love seems a fragile commodity at times. Are there ways we can enrich what it means to love, so that we may bring a different, authentic voice and example to challenge embedded disparities?
• What do we need to do to ensure that conversations about Christian love become a dialogue of strength and transformation?

Bible notes author: The Revd Malcolm Peacock
The Revd Peacock is Superintendent Minister of the Mid Glamorgan Mission Circuit. He has a deep and abiding interest in Celtic theology and believes those who are minorities or feel themselves marginalised should be given a voice to speak for themselves.