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It’s February and already the evenings are getting lighter. In his painting February Fill-Dyke the Victorian painter Benjamin Leader Williams depicts February as a soggy month of winter cold. And an elderly lady I once knew used to recite a saying at this time of year: February fill the ditch black or white don’t care which. For although increasing daylight reminds us that spring is on the way the cold reminds us that winter has not yet gone! We could still get snow (we may even have snow by the time you read this) but if not we’re sure to get biting winds, rain and mud! Little wonder that February has been called the fag-end of the year. In Anglo Saxon times it was given the unfortunate title of “Mud Month” or “Cabbage Month” (Kalemonath). February was a lean time for country people who, having consumed most of their winter vegetables, had to wait a little while longer for spring vegetables not yet ready for cutting; it was a hungry time. The one exception was "hungry gap kale," one of the few edible plants that could survive. No surprise, then, that a great deal of kale soup was consumed in country cottages up and down the country - Yuk!!
And the world makes a pretty bleak picture at the moment too. It’s staggering to think that trillions of US dollars have been spent trying to get the economy there moving while billions of pounds have gone the same way here. Even more alarming is the news that if these colossal sums aren’t enough many more billions will be thrown at it. And while we’re on the subject of money it’s interesting just how many songs have the word “money” in the title. For example: Money is the root of all evil, or as Abba used to belt out: Money, Money, Money it’s a rich man’s world. Or remember the Beatles: Money, that’s what I want? Yet with interest rates at rock bottom it’s a bleak time for savers who might just as well put their money under the bed, or in a hole in the ground, (although I wouldn’t advise it) for what they can get on deposit – especially with talk of financial institutions charging us for the privilege of looking after our money!!!
As a church we’re being urged to re-invent ourselves in these cash-strapped times. Apparently, we need to generate more money just to stand still. In addition we’re being asked to stump up ideas, develop a business plan, pay ever increasing utility bills and maintain a building that belongs to synod. It’s a big challenge one that a giant such as Woolworths (with all the financial muscle and business brains available to it) couldn’t meet. But we’re not in business! Well not that sort of business anyway. And though finance must be taken very seriously it should never override the Church’s primary focus of being the people of God rather than a tea shop! The Church has never been about linear, objective rationality which is the product of our dull, fact-obsessed scientific age. The Church is about subjectivity (i.e. people and their stories) and subjectivity has never made economic sense or squared a balance sheet. People are our business.
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