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Levelling up
We must create God’s level playing field across God’s whole world (Luke 3.1-6).
Context
Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s speech in which he used the phrase ‘levelling up’ to express his government’s hopes of creating opportunity throughout the UK and relieving the pressure on areas where too much economic activity is concentrated in too little space. In recent weeks, however, many northern voices in particular have expressed scepticism about the government’s commitment to ‘levelling up’, following the cancellation of the HS2 route to Leeds and the Northern Powerhouse Rail high-speed line from Manchester to Leeds via Bradford.
Creating opportunities in places where these are scarce, and relieving pressures on areas where resources are overstretched, both require willingness to change on the part of the individuals and organisations who will be affected. It’s one thing for a corporation to choose to transfer part of its operations out of London to Salford (like the BBC) or Bournemouth (like J P Morgan); it’s quite another for government to command an unwilling London-based organisation to up sticks and move, no matter what the benefits to provincial communities would be.
Levelling up on the global scale is an even greater challenge. Throughout the pandemic, non-governmental organisations like Médecins Sans Frontières have been urging pharmaceutical giants like BioNTech, Moderna and Pfizer to put people before profits by licensing their life-saving vaccines for manufacture in countries where vaccination rates remain frighteningly low.
Ideas for sermons or interactive talks
- This week’s Gospel reading contains the prophecy that ‘Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low’ – a typically solid Jewish metaphor for the divine ‘levelling up’ by which God will create ‘a level playing field’ for all people. But this, too, requires a willingness to change on the part of those called to take part in it, and John the Baptist can only invite people to choose repentance; he cannot command them.
- We’ve all heard stories of individuals from deprived backgrounds who have somehow overcome their impoverished beginnings to emerge as great leaders, sports heroes, scientists or artists: Consider the lives and achievements of Mary Anning, Srinivasa Ramanujan, Maya Angelou, Michael Faraday, Mother Teresa, Alexis Sanchez… and many others.
- However nobly people bear their sufferings and struggle to better themselves, there is nothing in Christianity to suggest that God wants anyone to be born into sickness, hunger, homelessness or loneliness. On the contrary, God’s will is life in all its fullness; so anything that mitigates against fullness of life is contrary to God’s will.
- ‘Levelling up’ is not about bring ourselves down, but about bringing others up. It’s good for them. It’s also good for us. Imagine how the world might benefit if no one grew up deprived of proper healthcare, food, shelter and emotional security.
Questions for discussion
- Who really benefits from ‘levelling up’ – in the short, medium and long terms?
- What changes must we, as individuals, Churches, communities and countries, be willing to make, so that those with fewer opportunities and resources than we have are brought up to our level?
- What prevents us from making these changes? (Be honest!)
Robert Beard is a freelance writer, trainee NHS health adviser and Church of England priest.
Check-in
Connecting faith with everyday, real-life issues for young people
By now, you’ve almost certainly seen THAT Christmas advert. You know the one. A boy takes a walk through the woods and finds a confused extra-terrestrial trying to fix her flying saucer: that one. This advert has divided opinion among viewers but, speaking for myself, I like it. Admittedly, I’m sceptical about whether our hero’s gifts to his unexpected guest (a mince pie and a slightly gaudy Christmas jumper) really sum up what the season is really about, but it seems to me that the essential message of the advert is rather lovely, not to mention timely. At a time when far too many Britons are wary of immigrants and some are outright hostile towards them, a reminder of the importance of welcome and acceptance seems hugely valuable.
In this week’s gospel reading, John the Baptist emphasises that, through Jesus, ‘all flesh shall see the salvation of God’ (Luke 3.6). Jesus’ coming into the world is a reminder that everyone is welcome in the Kingdom of God. And throughout Jesus’ life and ministry – especially in Luke’s account – he goes out of his way to find and welcome outsiders: tax collectors, criminals, children, supposedly ‘unclean’ women.
I hope that, this Christmas, I will be able to show a little of the godly welcome exemplified by the two Johns (Lewis and the Baptist). In this country, there are people who are marginalised for all sorts of reasons: immigrants obviously, and also homeless people, recovering addicts, ex-offenders and people struggling to keep their heads above the poverty line. I’m not sure yet how I’ll do it, but I want to show at least one person that Jesus truly is for everyone. But I do hope I’ll find a way to do it that doesn’t involve a light-up Christmas jumper.
Questions to think about
- Who do you know who needs to hear that Jesus is for everyone?
- How can you show this person that Jesus welcomes and accepts them?
Written by Simeon Whiting, a freelance writer, based in Birmingham.
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