Readings:
Deuteronomy 30:9-14;
Psalm 25:1-10;
Colossians 1:1-14;
Luke 10:25-37

Collect:
Gracious Father,
by the obedience of Jesus you brought salvation to our wayward world:
draw us into harmony with your will,
that we may find all things restored in him,
our Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen

Reflection - Rising Cost of Living

We are all aware that the cost of living in the UK has risen significantly in recent months, with prices for energy and food at the highest we’ve seen in many years. How are you coping with the rising cost of living? Has your heating bill already doubled? Do you, like some of us, glance back and forth (sometime nervously) from your shopping basket to the numbers next to ‘amount due’ on the checkout display? Maybe you are constantly revising the monthly budget and wondering what can be squeezed as we wait for the expenses that are promised to rise like gas and national insurance. How does it make you feel? 

After nearly two years of a crippling pandemic and the market disruption the UK leaving the E.U., millions of people now face the dreadful choice between heating their homes and putting food on their tables. This a very grave situation that affects many of us directly as it increases debt, anxiety, and despair because people find themselves unable to meet the basic need of their family. Hardworking people being dragged into debt and poverty is a very hard pill to swallow as it brings a sense of failure and inadequacy when basic personal and or family needs can no longer be met. 

Unfortunately, I don’t believe that the politicians are doing enough to ensure that people’s daily living don’t get any worse than it has been in the recent month. This is because there has been no clear-cut strategy that has been formulated by the government to deal with these problems. Even as the government is grappling with the problem, we need to ask ourselves what we can do as Christians in response to the endemic rising cost of living? What role should we play in bringing some alleviation to those who are most affected?

My reaction to that question is to counsel us that we should pray as we have always been taught to do in the time of difficulty. While this there is nothing wrong with defaulting to prayer as the first reaction, we must be mindful that praying is not going to be enough as we ought to take active steps in whatever ways we can to help tackle the effect of rising cost of living in our communities. 

The first thing we can do is find out what is happening in our local communities in terms of various initiatives that are in the fore front of the battle against rising cost of living, some of these initiatives like food bank or food pantries are desperately in need of support either through donation of money and food items; they are also in need of volunteers that will facilitate the delivery of much needed service to the community. For example, our Partnership already has a food pantry at the Church of Holy Cross in Two Mile Ash that provides basic food packs to families or individuals in need of support. There are also food bank collection points at various places in our communities – find out these places and think about what you can do to support. We must remember that we all have gifts that can be useful in dealing with this problem. Some of us are rich in time and can volunteer few hours of our week to support those impacted by rising cost of living. There are also those who may be time poor but are able to give money to a charitable organisations working in our communities, either as a one off, or a regular giving – consider doing either or both of these.

The second thing we can do is to hold our elected representative into account by getting in touch with them to check what they are doing on their part to push for policies and legislations that will help to reduce the financial impact on those that need it most. Doing this will let our elected officials know that we are concern with the rising level of poverty and depravation in our communities. 

We must remember that it is our Christian duty to engage and not shy away from the difficulties that negatively impact the most venerable in our society – we have been commanded by God to love our neighbours as ourselves; I don’t think there is a better way to show obedience to this commandment than standing for those in need in our communities. Jesus told us in Mathew 25:40 “Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.”

Adedayo Adebiyi