Readings: Deuteronomy 25:13-16, and Matthew 7:1-5.

Fairness is a big deal for children. At school the teachers’ actions are scrutinised by each student to ensure the same rule is enforced equally without bias. Establishing the rules or guidelines in a classroom might seem easy enough, but the hardest part is always the following through. Children are the best negotiators, being caught out is one thing, having to suffer the consequence is another. The problem is the inference and evaluation of the act itself, how the child relates the experience or consequence of their going against a rule to their self-concept.

Our first scripture is definitely one for teachers, to not have within our heart’s unequal measures, one large or one small, one heavy or one light. For in showing favouritism, we have not afforded an equal measure of value, or dignity to a person or ourselves.

Dignity as afforded by our own judgement is unreliable as a person presents themselves in a moment – who are we to say that a ‘moment of our seeing’ is justified as the totality of their being when a person exists across a whole lifetime – where in that is the space for reconciliation or restorative justice? Where in that is the space for change?

The problem with us assigning a measure of dignity according to the measure of our reasoning then supposes that a person with whom we disagree, or perceive as falling short of a personal standard, or less educated than ourselves, has less dignity – yet Jesus said, ‘if you do for the least, you do for me,’ Matthew 25:40, therefore the dignity of Christ is in persons not related to their circumstance.

Equality is the hot topic of our times, that people might rise in spite of circumstances to be whatever someone else is, is not a measure of fortune or merit but of status.

The essence of humanity has the potential to be anything, whether that be a chef or a musician, until our actual being makes it so or not. Removing the barriers to opportunity is important, yet our renumeration for a job or vocation will depend on the economic value afforded by the times, rather than by the effort given over to it.

But what truly matters is not this economic value, it is the love we hold in our hearts that is the true measure of success, our relatedness to others and connection to others is what affords us the most happiness. Love is not a meritocratic principle that we earn it, we love people for the uniqueness of who they are, yet we also do not assume to take what is not for us.

As we cannot see the end of another, how are we able to judge the limits to the dignity of a person? Rather this judgment lay solely with God, His eyes are all seeing – ‘Who can hide in the secret places so that I cannot see them? Declares the LORD.’ (Jeremiah 23:24).

To be Holy or set apart from the world is a ‘turning aside to see’ (Exodus 3:3), it transforms our sense and interpretation of the real in a whole new way – for God sees not as man sees – God sees the heart. (1 Samuel 16:7).

St Paul writes ‘Be transformed by the renewing of your minds.’ (Romans 12:2). In the process of this transformation, we may often be inclined to chase the mountain top experiences, which though valuable, can distract us from what matters most.

Sure, the journeys we make in the mountains can easily equate to the journeys we take in life, but in completing a route, we all too often strive for the goal of achievement, or final destination, rather than focusing on the importance of how we get there. We can become addicted to external successes and appearances whilst ignoring our inner selves.

‘Men go abroad to wonder at the heights of mountains, at the huge waves of the sea, at the long courses of the rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean, at the circular motions of the stars, and they pass by themselves without wondering.’ St Augustine.

Action is a mechanism of expression of that which begins inwardly as a concept in the mind. Action is a pathway to becoming known, yet this knowing is in-itself a relationship of one thing to another.

Therefore, we must choose love as the guiding principle always within us, from which springs life – for love embraces the largest of possible meanings, embracing all fragments of subjects and objects working together for each other – this means that it embraces the largest dimension of things in relation to all possible actualisations, that is all possible manifestations of what it means to love.

Love, therefore, resists rigid definition by appearances. This further means that our relational experiences can be unique in character, and this difference does not imply that they fall outside of loves meaning.

Jesus said, ‘why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own?’ As we gaze into the eyes of another, we see a small reflection of ourselves in their pupils – in families, in our nature and nurture, we may see a reflection of our own soul and can extend that to seeing other people as a projection of what is within us, rather than who they are in themselves. We are, as conscious beings, complex systems that filter information most often according to biases or preferences developed over the time that we are.

Tolerance, or forbearance, is not for things that are wrong, or wicked, it is for the preferences that are in the end the trifles of life, the little things that are not the measure of a person’s value or dignity, but the things that we might be in the habit of doing, the day-to-day things that we see, feel and touch as the reality of our experience. Our freedom is not from having things as we wish them to be, but in the peace of belonging to the people and places that we are.

This matters as much today as it ever did. To overcome any anxiety of status, we must be inspired to dream about what is possible and could be made manifest by ‘our’ doing with and for each other – imagination is therefore truly important, the ideas that will transform what is now into a future that brings us hope.

“What I care about is the reality of goodness, not the perception of it.”  Elon Musk.

In the digital age, and with the coming of AI, we will need to rediscover skills and talents in the breadth and depth of our creativity in-order-to retain the fundamentals of our humanity. And within all that, it is the love in our eyes and hearts that infuses the ordinary, the day-to-day, with great beauty. And it is this beauty that will change the world.

Amen.