Jesus' observations on the weather in today’s reading could hardly be more topical. Throughout this heatwave, we have had strong winds coming from the south bringing the heat of the Sahara desert to us. We are waiting for those winds to change and bring us a westerly wind that will bring cool Atlantic breezes to us and refreshing rain.

Jesus was quoting from the folk wisdom of the day, part of the life of farming communities worldwide. Yet it was not until the 19th century that this folk wisdom was recorded scientifically leading to our modern meteorology. Constable was one of the first painters to make detailed studies of the clouds and studied the latest research. “ I am a man of clouds” he once said.

The painting of Salisbury cathedral was a draft for his final ‘Six footer’. It was never intended to be exhibited but is part of a study of the clouds towering over, and dominating the slender spire of Salisbury cathedral. Here the clouds are full of structure, they aren’t the light, fluffy, whipped white of Constable’s early skies. The clouds are turbulent, surely a storm is coming. As the folk law predicted:

‘When clouds appear like rocks and towers

The earth’s refreshed by frequent showers

Today's reading encourages us to be weather watchers:

“When you see a cloud rising in the west, you say at once ’A shower is coming,’ And so it happens. And when you see the south wind blowing, you say, ‘There will be scorching heat,’ and it happens.

You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the present time.” Luke 12: 54 - 56

The changing weather that Jesus is forecasting heralds more than a scorching wind or a coming shower, it heralds fire and war, division and stress in the whole fabric of society. These are the signs of a new order coming into the world and the passing of the old age.

As Jesus approaches his final days in which his Baptism (Death and Resurrection) is accomplished he senses the coming storm and tells his disciples and the crowds around him to be ready for a ripping apart of society that would divide even families:

“Do you think I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division” Luke 12: 51

The kingdom of God was coming into the world and no one had noticed!

Jesus' words sound harsh and don’t fit easily with the image of the ‘gentle Jesus meek and mild’ we have of him. His words however do not contradict his message of love but say, “It’s time to wake up and see what is happening in the world, just as we see the changing weather in the clouds that tells a storm is coming."

In his discourse, Jesus warns his hearers not to get embroiled in disputes and family rows but to be ready for what is coming. Later he reminds them of the people in the days of Noah who:

“Were eating and drinking and marrying and being given in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all” Luke 17: 26

Jesus gives these warnings now so that they will not be shocked when they discover that following Jesus will mean some very tough choices.

The kind of choices that each generation faces will always be different.

Jesus speaks of the choice between family and faith, for others, the choice has been between riches and poverty or freedom and captivity. A personal example from our own times helps to make the choice facing some more real to all of us.

For some like the Rusian poet Irina Ratusinskaya, it meant the choice between liberty and the Gulag. As a young girl growing up in the Soviet Union she longed for truth and not finding it in her teachers she turned to literature.

“Russian literature saved my soul. When I was a young girl in school and I asked what is evil, no one in that corrupt system could show me”

As a young adult Irina lived by the truth she had discovered and wrote poetry to express that truth but her honesty and truth-telling cost her freedom and she almost lost her life. Despite years in the Gulag when everything was stripped from her, she was able to say to the world on her release:

“ The individual has to die for the person to emerge, I have learned the security of those who have nothing to lose”

The question that Jesus puts to us is not, I think a choice between faith and family, wealth and riches, or freedom and imprisonment, the question is this:

‘If you were stripped of family and friends if you were stripped of wealth and possessions if you were stripped of freedom and dignity what would be left of you?’

Irina who experienced all that could say: “The individual has to die for the person to emerge” At the core of her being there was a person whose existence did not depend on family and friends, wealth or power, freedom or possessions. A person whose life was built on the solid foundations of faith in Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ himself put it this way:

“ For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it” Luke 9:24

There is for all of us a choice to be made not once but at every turning point in our lives, do we choose to build on the solid foundations of faith in Jesus Christ or on the shifting sands – What, when everything else is stripped away will survive of us?

When the storm comes will we be able to stand or will we be swept away? When the wind blows will we be found naked or clothed in Christ?

What times do we live in today?

We live in interesting times! Looking out into the world and attempting to interpret the ‘Times’ convinces me that as in every generation we are called to hold fast to our faith in Christ in the face of a world that has lost its bearings.

Extremes of religious belief advocating violence and death. Extremes of political populism catering to the worst appetites of the far right and far left crowd out the voices of faith and reason.

In a world like this, the ideological evils of Communism and Nazism were born in the 20th century because men and women of reason were found wanting.

‘The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity. Yeats wrote at the beginning of the 20th century Does that describe the world today, does that describe the church? Does it describe us? If it does then we will surely be swept away as in the 20th century, We will be stripped and found naked, we will be blown away by the storm and drowned by the flood.

We will only know when the storm comes because it will depend on the choices we make today, are those choices ones that build the person within or feed the ego? Like the Prophets and Patriarchs of the Old Testament, we are called to live by faith. It is for us to stand on the solid foundations of faith in Jesus Christ, to keep faith with Christ, and witness to his selfless life.

‘Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a crowd of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith.’ Hebrews 12: 1-2

Prayer for Ukraine

God of peace and justice we pray for the people of Ukraine today,

and the laying down of weapons. We pray for all those who fear for tomorrow, that your spirit of comfort would draw near to them. We pray for those with power over war and peace,

for wisdom, discernment, and compassion to guide their decisions.

Above all, we pray for all your precious children at risk and in fear,

That you would hold and protect them.

We pray in the name of Jesus, the Prince of Peace. Amen