The Sub Dean's sermon, preached at Choral Evensong on the Sixteenth Sunday after Trinity.

Most clergy would love to have Moses’ father-in-law in our congregations. From what we heard in our first reading he is clearly a practical man with spade loads of common sense. He watches Moses and sees that he spends the day from sunrise to sunset with the people, listening to them and judging between them in their disputes. He must have been exhausted and his father-in-law sees it. ‘What you are doing is not good. You will surely wear yourself out, both you and these people with you. For the task is too heavy for you; you cannot do it alone.’ Many people would think that pointing out the problem was sufficient. But he goes on to suggest a solution, that Moses looks for (in this case, men) who are trustworthy and that they judge the minor cases themselves for the people, bringing the more important or hard and complex cases to Moses for his wisdom and judgement. The solution works and Moses is released for a wider and perhaps less wearisome ministry to the people of God.

It is easy for all of us to fall into a similar trap as Moses of thinking that it all depends on us and no one else will be able to do something as well as we do. We can then become resentful and discouraged when we are overwhelmed by the tasks facing us. We all need one another.

This theme of judging continues in our second reading where Jesus warns his followers, and us, ‘Do not judge, so that you may not be judged. For with the judgement you make you will be judged, and the measure you give will be the measure you get.’ Here Jesus is warning us of making superficial and hasty judgements of others without knowing their life experience or seeing their behaviour and actions through the lens of our own brokenness and frailty. He encourages each of us to think about our own situation and what we need to put right and repent of, before looking to the failures of our neighbour. Like our first reading, Jesus is offering solutions and a positive way forward rather than indulging in a blame game. And he does this in the context of what is often called the Golden Rule, ‘In everything do to others as you would have them do to you; for this is the law and the prophets.’ Of course you don’t necessarily need to be a Christian to follow this rule, for very similar teachings are to be found in all the major world faith traditions, not to mention in wisdom of the childhood literary character in The Water Babies, Mrs Do-as you-would-be-done-by.

Moses’ Father-in-law taught him an important lesson that we all need one another and are dependent on one another for our mutual flourishing. We have lost the battle once we imagine that it all depends on us, and on us alone. A recognition of our dependence on God and those around us is what makes us whole and flourishing human beings.

At the heart of many of the the challenges in our modern day world is an over-reliance on self and seeing others as a threat rather than a gift. As we begin a new week may our scriptures today help us to reflect on our own need of God and one another as we seek to face the challenges that will surely come our way.

‘In everything do to others as you would have them do to you; for this is the law and the prophets.’