‘In Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself.’ And ‘he has given us the ministry of reconciliation.’ 2Cor.5:19

Articles of clerical attire are many and varied. Some make the wearers look like peacocks, others like crows. There was once a time when the formal dress of the President of the Methodist Conference, during his year of office, was a beautifully tailored, and very expensive, bespoke frock coat. Now, fashion guru that I am, I always thought that such attire greatly enhanced the appearance of any person who was appointed to the office of President., though I am told that it was extremely hot to wear. This was especially true in July, which was when the Conference used to be held, and the poor President had to wear it throughout the proceedings.

However, it all changed in 1972, when a good friend of mine became President and, as it were unfrocked himself. He declared that he would not accept the frock coat, and when I asked him why, the reason he gave was this: in a poor world, he said, it would be an immoral act to spend such a large amount of money on a piece of ecclesiastical finery. And so it has been ever since. The frock coats were never seen again, and were replaced by the humble cassock.

His name was Harry Morton, and Harry was a man of total integrity, who had given his life and ministry to the cause of the poor of the world, especially in India and Africa. It was he, perhaps more than anyone else, who raised in me a consciousness of the divide between the poor world and the rich world, of the injustice, the inequality and, indeed, the downright immorality of the way in which rich nations have exploited the poorer nations in the past. Yet even now, one billion people around the world struggle to survive on less than 50p a day, and a child dies of poverty-related causes every three seconds: one.. two.. dead. That isn’t relative poverty. - that is absolute poverty.

Today is the start of One World Week. It is about an aspiration, something to be strived for. In reality, it means looking at two worlds. It is an ‘us and them’ challenge. It is not something we really want to do. It pricks our conscience. We look for ways to rationalise it. We say, as a certain person once said, if the Good Samaritan hadn’t been well off, he couldn’t have done that which he did. Well, at least the Good Samaritan did something!

Now, as I have often said, I am not an economist, or a financier, or, indeed a politician. What I am is a practical theologian, and I look at this matter from the point of view of the Bible. I use words like ‘justice’, ‘righteousness’, and ‘grace’. I take a stance on the side of biblical ethics, with a bias to the poor. Economists look at the world through the spectacles of what can work without upsetting the markets, what is efficient; financiers look through the eyes of the balance sheet. Politicians deal in the art of the possible. Well - Ha! Ha! to all that! We know where that has got us. But, to be fair, all these, in their way, are fine. The biblical theologian, however, looks at the two worlds – rich and poor – and says ‘Is this justice?’.

I say ‘two worlds’, but in truth, there are many ‘worlds’. We could talk about the one world of the Christian church – indeed, we have just been singing about it.: ‘In Christ there is no east or west…. south or north… but one great fellowship… throughout the whole earth.’ All very well, but even the Christian world is much divided as we know. Just look at us here in Dumfries as we try to work together as churches. Then, to add to the confusion, there are other religious worlds. We talk about the ‘Islamic world’, as if it is nothing to do with us because we are of the Christian persuasion. But devout Muslims would regard themselves as God’s children, and therefore as our brothers and sisters. Sometimes the divisions are ambiguous indeed.

But I digress. The theme for this year’s One World Week is ‘Growing Together’. One of the ways suggested for the world to grow together is through fairer trade, something we know quite a bit about in this church. The organisers want to us think about how we can grow together both locally and globally, and on their website they make some good suggestions. As Lisa Jardine reminded us on the radio only this morning: the world is only the click of a mouse away. We can know more about the world than at any other time in history. That knowledge can both save and condemn us.

But I want just now to take you back to our gospel for today.The story is well known, and, of course, it is about the Pharisees sending their minions, together with some people known as ‘the Herodians’, to try to trap Jesus into making indiscreet remarks about either God, the Emperor, or both. The Herodians were supporters of Herod the Great, and were collaborators with the Romans, so were in favour of paying taxes to Caesar. The Pharisees, on the other hand, were not. So it seemed that they had found a good way to get Jesus over a barrel, so to speak.

It is very easy to miss to point about this story. It is saying that the world is not divided into that which belongs to God and that which belongs to Caesar. It was a false dichotomy. Jesus knew full well that everything was God’s, but his answer, often quoted, usually misunderstood, totally outwits his would-be detractors, so much so that they were amazed, and had nothing to say. It was a very clever answer to a smart-alec question.

And this is the point I want to make this morning. This is God’s world. Everything in it belongs to him – the good, the bad and the ugly, the just and the unjust, as our gospel last week reminded us. But it is not the world as God would wish it to be. It is no Garden of Eden. It is flawed, deeply divided in so many ways. And it is only in recent years, in the lifetime, perhaps, of the older ones among us, that we have begun to be seriously concerned about it.

There are so many good causes which compete for our attention – all, you could say, with a one world theme – debt cancellation, fair trade, ecology issues, homelessness, poverty - I could go on. In every one of these you can make a connection to the injustice, the unrighteousness, which stalks the world. But the struggle against injustice is a biblical and a gospel imperative.

There are almost 3,000 verses in the Bible which speak of God’s heart for the poor and his call to seek justice for them. Get a copy of the new "Poverty and Justice Bible", produced by the Bible Society for £9.99, and you can’t miss them – every one has been highlighted for you.

All the issues that surround poverty are issues which can be tackled. It is first of all a matter of raising our own awareness, then being moved to act, and then reaching out, not alone, but with all people of goodwill, to work to bring about the unity of the world. I see this not simply in terms of people, but in terms of the whole of creation. I see it as a gospel imperative, for I believe, with St Paul, that ‘God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself.’ We are agents of that reconciliation, so we cannot be idle. It is an immense task. Let us build on what has already started with Fairtrade. Sandra and Rosie would be delighted to tell you more. But let’s do it! Let us work for One World, for it is God’s world.