Lemon Tree - 24th September

A few years ago at school we had a talk from an Ofsted inspector to help us prepare for a forthcoming inspection. He told a story where he was chatting to a pupil at a school he was inspecting. He told the pupil that he was impressed by the beautiful flowers along the main drive leading to the school. The pupil replied "Oh, you mean the Ofsted flowers!"

The other day I was looking at the God TV website and I noticed they have a current campaign to raise money to plant a million trees in Israel to "prepare the Holy Land for the return of the King". They are asking people to donate £15 to buy a tree, and they currently have over five hundred thousand trees pledged.

Now, I don't want to be judgmental, but from what I know about Jesus there would be many other things he would prefer us to spend fifteen million pounds on in preparation for his return. How about doing something to help people who are starving, like he told us to? I don't think he would be very pleased that his followers were pissing around planting Ofsted flowers when they should be trying to advance the kingdom that he will bring in completely when he returns. Do they think it will be a nice surprise for Jesus, that they have managed to keep this campaign a secret from him? The instigators of this camapaign say that "We believe this incredible prophetic action will be a blessing to the Jewish people and the land of Israel. Through this simple act of obedience God will reward us beyond all we could ask or think, for he who blesses Israel shall be blessed. (Numbers 24:9)". Leaving aside the question of whether we shouldn't be trying to bless the Palestinian people a bit to redress some of the vast injustices they have suffered, this quote reveals that the true incentive for this is simply to get a good return on your money - you invest £15 and you'll be guaranteed much more in return thanks to a spurious and selective interpretation of a verse in the book of Numbers. I don't know how much of your £15 "God TV" takes, but I'm guessing that it is not nothing. The whole thing makes me mad.

Anyway, rant over, this leads me to introduce September's film, The Lemon Tree, a story about the troubles in the West Bank and the security wall. It is supposed to be a great film, with much to discuss afterwards.