Two Laws

Marius is a vine farmer in Wellington who also happens to be Session Clerk of the church we belong to.  He's a man of great faith and humour, rarely seen without a twinkle in his eye, except when he's wrestling with how best to show the love of God to the workers on his farm and the street-dwellers in the town.

A few weeks ago he stood up in church to tell us about how laws affect the running of his farm.  The government is continually issuing stacks of regulations which pile several inches high.  Presumably their aim is to improve the lives of farm workers (and some workers are still kept in dreadful conditions) but to a responsible farmer these laws merely make life a lot more complicated to no end.

Marius contrasted this stack of laws with the two that he has found necessary to introduce to his workers.
Law number 1 (demonstrated by the raising of one finger): love the Lord your God.
Law number 2 (shown by holding up two fingers, being careful of which way round they are): love your neighbour as yourself.

Now when there's a disagreement between workers, instead of escalating the fight, someone will raise two fingers in a silent reminder of law two.  Sometimes the occasion demands a reminder of the first law. Sometimes Marius himself has been on the receiving end of, as he admits, a necessary reminder of the laws.  It may sound a very simple and perhaps odd thing to introduce to a working farm but it has brought about a great change in the atmosphere.  Very simply, in a non-threatening yet effective way, people are being reminded of their responsibilities and relationships, to each other and to God.