Still Quarrying 179: Lockdown Yearning.

There was a phone-in on the wireless the other day.  The theme was: ‘Is there anything about the lockdown you miss?’ One wag texted: ‘Social distancing!  People washing their hands!  Suits me.’   At least I think he had his tongue in his cheek.  But there is no doubt that there is a stream of lockdown yearning flowing through the land at present.  People recalling the quietness, the purity of the air, the lack of social pressure.  Of course that has to be set beside lives lost to the virus, personal finances stretched to the limit, anxiety over future employment, carers having to cope with relatives suffering from Alzheimer’s and mental health disorders.  I’m sure you could add more to that list.  It’s good that we can take positives out of challenging circumstances but we shouldn’t get too carried away.  Covid-19 has had a devastating effect on many lives and communities and the way forward will be hard.   

One of the worst legacies of Covid-19 is the lingering effect of social distancing.  At a time when community rebuilding will be of greatest importance we still give people a body-swerve when out walking and are anxious about gathering together under once familiar roofs.   When shielding was eased for me and I was able to step out beyond the garden gate one of the heart-lightening moments was when people would give me a cheerful ‘Good morning!’  Perhaps. it wasn't much but in that there was a sense of being in this together and getting through.  Maybe it’s my imagination but I think that has diminished to some extent.  People walking, jogging, cycling seem more interested in the middle-distance or their iPods than anyone coming towards them.  

That sense of reaching out to one another even in a limited way is one lockdown experience that we can carry forward.  These last eight months have left a mark on our lives as individuals but it is as a people with shared experience that we can face the challenge of rebuilding communities and nations.  From the beginning it was emphasised to Christians that they were not to see themselves as individuals satisfying themselves from some deep spiritual source.  They were part of a community which God was seeking to build as a foretaste of the renewed community which was His ultimate plan for humankind.  When the apostle John was given a vision of this renewed humanity it was contained within ‘the Holy City, the New Jerusalem’ in which there would be no more suffering or death.  All things would be made new.  (Revelation 21: 1-4) It is the image of the city that is striking.  A place where there is community, wisdom, healing, comfort.   The apostles grasped this image and challenged the Church to make known the city of God now.  

Still Quarrying 178: Someone To Blame.

There were some great gigs in the Glasgow City Halls in the seventies.  One stand out memory for me was a support act, a girl from Northern Ireland called Gillian MacPherson.  With just a guitar for accompaniment she sang deeply felt songs from her own life’s experience.  One in particular drew an extended  ovation.  It was about Belfast then in the teeth of the ‘troubles’ called They All Want Somebody To Blame.  I’ve never forgotten the chorus:

‘Who was to blame for the smoke and the flame?

 They all want somebody to blame.

 History and fame

 Every city cries the same,

                                                     They keep looking for someone to blame.’

Gillian was in touch with one of the dark tendencies that we all share and one we have to guard against especially in times of crisis.  In days of old when the crops failed, when the cows gave little milk, when the hens ceased to lay, yes, and when there was sickness in the community - solitary old women who were sometimes heard to talk to their cats were denounced as witches and the cause of all the trouble.

It’s called scapegoating, referring to the Hebrew ritual on the Day of Atonement.  The High Priest would lay his hands on a goat and pray on to it the sins of the people.  It would then be sent out into the wilderness symbolically carrying the sins.  It was a powerful symbol of God providing a distance between the sinner and the sin.   This is probably what the Psalmist has in mind when he writes:

‘As far as the east is from the west,

 So far has he removed our transgressions from us.’  (Psalm 103: 12)

The problem with scapegoating as it has developed in societies is that the element of forgiveness has been excised and certain individuals or groups as stuck with the sin that others perceive in them.  Furthermore their sin can be held responsible for whatever difficulties a particular community or society is having to face.  

When the present pandemic kicked in there was talk of older people being careless and not willing to face up to the seriousness of the challenge we were facing.  Then it was the young people meeting together in parks, holding parties, thinking they were bullet-proof.  Recently, particular fury has been vented against a group of eight footballers from Aberdeen FC who in the present ‘spike’ in Aberdeen visited a city centre pub.  Two of them have subsequently been diagnosed with the virus and the others are in isolation.  Apologies have been issued on the club’s Twitter feed and individual players have done the same.  

I don’t know all the circumstances but the least that can be said is that they acted irresponsibly and quite possibly have put other people at risk.  The fact that they are in the public eye, recognisable and admired, raises the question of their sense of responsibility.  They should also have been aware that footballers have long been an easy target for moral outrage, widely resented as having too much time on their hands, too much money and all this with not too much between their ears.   That stereotype, largely unfair and inaccurate, is very strong in the public mind especially among those who know nothing about football.  

In the end two of the Aberdeen men have the virus, the rest are in isolation and they will carry the memory of their time in the national spotlight  for the rest of their lives.  I can just hear the chants of opposing fans.  So may I make an immodest proposal that in the midst of all of this prayers might be said that the infected might be restored to health, that the isolated will be kept safe, and that they will all emerge as wiser men.  I seem to remember Jesus saying that it is spiritually ruinous to think ourselves morally superior to anyone else.   That came home to me some years ago when I felt particularly strongly about a certain individual and his opinions and being pole-axed by a thought: ‘Have you ever prayed for him?’   That doesn’t mean that we hold back when faced with values and actions that run counter to those of the Kingdom but it does prevent a sourness of spirit that fastens on someone to blame.  

Still Quarrying 177: Open Book?

I can’t say I had ever come across the writer Chris Power but I recently read a piece he wrote in the Guardian.  It was about his reading experience  during the lockdown.  He started off with great intentions.  This was the opportunity to read the monumental works of literature like Middlemarch and Bleak House among others.  Instead he found himself sorting out 1,000 piece puzzles and joining Zoom pub quizzes.  He then discovered that he wasn’t alone in this.  He began to hear more and more about people who just could not sustain any kind of reading schedule.  And the surprising thing was that many were writers like him.  Short stories could be managed but novels?  Forget it.  

I read Chris’ article round about the time when friends, normally avid readers, were telling me that they were suffering from a similar affliction.  The one thing that they thought would see them through lockdown just was not happening.  So what is the problem?  Chris attempts an explanation:

‘ . . . whenever I put a book down, the move from fiction back to reality was so jarring that what I had just read would be overpowered.  The space in my mind where novels persisted when I wasn’t reading them suddenly seemed to be missing, or busy with some other task (comparing national death rates, perhaps).’  

I can understand this.  Personal circumstances and a flood of information can leave little room for recreational reading.  When I was a patient in the Stem Cell Transplant Unit there was very little reading apart from short passages of Scripture and the odd magazine article.  My intention to keep the blog going soon burned out.  Much of this was due to side-effects and fatigue but there is also the possibility that there just was not any room for the alternative reality of a novel or the flow of information you would experience in a non-fiction book.  

I was listening to an online sermon of Rico Tice’s recently.  He stated that that he was finding it difficult to cope with the amount of Covid-19 information that daily flows out from the media.   So it has become important for him first thing in the morning to join an online prayer group with his colleagues in the ministry team at All Souls Langham Place.  He says this reminds him who is really in charge during this time.

I can relate to that.  Of course I like to keep in touch with what is going on but there are limits.  Like Rico I have found it important to build a spiritual foundation for the day right at the beginning.  This means spending time with Scripture and in prayer.  This helps to remind me that reality is more than just my immediate experience.  Faith is essentially an anchorage in the place where God is  and from that we are assured that whatever our circumstances a good and loving purpose is unfolding for humankind.  The life and ministry of Jesus which encapsulated suffering  at every level and His emergence from this as the Risen Lord is our assurance of this.  

As for reading in general I am happy to say I am still up for that.  I’ve done better than Chris.  I got through Bleak House and was in awe at how Charles Dickens could hold in his mind such a vast narrative with its plot and sub-plots and huge cast of characters, some of whom you feel you actually know.   In a sense the novelist is reflecting the great Creator who holds in His mind our reality with its present and past and who is guiding that reality  towards a future climax where His Son will be seen as the Lord of the Universe.   Beginning each day with Him is our strength, our hope and our peace.