Still Quarrying 184: 'I See You!'

 My Saturday newspaper had some surprises.  Judi Dench doesn’t like going to the pictures; Anton Du Beke used to be a door to door salesman; and Graeme Spiers.was impressed by Kemar Roofe’s goal against Standard Liege.  That all of this was mined out of a mountain of Covid-19, the America election, the dark side of Holyrood and is now imbedded in my mind is probably not the best reflection on me.   Sometimes the things you remember are more embarrassing than the things you forget.  One night, playing Trivial Pursuit, the question was: ‘Who was on the front page of the Beano in 1974?’  I knew.  I was in there like a Ninja.  

Being kind to myself, maybe I just need a break from this deluge of information that I feel   I need to take in.  And I need someone to be impressed that I have all this knowledge.  ‘You’ll never guess about Judi Dench!’  ‘Did you hear about Anton Du Beke?’   ‘When I read Spiers this morning I thought porcine aviators really did exist.’  Sometimes you need some bubble-gum for your inner being and the opportunity to share it.

And maybe that’s not so daft.  One of my favourite spiritual writers is Eugene Petersen.  He used to speak about ‘the ministry of small talk’, engaging in conversation which might not seem to be earth-shaking but there is an openness to the lives of others and the possibility of connection which might in the end lead to understanding and empathy.  

This is why it will be important for us as the days become colder and the nights draw in to be more open to people we come across in the course of a day.  My newspaper also contained concerns about the effects of Covid-19 on the nation’s mental health.   Surely one way we can help is to recognise one another, to feel we are worthy of someone’s time and shared information, even in the passing and however trivial.  Our daily walk could become an opportunity to assure people that we notice them. 

Apparently when Kamala Harris (Joe Biden’s running-mate) is introduced to someone she does not say ‘Pleased to meet you’ or any of the conventional greetings.  She says: ‘I see you!’  Okay, typical American you may say.   But this can be a brighter and more hopeful Winter if we can see one another as people who need to be recognised and valued in the eyes of others.  Jesus was once in conversation with a young man who disappointed Him but Jesus’ attitude never altered:  ‘Jesus looked at him and loved him.’ (Mark 10: 21).  

When we are open to one another, even in small-talk, love can happen.  

Still Quarrying 183: Hubris

President Trump’s illness has led to a number of discussions on how people in power have coped with illness.   David Owen, former politician and qualified physician,  has written about this in a fascinating book called In Sickness And In Power.  It is a  survey of major politicians who fell ill while in the highest positions of power and how that may have affected their general conduct and decisions.   

The one besetting disorder among people in power, however, appears to be hubris.   I learned about this when I did a course in Greek Civilisation at Uni.  Maybe it doesn’t sound too exciting but it was actually one of the most enjoyable courses I undertook.   Time and again in Greek drama you come across characters who showed excessive pride and defiance in face of the gods,  a state of being which led to their own destruction.  This was hubris.  

It has entered into our language to describe a personality quality of extreme or foolish pride or dangerous over-confidence.  The hubristic person is one who believes himself/herself to be bullet-proof, above the common flow of humanity, with a high destiny which will not be denied.  Owen sees this cap fitting a surprising number of political leaders, some of them within living memory.   

It’s one of the dangers of power.  I’ve often wondered why anyone would want political office with all the pressures that will be acting upon them, especially in this twitterised age when unfavourable judgements can be so immediate and sometimes vitriolic.  But the impulse to make a difference is strong.  The problems seem to arrive when you actually have the power to pursue your dreams.

The first king of Israel is a case in point.   Saul began as ‘an impressive young man without equal among the Israelites’ (1 Samuel 9: 2) and ended, having gone against an express command from God, as a spiritual derelict seeking comfort from a witch.   Lord Acton’s words have become a verbal bludgeon to be wielded against any man or woman who is overreaching themselves: ‘Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.’

So another reason to hold our political leaders in prayer, perhaps as much in their successes as well in their failures.    Paul enjoins obedience to the governing authorities but that is set alongside his vision for the authorities that they fulfil their God-given role to preserve what is right and just and to hold ‘no terror’ for those in society who are seeking  to do right and live justly.  (Romans 13: 1-5)  There can be no better corrective against the hubris that Owen suggests is a characteristic of political life.  In Paul’s vision no person in authority is a master but a servant.  

Still Quarrying 182: Hot Topic!

Waiting patiently outside the newsagent this morning, a man already inside points to a newspaper headline which says: ‘Trump Dumped’.  He loudly appeals to no one in particular: ‘Please tell me he is dead!’  

Later I open the paper of my choice and discover a review of the latest Rebus novel by Ian Rankin.  It’s called A Song For Dark Times.  The reviewer is fulsome in his praise for the remarkable way that Rankin can sustain the quality of his prose after 30 plus novels and is particularly taken by the timely title.  This is a novel that captures the spirit of the age where everyone is ‘bitter and pointing the finger at the person they think is to blame for their misfortune.’  That is a direct quote from the book.  

My mind drifted to the man in the newsagent.  I really didn’t need to hear that first thing in the morning but then I wonder if that same bitterness of spirit and knee-jerk condemnation has not sometimes inhabited my inner being.  ‘We all want somebody to blame.‘ ‘Everybody has to have somebody to look down on.’  ‘Before you abuse, criticise and accuse/Walk a mile in my shoes’.  Words I have picked up from songs through the years.   We all know the problem but are not very successful at working it out of our system.

Which brings me to Margaret Ferrier.  I am cautious about wandering into a political maelstrom, especially these days when there is a bitterness in political life that I can never recall in my experience.  A journalist friend has characterised it as ‘shrieking and finger pointing.’   And people definitely go off you if you don’t chime with their political views.    That’s why my tongue has endured a pounding in the past.  I’ve had to bite so hard in order to maintain reasonable relationships with certain people.  

Also I have never believed that a parish minister’s views on political matters are necessarily worth a hill of beans, to paraphrase Humphrey Bogart.   Unless that is moral or spiritual values are at stake.  And there is something to be said about this present hot topic which is still burning away in the media.  

The first thing to be said is that it is indeed beyond comprehension that a MP should behave in the way of Margaret Ferrier.  In the wake of the revelations we have heard of the sacrifices people have made in order to stay on the right side of government laws and guidelines laid down in response to the pandemic.  Personal and family lives have been disrupted almost beyond endurance therefore it is not good to see political leaders acting, as someone has said, as if they are bullet-proof.  The public is right to be shocked, disappointed and to give vent to their disapproval.  

Sometimes, however, when a public figure goes down the kicking is relentless to the point that I begin to feel uncomfortable.  My disapproval of Ms. Ferrier’s actions are now a matter of record but I do not like to think of myself as having been caught up in a pack mentality which will not be satisfied until the victim has been torn to shreds.  Think about this.  If I was Ms. Ferrier’s minister, what would you expect me to do?  There was a report last night of a colleague of hers who ‘couldn’t bear to talk to her on the phone.’   What would you think of a minister who had that attitude to a member, even if they had committed a criminal act?  But never mind minsters.  Is that that the correct response for any Christian?  

The thing is, Christian love is no easy option.  Space and time don’t allow me to unpack it in a way that is totally satisfying.  But Christian love does not call upon us to like everyone and to endorse all their actions.  What is does demand is that despite what people think and do we will not wish the worst for them.  And sometimes when we make that decision, and it is a decision, we might find we understand them better and maybe even begin to like them.  All I know of Ms. Ferrier is what I have seen and heard in the last 48 hours.  But if I was her minister I would be on the phone.  The last thing I wish for anyone is that whatever circumstances have brought them low they have no hope in Christ.  

That brings me to the fundamental need of politicians and any other members of our fallen race.  They need a Saviour.  The moral and spiritual atmosphere of Scotland and the UK in general does not demand a great deal from politicians.  There are no accepted standards of personal morality. They do not need to be paragons of virtue.  The nation it seems does not demand it.  Everything depends on how politicians present themselves.  There is plenty of evidence that able and sometimes outstanding politicians never reached the heights because they ‘did not look the part.’   Maybe it’s time for us all to grow up a bit.  It doesn’t matter how smooth the rhetoric, how folksy the style, how effective the impact on the public’s emotions, politicians are sons of Adam and daughters of Eve.  They share our fallen nature and therefore stand in need of a Saviour. 

You know, having held up that man in the newsagent as an example of somewhere I do not want to go spiritually I have not prayed for him.  See how it works?  Not happy with ‘shrieking and finger pointing’ I have been taken up by the same unhealthy draft that chills the inner being.  It’s easier to point the finger than to offer your heart for cleansing.  

Still Quarrying 181: Truth Will Out!

In the course of one of his missionary journeys  Paul was given the opportunity to address the governing body of Athens, the Areopagus.  It was a largely receptive audience.  According to Luke, Athenians were always interested to hear the ‘latest ideas.’  (Acts 17: 21).   It is a fascinating address.  Conscious of his audience Paul makes no appeal  to the Hebrew Scriptures and Jesus fulfilment of the ancient prophecies as he would have done in a synagogue.  His way into the Athenian mind is to acknowledge their religious sensibilities and then to proclaim that God has been revealed to humankind in the person of Jesus.  He takes the vague Athenian belief in God and gives it focus in Jesus.  

At one point, referring to God’s presence in their midst he says: 

“”For in him we live and move and have our being”.  As one of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’’ (Acts 17: 28).  

I have always been struck by this.  Paul using pagan poets to illuminate an aspect of God’s being and our relationship with Him.  It’s as if he is saying: ‘You have come across truths about my God without realising it.’   It’s the same for twenty-first century people.  We can rub up against Biblical truth in the most unexpected places.  

Take the historian and broadcaster Neil Oliver, for instance.  He has a column in the Sunday Times.  Normally it is interesting, sometimes entertaining, but not exactly earth-shaking.   He did cause a bit of a stushie a couple of weeks back, however, when he addressed the business of mask wearing.  He highlighted the carelessness that has taken hold of the population and how ‘individuality’ is at the root of the problem.  He tries very hard not to be too censorious and is at pains to emphasise that not everyone is guilty but eventually he says: 

‘Human nature, of the stubborn sort that just won’t be told, pushes like grass through tarmac, like tree against barbed wire.  The tighter the bindings, the more human nature will defy them.’  

The subtitle of his piece (which he may or may not have composed) is: 

‘Human nature is the biggest barrier to keeping Covid at bay.’  

This reminded me of a story at the beginning of the Bible about a humankind that enjoyed many blessings with a harmonious environment, abundant provision, peace in relationships and with God.  They were given an instruction.  They were forbidden to eat the fruit of a particular tree.  What happened?  That human nature Neil was on about pushed and strained against a restriction which was for the good of humankind, the fruit was eaten, and shadows fell on the environment and on human experience.  From then on this tendency to turn away from God and everything that is good in His eyes became part of humankind’s spiritual DNA.  ‘Doing our own thing’ is a more powerful impulse than living in harmony with God and His good and loving purpose.

The rest of the Bible is honest, sometimes frighteningly so, in depicting how often this tendency in human nature dominates and opens the door to disaster.  One book shows how far the fall away from God has moved in incidents of betrayal, greed and savagery in the nation of Israel.  There are times of spiritual renewal but all too soon the darkness invades again.  The book ends with the comment:

‘In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as he saw fit.’  (Judges 21: 25)

In subsequent books of the Bible prophets are sent to expose the brokenness in human nature but returns to God and His ways are never sustained.  Those with spiritual insight looked longingly on the promises which indicated that one day this struggle against the brokenness within would be over.  One prophet was given a message from God to share with a people in exile from Israel:

‘For I will take you out of the nations; I will gather you from all the countries and bring you back into your own land.  I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols.  I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.’  (Ezekiel 36: 24-27)

The followers of Jesus believed that this promise was fulfilled in Him, that His death paid the price for their sin, that His resurrection showed God’s plan of renewal for their lives, that His Spirit was their possession who kept them close to Him and moved them to live in the ways of God.  Jesus was the decisive halt against the fall away from God and His ways.  Those who were close to Jesus had a way of dealing with the impulses of their broken human nature.  

Think of Paul.  He looked within himself and saw a conflict going on between the Holy Spirit and his ‘sinful nature’.  The Spirit was working to raise him to the pattern of Jesus’ life but the ‘sinful nature’ was working to drag him down to his own ways.   Paul includes himself when he makes this call to ancient Christians:

‘Let us keep in step with the Spirit.’  (Galatians 5: 5-26)

We may have come a long way from Neil Oliver - but not that much.  Without meditating on Scripture, listening to a preacher or reading a blog, he has come up against the core problem of humankind.  What Paul would describe as knowing the good he should do but finding something within himself that prevents him from doing it!   (Romans 7: 19-20)  ‘I know I should wear a mask, practise social distancing, cancel that journey but . . .’  

God has ways of making His truth known but not always through the familiar channels.   Through a newspaper article we have been confronted with a truth about ourselves.  It’s a pity that it didn’t go further to show the way out of our brokenness.   Paul discovered that in Jesus.  Eugene Petersen’s paraphrase of Romans 7: 21-27 is helpful:

‘I’ve tried everything and nothing helps.  I’m at the end of my rope.  Is there no one who can do anything for me?  Isn’t that the real question?

‘The answer, thank God, is that Jesus Christ can and does.  He acted to set things right in this life of contradictions where I want to serve God with all my heart and mind, but am pulled by the influence of sin to do something different.’