Before and after the referendum

Exodus 14: 19-31

Romans 14: 1-12

St Matthew 18: 21-35

This weekend in our nation of Scotland there are many who are feeling anxious and uncertain. According to the opinion polls there are a surprisingly high percentage of voters who remain undecided on whether to vote Yes or No in Thursday’s referendum. For these folks there is great uncertainty and not a little anxiety as they attempt to weigh up competing claims, conflicting assertions and contradictory evidence.

For those of us who have already made up our minds there is also uncertainty and anxiety. Our uncertainty may not be with regard to how we might vote but rather on what the outcome might be.

Again the opinion polls suggest that the vote on Thursday could go either way. The implications of a vote one way or the other may make us anxious, depending on our own convictions and our own vote.

So whether we are undecided or firmly decided, there is uncertainty ahead and a natural anxiety.

As you may know, on the Scottish Parliamentary Mace are inscribed four words: WISDOM, JUSTICE, COMPASSION, INTEGRITY.

These values do not indicate how we should vote on Thursday, but they perhaps suggest something of the principles that may guide us in our deciding and lead us beyond Thursday into the future, whatever that future may be.

And as Christians there will be additional values and principles that will guide how we come to our decision, Yes or No.

As Christians, the decision we take will not simply be based on short-term economic benefits nor simply on what will be good for us as individuals...

We will be asking questions such as who are our neighbours, in Scotland and beyond Scotland and what is our responsibility to each?

What impact will our decision on Thursday have on the poorest and most vulnerable of our society?

What is the nature of and best expression of inter-dependence in our ever shrinking world?

Is a vote one way or the other going to take us further down the road towards world peace or towards more sustainable environmental policies?

How do we best secure a long-term good, stable, prosperous, peaceful, just and more equal society and for whom are we seeking these things... ourselves? Scotland, these islands, Europe, the world...?

And so on...

Speaking to people over these last few weeks and especially in these last few days, the one thing that is making people of different views feel anxious and uncertain is not the vote on Thursday, but how we face Friday and beyond; how we  - as a nation – move on beyond the vote. How we ensure unity and community however our nation decides.

Beyond Thursday and beyond the choice we each will make we still have bigger challenges ahead for which we must all pull together regardless of our views. And we will do so out of love for one another, love for our society, love for our nation and love for the Kingdom of God and its values and priorities.

The themes of forgiveness, reconciliation, mercy and patience are dominant in today’s Gospel reading, and in our epistle from Paul’s letter to the Romans the apostle is urging his readers not to divide over secondary issues and urges them not to quarrel over different opinions.                                       

It is on this path of unity and reconciliation that we must walk beyond this week and its momentous decision and it is towards such unity and reconciliation that we must work; and as the church, as Christians we have a key role in this.   

There will be some of us who wish  were not at this point, that we were not facing this decision, that we were not being presented with such a stark choice, who feel and fear that a simple Yes / No vote has unnecessarily divided the nation, has demanded of us a polarised decision and has destroyed the opportunity for consensus.

But this is where we are and we cannot change it now. There is no going back and whatever the result on Thursday, we must go forward.

We may perhaps feel like the Israelites fleeing Egypt! We cannot go back, but ahead of us is the Red Sea. How can we go forward from here?

The fearful Red Sea that many people see ahead and which causes them anxiety and uncertainty is not the vote itself but how we find a way forward thereafter. It is not Thursday, but Friday that concerns many. How do we find a way through the division, the possible recriminations, the fact that on Friday morning half the nation will feel relieved or exhilarated while the other half will feel deeply disappointed or despairing.

Will we find a Moses to calm the fears of the people, to call them forward and to carve a path through the turbulent waters?

Well perhaps, just perhaps, this is part of what the church is called to do in coming days. And indeed, the Moderator of the General Assembly, Rt Revd John Chalmers has set the road towards such a role for the church in his emphasis on respectful dialogue and the plans for a national service of reconciliation.

Not that we should overstate the extent or depth of the division in Scotland; aside from some examples of bad temper, inappropriate name-calling, some hotheads on social media and a few thrown eggs, in comparison with similar constitutional debates throughout the world... even in these islands in times past!... this has been a largely positive and civil referendum debate. 

And yet, there can be no denying that there are divisions... but did you see that picture that has been going the rounds this last week on the internet and social media. There are two houses adjoining one another, the one with Yes posters in its windows the other with ‘No Thanks’ in its; and strung between the homes is a banner stating ‘We love our neighbours’! Good!

In the main we are a people well able to overcome such divisions and put them behind us and walk and work towards a good future whatever the result. But this will require good leadership and a willingness of all to seek unity and be reconciled.

When it is all over, a decision will have been made. Half of us will be pleased with that decision and half of us will not be. But some things....MANY things will remain the same.

The church will still face the same challenges and opportunities and we will each still need to pray and work and commit to the future of Christ’s Church in our land and in this place. We will still need to struggle and act and pray for social justice, will still need to reach out in care to the poor and vulnerable, still need to listen to the broken and pray for the sick, still need to open our doors and our hearts to the troubled and the lost, still need to bear witness to Christ in this city and this nation, still need to seek less destructive ways of living with the created world and with one another.

There has been much passion evident in the referendum debate. That is natural and inevitable. But as Christian people let us get just as passionate... indeed even more passionate about the Kingdom of God, mission, prayer, justice and mercy.

 And if we have concerns and anxieties about what lies ahead of us beyond Thursday’s vote then let us, like the Israelites faced with the Red Sea, fall to our knees and cry out to the God who has, time and again, responded to the cries of terrified people, and parted the deep waters of chaos and provided a way through to a promised land of peace and new life. God is the one who hears our cries. God is the one who knows our fears. God is the one knows where the dry path to the Promised Land lies. And God is the one who longs to set our feet on that path and lead us into new life. 

As the church – as God’s people in Scotland let us point the way –and with God’s leading and in his power take our nation forward to and through the troubled waters to find the unity, reconciliation, justice and peace and hope for the future for our nation... a hope that ultimately does not lie in constitutional arrangements however important these may be, but a hope that lies in the Kingdom of God and the Gospel of Christ. And in bearing witness to these and working for these our job as a church on Friday coming will be exactly the same as it was on Friday past.

I don't know

I am afraid to write this, for I am sure that many of my friends (and certainly my family) will want to express amazement and even disbelief that it could be possible that I might even for a moment think or admit that ‘I don’t know’!

‘You are the one who “knows everything”’ they will mockingly say.

Hmmmm....

I suppose I have to admit that I do give that impression. Not terribly proud of that!

However, I think that in the main any claim to knowledge is about ‘general knowledge’; I know a lot of historical facts and about current affairs and certain types of music and so on. I often fantasise about applying to go on Mastermind or even ‘Who Wants to be a Millionaire’. But in the end I settle for winning at ‘Trivial Pursuit’.

Sad really.

But my ‘don’t knows’ are more about ‘why’ and ‘how’ rather than ‘what’.  Ask me what year was the Battle of Bannockburn or what is the name of the Minister of Defence(War) in Churchill’s WW2 Cabinet (and that is a trick question!) or who is President of the European Commission and I can give you an answer. Which may be mildly interesting but – in the final analysis – may not be all that useful.

It is more in group discussions or theological debates or Bible Studies – or still more in difficult and tragic pastoral contexts - when people ask... well what do you (the Minister, the theologically educated one, our ‘resident expert’) think, that I very often find myself saying ‘I don’t know’.

Now, I do say more than just that. But I do not have easy answers to every enquiry. As has been said by others, the more I go on in the Christian walk the more and more sure I am about less and less. (and no, don’t panic, I am not going through any kind of ‘faith crisis’!)

And here’s the thing.... I find that admitting that there are things I don’t know and regarding which I cannot venture an opinion has actually helped many seekers and searchers, doubters and questioners, and those facing difficult real life situations.

So maybe it is good to admit when we truly don’t know... and yet still believe.

Now, if only I could work out what I think about Scottish Independence... but really ‘I don’t know’!

The Rhythm of Life

Ever since I set out on the road of Christian discipleship I have been persuaded that we need to develop lives which follow certain disciplines and have a ‘shape’; we need to have a ‘Rhythm of Life’ (which also happens to be the title of one of David Adams excellent books of Celtic inspired Christian spirituality).

Christians from evangelical, liberal, catholic, charismatic, orthodox and Celtic streams would all broadly agree on this. Patterns of daily prayer and weekly worship and the shape of the Christian Year are all part of the ‘Rhythm of Life’. But there is more; the balance between work and leisure, play and prayer, family/friends and solitude and so on and on.

I am utterly convinced of the value of developing a ‘Rhythm of Life’, totally persuaded that it is essential to our personal and spiritual well being – and yet I am utterly hopeless at it!

Yes – that is a confession of abject failure!

I cannot get the Rhythm right.

Curiously, when it comes to music, I have a very good sense of rhythm. I should have been a drummer (but it was easier to carry a guitar around than a drum kit!). But beyond music, I am no good at it.

Prayer can get squeezed out, the family can suffer, friendships get neglected, domestic chores get put off, I ignore my own recreational needs and so on and on.

I imagine that I am not alone. But I really don’t know for sure.

Are you the same?

How can we fix it?

Do we need each other, perhaps??

(Or have I just embarrassed myself by admitting to an inability to do somethign that everyone else finds comes naturally?!?)

Let me know!

Measured and mature?

I do not think that any of us is ever in a position to judge what reasonable behaviour is or what acceptable or considered viewpoints are. It is all too subjective.

If we agree with someone then we might consider their views to be well thought through, balanced and ‘reasonable’. On the other hand, if we do not agree then...!!

And yet, the obvious fact of our inability to be truly objective does not excuse us from considering our own assertions and convictions (or those of others) in the light of what is mature and measured, ‘reasonable’ (in the common sense of that word) and – especially – in keeping with the kind of attitudes exemplified in Jesus, taught by him and urged upon us in the New Testament Epistles.

In our contemporary situation there are two responses to disagreement that I cannot quite understand. The one is the conviction that the view I hold is the correct one, without a shadow of a doubt and with no room for persuasion or discussion. The other is that if you do not accept my view, agree with me and decide/vote accordingly then I have every good reason to walk away from you/the Church/this congregation/Scotland...

Over recent months I have been most aware of this in three very different contexts:

·         the tradition of worship in the Church of Scotland (yes, I know, who would have imagined that this would have been a controversial issue with colleagues or within congregations... ? but especially with colleagues. I am tempted to quote the Professor in C S Lewis’s The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, ‘Bless me, what do they teach them at these schools?’!)

·         what passes for a debate on the independence issue (and I remain appalled at the poverty of the ‘debate’)

·         the ongoing (never-ending?) debate in the Church of Scotland (and other denominations) with regard to same sex relationships.

On this last point I recall being in a discussion amongst ministerial colleagues on same-sex relationships. One (who was obviously not yet decided on his view) ventured that he hoped that we might all learn to listen to what the Holy Spirit might be saying in this time of uncertainty and debate. The next person to speak said ‘Well, yes, I agree that we need to listen to the Holy Spirit. But we know that the Holy Spirit has already spoken and made God’s view clear...’ (I wonder if this also goes for slavery, polygamy, the role of women in the church, contraception etc etc...??)

But look at any of the three issues and you will find those who are all too ready to ‘throw their toys out of the pram’.

‘If they continue doing (this/that/other) in the services then I am going to go to another church’

‘I they vote “yes” in this referendum then I am going to go and live in England (or alternatively ‘if they vote to leave Europe I will emigrate to France...’)

‘If they affirm and accept the LGBT community and approve same-sex blessing/marriage I will leave the Church of Scotland.’

And I find myself wondering on what biblical, theological or spiritual ground such responses are made. One thing; such responses seem to me to be neither mature nor measured.

Hearing and Seeing

I was 10 years old when I first started wearing spectacles. I remember how amazed I was when I walked out of the opticians and saw how sharp and clear everything seemed. I could pick out individual leaves on trees (something that I had not been able to do before) and read the destination and numbers on buses! (My inability to do this was one of the things that suggested to my parents that a visit to the optician was in order). 

I could see what had always been there but which I had previously not spotted.

Last week I was fitted with a hearing aid; only one because the hearing loss is only in one ear. Pending further investigation the cause of this is not yet known. It could be MS (although MS only affects hearing in only a small proportion of cases).

They tell me that it can take up to two months to adjust to having a hearing aid, and I can believe that! However, already I am amazed at what I can hear. The every day I was fitted with the aid I spent a good half hour just sitting in St Cuthbert’s graveyard listening to the birds. I heard their song with a new and unexpected clarity.

All of which makes me wonder what we miss out on because we do not listen or look.

Do we really hear what people are saying? Do we hear what God is saying?

Do we see the beauty of the world, the suffering of many people, the Divine presence in creation or the love of God in Christ?

Do we?

These things are all there to be seen or heard.

My Shortest ever blog

I really like this.

Do you think we can manage it in church too?

Please??

The time is right to write

For very many years now I have been thinking about writing a book. In fact, several potential books have been in my mind. However, in this last couple of years a number of folks have suggested me to that I write something about how I have dealt with issues of MS, ministry and faith etc.

So, encouraged by them and by the example of my friends Dorothy Neilson ('Me, God and Prozac') and Scott Burton ('Holy Whitewater') I have begun to write a book...

...I say ‘begun’ because I am far from sure that I will finish it, not at all convinced that anyone will want to publish it and (assuming I do finish it and get it published) far from certain that anyone will want to read it!

But, so far, the writing has been really rather liberating and revealing. The discipline of reflecting on my experience, finding the words to express that and daily (mostly!) writing something has been very helpful.

So why has it taken me so long?

Perhaps it has taken me so long because I am not at all sure of my capabilities in this realm. I have never written a book before. Can I do it?

What is more, I am not sure I have much of a story to tell. There are many who face much more profound challenges with a medical condition and many who seem to me to have handled the challenges with much more faith and grace than I have.

Nonetheless, it now fells like the right time, and I have begun.

If I ever finish and it ever gets published, you – dear blog readers – will be the first to know!