SOUL SURMISE

TETHER’S END

We are at Tether’s End

Question upon question

Distanced too far apart

Too much isolation

We are at Tether’s End

Months of dismal headlines

People dying every day

Friends risking on the frontlines

 

We are at Tether’s End

Dizzy and out of control

Hurled against our will

Weary and fractured souls

 

At Tether’s End

We need tolerance and grace

Tenderness and compassion

A comforting embrace

At Tether’s End

We need a radical humility

Others always above ourselves

The Spirit of like minded unity.

 

We are at Tether’s End

Where do we get tested

Rules changing all the time

After all that we invested

We are at Tether’s End

When can we visit grandma

Is the baby counted in the bubble

And what’s wrong with the cinema

 

We are at Tether’s End

Exhausted from the fall

Fractious and pontificating

Like we know it all

 

At Tether’s End

We need tolerance and grace

Tenderness and compassion

A comforting embrace

At Tether’s End

We need a radical humility

Others always above ourselves

The Spirit of like minded unity.

6 FIXES OF SOUL - STOCKI'S SPIRITUAL RULE OF 6 - SEARCHING OUR FAULT LINES

In recent sermons I have been speaking about my Spiritual Rule Of Six. It has been tweaked from an idea in the Oxford Diocese. My suggestion is that we set a target of 6 months to Easter. In that time we see 6 Fixes in our own souls, 6 People to care for and 6 Acts of Salt & Light in neighbourhood and world.

In this blog I open up the 6 Fixes.

 

“See those fault lines
Lay down like land mines
It's hard to relax
A promise broken
The ground breaks open
Love falls through the cracks

And I've got a few of my own
I've got a few of my own fault lines
Running under my life
Running under my life”

This Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers’ song rattles around my brain a lot, challenging my spiritual life. It is a great song and this is a great image. Petty has lived in California for some 40 years and that idea of the San Andreas Fault lying beneath you all the time could be a frightening thought if you allowed it to linger. Over 200 people have lost their lives in earthquakes in that State since I was born in 1961. 

Petty’s song though is not about tectonic geographical shifts. He is using the image to dig deep in his own life. Another song on the same Hypnotic Eye album goes, “Meet me tonight at the Red River/And look down into your soul…” There is a lot of soul searching going on here and so I looked deep down into mine.

Fault lines are not necessarily sins. They are those things that have made up your core. They are events or circumstances that have happened to you or around you that have somehow bruised, broken or beaten your soul out of shape. They might not be bad things, just circumstances but until we come to terms with them we live on top of their potential danger.

My old history teacher Bob Mitchell probably didn’t teach me much history but a phrase of his has lingered with me since I was 17. He once told us that any great human being was someone who was aware of his or her weaknesses. A great boxer, he went on, knows that vulnerable spot, maybe a vulnerable eye that can get easily cut. Knowing this weakness he will defend that eye. It will be vital if he is to be a champion.

I have many times taken Big Bob's advice and looked deep inside and asked where there might be fault lines; because of where I was born; the family that I was raised in; my social class; the creed that I was spiritual formed in; the political ideology I was steeped in; the era I was born into. For me, among many others, one of the crucial fault lines is that I am an only child and that brings with it all kinds of formations at my core.

When Jesus encountered people he was intuitive about their fault lines. He meets the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4 and he opens up her fault lines. She is a Samaritan and a woman who came to the well alone in the heat of the day. He had a few clues as to where to bore into the strata of her life. It is all very different than Nicodemus’s fault lines in the previous chapter of John. 

Before pastoral care or spiritual formation can be effective there is a need to analyse the fault lines. For me personally I have to be constantly searching my own fault lines.

I need to be aware of them if I am going to allow God’s objective redemption, that is mine, to become subjective in how it works itself out in my living.

Then as a pastor, my pastoral care cannot be a one fits all blue print. Every member of my congregation has different fault lines and to care for each is going to need a different approach depending. Any pastor will benefit when his flock are good in their own self critique and awareness of the fault lines running under their lives.

As we consider the 6 Fixes in my Spiritual Rule Of 6 then the place to begin might be our fault lines... Take Psalm 139 at its word:

Search me, God, and know my heart;
    test me and know my anxious thoughts.
²⁴ See if there is any offensive way in me,
    and lead me in the way everlasting.

Invite the Holy Spirit to seep deep down in the strata of your soul to see where those inherent weaknesses and fault lines are. See it is a health check of the soul... but not drive in!

 

In recent sermons I have been speaking about my Spiritual Rule Of Six. It has been tweaked from an idea in the Oxford Diocese. My suggestion is that we set a target of 6 months to Easter. In that time we see 6 Fixes in our own souls, 6 People to care for and 6 Acts of Salt & Light in neighbourhood and world.

In this blog I open up the 6 Fixes.

 

“See those fault lines
Lay down like land mines
It's hard to relax
A promise broken
The ground breaks open
Love falls through the cracks

And I've got a few of my own
I've got a few of my own fault lines
Running under my life
Running under my life”

This Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers’ song rattles around my brain a lot, challenging my spiritual life. It is a great song and this is a great image. Petty has lived in California for some 40 years and that idea of the San Andreas Fault lying beneath you all the time could be a frightening thought if you allowed it to linger. Over 200 people have lost their lives in earthquakes in that State since I was born in 1961. 

Petty’s song though is not about tectonic geographical shifts. He is using the image to dig deep in his own life. Another song on the same Hypnotic Eye album goes, “Meet me tonight at the Red River/And look down into your soul…” There is a lot of soul searching going on here and so I looked deep down into mine.

Fault lines are not necessarily sins. They are those things that have made up your core. They are events or circumstances that have happened to you or around you that have somehow bruised, broken or beaten your soul out of shape. They might not be bad things, just circumstances but until we come to terms with them we live on top of their potential danger.

My old history teacher Bob Mitchell probably didn’t teach me much history but a phrase of his has lingered with me since I was 17. He once told us that any great human being was someone who was aware of his or her weaknesses. A great boxer, he went on, knows that vulnerable spot, maybe a vulnerable eye that can get easily cut. Knowing this weakness he will defend that eye. It will be vital if he is to be a champion.

I have many times taken Big Bob's advice and looked deep inside and asked where there might be fault lines; because of where I was born; the family that I was raised in; my social class; the creed that I was spiritual formed in; the political ideology I was steeped in; the era I was born into. For me, among many others, one of the crucial fault lines is that I am an only child and that brings with it all kinds of formations at my core.

When Jesus encountered people he was intuitive about their fault lines. He meets the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4 and he opens up her fault lines. She is a Samaritan and a woman who came to the well alone in the heat of the day. He had a few clues as to where to bore into the strata of her life. It is all very different than Nicodemus’s fault lines in the previous chapter of John. 

Before pastoral care or spiritual formation can be effective there is a need to analyse the fault lines. For me personally I have to be constantly searching my own fault lines.

I need to be aware of them if I am going to allow God’s objective redemption, that is mine, to become subjective in how it works itself out in my living.

Then as a pastor, my pastoral care cannot be a one fits all blue print. Every member of my congregation has different fault lines and to care for each is going to need a different approach depending. Any pastor will benefit when his flock are good in their own self critique and awareness of the fault lines running under their lives.

As we consider the 6 Fixes in my Spiritual Rule Of 6 then the place to begin might be our fault lines... Take Psalm 139 at its word:

Search me, God, and know my heart;
    test me and know my anxious thoughts.
²⁴ See if there is any offensive way in me,
    and lead me in the way everlasting.

Invite the Holy Spirit to seep deep down in the strata of your soul to see where those inherent weaknesses and fault lines are. See it is a health check of the soul... but not drive in!

STOCKI'S SPIRITUAL RULE OF SIX

My wife Janice used to sail. Mirror dinghies. She raced them. As far as I can see they are like pieces of plywood with a hanky on top as a sail. Precarious!

Now, here’s the thing. When Janice is on a ferry to Cairnryan, she can’t cope. One wee roll of the sea… seasick. How can someone who sailed a piece of plywood in Belfast Lough struggle in the relative safety of a massive ferry boat? 

It is to do with purpose. When Janice was occupied with things to do on the dinghy it caused her to miss the waves crashing against the plywood! With nothing to think about on the ferry Janice struggles to get through.

These Coronavirus days are wearing us down. Seven months in we are weary. We would like to pretend this was all over and hope that that would get rid of this virus with all its restrictions and relearning and physical distancing.

The truth is that it is not going away soon. Robin Swann is suggesting that October will be our winter but Robin knows that there are going to be more winters after that.

So, what if we set ourselves a purpose. In Philippians 3 Paul talks about his faith in Christ. He reminds us that he was an arrogant religious person who thought he had it all together but then threw all his self righteousness out and gave in to the grace of a loving God. The work of Jesus brought him a righteousness that his own work at keeping the law couldn’t compete with.

From there, Paul says that he hasn’t obtained perfection but presses on towards the prize to which God calls us heavenward in Christ Jesus. 

So… what if? What if we set ourselves a spiritual purpose. What if we give ourselves a programme of useful spiritual formation to concentrate your minds, heart and souls during this next 6 months towards Easter. Another secret to avoid feeling sea sick is to apparently fix your eye on a mark on the horizon. Let’s make that Easter. We can see it is a short section on our longer journey towards God’s prize.

I am tweaking this from an original idea from the Oxford Anglican Diocese. I am suggesting a Spiritual Rule Of Six. Six months until Easter. Six Fixes, Six people and Six acts of salt and light.

Six fixes is an opportunity to search our souls for the weaknesses of character and selfish habits that Jesus died to fix. Let us seek these out and pray and seek the Spirit’s help to work on them.

Six people to care for. Maybe we can pray for them regularly. Maybe call them or text, making sure they are coping with the coronavirus restrictions. Perhaps we could help with shopping and other errands.

Then six acts of salt and light. Are their ways to reach into our community. Perhaps it could be Foodbank or other charities who work with the homeless or even an international NGO. We might volunteer, or give financially or pray. Finding out what is going on in the needs of community and the wider world is a great start.

So, let us continue across this uncertain sea. Let us press on towards a goal. Another secret to not feeling sea sick is to apparently fix your eye on a mark on the horizon. Let’s focus on a mark on the horizon that might help us in the uncertain sea that we are in with Janice’s metaphorical wee bit of plywood and hanky sail. 

THE RESTRICTED COVID-19 SUNDAY GATHERING - I Surmise Fitzroy's First

So… finally we were back in Fitzroy this morning. Steve Gregg and Roberta Clotworthy had done an amazing job at working out the health and safety, the physical distancing, the one way system, the santiser, the track and trace... It is a huge investment to gather. I must say, as someone rationing his attendance at gatherings that I have never felt safer.

When I say "we were back", I mean that a percentage of us were. We got everyone who wanted to be there into our restricted capacity but it was only 20% of what a full gathering would be. That is a reminder that until we see the back of this virus the gathering in Fitzroy will always be less.

For me that means that the main Fitzroy service is still on-line. The gathering is a side alley off that.

So, what to do? This one has racked my imagination. However, with a rehearsal last week with elders and committee I was in a position this week to fly with blue sky thinking.

What was not floating around the blue skies of my mind was the same service as we do on-line. 

What I quickly began to conjure with were things that we have never been able to do in the old normal service. In some strange way what we could not do due to the restrictions meant that we could do things we haven’t been able to do before!

The 2020 traditional Presbyterian service, even in our stretching of that tradition in Fitzroy, is busy. We cram the 80 minutes with words and songs and noise. Opportunities to take time to reflect simply aren’t there. We begin many services with those words from Psalm 46 “Be still and know that I am God” or even sing “Be still for the presence of the Lord the holy one is here” and then do anything but. 

Not being able to sing loudly sent the service in a more reflective direction. With a man as spiritually sensitive and musically gifted as Chris Blake along with Alison and Sarah McNeill on vocals we could mine that rich seam. 

In our attempt to curtail the congregation breaking the physical distancing rules and avoiding hugs and high fives after 7 months away we took a decision to have the worship already started as people gathered. We worked on creating a quiet ambience as people got their strange seat.

It didn’t take long for me to imagine using this quieter atmosphere to bring us to God’s word. What if we jazz riffed off the main on-line service and took the service in different directions.

Rather than breaking the mood with a welcome, announcements and explanation of what we were going to do, I decided to go straight into a reflective reading of Philippians 3… stopping verse by verse… repeating phrases… holding the silence. The stillness was palpable. 

Chris Blake and I took this musically into the offering. The offering has somewhere in the history of the church service been demoted to “the collection”. Somehow it has become about money. This is another moment when what we couldn’t do - pass an offering plate - allowed what we could do to be more incisive. We stopped for the liturgical weekly offering of ourselves for the week ahead.

The “sermon section” was different too. The expositions - of Philippians 3 and U2’s I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For - had been done on-line so I had time to unpack the application (watch the on-line and I will blog this week).

To be fair, I had had two more days to think about that since I recorded the on-line. Of course some rightfully said that it would be have been better to have heard the on-line sermon first. Indeed. With that in mind, there might be some argument for the gathering to become an evening event to follow on from the main on-line service.

That and many other things need considered… because we can. As this is not where most of the congregation will get their service on a Sunday it gives total freedom to try things, change things, imagine things. 

I say it again… because of what we cannot do sets us free in what we can.

The very best thing about the first service back was the ending. I have, since Marilynne Robinson woke me up to its spiritual potency, used the benediction for what it is. Over time it has become like a soundtrack for the credits to roll at the end of movie or something. In its purist sense it is this amazing blessing prayed over community. The new independent churches who lose it because they thought it was some boring lethargic liturgy miss the very best bit of Sunday. When those gathered in Fitzroy turned and for the first time in seven, even behind masks, shared that prayer over one another communally it was a wow! "You don't know what you got until you lose it" John Lennon sang!

AS WE RETURN TO CHURCH GATHERINGS - I SURMISE...

Back in late May my friend Doug Gay sent me a song called I Missed You. It was about lockdown. It created the melancholic emotion of the title. 

Then… it broke into this joyous hope - “One day there will be such a gathering…” Fitzroy’s Peter Greer created a video for its use in our Sunday Service and for this “gathering” line he scanned a photograph of Fitzroy’s Sunday morning congregation in all its fulness. When I first saw it I burst into tears. I hadn’t realised how much I had missed those individual faces and that community of faith and fellowship.

Months later and I am still longing for that gathering. Tomorrow there will be “a gathering” again in Fitzroy, seven months after we last met BUT it will not be anything like that “gathering” that we have missed since March or that Doug’s song had me emotional about.

We had a trial run at the “gathering” last Sunday with elders and committee and I found it very anticlimactic and frustrating. 

The best bit was being back in my office. As someone who feels called to being a communicator (call it preaching or teacher if you wish) then that few feet of real estate at the front of Fitzroy has become my happy place. Maybe satisfying place would be a better description. At times of uncertainty, dodgy health and grief I have found real solace in that space, doing my thing. So it was good to be back.

Most of the rest of the experience was not so positive. As a communicator I was looking forward to interacting with real people rather than a lap top camera. That wasn’t the reality. Speaking to a congregation, scattered across empty pews with masks on was bizarre. 

The impact masks have on facial expressions was a shock. For me, the speaker, it was debilitating. It wasn’t that the masks neutralised the faces. Behind their masks everyone looked blank and bemused. They made me think that I was insane, that no one is getting this at all. This is detrimental to a speaker who energises off encouraging faces.

Then, as a pastor I was drawn to the empty pews and who should be there but cannot be there. We are able to get everyone in who has asked to come but three quarters of a normal Sunday congregation will not be there. Some are shielding for health or work reasons and others for family reasons. Some do not think that it is yet time to return. There will be a heaviness about that tomorrow. Surprisingly, and this needs unpacked later, there was an amazing sense of togetherness while watching in our own homes in lockdown. 

The challenge I have as the minister is what to do with the limitations. As a result of singing being curtailed to “quietly, behind the mask” we have gone for a reflective approach. We are gifted to have Chris Blake’s musical and spiritual gifts for such a time.

The different format and ambience allows us perhaps to do something that is not easy to do when everyone is there and we have all the bells and whistles. A short service with less in it allows for reflection, silence, stillness.

Then, the preacher’s big question - what to say? For me with only a limited number gathering my main weekly preach is on the online service. It is possible that 10 times more people will be watching that one. Until we all can meet, that is where energies will concentrate.

So, I need to either do something completely different for “the gathering” or tweak what I have already recorded on-line. Last week, with elders and committee, I got it wrong. I wanted to say things to the leadership in that context but attached it to the entire sermon form the on-line. Too long! Sorry everyone!

What is vital for me is that I give my spiritual best to what happens in “the gathering”. We are not gathering for the sake of it. I hope not anyway. The investment in health and safety and preparation for this “gathering” is massive. When I lead and speak I am doing that which God has put on me on earth to do. With imagination and graft I am committed to giving the very best that I can give.

So that is what goes through my mind as I prepare for tomorrow. The on-line service is in the can. For six months I have been able to relax after that build up of stress. Now, there is no time. Build the stress levels again. 

Until we are free from the threat of this virus the small Sunday gatherings will always be less. That is bound to leave me a little frustrated and disappointed. Yet, as I used to say to my former Clerk of Session Patricia, this is not so much a problem and an exciting challenge! 

U2's SONG OCTOBER FOR CORONAVIRUS TIMES

 

The title track of U2's second album might be their first moment of controlled and crafted genius, Edge’s piano changes the band’s soundscape entirely and brings to the early catalogue a song that is sophisticated, economical and deep; Eno before Eno!

Christian hymn writers have often used few words for impact – Taize would be a good example – but it is more likely that Bono, with his lyric boos stolen and the album deadline pending, simply didn’t have the time to elaborate. However, what might be nothing more than a sketch at the time begins to feel perfectly complete as the time goes by.

October is a haunting piece that sits in the vortex of change and a change that is not a welcome. Bono often speaks of having the title first and of thinking that the hopeful spring of the sixties had given way to a colder, bleaker time in 1981.

As well as that global vortex of change the band were in their own personal vortex. Camped out with the Shalom Christian community on Portrane beach just north of Dublin, Edge and Bono were wrestling with rock stardom or not; was it compatible with the intensity of their Christian commitment. The trees were bare in their own souls and it worked its way into this piece of lament. 

Holed up in a caravan, fasting, praying and reading the Bible it was inevitable that Scripture would creep into the creative process. October is very much in the lament tradition of the Psalms or other Old Testament books, that would find their way into their next album War. October is Psalm-like while 40 on War would be an actual Psalm.

Isaiah would feature a couple of times on that follow up album too. In October’s lament comes hope; in the midst of tossed about confusion comes truth; in the midst of negative change comes the constant to be trusted in.

This song is more relevant today than it was when it was written. We live in days when the next news broadcast actually changes what we can and cannot do. Never in my lifetime have we known such uncertainty. Everything is in a state of flux. There is mental anxiety from living in isolation and the fear that we might be locked down again any minute. The economy is fragile. Jobs are being lost. Even church is strange, if meeting in the traditional way at all.

In the middle of all the fragility and fear and perhaps the danger of loss of hope  the Old Testament prophets, writers of the Psalms, and it seems U2, proclaim that God doesn’t change. The seasons do, the pandemics of history do but God... “you go on and on.”

 

“October
And the trees are stripped bare
Of all they wear
What do I care
October
And kingdoms rise
And kingdoms fall
But you go on.”

IS JESUS PLAYING HARD TO GET? OR...

A Tweet from my friend Brendan Mulgrew, early in the week, set off a Sunday sermon thread in my imagination:

“That is a day full of bad news. Where is the light?”

That went rather well with the last sentence of the Lectionary Reading from Exodus 7: 1-7:

“Is the Lord among us or not?”

Those two phrases had me immediately hearing in my head a song by the late Rich Mullins. I was actually thrilled to find a potent reason to use Rich’s song Hard To Get in a Fitzroy sermon.

Hard To Get is I believe Rich at his most spiritually honest, vulnerable and insightful. It is also one of his cleverest lyrics and best honed songs. Not part of this blog but a blog in itself is the incredible line - “And I know it would not hurt any less/

Even if it could be explained”. Let that depth charge seep!

Sadly, we only have a poor quality version of Rich singing it, into him boom box. The late Rick Elias does a great version on the main CD of the Jesus Album. For our Fitzroy sermon I used a version by Belfast singer songwriter Andrew Patterson.

Hard To Get is a questioning of God. In fact it pushes the lines towards blasphemy as it turns almost into an interrogation. Accusing God of playing Hard To Get isn’t part of the regular diet at modern worship services! 

Rich asks Jesus who is now in heaven, radiance and eternity whether he ever thinks of us who are left on earth and in time. Has he forgotten about us because as Rich prays in the dark night of his soul Jesus seems to indeed be playing Hard To Get:

 

“You who live in radiance

Hear the prayers of those of us who live in skin

We have a love that's not as patient as Yours was

Still we do love now and then

Did You ever know loneliness

Did You ever know need

Do You remember just how long a night can get?

When You were barely holding on

And Your friends fall asleep

And don't see the blood that's running in Your sweat

Will those who mourn be left uncomforted

While You're up there just playing hard to get?”

 

There is acknowledgement of the incarnation and Jesus living among us but have you forgotten us now.

I used the song as the central thread of a sermon preached in Covid-19 Times on a text about the Israelites wondering if God is still among them as they thirst in the wilderness.

Many of us might feel like those Israelites and wonder if God is with them or playing hard to get. Many of us might feel like every day is full of bad news and wonder where the light is.

Rich leads us on and then ambushes us with his final insight. A spiritual twist in the tale. He acknowledges Jesus love for him and how that love was demonstrated in the incarnation. He concludes with that twist. It is not so much Jesus playing hard to get as it is us finding it hard to get the ways of God. Powerful!

 

“And I know you bore our sorrows

And I know you feel our pain

And I know it would not hurt any less

Even if it could be explained

And I know that I am only lashing out

At the One who loves me most

And after I figured this somehow

All I really need to know

Is if You who live in eternity

Hear the prayers of those of us who live in time

We can't see what's ahead

And we can not get free of what we've left behind

I'm reeling from these voices that keep screaming in my ears

All the words of shame and doubt blame and regret

I can't see how You're leading me unless You've led me here

Where I'm lost enough to let myself be led

And so You've been here all along I guess

It's just Your ways and You are just plain hard to get"

LESSONS FROM SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION FOR CORONAVIRUS TIMES

I have blogged many times about my, if I was pushed, very favourite movie Shawshank Redemption. Preaching on Exodus during Coronavirus times I drew upon it again.

If you haven’t watch the movie - do! Andy is in prison after being falsely accused of killing his wife. His buddy is Red, a veteran of prison life. 

Brooks, one of their fellow prisoners gets parole. He cannot deal with the freedom. The speed of change in the world outside leaves him in a kind of culture shock. He cannot deal with freedom and takes his own life.

So with the Israelites in the wilderness. Security in captivity. Fear of the unknown in freedom. As they journey in towards the Promised Land they are in culture shock and spend their time grumbling and complaining to Moses and God.

There is a scene in the prison yard where Andy and Red are discussing Brooks’s sad death and Red says, 'At first you hate these walls, then you accept them and eventually you become dependent on them”.

So many of us critique the world we live in, fight for justice and demand change but when we are hurled into the unknown of lockdowns and social restriction we seem to miss the walls.

Later in the film Red gets released too. He ends up where Brooks stayed and sees Brooks’ name carved into the roof beam that he hung the rope upon. Will Red follow?

He doesn’t. Why? The difference with Red is that he has hope. It is something outside of himself and his circumstances that allows him to believe in something else. 

Andy had escaped before Red was released. Red had been suspicious of hope but after one slot in solitary confinement Andy said, “Remember Red, hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies”. Andy had a dream of an alternative. Andy had a vision. Hope.

Andy has told Red that if they ever get out he would leave him a message under a tree in the countryside. Red goes and finds a tine with money and a ticket to Mexico. 

The movie ends utterly beautifully, with Red travelling on a bus down the Mexican coastline. We see the panoramic view of the ocean. Deepest blue colour to contrast the grey drab world of Shawshank prison. Andy is across a beach working on a boat. It’s a little glimpse of the heaven we hope for.

Two stories. Two outcomes. Brooks was hopeless. Caught in the culture shock of freedom and unable to cope.

Red had hope. Something transcendent. It helped him cope. Saw him through.

The Israelites shifted from being Brooks to being Red. Sometimes hopeless in their surroundings, other times believing God was with them. 

We in Coronavirus Times need to remember that Emmanuel - God with us - is not just a phrase for Christmas but for all the year round. In moments when we the Covid 19 culture shock hits we need to remember there is transcendence with us, hope is the best of things and better days are up ahead. 

ARE WE ALL WHINGERS?

 

(this is my Belfast Telegraph Coronavirus Column that I retake weekly with my friend Fr Martin Magill... published on September 26, 2020) 

We all seem to be Whingers. We have lived such a free and comfortable life that six months of restrictions due to a killer pandemic has us grumbling about everything that a government under pressure attempts to do to save lives and our livelihood.

There is nothing new in whinging. If we go back to the Old Testament story of exodus we find the Children of Israel in the wilderness whinging. God has freed them from slavery and an oppressive Pharaoh. He has miraculously rescued them through the Red Sea but soon they are grumbling to Moses about food and water.

The grumbling could be seen in another way. A lack of faith. They have watched God doing amazing things for their liberation but so quickly they have stopped trusting God and start grumbling.

There are obvious lessons for us in a Coronavirus world millenniums later. Indeed, this might the time when we learn more about God and ourselves and the Bible than we could learn in those more comfortable pre virus days.

There are very few places in the Bible where anyone is comfortable. There are people on the run or in slavery or in the wilderness or in exile or under an oppressive Roman Empire. It is in these difficult places that the people encounter God.

In the Bible it is not so much about where you are as who you are. Finding an identity and trust in God allows tough times like Covid-19 times to become an exciting adventure inside your soul to find faith, resilience, hope and vision.

Last week a friend put a message on Facebook that read “Some things break your heart but fix your vision”. That could be a theme through much of the Scriptures!

When we stop grumbling and start trusting, focus on who we are through God’s grace, Christ’s life and death and resurrection and ascension and not where we are then we might find a vision for a better day.

When we hear the whinging of the Children of Israel in the wilderness it seems that they might have settled for a merely a slightly improved slavery in Egypt rather than the milk and honey of the Promised Land.

What of us? As we have travelled through these months I have heard so many people say that we do not want to go back to the old normal. I have heard people talk about what they learned about their previous heavy work schedule, about enjoying more time with their children. Many have been pleased that the environment has had a bit of a breather. Lots of us have felt our faith growing because we have had to stop leaning on a service or mass but up our time in private devotion. Let us hold on to these lessons and move on to better days.

The comparison with the Children of Israel is interesting. They were coming out of restrictions towards liberation. We, on the other hand, are sacrificing our liberation for a period of restriction. Either way, our the honed over time understanding of God is challenged. We encounter God in a different place and in different ways. God gets reshaped in the changed circumstances.

It is time to quit the whinging. It is time to encounter God in new places. It is time to concentrate on who we are. It is time to use this virus that is breaking our hearts to fix our vision. It is time to commit to the Promised Land.

(this is my Belfast Telegraph Coronavirus Column that I retake weekly with my friend Fr Martin Magill... published on September 26, 2020) 

We all seem to be Whingers. We have lived such a free and comfortable life that six months of restrictions due to a killer pandemic has us grumbling about everything that a government under pressure attempts to do to save lives and our livelihood.

There is nothing new in whinging. If we go back to the Old Testament story of exodus we find the Children of Israel in the wilderness whinging. God has freed them from slavery and an oppressive Pharaoh. He has miraculously rescued them through the Red Sea but soon they are grumbling to Moses about food and water.

The grumbling could be seen in another way. A lack of faith. They have watched God doing amazing things for their liberation but so quickly they have stopped trusting God and start grumbling.

There are obvious lessons for us in a Coronavirus world millenniums later. Indeed, this might the time when we learn more about God and ourselves and the Bible than we could learn in those more comfortable pre virus days.

There are very few places in the Bible where anyone is comfortable. There are people on the run or in slavery or in the wilderness or in exile or under an oppressive Roman Empire. It is in these difficult places that the people encounter God.

In the Bible it is not so much about where you are as who you are. Finding an identity and trust in God allows tough times like Covid-19 times to become an exciting adventure inside your soul to find faith, resilience, hope and vision.

Last week a friend put a message on Facebook that read “Some things break your heart but fix your vision”. That could be a theme through much of the Scriptures!

When we stop grumbling and start trusting, focus on who we are through God’s grace, Christ’s life and death and resurrection and ascension and not where we are then we might find a vision for a better day.

When we hear the whinging of the Children of Israel in the wilderness it seems that they might have settled for a merely a slightly improved slavery in Egypt rather than the milk and honey of the Promised Land.

What of us? As we have travelled through these months I have heard so many people say that we do not want to go back to the old normal. I have heard people talk about what they learned about their previous heavy work schedule, about enjoying more time with their children. Many have been pleased that the environment has had a bit of a breather. Lots of us have felt our faith growing because we have had to stop leaning on a service or mass but up our time in private devotion. Let us hold on to these lessons and move on to better days.

The comparison with the Children of Israel is interesting. They were coming out of restrictions towards liberation. We, on the other hand, are sacrificing our liberation for a period of restriction. Either way, our the honed over time understanding of God is challenged. We encounter God in a different place and in different ways. God gets reshaped in the changed circumstances.

It is time to quit the whinging. It is time to encounter God in new places. It is time to concentrate on who we are. It is time to use this virus that is breaking our hearts to fix our vision. It is time to commit to the Promised Land.

WE ARE ALL IMITATORS... WHAT WE IMITATE WILL HELP US LIVE... OR DIE

(This was my contribution to the Coronavirus Column that Fr Martin Magill and I are doing for the Belfast Telegraph... on September 10, 2020)

 

We humans are naturally inclined to being imitators.

I remember as a 12 year old, during the 1974 World Cup, practicing over and over again the Johan Cruyff turn. I think that nearly 50 years on I can still do it. Cruyff did it, so I had to. 

This summer I somehow got to play my daughter The Wurzels 1976 hit I Am A Cider Drinker. She was aghast and I was surprised how terrible it is, considering how many of us bought it.

Fashion. If I had a pound for every time Janice said “But everybody is wearing this kind of dress this year’ And I replied “That doesn’t matter, it still looks awful”.

Imitators.

How we use that penchant for imitating one another needs carefully considered as the world walks its way through the bumpy terrain of a pandemic. 

What we do, knowing that there will be imitators, is a matter of life and death. This is why I would wear a face mask in shops even if it was proven that they didn’t work. I am only going back into shops and I hate them. My glasses steam up. I can’t hear or be heard. BUT they are a reminder that there is a danger all around us and we need to act carefully and compassionately.

The example that we imprint in the behavioural habits of the generation is vital. The worst thing to imitate is that this health crisis is over and that we can get back to some old sentimental view of what normal was back in February. Our behaviour needs to vigilant so that vigilance will be imitated.

The apostle Paul writing to the church in Philippi was on about this. He was urging the people of God to be examples. He was inspiring them to shine like stars in the sky. Stars in the sky in those days would have been how travellers guided themselves. Paul is suggesting that we become guides to help others travel. It sounds good advice in this strange Coronavirus journey.

The example that Paul wanted them to follow was Jesus, who Paul reminds them gave himself up for the world. The humility for Jesus do that is the foundation of a radical kind of behaviour. Most people seem to be seeking their own entitlement even during a crisis that could kill their neighbours.

Paul uses a phrase that he has used in other letters, “Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.” 

This is what Jesus did. Put others above himself. Gave himself for the world. We imitate him. We put others above ourselves, keeping social distancing rules, wearing masks in shops and doing nothing that might threaten a return to the spike in cases back in April. We hopefully become leaders in the world that others might imitate. This will make Jesus followers shine.

What is certain is that whatever way the imitation wind blows over these next weeks is going to determine whether we beat this virus or this virus claims more lives, puts pressure back on the health system and locks us all down.