It’s Show weekend – hence the slightly early Newsletter this week! Summer is definitely round the corner…
This Sunday we’ll be meeting back at the school – with one home-based option across town, for those who feel more comfortable with a smaller group in this pandemic season. The present intention is to alternate meeting in groups with meeting at the school, week and week about.
NB Meeting in groups does depend on us taking note of the request to RSVP! It is hard for the hosts to know sometimes whether they have just a couple of people or a whole horde coming! (Or maybe no-one!) It’s also nice to be able to share leadership around a bit, rather than the hosts having to do everything. Can we endeavour to be kind to our group hosts by letting them know ahead of time if we’re coming?
Unforeseen Consequences
Sarah Harris, lecturer in New Testament at Carey Baptist College, has recently undergone heart bypass surgery and is (or was trying to) recover at home. She posted this on Facebook a couple of days back: “When you are recovering from heart bypass surgery, and the dog (17kg) jumps on your wounds as he flees from the fireworks (he’s super frightened of them), breaks ribs which puncture your lung and your lung fills with fluid…”
Possibly just a neighbour enjoying some fireworks with the kids – an innocent family event for Guy Fawkes (assuming that that is what was happening) can have unforeseen consequences.
I’m reading (with a group of other pastors) Jonathan Sacks book ‘Morality’, published late last year, not long before he died. Jonathan was the former Chief Rabbi in Britain, and had a lifetime career as a philosopher, theologian, writer and public figure, frequently being invited to speak and produce broadcasts across Britain and North America. ‘Morality’, subtitled ‘Restoring the common good in divided times’ is a deeply engaging book, exploring why the lack of any shared sense of morality in western culture has contributed to many of the social issues we are increasingly facing today – evidenced even here in New Zealand this week, I suspect, in the protests outside Parliament on Tuesday which showed the impacts of individualism and polarisation in particular.
In his book, Sacks writes a chapter on the impact of time and the way consequences of our actions can be seen to emerge. He starts the chapter with an old Jewish joke – which I thought worth repeating:
An old Jewish man and a young Jewish man are traveling on the train. The young man asks, “Excuse me, what time is it?”
The old man says nothing.
“Excuse me, sir, what time is it?”
Again, the old man stays silent.
“Sir, I’m asking you what time it is. Why don’t you answer?”
The old man says, “Young man, the next stop is the last stop on this route. I don’t know you, so you must be a stranger. If I answer you now, there will be a relationship between us. I will have to invite you to my home. You are handsome, and I have a beautiful daughter. You will both fall in love, and you will want to get married. So, tell me, why would I want a son-in-law who can’t even afford a watch?”
In other words, says Sacks, small actions (for example, asking the time, or letting off a few fireworks) can have large consequences – especially over time. It is often fairly easy to see short term consequences – but those that are long term are below the horizon, and so too often can’t be anticipated. His particular focus in this chapter is on the Western world’s experimental adoption in the 1960’s of the idea that you can have a society without a shared moral code, and in so doing rejecting the “we” dimension of society and the notion of acting for the common good. Is society, though, simply a collection of individuals doing what they like as long as they don’t harm others – assuming they can identify the potential for harm in what they do? Sacks’ answer would be ‘no’. Arguably, if we don’t as a society have shared ideas on politics, morals and ethics, we won’t have a ‘society’ at all.
It’s all very interesting – and I can thoroughly recommend Sacks’ book if the issues around morality facing us today interest you. Regardless of theory, though, the pandemic has certainly presented every country in the world with moral and ethical decisions which need to be made. And it’s very clear that there is divergence of views on some of the key issues leading to fragmentation and potential disintegration within areas of society. We are having to learn, as well, how the so-called social-media platforms are in many respects potentially anti-social, just because of the ways they have been set up to operate. Increasing interference from Government in terms of vaccination mandates, and COVID regulations etc., instead of addressing uncertainty, tends instead to fuel discontent and polarisation. We seem to be more than ever operating as a collection of individuals, all vehemently defending our individual rights and space.
As a church, for the last 94 weeks or so we’ve been navigating the regulations brought in by our Government on how to operate at the different Alert Levels, established at the start of the pandemic. Very soon we will be moving to the “traffic light” system – which will mean not only a new set of rules and regulations, but some clear choices which will have to be made by businesses and organisations – choices around the vaccination status of employees, customers, and participants especially. How are we going to balance individual rights and needs with the common good – and also (for us as church) with our commitment to Jesus Christ?
Through this next season, I think we may find ourselves needing to think carefully about grace, and what it means to extend grace to others – those others, of course, being fellow humans, people just like us, whether we agree with them or not. What will it mean to be ‘other-focused’ and Christ-focused, as we navigate the rapids which are ahead?
Let’s be kind towards others and mindful of their needs, let’s also be prayerful for our nation and leaders as we all navigate this season (and be gracious to our Ilam in Groups hosts in remembering to RSVP).
