A place to let go, reflection on Good Friday

Published: Fri, 04/10/20

I have been expressing some frustration and even anger at the restricted circumstances we find ourselves in. I have also been reflecting that a ‘time out of time’ is also a gift for reflection and a chance to observe how the Orlog is revealed when we are willing to see it. I currently have access to a country church which is many centuries old. The medieval stone church may well have replaced a Saxon timber structure. The Saxon building may well have been constructed on a site of a Pre-Christian temple or grove. When sitting in that church one may be in a place where men and women have connected with their Gods since neolithic times. Services are rarely held in the building now but there is still a sense of peace and a timeless connection to something greater than the mundane present. I took Iduna for a long walk this afternoon and she fell asleep in the pram as she usually does. So, I took the opportunity to park the pram in the
church porch and then sit in the pew nearest the door. Iduna gave me about half an hour before she woke up and let me know it was time to take her home for a feed.

During that half hour I did my best to let my mind stop churning and connect with whoever that church and its predecessors was built for. How can I slow down the mind enough to appreciate the timeless wonder of the universe and the force that created it? What I did was admit that what goes on in this world is beyond me. I can’t understand it. I can’t change it. I don’t even know what I am fighting most of the time. Not giving up, just letting go, and accepting that a much higher power is in charge and I need to trust in that power. Also, be grateful. For becoming a father, even at my stage of life, to a beautiful baby girl and having the privilege of being one of her parents as she grows up. For being in a partnership of parenthood with Venetia my wife in the journey of raising a child. For the simple fact that there is so much right about this world, both in its natural form and in human beings and human society and
creativity. Plenty does go wrong but we also have the wisdom and ability to put it right when given the chance.

A common objection to a spiritual or religious understanding of life is that if there was a God he/she/it would not allow bad things to happen. Really? So much is amazingly right with this universe that it has always seemed to me that the creator God could not have done much more to make his creation any better. If human beings are made in the image of God we have also been equipped with a phenomenal capacity for loving, learning, creativity, imagination and awareness. Human beings have been given extraordinary powers and the freedom to use those powers. Just as my van can carry me, a passenger, and a lot of stuff sixty miles in an hour it can also crash into a tree at that speed which would almost certainly kill me. My van (or any other motor vehicle) has capabilities which have enabled me to do all kinds of things and go many, many different places. However, one serious miscalculation could result in a fatal accident. Am I
better off with, or without, a motor vehicle?

We were created as highly intelligent beings capable of achieving a high level of consciousness. We can also crash into metaphorical trees on a regular basis harming ourselves and others. So, is God irresponsible in creating beings such as us with such potential for good and yet with so much power to do harm? Maybe, but there is another chapter in the story. God could have limited himself creating creatures incapable of achieving full consciousness. There would be a lot less anguish and suffering in the world. God would basically own a zoo of fascinating animals but there would be no creatures which could aspire to a god like level of consciousness. We have that consciousness and it is quite a responsibility, a responsibility we frequently fail to live up to. That isn’t the end of the story.

The message of Easter is that God does not leave his ultimate creation to its fate. Rather God becomes involved in the world to show that human beings can live up to the values that we were created to express. It is actually pretty straightforward. ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and love your neighbour as yourself.’ Luke 10 v 27 That is what we were created for and we are capable of such a response. We are also capable of being so in love with our own power that we will kill anyone who threatens that power. This includes rejecting and destroying the messenger who wants to show mankind how to restore that relationship with our creator.

Is this a monumental screwup on the part of the creator? Or is is impossible for us to be made in God’s image and not have the power to do evil? We can choose to follow the truly enlightened guide and connect with our creator though spirit, as countless people have done throughout the ages. Or we can kill the guide and let our fear and anger block out any sense of spiritual connection with our loving creator who has such a great purpose for us.

I really don’t know why we get so much wrong. For me it comes down to values. John’s gospel tells us that ‘God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.’ John 3 v 16 When you realise how precious your own child is you see how much God values his creation and values us. What do we value? Our own power and status? Or love as expressed in our creation and the willingness to be involved in creation even if it meant ending up on a cross?

The churches may be closed in the usual sense, but the challenge to decide what we really value most confronts us as strongly this year as it ever does.

regards

Graham

PS Some people get offended by a Christian message but I think we have a choice between: Living in a mechanistic universe that is no more than random chance which means life is essentially meaningless.

Or, living in a universe created by some greater power which demands some response from us. Maybe this is something you have not thought about before, that is up to you, I am challenging you to think about it now.