Context
This week, as Boris Johnson begins the realisation of the ‘Golden Age’ he promised last week, and Jeremy Corbyn launches a ‘green’ agenda, we reach the climax of a more family-friendly ‘Love Island’, and see the Duchess of Sussex’s different guest-edited issue of Vogue. Does any of this suggest the kind of ‘being renewed’ St Paul is talking about?
Reflection
Vogue’s September cover will show not women as an icon of objectified passive beauty, but multiple portraits of purposeful women with space for the reader. The Duchess also raises issues of mental health and body image referencing, among others. This year’s ‘Love Island’ allegedly offered education in relationships, rather than sex and glamour, and was rewarded with greater popularity. Are these steps away from the ‘earthly’ (Colossians 3.5)? Is engaging with the pain in young women’s dating lives, or urging readers of a fashion magazine to think beyond ‘image’ to the full potential of the individual ‘chasing the wind’ (Ecclesiastes 1.14)?
Johnson wants positive things: a strengthened Union; power-sharing restored in Northern Ireland; as well as Brexit completed. Corbyn offers a timely reminder of the urgency of action in the climate emergency. But both men face opposition: for Johnson dismay at a plummeting pound; fury at potentially lost farming livelihoods; and industrial ones too; Cuadrilla effectively accuses Corbyn of hypocrisy and bad faith as jobs go. While political initiatives should surely lift our thoughts to the constitution, the national interest, or even the survival of the planet, their execution often finds us thinking more about abrasive personalities and ugly competing ambitions. The Duchess’ Vogue arouses its own share of cruel hostility from those who challenge its project; as does the sheer populism of ‘Love Island’ in those who disdain it. We can agree with the Preacher that public life is ‘an unhappy business’ (Ecclesiastes 1.12).
St Paul asks Christians not to promote their own plans for the way forward, but to accept a pre-planned role in God’s much greater purpose in which all have parts to play (Colossians 3.2-4,11). It is hard to align this with opinion-forming journalism, or the statesmanship which leads nations to greatness, both of which demand determination and flair rather than humility and flexibility. Perhaps all that is asked of us is that we recognise our calling to goals beyond mere acclaim, and respect the likelihood that those we gleefully watch in the business of politics or journalism do too. We all share in the bad habit of preferring the dramatic to the humdrum. Like the more thoughtful viewers of ‘Love Island’, we need to focus where there is genuine potential for growth and learning, rather than on the salacious and sensational (Colossians 3.5). We should look in all discourse for common-sense, compassion and serious endeavour, however tedious, instead of delighting only in the knockabout, or the outrageous self-contradictions perpetrated in the heat of argument (Colossians 3.8). Then we might find ourselves aligned with God’s purposes and revitalised as promised.
Prayer
A meditation on the temptation to despair, which might lead into prayers of intercession and petition.
Lord, we find ourselves in anxious times. Some of us feel our livelihoods are threatened. Some of us are concerned that we, or someone who matters to us, will, in a few weeks’ time, be unable to obtain necessary medications. Some of us fear we will lose our homes, our identities, our security, through political changes over which we have no control at all. We are unsettled, sometimes in turmoil, sometimes in the lethargy of despair. The pessimism of Ecclesiastes is only too seductive.
But we need the will to resist. You promise renewal, even glory. It is not enough to deny, childishly, that there is anything to fear. We need to deal with fear. It is not enough to embrace false jollity. We need to find solid joy. If we are not to give up, we need to believe that there is something we can change in ourselves, some attitude we can adopt, which will help. We need to trust, otherwise the darkness will swallow us up.
You tell us that we are not insignificant. You number the hairs of our heads and see every sparrow that succumbs to the winter cold. You tell us that despite everything that assails us, we can put mature trust in your love. Whatever lies ahead we cannot fall through the safety net of your everlasting arms. We can live transformed as the light of the world’s darkness. And that is, indeed, to be significant. And for this we are thankful.
Questions
- Are you gloomy or optimistic about the political future of the UK?
- What gives you encouragement, or makes you fearful?
All-age activity
Conflict and disaster make good headlines. Give out some recent newspapers or journals. Invite people to pick out one or two good things that national or local politics, or investigative journalism, has achieved.
Young people
How positive do you feel about your future, and/or your generation’s future? Can you identify one thing that, if you could, you would change to make that future better? Bounce around a few ideas for improving things for your community!
Brenda Vance is a retired university teacher and a URC Elder living in Sussex.
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