Context

Efforts to contain the Coronavirus in China have now reached the stage where other governments are evacuating their citizens out of the country.

Prince Andrew is under increasing pressure to cooperate with prosecutors investigating his former friend, Geoffrey Epstein. Israeli prime minister Netanyahu has failed to avoid corruption charges against him. In the US the impeachment trial of President Trump continues, as do extradition efforts to bring a diplomat’s wife back to the UK to face charges of causing death by dangerous driving.

A man, faced with eviction and needing to sell his beloved trainer collection, was saved by a fellow trainer-collector he had never met – who paid his £100 rent arrears for him.

 

Reflection

The outbreak of the Coronavirus which has seen 132 deaths (as of Wednesday morning) and over 6000 infections highlight both the fragility of our human bodies and the limits on the powers held by a sovereign nation. The Chinese government has sealed off entire cities in Hubei, isolating some 50 million people in a vast quarantine it hopes will curb the spread of the disease. Long-distance buses and some public transport networks have also been shut down elsewhere in the country. For a country so powerful in terms of its population, economic production and military muscle, it has been a battle to show that it can get this disease under control. We pray for those affected, but it underlines the futility of humanity’s illusions that the world can be controlled and made safe. Nations and individuals seem uncomfortable admitting that there are limits on what they can do – and certainly it is rare for either to admit to being weak. Paul’s letter to the Corinthians mocks the ‘wisdom’ of the world. He insists that, although the cross looks like foolishness to those who do not believe, God’s perceived foolishness and weakness will ultimately prove to be the source of freedom and peace.

Often, we (the Church) try to match the world around us in the way that we organise and present ourselves. We worry about how we look and whether we are taken seriously. Ultimately however, we are called to work from a position of weakness, acknowledging God’s sovereignty over all things, so that the power of God’s mercy as shown in Jesus can shine through.

This week we also have numerous stories about powerful people reaching the limits of their own strength. Whether it is the impeachment trial of President Trump, the corruption charges being brought against Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the controversy still swirling around Prince Andrew, or the extradition proceedings against Anne Sacoolas (the diplomat’s wife involved in a traffic accident that killed 19 year-old Harry Dunn). In each situation, someone who is used to holding power and being protected by that power finds themselves under threat. Questions are being asked about why they should be protected from the consequences of their actions, and all their resources are now being spent on maintaining their position. In each case there is a sense that Micah’s injunction that our responsibility before God is to ‘do justly, love mercy and walk humbly with your God’ would have saved each person from being in their current situation.

At the other end of the economic scale, Craig Bell was facing eviction for falling £100 in arrears in his rent. Publicly stating his case and offering to sell his prized trainer collection to raise the money, he had a complete stranger pay the rent for him. His admission of weakness and vulnerability allowed someone else to step in and make the vital difference for him. Too often, we are reluctant to admit when we are struggling and so there is no opportunity for others to help us.

 

Prayer

You might address the issue of strength and weakness with the following prayer of confession:

Almighty God,
all wisdom and strength are yours.
We are sorry that we have lived and worked from our own strength and wisdom.
We are sorry that we have boasted or taken pride in what we can do by ourselves.
Forgive us our arrogance and pride
and help us to live instead by your wisdom
and to lean on your strength.
Amen.

 

Questions

• Which person in the public eye would you consider to be ‘strong’?
• When have you admitted to someone else that you felt weak or foolish? Did that admission make things worse or better?
• Which characters from the bible do you view as strong? Which were weak? How did their strength (or lack of it) impact the course of events?

 

All-age activity

Prepare A4 paper/cards with the names of famous people on them. There should be a range of professions, age and gender: e.g. Boris Johnson; Raheem Stirling; Gareth Southgate; Cheryl Cole; Claudia Winkleman; Sadiq Khan; David Attenborough; Greta Thunberg; Billie Eilish; Adele; the Queen; Professor Brian Cox.

Invite people to come to the front and to hold up a card, all standing in a line. Invite someone else to come and place them in order, from the most to the least powerful. When this is done, invite another person (preferably from a different age bracket) to come and make any changes they feel are needed. A third person could then do the same.

The Sunday Times annually produces a list of the 500 most powerful people in the UK, but the differences between these people show that power comes in different forms and is often fleeting (e.g. former members of that list now find themselves in prison). Paul tells us that the Gospel frees us from trying to grasp power or to hold onto it. Instead we can trust humbly in God and his power to care for us and help us.

 

Young people

You need two volunteers to take part in a test of their strength. Start with an arm-wrestling match. Then ask the same two people to compete in a staring competition – first to blink loses. The next the challenge is the straight-face challenge – maintain a deadpan face; the first to smile or laugh loses. The final challenge is to name as countries of the world – first to get one wrong, or hesitate for more than, say, three seconds, loses.

We often equate power with physical strength. Talk about the different kinds of power that people hold and use: charismatic leadership; positional authority; intelligence; quick-witted responses; social influence; peer pressure, etc. What power do each of us actually have (no-one is completely powerless), and how do we exercise that power? How do the words from Micah 6.8 bear on this?

 

Steve Taylor is joint-vicar of St James Alperton (CofE) near Wembley. He shares the job with his wife, Ali, and shares his house with their two daughters, two cats, numerous fish and a new hamster. 

 

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