In this week’s reading from Isaiah, God speaks from the most conspicuous place (v.2); nations stream openly towards God’s mountain, declaring their intent to learn (v.3). As peace spreads (v.4), God’s all-revealing light is welcomed (v.5). Our world of state-craft, by contrast, favours discretion.

This week's news

We expect secret diplomacy. An interim agreement has been reached in the negotiation over the nuclear issue between Iran and the West. 

Has Middle East peace been advanced? Hot war seems more distant. Iran’s people will suffer less from sanctions and enjoy greater calm. Tensions with America will ease. But distrust in Israel and some other Middle Eastern countries has been increased,  especially by the revelation of the months of secret negotiation which lay behind this deal.

Reflection

Will the game prove to be worth the candle? Should we fear that a deal born out of so much secrecy and guarded negotiation will fail to hold? Would greater openness have made for a stronger deal or simply frustrated the process? Are the positive press releases fair to the hidden implications of the deal and their effects in the wider region? 

Do those who hold the highest offices of state need to ‘walk in’ (v.3) God’s clear ways as much as the rest of us? Is a country entitled to deceive its friends and allies by omission, not declaring a private negotiation which implies such a big change? How far can mere humanity in an imperfect world be expected to pursue God’s clarity? 

Does ‘peace’ have many meanings? Is the morality of diplomacy to alleviate tensions more challenging than that of negotiations to end a war? Is ‘peace’ for Iran’s people suffering from sanction-induced shortages and cost rises less pressing than peace after the violence-fostered miseries of  Syria  or Iraq or  Egypt  or Libya?

Has the West so down-played the misery of Iran’s people that the global community cannot weigh the situation fairly? Are there other ‘secrets’ in the region which we ignore but which demand to be revealed, in the interests of real peace, like women’s sufferings in Iraq or oppression of gays in Lebanon?  

The scale of Isaiah’s vision is breath-taking: openness on a global scale. Can we begin to imagine a world without secrets, without even defensive weapons, where attention is entirely focussed on providing a good life for citizens? After looking at any of the recent attempts at arbitration between nations in dispute, where every rapprochement seems to generate an alienation elsewhere, can we imagine universally accepted arbitration (v.4)? What is special about God’s vantage point?

Another story tells of Israeli hospitals secretly treating Syrian patients, equally both war casualties and maternity cases. Secrecy protects both patients and medical staff from reprisals. Is ‘darkness’ good here? How could more ‘light’ help this situation? Where would it need to fall?

Prayer

A meditation on God’s light, which could be part of prayers of thanksgiving.

God of light. 

Your light is indiscriminate. 

You make the sun shine daily on the righteous and the unrighteous. 

Whenever humanity offers to ‘shine light’ on issues someone has an agenda. 

They are seeking wrong-doing, proving a point, pointing an accusing finger. 

Your light may make humanity shrink in awe 

as the disciples did at the Transfiguration, 

but it does not accuse. 

Your light, whether it be sunlight on autumn leaves 

or the miraculous light of vision, 

reveals something of your glory

and makes us aware of our pettiness. 

It shows us beauty. It shows us life in all its variety. 

It asks us simply to try to live up to your glory. 

Us. Not someone else. Not the sinner we may have in our sights. 

As winter darkens towards the year-end, 

may we relish our moments of light, 

and the joy they bring. 

May we try to spread that comfort, 

shedding on others not the terrifying glare of the search-light 

or the probing beam of the policeman’s torch, 

but a welcoming brightness, like that of fire, 

that can remind us, and them, of your eternal presence.

Amen.

Questions

Life throws up difficult choices where confidentiality seems to collide with someone else’s ‘need to know’. What would you do in either of the following cases?

• Your sixteen-year-old daughter confides that her best friend is pregnant and has told no one but her.
• A slip of the tongue tells you that your neighbour’s partner, her baby’s father, is an illegal immigrant.

Action

Can you think of one area of your life where an unnecessary secret has been kept? If so, try to sort it out this week.

Young People

What sort of secrets are you entitled to keep from your parents/guardians? Are such secrets necessarily damaging to relationships?

Brenda Vance is a retired university teacher of English and a URC Elder.

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