After a three week break, it is good to be back thinking about the way life is changing and we are confronted with new ways of being together. A big thank you to everyone who sent me birthday greetings in the middle of August – I had a great time and have a new pile of books to devour over the coming months. I have also been reading quite a bit through my break; challenging and enlightening books that have stimulated me and encouraged me to review preaching, the church and my physical fitness. So, as I return, I look forward to hearing how you all are and what you’ve been up to.
One of the books I read during this summertime was Masha Gessen’s provocative book, Surviving Autocracy, asking the question that’s on a lot of people’s minds at present: how did the United States get into such a state? Talking about this and referencing American politics before Trump, Gessen states, “American political conversation had become a space free from imagination and aspiration. Rather than talk about the future, we talked about policy; rather than talk about what’s right and just, we talked about what’s realistic and lawful; rather than discuss values, we discussed strategies. It was this dull, neutral, largely hollow space that Trump so easily filled with his crudeness, cruelty and lies.” (Gessen 2020 pub Granta p 162) The same could be said, I think, about British politics and also of the Church, both nationally and in its local manifestation. In a way, the local church isn’t to blame; there’s been little imagination and aspiration coming from our leaders for some time, across all the main denominations.
If our faith means anything today, and if it is to be the source of life ‘in all its fullness’, I am sure it deserves imaginative leadership, taking us into new ways and exploring what the Spirit has to say in our present age and situation, and giving us aspiration to act on our beliefs while fixing our aims on the great towering love of God. As we face challenges let us raise our eyes about the ordinary things of life and learn again to dream dreams. Taking a cue from the Biblical Joel:
“I will pour out my Spirit
on every kind of people:
Your sons will prophesy
also your daughters.
Your old men will dream,
your young men will see visions.
I’ll even pour out my Spirit on the servants,
men and women both
I’ll set wonders in the sky above
and signs on the earth below.”
(Joel 2: 28-30a)
