Counter Balance

Musing today on how my Facebook news feed is filled with silly statuses.

Probably because I'm involved in the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland.

The silliness is a counter balance to the gamut of emotions raised by GA business.

During the course of the first thirty minutes today I was moved to tears by the beauty of worship being signed for deaf participants, wounded by a condescending and patronising message from a colleague, filled with hope and pride listening to Youth Delegates' contributions and flooded with gratitude, love, and joy at being part of this great, flawed, maddening, respected and influential institution composed of living stones.

No wonder I feel compelled to take refuge in some silliness!

Thanking God for the love, inclusion and potential of the Church of Scotland, living stones for the nation and the world.

Hope

This reflection was written for Spill the Beans before I knew that this would be the Sunday after a General Election in the UK but seems pretty apt for the season.

For what do you hope?

For what do you hope?

Is it some future event?

Something that can be planned, researched, engineered or financed?

Like a cure for cancer?

Or a way of regenerating brain cells destroyed in dementia?

Or marvellous DNA repairs for confused chromosomes?

For what do you hope?

Is it some notion that tomorrow will be better?

That the benefits system will serve those in need?

Or that Food Banks will no longer be necessary?

That no one will sleep rough on our streets but that all will know shelter?

For what do you hope?

Is it for signs of world peace?

The dismantling of refugee camps?

The sharing of clean water?

For what do you hope?

The promise of God

for God’s people everywhere

is to know peace in every situation

because we are loved by the God whose name is love

and who, in Christ has already gathered us up in love.

Now that is something for which to hope.

And a hope that will not disappoint.

Welcome to a brand new day...

As the sun rises on another day in Scotland, the day after a General Election in the UK and 70 years since VE Day celebrations, the landscape looks different. It is as yet unclear what that difference is or how it will play out. But, in a country still struggling to re-define itself post Referendum and with so many claiming, I believe falsely, that to vote SNP is to vote for Nationalism, it is certainly a country in turmoil. While democracy has prevailed and people have exercised their democratic right to change the political hue of government, it is unclear whether that voice of protest will in fact change the things we want to see changed.

Will the hungry be fed without the need for Foodbanks?

Will the benefits system provide the safety net it lacks at present?

Will the "never employed generations" be offered a way to meaning and value?

Will austerity be banished?

Post- Referendum, churches were asked to pray for peace and reconciliation.

I believe that, today, that is perhaps even more crucial as this small nation finds its way to show the rest of the UK - and the world- how to "Walk humbly, act justly and love mercy" (Micah 6:8)

And, in working out how to do that, remember all those whose life's work and honest intentions have been swept aside overnight and who are forced to begin today to reassess their place in the future of Scottish and UK Politics.

When victory was declared in Europe, there was much shaking up and shaking down to be negotiated. Hopes were high. But there were also many wounded souls that required just care and compassion.

Seventy years on, my prayer is that we can find a way through the melee, listening to and for the voices that reach for justice and peace. And, above all that we will love one another through all our differences.