Another Threshold?

Revisiting a couple of posts from 5 years ago - when there was the opportunity for change. Wondering if, in the light of Brexit division, we can ever recapture that sense of hope and possibility?

On the Sunday before the Referendum for Scottish Independance:

Genesis 12:1-3

The Call of Abram

​ Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

Reflecting on the Call of Abram and the covenant God makes with him.

Abram was a man who didn't have any answers as to what the future held but you would never have known that from his actions. He caught the scent of a promise of a better future and stepped out boldly. His actions shaped history for a whole people.

If Scotland elects to leave the UK next Thursday in the Referendum, perhaps, in our quest for a better Nation, we are not abandoning our neighbours in the rest of the UK to the ravages of unjust policies and ineffective politicians or to further decline and a widening gap between the rich and the poor (as have been just some of the accusations made),perhaps we are not abandoning our neighbours.

Perhaps we are leading them, by our example, into the conviction that there is another way, that we can make a difference, that things can be other than they are at present and that our communities, our Nation and our world can be a better place, where all are valued for who they are, where all are afforded opportunity, where wealth and resources are shared, even if that costs some of us a bit more.

What if our calling is not to fear the unknown (and, at this stage, an independent Scotland is very much an unknown) but, believing in a better future for all God's people, to lead the way to make that future a reality? To model a future that others will want to follow and, by our example, will be inspired to pursue?

That old Scots saying "Better the devil you know" serves to keep us sticking with less than we might encounter simply because we fear the unknown. Conventional wisdom urges us not to become foreigners, not to give up all that to which  we can already lay claim.

Abram modelled a response to God's call that took him from certainty to uncertainty, from a familiar landscape to unknown territory,from tentative options to bold faith. What if this is our time to do the same?

And, on the day after the Referendum: 

As the sun rose on the day after the Referendum

I made my way to the beach.

Not all the results had been declared

But it was clear that dreams of an Independent Scotland

were not to be realised 

My heart was heavy

My spirit subdued.

But as I trudged along the sand

the stillness of an unseasonably warm autumn morning

bathed my soul

as surely as the ebbing tide

bathed the shore.

The sense of the Creator's presence all around-

In the sun creeping over the horizon

In the waves gently lapping the sand

In the quiet and the calm

reminded me

that grief too is a part of life

and broken dreams

are preceded by the spirit of hope.

Hope that cannot be snuffed out

but that continues to burn.

And when part of the dream dies

or is extinguished

the flicker that is left

must work harder

to illuminate the darkness. 

We are not defeated.

People of all hues

The yes and the no

have glimpsed the promised land

albeit from different perspectives.

It is now that, together,

they can step out in faith

to claim that promise

for themselves

and for generations to come.

Hope has not died

but has been rekindled

in ways we would never have imagined.

The fight is not over

but has only just begun.

All is not lost

and there is everything to gain.

And the tasks of grieving

for those who mourn involves 

acknowledging the dream

that we have lost,

gathering up the passion

that remains,

Moving on with renewed energy

and new friendships

to achieve that promised land

that we envisaged

where all are valued,

and where we share resources

with the poor and the vulnerable.

Together we can fan the flicker

of our wavering hope

into the flame

of love and justice

and peace in our land.

We have it in us

to realise the dream 

The work has only just begun.

(Liz Crumlish 19th September 2014)