Inky Fingers
INKY FINGERS
“Aren’t people funny!” “Hah!”, you may think, “so they are when they aren’t making you shout, screech or weep!” People say one thing and do another, one day something is OK but the next it’s “I have never approved of that” – so why didn’t they say so at the time. I do not need to be told how shabby, deceitful, shallow or spiteful they can be – been there, got a wardrobe full of T-shirts. And yet – you hear people in the shop, the pub (not ear-wigging you understand, but some people don’t need megaphones!) and you get a sense of what they really expect, want and appreciate in others: a prevailing sense of natural justice – “what’s fitty”. Because you also hear of people who endure great hardship or adverse conditions, who extend themselves with amazing generosity – because they are just made that way. And I venture to suggest that THAT is actually nearer the norm, just unsung – and I honestly DO believe that with all that is within me.
But that doesn’t matter – what really matters is that someone else does too – our Heavenly Father. After the sad mysteries of Holy Week – the foreboding and treachery in the Garden of Gethsemane, the abandonment of Jesus as man in being strung up as a mere rabble-rouser on a public rubbish tip at Golgotha, the whole public humiliation – then THE TOMB WAS EMPTY! Who could blame His own disciples for not recognising Him on the way to Emmaus – their fellow-traveller was in fact literally the last person on the planet they expected to meet! The news spread like wildfire and 500 or so people also met Him! And at Pentecost the full realisation of this glorious mystery took fire of the disciples – and Christianity was launched! Not just for a few chosen insiders but for EVERYONE! Why? “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” (John 3: 16,17).
And I truly believe that too. For as someone (local) recently observed – “without the Resurrection we have NOTHING”. Jesus was just another trouble-maker, or do-gooder, taken out of circulation, so far as some were or are concerned. But it was investigated and recorded by Saints Luke and Paul in particular: it motivated them and even impressed the Romano-Jewish historian Josephus, who knew which side his bread was buttered on, you might say, and yet did not forget his own roots. A bit like us now, you may think. And so the faith has survived – but not necessarily an easy ride, cosy, proofed like Teflon against misfortune: Jesus made quite sure His disciples knew what could be expected of them (see Matthew 10).
And survive it has – I don’t care a fig about bunnies, chocolate eggs, whether the Last Supper was on a Wednesday or a Thursday: I still have questions and wonders but insignificant, however intriguing to me, compared with this Good News. But it’s not only for me, my family and friends – it’s for ALL: the whole of smelly, cantankerous, feeble humanity (Matthew 25: 31 to 46).
But 2,000 years or so have passed and there is still war and conflict, indifference to injustice or suffering. When will it change? Can it change? It is possible and it can start here – in the March 2010 “Coracle” we read that in 2009 Truro Diocese has bucked the national trend by increasing attendances; it still has issues and challenges, but it is encouraging nevertheless. But is change down to us or to “them” whoever they are? So, if you encounter an annoying or distasteful person (not necessarily a politician!) then think on: they may wonder the same about you! And so it goes on – or does it? That is the real issue, isn’t it?
Yours in fellowship
Peter H. – Editor