A culture of fear

We live in fearful times. The picture above says it all! I don’t trust Boris Johnson, but I don’t want Jeremy Hunt! The Labour Party is no better - I don’t think Mr Corbyn is PM material. I was heartened by a newspaper article at the weekend which suggested he might be replaced by the autumn by Rebecca Long Bailey. I’ve always liked her, but it may be fake news. The Liberal Democrat Party has a leadership change soon. I’ve nothing against Jo Swinson or Ed Davey but they will always be a small force in a large unattractive scenario. Then there’s the USA! I watch the Democrat candidates with interest: Kamala Harris seems the most switched on, but we seem destined for another Trump term, especially as he smooches North Korea. Lord, have mercy.

I am in London writing this watching people go home after a busy and perhaps stressful working day. Politics aside ordinary people are fearful. Fearful of the future, fearful relationships will end, fearful of the world collapsing through climate change and human selfishness, fearful that they might not have a job soon, one of our potential PMs suggests some businesses going under is a sacrifice we have to make if we have to have a no deal Brexit. People are fearful about health and hope and are getting through each day as best they can but it isn’t rich and full and free really. 

Then there’s the Church! The Methodist Conference is meeting this week in Birmingham. My bugbear with Conference has always been does it really know the story and fear of ordinary congregations who are doing their best to keep going but finding it a struggle? I keep thinking about Murrow Methodist Church, a congregation we met a week on Sunday. There were four in the congregation beside us. They have a sale once a month to raise funds to keep going. The premises are used by community groups like a book cafe and a knit and natter group but the influence of the church is very little. The building needs desparate work doing to it. One of the ladies said to me “ how do we get more people to come?” I hope to help them a bit and two other little churches in our part of the Circuit in my 14 months without appointment. I guess you start healing the fear by thinking what you are strong at. 

I think the answer to fear is to bring love into it. The healing has to began by a reminder of the power of healthy relationships. Yesterday, we were invited to share in the Benefice service in the village in which we are living which was followed by a barbecue and some scrummy puddings. It was really good to meet people, to hear some of the history of the village and to begin to form relationships. I ended the afternoon offering to speak at a ladies group and being invited to a monthly men’s breakfast in the village hall. While we are only in the village until a year in August, we are determined to form relationships. 

The President of Conference, Barbara Glasson shared this story on Saturday:

There was a little church whose membership had got down to single figures. This church had an emergency meeting and began to talk about closure. They decided that they would have one last push at keeping going. They didn’t feel that in the circumstances there was much point writing a huge mission plan, but they made a resolution that they would be ‘welcoming and kind’. The next Sunday, when they arrived for church they found a tent in the graveyard. It was clear that a homeless person had decided to pitch up there and spend the night. Hmmph, thought the Church Steward, this had to be stopped: but before he asked the man to up sticks and move on, he remembered that he was supposed to be welcoming and kind .... so he invited him into the church for a cup of tea.

The very next Sunday was communion, and the small congregation was in the middle of the service, when a strange woman arrived accompanied by her dog. When bread and wine were shared, she came forward for the elements, and so did the dog. This was clearly rather odd and unconventional, but before they took offense they remembered they were supposed to be ‘welcoming and kind’.  Over the next few weeks the homeless man and the woman and the dog all attended worship, to be honest they were a bit of a nuisance and a bit smelly and disruptive. But in time, the church people got to know them and to find out about the hostel that was just across the way ...... and last I heard, some of those church people were popping across the road and getting to know some of the other residents and things were beginning to change. I’m not sure whether that little church kept going, it’s not really the point of the story. The point is that the world changes, lives change when we get back to the simple, costly mandate of faith to love our neighbours and our enemies with the open arms of unconditional love.

The answer to fear has to be relationship!

I am fearful of the future. I don’t want a Boris Johnson government!! I am still struggling having to let go of what was precious to me in my calling. I have a plan dates request form from my Superintendent - a few months ago I was making the plan. I have this morning received stationing information from the lay stationing rep in the East Anglia District for September 2020.... I’m still adapting to being without appointment. And what if the next appointment isn’t right? 

It’s easy to find answers to fear in the wrong places: I’ve had a nice glass of red but some people drink the whole bottle. We lash out when we are under pressure. I’m very aware over the last few months I’ve become not a very nice person. I’m not kind to those closest to me and I’m sorry. I need healing after a period of trauma. I’m grateful to Simon who is helping me each Monday to move on...

I have Joanne Cox-Darling’s book “Finding God in a Culture of Fear” on the go at the moment. It’s really good! She suggests a new way of living beyond our pain of today :

“Hopeful resistance lives gracefully, beautifully, patiently in the present, while striving towards, and actively building, a renewed future. It encourages action, where the world lives in apathy. It challenges meaninglessness with purpose. When the temptation is to live small, cynical, despairing lives, Christian hope is a vocation to speak up, act up, listen up and get up.”

So in fear we hold on! God’s future is more secure then Boris or Trump or the failing church  or even our petty views over who might not be included. The Methodist Conference meeting this week is discussing the Dignity and Worth report on marriage and relationships. I hope we find in our hearts a realisation that God’s way is fully inclusive; Sometimes, the Church causes intense pain. 

Yesterday far away from Church I caught a glimpse of how we might together enjoy life beyond our troubles and seek positivity beyond our pain: I saw it in Kylie at Glastonbury! Kylie is an icon of positivity! The crowd and millions watching at home were joined in for a while thinking life is better; the fear diminished.

We need to focus more on what might be possible and what deep down we know to be true. As the first letter of John reminds us:

“There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.”

Perhaps Joanne Cox Darling’s book has it right: as we look to the future and Boris Johnson, empty churches, uncertainty and crippling worry, all we can do is give all of our “stuff” to the God who knows us, gets it and whose love is all sufficient...

“Hope has nothing to do with us; it has everything to do with God, the life giver, pain bearer, the love maker.” 

I’m finding as I sit on Peterborough station finishing this, waiting for my train to March, a prayer Micky Youngson shared with a Dignity and Worth gathering really helpful:

For the day that has passed:


We give thanks.

For the times when we have been less than loving:


We ask for mercy.

For the things we regret:


We ask for healing.

For the Church that we love:


We ask for transformation.

For all that we hope for:


We ask for the Spirit’s assurance.

Glory to the Father and to the Son


and to the Holy Spirit;


as it was in the beginning is now


and shall be for ever. Amen.

And now, I’m off to buy the new Kylie CD!