Outside the Box

Do you remember the furore a couple of years ago over MP's expenses?  Something brought this to mind recently, and I thought again about my reactions to the scandal.  When I trained as an accountant many years ago I learned the importance – nay, necessity – of recording every last penny in its proper slot.  I also remember the Inland Revenue’s mantra about business expenses – that they are only allowable if incurred “wholely and exclusively” in the course of business activity.  I won’t bore my readers by attempting to apply these criteria to moats, duck-houses et al.  Suffice it to say that I found it hard to comprehend how some of these claims could have been made ‘by accident’, and yet, unless we accept that virtually all of the country’s MPs are crooks and fraudsters, such accidents have to be believed, at least in some of the examples that have emerged.

 I’m sure some of you receive regular mail from missionary societies.  Amongst mine I frequently see references to the difficulties faced by MBBs – Muslim-background believers.  Often these people are cast out and completely spurned by their families and friends.  Either they have to keep their new-found Christian faith completely secret, or they risk persecution or physical harm at the hands of their former fellows: Shari’a, the Islamic law, prescribes a death sentence for any Muslim who leaves the faith.  For anyone who has not suffered it, it’s almost impossible to envisage how terrible life must be if it has to be lived under such restrictions.

In each of these examples, if we are to have any understanding of what’s going on, we have to stretch our imagination, and try to think ourselves into someone else’s circumstances.  In the modern idiom, we must think outside the box.

When Jesus was brought before Pilate, indeed through all his examinations, by the Sanhedrin, by Pilate and by Herod, Jesus saw everything in the context of His purpose for coming to earth. “The scriptures must be fulfilled,” He said (Mark 14:49), “You will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One” (Mark 14:62).  He acknowledged that He was the Son of God (Luke 22:70), and ‘King of the Jews’ (Luke 23:3), but He offered no defence against the charges that were made against Him (Matt. 27:12-14).  If we were in that position, I’m sure we would want to offer some contradiction, to explain the ‘real reasons’ why our actions had suffered this misinterpretation.  Not Jesus.  He understood what was going on.  He could see that the Jewish leaders were incapable of rejecting the legal rigmarole that had grown up over the preceding centuries – it was the only culture they knew: how could a mere carpenter’s Son have the power or knowledge to overturn it?

It may not be written in our Creed, but aren’t we all obliged to copy Jesus’ example so far as we are able?  If we could only try to see everything from other people’s viewpoint as well as our own, I’m sure all kinds of relationships would be the better for it.

Stepping up to the Plate

It wouldn’t take a Sherlock Holmes to tell from a glance round my room that I’m right handed.  The coffee table is on the right hand side of the armchair, for example, and the lamp is on the left hand side of the desk so that I can see what I’m writing.  You can imagine my anxiety and dismay, then, (not to mention the pain!) when, late one evening, I lost my grip on a heavy piece of metal and, on its way to the ground, it jammed my right thumb against the floor of my van.  As I drove home awkwardly, my imagination was running wild, thinking I had probably broken the thumb, at the very least.

After a night of disturbed sleep, I made my way to the kitchen with the thumb still throbbing.  Then came the inspiration for this article.  I cannot recall a definite thought process that said, ‘the right thumb is injured – I shall have to use the left hand to open the coffee jar.’  I know it could have been that I was only half awake, but my first awareness of anything unusual was looking down to see the jar gently clutched between my right hand and my chest and the left hand grasping the lid with serious intent.

With the coffee successfully made, I adjourned to the armchair for my prayer time.  Here, amazingly, the prescribed reading was from I Cor. 12, where St Paul writes about the various parts of the body and their inter-dependence.  My eye was drawn to verse 25, “its parts should have … concern for each other”, and as I linked this to my recent experience in the kitchen, my memory took me back to my days of singing psalms in a church choir.  Later, a few moments with a concordance revealed Ps. 139 vv.13-14: “You knit me together in my mother’s womb.  I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made.”  I felt I’d had certain evidence of the marvel of God’s creation, as my left hand, aware of the predicament of his opposite number, had instinctively stepped forward to fill the gap in the early morning team.

And what does this not uncommon sequence of events have to teach us at a wider level?  Surely it should convince us of our responsibility, as members of Christ’s body, the Church.   We should not only be willing to take on duties that may be requested of us, but also be aware of what is going on around us, and be ready to step forward and offer our services when we notice that someone else is temporarily incapacitated.  How much more welcome is the offer of help that embarrassment or uncertainty might prevent us requesting!

The thumb wasn’t broken, by the way.  After a couple of days it stopped hurting, a large black blob on the nail gradually grew out, and today the incident is all but forgotten: John 9:3b applies, perhaps?

Level Crossing

Centuries ago, before stamps were invented, you had to pay the postman a sizeable sum to receive a letter.  Today, however, life has been transformed by electronic communication.

There seems a definite progression in audience size: from e-mails are sent directly between people; through Facebook, where comments are shared among invited friends; to Twitter, where observations are spread to a wide community of self-selected followers.  Some of these communities can be large, well into the tens of thousands.

Perhaps this is an over-simplification, but these different levels might reflect particular layers of society.  Twitter users include politicians, broadcasters, celebrities and businesspeople (so what am I doing amongst them?), while Facebook users tend to be social groups – whether formal or informal – or people with a common interest.  And when it comes to e-mail ... well, anyone who wants to communicate more easily, quickly and cheaply than using the post!

In His earthly ministry, Jesus addressed Himself to all strata of society.  He related to His disciples, to Jewish leaders, tax collectors, reformed prostitutes and sinners of all kinds; to the sick and the healthy, the old and the young, and to a multi-married woman beside a well.

Writing to the Romans, St Paul goes to great lengths to explain that when it comes to salvation there is no difference between the Jews and the Greeks.  Jews thought themselves superior to everyone because, traditionally, they were God's people; the Greeks (meaning here those of any nation who spoke Greek) thought they were superior because they were the world's cultured élite.  Paul explains that, “there is no distinction, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.  But they are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.  God publicly displayed him at his death as the mercy seat accessible through faith.” – Rom. 3:22-25, (my italics.)

God’s gift of redemption, the death of Jesus and His Resurrection that we celebrate this month, are for everyone, for everyone from – in the words of Cecil Frances Alexander (the writer of “There is a Green Hill”, which we may well be singing in our churches this month) – ‘the rich man in his castle’ to ‘the poor man at his gate.’

So, when you send your next e-mail, update your Facebook status or tweet your followers, think of the many layers of people you might be addressing, and pray that each might be touched by God’s love this Easter.