Sunday 28 March 2010

This joyful Eastertide

It's nearly Easter again.  I like Easter for many reasons.  For a start, a few days off is always welcome, and it seems a long time since the Christmas break.  Also things seem less rushed that at Christmas- you feel under less obligation to visit every relative you possibly can in a week and to go back to work feeling tired and full of turkey- probably you've enjoyed the Christmas season, but part of you is glad to get back to normal routine.

There's less pressure surrounding Easter, fewer expectations, less hype.  I find it easier to celebrate the Easter season for its' own sake, for the meaning behind it, than I do at Christmas.  That's not to criticize Christmas- in many ways it's a festival I love celebrating.  But there's something to be said for the more relaxed way of celebrating that is demonstrated at Easter.  And of course the weather's usually nicer at Easter- three years ago I remembe having a barbecue and egg hunt in a friend's garden on Easter Sunday. The following year, however, it snowed!

You might not realise it from popular culture, but Easter is at least as important as Christmas in the Christian calendar.  Some reasons why I think it's not so popular I've already talked about on this blog.  While at Christmas we think in wonder of the powerful God, huge beyond our imaginations, who chose to become a vulnerable, dependent baby born to a poor woman in a strange town, at Easter the mystery is different.  And humanity doesn't come out of it so well.

On Good Friday we think in wonder about how God's son allowed himself to be tortured and killed by us, the people he created.  It's the second part of the mystery of God becoming one of us that we celebrate at Christmas.  Saturday is a day of anticipation and waiting, of thinking of how the disciples, the men and women who had followed Jesus, must have felt when he had gone and they were alone. 

And then on Easter Sunday we think about the greatest miracle- that Jesus rose from the dead.  We praise him for defeating death, for providing a way for us to get rid of the consequences of our selfishness and all the times we put ourselves before God.  It's a time for joy and celebration.  It always seems a shame to me that there are very few Easter 'carols' and that singing (in public, in services, in schools) isn't as common as at Christmas.  There are Easter hymns, but they're nowhere near as well known as their Christmas counterparts.  I expect the Victorians are to blame somehow.

So I'm looking forward to Easter.  I've been struggling a bit with my faith and things lately.  Christmas wasn't a relaxing time for me, and a few days now where I can focus on God- and in fact on my own needs, rather than trying to push myself to the side as I think and worry and pray about other people.  I find it quite hard to pray for myself.  Maybe this Easter I'll get a chance to work on that- as long as I don't get bogged down into feeling lonely as most of my friends celebrate time off with their partners or go back to their parents.  

But most important of all, Easter is a chance to focus on praising God.  Maybe this year I'll make it to the sunrise service at church, or maybe I won't.  But I will spend some time trying to focus on God, praising him for the most awesome moment in history- the time when he gave himself to rescue us and shatter the power of our selfishness.

Tuesday 16 March 2010

Don't feed the trolls?

I expect you've come across the advice: don't feed the trolls.  With the growth of web forums, discussion boards, blogs, Facebook groups, there is always an argument going on somewhere online.  Reading the comment threads on some news articles or the wall posts of some Facebook groups is possibly the most depressing experiences on the internet.  I'm not going to post any links because I don't want to give them publicity, or to depress readers!

People argue over everything from government policy on immigration or war or religion to whether Dr Who is better than Twilight (what's to argue?)  And, sooner or later, no matter how seriously and mild tempered the discussion begins, it will very often descend into argument.  Often this will be accompanied by personal insults and unpleasant language (let alone spelling and grammar inconsistencies!).   Some people just argue for the sake of it.  They don't, in the view of more sensible respondents, deserve 'feeding.'  You can't win an argument against a troll.  You might as well not start.

Sometimes I feel that politics can be like this.  The parties (and even more media coverage) often base their arguments on little evidence, or on evidence that is skewed to their own point of view.  Of course, all the parties are now trying to get to grips with online media and to use it to spread their own messages.  If that leads to discussion board commenters becoming more aware of what they're actually talking about, good.

Often we complain that people don't bother to vote in elections, that they're apathetic, that they don't care about politics.  Fewer people are involved in campaigning these days, the unions aren't as big a political force as they were in the past, many people don't seem to be interested in- or know much about- political discussions.  So perhaps all those people who comment on newspaper and BBC articles aren't a bad thing after all.  Perhaps that's where this country's political discussion is happening in this new online world.

Wow, that's quite a scary thought.

Unfortunately, most comments seem to come from the extreme points of view on any issue.  Extremists are always more active than moderates, it seems, whatever method they're using.  Moderates are more likely to retreat, and not feed the trolls.  There is little point engaging in an argument when the other person isn't actually interested in hearing your views.  It's hard to be moderate in such circumstances.

Perhaps, though, it's not quite as scary as the idea that there is no political discussion going on at all, outside the parliamentary elite.  People do care about things- things which, if they thought about it, are political issues- they just don't seem to connect this with voting.

How can we connect these people to the political process- and how can the political process change to connect with these people?   I don't know- but I suspect the internet has something to do with it.

Wednesday 3 March 2010

Work and the church

"Work is not a necessary chore but a divine calling."

I came across that today in a WordLive reading.  For people like me who have jobs that aren't particularly satisfying, those words are enough to make me feel ashamed.  My job doesn't feel like a divine calling.  The part of my job that appears to be the most useful to God is the uses I put my interet access too when there is no work to do, and that's not exactly part of my job! It makes me feel that I have failed, that I have got something wrong.  Is that the job itself?  Well, I believe God was clearly involved in the circumstances that got me the job.  So is it my attitude that's wrong?  Probably.

The passage itself is one I've thought about a lot.  A few years ago, about the time when I was a few months out of university and utterly depressed because I couldn't even get a job in a shop, I heard a sermon on this passage (I think it was this one, or at least a very similar one) that really made me angry. 

The speaker was very insensitive in the way he approached the passage, and what he said (I can't remember exactly how it was phrased) blamed people who- for whatever reason- didn't have a job.  I thought this was quite insulting, and certainly not what Paul meant.  The problem, I suspect, was that this was a middle-class church with a middle-class vicar.  Unemployment was not something (in those days before the recession) was not something most of the congregation had to fear.  But even so, I felt that it was wrong to condemn everyone who didn't have a paid job.  

In my case- and that of many others- I wanted to work, but couldn't find a job.  Was that my fault, as I was made to feel?  It's hard enough that the benefits system makes you feel that you are a worthless person who is to blame for your own problems, without the church joining in- I would have thought that the church should be helping and supporting people in this situation, not making them feel worse.  And what about the other situations that prevent people from having a job? Is someone to blame if they can't work through illness?  What about parents who stay at home to care for their children?  Is that wrong?  Or people who have retired after many years of hard work? 


One of the areas that the WordLive reading looked at was that of how work is shared out within the church.  It's a well known saying that 10% of the people do 90% of the work.  It certainly feels like that's true.  Some people just seem to relax and let others do their share, while others just can't sit back and watch- if something needs to be done, they feel they have to do it.  I know I'm in the second group.  But as this video shows, neither is really right.  People like me shouldn't do everything, otherwise we 'burnout' and miss out.  But if not everyone is doing their fair share, it's inevitable that some people (often the clergy) will be doing too much.


Perhaps this is more what Paul is talking about.  Because there's a difference between having a job and not being idle.  In fact sometimes I think I'd be less idle if I didn't have a job (or at least this particular one...)  When I was unemployed I spent a lot of time volunteering for my church, and doing other voluntary work.   I may not have been contributing financially to the community, but I was giving a lot in other ways- time, effort, prayer.  Paul condemns in this passage people who don't contribute to the community but simply take from others and sit back.  Many people don't contribute to the church community as much as they could, either financially or with their time and gifts.  They need to be encouraged to do so.  Others do more than their fair share, and should perhaps be encouraged to rest.  But to class all those who don't have paid jobs as 'idle' and say they are sinning is, I believe to misinterpret the passage.  Cheerfully doing unpaid work and coping with the pressures of unemployment seems to me to be perhaps more honouring to God than having the security of a job- even a boring one- and continually grumbling about it.  And I know I do that.  So now I've had time to think about this, if I ever hear a sermon like that again I will challenge it.


If, of course, I have time, in between all the service rotas and mission planning...