A conversation with Nelson Mandela

A few days ago I spent some time on an Away-Day with the leaders of one of the churches of which I am Minister.  We had a number of aims for the day, including the desire to get to know each other a little better, and one of the ways I tried to help us to that end was to devise a few questions.  As an example, a question I asked was, “Which character from history would you most like to meet?”  Several interesting answers were given, including Lady Diana, Mother Teresa, Florence Nightingale and General Custer.  My own choice was Nelson Mandela.

Mandela is widely regarded as one of the outstanding characters of the 20^th century, and was certainly a remarkable man.  What really stands out to me about Nelson Mandela, and an area which I would love to talk to him about, was the fact that, despite having served 27 years in jail for standing up against the brutal and oppressive apartheid regime in South Africa, he was willing and able to show such grace and forgiveness on his release.  These are his words:

“As I walked out the door toward the gate that would lead to my freedom, I knew if I didn't leave my bitterness and hatred behind, I'd still be in prison.”

Nelson Mandela realised that when a person harbours bitterness and unforgiveness in their hearts, it is almost always they who suffer most, for bitterness is like a cancer eating away inside us.  A much more recent outpouring of remarkable forgiveness came only last week, when a lone gunman shot and killed 9 people in a prayer meeting at a Methodist Church in Charleston, USA.  A number of the grieving families have offered words of forgiveness to the man accused of the killings, and have pledged to pray for him.  Despite their own desperate pain, they are reaching out with grace and forgiveness.

How many of the world’s problems today would be eradicated if humankind learned to forgive instead of retaliating and seeking a “tit-for-tat” response?  We have much to learn from people like Nelson Mandela and the Charleston families.  And as Martin Luther King Jr. said,

“Forgiveness is not an occasional act, it is a constant attitude.”

Zacchaeus and the buttercups

New Parks New Friends (NPNF) is an exciting new venture which was launched by some of the folk from New Parks Methodist Church, together with others from the local community.  NPNF meets each Tuesday morning in the New Parks Library on Aikman Avenue.  The initiative was started in an attempt to address the major social issue of loneliness and isolation.  NPNF offers the opportunity for anyone to come and chat and make new friends.  So far it has been really successful and many people from the local community have enjoyed Tuesday mornings at the library.  New and valued friendships have been established.

Last week was a first for NPNF, as a half day outing was organised to Ullverscroft Grange.  As well having lunch together and visiting the shops which are run by the charity, there was the opportunity to explore the area (the weather was perfect).  Along with one or two others, I went for a short walk in the beautiful countryside.  As we walked we came across a field full of buttercups.  Buttercups are often regarded as a weed by gardeners, but this field proved what a beautiful display they can offer.

I stood and gazed at the field for a while, watching the plants gently swaying in the breeze, and marvelled again at God's amazing creation.  Even humble buttercups can produce a stunning display.  I thought how well this seemed to fit with the Biblical story of Zacchaeus, which was to be the sermon topic for the following Sunday.  Most people looked down on and despised Zacchaeus.  He was treated as an outcast by many, and of no value.  Yet Jesus went out of his way to spend time with Zacchaeus and to show him that he was special in the eyes of God.  

There are those who regard buttercups as weeds and worthy only of the compost heap; there were those who regarded Zacchaeus in the same way.  Jesus, however, saw below the surface and recognised Zacchaeus' worth as a child of God.  There is a line in the song "The King is among us" which states, "each child is special, accepted and loved."  Perhaps the buttercups in their own way bear witness to that wonderful truth.

Every cloud...

Last week I enjoyed a lovely, if rather wet, holiday in Scotland, with some members of my family.  They do say that every cloud has a silver lining, and the silver lining of some rather rain-filled and cloudy weather was that it allowed me time to catch up on some reading.

I managed to finish a book which I had started some time earlier, Pete Greig’s “God on Mute”, subtitled “Engaging the Silence of Unanswered Prayer.”  It is a well-written and thought provoking book, in which the author wrestles with some of the thorny questions relating to the subject of prayer, drawing on some of his own personal and family experiences.  Sometimes there are no easy answers to difficult questions, but I found Pete Greig’s book particularly helpful.  There are lots of snippets in there which I will go back to.

Another book which I read last weeks was the autobiography of Scottish singer/songwriter/actress Barbara Dickson.  Towards the end of the book she writes, “In spite of being brought up in a non-religious family, the Church, in one form or another, has been part of the backdrop to my life.  When I was younger I would have been embarrassed to call myself a Christian and even now my faith is very personal to me, but it has become the cornerstone of my life.”

The final book I read was “Moving On”, by Reuben Holroyd.  It tells of Holroyd’s experience of National Service between the years 1952-54, consisting of the letters which he wrote home to his family, each of which his mother kept.  His experience with organised religion in one specific case was not a happy one: “This morning we had a church parade … it was a dead loss.  We had to stand in ranks wearing shirts under a blazing sun, it was very hot and most uncomfortable.  The padre droned on and we were bored to death but nobody dared move in case the R.S.M. took his name for not paying attention.  The padre tried to get us to sing a hymn which we did not know, it petered out after the first verse and he had to give it, and us, up as a bad job.”  How NOT to win friends and influence people!

Holroyd spend much of his national service in Korea, and seems to have had a very difficult time in many ways, not least through being deprived of many of the normal “creature comforts.”  One thing which becomes clear in the book is that in many cases the ordinary soldiers had little or no understanding of how what they were being asked to do fitted into the overall plan of the British and Allied forces.  They were not able to see or understand “the big picture”, nor their part in it.  This thought draws me back to Pete Greig’s book, “God on Mute.”  Perhaps one of the reasons that our prayers are sometimes apparently not answered is that we cannot at the time see the big picture of God’s plans and purposes.  Greig quotes a prayer of St. Ignatius of Loyola, a call to trust God even when we don’t understand:

O Christ Jesus
When all is darkness
And we feel our weakness and helplessness,
Give us the sense of Your Presence,
Your Love and Your Strength.
Help us to have perfect trust
In Your protecting love
And strengthening power,
So that nothing may frighten or worry us,
For, living close to You,
We shall see Your Hand,
Your Purpose, Your Will through all things