There are a number of Scriptures that provoke us to see and to hear what is there to be seen and heard, such as:
Do you have eyes and fail to see? Do you have ears and fail to hear? (Mk. 8:18).
In numerous settings, and maybe initially in the political and church setting, we have entered a phase of ‘wake up, open your eyes and ears, for it is now visible and audible’. It is not a time to cover over what is being uncovered, the weaknesses in the ‘babylonic’ nature of certain structure and institutions are there for anyone with sight to see. Let fall what should not be supported.
Today I was reminded that some 2 years ago I said to someone – leave before the trouble comes. If not they will be drawn into a ‘you can really help and even bring reconciliation’ endless cycle that goes nowhere. Tempting? Maybe for some the flattery and profile might pull them in, but the outcome for all is to be trapped. There are cover ups in many of the areas where we see politics being exposed – maybe I can refer to the COVID inquiry in the UK – but we can easily add trials of former leaders, the corruption that lies behind pleas of ‘we did not know’ when certain attacks took place; add to those aspects of current church investigations and I suggest there is a lot that is visible – can what is visible be seen?
The issues are not so much to do with personal failings, sad as those things are. It is the whole structure that feeds of a power dynamic where in a ‘dangerous’ world there are a few who can expound how dangerous the world is but they can assure us who are fear-oriented that we simply need to go along with them and we will be safe!
The world is not always a safe place, but I have discovered that the words and actions of those who claim the name of Jesus can be far more dangerous than any danger that is present in the ‘unsafe’ world.
Uncovering of what those with power wanted to keep covered is here. Don’t prop it up, let sight come so that more can see and hear. In a previous decade I realised that a backing away at this point of time into a naive and repetitive response of God is in control reversed what was being uncovered. Now what I believe is possible is for sight to come that will see not just what is becoming visible but to something beyond, to the realm of what can be: ‘I saw a new heaven and a new earth’. That is what I want to see. It comes first with seeing what can be seen when the uncovering takes place, then sight, then sight. Sight in two phases – seeing something that grips us, then seeing it around us. Bring it on through what is being brought before our very eyes now.
I’ve been thinking lately about your dream of facades falling. And I wonder if many of us weren’t a little naive about what that meant. Somethings seemed to open up and reveal corruption, manipulation, bad and even criminal behaviour. And that should have been that. But it appears that corruption, injustice, greed and criminal behaviour goes far deeper than many of us imagined. And it is embedded not in individual actions or situations but in whole systems that provide the cover for the corruption and facilitate it. In fact, quite possibly demand it.
I feel overwhelmed that every direction I turn I see more and more of it all. Every institution appears to be trying to hide something. Systems that support it all are strangling us and literally supporting mass murder around the world. I do thing we need to ‘see’ at this moment. We need a deep understanding of the root issues we must deal with. Nothing else will give us the knowledge of levers that can finally shift things. Until we see, we are blind and helpless in front of it all. It requires courage to see, trust that we can survive what we see. But our survival and that of many other people and species on this planet depend upon our capacity to see, care, and then act strategically.
had a conversation recently about how the terms system change, system shifting,system collapse dont land easily on many people’s ears – they feel too conceptual, too big, too catastophic, too revolutionary – and I’ve been in at least one meeting where I heard the speaker say the absolute polar opposite to what a fellow Christian heard. So absolutely relate to this uneasy family conversation about what is really going on in a state of increasing global uncertainty, rising polarising factions and weird alliances between very unlikely bedfellows.
The dream you had Martin about facades coming down and the voice of religion attempting to keep them up has been super helpful in my own navigation of these uncertain events and in my growing understanding that the Kingdom of God coming is always going to deeply challenge the status quo. It also helps me grasp that being in the midst of huge uncertainty is exactly where we are asked to stand, because he is the rock we stand on – not our own satisfaction that we will be spared from upheaval because we are special (we won’t) – but because he loves all of us very much and offers an anchor and a place to rest for the many caught in unspeakable shock and trauma. This isnt evangelism as I told you so. It is simply passing the life rafts around. I’m also convinced that as Christians and others accept the profound system failures of institutions that we thought were going to keep us afloat and begin to reimagine what might be done differently, then we have the seeds of rebirth and renewal to see the unrelenting Kingdom of God coming to the earth. That definitely gives me the energy to get up in the morning! If God is all about relationship then how we relate to him and to others is going to be a clarion call that we can mobilise around. In that conversation I was having around system change, someone suggested a better description would be “changing the nature of the relationships” ……and that has got me thinking……..