Holy Week Blues

We're mid way through Holy Week now and this morning we walked through the installation I've set up in St Michael's Church. A bit like 'the stations of the cross' but instead of pictures or statues, hints of human activity that tell the parts of the story of the last week of Jesus' life. Beside the crucifixion area, we have the collection box for the Food Bank.

I cannot separate out current suffering from past suffering - perhaps it's the influence of so many Latin Americans I met through my work with Christian Aid; they see the agony of Jesus on the cross as their agony and struggle. They say they are 'Good Friday People' because Easter has not yet come; they have not experienced resurrection in their lives, communities and countries.

I remember a post card from Margaret Thatcher's time as Prime Minister; Jesus in dungarees with a badge saying '3 million' and the caption 'They won't employ me, either'. That's how I feel now; that the poor have been sacrificed, crucified while the wealthy sit down to expensive meals and good wine. It makes me feel sick. And I am glad that I am not financially wealthy because I'm sure that I, like most rich people today, would find it very difficult to part with my wealth. I'd salve my conscience with donations and sponsorship. I'd spend it nobly on expensive charity dinners (that's the way Charities get the money of the rich, isn't it?!) and speak noble words. But I'd still be too comfortable, too sated, too self-absorbed. I'd be like that rich young man who meets Jesus in the bible story; I wouldn't be able to take the risk of giving up my wealth to find true riches. I'd be disconnected from my soul and from the souls of my fellow human beings, and from the souls of the rest of the creatures on this planet. I would be half living. Cutting myself off from the parts of me and you that are too difficult to look at; like how I can spend money on a treat for myself while thousands are hungry, thirsty, naked.....'Lord I don't want to know when I saw you and walked past'.

Charity is not enough; I don't just mean not enough because there is too little of it, but not enough because it makes people beholden, denies them their dignity. What we need is justice. We need the vision of the Magnificat, the song given to young, pregnant Mary to sing in Luke's Gospel.

"He has cast the mighty from their thrones and raised up the humble and meek.
He has filled the hungry with good things and the rich he has sent empty away."

I seem to be reading a different Bible from the one our current Government has.
But never mind because I can defiantly sing with Mary,
"He has shown the strength of his arm, he has scattered the proud in their conceit."

It is time for thinking differently; when we celebrate Easter this weekend, we can only sing a broken Alleluia because too many in the UK and around the world are left at Good Friday with no ability to see how resurrection can happen in their lives.