Issue 186
WORKTALKweekly is deliberately non-topical since it is styled as a thought for the week not a comment on current news. This week, however, we are breaking that tradition to comment on three pieces that appeared in one paper on the same day.
Forgiveness doesn’t mean you have to love your husband’s killer…
This piece was prompted by two events: firstly, the showing of three programmes in which Irish killers were brought face to face with their victim’s families. Secondly, it was prompted by the report of a West Country vicar who has quit her job because she no longer feels able to preach forgiveness after the death of her daughter on 7th July 2005 in London. This incredibly sad story will evoke the sympathy of all, especially parents who carry love for their children in their hearts alongside a prayer for their safety. The bottom line for this vicar was that she could not do her job because she (currently) cannot forgive.
Church told to get planning permission for cross..
Apparently classified as an advertisement, a cross erected outside a West Midlands church required planning permission and a fee. The article included another story of a cross removed from a crematorium chapel to ensure equality for other faiths. Initially the reason given was health and safety.
Pick of the (TV and radio) day proclaims…
Radio 4 is still labouring under the delusion that Christianity matters. It goes on to describe a series of Lent talks and finishes with ‘no snoring at the back now’.
So there you have it – in one paper on one day a serious article describing how hard it is to define, describe and live forgiveness; the cross is reported as being classified as an advert, an offence or health and safety risk and Christianity is dismissed as irrelevant and sleep inducing.
It is not difficult to see how a vicar would find it hard or even impossible to do her job without forgiveness. She would be faced with the message of forgiveness on a daily basis. Her calling is to communicate and advocate forgiveness. Her courage in recognising her deep dilemmas is moving and challenging.
It is not so easy to see how the rest of us would find it difficult to do our jobs without forgiveness. Perhaps it is because in many jobs it is easy to hide unforgiveness in our psyche or resentment towards a colleague, a little bitterness towards a boss, a rumbling anger towards a competitor or a bit of malice towards a report. We can carry our rocks of hatred with us, well disguised as competitiveness, selfish ambition or on the understanding that it is a dog-eat-dog tough market out there. We can build up our records of offences under the guise of gaining experience but we forget that there is an organic link between unforgiveness and stress.
Once we use the word ‘stress’ we are all prepared to recognise its toxic trail in our working lives. Even if you don’t feel stressed yourself you will know someone who is. Stress is relevant, contemporary, and prevalent, and it stops people working well and sometimes working at all. But let’s not fool ourselves and think that stress is all about what happens to us. Stress is also about what we do with what happens to us.
There are lots of adverts offering solutions to stress. The stress consultancy field is a crowded market. It is now a health and safety issue and the Health and Safety Executive encourages employers to recognise and respond to the implication of stress in the workplace.
Meanwhile Radio 4 presents a reflection on Christ’s journey through Jerusalem to the cross: a cross which was no advert but the place where forgiveness begins. The cross is indeed a health and safety issue. It is a place where Christ himself gave up his health and safety to destroy the hatred, bitterness and anger which infects our world. It was a place where he did his work so we can do ours. Ironically it is also a place of equality, for in front of the cross we are all equally offended by our failure and equally invited to be rescued. Radio 4 is right to believe that Christianity matters. None of us can do our jobs without forgiveness. None of us can move away from stress without moving away from anger. Vicar, bricklayer, police, doctors, lawyers, IT specialists, cab drivers and any of the 3,000 or more jobs described in the standard occupational classification book all have to be done with forgiveness.
It is not for us to judge a mother in pain after the unjust brutal murder of her innocent child. Which of us knows how we would react? As we follow Christ through the city to the cross we can all see a brutal murder of an innocent Son who in the hour of torture and pain (watched by His mother) still prayed “Father forgive them for they do not know what they are doing”.
Nobody snored at the back that day.
Luke 23:32-34
32Two other men, both criminals, were also led out with him to be executed. 33When they came to the place called the Skull, there they crucified him, along with the criminals—one on his right, the other on his left. 34Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” And they divided up his clothes by casting lots.
John 19:25-27
25Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. 26When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, “Dear woman, here is your son,” 27and to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” From that time on, this disciple took her into his home.
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Work well
Geoff Shattock
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