Dear Friends,
I heard the other day someone commenting on the fact that we are a divided country and we have never been so divided as a country since the Civil War. I have to say this comment stopped me in my tracks. What was he talking about?
But I listened more carefully and then reflected on what was being said. It wasn’t that the division was going to bring about a civil war but more a comment on how society had moved rather rapidly in the last few years.
People were more polarized. As I pondered on this I had to agree. I could see division all around us. Of course the most apparent, and one which is causing so much political division is around Brexit (there I’ve said it). But that is not the only division, there is “those who have and those who have not”. The divide, we are told, between rich and poor is widening. There is religious division, there is division around housing, division around education, division between those who practise a religion and those who don’t, division in communities between which part of the village you live in, I could go on.
Of course people will say that there is always division and that disagreement can be healthy, but it feels that these divisions are deepening and widening. I may have got this wrong, but it is useful to pause for thought for a moment.
What causes division? Is it selfishness or intolerance or just ignorance? Many reasons I suspect, but we must strive hard against division. Jesus talking to his followers, as reported by St Luke’s Gospel and similarly in Mark, states:
‘But he, knowing their thoughts, said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and a divided household falls.”
A very stern warning but which rings so true. If time is spent on division, what we don’t agree on, we stand still and even collapse. We can see that even in our personal relationships. If there is a compromise, a movement across the division then healing can take place. It doesn’t mean we have to move to the other position but we have to respect the other side and move forward together. Or, where there are deep social divisions, we have to strive hard to find ways of developing equality.
I’d like to finish with some words from St Paul: ‘And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And be thankful.’
Every blessing, Rev Cate
PS. Hope you have a peaceful and blessed Easter
