Crosstalk: 'There is still light'
The world has gone crazy, hasn't it? Well, unfortunately, it always has been crazy, but that sense of unease has shifted away from dictators who insist on only 28 styles of haircut to more familiar ground in the West.
In the Wild West, force seems to be the name of the game. If you're not their type out there, you can expect to be looking down the barrel of a gun. Fancy a country? That'll do nicely, we'll have that, thanks. Don't fancy a country? Here, have a missile or two on us.
Oil tanker? What oil tanker? Mainland Europe seems a very normal bunch but between them and The Wild Bunch are us, who don't quite know what to do or make of things. We seem sane but at the same time we can't help but be influenced by those who seem to be making things happen with a lack of diplomacy and a brash attitude towards anyone who isn't a white heterosexual male. Force seems to be the name of the game.
But that, too, is how it seemed 2,000 years ago, at the wrong end of either person in power in an all-conquering empire or a local king in the Middle East. Forcing ways upon people, or killing your own (even those under 2 years old - the "Slaughter of the Innocents", at Bethlehem in Christ's infancy). It's all been done before, and it's all been crazy - a dark dark place.
But there was light, and there is light still. And although the crazy ones swirl about us, it only opens the door for those waiting to find a different way - a more gentle, peaceful, humble, loving and serving way - the slower but more kind and thoughtful way - the Way, the Truth and the Life.
Rev Mark Rodgers, United Reformed Church, Shrewsbury
