Weekly Reflection – Who’d Be a Politician?

Earlier this week the Prime Minister gave a speech in the garden in Downing Street in which he gave a sober assessment of the challenges facing the United Kingdom. On one level – whatever one’s political perspective – Sir Keir Starmer’s speech was merely a statement of the obvious: most of us will have experienced difficulties such as booking an appointment with our GP, a train cancelled because of strike action, or a pothole damaging a car tyre. These issues, amongst many others, are why the electorate voted for change just a few weeks ago. The problem for the Prime Minister – as for all politicians – is that an electorate which is eager for change is also likely to be impatient, and the message that things will probably get worse before they get better is therefore not likely to have much traction. Hoping that people will take the long view is not a good strategy for a politician who is  keen to keep the electorate onside.

Christians might have a thing or two to share with the Prime Minister about taking the long view. After all, in the years immediately following the death and resurrection of Jesus there was an expectation that his second coming, the parousia, would happen within the lifetime of those who formed the first Christian communities. In his first letter to the Thessalonians, St Paul has to offer reassurance to his brothers and sisters in Christ who are worried about members of the Church who have died before Jesus’s triumphal return: The Lord himself will descend from heaven, … and the dead in Christ will rise first . Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up …  with them to meet the Lord.

Two thousand years later, Christians are still waiting. We have learned to take the long view. Just before Jesus’s ascension, as described by St Luke in the first chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, he was asked by his disciples when God would restore the Kingdom of Israel. Jesus’s reply was brief and to the point: it not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has set by his own authority. Whatever St Paul might have thought, whatever we might think, God’s time is not human time. Admittedly it’s not much of a message for a politician who has an electorate to please, but it is a good example of how a message of hope can help to sustain patience over a long period.

With love and prayers,
Dean Simon