God in Pain

I always enjoying reading Barbara Brown Taylor’s books and God in Pain, which I have just finished reading, is no exception. It is a great collection of sermons (or homilies) exploring the theme of suffering and pain and what it means. One of the key points, and values of the collection, is that this is something that we cannot always avoid. Towards the end of the book, there are a number of pieces originally prepared for Good Friday which offer a helpful exploration of the theme. She points out the good death that many religious leaders (like Buddha and Confucius) experienced, adding that: “Jesus was not so lucky. But if he had been luckier, what would he have had to offer all those others who die too soon – abandoned - who suffer for things they did not do, who are punished for the capital offence of loving too much, without proper respect for the authorities? His hard luck makes him our best company when we run into our own. He knows. He has been there. There is nothing that hurts us that he does not know about. On the whole, his love was not the sweet kind. It may have been sweet when he was holding a child in his arms or washing his friends’ feet. But more often it was the fierce kind of love he was known for - love that would not put up with any kind of tyranny, would not stand by and watch a leper shunned or a widow go hungry - love that turned over tables and cracked homemade whips before it would allow God to be made into one more commodity.” She goes on to point out the different, transforming approach offered by Jesus, to which we are called, but with which we struggle. “Our world is built on knowing who is up and who is down, who is in and who is out, who is last and who is first. His world turns all that upside down, and we simply cannot function like that. So we run this world our way and we make noises about wanting to do it his way, but we do not really mean it or we would.”

Iona - Interfaith Pilgrimage

Back in September I had the opportunity to be part of the Christian delegation on the Scottish religious leaders’ pilgrimage to Iona. Organised by Interfaith Scotland, we were celebrating twenty years of working together across the faiths. In 2002, and in the aftermath of what has become known and remembered as 9/11, three Christian church leaders, from the Church of Scotland, the Roman Catholic Church and the Scottish Episcopal Church suggested that it was important for religious leaders to get to know one another, and so, what has become Interfaith Scotland was born in September 2002 and, exactly 20 years later, we found ourselves, a group of Scottish religious leaders, augmented by a number of interfaith chaplains and representatives of local interfaith groups, travelling to the beautiful island of Iona for what proved to be an amazing few days together. All the main faiths were represented, and so we went, worshipped and lived together – from the Baha’i, Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Jewish, Muslim, Pagan and Sikh communities. An earlier question had been whether Iona was too strongly associated with the Christian faith, but representatives from the non-Christian faiths insisted that they were happy with the destination, and indeed I think we all found it a great place to be. It was not intended that we would be making our way to Oban, and then on across Mull and to Iona on the day of the Queen’s funeral – but that is how it was, but many of us caught up on what we had missed by watching it through iPlayer on a large screen in the village hall in the evening, and it was good to do that together. It was a pilgrimage and one of the things to do on Iona is a mini pilgrimage around the island, reflecting on some of the things it that the place might say to society at large on all sorts of issues – and so we walked round part of the island together, reflecting on education, health, and so many of the other everyday things that matter to all of us, and had the perspective of a different faith leading some reflection on each issue. Alongside that there was plenty of time for further exploration and I particularly enjoyed a rather longer than I had anticipated walk over to St Columba’s Bay where we enjoyed dipping fingers or toes in the sea and the beauty of the beach there. One of the main tasks was to renew our commitment to work together. I found it immensely encouraging that we found it surprisingly easy to agree a text. In the statement we recognised the value of marking the twentieth anniversary of the Scottish Religious Leaders’ Forum by our pilgrimage together on the holy and historic island of Iona. We recognised the diversity of culture, religion and belief within Scotland, and the damage and suffering caused by prejudice, discrimination and war. We affirmed our commitment to good interfaith relations and trust across Scotland and the particular challenges, which we must address together, around caring for the earth, living sustainably and addressing climate change. We further committed ourselves to walk alongside and listen to local communities across Scotland in the many challenges we all face in a time of bewildering change. This all came together in the multi-faith service of commitment live-streamed from Iona Abbey (and available on YouTube if you search for InterFaith Scotland). The service, to which each faith community contributed was a remarkable culmination of an extraordinary few days. I went, if I’m honest, with a degree of uncertainty, but I came away seeing it as one of the highlights not just of 2022, but of all that I have done in over forty years of ministry. How good to spend time together. How good to learn from each other. How good to be part of a Scottish Interfaith pilgrimage to Iona.