Rivertown United Reformed Church

Minister’s Letter – February 2012

“Truth and balance on the high wire of life”

How balanced are you? If your bodily centre of gravity is, like mine, pretty high, you are more likely to find balance harder to achieve. I once attended a canoeing course in Dover harbour – the morning saw me underwater no less than 6 times! Ad my attempts at a “canoe roll” were positively out of this world! I find even a low level attempt at balance – on one of those long narrow planks – quite nerve racking. Possibly my most nervous experience was when our family took on the high ropes course at Porthmadoc. Now the zip wire was fine – but when it came to what seemed like a good 30 feet above ground, albeit safely harnessed and in no real danger, I found myself almost hyperventilating as I tried to cope. In the end I made it, some distance behind Ruth, Jonathan and Joanna. I even managed the 10 foot high climbing pole – and the mid air “jump” on to the swinging “trapeze” that they called the “Leap of Faith”. But the worst was to come – the great Swing, to which Ruth and I side by side, were safely attached, facing downwards. Even our children had resisted a swing from the very top. Not wishing to be outdone, I wanted to swing from where they had. On the slow wind upwards I grabbed Ruth’s hand, just like a child clinging to its mother. And then – Oh calamity – that headlong rush downwards. I felt as if I was going to die! It took me quite some time to recover. Since then, even the small park swing still threatens.

Today people everywhere are facing extreme highs and lows in life. Balanced diets, with a few exceptions, are hard to find or follow. We are told we have become a “punitive nation” because we lock up more of our citizens than any other nation in Europe – over 80,000 at the last count. And we’re tolod that prison isn’t working! The economic downturn, the loss of trust in the media from the phone hacking scandal, the failure of politicians to come up with a viable solution to the weather extremes the world is experiencing. Self interest and self preservation still seem to dictate our behaviour. And just to make it worse, they’re now interfering with the way we use the “inverted comma”! The world itself is unbalanced, with the few earning fortunes whilst the many starve. Extremes, whilst exhilarating for some, can be dangerous for the victims. Why can’t we get it right?

Jesus said that, to get a good balanced life for everyone, we need to build on firm foundations. Have you ever tried building anything on the beach? I have seen pictures of magnificent stone sculptures, achieved with patience and gentle care over a period of time. Our son Jonathan, a keen sculptor, amassed a veritable exhibition of “balanced sculptures” using chair frames, planks and bricks, tables, and large drawing boards. And he got a ‘distinction’ for it!

Balance in relationships is also hard to find. Whenever I meet with a prospective wedding couple I ask them individually “how much have YOU changed since this relation began?” After it is only in a true and loving relationship, a real partnership of mutual care and respect, constantly worked at, that deep, lifelong and fulfilling bonds can be created.

Truth is the best foundation for life. For truth is a level playing field – equality of rights and responsibilities, equality of opportunity and care. Equality of nations, equal respect for all God’s children. The earth’s resources – the land and its treasures - given freely by God to us all – shared out equally among us all. But for so many people, their experience of life is of prejudice, persecution, skewed justice, basic rights denied. And so they grow up believing that everyone is the same, and that they must fight – literally – for everything, otherwise someone else will get there first, and refuse to share. In a sense that is human nature, without God’s love.

Jesus said “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life”. He treated everyone as his equal. He loved them, guided them, wept over them, and ultimately died for them. Yet his love, God’s love, is with us, part of us today – we know it in our deepest human yearning for personal purity, justice and fulfilment for all. Letting God’s forgiving power into our lives – even a little more than we may do already – takes us a long way towards the truth that we all belong, are all needed, to bring real life to the world.

Colin