Context
This week important steps are being taken in Westminster towards determining many basic facts about post-Brexit Britain.
Will many working people lose employment?
Will particular regions and devolved jurisdictions be able to prosper?
What will happen to European citizens here?
Will we, or some other group, get what we want or lose heavily?
Reflection
The three disciples looked fearfully into dazzling light. The ambiguous gains of Brexit generate fear and anxiety. Change whether for better, or worse, is coming. We fear both economic collapse and unequal and divisive prosperity, isolation and frantic globalism. The news is dominated by factional claims and rebuttals, some quite hysterical. Others resort to canny ambiguities and fudges to try to please everyone.
The disciples saw Jesus transformed by God’s glory and later, after the Resurrection, that same glory in a world changed not in petty ways or in small details but utterly, stunningly, transformed. Are we too keen to jump on the things that particularly irk us about Brexit – or indeed, failing to leave? Do we shout only to fore-stall the arrival of something we dislike, perhaps demanding a fudge? Are we more concerned about small personal inconveniences than potential communal gains or even serious mistakes?
Peter tried to control his disquiet by offering containment, ‘dwellings’ (v.5). He wanted control. Like us, Peter was human. We confront the spectacle of all the political parties, and of groups within those parties, including those in Scotland and Northern Ireland with special interests, clamouring, desperate to secure their particular corner of the argument. Individuals also want control over their futures. The disciples were told to ‘listen’ (v.7) and, though fearful, trusted. Listening with respect to others is difficult, especially when small factional gains seem easily within grasp, and larger more generous and inclusive goals lie beyond the horizon. Should we place more trust in our politicians, those from the EU, and even those taking opposing positions, acknowledging that some at least see further than we do?
The vision prevailed; the disciples listened, obeyed and waited to tell until after the Resurrection. Brexit turmoil is facilitated by time pressure, references to clocks ticking and fixed deadlines. Disquieting fragments of information leak out. Nothing visibly happened immediately after the Transfiguration, because the disciples forbore to speak about or to act on their experience. But God’s purposes were progressing. If we feel God needs human hands to sustain good purposes in the world, we may need to remember the stable institutions of democracy working steadily through the law, constitutions and electoral mandates, and, rather than scrabbling frantically for advantage, let them operate.
Hanging on to the hope they had found in Jesus, the disciples weathered the trauma of the Transfiguration. God has a plan, bigger than the best hopes of the most devout, but also strong enough to contain our worst fears. Would it be good to approach Brexit with this is in mind, expecting an inclusive future, good if not yet glorious, and not demanding the self-interested fudges?
Prayer
A meditation on fear, which could be used as part of prayers of intercession.
‘Perfect love casts out fear’ says John (John 4.18). When we love God, we trust that the universe will not fall in on us, that the sun will rise and set and the seasons come and go. Indeed, all that really matters will continue in its God-appointed way. And that is a perspective within which we can, truly, cast out fear. God endures. We may vehemently dislike a particular political outcome but it will not finish us. God’s purposes for us will continue. The horizon is always moving and fresh situations will always provoke fresh ideas. But we are only human, and small particular fears – of poverty, of illness, of loss – are much more vivid than the bland over-arching assurance that, overall, things are pretty good. The panic induced by small fears is never good, especially when encountered in loneliness, in grief, or in sickness. Make us therefore sensitive to the needs of the most vulnerable within our communities. May we never lose sight of the fact that any loss of income to the poor and marginalised is hugely significant; any loss of freedom to the oppressed is more important than we may think; any loss of power for minorities matters far more than it would to majority groups. As our communities navigate choppy political waters in the coming months may we seek consistently to support the strong to be sensitive and the weak to be resilient. May we continue to know that God’s purposes continue despite all the world throws at our communities. And may we hold on to the belief that, in the end, in Christ, all will be well.
Questions
- Does your community have any particular fears about Brexit, and/or the failure of the Brexit process (e.g. increases in unemployment, xenophobia or child poverty)?
- In what ways might you address those fears?
- If your community seems pretty content with the prospects, explore what contributes to your sense of contentment.
All-age activity
Wherever you are, take a map of the UK and choose a community of a different type, e.g. rural instead of urban, or in a different geographical area. How would their definition of a ‘good Brexit’ be likely to differ from your community’s? How can we work to reconcile such differences?
Young people
Young people might wish to perform a similar exercise thinking particularly about whether young people’s concerns in their and/or another community would differ from those of older people.
Brenda Vance is a URC Elder and a retired university teacher.
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