A Different View - May 2012

Thursday, 17 May 2012 02:00

As I began my Presidential year with a blog about Henry (then aged 3) it seems appropriate to close in his company. Henry (now aged 4) was relieved to find, as he walked down the hill at the Bay, that the general store, which stocks milk and onions, buckets and spades, was open all hours. "After all", he pointed out, "you never know when you might need a sword". (Plastic Imitation Excalibur, £1.99)

Henry has a considerable arsenal in his bedroom and is often in trouble for using it. Apparently he doesn’t mean to. He has just not worked out the equation: 'sword in hand = irresistible urge to wack someone = aggrieved sibling = trouble.'

Henry is a Christian boy; he was presented to the Lord as an infant  and the nurture and admonition are, I’m glad to say, ongoing. But does he have Christian Values? What, in any case, are Christian values as urged upon us by David Cameron, and before him by John Major and Margaret Thatcher?

There is, of course, a deep principle, an ultimate value, running through all that Jesus taught and demonstrated, that we should love God with all our heart and soul, our mind and strength, and our neighbour as ourself. And for those who follow Jesus there is an ultimate allegiance, a call to pay attention to and to obey the one we call Lord.

But that does not immediately translate into those virtues of thrift, hard work, family cohesion, and good citizenship which our political leaders are inclined to designate Christian. These are civic virtues, and are found among people of all faiths and none. Indeed those who name Christ as Lord are not always the most docile citizens.

More fundamentally, Christians are only too aware that like Henry we occasionally succumb to the urge to whack someone. As a company of penitents, we know ourselves to be devoid of virtue; the good we would, we do not, and the evil we would not is in fact what we do. To name Jesus as Lord requires that we know him as Saviour.

However, when by the grace of his Spirit we keep company with him we find that he brings with him love and joy, peace and patience, goodness and kindness, faithfulness, Gentleness and Self control.  These are not values or virtues that we ever possess - they come with him, and are always expressive of his presence. But in that grace lies hope for Henry and me; perhaps even for Mr Cameron?