Our ‘Go-To’ Position

Over the last number of days the news media and the politicians have gone from lauding the appearance of the vaccines to lamenting that they are running out. This switch followed a comment on the media that there were vaccines being kept in the freezers and not getting into the arms. Now if you were closely following the breaking news story you would have realized that while one particular vaccine had been used up at one particular site, the vaccinations were still proceeding with a second vaccine and that more dose were expected within days.

It reminded me of a Christmas Eve service years ago when we ran out of leaflets for the service despite extras being prepared. As the person responsible for the preparation of the leaflet I was accosted after the service by a parishioner who wanted to make sure I understood how serious that was. My response to her (that set her back on her heels) was isn’t that a great problem to have! I feel like that same response also fits the scenario I started with. It is in fact a positive story as well.

Where has society learned this constant and consistent feeling of not being good enough, of never having enough, of always being in the wrong. In his latest blog ‘The Daily Sip’ Charles LaFond, an Episcopalian priest, says “In the darkness of the Dark Ages (about 500 ad to about 800 ad), God was presented to the people by the bishops and clergy as a fearful, veiled mystery, off in the distant darkness, angty, brooding, and vengeful.”. Those of you who have read Diarmaid MacCulloch’s book ‘Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years’ will know that he isn’t overstating the case, The message of the church through the ages has been that if we didn't please God (and that included the priests and bishops), we would be punished by bad things happening in our lives. And as bad or unfortunate things are bound to turn up in everyone’s life, that prophecy was taken to heart over the eons.

As science has evolved over the centuries, we have a new understanding today of why people get sick, what causes the earthquake or severe weather, why animals become endangered as well as why many many more calamities happen. But we still have that feeling from past indoctrination that WE are somehow at fault and that the darkest picture must be the right one, Yes, bad things happen to good people ... but we didn’t cause most of them to happen. They just do!

Christians are urged in the Bible to be joyful, to hope, to love, told that they are made in the image of God. We need to embrace this by talking the talk and walking the walk, by living as if we are blessed with more than enough of whatever we need to grow and to flourish.

So applaud the scientists who discovered the vaccines, the foresight of those who ordered it before it was ready, the organizers wo put the plan for vaccinations in place, and the health care professionals who are now administering it. Above all let us celebrate the empty freezers because that means the vaccines that were once in them are now in someone's arm protecting them from COVID.

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NUDGINGS: a journey into the unknown

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