What is in Kelvin's Head?

Easter Sermon 2022

18/04/2022

https://youtu.be/738ChTRb61I?t=2104

Years ago I remember going on holiday. It was my kind of travel – ferries and trains and buses and then a sailing trip with friends who used to take me despite and not because of my sailing abilities.

And there was this one morning that I remember. Will always remember. I’d managed to get myself off the boat without much incident. And rowed ashore and went for a walk in the first light of the day.

And on the walk I heard something. A tiny bird singing. And not just singing but singing its heart out. Trilling its way up and down in a way that even the best singers could only dream of.

I caught sight of it. And I recognised it. I knew what it was immediately. It was a tiny little wren singing in the morning air.

And it was one of those special, perfect holiday moments. The kind of thing you never forget.

And I felt particularly blessed. It was so rare to see a wren and hear it sing. And it sang just for me.

What a journey it had been to get to hear it. Travelling right across the country. Sailing and paddling my way across the sea. I had come a long way. And it was all worth it for the rare sound of the wren in the morning air.

It felt like a very special moment.

Fast forward a few years.

And lockdown came along.

And with the first lockdown the instruction to go out and walk every day for half an hour. And I did.

The world was still. The roads silent. The traffic gone.

And I got three hundred yards from my front door. Nearer to where I live than we are now.

And I heard a sound. Familiar.

Imagine that. I’d heard it once on holiday. So many miles away.

Well what do you know, I said. Three hundred yards from my front door.

And I listened and then went on. Another couple of hundred yards. And another tiny bird was singing.

And then another and then from across the canal, another.

The lockdowns were long. The pandemic has been long and it isn’t over yet. I think we’ve seen enormous generosity sometimes. And enormous selfishness at others.

All of human life was changed, but all of human life was there, the best of life and the worst.

For the last two Easters we have been telling one another the stories of Easter in ways that we never expected to have to do.

And it was good to do so. But I longed, oh how I longed to be able to bring people together do tell them again in this place.

For Holy Week matters to me.

For the stories of Holy Week are our stories of today. Always. All human life is here.

In Holy Week we encounter the worst of human behaviour.

A week in which we hear of bitter betrayal by Jesus.

Violence whipped up by unscrupulous leaders.

Pilate literally washing his hands to try to pin the blame for the crucifixion on others.

And a broken man buried with no ceremony, and no proper funeral whilst others celebrated a feast.

We do not need to look far to see the passion played out in our midst.

The violence being experienced by Ukraine at the hands of Putin is a real-life crucifixion story.

The agony of those of us who experienced heart numbingly difficult funerals whilst others partied in Downing Street is a bitter passion tale.

The suggestion that we should send those seeking refuge in this country on a one-way ticket to Rwanda is a bitter betrayal. A betrayal of this country’s international commitments. A betrayal of those in desperate need. Not one passion story but thousands of stories of people betrayed by those who should offer friendship, fairness and common decency.

The government’s proposal to export the neediest and the most desperate to a land far away for “processing” is immoral, shameless and obscene.

I say to the government today – You can’t outsource compassion. We are better than this.

Seldom was resurrection hope, the message of Easter Day more needed than today.

But Christians do not simply wring their hands on Easter Day.

On Easter Day, we proclaim that Jesus Christ is risen from the dead.

And it isn’t just that if that is possible for Jesus then it could happen to us. The Christian believe is that if that happened to Jesus then it will happen for us.

It isn’t just our believe that if Jesus gets new life then the world might get new life. It is our conviction that it will! And that it does.

We believe that death and betrayal, corruption and selfishness, bitterness and anger, violence and destruction… these things will never have the last word.

These are not things to live by.

Jesus Christ is risen from the dead and with his rising comes the news that the world is changed.

We have known love so many times by the pain it has caused us during the pandemic. The pain of separation. The pain of death. The pain of not being able to comfort one another.

Love is deep within us. And sometimes it hurts.

But love is the root of God’s mission to the world. Love that will not let us go.

It was love that brought Jesus into the world. And it is love that reaches into the very depths of hell to haul him out and us with him.

And it is love that causes us to encounter the world through the resurrection of Christ. Love that tells us to proclaim that new life has come; that death is not the end.

It is love, love buried deep, deep, deep within us that tells us to hope for, work for and believe in a world where pain and suffering will be gone. Where the tears will be wiped away from every eye.

Where we will encounter love and hope and joy in every human life so that everyone who lives and breathes on earth may be able to hear that every bird is singing.

Something happens at Easter which breaks the pattern of sin and death for good.

And I tell you that it has happened this day.

For if Christ were not risen from the dead, we would not be gathered here.

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Media reports

Priti Patel’s Rwanda plan ‘immoral, shameless and obscene’, says Glasgow cathedral provost – Scotsman

Sending asylum seekers to Rwanda a bitter betrayal, says senior church leader – The Times

Boris Johnson attacked by Glasgow priest over Rwanda scheme and partygate – The National

Radio Scotland interview with Lucy Whyte – Good Morning Scotland 18 April 2022

6 responses to “Hillhead By Election”

Zebadee

19/11/2011

It would seem that the Lib Dems are a ‘busted flush’ with no plan to make any meaningful comeback which is very sad. The SNP were in a similar position in the 1980s but did have a plan which has been successful. Is there not a case for the revival of The Liberal Party? There is certainly a need for such a political party for the whole of the UK not just Hillhead. The Liberal Party could possibly unite the whole of the UK and not just Scotland.

Reply
1. kelvin
  
  19/11/2011
  
  Well, the Liberal Party has never gone away – it still exists and has some councillors. No doubt they feel that their time might still come.
  
  I’ve a feeling that there probably needs to be a clear attempt to do something new though. A New Liberal Party could be formed by a significant breakaway of disaffected liberal democrats but would probably need some significant hitters in order to get going. Given that part of the problem is some very unimpressive leadership in the parliamentary party, it makes it hard to see that happening.
  
  Reply
Zebadee

19/11/2011

Yes I know that the Liberal party still exists and understand that they have little or nothing to do with the Lib Dems. They too have no big names or ‘big hitters’ which is a pity. As you yourself will know out there in the real world there is a need for a centre party not right or left. I suspect that there is a large number of thinking people who would at least listen to a political message from the ‘centre’ and they are worried and concerned at the polarisation of the right and the perceived ineptitude of the left in todays political parties.

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Caron

20/11/2011

Kelvin, a few weeks ago, we had a by-election win in Inverness. The evidence suggests that the Liberal Democrats have not become toxic, but where we work, knocking on lots of doors, having strong campaign messages and get our vote out, we get good results.

We had a first class candidate in Hillhead, but I agree that we need to look at how we get our message across.

I’m not for the Murdo method of abolishing the party just to set up a new one. We have good, liberal ideas, with good, liberal values, and an energetic leader who is so genuine, so likeable and very good at explaining what they are. Yes, we have a mountain to climb, but we have our ropes and crampons ready and we’re already ahead of where we were a few months ago.

Reply
1. kelvin
  
  20/11/2011
  
  Yes, I know Caron – I agree with a lot of what you have said. However, the big question is whether the party can get people out there working again.
  
  The win in Inverness was good though it was a pretty narrow thing. Still a win is a win in anyone’s book.
  
  However, whether the party can get doors knocked on etc now is the big question. I know I’m not the only person who has offered a lot to the party in the past who is questioning where the liberal tradition lies.
  
  I know Willie Rennie is likeable and I do believe he stands for lots of good policy ideas that I believe in, but he’s not even making a good job of running his own office at the moment. And his team are not responding online to criticism of him very well either.
  
  I’d love to feel I wanted to support the party – I believe in liberal values, understand liberal values and can articulate liberal values along with the best of them. However, so much of what good people worked for has been squandered so quickly that I just find it too difficult. (By the way, I say that as one of the 307, so I’m still hanging in there in the polling booth).
  
  And the problem is not primarily that the electorate feels betrayed by the Lib Dem brand. That is serious but summountable. The problem is that the activists feel betrayed. That is much, much more serious.
  
  307 votes out of 23243 on leafy home ground and placed fifth is terrible whatever way one looks at it.
  
  The Greens were trumpeting their result on twitter so much I thought they must have won, but they only had 120 or so more votes which doesn’t strike me as a particularly exciting ship to jump to, even if one were looking to leap. I’m not really interested in a party which thinks that getting 435 votes out of an electorate of 23243 is anything to crow about.
  
  Reply
James

20/11/2011

Hi Kelvin, I agree about the democratic disengagement – properly alarming. But the Lib Dems as they currently exist aren’t a Liberal party of the sort I think you want. They’re fundamentalist economic liberals, Orange Bookers determined to remove the social safety net. It’s not liberal as I understand it to make education the province of the rich, to cut benefits for the disabled to appease the Jeremy Clarksons of this world, to hike up regressive taxes like VAT, etcetc.

The really small-l liberal party in Hillhead did a lot better than the Lib Dems. The Greens.

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