Wha's Like Us!
Thinking about St Andrew's day and nationalism, should remind us all that there is a cross at the centre of our national identity. Many people believe that there is a deep sadness in the Scottish psyche. There is a longing to be recognised among the nations of the world. Many feel that we Scots suffer from an inferiority complex which manifests itself in the loud boastings of "Wha's like us! All this is attributed to a sense of destiny that has never quite been fulfilled. A longing to be recognised, to be all that we can be. It is further exasperated by a love for the land of Scotland, while feeling its ownership lives elsewhere.
It was while preparing a document for a meeting next week at which CWW may need to justify its existence my friend Peter Neilson sent me a paper which included this sentence "Church without Walls envisages a church that touches the Scottish psyche with the Gospel of Christ offering deep healing for our nation"
Peter goes on to talk about the need for people to undertand that they are special in the eyes of God. Not an easy th
ing to believe when you've been put down all your life and told your useless. One of the most liberating results of the Gospel is that it changes the way people think about themselves. The real prize is to try and change the way a community feels about itself. I'm convinced that the starting point in bringing healing to the nation is about making it possible for individuals to seek healing for their own lives. It is as "we give ourselves away" in the words of Bono that we find find ourselves. Perhaps this is also true of the land issue. It is as we give it away, to share it with others, to embrace the foreigners and the strangers that we discover a new kind of Kingdom one which speaks of service and sacrifice.
