Losing our Lead

In Ludgershall, ten days ago, we had about a third of the lead taken from our roof. I feel like I should blog about it, but each time I think about it I feel angry, or violated, or angry (oops done that one already). We are a close knit community, it affects all of us, we love our church whether or not we attend regularly, and it is hard for me to not feel cross. Furthermore (seeing as I am going to rant I shall resort to bullet points):

• We were just worrying about the finances
• You can't insure for this theft because it is so common
• Lots of lovely people do lots of hard work to raise money for the fabric of the church
• The PCC had predicted this may happen and have been very responsible in trying to prevent it

However, we have just had Good Friday and the words 'Father forgive them for they know not what they do' are ringing in my ears. The words of Jesus seem most inappropriate. What happened to his anger and his feelings of being violated? Maybe he had them and worked through them. Realistically, it is just lead, no one has been hurt, and although we feel violated, I am sure that was not the intention of the thieves. I know that the chances are that if I was born into the culture of nicking things then I would probably do the same as them, and it is not as if I have never done anything wrong in my life.

Lord God,
Give me the gift of compassion and forgiveness,
the desire to move on and not hold on,
and may I share the love of Christ to all....
Amen

What needs to be sacrificed in order for me to forgive?

We have always needed to find a way to deal with human anxiety and evil by some means—and it was invariably some practice other than forgiveness or healing. We usually dealt with human anxiety and evil by sacrificial systems of some sort, and that has largely continued to this day. (Exclusion, torture, war, segregation, class division, prejudice, and racism would be its common forms.) Historically, we moved from human sacrifice, to animal sacrifice, to various modes of seeming self-sacrifice. But even in self-sacrifice, it was not usually the ego self that we sacrificed, but most often the material self as its vicarious substitute. The physical body became our usual scapegoat instead of the real problem which was the ego—a rather clever game of smoke and mirrors. Meanwhile the ego has remained “scot free” and off the hook for most of Christian history, even at the highest levels of church. We deem physicality and embodiment to be inferior, which is perhaps why we crucified the “body” of Jesus. A tortured earth, addicted and abused bodies, obesity and anorexia, poor self-images, gross consumerism, preoccupation with fashion and even cosmetic surgery are the sad results that we live with today. Our bodies are not aware that they are already containers for Spirit! They do not need to be dressed-up or oppressed down.