To See Ourselves ..

O wad some Power the giftie gie us
To see oursels as ithers see us!
It wad frae mony a blunder free us,
An’ foolish notion:
What airs in dress an’ gait wad lea’e us,
An’ ev’n devotion!

Robert Burns

These words are the final stanza of the poem ‘To A Louse’ (Lice) written by Scotland’s most famous poet, Robert Burns (1759-1796) as a result of seeing, while in church one Sunday, one such creature crawling through the bows and ribbons of a ladies bonnet (Hat).

A modern verse would go something like this –

O would some Power with vision teach us
To see ourselves as others see us!
It would from many a blunder free us,
And foolish notions:
What airs in dress and carriage would leave us,
And even devotion!

One of the things I find very interesting when reading non Christian literature, be it novels, poetry or autobiography is to see how, on occasions, the characters and writers view or have interacted with self proclaimed ‘Christians’ and ‘Christianity’. On rare occasions such interactions are positive, many times indifferent and a lot, quite a lot really, negative or hostile. While we might be tempted to think most of this is reactionary, hostile or even driven by a pathological hatred towards Christianity – we certainly cannot write it all off as such.

Something that has surprised me again and again is how those who have a negative view or even a hatred towards those they have met who identify themselves as ‘Christian’, especially the official representatives of it, very often have no such negative attitude when it comes to their view and opinion of the person of Jesus Christ. Of course this fact is also borne out in modern research and polls.

I have just come to the end of a book in which its author made some such observations. The book – ‘Children of the Dead End’, which, although classed as a novel, is in fact the story and life experience of one time Tramp and Navvy (itinerant worker) Patrick MacGill. The events in the book describe his early life in Ireland and Scotland – and is of particular interest to me because he worked on the first major hydro-electric project in Britain, at Kinlochleven here in the Highlands of Scotland, during the early 1900’s.

The abuses of power by his local Priests in Ireland and their virtual robbery of the poor was not a good start for MacGill. Later he also went on to work with, ‘Psalm singing Scots’ while working in railway construction in the South of Scotland . His impression of these men was – ‘They had no rational doctrine, no comprehension of a just God. To them God took on the form of a monstrous and irritable ganger (foreman of a gang of labourers) who might be pacified by prayers …’ He also observed that their pretension to Christianity was not matched by their behaviour – and he began to hate them for it. In one page of the book his condemnation of Christianity, as he had observed it, is scathing – but, regrettable it rings very true. His final analysis was this – ‘It is a paradox to pretend that the thing called Christianity was what the carpenter of Galilee lived and died to establish.’ With this statement I find myself in total agreement.

However, as a friend observed on FB this week – ‘Many people reject Jesus because of bad experiences with religious people .. but here’s the thing .. Jesus had bad experiences with religious people, too. In fact they killed him.’

Nonetheless, while this is  true and very relevant, I think we who call ourselves ‘Christian’ or followers of Jesus, all need to check the mirror from time to time – in order to see whether or not we may be guilty of misrepresenting our  Lord and Master in our lifestyle, behaviour, attitudes, actions and reactions.

‘But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves. For if you listen to the word and don’t obey, it is like glancing at your face in a mirror. You see yourself, walk away, and forget what you look like.’

James 1:22-24 (NLT)

Just yesterday I spoke to two christians of long standing, neither of whom I had been in touch with for some time. Both of these friends, one who had helped plant a very successful Church were living through a time of stress and brokenness because of the behaviour of fellow ‘Christians’ towards them. My heart went out to both of them in their obvious suffering. Is it just me – but everyone I seem to meet (in church circles) appears to have a similar story? Yes, I am sure there are some churches that are successful and living in harmony – but there appears to be many more in crisis – and I use that word advisedly. I think the Church in general needs to take a long look in the mirror and even take on board, at least in some measure, the observations and criticisms made by those who are outside any circle of faith or even opposed to Christianity.

I may be getting a bit off-piste here but I suspect the effect on attendance and support for many churches due to the ongoing COVID crisis, which should, IMHO, have been seen as something of wake up call to the Church, has, by and large, been ignored. And, in our rush to get back to ‘how things were’ we have ignored it at our peril. Are many asking – ‘What is God trying to teach us in the light and mirror of COVID restrictions?’ Some are I know – but they are very much in the minority I suspect. Most, as I say, simply want a return to church as it was . Tragically, as things begin to open up once again many are finding there is no such thing as going back to what went before. The crisis has in fact laid bare some of the major issues facing churches – issues previously ignored or swept under the carpet. But that’s a subject for another day.

So, once again we are invited to the mirror – and yes invited to see ourselves as others see us. Some of what we see and hear may indeed be unpalatable – but these things need to be addressed nonetheless. And in the light of that inspection perhaps, as Burns suggest, we might be freed from some of our foolish mistakes, presumptions, pride and the things of little value to which we so often devote ourselves.

O wad some Power the giftie gie us
To see oursels as ithers see us!
It wad frae mony a blunder free us,
An’ foolish notion:
What airs in dress an’ gait wad lea’e us,
An’ ev’n devotion!