29th September 2005
The Rt Rev James Jones, the Bishop of Liverpool
Good morning
The Prime Minister set out his stall again at the Labour Party Conference. He presented the party and the country with the pressing need to change. He confessed that every time he'd introduced legislation he thought he'd not gone far enough. He called himself and New Labour 'the changemakers' and insisted 'That is how we must stay'. Whatever view we take of his policies there's no doubt that 'times are changing'.
Years ago, a book came out called 'Future Shock' by Alvin Toffler. It's big idea was that society was now changing so rapidly that we're all suffering the symptoms of 'future shock'. And that thesis was written before the apocalyptic events of this third millennium.
So many new things are happening bad and good that we're left reeling at the rapidity of change. I've begun to wonder if one of the reasons for the lack of engagement with politics is that people are deep down bewildered and exhausted by events. Which is a dangerous state to be in, and makes us very vulnerable as a society.
But as Chaucer warned us 'Time and Tide wait for no man'.
Just up the coast from here there's a wonderfully inspiring and strangely reassuring exhibition by Anthony Gormley. One hundred naked middle-aged men stand looking out to sea over the Mersey estuary. Each life-size figure is a replica of the sculptor. They're attracting huge audiences including - I was told by the man from the Council - lots of old ladies 'who just come to see all the good looking men on Crosby Beach!'
A poster on the promenade gives its own interpretation of these middle-aged men who it says are 'trying to remain standing and trying to breathe' while 'facing an horizon busy with ships moving materials and manufactured things around the planet'.
As the tide ebbs and flows so the men struggle to stand and survive. But their gaze, it seems to me, is fixed beyond the sea and the ships. It rises above both human activity and the forces of nature. The gaze of each and every figure is fixed firmly on the horizon. It made me think of one of the African names for God. In Swahili he's known as 'The Big Chief with Horizon Headband'.
For all our matey talk of God being with us it's important to know that he's also beyond us, over and above us and cannot be limited to our little schemes.
As Jesus once said to his disciples distressed by events: "it's not for you to know the times and the seasons the Father has set by his own authority".
Such words are meant to tame people with power. Yet they also reassure us that 'through all the changing scenes of life' there's a purpose emerging that will be disclosed, but only in the fullness of time.