September News From The Clergy

24 Aug 2022 • From the Clergy

In early August, I attended one of the evening sessions of the Commonwealth Games at the Alexander Stadium in Birmingham. The stadium was filled to capacity and the atmosphere was electric. Never mind that most people (including me) had no clue where Nieu or the Norfolk Islands were. We were happily cheering Indian long jumpers, Nigerian discus throwers, sprinters from Turks and Caicos, and Australian decathletes. There was none of the tribalism and cruelty of the football terraces, or drunken inanity of cricket stadia, places I am more familiar with being in the crowd. While the home athletes naturally received the largest cheers, there was a genuine willingness to enjoy the spectacle and see athletes to do well. We stood to hear unfamiliar national anthems and applaud unlikely winners. If this was twenty-first century Birmingham, it was definitely a city of which to be proud as it was showcased before the world.

The problem is that the Commonwealth Games were the exception rather than the rule. You may have noticed news articles lately asking why people are so angry and why there is so much rage about. The kind of generosity shown towards all nations in Birmingham is egregiously absent in a world where nationalism, racism and intolerance are growing even stronger, where these form the basis of political platforms for those seeking power.

And it is, of course, rarely those responsible who bear the brunt of that anger. The check-in staff at airports have no control over bad planning by the airline executives, the railway staff no influence on a disastrous network policy, the call centre worker no say in the outrageous profits of energy companies and chief executives. Yet it is these, the lowest paid, who are the public face of a terrible summer and find themselves abused and attacked repeatedly.

The multi-millionaire executives can sit in the office and never have to face these kinds of consequences for their failings. The venom is turned upon the poor workers, upon refugees and immigrants, on easy targets used to deflect the responsibility of the rich and powerful. Far from showing consideration and generosity of spirit towards people, understanding the constraints they face, too many of us are acting in precisely the opposite way.

So as summer 2022 drifts towards autumn, generosity is an excellent theme for us. Too often, we tend to think in purely financial terms when we use the word ‘generosity’. But in the midst of our fractious, uncertain route out of Covid, it is worth us reflecting on how we can be generous towards others in human terms. When we are tempted to lose our temper with an airline official, or a GP’s receptionist, or whoever it may be, we should be pausing to ask what we are doing. Are we looking at them as human beings, in their own way victims of a broken system, or are we just lashing out at the first, easy target?

In reading the latest newspaper story about how ‘immigrants’ or ‘foreigners’ or ‘benefit fraudsters’ or whoever are doing this or that to destroy civilisation, are we asking how accurate the story is and whether there are other things we need to know, things which would make us see them and the situation differently?

Generosity towards others is, after all, a Christian imperative. Throughout the Bible, we read stories of those who looked into the faces of strangers, outcasts and sinners, but responded with compassion and a recognition of their humanity. These are stories that remind us that we should be seeking the face of God in others, that God himself once came among us with a human face. It is that which should cause us to respond generously, to have the generosity to look into the face of another and see the goodness of God.

Phil Bradford