Which myths colour our present and shape our future?

Here's my article for the April magazines:

One of the ways I like to relax is by reading books on history. I don't really have a favourite period, but I do tend to prefer the history of the British Isles and I've just started to read about the period in which the legends of King Arthur are set. These legends are part of the founding myths of our islands, and help us to get a sense of identity that in turn gives us a way to view the present and shape the future.

Initially, Arthur was a Celtic/British leader who fought against the invading Anglo-Saxons: a 'Welsh' king fighting the (future) 'English'; prophesied by an earlier legend of a red dragon (Arthur) defeating the white dragon (the Saxons), which is immortalised in the Welsh flag. Thus Arthur was the inspirer of the struggle of the native Britons against the latest attackers.

Edward I was an Arthurian enthusiast who saw the power of a triumphant “once and future” Welsh king to inspire Welsh resistance to his campaign to conquer Wales. So he asserted his dominance over Arthur by digging up and reburying the alleged remains of Arthur and Guinevere at Glastonbury. But conversely he also used the example of Arthur as King of Britain to justify his desire to subjugate Wales and Scotland.

His grandson Edward III modelled his new 'Order of the Garter' on Arthur's Knights of the Round Table. He also replaced his royal predecessors Edmund the Martyr and Edward the Confessor as patron saints of England with George the soldier-saint, thus giving rise to another myth that has shaped the identity of the English nation.

We all have founding 'myths' that shape our personal identity. Some are grounded in our nationality or ethnicity; some are stories of more recent ancestors; some stem from our early childhood experiences. All of these 'myths' can make us feel trapped into certain patterns of thought or behaviour; or, as Edward I shows us, can be manipulated to justify our desires.

The Bible shows us a better way. The Creation story in Genesis tells us that our identity should be fundamentally based on the truth that we are made in the image and likeness of God, and our ultimate happiness is to be found in a living relationship with him. This relationship was destroyed through our sin but restored through Jesus' death and resurrection. So now, through repentance and faith in Jesus we can be shaped once again by being in the image and likeness of God and having a living relationship with him. It is only this that gives us “strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow.”

Image: King Arthur's Round Table at Winchester Castle from Wikimedia Commons

Life is the name of the game

Here's my March article:

When I was young, I noticed how older people would often tell the same stories or talk about the same subjects over and over again.  Now I'm an older person, I find myself doing it too; repeating stories and subjects.  A few weeks ago I was talking to someone about my magazine articles and I realised how often I write on the subject of death!   I don't think I have a particularly morbid interest in death, but I am fascinated by people's beliefs about death, especially those who don't identify themselves as being 'religious.'  And so, despite Good Friday being a perfect opportunity to talk about death again, I'm going to restrain myself and instead focus this month on Easter and on life.

As Brucie said, “life is the name of the game” and this is certainly true of the Christian faith: the most famous verse in the Bible, John 3:16, tells us that “God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”  Jesus talks about the small gate and narrow path that leads to life, which only a few find (Matthew 7:14) and declares that he is the way, the truth and the life (John 14:6).  He says that “my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son [Jesus] and believes in him shall have eternal life” (John 6:40). But this eternal life is not 'pie in the sky when you die' Jesus also says “I have come that [those who listen to me] may have life, and have it to the full” (John 10:10).  Indeed, Peter describes life without belief in Jesus as an “empty way of life” (1 Peter 1:18).

We all have a deep yearning for life (dare I say that this is why even those who are 'not religious' cling to a belief that life continues in some way after death?) because God did not create us to die.  The apostle Paul reminds us that death came into the world through the sin of Adam, but that Jesus' death atoned for sin and his resurrection brings new life in the present and eternal life in the future to those who believe in him (Romans 5 and 6).  Thus what was lost in the Garden of Eden is restored and the new heavens and the new earth described in Revelations 21 and 22 are characterised by life in intimate communion with God.

We yearn for life because God has placed eternity in our hearts (Ecclesiastes 3:11).  But we often look for fullness of  life in the wrong places - in family, jobs, achievements, wealth, popularity, health or... But, as the angels said to the women at Jesus' tomb that first Easter day “Why do you look for the living among the dead?” (Luke 24:5)  So if you want life, come to Jesus who is the resurrection and the life (John 11:25).

I am what I am

Here's my February magazine article:

Lent is often a time for introspection and self-examination; a time for assessing one's life. Three common responses to this self-reflection centre around the phrase: “I am what I am”.

The first use of this phase is a pessimistic resignation: “I don't like who I am but I can't change it (even though I've tried)”.

The second is the more common use, signified by the hit song of that title from the musical La Cage aux Folles. Used this way the phrase is a celebratory declaration of pride in who you are, warts and all, and regardless of what anyone else thinks about it.

The third use, perhaps surprisingly, is to be found in the Bible: in 1 Corinthians 15:10, the Apostle Paul says “by the grace of God, I am what I am”. Although the second use is also sometimes given a religious overtone: “I am the way God made me”, the way Paul uses it is completely different. He is talking about his status as an Apostle, one of the select group who were acknowledged as having the highest teaching authority in the early Church. He says that because he used to persecute the Church he shouldn't be called an apostle, but he is because of God's grace, God's undeserved favour, and not because of anything Paul himself can take credit for. Paul knows he's been given a position he doesn't deserve, so the glory for who he is is God's alone.

Paul's phrase was picked up hundreds of years later by John Newton, the slave-trader-turned-abolitionist who wrote “Amazing Grace”. Towards the end of his life he is quoted as saying “though I am not what I ought to be, nor what I wish to be, nor what I hope to be, I can truly say, I am not what I once was; a slave to sin and Satan; and I can heartily join with the apostle, and acknowledge, 'By the grace of God I am what I am.' ” In his self-examination he acknowledges his faults but neither despairs at them nor celebrates them. Instead he looks at how through God's grace and help he has repented and is reforming and will continue to do so.

Anyone who honestly examines themselves will agree with Newton's assessment: “I am not what I ought to be, nor what I wish to be, nor what I hope to be” because “if we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us” (1 John 1:8). The choice then is what we do with this assessment: do we despair that we could ever change, or do we celebrate our sins as being essential parts of who we are? Or do we, with Paul and Newton, acknowledge our failings and repent of them in the knowledge that “if we confess our sins, God is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9)