Morning reflection Monday 22nd June

There is disturbance in the air. It is not just the usual cold fronts and warm fronts and the disturbances of the jet stream on our English weather. It is not just the sense of change as restrictions are removed and new old freedoms are returning. It is the Holy Spirit challenging us, making us face up to the hard issues of life.

Usually at this time of year, my work would be rising to a peak and I would be looking forward to the summer: for me a time of less work, more time with family and sunshine in the garden. But this year of course is different. Patterns of work, family and garden have all changed. Work is always there through my screen, rather than being in particular places. Family are far away, also seen through screens. And I have had my sunshine in the garden regularly through the last few months instead of rationed to the summer. The pattern is disturbed.

And the sunshine in the garden cannot obscure the presence of anxiety about illness. Even as we plan to come back together in many ways, there is a challenge there – how can we protect each other, how much can we do in the face of this and future viruses? And in our largely white area of Sussex, how do we fight the racism which continues to prowl, hidden in our reactions to news stories and our own history? And back in the garden, the changing weather tells us of our impact on the climate: different times for birds and butterflies to appear, big weather events becoming more frequent, and the horror of growing mountains of plastic rubbish, building around the world and in our seas.

There is a prayer, attributed to Sir Francis Drake, which says ‘Disturb us Lord, when we are too well pleased with ourselves’. The prayer inspires us to venture more bravely, to widen our vision, the ‘horizon of our hopes’. In this time of disturbance, the Holy Spirit challenges us to take comfort in God who anchors us, but not to blinker ourselves from the wrongs out there which must be righted. It is time to reflect on the gift of life in the face of illness, to reflect on being white in a diverse world, and to reflect on our role in the stewardship of God’s garden.