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7 June 2008
Word on the Web
Meditations for Life's Journey - Loss
From the Wise Traveller Series
Today's Word on the Web follows a different format to our normal pattern and uses material from the "Wise Traveller" series of meditations for life's journey on loss. The material is copyright Scripture Union and used by permission.
Wise Traveller
Restorer
If you do away with the yoke of oppression,
with the pointing finger and malicious talk,
and if you spend yourselves on behalf of the hungry
and satisfy the needs of the oppressed,
then your light will rise in the darkness,
and your night will become like the noonday.
The Lord will guide you always;
he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land
and will strengthen your frame.
You will be like a well-watered garden,
like a spring whose waters never fail.
Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins
and will raise up the age-old foundation;
you will called Repairer of Broken Walls,
Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.
Isaiah 58:9b-12 (The Bible Today's New International Version).
A loss can be the cause of conflict. Not long ago a young man from inner Liverpool stole a Mercedes from an outlying suburb, span it out of control at a roundabout and died in an instant pyre while his girlfriend, with horrible spinal injuries, crawled from the burning wreckage. His body was barely recognisable and one of the region's busiest sections of road was closed for 24 hours for forensic investigations.
Over the coming days the death scene became a shrine to the deceased, as family and friends performed the contemporary custom of placing flowers, photographs and personal items by the scorched trees that had taken the impact of the crash.
Meanwhile, the people of the well heeled suburb became restless. Voices were raised about the shrine's inappropriateness. Police agreed that it may be distraction to passing drivers, a road safety issue. Community leaders listened sympathetically to those saying that roadside tributes were morbid, but tiptoed carefully around the issues raised by sharper voices protesting that eh shrine should not be there because then deceased was a thief.
These voices were influential. Their harsh insistence gave the impression that they represent the majority. Rumours flew around the town that the burgles family's 5-year-old daughter was traumatised, that the police operation at the crash cost millions of pounds. The dead man's aunt told the press that he wasn't malicious, just too easily led - a nice, easy-going lad, not a career criminal.
Days before the funeral, friends of the dead man picnicked on the roundabout, to the outrage of some local residents. On the day of the funeral the shrine was trashed and a memorial plaque from the scene was posted to the local newspaper office with the words 'scum' and 'thief' scratched into it. Days after, a new shrine appeared at the scene.
The fatal roundabout has become a place where these things are painfully contested: crime and punishment, inequality and social dislocation, tribalism and local identities, justice and grace. What you think was lost where that crash happened depends a lot on how your arrived there.
John Davies
For more information on Wise Traveller see Wise Traveller - Meditations for Life's Journey
This material is copyright Sripture Union 2007
Word on the Web
Meditations for Life's Journey - Loss
From the Wise Traveller Series
Today's Word on the Web follows a different format to our normal pattern and uses material from the "Wise Traveller" series of meditations for life's journey on loss. The material is copyright Scripture Union and used by permission.
Wise Traveller
Restorer
If you do away with the yoke of oppression,
with the pointing finger and malicious talk,
and if you spend yourselves on behalf of the hungry
and satisfy the needs of the oppressed,
then your light will rise in the darkness,
and your night will become like the noonday.
The Lord will guide you always;
he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land
and will strengthen your frame.
You will be like a well-watered garden,
like a spring whose waters never fail.
Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins
and will raise up the age-old foundation;
you will called Repairer of Broken Walls,
Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.
Isaiah 58:9b-12 (The Bible Today's New International Version).
A loss can be the cause of conflict. Not long ago a young man from inner Liverpool stole a Mercedes from an outlying suburb, span it out of control at a roundabout and died in an instant pyre while his girlfriend, with horrible spinal injuries, crawled from the burning wreckage. His body was barely recognisable and one of the region's busiest sections of road was closed for 24 hours for forensic investigations.
Over the coming days the death scene became a shrine to the deceased, as family and friends performed the contemporary custom of placing flowers, photographs and personal items by the scorched trees that had taken the impact of the crash.
Meanwhile, the people of the well heeled suburb became restless. Voices were raised about the shrine's inappropriateness. Police agreed that it may be distraction to passing drivers, a road safety issue. Community leaders listened sympathetically to those saying that roadside tributes were morbid, but tiptoed carefully around the issues raised by sharper voices protesting that eh shrine should not be there because then deceased was a thief.
These voices were influential. Their harsh insistence gave the impression that they represent the majority. Rumours flew around the town that the burgles family's 5-year-old daughter was traumatised, that the police operation at the crash cost millions of pounds. The dead man's aunt told the press that he wasn't malicious, just too easily led - a nice, easy-going lad, not a career criminal.
Days before the funeral, friends of the dead man picnicked on the roundabout, to the outrage of some local residents. On the day of the funeral the shrine was trashed and a memorial plaque from the scene was posted to the local newspaper office with the words 'scum' and 'thief' scratched into it. Days after, a new shrine appeared at the scene.
The fatal roundabout has become a place where these things are painfully contested: crime and punishment, inequality and social dislocation, tribalism and local identities, justice and grace. What you think was lost where that crash happened depends a lot on how your arrived there.
John Davies
For more information on Wise Traveller see Wise Traveller - Meditations for Life's Journey
This material is copyright Sripture Union 2007
