Malcolm Potts November 5th 2017 ~ A Way When There Was No Way

I am thinking hard about giving up on listening to the news.  It does my head in.  It’s more often than not conflictual, adversarial and often just opinions, barely even news.I cannot believe how fast this culture of so-called ‘fake news’, ‘gotcha’ journalism and outrageous accusations and statements just get plonked out there and, because there is no time for analysis or reflection, the next load of outrageousness follows up and is dumped on us.I feel like I am trying to crawl out from under one truckload of garbage when the next truck drops its load on me.I woke up this Tuesday morning only to read that the Trump Campaign Director at the 2016 US election has been charged with twelve counts of collusion with Russia before and during the election period.  Yet somehow the President tweeted, with absolute confidence, that this was clear evidence that Hillary Clinton was corrupt!What the .....?But the really mind-bending thing is that the world just seems to accept such outrageous logic then on we move to the footy scores.  What is happening?  Can you imagine anyone, let alone PotUS, getting away with that, even 10 years ago?Was the world always like this and I haven’t noticed? I don’t think so.I remember taking a midweek communion service soon after I arrived at Cottesloe, where a very elderly couple there introduced themselves as Mr and Mrs Beazley.  They were Kim Senior and his wife Betty. Kim Senior was given the title ‘Father of the House’ when he retired after 32 years in the federal parliament.  After his death, Betty took Cheryl and me to Parliament House for lunch.  She was a regular visitor there and the doors just opened before her in welcome and respect. At that Tuesday service at St Philips though, I had never met these people nor knew anything of them but I could tell I was in the presence of statesmanship.I read Kim Senior’s book, The Father of the House, and would recommend it to you all.  He writes of bipartisanship.  He writes of the Commonwealth being a sharing of common wealth for the common good.  He writes of a post war effort to restore global moral, spiritual and ethical frameworks for the good of all people everywhere.  He writes of John Curtin, who he respected greatly, advocating a moral and spiritual rearmament, which are,  “of paramount importance in building a world that will work.” He writes that even though Curtin abandoned the Catholic Church as a young man he never abandoned gracious leadership that sought for more than short-term outcomes and one-upmanship.  Beazley says, “However much or viciously he was attacked, he never struck back.”  What a contrast to politics today.Jesus, like a lamb, fought the powers of sin death and hell ..... and won. Despised, rejected, misunderstood, Jesus found a way when there was no way.  Beazley and Curtin saw that transformation had to come from outside human capacity and confidence.  What is my job in these days? What is yours?Good questions to consider over a cup of tea this morning. Prayerful blessings, Malcolm