ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½

Available for over a year

I hope that MPs from all parties slept well last night. It’s hard to think clearly when you’re tired. With the fast pace of events over the last 48 hours, some find all the tough talking exhilarating, others will find long arguments debilitating. But over these days, we are asking our elected representatives to think hard, to act in accordance with the best of themselves, to take decisions that will affect each one of us: not only our economic circumstances, but how we feel about ourselves as the debate about Brexit has been played out since the referendum within families and communities and within each person. I’ve always been interested in the different language we use in the UK for election to public office. Different from the United States for example. There, candidates run for office. In the UK, people stand for election. Standing is symbolic language for what we expect of our elected representatives. They are visible. They are willing to be seen, willing to be counted among the ones who will get involved and not sit back. Standing involves an equilibrium and balance that is able to withstand the buffeting of opponents and supporters alike. Standing means you can see further, perhaps even to the horizon. It means you need to be alert, attentive, and ready to serve. For many of us, one of the tests of our own decision-making is – would we be happy to see that decision and our own motives reported on the front page of a newspaper? It’s an imaginary way to give ourselves the accountability we need when we are, for example, making choices about what to do with our money, or how to behave at work. For MPs, the decisions they are all making as the Brexit process rolls on are that public, and those decisions are rightly under the kind of scrutiny that is essential from a free press in a mature democracy. And so it’s not surprising that MPs have resorted to some pretty emotive language themselves in recent weeks. The insults they have traded indicate how much they care about this divisive issue. And we know ourselves, when a situation seems somehow perilous, or we feel our reputation is at stake, sometimes we simply don’t behave as well as we want to. There is a Scriptural story that addresses this human dilemma head on. The story Jesus told about two people who built houses. One on rock and one on sand. Both houses experienced the same storm. One withstood the pressure and one fell down. In the storm of events, the shifting sands of expediency, fear or anxiety may feel very real to exhausted MPs, but as individuals and as a collective, it is the house built on rock that will stand.