When I was a child my grandfather took me with him on a visit to the local solicitor. With great, old-fashioned, curtesy we were ushered into the presence of old Mr. Blackadder - the senior partner. We settled down on uncomfortable, prickly chairs and whilst my grandfather and old Mr. Blackadder discussed ‘business’ I sipped my (weak) tea and took a good look around the room. It was a room typical of lawyers of that era (1960’s). The desk, chairs, shelves and most of the floor was occupied by great piles of legal documents. The higher shelves were stacked with metal deed boxes.
There were papers everywhere - many cascading from their heaps into a slough on the carpet. I wondered how anything was ever achieved in this environment … especially as teachers at school were forever demanding neatness and tidiness! It was, if you like, a legal mess!
Scroll forward about four decades and enter my study … it strongly resembles that 1960’s solicitors office. There are several overflowing bookcases. A complete wall of shelves containing boxes of services, sermons, blogs, reflections, bible studies and so on, and so on. There are storage boxes on the floor, a bulging filing cabinet and mounds of papers on chairs, tables and the floor. I must confess that many of these aforementioned papers are cascading from their heaps into a slough on the carpet! It is, if you like, a religious mess!
I tell you this not because I need to tidy up, or require the services of a cleaner, but because we are about to observe the Christian religious festival of Easter.
The events of ‘Holy Week’ - the week preceding Easter Sunday were a real ‘religious mess’. Jesus was betrayed. Jesus was tried by a kangaroo-court. Jesus was condemned to death with no defence and no appeal. Jesus died. A religious mess!!
Yet, three days after his death Jesus came back to life … resurrection. Amazing. Supernatural. Scary. Real. But for his critics and detractors - this was a the ultimate ‘religious mess’!!
I will be celebrating that ‘religious mess’ on the 9th of April - as it was a moment that changed the course of history - for ever.
BTW - I will not be cleaning my study …
David Pattie
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