Thoughts on Iona
The Isle of Iona does not allow for pretence, it renders pretending futile. Our pretension amidst the honesty of the landscape, architecture and people becomes absurd.
The idea of ‘Truth’ has been endlessly discussed by philosophers in every age. [1] Truth in this reflection refers to the ‘Spirit of Truth’ in the Gospel attributed to John. She is the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God that ‘blows where it will’.
This Spirit of Truth describes the essence and presence of Iona for me. Everything there is most appropriately understood within the spirit of truth, in the spirit in which it is meant.
There is a tangible, booming sense of truth on the island. Resounding clarity slaps us and we are left alarmed and reeling. Stunned into silence, or panicked into laughter. But there is no avoiding this clear, undiluted truthfulness; no arguing with it.
When we are drenched in this peculiar new reality we see clearly. Dishonesty reeks of self-conscious deceit. We feel betrayed by it and we betray ourselves with it. Suddenly pretence is revealed as destructive, pointlessly artificial. In this setting it is no longer purposeful. It is designed only to be revealed as a falsehood.
From time to time in every day life we are aware of a trickling drip of awareness trailing down our spines. Wrong time, wrong place, we just know it. A place like this solid sea-bound island is not always serene. It is possible to be in it and feel wrong about being there. It can appear to be the right place, but feel unaccountably like the wrong place. It can be an ideal time in every way, right month, right weather, but feel unavoidably like the wrong time. At times like this it is pretence to claim otherwise. The miracle is that God can turn it around. Being in the wrong place at the wrong time can become the right thing with God’s involvement. This is not the same as everything ‘being right’ or ‘meant to be’. It means that facing squarely those things that are instinctively ‘not right’, instead of denying them, gives God an opportunity to act. Denying our instincts about feeling wrong about something is not acting in the spirit of truth. Acknowledging the truth of our collective experiences, however exposing this may be allows that ‘sense of being in the wrong place’ to be acted upon. If we pretend that we feel ‘in the right place’ we deny God an opportunity to act upon that fact, we simply continue to feel that we are in the wrong place at the wrong time until we leave that situation.
On Iona this year I was overwhelmed by the conviction that I was in the wrong place at the wrong time. I left the island knowing the truth of this, but the deeper truth was that God had made it right. It didn’t ‘turn out to be right all along’, a situation honestly confronted was ‘made right’ and there is a distinct difference.
Our newly attuned ears, eyes and hearts, wide open with the stinging slap of Ionian beauty and exposure, ‘saw’ and ‘heard’ and ‘felt’. We saw, we heard and we felt the reality, and we saw, heard and felt the pretences. Many of the stories of our experiences, insights and revelations will remain between us and God. Many will be too complex to reveal or impossible to articulate. There will be an unspoken understanding which will have to be seen, heard and felt in many different ways, most of them alternatives to written or spoken language. But most of it will have been revealed by the Spirit of Truth.
The Spirit of Truth, as I understand it, exposes assumptions and expectations, sometimes it exposes their accuracy and at other times it reveals their falsity. Our assumptions can take us down many dangerous and unnecessary paths, as most of us know to our cost. Our expectations do likewise. My assumptions about the Iona Community and about our own Church Community were is some ways very inaccurate and this meant that my expectations became flawed. I know that some of my expectations of the Macleod Centre were equally awry and expectations followed that were equally unhelpful.
This was one of the first ‘truths’ that I learned on the island this year. Questioning and re-assessing my assumptions must become a habit. It would help communities if they collectively did the same. Assuming is part of our guess-work about life and it cannot be abandoned. It is just that assuming something does not automatically make it true. It must remain an assumption until clarity is sought and the assumption examined. Our assumptions bring with them our own visions of the world. They reflect our judgments and perceptions not only of how we think things are, but of how we think they should be. Our expectations flow out of our core assumptions.
[1] John Chapter 14 v 17
The Isle of Iona does not allow for pretence, it renders pretending futile. Our pretension amidst the honesty of the landscape, architecture and people becomes absurd.
The idea of ‘Truth’ has been endlessly discussed by philosophers in every age. [1] Truth in this reflection refers to the ‘Spirit of Truth’ in the Gospel attributed to John. She is the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God that ‘blows where it will’.
This Spirit of Truth describes the essence and presence of Iona for me. Everything there is most appropriately understood within the spirit of truth, in the spirit in which it is meant.
There is a tangible, booming sense of truth on the island. Resounding clarity slaps us and we are left alarmed and reeling. Stunned into silence, or panicked into laughter. But there is no avoiding this clear, undiluted truthfulness; no arguing with it.
When we are drenched in this peculiar new reality we see clearly. Dishonesty reeks of self-conscious deceit. We feel betrayed by it and we betray ourselves with it. Suddenly pretence is revealed as destructive, pointlessly artificial. In this setting it is no longer purposeful. It is designed only to be revealed as a falsehood.
From time to time in every day life we are aware of a trickling drip of awareness trailing down our spines. Wrong time, wrong place, we just know it. A place like this solid sea-bound island is not always serene. It is possible to be in it and feel wrong about being there. It can appear to be the right place, but feel unaccountably like the wrong place. It can be an ideal time in every way, right month, right weather, but feel unavoidably like the wrong time. At times like this it is pretence to claim otherwise. The miracle is that God can turn it around. Being in the wrong place at the wrong time can become the right thing with God’s involvement. This is not the same as everything ‘being right’ or ‘meant to be’. It means that facing squarely those things that are instinctively ‘not right’, instead of denying them, gives God an opportunity to act. Denying our instincts about feeling wrong about something is not acting in the spirit of truth. Acknowledging the truth of our collective experiences, however exposing this may be allows that ‘sense of being in the wrong place’ to be acted upon. If we pretend that we feel ‘in the right place’ we deny God an opportunity to act upon that fact, we simply continue to feel that we are in the wrong place at the wrong time until we leave that situation.
On Iona this year I was overwhelmed by the conviction that I was in the wrong place at the wrong time. I left the island knowing the truth of this, but the deeper truth was that God had made it right. It didn’t ‘turn out to be right all along’, a situation honestly confronted was ‘made right’ and there is a distinct difference.
Our newly attuned ears, eyes and hearts, wide open with the stinging slap of Ionian beauty and exposure, ‘saw’ and ‘heard’ and ‘felt’. We saw, we heard and we felt the reality, and we saw, heard and felt the pretences. Many of the stories of our experiences, insights and revelations will remain between us and God. Many will be too complex to reveal or impossible to articulate. There will be an unspoken understanding which will have to be seen, heard and felt in many different ways, most of them alternatives to written or spoken language. But most of it will have been revealed by the Spirit of Truth.
The Spirit of Truth, as I understand it, exposes assumptions and expectations, sometimes it exposes their accuracy and at other times it reveals their falsity. Our assumptions can take us down many dangerous and unnecessary paths, as most of us know to our cost. Our expectations do likewise. My assumptions about the Iona Community and about our own Church Community were is some ways very inaccurate and this meant that my expectations became flawed. I know that some of my expectations of the Macleod Centre were equally awry and expectations followed that were equally unhelpful.
This was one of the first ‘truths’ that I learned on the island this year. Questioning and re-assessing my assumptions must become a habit. It would help communities if they collectively did the same. Assuming is part of our guess-work about life and it cannot be abandoned. It is just that assuming something does not automatically make it true. It must remain an assumption until clarity is sought and the assumption examined. Our assumptions bring with them our own visions of the world. They reflect our judgments and perceptions not only of how we think things are, but of how we think they should be. Our expectations flow out of our core assumptions.
[1] John Chapter 14 v 17
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