I know many of you have perpetual holidays, no names, but I hope you all had a lovely summer. Even I cannot complain about the weather, though, as we have discovered even in the UK, the detrimental effects of climate change, leading wildfires and droughts down south.
And I hope, no matter where you have been, or still to go, that you remember our challenge to try and find a bauble or something appropriate to hang on our Christmas tree to remember where our church congregation have been, to bless the places and with fondness look back to all the areas of the world where Broomhill Hyndland has taken their love to.
We were in Greece, Rhodes in fact, as a picture elsewhere in the magazine will show from the Princess Adrianna hotel. Our Greek influence continued when one evening in July we went out to see the film ‘The Odyssey’. Unless you have read Homer’s Iliad, though the story is described at great length in the Aeneid by Virgil, you may not be aware of the whole epic, but you will remember in Greek mythology the Trojan Horse, the wooden horse said to be used by the Greeks to sneak into the city of Troy and win the war. The Greeks pretended to sail away and the Trojans pulled the horse into their city as a victory trophy. That night, the Greek force crept out of the horse and opened the gates for the rest of the Greek army, which had sailed back under the cover of darkness. The Greeks entered and destroyed the city, ending the war.
A ‘Trojan Horse’ in modern times has come to mean a trick to invite a foe into what seems to be a secure site or place. This Greek experience came back to mind with the modern technology we live with today.
How often have you received a text on Apple Pay that you suddenly have to respond to; or an email asking you to click on the attachment. It is one of the reasons why I don’t do internet banking. I know I am a bit of a dinosaur, but there are people out there taking this Trojan attitude and making it a Greek tragedy as your bank account empties. Even in the manse, the phone will ring and the caller will tell me there is something wrong with my computer, or there has been a removal of money from such and such a credit card. It is all so tiresome.
At least my phone picks up possible dodgy messages and tells me it is ‘a suspected spam’. We hear about cybercriminals in the news, using social engineering techniques to trick individuals to instal malicious software disguising Trojans in internet links, pop-up ads, or banner advertisements.
I suppose there always have been con artists about – those trying to extort money from neighbours and the community. The occupation that comes to mind of course is that of the tax collectors in the Bible, the moneylenders outside the Temple gates, charging exorbitant rates so that they would get a cut and make a tidy profit. Nothing really changes. Humans are human and there are those who with little conscience make their living that way whilst breaking the hearts of others. But as we believe, change is always possible through God’s grace.
Think of Zacchaeus. How unpopular a man he was, but after hearing the calling of Christ, came down from that tree and transformed his ways, giving back what he had taken from others.
Our new session has started once more. The business increases, organisations return, holidays are put on the back burner, at least until the October holidays, and Christ calls us anew. He won’t sneak in, he stands at the door and knocks and waits to be invited in and through him, true recuperation is found.
Your friend and minister,
George C Mackay