Meeting of the Parliament

Meeting date: Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Official Report 799KB pdf

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Time for Reflection

Good afternoon. Our first item of business is time for reflection. Our time for reflection leader this afternoon is the Rev Roderick Macdonald, minister of Beith parish church.

Presiding Officer, members of the Scottish Parliament, Luke, chapter 14, verse 11 reads:

“those who exalt themselves will be humbled and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”

I was once asked by someone from Paris to explain why Scots football supporters celebrated even in defeat. To explain, I referred to personal experience as wee Roddy Macdonald, youngest of six and very small. I remember the playground, where the two biggest guys always got to pick the teams. They picked the biggest and oldest first. It was whittled down until eventually they picked the smallest—the wee guy—and that would be me. I was just happy to be picked and get a game.

For me, that is Scotland. We are like that wee guy, happy just to get a game.

The norm in society would be only to celebrate success, but we have the integrity to support no matter what, and that is what I call stoic Scots humility and integrity—not humility that says, “I am nothing.” If you cannot value yourself, you cannot truly value others.

Today’s quote is from a story of Jesus at a meal in the house of a Jewish Pharisee, where guests jostle for the place of honour at the table, in a community that interpreted position and wealth as signs of God’s blessing. The implications of such beliefs are that the poor and the disabled are judged and devalued. Sharing food in a society constantly threatened by hunger and famine meant that it was often a competition just to be at the table, but these guys competed for the best seats.

Today, how do we value people? Class, status, fashion, self-promotion—we are still competitive. The norm is still to score points off each other in the competition to get to the top or to win a vote. That is the way it is, or has aye been.

It does not have to be like that. Jesus’s words turn everything upside down with respect to the world’s values. They offer an invitation to be free from the need always to advance your own cause by coming out on top.

It is really quite liberating when one’s inner life and external behaviour are allowed to be in sync and we are free to reimagine new ways to lead, support or serve with integrity, free from the dictates of competitive expectations of exaltation. For those who are exalted shall be humbled and those who are humbled shall be exalted.

Thank you for letting wee Roddy Macdonald share this with you today.

Amen.