Plenary, 24 Jun 2009
Meeting date: Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Official Report
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Time for Reflection
Good morning. When I led the parliamentary delegation to the United States during Scotland week, we were very warmly received in the Brick church in the city of New York. I am therefore delighted to introduce our time for reflection leader today: the Rev Michael Lindvall, who is the senior minister of the Brick Presbyterian church.
Rev Michael Lindvall (Brick Presbyterian Church, New York):
There is a monument in Geneva in Switzerland that is named the reformation wall; it commemorates the Protestant reform movement in that city. It portrays four men, three of whom—including John Calvin—are French Swiss. The only non-Swiss is a Scot—John Knox.
The year 2009 marks the 500th anniversary of the birth of Calvin, a thinker who profoundly influenced not only John Knox, but the entire world. A recent issue of Newsweek magazine, a leading American weekly, named neo-Calvinism as one of the 10 most important emerging ideas in the world. More than most thinkers in history, Calvin has been misunderstood and maligned, but—love him or hate him—his thinking has mightily shaped both Scotland and America.
My intent in dredging up a figure as controversial as Calvin is not to make you into Calvinists; I count myself as one only in a derived sense. My purpose, just a week shy of Calvin's 500th birthday, is to recall the importance of some of his ideas, and one idea in particular that is important to you as law makers: how John Calvin understood the law. He offered some of the most sophisticated thinking in history about how the law works in people's day-to-day lives, and said that the law must be understood by its three uses.
Calvin said that the first use of the law is spiritual. To put it simply, moral and legal standards exist to show that none of us is perfect. Perfect obedience to anything is impossible, and only God is perfect. Calvin said that it is healthy to remember the distinction between us and the divine, and the law reminds us of that constantly.
Calvin's second use of the law was what he called the civil. He said that the law keeps order because people know that if they break it, they may indeed face consequences. With his third use of the law, Calvin innovated. The third use is usually called the didactic. Calvin said that the law also exists to teach or guide even the most honest and well-intentioned of the human race. The truth, Calvin saw, is that when we are left to our own devices, even the most virtuous of us can manage to rationalise wrongdoing if we do not have the law to remind us what is right.
My plea is simple: do not entirely count Calvin out. Be you Calvinist or no, he is more than the dour straw man that his detractors have fashioned. On the 500th anniversary of his birth, Americans and Scots—two peoples who live in his shadow whether they like it or not—would do well to consider his way of thinking.
I ask you to join me in prayer.
Almighty God, who has given us fair lands as our heritage, we humbly beseech you that we might always be mindful of your grace and the gift of your law. Endue with the spirit of wisdom all who are entrusted with the authority of government. In times of prosperity, fill our hearts with thankfulness; and in the day of trouble, do not let our trust in you fail.
Amen.