Meeting of the Parliament

Meeting date: Tuesday, September 26, 2017

Official Report 780KB pdf

Time for Reflection

Good afternoon. Our first item of business today is time for reflection, and our time for reflection leader today is the Rev Alec Stewart, minister at Maryburgh and Killearnan with the Free Church of Scotland.

Presiding Officer and members of the Scottish Parliament, thank you for the opportunity to address you today.

From time to time I get asked what I do for a living. On one occasion, I was having my haircut and, after a while chatting with the barber, he asked me, “So, what do you do for a living?” I told him that I was a minister of the gospel. He replied to me, “That’s all right for you, working one day a week.” If only it was just one day a week. I guess that, as politicians, you experience similar things: “What good do politicians do? Line their own pockets, that’s all”—that sort of thing.

When I was training for the ministry, I often thought about the responsibility and burden of ministry, because I believed that I stood accountable before the Lord. Therefore, on many still nights, I would say to God, “Lord, I can’t do this.” I still pray that prayer, and I thank him for the help that he has given me over the years.

As politicians, you bear great burdens and responsibility on your shoulders. The decisions that you make or do not make have a direct impact on the people of this land—the people you represent, who elected you. With great privileges and accountability, you stand before the people and, I believe, God, who has called you.

Jesus, also, was a man who carried many burdens and responsibilities on his shoulders. Of him the prophet Isaiah said:

“Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows”.

Jesus himself made an outstanding promise to all who were burdened, and I want to share it with you:

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

That is, I believe, a promise for all you who serve in this chamber.

As those with great responsibilities and burdens for our nation, please be assured that the church of Christ prays for you, that God will grant you wisdom and courage to lead and to do that which is right and good. May you know that rest for your souls which Jesus spoke of.