Perfect conditions for Pharisaism

It was reported today that the UK is experiencing a more severe split over Covid than over Brexit. There is more venom towards lockdown breakers than to EU leavers. More disdain of non-clappers than remainers. A significant proportion of the country is going above and beyond Covid regulations, is anxious about returning to work or shopping, and is angry that the government is recklessly opening things up too fast.  A different significant proportion of the country admits (anonymously) to breaking lockdown, feels the reaction to Covid is disproportionate and is angry that the regulations are too tight. 

Different perceptions of risk are inevitable and there are issues of class, culture and North-South in this polarisation but it's the degree of animosity between the two groups highlighted by the Demos report that is particularly disturbing. It came out particularly at the time of the Dominic Cummings 'trial' and, anecdotally, many of us can attest to having witnessed a rise of this on the streets in the last few days. A shopper shouts at a fellow shopper to put a mask on. A cyclist shouts at school children wearing masks to take them off. 

This a moment of great danger not only for the division of the nation but also the church. God forbid this breaks the bond of the Spirit. But it's also a moment of great opportunity - for those who know Christ to be different from the spirit that lies behind both the angry extremes of Covid terror/denial. 

Here are a few thoughts - possible points of gospel engagement and questions to be asking:

1. As fallen humans we have a legalistic spirit (cf. Sinclair Ferguson's brilliant book on this - The Whole Christ). We have always loved to have people who 'play us onside' by being worse than us. We have always been pushing to the limit of what we are allowed to do while being keen to be publicly seen to be keeping the law. We have always sought to interpret the law in such a way that we are keeping it. But why am I so concerned to be justified? Why is it that I always find myself on the 'right side' of the argument? Isn't there an ugliness to this kind of attitude towards one another? What if Christ didn't come for those who justify themselves? He who plays us all offside in his perfection came to bring us onside in his crucifixion - humbling himself to be cursed as a lawbreaker. Isn't that far more beautiful?  
2. As children of the Enlightenment and 1960s 'liberation' we have lost our common sense and so (unexpectedly) become more law-bound than ever. It was interesting to see the appeal to 'common sense' by the Prime Minister at the time of the Cummings affair and the radically different ideas of what was 'reasonable' that emerged. There was a crying out for more 'clarity' - i.e. more rules. In the 13th, 14th and 15th centuries there were about a dozen new Acts of Parliament each century. But there are now over 30 new Acts each year not to mention an ever growing number of statutory instruments and a trend towards increasing length of each of those pieces. The 613 rules of the Torah don't look so many after all. Today I need thousands of rules and regulations for every area of my life. Perhaps it's only correlation and not causation but could it be that the loss of any kind of moral/religious consensus in 'the West' has led to an increase in law and regulation to fill the vacuum? With national laws based on God's Law and on an awareness of the personal Law Giver and a biblical worldview then there was perhaps more of a coherence and logic. It hangs together. There is a rationale. There is a reality to good and evil. It is possible to appeal (as British law so often does) to 'reasonableness' and the 'spirit' of the law. There is a common sense. But when that foundation is gone then everything falls apart. There is no reason, no authority, no grounding, no heart. It's all about the letter. So now legislation must attempt (in vain) to exhaustively detail every possible case and stipulate exactly what must and must not be done. Isn't it good that Jesus says, "Come to me (personal) and rest, take my (personal) yoke which is easy, learn from me (personal) who is gentle and humble in heart"?
3. We are in an increasingly moralistic age. Probably since 9/11 (19 years ago today) we've been in a post-post-modern time where the pure relativism of post-modernism has been replaced by a new moralism. A friend pointed me towards this passage from Tim Keller's new book On Death: 'Many have pointed out that today our society is as moralistic and judgmental as it ever has been. We live in a “call-out culture” in which people are categorised reductionistically to good or evil and then are publicly shamed until they lose jobs and communities. People are charged for what used to be called sins and are punished and banished in ways that look remarkably like religious ceremonial purification rites’ (p 22) Where is the grace? Where is the forgiveness? Isn't it wonderful that Jesus gives me real purification? And shouldn't that free me to be able to call out, "God have mercy on me a sinner!"
4. On top of what was already a more law-bound and moralistic age, the global pandemic seems (as Glen Scrivener wonderfully demonstrates) to  have swung many of us from Epicureanism into Stoicism. Epicureanism (pursue happiness, self-first) is popular in the good times while Stoicism (pursue virtue, society-first) is our human go-to in times of plague and disaster. And certainly we do seem to be in a much more stoic time - the national discourse all about responsibility and civic-mindedness and against selfish party animals. We need to be alert, controlled. It's striking that there needs to be a campaign to 'Eat out to help out.' So even eating out (you would think a classically Epicurean thing) has been turned into a Stoic duty, a civic-minded virtue! But do either Epicureanism or Stoicism really work? If you pursue happiness don't you end up having to sacrifice virtue and if you pursue virtue don't you end up in despair or pride? And if you try to have a bit of both don't you just end up confused? What if there was a God who is the eternal fountain of both happiness and virtue - a God who is in himself overflowingly happy and good? What if he pursued us - us who have pursued his gifts without him - and came and ate and drank with sinners, took their place, died and rose and commands us to come to him? (Acts 17:16-34) What if, united to him, there is lasting joy and power to live a life of real love?