Day 5

Not a bad way to start the day. We’re splitting up for much of the day (Palm Sunday). I will attend Mass with Andy and then we will quickly depart for a monthly men’s group he leads on the mainland. “The Benz” has been pre-loaded with several hand drums, which I’m told will feature prominently in the group. Brenda and Joyce have chosen to attend services at St. Mary’s Anglican so they can receive communion (as a Protestant, I am not invited to take the Eucharist in a Roman Catholic Mass, but I will receive a blessing from the priest).

The weather is unfolding to be gorgeous.

Walking up the Huegh this morning through the quiet village and church yard, the priory ruins in stark contrast to the dawning light…hard to beat. I had a very curious onlooker along the way.

I stood at the edge of an archaeological excavation from 2016 and 2017 (just after we were here last time). The foundations discovered at that time are being “interpreted” as an Anglo Saxon church. It is perhaps 500 square feet in total, but the clear foundations of nave and chancel can be seen, maybe even an altar stone.

Once again, I found myself lost as I pondered the idea of people stacking stones, carving wood and creating a space for the sole purpose of worshiping Jesus Christ. I know there are much older spaces in the world (Rome, Turkey, Israel and environs) but the relative “newness” of this place is offset by the deeply personal aspect: my ancestors walked these trails and saw these sights. 2 dozen generations ago and maybe more. The weight of it is a welcome embrace if not smothering at times.

Andy, his friend Gary and myself hopped in “The Benz” and made our way along country lanes to the home where we met. 9 guys, from age 40 to age 74 played drums ( I know it’s a trope…but it’s a meaningful thing) shared stories and talked about our lives in very open terms. It’s affirming to hear men from an entirely different context talk about essentially the same struggles and aspirations that I am encountering in my own life.

After some diner in our cottage, we took advantage of a clear evening to catch the sunset from atop the Heugh. The wind is still bone chilling, but the sun is bright.

Day 4

A mildly stormy day. After we said Morning Office together, I snuck away for a little solitude. I wandered into St, Mary’s and lit a candle for my mother. Prayed at the altar for a few minutes, then wandered out to the Heugh where I simply took in the view to the South: surf, sand, Bamburgh Castle…there I had the chance for the first time in a few days to be fully alone and quiet; to pray through some joy memories, feel that re-attachment to Jesus and fully breathe in gratitude. What a privilege to be here.

Brenda and Joyce suited up and headed out to the castle (about 1/2 mile walk) and so I met them out there. As castles I have visited go, Lindisfarne is small and modern. Historically, it was just a gun fortification and then turned into a private residence in the 19th century. It’s pretty narrow and cave-like…but that location!

In non-tourist news: I got my ass handed to me by a quote from Dietrich Bonhoeffer which the Northumbria Community published as part of their Lenten Reflections:

‘If I sit next to a madman
as he drives a car into a group
of innocent bystanders, I can’t,
as a Christian, simply wait for
the catastrophe, then comfort
the wounded and bury the dead.
I must try to wrestle the
steering wheel out of the hands
of the driver.’

– Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Bonhoeffer was a German theologian who was hanged by the Nazis in 1945. He was part of a plot to assassinate Hitler. I offer the following rhetorical questions in response:

How do I reconcile a growing attraction to something like pacifism with this evocative metaphor which requires some level of violence?

How do I love those who sit next to “the driver”, justify his actions and perhaps urge him on, honestly thinking it’s the height of morality?

How do I approach my citizenship when the reality is that ANYONE who manages to win office at a state or higher level, will be REQUIRED to crush innocent bystanders? It’s just how our system has evolved. Trump will/has done it with low-brow, malevolent self-interest. Biden will/has done it with flair and a smile. One of them will crush the pedestrians on the left side of the road first…to the glee of those on the right…until the car of state swerves very quickly back in their direction…and visa versa.

I know many anti-Trumpers have adopted the “anyone but!” approach, and it’s tempting because Trump is such a cartoon villain. But the alternatives are simply a different kind of horror: Economic hardship branded as compassion while actually rewarding greed and oppressing workers ala “bricks with now straw”. Celebrating the mutilation of children under the banner of “acceptance”, war-mongering and environmental degradation played like a game of Three Card Monty with carbon credits here, tax incentives there and a little Alaskan oil drilling thrown in. Friends…this is the kind of “alternative” a condemned person is offered upon their sentence of death: “hanging or lethal injection?”

So…if “I wrestle the steering wheel out of the hands of the driver…” who’s going to drive, Dietrich? Me? God forbid. The body count would double. The Church? Uh…hell no. God himself? Well, that’s the hollow Sunday School answer…but come on.

As I sit here today, thousands of miles from the United States, I think I have given up what little hope I had in what passes for our system of government. As news of strikes in France (over a 2 year difference on when you retire and suck on the tax-payer-teet) continues to pour in, as Finland (a poster child European liberal democracy) begins to wobble economically, and has begun running for the NATO fire extinguisher only as the flames lick at their back, as Israel thrashes around with factions fighting for total control, fascists gain ground in one place and “central planners” in another I am reminded that it’s no better anywhere else. Often worse.

So again, Dietrich, whose driving?

I honestly don’t have an answer for this, and if good ‘ol Dieter was even half the man I suspect he was, I don’t think he had an answer either. He was just stuck in a car with Adolf Hitler in the driver’s seat.

It’s good to be in holy place today.