Still in Denial

 

‘You got a problem you won't admit
You got a habit that you can't kick
You're still in denial’

 Gerry Rafferty ‘Still in Denial’ from the album ‘Rest in Blue’

 

I was more than a little cynical when I heard that a ‘new’ Gerry Rafferty album was being released 10 years after his death. I was expecting a collection of mediocre songs that had not been considered good enough to appear on earlier albums when he was alive. I was very wrong! It is a first class album and I thoroughly recommend it.

In some of the songs, Gerry Rafferty is brutally honest about his own struggles, not least in the first one on the album ‘Still in Denial’.

Advent is a time of preparation and penitence, and that involves self-examination and brutal honesty. Is that not what is required in response to the message of John the Baptist?

I think that applies on more than simply a personal level.

The church needs to face up to reality also. But I fear we may be ‘still in denial’. All the (necessary) reorganisation and rationalisation has not addressed, is not addressing and will not address the fundamental issues. The apparently relentless decline in the church will not be reversed by having bigger Presbyteries and fewer congregations. Even a renewed mission strategy won’t do it.

Just to be clear, I don’t have answers and am not sure what the exact fundamental issues are, although I am pretty sure they are more likely to be spiritual than organisational. As has so often been pointed out, engaging in reorganisation can sometimes be an avoidance strategy; a way of comforting ourselves by ‘doing something’ while we continue to ignore what the real problems are.

As an individual, were I in a situation where I felt unwell, ineffective, spiritually dry, worn out or jaded, I might reorganise my study or even move house, but that would not address the issues. I might not know what was wrong, but rather than try to superficially ‘fix’ something, I would be better consulting a doctor or a counsellor or a spiritual director.

Perhaps the church needs to identify and listen to some prophets, have a season of prayer and fasting, engage in some genuine discernment, or all of these.

But I do fear that we are ‘still in denial’ and that worries me and saddens me.