The faith of Margaret Thatcher

(Sermon at Hilton Church of Scotland, 14^th April 2013 – Bible reading: Luke 10:25-37)

She was asked by David Frost on TVAM in 1988 if she had a favourite text from the Bible.

She mentioned two:

Psalm 139: ‘O Lord, you have searched me and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; your perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways.’

Psalm 46: ‘God is our refuge and strength, an ever present help in trouble.’

Who am I talking about? Margaret Thatcher, whose funeral is on Wednesday.  To some of us, she is a figure from the past. Others of us have vivid memories of her time in office – the Miners’ Strike, the Falklands Conflict, the fall of the Iron Curtain. Some of us probably see her as a hero, others of us as a despicable villain. I feel that a wee meditation on some of the issues raised by her death is the right thing for this morning.

INTRODUCTION

After an introduction, we will take a look from a Christian perspective on some of her key views, and then leave you with three pictures.

Margaret Thatcher was a highly controversial figure during her time in office as we have seen the last few days.

But we need to be quite clear about the fact that, whatever our views of her, she was a Christian through and through

There is much evidence for this. In her famous address to the Church of Scotland General Assembly of 1988, she mentioned her faith that ‘we were made in God’s own image and therefore, we are expected to use all our own power of thought and judgement in exercising [our God-given] choice, and further, that it we open our hearts to God he has promised to work within us.’ She quoted with personal conviction the lines of the great hymn

When I survey the wondrous cross

On which the Prince of glory died,

My richest gain I count but loss

And pour contempt on all my pride

She speaks of Christians meeting to take decisions – ‘their purpose is not (or should not be) to ascertain what is the mind of the majority but what is the mind of the Holy Spirit – something which may be quite different.’

On another occasion she shared her understanding of the core of the faith: ‘Christianity is about more than doing good works. It is a deep faith which expresses itself in your relationship to God.’

And there is the testimony of Cynthia Crawford, her personal assistant and friend, who says ‘I was with her when she wept privately for our soldiers killed in the Falklands. I knelt beside her when – careless of her own brush with death – we prayed together at our bedsides for the bereaved in the night of the Brighton bomb.’

This is no politician currying favour with the religious lobby – this woman was, as a newspaper notes ‘a Christian and unashamed.’

So whatever our views on Margaret Thatcher’s politics are – and there were many Christians who disagreed with her during her time in office – we must recognise her as a fellow-believer, and acknowledge that just because we share the same faith in Jesus Christ does not mean that we will always fully agree on how that faith should work out in personal and public life.

We need to learn, I suggest, to disagree with firmness, grace, tenacity and compassion. As Margaret Thatcher herself said in her General Assembly speech ‘Christians will often genuinely disagree, though it is a mark of Christian manners that they will do so with courtesy and mutual respect.’

Never with hatred. One of the really disturbing things over the last week has been the reactions to Margaret Thatcher’s death.  There have been those have rejoiced in her death, those who tweeted ‘The witch is dead’, the public figure who tweeted ‘May she burn in the hellfires.’

This lack of compassion, whatever one’s views of Margaret Thatcher’s politics, is scandalous. And yet doesn’t it reflect what most of us do every day. We treat people differently when we think that they are ‘not one of us’, that they ‘don’t belong to our tribe’ that they are ‘different.’? We erect barriers and treat them as outsiders?

Jesus came to break down barriers. That was the message of the Good Samaritan story. Jews and Samaritans were on either side of the great divide, they belonged to different tribes, they were ‘other’. And yet, that man from Samaria had compassion and showed the love of God to a fellow human being. Jesus came to save, not just the Jewish people, but Jew and Gentile, the whole world.

‘There is neither Jews nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.’ (Galatians 3:28)

This means that everyone we meet is either already one with us in Christ, or potentially one with us in Christ.

We look at our own hearts. Do we see in us this tribalism, this criticism and fear of ‘the other?’ Who is ‘the other’ to me?  People who live in a certain part of town? People who are well off? People who have come from Eastern Europe to live among us? Single people? Gay people?

The lesson of this week is to remember that Christ came to draw humanity together, and that whatever our disagreements we need to realise that at the deepest level there are not many tribes, but one.

What injured traveller needs today to sense through my engaged presence the compassion of God?

Of course Margaret Thatcher’s critics would accuse her of being the Samaritan who passed by on the other side. She would use the story to point out that the long-term effectiveness of the Samaritan’s intervention depended on his having money to pay the innkeeper.

So let’s just briefly examine some of her key ideas from a Christian perspective, and then apply the Christian lessons we’ve learned to our own lives.

KEY IDEAS

•   Spiritual redemption and social reform

She believed that true Christianity is about both spiritual redemption and social reform. And with this almost all Christian’s would thoroughly agree.  The message comes to the individual ‘You must be born again’ (John 3:16) The message comes to us collectively ‘You are the salt of the earth…you are the light of the world.’ (Matthew 5;13,14) And there’s a great history of Christians working together to change the world. Margaret Thatcher wrote in 1979 ‘We are all members one of another [and this] is most vividly expressed in the Christian concept of the Church as the body of Christ; from this we learn the importance of interdependence and the individual achieves his own fulfilment in service to others and to God.’  Perhaps she could have emphasised more consistently throughout her career this idea that helping others is not an individualistic thing, but something we do together.

•     Reponsibility and choice 

Margaret Thatcher believed that to be human is to be entrusted by God with freedom to choose, and with the responsibility to make the choices which are right for ourselves and for others. ‘From the beginning man has been endowed by God with the fundamental right to choose between good and evil.’  This again is a central principal of Christian faith. ‘Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve.’ (Joshua 24:15) ‘Count yourselves dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus’ (Romans 6:11) ‘Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, ‘This is the way; walk in it.’ (Isaiah 30:21) 

•  The need for a moral compass  

She believed in the need for a moral compass rooted in the Christian tradition. She said ‘There is little hope for democracy if the hearts of men and women in democratic societies cannot be touched be a call to something greater than themselves. Political structures, state institutions, collective ideal – these are not enough. We Parliamentarians can legislate for the rule of law. You, the Church, can teach the life of faith'

On another occasion, she said to a Roman Catholic journalist ‘When you’ve relieved poverty and ignorance and disease, if you are not a Christian you think that sorts out the problems of the world. You and I know it doesn’t because there is still the real religious problem in the choice between good and evil.’ 

This too, we can agree with, examining our own hearts. We know that it is one thing to know that’s the right action, the right attitude, the right choice. It is another to make that choice. We need liberation, and power. ‘You have become set free from sin and have become slaves to God.’ (Romans 6:18)

And while Margaret Thatcher realised that Christians don’t have a monopoly on doing good, she saw the vitality and power which Christian faith brings to living good lives ‘If you try to take the fruits of Christianity without its roots, the fruits will wither. And they will not come again unless you nurture the roots.’

So far, so much agreement. 

• The creation of wealth 

Margaret Thatcher believed ‘that the creation of wealth is not wrong, but what is wrong is the love of money for its own sake.’ Now I think we would agree with that in principle, but what we would want to add is that how you create wealth matters. The wrong attitude to money doesn’t just kick in after you have the money in your bank account – it affects your approach to creating wealth.

Margaret Thatcher encouraged corporate development in the hope that successful business would lead to philanthropy helping those in need, thus reducing the need for government intervention.  But what if that wealth is created in a way which impoverishes communities, and leads to the divide between rich and poor which many Christians criticised in the 1980s? What if it so restricts people freedom to find work that it makes a mockery to talk of personal responsibility. ‘The love of money is a root of all kinds of evil.’ (1 Timothy 6:10) 

And so we can see not only that Christianity has a key role in determining political thinking – responsibility, helping the underprivileged, creating opportunities,– Christian faith has much to say on all these topics – but also that there is disagreement over how best to work out these principles.

I spoke to a friend who was present at the 1988 General Assembly, and he mentioned his suspicion, not that Mrs Thatcher’s faith was inauthentic, but that at times she was doing her theology in the light of her existing political beliefs rather than the other way round. I’m not sure about this, as her beliefs seem to have been rooted in the Methodist convictions of her father. But the point my friend made holds a challenge to all of us. Are we allowing Christian perceptions to shape all of our lives? Or are we allowing beliefs which we already hold, beliefs which it is comfortable for us to hold and uncomfortable for us to change to shape our interpretation of Christianity?

Some personal lessons for us from these sections: 

• Pray for politicians, especially for Christian politicians of all parties who seek to find ways of expressing their Christian convictions in public policy

• Work for change. Sharing the good news of a life-changing Jesus, and working to be salt and light, to be Good Invernessians in whatever way is open to us

• Exercise responsibility. Is there something today I should be doing, a choice I need to make, a change I need to make in my life, a conversation I need to have? Am I procrastinating? Do I feel that my choices won’t make any difference? Have I forgotten that I have the precious gift of freedom to choose?

• Choose life. Choose to say no by God’s grace and in God’s strength to the dark impulses within us.

• Nurture the roots, so that the fruits of love, joy, peace are present in my life.

• Be wise about money and possessions. Be grateful for them, but receive them as gifts, and don’t define myself by them

  You remember the famous phrase about Margaret Thatcher:

‘The Lady is not for turning.’

Sometimes we need to be ready to turn. To turn from wrong choices, from wrong decisions, from our pride and sinfulness, and turn to the God who loves us and forgives us.

I wonder if in any of our hearts this morning we know we need to make a change, and yet have been resisting making it, saying ‘I am not for turning.’

There are times when our life remains on hold until we turn.

THREE PICTURES

•  The old lady in the park

    I was touched by the picture which appeared in the press this week of Margaret Thatcher in Battersea Park with her carer. Death comes to all of us no matter how great, how powerful, how intelligent.

‘As for man, his days are like the grass, he flourishes like a flower of the field; the wind blows over it and it is gone, and its place remembers it no more. But from everlasting to everlasting the Lord’s love is with those who fear him.’ (Psalm 103:15-17a)

‘Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.’ (Psalm 90:12)

•  The divider of opinion

As we’ve said, Margaret Thatcher was and remains a divider of opinion.

But there is another far greater divider of opinion, Jesus Christ. Some see him as Son of God, some us just another man.

Our opinions about Margaret Thatcher matter – they are our personal opinions, we have thought them through. But our opinion about Jesus matters far more. Is he just someone who lived and taught inspirationally? Or is he a living presence today who calls us to partner with him in building a new society?

Jesus was not for turning. Jesus chose (as Margaret Thatcher emphasised) to give up his life for us. He resolutely went to death for the human race.

And he calls us to turn to him, and then day by day to turn again and again to him as momentarily or for longer periods we drift from him. But he challenges us to live a life which in its principal focus is not for turning, a life committed to following him who was ostracised and crucified outside Jerusalem in order to bring each of us into the New Jerusalem. 

•  The better country

The New Jerusalem features in Blake’s poem And did these feet in ancient time, a poem particularly loved by left-leaning politicians, with its emphasis on creating in England the values of Christ’s kingdom, the values of the Holy City.

Margaret Thatcher referred to another song in her address to the General Assembly in 1988, I vow to thee my country.  She revelled in the first verse with its exalted view of patriotism which leaves me personally a little uncomfortable. ‘I vow to thee my country all earthly things above.’

But the second verse really resonates with me as it clearly did with Margaret Thatcher.

It refers to another country, a better country, an invisible country. A country

I’ve heard of long ago

Most dear to them that love her, most great to them that know

We may not count her armies, we may not see her King

For this country in a parallel dimension is the Kingdom of heaven which daily grows

And soul by soul and silently the shining bounds increase

And her ways are ways of gentleness and all her paths are peace.’

And these values of the kingdom, the values of the New Jerusalem, are the values which, as Christians, as communities, and as a nation we are called to live out in personal and political practice. Gentleness and peace.

As Margaret Thatcher said, quoting St Francis, on the steps of Number 10 on her first day in office back in 1979

Where there is discord may we bring harmony,

Where there is error may we bring truth,

Where there is doubt, may we bring faith,

And where there is despair, may we bring hope.

And now she is present in that invisible kingdom in a new way, encountering the God who has searched and known her, the God who will say to her in grace and love, but resolutely whatever needs to be said, the God who throughout her life she found to be a refuge and strength, an ever-present help.’