Change and Decay…

Yesterday…

…Chatting to a friend. I’ll call him Tom. Tom’s Mum’s in her nineties, blind, had a stroke, confused, in hospital. Together with other family members he goes to the hospital, talks to her, feeds her, tries to reassure her. Things have changed for the whole family – especially Tom’s Mum.

…Chatting to another friend. I’ll call him Kevin. Kevin’s wife died a couple of years ago. He kisses his wife’s pillow every night and every morning. He still talks to her. The last week has been tough for him… still coming to terms with the sad changes in his life. Things can never change back to how they were.

…We went to Norwich to see ‘Fiddler on the Roof’. Set in rural Russia around 1905 it’s a story of joy, community – and change.

Tevye, the village milkman, part of a Jewish community, enjoys an unchanging, secure world that’s rooted in tradition: ‘Here in Anatevka we have traditions for everything… how to eat, how to sleep, even, how to wear clothes… Because of our traditions, everyone knows who he is and what God expects him to do.’

Tevye’s daughters increasing independence brings unsettling changes in his family and his role in it. National political changes destroy his village community. It’s made even more poignant as it’s set in what is today Ukraine…

This morning… Reading Matthew’s gospel… Jesus bring change… challenging tradition… healing the centurion’s servant and a man with leprosy… calming the storm… sending demons into pigs who rush into a lake and drown… calling ordinary people to leave their old way of life and follow him… changing them radically, often uncomfortably.

Tevye brings his concerns about uncomfortable change to his God, frequently challenging the Almighty: ‘It may sound like I’m complaining, but I’m not. After all, with Your help, I’m starving to death.’

And me? I return to the prayer from the old hymn: ‘Change and decay in all around I see. O, thou who changest not, abide with me.’