Safeguarding 1 Nothing Is Covered Up That Will Not Be Uncovered
St Luke 12: 2 – 3
Jesus said: “Nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered, and nothing secret that will not become known. Therefore, whatever you have said in the dark will be heard in the light, and what you have whispered behind closed doors will be proclaimed from the housetops.”
Reflection
I have walked out of Samuel Beckett’s play Waiting for Godot twice. During my A Levels, and in my twenties erroneously thinking I might have grown into it. The play is one where, famously, little happens in two long acts. The characters are waiting for Godot who, they believe, will move things along. The set is bathed in light leaving nowhere to hide.
Despite heartily loathing the play I was struck by the brightly lit stage where nothing could be hidden or spared. Abuse of all forms thrives in the darkness of secrecy. Fear, shame, and grooming conspire to keep victims in dark silence. The courage to speak out, name things, and expose perpetrators to the light is terrifying, brave, and liberating, yet so much in our society has worked to ensure this does not happen. In the 1970s my grandmother worked as a cleaner in an Approved School. I remember her shock at the “wicked lies” that the girls told; now I wonder if my nan was a victim of society’s unwillingness to see the truth brought to light.
We live now in an age where little is left unexposed and unexplored. Like Beckett’s stark set this can be uncomfortable for those used to discretion occluding reality; exposure offers a chance for justice. Speaking out, naming abuse, and being believed all can bring healing and gives substance to Jesus’ words in today’s snippet from St Luke.
In Beckett’s play the characters are told Godot is coming but he never arrives. Commentators have wondered if Godot was meant to be God whose long-promised day never seems to arrive – Beckett, unhelpfully, never fully explained the meaning. Bringing abuse out from the dark into the light of day is but one way of proclaiming the coming Kingdom, a Kingdom of justice and love, a Kingdom where no one will be shamed, hurt, or abused, a Kingdom where what is done in the dark will be seen in the light.
Prayer
O God of light and darkness, give us the strength to bring into the day that which lurks in the night, to bring to justice that which hides in plain sight, that as we wait for You, we might proclaim Your coming Kingdom, Amen.
Today’s writer
The Revd Andy Braunston is the URC’s Minister for Digital Worship and a member of the Peedie Kirk in Orkney.
St. Andrew's United Reformed Church - The United Reformed Church in Monkseaton and Whitley Bay
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