Good afternoon. The first item of business is time for reflection. Our time for reflection leader today is Dr Amy Orr-Ewing, author and theologian, and honorary lecturer at the University of Aberdeen.
Before the impact of the Covid pandemic, the Scottish household survey in 2018 was the first to include a question on loneliness. The results of the survey showed that 21.3 per cent of people reported feeling lonely at some point in the previous week. The figure was higher than average for people in the age groups of 16 to 24-year-olds, 25 to 34-year-olds and the over-75s. The young and the old are lonely. We are in a cultural moment crying out for connection.
Relationships matter greatly to humanity, and our theme today is relationship. I suggest to you that for relationships鈥攚hether personal, political, corporate, familial or international鈥攖o flourish there needs to be a grounding: a basis that makes sense and that works in practice.
The French philosopher Voltaire famously said:
鈥淲e look to Scotland for all our ideas of civilisation鈥,
and perhaps one of the books that has most shaped Scotland鈥攖he Bible鈥攎ight have something to say that could help us with the question of relationships. In the book of John, chapter 1, it says:
鈥淚n the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning 鈥 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.鈥
Here are two things that matter greatly for relationships: words, or truth, and goodness. John鈥檚 gospel opens with that phrase,
鈥淚n the beginning was the Word鈥.
Meaning, language and truth are real in an ultimate sense. Our hunger for clarity and integrity in public life鈥攁nd not for the doublespeak of Orwell鈥檚 鈥淣ineteen Eighty-Four鈥, the propaganda of totalitarian regimes or the fake news and algorithm-driven echo chambers of our day鈥攑oints us to a deep truth about ourselves as humans beings. Words matter and truth matters; we are creatures of the word.
In relationships, goodness also matters. In public life, goodness matters. The agnostic historian Tom Holland points out in his book 鈥淒ominion: The Making of the Western Mind鈥 that many of our deeply held intuitions about what goodness is have been indelibly shaped by Jesus Christ. It is humility rather than pride and glory; it is love of neighbour, self-sacrifice, faithfulness and kindness.
John Knox said:
鈥淲hen I think of those who have influenced my life the most, I think not of the great but of the good.鈥
Words matter and goodness matters. It is not weakness to believe that; it is strength. A coherent foundation for truth and goodness can be found in the person of Jesus Christ, who in John 1 is described as the light shining in the darkness.