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Bulletin 156 Date : 13th Feb 2009
Saying Sorry and Being Sorry

We had the sad misfortune this week of being called to the hospital late at night because a close relative had taken a turn for the worse. When we arrived we were heartbroken to find that we were just minutes too late and were consoled by the doctor who had tried desperately to save our relative’s life. We sat with her in the side room as she sensitively took us through the last moments and how they had done all they could to save her. At the end of all this she said, “I’m so sorry.”

At a time like this you don’t think rationally but simply seek, as best you can, to cope with the emotion of the occasion. But, looking back on that conversation I think to myself, “what was that doctor apologizing for?” We should be apologizing to her for keeping her up late at night and expecting her to strain every sinew in a desperate attempt to save a life, long after she should have gone home to bed. But that’s what doctors do. They put the needs of their patients before all else.

And then we saw on television the heads of HBOS and the Royal Bank of Scotland saying ‘sorry’ for the blunders they had made in plunging the country into near bankruptcy and yet walking away with salaries and pensions which would bring tears to the eyes of all who read this. What did their ‘sorry’ actually mean and was it just words or heartfelt contrition as with the doctor who sat quietly with us as we grieved?

This brings into perspective the things that really matter in life. People will be rightly furious that the so-called experts in the financial world have been allowed to create such havoc with so little punishment. There appears to be a moral vacuum at the heart of our financial sector. On the other hand, doctors are working tirelessly to save lives and when, after their best efforts their patient dies, they have to respond by saying ‘sorry’.

On Monday night, before our trip to the hospital, I attended the launch of the new Alpha Course entitled ‘God at Work’. Ken Costa, the author of the course and himself an investment banker said, “I feel financially depressed but spiritually excited right now.” He was naturally depressed as we all are by the financial crisis but saw enormous opportunities for Christians to share their faith sensitively with those around them. After all, what this crisis has shown us is a lack of those values which are at the heart of Christianity – honesty, integrity, self-sacrifice, compassion – those values which originate in a faith which many around us dismiss as ‘boring, irrelevant or untrue.’ As Jesus once said, “Greater love has no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.” Isn’t it a sad reflection of the society we live in that the bosses of HBOS earn salaries approaching £1 million per year and people who devote themselves to sacrificial service for others earn a fraction of this?

In that challenging and inspiring song from the Iona community, ‘Inspired by Love and Anger’, there is the verse which reads:-

When will the wronged be righted?
When will the kingdom come?
When will the world be generous to all instead of some?

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