So, after a three year investigation, Sir John Stevens has concluded that the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, was due to a cock-up, and not a conspiracy. (Let's get one thing straight before I offend anyone's sensibilities...the word 'cock-up' is either a reference to a scottish hair-do which was branded a mistake by puritan preachers; or a reference to the 'mess' caused (to its owner) by a cock being defeated in a cock fight. With its legs upward, the 'cock' was 'up'.) Now, back to the question of cock-up or conspiracy...
I have often debated - internally, and with friends - whether many of the messes that we experience around the world are the result of cock-up or conspiracy. Into which category, for example, does the decision to wage war on Iraq fall? Many would argue that the billions of pounds being earned by arms manufacturers who happen to be friends of the President of the USA is proof in itself of conspiracy.
I willingly acknowledge that there are powerful people in the world who will stop at nothing to manipulate circumstances for personal gain. Machiavelli's influence on contemporary geo-politics should never be discounted. On the other hand, having worked for 20-odd years in, and with, bureaucratic systems of administration - I have seen just too many examples of cock-up to believe that very many intended conspiracies have any likli-hood of success!
There is one conspiracy that I do believe, however...a holy one. I mean the conspiracy of God, with the willing collaboration of Mary, to set in train the circumstances which would lead to God himself, in human form, living among us for a few short, glorious years.
Perhaps, as Christmas approaches, we can set aside for a while our justifiable concerns about who is out to get us, and celebrate for a while the holy conspiracy of God - who set out to show us what life in touch with Ultimate Reality could be like.
End of Sermon.
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