This is the script of this morning’s Thought for the Day on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
“I’m just going outside; I may be some time.” Those were the words spoken by Lawrence Oates – known as Titus – in March 1912 and on his 32nd birthday as he left the tent and walked to his death. Stuck in worsening snow conditions, andhaving failed in his race to be the first to reach the South Pole, Captain Scott and his companions gradually realised that they could not survive. Titus, crippled by frostbite, thought they might have a better chance without him; so, he removed himself.
I have a photograph of Titus Oates in my current home in Leeds. The house belonged to his family and he is pictured in the garden with a couple of relatives. Every time I look at it, I’m reminded of what self-sacrifice looks like. It also means that if you are leaving our house and want to be clever, you can turn around, hand on the front door, and say: “I’m just going out …”. It was funny the first time.
But, this month sees a second anniversary with a personal connection. In March 2017 I was in the House of Lords and waiting for the Lord Speaker to arrive to start the day’s business when I was told there would be a delay. It was a little while before we knew what was happening and by then we had been locked down. Eventually we were escorted out to Westminster Abbey where we were kept until late at night. In the meantime, forty people had been injured and four killed on Westminster Bridge in a terror attack, and PC Keith Palmer had been murdered while protecting Parliament and attempting to stop the assailant.
This event turned upside down not only the families involved and the life and business of Parliament, but also brought into sharp relief the reality of our mortality. People left their home in the morning assuming they would return in the evening, but didn’t.
What Keith Palmer and Titus Oates did was to sacrifice themselves – not after great philosophical or theological consideration, but when the moment of choice came. In the Greek New Testament this moment is referred to as ‘krisis’. It is the word used for what we call ‘judgment’. It denotes that point when a choice has to be made, a decision that will have consequences that might involve loss.
As this month Christians approach Easter, self-sacrifice raises its head. Not as a means of gaining credit with God, or other people, but as a reflection of the God who sacrifices himself. Most of us won’t be asked to make the ultimate sacrifice, but we will face other choices which suggest that self-preservation or fulfilment is not the ultimate goal in life. Such choices – krisis – reveal who we really are.
