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The CHRISTIAN Comment
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A WORD OF ENCOURAGEMENT
(based on -)
1 CHRONICLES 28 v. 20 and HEBREWS 10 v. 36
When the children of Israel came to the River Jordan, God told the priests carrying the ark to step into the water. Then, and only then, would He dry up the river. They assumed it would happen immediately but God dried it up sixteen miles upstream so they had to wait for all that water to pass by before they could cross over. What we’re going through right now is what we have to go through whilst we’re waiting for OUR miracle.
But why didn’t God open the river WHERE THEY WERE ? It was because they needed an opening wide enough to move two million people across. When God moves, it’s not just for our benefit but for the benefit of others as well.
BUT - nothing happened UNTIL they stepped into the water. Nothing will happen until we actually ALL step out together in faith and take a chance. The moment we quit holding back, being disinterested in the life of the church let alone God’s will for its future, God will move to meet us. The doors will open, the right people will come and the “ways and means” of providing new resources, new staffing, new funding but above all - a closer walk with Jesus - WILL be provided.
Yes, God’s Word to us is:-
“Be strong and courageous, AND DO THE WORK”.
God really is just waiting for US to take that first important step TOGETHER.
Gill Brown The Airevale Group
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This summer the National Health Service is celebrating its 60th year and around the country there are many services of celebration. Having a small role myself as a Hospital Chaplain in our local cottage hospital, I shall be attending one in my own locality of Hull and the East Riding of Yorkshire.
The NHS is never far away from our consciousness. In the national news it is often the shortcomings of the NHS that make the headlines, but I also experience the NHS at first hand on a weekly basis through my work as a Chaplain. I have to say that my experience there is far more positive than the news headlines would suggest, and I meet far more often with expressions appreciation and satisfaction with what our health service has been able to provide. The horror stories are there too from time to time, but by no means are they the loudest voice.
To me, the story of the NHS is one of the most inspiring stories of our time. Arising as it does from the immediate aftermath of the Second World War, it represents far more than just a way of delivering health care. It is a story of trying to rebuild society, and of huge vision to try something new for the greater good. It is a prime example of something genuinely good coming out of something utterly terrible.
There are many uncertainties, questions and challenges that face the NHS. In my own locality, as I suspect in many others, there is the question of the future of our own Cottage Hospital, and any future services that might replace it. Nationally there is the question of how an NHS, free at the point of delivery, can keep pace with our growing expectations of it. The world of healthcare is very different now to how it was 60 years ago. I am confident nonetheless that we will hold on to the vision which created the NHS all those years ago.
Health is not a side-issue for the church. It is not an accident that, according to the Gospels, Jesus spent more of his ministry healing people than he did preaching to them. Of course the NHS covers only one small part of what makes for a healthy society and a healthy humanity. However, as we celebrate 60 years of advance in health care, we can, I believe, see that as a sign of the Kingdom.
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Forgiveness is one of the loveliest ideas, and being forgiven one of the loveliest experiences connected with being human. Because we are human, we fail - we let people down, offend or hurt them.
We behave in ways that cause us shame. But to be forgiven means that failure has been put away and we can start again with the slate clean.
In ordinary human experience, forgiveness is often very difficult. People say, ‘I’ll forgive but I’ll never forget what he did’. And that, of course, is not forgiveness at all.
Or they feel that the offence is so great that it is beyond forgiveness:
‘that was unforgivable behaviour’, we say… and sometimes, sadly, we mean it.
In any case, forgiveness without repentance is incomplete.
For forgiveness to be complete it needs two actions - a genuine repentance from the heart of the offender, and forgiveness on the part of the victim. So forgiveness can’t be given lightly, true forgiveness is a wiping away of the past.
In the language of the Bible it is placed ‘As far as the east is from the west’ (Psalm 103:12)
David Watson, who transformed a failing Anglican church opposite York Minster,
wrote in his last book, ‘Fear no evil’, in full awareness that he was terminally ill at the age of fifty, recounts how his condition led him to think over his many relationships.
As a result he was prompted to reach out to a number of people from whom he felt in someway estranged.
In the event he wrote to twelve people asking their forgiveness for any hurt he might have caused, or anger he may have harboured against them. It was harder work than he expected, but the response was incredible.
‘It was the most painful pruning and purging I can remember in my entire Christian life- but fruitful’. Some replies reduced him to tears.
David Watson’s experience confirms a deep truth about the mending of relationships. That forgiveness is a costly business.
Revd John Jenkinson,
Minster of Highfield and Longcauseway United Reformed and Methodist, Dewsbury.
Minister of SPACE.
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To boldly go…
Ok, I admit it, I’m a fan of Star Trek and it’s wonderful challenge ‘to boldly go where no one has gone before’. It’s a terrific challenge to the script writer to take us into new worlds and, in the process, challenge our perceptions of ourselves and our world. After all it was Star Trek that dared to show the first interracial kiss on US television. It’s also a challenge to us as Christians as we try to fulfil Jesus’ command to ‘go and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit’ (Matthew 28:19). But on the whole we’re not very good at going boldly are we? We are now so health and safety conscious that we won’t do anything with out a risk assessment. We’re almost afraid to let our faith be shown in case we offend someone in the process.
In the 1960’s J.F. Kennedy set America the challenge of putting a man on the moon before the end of the decade. They did it because they boldly went and accepted that there might be casualties along the way and there were, three astronauts killed in a fire before the launch of the first Apollo mission. But instead of killing the project they learnt from the experience, made some changes and achieved their goal. I’ve just finished reading a biography of H.M. Stanley of ‘Dr Livingston I presume’ fame. Now he doesn’t come across as a particularly nice person partly because he knew that, if he was to boldly go across Africa then there would be casualties, and there were, hundreds of them over the years, both black and white. But then the saintly Dr. Livingstone wasn’t that much better at times.
When Joshua came to the Promised Land he sent out his spies, listened to their reports and boldly went into occupied territory in the strength of the Lord. There were casualties, cities fell and the land became theirs. When Jesus sent out the twelve early on in his ministry he told them that they were going as sheep into the midst of wolves, that the world wouldn’t be kind to them, that they would suffer persecution and death in his name. But they were to go boldly because God’s spirit would be with them. They were to discover through the Spirit that they could do what Jesus did. They would discover that they could preach, teach, heal; changing people’s lives forever but first they had to boldly go.
And what about us? Are we prepared to boldly go and, in going, discover that God is there already, that there are people ready to hear about, and respond to, the God in whose name we go? Are we prepared to discover that we too can do what Jesus did through the power of that same Holy Spirit? Are we prepared to take risks and are we prepared to accept that there might be casualties, those in our churches who cannot or will not come on the journey with us, those who won’t abide by the decision of church meeting, that small percentage who resist every attempt to grow and develop and on whom we spend a disproportionate amount of time placating, appeasing, or being blackmailed by whenever they threaten to throw their toys out of the pram. To boldly go means more than sending a Martian Lander to do a few experiments and send back pretty pictures. To boldly go means being out there, going to the cross and beyond, trusting in Jesus’s promise that went along with the command, the promise that he will be with us to the end of the age. I like ‘Catch the vision’ and ‘Vision4life’ but in the end I think it’s all about 'to boldly go' .
John Mackerness
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It can be so good to have a choice!
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Matthew 6: 24 - 34 “No-one can serve two masters - you cannot serve God and wealth.”
“Do not worry about your life” - trust in God. Serving God means serving others
Do not worry about what you will eat, drink, wear - trust in God for all things - if he looks after the birds and animals, makes beautiful the trees and plants - will he not also care for you his children. Jesus is telling us not to value the material things of life above the spiritual. Our major concern should be ‘what does God require of me?’ ‘What does God want me to do with my life, here and now, today?’
Jesus was speaking into the relative prosperity of Galilee at that time - most people had enough to live. And we too find most people around us have enough to live- enough food, water on tap, a roof over their heads, somewhere to call home. In general most people have an excess of clothes and goods - much more than we really need - and we have choice: Choice of where to live, what to eat and wear, what to watch on TV, what to do for work or leisure. Choice, choice, choice, has become the mantra of western society - we must have choice. Twenty five kinds of baked beans when two would do.
Because WE are fortunate enough to have choice we can choose not to worry about tomorrow or even about today for we have more than enough food in our fridges and cupboards, we know we can turn on a tap and there will be clean water, we maybe have money in the bank or know our wages or benefits or pensions will be paid regularly. We have the luxury of choice in all sorts of ways and even have the choice of faith. We can believe in God, or not, we can trust in God or trust in the power of wealth for today and tomorrow. We have the choice to serve our own needs, our own comforts, our own ends or to serve God and, in that service, to serve others.
What are the implications of Jesus’ words for those who have no choice? What are our responsibilities for those who have nothing - the victims of the cyclone in Burma, the earthquake in China, the earlier floods in Bangladesh; the victims of corrupt leaders in Zimbabwe, of the conflicts in Central Africa and the violence in South Africa, of poverty and exploitation in South America and the Far East. If everything you own is destroyed, your family killed, your body abused, your mind crazed, no food, no home, what do Jesus’ words mean for you? Hunger gnawing at your belly doesn’t allow for the niceties of spirituality. Grief, so deep your mind is numb, cannot conceive of a God who loves and yet allows this devastation, this loss, this pain. Before people can begin to live again, can begin to create some new life, then bodies, minds and spirits must be fed and nurtured.
Let us who have so much choice - who are spoilt for choice - choose not to worry about what we might not have tomorrow but let us choose to be concerned and work for the good of those who have nothing today. Let us choose God, God’s way, God’s service to our neighbours throughout the world, in the name of Christ.
Kay Alberg
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On the last Sunday in March the Halifax Group of United Reformed Churches had a joint café style service.The main text for it was taken from one of the lectionary readings for that Sunday, John chapter 20 verse 21: “As the Father sent me so I send you”. This was part of Jesus greeting to His disciples in the evening of the day of His Resurrection. A multi-media presentation of the Bible passage challenged us to recognise Jesus sending us who have chosen to be his disciples in different aspects of following Jesus in discipleship and service:
As the Father sent me so I send you…
to teach
to heal
to serve
to make disciples
to take up your cross.
We were also invited to think as individuals, and discuss in groups, in what ways we as Church, and individuals, are fulfilling Jesus command to go in any or all of these areas?
This challenge comes to us from Easter but the passage in John 20 also looks forward to Pentecost as it concludes with words from verse 21 “Receive the Holy Spirit”. What a joy it is that we are not sent alone or in our own strength but often with each other, and always with the Holy Spirit as our comforter, strength and enabler.
Several of the lectionary readings between Easter and Pentecost point us to the coming of the Holy Spirit. “If you love me, keep my commands. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you for ever - the Spirit of truth” (John 14: 15,16 TNIV). “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptised with water, but in a few days you will be baptised with the Holy Spirit… You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1: 4b,5, 8 TNIV)
When the Holy Spirit did come upon the disciples, gathered together and waiting what a transformation occurred: ordinary people found themselves speaking languages they had not learned, and people from all over the known world heard the message of God’s love and forgiveness in Jesus Christ in their own language.
This is a huge challenge from Pentecost to the Church - to be witnesses in such a way as to speak the Gospel in the language that people understand, not only those from different national or regional languages, but those whose sub-culture speaks in different ways, like for instance differing youth cultures in our society; and the language of “Church” is very often different from that of wider society; let us not conform God’s story to the world, but tell God’s story in language everyone will understand.
After all, that Pentecost affects the whole of the life and history of the Church, the Holy Spirit breathing into the Church then and now the life, power and love of God.
I pray that we will always live not only as people of the Resurrection, with the life of the risen Christ, but also as people of Pentecost, with the power of the Holy Spirit. That we will continue to look for and see glimpses of Resurrection, and that as we live as witnesses to the Resurrection we may also see God’s continuing transforming work in our lives, Churches, communities, and to the ends of the earth.
Shalom
Annette Haigh
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El Espíritu Santo vino en Pentecostés. Iglesia feliz de cumpleaños.
L'Esprit Saint est venu à Pentecôte. Joyeux anniversaire l'église.
Der Heilige Geist ist an Pfingsten gekommen. Glückliche Geburtstagkirche.
Il Santo Spirito è venuto a Pentecoste. La chiesa di compleanno felice.
De Heilige Geest kwam aan Pinksteren. Gelukkige verjaardagkerk.
O Espírito Sagrado veio em Pentecostes. Feliz aniversário a igreja.
Святой Дух прибыл в Пентекоста. С днем рождения церковь.
Den Hellige Ånden kom på Pentecost. Glad fødselsdagkirke.
聖神在聖靈降臨節來到。愉快的生日的教堂。
聖霊はペンテコステを見つけました。 幸福な誕生日教会．
Święty Duch przybywał przy Szczęśliwy kościół dnia urodzenia.
جاء الروح القدس في عيد العنصره. عيد ميلاد سعيد للكنيسة.
Breathe on me, breath of God,
Fill me with life anew.
Not a tongue of fire.
Not a rushing wind.
Just a gentle breath,
The gentle breath of God,
Breathing new life into us,
Filling us with love,
Love for the things God loves.
Filling us with desire,
Desire to do the things God does.
A gentle breath to
Purify our hearts.
To align our will with God’s.
A gentle breath of life,
Everlasting life.
Life that shall never die.
Life that will be perfect,
Living in God’s eternity.
(From On Autopilot? By Nick Percival)
The Holy Spirit came at Pentecost. Happy birthday church.
Revd Nick Percival (10-5-08)
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21st April 2008
EVANGELISM
Friendship - Prayer - EVANGELISM - Conversation - Invitation
Through Vision4life Christians within the URC have an excellent opportunity to review and reflect upon their commitment to the bible, prayer and evangelism. I possess a book mark which was produced by the URC many years ago, and it carries the slogan “emphasis on evangelism”. It has a prayer on the front which I will quote later, and on the back there is a very good definition of evangelism.
“All that activity, living and speaking by which those who know and love Jesus Christ enable others to know and love him.”
About two years ago at Wigton Moor URC, we began to do some hard thinking about evangelism. I felt it was time we had a simple, straightforward strategy in place to help everyone in our fellowship reach out and win others for Christ. The strategy we embraced and have tried to put into practice has four key elements.
Friendship; It is a fact that a very large proportion of people who are Christians and actively committed in a local church are in that position because they were strongly influenced and impressed by a Christian friend, or by the friendliness and warmth of Church, or by both! Therefore evangelism through genuine friendship and friendliness must be a good starting point for us. All we are doing is introducing our friends through word and deed to our best friend - Jesus.
Prayer; If it is true that many people become Christians because of a friend or through discovering a caring, welcoming, friendly Church, it is also true that most of these people will have been faithfully prayed for over a period of time - perhaps many years. To be disciplined in praying for those we long to become Christians is vital. We must regularly pray for them, and if the opportunities arise, we must be bold enough to pray with them during their times of need, taking them into the presence of the God of love.
Conversation; We all have many conversations each week with a whole variety of people including our friends. But how many of these conversations could develop into opportunities to verbally share the gospel if we were more open to the guidance of the missionary Spirit? Is it not possible to bring “spiritual topics” into more of our chats with people? I have discovered that people are ready to talk spiritual! There is a hunger and a thirst in people, and we have the bread of life and the water of the Spirit.
Invitation; Conversations can lead to invitations! Jesus’ method of evangelism was often “invitational”. He invited folk to “come and see”, “come and drink”, “come and taste”, “come and receive” and “come and live”. Through our prayerful openness and sensitivity to the guidance of the Spirit, we too can be led to invite people to “come and experience” Jesus in our special times of worship and church community life.
We have begun to see some fruit as we have attempted to put the above into practice. The more people who seek to remember and practise the strategy - the better. “Loose you shyness find your tongue - tell the world what God has done.”
And the promised prayer;
Loving Father, lead us by your Spirit to witness to our faith in Christ.
May what we do build up the fellowship of his Church.
May how we live speak his Word to the world.
May what we say testify to our life in him.
So that as we know and love him more, others may come to know and love him too.
Revd Peter Clarkson (16.4.08)
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I seem to have spent much of my life answering questions. These days it is, “Have you taken your tablets?” or “Did you change your socks this morning?” That’s my caring wife!
For sixteen years, every Tuesday I addressed a crowd at Liverpool’s Pier Head: dealing with hecklers, debating with atheists and answering questions. The questions varied from Cain’s wife to evolution and sometimes a cheeky one, like, ‘Did the Virgin Mary get into bed with a Ghost?’ City of culture indeed! Questions got the answer they deserved!
Questions followed me to Yorkshire. I had a golf match with a rather garrulous hotelier and he greeted me on the first tee with, ‘Don’t you think that if Abraham had kept his pants on we would have avoided the recent conflict between the Jews and Arabs? I almost replied with, ‘Do you think if your Dad had kept his pants on it would have saved a lot of trouble in Harrogate?’ I just concentrated on the game and managed to win. In the bar later I shared my experience in Gaza and the West Bank and we had a useful discussion.
My book ‘One Man and His God’ was published last year and questions followed. “Would you bless a same sex wedding?” “I doubt it, I replied, but I would not stone the couple to death as Moses commanded.”
Parsons love questions and we don’t mind criticism. Recently, I heard a tape of Richard Dawkins’ best seller ‘The God Delusion’ - quite interesting, hard hitting, but I doubt if anyone who has faced the claims of Jesus and found forgiveness and assurance will be disturbed by it. John in his Gospel writes, “He came unto His own and they did not receive Him.” That is a fact of history! He writes further, “To as many as received Him He gave the power to be the children of God.” That’s a fact of experience!
The big question is: Have we received Him?
RICHARD KAYES
Picture: Question Time at Darlington
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Picture: Man walking his dog on a wet Easter Sunday
Most people dream of a White Christmas, if nothing else, so that they can sing the song!
This year, most of us had a white Easter. It was almost as if it was an April Fool joke being played on us. Easter came very early this year. When I say “came”, it did not come by magic - there is a human formula that says when it will be. Those in charge of the early church met at the Nicene Council in 325AD and decreed that Easter should fall on the first Sunday after the Full Moon after the Spring Equinox. And for almost seventeen hundred years we have been following then same formula. I recently had an almost surreal conversation with a lady who said that she was utterly confused: “If Jesus was born on December 25th and that is his birthday, then there should have been a day when he died, and we should remember him on a set day each year.” Perhaps she had a good point. There were, in fact, some in the early church who believed that Jesus rose again on Sunday, 3rd April 0033AD.
Of course, we cannot be sure of either the actual date of the birth of Jesus or his death and resurrection. It is time that the Christian Church again claimed back both events as Christian Festivals. I want to start a campaign to move Christmas to the last Sunday of December, and Easter to the second Sunday of April. I’m sure the early Church Fathers would turn in their graves, as would many others. But, if you think about it, the commercial, secular world could plan things far better - people would know when their holidays would be, and we might have the chance of some sunshine when we go out on Easter Monday. People don’t like change, and some would find it very odd changing the date of Christmas. But it is time that the Christian Church reclaimed both important festivals as being an important part of our lives.
So the campaign starts here! If, in years to come, the dates are changed, remember you saw it first on the Yorkshire URC website!
Simon Swailes
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Views have been mixed on the BBC’s production of The Passion - ranging from: too “modern”, the disciples are too grubby, and Pilate’s Irish accent is distracting; to: really helpful in giving a sense of Jerusalem and the surrounding area, a superb cast, a considered portrayal of the crucifixion, and how nice to have the TV providing spiritual food for thought as we’ve munched our hot cross buns and Easter eggs!
But does our reaction to The Passion depend on how closely it fits our own personal ideas - and, if so, should it? Or is it just that it has to compete with other versions we remember … Jesus of Nazareth, The Last Temptation of Christ, or The Passion of the Christ, to name just a few. And should it be something we can watch like other television drama, or should we be using the things about it that irritate (or challenge) us to help us engage afresh with Jesus’s journey to the cross and beyond?
The crucifixion was difficult to watch - but the torture and execution of a human being should be difficult to watch. Herod’s role was lost to give space for the disciples’ despair and agonising about whether they should head back to Galilee … but perhaps in our tradition we can skip too easily through the Last Supper and Good Friday to Easter morning, and gloss over the time of doubt and waiting. After all, doubt and waiting can be an important part of our Christian journey, leading to new insights or renewed commitment. As we struggle to make decisions and discern God’s will, isn’t it good to be left with the image of Jesus in Gethsemane, desperately wanting confirmation that he was on the right path … but ending with the prayer “your will be done”?
And how reassuring (to this particular disciple at least) that while those who were closest to Jesus had moments of indecision and panic, we know they still managed to preach the gospel and found churches, even though they obviously couldn’t manage to keep up with the washing and ironing!
Revd Stella Hayton
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It has been, for Christ and for us, a bitter journey, to Golgotha and the Cross. But now, even death itself is past, and we come to it at last - Easter - an exultant celebration of light and life! 'Easter', in English, is named after a Saxon goddess of the dawn, and it is not hard to understand why that name was chosen by our forebears. For isn't Easter precisely the celebration of the true dawn - that moment when the darkness of death itself was swept away, and we see Christ in his risen glory, triumphant, victorious, at last, over the destructive - some would call them 'demonic' - forces of injustice, cruelty and evil?
The Easter stories are about moments of encounter, not with 'divine love' in the abstract - love does not, can not, exist in the abstract - but with Jesus, the risen One, who is the very Lord of love. And those who met with him, in the garden, in the upper room, on the road, by the lakeside, KNEW what had happened - that God had raised our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ - because love, for all its vulnerability, is, when it is true to itself, indestructible. Love absorbs the hatred, the pain, the hurt, and, instead of hurting back, forgives. In the act of forgiving, evil is neutralised, rendered harmless, its sting final drawn.
Cross and empty tomb together tell the truth about love. The Cross speaks of love's vulnerability, and also its universality. The tomb, empty, open to the winds of heaven, speaks of the power of love, and its ability to outlive and outlast every other power, however formidable. In the end, love conquers all things, even the 'final enemy', death itself. So let us celebrate, let us celebrate the love that plumbed the abyss of death and yet emerged triumphant even over the grave. Let us celebrate, but, above all, let us make that love our own. For it will hold us, in life, in death, and beyond death, eternal safe.
Rev. Anthony Gardiner, The Bridge Church, The United Reformed Church in Otley.
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“Saima and Saleem Saddiq and their children Zulekha, three, and Abdul, one, were arrested in a dawn raid on their home.. At around 6.30 a.m. last Tuesday, 8 to 10 police and immigration officials are reported to have battered down the door of the family’s back to back house”. Yorkshire Evening Post (page15) Monday 3rd. March
They are in Yarlswood detention centre awaiting deportation. Once again my anger levels soared. It is not so much that they were being deported, though that seems to be injustice enough, as the familiar story to me of the way the process is managed. They are subject to decreased entitlement to legal representation. Testimonies of reliable witnesses who have known them are not accepted. The legal entitlements that we are proud of are not afforded to asylum seekers. Families, who quite evident to anybody who has got to know them, would not put themselves through the trauma of fleeing their homeland, if there was not a fundamental truth about their story, even if their very poor English meant that some of the details are mis-translated or interpreted,. Whatever their story it seems, it is the default tribunal decision that they are not believed, without their first hand, detailed documentation of proof, supported by independent witnessed verification from their own country.
It is the brutality of their arrest that sickens me: dawn raids on families with children physically abusing the males and verbally abusing the females, and children, bundling their possessions indiscriminately into brick-bags. They are an easy option to help meet targets.
At Beeston Hill we are financially supporting a family in Angola that were arrested without their father and returned homeless and without money. In Cottingley we have come to know an Eritrean mother (with a Ethiopian daughter) who fled Eritrea because Pentecostal Christians are being persecuted and killed. The Home office have “lost” her documents and insist she is Ethiopean “No Borders” An organisation that campaigns for justice for asylum seekers is working to prevent her deportation.
We feel privileged and humbled to know those we have sought to help. In spite of their plight they are always faithful and adamant that God is good and that He will look after them.
I am ashamed to be British. But I trust in the justice and mercy of God who makes room, encourages hospitality to the homeless and refugee, and calls us to give sanctuary to the persecuted. Some who are undeserving may be allowed to stay, and that is a small price for us to pay that small children are not traumatised by us in the same way that they have been traumatised in their country of origin.
Blessed are the peace makers. Please write to our Christian Prime Minister and to your local M.P. to protest at the treatment of these very vulnerable people.
Tony Lee
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Plans are being made to nationalise Northern Rock, will this mean reduction in services available for customers or an increase in choice?
The UK spends nearly £2 billion a year on bottled water, two hundred times more than in the 1970s. Choices to make for those with enough money to access it.
As from 25th February it will not be possible to write a cheque and pay for goods in this way at Tesco, followed by M&S on 1 March. They join Argos, Asda, Boots, Currys, Morrisons, Next, PC World, Sainsbury's, Shell garages and WH Smith in insisting on cash or plastic.
This is being done because it is no longer cost effective to write cheques, takes time to process them and it will reduce fraud.
Does this mean then that consumerism is on the decline. Not likely. Over half of us say it’s our main leisure activity. 37 % of all money spent in this country is on shopping.
We no longer have to worry about not having enough time to get a meal ready, we can buy in a ready meal or a take-away. Choices.
This is all fine for those who have enough money and want to do just that but what about the other side of the coin (sorry for that)? What about those who can’t make such choices?
Is it all about choice and having that taken away from us? We are constantly being bombarded by messages in the media that say if we make the right choice we can have a perfect life. Perfect for whom? And the downside? Wrong choices - disaster there.
A look at the lectionary reading for Sunday sees Jesus having a conversation with a Samaritan woman at the well. That Jesus chooses to have a conversation with her at all would be enough to give those witnessing it concern. He chooses her for conversation, rejecting all those with whom he could have engaged- the men, the learned, those would be disciples! Never mind about what He actually says- his offer of water giving eternal life. Was she really wanting choice or perfection?
Gospel ways turn the world upside down. No longer driven by choosing but reveling in being chosen. Yes whilst choice might be a good thing we consumers are saved from its danger in our lives. A perfect life focused on a God who chose us.
Sue Macbeth
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Rowan Williams is my kind of Christian and it’s not just the fact that he is Welsh! I readily identify with his thoughtfulness, his intellectual capacity to reflect objectively about issues, his quiet passion, his deeply rooted spirituality, the inherent goodness that emanates from the man. Here is a Christian leader, the quality of whose life reflects the ‘fruits of the spirit’ in all that he is.
How refreshing it is to find a Christian leader fearlessly tackle some of the most controversial issues facing our society. He stands in that prophetic tradition of Jesus who raised the issue of what should be their attitude to paying taxes to Caesar with the religious public of his day! Jesus ceaselessly challenged the status quo of the society he was born into.
How sad it has been to observe the frenzied and uninformed reaction of the press and many of the general public to the archbishop’s address in which he raised the issue of how the Law of the Land should perhaps respond to the religious laws of minority groups.
From most of the press and public response it is clear that few have read or understood the thrust of his argument. This always worries me because ill-informed comment fuels prejudice and provides the rationale for ‘witch hunts’.
The reason I say ‘Two cheers for the Archbishop’ is because I am concerned, not so much about his argument but with the fact that perhaps he misjudged the context in which his argument would be received and reported.
The audience of judges and legal academia would have been able to have entered into a meaningful dialogue with the archbishop, used as they are to the nuances of academic debate.
But sadly, British Society is currently riddled with fear and suspicion about many things, not least of which is a fear about the presence of radical ‘islamists’ among the general Muslim population -and the spectre of terrorism and suicide bombers. In the hearts and minds of many ordinary people, Islam is a strange, dark and pervasive presence in the land. Calls for the establishment of a Caliphate in our land by some Muslims have simply fanned the flames of fear. In this climate, to even mention the possibility of accommodating some aspects of Sharia law within our legal framework plays to the fear of ‘Jo Public ’and sets the hounds baying for blood.
However, I would defend the Archbishop’s right to speak his mind about such issues. The way to challenge the fear and religious prejudices which infuse our society is to bring issues into the light of truth. Truth can make people free and when people are truly free they are open to love - and love for each other drives out fear.
In a multi-faith and multicultural society we must encourage harmony, acceptance of others and dialogue. As followers of Jesus, who was so misunderstood, we have a responsibility to resist prejudice and help people to understand each other and celebrate each others’ differences. These are the attitudes which will ultimately guarantee the cohesiveness of our society.
Howard W. Jones, who sadly died in April 2008
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With Christmas and New Year only a memory Easter is fast approaching - and if we need reminding our Co-op supermarket had Easter Eggs displayed on the 2nd January!
But before Easter we have Lent, the time we remember Jesus being led by the Spirit into the wilderness for 40 days and nights to be tempted. (Matthew 4:1-11, also Mark 1:12-13 and Luke 4:1-13)
Have you ever wondered why Jesus, of all people, was tempted? Jesus came to earth as a human being - and part of being human is temptation. But what is our understanding of temptation? Usually ‘to tempt’ means to entice a person to do wrong - but the equivalent Greek word, peirazein, means ‘to test’; and this testing was significant in Jesus’ ministry for it would determine the course of history.
And what a test it was! Coming to the end of those 40 days and nights, spent alone in the most hostile environment, pondering his future, and during which he chose to go without food, Jesus was hungry, and no doubt weakened and exhausted in body mind and spirit. How easy it would have been for him to fail the test and use his God given gifts for his own ends; to satisfy his own hunger, and then to influence the people for his own self gain. What a following he would have had if he’d given in to the tempter - but Jesus wasn’t about using his gifts and power for his own selfish ends, but to show God’s Love - to everyone, whatever the cost. And we know what that meant!
Using quotes from Deuteronomy Jesus resisted the tempter, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone (8:3) - ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test (6:16) - ‘Fear the Lord your God and worship only him’ (6:13), was his response, and he left the wilderness confident in his mission to bring Good News to the world. (According to Luke’s account the tempter only left Jesus for a while - testing continued).
The spirit led Jesus into the wilderness to prepare him for his ministry - allowing him to choose the path to take.
We are invited to choose our path too. Which will it be?
What temptations face us in the wilderness?
Will we satisfy our own wants, or will we resist the temptation, and trust God, as Jesus did, whatever consequences?
One thing is certain whatever our decision - God’s unconditional Love and presence, shown in Jesus, is with us in all our searching, and through the power of the Holy Spirit we have all the strength, wisdom and encouragement needed to face temptation and overcome it.
And to God be the glory and the Praise, now and always.
Denise Megson
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It is good to know that hitherto unpublished letters written home by J.B Priestley from the 1914-18 warfront will soon be placed in the public domain through an arrangement by his son, Tom, with Bradford University. What little we already know of his thoughts about the war and its leaders promises that these further revelations will give added weight to the view of the folly of war and especially to the growing sense that WW1 (in which my father served) was both unnecessary and meaningless, its eventual outcome sowing the seeds of further conflict 20 years later.
The eagerness of our Cabinet (mainly old men) to seek more effective ways of rounding up young men to be shipped across the Channel, shovelled into the trenches and there subjected to shelling, disease and slaughter, betrays any proper regard for the sanctity of human life. It is sad that so many of us are still ready to wrap this up in shrouds of so-called honour, glory and sacrifice.
Priestley was so disgusted at the bungled generalship and with his company officers and “silly little rules” that he thought seriously about giving up his reluctantly-acquired commission and returning to the ranks. In Margins Released (1962) he wrote: “The army ought to have turned on (the C-in-C) Haig and his friends and sent them home”.
This New Year’s Day, the Guardian newspaper printed a letter published on the same day in 1915 written by a British Officer describing the several days of Christmas truce to enable friend and foe to bury their dead and to exchange greetings and gifts before resuming trying to kill each other. News had spread about the Christmas Day football match between the two sides further along the line “and our own pet enemies remarked that they would like a game, but as the ground in our part is all root crops and much cut up by ditches, and as, moreover we had not got a ball, we had to call it off”. Unfortunately he was referring only to the football match.
“He shall judge between nations, and shall decide for many peoples; and they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.” (Isaiah 2:4)
Barry Parker
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It was the first of January and it was raining!
The celebrations on the television the previous evening had included extravagant firework displays and good wishes for prosperity and happiness. The morning newspaper informed me that 2008 would see China investing millions on world markets and experiencing sporting and cultural triumphs. The messages were upbeat but ……… debt was rising, Kenya was in turmoil, Pakistan was poised on the edge of political chaos. What are Christians to make of it all and do we have anything to say in a world which seems to answer the rising turmoil with shallow celebrations?
Then onto our back lawn plopped this beautiful bird - a green woodpecker.
We have birds in our garden but they are the fairly common varieties to be found in most urban gardens. Over the twenty years in which we have lived here the number and variety of birds has constantly reduced as trees have been cut down and gardens have increasingly been paved over. Whenever one of the rarer birds lands in our garden it seems to me to be a sign of hope. Not only does our wonderful, gracious God give us the delights of the regular ‘common’ varieties of birds but the less common ones are still there, he is still caring for them and working his purposes out despite the effect of humans.
We may find it hard to understand the overall purposes of God or see evidence of his work but we can be assured that he is working through the human story being enacted out in the upbeat messages of the New Year, through debt laden families, through the horror of the Kenyan or Pakistani situations. God’s purposes were not thwarted by the deception which Abraham practiced from time to time nor the deviousness of Jacob. God was quietly at work behind the evil of the massacre of the children in Bethlehem despite the arrogance and fear amongst human beings.
Be assured that God will continue to be at work in 2008, surprising us and delighting us just like that woodpecker. That is the message of hope which we must share.
Val Morrison
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Fans of “Dad’s Army” will easily recognise Private Fraser’s catch phrase. He was a born pessimist - always expecting things to go wrong - as they frequently did. That’s how the programme got its laughs.
As we look forward into the New Year, we too could easily get very pessimistic. Problems with personal relationships, health, finance, even global warming - can cause many people to be concerned about their future.
In “Dad’s Army” things never really turned out as bad as Fraser predicted. By all pulling together with a shared enthusiasm, the Home Guard usually triumphed in the end.
Likewise when we have somebody to work with us, and to support us, things become a lot easier. We can achieve most things that we put our mind to. But the key to it all is having an enthusiasm for what we are doing.
In a “five-minute-interview” in my daily paper, the person being interviewed said “I’m good at … anything I put my heart into. If you have a passion for something you’ll find a way to make it happen.”
How often do you complain about the way things are? More to the point, what have you done to improve the situation? If you have a passion for something you’ll find a way to make it happen.
As Christians we believe with certainty that we are not all doomed, as Private Fraser would have us believe. For we have a Lord and Saviour in Jesus Christ upon whom we can rely.
We have a passion for the coming of God’s Kingdom, and believe that He will find a way to make it happen through us.
So we need not be pessimistic, or despondent. Jesus said “… don’t be all upset, always concerned about what you will eat and drink. Your Father knows that you need these things. Instead, be concerned with his Kingdom, and he will provide you with these things”
… and let’s not be afraid to proclaim our message to the world:
“Saved! … Saved! … We’re all saved!”
Alleluia!
Rod Morrison
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I think I shall scream if anyone else says, “I can’t believe the year has gone so quickly!” It seems to be the opening line in countless Christmas circulars, friends and family wondering where the year went - as if this has been an exceptionally fast running year, as if we have been cheated of our full value of time.
In fact, the reality is that every year goes just as quickly as the last one: 31,536,000 seconds take 31,536,000 seconds - roughly one year. Of course time sometimes seems to drag and sometimes fly. But it still remains the same even if it feels different.
Maybe what they are really saying is that life is short, there never seems enough time to do everything we would like to do, and we don’t look forward to getting old. And at times life does seem incredibly short. Each week has only seven days; there are only four and bit weeks in every month, and only twelve of those in a year. In a lifetime of 70 years, give or take, that’s not much time.
If Christmas has brought home the speed of time once again, perhaps the start of another year is time to look at whatever time we have left. Time, like life itself, is a precious gift, time to use, not to fret over, time to enjoy not to complain about, time to live not to kill. Rose Macauley once said in a book review, “It is a book to kill time with - for those who like it better dead!”
For those facing a deadline - and that can be a terrifying prospect - hostages, people with a terminal illness, exam victims, time can take on a desperate urgency. The present suddenly becomes very precious, every moment is time to be savoured - time with loved ones, time to enjoy nature and its beauty, time to live.
But time takes on even greater significance in terms of the unimaginable scale of eternity. What does it mean to move beyond time into limitless “time”? Whatever are millions of light-years like? It is unimaginable, but the Bible gives a hint as it describes things from God’s perspective - “With you, a thousand years are like a day and a day like a thousand years.” Or to go one step further, time ceases to have meaning - it is no longer a restraint, no longer a threat, no longer something to be passed through. It’s a whole new world.
Jesus, dying on the cross, could say to the thief crucified alongside him - “Today you will be with me in Paradise.” In the presence of God, beyond death, is always “today”, present reality, where time really is dead, there are no calendars to be turned.
But at this moment, time is a gift and an opportunity. There may not be much of it left. But while we have it, we can do some good with it and we can use it to find meaning in God who is beyond it.
And that ties in with Christmas, because at the first Christmas, 2,000 years ago - not all that long ago - God amazingly broke into time in Jesus Christ not only to help us live in time, but also in order to take us beyond time.
So have a very happy New Year, with enough time to enjoy, without the need to kill any of it, with enough time to live and to discover God’s closeness now and his ‘foreverness’ beyond time.
Malcolm Hanson
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We were visiting our new granddaughter in Kent. I was given the job of walking the dog - a spaniel called ‘Daffodil’ (honest!). It was a beautiful day and I decided to give this dog a bit of real exercise so we set off for the lakes which are about 2 miles from the house.
We were just entering a leafy, muddy lane when a bright-eyed and bushy-tailed border collie appeared out of nowhere. He was soon followed by his owners - a middle-aged couple. I began the conversation:
“What a lovely dog! How old is it?”
“Eighteen months,” the man replied.
“Dog or bitch?” I asked.
“Dog.”
So far the conversation had been light and straightforward.
“What do you call him?” I asked.
“Sarny” came a muffled response.
“O Sally,” I retorted. But that’s not a boy’s name!”
“Sarny” the owner repeated - this time a bit sharper and louder.
“Oh Sammy,” I confirmed hurriedly.
“No! Sarny”! Like that***** thing that’s sharning in the sky!”
“Oh I see, Sunny!
” “Yes Sarny” he replied with deep suspicion.
We went our separate ways. He, no doubt thinking I was a lunatic whilst I reminded myself that communication can be a nightmare.
I wonder whether this is what happens when we talk about God to people. Do we talk ‘gobbledygook’ as far as people are concerned? Do we simply assume people understand what we are saying? Do people consider our talk about God to be nonsense?
John of the Fourth Gospel describes the nativity as the “Word becoming flesh”. God talking with the people’s of the world through the actions and life of Jesus. A message for people of all languages and dialects in the universal language of ‘love in action.’
Jesus loved, served healed, affirmed, supported, encouraged and enabled - his was,and is,an ‘action message’. It’s what we do that really matters, not what we say. People understand God’s love by experiencing it practically through our service to them - a service that expects nothing in return!
Happy Christmas and a peaceful New Year and may the sharn, sharn upon you!
Howard Jones, who sadly died in April 2008.
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Who, would you say, was the greatest person ever to have lived?
There are plenty of candidates to consider, from Abraham to Nelson Mandella, besides all of those from outside the Judaeo-Christian tradition, like Ghandi for instance, people who followed a dream and led a nation to freedom, risking their lives to assert a principle.
There must be thousands, whose names we recognise, and millions whose names are not recorded. Who is your hero or heroine? I wonder how many would vote for John the Baptist. Jesus himself nominated John: “I assure you that John the Baptist is greater than any man who has ever lived.” (Matt. 11:11). He was more than a prophet, more than Elijah, of whom he was thought to be the reincarnation. John was sent by God himself to open the way for the Messiah. He was totally dedicated to his vocation, living the life of an ascetic in the wilderness until the time was right for his message to Israel.
He came baptising the people who repented of their sins to escape from “the punishment God is about to send.” He warned them of the One who would sort out the ‘chaff’ and throw it into an everlasting fire. Many were baptised and there was great excitement - there hadn’t been a prophet for 400 years! Some earnest Jews including Josephus, the historian, emulated the life of John in the desert.
But John’s life and message contrasted strongly with those of Jesus who came eating and drinking and mingling with all classes of people. And, after commending John, Jesus added, “But he who is least in the Kingdom of heaven is greater than John.” What a devastating judgement! The greatest man who has ever lived is less then the least in the Kingdom! Who, then, can qualify for the Kingdom?
There’s another puzzle. Later, when John was in prison, he sent to ask if Jesus was the Messiah. How could he fall so far as to doubt? His whole life had been driven to the moment when he could say, “Behold, the Lamb of God!” yet now he is doubting the One he pointed to.
John the Baptist, though preparing people for the new testament, is an old testament figure. For him, the only way for people to be acceptable to God, was for them to produce the fruits of repentance i.e. to finish with adultery and greed and violence, and to be generous, fair and honest. Holiness alone would qualify us to approach the holy God, and the One who was to come would be furious with this generation, baptising with fire and wielding the axe!
There’s no wonder that John began to doubt his own prophecy. Jesus was telling the people they were forgiven! The only warnings (not threats) he made were against the ‘holy’ people who reckoned they didn’t need to repent. Jesus seemed to advise people rather than command, to invite rather than order. Maybe he wasn’t the messiah after all.
Grace, on this scale, was too much for John, as it is for many good and righteous people. It requires a mind-boggling effort of the imagination, a shaking of the foundations, a rebirth of the spirit, a new creation. John was still a part of the old creation, the best of, but still a part of the testament that Jesus replaced.
David Megson
(Picture: Dave Morris as John The Baptist.)
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“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit”
Advent and the beginning of a new Christian year provide an opportunity to re-examine how we can bring hope to people who have yet to discover the importance of Jesus Christ for today’s world. As we have been planning with Church Together in South Leeds to take part in the national and citywide HOPE08 campaign I have been thinking about how God can motivate us to be his agents for good in our communities.
How can we be part of making God’s kingdom of love and justice a reality today?
To use John the Baptist’s words in the Advent lectionary:
How can we “produce fruit in keeping with repentance” (Matthew 3:8)?
How can Christians in the UK today - to use the words of the HOPE08 campaign - “do more, do it together and do it in word and action” to reveal the love of God in Jesus Christ?
I think the answer lies in accepting, receiving and depending on all the spiritual resources that God offers us through Jesus Christ.
John the Baptist reminds us that Jesus will “baptise you with the Holy Spirit and with fire” (Matthew 3:11). Baptism with water is used to initiate members into the body of Jesus Christ as an outward sign. But it is the work of the Holy Spirit within the believer that will enable God’s work to be done. As the risen Jesus Christ brings God’s peace and breathes the Holy Spirit into the first disciples so we too can receive and be empowered to carry the message of God’s hope and forgiveness within us (John 20:19-23).
But what about the “fire” that John the Baptist says comes with the Holy Spirit? Is this the means by which we will be refined, cleansed and renewed so we are able to carry God’s Spirit and love within us? Is this the passion that we will carry within us that will capture people’s attention? Is the means by which God’s hope may overflow from us so that our words and action do bring HOPE to so many people in 2008?
My prayer is that Advent 2007 may be a time of preparation in our churches so that we are all enabled by God to overflow with the joy and peace that Jesus Christ makes possible.
Geoff Ellis 1st December 2007.
HOPE08 details on: www.hope08.com
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An official message of peace greets you as you drive up to The Wall.
The Wall itself looks far from peaceful, with its regular watchtowers,
sullen guard of young soldiers and gallery of angry-looking graffiti.
We're all right - a busload of English tourists heading into Bethlehem, but Mary, who works at the Arab Centre for Rehabilitation,said she has given up travelling out of her little town, because she cannot bear the humiliation. On the way out we saw something of what she meant - an elderly man was required to get out of his car to besearched, and his luggage was opened.
Even we had to show our passports!
On the way up to the Rehabilitation Centre there was an incident. The road was winding narrowly and steeply uphill, with the bus only justmanaging. A vehicle coming down the hill refused to give way. An argument ensued. Someone from the other vehicle picked up a car jack and threatened our driver with it. Some women travelling with him managed to get it off him. "These are the people you are trying to help," said our guide. "Just look how grateful they are!"
But does gratitude really come into it in the face of such need? We're glad to be able to support the Rehabilitation Centre - it's doing a great job,and many of its clients are victims of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
But the help they really need we can't give them - stir crazy they are, stuck inside that Wall.
In Bethlehem we visit the Shepherds' Fields (closed between 11.30 am and 2 pm) and the Church of the Nativity. The tourists and pilgrims have returned en masse this year - good news for those trying to make a living behind the Wall. Edward runs a souvenir shop and is a major employer of local Christian people. He looked pleased to see us. But because of the Wall many Palestinian Christians are leaving the country, most of them for ever.
Outside the Church of the Nativity we chatted with a Palestinian
policeman. "Pray for peace," he said.
John Filsak
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“Those who look to Him are radiant; their faces are never covered with shame.” Psalm 34v5 NIV
They were insistent. No need for proof. She was caught red handed. Adulteress without doubt, the penalty, death by stoning. Moses said so. It’s in the Law. The logic was fearful but faultless.
The question to Jesus, brief and to the point: “But what do you say?” They fell silent, waiting for His answer.
She was silent too, standing where they put her, alone in the circle where all could see.
The Temple was busy; crowds listening to Jesus teaching. The silence spread, everyone waiting for His answer.
It was a test of sincerity, of credibility. “Moses said”. It narrowed the options!
He would walk away, they thought, caught in the logic of tradition. If He valued His reputation, He would leave her in the dust and let the Law take its course. No need for discussion. No need even to look at her. No one would blame Him. It was expected.
So why was He writing in the dust, kneeling at her feet? Staying, not leaving. Sharing her danger from stones waiting in the hands of her accusers, eager to demonstrate religious zeal. His answer, when it came, took them by surprise:
“Stone her”. But victory was short lived; “and let the one without sin cast the first stone”.
And still He stayed by her side, shielding her by His presence, confronting their hardness of heart.
One after another they left, unable to face the challenge, Love routing self -righteousness.
The woman looked at Jesus and their eyes met, no judgement in His, no fear in her’s.
No condemnation shutting her out, pushing her away, destroying her last shreds of self-worth.
Instead, a door of Hope, of Love, wide open, welcoming to a new beginning, a new future.
She looked around where her accusers had been, listening again to voices of judgement, remembering her own sense of shame. Knowing what she deserved, she hesitated, then looked again at the face of Jesus shining with honest compassion willing her to make a new choice, the first of many.
They had planned an ending; Jesus had turned it into a glorious new beginning, beyond her wildest dreams.
A Prayer:
“O Lord, the darkness seems so complete. No chink of light to make me hope for a New Day.
But then You come, in Love and Mercy, and I can live again, your Peace and Joy within.
It’s what I need, it’s what I want…it’s what I choose. Come, Lord Jesus, lead me to a new beginning.”
(Based on John 8v1-12NIV)
Hugh Mckee
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“Let’s go to Penarth and have lunch”, suggested Pat. We had some time to kill on our recent trip to visit relatives in Cardiff. We had both grown up in Cardiff and I had cycled to Penarth dozens of times. I reckoned it would only take about ten minutes to get there. “Why are you going this way?” asked Pat as I made a right hand turn, “you should have gone straight across on the new road!” “It’ll be fine,” I replied “we can go the way we always used to!” The problem was that where we used to turn under a bridge - there was a one-way system operating. I turned the only way I could - and panicked! I won’t continue this saga, save to say that having felt our way around the perimeter of the city - we finally arrived in Penarth nearly an hour later (ten minutes! Huh!).
It’s not the same Cardiff we grew up in - the roads have changed, old buildings have gone and new ones have been built - it’s quite bewildering to us when we return. The familiar is no longer!! We feel like strangers!
We have all had similar experiences. The world has changed around us and it can make us feel ill at ease. New cultures have sprung up, modern family life isn’t the same that we experienced, people have different values and so on...
But we do belong! We need not be afraid as the world changes its clothes and its moods. At the heart of our life is a God who whilst encouraging us all to change as humanity grows older - is the same God yesterday, today and tomorrow. Our contentedness and peace rests on that experience. As life changes - God’s love for us remains constant and sure. That has its responsibility, for that same God asks us to love each other with a constant forgiving and accepting love. In a bewildering and alienating world we need to be a resting place and centre of support for our communities.
Howard Jones, who sadly died in April 2008.
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