James 5

I have just been reading James 5 and it got me to wondering; in a society where no one goes without, where money - through loans, credits and benefits - is readily available, where even the poorest amongst us can have clothes to wear, food in their bellies, a roof over their heads, and access to amazing health facilities, how can this warning to rich oppressors apply to us? In the end the answer comes swiftly and once again we have to stop thinking on an individual basis and think corporately, or in this case globally. Our country along with many countries in the world qualifies as a "rich oppressor" of other nations that do not have our wealth and opportunities, the question is "how do I challenge this?" but the answer does not come swiftly in this case. Perhaps as individuals and corporately as the church we can use what opportunity we have to change the status quo, and perhaps as the Church we can start with ourselves. I love Pope Francis and all that he is trying to do with the Catholic Church, what a man of God he is. I see Justin Welby in a similar light however I think his job is much more difficult than the Pope's as the Anglican Church is so intertwined with our government and the laws of this land. But enough of that, I am called to take the plank of wood out of my own eye before I try to take the speck of dust out of my brothers eye and there is where I need to begin.

Let it snow!!

Apparently there is a storm front on its way that could result in us having a white Christmas? In spite of all the disruption it causes I love snow. I love it when one gets up in the morning to find the world covered in a blanket of white, I love it even more when the snow is virgin, there are no footprints to disturb its perfect, unbroken covering. Or when you can see the footprints made by the little birds as they forage about for food. When walking in it I love it when in crunches under your feet, and the way it seems to deafen the sounds and brings a little quiet into our noisy world. It seems that all that purity, that whiteness can cover up the brokenness and detritus of our world, and just for a time the earth is perfect once again.

The cleansing that the snow seems to bring and the purity of its brilliant radiance is reflected in the words of King David in Psalm 51 who, when pleading for mercy and forgives after Nathan the Prophet admonished him for his affair with Bathsheba and his treachery towards Uriah, wrote "Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow." David goes on to say "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me." Like washing away our sins, snow is only temporary in our part of the world, like the first verse we can wash and be clean but that doesn't change our hearts, we can still be unclean on the insider, which is why David asks God to do a work within him.

We are reading James at the moment and in 4:8 it says "wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded." Emphasising the fact that it is not just our exterior that needs to show the mark of holiness and salvation, but what is inside as well, echoing the teaching of Jesus in Matthew 23 "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish,but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence." Jesus then goes on to instruct that we should "clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean."

Cleansing, renewal and recreation are fundamental to our faith but they all start with what is going on inside such as our minds being renewed (Romans 12:12). All of this is perhaps summarised best by Ephesians 4:22-25 "You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness."

As we approach the end of another year through the gateway of Christmas and our celebration of the birth of Jesus, let us all think about ourselves and ask "do we conform to the pattern of this world?" is our faith like snow; a beautiful, pure blanket yet covering something not so beautiful underneath? If that is the case then why not join me in a prayer of David:

Have mercy on me, O God,

    according to your unfailing love;

according to your great compassion

    blot out my transgressions.

Wash away all my iniquity

    and cleanse me from my sin.

For I know my transgressions,

    and my sin is always before me.

Against you, you only, have I sinned

    and done what is evil in your sight;

so you are right in your verdict

    and justified when you judge.

Surely I was sinful at birth,

    sinful from the time my mother conceived me.

Yet you desired faithfulness even in the womb;

    you taught me wisdom in that secret place.

Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean;

    wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.

Let me hear joy and gladness;

    let the bones you have crushed rejoice.

Hide your face from my sins

    and blot out all my iniquity.

Create in me a pure heart, O God,

    and renew a steadfast spirit within me.

Do not cast me from your presence

    or take your Holy Spirit from me.

Restore to me the joy of your salvation

    and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.

Then I will teach transgressors your ways,

    so that sinners will turn back to you.

Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God,

    you who are God my Savior,

    and my tongue will sing of your righteousness.

Open my lips, Lord,

    and my mouth will declare your praise.

You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it;

    you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings.

My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit;

    a broken and contrite heart

    you, God, will not despise.

Amen

How long?

I have been watching the brilliant, but occasionally farcical, The Passing Bells. A drama about a young German lad and a young British lad who volunteer in WW1. Whilst watching accounts of these young men, some as young as fifteen, going off to war and the pain felt by their families left behind I had a chilling thought; how long before our children have to go off and fight a war. A whimsical thought you may think, but just look at the world today, what would it take for all the current conflicts in the Middle East to merge into one major conflict that draws all the world in? Not that much I am sure and that is disturbing. Jesus said that "blessed are the peacemakers" and the time is long overdue for the politicians of this world to stop thinking about their own careers and pushing their own personal, self-seeking agenda's, and to start thinking about how peace can be brought about in our troubled world. I accept that this may mean further and greater conflict, even though I find this distasteful, but something must be done to halt the ever-decreasing circle of violence and hate that will eventually see the children of all nations going off to war on a global scale.

Just Friends?

I heard someone use this statement on TV this evening and it stopped me in my tracks, its a statement I have heard many times before and often used myself; a statement that means that there is nothing going on between them. In short that a boy and a girl, or a man and a woman are not having a sexual relationship. Then everyone breathes a sigh of relief "Oh there just friends! Well that's all sorted then."

But there is no such thing as "just friends"; friends are there for you in your time of need, they give everything unconditionally or without expecting anything back, they are not easily offended, they get more joy out of seeing you happy or succeeding than being happy or succeeding themselves. In the relationship, no matter how deep and maybe intimate it is, there is no expectation of a sexual relationship, indeed it is on neither parties agenda. Friendship, true friendship, can never be described as "just" a friendship, it is earth shatteringly huge. It can change the way people think, change the way people live, and even completely change the world. "Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” (John 15:13) Jesus demonstrated the significance of friendship with the ultimate sacrifice that changed our world. So please, lets drop this “just friends” as an escape clause when describing relationships and lets treat friendship the way it should be, with awe.  Perhaps when someone asks you if there is something going on between two people and you know the truth then perhaps the response should be: “No they are not lovers, but they are friends.”

Rough and Ready

My dad always used to say to me that if something is worth doing, then it is worth doing well. He had a good point, but in some cases if we wait until everything is perfect before we do something then it may never get done at all. In the case of our faith if we wait until we are perfect before we start contributing to the work of the kingdom then we will never get going, indeed our study in James will explore the fact that perfection can only be achieved if we actually get on and do something; teaching that is diametrically opposed to my Dad's nugget of wisdom. 

I am sure we are all aware of the amount of effort that goes into a Sunday morning service, sometimes I get frustrated that there is always something else to do on a Sunday morning before I can  get on with the business in hand. This can often lead to some of us who are involved starting the service flustered, confused, agitated or even angry.....not a good place to be when  coming before God, especially when one is required to lead or teach others.

At the beginning of my ministry at Station Hill it was my intention to spend most of the morning before the service in meditation and prayer, and although I have managed to more time in prayer compared to previous years, my desire (and it is a desire, not a goal or objective but a heart-felt desire) for fervent, sustained, focused prayer for at least thirty minutes before the service is yet to be met. The evening services are supposed to be quite different, more relaxed, less formal. Yet the last two, despite being all these things, have been a little "rough and ready" particularly when it comes to organising the music. I was encouraged last night, not only by the number of people who attended, but also by the way people faced our disorganisation with humour and grace. Hopefully we will get into our stride and be a little more organised in the future, but without creating the organisational challenges that face is on Sunday mornings. Wouldn't it be so much easier if we could just turn up and it all worked? Yes, but I would rather find perfection through the works that I do, than strive for perfection before I do anything.

Just war?

This year we are both thinking about the horrors of WW1 and potentially staring down the barrel of another global conflict with the rapid rise of ISIS, a regime that parallels at least in its evil conduct, the heinous Nazi regime. But was waging war on the Nazis the right thing to do? Isn't the evil of these ideologies justification for war, and as a result isn't such a war just? Well yes and no, but You have to understand that I am coming from the position of a pacifist, which is quite unusual considering I come from a family of "warriors." Let me deal first with my take on "pacifist"; for me this does not mean I will avoid war at all and any cost, it means that I will not sit back act as a peacemaker and watch nations descend into war! No, I will make every effort to avoid war with the realisation that sometimes war becomes inevitable.

So back the question 'can there be a just war?" In Romans 3:10 Paul quotes Psalm 14 "as it is written: "None is righteous, no, not one" and my argument is that the unrighteous cannot prosecute a just war. God is righteous so a war prosecuted by him, or by those he commands to do so can be just. In WW2 there were people on both sides who claimed God was on their side.  In the case of the war on ISIS both the "Christian" West and Muslim ISIS claim to have God on their side, yet neither are just in their actions. So neither WW2 nor the war on ISIS can claim to be just. "Can I really believe my eyes, does Simon really think that?" 

Do not adjust your set! 

A history lesson: Let's start with WW1, an unavoidable war apparently because of the tensions caused by imperialism, and ambition that is brought about by too much power. A war that can only be described as disgusting. The end of the war that resulted in defeat of Germany and her allies was marked by a surrender that the victors ensured was both deliberately humiliating and economically disastrous For Germany. It was this environment caused by Britain and its allies that gave birth to the evils of Nazism. This then brings us to Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan and all the other countries in that area: for decades after WW2 the Super-Powers of the U.S., USSR and their respective allies exerted their power and influence in these areas for their own gain. This without a care for what the conditions they were creating as they promoted and supported various despots financially and militarily. The first evidence perhaps of the long term effect of this was the backlash and eventual deposing of the Shah of Iran and in his place the hardline Ayatollah Khomeini. Saddam Hussein, the House of Saud in Saudi, the Al-Assad family in Syria etc. etc. are all products of the Wests interference with ISIS a direct result of the activities of these regimes. A localised war to get rid of the Saddam Hussein who could no longer be controlled by the Super-Powers has destabilised the entire region and now we are in a position where a bigger and more extensive war is necessary to try and reestablish some sort of normality.

 

My personal conclusion is that WW2 was necessary, as I believe is the prosecution of war on ISIS, but are these wars just, not in my humble opinion.

Best job in the world?

Apparently being a church Minister is the most rewarding job in the world. I am only 6 weeks into the job but would like to believe that it is. Driving to work this morning after a pretty stressful couple of hours getting the kids ready for school then taking them to school, I found myself feeling excited about the prospects that the day held. For me what I do is a combination of hobby and dream job, I have often said to myself, or perhaps shouted, 'I can't believe that I am the minister of a church!' Things are sometimes difficult, people are sometimes unreasonable, some moments are filled with sadness, and some days full of despair for Gods world. But when all things are considered this is the best job in the world and I can't wait for tomorrow when I can get back into the office again!

Red Face

Today has been a day of positives and negatives, of highs and lows: the highs and the positives have been the big things, the seminal stuff where God has been involved; the negatives and the lows have been the petty things, the small things, where people are involved and God seems to be ignored. I have ended up with a red face on more than one occassion today because of my annoyance or irritation. So how can I let these little things get to me, the answer is I shouldn't, I shouldn't allow myself be caught off-guard by the tempter. I shouldn't succumb to anger. I need to take a deep breath and accept that those annoying things are not important. So I am going to try!

When is a lie not a lie?

Or more accurately, is it okay to tell a 'white lie'? I was challenged by this the other day at the house group I attend. We were talking about the characteristics of a holy life, or being holy, and we got on to the subject of telling the truth. I have to say that I am quite black and white (pardon the pun) and tend to simplify my response by affirming my belief that there is no such things as 'degrees of sin', sin is sin and that is the end of it. I have preached on this more than once and am not shy about my opinion. But is there a time when a white-lie actually is better than the truth? The group I was with discussed the infamous 'does my bum look big in this' question and response (when the person asking's bottom does actually look too big in a particular article of clothing) and concluded that actually in such matters the truth, the polite and humble truth, was the best response. But what about in other more difficult situations? At the other extreme of the apparel and figure question is 'am I going to die?' What do you say when asked by someone who is terminally ill? How do you respond when it is a child, a parent, a sibling, a close friend? What do we say? To be frank I am not sure and I guess will not be sure about this until I get asked the question. 

With the benefit of not being exposed to such a situation in my life since my teens I will try and address this. If I were to look at it from the person to whom the bad news is going to be delivered then I can honestly say that I would want people to be honest with me. I would want to get my house in order, to perhaps do some things and say some things that I had left undone and unsaid. Also I guess that as an adult Christian who believes without a doubt that God has promised me eternal life, death holds a different meaning to me than the non-believer, the agnostic or the atheist. So for me the truth is a blessing in that situation, but what about a child, what about if it was my child? I would like to think that I would be honest with them, but when its all said and done I don't really know. I like to hold on to my belief that the truth is always best, and that when couched in love and humility, God will hold that precious truth and ensure that all who own it will be blessed by it.

Tattoo's, stretched ears and piercings...

Driving through Chippenham the other day and noticing the droves of young people coming out of college with various tribal accoutrements covering their bodies got me thinking; if I was a teenager today wouldn't I be covered in tattoo's, have my ears stretched to the size of saucers and with piercings covering every conceivable appendage? The answer to that question would be yes! In my youth I was very expressive and expressed myself in the way I wore my hair, the type of clothes I wore, and the various other fashions accessories that were distributed about my body. I remember getting my ears pierced, yes "ears" in the plural, in 1976 for a boy to have both ears pierced was very radical. Today that wouldn't even get you a second look! Back in those day people would avoid me, make fun of me, or even abuse me as I strolled down the road with my orange (or burgundy, or red) hair, wearing a baby blue and white jump suit, with red suede winkle-pickers. Today I probably wouldn't get noticed if I was among the crowds leaving Chippenham College, or hanging around Monkton Park, well I would if I was dressed like that at my current age (don't worry, I have no desire to relive my youth in that way). But underneath that technicolored fashion explosion of the 1970's was a sensitive young man, with a troubled upbringing and even more troubled home life. A person who worked hard at the school-work he loved, worried (mostly) about how other people felt, and had ambitions that he had no idea how he was going to achieve. He needed love, understanding and support, which he didn't get until he came to christ nearly 25 years later.

So that 13/14 year-old Simon has come back to life in my mind and reminded me of a lot. The young-people of Chippenham may sometimes look a little weird and unwashed, but beneath all that metal, ink and dye may be a young person who needs our understanding, patience, love and support. Perhaps we should read Galatians 3:28-29 a little differently: "There is neither Punk nor Goth, neither Chav nor Grebo, nor is there Skater and Pikey, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise." And once we understand that, we should strive to see more of these young people, whatever their tribe, come to into the tribe of Abraham.

Reverends Log: Star date 110914

It had always been my intention to recommence a blog once I had taken up a position as minister. I got quite into blogging when I was in training and found it helped me to unpack things that may be challenging or troubling me. Those of you who read that blog know that I have no problem with sharing what is on my heart. So here I am a minister, eleven days in, starting my blog. Am I going to be more circumspect in what I write? Nah! Although I may use bigger words J

As a student I said I had the best life in the world, I loved what I did! Now as a minister I can’t say much has changed I LOVE WHAT I DO! Over the past ten days I have had so much joy in serving the Lord with all my heart, body and soul, I amaze myself constantly that I am actually a minister and serving God in this way; ‘Are you really sure about this Lord?” And I am really blessed by some of the encounters I have had during my short time in the minister’s chair. Like this evening when I had cause to visit someone on a mental health ward; because of the nature of my business in the world I wore a clerical collar (which I think looked really cool with my bike leathers) and this really did have an impact. As soon as I arrived on the ward I was approached by a couple of patients calling me “father” and asking me to spend time and pray with them. I did pray for a number of folk, but one young man really broke my heart; I wont divulge his name but he was agitated, young enough to be my son, told me his father died when he was little and that his mum couldn’t cope with his illness. Some time after I had prayed for him in a group he sheepishly approached me asking if I could “set him free?” From what I asked, “from all this” he replied with a sweeping gesture seemingly to indicate the hospital, his illness, his troubled mind. I prayed with him and hope to see him when I visit again, actually I don’t! I hope and pray that Christ will respond to his heart-felt prayer and set him free.

This has taught me two lessons at the beginning of my ministry (1) that spiritual provision for those in mental health facilities is extremely important (2) that wearing a “dog collar” gets you noticed….and that’s a really good thing!