Growing Up - from 'The Fire of Your Life' by Maggie Ross, 133

"Growing up is hard.
"For us late bloomers, it takes most of our twenties for grief over hubris and callowness ti burn most of the rage out of us, to make us painfully aware of how careful we must be. We go from feeling that no-one pays attention or listens to us, to realizing he tremendous, sometimes terrifying impact that our words, actions, and, yes, our prayers have on others. The beginning, gnawing knowledge of just who we are - the price of our forgiveness - ceases being a source of rebellion and becomes a welcome, burning fire, a fire that sears and purifies, and yet does not consume."

Does Religion Matter?

"Just because true religion is the best, false religion is the worst of things... Literally everything depends upon it as far as you and your worth to God and man is concerned. To say that it does not matter is to assert that, as long as you centre your whole life round someone or something, it does not matter in the least what it is. The enthusiastic and devout miser is as good as the devoted and enthusiastic minister; the devout hunter of honours, as same as the devout healer of men. That is manifestly absurd. Religion is a dangerous thing. It is mental dynamite which can either blow you to heaven or drive you to hell." - G A Studdert Kennedy, the Word and the Work, p 46

Those those who might respond, then et's do away with all religion, I would reply - if we define religion as that which a person organises their life around, that which is at their heart, then no one can avoid being religious. It all then depends on what your religion is.

Quote of the Day

"The Big Society needs a Big Morality to back it up."

Prayer for Today

Presently preparing for sermon on John 1. This prayer from Hebridean Altars (Alistair Maclean) is relevant to verse 2 ('He was with God in the beginning')

Thou hast destined us for change, us and all things Thy hands have made. yet we fear not. Nay, rather, we are jubilant. Hast Thou not loved us before the world began? What can change bring us but some better thing?

A Prayer for the Journey of Each Day

- from 'Hebridean Altars' by Alistair Maclean

Saviour and Friend,
how wonderful art Thou!
My companion upon the changeful way.
The comforter of its weariness.
My guide to the Eternal Town.
The welcome at its gate.

The Big Society

... is an opportunity and also a challenge for Christians. The ideal is not far from the Christian ideal, not least in the way that it seeks to value the local. For much of recent history discussion about society has focussed on the state, family, schooling - and perhaps not much else. All though has tended to be subsumed to the state. However, the scriptures see the state as serving those local communities that God puts us in. When society has a godly focus, the state finds its proper place.

Yet we must beware as well. At a simplistic level, the Big Society could easily become a political football, seen as an excuse for 'cuts'. But there are deeper issues at work as well.

For how can there be a Big Society without a Big God. Studdert Kennedy, The Word and the Work, pp 32f is perhaps helpful, albeit that its context is a different time (published 1925 - this is evident in the writing)


"There are just two alternatives that face the world to-day, either that life or agony and death. The enormous increase in population, and the conquest of space and time by increased rapidity of communication, both of which are only rendered possible by a continual divIsion and subdivision of labour, have locked and bound us all into a material unity of universal interdependence from which we cannot escape, and which we must therefore either acknowledge and respond to in spirit or perish. Our environment constitutes a self evident moral and spiritual challenge. We must either adapt ourselves to this intensely complex and delicate network of human relationships, which our environment imposes upon us as a necessity, or face the perpetual and inevitable alternative of death, which has faced all living things ever since the world began. That is no " high falutin " extravagant theory, but the plainest and most indisputable fact in the world of to-day. lt is the Lord's doing and is marvellous in the eyes of those who see. Once more we return to the prophetic view of life, and see it all as a matter of life and death, a crisis, a great choice which we must make now or never. And this choice comes to every individual soul, and his salvation here and hereafter depends upon how he answers to the call. The fate of the world depends upon the social responsibility of the individual, and his power and willingness to bear it. It is in form and content a social responsibility, arising out of the new relationship with our fellow-men and women into which the working out of God's purpose has brought us, but it can only be borne by individuals in the last analysis. Corporate action we must take, but right corporate action cannot be taken except as individuals hear the call and answer, acting as personalities responsible to God for their actions. The question of all questions is whether the ordinary individual man can bear the enormous burden of personal responsibility which the new world imposes upon him. At present it seems impossible. The ordinary man is bewildered and perplexed, trying to shift and shirk the responsibility, and to put his trust in mass movements and organizations. Mass movement and organization we must have; those who despise and decry them are mostly people who do not want to bear the moral responsibilities which they impose upon them, but desire what they call freedom, power to express themselves, independence of this crawling crowding mass of humanity, which they gratuitously assume is inferior to themselves...

The outcry against organization and rational regulation of our corporate life is largely the refuge of moral cowards from the insistent call of God. But mass movement and organization can themselves be used as a refuge from that call, they can be used to save the individual from the painful duties of thought and righteous action, and, when they are so used, they constitute the most terrible menace to which we are exposed. When an organization or mass movement becomes an end in itself, and mere loyalty to it is regarded as the highest duty, whether it be a nation, a class, a party, or a Church the result is the moral and spiritual degradation of the individual soul. Churches, nations, classes, parties, unions of a hundred different kinds, are necessary and inevitable, it is worse than useless to object to them, but they will be good or bad, constructive or destructive, exactly in proportion as they increase or decrease the sense of personal responsibility in the hearts and minds of the individuals composing them. The fate of a complex civilization ultimately depends upon the mental and moral quality of the individuals who bear it."

History of the World

I am just catching up on this series, having now mastered podcasts for the ipod. About time too. It's great being able to listen to the radio again.
The History of the World in 100 Objects has as its earliest object a 2 million year old tool: a stone chopping tool from the Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania - used for carving meat of bones and reaching the marrow within. Tools like this enabled humanity to develop in thinking by providing sustenance which enabled brains to develop.
The conclusion of the programme is that we are at heart a family who have grown up 'Out of Africa', from those who developed such tools. So that which divides is nothing as compared to that which unites. We spend much time creating division, whereas in reality humanity is a family.
Then I read these words, as I prepare for a sermon on John 1:
"The ultimate nature of the world was revealed to man in Christ as being, not a battlefield, but a home, and its final law as being, not the law of the jungle, but the law of the family".
- The Word and the Work, Studdert Kennedy.

Outline of Sermon on Isaiah 7:1-14, St Mary's 24th October 2010

I saw a most beautiful rainbow this week. In fact it was part of a lovely holiday when despite the dire weather forecasts for virtually everyday at one point or another we had virtually perfect October weather for virtually the whole time. The day of the rainbow was well almost a case in point. There had been as shower or two but nothing very much. By late afternoon when we saw the rainbow – a double one, and both ends we saw, where we were it was not raining at all.

A rainbow is a strange thing. There is virtually nothing there. It is just the trick of the sun coming through raindrops. Yet it grabs our attention and we say, 'wow'. I grabbed my camera and I have the shots to prove it.

It was easy to ignore it. I had pulled the car to the side of the road to get out and enjoy and to take some photos. I was congratulated by a neighbour as her came out into his back garden. But most people continued to sail past in their cars, busy with other things.

In our Old Testament reading it is something like that. The king of Judah is under attack. The great Old Testament kingdom if Israel, founded by King David, has almost reached its end. The kingdom has split in two. The north: Israel. The south: Judah (hence Judaism, Jews etc.) Now the north has turned on its smaller brother, like children do in families, and has called on some of the local bullies, nearby kings, to help.

The king of Judah is paralysed with fear. I guess most of us know what it is to taste fear at some point in our lives. Some know the fear of warfare or or family being involved in warfare. Or perhaps the fear that comes from seeing our pensions begin to disappear or our secure Council house become a little less secure. Or the desperate worry that many around us will have at the moment following the government's spending review.

Then the king of Judah was offered a rainbow. He was offered the chance to look up to the heavens as it were and remember that God was with him.

10 The Lord sent another message to Ahaz: 11 "Ask the Lord your God to give you a sign. It can be from deep in the world of the dead or from high up in heaven." 12 Ahaz answered, "I will not ask for a sign. I refuse to put the Lord to the test."

But Ahaz would have none of it. He did not trust in God. We can read between the lines from the rest of his life (read Kings and Chronicles) that he was simply dressing up his lack of faith as godliness.

When you are afraid like this there are two alternatives.

• You can try to sort it out yourself. In this case, you'll probably either panic or seize up with fear like a rabbit. That is the effect fear has on us.

• Or you can turn to God prayerfully and with his guidance and help do whatever he leads you to do.

Ahaz decided up front that he would do the first.

But God decided that he would give Ahaz a sign anyway. God is bigger than our lack of faith. He doesn't stop working just because we stop believing. However, we lose out because our hands are no longer open to receive the gift of God's help.

Isaiah 7.14 Well then, the Lord himself will give you a sign: a young woman who is pregnant will have a son and will name him 'Immanuel.'

Immanuel means: God with us.

In the crises of this recession, or whatever else you face, God is with you.

But more: you remember I said that I has stopped to enjoy the rainbow. But most didn't. God's signs to us are like that. They are easily missed. He calls out to us, but mostly quietly, gently. He is asking us, like he asked Ahab, Do you want to trust me? If you do, I am here, I am here and will give you signs of my presence with you. But if you don't want my help, you can drive past in your car and you will hardly miss me. Indeed, you won't know what you have missed as we rush about and panic.

Are you and I spending those moments stopping and watching for the signs of God's presence? That is called reading the Bible, or prayer, or waiting on God. Anyone who has sensed God speaking through a scripture or through a spiritual gift or in other ways will know what I mean.

There is great comfort in knowing that God is at work, whatever our faith. We are so often tempted to think that it all depends on us. Here is Ahaz, the king. Surely he can get it sorted. Well, no he can't. Some things are too big for even the most powerful of people.

But God delights to use the small.

In the Old Testament, of all the nations in the world he chooses to work through the small nation of Israel

When the kingdom splits, he chooses to work through the smaller southern part of Judah.

When the king refuses God's help, he chooses to work through the small church of Isaiah and the other prophets of his day.

And God goes even smaller than that, for the sign Isaiah mentions will have an even greater fulfilment. In the birth of the child at Bethlehem. Who other kings will ignore and overlook or try to kill. Do not be discouraged if you find yourself small or alone as you seek to serve God. It is often the way.

For Christ, it was the way even to the cross, where he died virtually abandoned.

But in the strange topsy turvy logic of the kingdom, the small child, born of the virgin, arose from the dead and now rules over all.

Let us be those who today, born after the fulfilment of the sign, choose not the way of Ahaz but the way of stopping and looking out for not the rainbow (though that is good too) but all the signs of God at work in the world.

A Prayer for Today

(from Hebridean Altars by Alistair Maclean)

The Cross is on My Shoulder
And I am at the door;
Open then in haste to Me
And be no longer poor.
Better than the yellow gold
Are My love-gifts three,
Truth and peace and power,
Thy will's true armoury.

Unemployment in Harlow

Text of letter sent to the local press;

Dear Sir

Earthquake

Two years on from the financial earthquake the aftershocks continue to hit. Here is Harlow, as elsewhere, we are bracing ourselves for the spending round cuts. The worst is expected to hit in the first few months of next year but many already reel.

In our own town, announced redundancies and redundancies are part of the landscape. The heart is being torn out of many lives and families. A young woman in London said that unemployment "feels like being dumped fifty times a day." The mountains of debt makes this recession much harder to face.

The number claiming Jobseekers Allowance in Harlow from July 2006-2010 rose as follows:

• 45% for those 18-24
• 62% for those 25-49
• 76% for those 50 and over

It is possible to survive an earthquake. If buildings are structurally strong they will weather the storm. How can we weather the storm? There is much we can do.

• We mustn't be afraid to face the truth. It is easy to deny how serious things are. But facing the truth is the first step in finding solutions.
• The voluntary sector has much to offer, but inevitable funding cuts are already undermining good work. We need to be working together, co-ordinating resources as much as possible.
• Local communities can set up support groups. They can signpost to those who might be able to offer advice and help.
• There needs to be close co-operation between the voluntary sector and the Council. Pooling resources, addressing the problems together, can make a huge difference.
• On Shrove Tuesday next year (8^th March), the new Bishop of Chelmsford is planning a Prayer Vigil for the unemployed in Chelmsford. We are planning our own vigil in Harlow. I invite all to join us for that event.

In the meantime, I would be glad to help gather together all who might be able to help, so that we can work together to fight this evil. Please contact me on:

martin.harris@messages.co.uk.

Yours sincerely,

Martin Harris (Revd)

Chair, Heart4Harlow

'Churches Working Together for Harlow'

Thought for the Day

"Consult not your fears
but your hopes and your dreams.
Think not about your frustrations,
but about your unfulfilled potential.
Concern yourself
not with what you
tried and failed in,
but with what it is still possible
for you to do."

- Pope John XXIII

Prayer for Today

 1. O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! who hast set thy glory above the heavens.

 2 Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies, that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger.

 3  When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained;

 4  What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?

 5  For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour.

 6  Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet:

 7  All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field;

 8  The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas.

 9  O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!

Amen

Our Father in heaven

Hallowed be your name.

Thank you that today I can lift up my eyes and can see you glory - in the quietness and emptiness of the sky. It speaks of your beauty, it speaks of our loneliness without you; it speaks of your love to us for you who made the beauty of the universe have come to us in the beauty of Christ

Your kingdom come

Today, you have granted the skies a Sabbath rest - and our souls in England are quieter. The pressures of life are remved as I look up. But I remember those caught in the chaos of returning home for whom there is little quiet. May your help come to those who are longing for home.

Your will be done, on earth as in heaven

You have granted the heavens rest; may our lives in this world be more at rest. We have busied ourselves to fill the emptiness of life without you. May we discover that in the calm you are there, waiting to be invited to journey with us.

Give us this day our daily bread

May we trust you for today's needs. We have taken you for granted but as we hear of flowers rotting and of emptying shelves in supermarkets we just, just begin to know the anxiety of those who live every day not knowing where their next meal is coming from. So we remember all those who have to trust you for their next meal and are richer for it.

Forgive us our trespasses

Forgive us that we have lived of tomorrow's resources. We have borrowed from our futures; we have borrowed from our children and grandchildren, and they will live in debt to the generation who 'have never had it so good'. And our greed has come back to haunt us as our savings are worthless and our banks bailed out. Lord, have mercy.

And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil

We live with the scandal of so few who are wealthy and so many who are poor; and yet even most of our poor live as kings compared to the rest of the world and compared to  our fore-fathers. Deliver us from the temptation of wealth.

For the kingdom, the power and the glory are yours...

Mr Brown, Mr Cameron and Mr Clegg come and go... May we acknowledge that as we cast our votes and may we lift our eyes to see what really matters in yoiur world. And as you have made us face reality in the debt crsis and ash cloud, thank you that we live in a nation where there is a 'reckoning' for all who lead and they are answerable for their use or abuse of power. Thank you for the gift of democracy, which means we can hold our leaders to account. Help us to take our role seriously.

For ever and ever. Amen.

But your kingdom lasts for ever.

 1. O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! who hast set thy glory above the heavens.

 2 Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies, that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger.

 3  When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained;

 4  What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?

 5  For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour.

 6  Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet:

 7  All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field;

 8  The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas.

 9* O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!

Your kingdom lasts for ever! Amen

Being Religious, Being Christian

In all our debates about faith, what is it that we are seeking?

In some of our national debates, it is the discipline of spirituality of the devout Muslim that is admired.

Within the church, we often admire those with particular gifts or charisma.

But what does God call us to?

These words of Bonhoeffer, often quoted, (Letters and papers..., 21st July 1944) are perhaps helpful:

"The Christians is not a homo relgiosus, but simply a man, as Jesus was a man - in contrast, shall we say, to John the Baptist. I don't mean the shallow and banal this-worldliness of the enlightened, the busy, the comfortable, or the lascivious, but the profound this worldliness, characterised by discipline and the constant knowledge of death and resurrection".

can we therefore learn a spirituality of this world? It will be one that affirms creation, as Christ did at Bethlehem; that is full of a this-world godliness (the wedding at Cana) but also full of faith and death and resurrection. 

Later in the same letter, Bonhoeffer continues:

"I remember a conversation I had in America... with a young French pastor... He said he would like ti become a saint (and I think its quite likely that he did become one). At the time I was very impressed, but I disagreed with him, and said, in effect, that I should like to learn to have faith. For a long time I didn't realize the depth of the contrast. I thought I could acquire faith by trying to live a holy life... I discovered later, and I'm still discovering right up to this moment, that it is only by living completely in this world that one learns to have faith. One must completely abandon any attempt to make something of oneself...  By this-worldliness I mean living unreservedly in life's duties, problems, successes and failures, experiences and perplexities. In doing so we throw ourselves completely into the arms of God, taking seriously, not our own sufferings, but those of God in the world - watching with Christ in Gethsemane. That, I think, if faith; that is metanoiai; and that is how one becomes a man and a Christian."

I suspect these last few words in the second quote are less commonly quoted. But in the light of daily life, and in the light of Haiti, they take on a deeper resonance.