Let nothing you affright: Angels and demons

Our Advent Evening Prayers will be looking at different features in the Christmas story, and our news sheets will have a more in-depth look at another feature: angels. This week we're looking at angels and demons.

It is hard to think of angels without also thinking of their counterparts: demons. Demons have been depicted in many ways in popular culture throughout the ages but what does the Bible tell us about demons? 

Demons, like angels, are spiritual beings and, again like angels, will probably have different roles and jobs. The likelihood is that they were all originally good, but at some point rebelled against God.  Lucifer was a high-ranking angel, referred to as 'princes' in the Old Testament (Daniel 10:13, possibly what later came to be called Archangels) but he too rebelled (Ezekiel 28:11-19) and became known as Satan. He was then cast out of the heavenly realms with other fallen spiritual beings (Revelation 12:8-9). He may have instigated the rebellion or became the leader later but since then he has had spiritual beings under his control, which are referred to in the Bible as his angels (Matthew 25:41); or as demons; or sometimes 'authorities', 'powers', 'dominions' or 'rulers' (Ephesians 6:11-12). These different names may refer to their function or their place in the hierarchy, but that Bible doesn't elaborate on this any further.

We see demons acting in different ways in the Bible, such as demonic possession (Mark 5:1-6), initiating false worship (1 Corinthians 10:20-21), promoting false doctrine (1 Timothy 4:1) and performing false signs and wonders (2 Thessalonians 2:9).  In short, they try to stop humans from worshipping and following God, in order to prevent them being saved. Another way they do this is to make humans disbelieve in the existence of anything supernatural at all, or at least in the existence of supernatural evil.

Our rationalist mind can often dismiss talk of demons (and angels for that matter) as being religious ideas that belong to a primitive mindset, and stories of demon possession are explained as epileptic fits that the ancients ascribed to supernatural causes. But the Bible is quite clear that demons exist, and Jesus himself believed in them, and spoke to them. The Bible is also clear that attempts to harness the power of evil forces, e.g. by witchcraft or occult practices, are detestable to God (Deuteronomy 18:9-13) because Satan is trying to lead the world astray from God (Revelation 12:9). C. S. Lewis wrote in 'The Screwtape Letters': “There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them. They themselves are equally pleased by both errors and hail a materialist or a magician with the same delight.”

However, powerful as demons certainly are, it would also be wrong to think of them as being undefeatable. Jesus showed us many times his power over them, and he gave that power to us his followers (Luke 10:17-20). The Bible assures us that if we submit to God and resist evil, the devil and his demons will flee from us (James 4:7), and we can do so by putting on the 'the armour of God' (Ephesians 6:11-18). But ultimately Satan and his demons were defeated by Jesus' death on the cross (Colossians 2:15) and will finally be judged and punished at Jesus' second coming (Matthew 25:41, Revelation 20:10).

God rest ye merry, gentlemen,

let nothing you dismay,

for Jesus Christ our Saviour

was born on Christmas Day;

to save us all from Satan’s power

when we were gone astray.

O tidings of comfort and joy.

O tidings of comfort and joy,

comfort and joy;

“Fear not,” then, said the angel,

“Let nothing you affright

this day is born a Saviour

of virtue, pow'r and might,

to free all those who trust in him

from Satan’s power and might.”

Both angels and demons remind us that there is a supernatural realm that we can often forget, and also that there is a spiritual war between good and evil that involves us too (Ephesians 6:12). As angels encourage us to listen, obey and worship God, so demons try to get us to do the opposite. Who are you making happy: angels or demons?

Forthwith appeared a shining throng: angels as worshippers

Our Advent Evening Prayers will be looking at different features in the Christmas story, and our news sheets will have a more in-depth look at another feature: angels. This week we're looking at angels as worshippers.

Although the main rôle of angels is to be messengers for God, they are perhaps most associated with praise and worship. So we get the popular image of angels with harps and occasionally trumpets. Both of these images come from the Bible (Revelation 5:8 and 8:6), although, as we learned last week, it would be wrong to think that this is what angels spend most of their time doing. There is a debate about whether angels sing, as there are few references to angelic singing: they are more often described as 'saying' or 'crying' and their sound is likened to trumpets (Revelation 1:10). But what they sound like is less important than what they are saying.

Praise and worship of God is the specific task of the cherubim and seraphim (Isaiah 6 and Ezekiel 1), and their ministry is carried out solely in the presence of God in heaven. Angels, on the other hand, are go-betweens for the heavenly realm and the earthly realm, so they join in with the heavenly worship when they are there, and encourage worship on earth when they are here. In some ways they are part of the answer to the prayer that Jesus taught us to say: they help us to see how the Father's name is hallowed in heaven, so that we may hallow it in the same way on earth.

This is why the most famous heavenly worship 'song' is "Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come" (Revelation 4:8). Their worship focuses on the holy character of God and his actions past, present and future. This reminds us that God's primary characteristic is holiness. We often think of 'love' being the defining characteristic of God, and it's true that God is love (1 John 4:8), but his love is only able to be exercised because of his holiness. As God is holy, nothing impure can ever enter his presence, and as he is self-sufficient, he needs nothing else outside of himself. Therefore, everything in heaven and on earth only exists because God wills it. He could choose to be in splendid isolation from creation, but instead he wants to be intimately involved with his creation and in particular with humanity. But because our sin makes us impure and deserving of punishment, it is only because God is loving that he makes us a way by which we can be saved: God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8). However, if God were not holy we would not need to be forgiven to enter his presence. Only a holy God can be self-sufficient, just and all-loving.

Angels proclaim God's holiness in heaven and so they lead the world in glorifying God, hence the famous Christmas song of praise: ‘Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favour rests’ (Luke 2:13-14). The angels acknowledge God's greatness, giving him the credit for the wonderful gift of Jesus; with the phrase 'in the highest' having the double meaning of encouraging the praise of God 'to the greatest extent' as well as 'in heaven'. As we looked at last week, God is to be praised for redeeming humanity from its sin.  Angels know how wonderful it is to be in God's presence, and so they rejoice that now humanity can also enter God's presence. As Jesus said “the angels of God rejoice over one sinner who repents” (Luke 15:10 Good News Translation).

The worship given by the angels reminds us that we too should praise God for who he is and what he has done for us,  and when we do so we join in with the heavenly worship with the angels, and archangels and all the company of heaven. The shepherds, after seeing the baby Jesus, went back to work joining with the angels glorifying and praising God (Luke 2:20). Will you join the angels in worshipping too?

What the gladsome tidings be: Angels as messengers

Here's my magazine article for December, which is also the first of my Advent reflections:

Our Advent Evening Prayers will be looking at different features in the Christmas story, and our news sheets will have a more in-depth look at another feature: angels. This week we're looking at angels as messengers.

It wouldn't be Christmas without angels. Whether they're sung about in carols, depicted on Christmas cards, or played enthusiastically by children in Nativity plays, they seem to be everywhere. And that's quite appropriate because angels are all around us, and not just at Christmas!

Angels have become increasingly popular with New-Age spirituality as being a bit like fairy-godmothers – quasi-divine spirits that can grant wishes, or as guardian angels, which act a bit like your own personal deity. These beliefs have grown out of the biblical record about angels, but have been severed from the biblical worldview so they can be made to fit into any and all spiritualities and faiths. So what does the Bible tell us about angels?

Firstly, we do not become angels after death. The Bible tells us that we were made a little lower in status than the angels (Psalm 8:5) , but unlike angels we can be saved and we will ultimately rule over the angels (Hebrews 1:14 and 1 Corinthians 6:3). Angels are one of a number of spiritual beings mentioned in the Bible (including cherubim and seraphim), and although we tend to class them all as angels, it is probably more correct to see these names as being different job titles for these spiritual beings. For example seraphim have a particular rôle in the worship in heaven (Isaiah 6).

This leads us on to what angels look like. Our image of angels probably owes more to pagan gods or fairy folklore than the Bible. Cherubim are often shown, e.g. in the Renaissance, as chubby little children with wings, but this is more like the Roman god Cupid than the biblical description in Ezekiel 1. Indeed nowhere in the Bible are angels, unlike cherubim and seraphim, described as having wings – there appearance is more like humans which is why they often get mistaken for humans, which would be unlikely if they had wings!!

However, more important than what the look like is what they do. The word 'angel' means 'messenger' and in the Christmas story this is their important task. Gabriel (one of only two named angels in the Bible) brought the message of the coming birth of Jesus to Mary (Luke1:26-38) and, we assume, to Joseph (Matthew 1:20-21) and the shepherds (Luke 2:8-12). Then after the single angel had announced the Saviour's birth to the shepherds, a great company (or army) of angels appeared praising God and saying ‘Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favour rests’ (Luke 2:13-14).

This is the great message that the angels bring, that God should be praised because there is now the possibility of peace 'to those on whom his favour rests'. We often see on Christmas cards the words 'Peace on Earth' taken from the angels' words, but the angels were not expressing a vague wish that things would get better on earth, but announcing that peace had already come because of the birth of Jesus. And this peace is not the absence of war but a peace, a reconciliation, with God. We are separated from God because we have rebelled against his rule in our lives, but the good news of Christmas is that God himself came to earth in Jesus, so that through his death the punishment for our rebellion would be taken, and therefore we can be reconciled to God. Will you hear the angels' message this year?

"I'm not as bad as Hitler"

Here's my article for the November magazine:

This year marks the 80^th anniversary of the start of World War Two and also, perhaps, the start of a new way to personify pure evil. During WWII, the person of Adolf Hitler was unsurprisingly used by the Allied nations in their propaganda to illustrate the immorality of the Nazi regime. However, this association of Hilter with evil continues to the present day in a way that isn't true of Kaiser Wilhelm who was used in similar propaganda in WWI. Hitler continues to be used to personify evil; perhaps because in our secular world that cannot acknowledge a supernatural realm, there needs to be something to replace the devil.

Hitler has also indirectly contributed to the field of logic. A reductio ad Hitlerum is an attempt to invalidate someone else's position on the basis that the same view was held by Adolf Hitler, e.g. he was a vegetarian and against smoking. In the world of the Internet, Godwin's rule asserts that “As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches 1”. This has the unfortunate side-effect that making any reference to Hitler or the Nazis, however justified, is now seen as a reason not to listen to that argument. This is particularly dangerous when it comes to issues of censorship and restrictions on freedoms of speech and belief, which were used by the Nazis to quash any opposition or disagreement and are also increasingly used today to stop any questioning of the cultural zeitgeist.

There is another way that Hitler is used in arguments. Again he is used as the embodiment of evil, but this time people use him to compare themselves with: they say “I may not be perfect, but I'm not as bad as Hitler.” This has particularly dire consequences when it comes to the subject of sin and judgement. The Bible teaches us that one day Jesus will return to judge the living and the dead (1 Peter 4:5). It reminds us that we have all sinned and fallen short of God's standard (Romans3:23) and that we all therefore need to repent in order to be forgiven (Acts 3:19) and enjoy eternal life with God (Revelation 21:27).

Now I doubt whether anyone considers themselves to be perfect, but the problem is that when we compare our sins to other peoples' sins we will always be able to think of people who do worse or more sins than us, and if we can't, we can always rely on the argument that “I'm not as bad as Hitler”! When we do this we minimise and trivialise our sins to such an extent that we don't feel the need to repent. But if we look at this from God's point of view rather than our own we see that “the person who keeps every law of God but makes one little slip is just as guilty as the person who has broken every law there is” (James2:10 The Living Bible), because Jesus tells us that the standard is to be as perfect as God himself (Matthew 5:48).

To have a right view of ourselves is to say that we are just as bad a Hitler and that we don't deserve eternal life any more than he does, no matter how many good things we do in our lives. But the glorious good news is that even though we are that bad, Jesus died to take our punishment so that through belief in him we can enjoy eternal life with God and with no more pain, suffering or war.

Longing for a better world

Here's my sermon for this year's Remembrance Service at Broughton, the readings were Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 and Micah 4:1-5:

Last year we marked the hundredth anniversary of the end of the First World War, a war which put an end to the Victorian and Edwardian idea that human history was a march of progress with the world getting a better place as time went on. This year, we mark the 80th anniversary of the start of the Second World War, a war that put an end to the idea that wars are the way to solve humanity's problems.

Just over twenty years after the conclusion of the so-called 'War to end all wars', the sons and grandsons of the Great War veterans went off to fight on European soil again, and in one way or another, our armed forces have been on active duty somewhere ever since.  The writer of the Bible book Ecclesiastes said that there is a time for war and a time for peace – although we see precious little of the time for peace.

He is writing about what he sees in the world around him, and part of his message is that we can endure the bad things that happen, because they will pass.  However, there is a larger message in his book that is greater than this Stoical, stiff-upper-lip, almost fatalistic, view.  And that is that these are things that happen 'under the heavens', meaning that these things happen on earth.  He goes on to say that if our life on earth is the only life we have then every event and action, good and bad, is meaningless, and we should therefore just eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we may die.

But the writer says that God has put eternity in our hearts, he has given us all a deep sense that there is more to life than this life, and therefore we cannot be satisfied by looking at the world this way.  We all have a desire in us for the things of heaven, whether that's justice, or peace, or safety, or joy, or love.  We want an end to all those bad things that the writer of Ecclesiastes lists.  We want an end to death, to killing, to destruction.  We want an end to weeping and to mourning.  We want an end to hate, and an end to war.

But how can this happen?  The Second World War proved that war is not the solution.  So how can there be a time when nation will not take up sword against nation, where everyone can live in peace?  The prophet Micah tells us that if we want the benefits of heaven we need to turn to the God of heaven: “He will teach us his ways, so that we may walk in his paths.”

However, we cannot do this on our own.  Humanity is incapable of making itself perfect.  The First World War taught us that.  We need help from God.  The final book of the Bible, Revelation, gives us a great picture of what the new, redeemed and restored world will look like when everyone walks God's way: “God will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away” (Revelation 21:4).

An estimated 19 million people died in the First World War, and an estimated 85 million in the Second World War.  Both wars were fought to bring justice and peace, to make the world a better place.  But it took only one death to make that heaven-on-earth possible, and that one death was Jesus'.  Jesus declared that he is the way, the truth and the life and that no-one comes to the Father except through him.  He declared that he would lay down his life so that we may have life and have it to the full.

So if you long for a world where there is no more death or killing, mourning or pain; if you want a world of justice and peace, joy and love; if you want the kind of world those in the World Wars fought for; then come to Jesus: he will teach us his ways, so we may walk in his paths, now and for ever. Amen.

Thank God for the 'little people'

Here's my sermon from Broughton Town Council's Civic Service earlier this month.  The readings were Galatians 6:7-10 and Matthew 25:31-40:


My wife and I share a common interest in History although we don't tend to like the same periods, nor do we agree on the type of history we're interested in.  For me the best history is about kings and battles – geopolitical history, but Mags is much more interested in people and the way they lived – social history.  So I was in my element last year when we stood on the fields of Waterloo, whereas Mags much preferred it in Beamish a few years earlier.

It's easy to think that the course of history is driven by those kings and battles, by the big people, but as Gavroche reminds us in Les Miserables “the world is big but little people turn it around”.  This song is about how children especially can make a big difference, and it's great to have representatives of the the Rainbows, Brownies and Guides here with us today, reminding us of the many great children and young people that we have in Broughton.  But the meaning of the song is also extended to the 'little people' in the world - those seemingly without power and influence, because 'little people' do turn this big world around.  Those battles wouldn't have happened without the 'little people' fighting in them, and we all know the history of revolutions where the 'little people' can overthrow even the most omnipotent ruler.  Of course the most influential 'little person' ever was Jesus himself: the son of a carpenter, who spent only three years travelling around an obscure outpost of the Roman Empire two thousand years ago.  Yet everything that we can see around us stems from him and the work of his followers – not just the church building but the technology we use, the clothes we wear, the medicines that have kept us alive, the music we sing, the society we live in, the art and literature and sport we enjoy.  Nobody, whether a 'big person' or a 'little person', has done more to shape and influence the world than the 'little person' Jesus Christ.

Of course, God Almighty could have made all those things happen merely by ordering it to be so.  We see in the book of Genesis that that whole universe only exists because God willed it into existence.  But instead he chose to come to earth, to become a 'little person' and change the world through his teaching, and through his life, death and resurrection.  And one of the reasons he did that was to show how important each one of us is. Whether we consider ourselves to be 'big' or 'little' each one of us has a dignity.  And contrary to the ruling of a British court this week that Genesis 1 is “incompatible with human dignity”, in fact Genesis 1 is the only firm foundation for human dignity.  Our human dignity cannot be based on our beauty, or our intelligence, or our skills, or our usefulness to others, or on the 4% of our genes that distinguish us from chimps.  Our human dignity can only be based on the belief that we are made in the image and likeness of God – that is the only thing we cannot lose, that is the only thing that gives us all equal worth, that is the only thing that means that 'little people' count as much as 'big people'.

And because we all have human dignity, the actions we do to and for each other matter enormously.  Our Civic Service gives us the opportunity to recognise the huge amount of work that is done by those who might think of themselves as 'little people' and to say 'thank you' to them.  They are the people who turn this world around and who do so much good for this community of Broughton.  St Paul reminds us in his letter to the Galatian church “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up”.  We are in the middle of Harvest season, when we think about the little seeds which were planted earlier in the year that we are now able to harvest and enjoy.  St Paul uses that to illustrate the benefits that result from the 'little' actions of 'little' people.  We have so many people who give their time and energy to help this community and the result is a community that we can be proud of.  The hard work and preparation that go into a lot of community events and projects, and community life itself, is often unseen, but the results, like the harvest, often can.   There are too many people to name individually and there are also many different areas and aspects of the life of this community in which they work.  It would be wrong to start giving examples because either I would miss people out, or because the tea will go cold in the Village Hall!

But there are are also thousands of tiny actions we can do each day that make the world a better place: a smile, a kind word, a prayer.  Most of these will go unnoticed and uncelebrated.  However, Jesus' parable in our reading from Matthew assures us that on Judgement Day, each and every good thing we have done will be noticed and celebrated, and we will see the full effect of them.  And that's an amazing thought!  The same is true of our bad deeds, and that is a more frightening prospect, but the promise of Jesus is that the slate will be wiped clean for those who repent of their sins.

So today we gather to celebrate all those people whose actions both small and large make this community a better place.  Thank you, but most of all thank God for you!

A Peaky look at the afterlife

Here's and extended version of my magazine article this month:

It's taken a while but I've finally jumped on the bandwagon and started watching 'Peaky Blinders'. In one episode the matriarch of the gangster family, Polly, goes to see a medium because she has a feeling that her daughter, who was taken from her at an early age, is now dead. The medium says that her daughter is dead, and despite Polly's daughter-in-law, Esme, warning that the medium is a charlatan, we later find out that Polly's daughter is indeed dead.

The Druid and Celtic feast of Samhain held around this time of year celebrated the end of harvest and the beginning of the dark period of winter. The boundary between this world and the world of the dead was thought to dissolve and the dead returned to earth and created havoc by playing tricks on people and damaging crops. Such ideas seem laughable today, but the thinking behind 'psychic' mediums, spiritualists and clairvoyants is similar – they claim to transcend the boundary between this world and the 'world of the dead' so that the dead can communicate with the living. And their continuing popularity is proof that they are offering something that many people want despite their disbelief.

Despite the seemingly accurate reading, Esme's warnings that the medium is a charlatan are very plausible. Indeed Polly gives the medium all the information: what happened in the past, how she feels now and that she wants to know if her daughter is alive or not. The medium has a fifty-fifty change of being right (although with mortality rates it is more likely she is dead), and clearly Polly is expecting to hear that her daughter is dead. Even if the medium is wrong it is better for her to have given bad news than false hope.

Derren Brown in his book 'Tricks of the Mind' exposes some of the tricks and tactics used by charlatan mediums, such as 'cold reading' (starting with vague, general statements and through educated guesses and questions getting more specific) and 'hot reading' (gathering information beforehand). Other techniques are to explain incorrect guesses by saying that they are only passing on what they hear, or blaming the client for not remembering or understanding. They also rely on the suggestibility of vulnerable, grieving people and the human capacity to put meaning onto ambiguous statements, as well as ignore the many inaccurate guesses.

Brown would probably say that all mediums use these techniques. Some will do it knowingly; justifying their fraudulent actions by claiming they are bringing comfort to their clients, or that's it's just for fun, or that they do it for charity. Others will be doing it unconsciously; genuinely believing they have a psychic gift, a belief that's reinforced every time they get a guess right. But can they actually make contact with the spiritual realms?

Brown doesn't believe in anything supernatural or paranormal and so his analysis fails to take into account something very important. There are very real spiritual beings and forces and any attempt to contact them, whether serious or not, can have very damaging consequences. As God has forbidden these practices (e.g. Leviticus 19:31, Deuteronomy 18:9-12), no force for good would use them, despite them seeming to be harmless or even caring. St Paul warns us the “Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. It is not surprising, then, if his servants also masquerade as servants of righteousness.” (2 Corinthians 11:14-15).

The reality of malevolent forces also explains a common 'proof' that mediums are really in contact with the dead; i.e. the client saying that “the medium told me things only I and the dead person know”. It may be true that no human could know those things but as these forces are supernatural, they have knowledge that humans don't. A medium, whether 'honest' or not, opens themself up to these forces which can then exploit this opportunity to trick people into believing that contact is being made with the dead. However the question may be asked; why would evil forces want to trick people in this way? The answer is that it is mainly to stop people believing in the the true God who reveals himself in the Bible and to stop them responding to the good news of Jesus.

The 'trick' of mediumship and other occult practices is to claim that the spiritual realm (and by implication God as well) are able to be controlled by humans: spirits can be summoned and also, via spells, be utilised. The Bible reminds us that not only is God is greater than we are (Isaiah 40:13; Job 38-41) but he is also far superior to any other spiritual being (Psalm 97:9). It also warns us that evil spirits are prowling around “like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8).

But mediums also purvey a false view of life after death. We do not become spirits after we die and we will not spend the afterlife waiting for a loved one to summon us via a medium. Jesus' physical resurrection proves that we too can be raised with a physical (but improved!) body. And worse than that they offer a false hope. Unlike Polly, most people don't go to mediums wanting to know if their loved one has died. Most go because a loved one has died and they want to know that their loved one is happy or 'OK'. Jesus taught clearly that on the Day of Judgement humanity will be split into two groups (Matthew 25:31-46). Jesus said that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16), and John the Baptist said “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on them” (John 3:36). This tells us that belief in Jesus does not mean simply believing that he existed but that it has something to do with God's wrath, his righteous anger and judgement of sin. Paul explains the link: “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!” (Romans 5:8-10).

Belief in Jesus means to repent of our sins and to accept his call to follow him as our Lord. This is the good news: that we can have eternal life because Jesus died for us. But this happy state is only for those who repent and believe. I've yet to here about someone who has been to a medium and heard from a 'loved one' who is not in that happy state, but who instead warns their relative to repent and believe in Jesus! Nor have I heard talk of a 'loved one' in that happy state who encourages their relative to repent and believe in Jesus in order to share in that eternal life. The message that mediums give is that everyone, regardless of whether or not they believe in Jesus, attains a happy state after death. If this is true then Jesus is a liar.

Both charlatan and 'honest' mediumship are always unethical because they exploit people's vulnerabilities and expose them to dangerous spiritual forces, who seek to prevent them responding to Jesus' offer of eternal life. There is only one person who has spoken from 'beyond the grave': Jesus Christ who died and was raised to life again, and now reigns far above all powers. And he invites you to repent and believe now, before it's too late, so that you may join him for all eternity.

Almighty God,

give us grace to cast away the works of darkness

and to put on the armour of light,

now in the time of this mortal life,

in which your Son Jesus Christ came to us in great humility

so that on the last day,

when he will come again in his glorious majesty to judge the living and the dead,

we may rise to the life immortal,

through him who lives and reigns with you

and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Carrying on camping

Here's my magazine article for September:

Like many people, this summer my family and I had a holiday which involved camping.  One of the joys of camping is sitting outside with a drink watching the world go by, and over the week we saw the campsite constantly changing as people came and went.  Some people were staying for two or three weeks, others for a few days and some just for one night.  But no matter how long we were staying for, for all of us this was a temporary home.  It is possibly this knowledge that made the short trek to the toilet block in the driving rain bearable!

By camping we were all experiencing a little of what a nomadic lifestyle is like, and more so for those who just stopped for the night, a resting place on their journey to somewhere else.  For those who choose this way of living it can be a joy, even a release from the materialism and consumerism of society.  But for those, such as refugees or the homeless, who have this life forced upon them it can be demoralising and dehumanising.

For the Israelites in the Old Testament the experience of being a nomadic people was deeply ingrained in their identity.  They descended from Abraham who left his home in Ur in what is now south eastern Iraq, travelled to Harran, on what is now the southern border of Turkey, and was called by God to leave there to go to 'The Promised Land' of Canaan, now Israel.  Abraham's grandson, Jacob, then took his family to Egypt to join his son Joseph, who was by then the Prime Minister of Egypt.  The family stayed there and grew in number, were enslaved by the Pharaoh and eventually left Egypt led by Moses.  Their re-entry to the Promised Land was delayed because they didn't trust God (Numbers 14) and so their punishment was to wander in the desert for forty years.  And even when they were to re-enter the Promised Land, God commanded them “The land must not be sold permanently, because the land is mine and you reside in my land as foreigners and strangers” (Leviticus 25:23).

The wanderings in the wilderness meant that the Israelites got used to living in tents, but the remarkable thing about this is that God chose to join them in their camp.  He told Moses “let them make a sanctuary for me, and I will dwell among them” (Exodus 25:8), and then gave instructions on how to build the tent.  When it was finished, the glory of the Lord filled it and “In all the travels of the Israelites, whenever the cloud lifted from above the tabernacle, they would set out; but if the cloud did not lift, they did not set out – until the day it lifted” (Exodus 40:36-37).  God dwelt with his people to guide them and so they could meet with him.

In describing the coming of Jesus, the gospel writer John says that the “Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us” (John 1:14).  The Greek word translated 'made his dwelling' literally means 'encamped' or 'pitched his tent'.  In Jesus we see the fulfilment of God's promise to live with and amongst his people and to guide us as we travel through life.

What does it mean to be human?

Here's my article for the August magazine:

A lot of magazines at the moment will be giving advice on how to get the perfect beach-body, although it might be a bit late for this year! We often have a love-hate relationship with our bodies and both those attitudes have their down-sides.

On the one hand our society tends to idolise the body. Body-worshippers, both male and female, can be found at the gym, in the beauty salons, and strutting the streets in their designer clothes. Beauty and physical fitness are seen to be the ideal; we are judged on both and if we fall short of the standard we are deemed less worthy, less love-able than others. At its extreme this leads to designer babies and aborting children with disabilities, but it also shows itself in the social media pre-occupation with selfies, 'likes' 'ops' and 'rates'. Idolising the body leads not only to vanity but also to body shaming and self-esteem issues.

On the other hand there can be a despising of the body where the 'spirit' of a person is seen to be the only authentic 'person' and the body is merely a vehicle for the spirit. In Christian Theology this is known as the heresy of 'Gnosticism' but it is a common belief of Eastern religions such as Hinduism and Buddhism, and the New Age beliefs inspired by them. This separation of body and spiritual means that the body can be used and abused in any way particularly if it will 'enhance' the spirit's well-being.

Christianity, however, gets a different perspective on the body from the Bible, and in particular from its key doctrines of creation, incarnation and resurrection. The Creation story in Genesis teaches that God made humans, male and female, as 'ensouled flesh' i.e. as physical bodies infused with his living spirit. Our bodies are essential to our being, so much so that God says that he forms us in the womb (Jeremiah 1:5) and the Psalmist speaks of God knitting and weaving us in our mothers' wombs so we are wonderfully made (Psalm 139:13-16). There is no separation between our bodies and our spirits: we are our bodies as much as we are our spirits.

The incarnation reminds us that not only did God make us to be flesh and blood, but that in Jesus he became human, complete with flesh and blood. Another heresy in the early church said that only Jesus' body was human, while his mind was divine. However, Jesus was like us in every way, flesh and blood (Hebrews 2:14,17) and mind too (Hebrews 4:15). Body and spirit together make up a human being and God affirmed the value of human beings by becoming one!

The resurrection accounts of Jesus make it very clear that he was raised physically and spiritually. Jesus even says to his disciples “Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have” (Luke 24:39). This tells us that we're not waiting for death to release our spirits from our bodies but that we're waiting for our bodies to be renewed to be imperishable, glorious and powerful (1Corinthians 15:42-44). So, whether you're beach-ready or not: love your body, care for your body and worship the God who created your body.

High School Musical: Same but different

Here's my article for Scawby's June magazine:

I have to admit that the High School Musical phenomenon passed me by. The 2006 Disney film was a smash hit as soon as it was released and has spawned sequels, spin-offs and seemingly endless merchandise. The plot is fairly simple: basketball captain Troy meets academically gifted Gabriella on a winter holiday. They connect with each other while singing karaoke, then go their separate ways at the end of the holiday. Gabriella moves to Troy's school and their friendship is rekindled as they both try out for parts in their high school's musical. Their friends want them to concentrate on other things rather than singing, and the two who usually get the lead roles in the musicals also try to stop them. Think Romeo and Juliet or Grease and you'll get the idea.

One of the themes of HSM is the pressure that Troy and Gabriella face to conform with their 'tribe'. However, in breaking the stereotypes, they encourage others to do so too, so there's a basketball player who likes to bake, a 'nerd' that likes hip-hop, a skater-boy plays the cello – as one character explains: “people suddenly think that they can do other stuff; stuff that's not their stuff”. The crucial song is “Stick to the Status Quo”, where those who try to 'rebel' are told: “Stick to the stuff you know / If you want to be cool, follow one simple rule / Don't mess with the flow / Stick to the status quo.” For teenagers especially, the desire to want to be in a group and blend in is very strong, but the message of HSM is that it's OK to not conform with the stereotypes, and that peer pressure to conform can and should be resisted.

In adults this tribalism can manifest itself in identity politics – people grouping themselves together on the basis of a single shared characteristic, often with a claim of victimisation and discrimination, and often with the aim of getting recognition and power. Now, of course, seeing someone as of less worth than someone else because of a characteristic they have is always wrong, but although it seems a good idea, identity politics has undesirable consequences. From the point of view of society there is the problem of the hierarchy of identities: how do we decide which of the marginalized groups needs to be heard the loudest; what happens if someone has more than one marginalized characteristic; when does a marginalized group campaigning for themselves start discriminating against others? This last question is increasing seen in the way freedom of speech is stopped whenever the speaker wants to challenge the assumptions of a marginalized group.

But on a personal level there is something very worrying about investing so much of your identity in one characteristic. If you do this you will inevitably see yourself as being in competition with everyone else, and life becomes all about dominating others to your advantage. There is only one characteristic that truly matters: that we are humans beings. And for Christians that means we have a dignity because we're made in the image and likeness of God (Genesis 1:26-27). If we identify ourselves first and foremost as human beings problems of victimisation and discrimination start to fall away. As the Wildcats sing at the end “Everyone is special in their own way / We make each other strong / We're not the same / We're different in a good way / Together's where we belong / We're all in this together.”

Joseph and the problem of identity politics

Here's my article for Broughton's July magazine:

This year's production by Broughton Primary school is Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. This story is one of the central stories of the Jewish people, helping to give them their sense of identity. The most defining story for the Jewish people is the story of the Exodus, indeed many times God introduces himself by saying “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt” (e.g. Exodus 6:7, Leviticus 26:13, Psalms 81:10). This event is also the basis for their moral code: the Ten Commandments start with this statement (Exodus 20:2). But the story of Joseph tells how the Israelites (named after Joseph's father, Jacob, who was also called Israel (Genesis 32:28)) got to Egypt in the first place.

Foundational stories are really important for galvanising a group of people together, and they can also pass on values and valuable lessons to future generations. Whilst the Exodus speaks of a nation rescued by God, the story of Joseph shows that favouritism, pride and jealousy lead to a need to be rescued. Jacob loved Joseph more than his brothers, which made Joseph vain and lazy, which made his brothers so angry and envious that they sold him into slavery (Genesis 37). This seems to have had a profound effect on Joseph who became a diligent and trustworthy slave, who learnt that the gifts God had given him were for him to use for everyone's benefit, not just for his own boasting.

The downside of national identity is the problem of tribalism. These days tribalism can manifest itself in identity politics – people grouping themselves together on the basis of a single shared characteristic, often with a claim of victimisation and discrimination, and often with the aim of getting recognition and power. Now, of course, seeing someone as of less worth than someone else because of a characteristic they have is always wrong, but although it seems a good idea, identity politics has undesirable consequences. From the point of view of society there is the problem of the hierarchy of identities: how do we decide which of the marginalized groups needs to be heard the loudest; what happens if someone has more than one marginalized characteristic; when does a marginalized group campaigning for themselves start discriminating against others? This last question is increasing seen in the way freedom of speech is stopped whenever the speaker wants to challenge the assumptions of a marginalized group.

But on a personal level there is something very worrying about investing so much of your identity in one characteristic. If you do this you will inevitably see yourself as being in competition with everyone else, and life becomes all about dominating others to your advantage. There is only one characteristic that truly matters: that we are humans beings. And for Christians that means we have a dignity because we're made in the image and likeness of God (Genesis 1:26-27). If we identify ourselves first and foremost as human beings the problems of victimisation and discrimination start to fall away. Add to this a recognition that we are slaves to our sinful nature and that we can't save ourselves but need God to rescue us, and you have the start of the Kingdom of God on earth. And that's a kingdom we should all want to identify with.

Eternity on our fields

Here's my article for June:

It's time for another World Cup and the singing of “It's coming home” may once again be heard in the pubs and on the playing fields of England - only this year it's cricket that's coming home! Although we possibly shouldn't get our hopes up too much: since it's inauguration in 1975 the ICC Cricket World Cup has been hosted by England four times (though matches have also been played in Wales, Ireland, Scotland and the Netherlands when England have previously hosted it!) but they have yet to win it. However, they have a better record than the England football team in that they have made it to the final three times.

Image by starj on from pixabay.com

I have to admit that I don't really understand cricket. We played it a bit at school but those who were keen played on the square with the PE teachers and the rest of us organised mini games on other parts of the playing field. I usually volunteered to field close to the boundary so I could lie down in the sunshine for most of the lesson!

The American director Jim Jarmusch said “Cricket makes no sense to me. I find it beautiful to watch and I like that they break for tea. That is very cool, but I don't understand.” Even for those who don't follow or understand cricket, the game has a certain allure to it – the thought of an afternoon in the sun watching a game being played that is competitive but not (usually) aggressive is very appealing. It has a relaxing and even meditative quality, at least in watching it.

George Bernard Shaw, somewhat unkindly, said that “The English are not a very spiritual people, so they invented cricket to give them some idea of eternity.” It's fairly easy to make tenuous links between cricket and the Christian faith: three stumps and the Trinity (Father, Son and Holy Spirit); four bails and the four Gospels; two umpires and the Old and New Testaments etc. But the idea that we can understand something of the supernatural through the natural world is one that is deeply embedded in Christianity.

We believe that creation bears the fingerprints of its Creator; Psalm19:1 says “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.” And Paul writes in Romans1:20 “since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities – his eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.” But ultimately humans, made in the image and likeness of God (Genesis 1:27), can reflect something of God through our creative endeavours, including sport. And because God has put a sense of eternity into our hearts (Ecclesiastes 3:11) we long to seek out those things which connect us to that yearning for eternity.

Whether cricket is an like an eternity of heaven or hell, I'll leave you to decide!

God: despot, genie or Father?

Here's my article for May:

All you have to do is rub the lamp and out will pop a genie who will grant you three wishes (as long as they aren't about falling in love, killing someone or having more wishes!) I wonder how many times you have thought what your three wishes would be?

Of course, most of us would say that we want our loved ones to be safe; or a cure for various diseases; or perhaps world peace. But deep down there is a temptation to ask for power or wealth or beauty, and given the choice I don't know whether I would be able to resist the opportunity for selfish gain – and I suspect I'm not alone!

I also suspect that often we think of God as being like that genie; someone who we go to as a last resort when we can't solve things ourselves and expect him to grant our every wish. The Rogation Days are the traditional days of asking God's blessings on our world and our work. However, if we do think of God as some sort of divine vending machine then we will be disappointed. And that disappointment might be the reason some people don't believe in God. It probably isn't because he hasn't given us a fast car, or the winning lottery numbers, but more likely it will be because he hasn't answered a genuine prayer, perhaps to save a loved one from dying.

When I studied Judaism, the rabbi who was teaching us said that in classic Judaism the answer to the problem “why does God allow suffering?” is “God is God and he can do what he wants”! Although it is not a completely satisfying answer to the the problem it does give a helpful steer, especially if we don't hear it as being “God is a totalitarian despot.” Instead it invites us to see the problem in the light of who God is.

God is neither a despotic God, for whom we are merely playthings, nor is he a genie God, who is entirely at our command. God reveals himself in the Bible as being all-powerful and all-knowing but he is also all-loving. Jesus encourages us to pray saying “Ask and it will be given to you” but qualifies it by going on to say “If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!” (Matthew 7:7 and 11). The two important parts of that verse are that God is our Father who longs to give us good gifts.

Just as children don't always know what's best for them and can get upset when they don't get what they ask for, so too we don't always know what's best for us and often have imperfect motives. God is perfect and knows what we need before we ask (Matthew 6:32), so if he doesn't give us what we ask for, we can be confident that it is because he loves us and wants what's best for us, not because he doesn't care for us or we don't have enough faith. This side of death we will never fully understand God's purposes but we should be confident to pray, as Jesus did “thy will be done.” That prayer lead Jesus to the cross, but he went willingly knowing that through his death he “led many of God’s children to be saved and to share in his glory “ (Hebrews 2:10 Contemporary English Version.)

The Cross: stupid or stupendous?

Here's my article for the April magazines:

The Stations of the Cross is an meditation on Jesus' journey from his trial to his burial, and some of the events involve him meeting various people including the women of Jerusalem, Simon of Cyrene and his mother, Mary. A production of Jesus Christ Superstar at the Liverpool Empire that I saw many years ago, started with that journey and on the way Jesus met Judas, with a television news crew. Judas sang to Jesus “Why d'you choose such a backward time in such a strange land? / If you'd come today you could have reached a whole nation. / Israel in 4 BC had no mass communication.” The irony, intentional or not, being that even though he chose “such a backward time” he's still being worshipped and followed today.

Judas also expresses some common questions about Jesus' death: “Every time I look at you I don't understand / Why you let the things you did get so out of hand. / … Did you mean to die like that? Was that a mistake?” The answer to that question is found in Matthew 16:21, which records that “Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.”

But knowing that Jesus willingly went to his death without a fight and without going down in a 'blaze of glory' just raises more questions – it seems to be a foolish and weak way to die. Paul tells us “This so-called “foolish” plan of God is far wiser than the wisest plan of the wisest man, and God in his weakness—Christ dying on the cross—is far stronger than any man” (1 Corinthians 1:25 The Living Bible). However, this can only be seen if you understand why Jesus died.

The wisdom of the world is that if you're good enough you will go to heaven, and that Jesus came to teach us to be better. If this is true, then his death was foolish and weak as it achieved nothing except depriving the world of more years of his teaching and example. However the problem is not that we're not good enough for heaven but that we can never be good enough for heaven. Isaiah spoke about Jesus, about 700 years before he was born saying “We—every one of us—have strayed away like sheep! We, who left God’s paths to follow our own. Yet God laid on him the guilt and sins of every one of us!” (Isaiah 53:6 The Living Bible). Jesus took the punishment that we deserve for our sins and in doing so defeated death itself. His death may look foolish and weak, but he knew it was the only solution to our estrangement from God.

The cross silences all of our human pretensions. If we think we are clever enough or good enough for God the cross will seem to be weak and foolish. However when we recognise we can never save ourselves by our own efforts, the cross becomes powerful and wise, for through it God rescues the people he loves.

P.S. Details of this year's Stations of the Cross service can be found here: https://en-gb.facebook.com/events/407736576626486/

Picture credits:
Top image by congerdesign from pixabay.com
Explanation of pictures: “We all saw what Jesus did both in Israel and in the city of Jerusalem.  Jesus was put to death on a cross. But three days later, God raised him to life and let him be seen. Not everyone saw him. He was seen only by us, who ate and drank with him after he was raised from death.” (Acts 10:39-41)
Bottom image by Ben Steed from heartlight.org

A journey with a watery start

I suspect that not many people will remember their baptism.  I was baptised at the age of 16 so I do remember mine – it was a full immersion baptism in a pool that had been erected in the church for that occasion but the water was cold as the heater hadn't worked!  I remember how great it was to be able to affirm my faith publicly in front of my Christian family.

Those who are baptised as infants don't get the chance to affirm their faith for themselves at their baptism, but that is why we have godparents.  In the baptism service the Godparents not only declare that they believe the Christian faith themselves and that they will bring the child up as a Christian (by praying for them, being an example to them and bringing them along to church), but they also declare the faith on behalf of the child.    They answer for themselves and for the child.  In one version of the baptism service the minister says “At baptism we promise to reject the devil and all evil, constantly to believe God's Word, and to obey his commands. Children should make their own response of faith and obedience towards God, but as this child is at present too young to answer for himself it is proper that this commitment be made in his name until he is old enough to take it upon himself.” The rôle of the godparent is to bring the child up in the Christian faith so that the child is able to affirm their faith publicly, usually in the presence of a bishop at the Confirmation service.

It is sometimes said that children should be free to choose the faith for themselves and it is true that no-one is a Christian unless they decide for themselves to repent and to believe and trust in Jesus as their Lord.  However, infant baptism reminds us that Jesus invited children to be brought to him for a blessing and rebuked those who keep them from him.  But it also reminds us that a child is not 'done' when they've been baptised, rather it marks the start of their Christian journey where they will be guided and taught the faith by their parents and godparents, in the hope that one day they will choose it for themselves.  They cannot of course choose it if they have not been taught it!

Lent is a season of reflection in the Church year and those reflections sometimes centre around our identity as baptised Christians.  One of the prayers in our baptism service asks for God's help to “keep us faithful to our baptism” This involves three things: first, repenting of the things we do wrong; secondly, believing all that the Bible teaches about the doctrines of the Christian faith; and thirdly, keeping God's holy will and commandments all the days of our life.

At your baptism, your godparents prayed that Jesus would receive you, forgive you, sanctify you with the Holy Spirit, and make you an heir to heaven and eternal life. They also heard that Jesus promised all these things in his gospel and we know that he keeps his promises.  You started your Christian journey then, perhaps you need to restart that journey now, and if so you're always welcome at church – you are a member of our family after all!!

How much are you worth?

Here's my February article:

How much are you worth? According to the fount of academic excellence known as Google (although other founts are available and may differ!), the human body is worth anything from just under $1 to just over £1,000,000 for all the body parts (or more on the black market) via $160 for the chemical elements. This month around Valentine's Day many people will be using cards and gifts to express to their loved ones how much they value them, though I doubt that many will express that in monetary terms! A human being is perhaps the greatest example of something being worth more than the sum of its parts.

I hope that you think that you are worth more than £1,000,000, but there are many ways that we can be made to feel worthless. Adverts, even ones that proclaim that “you're worth it!”, are designed to make us feel inadequate or incomplete without whatever product they're selling. Society too gives out the message that you're only worth something if you're popular; or have the right sort of education or job; or have a good background; or live in the nice places; or own certain things; or contribute a certain amount to society; or believe whatever that month's socially acceptable views are. Valentine's Day too plays into this conditional valuing of human life suggesting that you are only worth something if you have a partner, and have had many partners.

So how can we assess how much we are worth? Well, one way we can do think is to think about it in economic terms: something is worth whatever someone will pay for it. For example, if I owned the Mona Lisa and put it on an online auction site, if the highest bid for it is £1 then that is how much the Mona Lisa is worth. But what about us humans? Paul tells us that we have been bought at a price (1 Corinthians 6:20), we have been redeemed or bought back by God. And what did he buy us back with? His own blood (Acts 20:28)! God, in Jesus, bought each of us with his blood. You are worth the life of the eternal God!!

But that then begs the question of what God bought us back from. The Bible reminds us that we have all sinned (Romans 3:23) and Jesus says that those who sin are slaves to sin (John 8:34). As the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23), in order to redeem us from slavery to sin Jesus paid the price necessary, which was his death in our place. Therefore, “In [Jesus] we have redemption through [Jesus'] blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us” (Ephesians 1:8).

But why did God pay such a high price for us? Because our sin separates us from him (Isaiah 59:2) yet because he loves us (1 John 4:9-10), he wants to be reconciled with us (2 Corinthians 5:18-19). To be reconciled with God we need to accept his offer of forgiveness and repent of our sins.

If God sent you a Valentine's Day card its picture would be of Jesus on the cross, and the caption would say “This is how much I love you. This is how much I think you're worth.”

Is Mindfulness compatible with Christianity?

Here's an occasional post, prompted by a discussion we had in one of the churches a couple of weeks ago:

'Mindfulness' has been a buzzword for a few years now, but is it a practice that is compatible with Christianity? Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn, the creator of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), describes mindfulness as, ‘Paying attention…on purpose, in the present moment, and non-judgmentally.’ Or, more simply, ‘being here, now!’ It is a kind of meditation that has its roots in Buddhist philosophy and practice, although many practitioners stress that it can be separated from those roots and used within either a religious or a non-religious framework. They also point to scientific studies which claim that mindfulness and meditation are effective treatments for many conditions. Like a lot of meditation practices it involves focussing on one's breathing and emptying one's head of thoughts, except to be 'aware' of yourself' without judgement, which is seen as the cause of suffering.

'Living in the present' is of course a very sensible thing to do: we can often live in the past or the future, or just 'float' aimlessly through the present. Taking time to rest from the hectic pace of modern life is also very beneficial. 'Self-awareness' is also central to being a Christian for without being self-aware we cannot benefit from the good news of Jesus. Our church services often give us an opportunity to do these things. However, this does not mean that mindfulness is compatible with Christianity.

Firstly, it is impossible to separate mindfulness from its Buddhist roots. Mindfulness is the seventh of the Eight-fold Path of Buddhism, which is the path to 'Enlightenment' or 'nirvana'. According to Buddhist philosophy, suffering and joy are states of mind. To be self-aware is to recognise that these feelings are impermanent as is the 'self' that experiences them. Therefore, nirvana is the escape from focusing on yourself and instead, as Kabat-Zinn says “to recognize your interconnectedness with all life, and with being itself. Your very nature is being part of larger and larger spheres of wholeness.” For Christians to be self-aware is to recognise that we are sinful, unable to make ourselves better and therefore in need of the salvation that comes through Jesus. Our ultimate aim is not a “union with the All” through the dissolution of the human self but rather a communion between God and the human self where neither is dissolved or lost in the other.

These different conclusions come about because of the differing approaches of self-reflection. Mindfulness explicitly requires practitioners to be non-judgemental about themselves, avoiding “potentially destructive thoughts and feelings.” But by rejecting any criticism of themselves, the ability to appreciate their sinfulness is also rejected. However, the Bible never encourages people to meditate on their breathing or their body but instead on the God's revelation in the Bible; this is the only way we can know the truth about ourselves, the world and God. We cannot learn these things by our own efforts because we are limited in our understanding, we can only be told them by someone outside of ourselves. By thinking about our just God, we see our own sinfulness; by thinking about our holy God, we see our separation from him; by thinking about our saving God, we see how he rescues us through Jesus' sacrificial death; by thinking about our loving God, we see the one on whom we can cast all of our anxiety.

Mindfulness may help some people, but it is not compatible with Christianity. However, the bigger question is: why settle for the crumbs of help that mindfulness can give you, when Jesus offers you a feast?