How to end all wars

Here's this month's magazine article:

On Sunday, 4^th August 1918, the fourth anniversary of the declaration of war, King George V and Queen Mary joined members of the House of Commons and the House of Lords for a special service at the Church of Saint Margaret, Westminster. The King had asked that 4^th August 1918 should be observed as a National Day of Prayer: 100 days later the war ended.

This year we commemorate the centenary of the end of World War I and our remembrance is particularly poignant as we consider how we have failed all those who died or whose lives were affected by the war. In Peter Capaldi's final episode in Doctor Who, a WWI soldier gets lifted out of time and the Doctor says that he is a WWI soldier to which he replies “Yes, but what do you mean, 'one'?”

For those who fought or suffered in the Great War, the only thing that made the hardship and slaughter bearable was the belief that it was the 'war to end all wars', as H.G. Wells wrote in 1914 “This, the greatest of all wars, is not just another war—it is the last war!” They were told that their sacrifices would make the world a better place, indeed in the new world there would be no war. The reality of the trenches probably put paid to the idealism of the first few months of the war, but it probably also confirmed in them the horror of war that we find in the war poems of that time.

We have failed those all those who died or whose lives were affected by the war because we have failed to learn that war cannot end war; that violence only leads to violence. And if this seems to be an inevitable vicious cycle, that's because it is – at least humanly speaking. The root cause of violence and war is our sinful nature. All human beings are pre-disposed to evil and this affects us individually and collectively. The worse news is that we cannot put this right ourselves, but the good news is that if we truly repent of our sins, God will forgive us and give us his Holy Spirit so that we can live as his children.

And like our sin, this salvation affects us individually and collectively. One of the prayers for Remembrance Sunday is “Almighty Father, whose will is to restore all things in your beloved Son, the King of all: govern the hearts and minds of those in authority, and bring the families of the nations, divided and torn apart by the ravages of sin, to be subject to his just and gentle rule.” It reminds us that we are divided and torn apart by the ravages of sin, and that the only remedy is the just and gentle rule of Jesus, the King of all. Jesus died so that we can be forgiven; he rose from the dead to give us new life; and he will come again to rule over all things.

If we really want to see an end to all war, we need to follow the example of George V: come before God in repentance and with prayers for help; for ourselves, for our nation and for the world.

Check out Glen Scrivener's video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2&v=StuOWU4b1to

The TARDIS and the Tower

Here's my September magazine article:

For some people summer is a time of exploring new places, but for some people the end of summer brings with it the prospect of exploring new places too.  That's because the BBC have announced that the next series of Doctor Who will be broadcast starting on Sunday 7th October and it will be full of new things: new Doctor, new costumes, new sonic screwdriver, new version of theme tune, new logo, new companions, new adventures, new monsters.  However, one thing that has been relatively constant throughout the show's history is the TARDIS - the Doctor's spaceship / time machine in its familiar form of a police box.  However, even the TARDIS has minor changes on the outside, and recently the interior changes with each new regeneration of the Doctor.

I'm not a huge fan of Doctor Who but I have watched the past couple of series with my son in case he got scared, and I'm intrigued to see what a female Doctor is like.  However, what brought Doctor Who to mind was a strange Whovian moment I had a month or so ago.  I was alone in St Mary's pottering about and thinking about the repair work that's soon going to start on the tower.  I stood under the tower arch and put my hands on both pillars.  As I did so I felt the age of the tower, and all the history it has seen and was aware of my brief place in its life and my responsibility for looking after it and passing it on to future generations.  I was reminded of the list of previous Rectors of Broughton who, like the Doctors, have come and gone whilst the tower, like the TARDIS, remains virtually the same.

Like the TARDIS, the tower is loved by many people but it similarly is not just an object of beauty and affection. The TARDIS serves a purpose of assisting the Doctor and his companions in their adventures, and the tower, along with the rest of the church building, is simply a vehicle for the mission of the Christian Church.  The mission of the Church was given to us by Jesus just before he ascended back to heaven: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:18-20).  The Church is to make people followers of Jesus by proclaiming the forgiveness of sins through his death and resurrection (symbolised in baptism) and encouraging them, along with the rest of the Church, to live in accordance with his teaching.

The church building therefore becomes the place where people who feel weighed down by the guilt of their imperfections can come to find forgiveness and strength in Jesus; where those who are lost and despairing can find courage and consolation; where those who want a better world can find the kingdom of God growing on earth.  Billie Piper's character in “The Day of the Doctor” says “You know the sound the TARDIS makes? That wheezing, groaning? That sound brings hope wherever it goes...To anyone who hears it, Doctor. Anyone. However lost. Even you.”  The sight of a church building should bring even greater hope.  To anyone. However lost. Even you.

Doctor Who, Zygons and Remembrance Sunday

This is the sermon I preached for the Remembrance Sunday Service at Broughton 2015:

Last night, I was just about to write my talk for this morning's service when my eldest son asked me to sit down to watch Doctor Who with him. I have to confess that I don't like sci-fi, and I'd never watched Doctor Who before the previous series. I wouldn't say that now I'm hooked on it but I do quite enjoy watching it, even if I don't understand what's happening! And so last night, instead of writing this morning's talk I watched Doctor Who. So, although the Bible readings we've just heard are great, I'd like to take as my text for this morning The Zygon Inversion by Peter Harness and Steven Moffat.

The Zygon Inversion is the second part of a story where the Zygons, a race of shapeshifting aliens, have been living in secret amongst us on Earth, unknown and unseen - until now! A rogue gang of Zygons start an uprising in the hope it will spark a war between humans and Zygons. Now hopefully what I say next won't contain any spoilers for those of you who haven't seen it yet. The climax of the episode involves the leader of the rogue Zygons and the leader of the international unit for extra-terrestrials. They have a choice to make – the Doctor’s devised a game of chance to determine whether they destroy themselves, or their enemies, a scale model of war to make them think.

Whilst trying to persuade them to keep the peace, the Doctor says to the rogue Zygon “maybe you will win, but no-one wins for long. The wheel just keeps on turning.” The Doctor puts his finger on the problem of war that “Cruelty begets cruelty.” But he also knows the solution saying: “The only way anyone can live in peace is if they are prepared to forgive.”

And there is the difficulty, because the jealousies and desires inside each of us stop us from turning our swords and spears into ploughshares and pruning hooks. Our desires to have the wrongs against us righted mean that we cannot let go, we cannot forgive. But to forgive and forget is not to say that the wrongs weren't wrong or that justice doesn't matter. Instead we let go so we can let God be the judge. And of course if we want the ultimate example of forgiveness we look not to the Time Lord, but to the Lord of Time.

The things we do wrong make us enemies of God and so we deserve punishment and ultimately separation from God. But God loves us so much that in Jesus he took that punishment we deserve when he died on the cross, so that we can be forgiven. Jesus died for us when we were his enemies so that we could become his friends. Amazingly, he died for everyone, even if they choose to remain his enemies and separated from him because they don't accept his forgiveness. But we can only truly forgive others if we have been forgiven by God first.

The Doctor, through his own experience of the horror and pain of war, found that forgiveness was the only way to make peace. So he says, “You know what do you do with all that pain?... You hold it tight 'til it burns your hand. And you say this: No-one else will ever have to live like this. No-one else will ever have to feel this pain. Not on my watch.” That's the spirit which inspired Remembrance Day. Sorrow for our own sins, so we can forgive others, so it will never happen again.