Betrayal and how to deal with it

Here's my article for February (and my second inspired by The Traitors!!):

Photo by Lance Reis on Unsplash

Again this year we seem to be in the grip of 'Traitors-mania': Celebrity Traitors before Christmas was widely praised and the latest series of the normal format started last month.  As the title suggests, it is all about trust and treachery and although “it's only a gameshow” it involves real people trusting other people and often being really betrayed.

Betrayal is doubly cruel because it not only means that someone has harmed you in some way, but that the person was someone you trusted.  We hear this double pain in the words Shakespeare gives Julius Caesar as he is being assassinated: “Et tu, Brute?”  Caesar would have expected his enemies to want to kill him but not his friend Brutus.  If we love and trust people we risk not only being let down by them, but also being betrayed by them.  Therefore Tennessee Williams said that “We have to distrust each other. It is our only defense against betrayal.”  This is a potential solution, but it's not a world I would like to live in!  So, how can we cope with betrayal, whether that's in a small matter or in a significant matter?

In this season of Lent, our attention is turned towards the events of Jesus' final week before his crucifixion and betrayal is a common theme.  We might initially think of Judas' actions, but Peter also denied knowing Jesus (Matthew 26:69-75) and the rest of the disciples abandoned Jesus when he was arrested (Matthew 26:47-56).  Even the actions of Jesus' opponents in accomplishing his death are also cast as betrayal (Acts 7:52). 

The opposition to Jesus can be quite puzzling if we just see him as being a kind and gentle person who tried to encourage people to love each other.  But when we see Jesus' mission as bringing in the Kingdom of God, a Kingdom that challenges all earthly power and rule, the opposition of those holding earthly power becomes more understandable.  This shouldn't be a surprise if we pay attention to what we heard as we celebrated his birth at Christmas.  Simeon prophesied that “This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against” (Luke 2:34). John tells us why this opposition was also a betrayal, using perhaps the most tragic words ever written: “though the world was made through [Jesus], the world did not recognise him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him” (John 1:10-11).

Jesus responded to this betrayal on the cross, saying “‘Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34).  He forgave them not just with words but by dying so they could be forgiven.

Jesus' words of forgiveness apply not only to those who crucified him and to those who deserted him; they apply to each of us too, because we also do not receive him when we sin.  The good news is that “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). It's only by accepting the forgiveness Jesus offers for our betrayal of him that we can have the strength to forgive those who betray us.

Guys, cancel culture and forgiveness

Here's my November article:

1st Hibaldstow and Scawby Scouting group bonfire 2025

It's been many years since I saw children outside shops asking for a 'penny for the guy.'  Even then it was a dying practice, and if you actually gave them just a penny they scowled at you!  The tradition of lighting bonfires to celebrate the foiling of the treasonous Gunpowder Plot started the same year, 1605.  The earliest records of effigies being burned on them was 1625, although these were effigies of the pope and the devil. An effigy of Guy Fawkes was used at a display in 1647 at Lincoln's Inn Fields. From then onwards, 'guys' have been made and burned on bonfires, sometimes representing Fawkes himself and sometimes representing other, usually contemporary, figures of public anger.

Although the anger directed towards these 'hate figures' can be deeply felt, it doesn't lead to actual violence against the person represented.  In some ways the 'guy' is a way to voice and to vent that anger in a controlled manner.  What is more dangerous is what has been termed 'cancel culture.'  This is when people or groups call for someone who they have deemed to have said or done something unacceptable to be ostracised, boycotted, shunned or fired.  The transgression may be a heinous crime or it could simply be an opinion that the 'cancellers' find offensive or merely disagree with.

Crimes should, of course, be exposed and punished, and the judicial system is the means to achieve that.  And throughout history there has been public dispute over opinions, often involving lambasting and lampooning – freedom of speech, including the freedom to criticise, is important to uphold.  What is different with cancel culture is the vitriol and the all-encompassing extent of the cancelling, which is often fuelled by social media.

The targets are not just cancelled from the time of their offence, but the whole of their previous history and achievements are demanded to be erased. It is a chilling echo of George Orwell's words in his book '1984': 

Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street building has been renamed, every date has been altered.

However, more worringly, the deeming of someone as deserving cancellation results in them being seen as unforgiveable and even to their assasination as being both justified and a cause for celebration.

Because of his words and actions, Jesus was seen as a threat to the interests and power of both the religious and the secular leaders of his day.  They too wanted him cancelled, and they thought they had by crucifying him.  Jesus' response was not anger or vengeance, but forgiveness, both whilst he was dying (Luke 23:34) and when he came back to life again.  Though he was rejected by those he had created, which is the ultimate treason, he accepted death so that they, and we, could be forgiven (Romans 5:8).  We have offended God by our sin, but he doesn't cancel us, instead he offers us forgiveness and eternal life with him.

No Way Home?

Here's my article for March:

One of my treats over the Christmas holidays was to watch the latest Spider-Man film, No Way Home (don't worry there's no spoilers!!). It was a film I, like many, had been looking forward to, and to misquote Peter Parker's legendary credo “with great hype comes great expectations”! Thankfully, I wasn't disappointed!

The premise of the film is a very interesting one, Peter is faced with a choice – with a number of super-villains in his control he can either allow them to be destroyed in revenge for what they have done, or he can try to help them to change. The choice is not an easy one and Peter struggles with it, especially knowing that to help them will require sacrifice on his part. This is a story about second chances and doing the right thing in difficult circumstances (and perhaps against our own self-interest).

This latest series of Spider-Man films all play on the word and concept of 'home': the first film was Homecoming; the second, Far from Home; and the third, No Way Home, and they also deal with issues of family in the widest sense. Because of this, and because of plotline of this latest film being about whether people deserve a second chance and if 'bad guys' can change, this film reminded me of Jesus' parable of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32).

That story can perhaps be summarised as: far from home – no way home – homecoming. A young man rejects his family, takes his share of the family wealth and travels far from home. There he spends his wealth on living the life of luxury and excess until his money runs out and he becomes destitute. Having abandoned his family and having been abandoned by those he thought were friends, he feels like there is no way home. However, he decides to return home to offer himself as a slave, “but while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him” (verse 20). His father then threw a homecoming party for his son.

Many who hear that parable would agree with the older brother that the prodigal son does not deserve forgiveness or a second chance, just as some people told Spider-Man that the super-villains deserved to die for their actions. But the Christian message is that all of us are like the prodigal son, all of us reject God our Father and misuse the gifts he gives us for our own selfish desires – this is what we call sin. But the great news is that God is willing to give us a second, third, fourth and more chance.

Tragically sometimes we are like one of the super-villains who tells Peter “We don’t need you to save us! We don’t need to be fixed!” - we can be far from home and not realise it, or worse still, not want to go home. Eventually however, the emptiness of that life will become apparent, and even if you feel there is no way home, see your heavenly Father looking for you, and running towards you with the simple invitation: “Come home!”

Black Friday or White Christmas?

My article for the December and January magazines:

Christmas is a time for traditions: the food, the music, the decorations (and complaining about how early they go up!), the parties, the church services and of course it wouldn't be Christmas without the cries of “It's all too commercialised!” We may lament that children are no longer content with Christmas presents consisting of shed-built wooden toys, an apple, an orange and some nuts, but I suspect that none of us would actually want it to be like that again. However it is true that in all the focus on the extravagance of presents or celebrations, the true reason for Christmas gets lost.

Nothing exemplifies this more than 'Black Friday'. Originally a term to describe the crowds of U.S. citizens starting their Christmas shopping on the day after Thanksgiving, it became an opportunity for retailers to offer big sales. This trend has recently (at least pre-pandemic) become more popular outside the U.S.A. and has been adopted by many retailers in this country. It's not just the consumerism of Black Friday that is a problem, but also the behaviour that it stirs up – there are often stories about injuries and even deaths caused by crowding and fighting over hugely discounted and desirable products. Fighting and injuries are also a feature of the other UK Black Friday – the nickname used by the emergency services for the Friday before Christmas due to its popularity as a night for Christmas parties. So, whether it's about presents or partying, for many people Christmas is defined by Black Friday.

Although Black Friday, in either use, is almost the opposite of the meaning of Christmas as a time of altruism and peace, it does show us why Christmas was necessary. Black Friday reminds us how as humans we can easily take something good, for example giving presents and celebrating with family and friends, and turn it into something bad. This is what the Christian faith calls 'Original Sin' – the innate tendency of humans to choose selfishness and our own interests over the interests of others, and to reject God's authority over us. Black Friday shows that Christmas is necessary because Christmas is defined not by Black Friday but by Good Friday.

The consequence of Original Sin is that we are unable, and ultimately unwilling, to do anything about our sinfulness and so we need a Saviour. This Saviour had to be human so that he could identify with us, suffer in our place and sympathize with us in our weakness. But he also had to be divine to pay off the infinite wrath of God incurred by our sin. In Psalm 51 King David acknowledged his sinfulness and asked God for forgiveness saying “wash me, and I will be whiter than snow” (verse 7). Christmas is the day we remember that Jesus was fully human and fully divine, being born so that he could die in order to pay the punishment for our sins on Good Friday and then rise from the dead at Easter to give us a new start.

So is your Christmas defined by Black Friday or Good Friday? Is it all about materialism, excess and self-centredness or is it about an awareness of your sin, and the celebration of the birth of your Saviour who will wash you whiter than snow?

Living Hopefully

Wildflowers in Scawby churchyard

Here's my article for April:

Spring has sprung and in the natural world we are seeing signs of new life, and with them brings hope that the cold winter days are past and the warm (and maybe even hot!) days of summer are on their way. But it's not just in nature that hope is springing: with the government 'road map' we have a hope that the dark days of the pandemic are coming to an end and the bright days of 'normality' are getting closer. Although hope is a powerful emotion that can keep us going through difficult times, it is good to question what the grounds of our hope are.

As we emerge from the shadow of COVID-19, the obvious grounds for our hope is in the vaccines, and then (as it has been throughout the pandemic) in the NHS to treat us if we fall ill. But these aren't solid grounds for hope. With each variant that appears there is concern that the vaccines won't be effective against that strain of the virus. With each rise in cases there is concern that the NHS will not be able to cope with demand – it is not surprising that one of the constant slogans has been to 'Protect the NHS'. The development of the vaccines is something to be celebrated and the NHS do fantastic work with all sorts of medical needs, but vaccines and the NHS are not solid foundations on which to build our hope of overcoming this plague, still less are they solid foundations on which to build our hope of overcoming the root cause of our fears about the virus.

We are desperate for protection against the virus because ultimately we fear death. To those who believe that the physical world is all that there is, death makes all our lives ultimately meaningless. As it says in Ecclesiastes 5:15 “We leave this world just as we entered it—with nothing. In spite of all our work there is nothing we can take with us” (Good News Translation). To those who do believe in a supernatural afterlife, death brings the uncertainty of eternal existence – uncertain because of not knowing what the outcome will be. The general sense that if you're good enough you'll have a nice eternal existence sounds reassuring until you ask the question of what 'good enough' means, and if we're honest, we don't even come up to our own standards! Death then is something to be feared and therefore our only hope is to delay it as much as possible. Unless there is a better and more solid ground for hope.

Thankfully, there is a better hope – the new life of spring overcoming the death of winter is one way God points us towards the good news of Easter; that Jesus' death and resurrection mean that death is no longer something to be feared. Our lives have meaning because they don't stop at death, and we can be forgiven for our constant failure to be 'good enough' because Jesus took our punishment on the cross. Just as we benefit from the work of many scientists by having the vaccine so we can benefit from Jesus' sacrifice by putting our faith and trust in him. So this Easter, live hopefully!

Ding dong merrily on high (and on earth too!)

 It's going to be a very different Christmas this year, and as I write this (mid-November) we're not sure how different it's going to be, but we do know that it is going to be unlike any Christmas we've had before.  But despite whatever restrictions will be in place, there is a general desire to make Christmas a happy and special time.  One of the ideas is to ring bells outside at 6.00pm on Christmas Eve, which seems very appropriate as bells, especially of the jingle variety, are almost synonymous with Christmas.  If you're in any doubt about that, try listening to the most summer-like song whilst shaking bells and you will think about Christmas!!

But why are bells associated with Christmas?  The association probably goes back to the ringing of church bells to celebrate one of the great feasts of the church year and their sound of joy contrasting with the dark and miserable winter weather.  This link has been solidified in the popular imagination by the use of bells as a warning on coaches and sleighs in the poor winter visibility, and of course no Christmas chart song is complete without bells!!

Surprisingly, there is no mention of bells in the Biblical accounts of Jesus' birth, although often they are mentioned in re-tellings of the story as the bells of heaven ringing in celebration or of the angels' songs sounding like bells.  Indeed there is almost no mention of bells at all in the Bible, but cymbals are often included in lists of instruments used to worship God.  However, one place where bells are mentioned are in the clothes that God instructs the High Priest to wear.  In Exodus 28 God tells Moses to anoint his brother Aaron as the first High Priest and that at the bottom hem of a blue robe he should make pomegranates of blue, purple and scarlet yarn with gold bells between them. There are many different explanations of the purpose and symbolism of these bells, so we may never know for sure, but there are a couple that seem plausible to me.

Verse 34 says “The sound of the bells will be heard when he enters the Holy Place before the Lord and when he comes out, so that he will not die” and verse 43 repeats the warning.  The bells then are possibly an audible reminder to the High Priest that he is entering into the special presence of God and therefore should put aside the 'worldly' clothes of sinfulness and put on the 'heavenly' clothes of holiness.  Repentance is a pre-requisite for a relationship with God.  But the bells are also a reminder that as the High Priest leaves that special presence of God, he doesn't leave that holiness behind but brings it out into the world – the soft sound of the precious gold being the wonderful message of God spoken into a cacophonous world.

The Bible tells us that Jesus is our Great High Priest (Hebrews 4), not just coming as a messenger from God but, as we celebrate at Christmas, 'God-with-us'; God himself in human form.  And the wonderful message that he brings is that he has made it possible for all of us to enter into God's special presence because Jesus is not just the great High Priest but also because “we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all” (Hebrews 10:10).  So grab your bells or anything else to celebrate the good news that makes Christmas worth keeping whatever our circumstances!!

Why?

Here's my article for the April magazines:

Once when I was talking about the crucifixion to some Key Stage 1 children one child asked “Did that really happen?” I said yes and then the child looked at a picture of Jesus on the cross with blood all over his body, and said “It must have really hurt.”

That child suddenly understood the reality of what happened to Jesus on the cross: a real human, with flesh and blood like us suffered an agonising death. We tend to sanitise the events of Good Friday; even though our churches are full of crosses most of them are smooth, and a lot of them are shiny – and few of them show the dying Jesus hanging on them. This latter point reminds us, of course, that Jesus didn't stay dead but rose from the dead on Easter Sunday, however it seems to me that all too often we rush past Jesus' death to get to his resurrection.

And even when Jesus is depicted on the cross we don't see the suffering: he is often already dead and looking peaceful; the blood is minimal and his nakedness is covered. But does all this matter? Crucifixion is a cruel and, literally, excruciating death but that doesn't mean we need to show it in all its harrowing reality. But what we do need to do is to remember that it was an horrific event, not just to witness but for Jesus himself. Because if we don't comprehend the appalling nature of Jesus' death, if we think of it as just something Jesus did as easily as eating and sleeping, then we might never ask the question 'why?'

“Why did Jesus willingly and intentionally go through such an agonising death?” is perhaps one of the most important questions we can ever ask. In the face of it a lot of our misconceptions about Jesus are shattered. If he was just a wise teacher, his death stopped him being able to teach more people in more places. If he was a revolutionary, he gave up without a fight. He didn't die to take someone's place in a hostage type situation, nor as a martyr for a philosophical, moral or religious principle. Humanly-speaking Jesus' death was pointless and unnecessary.

So why did Jesus willingly and intentionally go through such an agonising death? It can only be because it achieved his mission. Jesus said that he came “to seek and to save the lost” (Luke 19:10 - 'the lost' being sinners [Luke 15]), and that he would “give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45). 700 years beforehand, Isaiah had written about Jesus' death: “he was wounded and bruised for our sins. He was beaten that we might have peace; he was lashed—and we were healed! 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 53:4-6 The Living Bible). No wonder we want to ignore the reality of the crucifixion – the agony Jesus suffered is a result of our sin, but amazingly it is also our salvation.

Image: Theyre Lee-Elliott "Crucified tree form - the agony".

 Image Copyright © Trustees for Methodist Church Purposes. https://www.methodist.org.uk/our-faith/reflecting-on-faith/the-methodist-modern-art-collection/

The worst thing about A&E waiting rooms

Here's my article for the March magazine:

Sitting in a hospital A&E waiting room is a great chance to think - that is, as long as you're not in agony! All sorts of people come and go; you see the doctors, nurses and other staff beavering away; and you catch snippets of why people have ended up there, then try to fill in the gaps.

In one way the A&E department is a great leveller. Young and old, rich and poor, clumsy and careful - anyone can find themselves there, often through no fault of their own. And you get prioritised for treatment there on the basis of how urgent your need is, not on how clever or pretty or popular you are. But this fact is also what makes A&E waiting rooms sometimes very frustrating places to be and ones that induce many negative feelings, alongside the physical pain.

We all understand that the order you will be seen in depends on the merits, or demerits, of your problem. But the longer you have to wait there, the more you start trying to second-guess what people's needs are. As you look around the waiting room you rank the people there according to your perception of their condition and other factors such as age, and place yourself mentally in that list too. Then when people you think are less of a priority than you get called to triage or for treatment ahead of you, feelings of disappointment and puzzlement start to well up inside you. The longer this goes on and the more this happens, those feelings of disappointment turn into frustration and anger. So when you came in you were quite willing to accept that those with more serious problems would be seen first but now every time someone else gets called, you have to fight the urge to stand up and shout “What about me? I'm more deserving than they are!!” A system that's designed to be fair ends up arousing feelings of anger and envy.

Lent is an opportunity for us to face up to our faults and failings. Although we will often say that “nobody's perfect” (or as the Bible puts it “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” [Romans 3:23]), we also like to rank ourselves in comparison with others and our perception of their sins. With this mindset the gospel of Jesus becomes very offensive. We are like the prodigal son's older brother who complains that his father forgives the rebellious son (Luke 15:11-32); or like the workers who work all day in the vineyard and complain that those who have only worked for one hour get the same pay (Matthew 20:1-16). We like the idea of forgiveness, but only when it is offered to those we think deserve it! This was the reason Jonah ran away: he didn't want God to forgive the evil Ninevehites (Jonah 4:1-2)! Whenever we feel like that, we've forgotten that God doesn't need a triage unit: all of us have the same condition – sin; all of us have the same prognosis – death sentence; and all of us need the same remedy – forgiveness through the Divine Physician, who was crushed for our sins and by whose wounds we are healed. (Isaiah 53:4-6).

So this Lent, let us admit to our own failings, including our feelings of superiority and good-enough-ness; ask God for forgiveness; and find in him healing and new life.

"If-" only...

Here's my article for February's magazine:

Lent starts at the end of February and with it sometimes come Lenten resolutions – promises to give up or take up actions for the forty days of Lent. These resolutions, like New Year's resolutions are often well-intentioned but not well-kept, and are usually to do with improving either your physical health, your character or even your spiritual health. But it's not just around New Year and Lent that we try to improve ourselves; all year round we are faced with motivational slogans, particularly on social media.

One rich vein for motivational words is Rudyard Kipling's 1910 poem “If-”, a poem which even if you haven't had to learn it, still manages to be memorable enough that odd lines will pop into your mind for no apparent reason. “If-” is a masterpiece of Victorian “righteous certitude”, a series of pieces of 'wisdom', which if kept, Kipling claims will give you the Earth and make you a Man. It does contain some good advice, as relevant now as then, if not more so: “If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, / But make allowance for their doubting too; / If you... being lied about, don’t deal in lies, / Or being hated, don’t give way to hating.” But although Kipling wants to present a picture of the ideal (hu)man, the image we get is of someone that is stoical to the point of inhumanity.

This is demonstrated by the words which are famously written above the players’ entrance to the Centre Court at Wimbledon: “If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster / And treat those two impostors just the same.” Whilst it is trying to encourage us to be gracious both in victory and defeat, to truly follow it you have to care very little about anything. Similarly, “If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you, / If all men count with you, but none too much” encourages an aloofness which would render you incapable of love. Also the lines “If you can fill the unforgiving minute / With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run” are a warning against idleness, but too easily become a guilt-inducing pressurizing to workaholism.

And as ever, even the wisest person fails to live up to their ideals, just as we all fail to live up to the standards we set for ourselves, whether they are resolutions or not! The one exception to this is Jesus who gave wise advice for living as well as living out his message perfectly. His most famous 'wisdom' teaching is to be found in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7), which ends with the parable of the wise and foolish builders where Jesus says “everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock” (Matthew 7:24). As an antidote to Kipling, and particularly to the “sixty seconds’ worth of distance run”, Jesus says “do not worry, saying, “What shall we eat?” or “What shall we drink?” or “What shall we wear?” For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well” (Matthew 6:31-33).

But Jesus knew we will fail to live his way, which is why he died so our sins could be forgiven. Lent reminds us that we need to be better, but that we cannot be better without forgiveness for our mistakes and the power of God's Holy Spirit to live his way. Even so we will never be perfect until we receive eternal life in his presence.

"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.

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

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.”

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

Cross words

Here's my magazine article for March:

Would you wear a piece of jewellery in the shape of an electric chair? Or perhaps a noose and gallows? Unless you have a particularly macabre fashion taste, I suspect the answer would be no. After all why would you wear a symbol of torture and execution? But that is precisely what many people do by wearing a cross. Crucifixion was the cruel Roman method of execution that they reserved for the very worst criminals, yet the cross quickly became the symbol of the underground movement that made up the early church.

We have an unusual situation this year with Good Friday being in a different month to Easter Sunday, so we have the opportunity to focus on Jesus' death this month before thinking about his resurrection next month.

We're so used to seeing crosses around that we've lost the shock of what it represents. The early church chose not to celebrate Jesus' amazing miracles nor even his wise teachings but his death, and it wasn't a heroic or serene death but a shameful, criminal's death. If the early church wanted to commend their new faith to the world dominated by the Romans, emphasising Jesus' crucifixion is not the best way to start. But that is what they did. Why?

Well the simple answer is because the crucifixion is the centre of the Christian faith; it is the literal and metaphorical crux of Christianity.  Paul wrote that he “resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified” (1 Corinthians 2:2).  He knew that this would be a shocking message, writing “Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling-block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles” (1 Corinthians 1:22-23).  The Jews were expecting a Messiah who would kick the Romans out of Israel, not one who was killed by them! And the Gentiles (non-Jews) wanted a highly intellectual philosophy not the story of a man who rejected by his own people!  Those who saw the cross as a stumbling-block and foolishness agreed with the Jewish religious leaders who mocked the dying Jesus: “‘He saved others,’ they said, ‘but he can’t save himself! He’s the king of Israel! Let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him’” (Matthew 27:42-43).

But the deeper reason why people then and now reject the message of Christ crucified is because it reminds us of a very uncomfortable truth: that we are sinners who need saving.  Paul reminds us that all of us have sinned and fallen short of God's standard (Romans 3:23) (and if we are honest we fall short of our own standards too) and the punishment for sin is death (Romans 6:23), eternal separation from God.  And because of our sin we are helpless to save ourselves.  But the good news is that “God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood – to be received by faith” (Romans 3:25), that's what it means to say that Christ died for our sins.

Christ crucified means that we cannot be saved by our own moral or religious efforts, but only because Jesus died in our place. The pathetic-looking figure on the cross is the solution to the world's problems, but only when we recognise our own pathetic-ness, let go of our pretensions to goodness and rejoice that “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).

What's in a name?

Here's my article for August:

As any keen pub-quizzer will tell you, the months of July and August are named after two Roman Emperors; Julius Caesar and Augustus respectively. As humans we have a habit of naming things after significant people as a way to commemorate, remember and celebrate them. When I went to New York, I was amused to find that a slipway was named after someone (they obviously weren't important enough to have a whole road named after them!). And at the farewell service for the last Bishop of Lincoln, the Dean relayed some of the great Bishops of Lincoln and the additions they made to the Cathedral. He joked that the major addition that Bishop John oversaw was a new toilet block, suggesting that maybe they should name it after him!

Naming things after people is not always without controversy, especially commemorations we've inherited from previous ages. Colston Hall in Bristol is to be re-named because of the Bristolian slave trader Sir Edward Colston. Oxford University has recently resisted pressure from campaigners to remove statues, paintings and commemorations of Cecil Rhodes and other colonialists. Liverpool also resisted an attempt to re-name all of the streets associated with slave traders, as this would have meant renaming most of Liverpool's most famous streets, including Penny Lane!

This desire to re-name can spring from a laudable desire to recognise the parts of our history that by today's standards are regrettable, but they can also be seen as an attempt to airbrush history. The counter argument is that, as George Santayana wrote, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” Whether we like it or not, our history, both good and bad, makes us who we are and our mistakes should be remembered so that we remember not to repeat them.

Very few people will ever have anything public named after them, which for most of us is a relief! The public scrutiny that comes with public recognition is not something that most of us would like. In our day-to-day lives we can often get away with 'airbrushing' our past and our present, hiding those bits of which we're ashamed or those bits we know others would disapprove of. Both Mark Twain and Arthur Conan Doyle claim the urban legend of sending friends or upright citizens a telegram saying “Flee at once - all is discovered” and some or all of the recipients leaving immediately! The story rings true because all of us have things we'd rather others didn't know about us. And worryingly in this age of social media, our mistakes can become widely known within hours!

Even if we can hide our skeletons from those around us, God knows everything about us and one day we too will see the whole of our lives; the good, the bad and the ugly. Yet the amazing thing is that despite knowing all about us God still loves us! And more than that he wants us to say sorry for the bad things, and in his mind they will be airbrushed out so that we can start again.

Speaking plainly about death

It's approaching the first anniversary of the death of our twins and with last Sunday's Gospel reading and the recent documentary by Rio Ferdinand, death is on my mind.

The reading set for last Sunday was John 11:1-45, and is the account of the raising of Lazarus from the dead. Lazarus and his sisters Mary and Martha are close friends of Jesus and when Lazarus falls ill, his sisters naturally call on Jesus to come to help. Jesus doesn't go immediately but waits a couple of days before setting out. In the meantime Lazarus dies, so when Jesus eventually arrives both Mary and Martha greet him with a mixture of grief, anger and accusation: "If only you had been here sooner this would not have happened!" Anger can often be a part of grief, and particularly anger towards God: "Why did you let this happen?" "If only you had done..." Mary and Martha's friendship with Jesus didn't protect them from the sorrows, worries and difficulties of life but it did allow them to be completely honest with him about how they felt, and at the same time to trust that he knew best. The worship sing that we held on to during our grief was Matt Redman's 'Blessed be your name', which talks of trusting God in the good times and in the bad times. It includes words from the Bible often heard at funerals: "You give and take away, my heart will choose to say 'Lord, blessed be your name.'" (Job 1:21)

Something else that struck me from the story of Lazarus was the discussion between Jesus and the disciples.

After [Jesus] had said this, he went on to tell them, ‘Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going there to wake him up.’ His disciples replied, ‘Lord, if he sleeps, he will get better.’ Jesus had been speaking of his death, but his disciples thought he meant natural sleep. So then he told them plainly, ‘Lazarus is dead' (verses 11-14)

Jesus talks about Lazarus 'falling asleep' but the disciples misunderstand and assume that Lazarus is in some sort of coma state. So Jesus had to spell it out plainly "Lazarus is dead." This interaction reminded me of the language we often use about death and what that tells us about how we view death.

We use euphemisms such as 'fallen asleep', 'passed on/away/over', 'shuffled off this mortal coil' (I'll resist the temptation to go into Month Python's 'Dead Parrot sketch'!), partly to avoid facing the finality of death. "Lazarus is dead" said Jesus. Full stop. End of. (Well sort of!) One of the reasons Jesus delayed going to Mary and Martha's was to show that Lazarus really was dead. In Rio Ferdinand's recent documentary 'Being Mum and Dad' one of the widowed fathers said how important it was for him to use the words 'death' and 'killed' when talking to his children about their mother. Bereaved children often get confused with abstract language and euphemisms, and saying thing's like “they've gone away” or “they've fallen asleep” may lead to the child being afraid of holidays and bedtime. Children can usually cope a lot better with the 'blunt truth' whereas it's us adults that can't, often because we struggle to come to terms with the loss.

Our reluctance to let go of loved ones who have died also shows itself in beliefs about what happens after death. Aside from the theologically incorrect belief that we become angels after death (see one of my previous blogposts), there are the common beliefs that stars, robins, feathers, crisp packets (as Peter Kay parodies in his 'Live at the Top of the Tower' show) are proof that dead loved ones are watching over us or otherwise with us. Such thoughts are also evident in the poems often read out at funerals. A very popular one 'Do not stand at my grave and weep' says “I am a thousand winds that blow. I am the diamond glint on snow...Do not stand at my grave and cry. I am not there, I did not die!”

These beliefs are not only untrue and fanciful but also deeply unhelpful in the grief process. This seems counter-intuitive as they bring comfort to the bereaved, but in reality they show a reluctance to let go of a dead loved one and a reluctance to admit that they really have gone.

Of course religious belief has a large influence on common attitudes to death. Most religious systems teach some sort of afterlife, although Buddhism is one of the few belief systems that in which the ultimate aim is non-existence, or annihilation. Even secular and humanist funerals tend to shy away from the logical conclusion of their beliefs. It is rare to hear a secular or humanist funeral celebrant stating boldly that the person has died and is now no more than a load of atoms that will eventually become part of something else. Instead, 'humanist' funerals often talk of the person having gone on a journey which usually involves being reunited with previously deceased loved ones.

Christianity too shares some responsibility for these false beliefs, particularly in Western culture, as it proclaims the belief in the resurrection to eternal life. Indeed the raising of Lazarus makes exactly that point. Even though Lazarus will die again, Jesus is demonstrating that death will be defeated by his own resurrection. So how can this circle be squared? How can death be both final and not final?

Well the first thing to remember is that the dead are truly dead, their mortal existence is finished and there is a no interaction between the living and the dead. But Jesus' resurrection proves that death no longer has the final word, life after death is now possible. However, Jesus is also clear that the resurrection to eternal life, although it is available to everyone, will not be the outcome for everyone: “Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die” (John 11: 25-26).

This belief in Jesus is not merely believing that he existed, or that he was a holy man or even that he was the Son of God, even the Devil believes that! The belief that Jesus is talking about is the 'true and lively faith' that is the subject of one of the Church of England's official homilies or sermons. It states:

Living faith is not only believing in the articles of the creed. It is also a sure trust and confidence in the mercy of God, through our Lord Jesus Christ, and a steadfast hope of all good things to be received at God’s hand. And that although we, through infirmity or temptation by our spiritual enemy, do fall from him by sin, yet if we return again to him by true repentance that he will forgive and forget our offences, for the sake of his Son, our Saviour Jesus Christ.

This true and lively faith is trusting that God will forgive us when we truly repent, because Jesus died to take the punishment we deserve.  (For more on this go to Christianity Explored)

The belief in the resurrection to eternal life is the only true comfort for grief, as St Paul wrote “Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope. For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him” (1 Thessalonians 4:13-14). So there are two types of grief: hopeless grief and hopeful grief. For those who die without a true and lively faith in Jesus there is no resurrection to eternal life, but “God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). The Christian funeral service proclaims this good news of the resurrection through belief in Jesus but doesn't say if this promise applies to the person who had died. (Although for some people we can be fairly sure based on a life of true faith or the merciful view of young and unborn children).

This is because we can never know for sure what the status of someone's relationship with God is, we do not know if they died in the faith of Christ or not. This too can be a comfort as until we die it is never too late to turn to God. The thief who hung on a cross next to Jesus was promised life in Paradise after he came to believe in Jesus (Luke 23:39-43). Jesus' parable of the workers in the vineyard (Matthew 20:1-16) reminds us that those who come to a true and lively faith in Jesus late in life are just as much heirs to the promise of eternal life as those who have had such a faith for the whole of their lives. The great hymn 'To God be the glory' rejoices that "the vilest offender who truly believes, that moment from Jesus a pardon receives."

Ultimately, what the funeral service reminds us is that although for the person who had died time has run out to respond to the invitation of Jesus to believe in him, our time has not yet run out. Therefore we pray “give us grace to use aright the time that is left to us here on earth to turn to Christ and follow in his footsteps in the way that leads to everlasting life."

So we need to speak plainly about death. We need to acknowledge that the dead person has gone and is only 'with us' through our memories of them and not through stars or breezes or crisp packets. And we need to be clear that eternal life is only given to those who have a true and lively faith in Jesus during their earthly life. If we don't grasp these truths, hard as they may be, then we may live in the false comfort that our loved ones are 'safe' and 'happy' and therefore with the false hope that we too will be safe and happy and reunited with them after our deaths, even if we don't have a true and lively faith in Jesus. And false comfort and false hope are no comfort and no hope at all; and will not lead us to eternal life.  But there is a hope.

Christmas Playlist. 2: Zechariah's Song - Why do you need God?

Four songs that bring you to the heart of Christmas

2: Zechariah's Song – Why do you need God?

This Advent in our weekly sheets we're going to be looking at the four songs of the first Christmas, which were heard before, during and after the birth of the baby who lies at the heart of the real Christmas. The reflection will be adapted from Alistair Begg's book, 'Christmas Playlist' (buy it here). This week we're looking at Zechariah's song - Why do you need God?

While Mary's is the first song recorded in Luke's gospel, hers was not the first miraculous pregnancy to be described by Luke. That belonged to her elderly relative Elizabeth, whose husband, Zechariah, sang abut his son, John, as he held him in his arms (Luke 1:68-79). The song has come to be known as the Benedictus. The first line of the song (“Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, because he has come to his people and redeemed them”) contains two words that lie at the heart of the Christmas message - “come” and “redeemed”. God has come to visit. If you want to understand the first Christmas – if you want to grasp the purpose of God's visit – you need to understand redemption.

Redemption is the act of providing a payment to free someone. And Zechariah is explaining God's work in his present situation by referencing God's work in the past – in the time of the Exodus a millenium and a half before. This was when God rescued the Israelites who had been enslaved in Egypt by Pharaoh. Now, God is redeeming his people all over again. Not form enslavement to an Egyptian king, but from enslavement to their sin – to our own sin. We need, he says “forgiveness of [our] sins.”

Sin is an unpopular word, but it is a word the Bible unashamedly uses, and it is a word which explains both what we see within us and what we see around us. Sin is essentially me putting myself where God deserves to be – in the place of authority and majesty, running my own life, charting my own course. It is saying to God, whether very politely or extremely angrily, I don't want you, I won't obey your commands, I will not listen to your word. I will call the shots.

Sin is our greatest problem because it separates us from the God whom we are made to know and designed to enjoy. But in another sense the truth about sin is also our greatest insight because it explains life as we experience it. There is a mighty, loving God who made us – and so we are capable of acts of greatness and kindness. But we reject that God's authority – and so we are capable of selfishness and evil. We were made to enjoy life with God eternally but we all choose to live in defiance of him. Hence the flatness, the 'blues' that come after Christmas as once again we get beyond the busyness and distraction of the festivities and think deep down, I don't have the answer. None of the gifts, books, music, family or friends can fill the hole in our lives. So, we're really asking God to redeem us from the sin we have chosen – from the slavery we cannot escape and the debt we cannot repay.

At the heart of understanding the first Christmas and why it is such good news is an understanding of the nature of your predicament. And that involves accepting the nature and seriousness of sinfulness – your sinfulness. God did not come down to provide a little religious Energizer battery that would make us nicer people. He came because you were drowning, pulled down by the weight of your sin and miles from the shore. If you're drowning it doesn't help for someone to come along in a boat and say Come on now, thrash a little bit more. Try a little harder. Swim a bit better. You'll be able to get yourself out of that mess. No, you need someone to reach down their hand, grasp yours, and pull you up to safety and take you to shore. And if you know you are drowning, you don't refuse the person whose hand is offered to you. You grab it, and you splutter your gratitude.

And that is what Zechariah is doing. He knows that John will spend his life saying, Hold on. God is coming. And God will rescue you. And so Zechariah sings, just as everyone who grasps what God was doing at the first Christmas sings: “Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, because he has come to his people and redeemed them.”

God, Guns N' Roses and November Rain

Here's my article for the November Magazine:

 As the nights start drawing in and the air turns from the autumnal crispness to the early winter dampness, I often have going around my head the lyrics “Nothing lasts forever even cold November rain,” from a song by Guns N' Roses.

Axl Rose, the lead singer, explained that “November Rain is a song about not wanting to be in a state of having to deal with unrequited love.” In the song the singer says to his girlfriend “It's hard to hold a candle, in the cold November rain”, in other words that it's hard to keep loving when that love isn't returned, with the 'cold November rain' being a metaphor for that unreturned love. The song is however hopeful that one day she will stop having affairs and love him back; “Cause nothin' lasts forever, even cold November rain.”

It's sometimes said that the whole of the Bible is like a love letter written from God to all of humanity, and to each of us as individuals, to tell us that God wants to be in a relationship with us. Indeed, all the way through the Bible, the relationship between God and his people is described as a marriage. And this marriage isn't always easy. The Old Testament prophets, and particularly Hosea, describe the marriage relationship between God and his people going through a very rough patch. God tells Hosea “like an adulterous wife this land is guilty of unfaithfulness to the Lord” (Hosea 1:2). Indeed God's chosen people, the 'wife' he loves, is behaving more like a prostitute (read Ezekiel 16:25-26 for a graphic description!) The whole of Ezekiel 16 lists all the things God has done for his people, which only makes their rejection of him more hurtful.

But despite the 'cold November rain' of his people's rejection of him, God doesn't abandon them but still holds a candle for them. More than that he forgives them! “ 'Return, faithless Israel,' declares the Lord, 'I will frown on you no longer, for I am faithful...I will not be angry for ever. Only acknowledge your guilt – you have rebelled against the Lord your God, you have scattered your favours to foreign gods under every spreading tree, and have not obeyed me' ” (Jeremiah 3:12-13). God also says “I will heal their waywardness and love them freely, for my anger has turned away from them” (Hosea 14:4).

God doesn't overlook his people's unfaithfulness but he acknowledges it and provides a way for them to be forgiven. “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless” (Ephesians 5:25-27). Jesus' death takes the punishment for our rejection of God so we can be reconciled, restored and renewed.

As we venture out this month into that cold November rain, let us remember God's longing for each of us to know him and to be in a relationship with him. Whatever your past or present, he holds a candle for you and is waiting for you to return.