Humans, not other animals

Here's my sermon from the Broughton Civic Service 2024.  The readings were Psalm 8 and Luke 12:4-7.

At school, one of my favourite lessons was Latin, and so I'm really enjoying teaching it to my own children. I mention this because we are here at our Civic Service, and the word 'civic' is derived from the Latin word civis which means 'citizen.' And so this reminds us that whenever we talk about 'civic' things we are talking about people; we're not talking about positions or committees, except insofar as they are focused on people. Civic amenities, civic duty and civic authorities are all there to serve the common good; they're there to serve the people. And so at the heart of the Civic Service should be the celebration of the people, their achievements and their good works; as well as a dedication of ourselves to work for the benefit of all members of the community.

But the question this raises is why? Why should those in positions of power use that power for the common good? Why do we feel that with great power comes great responsibility? Indeed why should any of us spend our time and energy doing things for other people? If someone asks for our help, why don't we respond with the phrase that I'm told the young people like to use: “That sounds like a you problem!”?

The reason we do care for others is because we believe that they are worthy of our care because they are fellow human beings. As the Universal Declaration of Human Rights says: all members of the human family have an inherent dignity, and equal and inalienable rights. This dignity and these rights aren't given to us by the UN, or by governments; we don't get them on the basis of our achievements or what we contribute in economic terms; we don't get them only if we're healthy or wanted; from the moment of our conception this dignity and these rights are ours inherently and inalienably: they are ours simply because we are humans.

We believe this because this is what the Bible tells us. Right at the beginning of the Bible we are told that God has made us male and female in his image and likeness. Alone of all the animals and the rest of creation, he has made us in his image and put his breath within us. As our first reading, Psalm 8 says, he has made us a little lower than the angels and crowned us with glory and honour. We are both lesser than the angels and also greater. Not only that, he gives us dominion and responsibility for the rest of creation under his rule. But best of all he cares for us – for each one of us, for each of you; as Jesus says he knows how many hairs are on our heads and cares for us above all the rest of his creation!

And he continues to care for us even when we fail to treat each other as fellow image-bearers; even when we fail to live the way God wants us to; even when we don't believe in him at all. He still cares for us. And he cares for us so much that in Jesus, he became human to share our humanity and to die to take the punishment for all our failures, so that through repentance and faith in Jesus that image of God that we mar through our failures can be restored. So if you want to know how valuable you are, the answer is: you're worth as much as God's own blood!

This vision of humanity as having inherent dignity and inalienable rights only comes to us through the Bible. In no other religion is humanity made in God's image, and in no other religion does God become fully human, and in no other religion does God die to save us. And nor can our human rights be established through scientific investigation or reasoned thinking, because on any rational comparison every human being can be ranked according to size, strength, intellect, popularity, wealth, power etc. etc. therefore we can all be said to be better than others but there is no rational basis for saying that we all have an equal dignity and value. The scientific and rational evidence shows difference and hierarchy not equality and parity.

This is what made the fledgling Christian communities an object of derision to the surrounding Roman culture and society. To the Romans it was ridiculous to think that women were equal to men; that children were as important as adults; that slaves were as valuable as freemen; that barbarians had the same dignity as Roman citizens.

If you believe that all humans, whatever age or ability or status, have an equal dignity and equal rights, but you don't believe in the God of the Bible, you have made a massive leap of faith. Only Jesus can give firm ground for believing that you, me and our fellow human beings are worthy of care and respect.

We are always tempted to return to those pre-Christian beliefs that some people are better and more valuable than others; that some people have less dignity and fewer rights. But today we celebrate and honour all those who instead embrace the biblical values of caring for and working for the good of all people in the community. And we pray that you will come to know and believe in the God who makes sense of that civic duty.

Are you a miracle or a maggot?

Here's my article for the August magazine:

For their end of year production this year, the KS2 children at Broughton Primary gave us songs from a number of musicals. Amongst them was one of my favourite recent musicals based on Roald Dahl's book 'Matilda' about an extremely clever girl who is despised by her parents; sent to a school run by the dreadful Miss Trunchbull; befriended by a kind teacher, Miss Honey, and a librarian, Mrs Phelps; and helps her fellow students revolt against the cruel headmistress.

One of the final songs in the musical is called “Revolting Children,” which is sung as the children rebel against Miss Trunchbull. It is a clever pun (one of many in Tim Minchin's lyrics) describing both what they are doing but also Miss Trunchbull's opinion of them and all children (see also the song "The Smell of Rebellion". This opinion is the motivation for her cruelty and is in stark contrast with the joyful opening song that declares that every single life is a miracle. So the children triumphantly sing “Never again will I be bullied, and / Never again will I doubt it when / My mummy says I'm a miracle!”

The opening song, called "Miracle", again has double meanings. The children talk about how special their parents tell them they are, which leads to arrogance in some of the children, and unrealistic expectations in their parents. A party organiser comments “One can hardly move for beauty and brilliance these days. / It seems that there are millions of these one-in-a-millions these days. / Special-ness seems de rigueur. / Above average is average - go figure.”

But then the doctor delivering Matilda sings that “Every life I bring into this world restores my faith in humankind” as every single life is a miracle. This is because “Every life is unbelievably unlikely / The chances of existence / Almost infinitely small” and because “Each new-born life, a canvas yet unpainted.” Although Matilda's parents are disgusted at the thought of her, the doctor tries to convince them saying “A baby Mrs. Wormwood, a child, the most precious gift the natural world can bestow upon us has been handed to you. A brand new human being, a life, a person, a wonderful new person is about to come into your life and bring you love and magic and happiness and wonder.”

Tim Minchin is an outspoken atheist, yet he can't help but describe new life as a miracle, not just because it is unlikely but because of the potential and value of each person. He even has to personify the natural world so that he can describe life as a gift – which his rational, atheist world-view shouldn't really allow. Perhaps we have to describe human life as a miraculous gift because something deep within us sees in it a reflection of God's generosity and love. So don't let your circumstances or other people convince you otherwise: you are a miracle; you are a gift to the world, you have been made in an amazing and wonderful way (Psalm 139:14) – why not find out more about your Creator?

Assassination, the Hand of God and demonisation

OIKOS is a fantastic ecumenical initiative in Brigg, that run a Christian shop, a Food Bank, a Community Pantry and more! I was asked to write some short 'thoughts to start your week' for July 2024 for their Facebook page. This is an expanded version of the thought for 21st July.

As some recover from the disappointment of the England men's football team's defeat in the final of Euro 2024, others think that they shouldn't have got to the final in the first place. England won a penalty against the Netherlands in the semi-final but there have been disagreements ever since about whether the penalty should have been given. However, on Facebook, the football fanzine 'When Saturday Comes' commented:

“Maybe it wasn’t a penalty but Maradona’s was handball, Lampard’s goal was over the line, Beckham’s was never a red and Campbell’s goal should’ve stood. Couldn’t care less.”

Whilst not everyone would recall the last three of those incidents, even for those who aren't interested in football, Maradona's goal against England in the 1986 World Cup is infamous. And it is all the more infamous because of his response when asked if he scored it illegally; stating it was made "a little with the head of Maradona, and a little with the hand of God."

Divine intervention is very much in the news at the moment with Donald Trump's claim that his survival of an assassination attempt was the work of “God alone.” Whilst there is shock about this attempt, it perhaps shouldn't be that much of a surprise to us; after all, as George Bernard Shaw said “Assassination is the extreme form of censorship.” So much of contemporary political and public discussion involves personal (verbal) attacks on people and a desire to silence contrary views. Wherever people are on the political spectrum, rhetorical attacks are part and parcel of the discourse but they can often tip over into demonisation not just of opinions, but also of those who hold them. And it's not a huge step from a desire to silence an opinion to a desire for a world where those who hold those opinions don't exist any more, and thence to approving of the permanent silencing of those people. As Gavin Ashenden wrote “The assassination of the human character is only a short distance away from the assassination of the human person.” 

But what of God's rôle in all of this? Did he really intervene to save Trump's life? Some would argue against this on the grounds either that God doesn't exist; or that he doesn't intervene at all in the world; or that even if he did he wouldn't do so to save someone like Trump. Christians affirm that God is not disinterested in the world and that he does indeed intervene in the world: the Bible is full of accounts of God's intervention and the heart of the biblical narrative is God himself becoming incarnate and entering the world in Jesus, and intervening through his life, death and resurrection to achieve our redemption and salvation (2 Corinthians 5:18-19). And he continues to intervene through miracles and answers to prayer. But these interventions are by definition rare, and often the only way we can tell whether something is by the hand of God is by looking backwards and seeing the consequences of an event.

So we may never know for sure if God intervened to save Trump, but what we can be sure of is that the demonisation of people makes assassination attempts more likely. And here we can't just point the finger at those with public platforms and 'followers.' We all have a tendency to treat those who differ from us, particularly with our political views, as being less wise, or intelligent, or compassionate, or just, than we are. Labels like 'bigot' or '...phobe' are used to dismiss and disparage not just opinions we disagree with but also the people who hold them. And that is a dangerous path to start going down.

Where we can be sure that God has intervened is in the creation and design of each one of us – we are fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalm 139:13-14). We all fall short of God's standards in our living, thinking and speaking, but we don't need to be demonised – we need to be redeemed.

“It would be better if I weren't here”

Here's my article for May:

“It would be better if I weren't here.”  This is often the heart-rending opinion of those who take their own lives. And the consequence of allowing forms of assisted suicide might be that terminally ill people are forced to think the same about themselves, seeing themselves as a burden to their families or society.  Whatever the circumstances of this opinion, it is always tragic.  Which is why it seems odd that Jesus said words to that effect to his disciples.

After his resurrection, Jesus spent forty days with his disciples, eating and drinking with them and also appearing to others (Acts 10:40-41; 1 Corinthians 15:3-8) and then went back to his Father, which we celebrate on Ascension Day.  However, before he died he was preparing his disciples for this final departure and said to them “very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away” (John 16:7).  I wonder if the disciples forgot this and perhaps one of the things he reminded them during those forty days was that it would be better for them for him to go away.  If so, I wonder if it puzzled them?

It might puzzle us too.  Surely it would be better for Jesus to have stayed on earth? Now he'd been resurrected he would be immortal and could carry on teaching and healing forever.  We could go to see him preach or witness his miracles; he could have his own TV, YouTube and TikTok channel; we could even 'follow' him on Facebook and Instagram, or read his tweets.  As Judas sings in 'Jesus Christ Superstar': “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.”

Many people say to me that they would believe in Jesus if he would only appear to them, though of course many people met Jesus during his earthly ministry, heard his teaching and saw his miracles but still didn't believe in him.  However, Jesus himself says why it was better for him to leave: “Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.” - he's talking about the Holy Spirit, whose arrival we celebrate at Pentecost.  

In this sense, the Holy Spirit is better for us than Jesus because Jesus didn't lose his humanity when he was resurrected – he was raised physically with a body that could eat and drink and which still bore the marks of his crucifixion (John 20:27).  Therefore, like us, he could only be in one place at one time: he could only be beside us, whereas the Holy Spirit can dwell within everyone who believes in Jesus.  And one of the tasks of the Holy Spirit within us is to remind us that we are loved and valued by God no matter what we or others think about us.

The night before Christmas

Here's my article for the December and January magazines:

Our Christmas traditions and celebrations come from many different places and cultures, but perhaps one of the greatest influences on our perception of Christmas is the 1823 poem “A Visit from St. Nicholas” by Clement Clarke Moore, more commonly known by its first line: “ 'Twas the night before Christmas”. In this poem Moore describes St Nicholas, names his reindeer, and has him coming down the chimney to deliver presents. This eventually became the standard legend of Santa Claus, replacing many of the local variations on the theme of Christmas visitors. However, we should probably have also noted Moore's warnings in his follow-up poem “The Night after Christmas” which describes the children being visited by their doctor after having too many of the treats delivered by Santa!!

The phrase “The night before Christmas” evokes all those feelings of anticipation for the joy of Christmas, but in his book “The Air We Breathe”, Glen Scrivener uses it in a different way. His book describes how the Christian message underpins the way we view life and the values we hold, noting particularly the contrast with the values of the society into which the Christian message was first preached. He describes that culture as the night before Christmas.

The metaphor of night is very apt as it reminds us that the values that we think of as obvious, natural and universal (Glen highlights the values of equality, compassion, consent, enlightenment, science, freedom and progress) are “profoundly alien” to the culture, assumptions, beliefs, intuitions and ideals of the pre-Christian and non-Christian world. It's not that the ancient world was a little bit worse than our Western world, rather it is as different to us as night is to day. But we've spent so long in the light that we can't imagine what night would look like and therefore can't believe it ever existed.

Glen reminds us that Christmas, Jesus' birth, marked the end of that night. Some claim that the celebration of Christmas is pagan in origin, pointing to similarities in celebrations and even the concept of a god coming to earth. However,even before he could walk or talk, Jesus' birth is in stark contrast to the myths around at the time. In those myths, humans are created to be slaves or entertainment for the gods, and when a god comes to earth it is usually to kill, rape and destroy – and all should fear. But when Jesus is born the Almighty God becomes human (John 1:1-14) and the world is told to rejoice (Luke 2:8-20). Humans have dignity because they are made in the image of God and because God chose to become human. And from that good news flows all the values that form the 'day' we live in.

Jesus' birth has influenced and shaped our world more than Moore's poem has influenced our celebration of Christmas. This Christmas why not find out more about the Jesus who brings the morning which shatters the night that we had before Christmas?

Holding out for a hero?

Here's my article for the June magazine:

The theme for this year's Scarecrow Festival in Scawby is 'Heroes' – a very appropriate theme given the year we've had since the pandemic struck. We've been encouraged to clap for the heroes of the NHS, and to hail other key workers as heroes too – including the often overlooked jobs such as refuse collectors, cleaners and delivery drivers. And then we've had the shining examples of people like Capt. Sir Tom Moore and others locally who have done outstanding work to raise funds, help other people or keep the community spirit up. Perhaps 2020/2021 will be seen as the year of heroes.

Whilst it is always right to thank those who make our lives better in any way, and particularly to thank those whose contribution is often taken for granted, we do need to be careful about using the word 'hero'. The main reason is that we can use the concept of 'hero' to assess a person's value and dignity: the more heroic they are, the more value they have.

Since the start of the pandemic, we've had to think a lot about the value we put on people's lives: whether that through the Me Too campaign or the Black Lives Matter awareness or simply through thinking about who we prioritise for treatment / vaccines for COVID-19. In an interview on Good Morning Britain, Lord Sumpter suggested that the lives of the elderly like himself were worth less than those of the young and so treatments and restrictions should place the interests of the the young before the elderly. Piers Morgan countered that Capt. Sir Tom Moore was 99 when he did his fundraising walk. There is a full discussion about this exchange on the 'Speak Life' YouTube Channel, entitled “Are All Lives Equally Valuable?” the jist of which is that both Lord Sumpter and Piers Morgan are wrong because they see human value in terms of what a person contributes to society, or their potential to contribute.

The problem with thinking like this is that the category of 'good for society' has no definitive meaning, it is always decided by those who have power, usually to protect their own position. All oppression and all abuse has at its core seeing someone else, or a group of people, as less valuable and less worthy of respect. Another problem is that we also tend to think of 'heroes' as being most qualified for a good afterlife.

The Bible is quite clear that human value and dignity does not come from things like cleverness, beauty, ability, fame, power, wealth, beliefs and not even from character; humans are valuable because they are made in the image and likeness of God (Genesis 1:27). This is the only firm foundation for human dignity and also for human equality. But the Bible is also clear that all of us, no matter how heroic we are, fall short of God's standard for living – which is perfection (Romans 3:23 and Matthew 5:48). That is why we need the forgiveness Jesus has won for us by his death and resurrection, which is available freely to everyone equally.

So let's thank and celebrate those who do heroic things, let's aim to be heroic ourselves, let's value each other as people who are made in the image and likeness of God and let's ask God to forgive us for failing to value each other and failing to be God's heroes.

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!