O tidings of comfort and joy!

Here is my December article:

The carol “God rest ye merry, gentlemen” is one my favourite carols, and it is for a lot of others too. Partly it's to do with the traditional sounding tune and partly it's because it expresses the emotions of Christmas- “O tidings of comfort and joy!”

Christmas for a lot of people is a time for joy: when you get together with loved ones for feasts and celebrations. Christmas is also a time that is often characterised by images of comfort: the sense of 'hygge' associated with candles, fires and lights shining in the darkness. These are of course all part of Christmas, but the 'tidings of comfort and joy' that Christmas brings go much deeper and are for everyone, including (and perhaps especially for) those who will be lonely, or in pain, or sorrowful this Christmas.

The carol is very clear about why the message of Christmas is one of comfort and joy: “for Jesus Christ our Saviour was born on Christmas Day.” Well, that sounds a very obvious thing to say about Christmas, (although you might struggle to find references to Jesus sometimes!) but it then goes on to remind us why this is good news. He came “to save us all from Satan's power when we had gone astray” and “to free all those who trust in him from Satan's power and might.” The reason Jesus' birth is special is because of his death. Christmas is only worth celebrating because of Easter.

This is truly joyful tidings! Sin is rebellion against God's authority; when we sin we ally ourselves with his arch-rebel, Satan, so we are under Satan's power. Once there, we can do nothing to free ourselves. However although we have rejected God, he never rejects us. So he showed his love to the world by sending his Son, Jesus, so that through his death our sins could be forgiven and we could be freed from Satan's power. For all those who keep trying to be good and failing, Jesus' birth is a reason to be joyful.

These are also comforting tidings, especially for those who feel burdened by guilt. Jesus' death comforts those who mourn as it assures us that God understands what grief is like, but more than that, Jesus' resurrection reminds us that eternal life is offered to the world. However, the comfort that Christmas brings is not just a consoling feeling, as 'comfort' is used in it's original meaning of 'strengthening'. By freeing us from Satan's power, Jesus strengthens us with the knowledge that God thinks we're worth dying for. As we've been freed from Satan's power and influence, with the knowledge of God's opinion of us and the promise of his Holy Spirit to help us, we are strengthened to live as children of God.

It is with these tidings that God will 'rest' (in the original sense of 'keep, or cause to remain') all of us, whether we're gentlemen or not, merry both at Christmas time and throughout the year. So in the name of Jesus, whose birth the angels announced and made shepherds rejoice, I bless you and your loved ones with knowing the true comfort and joy of Christmas.

The uncomfortable truth about 'hate'

Here's my sermon from this morning's Remembrance Sunday service:

Hate is a word that we hear a lot these days. And I don’t just mean when people say they hate sprouts or that they hate getting up early. Nor am I talking about hate speech which is what people tend to call any opinion they don't agree with.  The hate that I'm talking about is the hate that the news and commentators say is responsible for most of the atrocities they report. When someone kills or attempts to kill many people this is often labelled a 'hate crime’. And if we are to believe the media, this 'hate' is on the increase.

To say that these acts are motivated by hate is convenient in a number of ways.  Firstly it means that we don't have to look any deeper for the reasons, as this might mean that we have to face the uncomfortable fact that some ideologies and cultures are incompatible with our values and societal norms.  To say the perpetrators are filled with hate is to destroy the link between their beliefs and their actions.  This has a second benefit that in questioning their mental state, for they claim that no sane person would be that controlled by hate, they become a special category of people that used to be labelled psychopaths. Therefore they can be dismissed as rare exceptions. The third benefit of this is that the rest of us, who are obviously sane and tolerant, can feel comfortable on our moral high ground, satisfied with our superiority over these 'extremists'.

It seems to me, though, that the reality isn't quite so simple and is a lot more uncomfortable.  The root of these actions is not, I don't think, hate but rather seeing other people as less than human, as sub-human.  If people are human they have an inherent dignity but once they are seen as not human they can be treated as disposable objects.  Pope John Paul II said that the opposite of love is not hate it is 'use'.  To use someone like an object for your own purposes is the opposite of loving them, because loving them means treating them with the dignity they deserve. In its most extreme form, loving someone means putting their needs before your own.

Much of 'man's inhumanity to man' has its roots in seeing other humans as being less than human: this was the basis of the slave trade and the Nazi holocaust.  It was also what enabled the soldiers on both sides of the Wars to keep fighting and killing, and also fuelled the efforts of the Home Front.  The purpose of war propaganda is not only to establish the rightness of your cause, but also to portray the enemy as so evil and wicked that they deserve to be wiped out.

If this analysis is correct then what makes it even more disturbing is how easy it is to think in this way.  People who treat others as less than human are not just a few isolated extremists or psychopaths.   They are all around us; they are you and me. Every time we treat someone else as if they didn't have as much worthiness as we do, every time we feel and act as if we are better, we are like those that commit atrocities.

Our Gospel reading comes from the Sermon on the Mount and not long after Jesus said the words we've just heard, he said that the commandment “Thou shalt not kill” includes being angry with someone else, and more than that it includes calling them an idiot, or stupid, or scum.  And that's something we're all guilty of.  That's what makes the standard of living that Jesus sets out in the Beatitudes that we've just heard so difficult.  To be poor in spirit, to be meek, to be merciful, to be peacemakers means that we have to acknowledge that we are imperfect, and more than that that we put the needs and welfare of others before our own.

But this wasn't just wise and difficult teaching that Jesus came to bring.  He lived it himself.  In the most extreme form of love there has ever been, he left the glory of heaven to be born as a human; he lived a perfect life so that he could die as the punishment for our sins and failures. And he rose from the dead so our humanity could be restored.

The peace this world longs for will only become a reality when people have been forgiven and restored by Jesus, the Prince of Peace, and see the rest of humanity as he does.  People made in his image and likeness that are worthy of love and respect.  And that can start with each of us.  Look at the people around you.  They are priceless.  Tell them that.  And when you leave here today, let everyone you meet know that they are priceless too, not only with your words, but in the way you treat them.

My Advent Hope

Here's my magazine article for November:

Starting on 23^rd November our Advent talks have the title “My Advent Hope”. We're blessed to have some senior figures from the Diocese and the Methodist District coming to offer their thoughts on this topic, but I thought I'd throw in my two penn'orth on the subject!!

I went to Liverpool Hope University College and so 'hope' was a much used word. The tagline for the college was taken from a book by Cardinal Suenens: “to hope is not to dream but to turn dreams into reality.” This was a slightly more poetic way of saying 'if you want something you need to work for it'. Apart from the overuse of the word 'hope', there was always something that niggled me about it, and I only realised what that was when I learned more about the Biblical use of the word.

When we use the word 'hope' we tend to mean a vague wish that something will happen, and it is usually uncertain. In contrast when the Biblical writers use the word 'hope', they are often talking about something that is certain. This 'hope' is something that is yet to happen but it definitely will happen and it mostly refers to salvation. So Paul writes about “the hope of eternal life, which God, who does not lie, promised before the beginning of time” (Titus1:2) and “the hope stored up for you in heaven” (Colossians 1:5). God has promised eternal life to all who die trusting in Jesus, and as he can't lie, all those who die trusting in Jesus will receive eternal life. That means that those who have faith in Jesus can put their hope in a certain future and can therefore face death with confidence. So Paul writes “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.” (1Thessalonians 4:13-14).

This certain hope is based not just on the promise of God but also in the fact that Jesus died and rose again. So Peter writes “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” and “Through [Jesus] you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God” (1 Peter 1:3,21)

November is traditionally a time when Christians remember the saints - all those who have died in the faith of Jesus, whether well-known or not - who now enjoy the eternal life for which they hoped. The focus for Advent too is on the future; as we prepare to celebrate the first coming of Jesus as a baby in Bethlehem, “we wait for the blessed hope – the appearing of the glory of our great God and Saviour, Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:13).

Luther, The Reformation and the rejection of superstition

Here's my magazine article for October:

On 31st October 1517, a German monk called Martin Luther nailed a piece of paper to a church door in Wittenburg. So began what has come to be called The Reformation. Luther's petition, although initially against dubious methods of fundraising by the Church, grew into a much wider protest against the doctrines and practices of the Roman Catholic Church, which lead to the formation of the 'Protestant' churches, including the Church of England. For most people the 500th anniversary of this event will pass unnoticed and unmarked, unlike the 20th anniversary of the death of Princess Diana or the 100th anniversary of Passchendaele. Yet the Reformation had a profound effect not just on the religious beliefs of millions of people but also on the the way the world is today.

It has been argued that without the Reformation, the technological and scientific advances of the Enlightenment would not have occurred. Ironically for some atheists the Reformation's rejection of some of the superstitious religious practices of the Mediaeval world has enabled the modern world to rejection all religion as superstitious. This is often the way that the relationship between religion and science is framed: superstitious religion vs rational science. The truth however is more complicated. Many aspects of Christianity in particular can be verified, and conversely some scientific theory is based more on ideology than fact. But also religion and science are actually on the same side when it comes to superstition.

The philosopher Roger Scruton has recently spoken about religion and science in contrast with the magical worldview of the Harry Potter books. Superstition and magic, Scrutton says, are rooted in the belief that we can control the universe, whereas religion and science acknowledge that we can't. A magical outlook arrogantly asserts that anything is possible if you know the right spell, whereas religion and science humbly admit that there are gaps in our knowledge and abilities. Scrutton argues that although this magical view is alright in fiction, it is a problem when it also becomes the outlook in real life. From a Christian perspective, the magical worldview is not only contrary to reality but also spiritually harmful.

31^st October is associated more these days with Halloween than Martin Luther, and I have written in previous years about the dangers of celebrating Halloween (here and here). Not only does it open people up to attack from malevolent spiritual forces but in normalising witchcraft and magic it perpetuates this magical outlook on life. In a world of magic, Scrutton explains, there is no need for God because we are god: we can control everything. Genesis 3 tells us that Satan tempted Adam and Eve not just to disobey God but to want to be God; that was the original sin and is the defect in all humanity.

Magic promotes the idea that evil can be overcome simply by knowing the right spell. Christianity teaches that evil can only be defeated by God himself: as a prayer from the Book of Common Prayer puts it: “we have no power of ourselves to help ourselves”. What Martin Luther reminded us was that God has defeated evil through Jesus' death and resurrection, all we have to do is receive that salvation as a free gift.

(For more on the Reformation, see the magazine from Church Society)

Thanking God for The Wurzels and Autumn Days

Here's my article for the Septmber magazine:

One of my earworms this summer has been The Combine Harvester Song (Brand New Key) by the Wurzels, which has to be one of the oddest proposals in history! Another, more traditional harvest song that you may hear over the coming months is one of my favourites from school, 'Autumn Days'.

'Autumn Days' like many harvest songs lists things that we like or enjoy (although some of them, like 'jet planes meeting in the air to be refuelled' and 'the song the milkman sings' are rather quaint nowadays!) and says “thank you” for them. Thanksgiving is of course one of the main themes of harvest time, and gratitude is a very important habit to cultivate, but it only recently occurred to me that 'Autumn Days' doesn't actually say who we're thanking for these things! This of course makes it an almost perfect song for a multi-cultural, multi-faith society as everyone can sing it together and the singer decides for themselves who they're thanking. For religious people it will be their particular deity, for non-religious people it will be other people.

This non-committal thanksgiving is in contrast with the common exclamation “Thank God!” which is used by those who say they are atheists almost as much as by those who do believe in God. It is often used in situations where the outcome has been something which is beyond human control, or has been unlikely, or as an expression of relief. Militant atheists would no doubt claim that such exclamations are a cultural hangover from the time when most people believed in God, and there is no doubt that often the phrase is used unconsciously, but I think there is a deeper explanation.

Our inclination to be thankful is a deeply ingrained realisation that we cannot do everything by ourselves, that we rely on other people for our continued existence. Being grateful and showing our appreciation to others may be evolutionarily beneficial to us (if we don't say thank you we might not get that help again) but it also satisfies our longing to treat others as we ourselves would like to be treated. It recognises that other people are not a random collection of atoms whose only use is to be of benefit to us, but that they are fellow humans and therefore worthy of respect.

But there is also a recognition that there are things which are out of human control. Psalm 19:1 says “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.” And Paul writes in Romans 1:20 “since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities – his eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.” He says that this knowledge should remind us to thank him for his love for us. We enjoy the fruits of the harvest, but sometimes forget that he has given them to us.

Harvest is a time to thank those, near and far, who help to make our lives better, but most importantly it is a time to think about all the things God blesses us with and to say a heartfelt “Thank God!”

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.

A fine life?

Here's my article for this month's Broughton magazine:

As regular readers of this column will know, one of the highlights of my year is to watch the Broughton Primary School's summer musical production, which this year is Oliver!.

Both the musical and Dickens' novel 'Oliver Twist' are rollercoasters of emotion, with memorable characters that we come to love (or hate!). One of the best characters in the story is Nancy, the prostitute and former thief, who acts as a kind of go-between between Fagin and Bill Sikes, who is her pimp and her lover. Nancy plays a pivotal rôle in the ending of the story when she rescues Oliver and delivers him to Mr Brownlow. For this act of kindness, Nancy is brutally murdered by Sikes. Nancy's death is shocking but it was based on a real-life murder of a prostitute called Eliza Grimwood, probably by her pimp and lover, William Hubbard, in 1838.

What makes Nancy such a great character is that she is such a tragic figure. She doesn't seem to have a sense of her own worth so she is trapped in the life she has. In 'It's a fine life' she sings “Not for me, the happy home / Happy husband, happy wife / Tho' it sometimes touches me... / For the likes of such as me... / Mine's a fine...fine... life!”. And in Chapter 46 of the novel she says “I am chained to my old life. I loathe and hate it now, but I cannot leave it. I must have gone too far to turn back,-- and yet I don’t know.” One of the tragedies of her life is that she doesn't seem to believe that redemption is possible for her, that she doesn't deserve anything better than what she has.

However, the thing that touches us most about Nancy is that she loves a man who doesn't love her, and worse than that, a man that abuses her. And though we're screaming at her, she stays loyal to him. Even when helping Oliver, she is careful not to betray Skies. Her loyalty is most obviously seen in the song “As long as he needs me” where Nancy describes how despite what he does to her, she will stay true to him. The song hints that perhaps she sees something loveable in Sikes that we don't see, but the impression we get is that she is deluded or deluding herself about this. The real reason she stays with him is probably that she's lonely and Sikes gives her enough attention and 'needs' her. We know, though Nancy doesn't seem to, that Sikes could quite easily find another woman to do what Nancy does.

Nancy's situation perhaps reflects the thoughts and feelings of many people who face domestic abuse; trapped by a false sense of loyalty and love for their abusers. There may be an answer for those like Nancy in realising that redemption is possible. Throughout the gospels Jesus encountered people who were hope-less, who were rejected by society and thought little of themselves. He showed them that they were precious to God and through that encounter their lives were changed. Redemption is possible for us all; even Nancy, and even Sikes.