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.

Brenda, elections and the Archbishops

Here's my article for the June magazines:

You may agree with Brenda from Bristol, and when thinking about the forthcoming General Election exclaim “Not another one!” But whether we like it or not we are having another election. Brenda's reaction perhaps reflects a more widely held weariness about yet another chance to 'have our say'. That is why the Archbishops of Canterbury and York wrote in their recent letter to the Parishes and Chaplaincies of the Church of England that one of their obligations “at these times is to set aside apathy and cynicism and to participate, and encourage others to do the same.”

It is easy to take for granted the privilege we have to vote in democratic elections but the example of the Suffragettes and the Chartists to name just a couple should remind us that the right to vote was one that had to be fought for. And we only have to look around the world to see places where free and fair elections are not possible. However, that doesn't mean that we can be so naïve as to think that democracy is a perfect system nor as arrogant as to think that we should impose Western style democracy on other nations. But here in this country we do have the right to vote and we should use it.

The Archbishops also say that Christians have the higher obligation to pray for those standing for office, and to continue to pray for those who are elected. They encourage us “to engage prayerfully with the candidates and issues in this election” and to “recognise the enormous responsibilities and the vast complexity of the issues that our political leaders face. We are constantly reminded of the personal costs and burdens carried by those in political life and by their families.” This will involve the criticising of policies for their logical, economic and moral flaws and perhaps holding these policies up for ridicule but in our examination of the issues and policies we should not forget that the politicians are all human beings.

However, importantly, the Archbishops say that “Contemporary politics needs to re-evaluate the importance of religious belief.” This might seem an obvious thing for them to say but their further statements show that this is deeper than saying that religious belief should be respected. They say “Religious belief is the well-spring for the virtues and practices that make for good individuals, strong relationships and flourishing communities” and “The assumptions of secularism are not a reliable guide to the way the world works.” They are reminding us that none of us are neutral or impartial in our outlook, all of our actions and thoughts stem from particular worldviews; some religious, some non-religious. A point of view should not be dismissed merely because it is a religious view. In fact, only religious viewpoints make sense because without a belief in God, concepts like good and bad, and right and wrong cease to have any objective meaning: they simply describe whether we like something or not (see the video "Can you be good without God?" by Andy Bannister).

However you decide to vote, and whatever the result, the Christian prayer to God remains the same “thy kingdom come on earth, as it is in heaven.”

Thy Kingdom come

Here's my article for May's magazines:

There's lots of talk about kingdoms at the moment. On TV there's the second series of Bernard Cornwell's 'The Last Kingdom' about the struggle between the Saxons and the Danes, and also the second series of 'Versailles' the drama about the rule of Louis XIV, the Sun King. In the first the kingdoms are won and held by battles and bloodshed, and in the second the kingdom revolves around the whim and will of one person, the king.

This month, however, the Archbishop of Canterbury, has invited us to think about a different kingdom, the Kingdom of God. Under the title 'Thy Kingdom Come' Archbishop Justin has invited Christians around the world during the time between Ascension and Pentecost (24^th May-4^th June), not to fight for a kingdom but to pray for God's Kingdom to come. He has deliberately echoed the words of the Lord's prayer, in which Jesus taught us to pray “thy kingdom come: thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven”. And this phrase gives us a clue as to what the coming of God's Kingdom looks like. God's Kingdom is all about God's will being done on earth, but unlike the absolute rule of Louis XIV, God's absolute rule is one of justice and peace to give us all abundant life, not just to please the king.

It also reminds us that the Christian vision of life in God's Kingdom is not really about what happens to us when we die or at some future time, it's about what happens in the here-and-now. God's Kingdom on earth started with Jesus' death, resurrection and ascension so it's something that he invites us to be part of and also to help bring about. And we become part of it by following God's will in our lives.

This is easier said than done, but it starts with having a relationship with Jesus and a living faith in him, so the focus of the time of prayer is not just to pray for people's needs; personally, locally, nationally or internationally but to pray that people will come to know Jesus and that Christians would be empowered to speak about their faith.

As usual on the days before Ascension, we'll be having our 'Rogation Day Blessing Service' where we will be asking God to bless the parish and the midweek services will have a particular focus on praying for God's Kingdom to come, so please feel free to join us as we pray or to send us any requests for prayer.

As Ian Adams has written on www.thykingdomcome.global “To pray 'Thy Kingdom Come' is to pray for a shift in the world around us...But to pray 'Thy Kingdom Come' is first to pray for a shift within ourselves.” Are you brave enough to pray that prayer?

Sherlock and the Resurrection

Here's my magazine article for April:

I really enjoyed the latest series of the BBC drama 'Sherlock' and there was one particularly striking scene in the second episode 'The Lying Detective'. In the previous episode [SPOILER ALERT!] Dr Watson's wife, Mary, had thrown herself in front of Sherlock when he was shot at and she died. Watson recognises that Sherlock blames himself and wants to reassure him. He says “Mary died saving your life. It was her choice. No-one made her do it. No-one could ever make her do anything...but the point is: you did not kill her.” Sherlock then replies quietly “In saving my life, she conferred a value on it...It is a currency I do not know how to spend.” (Thanks to http://arianedevere.livejournal.com/90556.html for the transcript of the words!)

The theme of self-sacrifice is a common one in stories, but Easter gives us the opportunity to focus on the true ultimate sacrifice; Jesus' death on the cross. Just like Mary, Jesus' sacrifice was freely chosen; he said “No one takes my life from me. I give it up willingly!” (John 10:18 Contemporary English Version). But more importantly he died to save our lives. The prophet Isaiah foretold the death of Jesus in these words: “it was our grief he bore, our sorrows that weighed him down... But 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).

The wonderful good news of the cross is that Jesus took the punishment that we deserve because of our sins so that we could be forgiven and be reconciled with God. The wonderful good news of Easter is that Jesus rose from the dead so that we too could have a fresh start. This is the central message of Christianity and if it's true it has huge implications for each one of us.

Sherlock realises that Mary thought that his life was valuable enough to be worth saving. Knowing that Jesus died for us should make us realise that he thinks we are valuable, that he loves us so much that he gave his life to take the punishment we deserve. Society often values people based on their job, wealth, beauty, popularity or usefulness. God loves each of us regardless of what society thinks of us and amazingly he loves us even though we rejected him and were his enemies: “God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners” (Romans 5:8 TLB). We don't have to be good enough for God to love us, he loves us even though we're never good enough.

Which leaves us with Sherlock's problem: this value on his life is a currency he doesn't know how to spend. He doesn't know how to live in response to Mary's act. If we truly understand what Jesus did for us on the cross we too have to decide how to respond. The great hymn “When I survey the wondrous cross” gives us the answer. The only appropriate response to the love that is so amazing, so divine is to give God 'my soul, my life, my all.' What is your response to the good news of Easter?

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.

Fish tanks and freedom

This is my magazine article for March:

The Christian season of Lent starts on Ash Wednesday which this year falls on 1^st March (for Welsh readers, St David's day is transferred this year to 28^th February - see http://hybaldsrector.blogspot.co.uk/2017/02/where-has-st-david-gone.html). Lent is a time of self-examination and repentance and is often associated with the practice of giving things up. This has recently been joined by, and increasingly replaced by, a call to take up spiritual or charitable practices. Now of course these are worthy and admirable things to do, but I suspect that our preference for 'taking up' rather than 'giving up' has less to do with our spiritual and moral health and more to do with our contemporary dislike of self-denial.

For over half a century now our culture has shifted away from attitudes of respect for and obedience to authority, and has moved towards an attitude of self-assertion and self-centredness. This shift is not totally a bad thing, but it is reaching its logical conclusion in the present attitude that I should be able to have what I want and it is wrong to deny me it. This is usually dressed up in the language of being 'free' or having a 'right' to have or do something. The progression has been from “I do what I am told” to “I do what I like as long as it doesn't hurt anyone else” to “I can do what I like whatever effect it has on others (or myself)”.

Jesus, by his death, has set us free the guilt of our sins. But as Paul reminds us “My friends, you were chosen to be free. So don’t use your freedom as an excuse to do anything you want. Use it as an opportunity to serve each other with love” (Galatians 5:13 Contemporary English Version) and Peter says “You are free, but still you are God’s servants, and you must not use your freedom as an excuse for doing wrong” (1 Peter 2:16 CEV). But in a world where 'freedom' is the battle-cry, the suggestion that we should try to live according to God's laws is not popular.

So how can we be free if we still have to live as God wants us to live? Well, we do not free a fish by taking it out of a fish tank, we only kill it. Similarly, we are only truly free if we live in the way we are intended to live, and the one who tells us what that way is is the one who created us, God. Freedom from God's rules is not freedom to live, it is only freedom to die.

The odd thing is that we know that freedom from constraint is not really freedom because we see it all around us. Unrestrained eating is unhealthy, excessive consumption of alcohol has a detrimental effect on health and society. However, the most shocking example is the 'freedom' of the sexual revolution that has led to increases in STIs, abortions, broken relationships, pornography, sexualisation of children and psychological trauma.

The promises to bring freedom and happiness cannot be fulfilled by a culture that puts personal interests above everything else. Jesus said, “I came so that everyone would have life, and have it in its fullest” (John 10:10 CEV). This Lent why not test whether Jesus' promise is true?