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.

While mortals sleep: angels and us

Our Advent Evening Prayers have been looking at different features in the Christmas story, and our news sheets have had a more in-depth look at another feature: angels. For this final week we're looking at angels and us.

We started these reflections on angels by noting that angels are a common feature of some popular forms of non-religious spirituality, and that many people who don't believe in a God that relates to people on a personal level do believe in angels. In these cases, angels fulfil that need for spiritual beings that intervene in the world. And so there are many books and websites that will tell you how to contact your own personal angel and get them to do what you want them to do. At this point the line between angels and fairy godmothers gets a bit blurred!

These beliefs have developed out of the description of angels found in the Bible, but have been misinterpreted and misapplied in a way that is dangerous. As we looked at in the first week, the main rôle of angels is to be messengers from God, and so they do communicate with humans, but importantly they are sent by God and cannot be summoned by humans. Because they are sent by God, the message they bring cannot contradict what God has spoken to us in the words of the Bible. There can be no new information or revelation because Jesus is the full and final revelation from God and the testimony to him in the New Testament is complete. Therefore, if an angel says anything that goes against the Bible or adds to it, we can be sure that they are a servant of Satan masquerading as an angel of light (2 Corinthians 11:14-15).

A common representation of angels in popular culture is of Guardian Angels. One website claims “Angels, especially guardian angels, are always buzzing around, looking for ways to make your earthly journey more interesting, dynamic and satisfying...Tell guardian angels exactly what you want assistance with: romance, finances, health, career. Then watch for their messages!” It also encourages people to 'bond' with their guardian angels by doing angel-related activities and collecting angel-themed objects. The Bible gives hints about this category of angels, but it doesn't say very much about what they do. When talking about the 'little ones' (believers) Jesus mentions "their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven" (Matthew 18:10). And Hebrews 1:14 describes angels as “ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation.” Some take these verses to indicate that each believer has an angel in heaven assigned to them. Even if that interpretation is correct, though, the verses tell us nothing about what these angels do. It certainly doesn’t confirm the speculation that they follow us around to protect us, and they do not indicate that non-Christians benefit from their ministry. Their are certainly examples of angels being sent to protect believers (for example Daniel in the lion's den, Daniel 6:22), but this doesn't mean that every believer has an assigned angel or angels to protect them. The only thing we can say for certain is that God can use angels as part of his protection and care for Christians, but he doesn't do this because he is unable to do these things himself. It is he who knows every hair on our head (Matthew 10:30) and if God is for us, nothing can be against us (Romans 8:31).  Angels are merely one way God exercises his power and care.

So how should we, as followers of Jesus, relate to angels?  Firstly we should recognise that angels and humans are two distinct types of being.  This means that we don't become angels when we die (see this blogpost) because, as we saw in the first of these reflections, although humans are created a little lower in status than the angels, through faith in Jesus we can inherit the higher status of children of God and rule over the angels.  To think of our dead relatives as angels may seem comforting, but it is a false comfort that ignores the reality of a choice that faces each and every one of us: accept Jesus and inherit eternal life, or reject him and face eternal separation from him.

Most importantly, though, we should give God thanks and praise for sending angels to bring us the message of salvation through Jesus, and to direct our worship towards him. We should also thank God for their rôle in assisting us, in ways we may never know until the end of time, in the spiritual warfare that is going on all around us.  We should never pray to them as praying to anyone except God is idolatry; just as angels reject our worship (Revelation 22:8-9), so they would also reject our prayers. Besides which, why would we want to pray to a lesser being when because of Jesus' death, we have access to God and Jesus himself prays for us (Hebrews 10:19-22, and 7:25)?

The existence of angels opens our eyes to the spiritual dimension of life and they model absolute, holy submission to God, unquestioning obedience, and faithful worship. But perhaps their greatest rôle is to remind us what makes us different to them: we have been offered salvation. Angels will only ever be servants of God: humans are offered this: “to all who did receive [Jesus], to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God” (John 1:12). Will you receive Jesus this Christmastime?

Let nothing you affright: Angels and demons

Our Advent Evening Prayers will be looking at different features in the Christmas story, and our news sheets will have a more in-depth look at another feature: angels. This week we're looking at angels and demons.

It is hard to think of angels without also thinking of their counterparts: demons. Demons have been depicted in many ways in popular culture throughout the ages but what does the Bible tell us about demons? 

Demons, like angels, are spiritual beings and, again like angels, will probably have different roles and jobs. The likelihood is that they were all originally good, but at some point rebelled against God.  Lucifer was a high-ranking angel, referred to as 'princes' in the Old Testament (Daniel 10:13, possibly what later came to be called Archangels) but he too rebelled (Ezekiel 28:11-19) and became known as Satan. He was then cast out of the heavenly realms with other fallen spiritual beings (Revelation 12:8-9). He may have instigated the rebellion or became the leader later but since then he has had spiritual beings under his control, which are referred to in the Bible as his angels (Matthew 25:41); or as demons; or sometimes 'authorities', 'powers', 'dominions' or 'rulers' (Ephesians 6:11-12). These different names may refer to their function or their place in the hierarchy, but that Bible doesn't elaborate on this any further.

We see demons acting in different ways in the Bible, such as demonic possession (Mark 5:1-6), initiating false worship (1 Corinthians 10:20-21), promoting false doctrine (1 Timothy 4:1) and performing false signs and wonders (2 Thessalonians 2:9).  In short, they try to stop humans from worshipping and following God, in order to prevent them being saved. Another way they do this is to make humans disbelieve in the existence of anything supernatural at all, or at least in the existence of supernatural evil.

Our rationalist mind can often dismiss talk of demons (and angels for that matter) as being religious ideas that belong to a primitive mindset, and stories of demon possession are explained as epileptic fits that the ancients ascribed to supernatural causes. But the Bible is quite clear that demons exist, and Jesus himself believed in them, and spoke to them. The Bible is also clear that attempts to harness the power of evil forces, e.g. by witchcraft or occult practices, are detestable to God (Deuteronomy 18:9-13) because Satan is trying to lead the world astray from God (Revelation 12:9). C. S. Lewis wrote in 'The Screwtape Letters': “There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them. They themselves are equally pleased by both errors and hail a materialist or a magician with the same delight.”

However, powerful as demons certainly are, it would also be wrong to think of them as being undefeatable. Jesus showed us many times his power over them, and he gave that power to us his followers (Luke 10:17-20). The Bible assures us that if we submit to God and resist evil, the devil and his demons will flee from us (James 4:7), and we can do so by putting on the 'the armour of God' (Ephesians 6:11-18). But ultimately Satan and his demons were defeated by Jesus' death on the cross (Colossians 2:15) and will finally be judged and punished at Jesus' second coming (Matthew 25:41, Revelation 20:10).

God rest ye merry, gentlemen,

let nothing you dismay,

for Jesus Christ our Saviour

was born on Christmas Day;

to save us all from Satan’s power

when we were gone astray.

O tidings of comfort and joy.

O tidings of comfort and joy,

comfort and joy;

“Fear not,” then, said the angel,

“Let nothing you affright

this day is born a Saviour

of virtue, pow'r and might,

to free all those who trust in him

from Satan’s power and might.”

Both angels and demons remind us that there is a supernatural realm that we can often forget, and also that there is a spiritual war between good and evil that involves us too (Ephesians 6:12). As angels encourage us to listen, obey and worship God, so demons try to get us to do the opposite. Who are you making happy: angels or demons?

Forthwith appeared a shining throng: angels as worshippers

Our Advent Evening Prayers will be looking at different features in the Christmas story, and our news sheets will have a more in-depth look at another feature: angels. This week we're looking at angels as worshippers.

Although the main rôle of angels is to be messengers for God, they are perhaps most associated with praise and worship. So we get the popular image of angels with harps and occasionally trumpets. Both of these images come from the Bible (Revelation 5:8 and 8:6), although, as we learned last week, it would be wrong to think that this is what angels spend most of their time doing. There is a debate about whether angels sing, as there are few references to angelic singing: they are more often described as 'saying' or 'crying' and their sound is likened to trumpets (Revelation 1:10). But what they sound like is less important than what they are saying.

Praise and worship of God is the specific task of the cherubim and seraphim (Isaiah 6 and Ezekiel 1), and their ministry is carried out solely in the presence of God in heaven. Angels, on the other hand, are go-betweens for the heavenly realm and the earthly realm, so they join in with the heavenly worship when they are there, and encourage worship on earth when they are here. In some ways they are part of the answer to the prayer that Jesus taught us to say: they help us to see how the Father's name is hallowed in heaven, so that we may hallow it in the same way on earth.

This is why the most famous heavenly worship 'song' is "Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come" (Revelation 4:8). Their worship focuses on the holy character of God and his actions past, present and future. This reminds us that God's primary characteristic is holiness. We often think of 'love' being the defining characteristic of God, and it's true that God is love (1 John 4:8), but his love is only able to be exercised because of his holiness. As God is holy, nothing impure can ever enter his presence, and as he is self-sufficient, he needs nothing else outside of himself. Therefore, everything in heaven and on earth only exists because God wills it. He could choose to be in splendid isolation from creation, but instead he wants to be intimately involved with his creation and in particular with humanity. But because our sin makes us impure and deserving of punishment, it is only because God is loving that he makes us a way by which we can be saved: God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8). However, if God were not holy we would not need to be forgiven to enter his presence. Only a holy God can be self-sufficient, just and all-loving.

Angels proclaim God's holiness in heaven and so they lead the world in glorifying God, hence the famous Christmas song of praise: ‘Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favour rests’ (Luke 2:13-14). The angels acknowledge God's greatness, giving him the credit for the wonderful gift of Jesus; with the phrase 'in the highest' having the double meaning of encouraging the praise of God 'to the greatest extent' as well as 'in heaven'. As we looked at last week, God is to be praised for redeeming humanity from its sin.  Angels know how wonderful it is to be in God's presence, and so they rejoice that now humanity can also enter God's presence. As Jesus said “the angels of God rejoice over one sinner who repents” (Luke 15:10 Good News Translation).

The worship given by the angels reminds us that we too should praise God for who he is and what he has done for us,  and when we do so we join in with the heavenly worship with the angels, and archangels and all the company of heaven. The shepherds, after seeing the baby Jesus, went back to work joining with the angels glorifying and praising God (Luke 2:20). Will you join the angels in worshipping too?

What the gladsome tidings be: Angels as messengers

Here's my magazine article for December, which is also the first of my Advent reflections:

Our Advent Evening Prayers will be looking at different features in the Christmas story, and our news sheets will have a more in-depth look at another feature: angels. This week we're looking at angels as messengers.

It wouldn't be Christmas without angels. Whether they're sung about in carols, depicted on Christmas cards, or played enthusiastically by children in Nativity plays, they seem to be everywhere. And that's quite appropriate because angels are all around us, and not just at Christmas!

Angels have become increasingly popular with New-Age spirituality as being a bit like fairy-godmothers – quasi-divine spirits that can grant wishes, or as guardian angels, which act a bit like your own personal deity. These beliefs have grown out of the biblical record about angels, but have been severed from the biblical worldview so they can be made to fit into any and all spiritualities and faiths. So what does the Bible tell us about angels?

Firstly, we do not become angels after death. The Bible tells us that we were made a little lower in status than the angels (Psalm 8:5) , but unlike angels we can be saved and we will ultimately rule over the angels (Hebrews 1:14 and 1 Corinthians 6:3). Angels are one of a number of spiritual beings mentioned in the Bible (including cherubim and seraphim), and although we tend to class them all as angels, it is probably more correct to see these names as being different job titles for these spiritual beings. For example seraphim have a particular rôle in the worship in heaven (Isaiah 6).

This leads us on to what angels look like. Our image of angels probably owes more to pagan gods or fairy folklore than the Bible. Cherubim are often shown, e.g. in the Renaissance, as chubby little children with wings, but this is more like the Roman god Cupid than the biblical description in Ezekiel 1. Indeed nowhere in the Bible are angels, unlike cherubim and seraphim, described as having wings – there appearance is more like humans which is why they often get mistaken for humans, which would be unlikely if they had wings!!

However, more important than what the look like is what they do. The word 'angel' means 'messenger' and in the Christmas story this is their important task. Gabriel (one of only two named angels in the Bible) brought the message of the coming birth of Jesus to Mary (Luke1:26-38) and, we assume, to Joseph (Matthew 1:20-21) and the shepherds (Luke 2:8-12). Then after the single angel had announced the Saviour's birth to the shepherds, a great company (or army) of angels appeared praising God and saying ‘Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favour rests’ (Luke 2:13-14).

This is the great message that the angels bring, that God should be praised because there is now the possibility of peace 'to those on whom his favour rests'. We often see on Christmas cards the words 'Peace on Earth' taken from the angels' words, but the angels were not expressing a vague wish that things would get better on earth, but announcing that peace had already come because of the birth of Jesus. And this peace is not the absence of war but a peace, a reconciliation, with God. We are separated from God because we have rebelled against his rule in our lives, but the good news of Christmas is that God himself came to earth in Jesus, so that through his death the punishment for our rebellion would be taken, and therefore we can be reconciled to God. Will you hear the angels' message this year?

"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.