Dare to be a Daniel

Yes we are about 2 weeks away from the General Election. And so inevitably this I want to share some thoughts on the election.

But where to start? It’s said that preachers can sometimes stand in the pulpit 6 feet above contradiction. As a preacher I am aware of being in a position of potential influence. I am sure you all can think things through for yourselves. But nevertheless, it would be easy for me to starting telling you who I think you should vote for on 6^th May.

But I am not going to do that. Inevitably I suppose from some of my comments you will be able to read between the lines maybe and figure out where my own political preferences lie. But it is not for me to recommend a candidate or a party.

I think it was either Spike Milligan or Billy Connelly who said “Don’t vote for politicians. It only encourages them!” And someone else pointed out “No matter who you vote for the Government always gets in!”

And it has to be said that that level of cynicism is pretty rife in this country. And this is leading to many people not wanting to vote. And if we are honest it perhaps isn’t surprising that is how people feel. There is a widespread distrust of politicians following the expenses shenanigans last year. There will be some people who are fed up with a Labour government for a variety of issues perhaps the Iraq war. But equally there will be people who will look at the Conservatives and not see anything in them to support. And in the interest of balance other parties such as the Lib Dems mightn’t hold much attraction for in reality under our system of voting there isn’t much chance of them getting in t power.

And most worrying of all is that I heard an interview on Radio 4 last week from a constituency in Liverpool which has one of the lowest turnouts in the UK. One young man there said he wasn’t going to vote as he didn’t know how to vote. He said he’d like to but as no one in his family had ever voted he just didn’t know what he had to do, where he had to go etc.

At one time there used to be a sense of civic pride in voting. It was seen as a duty somehow. But that seems to have gone. I am sure many of you being older still have that sense. You remember your parents or grandparents talking about the time when they could not vote or had only just got the vote. Many of you remember the Second World War and how in many respects that war was fought to ensure that people around Europe and the world would have the freedom to vote.

So what is the situation for Christians? Are we obliged to vote? And who should we vote for if we do vote?

For some of us the decision is easy. We’ve always voted for one party and will do so this time round. But for others of us we want to weigh up the pros and cons of voting and the various parties. And this could mean trying to compare policies. If I vote for them they might tax me more. If I vote for them I’ll pay less tax. But taxes go to pay for schools and healthcare. If I don’t pay more tax will healthcare be cut?

These are the things we weigh up. But I’d like to suggest that we should also throw into the mix our faith. In other words what does the Bible and 2,000 years of Christianity have to tell us about the issue we are facing?

And of course this is where you might think we get stuck. There are no Parliamentary elections in the Bible. Well that’s true. But there are things in the Bible that we can interpret for today.

For example, in Romans 13 Paul provides some teaching on the Christian response to Government.

After a century which saw totalitarian governments devastating continents, and nations and people Romans 13 makes difficult reading. Many wicked governments have used Romans 13 as justification for their actions. However, haven’t people always tried to manipulate the Bible to justify their own ends? And if we cut out all those passage that people have used to justify wrong things there’s be very little left.

Bishop Tom Wright suggests that there are several ways in which we can look at the passage today.

It was a statement by Paul about the Roman Empire of his own belief that in some way the Empire was given by God. Ad this comes about through Paul’s own experience of being a fairly privileged Roman citizen.

Or it was a particular statement about a particular time in the Roman Empire when a new Emperor – Nero – had come to the throne and initially he appeared to be ruling justly. Though that would soon change.

Or the third reason Paul wrote what he wrote is that Paul was making a general statement about ruling authorities. And Paul’s statement applies to all legitimate authorities all the time. What Paul is trying to show is that the creator God has a desire for order within the societies he has created. And this order is provided by legitimate government.

And it is this third point that mainly shaped Christian thinking over time. Ruling authorities are what they are because God wants order in the present world. God will not allow chaos to reign. For chaos and anarchy enable the powerful, the rich and the bullies to come out on top. God desires, even in the present time, even in the world that has not yet confessed Jesus as Lord, that there should be a measure of justice and order.

Unless we are anarchists, I think we all recognise that all societies need some regulation, some ordering, and some structure of authority. And we recognise that this ordering is useless unless everyone is at least in principle signed up to it.

We believe that one day Christ will come and bring in his Kingdom. But until that time we have to trust that God’s overall plan for the world includes legitimate and just governments governing.

That is what Paul is trying to say.

So if we accept that. That it is part of God’s plan for us to be governed by legitimate governments, how do we ensure that those governments are legitimate and are the kind of government that we as Christians would feel is upholding Christian values?

The preacher Canon J John, a prominent figure within the evangelical community who wants Christians to become more politically involved, urges his fellow believers to "do our best to find out about our local candidates".

Quoted in a piece on the BBC News web site http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/election_2010/8607964.stm

J. John adds:

"We might want to ask whether they are genuinely committed to moral values or do they simply adopt whatever is the current fashionable view? Does the candidate place their party's ideology above everything else? Would they be prepared to vote against the party line on moral grounds?

"Are they grappling with the bigger issues or are they simply interested in small-scale, day-to-day matters? Perhaps, above all, we should ask whether potential candidates seek to be elected in order to serve their self-interest or the interest of others."

The implication of Canon John's words is that, to satisfy a Christian voter, candidates should put morality above party.

Whilst that is very laudable, nowadays MPs are not like that. There are very few MPs who are independent i.e. not belonging to a party. And there are even fewer who are prepared to go against the party on moral matters. There have been some such as Frank Field who put his Christian beliefs first. But they are rare.

So how do we decide who to vote for if J. John’s suggestion will not work? Well for me it comes down to trying to decide which party’s policies seem to reflect the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And I admit this takes some scrutiny.

But for me the starting point is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. In other words we look at what Jesus says about the values of his Kingdom and how he would have treat other people, and then decide which political party most closely reflects this.

We start with the parable of the Good Samaritan and in fact the preface to the Parable where the young man coming to Jesus says that the greatest commandments are: Luke 10:27

'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind'; and, 'Love your neighbour as yourself.'"

On this basis I think we can saely conclude that as Christians, voting for the BNP is a no no!

Then we have the Sermon on the Mount Matthew 5.

And thirdly we have Jesus quoting Isaiah when Jesus preached in the synagogue in Nazareth Luke 4: 18 – 19:

These pieces of the Gospel, for me anyway, condense the essence of Jesus’ teachings. They are the blue print for how we should react to other people and how we should be seeking to establish the Kingdom of God before Christ comes again. It seems to me therefore that it is important for us as Christians to look at the parties and decide which one will most closely mirror these teachings of Jesus.

Which one will best care for the poor? Which one will best care for the homeless, the oppressed? Which one cares about our neighbours and neighbours are all people everywhere let’s not forget.

And what does the LORD require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly with your God.

Micah 6:8

I have my views and I know in which box I will put my box on 6^th May. But if you are undecided maybe my thoughts this morning will help you decide. Or come along to the hustings being hosted by Swindon Churches Together on Tuesday Evening (27th) at St Barnabus Church in Swindon and put the candidates to the test.

And to give you some more food for thought, I leave the final word to Tony Benn:

“My Great-grandfather was a Congregational Minister and my Mother was a Bible scholar, and I was brought up on the Bible, that the story of the Bible was conflict between the kings who had power, and the prophets who preached righteousness. And I was taught to believe in the prophets, which got me into a lot of trouble over the years. And my Dad said to me when I was young, "Dare to be a Daniel, Dare to stand alone, Dare to have a purpose firm, Dare to let it (be) known."

§ Interviewed by Kevin Zeese in 'Counterpunch', December 19, 2005

The Future of British Methodism - Singing the faith

Various reports in the Methodist Recorder over the last few weeks portray the Methodist Church in this country as in decline and facing a very uncertain future. Wesley College – the once proud training institution of many past Methodist ministers set to close. Breakout - the somewhat poor relation of London Weekend – likely to finish. If the Methodist Church joins with the Church of England it would appear we would be subsumed.

All this paints a very bleak picture indeed.

But amidst the gloom there is a little ray of sunshine. Because the Methodist Council has decided that that the new authorised hymnody" will be called "Singing the faith".

So as the Titanic of Methodism slips beneath the waves we can turn to our new hymn book and sing "Nearer my God to thee". Except me. As I will turn to all the other hymns books I've already got and sing the songs and hymns from those!

Call me Dave

So the election campaign has started this week. And I've just been listening to David "Call me Dave" Cameron on Radio 4's Today programme.

As smooth as a snake oil salesman. And people said Blair was slick!

And this morning the Tories have said "more" about how they will fund not putting National Insurance up. By efficiency savings in local and central government. 40,000 jobs will go. But not through redundancy but through not replacing people who leave. Fair enough you may say. But when pressed on this being only the start he ducked and dived.

And no doubt the Tories grand idea is to bring in the private sector to deliver cost savings through managing back office functions for example. I saw this in operation at South Glos Council when I worked there and it happens here in Magic Roundaboutland. It is not all it is cracked up to be.

There needs to be a change in government. I don't think it is good for one party to be in government too long. But why should that mean Labour or Tory take in turns. A hung Parliament would be an interesting change.

We believe you!

Happy Easter!

I came across a beautiful story recently about a woman named Rosemary who works in the Alzheimer's Unit of a nursing home. Rosemary and a colleague named Arlene brought the residents of the home together one Good Friday afternoon to view Franco Zeffirelli's acclaimed production Jesus of Nazareth. They wondered whether these elderly Alzheimer's patients would even know what was going on, but they thought it might be worth the effort.

When they finally succeeded in getting everyone into position, they started the video. Rosemary was pleasantly surprised at the quiet attention being paid to the screen. At last came the scene where Mary Magdalene comes upon the empty tomb and sees that Jesus' body is not there. An unknown man, in reality the risen Christ, asks Mary why she is looking for the living among the dead. Mary runs as fast as she can back to the disciples and tells Peter and the rest with breathless excitement, "He's alive! I saw Him, I tell you! He's alive." The doubt in their eyes causes Mary to pull back. "You don't believe me . . . You don't believe me!" she says.

From somewhere in the crowd of Alzheimer's patients, came the clear, resolute voice of Esther, one of the patients. "WE BELIEVE YOU," she said, "WE BELIEVE YOU!"

That is the challenge for all Christians at Easter. To accept that Jesus rose from the grave on that first Easter morning and lives today with his Father. Or not.

It is a great story. A story that changed the history of the world. A story that changes history to this day. But if we are honest perhaps from time to time we have doubts about it. Is it just that a story or is it true?

Truth be told, none of us know whether it is true or not. We cannot know. But like Esther, the lady with Alzheimer’s I hope that you, like me can say “WE BELIEVE YOU!” We believe the message of Easter to be true.

The message that Christ is risen. He is risen indeed. Alleluia!

David.

Priesthood of all believers

You may have seen two articles I contributed to in the Swindon Advertiser recently on Lent. The first one was a Faith in Focus column just before Lent started and the second one was a report put together by a trainee reporter on whether Lent had any significance for people today.

I have to say that the Adver is pretty good at giving the Christian faith some coverage. So it was good of them to publish the article about Lent. Unfortunately, the young reporter seemed to mix things up and confused Lent and Easter. (If she’d read my Faith in Focus piece the week before she’d have got it straight!) Nevertheless, the second report did get across the message that for most people outside the Church, Lent doesn’t have any meaning. And if anything for most people, including many in the Church, Lent is about giving something up for Lent. Following the tradition of fasting during Lent.

Lent is of course about remembering the 40 days Jesus spent in the wilderness being tempted. And in the Christian calendar we come out of Lent and immediately think about Holy Week and Easter. We can forget that for Jesus, his 40 days in the wilderness were days of preparation for his beginning his ministry not its end. In other words, the Christian calendar suggests that following his 40 days of prayer and fasting Jesus entered Jerusalem in triumph, was arrested and executed and then rose from the dead. It was not like that at all.

There is a phrase that is trotted out sometimes about Methodism that it is a “priesthood of all believers”. In other words, all people whether lay people or ordained, play a part in serving God and proclaiming the Gospel. It is not just those called to ministry who have this function.

That is an important concept and one I wholly endorse. All of us have a part to play in bringing into being the Kingdom of God. Not just those of us with dog collars. And I have to say, with only three ministers in the Swindon and Marlborough Circuit come September, the priesthood of all believers will be very important.

We are already well into Lent. But that does not mean that all for us cannot use this time of Lent to reflect on how we can prepare to serve Jesus whether by deciding to pray more regularly, or study the Bible more regularly or in some more tangible way.