Joseph - the forgotten person in the Christmas story

Last week I was sat with a friend at a church Christmas lunch and my friend passed comment that we never hear enough about Joseph. And that “Joseph was a good man”. And I agree, Joseph was a good man. In fact that is something of an understatement.
All we know about Joseph is contained in Matthew chapter 1:16 through to chapter 2:23 And in Luke 1: 26 – 2:52. And in Matthew 13:55 Jesus is referred to as “the carpenter’s son” and therefore we assume Joseph was a carpenter.

Traditionally, Joseph is portrayed as being older than Mary. Perhaps quite a bit older. Certainly there is a belief in the Orthodox Church that he was a widower and had children with his first wife who was called Salome. But the point is we simply do not know. We do not know how long Joseph lived in his role as Jesus’ earthly father – he is last mentioned in the Gospel of Luke when Jesus is 12 years old.

We simply don’t know enough about Joseph.

So to the story we know so well. Mary comes to Joseph and tells him she’s pregnant. It is something straight out of a soap opera today. But the story is more complicated than an EastEnders plot.

Joseph and Mary are engaged to be married. And at the time this was a binding arrangement between people. In essence it meant that they were considered to be husband and wife even though they weren’t married. Therefore, unfaithfulness when engaged was considered to be adultery. And under Jewish religious laws adultery meant divorce or death.

We’re told that Joseph is “a righteous man”. This means he was “right with God” he followed God’s wishes. As Joseph was Jewish he also would have followed the Jewish laws which meant he was righteous. And as I’ve said those laws dictated either death or public divorce as a punishment for adultery. Joseph was clearly in love with Mary and didn’t wish to see her die so he had it in his mind to quietly divorce her.

Up to now Joseph is acting righteously. He is doing what Jewish law, God’s law, says he must do. But actually he is doing more than that. He is acting in a way that shows he is concerned for Mary’s dignity and welfare. He is acting through love.

Another way of thinking of “righteous” is by thinking of righteous meaning “just” or “committed to justice.” And Joseph fits that description perfectly. He is following the law as set down in the Jewish scriptures but he is also following what we might think of as a Christian way of thinking – the way of love. And really by following the way of love, an attitude that Jesus would demonstrate in his later life, Joseph was prepared to bend, if not go against the Jewish laws in order to follow the way of love.
In many respects Joseph stands as a fairly minor figure in the Christmas story. And yet he demonstrates to us what it means to be a follower of Jesus. It means that we are to look to the Bible for guidance but equally we are to listen to what God is telling us to do now. These aren’t always one and the same, for I believe God is still speaking and he says things that aren’t in the Bible.

If Joseph had followed what the Jewish scriptures said then Mary would have been very publically divorced or killed. But instead Joseph listened to what God was saying to him. Firstly to treat her with love. And then of course take her as your wife. Forgive her and bring her child up as your own. Oh, and by the way call him Immanuel.

Joseph was being shown how Jesus would teach the world later. In the famous Sermon on the Mount Jesus adopted the same approach “You have heard it said that the law tells you to do this. But I tell you, you have to do more than that” For example:

43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbour[i] and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, Matthew 5: 43 - 44

By choosing to live out the heart of the law – which is God’s love for all people – rather than the letter of the law, Joseph was already living out the values that Jesus would demonstrate. The values of God’s kingdom – love.

2,000 years later we as God’s people are still facing situations where we are pulled in different directions. Where the Bible seems to tell us one thing and yet where our hearts are telling us something else. For example over the issue of gay marriage. The Bible appears to have a set of teachings that set out that homosexuality is wrong. But then we hear Jesus telling us to love our neighbour. What is God saying now?

It seems to me that we all could do with the courage and wisdom of Joseph. The courage to obey God and to listen to what is God is saying to us. And the wisdom to discern God’s message of love. And the wisdom to realise life isn’t as simple as we may think. For God is a God of surprises. A God who uses ordinary people like a carpenter from Nazareth to do extraordinary things.

Give me patience and give it me now!

Many of us grew up with the adage “Patience is a virtue” ringing in our ears. Or maybe “Good things come to him who waits”

In James 5: 7 – 10 the writer talks abut patience.

7 Be patient, then, brothers and sisters, until the Lord’s coming.

James 5:7

Having given this piece of advice James then goes on to compare the patience of waiting on the Lord to the patience of a farmer.

“See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop, patiently waiting for the autumn and spring rains.”

Generally I don’t give much thought to patience. Patience isn’t something I have to be concerned about – unless of course I’m stuck behind a cautious driver at a junction and I find myself saying “Go on! You could have gone then!” And then a voice from the passenger seat says to me “Be patient.”

Patience is a virtue. In other words to be patient, to have patience, is a good thing. So why is that? Why is it good to be patient?

I suppose in certain fields of work or aspects of life, patience is a virtue. For example someone who is engaged in creating a piece of art has to be patient. Or perhaps someone repairing a watch. Or an airline pilot bringing in a plane to land. These all require patience.

But of course it is not just in the world of work that patience is required. To play the piano to the level required to play a complex piece of music by Bach for example requires patience – patience to practise and practise. To play golf to a decent standard requires practice and patience too. And I suppose all of us can understand that kind of patience – the practice makes perfect kind.

We can see then how patience can be a virtue in certain jobs and in certain pastimes. But can patience be a virtue in other senses too?

Patience can be a virtue in situations where waiting is required and where essentially we have no control over a situation or where we are powerless to change things. So to go back to my illustration earlier. If I’m stuck in traffic, to have patience is a virtue because I cannot do anything about the cars in front of me. Similarly when queuing at an airport to check in or to go through security it is pointless getting agitated because it is so slow a process. In such circumstances we cannot do anything to change anything so we may as well be patient.

And although James of course could not have been thinking about traffic jams or queues at airports, I think it is to these second scenarios that he is thinking. Situations where we have no influence or control so we may as well be patient.

Try as we may there are some things in our lives that we cannot exert any control over.
It’s hard for any of us at any age to be patient. Particularly when we are in a time of stress.

There was a delightful little story in the Reader’s Digest from Mrs. Nolen Cash of Lonoke, Arkansas. Mrs. Cash said that with the due date approaching for the birth of their first child, her husband was becoming increasingly fidgety.

One evening she told her husband that she was having some slight pains, but she assured him that they were not serious. Later, she was relaxing in front of the TV when she heard her fidgety husband shaving. Then he began to throw on his clothes.

“What are you doing?” she asked.

With great exasperation he said, “You can sit here if you want to, but I’m going to the hospital!”

Sometimes these are trivial but sometimes they are serious. We can either get angry and frustrated and feel our blood pressure rising or we can be patient and accept that we cannot do anything.

In summary, waiting can be aggravating. But we may as well accept that there is nothing we can do apart from wait patiently.

To illustrate his thinking about the scenarios where we have no influence and where we cannot change time, James uses the illustration of the farmer. At the time James was writing, farmers in Palestine relied entirely on natural irrigation and rainfall. In contrast as I understand it, nowadays Israel is very green due to the widespread use of irrigation systems. But then whether or not a crop grew depended almost entirely on how much moisture fell, and in what form and at what time.

There had to be rain when the crop was planted in order to help germination and then rain later to nourish it. But if rain came just before the harvest or during the harvest the crop could be ruined.

Since there was nothing the farmer could do to influence these climatic events the farmer just had to be patient.

James is writing to a group of early Christians who believed that Jesus’s return was imminent. They were becoming impatient for this event. So this is why James is preaching patience. This is why James is saying to them that there is nothing they can do to change the timescales so they may as well wait patiently.

I suppose for us it is slightly different. Although we hear during Advent that Jesus will come again, after 2,000 years of waiting we’re patient. We’ve got used to waiting. Or maybe we’ve moved on from waiting patiently and think Jesus’ return will never happen. Either way we hear the promise he will come again and we wait. So we may as well wait patiently.

However, sometimes we have to be impatient. Sometimes to be patient can be an excuse to do nothing or to sit back.

During my visit to America in the summer I learned a great deal about the civil rights protests of the 1950s and 1960s. And one thing that became clear to me was that the protests were sparked in large part by black people, and those who were sympathetic to their plight, running out of patience. For years they had been promised reforms but it had never happened. Finally their patience ran out and many of them decided to do something about it via civil disobedience.

In his great “I have a dream speech” Dr Martin Luther King said:

We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of Now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.

Patience in the face of unjust circumstances that can be changed is not a virtue. Justice delayed is justice denied.

Being patient with injustice, hoping in other words that things will eventually change but not seeking to bring about that change, such patience is wrong. It is unvirtuous.

So yes James is right that in some things, which we cannot influence, we have to be patient:

7 Be patient, then, brothers and sisters, until the Lord’s coming.

8 You too, be patient and stand firm, because the Lord’s coming is near.

But we should not be patient when we see wrongs happening now. We should not be patient with the fact that, according to Shelter, this Christmas 80,000 children in this country will be homeless. We should not be patient with MPs who could receive an 11% pay rise.

Be patient in waiting for God’s Kingdom to come and our Saviour to return in glory. But be impatient with the in justice of this world until he comes.

A pleasant surprise at Aldi

For the last couple of years Stratton Methodist Church in Swindon has been running a project called "Community Kitchen". On the second Saturday of the month, we open the church up and offer the homeless and lonely somewhere to come for a meal and some companionship. We also are able to provide guests with packs containing toiletries and we also have some clothing available.

Last month we had a record number of guests and many of them asked if we had any shoes they could have. We didn't have any shoes but I remembered that the local Aldi supermarket had some in stock. So I went round to Aldi and bought a few pairs of trainer style walking shoes. These proved popular with the guests and we promised we'd get some more in for next time.

I do quite a lot of our shopping in Aldi as it is very convenient for where we live and very good value. So every time I've been in since last Community Kitchen I've looked to see if they had any shoes in stock. Until today I've been out of luck but this morning I saw they had just had a delivery of "Winter boots" - walking boots. I bought five pairs as the church treasurer had said to me if I saw any shoes get them.

The chap on the till looked at me slightly quizzically for having five pairs of boots.So I explained to him that I was buying them for the homeless project at Stratton Methodist Church.

I was just packing my trolley, when I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned round to see a lady with a £10 note in her hand.

"I couldn't help but hear what you said about the shoes. So please can you take this money for the project."

I could have hugged her. All I know is that as I thanked her for her kindness I felt tears in my eyes.

It has apparently become quite trendy for the middle classes to shop at Aldi and Lidl for bargains. (A recent newspaper feature in The Daily Telegraph summed it up "How Aldi won the class war - and became the fastest-growing supermarket in Britain. How has the German giant conquered Middle England? ") So was the giver of the tenner some Yummy Mummy slumming it to buy the 79p coconut milk? I don't think so. I think the giver was an "ordinary" person who just wanted to do something for someone else in the lead up to Christmas. £10 to her may have been quite a lot of money relatively speaking. But her generous gift will mean a lot to someone leaving Community Kitchen next week with some new boots.

Whoever she was, that lady's spontaneous act of generosity touched my heart. Thank you whoever you are.

Breaking through the silence to listen for the inner being

On Saturday morning (30th November) the news reports were dominated by one news story – that late on Friday evening a police helicopter had crashed late into a crowded city centre pub in Glasgow Scotland.

The reports on the radio were filled with eye witness accounts of the helicopter crashing. But also stories of how people in the pub had helped one another to escape. And how in fact some people had purposely gone to the site of the crash to help out.

Come Sunday morning the news reports told of the work carried out by the emergency services. How they had arrived very quickly on the scene and how they had set about rescuing people who were trapped and treating the injured.

But we learned too that 8 people were known to have been killed (now 9 at the time of writing.) And these include the 2 police officers (PCs Kirsty Nelis and Tony Collins) and the civilian pilot (David Trail) aboard the helicopter.

On Sunday morning I heard an interview with the Reverend Gordon Armstrong, Church of Scotland chaplain to the Fire and Rescue service. He had arrived on the scene about half an hour after the crash. And spent many hours offering comfort and support. He shared with the interviewer (BBC’s Paddy O’Connell) how members of the emergency services need to be able to share what they have experienced.

Mr. Armstrong described how shortly after he arrived a silence descended on the area. In fact a calm, as the emergency services got about their task. Mr. Armstrong said:

“It was as if all there knew where their thoughts were and our thoughts were in the same place”

Paddy O’Connell then asked Mr. Armstrong

“In your job you need to break through the silence”

“Well we do. That’s where we as chaplains come in. We step in and try and break the silence. Sometimes it is met with silence. The thought is ‘It could have been me or someone I know.’ A lot of what we do is listening. Listening for the glimpses of the inner being in all of us.”

I thought Gordon Armstrong expressed the role of a chaplain so well. And those of us involved in chaplaincy will be able to relate exactly to what he said there. I am fortunate in not having been on duty when police officers have had to deal with anything traumatic. Nevertheless, much of my role is about listening and in the listening trying to hear “the glimpses of the inner being”. To distinguish between what is general chit chat or moaning and something more important underlying.

In the conclusion of the interview, Paddy O’Connell commented that Gordon Armstrong was about to set off for morning service on the first Sunday of Advent. “How will you marshal your feelings?”

Gordon Armstrong replied that one of the Advent readings was Matthew 24 speaking about the “Day and hour being unseen.” In other words none of us know what the future holds. The events at the Clutha Vaults bar in Glasgow certainly tie in to that.

I am pleased that the Rev Armstrong’s views have been sought at this time. It is important for serving members of the emergency services and members of the public to learn of the roles of chaplains. Though of course I wish it hadn’t taken a tragedy like this in order for the media to show some interest in chaplains.

My thoughts and prayers of course go out to those who have been injured and to the families and friends of those who were killed. But as a fellow chaplain I pray for Gordon Armstrong and other chaplains and of course for the members of the emergency services having to deal with this tragedy.

Love shall be our token

A couple of weeks back children from Moredon and Rodbourne Cheney primary schools came to look inside St Andrews. They asked me questions about faith. It was great, for the questions included “Who created God?” and “Who was St Andrew?” I could answer one of those but not the other!

The discussion moved on to saints in general and I mentioned Saint Nicholas – Santa Claus. This then prompted a boy to ask “Why doesn’t Jesus give presents at Christmas instead of Santa Claus?”

And I explained how the giving presents at Christmas is related to the giving of gifts to Jesus by the Magi rather than Jesus giving gifts. I suppose it was inevitable that a discussion about Christmas would lead on to presents.

We all know that Christmas has become about buying. Buying presents. Buying food. Could the wise men have foreseen what their gesture of giving gifts would lead to?

I don’t know if you saw the recent interview the Archbishop of Canterbury gave to Martin Lewis the “Money Saving Expert”. The Archbishop said that people are making themselves "miserable" at Christmas because of the pressure of buying expensive gifts for loved ones.

In the interview Justin Welby admits it is a cliché for him to be complaining about modern consumerism - but said that people were risking their relationships by spending big, leaving themselves short of money.

The Archbishop urged families to show "love and affection" at Christmas rather than giving expensive presents.

He added: "Giving at Christmas reflects that generosity of God. So be generous in a way that shows love and affection rather than trying to buy love and affection," he said. "You can't buy it; you can show it, and when you show it, it comes back at you with interest”

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-24896330

Love is the essence of Christmas and that is what we must all remember. Christina Rossetti wrote a poem:

Love came down at Christmas,
Love all lovely, love divine;
Love was born at Christmas,
Star and angels gave the sign.

Worship we the Godhead,
Love incarnate, love divine;
Worship we our Jesus:
But wherewith for sacred sign?

Love shall be our token,
Love be yours and love be mine,
Love to God and all men,
Love for plea and gift and sign

Where's all the love gone?

I was horrified this morning to hear this news story:

“Shocking" sexual violence is being carried out by children against other children as young as 11, according to an official report.

The Office of the Children's Commissioner for England said the perpetrators could be 12 or 13, and rape is seen as "normal and inevitable" in some areas, especially among gangs.”
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-25090896

The news report itself is shocking enough but on TV and radio actors read some of the transcripts from some of the young people interviewed. And those comments are seriously concerning. One in particular horrified me. It was from a teenage boy saying about how he had taken part in a gang rape of a teenage girl. And from the transcript he seemed to think “the girl was asking for it” as she’d already had sex with a number of other boys and so he'd not done anything wrong. Though he added “I suppose you could call it rape”!

According to the news reports I heard, one of the reasons the researchers found for this abuse is the widespread use of on line pornography by the boys carrying out the abuse. (I think we can assume we’re not talking Page 3 pin ups here.) Consequently young boys’ sexual relationships are solely that – relationships based solely on sex. And abusive sex at that. If indeed you could call it relationships.

So although this is shocking, to me it wasn’t surprising. In part because of a conversation I’d had just last week with a secondary school teacher. The teacher shared with me a situation with a student at school. The girl confided in her form tutor how she’d “been made to do things she didn’t like doing” by a boy. I will spare you the details but it would have been worthy of the report.

What have we come to? And how on earth are we supposed to get children to realise that sex isn’t some video game? Sex is real, it is powerful, it can be wonderful. But it must be founded on love not abuse. And in Christian theology sex is a gift from God who himself is love.

I recognise that the world has moved on over the two generations since the Swinging Sixties (when I suppose people’s views about sex changed dramatically.) And I recognise that sex is no longer seen as something for the marital bed. That mightn’t be right but that is where we are. However, with or without marriage, sex should be an act of two people loving each other. And this report suggests that is a message young people just don’t get.

How on earth do we start to make sure they do?

Earn all you can, Save all you can, Give all you can

This is the text of a talk I was due to give on BBC Wiltshire on 17th November 2013. As the presenter and I got talking about other things I had to abridge it somewhat.

Last week some people clearly decided to start their Christmas shopping early.

Firstly someone somewhere will find a painting by Francis Bacon of his friend and fellow artist Lucian Freud under their Christmas tree. The painting was sold at auction in New York for $142m (£89m, 106m euros) in New York. The most expensive artwork ever sold

The price eclipsed the $119.9m (£74m) paid for Edvard Munch's The Scream last year.

Secondly A diamond known as the Pink Star has sold for $83m (£52m) at auction in Geneva - a record price for a gemstone. The diamond measures 2.69cm by 2.06cm (1.06 inches by 0.81 inches) and is set on a ring.

The Pink Star was sold to Isaac Wolf, a well-known New York diamond cutter who has renamed it the Pink Dream.

The winning bid surpassed the $46.2m paid for the Graff Pink diamond three years ago, which was half the size of the Pink Star.

In the space of 24 hours almost £150 million was spent – just like that.

While auction records were being set in New York and Geneva, on the other side of the world the people of the Philippines were coming to terms with the deaths of loved ones, with lack of shelter, food and clean water. The news about the purchase of a picture and a pink diamond probably passed them by to be honest. They’ve got other things on their minds. Probably just as well, as I dare say they’d be wondering what they could do with £150 million. It would go a long way to helping those people I imagine.

Meanwhile, those of us who are more likely to have china ducks on our walls as opposed to Francis Bacon paintings, were responding to the disaster in the Philippines and to the BBC Children in Need fund raiser. So far £31 million – a record – has been raised for Children in Need and so far over £30 million has been given to the Disasters Emergency Committee’s Philippines appeal.

One of the verses of the Bible that is frequently misquoted is found in Pauls’ first letter to Timothy. The misquotation is

money is the root of all evil..

In fact what St Paul said was

10 For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil.

It is a verse from a much longer passage in which Paul warns about the temptations of wealth.

9 But people who are trying to get rich fall into temptation. They are trapped by many stupid and harmful passions that plunge people into ruin and destruction. 10 The love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. Some have wandered away from the faith and have impaled themselves with a lot of pain because they made money their goal.

I suppose what this means is that people who get swept up with wealth, and the trappings of wealth, are in danger of becoming detached from what it means to be a caring compassionate person. And instead become more interested in having the expensive paintings on the wall and the biggest diamond on the finger.

Of course not all wealthy people are like this. Some enjoy what their wealth brings but at the same time look at ways of helping the under privileged. Bill Gates is a good example as he gives away millions of dollars through his Bill & Melinda Gates foundation. And it may be that the buyers of the painting and the diamond give generously to good causes.

The founder of the Methodist Church John Wesley once said that our approach to money could be summed up like this

Earn all you can, Save all you can, Give all you can

Not a bad template for life.

Power struggle

Over the last few weeks there’s been a lot of publicity given to the big 6 energy companies here in the UK and how they’ve raised energy costs by around 10%. Apparently one of the reasons given by the companies is that the green energy taxes imposed upon them are a way of funding cleaner energy.

Last weekend we had a visit from two friends from Germany. And we got talking about energy.

As you may know, following the Fukushima nuclear disaster, the German government decided to close Germany’s nuclear power plants. There has long been a vocal opposition to nuclear energy in Germany and for many years Germany has been encouraging alternative energy.

We last visited Germany in in 2011 and noticed then how many homes had solar panels and how along the sides of autobahns (motorways) were miles of solar panels. Our friends told us how since then there has been a great uptake in green energy. For example many villages are now investing in wind turbines so that the village will be self-sufficient in electricity. (The villagers set up a cooperative and establish small wind farms.)

Apparently over the summer (so our friends told us) Germany was exporting solar generated electricity to the Czech republic as Germany couldn’t use all the electricity being produced.

When we explained how there is opposition to wind farms here our friends said they couldn’t understand this. They thought Britain had an ideal climate for wind power and with our coast line why weren’t we investing in wave power? Good question.

I don’t why know people are so opposed to wind farms. Yes I must admit none of us wish to see hoards of wind turbines covering the countryside. But surely there could be ways around this? One or two turbines serving villages (as in Germany) or factories having one or two turbines. (The Honda plant in Swindon wanted to do this and the local Nimbys managed to put a block on this idea.) By the way, were people years ago opposed to windmills because they looked unsightly?

Our government has made much of how it wants to reduce the national debt as it doesn’t want to leave a legacy for future generations. But what of the legacy we are leaving for future generations by building new nuclear plants? 30,000 years’ worth of legacy in the form of toxic waste?

Meanwhile the energy companies just seem content to make money, pay their shareholders large dividends and their fat cat directors bonuses. And 340 MPs claim for the cost of heating their homes on expenses including Swindon North MP Justin Tomlinson who claimed £336. http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/340-mps-energy-bills-paid-2671053 (Why by the way can MPs claim this on expenses? I work from home and I have to pay my gas and electricity. I can claim a 25% tax allowance.) While at the same time elderly members of my congregations worry about whether they will manage to be able to heat their homes.

I find it disappointing that Christians aren’t taking a more active role in challenging the Government over its energy policy. We believe that people are on earth to be stewards of creation. So shouldn’t we Christians in the western developed world be taking the lead (as is Germany is) on renewable non fossil

Trick or treat - no thanks

I received a phone call from my friends at BBC Wiltshire yesterday evening asking whether I was free to go into the Breakfast Show this morning to talk about Hallowe'en. From the 10 minute chat with the researcher it became apparent that they weren’t necessarily looking for me to come on as the Christian who sees Hallowe'en as the work of the devil and a cover for the occult. (There may be something in that but I haven’t heard of many virgins being sacrificed in Swindon to be honest – there is a joke waiting to escape there, but I’ll let you, dear reader, fill in your own punch line.)

So having gone in to the studio the conversation we had was along the lines as Hallowe'en now being nothing more than some imported commercial thing which the supermarkets have latched on to as a way of selling lots of “stuff” , naff costumes, sweets and pumpkins. But we also talked about how for many people, particularly the elderly but also anyone who lives alone, Trick or Treat is a genuinely frightening thing. After all, if you are elderly, the last thing you want (or expect) are strangers ringing the doorbell. And then on opening the door you are confronted with people dressed in scary costumes shouting “Trick or treat” at you.

And, to be honest, not only do you not want to be disturbed by strangers, but you have no idea what Trick of Treat means.

In my preparation for the programme this morning I did a quick bit of research on line about the origins of Halloween and Trick or Treat. What I am about to cite comes mainly from an article in the Daily Telegraph dating back to 2009 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/6468637/Halloween-a-history-of-All-Hallows-Eve-from-Samhain-to-trick-or-treat.html Though there are plenty of other things too.

It seems as if there was an ancient pagan festival around this time of the year called Samhain that marked the ending of the light half of the year and the start of the dark part of the year. (Today we call that the festival of putting the clocks back an hour.) Samhain was a sort of harvest festival, when the last crops were gathered in for the winter, and livestock killed and stored. But the pagan Celts also believed it was a time when the walls between our world and the next became thin and porous, allowing spirits to pass through.

As was often the case with the early church, in order to convert the natives, a Christian festival was established called All Souls (or “All Hallows”) in which the dead were remembered and their souls were prayed for, in order to be released from purgatory. (Bear in mind I am no authority in Catholicism and the practices of the early church; if it’s not a Trappist beer I don’t understand it.) In time it became the norm for this festival to start on the night before All Hallows – All Hallows Eve hence “Hallowe'en”.

So what of Trick or Treat? It seems as if in some Catholic parts of the world there was a tradition of giving gifts to the poor at the time of All Hallows. The idea would be that the beggars would say prayers for the souls of the dead in exchange for food. “Guising”, disguising oneself as a ghoul to fool evil spirits. Is this the origin of Trick of Treat? Or did it just emerge in the USA in the 1920s? As they say on QI “Nobody knows”

What most seem to agree is that there was no tradition of Trick of Treat in this country. Those of us of a certain age remember Hallowe'en being a time when you might play some silly games at home such as Apple Bobbing or Apple on the Line. But the major festival was Guy Fawkes on November 5th. But sometime somehow Trick or Treat invaded. (In a 2007 piece Sean Coughlan described Trick or Treat as “The Japanese Knotweed of festivals” http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7067804.stm. Meaning I suppose it’s been imported and is pernicious.)

So am I just being an old grouch to be opposed to Trick or Treat or am I right to voice concern?
Let me say first of all, I don’t think that dressing up children as Margaret Thatcher or something equally scary will mean they become devil worshippers. Certainly my American Christian friends don’t make that association and I think it fair to say that a good number of them are more conservative in many respects than Christians here. So if there was more to Trick or Treat you’d expect them to oppose it.

So my opposition is based on two aspects.

Firstly, there is an anti-social element to it. I’ve mentioned above the genuine fear single and / or elderly people have about being disturbed. Whilst these fears may be unfounded for the most part, they are still genuine. And there will be instances of the houses and cars of people not wanting to participate, being “bombed” with eggs and flour. Also what message does it send to young people? For 364 days of the year it would be illegal to demand money with menaces but suddenly on Hallowe'en we’re telling them it’s fine to demand something (albeit sweets) backed up with the threat of violence.

Secondly, we are allowing commerce to dictate to us. A visit to my local supermarket this morning showed an aisle wholly dedicated to the sale of Halloween stuff. OK people don’t have to buy but there is huge pressure on families to conform.

I suppose I am in the minority and most people see it as a bit of fun. But as I’m on police chaplaincy duty this evening, I’ll be interested to see the effect of this bogus festival.

In the meantime if it’s not too late you can download a “Trick or treat no thanks” poster here:
http://www.wiltshire.police.uk/index.php/campaignsand-events/3343-halloween

Finally, I’d like to point you to a great blog by a friend of mine, on the theology around this topic:
http://tractorgirl66.wordpress.com/2013/10/24/light-in-the-dark-places/

Greater love is loving your enemies

In the hall of my parents’ church in Crosskeys South Wales are two memorial tablets remembering the dead of the First World War who had attended that chapel. And on one of the tablets is this verse of scripture:

13 Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.

John 15:13 (KJV)

It is a verse I have seen quoted on many war memorials and of course it seeks to tie in the sacrifice of men (and women) who have died serving their country and the people of that country. Of course the words were spoken by Jesus in the time leading up to his crucifixion. He is telling the disciples that he will die for them and for their sins, so that they might have eternal life.

But equally it was a reminder to the disciples that some of them would die themselves. They would die for proclaiming the gospel and for living the gospel out. They would die out of love for other people.

A few days ago I saw a story on the BBC news web site that brought this verse into a very up to date context.

The article told the story of an event that happened in 1996. A black teenager protected a white man from an angry mob who thought he supported the racist Ku Klux Klan. It was an act of extraordinary courage and kindness - and is still inspiring people today.

The Ku Klux Klan were holding a protest in the town of Ann Arbor Michigan. And although the Klan could only muster a small number of people, a large crowd gathered to protest against the Klan’s racist views. Among the crowd was 18 year old Keisha Thomas.

At one point someone in the crowd of anti-racism protestors noticed a middle aged man sporting a racist T shirt and racist tattoos including one symbolising the Nazi party’s SS. The crowd turned on the man and started to chase him. The man tripped and people started to set upon him. But this is where Keisha Thomas stepped in.

The black teenager was appalled at the violence so she threw herself on top of the man to shield him – no doubt saving his life.

She has since said she was motivated by her religious beliefs and by knowing what it was like herself to be on the receiving end of violence.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-24653643

None of us would want to have to do what Keisha Thomas did. And I suppose I have to ask myself whether I’d have the courage to do what she did. But what makes her story the more remarkable was that she was prepared to do what she did for a potential enemy.

Jesus said:

43 ‘You have heard that it was said, “Love your neighbour[a] and hate your enemy.” 44 But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,
Matthew 5: 43 – 44 (NIV)

Perhaps that is one of the hardest things we are called to do. Love our enemies.

(The photograph I've used was taken by Mark Brunner who was a student at the time.)

“The people are the same but the trees have grown.”

On Tuesday I conducted the funeral of one of the saints from Rodbourne Road chapel. I’ll call her Joan. Joan was a lady in her 90s who was a real character. She was housebound due to arthritis. But she managed to remain in the same home she’d lived in for all her married life (almost 70 years) and beyond (following her husband’s death in 2008.)

Although unable to leave her house Joan had the benefit of wonderful neighbours who called in every day, did her shopping and checked up on her. And although her family had moved from Swindon a number of years ago she received weekly visits from her sons and her grandchildren as well as daily phone calls.

A couple of weeks ago Joan’s next door neighbour noticed that the light wasn’t on in the kitchen when he got up for work around 6.30am. Joan was always an early riser (from her time in service she told me) so if her kitchen light wasn’t on that was a concern. The neighbour (I’ll call him Archie) was concerned and let himself in to Joan’s house. He went upstairs and found that Joan had died in her sleep.

After the funeral I was sat with Archie in the pub where the reception was held. Archie is a no nonsense Scot. If you are a fan of the Archers on BBC Radio 4 and can think of the way the character “Jazzer” speaks, then that is Archie.

Archie spoke to me about Joan at length. “She’s the gran I never had.” I know how much Archie and his wife had done for Joan over the years. But I’d not appreciated how much Archie valued having Joan there for him.

I don’t know Archie’s background but I sense he was a bit of a handful at school. He told me how he'd left school at 15 as he’d had enough of it.

Out of the blue Archie asked me if I’d ever visited Arnos Vale cemetery in Bristol. At first this seemed a slightly odd choice of topic. But then again we had both been at a funeral! “Och it’s great Dave. I love visiting cemeteries me and looking at the grave stones and trying to imagine the people.” And Archie told me a lot about Arnos Vale http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arnos_Vale_Cemetery

We then proceeded to have one of those life the universe and everything conversations that I enjoy and which people still like to have with a minister from time to time. Archie had had a couple of beers that no doubt enabled to start talking in this way. But it was a good chat.

We started to look at photos of Joan as a younger woman. And Archie said something I often think myself. “Dave. How is it that when we haven’t known a person when they are young and only know them when they are older, we wouldn’t recognise them in a younger photo? Yet if we have grown up with them we always recognise them?”

Archie’s comment sounds a bit odd. But I know exactly what he means.

But he then went on to say something I found very thought provoking. He explained how he visits his home town in Scotland from time to time. He sees people he’s not seen for years but somehow they don’t alter. “The only difference is Dave that the trees have grown. The people are the same but the trees have grown.”

And I think Archie seems to have hit on something there. Mostly people remain the same that is their personality remains the same (even if they are physically older). So we still relate to them even if they look older. “The people are the same but the trees have grown.”

The village I grew up in in South Wales, sums that up really. My parents are physically older and no doubt to people who haven’t seen them for a while they look older. But to me they seem the same. Yet a look out of the window of their house reminds me of the changes. The trees on the hillside opposite their house are grown. The woodland is much denser than when I lived there.

As I write this I am 50 years and 2 days old. 50 is a landmark I suppose. And 100 years ago I would have been an old man. (No comments please!) After all my great grandfather died in his early 50s. But I don’t feel old. At times I barely feel as if I’m an adult!

“The people are the same but the trees have grown.”

Don’t get me wrong. In many ways I am different to the 18 year old, the 30 year old and the 40 year old. I think there is a certain maturity now. But still a wonderful immaturity too!

Be persistent

There are so many things in this life that we just don’t understand. For example, we don’t really understand disease. Why is a youngster perfectly healthy for 13 years of his life and then suddenly just happens to be in a place where he suddenly encounters some germ or bacteria that invades his body and destroys it?

And we don’t understand accidents. They are so random and indiscriminate. You start out a day that is like any other day and then something happens in a matter of seconds and life is forever different.

On and on we could go with our list of things we don’t really understand.

And I suppose one thing we have to add to our list of things we don’t understand is why prayers are not always answered.

One of the things I struggle with is how to pray for someone who is perhaps gravely ill in hospital. Should I pray for a miracle cure when I feel that miracles rarely seem to happen? I know there are some Christians who will tell you differently, and I’ve heard some Christians say that they’ve prayed for something miraculous and it has happened. But I’ve not witnessed such miracles.

And if such miracles happen that is wonderful and amazing. But why aren’t my prayers having that effect? Why aren’t yours?

And we come to the age old question “Does prayer really work?” And the answer to that question isn’t straightforward.

When we pray, we often are praying for God to intercede. For God to intervene. As the writer Anne Dillard puts it we’re asking God to stick his finger in, if only now and again. And occasionally it may seem as if he has done so.

In the first book of Chronicles chapter 4: 9 – 11 is the story of a man named Jabez. That is the whole of his story:

9 Jabez was more honourable than his brothers. His mother had named him Jabez,[c] saying, ‘I gave birth to him in pain.’ 10 Jabez cried out to the God of Israel, ‘Oh, that you would bless me and enlarge my territory! Let your hand be with me, and keep me from harm so that I will be free from pain.’ And God granted his request.

“And God granted his request” Why?

Skip forward to the 21st century and there are some parts of the Christian church that preach what is sometimes called a “Health & Wealth” gospel. And part of that message is that we should pray for ourselves and for our own well-being. This strand of the church would want us to be selfish in our prayers and this strand of the church would say it is ok to ask God to increase the value of our wealth or for our own better health. And, of course, those Christians of that persuasion will also often say if you pray hard enough your prayer will be answered.

That makes the rest of me feel great when I look at my 7 year old Skoda and take my inhaler. I’m clearly not praying hard enough.

As a minister and before then, I have met over the years some wonderful, sincere, dedicated pray-ers. People who pray heartfelt prayers, persistently and whose prayer requests aren’t fulfilled. We once belonged to a prayer group that contained two amazingly powerful pray-ers. The two people I am thinking of prayed regularly for other people and situations in the town and around the world.

So how do we explain that one of them – I’ll call her Judy – died in her early 70s from a massive stroke? You can’t tell me that she wasn’t praying hard enough? Or maybe those Christians who believe in the health and wealth gospel would turn round and say that my friend Judy should have been praying for her own health and well-being? Well I know what Judy would say to that! She was always far more concerned for others than praying for herself.

In Luke 18: 1 – 8 Luke tells us that

“Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up.”

Jesus doesn’t resolve the mystery of answered and unanswered prayer but he tries to teach his disciples persistence.

It’s a great story with two unforgettable characters. We have a harsh judge who has no conscience and “ … who neither feared God nor cared what people thought.” And then we have a widow who is poor, helpless, defenceless and in need of justice.

The scene must be something like a courtroom with the judge seated on a dais, throngs of people waiting to present their case before him, some represented by lawyers, others just appearing for themselves and shouting to get the judge’s attention. The woman is one of these. She can’t afford a lawyer and so every day she comes to court and tries to get the attention of the judge with the plea, “Grant me justice against my adversary.”

Every day she does this and every day the judge ignores her. But she keeps on at him. Maybe she follows him home? Maybe she just keeps shouting in court. She keeps on badgering him over and over again. And he keeps on ignoring her. And she keeps on shouting “Grant me justice against my adversary.”

Finally, the judge has enough. He caves in and gives her a favourable judgment.

And Jesus concludes the parable by saying:

7 And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night?

And that is a key point. The issue is justice. We should be praying persistently for justice Jesus is saying. And what after all is justice but the right outcome. The wise outcome.

We should not be praying to God to get what we want or what we need. We have to understand that what we really need and what we think we want, are not the same thing.

Many people have had experience of praying for someone who is ill or who is in a difficult situation. We pray for that person to be made well or to be relieved of that situation and what we pray for doesn’t happen. That is one of the most difficult of tests of our faith. We pray, we ask God for healing or whatever and it doesn’t happen. Where’s the justice in that?

I don’t know. It doesn’t seem justice to conduct the funeral of a boy who died of cancer as I have done in the past. And yet our faith requires us to be persistent. Those words of Jesus again:

7 And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night?

It is so hard to do when we see an injustice done. We shout out at God, we rage against God. “Why don’t you do something about it?!!!!!”

The only book about Prayer I’ve read that makes sense to me is Philip Yancey’s “Prayer – does it make a difference?” And in that book he deals with this parable. He makes the point that in our prayers we may sometimes feel like the widow – alone, powerless, a victim of unfairness. The truth is the opposite. We have a direct line to the Father. We have an advocate (the Holy Spirit) who speaks directly to God; God who has nothing in common with the judge in the story. The judge in the story was unconcerned whereas God is concerned and, Jesus reminds us, God will bring justice. Jesus has assured us of that.

And yet despite hearing this assurance I wonder

“How long do I have to keep praying before something changes? God how long do we keep praying for example ‘Your kingdom come your will be done on earth as it is in heaven’ before that actually happens? God, people have been praying that for 2,000 years and look at the mess we’re still in!”

I wish I knew how persistent we have to be. Unfortunately I was away that day at college so I don’t know the answer. All I know is we look at some of the great Christian figures in history and see persistence in action. We see William Wilberforce coming to Parliament year in year out pleading for justice before slavery was abolished. We see Martin Luther King addressing civil rights protestors in Selma Alabama and saying to them “How long? …. How long? …. How long will it take?”

We have to believe that God knows about the things we pray about. If there is anyone anywhere praying for God to intervene and put an end to their oppression, eventually that prayer will be heard and that which is wrong will be set right. That’s the promise of Scripture. We can do no more than trust God.
Now, where does that leave us? Let me tell you a story.

A young black man once asked his minister why their people had to suffer so much poverty, hardship, and oppression. “Why doesn’t God do something?” he wailed.

“He has,” said that wise pastor. “He has created you.”

And so Desmond Tutu became the answer to his own question. And we know how hard Desmond Tutu worked for justice.

So why doesn’t God do something about someone we love dying? God has. He’s given us a wonderful healthcare system. He’s given us Prospect Hospice.

So why doesn’t God do something about children dying of HIV in Africa then? He has. He’s created the drugs they need. He’s created us to be alongside them to give voice to the voiceless. To lobby powerful governments and pharmaceutical companies for justice.

That’s a good lesson for you and me. While we are waiting for God to bring in a perfect and just society, to bring in his Kingdom, you and I are God’s answer to the injustice in our world. We are if you like the answer to prayer. That’s what it means to take up a cross and follow Jesus. It’s not a comfortable position to be in. It’s not popular. But it is Christ’s way, the way of persistence.

7 And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night?

Yes he will – through you and me.

A man under authority

A story of Jesus I find fascinating is contained in Luke 7 and it is the story of the Roman centurion whose servant is gravely ill and close to death. The Centurion had heard of Jesus and all he had done and could do. So the Centurion sends a message to Jesus and asks for Jesus to heal the servant.

The story is powerful because it shows us many important things. It shows us how we need to be concerned with the well-being of those around us. The Centurion was concerned with the well-being of his slave but also with the Jewish community “he loves our nation and has built our synagogue” the Jewish elders tell Jesus.

Although the Centurion has not met Jesus, he has heard of him and has faith that Jesus can help heal the servant. The centurion then is a model of compassion, a model of how to bridge the gap between people of different faiths and nationalities and most of all a model of faith in Jesus. Based on these things, for me the Centurion is one of the unsung heroes of faith in the Gospels.

But there is more to the story. A Centurion was a powerful figure. He was the commander of one hundred soldiers and he was backed by all the authority of Rome. With such authority, he was accustomed to doing things by simple command. 8 For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, “Go”, and he goes; and that one, “Come”, and he comes. I say to my servant, “Do this”, and he does it.’

The Centurion knew then what it was to have power. And he believed that Jesus’ power was such that if Jesus commanded the servant to be well the servant would be well. But Jesus’ power, Jesus authority, is such that he doesn’t have to command anything. For Luke tells us that the servant was healed purely on the basis of the centurion’s faith. Jesus did not have to say anything or do anything.

Like the Centurion I am a man under authority. One of the promises I made at my ordination was to accept the discipline of the Methodist Church. In other words, to accept the authority of the Methodist Church. For the most part this isn’t too onerous but occasionally I am reminded that I am a man under authority.

Just before I went to America I had a meeting with the Chairman of the Bristol District of the Methodist Church. He informed me of a difficult situation in the neighbouring Chippenham Circuit and asked me to consider whether I would move there. The request did not come as a complete surprise and I must admit that I had wondered whether this might happen in the summer of 2014. But I was surprised that the Chairman wanted me to move at the end of February 2014.

Over the summer I thought and prayed about this and I kept being assured that this was something God wanted me to do. And certainly when I visited the main church I’ll have oversight of in Chippenham, it just felt right.

Coming back from the USA knowing this was in the offing made it very difficult to settle back in. On one of the first Sundays back I mentioned in a sermon that I knew God had plans for me (though I didn’t say I had an inkling what they were.) But I did ask for prayers from members of the congregation. A couple of weeks later a lady gave me a note in which she said she could tell I’d been “inwardly stirred by my new experience.”)

I am sorry to be leaving Swindon 18 months earlier than I had planned. But as I have shared with people many times, I have Jeremiah 29:11 on the wall of my study “For I know the plans I have for you says the Lord.” And God’s plan is for me to minister to the people in Chippenham.

PS A couple of weeks ago, I received an email from a distant relative who had been researching the Gray family tree. And it seems that from the mid-18th century to the mid-19th century the Grays lived in Mere or West Knoyle in Wiltshire. So maybe by heading further into Wiltshire I’m going back to my roots!

Autumn melancholy

Since coming back from America in August it has been quite difficult to settle back in. Partly because of what I experienced over there stirring me up and partly because there are some moves afoot (all positive by the way) that means change is on the way. (I can’t say more than that at present.) And these factors have led me to feeling melancholy.

Many Welsh people have a tendency to being glass half empty people. Or perhaps more kindly there is a tendency to be melancholic. And I fit in to that category. I love the autumn and yet as many better writers have said before me, there is something about the season that appeals to my tendency to melancholy.

And it was in this frame of mind that I decided not to go to the gym at lunch time (I don’t need much of an excuse to avoid the gym to be honest, I just find it so boring) and instead decided to drive 5 minutes from the house to Stanton Fitzwarren Country Park.

Walking boots on and iPod on a Classical Chillout album I wandered off.


I had done 1 ½ circuits of the route that had taken my fancy, when the track that came on the iPod was the theme to the film Schindler’s List. If you have seen the film you will recall the beautiful violin solo. Such a haunting piece of music. It quite literally stopped me in my tracks and as I looked along the leaf strewn path, stretching in to the distance, with leaves falling from the trees, I recalled the scene in the film where the train containing Schindler’s workers approached the gates of Auschwitz with snow falling.

In a way this chimed with my melancholy – the feeling I’d gone on the walk for in the first place, to get away from.

But at the same time I had a real sense of God telling me all will be well.
I took a few photos on my phone and uploaded them to Facebook (as a way of getting them in to the blog. And a friend put the comment “Walks can renew the spirit and a great way to see Gods creations.” How true. Far better than staring at the walls of a gym.

I so want to share the news for it feels good. But I can’t so if you are of a praying disposition please pray for us. As I’ve said it is good news, nothing to worry about. But prayers would be good. And when I can share I will do so.

A tale of two news items

Saturday 28th September 2013

The siege of the Westgate Shopping Mall in Nairobi was awful. With Muslim terrorists having killed around 70 people (at the most recent count.) The story was given a lot of coverage here in the UK. And even today The Daily Telegraph and The Times are both running stories about the event.

At the same time in Pakistan, two Muslim terrorists in Pakistan entered a church and exploded bombs. A similar number of people died.

Two awful events. And yet the media in this country treated them very differently. The event in Kenya was front page news and the top story on TV news. The Pakistan bombing was barely mentioned – apart from in the innermost pages of newspapers.

Why the difference?

Three possibilities as I see it

Firstly, the Kenya atrocity involved British victims. So therefore our media was interested. The Pakistan bombing had no Britons so no interest.

The 1980s satire series “Not the nine o’clock news” noted this tendency for our media to ignore foreign disasters if no Britons were involved with a spoof news report “Today an earthquake happened in Africa. No Britons died.”

Secondly, I can’t help but feel that 80 dead Christians just isn’t considered newsworthy – even if killed by Muslim terrorists (a favourite topic of the media normally.)Christians and Christianity aren't "cool." The only time the news media is interested in Christianity is when some Christian extremist spouts off about homosexuality.

Thirdly, there is the Neville Chamberlain attitude that it is a “ … quarrel in a faraway country between people of whom we know nothing”

I would like to be able to ask a newspaper editor or TV news producer why the difference in coverage between the two stories.

In The Daily Telegraph today there is a half-page analysis of the aftereffects of the Pakistan bombing – on page 15. The Times has a report of around 300 words on page 49.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/pakistan/10340175/Pakistans-Christians-fear-for-their-lives.html

Well maybe the news people feel they can ignore Pakistan but 16 miles away from Swindon a family living in the small town of Pewsey know all about it. The Saraj family attend Pewsey Methodist Church. All Saints Church in Peshawar, Pakistan was their home church. Among those killed and injured were cousins as well as friends.

Even if the news media ignore what is happening to our Christian brothers and sisters in Peshawar the people in the Swindon & Marlborough Methodist Circuit won’t forget. The Christians of Pakistan are in our prayers.

Picture credits: Nairobi = Daily Telegraph web site Pakistan = The Guardian web site

By the left, quick march!

28th September 2013

One thing I’ve learned as a minister is that there is no set job description. The closest we get are the words said at ordination when we promise to serve the sacraments, be a pastor and preach the gospel.

I really appreciate not having something laid down as I’ve been given space in my ministry to be a minister in those situations God has called me to. Or to put it another way, I’ve walked through the doors God has opened before me.

So over the last 6 years I’ve been a school governor (and in fact am now Chair of Governors) and I’m a police chaplain. I regularly take assemblies in a number of primary schools. I’ve given talks to various clubs and societies. I’ve joined Rotary. I’ve spoken on local radio many times, been a contributor to a column in faith in the local paper (as well as having articles published in the Methodist Recorder.) All of these have allowed me to share the Gospel with people who don’t come to church.

Over the last couple of Saturdays my ministry has gone through another door God opened – being a mayor’s chaplain.

My dad has served as a local councillor for almost 30 years. Originally for Islwyn Borough Council and (following local government reorganisation in Wales) for Caerphilly County Borough Council. He was the last Mayor Islwyn BC before it was abolished and in May this year he was elected as Mayor of Caerphilly CBC.

It is traditional for the Mayor to have a chaplain who accompanies the Mayor at certain functions and, if the occasion calls for it, takes services and offers prayers. My Dad asked if I would be his chaplain and I was delighted to say yes.
Because of the distance between Swindon and Caerphilly (about 80 miles) it isn’t practical for me to attend many functions (and my Dad has one or two tame Methodist minister available if needs be in Wales.) But he has asked me to be at two functions and these have taken place over the last couple of Saturdays.

On Saturday 21st September a civic service was held. Again this is traditional and it is a way of the local government officials and councillors being publically prayed for. And, in the case of a devote Christian like my Dad, for the Mayor to publically proclaim his faith and to ask for God’s guidance in his work as mayor.

Last Saturday found me presiding at the service and leading public prayers for my Dad. We don’t go in for great shows of affection in the family let alone expressing words like “I love you” or “I’m proud of you” (no doubt a psychologist would enjoy analysing this.) So for him to ask me to lead the service and for me to pray for my Dad was a way of us both saying a great deal without needing to use embarrassing words!

Today I was able to perform another duty as chaplain. The Royal Welsh Regiment was given the freedom of the borough 3 years ago. And one of the things the Regiment can do is parade through the borough “With bayonets fixed and with drums beating” (in the words of the official statement of freedom.) Today that right was exercised through the town of Bargoed.

I found myself standing on a reviewing platform alongside the great and good of the borough together with the Lord Lieutenant of Gwent and the High Sheriff of Gwent. Both fascinating friendly men.
The Regimental band led the soldiers through the town until they came to the reviewing point. They were then inspected by the big wigs. I was then called to lead prayers.

I’d been given the regimental prayer. But I’d wanted another suitable prayer. I’d asked my friend Rev Steve Ward (a former solider and a chaplain to the Army Cadet Force) for some ideas and he suggested this:

A Prayer of St Ignatius Loyola (1491-1556)
Teach us, good Lord, to serve you as you deserve; to give and not to count the cost; to fight and not to heed the wounds; to toil and not to seek for rest; to labour and not to ask for any reward, save that of knowing that we do your will.

Spot on. Ideal for those serving in the military and for those called to serve in other ways – such as local councillors or mayors.

By the way – Dad, I’m very proud of you.

(There, I’ve said it. Mind you he doesn’t do computers so won’t read this!)

Photo credit: http://www.campaignseries.co.uk/news/10660388.Royal_Welsh_Bargoed_march_details_announced/

A wee brown purse

Last week I heard the inspiring story of Glen James. This is how the Sky News web site reported the story:

“Boston man Glen James, 54, spoke to police after he found the backpack containing $2,400 (£1,500) in cash and nearly $40,000 (£25,000) in traveller's cheques at the South Bay Mall.

The man who lost the backpack told workers at a nearby store and they called police, who later returned the backpack to him.

Virginia resident Ethan Whittington read media accounts of Mr James' honesty and started a fund for him on a crowd-funding website.

The fund has since raised more than $100,000, including $182 (£114) of pocket money saved up by two young children.

The Boston Police Department publicly thanked Mr James, saying his actions were "a remarkable tribute to him and his honesty".

Mr James said in a statement: "Even if I were desperate for money, I would not have kept even a penny of the money I found.
"I am extremely religious. God has always very well looked after me." “

http://news.sky.com/story/1144158/boston-honest-homeless-man-fund-tops-100k

The lectionary Gospel reading for today is Luke 16: 1 – 13. It is a slightly odd story in some respects. It is a parable where Jesus sets out to show how money should be used. It is a parable that contains the famous saying of Jesus:

13 ‘No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.’

But equally the parable itself (the story Jesus told to make his point if you prefer) seems to have a dishonest man being commended by his employer for his dishonesty! (If you want to read the story but don’t have access to a Bible go to Biblegateway.com) It is a perplexing story and I’ve looked at several commentaries on the Bible written by learned people and they can’t seem to make head nor tail of it either.

That said, the Bible passage does contain these words of Jesus:

10 ‘Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. 11 So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? 12 And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else’s property, who will give you property of your own?

The point Jesus is making is that if we are honest and trustworthy with even little things (let alone big things) that is how Jesus would want us to live our lives. And he promises us “true riches” which Christians take to mean eternal life in heaven.

I was really taken by Glen James’ statement: "I am extremely religious. God has always very well looked after me."

Jesus could have been speaking of Mr. James. And it seems that for now Mr. James may have earthly reward as well as true riches to come.

When I was about 7 or 8 we were on holiday in Scotland. We visited the same part of Scotland (Oban) 3 years running and I have the most vivid memories of those holidays. One day we went to a small town called Inverary. There is a large castle there, home of the Duke of Argyll – though we didn’t go round it so I’m not really sure why we were in Inverary!

As we walked along the street I found a small brown purse. I picked it up and showed it to my mum. I was questioned about how I had come by this purse and after she was satisfied I had genuinely found it she opened it. Inside it was a Scottish £1 note.

I don’t recall exactly what I thought at this point but I imagine I must have thought I’d come in to extra pocket money. But my hopes were dashed for my mum gave me a talk about honesty. And how the small boy or girl who had lost this purse would be upset. How would I feel etc etc etc. So feeling suitably virtuous we marched off to the police station where the biggest policeman I’d ever seen in my life duly recorded my find.

“Now laddie. Well done for bringing this in. If no one claims this wee brown purse within six weeks, it’s yours” he said.

I can remember coming home from school six weeks later and my mum giving me a letter from the Argyll constabulary saying I was now the owner of the purse and its contents.

(My mum still has the purse containing the Scottish £1 note in it. And yes she did give me a UK £1 instead.)

Where did I leave that sheep?

A week last Friday evening I was on police chaplaincy duty. The officer I was assigned to told me that at 8pm she needed to get back to the police station for a briefing for part of a special operation she was assigned to. So we went to the briefing and there were perhaps 20 officers present in total including 4 armed officers. And I learned that the operation was part of an initiative by Wiltshire Police to try and prevent people trafficking.

So just after 9pm I accompanied the police to a property in the centre of Swindon where the police believed a brothel was being run. On entering the property the police found two women from Poland who appeared to be working as prostitutes. Though I am not sure whether the police decided that the women had in fact been trafficked.

What was made quite clear however was that the police were not interested in arresting the women. The police were solely concerned for the women’s safety. And I was told by one of the officers who deals with people trafficking all the time, that if the women had been trafficked, and wanted to be set free, then the police would assist them with this. In fact the police pass them on to a Salvation Army team who help with rehousing.

So I am hoping the Methodist Recorder won’t now get hold of the story of “Methodist Minister in brothel!”

Seriously though, I found the approach of the police to the women very interesting. Very theological if you like. They were treated just like Jesus treated the woman caught in adultery. They were forgiven and then told to sin no more as it were.

In Luke 15 Jesus teaches on the nature of God, particularly God’s forgiving nature and his desire to restore his people to him. And the parables both have the same idea – what forgiveness is like in terms of things lost and found.

Jesus does this by talking in terms of things the people can understand by getting people to think in terms about what is most important to them.

Remember this was largely an agricultural society so people would have understood why a shepherd would value the health and safety of his sheep for that is the source of his income. And people would have understood how a woman valued the hard - earned money she has scraped together maybe to save or may just to feed her family. And later in the chapter is the Parable of the Lost Son (or the Parable of the Prodigal Son as we usually refer to it.) This tells the story of how a parent values the happiness and well-being of his her children.

In telling his parables Jesus was saying to the crowds, to the sinners and tax collectors, to the Pharisees and Sadducees and to the Disciples

“Think of that thing that is most precious in your life and what it would be like if you lost it, whether through carelessness, or intent, or theft. Think of something on which you place extreme value that has gone missing. How would you feel? You’d be devastated. And whilst you’d be able to carry on with your life, after all people adapt, your life would be incomplete. Part of the whole is missing.”

And 2,000 years later we can still relate to these stories. We might not be shepherds, we might not have to count every penny, but all of us have a sense of what it might mean to lose something precious. Imagine losing a wedding ring or maybe a necklace given by your mother. Maybe not hugely valuable in pounds and pence but priceless.

And that is the message given to us by Jesus. In God’s eyes we his children are priceless. He hunts high and low for us when we go missing. God is like the shepherd who values each sheep in his flock. God is the like the woman who loses the silver coin. When one of God’s children is missing, when one of God’s children has turned her back on him, he searches her out and pleads with her to come home.

God is love. And that love looks like one who goes out tirelessly searching, because the one who is lost is so lost that he or she can’t find their way home.

It occurs to me that Jesus doesn’t tell us anything about the value of the sheep or the value of the coin. And I think we need to read something in to that.

Jesus doesn’t say

‘Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses the prize ram worth thousands of pounds. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it?

Jesus doesn’t say:

‘Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins[a] and loses one worth a thousand pounds. Doesn’t she light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it?

I think it is significant that Jesus doesn’t mention the value of the sheep or the coin because Jesus is making the point that even if the sheep was some old barren ewe, the shepherd still cares so much that he searches for her. And similarly it doesn’t matter that the silver coin is only worth a few pennies. To the woman it is very valuable. And that is my point. God searches out all people who are lost to him no matter who they are.

As a police chaplain I am with the police for the police and police staff. I am not there for members of the public. So when I am out with the police and we encounter the public I tend not to engage them in conversation unless the officer asks me to do so. There are legal reasons for this mainly – because if a suspect spills the beans to me as it were I am a witness. So when I was with the police a week last Friday I didn’t speak to the two Polish women.

And I found that hard. I would have liked to be alongside them and show that they were loved by God. But God was in that flat searching those women out. He was there acting through the way the officers were acting. As I said the officers acted compassionately. And if the women wanted it they were being offered a way out, a place of safety.

The most tragic problem is silence.

I was very conscious during my time in the USA that the matter of race is never very far from the surface. And when I say race I mean of course the treatment of African Americans both in history and now. Somehow, especially in a southern state like North Carolina there is often something that touches on the issue of race. And although slavery was abolished in 1865, African Americans were not given anywhere near the same rights as white Americans until the 1970s. And it is open to debate about whether or not African Americans are truly equal in society now.

One of most interesting places I visited during my stay in the USA was the International Civil Rights museum in Greensboro. This looked at how the campaign by African Americans for equality and an end to segregation, developed.

The museum is housed in an old Woolworths store and this store played an instrumental part in the Civil Rights movement. On 1st February 1960 four black students entered the store and went up to the Whites only cafeteria and sat down. They each requested something from the menu and were refused service because the café was Whites only. Their action led to a whole lot of similar protests around the country.

I was expecting a fairly traditional museum with exhibits in cases. So I was really surprised by this excellent modern museum that tells the story of the Civil Rights movement through film, exhibits and a guided tour. (Our guide was excellent. A young African American guy who passionate about his subject but avoided being too preachy by use of some nice touches of humour.)

I was aware of course of the segregation that had existed in the South. But I had not appreciated the extent. For example not only were there separate Whites and Coloreds (sic) waiting rooms at bus stations, there were separate Coke vending machines. With the Coke in the Colored room costing 10 cents as opposed to 5 cents in the White room. There were countless other examples.

But there were a couple of things that I was pleased to note. Firstly our guide pointed out that a good many White people were active in their support of the Civil Rights movement. (In a montage of mug shots of people arrested for protesting, there were a good number of White people including a priest from one of the northern states.)

Secondly our guide emphasised that the Church played a big part in the Civil Rights movement. And of course Rev Dr Martin Luther King is perhaps the most famous church leader in this respect.

And yet sadly the Church, or at least certain parts of it, did play a part in condoning segregation. Anne and Tom visited a place called Old Salem. This was a town founded by Moravian Christians – you’ll remember that it was through an encounter with Moravians that John Wesley was greatly influenced. Sadly what Anne & Tom learned was that although originally the church in Old Salem was welcomed both white people and slaves, in time the church segregated so that the blacks had to have their own church.

Wednesday, 28th August marked the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s famous “I have a dream” speech in which he set out his hopes for black people in the USA to be treated equally.


“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”

When we were in Washington DC one of the museums we visited had an exhibition about the anniversary. And what I hadn’t fully appreciated was that Dr King’s speech was only one of a number of speeches given that day. And whilst his was perhaps the headline act, some of the other speeches were equally important and relevant.

The exhibit played several short films showing some of the speakers and one caught my attention. He was a Rabbi - Rabbi Joachim Prinz.

Rabbi Prinz had fled Nazi Germany in 1937 and settled in America. In his speech on 28th August 1963 Rabbi Prinz made this comment:

"As Jews …. our fathers taught us thousands of years ago that when God created man, he created him as everybody's neighbor. Neighbor is not a geographic term. It is a moral concept. It means our collective responsibility for the preservation of man's dignity and integrity.
It is for these reasons that it is not merely sympathy and compassion for the black people of America that motivates us. It is above all and beyond all such sympathies and emotions a sense of complete identification and solidarity born of our own painful historic experience"

Today we celebrated the Covenant service at Stratton. And also in British Methodism today was designated as Racial Justice Sunday. I mentioned Rabbi Prinz’s speech in the context of our Covenant service, as in the service we look back to the Covenant God originally made with the Jewish people but subsequently extended to all people through Jesus Christ. And that covenant is founded on love.

The words I read from the Worship Book explain:

"God made a covenant with the people of Israel, calling them to be a holy nation, chosen to bear witness to his steadfast love by finding delight in his law.
The covenant was renewed in Jesus Christ our Lord, in his life, work, death and resurrection. In him all people may be set free from and sin and its power, and united in love and obedience."

It was love of fellow human beings that made over 250,000 people attend the rally in Washington DC in 1963. It was a desire of Christlike love to see African American people being treated equally and compassionately.

Often when we think of showing Christ’s love we think in terms of acts of kindness and compassion. Acts of generosity. Acts of charity. And yet I feel that is only part of what it means to show Christ’s love. Or perhaps more accurately to be more Christlike. For being Christlike means showing love through acts but it also means being prepared to challenge. Being prepared to speak out. Being prepared to show that there is another way. The way of God’s Kingdom.

I remember having a conversation with a friend about this once and how we sometimes feel as Christians we are not to rock the boat and how we are called to turn the other cheek. How we are supposed to be nice. And my friend said to me:

"Don't be nice. Be more like Jesus..."

And that is true. Of course Jesus was “nice”. Of course he was kind and compassionate. But equally he could be challenging and forthright. The classic illustration of this is his conduct towards the money changers in the temple. But throughout his ministry Jesus set out to challenge the hypocrisy of the authorities and to challenge things that were not worthy of the Kingdom of God. So when we are being Christlike we’re not just being compassionate, we are being challenging too.

In his speech on 28th August 1963 Rabbi Prinz also said this:

“When I was the rabbi of the Jewish community in Berlin under the Hitler regime, I learned many things. The most important thing that I learned under those tragic circumstances was that bigotry and hatred are not the most urgent problem. The most urgent, the most disgraceful, the most shameful and the most tragic problem is silence.”

And he goes on to relate how in Nazi Germany the vast majority of people became onlookers:

“A great people which had created a great civilization had become a nation of silent onlookers. They remained silent in the face of hate, in the face of brutality and in the face of mass murder.”

In the context of America 50 years ago Rabbi Prinz felt that most Americans were onlookers when they should have been speaking out against the injustice of racism.

The powerful words we hear in the Covenant Service remind us that

"Christ has many services to be done:
some are easy, others are difficult;
some bring honour, others bring reproach;
some are suitable to our natural inclinations and material interests,
others are contrary to both;
in some we may please Christ and please ourselves;
in others we cannot please Christ except by denying ourselves.
Yet the power to do all these things is given to us in Christ, who strengthens us."

And it seems to me that in our Covenant service we promise that we will show Christlike love. But also we promise before God that we will be Christlike by not being silent onlookers. To quote Paul in his letter to the Ephesians 6

12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

IN John’s Gospel chapter 15 Jesus reminds us that with him in our lives we will be Christlike.

5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.”

If we truly are one of Christ’s branches then we will be like him and we will bear fruit. We will show love and compassion. But we will also be prepared to speak out against injustice. We will speak out against sin. But we will do so in love and through love.

In this country the voice of Christ’s followers is not heard like it once was. But that does not mean we can be silent onlookers. If we see injustice we must speak out. If we see things that are morally wrong we must speak out. For Christ is the vine and we are the branches. And if we are connected to Christ we must be Christlike.

16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. 17 This is my command: Love each other.