He bids us build each other up

On 22^nd May (the day before Pentecost and two days before the anniversary of John Wesley’s conversion) the Great Western Federation came into being. In case you’ve missed it, the GWF is a partnership between the Swindon & Marlborough, Upper Thames and Chippenham circuits. Through working closer together we aim to co-operate in mission across North Wiltshire.

The launch, held at St Josephs College in Swindon, was well attended with nearly all churches in the three circuits represented. I was pleased to see people from the three churches I look after there, as well as some from Butterworth Street (who I will be looking after from September.)

We started with a service and then the signing of the declaration by the great and good of each circuit and then each church was presented with a candle to mark the occasion. As well as the formal signing, everyone present was also invited to sign up to the agreement in a book. Over the next few months this book will be passed across the circuits between churches and at each stop everyone will be invited to sign. The book will be accompanied by a small gift from the previous church to the recipient. It is hoped that this passing of the book will enable strong links to be built up across the Federation.

But what does being part of a Federation mean? Well, as I’ve said, the Federation’s main aim is to provide ways of the three circuits working together for the mission of the Kingdom. To give you some of the ideas already being looked at. In each of the three circuits there are one or two people wanting to train as local preachers. Now I remember from my own time training as a local preacher the training is far more rewarding in a larger group than if there is just one or two of you. So one thing we can do as Federation is run the local preacher training jointly for the benefit of all.

Similarly we are starting to look at ways of providing training for Sunday School teachers and youth club leaders. Through the Federation we can put on a good amount of training hopefully.

Inevitably talk of the Federation makes us think about “Super Circuits”. And who knows, if that is where the Holy Spirit leads that may happen. But for now that is not the aim. The aim is I feel summed up neatly in a the second verse of a Charles Wesley hymn (HP 753) All Praise to our redeeming Lord

He bids us build each other up;
And, gathered into one,
To our high calling’s glorious hope,
We hand in hand go on.

In other words by working together we will build each other up and support one another in proclaiming Christ Jesus as Saviour.

I shed a tear

I attended a prayer breakfast for clergy in Swindon today. It was led (excellently) by two members of Swindon Youth for Christ.

The SYFC team explained how in the various schools they attend the young people were amazed to think that people would pray for them. So SYFC had brought along some requests for prayer that children (all at secondary school I think) had requested. I was given this:

"I prey to see all my brothers and sisters again and no that they are safe with there carers"

(I've typed it exactly as written.)

This broke my heart. And I was almost unable to read it out in the small group I was with.

I think it was partly because Mrs Not a normal vicar works in social services and shares with me so many of the tragic tales she encounters of children in care. This prayer was almost as if I knew the child making the request.

I hope and pray that God hears this prayer and answers it as the child wishes - even if in the long term the child may be better off in care (which is sometimes the case after all.)

Keep an eye on them!

So we've elected our MPs. But at the time of publishing this we still don't have a government. No doubt one way or the other that will be resolved in the next 48 hours.

And once Parliament is up and running then what?

I preached at the end of April on the importance of Christians voting and of course trying to vote for the political party that seems to most closely reflect Christian values. The essence of what I was saying is that legitimate, just governments are part of God’s plan to establish his Kingdom. Therefore, it is our duty as Christians to elect such Governments.

Driving home in the car after that service the Vicar's wife said “It was a good sermon but you missed out something. You should have said that as Christians we also have a duty to hold MPs accountable and watch what they are doing.”She was right. I should have made that point and in fact I am going to make that point now.

I am sure you are familiar with the story of Jesus being given a Roman coin by the Jewish authorities and asked him whether it was lawful to pay taxes to the Romans. They were attempting to impale him on the horns of a dilemma. Jesus said the tribute should not be paid then the Jews would have reported Jesus to the Roman authorities for treasonable talk. On the other hand if he said pay the Roman tax he would alienate a lot of his own supporters.

Jesus’ answer was that if you use Roman currency then you accept Rome’s right to raise taxes and should pay Roman taxes – using that currency. But equally Jesus said it was important to recognise that Roman authority only goes so far. God’s domain encompasses everything.

The point for us today is that if we use the services provided by Government, we must pay taxes to the Government and also accept that the Government is legitimate. If we enjoy the state and all its privileges then we cannot divorce ourselves from the state.

As Christians we have a duty to be conscientious citizens, honest citizens, accepting what the Government says. And therefore as conscientious citizens I believe it is important that we take part in how the country is run. For some that will mean wanting to enter politics. But for most of us it means making sure our views are heard and that MPs are acting in accordance with the values we hold dear. The values of people who are already citizens of God’s Kingdom.

So once the dust has settled and we know who the Prime Minister is and who our MP is, I think it is important that we as Christians monitor our MPs but also pray for them and maybe even send words of encouragement to them.

Father, You guide and govern everything with order and love.
Look upon the assembly of our national leaders
and fill them with the spirit of Your wisdom.
May they always act in accordance with Your will
and their decisions be for the peace and well-being of all. Amen.

Facebook - Home of Daily Mail readers?

I've just been invited on Facebook to vote for who I want to be Prime Minister.

OK, I know I am pedantic but none of us vote for Prime Minister. We vote for MPs and the convention is that the leader of the party with most MPs becomes Prime Minister.

But then looking at the posts that go with this I found this gem:

Carol TaylorneeWright

Most of the decent hardworking people i know and speak to want Cameron to be our next PM, they like his policies on immigration,law and order,europe and reforming the welfare state,the few that want Brown back in are to be honest ,workshy lazy spongers and are worried they might be forced to get off their backsides and work instead of poncing off the taxpayers.And after reading some of the comments on here,i think voting age should be raised to 21,because a few are clearly still wet behind the ears,and uneducated.

I've no idea who Carol Taylor nee Wright is. But I bet she read the Daily Mail!

I fear we have at least five years of this bigotry to come Lord help us.

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.