Moving On

In the last few months I have been reminding our folk at chapel that we Christians are an Exodus people, a people who move on.

It seems strange to our little congregation to be in on the closing for worship of our building. This has been brought about by lack of numbers and also by the death, earlier this year, of our much loved secretary on whom we relied so heavily. Yet it means the end of a Free Church presence in our village that has lasted 113 years. Indeed, the origins go back over 80 years further than that, but in premises now lost.

The turn of events seems strange to the folk of the village as well as to us. People wonder what will come next, and hope that the property will not be turned into yet another housing development.

But if there is anything strange, it ought to be that one congregation has been in the same place for so long. The presence of such edifices as our ancient cathedrals lulls us into an illusion of permanence. People speak wistfully of the worshippers who have occupied the sacred, hallowed spaces over many centuries, handing down a long chain of praise to God. In comparison, a church that has lasted little more than a century may be thought of as not running the distance.

Yet this is surely a false notion. As far as this world is concerned, Jesus Christ did not think in terms of centuries.

“When they persecute you in one town, flee to the next, for truly, I say to you, you will not have gone through all the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes” (from Matthew 10, ESV).

Churches are not meant to stay put indefinitely. The real fixtures are God the Father, the Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit:

“For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. But each in turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him. Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. For he ‘has put everything under his feet.’ Now when it says that ‘everything’ has been put under him, it is clear that this does not include God himself, who put everything under Christ. When he has done this, then the Son himself will be made subject to him who put everything under him, so that God may be all in all” (1 Corinthians 15:22-28 NIV).

“And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever — the Spirit of truth” (John 14:16 NIV).

As for me, I have now passed retirement age and am looking forward to making my home in Llandudno, North Wales. I know I shall never retire from being a Christian. But the pattern of my ministry will now inevitably change.

One other development is that I am discontinuing this blog. Some of you may have followed me through 8 years and almost 200 entries. I am thankful to have had a readership and wish everyone concerned all the best for the future.

The best legacy I can leave with you is this urgent plea: if you have not yet known Christ as your Saviour, accept Him now. He is the one fixed point in a changing life. If you have already accepted Him, hold fast. That is my testimony and my comfort: through thick and thin, by His grace, I am still here, with Him in my life!

Deafness

Just lately I’ve been suffering again from a wretched condition which leaves my ears blocked and me with most of my hearing gone until I can get to an expert who will unblock them again and restore me to what I was before. Thankfully this should be soon!

It is a strange business, going around with this hearing loss. It means I can sympathise with those who are chronically hard of hearing. The difference is that their problem may be permanent and may deteriorate over time.

At first it was infuriating to have this unwelcome issue returning. I was very aware of it and felt as though I had to apologise to everyone for it. I’ve just spent a week at a big Christian conference and felt the need to keep changing my place in the auditorium, going to where I could best hear the speakers. Speech would sound muffled while music would absolutely assault the “good” ear – the one which managed to pick up more sound. It would come across as shrill, piercing, painful even.

Yet by now, in a strange way, I have grown used to the handicap. I just accept the distortion of the sound around me. In other words, I put up with something that falls far short of the level of hearing I normally enjoy, which they say is fine for my age.

Spiritually most people have rejected the call of Christ so often they have become deaf to it. They tune it out, as we say. And just like me with my physical hearing, they put up with their hearing loss quite readily, not even conscious that it it is there!

It is a tragedy. The prophet Isaiah laments in the Bible:

And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here I am! Send me.” And he said, “Go, and say to this people:

“‘Keep on hearing, but do not understand;

keep on seeing, but do not perceive.’

Make the heart of this people dull,

and their ears heavy,

and blind their eyes;

lest they see with their eyes,

and hear with their ears,

and understand with their hearts,

and turn and be healed.” (Isaiah 6:8-10 ESV)

The meaning of this startling sounding passage is not that God deliberately wants to make His people unreceptive to His message. It is rather that He is determined to carry on speaking to them regardless of the reception they give His prophet. If they persist in their attitude, they will be unresponsive and therefore gain no benefit.

God forbid that any of us should resolve to tune out the message of a living Saviour who loves us enough to die for our sin and to rise again. Never could there be a more tragic example of someone looking a gift horse in the mouth.

All-knowing, All-powerful, Everywhere at Once

Sometimes I listen to BBC Radio 4’s Thought for the Day and discover that it gives voice to my own thoughts. One such occasion was when John Bell of the Iona Community spoke a few days ago. He was talking about the way mobile phones give their users the feeling of having godlike qualities.

They give us the illusion of being all-knowing – through them we have a world of information at our fingertips.

They make us seemingly all-powerful – we can send a message to whoever we like and order a takeaway that will arrive on our doorstep as soon as we return home and are ready for a meal!

They make us think we are everywhere at once – in an instant we can be in touch with people right across the world.

You might think we should be delighted at the power the little rectangular screen puts in our hands. Yet instead many mobile phone users feel stressed and insecure if they are out of signal range for any length of time. What do people think will happen to them in that case? That they will suddenly lose all their friends because they are out of contact for a short while?

This sense of panic reminded John Bell of Adam and Eve and their temptation and fall from grace. God had commanded Adam,

“You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” (Genesis 2:16-17 ESV.)

Adam and Eve succumbed to that temptation. They allowed themselves to be seduced by the serpent, Satan, into thinking that God had forbidden them to eat the fruit of that tree for fear it would make them godlike.

You can make what you will of that Genesis story, but it is echoed in the behaviour of the rest of the human race in a most uncanny way. Adam and Eve became the first examples of the common human temptation to want to be all-knowing, all-powerful and everywhere at once, which having a smartphone seems to satisfy. What human beings from the first couple onwards have failed to recognise is that they are only human and cannot mysteriously become divine!

God’s response to this sad development in the relationship between Adam and Eve and Himself is found in verse 22 of chapter 3:

“Then the Lord God said, ‘Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—’ therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.”

John Bell concludes, 

“To live comfortably with our limitations rather than constantly frustrated by them is not a bad thing.” 

While not always agreeing with Bell’s views, I can certainly say Amen to that.

The Courage to Talk

This morning I was chatting to someone who had been through a rebellious phase in his teens. He had been involved with churches for some time but then went to pubs and deliberately appeared in front of churchgoers very drunk.

Not surprisingly, he was met with disapproval and received no encouragement to come back to church. I was curious about the man’s story. From time to time you do meet people who know what the Christian life is about but who become antagonistic towards Christians.

“What would it have taken for you to change your mind and amend your life?” I asked my friend. “Just for someone to talk to me,” he replied. “But nobody spoke to me.”

His testimony gave me pause for thought. Christians are expected to show concern and compassion for those who are struggling, but in this case nobody spoke.

To me this is understandable. When you speak out you draw attention to yourself and problems can result. The wiser course of action could be to adopt a low profile and keep quiet. Sometimes I think I live by the code of “Discretion is the better part of valour”. But in this instance a gentle, friendly word could have made all the difference.

Anyway, God had His own agenda, and that man is now a loyal and tireless worker for Christ and His church. By God’s sovereign hand he came through regardless. We should not beat ourselves up over whether someone was saved or lost for want of a word from us. If God wants a man or woman to come through for Him, He will bring them through. Yet we can have – or miss – the privilege of playing a unique part in that process.

My thoughts turn to Psalm 116 and verse 10. This is a difficult verse to interpret, but in the traditional versions it reads:

“I believed, therefore I spoke.”

Believing and speaking go together. Certainly for the apostle Paul believing will inevitably mean speaking out:

“Since we have the same spirit of faith according to what has been written, ‘I believed, and so I spoke,’ we also believe, and so we also speak, knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence. For it is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people it may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God” (2 Corinthians 4:13-15 ESV).

Sometimes believers in persecuted countries feel they have to keep mum because if they spoke out, even to close family, they would get both themselves and others into dire trouble. Yet often they are so excited by finding their Saviour that they simply cannot help but declare their Christian experience!

Our silences can be damaging. At the very least they may cause outsiders to think that really we are no different from the rest. One person speaking out can make all the difference … but maybe that person is unusual and special, someone who has experienced God speaking to him or her with particular force.

It may only be your turn once in a lifetime – but may God anoint you for that one special occasion where you speak out and it makes a difference.

Sun

The heavens declare the glory of God,

and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.

Day to day pours out speech,

and night to night reveals knowledge.

There is no speech, nor are there words,

whose voice is not heard.

Their voice goes out through all the earth,

and their words to the end of the world.

In them he has set a tent for the sun,

which comes out like a bridegroom leaving his chamber,

and, like a strong man, runs its course with joy.

Its rising is from the end of the heavens,

and its circuit to the end of them,

and there is nothing hidden from its heat.

Psalm 19:1-6 ESV

“Nothing hidden from its heat”: These are words which keep coming back to me as I suffer in the unaccustomed heatwave that we are experiencing at the moment in Great Britain, our country of high latitudes but with occasional hot spells.

With a patchy knowledge of science, I feel that I have never properly understood the way light and heat energy work. It mystifies me in the same way as radio waves do. These things go around corners and through walls. We can detect them even when we cannot see a clear line of sight to those sources which have given birth to them.

Even before the time of King David, there was a long history of describing God’s impact as being like the sun giving off heat and light. Nations which had many gods also had intellectuals who believed that a multitude of little gods with limited spheres of influence would not have the mighty powers evident in nature. It made more sense to talk about one God, who was often identified with the sun. The sun seems to be in overall charge of life. Without its heat life cannot exist and flourish.

All of this brings us to the creation story. In King David’s psalm, God is portrayed as the giver of life and also as a bridegroom thundering along in his chariot as if on his way to his wedding, who rejoices to run this course like the sun going from one end of the sky to the other. It is a dazzling picture.

The Psalmist is not only dazzled; he is made to feel small. He feels a sense of guilt in the presence of this power. The divine sun sheds light on his dark corners: open faults and also hidden faults. We are currently experiencing drought. The sun has immense destructive power as well as life-giving power. The grass is shrivelled. Even the weeds, persistent through most changes in climate, are turning black. The earth is hard and compacted: the other day I literally had to take a hammer to my trowel in order to break up the ground in my front border.

Somebody like me may indeed long for an end to this pitiless hot dry spell. But something also tells me we need to accept what comes. If we had a climate which was absolutely constant and always delivered the same thing, this would probably be stunted and maybe even barren. In the depths of winter I often hear people say that a good hard frost is needed to kill off the bugs.

We need both hot and cold weather. The nature that sustains us flourishes on both. I love the hymn which thanks God for all the good things he has given us. Yet it goes thoughtfully on:

“I thank Thee more that all our joy

Is touched with pain,

That shadows fall on brightest hours,

That thorns remain,

so that earth’s bliss may be our guide,

and not our chain.”

Adelaide Anne Procter, 1825-1864

Drought

As I look out over the grassland that runs parallel to the West Shore of Llandudno, I see nothing but uninterrupted brown. Even the hearts of the dandelions and other weeds are becoming charred and shrivelled. It is an unusual sight, because usually you see an endless expanse of green. Parched land in our British Isles comes as something of a shock.

We humans keep going in heatwaves - though I must admit more sluggishly in my case. I don’t do heat. But our minds and spirits still remain active.

In a time of pressure in the wilderness of Judah King David sang this:

O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee,
my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is;
To see thy power and thy glory, so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary.
Because thy lovingkindness is better than life, my lips shall praise thee.
Thus will I bless thee while I live: I will lift up my hands in thy name.
My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness; and my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips:
When I remember thee upon my bed, and meditate on thee in the night watches.
Because thou hast been my help, therefore in the shadow of thy wings will I rejoice. (Psalm 63:1-7 AV)

(I quote from the old version because I love that memorable line, “... in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is”!)

David - maybe following a sleepless night - is up early to seek God. He may be anxious about lack of supplies in a dry desert place, but God is his priority. Often when Christians visit lands in poor and straitened circumstances, people are at least as keen to have the written word of God as other provisions, even though Bible verses will not fill their bellies.

In the midst of his wilderness experience, David thought back to something that had occurred to him in the sanctuary where he worshipped God. He had had a vision of God’s glory that clearly moulded his life in a very profound way that carried him through bad times. It is like when the eminent 16th-century Protestant Reformer Martin Luther was in great heaviness of spirit after he had lit the touch-paper for the Reformation. He was under unremitting pressure from many sides. He defiantly chalked on a board, “I have been baptised”. He may have been going through hard times, but, after all, he had been counted in Christ’s community of the redeemed, and that gave him an awareness that he was a child of God.

During bitter times in my ministry, I have turned to my calling, many years ago, which was quite dramatic. God had called me in a startling and emphatic way, and nobody now was going to deny my title to a place in His ministry.

Above all, when in wilderness moments, I find myself thinking of the last verse of a very precious hymn by William Cooper, “Sometimes a light surprises”:

Though vine nor fig tree neither
their wonted fruit should bear,
though all the field should wither,
nor flocks nor herds be there,
yet God the same abiding,
His praise shall tune my voice;
for while in Him confiding,
I cannot but rejoice.

Mercifully right now Llandudno is delightful despite the heatwave, hopes are high and the abnormally dry spell isn’t about to darken my well contented mood!

Comradeship and Craft

The weather was simply too warm for the people who wanted to attend our Craft Show. Not that any high temperatures were showing on the thermometer. It was just that, though the sun was shining brightly, the air was humid and heavy. It was a pity, because the show really was a joy.

We had ten or so exhibitors plus a local ukulele band and a stall run by the charity we were supporting that day. It was a real delight to see them all enjoying each other’s company even though there were not that many visitors to attend to. Each had brought a different skill and they simply appreciated each other.

It brought to mind a recent article by Keila Ochoa in Our Daily Bread. It is a reflection on the Jews who worked side by side to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem.

In ancient times, a city with broken walls revealed a defeated people, exposed to danger and shame. That is why the Jews rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem. How? By working side by side, an expression that can well describe Nehemiah 3.

At first glance, chapter 3 might appear to be a boring account of who did what in the reconstruction. However, a closer look highlights how people worked together. Priests were working alongside rulers. Perfume-makers were helping as well as goldsmiths. There were some who lived in nearby towns and came to give a hand. Others made repairs opposite their houses. Shallum’s daughters, for example, worked alongside the men (3:12), and some people repaired two sections, like the men of Tekoa (vv. 5, 27).

Two things stand out from this chapter. First, they all worked together for a common goal. Second, all of them are commended for being part of the work, not for how much or little they did as compared to others.

Today we see damaged families and a broken society. But Jesus came to build the kingdom of God through the transformation of lives. We can help to rebuild our neighborhoods by showing others they can find hope and new life in Jesus. All of us have something to do. So let us work side by side and do our part—whether big or small—to create a community of love where people can find Jesus.

My time with the lovely friends it’s been my privilege to pastor for just under three years is coming towards an end. With it, the work of the church itself is also soon to be wound up. But I will always remember the generous, co-operative spirit that has prevailed here. I dare to say that it has rubbed off on those who come among us. And when two work together they may be surprised to find a third moving among them:

“Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil … a threefold cord is not quickly broken” (Ecclesiastes 4:9 and 12, ESV)

Skills or gifts?

I write this as the day of our annual Craft Show approaches. Sadly our chapel will host no more such shows after this year, certainly under current management, as it is due to close its doors for the last time at the end of July. With all the preparations for this big change, though, we are still looking forward to welcoming craft enthusiasts with amazing skills in a variety of areas – pottery, card making, woodworking, painting to name just a few.

A Christian who is good at crafts will not claim the credit for what they can do that others can’t. Even if it is a “natural” aptitude in one direction or another, it is given by God who created us all to be just as we are.

So is there any dividing line at all between being naturally skilled and having a God-given gift? I find myself thinking of a character who crops up in the story of the building of the Tabernacle, the portable temple which God ordered His people to build while they were on their long journey between Egypt and Israel.

“The Lord said to Moses, ‘See, I have called by name Bezalel the son of Uri, son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with ability and intelligence, with knowledge and all craftsmanship, to devise artistic designs, to work in gold, silver, and bronze, in cutting stones for setting, and in carving wood, to work in every craft. And behold, I have appointed with him Oholiab, the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan. And I have given to all able men ability, that they may make all that I have commanded you ...’” (Exodus 31:1-6 ESV)

Someone with a purely worldly outlook would say that Bezalel was artistic and nothing more. Maybe his parents were skilled at crafts, they would speculate. Maybe they were keen to pass on their techniques to the young Bezalel, and he was keen to learn. Or maybe it was somewhere in the genes. They would expect to find that a certain part of Bezalel’s brain was highly developed and gave him a predisposition to be good at handiwork. The Bible, however, is up front in crediting the Holy Spirit with the gifts that Bezalel enjoys.

“Wherever a willing heart commits itself to hear the call of God and to do the will of God, the filling of the Spirit of God may reverently be assumed. Helping and administration are as much his concern as healing and speaking in tongues (1 Corinthians 12:28),” comments Alec Motyer.

And Bezalel with his special skills is simply one of a massive bunch of labourers who will be working on the Tabernacle. His gifts do not make him one of a race apart. Immediately after Bezalel’s commissioning, as Motyer wisely points out, God re-emphasises the Sabbath laws. The uniqueness and holiness of the workers’ task do not allow them to sit loose to the law of God.

In the same way, Christians’ unique standing as people for whom Christ died does not allow us to play fast and loose with God’s will either.

The Pompous Self

This year I have been working through one of the earliest attempts to put the Bible into up to date English after centuries of dominance by the hallowed King James Version. It is by Dr R F Weymouth and is known as the Weymouth New Testament. It was published in various editions starting in 1903. 

Few people have heard of it today. They are more likely to have come across one of the more recent flood of new Bibles. It seems very self-indulgent that we have a huge variety of English translations to suit all tastes when there is no Bible at all in many languages!

In many ways Weymouth is unremarkable as a translation. It is in the English of Weymouth’s day. It is dignified and mostly reads well but is sometimes stilted. I imagine it was a useful springboard for later scholars to put pen to paper and make their attempts.

Sometimes it is the notes which catch my eye and get me thinking. One case in point was about Jesus’ teaching on self-denial. Here is the Bible passage in Weymouth’s words:

And He said to all,

“If anyone is desirous of following me, let him ignore self and take up his cross day by day, and so be my follower. For whoever desires to save his life shall lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake shall save it. Why, what benefit is it to a man to have gained the whole world, but to have lost or forfeited his own self? For whoever shall have been ashamed of me and my teachings, of him the Son of Man will be ashamed when He comes in His own and the Father’s glory and in that of the holy angels.”

(Luke 8:23-26)

So Weymouth chooses to render the usual “Let him deny himself” by “let him ignore self”. Then he adds this footnote: 

“Let him disown the usurped authority of his own lower nature, and say ‘no!’ to its dictates.”

This immediately reminded me of a book written by American Quaker Richard J Foster and surely a classic of its day. It was entitled “Money, Sex and Power”. Sadly, I have given my copy away, but from memory Foster gives this advice about money – I’ve never forgotten the wisdom of it: “Challenge all the deadly seriousness it exudes. Stamp on it. Yell at it. Burst the bubble of its pomposity.” That’s it – desecrate the idol! It’s in your own interest!

Foster is right. Weymouth is right too. Our lower nature, our self-indulging nature, usurps the authority of another. That other is God Himself. The devil tries to persuade everyone to doubt God’s authority and kid themselves that they have more right to power than God does. They end up doing his job for him!

But in reality his promptings are dictators. We think we can listen to them selectively – enjoy what they have to offer at one moment, wave them away at another moment. But our fancied choices only serve to fuel our pride and put us on a pedestal above God. For Jesus, there is only one way to go – say “no” to their pompous demands. Say “yes” to Christ, because He is a different character altogether:

“Come to me, all you toiling and burdened ones, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me; for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For it is good to bear my yoke, and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:28-30, again from Weymouth).

When Routine Becomes Challenge

What do you do when easy jobs suddenly seem like a major mountain to climb? Only last week I had a sobering experience. 

I have a number of more bulky items than normal ready to take to the tip. Through visiting recycling centres in other parts of the country, I have become familiar with the way these things work. Once you have lifted the goods into the boot of the car, you have only to take them round and there will be plenty of help to guide you to the right places to deposit them. Simple! All done in a matter of half an hour or less, on a good day.

Thus far I have shied away from going to my local centre. Winter ailments have been a good excuse to not do anything remotely adventurous. But last week I began to feel that it was time to take action. I assembled all my junk in the driveway ready to go – and then felt simply unable to load it up and be on my way. All I could do was throw a tarpaulin over it and leave it for another day.

What a wimp, I thought to myself! To be like that is quite unnerving. But I dare say I am not alone. Many people who ought to have the gifts and strengths to go on carrying out certain tasks become unable to face them any more.

Moses was a very modest individual. When God first called him to lead Israel, he was reluctant to comply. He made excuse after excuse. God (as is His way) gave Moses sign after sign to overcome his hesitations. Yet His reluctant servant still insisted on seeing the downside:

But Moses said to the Lord, “Oh, my Lord, I am not eloquent, either in the past or since you have spoken to your servant, but I am slow of speech and of tongue.” Then the Lord said to him, “Who has made man’s mouth? Who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the Lord? Now therefore go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall speak.” But he said, “Oh, my Lord, please send someone else” (Exodus 4:10-13 ESV).

Moses, remember, is the very man who had been quite happy to speak up for a Hebrew when an Egyptian man struck him! He even took vigorous action – he killed the Egyptian (Exodus 2:11-13). He wasn’t backward in coming forward then!

There are those who suffer from the onset of crippling mental health issues who cannot ever be expected to rise to the occasion again. It is no use lecturing them. No doubt also age and frailty eventually reduce nearly everyone’s powers. But Moses was God’s man and God wasn’t going to let matters rest there in his case.

Then the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses and he said, “Is there not Aaron, your brother, the Levite? I know that he can speak well. Behold, he is coming out to meet you, and when he sees you, he will be glad in his heart. You shall speak to him and put the words in his mouth, and I will be with your mouth and with his mouth and will teach you both what to do. He shall speak for you to the people, and he shall be your mouth, and you shall be as God to him” (verses 14-16).

I’ll see how I feel about finishing the job later on this week …

I don’t know what your situation is today. Everyone must be wise about his or her limits and certain things need to be dropped. But never underestimate the strength Christ gives you to serve Him, if you are His child.

“I can do all things through him who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13).

Hell

This Easter time saw some interesting discussions on the media. Some of them concerned the Pope’s apparent denial that hell existed.

We were treated to the intriguing sight of one journalist asking another, 

“Do you believe in hell?"

The other was completely taken aback and brushed the question aside. He clearly did not spend much time thinking about that subject, as he most likely did not believe in anything spiritual anyway.

I am an unashamed believer in the existence of hell. Even atheists can identify something that they would refer to as hell. Jean-Paul Sartre once wrote a book entitled, 

“Hell is other people”. 

It is many decades since I studied that book at uni, but I seem to remember it was about a group of incompatible people forced to keep each other company to all eternity and getting on one another’s nerves. The story certainly ended up being rather hellish.

Many others agree that you can have experiences which strike you then and later as hell on earth. A First World War poet wrote a piece which began, 

“I died in hell; they call it Passchendaele”. 

Life on the Western Front during those years was indeed a living hell for tens of thousands of troops who were fighting for the the various combatant countries.

After the television discussion it was conceded that the Pope probably did not deny the existence of hell. To do so would have been to overthrow 2000 years of church teaching and would amount to heresy. He may have said something to the effect that hell is nowhere in space-time, not “down below”, any more than heaven is “up above”. It would then be in another dimension outside of time. Whether he believes, like some fashionable thinkers, that it does not involve a literal eternal torment, I do not know.

There is no doubt that Jesus meant us to take hell seriously. By some calculations, He actually did more teaching about hell than about heaven. He seemed to be quoting the Old Testament when He referred to eternal torment. In Isaiah 66:24 God says of His people,

“And they shall go out and look on the dead bodies of the men who have rebelled against me. For their worm shall not die, their fire shall not be quenched, and they shall be an abhorrence to all flesh” (Isaiah 66:24 [ESV2011])

This imagery was eagerly seized on by preachers in the Middle Ages. They wanted to impress their congregations, often simple and uneducated folk, with lurid pictures of the consequences of not obeying God. There is, however, a way of looking at hell which may be more mature: hell is eternal separation from God. To enjoy eternity with God is bliss; if there is such a thing as time, you don’t notice it, because you are so absorbed in seeing the face of the Blessed One. To be removed from God’s presence for all eternity would give a sense of huge disappointment and loss.

The concept of hell certainly isn’t easy to fit into human logic (why would God allow such a distressing element in His creation to persist for all eternity?), but then God respects human choices. If humans are determined endlessly to reject Him, God honours their decision and allows them space to do precisely that.

A Dangerous World

A month ago I blogged about warnings coming from British military chiefs of staff about the nation’s lack of preparedness to face dangers from outside.

We now know the reality of what they were talking about. Threats to us as a nation, and threats to us as individuals, exist on many fronts.

The attempted assassination of two people in Salisbury was carried out with total disregard for the safety of others who might be contaminated by the substance used.

Terrorism raises its ugly head again across the Channel, bringing memories of atrocities in London just a year ago.

Cyber threats menace the security of our data and, indeed, our wealth.

Although there is no clear evidence that our streets are becoming more violent, crimes against the person are a constant and recurring issue in the news. Even if you are simply minding your own business, you can never feel entirely safe these days.

It is very hard for us today to know quite how to react. It’s easy to exclaim, 

“It wouldn’t happen anywhere near me”. 

For people in Bible times, though, the dangers were very real. God’s people were surrounded by enemies. Their Promised Land was a highway through which attackers could come in their quest to become superpowers – those from the north taking on the nations to the south and vice versa. Israel was too often the minnow in the middle which could be plundered, her crops raided as passing armies sought to feed themselves. Violence, starvation, destruction and captivity beckoned continually.

God’s people were used to hearing (as we are not) that God is a refuge for those who belong to Him. He is the ultimate fixer. One day He will bring universal justice about and bring low the pride of those who oppress His people.

But those who claim the Almighty as their God should not be too complacent. Many were using the safety they had in God as a cover for abuse – taking advantage of those weaker than they. The prophet Amos gives a vivid picture of how they could find to their horror that the judgment of Judgment Day began at them.

“Woe to you who desire the day of the Lord!

Why would you have the day of the Lord?

It is darkness, and not light,

as if a man fled from a lion,

and a bear met him,

or went into the house and leaned his hand against the wall,

and a serpent bit him.

Is not the day of the Lord darkness, and not light,

and gloom with no brightness in it?”

(Amos 5:18-20 ESV)

A man flees from a lion only to be met by a bear. Then he fancies he has finally found safety within the four walls of his house, only to put his hand where a snake is lurking unseen. It then bites him. What he was counting on to be the Day of the Lord is actually curtains for him.

One of the reasons why I believe in God is that there has to be a Power that will ultimately bring justice for the weak and powerless – even if it happens after their lifetimes. How unbelievers can avoid being frustrated, raging uselessly against the evils and injustice in the world, I do not know. Without God, the weak have no champion.

God is our refuge and strength,

a very present help in trouble.

Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way,

though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea,

though its waters roar and foam,

though the mountains tremble at its swelling.

(Psalm 46:1-3)

God my Helper can suddenly turn into a dangerous enemy if His help is taken lightly. He is to be respected as well as looked to for help. But a true help He is to those who respect Him. Even His weakness – the weakness of the Man hanging on the cross – is stronger than the strength of men.

O safe to the Rock that is higher than I,

My soul in its conflicts and sorrows would fly,

So sinful, so weary, Thine, Thine would I be,

Thou blest Rock of Ages, I’m hiding in Thee!

William Orcutt Cushing, 1823-1903.

Boasting

Boasting is not regarded as a socially accepted activity, but it happens. Someone will loudly advertise his or her skills and achievements and thereby risk being regarded as a bore, someone to keep well away from at a party – that is, unless you feel that by getting close to that person you can use their influence to further your own cause. 

Though they have never claimed as much, it is thought that the Russians are sending out a proud boast to the world by means of their assumed behaviour in my home city of Salisbury. South Wiltshire is normally a quiet rural area where not very much happens, but is now the centre of worldwide attention because of the recent attack on a former Russian colonel and his daughter by means of a nerve agent. The attackers seem to be proclaiming, “If you step out of line, we can hit you no matter where in the world you may try to flee.” The power of Russia to control events right around the world is therefore being boasted of.

Rulers of empires in Bible times were very much given to boasting too. They had enormous statues made of themselves under which they listed in bombastic detail all the territories they had conquered and all the projects completed. The poet Percy Bysshe Shelley imagined one of these in his poem “Ozymandias”:

I met a traveller from an antique land

Who said: "Two vast and trunkless legs of stone

Stand in the desert . . . Near them, on the sand,

Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,

And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,

Tell that its sculptor well those passions read

Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,

The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed:

And on the pedestal these words appear:

'My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:

Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!'

Nothing beside remains. Round the decay

Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare

The lone and level sands stretch far away."

Shelley had a healthy disrespect for the bloated pointlessness of this boasting. With the ravages of time it crumbles into dust. God’s people were just as sceptical and with very good reason: their trust was in God, the King of kings and Lord of lords. Listen to the reply of David the shepherd boy when mighty Goliath boasted of his gods:

“You come to me with a sword and with a spear and with a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied ... that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, and that all this assembly may know that the Lord saves not with sword and spear. For the battle is the Lord's, and he will give you into our hand.” (1 Samuel 17:45-47 ESV)

Christians can boast, too, not necessarily in a God of battles but in the cross where their champion Jesus wins the victory over sin, death and hell:

Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast

Save in the death of Christ, my God:

All the vain things that charm me most

I sacrifice them to His blood.

Isaac Watts, 1674-1748

Warnings

In mid-January there was a spate of warnings about how ready Britain was or was not to defend itself and its interests from attack. The headline warning seemed to come from General Sir Nick Carter in a speech at the Royal United Services Institute. He announced that if war were to break out between Britain and Russia, Russia would very likely win. Britain needed to study closely the ways other countries were exploiting international situations to gain advantage to themselves.

Cyber warfare looms as a particular threat. In this interconnected world, mischief makers can bring down whole systems and disrupt people’s everyday lives.

How far the warnings from the military top brass will be heeded is not certain. We have learned to distrust experts. I think of the way in which academic after academic was wheeled on to tell us what disasters would befall us as soon as we voted to leave the EU. In the end, nothing drastic happened, and we won’t be nearly so ready to listen to those experts next time.

Warnings are also part of the armoury of any religion that reaches out to people. The public is just as dismissive of these as it is of other self-styled experts. The man with the sandwich board announcing 

“Prepare to meet thy God” 

has long been a figure of fun. Perhaps, the thinking goes, he’s seen a danger that we can’t see … but then again, he may simply be an addle-brained zealot.

Our mediaeval forebears heard their fair share of warnings from preachers about a future in an eternal hell for those who committed the Seven Deadly Sins. Hell was presented in lurid terms. There is evidence that they took these warnings enormously seriously. They could be driven, for instance, to bequeath stupendous riches to monasteries (which probably didn’t need them) to avoid hell or at least a long period in purgatory.

We no longer have that culture. Even those of us who take Jesus seriously (and I do) when He teaches,

“Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea. And if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than with two hands to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire. And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life lame than with two feet to be thrown into hell. And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell, ‘where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched’” (Mark 9:42-48 ESV)

will most likely not spend nearly as much time worrying about going to eternal torment in hell as our distant ancestors. We have every confidence that the work of Jesus Christ on the cross is sufficient to cover all our sin and keep us clear of hell. But that doesn’t excuse us from being grateful for such a great deliverance and from stirring ourselves into action. “Strive,” counsels the Master:

“Strive to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able” (Luke 13:24).

Sad times, joyful times

I write this entry at a time of great sadness. Our much loved church secretary, Dick Cole, who was in fact the sole leader of our church for decades before I arrived, has passed from us. We all feel truly bereft and wondering where we go from here.

The memorial service is billed as a celebration of his life. It was an active life well lived, a cause for many happy memories. The celebratory funeral is frequently called for nowadays – for people to be happy for the life of someone rather than grieve because they’ve passed away.

At the same time, we would all surely agree with the old piece of wisdom says that you have to give people space to grieve – permission to feel sad and lost because somebody that they loved has gone. If you deny them this, you may deprive them of an important means of expressing what they may really feel and, indeed, of moving on.

I know this is by no means the intention of the family in this case. They nurse a great sense of sadness and pain and, I am sure, understand that others will react in the same way too.

In thinking about how Jesus would respond to all of this, I found myself turning to John’s Gospel, where He spoke to His followers about the time when He would no longer be with them on earth. He was trying to prepare them for the event, although they were unable to cope with it and mostly blanked it out of their minds. This is what He told them:

“But now I am going to him who sent me, and none of you have asked me, ‘Where are you going?’ But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send Him to you” (John 16:5-8 ESV)

And then Jesus outlined all the benefits that the Holy Spirit would grant to His followers. He would indeed express the mind of the risen and triumphant Jesus, now reigning in heaven, guiding and directing His people still on Earth.

We can all think how great it would have been had Jesus stayed on: how many more miracles would have been performed, how many more questions answered, how much more depth of impact achieved for the people that Jesus was trying to lead. On the other hand, His sphere of influence did not extend much outside His native area of Palestine in His earthbound days. With the coming of the Holy Spirit the message was able to go, as the Bible says, all through Judea and Samaria and away to the ends of the Earth. It is only by His leaving for heaven that we in our country and day have been able to hear the message and benefit from it. While sharing the first disciples’ disappointment that He had to leave this earth, we rejoice in the outcome.

I guess we were all praying that our church secretary would recover: he certainly put up a tremendous fight for life. But now that he has gone it is just possible that we will be able to face up to certain realities which perhaps we avoided in time past. These are issues we need to grasp hold of in our little fellowship as we face the future. Maybe the cause of Jesus Christ in our village and beyond will benefit as we grapple with these things. Maybe this is a page in the book of our history which was waiting for a line to be drawn at the end of it. That line can only now be drawn and a new page turned. It is to the credit of our secretary, and builds on his legacy, if we can now make up our minds and turn that page.