A boy strolls into his house with a chair under each arm and a sofa balanced on his head.
"Where did you get that from?! asks his dad.
"Off an old man in the park" replies the boy.
"Never EVER do that again" shouts the father. "What have I told you about taking suites from strangers?"
On Tuesday of this week, a unique event took place in Walsall. A meeting was arranged at one of the local mosques for Christians and Muslims to come together and learn from one another what 'faith' means to these two religions. The meeting was extremely well attended, with Christians from a number of different churches present, as well as members of the Aisha Mosque. The main part of the evening was a talk given by Vic Gledhill from the Walsall Community Church on faith from a Christian perspective, and then a talk from Imam from the Aisha mosque speaking about faith from a Muslim perspective. It was an extremely interesting evening, and our Muslim hosts made us feel very welcome.
There were a number of things that struck me about this event. First of all how important meetings like this are. There is a lot of fear and mistrust about Islam within British society, and so often this is born out of misunderstanding and ignorance, and building bridges so we can understand one another better is extremely important. This works both ways, because there were several things said by Muslim speakers in that meeting, which showed that they misunderstand some aspects of the Christian faith, just as I imagine we misunderstand parts of the Muslim religion.
One of the other things that struck me about the meeting, is that although there are big differences of opinion between Muslims and Christians on the person of Jesus and Muhamed, there is a lot of common ground between us, in terms of the importance our faith to our everyday lives, and there is mutual concern about the importance of family life, and how we encourage and support this. It was also interesting to hear one Muslim RE teacher, express his concern about how young people today (of all ethnic backgrounds) fail to see the relevance of God to their lives, and how we are to reach these young people - this is an extremely important issue for Christians as well.
The warmth of the hospitality, and the conversations we had afterwards as we looked around the Mosque gave me real hope for the future, and shows why it is so important to build bridges between Christians and Muslims.
The next event takes place as Caldmore Evangelical Church in Walsall at 7.30pm on Tuesday January 16th.
"If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” (Luke 9:23) The impact of these words spoken by Jesus, are possibly a bit lost on us today. But when Jesus spoke these words, the significance of these words would have been quite clear. In Jesus’ day, it was a common sight to see condemned men carrying their crosses through the streets to the place of execution. Jesus was saying, to follow him can be costly.
Living in twenty first century Britain, we face little or no opposition as Christians. We are free to practice our faith without fear or intimidation. But for many Christians the reality is very different. In the twentieth century more Christians died for their faith, than in the previous 19 centuries combined, and for millions of Christians around the world, persecution is part of the daily reality of life. And by persecution I mean a situation where people are repetitively, persistently and systematically inflicted with grave or serious suffering or harm and deprived of their basic human rights because of their faith.
In 1 Corinthians 12:26 Paul uses the analogy of the body to describe the church, and he says that “If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honoured, every part rejoices with it.” And our Gospel reading reminds us that we have a duty to support our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, and that failure to do so will result in judgement.
In many countries where Christians are a minority group, they find themselves vulnerable to abuse and injustice of many kinds. They are often discriminated against, with no hope of redress, to violence with no hope of protection.
Pastor Daniel
Take for example Pastor Daniel. He and his wife run a home for orphans in India. Along with their own four children, they care for 20 Dalit ("untouchable") children.
A converted Hindu, he has experienced severe persecution from fundamentalist groups opposed to his Christian activities.
Since 1995, he has been severely beaten and left for dead, and his house stoned by violent mobs who once besieged his home for 15 days.
To date, the police have failed to arrest those responsible and in fact arrested Pastor Daniel once, on trumped-up charges.
Pastor Daniel and his wife have been ordered to leave the region by Hindu extremists, or be killed.
Rahmet from Ethiopia
Next there is Rahmet from Ethiopia. She became a Christian at the age of 15, but when her Muslim family found out of her new faith they were enraged, and have disowned her, as have many of her friends. Rahmet now lives with a Christian family.
Yousif Matt from Iraq
Yousif Matty has led many Muslims to Christ. The church that he founded in 1992 has over a 1000 members, most of whom come from a Muslim background. Yousif has received hundreds of death threats, and his Christian bookshops have been attacked.
Since the invasion of Iraq three years ago, the situation for Christians has worsened. Earlier this year Christians in Iraq were by Islamic extremists that that they must either leave, convert to Islam or be killed. The aim of these extremists is to cleanse Iraq of every last Christian, and to a certain extent they are succeeding as many Christians have fled to neighbouring countries.
Sarah from Uzbekistan
Sarah was the first person in her hometown to become a Christian. She shared her faith with friends and neighbours, and a church of 300 was soon established.
However, after spates of heavy persecution, many of the new converts were too frightened to attend church. Sarah herself was kidnapped by a Muslim and forced into marriage. She is forbidden to visit her Christian friends, and on many occasions she has been pelted with stones when walking through the streets.
SHOW SLIDE These are the stories of just four people, but it is estimated that up to 200 million Christians in 60 countries world wide are facing similar persecution and discrimination on the grounds of their religious beliefs.
Psalm 31
Our first reading this morning was composed by King David. In his own life David had to face many trials, the times in which he lived were fraught with uncertainty and violence. In the psalm he talks about being pursued by his enemies. The experiences that David writes about in this psalm, are similar to the experiences many Christians around the world face. Being pursued by their enemies, living in times of trial and uncertainty. For example, we have seen the rise of a very militant form of Islamic extremism. In Nigeria, where there is a large Muslim population 270 churches were burnt to the ground last year, and in one horrific attack 20 Nigerian Christian children were burnt to death when the bus they were travelling in was attacked. Other Christians are having to face discrimination of an institutional, legal and employment nature, or are finding their rights to practice their religion suppressed.
In the psalm David describes how his experiences, left him distressed and anxious. He describes how he was scorned by his neighbours, and forgotten by his friends, who treated him as though he were dead. And the burden for Christians living with the threat of persecution is similarly great.
But throughout the trials David had to face, his trust remained in the Lord. David was conscious of the fact that God was ultimately the one in control. He said, “I trust in you, O Lord, I saw, ‘You are my God’.
David’s confidence was based on his understanding that God is a righteous God, and that he is concerned with justice. He trusted in God’s unending goodness, whose abiding presence offers support and encouragement even when we are faced by great hardships. Paul who similarly faced similar hardships, writes in 2 Corinthians 4:8-9 “We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed.” He was able to say this, because his confidence was based not in men, but in God whose faithfulness endures for ever, and he knew that his future and his destiny lay in God’s hands.
In Exodus 3:7 we read that God hears the cries of his people, and is concerned with their suffering. Which is why, David is able to end the psalm with these words, “Be strong and take heart, all you who hope in the LORD.” (Psalm 31:29)
What I find so striking about hearing stories of Christians under persecution, is the strength of their faith, and their confidence in God’s goodness and justice. It is also striking that where the church is seeing some of it’s greatest growth, is in those places where Christians are facing the most opposition. Where does the confidence and joy of these Christians come from? It is based on the knowledge that they are suffering for Christ. In the 1st letter of Peter, he writes, “Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed.” (1 Peter 4:12-13)
What is the main message that Christians who are suffering take from Psalm 31. I believe it is David’s message urging us all to be strong and to take heart, to wait expectantly for the Lord to bring justice for those who have put their trust in him. These are not glib words, but come from one who himself experienced extreme suffering, yet clung faithfully to the Lord and eventually saw him work.
So what should our response be to the suffering of other Christians?
Four main responses:
A little girl was talking to her teacher about whales.
The teacher said it was physically impossible for a whale to swallow a human because even though it was a very large mammal its throat was very small.
The little girl stated that Jonah was swallowed by a whale.
Irritated, the teacher reiterated that a whale could not swallow a human; it was physically impossible.
The little girl said, "When I get to heaven I will ask Jonah".
The teacher asked, "What if Jonah went to hell?"
The little girl replied, "Then you ask him".
A Kindergarten teacher was observing her classroom of children while they were drawing. She would occasionally walk around to see each child's work.
As she got to one little girl who was working diligently, she asked what the drawing was.
The girl replied, "I'm drawing God."
The teacher paused and said, "But no one knows what God looks like."
Without missing a beat, or looking up from her drawing, the girl replied, "They will in a minute."
A Sunday school teacher was discussing the Ten Commandments with her five and six year olds.
After explaining the commandment to "honour" thy Father and thy Mother, she asked, "Is there a commandment that teaches us how to treat our brothers and sisters?"
Without missing a beat one little boy (the oldest of a family) answered, "Thou shall not kill."
One day a little girl was sitting and watching her mother do the dishes at the kitchen sink. She suddenly noticed that her mother had several strands of white hair sticking out in contrast on her brunette head.
She looked at her mother and inquisitively asked, "Why are some of your hairs white, Mom?"
Her mother replied, "Well, every time that you do something wrong and make me cry or unhappy, one of my hairs turns white."
The little girl thought about this revelation for a while and then said, "Momma, how come ALL of grandma's hairs are white?"
The children had all been photographed, and the teacher was trying to persuade them each to buy a copy of the group picture.
"Just think how nice it will be to look at it when you are all grown up and say, 'There's Jennifer, she's a lawyer,' or 'That's Michael, he's a doctor.'"
A small voice at the back of the room rang out, "And there's the teacher, she's dead."
A teacher was giving a lesson on the circulation of the blood. Trying to make the matter clearer, she said,
"Now, class, if I stood on my head, the blood, as you know, would run into it, and I would turn red in
the face."
"Yes," the class said.
"Then why is it that while I am standing upright in the ordinary position the blood doesn't run into my feet?"
A little fellow shouted, "Cause your feet ain't empty."
The children were lined up in the cafeteria of a Catholic elementary school for lunch. At the head of the table was a large pile of apples. The nun made a note, and posted on the apple tray:
"Take only ONE. God is watching."
Moving further along the lunch line, at the other end of the table was a large pile of chocolate chip cookies.
A child had written a note, "Take all you want. God is watching the apples."
Aim
To celebrate the Christian festival of All Saints (1 November) by demonstrating that 'saints' are ordinary people who love God.
Preparation and materials
Pictures of Southampton Football Club, & girl band All Saints. Plus pictures of Christian saints
Assembly
Time for reflection
Think about those people in your own life who have helped you. And say thank you to God for them.
Dear God, Thank you for the example of all the special people who have loved you. Help us to love you too, and to remember that we are all special. Amen
This is my talk for our annual memorial service which takes place in St Martin's on October 29th 2006 at 6.30pm. Part of this talk has been inspired by the Nooma video 'Matthew' by Rob Bell, and I feel it is right that I acknowledge this at the start.
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C S Lewis, who was born in 1898 and died in 1963, is renowned as being one of the greatest Christian writers of the last century. His works have been translated into over 30 languages, and 43 years after his death he is still on the best sellers list. He wrote many books, but he is most famous for his children’s series, The Chronicles of Narnia, which has sold over 100 million copies.
One of Lewis’ less well known books is called ‘A Grief Observed’, which is based on a series of journals C S Lewis wrote shortly after the death of his wife Joy Gresham from cancer at the age of 45. It is an extremely honest and moving account of the pain C S Lewis endured after his wife’s death.
Anyone who has experienced the pain of bereavement will I think be able to identify with what Lewis writes. This is what he wrote shortly after the death of Joy. “No one ever told me that grief felt so like fear… the same fluttering in the stomach, the same restlessness, the yawning… At other times it feels like being mildly drunk, or concussed. There is a sort of invisible blanket between the world and me. I find it hard to take in what anyone says. Or perhaps, hard to want to take it in… I dread the moments when the house is empty… There are moments, most unexpectedly, when something inside me tries to assure me that I don’t really mind so much, not so very much, after all… I was happy before I ever met Joy. People get over these things. Come, I shan’t do so badly. One is ashamed to listen to this voice but it seems for a little to be making out a good case. Then comes a sudden jab of red-hot memory and all this ‘commonsense’ vanishes like an ant in the mouth of a furnace.
All of us here tonight, have been affected by bereavement at one time or another. For some here, this bereavement was very recent, and the raw emotions that CS Lewis writes about, may reflect how you feel today. For others, the bereavement may have been some time ago, but even with the passage of time, nothing fully takes away that sense of loss, instead you learn to live with it.
Christians have always believed that there is hope in death as in life, and that there is new life in Christ over death. But even if you share this hope, the pain of death is no less real. One of the things that C S Lewis wrestled with was the sense of having been abandoned by God. In the days after his wife’s death he wrote “Where is God?” for Lewis it felt as though God had closed the door in his face, and that he had been abandoned.
But this is something that Jesus himself felt, when he cried out from the cross, ‘Father why have you abandoned me?’ Where is God when it hurts?
There answer to that question in part lies in the cross itself. The cross throughout history was a symbol of suffering and death, but for Christians it has become a symbol of hope and victory in the face of death. It is through the cross Jesus took on and defeated death. At his birth Jesus was given a special name, Emmanuel, which means God with us. And it is on the cross that we see, Emmanuel, God with Us, suffering with us and for us. God shares our pain, and he weeps with us.
Jesus himself wept at the death of his friend Lazarus. Several days after Lazarus had died Jesus goes to Lazarus’ village, to where his family and friends are mourning their loss. And Lazarus’ sisters say to Jesus, if you had been here earlier, maybe this wouldn’t have happened. And Jesus enters into this big giant mess, and we are told that he was deeply moved in his spirit. Somewhere deep down he connects with all this mess, and then we are told, Jesus wept. He feels all this pain and loss, and enters into it. And he lets the full force of the moment hit him, he doesn’t hide from it, or ignore it, he faces it full on.
In life we cannot avoid pain, or try to ignore it, expecting it to go away. We have to let it out, or else it builds up inside of us. If Jesus wept, then we need to as well.
We all have a choice about how we respond to the pain of loss and about the kinds of people we are, and the kinds of people we’re becoming. We have a choice whether or not we’re going to become bitter. There is a woman in the Bible named Naomi, and she loses her husband and her two sons, and she says, “Don’t call me Naomi anymore, call me Mara.” The word Mara is the Hebrew word for ‘bitter’. “Don’t call me Naomi. Call me bitter." A man named Job in the Scriptures loses everything, children, houses and possessions, and his wife says “Job, are you still holding on to you integrity? Curse God and die!” She becomes consumed with her bitterness. And if we don’t’ acknowledge this choice, if we allow a bit of bitterness in, it will take over. Or sometimes it is not bitterness that we feel, but a sense of guilt. “If only I would have done this, that wouldn’t have happened. If only I would have been this way, if I would have done something differently” And so we can become racked with guilt, and it can seep in and become part of us and we aren’t even aware of it. Don’t let it happen.
In one of the psalms the writer pours out his pain and says to God, “You’ve made me see trouble. You’ve made me see troubles, many and bitter, but you will restore me again.”
It’s easy when we suffer loss, for whatever it is we’ve lost to become the centre of our life. We had them, and now they’re gone. And so there is this giant hole where they once were, and it becomes all we can think about. And what happens in the process is, our whole life becomes what we don’t have, and we lose out on what we do have.
Bereavement always leaves a great hole in our lives, our hearts will never be the same again, but we will recover.
The first Christians spoke about a day in the future when God would restore everything – you, me, everything in heaven and on earth. They talked about how there would be no more weeping or sorrow, nor more death or pain. I find great hope in that.
So may you realise that Jesus wept, and may you realise that God is with you, fully present, grieving your loss… but also restoring. And in that, may we find hope.
It is now almost a year since I arrived at St Martin’s, and I felt that this marks a good time for us to look back at where we have come from as a church, and to look forward to what God has prepared for us in the future. Church decline is not as bad as originally thought So what is the bad news? So that is the challenge facing the church nationally. But what about us here at St Martin’s? In many ways, we seem to mirror what is happening nationally, St Martin’s has been going through a long period of decline. So what about the good news? Of course these statistics don’t show the whole picture. Although we have seen numerical decline, there has undoubtedly been growth in other areas of the church’s life over the past 16 years. For example, in the place of prayer life of the church, a greater openness to the Holy Spirit, more lay involvement in the life of the church, the creation of the ministry team, and seeing individuals grow in faith. They built a small hut, and brought a boat, and without any thought for themselves, would day and night go out on the treacherous sea searching for the lost. After a while, others wanted to become associated with the station, and give time and money to support its work. And then people thought that what was needed, to improve the work was a bigger life boat station…. And so history repeated itself. Shipwrecks are still frequent in those waters, but now adays, most of the people drown. So what is the challenge facing St Martin’s? We need to make sure that we do not loose sight of why we exist. Jesus said that we are to be a servant of all. The job of a servant is follow the instructions of his master, no matter how costly that may be. That means devoting time, and trouble to those we are seeking to support. What I feel is one of the main priorities for the coming year, is for us as a church to put prayer much higher on our agenda, so that we hear what God is calling us to do, and that TOGETHER, as a church we may faithfully serve God and our community. Yesterday I attended Diocesan Synod, and one of the items that we debated was the Diocesan Going for Growth Strategy, and in the report there was this quote. “The growth of the kingdom and the growth of the Church depends on the Holy Spirit, not on human striving. Prayer MUST be our first priority. Church members have a vital part to play, praying daily for the growth of the church and of the kingdom.” As we look to the future, it is clear that we face many challenges as a church, but we must not be despondent, because with God all things are possible. The Going for Growth report that was debated yesterday went on to say, “As we listen to God in prayer we can develop our vision for our own personal outreach and for the life of the church. We can also share what we think God might be saying, so that we can inspire each other.”
But before we look more specifically at St Martin’s, I want us to look at changes in church attendance nationally. Last year an in depth study was conducted of 17 thousand churches across England (these are churches from all denominations). The results of this survey have just been published, and shed some very interesting light on the state of the Christian church in England today.
The survey revealed that 6.3% of the English population attend church on an average Sunday, when this survey was last conducted in 1998 the figure of 7.5%.
But the survey did provide some good news
So what do these figures reveal?
First of all the bad news:
But bearing all of this in mind, we need to face up to the reality that although I believe we are beginning to see signs of pulling out of this decline, it is possible numbers will drop further, and that the challenges we face are great. Doing nothing at all is not an option, it is clear that we cannot be complacent.
So what does the future hold for St Martin’s? In one of the first sermons I preached at St Martin’s I shared with you some of my vision for the future of St Martin’s, and that was of a growing church, a church that is confident of what it believes, a church that is open to the Holy Spirit, and a church that is growing numerically, as we take the good news of Jesus Christ out into our community. This is still my vision. But if we are going to see growth what sort of church must we be like?
In our Gospel reading today we are reminded that as Christians we are called to serve others. Jesus says, “whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all.” And Jesus himself sets the example of what this means. “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." As I reflected upon this passage, and what it means for us as a church, the word that came to mind was ‘Sacrifice’. If the church is to grow, we will need to be prepared to sacrifice our time, our effort, our money, and our talents, for the sake of God’s kingdom. Not only that, but we may be called to sacrifice those things that we hold dear, and to be prepared to face the cost of change, if we are to be faithfully to serving God in whatever way he calls us. This is not easy, but it is about following the example Jesus set for us. As the writer of Hebrews puts it, “Although he was a son, he learned obedience from what he suffered.”
So as a church we are called to serve and be obedient, just as Christ was. First and foremost we are to serve God, and secondly we are called to serve our neighbours, the community of which we are part. God wants to transform our whole society, our focus as a church isn’t primarily about filling the pews, as a Christian community, we are called to be agents of transformation and change for the whole area, seeing people being healed, relationships restored, God’s love proclaimed in word and deed, seeing God’s Kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven. We could sum up this calling in the word ‘Love’, loving God and loving our neighbour, and all that this entails. We at St Martin’s are called to be a sign, symbol and foretaste of God’s Kingdom.
This raises a very important question, how well are we at doing this? If we do not take seriously our calling as Christians and as a church to serve God and his people, then there will be no future for the church. A church that lives to itself will die by itself. To give you an example of this I would like to tell you a story.
On a dangerous sea coast where shipwrecks often occur, there was once a crude little life-boat station. The building was just a hut, and there was only one boat, but the few devoted members kept a constant watch over the sea, and with no thought for themselves, went out day and night tirelessly searching for the lost. Some of those who were saved and various others in the surrounding area wanted to become associated with the station and gave of their time and money and effort for the support of its work. New boats were bought and new crews trained. The little life-saving station grew. Some of the members of the life-boat station were unhappy that the building was so crude and poorly equipped. They felt that a more comfortable place should be provided as the first refuge of those saved from the sea. They replaced the emergency cots with beds and put better furniture in the enlarged building. Now the life-boat station became a popular gathering place for its members, and they decorated it beautifully because they used it as a sort of club. Fewer members were now interested in going to sea on life-saving missions, so they hired lifeboat crews to do this work. The life-saving motif still prevailed in the club’s decorations, and there was a liturgical life-boat in the room where the club’s initiations were held. About this time a large ship sank off the coast, and the hired crews brought in boat loads of cold, wet and half-drowned people. They were dirty and sick. The beautiful new club was in chaos. So the property committee immediately had a shower house build outside the club where victims of shipwrecks could be cleaned up before coming inside.At the next meeting, there was a split among the club membership. Most of the members wanted to stop the club’s life-saving activities as being unpleasant and a hindrance to the normal social life of the club. Some members insisted upon life-saving as their primary purpose and pointed out that they were still called a life-boat station. But they were finally voted down and told that if they wanted to save lives of all the various kinds of people who were shipwrecked in those waters, they could begin their own life-saving station. So they did.
One night at the dinner table, the wife commented, "When we were first married, you took the small piece of steak and gave me the larger. Now you take the large one and leave me the smaller; You
don't love me any more..."
"Nonsense, darling," replied the husband, "you just cook better now."
A Texas Highway Patrolman pulled a car over and told the driver that because he had been wearing his seat belt, he had just won $5,000 in the statewide safety competition.
"What are you going to do with the money?" asked the Highway Patrolman " Well, I guess I'm going to get a driver's license," he answered.
"Oh, don't listen to him," yelled a woman in the passenger seat. "He's a smart aleck when he's drunk."
This woke up the guy in the back-seat, who took one look at the cop and moaned, "I knew we wouldn't get far in a stolen car."
At that moment, there was a knock from the trunk and a voice said, in Spanish, "Are we over the border yet?"
I live in a very multicultural part of Walsall, the vast majority of pupils at our local community primary school where I take weekly assemblies are Sikh or Hindu, hence a reference in this assembly to the festival of Diwali.
Aim:
To reflect upon why light is important, and what Jesus meant when he said he was 'The light of the World'.
Preparation and Materials
A collection of sources of light, such as a candle, torch, bike lamp, Christmas tree lights, etc.
Assembly
Check out this trailer for a new film 'The Nativity Story', the trailer looks really promising, and it may be a great outreach tool. It is apparently scheduled to come out in December, although I'm not sure if that is only the USA or here in Britain. The official website is http://www.thenativitystory.com
The Net is a fresh expression of church that meets on the third Sunday of every month at St Martin's Church, Walsall (4-5pm). It is aimed particularly at families, and is described as church with a difference. As you can see from the video, the emphasis is upon having fun, and learning about God is a creative and exiting way (if you're wondering what the YMCA song has to do with God - the theme of this Net was communication, & people are using semaphore to spell out the letters YMCA). The next Net is on November 19th at 4.00pm.
A man was driving along the motorway when his MD called him and said "You've been promoted - you're now an assistant manager". He was only a few miles further down the road when his MD called again and said "I've just heard your new manager has died in a 'plane crash - so we're promoting you again, you're now a full manager." The chap was so startled with this that he swerved a bit but kept control. A bit further along, he had another telephone: "I've just heard that not only your new manager died in the crash, but his boss too: so we'll promote you again to Group Manager". At this the chap was so fazed, he swerved right off the road into a tree.The police came and asked what happened. "Don't worry," he said, "I careered off the road".
A man and his wife are awakened at 3 o'clock in the morning by a loud pounding on the door. The man gets up and goes to the door where a drunken stranger, standing in the pouring rain, is asking for a push.
"Not a chance," says the husband, "it is three o'clock in the morning!" He slams the door and returns to bed.
"Who was that?" asked his wife.
"Just some drunk guy asking for a push," he answers.
"Did you help him?" she asks.
"No, I did not, it is three in the morning and it is pouring out!"
"Well, you have a short memory," says his wife. "Can't you remember about three months ago when we broke down and those two guys helped us?" "I think you should help him, and you should be ashamed of yourself!"
The man does as he is told, gets dressed, and goes out into the pounding rain. He calls out into the dark, "Hello, are you still there?"
"Yes," comes back the answer.
"Do you still need a push?" calls out the husband.
"Yes, please!" comes the reply from the dark.
"Where are you?" asks the husband.
The drunk replies: "Over here on the swing!"
Bill, Jim, and Scott were at a convention together and were sharing a large suite on the top of a 75 story sky scraper.After a long day of meetings they were shocked to hear that the elevators in their hotel were broken and they would have to climb 75 flights of stairs to get to their room. Bill said to Jim and Scott, let's break the monotony of this unpleasant task by concentrating on something interesting. I'll tell jokes for 25 flights, and Jim can sing songs for 25 flights, and Scott can tell sad stories the rest of the way. At the 26th floor Bill stopped telling jokes and Jim began to sing. At the 51st floor Jim stopped singing and Scott began to tell sad stories. "I will tell my saddest story first," he said. "I left the room key in the car!"
I'm not a pacifist, I do believe that on very rare occasions, the use of military force can be justified, although it should only be used as a last resort, after all other means of resolving the conflict have been exhausted. In the Christian tradition this is described as the 'Just War Theory', which whilst recognising that war is always an evil thing (because innocent people suffer), there may be times when it can be justified, and may be the lesser of two evils. For example, the fight against the Nazi's in the Second World War was I believe justified - although the blanket bombing of cities such as Dresden wasn't. There is of course a strong Christian tradition of pacifism (see http://mb-soft.com/believe/txn/pacifism.htm for a detailed look at this subject).
The most recent Iraq war was in my opinion not justified, and I like many others in this country and around the world was opposed to this war. I don't think anyone was sad to see an end to Saddam Hussein's evil regime, but is Iraq and the world any better for it? We were led to believe that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction and that this was the justification for going to war. Despite wide spread searches, no WMD have been discovered. Instead Iraq has been plunged into sectarian violence.
Today the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health has released a report in which they estimate that 655,000 Iraqis have died as a result of the US led invasion in 2003, that is an average of 500 deaths every single day. Every day there are more reports of abductions and murders in Iraq. The results of this particular war have been to destabilise not only Iraq but the Middle East as a whole, and create a new recruiting ground for terrorists, and giving rise to radical Islamic groups.
Publicly George W Bush & Tony Blair continue to support the war in Iraq, but I wonder whether privately they now regret their decision to go to war, and knowing what we know now, would they still feel it was justified?
On Saturday 30 September, I wrote a blog entitled 'Did Jesus really rise from the dead?' (you can find it under Questions of Belief). Yesterday I received the following email from someone who had read this blog. I originally intended not to publish the comments of this email, but I've decided that I would like an opportunity to respond to what is written.
The comment was submitted by 'Anonymous'.
The following assembly is adapted from an assembly produced by the Revd Guy Donegan-Cross
Aim
To explore the idea that animal conservation is part of stewarding God's world.
Preparation and materials
(Optional) Power point (or failing that OHP) images of extinct animals & the Genesis creation story [I scan these images from a children’s Bible – The Beginner’s Bible is ideal] – focusing on God’s creation of animals, and his instruction to Adam to care for them, plus an image of St Francis.
Assembly
Time for reflection
Ask the children to shut their eyes and imagine their favourite animal or bird - its shape, its colour, its movement. In their own words they can quietly give thanks for it.
Dear God, Thank you that everything belongs to you. Help us to care for the creatures you have made. Amen.
On a dangerous sea coast where shipwrecks often occur, there was once a crude little life-saving station. The building was just a hut, and there was only one boat, but the few devoted members kept a constant watch over the sea, and with no thought for themselves, went out day and night tirelessly searching for the lost. Some of those who were saved and various others in the surrounding area wanted to become associated with the station and gave of their time and money and effort for the support of its work. New boats were bought and new crews trained. The little life-saving station grew.
Some of the members of the life-saving station were unhappy that the building was so crude and poorly equipped. They felt that a more comfortable place should be provided as the first refuge of those saved from the sea. They replaced the emergency cots with beds and put better furniture in the enlarged building. Now the life-saving station became a popular gathering place for its members, and they decorated it beautifully because they used it as a sort of club. Fewer members were now interested in going to sea on life-saving missions, so they hired lifeboat crews to do this work. The life-saving motif still prevailed in the club’s decorations, and there was a liturgical life-boat in the room where the club’s initiations were held. About this time a large ship wrecked off the coast, and the hired crews brought in boat loads of cold, wet and half-drowned people. They were dirty and sick. The beautiful new club was in chaos. So the property committee immediately had a shower house build outside the club where victims of shipwrecks could be cleaned up before coming inside.
At the next meeting, there was a split among the club membership. Most of the members wanted to stop the club’s life-saving activities as being unpleasant and a hindrance to the normal social life of the club. Some members insisted upon life-saving as their primary purpose and pointed out that they were still called a life-saving station. But they were finally voted down and told that if they wanted to save lives of all the various kinds of people who were shipwrecked in those waters, they could begin their own life-saving station. So they did.
As the years went by, the new station experienced the same changes that had occurred in the old. It evolved into a club, and yet another life-saving station was founded. History continued to repeat itself, and if you visit that sea coast today, you will find a number of exclusive clubs along that shore. Shipwrecks are frequent in those waters, but most of the people drown.
