Risen and Reigning                   Word on the Week          30^th March 2024.

Of all the expressions of Easter my least favourite would be the cartoon which adorned the front page of one of our national newspapers.    It portrayed the common man surveying a litany of disasters appearing in a news sheet and exclaiming loudly ‘Jesus Christ’.

Recognising he was blaspheming the Lord’s name the cartoonist sought to head off possible criticism by having the little bird pose the question, “Is that blasphemy?”  The worm responds by professing ignorance and claiming that the disasters listed are blasphemy.

I am sure there is a word for the recognition that what you are doing is wrong but after naively querying it, go ahead and do it anyway.   ‘Disingenuous’ comes close but in taking the Lord’s name in vain you descend to the language of the gutter.   Usually his cartoons are brilliant but even cartoonists require editorial scrutiny.   

Ironically the horrific items listed in the new sheet are similar but on a smaller scale to those listed by Jesus in the Gospels as signs of the end of the age (Matthew 24 Mark 13 Luke 21).   

The scene in Jerusalem that first Easter was set by the arrival of some Greek worshippers who were looking for Jesus.   This was a sign that the Gospel was breaking out from its Judean roots and reaching the Gentiles.   Jesus now proclaimed that the hour had come for him to be glorified by giving his life for sinners (John 12 verses 20 to 27).

The Lord’s illustration of the seed requiring to die before it could bring forth many seeds was to be applied to himself on the cross producing the seed of the Gospel.   In his death he was substituting his perfect life for the sinner making him the long awaited Saviour: –

I delivered to you, wrote the Apostle Paul, as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures (I Corinthians 15 verses 3 to 4).

And on a more personal note the hymn writer Philip Bliss wrote of Jesus: –

Bearing shame and scoffing rude

In my place condemned He stood

Sealed my pardon with his blood

Hallelujah! What a Saviour.

May the real Jesus Christ be Risen and Reigning in your hearts this Easter and always.

To Be or Not to Be              Word on the Week                 23^rd March 2024.

On 20 March 2024, the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Assisted Dying recommended the introduction of legalisation regulating assisted suicide and euthanasia in its majority report.   The spirit of our age, so fond of death, commended we follow Holland, Belgium and Canada on the downward path.

Once introduced, it expands like a business opportunity, removing limitations such as age or competency in its way.   Assisted suicide as a concept elevates ordinary suicide to the position of a worthwhile goal, fostering despair and banishing hope.

The very notion of euthanasia plays into the near universal feeling of the elderly that they become a burden to others.   It is a pernicious thing which feeds on the evil idea that if you were removed others would be happier.   It also diverts attention from the excellent palliative care provided by the hospice movement and others.

Co-incidentally I visited the St Bridgit’s Hospice in the Curragh on Thursday.  I was able to spend an hour with my friend who recently went there.   The experience was entirely positive.   The love and care shown by the staff as they went about their duties made the occasion a very pleasant experience for us both.

Jesus famously waited till his friend was dead before demonstrating indelibly that He was the resurrection and the life beyond the grave.   Lazarus had an experience of life on both sides of the grave proving the reality of Jesus’ power over death.  

He challenged Martha with the words; “I am the resurrection and the life.  Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.   Do you believe this?” (John 11 verses 25/26).

Do you believe this?   Then tell someone.   Do not keep it to yourself!

Isaac Watt the hymn writer certainly believed it when he wrote “I’ll Praise my maker while I’ve breath” the last verse of which is; –

I’ll praise Him while He lends me breath; 

And when my voice is lost in death,

Praise shall employ my nobler powers: 

My days of praise shall ne’er be past, 

While life, and thought, and being last, 

Or immortality endures.              

St Patrick                         Word on the Week                     16^th March 2024.

It’s tomorrow that St Patrick kisses the stone!   His kiss transforms the land from its winter hibernation to the green fertility that makes Ireland the Emerald Isle.   After this Winter’s deluges of rain, he may need to blow his warm breath over it to dry up the saturation caused, they say, by global warming.

Tradition has it that 17^th March is the date to bury your seed potatoes in the ground so the warm darkness can work its magic.    Only those with access to the inside of a poly tunnel would dare to tackle planting in March this year!

But it’s not only for the potatoes that we would wish St Patrick had died during a warmer month.   Thousands of flimsy dressed marchers in the multitude of Patricks Day Parades would dream of Summer sunshine as they fight off hypothermia in the East wind.

It appears, like many of the participants who come from the US, the parades themselves are an import from the cities of the East coast of America.   We are told they originated in Boston and New York, brought there by Northern Irish immigrants in the 18^th Century.   The marching, normally associated with army drills, has found its ‘raison d’etre’ on the streets of 5^th Avenue!   The NYPD are out in force with bands, singers and dancers making our Parade in O’Connell Street seem like a scaled down version with many crossing the Atlantic to join in it!  

Every Parade has to have a Grand Marshal.   This year we have the new presenter of the Late Late Show, Patrick Kielty.   He assumes the responsibility of upholding the traditions and values that define our Parade.  It appears that both have been eroded in favour of a Maida Gras type of event popular in Latin America.

We know three things about St Patrick.   His written Confession, his Hymn to Jesus (Breastplate) and his letter to Coroticus, the latter’s soldiers having murdered some of Patrick’s newly baptised converts on the beach.  Apparently the soldiers came from Scotland and were seeking to capture slaves when they attacked the baptism, killed and carried off a number of the converts by boat.

In his letter Patrick quoted John’s Gospel, “Whoever believes in Jesus is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son” (verse 18).  

He concludes his letter by recommending it be read in front of ‘the whole body of the people’, concealed from no one and in the presence of Coroticus himself.   He states his desire that the murderers may repent and they may set free the baptised women, that they themselves may live before God and be made well, both here and in eternity.

From the River to the Sea         Word on the Week          9^th March 2024.

It’s the slogan, chanted by Palestine/Hamas supporters, seeking the total destruction of Israel who inhabit the land from the river Jordan to the Mediterranean Sea.   It is matched by the Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s intent to annihilate Hamas!   The conquest of Gaza ensued.

There can be few of us who have read the Bible and not cringed at the conquest of Canaan.   Especially because it was ordained by our God one of whose qualities is peace (Deuteronomy 1 verse 8).  God was preparing a place on earth for his chosen people because he loved them (Psalm 44 v’s 2/3).

It was to Abraham that God promised global mission (Genesis 12 verse 4).   This was to come through his descendants.   There was to be an interlude in Egypt and afterwards when the sin of the Amorites reached judgement time, they along with the other Canaanite tribes, who embraced evil practices, would be judged (Genesis 15 verse 16).   Hence the conquest of Canaan terminating in Joshua’s day (Joshua 24 verses 25/6)’

There would be many battles fought culminating with God’s people, through their disobedience, being removed from their land (2 Kings 25 verse 22b).   After the exile the people of God seldom had full possession of their land and it is only in 1948 that the State of Israel was formed.

And so the battles continue between the offspring of the Son of Abraham by faith – Isaac, Jews and the offspring of the Son of Abraham after the flesh – Ishmael, Arabs (Genesis 21 verses 8 to 10).    The battles have been fought over the Land, both claiming it as sacred!

The Apostle Paul, himself a Jew, longed for the day when his brethren would realise that the expected Messiah has come (Romans 9 verses 1 to 5).   Paul’s heart’s desire and prayer to God for his people, the Israelites, is that they may be saved (Romans 10 verse 1).

At present their minds are hardened.   It is as if a veil is over their face.  It remains to this day and will only be lifted when they turn to Christ (2 Corinthians 3 verses 12 to 17). 

And what of us who believe?

 ‘We all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.’ – Verse 18.  

Counterfeit Relief            Word on the Week                     2^nd March 2024.

Life in this life can be hard.   It can offend our desire for fairness.  Things happen that should never have been allowed.   The apparent randomness of illness and accidents.    Then, in some cases, the premature-ness of death.

To combat these thoughts many turn to the drug culture which has come into being in my lifetime.   In my youth you may have heard of a chemist taking drugs.   (Only doctors and chemists had access to drugs.)   The contrast with today could not be more stark!

Popular today are Cocaine, Ecstasy, Cannabis and Heroin.   We read of shiploads of new drugs of increased potency and reduced price being apprehended by the authorities.   Users try to mix drugs to achieve a longer lasting effect at the same time minimising the negative effects.

It’s a murky business.   When we sought permission at Grace Church to build on our old site in Pease Street the Drug Rehabilitation Centre next door required us to block all windows looking towards their premises.    Apparently drugs are no respecter of persons and the wealthier clients would not wish to be seen attending the Centre!

The craving for more drugs ensures continuity of employment for ‘pushers’.   They act as a conduit for the flow of drugs in their area.   The drug users pay dearly and the debt incurred by them ensures loyalty of custom! 

The other common form of escape is through alcohol.   It is having a hard time competing with coffee!   Pubs are closing down as traffic laws enforcing sobriety for the driver are imposed.  

One friend who suffered from alcoholism had long periods off the drink but it eventually ended his life.   He lived in the flats beside the church.   He didn’t leave much behind but this poem is something of himself he expressed: –  

May, June, July and August gone again but not memorable;

Save that I saw them go past the empty quays the rivers flow.

Look at the old house, outmoded, dignified, dark and untended;

With grass growing instead of the footsteps of life, the friendliness, the strife

In its beds have lain youth, love, age and pain.

I am something like that – lonely?

But not on my own.

Tony Curtis.

No one should underestimate the pulling power of an addiction.   At the same time, it should not be overestimated.   Tony knew he was not alone.  He had Jesus.   “I know whom I have believed and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him for that day (2 Timothy 1 verse 12).