Once a Male…                 Word on the Week              16^th October 2021.

Once a male (or female) always a male!   God has not granted us the ability of choice in the matter.    This was a shortened version of the message spelled out by Lord Robert Winston on the Thursday night’s BBC Question Time.

It’s not as if Robert Winston is a novice in the gender business.   He is known for his pioneering work in the study of fertility and has become a leading voice for science through presenting TV shows, including The Human Body and Child of Our Time.   He is based at Genesis Research Trust, which is part of Imperial College London, and is the largest collaboration of reproductive health researchers in the UK.

Robert has argued that the sex of the person is part of them in a variety of manners.  For instance, it is represented in every single cell of your body.   He has also argued that there is a need to have an open discussion on biological science, something that appears to be difficult in todays’ climate.  In fact, Robert anticipated receiving hate mail for the brief comments he made.

As one commentator put it, “When stating biological facts on TV is an act of bravery, you know something is going horribly wrong”.

In fact, he was defending the views of Kathleen Stock a professor of philosophy at the University of Sussex. She has published academic work on aesthetics, fiction, imagination, sexual objectification, and sexual orientation. Her public opposition to gender self-identification has become a contentious issue.  

She comes from Scotland where gender fluidity has reached a crisis point where the first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, advocates changing your birth certificate in line with your new self-identification.    A ‘DIY’ job!

What is going on?   When ideologies are mistaken for truth people act out a lie.   They ignore the science when it suits them and becoming intoxicated with the new freedoms that try to remove any trace of God.

Conscience may confirm we are made in God’s image and the Psalmist was right when he said he was “fearfully and wonderfully made” (Chapter 139 verse 14).   We have seen the rebellion against God’s ways raised to new levels in recent times as laws enact liberal ways with few, if any, challenging them. Only conversion to Christ of the whole person, however named, can create a new life.   It requires a coming to Jesus, as you are, and in prayer ask Him to bring you into his family (St John Chapter 1 verse 12).   Leave your pride behind and let the Holy Spirit renew you day by day till you meet Jesus in heaven

Clash of the Ash        Word on the Week                 2^nd October 2021.

The familiar sound of the clash of the Ash as the hurley’s come into contact with each other may be under threat.    The preferred timber from which they are made is our native species of European Ash.   It is under attack from a disease called Ash dieback, now rampant in Ireland.

Some may remember the devastating effect the Dutch Elm disease had on the Elm tree population.    A fungus causes the disease, it spreads thanks to the action of bark beetles, which carry fungal spores allowing the fungus to infect new trees.   Wych elm is the only native elm species in Ireland and is susceptible to Dutch elm disease. Once a very abundant tree in the Irish landscape, it is difficult to find living elm trees today.

We have one healthy elm tree on the farm.   It had gone unnoticed for years! Teagasc is interested in collecting samples to establish a collection of Irish Elm genotypes resistant to the Dutch Elm disease.   Our tree will be part of the collection.

Returning to Ash there may be hope for the tree in the long term.   At present the scene is quite dismal.   Ash dieback was first detected in Ireland in 2012 on plants imported from continental Europe. The disease is now prevalent throughout most of the island and is likely to cause the death of 90% of the Ash trees over the next two decades.

The symptoms are all too plain.   The older trees show stress in the crown usually accompanied by gaps in the foliage.    Where the trees border roads they present a hazard for which the landowner must accept liability.   The likelihood is that there will be large scale felling in the next few years.  

Fortunately, the wood, when dried, makes excellent firewood which will stoke many fireplaces this coming winter!    The other major use will be the making of hurley’s which will required to be stockpiled against future shortages!

The Bible speaks about trees at important places. Here are three of them. In Genesis Chapter 2 verses 16/17 we read of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil the fruit of which they were forbidden to eat.   When the enemy of God appeared in the form of a serpent, misquoting what God had commanded, the scene was set for the rebellion of our first parents.

In Galatians the curse of our having broken the law was seen to have been laid on Christ when he was nailed to the tree in His redeeming work (Chapter 3 verses 13/14).   In Revelation we read of the River of the Water of Life with the Tree of Life on its banks with its leaves for the healing of the nations (Chapter 22 verses 1/3).   A wonderful climax to our completed salvation.

The Sermon                     Word on the Week                     25^th September 2021.

Most, if not all, religious groups which take the Bible as one of their guides produce a homily, sermon or prophetic word which becomes the main vehicle through which the people are spiritually fed.   You might say it is a true “Word for the Week” as it is delivered faithfully weekly, usually on a Sunday.

In my own background I must have heard, at a conservative estimate, 3,500 sermons!    Of these approximately 800 were preached before the Holy Spirit opened my eyes to understand that Christ crucified was central.    Trusting in the risen Christ followed, made it personal and, however faltering, life changing.   

From his earliest writings St Paul emphasised the theme of Christ crucified.   In his first letter to the new Corinthian Church he wrote “For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.   I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling.   My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power. (Chapter 2 verses 2-5).  

Many preachers have tried to follow the Apostles advice but without the Spirit’s power.   The sermon then becomes like the Grand old Duke of York who marched his soldiers up to the top of the hill only to march them down again!   The benefits of a hilltop experience were somehow lost in the homeward rush as the Sunday lunch beckoned!

At the hilltop Donald McLeod’s question must be asked, “What’s He doing on a cross”?   Or as the song puts it “The darling of heaven crucified”.   The most bewildering event in history.   The greatest paradox ever deserves an answer and it falls to the preacher with the aid of the Spirit to provide it.

The Apostle Peter writing about authority has this to say of the submission of Jesus; “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wound you have been healed” (1 Peter Chapter 2 verse 24).   

The healing referred to here is the fruit of God’s love – the forgiveness of sins and is for anyone who now severs their ties to them and literally dies to sin so as to be freed up to the Spirits leading into a life of righteousness.   The rescue from the past, the new life for the present, and the presence of Christ’s Spirit for the future in this world and the next.

It is all there on the hilltop for the preacher to reveal (1 Peter 1 verses 3 to 6).

Women Today                       Word on the Week                   18^th September 2021.

When the Lord God created male and female he made them equal in his sight.   They differed by design and in the role designed for them (Genesis Chapter 1 verses 27 and 28).    They were made to complement each other in a monogamous marital relationship and were designed to be fruitful and populate the earth.

The way we were made was disrupted by man’s rebellion against God as he became involved with an alternative source of ‘wisdom’ which was satanic (Genesis Chapter 3 verses 1 to 6).   Separation from fellowship with God resulted in the introduction of sin and death with the resultant breakdown in human relationships (Romans Chapter 5 verse 12).   Denial of God today has been followed by destruction of his order in society.

In the place of divine order has come a state of fluidity.   This was shown in a government questionnaire we received this week where we were asked “With which gender do you identify?”   There were four choices!   Male, Female, Other, Prefer not to say.   It seems that the immature notion of youth, that we may be in the wrong body, has encouraged people to experiment.

The 1^st Minister of Scotland has suggested that people trans gendering should be allowed to alter the name and sex on their birth certificate to reflect their current preference.    She has forgotten the Scripture “Male and Female created he them” Genesis Chapter 1 verse 27).    There are no DIY options.

The Women’s Liberation Movement of the 1960’ies was necessary to recognise women’s place in a society where they had little influence.   Many of the ‘glass ceilings’ have been broken and women have few, if any, occupation they cannot aspire to.    Throughout the Bible women are treated with respect which would have been counter to the culture of the day.   St Paul listed some of these women, with gratitude, in Romans Chapter 16 verses 1 to 16. 

Today the scale of abuse of women by men is around 1 in 8.   This form of male domination was encouraged by the cavalier lifestyle of people like Trump.   If you have experienced abuse you know all about it.   If you are an abuser, you need to repent and seek forgiveness.   Many cases of abuse occurred in homes during Covid lockdown where the parties were isolated together.

Calamitous situations need not end in tragedy.    When the Lord heard the prayers of Paul and Silas, or perhaps it was their singing in prison, he let them out.   The Jailor, seeing the prison open, reached for his sword to kill himself.    Paul restrained him and explained what God had done, not only that evening but in the death and resurrection of Christ.

We are told that the jailor’s family were also present, received the message with faith, were baptised and had a communal meal to celebrate (Acts Chapter 16 verses 25 to 34).    One instance of a family united from near tragedy to being received into the Kingdom of God.    Pray for many more to join them.     

Anniversary of 9/11                    Word on the Week          11^th September 2021.

Church bells are sounding in various parts of the world but nowhere more poignantly than New York.   On this the 20^th anniversary of the most dreadful attack on America many accounts are being shared not only of the loss of life but the terrible mental and respiratory problems suffered by the survivors.

The facts scarcely need repeating.   Four large passenger planes were involved.   Two were hi-jacked shortly after take-off from Logan International Airport in Boston – destined for Los Angeles with a full complement of passengers and enough fuel to cross the US, were flown by Jihadists into the twin towers of the World Trade Centre in New York causing their collapse.

The third plane took off from Washington Dulles International Airport in Virginia and was bound for Los Angeles.   The hi-jackers redirected it into the Pentagon in Arlington County, Virginia, near Washington, D.C., killing all 64 aboard (including six crew and themselves) and another 125 in the building.

The fourth and final plane took off from Newark International Airport in New Jersey bound for San Francisco International Airport.   It was hijacked and headed towards Washington DC, but brave passengers managed to overcome the attackers and crash land in a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

Among the explanations for 9/11 Osama bin Laden gave the US in a letter addressed to them in November 2002 were “The expansion of Israel is one of the greatest crimes, and you are the leaders of its criminals. And of course there is no need to explain and prove the degree of American support for Israel. The creation of Israel is a crime which must be erased. Each and every person whose hands have become polluted in the contribution towards this crime must pay its price, and pay for it heavily.”

“The second thing we call you to, is to stop your oppression, lies, immorality and debauchery that has spread among you.  We call you to be a people of manners, principles, honour, and purity; to reject the immoral acts of fornication, homosexuality, intoxicants, gambling, and trading with interest.”

On his second point we might have a large measure of agreement! 

But it is the hatred of Israel that is the consuming passion behind it all (Psalm 2).   St Paul’s prayer for Israel’s conversion to Christ is as yet unanswered (Romans Chapter 10 verses 1 to 4).   The Apostle goes on to say that they will rely on the works of the law until, by God’s grace, the veil will be taken away and Jesus recognised as Messiah (2 Corinthians Chapter 3 verses 14 to 16).

Both Israel and Arab, in fact the redeemed from every nation are included in that great multitude before the throne in heaven (Revelation Chapter 7 verses 9 and 10).  

Swallows and Martins         Word on the Week       4th September 2021.

The annual gathering of these birds is in full swing.   They start the day with a magnificent display of flying as they catch insects on the wing.  This food frenzy continues with the birds flying very low in damp rainy weather or higher if the day is dry.  This matches the flight of the insects which they catch in their wide open mouths as they build up their strength for immigration to Africa.

Feeding continues till around 8.30 am when they settle on the electricity wires, and their melodious voices fill the air.   Where they fly to for the remainder of the day remains a mystery but the majority return for their night-time feed in the evening.   From the large number gathered it appears they have had a successful nesting season.   This can amount to two (or even three) families if the weather favours a steady supply of insects.  

Swallows and Martins are difficult to distinguish in flight.    Their speed and twisting and turning patterns are similar.  Most of their life is spent on the wing.  Their legs are short making it hard for them to take off from level ground.    When they are collecting nesting material i.e. mud, they require a clear flightpath to get the beak-full of mud back to the nest site.

This year the bulk of the swallows roosted on some new electricity wires which cross a paddock where a small herd of highland cattle live.   Perhaps they were attracted to the tan hair which could be used to line a nest!   The cattle have an unusual double coat of hair. On the outside is the oily outer hair—the longest of any cattle breed—covering a downy undercoat.

It is because of this hair covering that the meat of Highland cattle tends to be leaner than most beef because Highlands are largely insulated from the cold by their thick, shaggy hair rather than by fat.   The meat is also low in cholesterol.

It is thanks to the wonders of nature that we have such diversity in one small area.   On the other hand, the highland cattle’s horns are not ornaments and, as fallen animals, they could quite easily demonstrate their use!

“In Adam’s fall, we sinned all” the famous line in Benjamin Harris’s New England Primer expresses the basic Christian belief that Adam’s sin had dreadful consequences for the rest of us.   And not only for mankind but also creation which was made subject to futility – horns as weapons would not have been part of the original plan (Romans Chapter 8 verses 20 to 23). The Apostle Paul writes, as a result of our inherited sin comes condemnation, as a result of Christ’s one act of obedience on the cross those who believe in Him will be made righteous (Romans Chapter 5 verses 18 to 19). Choose to follow Christ.

Paralympic Games               Word on the Week               28^th August 2021.

The Paralympic Games commenced this week following the Olympics as is their custom.   Tokyo, the venue, is suffering from the effects of Covid so crowds are sparse.  This has not affected the enthusiasm of the contestants!

The Games owe their origin to Sir Ludwig Guttmann, a Polish Israelite who came to Britain to escape the Nazis.   He was a neurosurgeon who founded the National Spinal Injuries Centre at Stoke Mandeville Hospital in Aylesbury. His patients were British World War II veterans with spinal cord injuries. 

As part of the rehabilitation Ludwig made the playing of sports compulsory.   The competitions started in1948.    The next took place in 1952, with athletes from the Netherlands joining the British competitors.   The first Paralympic Games was in Rome, Italy, in 1960 featuring 400 athletes from 23 countries.

Since the early beginnings the games have settled down to the same four-year pattern of the Olympics with a winter event in the second year.   The current Paralympic Games have produced a gold for Ireland in swimming. Ellen Keane broke her personal best in the 100m breaststroke by 2 seconds.

In winning the medal she had to swim with her goggles full of water from the initial dive into the pool.   This disabled her vision so she could not see how her competitors were doing.   She said it helped her not to worry about the opposition!

One of the more mature things to come out of the Games is the athletes lack of any embarrassment over their disabilities.   The picture of Ellen holding high the stump of her left arm in victory says it all.

The ability to triumph over disability requires great determination to master their sport.   This courage is exhibited by all the athletes.   Their efforts are an inspiration to others to banish any inferiority feelings and not permit disability to hinder their social and sporting actions.

In the Bible Mephibosheth had been accidently dropped by his nurse in his youth and permanently damaged both feet.   After his father Jonathan’s death King David brought him into his palace and gave him a place at the Kings table.    David when he became King would have killed any successor to the throne but Mephibosheth, for Jonathan’s sake, was shown great grace in that he was elevated to the status of the Kings sons and dined at the King’s table for the rest of his life (2 Samuel Chapters 4,9,16 &19).

Mephibosheth had an inferiority complex because of his disabilities calling himself a ‘dead dog’.   Some see a similarity with our standing before King Jesus where believers are gathered with all their baggage to be welcomed out of sheer grace to join Him (St Matthew Chapter 11 verses 28 to 30).

God’s Everlasting Love             Word on the Week          21^st August 2021.

This week, for many, the world must seem to be an increasingly alien place.   There are effects of global warming, the conquest of Islam and the pandemic that will not go away all causing some to despair.  We need to look into the heavenlies for help from the Lord.

Romans Chapter 8 verses 31 to 39 says that because God’s plans are immutable the believer is assured of God’s love.  The verses are paraphrased:

The Saviour died but rose again, triumphant from the grave                            And pleads our cause at God’s right hand, omnipotent to save.                        Who then can e’er divide us more, from Jesus and his love                            Or break the sacred chain that binds the earth to heaven above?

In view of the growing corruption that forces us to devise ever increasing security and surveillance equipment for our protection Paraphraser goes on:

Let troubles rise and terrors frown and days of darkness fall                          Through him all dangers we’ll defy and more than conquer all.                      Nor death nor life; nor earth nor hell, nor times destroying sway,                  Can e’er efface us from his heart, or make his love decay.

During the time of the Covenanters in Scotland many were killed rather than renounce Christ.   Margaret Wilson was one who was staked out in the Solway Firth and told to deny Christ when she would be released before the rising tide reached her.  

In response to their entreaties from the shore she is alleged to have quoted the last two verses in our passage.   “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans chapter 8 verses 38/9). The paraphrase concludes:                                                                             Each future period that will bless, as it has blessed the past;                              He loved us from the first of time, He loves us to the last.

Imagine                            Word on the Week                     7^th August 2021.

The late John Lennon’s humanist hymn “Imagine” has become a regular at the Olympics.   This is the 5^th games in which it has been sung.   Some will recall Lennon dressed in white at a white baby grand piano in a large white room of his mansion with his wife Yoko Ono adjusting the white curtains.   A surreal setting for the poetical tirade.

In his imagination there is no heaven or hell, only the present.   No countries, no religion, nothing to fight for because no one has any possessions.   No need for greed or hunger because there will be a sharing of the world’s things leading to us all living as one.   There are shades of Lennon’s brush with Hinduism where the goal was to merge into an impersonal oneness.

Here in Dublin we had our own personal Guru who established Yoga in the country.   He used Scripture quoting Mark Chapter 11 verse 24 – “Whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you will receive it and it will be yours.”   This became the basis of ‘visualisation’ – imagining people were well.

Read in context Jesus is teaching the praying person to set aside his doubts and have faith in God coupled with forgiveness to those who he has something against, then he would be ready to pray – verses 22 to 25.   Thus the passage takes into account not only what is to be prayed but the state of the one who prays to almighty God.

Sadly, there are plenty of John Lennon’s around when it comes to understanding Christianity.    Our imaginations are engaged at an early stage.   I can remember firmly believing that good people go to heaven and bad people go the hell.   It seemed logical that you should at least try to be good!  The trouble was I wasn’t much good at it and all the churchgoing didn’t make me any better!

I had bought into the false hope of salvation through right behaviour and moral reformation.   I became a first class hypocrite!     Clean on the outside but a mess on the inside!     But it was the outside that appeared to be all that mattered so I got on well with all my hypocrite friends.

Then the preacher, Robert McGhee, told me I was a sinner in need of repentance.   I could understand the first bit but this repentance, turning around and going in the opposite direction, brought the usual argument – I am not so bad etc. to my mind.

It was when he added that my faith was to be in the sinbearing work of Jesus on the cross that it became personal and I knew that he died for me (1Timothy Chapter 1 verse 15).   And that needs no imagination!

Holiday Season                          Word on the Week                     31^st July 2021.

It’s that time of year when cities empty out and the flight to the country begins.

Staycations not vacations have become the watchword in these Covid constricted times.   In the midst of the joyful scamper to the seaside pity the poor President who has had to consider 19 Bills since the 1^st of July.

Of course it is possible that not all Presidents would have been as diligent in their duties as Michael D. Higgins.  He has suggested that a better way be found to avoid this unseemly end-of-term rush to have the Bills concluded.   The record so far was to have 9 Bills deposited on his desk in one day!  The rush is also replicated in the period before the Christmas holiday!

This focus on holidays masks the shrinking of work in Western countries.  Many work less hours per week whilst technology permits increasing volumes of work to be done in the reduced time.    The Covid pandemic has opened eyes to alternative work patterns that reduce or remove the commuting time.

In the Bible we seldom read of people taking a holiday.   There was an occasion when King David ‘put his feet up’.  He ended up in deep trouble!   It was the time when Kings went off to war but David stayed in bed in his palace.   One evening he got out of bed, saw his neighbour’s wife having a bath, coveted her and the rest is history (2 Samuel Chapter 11 verses 1 to 5).

What punctuated their year was Holy Days and Religious Festivals.   These marked out the child’s growth in Judaism or acted as reminders of Israel’s history.   These were times of great rejoicing and still are today.

With the coming of Jesus who fulfilled all that the Prophets foretold, rejoicing today occurs when a sinner repents and believes the Gospel (St Luke Chapter 15 verse’s 5 to 7).    This ‘joy in heaven’ finds its echo in the hearts of converted sinners on earth as the Kingdom of God expands.

This expansion is the work of the Holy Spirit operating through believers.   It was once thought to be the work of paid professionals in ministry but, whilst certainly not excluding them from witnessing it is primarily the task of believers to make Christ known (Ephesians Chapter 4 verses 12/13).

This is a task which believers are well suited for.   Having themselves been bought by the blood of Christ they do not consider their lives to belong to themselves any more (1 Corinthians Chapter 6 verses 19/20).   This frees them to have a ministry mentality, thinking about being part of what God is doing in the locations where he places them (St John Chapter 9 verse 4).

This gives a deeper meaning to all of life (holidays included!).