No St Patrick!                        Word on the Week                        14^th March 2020.

No St Patrick?   Just when we needed him.   If he got rid of the snakes in Ireland perhaps he could do a similar job on the Coronavirus when he shows up next week.   Except the 17^th March, his day, has been cancelled – we are on our own!

Plagues come and plagues go.   They create havoc in the passing.   Things that business considered important take a back seat.   There is a partial solution of the traffic congestion as many work from home.    Graveyards fill up as the elderly and vulnerable succumb to the virus.    Basic things become important like caring for each other!

Large groupings cannot take place for fear of this highly contagious virus infecting many people.   Churches cannot meet in their buildings and have to meet in cyberspace.   Those with well-developed websites can maintain their worship services.    Others who centre on the Eucharist may require worshippers to take on a more passive role as they watch the ceremony on the web.

Where there is a congregational prayer network operating on social media the needs of the Fellowship can be catered for to a certain extent.    In fact, the smartphone may well be our main avenue for conversation whilst the pandemic lasts.

For spiritual nourishment there are a number of useful websites which provide their listeners with fresh material daily. A couple that have blessed me with relevant material are desiringgod.org which is run by a retired clergyman called John Piper.   The other operates under the logo RZIM.     It was founded by Ravi Zacharias who has built up a good team of Christian broadcasters and can be reached at RZIM.org.  

To combat our propensity to worry Jesus said: – “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes?  Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?  Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?

“And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labour or spin.  Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendour was dressed like one of these.  If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’  For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.  But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.  Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” (St Matthew Chapter 6 verses 25 to 34).                      Jesus is saying if you look after the things he considers important (what we are to seek first) he will look after the things you consider important (all the rest)!

Image-bearer                        Word on the Week                          7^th March 2020.

Some of us were at a conference this week when the speaker reminded us of the unbeliever’s slogan “God is Dead”.    He traced this rebellion to its conclusion where those made in God’s image are also dead.    This deadness extinguished the spiritual in man and presented us as a higher form of animal.

Today we have reached the notion that mankind is a blank slate!    We evolved from a combustion of gases and by accident became what we are.   We write on the slate our own choice of identity which is travelling through a meaningless life to its end. We are – then, one day, we aren’t!     

Over 100 years ago the poet W E Henley penned ‘Invictus’ (Latin for unconquered) the last lines of which sum up the heroic man, “I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul”.    In the 21^st century this quest for self-determination tries to map meaning onto life or in mental confusion find it within.

The Bible teaches that we are created in God’s image, “So God created man in his own image; he created him in the image of god; he created them male and female” (Genesis Chapter 1 verses 26 to 26).   This sense of ownership produces stability.  As we come to know God we see the results of the fall in us.   Like David in Psalm 32 we come to appreciate the blessedness of admitting sins and requiring forgiveness.

The state of Israel was to bear the image of God to the surrounding nations.   They, like us, were chronic command breakers preventing the nations from seeing how a nation under God should live.   The remedy was for God to “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts” (Jeremiah Chapter 31 verse 33).   This New Covenant was inaugurated by Jesus at the Last Supper as an abiding symbol of His work on the cross.

Thousands were converted to Christ through the work of the Apostles who were empowered by the Holy Spirit.   Even those antagonistic to the gospel were converted.   It was said of St Paul “The one who formerly persecuted us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy” (Galatians Chapter 1 verse 23).

And this faith that St Paul preached caused repentant sinners to be born from above into a new life in the here and hereafter.   “According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled and unfading, kept in heaven for you…” (1 Peter Chapter 1 verses 3 to 4).

Fear of Pestilence                          Word on the Week                 29^th February 2020.

The last time we blogged on the subject of fear it was along the Fermanagh-Cavan border in Ireland.   There had been intimidation and the fear of man was evident.   This week we have witnessed signs of fear of the coronavirus.  It has gone almost global.    No one has said it but this fear is the fear of the judgement of God.

The spread has been rapid.  Antarctica being the only landmass not touched by it. Transmitting the virus is easily done so warnings against touching other people such as shaking hands raise the alarm bells in peoples’ minds.   Pictures of medics ‘suited up’ from head to toe are on the one hand reassuring but on the other increase the apprehension.

On the face of it these seem to be excessive precautions for an illness which is likened to influenza.   Many times this week the media have pointed out the low death rate of coronavirus and instanced the flu which has a much worse record.  However, we have flu somewhat controlled, hence the annual flu jab prevention. With Covid-19 we do not know where it came from nor how long it will be with us.

The best guess blames the bat.   There is also the association with the food market in Wuhan where it is reckoned to have made the transition from bat to man.   Research is taking place to find an antidote but it is unlikely to be on the market soon.   In the meantime, it would seem that what we have to fear is fear itself.   It is irrational but the sense of the unknown makes people apprehensive.

There are a number of incidents in the Bible where God sent a plague or pestilence because of disobedience.    Korah’s rebellion is one such case (Numbers Chapter 16 verses 46 to 48).   These cases are largely directed at his people Israel.   They had been entrusted with the oracles of God (Romans Chapter 3 verse 2) but that had not prevented them from sinning like others.   

Jesus said that in the end times there would be “pestilence” (St Luke Chapter 21 verse 10 to 12).     This is one of the indicators of the end of the age.   Trusting in Christ for your salvation in this life and the next does not enable you to bypass these things.    It does however, give you the assurance of Psalm 91 which may have been in John Ryland’s mind when he penned these words: –

“Plagues and deaths around me fly;

Till he bids, I cannot die;

Not a single shaft can hit,

Till the God of love sees fit.”     

May these thoughts strengthen you as we contemplate a dysfunctional world.

Coronavirus                           Word on the Week              22^nd February 2020.

This virus which started in the Wuhan Provence of China in December 2019 has proved to be hard to control.   It is in the same family of viruses as ‘saars’ (largely in the US from 2002 to 2004) and ‘mers’ (mainly in the middle east in 2012). It now has the name Covid-19.  

It produces respiratory symptoms which can be incubated in a person for up to a fortnight.    The start of the outbreak has been traced to an open air market in Wuhan where fish and live animals are in close contact with people.    These conditions would have given the mutated corona virus ample opportunity to spread. It is now in all 31 provinces in China.

At the end of December, a group of doctors in Wuhan were examining a large number of patients exhibiting flu like symptoms.    Indications were that the results were being kept quiet by Government order.   Dr Li Wen Liang, one of the team studying the disease turned whistleblower and attempts were made to silence him. The rapid spread of the virus required lockdown of Wuhan which coincided with public opinion learning via social media of the attempt to silence the doctor.

All this led to the Government apologising and many more cities being put in quarantine.   Two large field hospitals have been built in Wuhan in record time. Many additional medical staff have been assigned to the city and seven cruise ships have sailed up the Yangtze river and moored in Wuhan to accommodate them.   

Cruise liners are particularly vulnerable and the Diamond Princess now moored in Japan waters has been quarantined with its passengers confined to their cabins for 14 days.    The UK along with other countries who have nationals on board are flying them home but with a further two-week period in quarantine when they arrive.    A miserable end to their holiday!  

Global health officials are worried as the latest cases of the virus have shown up in Italy and affect people who had no link with China or contact with a confirmed case. A plane from China was picketed when it touched down in Ukraine.    This fear is contrasted with the actions of Dr Li who returned to work in the hospital, eventually caught the disease and died on 7^th February.    He was a believer and quoted this text as he died.  “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.  Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing (2 Timothy Chapter 4 verses 7/8).

May God grant to all who believe a like courage when we come to be tested.

Storm Dennis                        Word on the Week                  15^th February 2020.

‘Met Éireann has issued a Status Yellow rain and wind warning for the entire country ahead of Storm Dennis which is expected to bring wet and very windy weather over the weekend and into Monday.’    The terse note from the Met Office does not encourage you to get out of bed this morning!

The roar of the wind made Tess, the dog, think twice about venturing out whereas she normally greets the dawn with some loud barking.    All the animals in the yard are in sheds and the hens, who dislike the wind, are confined to the henhouse.

Above the yard and around the trees flocks of rooks do aerobatics in the gusting wind.   They enjoy the turbulence but disappear when the rain arrives.    At garden level the usual tits and finches swing from the bird feeders while the magpie like the local Garda keeps an eye on the proceedings.

The land is waterlogged from previous rains which means it cannot absorb fresh rainfall.    Our drainage has been well tested and mercifully the run-off is working unlike parts of the UK where towns in valleys are particularly vulnerable to flooding.

It is at sea where we are most exposed to these South-westerly winds.   There is always a conflict of interest for fishermen to solve.   Gales stir up the sea and consequently produce a plentiful supply of food.   This makes for good fishing with the best catches made in stormy weather.   Herein lies the problem.    Fishermen’s safety is put at risk in such conditions and the skipper must weigh up the pros and cons very carefully before he puts to sea.

In my youth we fished from small open boats.   We could be caught at sea when an Easterly gale would make the harbour at our home port of Collieston un-navigable.    The alternative was to run for Whinnyfold, five miles away, where we could drop anchor in the safety of its harbour and wait until the storm passed.

The writer of Hebrews likens God’s promise and God’s oath to two cables that secure our ship which I call ‘The Hope of the Gospel’.   “We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain,where our forerunner, Jesus, has entered on our behalf” (Chapter 6 verse 19).   The hymn-writer catches this idea in “Will your Anchor Hold?” the often omitted second verse reads: – It is safely moored t’will the storm withstand, For ‘tis well secured by the Saviour’s hand:   And the cables passed from His heart to mine, Can defy the blast, thro’ strength divine.”

This was one of Ann Brown’s favourite hymns.  When it was sung at her funeral I remember the powerful effect it had on her neighbours.    May they and you take to heart the saving work of Jesus.

Election 2020                        Word on the Week                       8^th February 2020.

There is an air of a festival about an Irish General Election.    During the preceding 3 to 4 week’s people with ladders are seen to be climbing many of the utility poles in our towns to fix A1 size pictures of their preferred candidate.    The higher the candidate’s portrait the more symbolically he or she will top the poll!

The old days of public meetings have been overtaken by an all-encompassing media.  It is the TV debates that steal the show.   Party representatives are subject to a grilling by well practiced professionals who are able to reveal inconsistences in their party manifesto.   Attempting to score points publically may be good for audience ratings but lacks the intimacy of the Parish Hall Meeting where a good chairperson can ensure that everyone has a voice.

When I came to live in Ireland over four decades ago I had a colleague who was keen to instruct me in all things Irish which he clearly believed to be superior to anything that took place in the UK!    He was in high spirits in the 1977 election which saw Jack Lynch sweep to power amid the discarding of a number of unpopular taxes.    It all seemed to be too good to be true – and so it proved to be.   Rampant inflation set in during the eighties and the rest is history!

One thing I learned was the single transferrable vote is allegedly superior to the UK and USA system of ‘first past the post’.   It certainly provides the voter with the ability to reward preferred candidates and penalise those not in favour.    The counting of votes takes place after the setting of quotas for each constituency.   You then enter the world of surplus votes and transfers which few, including myself, have fully understood.   It does however make for a dramatic count!   The final results can be a long time in coming.   Where the count is close between candidates a recount prolongs the agony!

The end result is a fairer representation of people’s choices but then coalitions have to be formed, in order to get into government, which thwart the most equitable outcome.  There is no perfect system as we are imperfect people who are involved.

When it comes to God’s electing love for heaven our reliance must be on His mercies (Lamentations Chapter 3 verse 22).    In fact, our trust is not to be on anything we have done, no ‘vote for me’, no ‘look at my record’.    Because few believe this St Paul uses the case of Jacob and Esau where God’s choice was made before either of them could be said to influence it i.e. before they were born (Romans Chapter 9 verses 10 to 12).     

We have Jesus to go to.    He said “All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out” (St John Chapter 6 verse 37).

Exit of Brexit                         Word on the Week                      1^st February 2020.

Midnight in Brussels or 11.00 pm in London heralded the departure of the UK from the EU, although it will continue to follow EU rules and enjoy most of the benefits of membership until the end of 2020.   The occasion was low key.   The ‘Leavers’ who gathered to sing songs were decidedly out of tune.   Even the amplification failed to work properly – perhaps an omen for how the UK will manage in future.

In taking leave from Brussels, Nigel Farage the architect or rather the disrupter of the EU could not resist (although it was forbidden) a final waving of the Union Jack.   Nigel, like the rest of us, does not like being told what to do but in his case his dislike focused on the EU.   “We will not take orders” said the leading character of the divorce from Europe, a role he in which he had had a couple of personal experiences of in the past.    By way of contrast many tributes were paid to UK officials by their EU colleagues who had worked alongside them for a portion of the 47 years since the UK joined.  

The 31^st January opened in Brussels with a rendering of the European Anthem.  It is Friedrich von Schiller’s poem adapted by Ludwig van Beethoven called “Ode to Joy,” from the last movement of his Ninth Symphony.    Schiller’s poem draws on the mythology surrounding the Greek god Elysium whose place at the ends of the earth is where certain heroes are conveyed by the gods after death.

The day ended with the singing of ‘Auld Lang Syne’ – which seemed to sum up the affection the workers held for each other.    There are, of course, 11 months to December 31^st to thrash out a trade deal.   Let’s hope they will still be singing at the end of it!

Setting national pride apart, does it matter if the UK are out and Ireland, for instance, are in the EU?    The answer depends on who we are serving.   If it is ourselves we are accountable to then perhaps even Nigel Farage makes sense!   But if conscience has been tutored by the word of God then we will be guided by Micah’s words in chapter 6 verse 8; He has shown you, O man, what is good.   And what does he Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly^] with your God.  

The Lord requires us to show the primary forms of love – justice and mercy, kindness and faithfulness, and to walk humbly with our God.

God is more interested in how we behave in relation to each other and to the countries and their citizens with whom we align.   Jesus said we are to “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness” and all the things we think are important will be dealt with by Him (St Matthew Chapter 6 verse 33).

Goldfinch                          Word on the Week                          25^th January 2020.

“Look at the birds of the air” Jesus said when he was illustrating God the Father’s provision.    I was in need of a topic for this blog and there outside my window were a flock of Goldfinches!   Their multi-coloured plumage lit up the grey January day with red, white and yellow feathers the most noticeable.

It was these feathers that made them popular as far back as the 19^th century.   Then they were sought after as cage birds.   This practice of catching them was almost their undoing. They became a threatened species and were only prevented from extinction when their capture and caging was banned in 1933.   

It was observed that they had a passion for thistle seeds.   In the eighth century this gave them the name of ‘Thisteltuige’.    The name literally means thistle-tweaker. The birds can be seen in late summer, the male with his slightly longer beak, eating the teasels and the female with her short beak eating the thistle seeds.

To attract these birds to your garden I’m not suggesting you let the thistles grow although the odd one or two would be for a good cause!   They are seed feeders and the relatively expensive niger seed is their favourite meal.   You need to purchase the appropriate feeder otherwise the seed will get wasted.    What falls to the ground is usually claimed by the Chaffinch who is a ground feeder and gratefully eats the seed that falls from the Goldfinches table!

Their nests are built of grass and mud and are lined with wool to create a deeply cupped well insulated nest. They decorate the outside of the nest with lichen, presumably to camouflage their location which is at the very top of the tree.  Their eggs number 5 or 6 are white and spotted.   They time their chicks to arrive when seeds are most plentiful, usually June and a second family in the Autumn to eat the thistle seeds.

Goldfinches are easily alarmed and often take flight en masse.   It is then that their delightful flight calls can be heard.    They sound something like the tinkling of bells. This song has earned the goldfinch the lovely collective noun, ‘Charm’. 

Solomon wrote, “He (God) has made everything beautiful in its time”.   And so we have the birds but supremely the Goldfinch.   “Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.”  (Ecclesiastes Chapter 3 verse 11).    We know there is more to life than this present existence – eternity has been placed in all our hearts – and God has channelled our ability to finding out about eternity through faith in Christ.  

“What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived” — the things God has prepared for those who love him—                                  1 Corinthians 2 verse 9.

Crime Pays!                       Word on the Week                          18^th January 2020.

When you survey the bloodshed of this week you see the ugly face of crime.   It is as if the whole country has been affected by an incurable virus which can only be curtailed not cured.    It broke out in Drogheda, the North-side of Dublin and Cork.   In these places it became visible in the form of dead bodies and in one case a dismembered corpse.

Driven by the craving for drugs and paid for out of the relatively prosperous times we live in, the demand rises.   Drug bills add up (who does the addition – who dare argue with the arithmetic) and the wider family are called upon to clear the debt.   Fear is on the side of the debt-collector and no threat can be lightly dismissed.

For those who cannot pay there is a job offer of sorts.   They can join the gang and pay off the balance due by doing what was done to them – intimidating the customer.   Recruitment amongst young boys is particularly insidious.    They can deliver the drugs, largely un-noticed, and reap the reward of designer clothing.   Who wouldn’t go for ‘Boss’ gear at age 14 and the promise of a BMW at age 17!    

The 17-year-old who was cut into pieces this week had been involved, among other things, in petrol bombing the houses of rival gang members and received a custodial sentence which, unfortunately for him, was suspended.     This murder seems to have been designed to maximise the fear factor sending notice to rival gangs to keep off ‘my patch’.   The bosses of these gangs avoid the limelight perhaps living abroad.   Their ability to avoid capture must make on the ground policing a daunting task.

For them crime pays.   They live in luxury.   Their consciences have been hardened or as Scripture puts it, consciences have been seared as with a hot iron (1 Timothy Chapter 4 verse 2).     For those murdered crime pays a dreadful price – their lives.

Scripture promises a payday – For the wages of sin is death; but it also majors on the fact that, the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans chapter 6 verse 23).    This gift of God is a gift of love from the heavenly Father.   Like other gifts it required no payment.   It is received by the empty hand of faith.   The faith is in the resurrected Jesus Christ.     The love of the Father is greater than your sin.    There is no sin that Jesus did not die for – every sin can be forgiven by His grace (St John Chapter 3 verse 16 and 1 John Chapter 1 verse 5 to 7). 

So every time someone asks you to snort a couple of lines of cocaine on a Friday night remember that they are supporting the drug gangs, the cultivation of the plants and the destruction of many lives.   Show them a better way – the way of Christ for this life and the next, (I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me (St John chapter 14 verse 6).

Forgive and Embrace                       Word on the Week              11^th January 2020.

Last week’s blog had scarcely hit the bin when the dreams of times past turned into nightmares!    Commemorate that lot – not on your life!   One correspondent, in a fine show of charity said, “forgive and forget” people were OK with that, but “forgive and commemorate” was a bridge too far to cross!

What is it about forgiveness that is so difficult?    It’s the thing that can so easily come back to bite us.   The theologian, Miroslav Volf, is a Croat who has written on the subject.    He found himself stumbled when at a question and answer time at his university he was asked if he could forgive the Serbs?    The Serbs had done dreadful things to his people.    He deferred answering the question!

You see Volf had recognised that forgiveness is not simply saying sorry and keeping out of the other’s way but goes much deeper and takes time and work.   Sometimes it helps to take the other person’s position and they yours and argue the case from the other’s point of view.   Repentance is always necessary, although at first it is hard to acknowledge it.   It too is costly as you are exposing your feelings to the other.

If there was a way that avoided making yourself vulnerable –wouldn’t that be good!   Especially where the events that engendered the hatred seem to point to the sins of the other.    And where your own kith and kin are involved and they are watching you…better to take the family line which is usually the hard line.

Suppose the Prodigal had died in the far country and the Father on hearing the news (perhaps years later) decides to commemorate the event.   Would the elder Brother come to it?    What about all the years he had worked and never got a helping hand from the young fella.   He had always been a waster!    Why should I commemorate him? (St Luke Chapter 15 verse 29 paraphrased).

In forgiveness it is hard to realise we are dealing with a human being.   One like myself.   Part of the human race.   Irrespective of colour or creed.   The divine imperative to love the ‘other’ as yourself (St Luke Chapter 10 verse 27) had no excluded race.    Jesus’s illustration that followed featured a Samaritan whom the expert in the law had excluded!

To the government’s credit their intention was to have no excluded groups.   The Royal Irish Constabulary and the Dublin Metropolitan Police were to have their 100^th commemoration in Dublin Castle next Friday.    These groups, through no fault of their own ended up on the ‘wrong’ side and today’s descendants of those on the ‘right’ side will not permit it to take place.

 Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.                       (St Luke Chapter 23 verse 34).