In our decisions we are either influenced by the word of God or by the world order in which we live. In his prayer to his father Jesus said “I have given them your word” (St John Chapter 17 verse 14). He had faithfully delivered all that the Father had given him. The Holy Spirit would remind us of what Jesus said (St John Chapter 14 verse 26). He would take our conscience and, tutored by the word of God, be our guide. This is our defence against the world order with its strident voice demanding that we “get a life”!
As a small church in the centre of Dublin Grace has been in the valley of decision for the last 10 years. Two separate attempts have been made to purchase the airspace above our Hall, the second has just been successful. The deal was simple; the developer would get the airspace above the Hall to extend their Hotel and we would get a new church facility free of charge.
Too good to be true you say – where is the catch? We are so much more accustomed to financial struggles that their absence makes one cautious.
Some have hinted that the money used to finance it may be tainted. They would only use monies raised from the Christian fraternity. You are getting into bed with the world. Life is never that easy – the devil must be at work!
These ideas kept floating around my head till last Sunday when we were having our last service in the old hall. It was a light-bulb moment. Similar perhaps to the Psalmist in Psalm 73 when he saw with the eye of faith the fate of the ungodly (Verse 17). This is not a new thing. God has done it before!
The Promised Land came complete. It was free of charge. It was not deserved. It was an act of grace to a people who deserved the opposite. “when the Lord your God brings you into the land that he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give you—with great and good cities that you did not build, and houses full of all good things that you did not fill, and cisterns that you did not dig, and vineyards and olive trees that you did not plant—” (Deuteronomy Chapter 6 verses 10 – 11).
Again the Psalmist reminds them “He gave them the lands of the nations, and they fell heir to what others had toiled for – that they might keep his precepts and observe his laws” (Chapter 105 verses 43 – 45).
The law finds it’s fulfillment in the Gospel – “So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith” (Galatians Chapter 3 verse 24).
We too are conscious of being recipients of God’s grace. We too deserve the opposite. The injunction that follows the blessing will be worked out in our temporary accommodation almost next door, provided by the Hotel.
Our “Promised Land” is still on an architect’s drawing board! In the meantime we press on with the task of proclaiming the word to the world.

One of the most moving sights of the opening ceremony of the Paralympic Games this week was the struggle of the Brazilian Torchbearer. She required a stick to help her walk and with the torch in her other hand made her way across the open space towards the ignition point. The rain had made the ground wet and slippery and she fell in front of the vast stadium of people. A couple of attendants rushed to her aid and helped her up. She had retained her grip on the torch and with stick in the other hand proceeded onwards to light the flame with the cheers of the crowd echoing in her ears.
This encapsulated something of the sheer grit and determination that goes into the making of Paralympic athletes. It was an inspirational moment.
Since the Seoul Games in 1988 the Paralympics have followed the Olympics using the same facilities. Originally it was confined to wheelchair users but it now includes many disabilities. It can be said to have changed societies’ attitude towards physically challenged people. This was seen most dramatically perhaps in China where after the 2010 games there was an increase in hiring people with disability.
Technology has played its part with the advent of the carbon fibre running blade which, when mastered, can propel its owner at amazing speeds. There is the “athletics of prosthetics” where an assortment of aids has opened up many events to their owners. In fact there are three events that have been developed for the Paralympics and are unique to these games.
Of course because it’s the Paralympics this does not mean there is no room for cheating! They have their troubles with competitors overstating their disability to gain advantage. Others fall prey to the temptation of performance enhancing drugs. On the other hand it is wonderful for a runner like Jason Smyth from Derry who has just won his 5th Gold medal having won two at each of the previous two games. A true Olympian!
Whilst winning is the goal competing is the essence of what the games are about. St Paul uses the Games as a metaphor of the Christian life. Having used his considerable powers to engage those he met with the Gospel of Christ he explains his training regime, “Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified – i.e. disqualified from the rewards (1 Corinthians Chapter 9 verses 25 to 27).
Like the Torchbearer in the opening ceremony we too operate before an unseen multitude who are silently cheering us on to victory. “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and the sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews Chapter 12 verses 1 – 2). Run to Him and when you have been found by Him – run for Him!

Like Eve Ireland has taken the forbidden fruit (Genesis Chapter 3 verse 6). We broke no laws says the Minister of Finance. You had bad laws because they favoured Apple says the European Commissioner. We will appeal your decision because you are interfering with our sovereign right to run our own tax system responded our Minister. We will also appeal says Apple as we can show we pay 26.1% tax globally.
And so the scene is set to run and run with enthusiastic lawyers welcoming the distraction from Brexit, which is adding to the European economic and refugee crises, while they gather up the windfall in fees!
Just as one bad apple can contaminate the crop there is some consternation that other multi-nationals domiciled here may be examined. The EU Commission ruling came from their 800 strong staff which tackles unfair competition. It maintains that we favoured Apple over other fruit!
The calculation of back-tax at €13 billion (plus penalties) includes all its European profits and locates them in their Cork ‘Head Office’. The Commissioner mentioned that other European countries may look for a slice representing the profit on sales in their domain. The only sure thing is that we will be lucky if we ever get a slice of the Apple pie!
In 2011 our Finance Department published our Tax three “R’s” – Rate, Regime and Reputation. The Corporation Tax Rate is not under threat we are told and will remain at 12.5%. They pruned the Tax Regime to some extent in 2013 but by then the probe into Apple was under way and lasted till its findings were made known last Tuesday. As for cultivating a Reputation it’s downhill all the way. Having been called the “Liechtenstein on the Liffey” and more recently accused of “Leprechaun Economics” we have now become the “Bad Apple” of Europe!
A lot has to do with image. In the beginning the pair that took the forbidden fruit in the garden were made in the image of God (Genesis Chapter 1 verse 27).
When asked to pay taxes Jesus affirmed the rightness of paying the Denarius to Caesar as his image was on the coin. He added that in a similar manner we should pay to God what is God’s. Of course he was referring to us being made in His image, one which was marred by sin but restored by those who embraced the Gospel.
This prompt St Paul writing to those thus restored in the Church in Rome to encourage them “…to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. (Romans Chapter 12 verses 1-2). Thus imagining our Creator/Redeemer – Jesus.
Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO, referring to Ireland said “It’s all about people”. That’s only half the story. There needs to be an act of redemption before people act aright, collect the taxes and put the Apple back in the box along with the other fruit!

There was plenty to be anxious about this week from the missing of the closing date of a multi-million project to the finalising of the many details of a very important church wedding! Perhaps it would be appropriate to listen to what Jesus had to say on the subject!
The basic instruction is “Do not be anxious”. It comes in the Sermon on the Mount and St Matthew records it in Chapter 6 verses 25 to 34. The enabling idea is that God knows your needs and if you put what He considers important first in your life, He will look after what you need (verse 33).
Jesus had been saying in his sermon that if we make the right choices there is no need to be anxious and uses birds and lilies to illustrate this fact. The birds find some of their food on our bird table. Life is not a picnic for them as a cock Robin considers it his territory and drives other birds away. He has his family to feed but so have the various Tits and Finches as well as the Flycatcher and Dunnock.
This morning to underline his dominance he took a bath in the birds drinking water! However despite the difficulties he creates there is no trace of anxiety or despair in the flock but simply a persistence which pays off in due course with a share of the seed.
Lilies are centre stage in the wedding pedestals. Indeed Solomon could not compete with their splendour. They neither toil nor spin nor did they evolve but God clothed the fields with beauty as a gift to us reflecting his own nature. Perhaps this is what St Peter had in mind when he listed some of God’s gifts and referred to them as the multi-coloured grace of God (1 Peter 4 verse 10).
Weddings can be a testing time with anxieties creeping in; “what shall we eat? or what shall we drink? or what shall we wear?” (Verse 31) What matters in the end of the day is whether we have fed on the Lamb and are clothed with the robe of His righteousness (Verse 33).
Jesus puts the whole anxiety thing into perspective and holds the mirror of his word up to us so that we might see who we are living for – God or self? If the latter it need not be so – trust the One who feeds the birds!

“You have stayed long enough at this place” was the order the Lord gave to Moses after 40 years in the wilderness (Deuteronomy Chapter 1 verse 6). Something similar appears to be happening to our Fellowship after over 180 years in Brunswick Hall – to give the old premises its original name. We too could soon be on the move!
This week saw the completion of much of the detailed agreements with a tentative date for signing put at next Wednesday. Of course the Lord’s timing may not be the same as ours but we believe the date for moving is not far off.
The temporary premises which we plan to occupy is owned by the developer and is close by. It goes by the name “Fireworks” (it was a former nightclub) and is currently undergoing a conversion to meet the demands of its new role.
We do not anticipate our time there to be as long as 40 years although in may at times feel like that! The demolition, excavation (we will have a small basement) and site clearance will make way for the new build which will cover the entire site. In due course Nos 28a and 29 Pearse Street will rise from the dust albeit with five floors of hotel bedrooms perched on top of the new hall! These will link into the hotel next door (whose holding company is the developer) the new bedrooms being accessed entirely from the hotel.
Moses was to prepare the people to enter the land but it fell to Joshua to carry it through, “As I was with Moses so I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you” (Joshua Chapter 1 verse 5). Their goal was to bring blessing to the nations.
Now in a very real sense the nations have come to Grace. We are a multi race church. Our orders come through Jesus and are strikingly similar. “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (St Matthew Chapter 28 verses 19/20).
God enabling this we will do from whatever premises the Lord provides realising that it is the community of people at Grace that, collectively as well as individually, are his ambassadors as we submit our lives to the Lordship of Jesus in our new surroundings.

After the boxer doping and the illegal sale of Irish tickets there was palpable relief that our rowers won a silver medal! At last the journalists had a good news story and it’s all over the papers. It was pure homespun. That the O’Donovan brothers from Skibbereen in West Cork, proved to be as good craic as the rest of their tribe, was manna for the media!
Perhaps it was the Fiji’s annihilation of the opposition in the rugby 7 asides that drew my attention to that region of the Pacific. The healthy state of sport in Fiji is in marked contrast to the situation next door. It was with disbelief that I read of the atrocities being committed on the neighbouring island of Nauru.
Apparently it is owned by Australia who are using it as a dumping ground for its refugees. This started in earnest three years ago and has been kept secret by virtually banning journalists and swearing to secrecy the Government officials who work there. These people have no future. Australia refuses to accept them but instead hopes that their plight will become a deterrent to other would be refugees from choosing Australia.
What is remarkable is that this behaviour occurs alongside the open policy to immigrants who present themselves from the West and have skills to offer. Many from Ireland have benefitted from this policy especially over the recent recession. But it is how a nation treats the most vulnerable of its people that indicates it’s true worth not the cherry-picking of the talented.
Back in 2001 Australia again showed hostility towards refugees when they tried to prevent 438 mainly Afghans, who has been rescued by a Norwegian freighter M V Tampa, from entering Australian waters. The captain had asked for food and medicine but got commando troops. After an astonishing amount of turmoil including an attempt to prohibit the Tampa from entering Australian waters by passing a Bill in parliament, the refugees were dumped on Nauru!
The treating of refugees like scum is not confined to Australia it’s just that they have developed it to a higher level than most other nations. Like many of us in a crisis they had forgotten “The Golden Rule” – “So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets” (St Matthew Chapter 7 verse 12).
When people get an unpalatable answer, like one requiring a higher degree of love, instead of acting on it they try to get round it like the lawyer who questioned Jesus; “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbour as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets” (St Matthew Chapter 22 verses 36-40).
The Law and the Prophets is shorthand for the scriptures in Jesus day and he sums them up by the requirement to love. And there is no end to its extent “Greater love has no one than this that someone lay down his life for his friends (St John Chapter 15 verse 13).

We now have smart phones but dumb users! Even Millennials believe that photos sent to friends will not find their way onto the internet. For the older generations who relied on the privacy of the phone ‘it’s welcome to the new world of big data’.
The smart phone offers endless possibilities of networking with friends, colleagues and experts in their field. You can tap into the wisdom of the ages. Or it can be used to send jokes, cartoons, trivia and sexually explicit photos of yourself. Since 2012 when the word sexting was coined the latter practice has presented itself to anyone with a camera built into a phone which has internet access.
Because of the embarrassment of having damaging photos available on social media and the fact that your page is open to scrutiny by a potential employer, a more recent development has been designed to get around this problem.
A couple of students at Stanford designed a “disappearing-message app useful for sending nude photos to lovers and lewd doodles to friends”. That was four years ago. Their product, it makes the photo or video disappear in 10 seconds (or less), is now handling 10 million daily users in the UK alone. Their global daily video count runs to an astonishing 10 billion.
Of course only a fraction of these will be used for the inventor’s original purpose. A major revision this year added stickers, easier access to audio and video conferencing, the ability to leave audio or video “notes”. These features are designed to allow users to easily shift between text, audio, and video chat as required.
Of course, even with this app, all the photos do not disappear. The app can be modified or the photo captured by a screenshot. There is a law against circulating photos of minors and also those without the consent of the photographer. When it occurs the psychological damage can be very destructive. Reputations can be lost and the sense of betrayal makes it difficult to trust others in the future.
The Bible recognised the problem from the beginning! It was God who clothed the first humans when, through disobedience they realised their nakedness in His presence. Today’s unclothing marks the ongoing disobedience when it occurs outside the marriage bond. In fact the removal of clothing is one of the clearest indication of our rebellion against God. All the pagan religions exalt the human body or parts of it (Romans Chapter 1 verse 23).
God has provided a covering in Christ’s atonement for us sinners who dabble with the smart phone in not so smart ways and end up in a mess – without hope but for the mercy of God. There is forgiveness for the one who repents and by God’s grace receives the Holy Spirit whose gifts are of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians Chapter 5 verses 22-23). It is the latter gift which is least in evidence today. St Paul writing to the church in Galatia in his day adds “those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Put Christ in charge of your smart phone!

Modern advertising promises heaven while charging you the earth! Its tentacles are everywhere colonising the public square and the private house.
In flashing lights, coloured brochures and digitally on TV and film we drown in a sea of guff. The trouble is we have grown accustomed to it. Our thinking gets corrupted. “Because you are worth it” eats into our brain even if the phrase never crosses our lips!
We congratulate ourselves when we refuse to buy. We think we are not that easily persuaded. Our will power has not entirely collapsed! But advertising will not leave you unscathed. It will have its pound of flesh.
Coveting and idolatry are two of the tools used in the craft. They are glamorised so as to disguise the fact that they are sins. They are sold as stepping stones to a successful life. A fulfilled life – not simply better than the person next door but up there with the stars and supermodels. Buy this and you will have your dreams fulfilled as the latest gizmo is flaunted before us.
The advertising people take our God-given desires for love and acceptance, lasting friendships and a sense of worth and go all out to convince us that these are to be found in the goods they are marketing. Instead of “In God we live and move and have our being” (Acts Chapter 17 verse 28) which St Paul said even the pagan poets, who penned these words, realised that these qualities are not to be found in material things but in God.
But we are being seduced by the advertisers to believe a lie and we don’t even know it. The secular cathedrals – our shopping malls – seduce our senses. We have bought into the lie that we must improve on the way God made us. Our bodies become long-term projects requiring large budgets and without a completion date in sight!
In was in the context of wanting things that St Paul went on the say “but godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into the world and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content” (Titus Chapter 6 verses 6-8).
Jesus had something to say to people who were looking for something in the wrong place. “You search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life” (St John Chapter 5 verses 39-40).
Don’t get confused by ‘advertising heaven’ when Jesus offers the real thing.

No one likes to have their business made public. We all instinctively show a preference for privacy when it comes to matters that we consider to be sensitive. Therefore when a USB memory stick finds its way mysteriously onto your desk, with password provided, you would plug it into your computer and see what it had to say.
The content that confronted Denis O’Brien was 339 files, mainly articles that had appeared in the media about his career going back to the Moriarty Tribunal and his links to Michael Lowry. The tone of some of the material which he was able to access was not sympathetic to the business man and the compilation of such a dossier naturally led him to conclude that someone was conspiring to do him down.
Some of the evidence was encrypted so the stick became the subject of a digital forensic investigation. Normally in these investigations the original stick is copied and the copy worked upon but that was not done in this case and the primary piece of evidence has not been kept pristine. In fact O’Brien’s own agent, Coyne, had the stick for 10 days in his office in the Netherlands where the files were accessed, deleted and altered in a way and to a degree that may render the USB stick useless as evidence in a court of law.
The stick was placed in a “radio frequency identification safe” access to which was electronically recorded. Apart from two of Coyne’s associates there is a record of employee number 18883 whose name apparently cannot be divulged. There seems to have been some accidental additions made to the stick which were subsequently deleted in an effort to correct the mistake.
Currently O’Brien has taken a case against Red Flag Consulting in an effort to find out just who instructed them to compile the dossier. At the moment Red Flag, whose principles, according to their internet entry are: ‘We build awareness. We create assess. We deliver advantage’, are not prepared to publically identify their client to O’Brien.
One of the more sober facts the Bible presents us with is that one day all will be revealed. Jesus said, “For there is nothing hidden which will not be revealed, nor has anything been kept secret but that it should come to light” (St. Mark Chapter 4 verse 22). There is nothing that the light of the Gospel will not reveal. And again, “I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak” (St. Matthew Chapter 12 verse 36). None of us have unblemished reputations. In view of the certainty of exposure we join the Psalmist in his plea for mercy (Psalm 130).
1 Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD! 2 O Lord, hear my voice! Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my pleas for mercy! 3 If you, O LORD, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? 4 But with you there is forgiveness, that you may be feared. 5 I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in his word I hope …. hope in the LORD! For with the LORD there is steadfast love, and with him is plentiful redemption.

Bastille Day in the Mediterranean resort of Nice will be remembered for the carnage created this week by a Tunisian lorry driver cum jihadist. The murderous drive down the crowded boulevard at 50 mph left 84 dead and many seriously injured.
How Mohamed Bouhlel was able to park his hired 19 tonne refrigerated truck in an adjacent street to the boulevard, prior to the area being cordoned off for the festivities, is a matter for another day. Suffice to say that someone was less than vigilant. The vehicle presents a new weapon in Europe although apparently common enough in the crowded cities of Iraq. It has the advantage of the operative only requiring a driving licence and perhaps not even that since it is a one way trip.
In Tunisia, where the Arab Spring started, they have had a democracy for the last two years. Presumably this has angered ISIS as there have been five major attacks inside the country culminating with the beach attach in Sousse killing 38 holidaymakers and collapsing the tourist industry. Bouhlel came from Sousse where his father has produced evidence to show his son suffered from depression. The 31 year old Bouhlel was a father of three, was involved in divorce proceedings and lived alone. He may well have been depressed and possibly on drugs as some numbing of feelings would surely be required before undertaking such an evil enterprise.
The object of the Islamic State appears to be to instil terror by creating slaughter in European cities. As their war in the Middle East becomes less successful more Jihads are freed up to return to their homelands. Previously they could have gained employment from the tourist trade but with its demise due to terror attacks in Egypt, Libya and Tunisia they are free to exercise their recently learned skills in terrorism. No doubt some of them will join the westward stream of refugees and end up in nice towns like Nice.
In creating terror in a population the terrorist hopes there will be some retaliation. Nothing disables the moral compass of a nation faster than the cry for vengeance. The meeting of steel with steel. The spilling of blood is a great recruiting sergeant! The cycle of violence escalates spreading destruction that becomes increasingly difficult to stop.
The Scriptures offer an alternative way. These words were written by Isaiah in times of crisis and were used to steady Kings; “You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you. Trust in the LORD forever, for the LORD, the LORD himself, is the Rock eternal (Chapter 26 verses 3-4).
Jesus picked up on the illustration of the ‘rock’ and used it to summarise the Sermon on the Mount. St Matthew records there are two things you can do with the sermon. One is to build your life on these words of Jesus, which have an eternal value, the other is to ignore them and face destruction (Chapter 7 verses 24-27).
To those who took Jesus at his word there were these promises given at a time of great anxiety for the disciples; “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid (St John Chapter 14 verse 27). Terrorists may well come but when they do trusting Jesus words can be our Rock.