Boris Johnston                                Word on the Week                 27^th July 2019.

One name has dominated the news this week, that of Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson to spell it out in full.    The media, always looking for a nick-name, have reverted to his old school moniker of ‘Bojo’.    An enormously popular candidate he romped home on Tuesday with a 2/3rds majority as the UK’s latest Prime Minister.  

The eldest of the four children of Stanley Johnson, a former Conservative MEP, Boris was born with a silver spoon in his mouth.   On his father’s side his great grandfather was the Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire.   His father’s maternal grandmother, Marie Louise de Pfeffel, was a descendent of Prince Paul of Württemberg and through Prince Paul, Johnson is a descendent of King George II of Great Britain!

His mother, Charlotte, was the daughter of Sir James Fawcett, a prominent barrister and president of the European Commission of Human Rights.   She was an artist.   Charlotte gave birth to Boris in New York in 1964.  He was the eldest of four children.

Soon after Boris was born the family returned to England.   He was educated first at the European School in Brussels, Ashdown House and then at Eton College, where he was a King’s Scholar.  He read Classics at Balliol College, Oxford, as a Brackenbury scholar, and was elected President of the Oxford Union.   He was a contemporary of David Cameron, a former Prime Minister, who introduced the ill thought out referendum on Brexit.

Regarding his personal life his first marriage lasted a year being dissolved in 1993.   Later that year he married Marina Wheeler, a barrister, the daughter of journalist and broadcaster Sir Charles Wheeler and his Sikh Indian wife, Dip Singh.   They have two boys and two girls.   Last year Johnson and Wheeler announced their separation.

Boris was first elected to parliament in 2001 as MP for Henley.   He had a number of high-profile jobs but was dismissed in November, 2004 over accusations that he lied to the Prime Minister about a four-year extramarital affair with Petronella Wyatt, The Spectator’s New York correspondent and former deputy editor.   He was reinstated by David Cameron who had become Prime Minister but had become embroiled in another extramarital affair which Cameron chose to ignore.

During the period 2008/15 he was a flamboyant Lord Mayor of London returning to parliament as the candidate for Uxbridge.   He was accused of sexism, corruption and racism during his political career but his adolescent behaviour has popular appeal.    More than most he seems to be intoxicated with the oxygen of power without first having considered the implications of what he is saying.

Our standard of truth is the Bible (St John Chapter 17 verse 17).    It is not simply the absence of lies it is something to be lived.   It is incarnated in the person of Jesus Christ (St John Chapter 14 verse 6). It was revealed in Thomas’s response to meeting the risen Christ “My Lord and my God” (St John Chapter 20 verse 28).   The truth is lived out in Jesus – and by his grace in those who have committed their lives to him.

The Man on the Moon                           Word on the Week                                   20^th July 2019.

Full moons presented a great time for youthful imaginations to examine the surface to try to trace the face of the man on the moon.    We all imagined we saw it among the blotches that appeared on the surface.     The cross-legged goblin that appeared sitting on the crescent moon of a well-known advert did not mislead us one little bit!

Reality in the form of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin enlarged our imaginations – there were now two men on the moon!   The fuzzy pictures of 50 years ago showed the space-suited astronauts equipped with enormous backpacks make their first tentative steps on the surface of the moon.

Their feet were shod with large pod shaped boots to prevent them sinking in the lunar dust.    The scientists had calculated the rate at which the dust accumulated on the moon’s surface and, because they were all evolutionists, calculated what the accumulation over a vast time period would produce.  They reckoned on dust to the depth of three feet.   In fact, instead of sinking in powder, the surface was like crunchy snow – only a few inches deep!    The astronauts went for a walk which, because of weightlessness, was more like a series of skips where, as one put it, “you got to make sure your feet are underneath you!”

So the broadcast was made. “That’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind,” Armstrong famously said when he stepped down from the ladder on the lunar lander onto the moon.

But it’s the experience of James Irvine the 8^th man to walk on the moon that is significant.   He was on the Apollo 15 and along with David Scott they spent almost 3 days carrying out experiments and collecting rocks.

At one point Irwin had trouble. “He was erecting an experiment that wouldn’t erect!   Frustrated in his attempts to get the experiment to work, Irwin decided he would pray, “God I need your help right now” (Psalm 139 verses 7 to 10).

Suddenly Irwin experienced the presence of Jesus Christ in a remarkable way, unlike anything he ever felt on earth.  His wife Mary said “The Lord showed him the solution to the problem and the experiment erected before him like a little altar.”   This led Irvine, a nominal Christian, to commit himself to Christ.  

On his return from space, he resigned from NASA and formed High Flight Foundation.

“God decided that He would send His Son Jesus Christ to the blue planet,” Irwin said, “and it’s through faith in Jesus Christ that we can relate to God. Jesus Himself said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes unto the Father except through me’ (St John Chapter 14 verse 6).

“As I travel around I tell people the answer is Jesus Christ, that Jesus walking on the earth is more important than man walking on the moon” said Irvine and if he were alive today I am sure he would say not to look for the face in the moon but to the Lord Jesus Christ who is the image of the invisible God (Colossians Chapter 1 verse 15).

The 12^th of July                     Word on the Week                          13^th July 2019.

Towering above the neighbouring houses stood the gigantic 12^th of July bonfire.   Belfast has not seen a bigger one!    Built with thousands of wooden pallets and adorned with a necklace of rubber tyres it was formidable – an incendiary device the like of which has not been seen.

Like the Ziggurat of old (Genesis Chapter 11 verse 4) the underling desire of the builders was to make a name for themselves.    Other devices such as flags and marches (in memory of the Battle of the Boyne, 1690) go some way in keeping the old antagonisms alive but if you want to make a statement what better than setting the town alight!

Thankfully this did not happen.   The tyres were removed by those who put them there and the wooden pile was burned last night almost without incident.   A victory of sorts was claimed by its creators as the City Council’s request to remove the bonfire (it was built on their land) had been ignored.

The maintaining of an identity by highlighting what you are against by burning the flags and effigies of Nationalists and their Political posters shows the poverty of the Unionist’s case!   

Brexit has created further anxieties.    The likely new Prime Minister of the UK (which governs Northern Ireland in the absence of the Assembly) producing a solution is remote.    

Legacy issues from past unsolved crimes keep cropping up.   These are painful as they reopen wounds which, although not healed, have lain dormant.     One of ‘Soldier F’ who has been charged with murders has inspired a number of banners.    A hero on one side; villain to the other – and these murders took place in 1972!

There is another who died for all who subsequently trust in him.    This is Jesus who gives his followers a new identity erasing away the old one by his grace.    With this new identity comes the task of reconciliation as former enemies, through God’s strength, become friends (2 Corinthians Chapter 5 verses 14 to 19).

This happened on a large scale in Northern Ireland in the revival of 1859.   The land experienced similar divisions as we have today.   The local press reported nearly all parades were cancelled that year and in their place worship services and prayer meetings were held.   Protestants went to Catholic neighbours to apologise for past behaviour.

The solution to the problems of Northern Ireland is for such a movement of the Holy Spirit to arise again together with a Biblical reformation of the churches.   May God send us such a day!

Lord’s Table                           Word on the Week                          6^th July 2019.

The regular task of preparing the bread for the Lord’s Table made me think about the wisdom of the ordinance being repeated regularly.  We forget so easily.  The first recorded incident of Sunday worship including, or possibly composed entirely of, the Lord’s Table took place at Troas. (Acts Chapter 20 verse 7).  

We sometimes overlook the momentous nature of the change from the Passover celebration which had its central place in the Old Covenant (Exodus Chapter 12 verse 14) to the Lord’s Table with its central place in the New Covenant (St Matthew Chapter 26 verses 26/29).   

The change from a lamb killed and its blood saving the people of God who took shelter under it as the angel of death ‘passed-over’ their houses; to the Lamb of God – Jesus – killed and his blood now ransoming the people of God to this day (1 Peter Chapter 1 verses 18/19).  

There is continuity and completion.   Continuity in the blood of the sacrifice being spread over the wooden doorposts of the Israelites houses to the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ which stained the wooden cross on which he died (1 Corinthians Chapter 11 verses 24/5).   The first, the illustration.   The second the thing being illustrated.  Two pivotal events, separated by many centuries, but inexorably coming to fruition in the plan and purpose of God.

The completion is in the work of Christ finished on the cross (St John Chapter 19 verse 30).   The sin of all God’s people had been atoned for.   The ransom had been paid in full (St Mark Chapter 10 verse 45).   The offering of Himself, by its very nature, could only be made once (Hebrews Chapter 10 verses 12/14).   The work of salvation has been accomplished.

The Lord’s Table in Church is the divine reminder for us to re-focus our thoughts on the emblems of Christ’s death, which was for us.   This is not a re-enactment of Christ’s sacrifice but a reminder that we owe our forgiveness and status as the people of God entirely to Jesus.

The Lord’s Table is a temporary meal.   One day there will be no need of it.   That will be when Jesus returns (1 Corinthians Chapter 11 verse 26).   Then instead of the Lord’s Table we will have the ‘Marriage feast of the Lamb’ to look forward to (Revelation Chapter 19 verse 7).     Till then we rejoice in our living and reigning Saviour.

Using the Smartphone                    Word on the Week                  29^th June 2019.

It could be said that to use the Smart Phone you need to have smart people!   But then again it depends on how adventuresome you are in opening all those pretty icons.   I expect for many of us we are content to use the ones we know and leave the remainder.

The problem for many is that the holder of your data will not leave you alone.   In fact, with the commanding position over the other platforms – the majority it actually owns – Facebook has you taped!    You never knew you were so popular.   So many friends!   How wonderful to open your smartphone and discover you have 98 friends, all wanting to contact you.     

Of course the reality is somewhat different!   This is the make-belief world created by algorithms working on data, 1. Yours 2. The people you know and 3. The people who know them!   Assuming all are users of Facebook.   Out of this pool you are encouraged to ‘wave’ or ‘like’ your way into facebook-land where people are born, marry but never die!

In this sanitised world, where only the best photos are shown, life is marvellous.   Apparently it all started when a couple of US college students invented a kind of dating agency.   It grew rapidly, leaving the college grounds and produced an income for its founders.   Now it has grown to global dimensions causing the major shareholder in an Irish newspaper, the Independent, to complain that Social Media were sucking the advertising revenue, which is the life-blood of newspapers, out of the system.

So who are the citizens of facebook-land?    They are easily recognisable.   Their heads are down and they are focussed on the smartphone in their hands.   They are largely oblivious to everything going on around them.    Others are wired for sound.   The cable which comes from their ears may be mic-wired which, when activated, gives the impression of speaking to themselves!

What has all this to do with developing Church life?   Since ‘everybody’ has a smartphone we have an efficient prayer circle with prayer requests transmitted via ‘WhatsApp’.    This is a closed group from the Church and operates efficiently dealing with requests on a real time basis.

Our text cards, which previously highlighted an appropriate Biblical text now show a bar-code!    This is thanks to Michael who showed me how use it to tap into a portion of scripture (thanks Google) on the internet.   Part of the usefulness of this venture is it gives the user access to the whole Bible, which is on line.   This presents a good reason for keeping switched on and head down!     The current bar-code offers a remedy for stress.   It’s found in St Matthew Chapter 6 verses 25 to 34.

We are in the season of Pride Parades.   The LGBT turn out in their millions whether it be in New York, Sao Paulo or London their upbeat colours brightening up the street-scape.   Our Dublin effort grows larger by the year but you really know things are changing when in Belfast the Pride Parade is the biggest in that land of parades!

What does the acronym LGBTQI+ stand for?   It’s lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer, intersex.   The plus sign covers a multitude of sins!    It can stretch to 16!   It’s a movement looking for a name.   The name must mean ‘being different’.

The LG part of the acronym has come of age with some of our foremost law firms and banks making major strides at creating inclusive cultures and publicly proclaim it.    No one need feel they are left out.    All human beings are equal irrespective of sexuality.   In fact, Ireland is something of a global leader in equality.     Our vote for marriage equality was the first country to do so.    We also have a Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, herself a lesbian, who has set up a LGBTI+ National Youth Strategy – another first for Ireland.

It is in the field of youth that the biggest increase in the BT is expected.   To really ensure cultural change, it’s wasting time focussing on the elderly and mature, the effort has to be directed towards youth.    It’s there that fluid gender and the absence of boundaries have the strongest appeal.   Add in the decoupling of parental control, which has been used in the UK, in the furtherance of trans-gender work.

There seem to be overtones here with Aldous Huxley’s ‘Brave New World’.   In the book Huxley sees the future with child production taken out of the hands of would be parents and assigned to laboratories.   This was written in 1932!  

The rainbow has become the flag of the LGBT.    It has been hi-jacked from the Bible where it symbolises God’s promise, after the flood, that the earth will not be subject to another global flood.    Such a mighty symbol waving in the hands of the unaware!

Cultures, of course, are fluid themselves.    No matter how hard people try to effect permanent change they can only make a surface one.    Moses was up against it when he tried to change the culture of the Egyptians to let his people go.    Pharaoh introduced his magicians who turned their staffs into snakes.    The magic did not last long as Moses’s staff also turned into a snake and eat all the others.   Only God can effect permanent change! (Exodus Chapter 7 verse 12).   

Some may feel that the present changes go to the foundation of the old verities.   The Psalmist also asked this question, “When the foundations are being destroyed, what can the righteous do?”  Keep going and God will do his part (Chapter 11 verses 3/7).  

The Heart of the Matter                Word on the Week                     15^th June 2019.

The conversation in the Men’s Shed this week seemed to focus on the heart.   The various paraphernalia used to keep it going came under review.   These included stents, replacement valves and that long-time favourite, the pace-maker.

The introduction of stents had, it was decided, become a fine art.   The procedure had been reduced to a few hours in hospital with some being able to boast of very fast turn-a-round times.     Some maintained that it had been reduced to a simple plumbing operation but others, with a better grasp of anatomy, reckoned that they were getting their body parts mixed up!

Breaking news reported the company responsible for remotely monitoring the pacemakers was ceasing to operate.    This didn’t cause anyone to miss a beat as all users were perfectly able to go back to the old method of monitoring it themselves.

A good friend used to say when relating to the sins we all commit, “The heart of the matter is the matter of the human heart”!    It certainly brings out the central truth that sin comes from within us but leaves the misunderstanding that the organ of the heart is at fault.   Of course it is only a pump but one that is so central to our existence that it has a very descriptive place in our vocabulary.

Another, who did a lot of flying, called the heart “the control tower of the body”.  He saw it as governing our thoughts, emotions, desires and motivations in other words this is the way we are.    Well not quite – sin lives in there too!    Jesus said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him.  For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness.   All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person” (St Mark Chapter 7 verses 20 to 23).

As a result, our thoughts, emotions, desires and motivations are corrupted.    The heart becomes the worship centre of your life and you realise you are in the last days when you join others described as “lovers of themselves…lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power” (2 Timothy chapter 3 verses 1 to 5).

We need a new heart, not a surgical implant, but as in Ezekiel’s day.

“I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleanness’s, and from all your idols I will cleanse you.  And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.  I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God” (Ezekiel chapter 36 verses 25/28).    Look in faith to our redeemer God.

The Great Skua                     Word on the Week                          8^th June 2019.

While on a bird-watching expedition last Wednesday to Loop Head in Co Clare a solitary Great Skua flew past heading for Blasket Island.    It was undisturbed by the presence of another big bird which had landed at Doonbeg some 6 miles away and with whom it shares some characteristics.

It is the size of the Herring Gull but much stockier built.   The plumage is largely brown with rustier underparts and white feathers across the base of the primaries.   It is piratical in behaviour, chasing other birds until they disgorge their prey which it then catches often in mid-air.   It wouldn’t be the favourite bird of the colony!

The cliffs are terraced affording nesting sites for legions of Guillemots and Razorbills while below were the dried seaweed nests of Shags and Cormorants.   Kittiwakes screeched as they fussed around their whitewashed nests, occupying the same ledges as their forebears.   Fulmars, of the Albatross family, glide effortlessly in the onshore breeze, landing amid sustained chatter as they preside over their solitary egg.

In the distance a flock of Black Guillemots bobbed on the surface while some dived to bring up their lunch.   They were accompanied by a small school of Dolphin indicating the presence of a shoal of fish.    In the distance a line of Gannets (the fishermen called them a string of pearls) gleamed white in the sunlight as they headed for their nesting sites on the Skelligs to the South.

There is an order and a beauty in nature which not only creates but also sustains wild life.    Each specie has its allotted nesting site and its food supply in the sea nearby.    It would be easy to worship these places and become a ‘birdman’ one sold out on the creation but that would be to confuse the sign with what it signifies.    Creation is the sign.   It has a Creator.    Those who believe or have been radicalised at school into believing that life came from non-life (i.e. evolution), have difficulty in seeing past nature.    We see it as the signpost pointing to God.

All the glories of the physical world serve this one purpose – to remind us of and to point us to the glory of God (Exodus Chapter 20 verse 3).   The natural world is not the thing we are to live for.   How sad when a person looks for what cannot be found in what cannot deliver.   They look to the sign mistaking it for the substance.  

“Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth!   For I am God, and there is no other.”   (Isaiah Chapter 45 verse 22)

The Psalmist discovered this (Chapter 73 verses 24/26): –

You guide me with your counsel,

and afterward you will receive me to glory.

Whom have I in heaven but you?

And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.

My flesh and my heart may fail,

but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.             

Getting into the Swing                    Word on the Week              1^st June 2019.

I invariably find it difficult to select a topic for the weekly blog.   It’s not the shortage of material that is the problem but the volume!   So much happens in a week and, believe it or not, the Bible always has a view which could be expressed.     In this case, an insignificant incident, given the oxygen of publicity, has seriously damage a political career.

Normally in this life what you loose on the swings you can regain on the roundabouts but, alas for Maria Bailey, the roundabout is not working.    In fact, Maria in her various media interviews this week, has fared badly on the swings also!    So who is this Maria?

Maria Bailey is an Irish Fine Gael politician for the Dún Laoghaire constituency who was appointed Chair of the Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government; a seat which she is in danger of losing.    It’s not the only chair where she has found it difficult to hold onto her seat.   Her best known was when she fell off a swing near a hotel bar when she was holding a bottle in each hand.    Her case against the hotel, which goes back to July 2017, claimed she couldn’t run after the accident.    However, within three weeks of the incident she won a 10 km race in the same time which she clocked up in the same race the previous year.   

Details from her claim to the Circuit Court (where the maximum award is €60,000) were published last week, causing significant embarrassment for her Government. The latter are on a crusade to drive down insurance personal injury claims in the run-up to elections.   

In order to get to the bottom of the matter the Taoiseach has called for a report.    This being the usual tactic by government when things become uncomfortable.   Her case against the hotel has now been withdrawn.

Perhaps the biggest swing in Scripture was in public opinion.     One day the Jerusalem crowd were hailing Jesus as the Messiah and spreading their cloaks before him, the next they were calling for his crucifixion (St Matthew chapter 21 verse 9).    The swing could not have been greater.     The fickleness of the mob, so easily influenced by the Chief Priests and the Elders and blinded by a blood lust for a crucifixion.     They even preferred the release of a notorious criminal and took the guilt of Christ’s upon themselves and their children (St Matthew Chapter 27 verses 22 to 26).

With the benefit of hindsight, we see through Joseph’s eyes, “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives” (Genesis Chapter 50 verse 20).    And that salvation commenced at Pentecost has continued to draw people into the Kingdom to this day.

“What are you like”             Word on the Week                          25^th May 2019

The phrase can have either an exclamation or a question mark.   An exclamation at something you have done or a question of where you come from.    The Bible says: – Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens anover the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creep on the earth.”    So God created man in his own image, the image of God he created him;

male and female he created them (Genesis Chapter 1 verses 26/7).

It is plain that we come from God’s creation.   We were made in his image to be creative beings living in a love relationship to each other modelling the Trinity.  

Since the fall the image has been marred but in Jesus we see it as it should be.  “He is the image of the invisible God” (Colossians Chapter 1 verse 15a).

When on earth Jesus told a story concerning images.   It arose out of a plan to trap him with a question.   No one likes to pay taxes so the Pharisees seized an opportunity to gain popularity over Jesus by asking him whether or not it was right to pay taxes to the Roman occupying powers?    If he answered in the affirmative, he was in trouble with his followers but if he answered negatively he was in trouble with the Roman authorities!

Jesus did neither but asked for the coin used in paying tax.   He then asked them whose image was on the coin.   It was Caesar’s.   “Therefore give to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s” was Jesus reply (St Matthew Chapter 22 verses 15/22).

The answer confounded his enemies who gave up their questioning.  

His followers may have thought more deeply into “give to God the things that are God’s”.   

To be human is to bear the image of God.   We are his by creation.   We come from God.   We bear the divine image.    The secular view with its evolutionary overtones parodied by Gilbert and Sullivan

“Darwinian man, though well behaved,

At best is only a monkey shaved”, –  sees us as animals.

We then begin to see the value system being skewed in favour of the fittest at the expense of the elderly, chronically sick or the baby in the womb.

It all depends on whether we are in God’s image and therefore of infinite value or go down the secular path with its diminished value system.

“What are you like!”   The Bible says we are sinners.   Not because we have sinned but that is our fallen nature (Romans chapter 5 verse 12).   But by God’s grace and the work of Jesus as our sin-bearer on the cross everyone who turns to Jesus believing that “He died in my place” will be saved.

Putting your faith in the risen Jesus brings you into the family of God where you can become a living image-bearer of our risen Saviour.