The fire last weekend at the temporary halting site took the lives of ten people. Five were adults and five were children. They died when fire totally engulfed the Portacabin and a caravan the families had been occupying for the last eight years.

There followed an outpouring of sympathy with tributes led by the President, the Archbishop of Dublin and Government Ministers. Floral tributes were strewn around the entrance to the site. Local housing officials attended the site and organised hostel accommodation for the 15 survivors who had been left homeless.

The Local Council identified a suitable site on an acre of land which it owned close by to the original site. The neighbouring houses were leafleted informing them of a temporary arrangement to house the survivors. The local residents quickly declared the site unsuitable, doubted the Council’s word that it would terminate after 6 months and anticipated anti-social behaviour from the remaining members of the Connors family. As I write talks with the residents are ongoing.

First the sympathy then the realisation of the consequences. The reservoir of goodwill dries up quickly and the “nimby” (not in my back yard) attitude forms. Scripture has a few similar examples the best known being the attitude of the Jews to the Samaritans (St John’s Gospel Chapter 4 verse 9).

Ignoring the convention that Jews did not mix with Samaritans Jesus stayed with them for two days during which time many believed in him.

Did these believers have their faith in Jesus established by Philip the Apostle’s preaching when he went there following the persecution of believers in Jerusalem? (Acts Chapter 8 verses 4/8). It seems likely that they were there to hear Philip update them with the news of the crucifixion and resurrection. The text says they paid close attention to what he said and there were signs authenticating the message as people were delivered from evil spirits and healed from paralyses.

The Gospel is for all groups. There are no exceptions. The challenge is to follow Philip’s example.

Deutschland Uber Alles, perhaps, but not last Thursday! Not in the Aviva Stadium in Dublin for sure! It may have been only one goal that the Irish side scored but wasn’t it a beauty. Shay Long’s fresh legs (he had just been substituted) outpaced the opposition to the ball. His shot flew unerringly, past Neuer (the best goalkeeper in the world) into the far corner of the net.

It exorcised the memories of past defeats and resurrected the ‘Olay, Olay, Olay’ song which had not been sung for so long that many of the youngsters present had to learn the words! There was plenty of opportunity to practise them as the celebrations lasted half the night.

Apologies to our German readers but beating the world champions at soccer is not the sort of thing which happens to us every day! It is now up to our Rugby Team to prove themselves tomorrow against France having made their way successfully through the preliminary matches of the World Cup.

But the week was not all about winning. Digicel, Dennis O’Brien’s flagship, was to be floated on the New York Stock Exchange but was withdrawn. Stock-market volatility was blamed but the offering may have been overpriced. In any event all Digicel’s data is now in the public domain along with its ambition to be the main sports broadcaster in the Caribbean.

This ambition was dented with the news that John Malone’s Cable & Wireless has signed up the English Premier League for the next two seasons!

Digicel hopes to move from being a mobile phone company to include data, broadband and cable TV. In this it is playing catch-up with Cable & Wireless so the battle for the Caribbean is on.

It is in the nature of things that each week there are winners and losers. We hope to be among the winners but experience tells us these hopes do not always materialise.

There is another kind of hope, one that radically changes our outlook. This hope is not a team, a business deal, an idea or thing. It is a person – Jesus.

But it’s not enough to say that reliable hope is in Jesus, it’s more pointed than that. Reliable hope is Jesus! In his life, death and resurrection the believer’s life is infused with hope and we don’t need to search for it any longer. We are released into a life useful to God and our neighbours.

St Paul expresses well in his letter to Titus Chapter 3 verses 4/8. But when the kindness and love of God our Saviour appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Saviour, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life. This is a trustworthy saying. And I want you to stress these things, so that those who have trusted in God may be careful to devote themselves to doing what is good. These things are excellent and profitable for everyone.

The death yesterday of Brian Friel, who was Ireland’s greatest living playwright, has brought forth many tributes. His prolific output over many years justly earned him global acclaim.

At the core of his writings is the notion that our sense of what happened in the past owes more to our imagination than it does to our memory! He is reputed to have said that an autobiographical fact can be pure fiction but added that it is no less reliable for that!

Many of his plays are based on the imaginary village of Ballybeg, located in the Glentees in Donegal. There he was able to draw on his childhood memories and colour them with his vivid imagination to produce the many memorable characters that fill his work.

When he left school at 16 he went to Maynooth College to study for the priesthood. After two and a half years he left describing it as an awful experience which he never talked about. Perhaps it emerged in “Dancing at Lughnasa” where the sister’s brother Fr Jack returned from the mission field in Africa having imbibed the pagan customs of the people. Friel audaciously mixed priestcraft with witchcraft as Fr Jack enthused over the local equivalent, the harvest festival of Lughnasa, jettisoning his priestly duties.

There are recurring themes in Friel’s plays. As one critic put it; somehow it is always Ballybeg, it is always August, the day is always waning, and the world is always ending! His characters were always feeling there way through life, lacking assurance, never certain. There was a sense of the melancholy about them which in the hands of good actors morphed into the struggles of real life.

In Shakespeare’s “As you like it” are the lines; ‘All the world’s a stage and all men and women merely players. They have their exits and entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts.’

These secular views of playwrights who depict the human condition without God travel through the avenues of time as if Jesus had never been born, lived a perfect life, died in the sinners place, was buried and rose from the dead and is alive for evermore.

For them and their characters the earth is void of certainty, void of salvation. Its as if St John’s heavenly vision where the saint glimpsed the glory to come never happened…”I looked and behold, a great multitude no man could number from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb…crying out with a loud voice, Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb (Revelation Chapter 7 verses 9/10).

But it has happened! St Paul states categorically that those in Christ will be there “Even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ – by grace you have been saved – and raised us up with him in the heavenly place in Christ Jesus,…by grace you have been saved through faith and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God not a result of works so that no one may boast. We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. (Ephesians chapter 2 verses 5/10). Amen!

What happens when the top performer in the class is caught cheating and it is discovered he has been at it for the last 6 years? Germany has been disgraced. Her moral authority dented. All this happened at a time when it was acting as a role model in European affairs.

‘How the mighty have fallen’ might be the quote from King David that occurred to Angela Merkel when she contemplated the fall-out from the corruption revealed in the flagship of German industry. To make it even more wounding the computer mechanism which did the damage was discovered by the Americans. No chance of keeping it quiet now!

In fact, as the land of lawyers sharpen their claws, Volkswagen have hired the legal firm which represented Shell in their massive law suites over the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico to represent them!

So what did they get up to? The deception centres round a piece of software which sensed when the cars exhaust emissions were being tested and switched the engine to trap the toxic output. To leave this in place uses more fuel so it switched back when the test was finished and polluted away happily blowing nitrogen oxide into the air adding to the woes of emphysema, bronchitis and other suffers of respiratory diseases.

The scam affects 11 million of its diesel models and, as this is not a fault which would be covered under its Product Recall insurance, (it was done deliberately) the company have had to set aside €6.5 billion to cover the costs of rectifying the problem. I expect claims for damages will have to be added to this figure. In this matter Volkswagen are at the mercy of the US criminal system.

Deception for gain is one of the oldest tricks in the book. “You shall have just balances, just weights, a just ephah and a just hin…you shall observe all my statutes and all my rules and do them: I am the Lord” (Leviticus Chapter 19 verse 35/7). The measurements had to be correct. Short measure is sin (Romans Chapter 3 verse 23). The Bible calls all those who cheat an abomination (Deuteronomy Chapter 25 verse 15).

As usual we can see the sin most clearly in others and are myopic when it comes to ourselves! This double standard is highlighted in Romans Chapter 2 verses 1/4 when the Apostle writes that God is patient, while we go in for this “passing judgement on them and yet do the same things”, in order to give us time to repent.

This patience is picked up by St Peter in his 2^nd letter Chapter 3 verse 9 where he says that the Lord is not wishing that any should perish but that all should reach repentance.

Don’t cover up the pollution in your life like Volkswagen but come clean with God whose grace in giving us what we don’t deserve – a new life, made possible through faith in our sinbearing Saviour.

As the African believer put it “He die, me no die” that is the ultimate experience of love.

Donald Trump’s trumpet made an uncertain sound, perhaps for the first time in the US Presidential campaign, when his crude remarks to Carly Fiorina about her face were met by a measured response which put Trump in his place. Prior to this incidence he has lampooned and insulted his way into the hearts of the grassroots Republicans by walking all over the 10 or so competing hopefuls turning the Presidential debates into entertainment.

In a land where money talks Trump the billionaire speaks with a loud voice. So far he hasn’t shown any ability to deal with the economy or foreign policy but has gone for the populist votes proclaiming the building of a 1,000 mile wall to keep the Mexicans out. Another part of his immigration policy is to send all undocumented home – at the time Obama is trying to have a law passed to legalise many of them.

We have had some dealing with Trump in these islands. His mother was a McLeod from the Isle of Lewis in the Scottish Hebrides so it is not surprising that he should buy the Sand Dunes at Menie in Aberdeenshire for his “world class” golf course. He has also built a hotel and plans some up market homes on the site. These plans have been put on hold as he has locked horns with the planners who have approved an offshore wind farm at Menie. Donald feels this would spoil the view and, as he likes to get his own way, there is a stalemate.

In the meantime he has placated himself by purchasing Doonbeg hotel and golf course in Ireland for €15 million!

Donald made his money by turning around his father’s real estate business when he was still at college. He then purchased old skyscrapers in good locations and refurbished them as hotels sometimes cladding the outside with reflective sheeting. These became “Trump Towers” which he has built in a number of famous locations. He also exploited the neighbouring “air space” purchasing it to extent his hotel (in a similar way to our planned development at Grace!) in city centres where sites where hard to find.

By comparison with his other utterances he has been muted on issues of faith. He says he is Presbyterian and goes to church on Sunday when he can and always at Easter and Christmas. Unlike other candidates he has made no claims to be “born again” and sees his Christianity as related to job-creation.

The Bible does not do democracy! There is no voting. The most obvious example was the appointment of the shepherd, David, to the position of King. Samuel the prophet had the task of anointing God’s chosen man but made the mistake of looking on the candidates external appearance. God however looks on the heart and chose the humble shepherd – the despised job – as the future King (1Samuel Chapter 16 verse 7.

This virtue of humility marked out Christ, David’s greater son. St Mark writes of how the rulers lord it over their subjects but the followers of Jesus are not to be so. They are to be like Jesus and serve one another. “For the son of man came not to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many” (chapter 10 verse 45).

That ransom makes servant leadership possible for believers today.

On Thursday this week we had World Suicide Prevention Day. On Friday the UK Parliament threw out the Assisted Dying Bill by a large majority.

Meanwhile in California the opposite happened. The State Legislature yesterday joined four other States in approving a bill which would allow terminally ill people end their own lives.

Here in Ireland it is a subject that demands our attention. Data released recently show that in the European Community we have the highest suicide rate for young women and the 2^nd highest rate for young men.

There are things that promote suicide such as drink and drugs. They are more usually the symptoms of inner disquiet and despair than the reason.

The bottling up of problems adds to the difficulties in sharing anything but the more acceptable sins, whilst a dark cloud continues to shroud the big issues. These thrive by being kept secret and can end up so distorting ones thinking that the only “decent thing to do for everyone’s sake” is to suicide.

The frightful thing is that this distorted thinking seems so right to the person having these thoughts. It has been likened to a pilot flying in fog and unable to see the horizon or the ground but is convinced he is doing the right thing. He may have a very strong feeling that he is going up when he is going down. It is vital that he disregard his feelings and follow the instruments no matter how much they contradict his intuition.

Now the pilot is at an advantage as he has been trained to trust his instruments and, although the potential suicide may have been well brought up, even trained in the scriptures, the dominant feeling is that they know best. In fact the delusion is so powerful that it may have fatal results.

It is so vital to speak. Other cries for help may not be understood. Words make it plain.

What advice can we get from the Scriptures?

St James writes that healing comes when we confess our sins to one another (James Chapter 5 verse 16). Obviously you choose someone you can trust and is a good listener.

St Paul says to choose a Christian partner, never unbelievers (2 Corinthians Chapter 6 verse 14). Always, throughout scripture, where this rule was broken God’s people stopped following Him and ended up in a mess.

Jesus said “love your enemies” (St Luke Chapter 6 verse 27) – in other words go from thinking about yourself to thinking about others and their needs.

These are big asks – but we have a big God. The Psalmist said “In your light we see light” (Chapter 36 verse 9). He can dispel the darkness and let you see more clearly how much you are loved.

Jesus Said “I am the way the truth and the light” (St John Chapter 14 verse 6).

Cling to Him!

The UK Prime Minister called it a swarm others a migration as refugees, attracted by the relative stability and prosperity of Europe, headed west.

They form two broad categories; economic migrants and asylum seekers.

The plan is to repatriate the former and allow the latter to remain.

This plan is contested by some European states the most vocal of which is Hungary. Their Prime Minister played the religion card when he said Hungary would only take Christians not Muslims! He has belatedly discovered that Europe’s identity is rooted in Christianity a fact that has been noticeably absent from the EC’s recent laws! Why has he gone there?

It has been said that the Old Testament is the last refuge of a rogue!

Perhaps the Hungarians are aligning themselves to God’s desire for purity in Israel when they took possession of the Promised Land (Deuteronomy 7 verses 1/11)? This was a purity that eluded them despite Joshua’s farewell speech pleading for separation from the peoples of the land, their practices and their gods (Joshua 23 verses 7/13). Something has to account for the miles of razor wire now surrounding Hungary’s borders.

God’s desire was always that through Abraham’s seed “all families of the earth shall be blessed” (Genesis 12 verse 3). That blessing came through Jesus (Galatians 3 verse 16) so that in Christ there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. Let’s look to the day when the barriers and razor wire, that we so readily erect to protect our little corner from the ‘other’, are made obsolete by a uniting faith in Christ.

Instead to trying to keep refugees out, we should be inventing ways to receive them and engage them in worthwhile work.

Our current travesty of shutting refugees up in hostels on €19.00 per week is pathetic. Perhaps it will take the present crisis to do what countless reports have failed to do and that is to show respect to those who have come to our land for refuge.

Could God’s hand be in all this? In the main refugees come from countries where Gospel works are hampered by the imprisonment or execution of missionaries. Perhaps the Lord is sending them to us so that we don’t have to go to them! Perhaps the love and compassion we show to them will be the catalyst that will make the refugee want to know the Jesus who has transformed our lives?

Listen to St Paul, who came from a position of great scholarship and a promising career, as he testifies to his new life in Christ. “Whatever I had I counted loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord (Philippians 3 verses 7/8).

Let’s pray that great good will come out of the current debacle.

The business of adultery took a hit recently when a hacker opened up the Ashley Madison website and revealed the names and account details of the 37,000,000 registered there. These had been attracted by the sites motto “Life is short. Have an affair,”

The secrecy, under which it had operated over the last 14 years, removed last week, at the touch of a hacker’s finger – causing global consternation!

Technology has provided the vehicle for the largely atheistic society to work out the implications of their unbelief in God. If the commandment “Thou shall not commit adultery” does not apply and humankind simply evolved by chance then adulterous behaviour is to be expected.

Perhaps it is the scale of the business that astounded people as it seems to lend credence to the founders comment “monogamy, in my opinion, is a failed experiment”!

Popular culture, led by the entertainment world, supports this contention. ‘Soaps’ continually push the boundaries of decency treating any experiment in sexual gratification as the norm. In this environment where no moral boundaries exist adultery is treated as customary. Multitudes take their cue from these ‘soaps’ producing incalculable hurt and broken lives.

The Bible ridicules the idea that anything can be hidden from God ‘Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight’ (Hebrews 4 verse 13). If you assume for a moment there is a God it would be folly to suppose that it could be otherwise.

The sinners questions, “Who will see me? And “Who will know?” (Isaiah 29 verse 15) are met with the resounding “Thou God seest me” (Genesis 16 verse 13).

For those who have knowingly enlisted in elicit internet activities the way back to peace of mind and peace with God is to confess to those cheated and truly repent. Some have called this repentance “the never again of a sin sick heart”.

The Lord is gracious and can forgive as he did in the case of the woman caught in the act of adultery (St John Chapter 8 verses 10/11).

He can also forgive the sins of the repentant atheist who recognises the mess his life is in and turns to Jesus the only one who has the power to forgive completely as he bore all sin in his body on the cross (1Peter Chapter 2 verse 24).

This salvation introduces the sinner to a new landscape, one where those who previously were thought weird now seem sensible as the scales fall off and vision is restored.

“All human conflict is ultimately spiritual”. I cannot remember who said it but it does ring true. What we believe ultimately governs our actions. Sometimes secondary causes get in the way but in the end of the day our lives will show whether the heavens were empty – there is no one there and we went it alone or, God is sovereign and “Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give an account” (Hebrews Chapter 4 verse 13).

The high court in London this week ruled that a radicalised schoolgirl be removed from her parent’s home which was full of terrorist propaganda including pictures of beheadings, bomb-making materials and instructions as to how Jihadists should hide their identity. The girl exhibited similar emotional harm to those who were sexually abused. The judge said “The violation contemplated here is not of the body but of the mind”.

This 16 year old has been prevented from following others who have gone to Syria to join ISIS as a jihadi bride.

An extreme case? Perhaps but the ISIS followers of Allah are simply pursuing their cause in their time honoured way, not by intellectual battles but by well orchestrated intimidation, now made easier via social media graphically portraying executions.

The effectiveness of their efforts hit the front pages of our press today showing the steps the Macedonian authorities had to take to control the influx of Muslins desperate to reach Western Europe. They came in their thousands from Syria, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq paying dearly to mafia groups at each stage of their journey and facing an uncertain future.

St Paul made the same crossing to Macedonia in response to a vision of a man calling on him to ‘come over and help us’. This was the confirmation they needed and after a few days they joined a prayer meeting where St Paul preached the Gospel (the first time it was heard in Europe) leading to the conversion of an immigrant from Asia called Lydia and her household Acts Chapter 16 verses 9-15).

The message could not be more different from that of the Jihadist. It speaks of Jesus, who led a perfect life, and died a sinner’s death, before rising to reign eternally, so that faith in his death in our place and the gift of his Spirit brings us into his kingdom forever.

Jesus has done the work. He went to Calvary. Ours is the little journey of faith to serve a living Saviour, sharing his love with others. This led to St Paul getting beaten up the next day and thrown into jail where God carried out an even more spectacular conversion (Acts Chapter 16 verses25-34).

All human conflict is ultimately spiritual. Jesus said “You are either for me or against me” (St Matthew Chapter 12 verse 30). It’s your call!

Living in Ireland whose climate is “flower friendly” and fortunate enough to be married to a flower grower/arranger it is impossible not to be struck by their sheer elegance and beauty. They surround the house and ‘invade’ our living space in the most glorious manner!

All this, of course, does not happen by chance. Nor would the processes of evolution produce such order even if we waited a few billion years! It requires the hand of the gardener who tends, weeds and feeds each in its season according to its own special requirements.

In this regard they resemble human relationships. They bring the greatest joy when they are looked after and the greatest difficulties when they are neglected.

Just as flowers need to be weeded (Jesus said “An enemy has done this” referring to the tares in the wheat field; St Matthew chapter 13 verse 28) human relationships need daily attention. The same enemy can sow the weeds of conflict, control, selfishness, pride, self-righteousness…which, if allowed to grow choke the life out of relationships. Good relationships are good because those involved never stop working on them.

Job must have been having a bad day (and he had a few of them) when he said, “Man who is born of woman is few of days and full of trouble. He comes out like a flower and withers; he flees like a shadow and continues not.” (Chapter 14 verse 2) So what is Job saying? He puts flowers and Man into the same transitory category. Both have a relatively short shelf life! But both have the potential, under the hand of the master Gardener, to produce great beauty.

Let’s leave it to St Peter to sort out the seed which produces the flowers of God’s love. We are to “Love one another earnestly from a pure heart, since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God; (then he quotes Isaiah) for ‘All flesh is like grass and all its glory its glory like the flower of grass.

The grass withers and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever.’

(Then he adds)

And this word is the good news that was preached to you.” (1Peter chapter 1 verses 22-25).

So St Peter is saying the seed of a good relationship with both God and people is the word – the Bible. And the good news is (in verses 18/19)

“You were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.”

The risen Jesus is the master Gardener. Put your trust in his work – it lasts forever.