Those of us fortunate enough to receive a tax form will recognise that its completion poses both a threat and a challenge. The threat is that it will take away some of our hard gotten gains and the challenge is to complete the document honestly.

This week is was revealed by an International Consortium of Investigative Journalists that 323 Irish firms took the Panama route for their clients (who need not be Irish) and dealt with the Panamanian firm Mossack Fonseca.
This firm specialises in providing a home for money whilst concealing the name of the real owner. Apparently the usual practice is for the money to follow a circuitous route using various names eventually ending up in a bank in another jurisdiction such as the Channel Isles. Access to the money by the ultimate beneficial owner (the real owner) is possible when the bank receives the documentation prepared by Mossack Fonseca.

This ploy has proved attractive to many people not least heads of States!
The fact that what they are doing is quite legal (something that may or may not be said of how the monies were originally earned) lures people into the network.
The Panama based law firm leaked 11.5 million files some going back as far as 1977. These are being picked over by 376 journalists from 76 countries so we may expect to hear much more of the secret activities of the money launderers, sanction dodgers, tax evaders and their friends.

We live in a broken world where the top 60 wealthy people have assets equal to the bottom 3.5 billion. Little wonder there is a market for those who want to squirrel away their wealth concealing it from everyone else!

But what about us? Are we simply to say “I am not like other people” (St Luke Chapter 18 verse 11). “I am the honest one and my honesty must commend itself to God. I don’t fiddle my tax in fact I may pay more than is strictly required!” Or do we take the easier moralism road that is prepared to stake everything on having done our best.

Whichever it is we fall so easily into the mind-set of the Pharisee who added up his assets and, although he would not say it publicly, reckoned he was a cut above his contemporaries especially those who are so dishonest with money.

The only way is via a repentance which avoids the charade of outward grief and inward turmoil but casts itself on the mercy of a loving God who accepts us for Jesus sake.
“In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his son as a propitiation for our sins” (1 John Chapter 4 verse 10).

The believer’s wealth is not on earth but in heaven (St Matthew Chapter 6 verse 20).
We brought nothing into the world and we cannot take anything out of the world. Our need is godliness with contentment (1 Timothy Chapter 6 verses 7 to 9).

May it be so with you.

I am afraid the “Risen People” all but extinguished witness to the “Risen Saviour” over the Easter weekend. At least that was true of the city centre churches which were inaccessible but it afforded us the joy of meeting with our friends in the suburbs.
Of course the staging of the rising at Easter 1916 with its inevitable shedding of blood and overtones of martyrdom stoked the flame of latent nationalism to a religious intensity in some minds. It happened in 1916 and, but for the proceedings being carefully choreographed in 2016, it could have happened again.
Whilst commemorating Easter is not of fundamental importance – Jesus rose on the first day (Sunday) of the week so his rising is tacitly remembered weekly – the very regularity produces a familiarity which dulls its impact. So it is left to Easter to refresh believer’s understanding of the amazing fact that he who was dead is now alive.

The triumphant shout “Tetelestai” (meaning finished, paid in full, accomplished) rang out from the cross indicating the removal of the sin barrier (Isaiah Chapter 59 verse 2) once for all by the atoning blood of the Lamb of God (St John Chapter 19 verses 28 & 30 and chapter 1 verse 29).
Then came the jarring effect of the empty tomb “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb and we don’t know where they have put him” St John Chapter 20 verse 2). A typical reaction, fearing the worst and forgetting the promise “Destroy this temple and I will raise it again in 3 days” referring to his body then he when on to teach that believer’s bodies would be the new home of the Holy Spirit (St John Chapter 2 verse 19-22 and 14 verse 17).

It took the resurrection appearances of Jesus to his disciples to allay their doubts and fears (St John Chapter 20 verses 19-29 and Chapter 21). It is the same today in many parts of the world where there is no open proclamation of the Good News. Doubts are turned to belief by dreams or visions of Jesus appearing to people who were struggling with their faith. China is a good example. For many years it excluded Missionaries and Bibles but the impact of the risen Jesus has produced a thriving church today.
Such was the impact of the empty tomb on St Paul that in his preaching at Athens his hearers thought he was referring to two gods – Jesus and the Resurrection (Acts 17 verse 18). Later he staked the veracity of the Christian faith on the fact of Christ’s rising from the dead (1 Corinthians chapter 15 verses 12-19).
Something of this is caught in Robert Lowry’s hymn: –
Death cannot keep its prey
Jesus, my Saviour!
He tore the bars away
Jesus, my Lord!

The glorious reality is that Christ has risen from the dead. The tomb is empty. The body is gone. The resurrection body has come. Christ is alive – hallelujah!
No monuments exist to a dead Christ. No pilgrimages to his grave. He is the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last. He existed before all things and lives after the power of an endless life (Revelation Chapter 22 verse 13).

He has spoken his Word was recorded in the Bible and now his Word continues to speak to us. In the words of Keith and Kristyn Getty’s song: –
This voice that spans the years
Speaking life, stirring hope, bring peace to us
Will sound till he appears
For he lives Christ has risen from the dead.

Was there ever a battle that wasn’t a botched affair? Was there ever a military campaign that didn’t have its origins in disagreement?
As children we thought General Wolfe’s victory at Quebec in 1759 was as good as it gets until we learned of the indecision that plagued the General.
The 1916 Irish Rising, which is being lavishly commemorated this weekend, is no exception. From the outset there were countermanding orders which prevented the main Volunteer force, recruited in the country districts, from taking part. Communications were difficult between the various units. The General Post Office provided a good Head Quarters until it was blown to bits by a gunboat which sailed up the Liffey.
The absence of any plan B left the outcome never in doubt. Nor was the fate of the leaders. The additional piece of provocation, written in the Proclamation, referred to “gallant allies in Europe” namely the Germans, who were at that time slaughtering the British in large numbers, ensured a charge of treason.
The victory that the Proclamation was assured of came at the cost of many lives and introduced the gun into Irish political life in a way that recurred through most of last century. The gun does settle some disputes but leaves an aftermath of distrust which decades have not eradicated.

This weekend Dublin is again in lockdown! This time to commemorate the events of that week at Easter 1916. The city is preparing for 350,000 visitors.
There will be the largest parade ever to take place on Irish soil. 2,500 personnel of the armed forces with all the machinery of war will take part. The newspapers have printed their April 1916 front page in great detail so we have it as they saw it through their Unionist tinted spectacles of the day!
The final death roll amounted to 485 of whom about 60 were rebels and 130 British military or police. About 295 were civilians including women and children. Around another 865 were wounded.
But it was with the execution of 16 rebel leaders that public opinion turned in favour of the Rising. In particular the shooting of James Connelly. He was injured and could not stand for the firing squad so was shot strapped to a chair.
Unlike the 50th anniversary which was attended by a great number of priests and religious orders the current event seems to have overlooked them. Indeed access to the city centre cathedrals on Easter Sunday was only granted after protest and other city centre churches will have to remain closed.
It’s a far cry from the armed struggle for national independence to Jesus teaching, “If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles” (St Matthew Chapter 5 verse 41).
Jesus exemplified the call for non-resistance. He did not protest his innocence instead he was led like a lamb to the slaughter (Isaiah Chapter 53 verse 7). He even prayed for those who nailed him to the cross and that prayer was for their forgiveness. Their sins would have been laid on Jesus along with every repentant sinners’ since then.
Some of the executed leaders shook hands with their firing squad and forgave them but a much greater forgiveness, encompassing all our sins, is available from the one who died for our sins and was raised to make us right with God (Romans Chapter 4 verse 25

Patrick Pearse Word on the Week 19th March 2016.

As we approach the 100th anniversary of the ‘Easter Rising’ it seems appropriate that we look at the man who perhaps more than any other has become its figurehead. From humble beginnings, born in a stonemason’s shop next door to our church premises in the street which later took his name, he became a high achiever.
His mother, a strong Catholic from Co Meath, was a powerful influence in his life. His father, a Unitarian from Birmingham, apart from providing them with a middle-class upbringing (he had 2 sons and 2 daughters) does not appear to have influenced Patrick to join the family business, despite the optimistic sign ‘Pearse and Sons’ above the door!
Patrick would have been taught the Irish language by his mother and his teachers at the nearby Christian Brothers School in Westland Row. His love for the language led to joining the Gaelic League and editing their newspaper.
He contended that the language was a vital component in national identity and founded a boy’s school along bi-lingual lines. In addition to teaching academic subjects there was an emphasis on Celtic mythology such as the heroes in the Ossian Cycle.

In March 1914 Pearse travelled to New York where his fundraising efforts were aided by a local Kill man, John Devoy. The latter worked on the principle of “England’s distraction is Ireland’s opportunity” and arranged for the Germans to equip the secret Irish Republican Brotherhood with a ship load of guns in time for the 1916 rising. The Germans kept their side of the bargain but their ship, the Aud, was intercepted and, while being escorted into Cork harbour, was scuttled by the captain.
Pearse’s ability with words led to his stamp being put on the Proclamation which, in addition to aspiring to freedom from British rule, sought to create an Ireland where all people could be free to accomplish their potential regardless of their wealth, class or religion.

There seems to have been a desire to tap into the pre-Christian myth of redemptive violence. The choice of Easter, the belief in the sanctifying power of bloodshed and the need for human sacrifice would appeal to the religious.
But there is no parallel here. Jesus did not make himself head of a Zion state. “My Kingdom is not of this world”. He did not instruct his followers to seize control of Jerusalem, killing anyone who resisted (St John Chapter 18 verse 36).
There has been a deliberate confusion between the un-mandated seizure of political power with its attendant loss of life and the death and resurrection of Jesus where the only injury was the cutting off of an ear which was promptly healed (St Luke Chapter 22 verses 50-51).

There is a total distinction between the Prince of Peace (Isaiah chapter 9 verse 6) and the bloodshed that is carried out in his name. In taking his leave of his disciples Jesus said “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid” (St John Chapter 14 verse 27).

This peace is not merely between people but can also be between you and God. And that reconciliation takes place when we bow the knee to the one who shed his own blood that we might experience his freedom and our true potential “For in Jesus all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross” (Colossians Chapter 1 verses 19-20).

It has fallen to the least well off member of the European Community to bear, proportionally, the greatest burden of the Refugee Crisis. They flow from Afghanistan to Syria in an attempt to escape from the culture of death which characterises many of their homelands.
It has been a happy coincidence that the Greek Isle of Lesbos is a mere four miles across the Aegean Sea from Turkey giving the refugees their best chance to reach Europe. In fact 600,000 have chosen this route with an eightfold increase this January over last January’s figure.
This speeding of the flow has been stimulated by the European states discussing how to stem the refugee tide. The people smugglers operating from Turkey charge exorbitant fees, sell them fake lifejackets which don’t float and load them into unseaworthy boats. It’s a miracle that only 4,000 have died on the crossing.

The bulk of the refugees come from Syria where the fighting is now in its 5th year. A partial truce came into force recently which has curtailed the aerial bombardment and allowed some respite to those of the population who haven’t the means to flee. Unfortunately this has been offset to some extent by ISIS using sulphur mustard gas loaded into artillery shells. This may be part of the legacy of ‘Chemical Ali’s’ hoard from the days of Saddam Hussein. The gas, which is banned by the Geneva Convention, burns the skin, the breathing passages and eyes. The targeted people have no means of defence against this evil.

In Bible times St Paul headed in the same direction. He would have sailed past Lesbos on his third missionary journey as he travelled to Troas then, in answer to the Macedonian call to come over and help them, sailed for Greece landing at Philippi.
It would not have been so crowded in those days! This was the route the Gospel took when it arrived in Europe!
It started innocuously in a prayer meeting outside the city gate, by a river, run by a woman called Lydia with her household. They believed the Gospel and were all baptised in the river (Acts Chapter 16 verses 11 – 15).
It was in Philippi that Paul and Silas landed in jail for delivering a demon possessed girl thus depriving her owners of the money she earned for them!
In prison that night there was an earthquake which miraculously freed the chained prisoners. The jailer thinking the prisoners had escaped was about to kill himself when Paul restrained him…”and the jailer called for lights and rushed in, and trembling with fear he fell down before Paul and Silas. Then he brought them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” And they said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.” And they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house.

He took them the same hour of the night and washed their wounds; and he was baptized at once, he and all his family. Then he brought them up into his house and set food before them. And he rejoiced along with his entire household that he had believed in God” (verses 29 – 34).
St Paul’s trip to Greece was no tragedy and our prayer should be that for many coming looking for a new life in Europe they may find it in Christ, be delivered from the past like the girl and given something to rejoice over similar to the jailer and his family.

The similarity between the dumping of the Fine Gael Coalition in our Irish election and the sweeping victory in the super-Tuesday primaries for the republican candidate Donald Trump was the electorate’s disbelief in the much vaulted economic recovery. For a large section of the voters it hadn’t happened!
Here in Ireland politicians will spend their Easter holidays working out possible permutations of TD for a Government that will last perhaps a year or two. Their deliberations will be interrupted by the Patrick’s Day trips abroad and the 100th commemoration of the Rising.
In the US there are few, if any, obstacles in the path of ‘The Don’. With November 8th in his sights the small matter of Republican nomination scarcely merits a mention. It now is a foregone conclusion.
His popularity lies along three fronts. He is anti-establishment which taps into popular complaints and enables him to amuse his following by name-calling those in authority. Secondly he uses an insular form of nationalism to attack immigrant groups easily defined as Mexicans, Muslims and illegals (largely Irish) few of whom have the vote.
His other accomplishment is that of an entertainer! He can warm up an audience with his apparently off the cuff remarks whilst using up the time thereby requiring little of substance to be said in his speeches.
Endeavouring to establish his evangelical credentials he produced the Bible which his mother gave him and declared himself to be a Christian. Asked if he had ever had the need for forgiveness he said he had never asked God for forgiveness!

Then we have Trump as defender of the faith. “We are going to protect Christianity. If you look at what’s going on throughout the world, you look at Syria, where there if you are a Christian, they’re chopping off heads. You look at different places and Christianity, it’s under siege.”
Trump stressed how “very, very proud” he is to be a Protestant – “Presbyterian, to be exact” – and said the 70 to 75 percent of Americans who claim to be Christians must band together to push for change since “very bad things are happening.” He promised to “knock the hell out of ISIS” and that, “If I’m president, you’re going to see ‘Merry Christmas’ in department stores. Believe me.”
The ‘Trump Card’?
At this distance it would seem to be the Joker! While in politics it is possible for a comic to pull the wool over the eyes of the voters there comes a day of reckoning especially for those who play fast and loose with God’s word. “For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account (Hebrews chapter 4 verses 12-13).
Jesus said: “I tell you, on the Day of Judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak, for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned” (St Matthew Chapter 12 verse 37).
Perhaps it’s not too late for Trump to reflect on the matter of forgiveness and turn from being the Joker to look for the King’s forgiveness by putting on the garment that Jesus supplies! (St Matthew chapter 22 verse 11-14).

There is a saying that “there is nothing surer than death and taxes” the truth of which came home to Thomas Slab Murphy this week. The coupling of the two ‘fears’ gives to the taxation system the aura of certainty!
He has been described as an ordinary person without any flamboyance or style which one might associate with the £1 million found on his farm by the Criminal Assets Bureau in 2006.

The circumstances which brought him into the tax net are interesting.
It was in 2005 when the CAB and its Northern equivalent were involved in talks with the Garda and Revenue that reference was made to the £12 million in property in Manchester linked to his name. Murphy appeared on national TV with his solicitor who read out a statement stating that Murphy was a farmer. Previously he had described himself as having no occupation and therefore had no need to make tax returns.

It was this public declaration of his occupation that enabled a case for tax-evasion to be made against him. The trail of legal challenges were finally brought to a conclusion, with a guilty verdict and sentencing of 18 months imprisonment, yesterday.

During the trial the prosecution focussed solely on farm income and the Judge treated him as a cattle dealer. His income from selling cattle in the local marts, along with legitimate Government grants going back over the years of non-disclosure, formed the basis of the case against him.
Dealing with Murphy’s other assets will have to wait for another day.

Prior to sentencing yesterday Murphy went with three friends to the local polling station to vote in the general election. Some reporters and photographers were there. While Murphy was voting one of the occupants of his car went to the reporter’s car and told them they could not take photographs. In South Armagh/North Co Louth (Murphy’s farm straddles the border) intimidation flourishes!

Writing to the church in Rome (Romans Chapter 13) St Paul points out that the authorities are ordained by God. He was not so much concerned with their ungodly behaviour as to ensure the Christians obedience to their laws.
“Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.”
The Apostle then says pay your tax, and this to a government who was likely to misuse it! “Because of this you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing.”
He adds that because you have put your trust in Jesus and had your life turned around, trust him daily – “So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armour of light. Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarrelling and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.”

This gives great hope for the Slab Murphy’s and George Morrison’s of this world. Whatever the “works of darkness” may be by God’s grace they can be forgiven in Christ.

To Kill a Mocking Bird Word on the Week 20th February 2016.

Two deaths this week call us to stop and reflect. One is the author, Harper Lee, who wrote the novel “To Kill a Mocking Bird”, the other is our much loved Church Member, Ann Browne.

The novel written by Harper Lee in 1960 deals with racial inequality back in 1930ies in a small town in south Alabama. It captures the network of relationships as seem through the eyes of 6 year old Scout as she becomes aware of the racial injustice and the corruptness of the world around her.
She lives with her older brother Jem and her widowed father, Atticus Finch who is a white man and a lawyer.
In the film adaptation the part of Atticus was played by Gregory Peck in a performance which won him an Oscar. In it the local judge gives him the task to defend the black man Pat Robinson against the charge of raping a white woman. The case against Robinson is demonstrably false (he was even physically incapable of such an act) never the less the jury sentence him to death.

Atticus and the children are then subject to the jibe of loving the blacks because their father had earlier prevented Robinson from being lynched and then defended him at his trial.
Atticus is a quiet but courageous man. When a rabid dog enters the town the streets are deserted and, although it was not his job to do so, he shoots and kills the dog. The children get air rifles for Christmas and tells them to shoot all the bluejays they want but not mockingbirds. The latter do no harm but sweeten the air with their song as they sing their hearts out for us! There is a parallel between the innocent and harmless Pat Robinson and the mockingbird.

Harper Lee wrote an earlier book in the 1950ies called “Go Set a Watchman”. In it The Atticus figure, has aged and become a racist. The theme is one of disillusionment as she discovers the bigotry of her home community. Scout, now in her 20ies, is disillusioned by all that she sees and hears. In particular in her idealism she had idolised her father and now she calls him a hypocrite.
He overhears her remarks and the conclusion is that the South is not ready for full integration yet.

The publishing of Lee’s first book 60 years after it was written (and when she had become blind and deaf) would seem to have more to do with commercial greed than recognising the author’s wishes.
It seems likely that the first book was the draft of the Mockingbird with the characters given a makeover!

It is in the novelist’s domain to be able to rewrite history! You own the manuscript which you have created and you can make the characters do your bidding. It is possible to change your mind and, with a little help from your editor, progress the hypocrite to an upstanding man. Unfortunately in “Go Set a Watchman”, Atticus regresses from being an idealist who stood up for what he believed, to being a fraud in his daughter’s eyes.

St Peter would have wished he could have rewritten history! From the pinnacle of his profession, “Though they all fall away because of you, I will never fall away.” Jesus said to him, “Truly, I tell you, this very night, before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times” (St Matthew Chapter 26 verses 33-34).
So when St Peter was challenged the third time, “After a little while the bystanders came up and said to Peter, “Certainly you too are one of them, for your accent betrays you.” Then he began to invoke a curse on himself and to swear, “I do not know the man.” And immediately the rooster crowed. It happened right on que! How he must have wished to be otherwise…we know this because “he went outside and wept bitterly” (Verses 73-75).
Jesus was crucified for this sin on behalf of St Peter whose grief over his sin had led to repentance and restoration (St John Chapter 21 verses 15-17). But not for Peter alone but for all who emulate Peter’s grief and come to Jesus (1 John Chapter 2 verse 2).
The church of Jesus Christ has never lost a Member through death! Our sister Ann Browne is today in the place where there is no stain or wrinkle – the church of the redeemed in the glory (Ephesians Chapter 5 verse 27).

It was revealed this week that last September scientists heard the universe make a noise. Up till now what we knew of it was gleaned from what we could see with a telescope. Now we can hear!
The hearing aid is an L shaped vacuum tube each leg being 4 KM long and having a laser beam inside.
The gravitational waves it is listening for were created by two burnt out stars colliding. These are popularly known as black holes which, apparently, are star tombstones!

The waves they create are invisible but were predicted by Einstein as part of his theory of relativity. As the wave passes through the cosmos it distorts time space, like the ripples created by a pebble falling into a pool, squeezing and stretching the fabric of the universe. When it passes the end of the L detectors it briefly changes the length of one of the legs by a tiny fraction and the apparatus emits a ‘chirp’!
This ‘chirp’ is too low and deep for humans to hear, (it is a B flat note, 57 octaves below middle C), and comes from the sound waves that moved out from an explosion caused by two black holes colliding and becoming a supermassive black hole in the galaxy NGC 1275.

So, provided you have the gear, astrologists can now hear as well as see what is going on in the galaxy! There are plenty of these black holes resulting from the death of stars so we can expect lots more excitement from our science buffs. If you will pardon the pun – watch this space!

It may becoming more apparent why, in the creation account in Genesis, it is recorded “He also made the stars” (chapter1 verse 16). The stars are part of the creation that St Paul tells us is groaning under the curse as it waits for the last person to be redeemed (Romans chapter 8 verses 22-23).
St Paul goes on to develop the cosmic dimension of salvation when writing about Jesus. “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.”

Then addressing his readers he adds, “and you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him, if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister”(Colossians chapter 1 verses 15-23).

How great is our God? The Psalmist, King David, was in no doubt when he penned Psalm 19.
“The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.
Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge.
There is no speech, nor are there words, whose voice is not heard.
Their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world.
In them he has set a tent for the sun, which comes out like a bridegroom leaving his chamber,
and, like a strong man, runs its course with joy.
Its rising is from the end of the heavens, and its circuit to the end of them, and there is nothing hidden from its heat” (verses 1-6).

Our gracious God permits scientists to make discoveries but the greatest discovery of all is that He loves and in Jesus has shown us the depth of that love. Put your trust in Jesus.

The starter’s gun has been fired and the race is on. The favourite was not as quick off the mark as some of the other old hands but they all picked up speed as they reached the first jump. So commenced election 2016 this week.
The first hurdle has the misleading name of “fiscal space”. One or two of the front runners fell at it when they discovered it had been misnamed! The alleged surplus of €10.1 billion (over the next 5 years) has largely been spoken for, committed, if not yet spent.

In recognition of the turbulent international money markets the government has created a rainy day reserve of €2.5 billion and with the type of weather we have been experiencing the name of the fund is well chosen! Of course the existence of this cash provides a mouth-watering incentive for rival parties to multiply promises of utopia ahead (if you vote for me!).
Some questions that might be put to prospective TD’s might help us to avoid being tongue tied when they come to the door or when we meet them on the street.
1. To what extent can you support freedom of conscience? The Asher’s Bakery case has gone to appeal at the request of the Attorney General for Northern Ireland.
2. How do you propose to deal with the spread of substance abuse with special reference to alcohol?
3. What is your attitude to abortion – in particular would you revoke the 8th amendment? (The 8th amendment grants equal right to life of the unborn). Its repeal would pave the way for a relaxed attitude to abortion leading to the danger of it becoming delayed contraception.

For those who feel led there may be an opportunity to ask a more personal question, namely what do they think about Jesus Christ? Experience indicates that you get a brief summary of their religious history but if you return to the question asked there may be an opportunity to testify. If Christians don’t speak for Christ we can hardly expect secular people to do so.
The Bible indicates that governmental authority comes from God and those in power are there by his authority. Their task is to govern well (Romans Chapter 13 verses 1-7). For this they need our prayers and this is exactly what St Paul wishes us to do.

“I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people— for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. This is good, and pleases God our Saviour, who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all people” (1 Timothy Chapter 2 verses 1-6).

Salvation is for all. None can say that they belong to an excluded people. The reason Jesus came was to give his life a ransom for many – St Mark chapter 10 verse 45.

This election will soon be over but the Biblical election has eternal implications and there is only one who is the way – Jesus Christ. Put your trust in him.