The Banking Inquiry into the Irish banking failures, which arose in the years 2008-2010, reported this week after almost a couple of years of work and at a cost of €6.6 million. Their blockbuster, rushed out before the Dial was wound up for the next general election, ran to 600 pages.
The result has been underwhelming! This is largely due to the absence of names and consequently blame is spread fairly evenly across the land. The only exception was the taking to task of the President of the European Central Bank. He cost us €9bn but what’s that when we were in debt to the tune of €160bn when you add in our “normal” borrowings to run the country!
It is said that he prevented us from defaulting on the bank’s bondholders (the people who give the banks their money to lend) as they were ‘banking’ on Ireland to honour their bonds. And with a little persuasion from the President of the ECB our Government got us, the taxpayers, to pay the debt in full.
Of course the joy of unlimited money, full employment (provided you were good at laying concrete blocks) and little or no regulation, made us all a bit light-headed.
Our 6 banks were embroiled in proportion to the size of their CEO’s ego! The bigger the ego the bigger the mess! The rigour of normal banking in assessing loan worthiness was set aside in the competition for clients spurred on by the ready availability of money.
We were not alone in this race to the bottom but when the crash came only Greece were beneath us!
“The love of money is the root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs” (1 Timothy Chapter 6 verse 10). There is little doubt that money has many lovers! It becomes more attractive when it belongs to other people and you have the pleasure of spending it!
This soon becomes a game where the lenders (the banks) go after new borrowers (largely the builders/developers) offering loans of up to 100% of the project on little or no security.

During the boom years the government had never had it so good and discouraged the regulatory authorities from doing their job, not that it took much to discourage them. None of us like to be unpopular! It takes principled people to stand against the tide and there were few of them around.
It reminds me of the night Jesus was betrayed. The disciples had run off with the exception of Peter who probably had wished he had joined them! The good times were clearly over and the truth of “I will strike the shepherd and the sheep of the flock will be scattered” (St Matthew Chapter 26 verse 31) had become all too apparent. This was a prophesy Zechariah made about 550 years previously which Jesus applied to himself. No one stood by him all kept their distance.
The Eucharist had just been inaugurated in the upper room in Jerusalem when Jesus asked the disciples to eat and drink the symbols of his actual flesh and blood which were about to be made a sin offering for many (verses 27/8). With perhaps the taste of the bread and the flavour of the wine still on their lips the disciples were immediately in need of the forgiveness which was to be actualised on the cross.
Criminally negligent bankers and us ordinary sinners can give the last word to Zechariah “On that day there shall be a fountain opened for the house of David…to cleanse them from sin and uncleanness” (chapter 13 verse 1) and by God’s grace it is still open today.

Kill a Christian Word on the Week 23rd January 2016.
One of the softest targets to be presented to the Islamic State Militants is the Christian minority living in the lands which ISIS have conquered. To the observer they have no one to take their side. No big brother with nuclear capability. They appear to be alone.

Unlike Islam where the aim is to have an Islamic State where every citizen is a Muslim, Christianity is blind to borders and not allied to any State. The Kingdom of God exists wherever God’s people are present. In fact it is the salt and light illustration Jesus used to describe his followers that is so helpful in describing the Christian calling (St Matthew Chapter 5 verses 13-16).
Salt, thinly sprinkled, stops corruption and adds flavour to food. Indeed it is universally in demand. Light dispels darkness but in order to do this it must itself be in a prominent position. This places the followers of Jesus in very vulnerable situations, counteracting corruption and revealing Jesus. They are a thorn in the flesh of wrongdoers who may prefer to get rid of them rather than change.

Of course it is not only Christians that are being targeted but any minority group that can be identified. As ISIS has grown in strength its basic beliefs appear to have been redefined so that even any Muslim transgressing their rules is in danger. It is fear of falling foul of them that has created the waves of refugees fleeing the fighting in the Muslim hot-spots and pouring into Europe for safety. Some have stopped in large camps in Jordan and Lebanon where conditions are barely adequate to sustain life.

It was in one of these camps that Miriam a 12 year old Christian broadcast a message of forgiveness on the SAT7 TV network. She understood that the offer of forgiveness did not depend on those requiring to be forgiven but on the work of Jesus on her own heart enabling her to trust in him and to forgive the people who had wronged her and her family.

There was nothing like it broadcast before and the clip has been watched many times since it was first aired in 2014. Miriam was interviewed again recently and continues to serve the Lord in a school on the camp where she has been reunited with her class-mate Sandra from whom she had been parted from when she fled Syria.

The killings are carried out in the name of Allah. Jesus predicted this when he said “the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God” (St John Chapter 16 verse 2). He was preparing his people for the persecution that was to characterise this Gospel era.
ISIS are said to offer Christians a choice; convert to Islam or die! This is the ultimate meaning of Jesus challenge to his disciples; “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it” (St Matthew chapter 16 verses 24-25).
Persecuted Christians need our prayers to remain faithful in the face of unbridled evil. Pray that the Lord will sustain them and work miracles of grace among all who ask for the reason for the hope that lies within them. “Do not fear what they fear, do not be frightened, but in your hearts honour Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that you have (1Peter Chapter 3 verses 14-15).

The last day of the year, known as Hogmanay in Scotland, marks the end of one year and the birth, at midnight, of the New Year.    This is traditionally observed by celebrations spanning the whole gambit from church services to bonfires in the town square.

The practice of “first footing” where neighbours call on those who live next door, bringing with them a new year’s gift, has largely died out.   The ideal was to have a tall, dark and handsome man as the first person over your threshold on New Year’s Eve who would exclaim, “A guid new year to ane an ‘a”.    This greeting would be reciprocated and if the man was of the required description then good fortune was said to come your way for the year.

I am not sure that anyone believed it as the interest focussed more on the gifts.   Originally this was a lump of coal which was handed to the householder with the saying “Lang may yer lum reek wi either fouk’s coal”.   The notion being that with many friends you would get a lot of coal for your fire which would keep it going for a long time!   With changes in heating the coal became replaced with a lump of fruit cake but toast with the “nip” of whisky lives on!

With the advent of television the last hours of the old year became compulsory viewing.   In the early days of TV the programmes were very good bringing out home-grown talent to perform well known music and songs.  Sadly as these artists died off they were not replaced.   TV now goes for the spectacular with iconic bridges or castles floodlit for the occasion the cameras’ global outreach affording views of celebrations in time-zones earlier that our own.

Then there is the climax, usually in London, with the nonsensical countdown to midnight.   Then follows the anti-climax with a badly sung ‘Aul lang syne’ by people who don’t know the words!  

God’s clock doesn’t major on minors but records anniversaries of events in the history of Israel each event recording his faithfulness to his people.   It records too that when Jesus came into the world the time was just right (Galatians Chapter 4 verse 4).   We might think it was a bad time with King Herod in a murdering mood but imagine what it would have been like to have the infant Jesus in the Middle East today!   No, God’s timing is perfect.

Also perfect was Christ’s sacrifice for sin on the cross.   Unlike the High Priest who annually entered the holy place with the blood of others now once in these last days he (Jesus) appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself (Hebrews chapter 9 verses 24- 26).    Now, there is no repetition but the event is remembered as a central part of our worship (St Luke Chapter 22 verse 19).

So this year, long after the New Year’s resolutions have gone, let us remember we have a great High Priest who has opened a new and living way for his people and let us go into this year with confidence that he is faithful (Hebrews Chapter 10 verses 19-23) .

As I drove home from Dublin the car radio belted out Cherubino’s aria “What a glorious thing is war” from Mozart’s opera “The Marriage of Figaro” and I couldn’t help feeling how the arts perpetuate the fallacy that war is glamorous.    It is a major component in our childhood.

As children in the playground (we were segregated from the girls) we acted out our aggression from the earliest age, ironically using the concrete air raid shelters in the school yard as part of the battleground.    Later when we developed bicep’s these were used to settle disputes which usually ended with someone drawing blood or the arrival of a teacher – whichever came first!

Throughout the teenage years energy was expended in various sports and any fights were carried out in the controlled environment of the boxing ring.

WW2 had ended and the bomb damage was considerable especially around harbours in the UK as the enemy had tried to starve the population.    Damage to soldiers who survived was infinitely greater, many bearing physical wounds and dreadful mental scarring.   It was the latter which was cloaked in silence.    Men returning from the front, after both world wars, did not speak about the horrors they had experienced. The contrast with Cherubino’s aria could not have been greater.  

The use of war as a means to settle matters of nationalistic pride is worse than useless, frequently copper fastening the dispute it sought to resolve.   It festers in the folklore and may erupt long after the fighting has stopped.   “Freedom fighters” globally believe the opposite!   All they want is a cause, weapons and a martyr’s death.   The school playground battles are played out on a national scale the appeal of the gun trumping the ballot box.

It was so from the beginning.    Did not Cain kill his brother because he was a murderer (1 John Chapter 3 verse 12) and this was the Bible’s first family!   Later when there were Kings we are told that at least part of King David’s problem was his absence from the battlefield (2 Samuel Chapter 11 verse 1).   The need to defend borders with arms was (and is) universal.

The New Testament covers the period when the Roman armies controlled most things in the region.    Jesus’ attitude of friendly assistance must have been hard to follow (St Matthew Chapter 5 verse 41). 

In a world where war is the norm the Scriptures use war as a metaphor for sin living within us battling against our desire to do the right thing (Romans Chapter 7 verse 21-25).    St Paul asks the question, who will rescue me?   The answer comes forth in the resounding claim that rescue or rather salvation is found in our faith being planted in the work of Jesus Christ.    He is both the immediate rescuer and the ultimate rescuer of those who surrender to him.

We will have our Cherubino’s who want to celebrate the 1916 Rising as something glorious.

Instead it should be remembered as part of our history and do something about the ongoing war within which robs us of our peace with God and with our fellow human beings.

It had been a long wait but God had given Simeon great patience.   It had been revealed to him that he would live to see the Messiah.   The Holy Spirit was upon Simeon when he went to the Temple at exactly the time Mary and Joseph brought the infant Jesus, now 40 days old, to the Temple to be circumcised and to make the appropriate thanksgiving offering.

Simeon took Jesus in his arms, blessed God and declared that his life’s work was over.   He had seen the ‘bringer of salvation for Israel and the one who would enlighten the Gentiles’ (St Luke Chapter 2 verses 22-32).

The next visit to the temple was at Passover when Jesus was age 12.   He had now reached the age of accountability. He is responsible to keep God’s commands.   This was probably his bar mitzvah.  The boy would be brought to the Temple courtyard to receive the priest’s and elder’s blessings. We can only speculate, but perhaps the Bible accounts of the twelve-year-old Jesus in the Temple were included, among other things, to show us that he passed through the traditional Jewish rites of his day.

In this case Jesus not only received blessing, but He was also a blessing to all who spoke with him.

His parents were three days without him.   One day’s journey before he was missed.   One day’s journey back to Jerusalem and one day looking in all the wrong places!

The three days with the teachers must have covered a lot of the Law! (St Luke Chapter 2 verses 41-49).

At the start of his ministry Jesus was in Jerusalem at Passover time.   He entered the temple and finding the place a market made a whip of cords and drove the traders out.   Instead of being fazed by this the disciples remembered the scripture, “Zeal for your house will consume me” (Psalm 69 verse 9).

At the end of his ministry, it was again Passover time and he repeated his cleansing act referring to the temple by the name Isaiah used – “a house of Prayer”.

Possibly the first cleansing was a warning and the second a judgement on the leaders of Israel (Isaiah Chapter 56 verse 7; St Matthew Chapter 21 verse 12-13).

The final visit to the temple was by the Holy Spirit.  The visit coincided with Jesus breathing his last on the cross and yielding up his Spirit.   The temple curtain which was 60 feet high and 30 feet wide, was supernaturally torn in two from top to bottom opening the way to the Holy of Holies (St Matthew Chapter 27 verses 50-51).    Previously, entry was only made by the High Priest once a year carrying the blood of the animal sacrifice to make atonement for the people.

With the death of Jesus a new and living way was opened through his sacrifice on the cross.   Animal sacrifices were now made obsolete and the work of the priest altered to proclaiming the Gospel.   In his letter to the church at Rome St Paul writes that the fruit of this ministry is Gentile converts, duly sanctified by the Holy Spirit and offered up to God as acceptable offerings (Romans Chapter 15 verses 15-16).

There will be no more trips to the temple (rebuilt?) until the Lord returns.  In the meantime the priestly work continues culminating perhaps with a turning of the Jews to Jesus in your lifetime?    God willing it may be so (Romans Chapter 11 verses 25-27).

We knew it happens.   It’s embedded in our nature.  But the sheer audacity of the phrase coming over the airwaves was astonishing.   No such thing as nuance!   No subtlety involved – just straight out with it – what’s my cut?

In the world of kickbacks, Irish business has never been behind the curve.

This incident was recorded by RTE who set up a fictitious company which was looking for permission to build wind farms.  It approached local councillors to see how this could be achieved.   The three representatives who were secretly recorded were caught seeking to feather their own nests.

When challenged by the airing of the programme this week the trio were combative and self-confident with one actually claiming that he knew it was a set up and was playing along with his questions!    In another case his fellow councillors have required his resignation.   Resigning electorally is a bit of a bonus!   History shows that it does the felon’s candidature no harm at all.   In fact the result is usually a substantial increase in the polls!   The guilty who get caught cry out infamy, infamy.  They have got it ‘in for me’!!  The sympathy vote follows.

So much for our keepers of civic order.   Pity the constituents, had it been a real application, to have a wind farm imposed upon them.    The tribunals of the last 25 years testify to a level of corruption from the top down.   With the prevailing culture of impunity, the guilty go free even getting their legal fees paid!

Perhaps the clearest parallel in the Bible came from the mouth of Judas who, when conversing with the Chief Priests over the betrayal of Jesus, asked “What’s in it for me?”

St John has the official version, “What will you give me if I deliver him over to you?”   And they paid him 30 pieces of silver.   And from that moment he sought an opportunity to betray him.”

Judas was known to be fond of money.   In fact he was a thief and as the treasurer he had plenty of opportunities to help himself (St John Chapter 12 verses 4-6).    Greed had blinded him and the devil had possessed him (St John Chapter 6 verse 70).   The devil’s promptings are recorded at the foot-washing of the disciples when Judas saw a way to make some money by informing on Jesus.   This grew to a full-blown satanic attack.   Judas was now in the evil one’s control (St John Chapter 13 verses 2 and 27).

When Judas saw that Jesus was condemned to death, remorse seized him.   He made his confession to the Priests who didn’t want to know.   He threw the money into the Temple and went away and hanged himself (St Matthew Chapter 27 verses 3-10).

The story of Judas’s downfall is not a pleasant one.   Nor is it intended to be.   It is a wakeup call to all who read it, to look to our own guilt.   It cannot be offloaded to priests.   It needs to be repented of.   The repentance needs to be from the heart – “godly grief” St Paul called it when he contrasted it with the “worldly grief” shown perhaps by Judas (2 Corinthians Chapter 7 verse 10).

The irony of the story is that while all this was going on an atonement was being made on a hill outside the city wall as the crucified Christ provided a redemption for us repentant Judas’s of this world.  ‘In our place condemned he stood.’  And on the cross he ‘sealed our pardon with his blood.’   And we can add with the hymn writer Philip Bliss ‘Hallelujah what a Saviour.’

The utopian vision of a clean and green planet may be just round the corner if only we could get our act together.   Co-operation between the G7 and many countries at the mammoth meeting in Paris this week produced much hot air and did little to reduce the global warming!

Peter Heslam has traced the pollution process from around 1780 when, thanks to steam power production moved from the weaver’s cottage to the factory.

The second industrial revolution came with the availability of electricity and the production of steel.    This was followed with Henry Ford’s brainwave – the moving assembly line where work came to workers at the speed the boss dictated!

These three stages provided the wherewithal to expand (amongst other things) our system of education, developed democracy and produced the modern city.   They also plundered the planet’s coal, gas and oil supplies polluting land, sea and air in their extraction.

Whilst these continue the next three development stages promise better things.

The computer age started some 60 years ago.   This continues to evolve into ever smaller devices dramatically changing how things are done.

Next came the development of the internet with its great fount of knowledge rendering encyclopaedias redundant overnight!   The dynamic of digital marketing is still in its infancy but is already transforming how we do business.

The factory is returning to the weaver’s cottage – this time however the cottage could be in Africa as working from home progresses!

And finally, the drive for clean power.  One initiative, launched in June 2015, is the Global Apollo Programme.  This is a call for a major global science and economics research programme to make carbon-free electricity less costly than electricity from coal by the year 2025.

Another is the plane “Solar impulse”.   It left Abi Dhabi in March this year on a solar powered flight to circumnavigate the globe with 13 stops en route.    It reached Hawaii in July and is undergoing repairs to the batteries.   Its last leg of the journey was the world’s longest solo, solar-powered flight both by time (117 hours, 52 minutes) and distance (4,481 miles).

The drive for clean energy is on!   Perhaps this is what was expected of us when our first parents were called upon to be stewards of all that was created, not to exploit it but to cause it to flourish (Genesis Chapter 1 verses 28 to 31).

Some would agree with Abraham Kuyper that God kept hidden the ‘discoveries’ of man until the time was ripe for them to be revealed.   This controlled revelation was unfortunately shot through with greed and exploitation at the hands of sinner man.

Neither is it any accident that the great revivals of Christianity followed some of the darkest days of the industrial revolution.   God’s hand can be seen in history.   It is His – story!

The burning of fossil fuels to release their non-renewable energy is like man’s efforts to get right with God by his own efforts – doomed to end in a mess!

Solar energy, which comes to us from above, could be likened to God’s gift of transforming grace in the work of Jesus Christ on the cross, imbuing us with all the energy we need to engage in our task of stewardship of all that he has created St Mark Chapter 16 verse 15).

 It comes to all of us sooner or later.   That is assuming we are fortunate to have a pension in addition to the State one.   There is the further assumption – that we are enthusiastic about meeting with former colleagues who once may have lorded it over us or vice versa!

Then there is the seating arrangements!   By and large the HR department do a good job at observing who gets on well with who and are to be congratulated.   There are always going to be the smart boys who gang up to ensure that they sit together over-riding any arrangement which may have distributed them around the tables.

Unless you are endowed with steel tonsils your voice will only reach a maximum of three at the table so sustained conversation is hard to achieve.   It is made all the harder by the constant canned music without which it seems there cannot be a party!

The public saying of grace was dispensed with some 10 years ago.   This seems a pity as we are treated to a recital of the company’s fine results with especial emphasis on the performance of the pension scheme!    There follows an excellent meal with all the appropriate seasonal fare.   So much to be thankful for.   So much taken for granted!

Of course there is the sobering moment in the proceedings when the names of those who died in the past twelve months are read out.    This reminder of our own mortality is not dwelled upon and is soon submerged in the pulling of crackers, paper hats and the usual junk that falls onto the table.

There are overtones however in the dominant themes of our conversations.   “How’s the health?”   “You are looking well.”   And the white lie, “You are looking younger than ever!”   Then there is the age question!   This only applies after you have been going to these events for a number of years.

“But what age are you?”   A competitive edge creeps into the longevity stakes!   Regression to the childhood fixation with wishing to be older – and still standing!

The Bible tells us to “Number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom” (Psalm chapter 90 verse 12).   And where is this wisdom to be found?   It is in Jesus who became to us wisdom from God (1 Corinthians Chapter 1 verse 30).

Let’s tune into some of this wisdom.   “Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?  And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?  And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor pin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.  But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?  Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.  But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

 “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble” (St Matthew chapter 6 verses 26 – 34).

It’s so simple, “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness”.   Jesus is our righteousness (1 Corinthians Chapter 1 verse 30).    Jesus is the door to the kingdom.   The way in is through Him.   “I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved” (St John chapter 10 verse 9).   Trust Him.

Uncle John was the life and soul of the party! He was a very capable farmer in his day. It was largely due to his efforts that he broke in a bare piece of Aberdeenshire and carved a farm out of the hillside at Feith Hill.

Much of the stone and rock had been cleared away in his father’s time but John brought the land into fertility.

Unfortunately it was not the only thing he has a passion for. Uncle John was an alcoholic. Initially he disguised it well and managed to handle his weekly visit to the mart although the journey home got increasingly difficult. Our house was a regular port of call where strong coffee was ministered to better prepare him for the road.

John died of throat cancer. The family diagnosis was that the whisky had burned his throat. He died bankrupt. The farm sold. The family scattered.

The revelation on social media by Natasha Eddrey this last week of her famous Jockey father’s alcoholism brought Uncle John to mind. Many were aware that Pat Eddrey had a drink problem but it was surrounded by the usual conspiracy of silence. The breaking of the silence went right to the national conscience where buried lies the heartbreak of addiction in almost every family in the land.

“I don’t have a drink problem” usually heralds its arrival! Denial, that ever present component of the culture, kicks in. Relationships with those you love become frayed. The subject becomes taboo. The behaviour gets more erratic. Isolation follows.

It doesn’t have to be drink. The pain of being me can be dulled by drugs, whether painkillers or pot. Comfort food, sugar and obesity are often precursor to problems. For the tecky there is the addiction of the internet with its cesspool of porn. All these family secrets get exposed sooner or later. Addictions nearly always win in the end.

It is such a pity that our patron Saint gets lampooned these days instead of being listened to. In his major work ‘Confession’ he starts with the humble words “I, Patrick, a sinner.” This is where we need to begin if we are ever to be freed from our addictions right there in the heart of Romans Chapter 3 verses 10- 31! The language is so stark that we may have difficulty in recognising ourselves in it. Strange we have no such difficulty in recognising others in there!

Having shown the futility of law keeping, of trying to do better, as a means of getting right with God, (and with ourselves), St Paul unveils the way of faith in the work of Jesus redeeming love on the cross. This faith which redeems is the only hope for us addicts to break the power of addiction, but even if it does not, still present us faultless before the throne of God. Jude verses 20/25.

There will be many in heaven whose addictions robbed them of their joy on earth. There will be none in heaven whose faith was in themselves and not in Jesus alone.

‘Jihadi John is dead – long live Jihadi John’.

By removing one Jihadi John with a Hellfire Missile, carried by a drone which was launched from the UK, the US has paved the way for more Jihadi Johns’.   Like the serpent in Greek mythology, the Hydra of Lerna, when one of its heads is cut off it is replaced by two others!

It would be crediting ISIS with perhaps too much organisational ability to say that the events last night in Paris were triggered by the demise of Jihadi John but then again how much of a command structure is required to launch a group of suicidal killers?   No plans for a safe return are necessary as the combatants intend to blow themselves up when their ammunition runs out.

Again we need to consider the religious aspect of the mission.   In ISIS brand of Islam death appears to be the highest value.    This value is enhanced by the number of kafirs (disbelievers) they can take with them.    By any count last night’s massacres can only be an encouragement to their colleagues.

In selecting restaurants, a concert hall and the national stadium as places to target people the gunmen appear to be randomly selecting locations where people congregate.   This is unlike the “Charlie Hebdo” shoot-up in January where the magazine’s cartoons were provocative, attracting ISIS warnings and eventually action.

ISIS shooting escapade in Tunisia and the bringing down of the Russian plane in Arabia proved effective in, amongst other things, wrecking the tourist economy upon which these Arab countries rely.    Last night’s attacks appear to have been designed to create fear in the Parisian population and demonstrate how easily the group could target other cities.

Fear is one of our basic instincts.  ISIS black garments with eye slit in the hood are fearful.   Their targeting of Christians (among others) in their deadly campaigns brings us right into Jesus words to his first evangelists who were to go to the Jews, who thought they knew it all, with the good news that the Messiah had come!    He promised them a torrid time.    Christianity always runs contrary to the will of the flesh (St Matthew Chapter 10 verses 17-25).

But Jesus did not leave the disciples with their fears.   He taught them the ‘healthy’ form of fear which is the beginning of wisdom.    “Do not be afraid of them” that is the people you see.  “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul” they are limited in what they can do.  There is one to fear and that is God who has the ultimate sanction of hell (verses 26-28).

Does Jesus know about ISIS?   “There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known” (verse 26).   Does Jesus know about us?   “He sees the fall of the sparrow and even the very hairs of our head are numbered.   So don’t be afraid you are worth more than many sparrows” (verses 29-30).

Then comes the Christian’s mandate for times such as these; “Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven.   But whoever disowns me before men, I will disown him before my Father in heaven” (Verses 32-33).