In a week where Obama asked Xi Jinping to curtail Chinese cyber espionage and allow freer access to the internet it has been revealed that the US is tapping into our phone calls and emails!

The American public have been reassured that “nobody is listening to your calls” which may be reassuring for the folks at home but leaves a few questions to be answered if you don’t live in the US!

Interestingly the whistle blower, Edward Snowden, has fled to China – Hong Kong to be precise, where he has been feeding the Guardian newspaper with some of the data he took with him from his job in the National Security Agency of the USA where he was contracted by a security firm. Snowden had top secret clearance enabling him to see the full extent of the surveillance. Rather like Julian Assange of Wiki Leaks back in 2010 who, in the interests of free speech, made public classified material via his many websites, Snowden’s aim has been to reveal the “architecture of oppression” before it gets even more draconian!

The noble idea of revealing “Big Brother” before he can do more harm has not been done without some personal cost as Snowden is now in hiding in Hong Kong from where he could be extradited although that may be a right which the US may decide to forego!

In the meantime the NSA continues their data-trawling through the records of companies such as Google, Amazon, Microsoft and Facebook allegedly looking for signs of terrorist activity.

Both nations are at it. A bit like the pot calling the kettle black!

Jesus never concealed the fact that our words are important. What we say is an index to what we believe. He went further stating that the record would be produced on Judgement day when each one will be called to give an account (St Matthew chapter 12 verses 35-37).

So what we now know is that there are two scrutineers; one earthly and one heavenly. It is a sobering thought that this blog will be recorded by one if not both of them. And by extension so will all our emails, phone calls, texting…

The Psalmist drew comfort from the fact that the Lord knew even his words before they were spoken (Psalm 139 verses 1-6). The transparency, so lacking in earthly communication, is present – crystal clear – to heaven. In the final analysis this is the only one which matters.

The Psalmist ends with the only response possible – full disclosure!

Search me, O God, and know my heart!
    Try me and know my thoughts!
And see if there be any grievous way in me,
    and lead me in the way everlasting!

There is nothing like a mystery man to whet the imagination and Baz Luhrmann’s adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s 1925 novel, The Great Gatsby, which reached our cinemas this week, does just that.

Jay Gatsby’s origins are unknown. The source of his wealth is unknown. His occupation is unknown. How he came to throw these glittering parties in his fake French chateau on Long Island is unknown.

There are allusions to Gatsby having been to Trinity College, Oxford. Some surmise that he is perhaps a German spy. There is a rumour that he killed a man. Others wonder if he got his wealth through some illicit practice such as bootlegging whiskey.

Set in America in the roaring twenties with all the glitz of the “flapper” culture and the unbridled energy of jazz music the book had to have romance! In fact all that Gatsby had created was designed to impress his former lady friend, Daisy Buchannan, now married to Tom, a detail which Gatsby chooses to ignore! However Gatsby is nothing if not an optimist. He refuses to believe that the past cannot be recreated.

In pursuit of a real relationship in his fake world he becomes embroiled in more tangled relationships and his dream ends with a bullet fired as a result of mistaken identity. Few turned up at his funeral; the epitaph mentioned his label “great” but even that has to be taken ironically.

Perhaps the writer of Ecclesiastes sums up Gatsby’s lifestyle best, “Meaningless! Meaningless! says the teacher. Everything is meaningless!

(chapter 12 verse 8). And so it is without God!

In contrast to Jesus who wanted people to discover his identity Gatsby wished his past to remain a mystery.

The question Jesus put to his disciples “who do you say I am” is as relevant today as it was when St Peter got it right – “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” St Matthew then records that this identification of Jesus triggered the revelation of his betrayal, death and resurrection (chapter 16 verses 15/21).

There was purpose, not meaningless, in Jesus reply. He knew what he had come to do. He did not simply speak about it – he did it and that sense of purpose has characterised the lives of his followers to this day. He prayed “Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth. I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. (St John Chapter 17 verses 17/21).

The first time I came in contact with the word “crèche” it referred to the practice of Eider Ducks in corralling their chicks under the supervision of two or three mothers. The chicks had made an arduous journey to the sea, dodging marauding foxes, stoats and weasels and were left together in a tight group which gave them protection from predator gulls.

The Eiders in charge of the crèche, like their human counterparts we heard about this week, had their work cut out to look after their charges. But look after them they did teaching them to dive and find food enabling most of them to survive this vulnerable time in their lives.

In our brave new world where Grannies and Mammies are not as available as they used to be and where dual-earner families have become the norm the crèche becomes the least bad choice for baby when the maternity leave comes to an end.

At a visit to “Bloom” the flower festival we were told by a worker from “Concern” that the nourishment normally supplied by vegetables during the first 1,000 days of a child’s life is crucial if that child is to achieve its full potential. Their garden exhibit was set in Zambia and demonstrated the ability to grow vegetables in terraces to provide children with the nutrients necessary to give them good physical and mental development. If this is neglected, we were told, it cannot be compensated for in later years. While this presents a weak link in African child rearing their saying “it takes a village to rear a child” illustrated how the structure of their community life makes crèches unnecessary.

The importance of that first 3 years of a child’s development has been recognised and countries like Finland apparently now pay mothers to remain at home to rear their children. In Africa, as elsewhere, eating habits change slowly but as Concern has shown change for the better is possible.

In what would have been completely contrary to the culture of the day Jesus encouraged little children to be brought to him and he blessed them (St Matthew chapter 19 verse 13-14). This demonstration of divine love for those normally overlooked is perhaps the most crucial requirement of all for our little children today. Wise parents seek to reflect this love by bringing up their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.

This week we were treated to a taste of militant Islam on the streets of Woolwich, London, when a couple of young Islamic radicals hacked an off-duty soldier to death with meat cleavers in the middle of the day.

What made this attack different from other terrorist attacks in the UK was that the attackers remained at the scene and talked to onlookers about what they had done.

What produced such coolness?

Their religion came into it; as they carried out the butchery they shouted “Allahu akbar” – Allah is great.

Retaliation was also part of it as they explained this was only a small killing by comparison to the extensive killings the UK forces were carrying out in their Islamic lands.

And there was the underlying aim of Islam conquest as they outlined the world in terms of “The World of Islam” and “The Other”.

Apparently UK Intelligence was aware of this threat since July 2011. A message on Shumukh al-Islam, a militant Web site linked to Al Qaeda, urged followers to mount “lone-wolf operations” that might include beheadings.

The Media have taken their usual line that Islam is a religion of peace and these atrocities are the work of a handful of extremists.

Surprisingly the great and good of the 2.5 million Muslim in the UK have not poured onto the streets in an outpouring of revulsion. A couple of dozen Sikhs did turn out in Woolwich offering their sympathy and expressing their fear that there might be some backlash on their community.

The silence of the Muslim majority, which can be so demonstrative over its dislike of “Western Policies” when they do not please their Imams, must encourage their extremists to attempt further copy-cat killings.

Bizarrely one of the murderers quoted the Biblical text, which was originally written to limit injuries, “An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth” Exodus Chapter 21 verse 24. This text was fleshed out by Jesus when he dealt with the subject of retaliation (turn the other cheek etc) in St Matthew Chapter 5 verses 38-42. Jesus immediately followed this teaching with the positive injunction to defeat your enemies by loving them.

He demonstrated this supremely by praying for his enemies’ forgiveness while hanging in agony on the cross, “Father forgive them for they know not what they do”.

From one aspect those standing around the cross did know what they were doing – butchering a rival. But from a Biblical perspective they were fulfilling Isaiah’s prophecy “He was wounded for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities” Chapter 53.

The Lord of glory had become our sinbearer in order that forgiveness might flow to the repentant sinner. As the poet has put it – “That Thou could save a wretch like me and be the God Thou art, is darkness to my intellect but sunshine to my heart”.

As a bit of comic relief this week we had the pot calling the kettle black on our national talk show called “Primetime”. The participants were Independent TD Mick Wallace who was fighting for justice and Minister for Justice Alan Shatter who found himself in the dock!

The subject was the apparent writing off of penalty points by the Garda who had allocated them in the first place. However as the people who had incurred these points never knew they had committed an offence they were unaware that they had been in receipt of Garda favours.

It was a somewhat Gilbertian situation but provided some light relief from the rather turgid public debate on the abortion Bill.

Mick, whose own recent history has not been without blemish, was in fighting form. How could the Garda act in such an irresponsible way?

Alan, who is not the most popular man in town at the moment, took as much of this as he could stand then yielded to the temptation to reveal that Mick had himself narrowly escaped penalty points when a Garda recently warned him about using his mobile phone while driving.

Mick was seized by a bout of amnesia and could not remember a thing about it. However he did realise that the information which Alan had imparted on the national airwaves was an improper use of confidential material by the Minister of Justice who now found himself in luke-warm if not hot water!

Alan, while declining to reveal how he obtained the information, said it was a matter of public importance which viewers ought to be told.

Mick, sensing something of victory, said he would make a complaint to the Standards in Public Office Commission calling for an investigation into any possible breach of data protection legislation.

In attempting to reveal the sins of another the Minister inadvertently revealed his own sins. This aptly illustrates the Biblical text, “There is no one righteous, not even one” (Romans Chapter 3 verse 10). However before we get too self-righteous just realise that you and me are included in the text!

In anticipation of our needs the Lord has included in the same chapter how we can obtain a righteousness which is not dependent on our behaviour. This new thing (part of what was accomplished at the cross) clothes us in the righteousness of Christ – perfection in the eyes of God – rendering redundant our puny attempts to be righteous by our own efforts (verses 21/22).

Edward Mote captured its essence in his great gospel hymn which commences with

“My hope is built in nothing less

Than Jesus blood and righteousness” and concludes with

“When the last trumpet’s voice shall sound,

O may I then in Him be found,

Clothed in His righteousness alone,

Faultless to stand before His throne.”

This all comes by the sheer grace of God to the repentant one who believes in Christ alone.

I once worked for a company who’s Financial Director often said that if he was going to steal from the firm it would a huge amount – no petty thieving for him! The global ATM robbery which came to light this week would have been what he had in mind.

The sheer scale of the debit card fraud at €45 million is mind-blowing. The thieves hacked into the pre-paid debit card accounts held by the RakBank of United Arab Emirates and eliminated the withdrawal limits. With the limits gone the hackers encoded account information on to magnetic-stripe cards and distributed them to their accomplices in 20 different countries.

They were the people who operated the ATM’s and were themselves monitored by those behind the hacking computers who not only kept the whole operation under control but ensured that they themselves were not short-changed on their cut of the vast sums that were being withdrawn!

They organised a “trial” run on 21^st December involving 4,500 transactions world-wide stealing $5 million. Following its success they mounted a big one on 19^th February this year involving 36,000 transactions in 24 countries and stealing $40 million.

Despite the US secret service becoming involved last December the only arrests made to date have been the “cashing crews” who had the job of collecting these vast sums of bank notes. They were picked up in New York on CCTV cameras at the ATM’s stuffing rucksacks full of notes. The other give away was the number of Rolex watches they were buying with their new found wealth!

It is unlikely that the masterminds behind the heist will ever be caught.

St Luke is the only Gospel writer to include Jesus’s parable of the shrewd Manager whose dishonesty was discovered and subsequently was called to give an account to his Master. The Manager acted fast and offering large discounts to the Master’s debtors, collected a large amount of outstanding debt and earned himself much goodwill from these clients which he would doubtless need to draw on when he was fired!

Surprisingly the Master commends the Manager for his shrewdness!

What are to make of all this?

St Luke unfolds the parable explaining how much better at planning and organising are the people of this world with self interest motivating them than the “sons of light” i.e. Christians with their desire to promote the cause of Christ as their motivator, St Luke chapter 16 verses 1-9.

To bring it up to date, just think if all the organisational skills and ingenuity that went into this massive heist had been channelled into promoting the cause of Christ….

Of course the parable is meant to have us examine how much planning we put into the promotion of the Gospel compared to the time we spend in planning work, holidays, hobbies etc.

As one believer, who had thought this through, said, “If Jesus Christ be God, and died for me, then no sacrifice can be too great for me to make for Him.” (C.T.Studd)

This week the Cabinet agreed the wording for the ‘Protection of Life during Pregnancy Bill 2013’.  Unfortunately the Bill does not live up to its name. It has provided the “abortion on demand” lobby with the key which, in time, will open the door to what is called a woman’s “right to choose”.

The key is the suicide clause whereby a pregnant woman who claims to be suicidal, if her claim is confirmed by two doctors and an obstetrician, can have her pregnancy terminated.

Since there is no evidence to support the notion that termination is a remedy for suicide, indeed the death of her baby may produce suicidal tendencies, the inclusion of the suicide clause may be more a political vote catching ploy than a humanitarian gesture.

Of course there is the “X case” and the European Court judgment neither of which require legislating for abortion on the grounds of suicide. However they have provided the smoke screen for this inclusion.

If the proposed legislation passes into law Ireland will inexorably go down the route of it being tested, found unworkable and an amendment permit virtual abortion on demand.

Thus Ireland will follow the other countries who have tried unsuccessfully to limit abortion.

In the US there has been widespread abortion since the Supreme Court’s decision in 1973 to confer it as a woman’s right, the only limitation being the viability of the foetus. In Asia the females are more likely to be aborted resulting in the loss of 163 million females through sex-selective abortion and infanticide because of cultural prejudice against girls and women.

Ireland could move from being one of the safest places on earth to have a baby to one where the unborn child’s life is at risk.

A few years ago in the US a group of Catholics and Protestants produced a document called “That They Might Have Life.” They said this about abortion:

The blindness of so many to this moral atrocity has many sources but is finally to be traced to the seductive ways of evil advanced by Satan. Jesus says, “He was as murderer from the beginning, and has nothing to do with the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks according to his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies” (St John Chapter 8 verse 44).

We have not only this blindness but a deafness to the appeal of those who care for the distressed women who have suffered an abortion and are in a lifelong struggle to cope with their sense of loss. They have to live with the consequences. They need to hear the Saviour’s invitation, “Come to me, all who labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.”

His yoke is easy because he took our guilt and he conquered Satan, the merchant of death, when he rose from the grave. In Christ we have the victory 1 Corinthians chapter 15 verses 55-57.

Normally Bangladesh is associated with cheap clothing but this week it was identified with the most costly clothing on earth. Most costly in terms of workers lives with the death toll in the collapsed clothing factory currently at 300 and rising.

The eight storey factory, in a town outside Dhaka was unsafe. Cracks had appeared in the walls the day before. The President of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association said “We had very clearly told the owners not to open.”

The workers were aware of the danger and did not want to enter the building. Their supervisors told them that all pay would be stopped if they did not go inside.

There are no trade unions in this factory. If there had been workers could have withstood the order to return to work. The owners, one of whom is a politician, have disappeared. News just in indicates that two of them have given themselves up.

Retailers in the West who use these factories have basic requirements written into their contracts. These cover such matters as the exploitation of children and the right to collective bargaining. Of course some manufacturers have been known to outsource production to other less well regulated factories that may operate to yet lower margins.

Wages can be a low as €1 per 10/15 hour day. This enables garments to be sold in Dublin at unbelievably low prices.

Before we boast of our latest bargain we need to consider the true cost which may be much higher.

What has the Bible to comment on these things?

St James has something to say to the greedy factory owners who hold back on their labourers’ wages –how much more dire their peril where they disregard the safety of their workers for their own profit Chapter 5 verses 1- 6.

Wealth is attractive because it brings temporal power, control over others and the pride that accompanies these things.

It has been said that money will get you anywhere except into heaven. St Peter put it succinctly in his first letter to the Christian churches, “It was not with silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. He was chosen before the creation of the world, but revealed in these last times for your sake. Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him so that your faith and hope are in God”. Chapter 1 verses 18-21.

Faith in Jesus is the only way any of us will be redeemed whether we be the factory owner or the most recent worker to be rescued from the rubble…or the purchaser of that cheap shirt!

This was the unanimous verdict of the jury at the Savita Halappanavar inquest into her death and the death of her baby. It was the delay in aborting the latter that sharpened the focus on this case at a time when Ireland is debating the introduction of legalised abortion.

The coroner’s court was a chilling place for Praveen, the deceased’s husband, this week as the staff of University Hospital Galway gave their evidence.

According to the post-mortem the 17 week old foetus was healthy when she was contaminated by the E.coli infection that killed her mother. This infection was a highly toxic strain producing the septicaemia that ended her life. The autopsy findings were “almost certain that the microbe was present in the deceased’s bowel” from where it migrated to the baby with fatal results for both mother and child.

An expert witness stated that termination of pregnancy would probably have saved the mother’s life. The difficulty for the hospital staff was the baby was alive and at that time is was not evident that a termination of pregnancy, as requested by the mother, would be a solution. A further difficulty was the ambivalence of the law in this situation with its requirement that there be a real and substantial risk to the mother’s life before obstetricians can intervene but gives them no guidelines to quantify that risk.

It is the devising of these guidelines without opening the door to widespread abortion that will be exercising our legislature for much of the remainder of this year.

In the meantime Praveen claims he has neither heard why his wife died nor who is responsible. The official response of “systemic failure” may not satisfy him and the usual absence of finding anyone at fault may not be allowed to pertain in this case.

What does the Bible have to say?

The cries for vengeance were quenched by the teaching of St Paul in Romans Chapter 12 verses 17 to 19 where he says that it is in the Lord’s province not ours. The desire for justice is strongest when it is someone else who is perceived to be at fault and weakest when the blame could be laid at our own door!

It could be said that God too lost a loved one through a miscarriage of justice. The laws did not save Jesus. In fact they were set aside to permit injustice. The only law that could not be quashed was the law of love and in Jesus prayer for the forgiveness of those who were bent on killing him, “Father forgive them for they do not know what they are doing”(St Luke chapter 23 verse 34) we have the christian response to injustice.

Praveen may take the case to the European Court but the law is a blunt instrument to right wrongs. It can never bring back the dead. A better course is to turn to the Lord and follow the way he took leaving the work of justice in God’s hands.

The death of Margaret Thatcher has filled many column inches of our papers this week. Love her or hate her she has stirred almost as much passion in her death as she did in her life. She created a two tier Britain with an affluent South and a devalued North.

The grocer’s daughter understood and appreciated hard work and individualism, qualities which gave her the confidence to reach the top in what had been a man’s world.

As the 1^st female prime minister she broke the mould and went on the break the unions! In Scotland she was known as Maggie – and it was not said with affection! Her use of the population North of the Border to experiment with the hated poll tax did not earn her any friends there.

Her callous indifference to the sufferings of the hunger strikers brought the “Troubles” in N Ireland to a new level and cemented the Nationalists opposition to her.

Abroad the Argentine Government, thinking that a female prime minister would roll over and die when they invaded the Falklands, made a gargantuan mistake! I can recall listening with disbelief to the TV broadcast of her speeches as she whipped up enthusiasm in the House of Commons for an all out war to rescue the Falklanders.

In Europe her reputation as “The Iron Lady” was well deserved. On one occasion when the UK were due a rebate which was not immediately forthcoming she endlessly repeated the phrases, “It’s our money” and “We want it back” and added “There is no alternative”, till she got her way. The expression “to be hand-bagged” arose from such encounters!

By the time she left office, the principles known as Thatcherism — the belief that a free (and largely unregulated) market and individual liberty are interdependent, that personal responsibility and hard work are the only ways to national prosperity— had won many disciples at home and abroad.

What comment can we elicit from Scripture?

Baroness Thatcher’s view of reality gives few indications of her faith. The championing of individual effort often at the expense of the good of society brings her into conflict with the work of the Good Shepherd. Indeed her comment on the parable of the “Good Samaritan” to the effect that he would not be remembered if he didn’t have money, speaks volumes!

It is in her single-mindedness to her cause which is reminiscent of Jesus setting his face to go to Jerusalem to complete the work his Father had given him.

As St Paul put it in Philippians Chapter 2; “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. and being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

So place your faith into the completed work of Jesus. As Maggie would say “There is no alternative!”