The news this week has been dominated by the thrilling final act of rescue of the 33 Chilean minors trapped 2,300 feet down the copper and gold mine in the Atacama Desert. All 33 were in remarkably good shape only Mario Gomez, the eldest, remains in hospital with pneumonia. It has been a huge triumph of human resourcefulness and engineering brilliance to bring the men back alive from the bowels of the earth. Irish engineering played its part in the rescue. The Irish drill used in the bore holes sucks out the drilled material through its hollow core and sends it back to the surface. This minimises the chance of rock fracturing as the drill passes through it. Whilst the rescue is of heroic proportions it should be remembered that Chile lost 35 miners in accidents last year. Clearly mining is still a very hazardous business for the men who go down the shaft. The fragment of the old children’s song comes to mind; “Don’t go down the mine Daddy”. Even with all the safety precautions, mining is not a good career choice! Where was God in all of this? Jimmy Sanchez, was in no doubt about God’s presence. “There are actually 34 of us,” the nineteen-year-old miner wrote in a letter sent up from the mine on Tuesday, “because God has never left us down here.” Jimmy was only echoing the words of the Psalmist, If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.” Psalm 139:8 Certainly He was much prayed to – along with every other saint in the calendar! So how are we to pray? When the worst seemed certain, Jesus pleaded with God to avoid it. It was not a prayer confident of bright tomorrows: “Take this cup from me. But not my will, but yours be done.”(Saint Matthew Chapter 26 verse 39) It was grounded in the realism of prophesy which was about to be fulfilled. God was working out His purposes in the miners rescue just as He was working out His purposes in the death and resurrection of Jesus. Only, in the case of Jesus, it was our rescue He had in mind. As Saint Paul puts it in the opening paragraph of his letter to the Galatians, “Who gave Himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be glory for ever and ever”.  It has been a great rescue there in the Chilean desert but the greatest rescue of all was made at Calvary – and whether we are working below ground or above ground we need to call out to Jesus, the only one who can rescue us for time and eternity.

Anyone who knows anything about “free speech” knows that it is not free – it comes with a large price tag! In many cases the price is not paid in cash but imprisonment or martyrdom. Of course some would transgress the boundaries of moderation and use extreme language so it has become necessary to introduce the “incitement to hatred” offence to our statute book. Incitement to hatred seems to be absent from the language of the Manifesto 08 advocating democracy, human rights and the rule of law in China. Indeed these freedoms are enshrined in the Chinese constitution and in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to which China subscribes. However Liu Xiaobo got an 11 year jail sentence for his part in writing the Manifesto and this week he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize! The jail sentence was passed under Chinese criminal law where Liu was found guilty of leading a group which spread rumours and slanders presumably found in the Manifesto and his 700 essays. The internet has contributed to the circulation of these documents and although there is currently a news blackout in China on the awarding of the Nobel Prize, we now live in a global world where even the ‘great wall’ cannot keep information out. What does the Bible have to say? Some of the proverbs in the Book of Proverbs were written by King Solomon, who would have had absolute power. Yet he penned the lines: – “With patience a ruler can be persuaded and a gentle tongue can break a bone” Quiet persuasion and a refusal to be provoked may win surprising victories. Jesus is perhaps the best example of this. Isaiah’s prediction, “He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth” came true at His trial. Respect for authorities, even when they are acting unjustly, recognises that they have their power from God. Biblical limitations arise when freedom of speech is threatened and the Gospel is hindered. We have Saint Peter’s reply to the threat: “We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name, yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and are determined to make us guilty of this man’s blood.” Peter and the other apostles replied: “We must obey God rather than men!” (Acts chapter 5 verses 28/9). Three lessons can be made: Patience is a strong persuader Silence when false accusations are being made Non-violent disobedience when proclaiming the Gospel is at stake. The Gospel imperative caused Wesley to pen these words: “Preach Him to all and cry in death behold, behold the Lamb.”

This month will reveal the inside story to Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook. The launch of the movie anticipates Facebook reaching the 500 millionth user. The film is to be called “The Social Network” with the tagline “You don’t get to 500M friends without making some enemies”. It’s the curious tale of a social outsider who became the gateway for social interaction. All this has happened completely ignoring the usual channels through which power flows: wealth, authority, age, experience. Mark is part of the generation sociologists are calling Millenials. The movies tagline wryly refers to a number of lawsuits he has accumulated from fellow Millenials! His youthful indiscretions and mishaps, though they lost him friends, also made him into the world’s youngest billionaire at age 26. Basically Zuckerberg desperately wants to belong to a group and has invented what has become the largest group in the world! The trouble is that it is high on networking and news but low in discussion and relationships. What does the Bible have to do with all this? The most important things the Bible says are our relationships; first the vertical with God and second the horizontal with our fellow human beings. The lawyer’s words recorded in Saint Luke’s Gospel chapter 10 verse 26 were commended by Jesus and summarise the law for us: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind; and, Love your neighbour as yourself.” The lawyer must have been pleased with himself in getting it right but perhaps his pleasure faded when Jesus added “Do this and you will live”! Like many of us it’s not our understanding of what Jesus says that’s difficult, it’s the putting it into practice that is the hard bit. In case the lawyer didn’t get it the illustration of a loathsome Samaritan looking after a wounded and robbed Jew – even to the point of long term care would have been something he would have balked at. Relationships in Scripture come with a price tag! The initial price, the big one, which seals our relationship with a thrice holy God has, for the one who trusts in the work of Jesus on the cross, been already paid. It cost us our sins. It caused Him to become a sin offering. He made a way for love to flow between us and God. We turn away from our sins and, by God’s grace trust, in the influence of the Holy Spirit to forge these helpful relationships between us and those we meet. The challenge is not simply to love our friends but like the Jew and the Samaritan, love our enemies. These relationships require a much more hands on approach than those operating in cyberspace can produce. Emotion, eye contact, the tone of voice cannot be transmitted over the airwaves. We need to copy the Father. (St. Luke Ch.15v20). “But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.” And that’s something you cannot do on facebook!

The hope which the ploughman has of course is that the end result of his labour will result in a profit. Thanks to others misfortune (this year it was fires in Russia caused by exceptionally hot weather) the grain fetched good prices. Such are the vagaries of the global market that hope is always an ingredient for those involved in ploughing. Indeed in the Baptist Association of Churches Marquee hope was consistent component in the conversations with those who enjoyed the tea and talk in the hospitality tent. They came with their hopes in their family; in their abilities; in their prayers; in their mass going; in their keeping of the commandments; in the sacraments; in their not doing anyone any harm; in their – and this was the big one – living a good life. If good works could get us to heaven there would be no need of gospel preachers or, for that matter, the cross of Christ. It would have sufficed for Jesus to live the life and leave us with a model to follow. After all a saviour is only required if there is someone requiring to be saved. If everyone is basically good and their hopes are firmly anchored in their goodness, then God must surely receive them? Of course no-one wants to presume on God’s favour so that is where hope comes in. It is so full of humility that any further comment evokes the sin of presumption! What does the Bible say about all this? It says that Jesus came to save his people from their sins – so spoke the angel to the virgin Mary. The Bible says the sin problem in universal but God’s love in sending Jesus provides the remedy for all who believe. “God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (Saint John Chapter 3 verse 16.) But surely everyone in Ireland believes in Jesus? It’s what they believe that is important. So what is it about Jesus that we have to believe? Is it in the miracles? These endorse what was foretold in Israel’s history as the marks of the Messiah – God’s anointed One. Is it in the parables? These earthly stories with a heavenly meaning. They also provide clues to His identity. All these and his teaching mark Him as the promised One spoken of by Moses in Deuteronomy chapter 18 so that to the Pharisees he could say, “if you do not believe that I am the one I claim to be, you will indeed die in your sins.” (Saint John chapter 8 verse 24). The Apostles had a gospel to proclaim that this was the Messiah, God’s own son, who went to the cross bearing our sin that faith in His work brings salvation. His work not ours. We turn from our efforts and trust in His. We make our little journey of faith. He took our place on that cross that we who believe in him may have our sins forgiven and a new life in union with the risen Jesus. No more hoping! Reconciliation between God and man has been accomplished. Our hope is in Jesus. He has completed the work. We can enter into it now. Not anxiously waiting till we die. We have peace as a present possession. “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ”. (Romans Chapter 5 verse 1.)

Who would want to deny our Taoiseach a little conviviality with his friends? The problem was he was due to be interviewed at 8.45am the following morning. The radio programme “Morning Ireland” commands a 400,000 audience who were expecting some words of encouragement from the “think in” of the Fianna Fail Parliamentary Party Conference in Galway. What they got was a garbled version of the same old stuff from a Taoiseach who sounded much the worse for wear. The Opposition Parties “Twittered” about the incident which was picked up by the media internationally and highlighted on the evening news. The old trick of posing the question, “Were you drunk?” in order to get the denial which then becomes the story; “Taoiseach says he was not drunk” was used to prolong the minor incident! As one of his predecessors said as he was drummed out of office, “It’s not the big things but the little things that trip you up!” Or as the Bible puts it, “Catch the little foxes that ruin the vineyards” – because if you don’t there will be no fruit. Apart from one or two characters in the Old Testament the Bible people were a sober lot! There was one well known case at the commencement of the Church Age when Christians were falsely accused of being drunk. Again it was a case of hasty judgement based on the utterances the believers made. It was at the time of Pentecost and many foreign Jews were in Jerusalem for the feast. The Holy Spirit descended on the Christians who were empowered to speak “the mighty works of God” in many languages so that all heard clearly in their own tongue. What had happened was the Lord reversed Babel, (where the languages had originally been confused) in order to indelibly mark out the new way to heaven. With such a sensational happening the people could only think that drink was the cause and it fell to Saint Peter to issue the denial and remind them that they were witnessing the fulfilment of prophesy. Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd: “Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say. These men are not drunk, as you suppose. It’s only nine in the morning! No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel …and everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’ Saint Peter’s sermon can be read in Acts chapter 2. It was a sharp reminder that they had crucified the Christ only 7 weeks earlier and that God had raised Him from the dead. The invitation to repent and be baptised was accepted by many and 3,000 believed and were baptised that day. Sometimes today Gospel words spoken by believers are misunderstood and sound like someone speaking under the influence of drink. The fault lies not in the language but in the understanding of the hearer. The missing ingredient is faith which can make the Gospel plain. Faith came to those 3,000 when they called on the name of the Lord, their prayers were heard and they saw that it was all true. This can happen for you today.

Here in the West we are more accustomed to book signing ceremonies although these too can be stormy affairs as witnessed this week when Tony Blair signed his biographical account of his term in office at Eason’s bookshop in Dublin. But this was insignificant compared to the waves created throughout Islam by Terry Jones, Pastor of Dove World Outreach Center’s threat to publically burn the Qur’an. The stated purpose of this action is to raise awareness of the ideology and teaching of Islam and to warn against its dangers. What seemed to start out as a protest to mark the September 11th anniversary has become an attempt to move the planned mosque from its proximity to the ground zero site which has now become something of a shrine to the dead. Book burning has a history that goes back to the beginning of printing. In the 14th century John Wycliffe had his Bibles burned by the hierarchy. He predicted that they would burn his Bibles and burn him too! This they did by having him disinterred over 40 years later and publically burning his bones. Indeed there has been an unhappy correlation between burning holy books and burning people down through the centuries. Islam’s ability to capitalise on these acts to ratchet up tension is wholly in keeping with her expansionist desires. For the Christian, living in this world gets harder by the day! So what does the Bible have to say? At the core of Christianity is the belief that we have been saved by God’s stupendous grace to totally undeserving sinners. This grace has been applied to those who actively rebel against him – who choose to answer only to their own philosophy of life. When God steps into a life in converting power, we see ourselves as the pathetic creatures we really are, and catch a glimpse of the marvellous goodness of God providing in Christ a saviour who exactly meets our needs. The resultant transformation brings with it enormous consequences for how we treat others. Jesus illustrated it well when he said we are to turn the other cheek. If we think that gives us a problem with some folk then how about loving your enemies? It’s hard to live with this Man! Harder still when He closes off the normal escape route whereby we justify ourselves by saying, “his life does not match up to his words” therefore we can ignore him! Christ loved His enemies – even praying for their forgiveness from the cross. You cannot out forgive or out love our triune God! So what about Pastor Jones? He should re-read Acts 19. At Ephesus amazing things followed the proclamation of the gospel. Many were converted. Their lives changed and those things which they once held sacred were seen in a new light. St Luke records, Many of those who believed now came and openly confessed their evil deeds. A number who had practiced sorcery brought their scrolls together and burned them publicly. When they calculated the value of the scrolls, the total came to fifty thousand drachmas. (Verses 18/19). You don’t burn religious books for other people. You preach the gospel of the love of God in Christ and when they are converted the Holy Spirit will guide them in the lifelong task of sanctification.

Most of us have at one time or another imagined what it would be like to be buried alive. The feelings of claustrophobia this engenders make it all the harder to understand how the 33 Chilean miners trapped underground since 5th August can cope. Miners on the surface say it will take 3 to 4 months to drill an escape shaft through the 2,300feet of rock that lies between them and freedom. When the men were discovered alive some 17 days after the rock-fall, a 4 inch bore hole was drilled to their chamber permitting communication, food and medicines to be passed daily. A video link has also been established so relatives can see that their husband/parents are well. Leadership of the group is shared by the 3 oldest men. Mario Gómez (62) has been in mining accidents abroad when some of the fingers were sliced off his left hand. A year after that accident, Mr. Gómez returned to Brazil, stowing away on a ship and hiding in the cargo hold for 11 days. In those moments of quiet desperation, he found solace in a small Bible, though he had never been very religious before his ordeal. Gómez has now become their spiritual leader. Rather like Moses he has organised the group into threes and has 2 other leaders working along side him. The men will be required to remove over 3,000 tons of rock which will fall into the chamber as boring of the escape shaft continues. There is a similar incident recorded in the Bible when the ship St Paul was sailing on was hit by a severe storm and the 276 on board were likely to drown. Read St Luke’s account of it in Acts 27 verses 20/25. “When neither sun nor stars appeared for many days and the storm continued raging, we finally gave up all hope of being saved. After the men had gone a long time without food, Paul stood up before them and said: “Men, you should have taken my advice not to sail from Crete; then you would have spared yourselves this damage and loss. But now I urge you to keep up your courage, because not one of you will be lost; only the ship will be destroyed. Last night an angel of the God whose I am and whom I serve stood beside me and said, ‘Do not be afraid, Paul. You must stand trial before Caesar; and God has graciously given you the lives of all who sail with you.’ So keep up your courage, men, for I have faith in God that it will happen just as he told me.” And so it worked out! St Paul’s faith was not in himself, nor in the sailors’ abilities but in the word of assurance spoken to him by an angel. God had kept his promise that St Paul would get to Rome to bring the Gospel to Caesar’s court – the very heart of the empire. Let’s pray for the 33 miners that they may be saved both physically and spiritually by our gracious God.

The President of the country, the Archbishop of Dublin and Journalist John Waters all attend the Communion and Liberation gathering in Italy this week. The President commended the Archbishop for doing a good job. The Journalist commended the gathering for providing liberty to speak and the Archbishop exercised that liberty in a penetrating way not always possible when speaking on his home turf! Using the opportunity of the late Cardinal Newman’s Irish associations he delivered a trenchant expose of the ills of his church and lamented over the fact that after 15 years of catechesis, young people remain theologically illiterate. But it was his use of the term “Civil Religion” that was so helpful in revealing to a large extent how things are. Referring to the Irish situation he said, “The Church provides a unique space in which people, even though secularised, can share the events of their lives and find a ritual to express the more profound human experiences of joy, sorrow or fear. However, if the Church becomes just a place where lay persons gather to celebrate human experiences without a deep reference to God, then this civil religion ends up by being empty and does not respond to the search for God who is missing in the lives of many.” The flip side of this is the bane of the “nominal” Protestant. This is the secular person who pays for his religious events as they take place and, like the Baron’s will, bequeathed “100 guineas for the repose of this eternal soul”! What does the Bible have to say about all this? It is hard to find in the pages of Scripture anything to address this muddle. The Bible speaks of those who heard the message of the Gospel and were saved. It speaks of those who were not and others who followed but went back into the world. In all of this language there is clarity of where people stood before God. With the advent of infant baptism the lines have been blurred. Multitudes have been swept into the churches in a numerical competition makes the recent Bankers scramble for clients seem elementary! The result was foreseen by Jesus when he wondered, on his return, if he would find faith on earth. (Luke chapter 18 verse 8). It is faith that precedes baptism (Colossians chapter 2 verse 12) that safeguards the ordinance from misuse. The result might be a much smaller church numerically but it is the way of the Bible. (1Corinthians 1 verses 26/30). Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him. It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. Nominal or civil religion has no place in God’s kingdom. Put your faith in Jesus.

So the prison system doesn’t work! At least not for sex offenders. It simply removes them from circulation for a time then returns them as marked men under surveillance by the authorities. The early release, for good conduct i.e. not breaking the prison rules, of Larry Murphy created media frenzy as reporters tried to trace his movements. Needless to say this had a knock-on effect in society which was enhanced by graphic details of his original conviction and the innuendo that he may have been accountable for other women who disappeared without trace. The fact of his refusing all forms of remedial treatment over the last 10 years does not augur well for the future neither does his absence of remorse. In a country awash with pornography and sexually explicit clothing we can look forward to many more Larry Murphy’s in the future. What has the Bible to say on these things? It advocates the Gospel of grace as the only remedy for sinners. Therapy and self improvement courses may keep people occupied but only the word of God can change people’s hearts. The Bible does not have a scale to grade sins but it has a remedy which wipes the slate clean from all sin. The remedy is there for all who turn away from their futile ways so that the word of God may be planted in their lives. Listen to St Peter as he writes commending the work of Jesus to believers reminding them of what they once were. “As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.” Since you call on a Father who judges each man’s work impartially, live your lives as strangers here in reverent fear. For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were ransomed from the futile ways 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 was revealed in these last times for your sake. Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God. Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart. For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. For, “All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord stands forever.” And this is the word that was preached to you.” (1Peter chapter 1 verses 14 to 25.) That’s the only remedy for Larry Murphy, for you and for me that will last for time and eternity.

A couple of uncut diamonds or two “dirty looking stones” as the supermodel described them displaying a naivety which must have surprised the international war crimes tribunal sitting in The Hague. Even more surprising was the fact that two men coming to her hotel bedroom door after dark with a package was nothing unusual. The fact that she often received anonymous gifts from unknown fans did not arouse her curiosity and it was not until breakfast that she opened the pouch. They were identified as diamonds and had possibly come from Charles Taylor the Liberian President who was present at the dinner party the night before. She obviously preferred the cut variety of diamond as she passed them over to the director of the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund telling the tribunal they had only been six hours in her possession. The director retained the diamonds to protect the supermodel from the law, as possession of uncut diamonds without a licence is illegal in South Africa, and only handed them over to the police this week having kept them for 13 years. All this would amount to very little were it not for the suspicion that these were diamonds, mined by inhumane practices by corrupt governments to buy weapons. These weapons were used in conflicts such as the war against Liberia’s neighbours creating a civil war which caused dreadful carnage in Serra Leone. The release of the Leonardo DiCaprio film Blood Diamond in 2006 highlighted the butchery, the title of the film permanently staining the reputation of diamond mining. Taylor, 62, is accused of receiving illegally mined diamonds in return for arming rebels who murdered, raped and maimed civilians in neighbouring Sierra Leone. The Bible does not mention blood diamonds but there is a well-known incident of blood money. This was the name the Chief Priests gave to the 30 pieces of silver which they paid to Judas to get him to betray Jesus into their hands. When Judas had done the act of betrayal he changed his mind and returned the money. The Priests could not put it back into the Treasury as it was “blood money”. They recognised the truth of Judas’s confession, “I have sinned by betraying innocent blood” (St Matthew 27 verse 4) and used it to buy a field as foretold by the prophet Jeremiah. Judas killed himself out of remorse for what he had done. There was no evidence of a change of heart, no repentance but a worldly sorrow for what he had done. St Paul writes, “Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death. (2Corinthians ch.7 verse 10) Even repentance may not save Taylor from the verdict of this court but it could make all the difference at the bar of heaven.