France, the most Muslim of European countries, suffered a number of Jihadist attacks this week which left 21 people dead and many more wounded.

Trained by Al Qaeda the gunmen came from the Muslim controlled neighbourhoods which now exist in Paris and other French cities. They were cool and calm as one would expect them to be when on a missionary task to kill those who were perceived to have blasphemed their Prophet.

Their text, Allahu Akbar (God is Greatest), shouted repeatedly, proclaimed who they were serving.

In the case of Amedy Coulibaly, who had chosen a kosher (Jewish) supermarket as his target, his zeal for Allah was his undoing. Having killed four and wounded others on his way in he phoned his fellow Jihadists, who were besieged some miles outside the city and accidentally left the phone off the hook.

It must have been that time of day as Coulibaly then got down to saying his prayers. These were relayed over the phone line, which was being monitored, and gave the police the cue to attack! He probably would not have wished it otherwise. Indeed it may have been his plan!

Meanwhile the massive manhunt had caught up with the other two Jihadists and surrounded the small printing works where they had sought refuge. The Owner was inside and around 09.00 a client, unaware of the danger, arrived for an appointment. One of the Jihadist’s, after they had shaken hands and exchanged pleasantries, told him to leave as “We don’t kill civilians”! He left!

True to their word the Owner was unharmed and their two, guns blazing, they ran out of the premises into the gunfire of the forces of the State.

They got the martyrdom they wished for.

There is an intimate connection between witness and martyrdom in the New Testament. The martyrdom however is not desired! The witness is by word and deed. Indeed it comes from following Jesus in a world that has largely rejected Him and His Word.

Jesus said this would happen, “A servant is not greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also.  If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also” (St John Chapter 15 verse 20).

Jesus death was not martyrdom. It procured salvation and was planned according to St Peter from before time began (1 Peter Chapter 1 verses 18/21).

“You know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, 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.”

Equality – what a wonderful word to start the year with! “My resolution for 2015 is that all citizens of Ireland will be equal” You can hear the politicians sing it out as they garner the votes for whatever cause they attach the word to.

Who in their right mind would not want to vote for equality? Was it not one of the three watchwords the French fought for and enshrined in their motto “Liberty Equality Fraternity”?

The inspiration for it is said to have emerged from the American Revolution which in turn can be traced back to the English Bill of Rights of 1689.

Here in Ireland we live in a society which could never be accused of being equal! However that does not prevent our politicians from hijacking the word and applying it to the coming referendum on same-sex marriage. The argument is that the same-sex union is the equivalent of heterosexual marriage!

Now it is clear that some things are equal. I am blessed with two legs and it could be truthfully said that I have an equal number of legs to everyone else. I am also blessed with a wife and it could again be said truthfully that I am the same as every other married man. What could not be said truthfully is that I am the same as two men or two women living together in a civil union.

However “civil union” the term which the GLBT lobby recently gained is not the term which they wish to attach to their arrangement. They want it to be called “marriage” to be like everyone else. The trouble is that they are not like everyone else. They are not equal they are different.

It was the Mad Hatter in Alice in wonderland who said, “Words mean what I want them to mean, no more or no less. The point is, who is the master”?

It took Gerry Adams to describe their use of the word ‘equality’ as a ‘Trojan Horse’ to allow the GLBT entry to the bulwark of the time honoured institution of marriage. ‘Equality’ has become a device to manipulate people into thinking that two unions, that can never be equal, are equal!

The Bible places a high value on words. Indeed it is called the Word of God. It also says that God’s word is truth.

We are to use words truthfully as there is the principle of accountability we will have to contend with. Matthew records Jesus saying “I tell you, on the day of judgement 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” Chapter 12 verses 36/7.

The Good News of the Gospel is that Jesus has borne the condemnation of every repentant sinner who turns from his sin and trusts in Jesus.

Of those who trust in Him St Paul was able to write “There is therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” Romans Chapter 8 verse 1.

It is fraudulent to use words inaccurately to manipulate people. But the Gospel gives hope to those who confess their sin, turn from it and embrace the truth as it is in Christ Jesus.

It started out with my inability to remember the items in the “12 days of Christmas” song! Failure in this matter ensures embarrassment when the inevitable quiz question comes along.

I consulted Google to see if there were any theological labels that could be attached to the 12 rather ridiculous items as an aide-memoire. Alas Google didn’t deliver the goods. We tried to rectify the matter ourselves (3 wise men 4 gospels etc) but this left a few blanks.

By this time we were caught up with the various religious traditions most of which terminate their nativity festivities with the “Feast of the Epiphany” on the 12^th night counting from the 25^th December.

My own recollection centred on the taking down of the decorations and removing the Christmas Cards on 6^th January or “old Christmas Day” as it was known. The house looked very bare! We could have done with a “Feast of the Epiphany” to cheer us up!

This Feast marks the manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles as represented by the Magi – the wise men were Gentiles not Jews – (St Matthew Chapter 2 verses 1-12).

Dates in Scripture are notoriously hard to pin down and the use of the Julian and Gregorian calendars adds to the difficulties.

In many countries Epiphany (the word means appearing) is celebrated the 1^st Sunday after the 1^st January.

However the crux of the matter is that Christ appeared.

The dates in which the shepherds and wise men came is of no great importance. What is of importance to us now was encapsulated by St Paul in his letter to Titus in Chapter 2 verses 11- 14.

It reads, “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works”.

We are living in the period between the two ‘appearings’. The first was the ultimate demonstration of grace in God giving the gift of his son to a people who deserved the opposite. The second will be when Christ comes for those who have “fallen asleep in Him” as 1Thessalonians chapter 4 verses 13-18 puts it.

In the meantime we are “to make our calling and election sure” (2 Peter chapter 1 verses 3-11) and be ready for His epiphany.

“He became what he was not without ever ceasing to be what he always was.” Something of a tongue twister but Athanasius (297 – 373) put it in a nutshell when he said it. There never was a time when Jesus was not.

“Older than the world itself, he became younger in age than many of his servants in the world” was how Augustine (354 – 430) described the amazing fact of Jesus’ pre existence. Jesus brought this out in his “High Priestly Prayer” when he expresses his desire to have his followers with him in the glory and share with them the Father’s love for him stemming from before the creation of the world (St John Chapter 17 verse 24-26).

This makes his entry into the world the more miraculous. He took our flesh, the enfleshment of Jesus, so that we could see him. He was “veiled in flesh” as Wesley wrote in his popular carol “Hark the herald Angels sing”.

“God, who made man, was made man” and “He was given existence by a mother whom he brought into existence” Augustine is grappling here with the concept of God getting into his skin via a virgin’s womb.

Then there is the Virgin. God chose the peasant stock of Judah – the royal tribe reduced to living in the backwoods of Galilee in an insignificant town called Nazareth! God’s electing love fell upon Mary. She responds from fear to faith upon hearing the full text of the angelic message culminating in her commitment to the unique task of being the bearer of the Son of God (St Luke Chapter 1 verses 29-38). How well did she know her Isaiah? Did she spot herself as the fulfilment of Chapter 7 verse 14? Questions to ask on another day!

Perhaps on reading further Mary may have thought that this Jesus (the word means Saviour) would be the answer to Isaiah’s plight with Israel in need of a rescuer, “For unto us a child is born, to us a son is given” (Chapter 9 verse 6). The child was to be the new thing – the gift of the son was from everlasting. The second person of the trinity to become God’s love gift to his fallen race, so eloquently summarised in St John’s Gospel chapter 3 verse 16.

So what was it for? The prophesies, the angels and the Virgin?

Speaking of the turmoil in the banking world caused by the various world crisis a banker announced recently “We will not know what to make of Christmas until we get to Easter!”

He was referring to calendar dates but he spoke words wiser than he knew. The reason Jesus came was “to save his people from their sins”. This he did by becoming for them a sin-offering on the cross. His death brings new life to all who see their sins laid on him, taken into the tomb and never more to be held against them.

May you know the liberty of the children of God through faith in the work of the child of Bethlehem and the man of Calvary. Soli Deo Gloria.

In former times spying was confined to listening to other people’s conversation from behind the door. Alternatively reading someone else’s mail was a way to elicit private information.

In fact my father, having served in WW1 was reckoned to be too old to fight in WW2 but was assigned to a UK government unit in charge of censorship.

Again the tools employed were pretty basic. They consisted of random sampling of post and listening to telephone conversations. The censoring operated when any comments written or spoken occurred regarding troop movements etc. Letters were marked with black ink blotting out the passages deemed to be of use to the enemy and the envelope stamped with the insignia of the Unit. Telephone conversations were interrupted and the callers left in no doubt that the slogan “loose talk costs lives” applied to them.

With the advent of the digital age, data, written or spoken, is easily stored and the parts thought to be interesting can be retrieved with the appropriate computer programs. We discovered from Edward Snowden, the US Government whistleblower just how extensively this was being done in the US and now how similar operations are being carried out in other developed countries.

Last week we learned from a German newspaper that the UK spy agency CGHQ had for years been tapping our cables under the Irish Sea. This was being done without the knowledge of the owners of the cables and may have triggered the passing of a Bill in the Dail outlining the circumstances when calls can be legally tapped. There is also, for the first time in Ireland, provision for secret courts which could be used to pressurise telecommunications companies to disclose confidential information.

We have come a long way from listening behind the door!

What has the Bible to say about this legalised skulduggery?

When something is done in secret there is usually a betrayal of loyalties involved. And so it was when Judas left the Last Supper. The other disciples thought he had been sent to buy food for the Feast or, because he was in charge of the money, to give to the poor (St John Chapter 13 verses 28/30).

It was in the garden of Gethsemane when Judas betrayed Jesus with a kiss that what had been planned in secret with the chief priests and elders was revealed.

But a greater plan had already been worked out in the councils of eternity. This plan not only foretold Judas’ betrayal (Psalm 41 verse 9) but predicted Jesus’ work of salvation from before creation (Genesis 3 verse 15 and Ephesians 1 verse 4).

This puts man’s spying in the halfpenny place. The divine will of our triune God will accomplish all that He purposes in bringing “many sons to glory” (Hebrews 2 verse 10).

Our task is to examine ourselves to ensure that we are part of that plan and not be behind the door but openly confess Jesus as Saviour and Lord (2Corinthians 13 verse 5).

In a week where we were treated to politicians behaving badly in the Dail the RTE graphically depicted the serious outcomes of teenage girls behaving badly on the internet. Unlike the antics in the Dail which were deliberate and planned the posting of sexy photographs of themselves on the social media ending up on global porn sites, was totally unplanned, causing great distress to the girls concerned.

This harvesting of images is the first step in this disgusting industry and can lead to online grooming with the predator using sexually explicit language and possibly a fictitious identity. These photos cannot be recalled or deleted however much the victim tries. Furthermore when access is given to an unknown person, however attractively they may portray themselves, that person has access to all her face book friends as well.

The vulnerability of young people is exposed further when they give expression to their teenage tantrums to their friends. “I hate my family, I hate my friends, I want to run away, my life is miserable.” For the predator who is out hunting the networks these comments are seized upon like wolves stalking a wounded animal.

RTE created a fictitious identity on the internet and called her Amy. She went live in October. Before the end of the month she had accumulated 1,000 friends. These were people who could not possibly have known Amy as she did not exist! Within a week she received messages from teenage boys encouraging her to engage in conversations of a sexual nature. This was quickly followed by adults from Ireland and abroad with the conversations becoming progressively more explicit. These texting conversations may lead to clandestine meetings of an even more sinister nature.

In the North there has been legislation to address these matters for the last 6 years. In the South the Sexual Offences Bill has been written but not yet enacted.

However no amount of legislation or software programs can change the will of a person who is determined to dabble in this stuff. It’s an area where all too often parental advice and teacher guidance falls on deaf ears. An iPad in the bedroom can so easily lead to the bondage of a lifelong addiction.

It needs the bottle of a Daniel (at age 12) who stood against the prevailing culture and did not get mixed up with the idolatry of the land of his captivity (Daniel Chapter 1 verses 8-16). This inauspicious start led to a lifelong obedience to God.

During the days of Jesus’ life on earth…the Bible records…he learned obedience through what he suffered and being made perfect he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him (Hebrews Chapter 5 verses 7-9.

We need to turn from self indulgence, listen to Jesus’ call to follow him, resist the wicked cultural influences and bad role models and to continue to follow him through the suffering recognising the he procured our salvation through the cross.

The “ho ho ho’s” sound out from the High Street Stores and Shopping Malls proclaiming the presence of the fat gentleman in the red suit. He seems to arrive earlier each year having got himself mixed up with “Black Friday” this week.

Perhaps this is not inappropriate as the Bishop of Myra (today’s Demre in S-W Turkey) could well have been black. He was famed for his generosity to the poor. One legend has it that he dropped a purse of gold coins down the chimney of a poor man who had nothing to give for his daughter’s wedding dowry.

This may have something to do with the answer to the question, “Why does Father Christmas always go down the chimney?” “Because it soots him!” Sorry about that!

The feast of St Nicholas on 6^th December 343 AD is the reason the Netherlands celebrate Sinterklaas annually on that day.

St Nicholas is well known in many parts of Europe and is the patron Saint of cities from Amsterdam to Aberdeen, Limerick to Liverpool and many more.

So what was it that made Santa Claus turn pale? Could it have something to do with the famous painting by the distinguished American artist Norman Rockwell? Commissioned by Coca-Cola the rotund jolly fat figure is portrayed in the company’s colours of red and white. No doubt the marketing men had a say in making his skin white – business trumps legend!

Of course when it comes down to filling stockings on the 24^th December the age old criteria comes into play. Was Johnnie a good boy? Did Mary behave herself? The works = merit programme comes flying into their young lives on the back of reindeers pulling a load of goodies which are not destined for baddies!

It is all parcelled up to coincide with the day we celebrate the birth of Jesus whose life on earth was spent dispelling the myth that surrounds the Santa business.

When someone called Jesus good, he who alone merited that description said, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone” (St Mark Chapter 10 verse 18).

This is why he came. As the Angel said at his birth, “She will give birth to a Son, and you are to give him the name Jesus (the name means saviour) because he will save his people from their sins” (St Matthew Chapter 1 verse 21).

It is not by Johnnie trying a bit harder to get better behaved. It is not by Mary trying to keep the commandments and lead a good life. But it is by both Johnnie and Mary stopping the fruitless efforts at trying to be good and trusting Jesus work on the cross when he exchanged our sins for his goodness which he now attributes to the believer.

So when Johnnie and Mary hang up their stockings this year it will be in the knowledge that they couldn’t be more loved or more secure than belonging to the family of God. The gifts they get remind them of the greatest gift of all, God’s gift of Jesus.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (St John’s Gospel Chapter 3 verse 16).

Jesus trumps Santa every time – trust Him.

Who would have thought that the reading of the Shema by a bunch of Baptists this week would have led to a discussion on the nature of love and the influences on it exercised by heart and head. The passage reads: –

Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts… (Deuteronomy Chapter 6 verses 4-6).

Love is never in a vacuum – it always has an object. Here the love is to be directed to God. The collective powers of heart, soul and strength are to be engaged making this love the paramount affection in our lives. In Luke’s account of Jesus’s conversation with a lawyer the mind is added to heart, soul and strength (Chapter 10 verse 27).

This formed the basis of our discussion, loving with the heart (the seat of our emotions) and loving with the head (a cerebral approach).

The former was hard for some of us to get our head around! This, it was suggested, was because we did not make time for reflection. We needed to get down and meditate. “Be still and know that I am God” (Psalm 46 verse 10) came to mind.

For others the story of the busy Pastor who signed up for a time management course only to find that he couldn’t make it and had to send his assistant, better expressed their reality!

When someone comes to faith in Christ there is a transformation which works out in behavioural changes. St James says what we now do demonstrates our faith.

In a similar way our love for God becomes visible in the keeping of his commandments. Indeed the Shema goes on to spell it out in Deuteronomy and Jesus made it the yardstick whereby we could see the reality (or otherwise) of our professed love for God (St John Chapter 14 verse 15). In fact some would say that in introducing the 11^th Commandment (St John Chapter 13 verse 34) Jesus makes our love for others the litmus test of our love for God.

Whether the inclination of our love is from the heart or the head the force of the text requires us to focus all our faculties on loving God.

At its best our love will always be a puny affair when compared with God’s love for us.

St John defines and illustrates God’s love for us in his 1^st letter,
“This is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”

The response of those awakened by such love must be in surrender and worship.

May we echo the words of the hymnwriter “Take my life and let it be, consecrated Lord to Thee.

It made it, with a few adventures along the way and arrived this Wednesday, at Comet 67P, on schedule 10 years later. It carried its Lander called Philae, less elegantly described by the press as resembling a dishwasher, and released it to land on its predetermined spot on the Comet. A good shot considering the target was 316 million miles away!

This Comet which is 2.5 miles wide is a ball of rock, dust and ice. It is reckoned to be part of the debris which got dislodged with the various big bangs that made our universe. It presented difficult terrain to land on which is why Philae was equipped with three harpoons that were supposed to be fired into the surface of the Comet. Not only were they intended to anchor the Lander but they were designed to take the ground temperature and measure the density of the surface.

Despite the landing being gentle two of the harpoons failed to fire and Philae did three flops and two bounces (there is very little gravity) landing 0-5 of a mile from the target area. The main problem with this new location is that it is in the shade. Instead of getting 7 hours sunlight to recharge its batteries it now only gets 1.5 hours. This drastically reduces its ability to transmit data to the control centre in Darmstadt, Germany.

Like the original Egyptian Rosetta stone which had three languages written on it, Philae carries a “Rosetta Disc” inscribed with 13,000 pages of text in 1,200 different languages. I am not sure who they expect will read the material but you have to admit that these Germans are thorough!

The main reason for the €1.4 billion flight is to check for water. Science has given us various theories as to how the earth and living things came about but so far their collective imagination has been unable to account for all our water. Perhaps Comets were the ancient water carriers. What if loads of them bombarded our planet each depositing its water supply? OK you need faith to believe that one but if the alternative is to believe God’s account of creation (see Genesis Chapter 1 verses 2, 6 & 9 for water) then it presents an appalling vista for the atheist – the possibly the Biblical record is true.

Many recoil from this thought, carrying as it does accountability for what we do and judgement using Biblical standards. They invent a creator who having put things in place has gone away leaving us to our own devices.

Scripture does not give us that option. We have a “hands on” God. Referring to Jesus the writer to the Hebrews says “He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power” (Chapter 1 verse 3).

On the question of accountability Jesus said that on Judgement Day people will have to give an account even for every careless word spoken (St Matthew Chapter 12 verse 36).

The Bible was never meant to be read then recoil from it but to read and recognise that we need a saviour, one to be our advocate at the bar of God. As St John puts it “if anyone does sin we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous” (1John Chapter 2 verse 1). Commit your ways to Him.

‘Water, water, everywhere and all the boards did shrink,

Water, water, everywhere, nor any drop to drink!’

These words from Coleridge’s poem “The Ancient Mariner” come to mind when glancing through the headlines of our news this week. It’s been all about water.

We were not on board a ship on Thursday night but coming home in the car through the torrential rain certainly resembled it! “Local flooding” was what the weather man promised us and that is what we got.

It is against this background that the government has been trying vainly to introduce a water tax. In an effort to make it more palatable for some people it attempted to cap the amount payable according to the number and make up of each household. A fruitless task as it turned out which pleased no-one. Meanwhile the installation of water meters continues.

The countrywide network of pipes is known to leak up to 40% of its water and now with meters we know where the leaks are. Perhaps someone may fix them. Meantime the system continues to haemorrhage and the meters clock up the cost for which the householder is considered to be liable.

This has brought a normally passive people onto the streets in protest and provided those in opposition with a watertight case for change! Insult was added to injury when it was learned that those responsible were allocating bonuses to themselves – reminiscent of the Celtic Tiger days when builders got a bonus for simply showing up!

My Missionary friend in Bahrain used to ask enviously “Is Ireland still a rainy place?”

This is a timely reminder that for millions of people water is a precious commodity for sustaining life. It was this aspect that Jesus imbued with a spiritual meaning when he told the woman at the well of Samaria that he could give her “living water”.

She got the idea half right when she realised there would be no need to receive this water a second time but she imagined that it was H2O and not a euphemism for the Holy Spirit (St John’s Gospel Chapter 4 verses 10/14).

However before their conversation ended she recognised Jesus was the Christ, went back and told the town. Many townsfolk went to the well and persuaded Jesus to stay with them which he did for two days. During this time many more believed in him.

Jesus offers “living water” to all who are thirsty with a thirst which nothing in this world can quench.

Like our water system, which is not working, man made remedies to cure the thirsty soul will not provide a permanent solution. Come to Jesus who said, “The water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life (Verse 14).

But how? The same way now as it was then – ask Jesus (in prayer) and he will give you the “living water”.