Earlier this month the U.K. press hailed as a scientific discovery that if you feed a youngsters brain with porn they will develop a sensitive area which will “light up” to such stimuli. Dr Valerie Voon, a neuroscientist at Cambridge University and a global authority on addiction, expressed astonishment as the results were similar to those hooked on drugs or drink. This led to the conclusion, “If porn does have the insidious power to be addictive, then letting our children consume it freely via the internet is like leaving heroin lying around the house, or handing out vodka at the school gates.”

Because both the viewing of this stuff and the sensitising of the brain is unseen by parents and friends it is not easily detected.

There is also the fallacy that “it’s all part of growing up”. A girl added, ‘On Facebook, you just scroll down and it’s there. If any of your friends like it, it comes up on your home page.’ The same could be said of Utube.

Another fallacy is that these things happen to other people not me or mine!

We are all involved. The fear of being found out curtails speaking about it. The U.K Prime Minister recently said it was ‘corroding childhood’. I would add it is laying the foundation for a lifelong struggle with addiction which many find impossible to break.

A third fallacy is `you are not harming anyone but yourself`. Sexually explicit material colonises the mind, produces a secretive behaviour and distances the addict from normal relationships. Unless it is acknowledged like other addictions the person lives in denial and acquires a dysfunctional identity that blights family and other relationships.

In the battle for a clean mind we are all involved – the question is which side are you on? Watching salacious material or cutting it out?

Can the Bible help?

Jesus was for cutting it out – actually cutting it off, eye plucked out and hand cut off (St Matthew Chapter 18 verses 1/9). In other words, not mutilation, (you would continue to sin with the other eye) but a separation from the problem even if it is as painful as the loss of an eye.

In Romans Chapter 1 verses 21/32 St Paul spells out how God exercises judgement over evil today. It’s not the shaking of the earth variety but three times in the passage we read “God gave them over”. Judgement in this day and age is – you choose to disobey me by the way you live then I will give you more of the evil you have chosen.

Elsewhere, St Paul emphasises that he is writing with the authority of the Lord Jesus, “For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor” (1 Thessalonians Chapter 4 verses 2/4).

St John in his first letter recognises the need to turn from the things we hide, to the light of Bible truth. “If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.”

Faith in his atoning death makes us pure in God’s sight and restores fellowship with Him and with one another.

The US of A that bastion of democracy has been stumbling to an almost ungovernable state for the last couple of weeks. Fortunately after 16 days of shutdown and just before the money ran out, normal service was resumed – at least till next year when it could all happen again.

In good government the powers that be carry the can. In this case they simply kicked the can down the road! The Republican majority House of Representatives dislike of the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare for short), although it is already passed into law, have attempted to prevent its expansion by refusing to release the cash necessary to run the country.

What have the two things to do with each other you may ask? Nothing! It is simply horse-trading in an effort to get their way.

The dislike for Obamacare, which provides a modicum of health care for the poor (there are 40 million uninsured in the US), has been expressed by the outspoken Republican from Texas as being a hammock for the poor rather than a safety net! Some hammock as the benefits are paltry! However the money has to come from somewhere and this might provide a clue to explain some of the Republicans resistance to this welfare scheme. By and large it is they who control the wealth.

On the lighter side I got this Royal comment from the US.

The vagaries of human nature have not escaped the Bible. Whether it be Judas’s double dealing or Peter’s denial the charge of being guilty of feathering our own nest can be laid at our door. Usually the weakest suffer and inevitably the poor get trampled the most in the wealth stakes.

We need to join the Republicans in repentance and turn to Jesus who alone has carried the can* at the cross for that forgiveness which can enable us to freely serve others as we ought.

* “But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.” (Isaiah Chapter 53 Verse 5)

The Testament of Mary Word on the Week 12^th October 2013.

With the Man Booker Prize for literature coming for grabs next week it is hard for fellow authors to resist the temptation to pick the winner. That the lot has, for at least one scribe, fallen on Colm Toíbín’s novella “The Testament of Mary” was to be expected. The Blessed Virgin is such a compelling subject that she attracts authors and playwrights like iron filings to a magnet.

Part of the attraction lies in the paucity of Scripture references enabling the imagination to engage in some creative constructions of her life and ministry. Colm Toíbín has sought to explore what was in Mary’s heart, as she is questioned by two evangelists, some 20 years after the resurrection. Her memories are at odds with their account and she wonders if multiple re-telling of the Gospel story may have resulted in some exaggerations.

Her tender anguish at the cross with her final surrender to its work plumbs the depth of her suffering which remains fresh in her mind throughout the years.

In an attempt at a corrective to the passive-submissive portrayal of Mary Toíbín has her flee from the cross. She does this because she feels unable to do anything and, rather improbably, because she wishes to save her own life.

In his attempt to rescue Mary from the image of the stone statue and give her a “real” life Toíbín takes her out of range of Biblical data by imagining the scene 20 years on. This interesting device would have worked better if he had built on the Biblical accounts rather than deconstruct them.

For example far from running away from the crucifixion Mary is to be found with her family and the disciples in prayer at Pentecost. St Luke records the scene in Acts Chapter 1 verse 13/4 “They went up to the upper room, where they were staying, Peter and John and James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot and Judas the son of James. All these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers”.

It may well be that in order to combat the overwhelming sorrow produced by contemplating the wounds of Christ some have focussed on the sinbearing (and therefore unseen) work of Christ. The descriptive language used often lacks passion.

When a person sees their sins laid on Christ and trusts that they are forgiven the expression “personal relationship with Christ” is sometimes employed to describe their new standing. Although this captures the truth for the believer can seem a rather formal way to present the struggle and inner turmoil that is the battle of faith wrestling with disobedient flesh. Perhaps we need to share some of the intensity of feelings that were experienced by Mary as she felt the sword in her own soul (St Luke Chapter 2 verse 35). The truth should never be sanitised to suit society!

It was the only way the Government could “do” the Lotto – flog it! The windfall profits exceeded the anticipated price by one third producing a total of €405,000,000! The deal with the conglomerate Premier Lotteries Ireland permits ongoing State involvement via the Post Office which continues as one of the partners.

So the country has its cake and eats it – or at least part of it in the years to the expiry of the licence.

Resulting from the relaxing of the Gambling Laws, on-line betting will become more popular and with the involvement of the UK operator “Camelot” who gets 15% of its income from this quarter, we should anticipate a similar increase here. In fact it may be more as we are reputed to spend more that most of our European neighbours on the Lotto and should rise to this challenge.

Of course it is all for a good cause. Lottery funds have flowed into many parishes to assist in creating sports grounds etc and half the sale income will go towards the construction of the National Children’s Hospital.

In the 26 years of its existence it has become embedded in the national psyche. It forms the wistful thinking of the young and the dreams of the unemployed. It has been described by sceptics as stealing by mutual consent. Economists call it a tax on the poor as it is most popular with those who can least afford it.

It is quite remarkable how betting on a random sequence of numbers can produce such wealth. It would have been the envy of our forefathers in their backbreaking toil, to obtain income without work!

Of course it is all an illusion! The only real winners are the promoters who cannot lose. The few who get something back have to be balanced against the multitudes that have got nothing.

What about the gambling in the Bible?

The soldiers at the foot of the cross played dice for Jesus’ clothes (St Matthew Chapter 27 verse 35). This was predicted 1000 years earlier and it happened (Psalm 22 verse 18). But what about the roll of the dice – does not the Bible acknowledge pure chance there? Wrong – the Bible says that we may throw the dice but its every decision is from God (Proverbs Chapter 16 verse 33).

The Bible charts a new way of looking at things in relation to God. But first the blindfold has to be removed in order to see that it is God’s world, “the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God” (2 Corinthians Chapter 4 verse 4).

The faith to see comes from God and leads the one who receives it to Christ. As the poet has said;

“Upon a life I did not live, upon a death I did not die;

Another’s life, another’s death, I stake my whole eternity.”

And that’s the only stake you should ever make!

It’s the topic that crops up every time we meet, it is the weather. Whether it is at the Annual Ploughing Championships or waiting for the Luas it is the opening gambit to nearly every conversation. This week saw the publication of the latest reports compiled by a myriad of scientists confirming that global warming is real.

This summer we didn’t need their reports – we enjoyed it!

Don’t throw away the wellies however as our climate is likely to become more erratic with bigger storms than we have been used to. In fact if you are thinking of retiring near a beach or in a river valley – don’t! With rising sea levels and flash floods predicted you might regret it.

The sea is warming and the sile have noticed. In fact they have moved north and the kittiwake, whose sole food supply it was, have all but vanished from our coasts. However there have been new arrivals as varieties of jellyfish and plankton travel up from the Azores. These are followed by bigger fish such as the Baleen family of whales, monsters growing to 110 feet in length, who have no teeth, filtering their food from the water.

These changes in the movements of birds and fish are likely to be followed by migrations of those peoples most affected by climate change. There are many countries where crop failure causes local population movements but what if their land ceases to be productive altogether? Globally there are numerous places where human bones have indicated previous habitation but no longer due to the severity of the climate. Ireland, with its temperate climate, may be viewed as a relatively secure place to live and perhaps attractive to displaced populations. The Indian sub-continent is already struggling to cope with its population so it may be time for us to start learning to speak Bangladeshi Bengali!

What has the Bible to say to all this?

Quite a lot. It starts with the promise that there will always be enough food (sharing it is our problem) “While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.” (Genesis chapter 8 verse 22)

The Lord anticipates our fears and addresses them in language we can understand. “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling. 

(These illustrations from nature show God’s power to protect His people)

The nations rage, the kingdoms totter; he utters his voice, the earth melts. The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.

(The Psalmist extends the illustration to include the nations raging around the people of God in Jerusalem)

Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth! The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.” (Psalm 46)

It is not just for Jerusalem but there is a global aspect which will be eventually realised when He is exalted among the nations.

This week we have been able to listen to the Pope pondering and this gives us the chance to ponder the Pope. No other religious figure commands such authority or influence over his people. As a result his brand becomes the flavour of his time.

He could be called the “big picture Pope”. His message is for all. Those in his church and those outside it. It is firstly a pastoral message not a doctrinal or liturgical one. It gets its creditability in good measure from his acknowledgment that he is a sinner. He identifies with hurt people and sees his church as a place of healing the wounded. He describes it as a field hospital after battle.

On evangelism the Pope reckons that failure in this area is due to people being closed to God. He thinks they do not hear Jesus knocking on their door. He adds somewhat mischievously that when Jesus knocks from within we do not let him out!

Interestingly a number of commentators have quaintly mentioned that the Pope remains a Catholic! He is using language more familiar to other churches in this his second interview where he tackles a wide variety of subjects. His desire is not only that his clergy should be poor (his first interview) but that they get involved with sinners in their need without losing the way themselves.

He also wants that within his church local disputes should be settled locally. This seems to indicate a move in the direction of independency of the local church within the overall structure of Rome.

What does the Bible say to all this?

When Jesus was knocking on the door it was of course the door of a church which had excluded him “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me” (Revelation Chapter 3 verse 20). As the church is people not premises it could be said that Jesus knock never goes unanswered. There are always those who hear his voice. He never knocks in vain.

Certainly as believers we would have to agree there are times we who have embraced the Saviour do not “let Him out” and our guilty silence we confess as sin.

On the message he advocated, “Proclamation in a missionary style focused on the essentials, on the necessary things: this is also what fascinates and attracts more, what makes the heart burn, as it did for the disciples at Emmaus”. St Luke records the conversation that made the hearts burn “beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself” (St Luke chapter 24 verse 27).

It is the plot-line of the Bible. It was the promised Messiah, His birth and now his death and resurrection. They had plenty to speak about on the road to Emmaus. May we proclaim Him as the sinner’s friend who died that they may be forgiven and rose that we might know with certainty that it is all true.

It would be hard to motor from Dublin to Aberdeen, Scotland, as we did last week, without noting the presence of flags.

In Ireland they adorn anything from lampposts to blocks of flats. In Scotland they were more evident on cars and houses.

In both countries the “Union Jack” was being flown to denote an allegiance for the British Crown. The statement they made was that this allegiance was to be preferred to another allegiance denoted by the other flag.

In Ireland the tricolour’s primary colour is green which is flown next to the flagpole and represents the Gaelic tradition. The other colour is Orange representing William of Orange and has come to symbolise those who esteem his memory. The white separating the two colours symbolises a truce where both are linked together.

In the Union flag the red cross of England and Wales is bisected by the two saltire crosses of Ireland (red) and Scotland (white). The Scottish cross appears against a blue background whereas the other crosses have a white background. Again the symbolism is one of unity and inclusion.

However at present the Scottish saltire cross (a white St Andrew’s cross on a blue background) has been extracted from the Union Jack and is being used as the flag of independent Scotland. The vote on independence is one year off by which time there will doubtless be plenty of flags of both variety on display!

The unity and inclusion symbolised by the flags is seldom a reality but rather an aspiration. Instead flags can so easily stake out territories and become symbols in the power struggles of our time.

What would the Bible comment on these things?

All three flags are used by people who would claim a connection to Christianity.

The Irish flag with its message of joining people of different opinions together bears the contradiction of symbolising unity whilst recalling the victory of William of Orange. It is hard to have reciprocal love for ones neighbour while waving a symbol of his defeat! The irony is that whose who wave it most are those who would espouse the Orange least!

The aspirations of the Union Jack by focusing on the cross have chosen the symbol which epitomises the love of God (Romans Chapter 5 verse 8). It is the agape love which seeks the good of others before self. It speaks of sacrifice for ones country and indeed has been waved in many battles to encourage loyalty and commitment.

The irony here is to see it being used by a largely agnostic people to represent their country before the world.

Shed of their values they become tools of dissention within the land. A re-focussing in faith on the Christ who bore the cross in order to make a way for we sinners to find reconciliation with God is the starting point. Out of our being forgiven the way opens for us to see things differently. “From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation” 2 Corinthians 5 verses 16/18.

The death of Seamus Heaney yesterday has triggered an avalanche of words providing an appropriate covering for our best known contemporary poet. Potted biographies and eulogies compete with each other in the newspapers, while Presidents and Poets recall their encounters with Seamus.

Not to be outdone, a taxi-driver on our Vox-pop radio show recounted presenting Seamus with a book of his poems only to be asked by the Nobel Prize winner to sign it first!

Throughout his life he sustained a prolific output of poems. Perhaps the most accessible are those which were inspired by memories of his childhood. His genius lay in taking the ordinary and imbuing it with a dignity that was always there but had previously been overlooked. He could construct word pictures that took us into our imaginations transforming the familiar into parables for us to interpret. Here is one such poem.

The annals say: when the monks of Clonmacnoise
Were all at prayers inside the oratory
A ship appeared above them in the air.

The anchor dragged along behind so deep
It hooked itself into the altar rails
And then, as the big hull rocked to a standstill,

A crewman shinned and grappled down the rope
And struggled to release it. But in vain.
‘This man can’t bear our life here and will drown,’

The abbot said, ‘unless we help him.’ So
We did, the freed ship sailed, and the man climbed back
Out of the marvellous as he had known it.

It seems that the crewman enters the world of the spiritual with a mission to save his ship. Salvation is beyond him but he is graciously delivered and his ship set free.

Seamus presents us with a division between the secular and sacred that is unbridgeable unaided. The crewman gets a glimpse of this marvellous “alter universe” to take back with him into his everyday life.

Perhaps the crewman could identify with St Paul who, writing about his heavenly vision, said “I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows” (2 Corinthians Chapter 12 verses 2).

For Seamus the anchor has been cast. For us let us make sure that it is in Christ.

With the imprisonment of Mohamed Morsi and the decimation of his well organised Muslim Brotherhood followers, went their vision of a caliphate extending from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea. Just how near they came to pulling it off we will never know. The military stepped in and with an equal and opposite efficiency set about dismantling the fundamentalists’ structure created by the Brotherhood in the space of the one year of Morsi’s rule.

Of course there was a considerable backlash. The crackdown on the Brotherhood sit-ins was carried out by the police commandos while the army was used to hold strategic positions on roads and bridges. Considering the religious overtone of martyrdom among the Brotherhood there was always going to be bloodshed. The ensuing slaughter, coupled with the appearance of a thwarted democracy in President Morsi’s imprisonment, captured the media’s attention in the West and sparked some pro-brotherhood protests.

However it seems that the majority of the Egyptian population in giving their support to the army were indicating that they did not wish to have another Pharaoh (Morsi had assumed sweeping executive powers) to reign over them.

Internationally the backing of the army by the US continues and the Arab states of Saudi, Kuwait and the UAE have also lent their support. What started 12 months ago, under the guise of a democracy, but rapidly descended into the makings of an Islamic State has had it demise approved by these wealthy neighbours.

Of paramount importance is Egypt’s stability. This is key to the stability of a region which seems bent on instability in whichever direction you look.

The Bible speaks of a close relationship between Egypt and Israel. At times they were enemies and at other times Egypt was a place of refuge. The infant Jesus fled there with his parents until Herod’s death when it became safe to return. This was prophesied by Hosea and recorded in St Matthew’s Gospel Chapter 3 verse 15 “Out of Egypt I called my son.”

Sadly to this day Islam does not recognise Jesus as the Son of God who, as St Paul said “loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians Chapter 2 verse 20). Instead it believes that Judas was crucified and Jesus did not atone for anyone’s sins although the Koran believes He was taken bodily into heaven without having died (Surah 4:157)

Among the 99 names Islam associates with Allah are the compassionate and the merciful but there is no equivalent for love. Allah is impersonal and unknowable.

Perhaps the greatest challenge facing Christians today is to maintain a witness to the love of God in the face of conflict. As Jesus said in a difficult situation “I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as wise as serpents and innocent as doves” (St Matthew Chapter 10 verse 16).

And so it turned out to be for Cork-man Rob Heffernan who won the 50km walk at the World Athletics Championships in Moscow this week and brought home the Gold!

For those of us who still think in old money that’s 31 miles; 5 miles longer than the marathon. This achievement came out of the despair of Olympic failure last year where Rob came in fourth. Afterwards he felt like giving up but his two kids persuaded him to continue with the training, even if it meant that they would see little of him. His wife Marion, also an athlete and his coach, was behind him all the way.

At age 35 Rob was challenged by the 22 year old Russian Ryzhov. His experience helped him fend off the competition and the TV clip of him coming up to the finishing line seemed to show him walking on air. That was the one thing he was not doing as this most demanding of sports require one foot to be in contact with the ground at all times. This calls for great discipline if you are to complete the 31 miles in a little over 3.5 hours.

For a walker, age is not a handicap and Rob could well have the next Olympics in his sights. We wish him and his family well.

The Bible often uses walking as a metaphor for our manner of life.

The Apostle John quotes Jesus in his Gospel as the one who will help us to see where we are going, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” (Chapter 8 verse 12). Later when St John wrote his first letter he returned to this theme, “God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin” (Chapter 1 verses 5-7).

Here St John points up the hypocrite in us namely claiming to be Christian when our walk takes us into darkness. There is a choice on offer; to come into the light of God’s truth. The first step is to come to Jesus for cleansing as often and as quickly as possible.

Physically we may not be able to keep up with Rob but with St John’s training we will get the Gold in the end.