Great Gatsby?

Hunter S. Thompson once said that form time to time he would type out the whole of ‘The Great Gatsby’ just to see what it feels like to write the perfect novel.  So how do you film the perfect novel?  There have been four attempts that I know of.   This is only the second that I have seen and with a week’s distance I am still not sure about it.  

I should say that I share Thompson’s admiration for the novel.  It is certainly among my favourites.  Yearning for the unobtainable, unconquerable hope, the collapse of dreams, the triumph of style over substance - these are themes that can connect with people in every age.  

Unfortunately, I think that latter theme could be applied to the movie itself.   It’s obvious from time to time that the same director is in charge who made ‘Moulin Rouge’.  I mean what is the point of having ‘The Great Gatsby’ in 3D?

Leonardo De Caprio is better than Robert Redford in the 1974 version.  We have to remember that beneath the extravagant lifestyle Gatsby was a bootlegger and that wasn’t just about manufacturing and distributing illegal booze.  People died in turf wars and also in the consumption of some pretty dubious brews.  Leonardo brings out the dark side of Gatsby very well.

25th Anniversary.

Any anniversary is a time of thanksgiving.  We think of the years we have been granted and the people who have featured largely.  Over the last twenty-five years many precious relationships have been established, many with people now beyond sight, touch and call but who are still part of my inner landscape.   People who have taught me much about moving with hope through illness and hardship and who faced the final challenge firmly in the faith of Christ.  Thanks be to God for the Faithful Departed!

Many still remain who welcomed me as a relatively inexperienced minister, gave me space to follow my own inner promptings, and were generous in their understanding when things went wrong.  It’s all very well to say ‘we’re only human’ but I have never found it easy to live with any hurt I may have caused.  So I am grateful for the message received from so many that while there may be stumbles along the way we are never entirely finished in the Lord’s service.  Forgiveness and renewal are as much for ministers as anyone. 

When a senior colleague heard that I had been called to St Paul’s in 1988 he said: ‘That’s a great congregation.’  Well, that was an encouragement to me but more than just a trifle intimidating.  What could I bring to ‘a great congregation’?  I’ve learned that we can only bring to the Kingdom what we are gifted to bring and to trust that the Lord knew what He was doing when He called us to a particular area of service.  Spiritual maturity is being content with that. 

Someone once said to me that what was wrong with me was that I was trying too hard to make things happen instead of standing back and getting in touch with what was already happening.  That was a great insight.  Just to take time to see how individual people coped with illness and loss; to see how generous people are with time, talents and money; to see the loving support given to friends and family in times of need; to see ideas emerging for the benefit of disadvantaged people at home and abroad; to see living faith making a difference.    It has all been an enormous privilege.  

So the last twenty-five years have not been about me but a congregation seeking to work out the reality of Christ in its life in sharing the greatest truths anyone has ever stumbled upon and bringing the love of Christ to anyone in need.  That is what made St Paul’s ‘a great congregation’ twenty-five years ago and I have been blessed in seeing that continue until now. 

Constant companions through these years have been my family.  We’ve had more days of celebration than the other sort and I am grateful for that.  It can’t be easy being ‘a son of the Manse’.  It must seem at times as if you are living in a long shadow but Mark, Stephen and Paul have become their own men and I am confident that wherever they are and whatever they do the world will know the difference. 

Of course they would not have been possible without a very special lady who has shared my life for the last thirty-five years.  The Bible speaks of two people becoming ‘one flesh’ in marriage and I believe Gabrielle and I have lived that truth.  No achievements unless she has contributed; no failure but that she has helped pick up the pieces; no hopes for the future that she has not shared.  In many ways that has been the greatest blessing. 

Thank you all for your kindness, patience and support.  And now, the future . . .

Huggies At Easter!

I don’t know if you have ever found something surprising on your doorstep?

The day before Palm Sunday I opened the front door to find a box of 92 ‘Huggies’ which as you probably know are baby’s nappies.  There was no note to explain who had left them there or why so as you can imagine there was some anxious thought in the Manse as we tried to work it all out. 

It was on the Monday of Holy Week that all was revealed.  A gentleman from another congregation approached me before the service and confessed that he was the leaver of the nappies.  He knew about my connection with the Preshal Trust and thought I might be able to find someone who could put them to good use. 

If only he had left a note in the first place!  But in a sense it was appropriate to have an experience like that at Easter.  That was a time when explanations were needed for strange events.  The friends of Jesus had seen him tortured to death.  They went to His tomb the third day after this to find the stone at the entrance rolled away and the body gone.  They were completely baffled but soon there was an explanation.  An messenger from God was on hand to explain that Jesus had risen from the dead and very soon they would see him. 

This was the best news they could ever have at the time but it is the best news that has ever been received in the history of humankind.  Reflecting on the Resurrection years later the Apostle Paul described it as ‘the guarantee that all those who sleep in death will also be raised.’  The Resurrection of Jesus happened in time and in space and is God’s assurance that death is not the end but a way into a new existence where everything that has ever made us cry is abolished. 

On Palm Sunday I read a letter which many people found profoundly moving.  It was written by a young Iranian pastor named Farshid Fathi imprisoned in Iran for his faith.  He is in the middle a six year sentence but after that the future would still appear to be unclear.  When he heard of the the massacre of children in the Sandy Hook Elementary School he wrote a letter to the stricken parents in which he said:

‘I am sure these high walls cannot stop my prayers for you. Before this tragedy happened, I was thinking about my suffering that I'm going through because of my Lord Jesus Christ, especially being far from my lovely kids. But when I imagine how hard your pain is I forget my sufferings. Because I know by God's grace I will see my kids at the latest in 2017 when I come out from prison. But unfortunately you have to wait a bit longer. So I would like to express my deepest sorrow for your loss.

I believe we will have enough time in heaven with our lovely children forever. There is no gun there, there is no prison, and there is no pain.’

There were strange events on Easter morning but the explanation is the greatest truth we will ever come to know.

The Fault In Our Stars

What is it like to be 16 and dying of cancer?

John Green explores this question in this sad, funny and challenging novel ‘The Fault In Our Stars’ in which we are drawn into the world of ‘cancer kid’ Hazel Grace Lancaster suffering from thyroidal cancer ‘with mets in my lungs’.  Green was a chaplain in a children’s hospital and was close to young people and their parents as they faced the challenge of terminal illness.  

I made a false start to this book.  I put it down after the first chapter feeling that there might just be too much pain for me to cope with but when I went back to it I was hooked by the ‘voice’ of Hazel.  It is the living voice of a girl caught up in something she cannot control, knowing the anguish her illness is causing her parents, cut off from other young people who are living in the mainstream, finding her friends increasingly among other young cancer sufferers.  At one point she reflects on how she has become distant from her former school friends:

‘ . . . three years removed from proper full-time schoolic exposure to my peers, I felt a certain unbridgeable distance between us.  I think my school friends wanted to help me through my cancer, but they eventually found out that they couldn’t.  For one thing, there was no through.’  

It is while Hazel is attending a Support Group that she meets Augustus Waters.  He is a charismatic young man who has lost a leg through osteosarcoma and soon he and Hazel are mutually captivated.  Augustus habitually carries a packet of cigarettes and will often place one in his mouth without lighting it.  He explains to Hazel:

‘They don’t kill you unless you light them.  And I’ve never lit one.  It’s a metaphor, see: You put the killing thing right between your teeth, but you don’t give it the power to do its killing.‘    

It is this spirit which we see in Augustus and Hazel and in their relationship which drives the book and carries us through their experiences in what Hazel describes at one point as ‘the Republic of Cancervania.’ 

This is one of those books which when I finished it I wanted to start again.  From resisting it at first go I wanted to stay with it - or rather to stay with Hazel.  I don’t know if citizens of the  ‘Republic’ will be helped by this book but they may well find emotions and experiences faithfully reflected.  Someone once said: ‘A blessed companion is a book’.  I feel John Green’s book could be for many in the 'Republic' - or on the periphery - 'a blessed companion.'

Single Minded

‘What you get is what is written on the tin.’  That’s a popular phrase that is used to describe a person who has no side, is completely straightforward, is open and honest, whose face will never belie what he really is.  In the wake of the recent horse meat scandal that phrase might need to be revised or even abandoned.  We will be forever reminded that what is written on the tin or the packet is not necessarily what is inside.  

It doesn’t really matter if the meat that shouldn’t have been there is not harmful to anyone.  What was written on the outside did not deliver what was promised.  Mind you, there will always be people for whom the phrase is entirely appropriate.  What you see is what you get - by and large.  It is not given to anyone to be absolutely consistent with everything that is professed and every high aspiration that is pursued.  The apostle James realised that this could be a problem with Christians.  He appeals to the ‘double-minded‘ in the Church:  ‘Come near to God and he will come near to you.  Wash your hands, you sinners and purify your hearts . . .‘  (James 4: 8)  Whom else could he be targeting but those who have a high calling in Christ but are failing to live up to it?  The writing on the tin which hides a different, darker reality.

In this season of Lent the story of Jesus’ temptations is very much to the fore.  Here we see an attempt by the Devil to create a division in Jesus’ soul so that the One who has come to be Savior of the world becomes something less than his calling.  What has been written in the ancient Scriptures of Israel is that He should save the world through His sacrifice and rising again.  What the Devil wants is that He should subtly miss the mark, perhaps doing some good, but ultimately failing to deal with the sin and death which had driven a wedge between God and humankind.  Feeding the hungry, performing spectacular miracles, bringing the political powers of the world under His control.  What could be wrong with this?  But when the hungry are fed they may have no room for God; when people have stopped gaping at one miracle they will not be satisfied until they have seen another and another; and no law has ever ensured trust in God.  

Jesus had to be Himself, completely faithful to His calling.  The core problem of humanity had to be addressed and that required a Suffering Saviour who would pay the price of the world’s sin.  Jesus will never be anything else: ‘For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.’  (Mark 10: 45).  With Jesus what you get is what is written in the Gospels.  Our Christian journey begins in earnest when we accept Him as He is, our Saviour who has promised by Word and Spirit to lead us in His ways and to create a blessed consistency in what we profess and what we are.  That must surely be one of our highest aspirations in the Season of Lent.     

Artificial Compassion?

Professor Noel Sharkey is a world authority on robots.  His fascination with what has become known as ‘artificial intelligence’ began in the 1980s and it was a great day for him when eventually he was able to program a robot to walk in a straight line down a corridor.  Things have moved on considerably since then but there are some developments which are causing Professor Sharkey some concern.  In a recent radio interview he spoke about robots being used for elderly care in Japan and more worrying for him drones being used to drop bombs on Afghanistan.  

That robots could be used more and more in warfare and perhaps even develop the ‘intelligence’ which enables them to make life and death decisions is certainly a deeply troubling idea.  This is what we saw in the Terminator movies.  There is no doubt that there is a movement towards this and it is one that Professor Sharkey believes should be halted.  Surely, though, there must also be a concern with regard to the use of robots as carers.  

However sentimental it may sound the weak and the vulnerable need the sound of a human voice and the touch of a human hand.  That you matter to someone is a powerful message to receive.  Think of what it meant to lepers in Jesus’ day to actually have him touch them.  They were a people who had to live apart from the main stream of human society because of their disease.  They have been described as ‘the living dead.’  But Jesus spoke to them, touched them and healed them.  I doubt if I am alone in knowing the difference a kind word and a loving touch can make.  

But there is something else to consider in this.  If we shift our responsibility to care then we are denying ourselves the opportunity to fulfill our humanity.  God has established in Jesus the pattern of a humanity that He wishes for all of us and time and again in the gospels we read of Jesus having ‘compassion’ on troubled people.  This is a word which to some extent has been emptied of its meaning but essentially it means standing alongside people in their pain to the extent that you are actually sharing it.  This is costly in so many ways and it is understandable if we reach out for an alternative or even turn our backs on the suffering.  But Jesus calls us to face the suffering of the world and to respond with compassion and in His life and teaching he shows us how.    

The hero of one of His stories cared for a victim of robbery and violence whose plight other people had ignored.  He treated the victim’s wounds, paid for his board at an inn and pledged more money for his care if it was needed.  He went way beyond what anyone would expect from a total stranger and what a difference his compassion made.   

It is truly amazing to see the advances that have been made in the development of ‘artificial intelligence’ and the benefits that have come to the worlds of medicine, engineering, science and entertainment.   But there can never be ‘artificial compassion.’  That is our gift to give.  

Springtime In Our Souls.

Unlike other Christian traditions we Presbyterians are not required to stick rigidly to the Christian Year and yet many of us have found value in observing seasons like Advent and Lent as well as the major seasons of Christmas, Easter and Pentecost.  Our Advent and Lent services in St Paul's have been well supported over the years, giving us an opportunity to reflect on some of the more challenging aspects of our faith.  In the end the whole purpose behind these seasons is that we emerge from them with a firmer grasp of the faith and a deeper commitment to the life of discipleship.

It is not automatic of course.  Mere participation is no assurance that anything will happen in our inner being.  We cannot work up or force a blessing from God just by adhering to certain spiritual practices.  Elizabeth Jennings has a poem called ‘Making A Silence’ in which she reflects that certain silences can be commanded like the silence that is needed for a child to sleep or for a sick person to have rest.  There is also a silence that happens naturally when everyone else is asleep ‘And you can feel the stars/And mercy over the world.’  In the end, though, there is the greatest silence of all:

‘But the greatest one of them all

Is a gift entirely unasked for,

When God is felt deeply within you

With his infinite gracious peace.’  

What she is thinking of here is a silence which cannot be created by us and does not happen naturally but is the work of the Holy Spirit, a gift from God.  That can come to us at anytime, unsought and unanticipated.  People have told me of times when challenging experiences brought them to the very end of themselves and yet they felt a sense of God’s peace at the very core of their being.  It seemed to come as a gift for that moment.  

This does not mean that nothing is demanded of us in the spiritual life.  It is possible for our inner being to be so cluttered with self-centered priorities, deadening routines and pressing duties that we are no longer turned wholeheartedly towards our God.  That’s when we need to consciously create space for God to do a new thing in our lives.  It is His gift to give but we must be eager to receive.  Jesus said: ‘Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened.  For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks,  the door will be opened.’  (Matthew 7: 7-8)  

Even Jesus needed space for his soul to breathe.  Luke tells us that there came a time in His ministry when there was considerable pressure on Him to preach and to heal but ‘Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.’  (Luke 5: 15-16).  So we need to find times for prayer, reflection on the Word, and worship with fellow believers in order to keep a tight connection with our God.  I hope the coming season of Lent will bless us in this way and that there may be Springtime in our souls.