Famous In Heaven.

There has been an unusually high number of famous people who have died since the beginning of the year.  In early January there was David Bowie and Alan Rickman and last week Victoria Wood and Prince.  And in  between quite a few other notable people.  

Someone has suggested that part of the reason for this is that there are more famous people than there used to be.  At one time the only people who were known world-wide were in the movies.  But then came television and  the internet and social media and men and women in all walks of life become household names.  In 1968 the artist Andy Warhol said: ‘In the future everybody will be famous for fifteen minutes.’  We might just be seeing that happening. 

It was possible to be famous thousands of year ago.  There is a king who is mentioned in the Bible, Solomon, who lived many years before Jesus.  Solomon was remarkable for his scholarship, his wisdom and state-craft and he was known beyond the bounds of his own country.  People would travel hundreds of miles to make contact with him and benefit from his gifts.  Jesus became famous in his own country.  His public life only lasted for about three years but wherever He travelled people would come to be healed of their diseases  and to hear His teaching.  

If they listened to His teaching they would understand that life wasn’t just about making a name for yourself.  The important thing was living a life that acknowledged God and that was obedient to values that flowed from God.  Jesus spoke about how God was seeking to overcome everything that was cruel and painful and unjust.  He was seeking to build a Kingdom on earth where love and justice and peace would be established.  And he was seeking to do this through people who would accept His values and work towards the vision of a renewed earth. 

The way Jesus saw this working was not in a spectacular way but in quiet ways that may never hit the headlines.  He told a story about the end of human history when He would return to the earth and God’s great Kingdom would finally be established.  That was the moment when He would gather to Himself all those who had shown in their lives the values of the Kingdom.  Who were they?  They were the ones who had fed the hungry, gave water to the thirsty, provided hospitality for strangers.  They were the ones who clothed the naked, cared for the sick, visited people in prison.  

These are things that go on every day in so many societies largely unnoticed.  They won’t bring you world-wide fame or win you an award or get you an invite to a chat-show  but Jesus saw in all this the evidence that God was working in the world to bring renewal and hope.  So we should never underestimate the power of kindness towards others who are struggling,  and never mind if it never gets noticed or acknowledged.  You are famous in the eyes of God.    

Living The Vision

Recently I was thinking about the Church and how it has held me from my earliest days.  I suppose it began with a sense of belonging.   Sunday was the day I went to Church and there were people there who were kind and thoughtful.  And they seemed interested in me.  Always asking what I wanted to be when I grew up.  At that time my horizons were limited to becoming a legend with a sporting institution not far from where I lived but other ideas popped into my head from time to time.

 There were the usual misdemeanours with my pals in Sunday School.   One teacher told me years later that myself and my pal Eddie nearly drove him to distraction every week.  Little did he know that Eddie was destined to be his future son-in-law and that his partner in mischief would be at his side on his wedding day as his Best Man. 

There came a day, however, when a teacher at school who led the Scripture Union brought Jesus to life for me and stressed how important it was for everyone to ask Him into their lives.   That impressed me and in time made me think of the Church in a different way.  It was the place where we learned about Him and His teaching.   It was from that place we would go to tell His story, share His love, and bring about change in the world through lives that were changed.   The Church wasn’t a building or a club or an organisation.  It was a dynamic movement of people whose foundation was God’s Word, whose energy was the Holy Spirit, whose purpose was God’s great plan to renew the earth. 

That is the vision that has kept me going through the years.  I am sure the same vision was before those who formed Milngavie Parish Church when it was established 175 years ago.   So many things have happened since then on a global scale that have challenged faith, not to mention the personal heartaches that individuals have had to endure.   So many things have happened that have threatened the unity and peace of the Church.    But we are still here, living the vision, telling the story, sharing the love. 

The diary of a Free Church minister, Rev Murdoch Campbell, was published recently.  As he was nearing the end of his life in 1965 he wrote this:

'There are times when the Church of God looks as if it had perished, but how glorious and astonishing is God's power in giving her an instant resurrection and clothing her with power! In the very hour her enemies rejoice over her decay, powerlessness and death she springs to life, "terrible as an army with banners." (Song of Songs 6: 10)'.

175 years behind us, an unknown future before us, we stand on this faith. 

Easter Shadows.

Violence has cast a long shadow over Easter 2016.  The bombs in Brussels, the trial of Radovan Karadzic with images of his atrocities, and the murders in Clydebank and Shawlands have served to remind us of the dark side of human nature.  It is difficult enough to face all of this but perhaps more so when we are people of faith.  After the Dunblane tragedy a man said to me:  ‘This is a hard time for fellows like you.’  I suppose he meant that it is difficult to confront such horror and bring a message of hope.  And he is right.  We should all recognise the challenge of faith in the midst of tragedy and suffering.  Sometimes it is hard to believe that at the heart of the Universe there is a God of love and justice who is in control.  But this is one of the great assurances that arise out of the last days of Jesus life on earth.  Even in the depths of the darkness that engulfed our Lord God was working for the renewal of all humankind. 

I recently visited the grave of a friend who died last year.  He had been living with cancer for six years, enduring the most debilitating of treatments, before the disease eventually overwhelmed him.   On his headstone are the words: ‘Nothing will ever separate me from the love of God.’   This is from a passage of Scripture in which the Apostle Paul reflects on the worst things that could ever happen.  He speaks of ‘trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword’ and against these things he places a question: ‘Is there anything there that will ever be able to separate me from the love of God?’   His answer?  ‘There is nothing in all creation that will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.’  (Romans 8: 35-39)

I have no doubt that Paul had questions.   The extent of suffering he endured throughout his life was beyond anything that most people go through.   But still he was convinced of the love of God and His good purpose in his life. I believe that this can be explained by the centrality of the Cross in Paul’s faith.  He saw the love of God working in and through the death of Jesus.  On the surface it was a ghastly spectacle but Paul came to believe that this death opened up the opportunity for forgiveness and renewal for the whole of humankind.   The confirmation of this was in the Resurrection of Jesus when the light from the tomb scattered the darkness around the Cross and the followers of Jesus understood what had been achieved through His suffering. 

The questions will always remain but reflection on the Cross and the extent of Jesus’ sufferings can bring the hope that even in the worst of circumstances the love of God is present and His good purpose is unfolding.  

Seekers After Truth.

The New Year is traditionally a time when we remember the Magi who journeyed from the East to pay tribute to the newly born Jesus.  They were late arrivals in Bethlehem having travelled a great distance, probably from Babylonia.  It is something of a mystery as to what exactly set them on their way.  We are told that they saw a star when it rose in the East and they connected this with the birth of ‘the king of the Jews’.  Something about this star spoke to expectations they had that one day a significant figure would be born in the land of the Jews. 

It is doubtful if they would have made the journey to pay tribute to a foreign king unless they were convinced that this particular king would give them some insight into the great mysteries of life.  Magi were scholars who studied science, philosophy and religion.  Sometimes this led them into areas that today we would call the ‘occult’ but at their best these men were honest seekers after truth.  It is possible that copies or fragments of the Hebrew Scriptures had come to their hands and they were familiar with the expectation that one day a special person would emerge from the nation of Israel who would offer hope not just for this life but also the life to come.  Then they saw the star and it touched something profound within them.  Joseph Ratzinger wrote this:

‘All kinds of factors could have combined to generate the idea that the language of the star contained a message of hope.  But none of this would have prompted people to set off on a journey, unless they were people of unrest, people of hope, people on the lookout for the true star of salvation.’ 

A colleague recently said to me that he is convinced that there are many people in our country who are interested in Jesus but who just do not see the point of the Church.  This is not new.  There will always be ‘people of unrest, people of hope, people on the lookout for the true star of salvation.‘   That is the way we are made.  Our hearts are restless until they find their rest in God.  And the Church has a point for it is within the community of faith that the story of Jesus is told, that His significance is drawn out, that the hope He brings for this life and the next is emphasized, that His love is demonstrated for those who need Him most. 

Another year is just around the corner.  Let us never lose this vision of Whose we are and Whom we serve.  Not just for our own sake but for the honest seekers after truth who God is seeking to gather into His purpose.  

The Great Project.

Address at Douglas Academy Christmas Service: 22/12/15.

The new Star Wars movie is called ‘The Force Awakens’.  I haven’t seen it yet but there was an Imax screening last Wednesday at the Science Centre  and my son was there.  He bought his ticket sometime in October about five minutes after they went on sale.   And for all that time he lived with all the hype, the promise that this was going to be the greatest cinematic experience of his life. The verdict was it was pretty close.  Everything that was promised was delivered.

It’s great when things work out like that.  There are few things worse than living with a promise not delivered, especially when it touches the more serious side of life.  For instance there is a Christian minister who was recently in prison in Iran.  His name is Farshid Fathi.  He hasn’t done anything that we would regard as criminal.  It’s just that certain Christian activities are unlawful in Iran and regarded as a threat to the state.  He was arrested on Boxing Day 2010 and sentenced to 6 years.  There was good news, however, in July of this year when he was promised early release and was given a date, 10 December this year.  But that day came and went and he was still in prison.    It must be so hard living with a promise of freedom that has not been delivered.  Thankfully I just heard last night that he has been released, hopefully free to join his wife and family in Canada.  

Christmas is about the most important promise ever made and how that was delivered.  God promised the ancient people of Israel that a special person would be born in their midst who would be the most important person ever.  He would not only make an impact on Israel but on the whole world.  His coming would be like a light shining in the darkness.  

When he came, though, he wasn’t quite what was expected.  He was born in an ordinary family and worked as a village carpenter.  Things changed when he became a traveling preacher.  He spoke about God and how people could get close to Him.  He spoke about hope for this life if people could learn to put others first.  He spoke about the renewal that God was seeking to bring to the whole earth.  

It wasn’t the most spectacular life on the face of it but after he had been nailed to a cross and rose from the dead it was as if a force awakened that changed the whole face of human history.  He had promised that the Spirit of God would come and live in all his followers.  He had promised that a day would come when his love and justice and peace would triumph over the darkness in human experience.  

I call this God’s Great Project.  It is sometimes hard to believe that it is going forward when you see the cruelty and injustice that bites into people’s experience.  The world can be a dark place.  But one of Jesus’ followers once wrote: ‘The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has never overcome it.’  I believe we can go forward with that great hope in our hearts.    

Blowing The Embers

Last year the historian Simon Schama gave a talk about his most recent book which was a history of the Jewish people.  He shared his conviction that anti-semitism was on the increase.  He memorably described it a ‘a gathering, hideous drum-roll.’  The reasons for this are complex but he mentioned the contribution that religious extremism played, something that many historians had failed to foresee.  He cited the eminent historian, Eric Hobsbawm.  Schama heard him give a lecture sometime in the 1960s in which he cast a rather gloomy eye on the future but stated confidently: ‘At least we don’t have to be worried about religious extremism.’  Yet it is this which is casting a shadow over many lives at this moment in time.  

This is not to hold Hobsbawn and others up to ridicule.  Those with the surest grasp of human history could not have predicted the events that have caused so much pain recently in France and other parts of the world.   Human wisdom, however, is limited.  Many predictions concerning the future have been realized and celebrated but there is much that that has been unexpected and horrifying.  

Christians find the horrors of human experience as unsettling as anyone.  Jesus himself stood before the tomb of a friend and was deeply disturbed.  Yet we still speak of hope.  Joseph Conrad once wrote of a great European city as ‘a cruel devourer of the world’s light’.  There are movements amongst us that could be described in this way but still we proclaim the hope established by the Apostle John: ‘The light shines through the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it.‘   Jesus showed a way to live that challenges the darkness but in His death and resurrection He showed that the days of darkness are numbered.  As He stood before his disciples as the Risen Lord He showed them their destiny.  He was the first-born of a new humanity which would inhabit a new creation with the darkness of sin and death flushed out forever.   The Apostle Paul saw human history moving towards that great climax.  Now it is as if creation is in the throes of child-birth but the day has been appointed for the new creation to be revealed.  

It is with this faith that we go forward and not as a people passively waiting for everything to work out as promised.  We are called to live now as it will be then.  We are called to be a people who show the world what the Kingdom will be when it comes.  We are called to stand against the devourers of the light with the love of Christ which alone can radically transform priorities, attitudes, relationships and breathe decisively on the embers of hope.  

I saw this in practice in the words of the French journalist Antoine Leiris whose wife was killed in the attack on the Bataclan theatre:

‘On Friday night you stole the life of an exceptional being, the love of my life, the mother of my son, but you won't have my hatred.

I don't know who you are and I don't want to know - you are dead souls. If this God for which you kill indiscriminately made us in his own image, every bullet in the body of my wife will have been a wound in his heart.

So no, I don't give you the gift of hating you. You are asking for it but responding to hatred with anger would be giving in to the same ignorance that made you what you are. You want me to be afraid, to view my fellow countrymen with mistrust, to sacrifice my freedom for security. You have lost.

I saw her this morning. Finally, after many nights and days of waiting. She was just as beautiful as when she left on Friday night, just as beautiful as when I fell hopelessly in love over 12 years ago.

Of course I'm devastated with grief, I admit this small victory, but it will be short-lived. I know she will accompany us every day and that we will find ourselves in this paradise of free souls to which you'll never have access.

We are two, my son and I, but we are stronger than all the armies of the world. I don't have any more time to devote to you, I have to join Melvil who is waking up from his nap. He is barely 17-months-old. He will eat his meals as usual, and then we are going to play as usual, and for his whole life this little boy will threaten you by being happy and free. Because no, you will not have his hatred either. ‘

The Season approaches when we remember the birth of our Saviour Jesus.  The ancient people of Israel were encouraged to think of the Messiah as the Prince of Peace.  Let everything within us focus on the truths concerning Him that will bring us peace as individuals and enable us to be that light of the world that He has called us to be.  

Witness To The Resurrection.

I once heard the American ‘humourist’ Joe Queenan commenting on funerals in his own country:

‘Funerals have become a cabaret.  There is no recognition that someone has died.  Eight or nine friends get up and tell jokes and talk about your golf game.’ 

I’ve never actually attended a funeral like that but I think I know what he means.  No one wants a funeral to be unduly morbid and a burden to those who attend but neither should it swing too much in the other direction.   Someone has died and that has had painful consequences in a family and in a circle of friendship.  That should be recognised.   I am grateful, however, that as a Christian pastor I can hold alongside that the hope that Jesus’ resurrection has brought to the world.   No matter how often I recite these words of Jesus they are always powerfully felt:

 "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you.”

It was encouraging to hear that this hope was emphasized in the recent funeral of Cilla Black. Yes there were the funny stories that you might expect but there was also a powerful witness from Sir Cliff Richard.  A troubled man these days but he shared his own faith and with great conviction sang a song of Christian hope.  I had never heard it before but it speaks of God’s faithfulness to his people through all the dark experiences of life and  through death itself:

‘I see your wounded hands, I touch your side

With thorns upon your brow you bled and died

But there's an empty tomb, and love for all who come

And give their hearts to You, the faithful One.’

I often reflect on the great privilege of conducting funerals for people who were greatly loved by those who were closest to them, but even more being able to bring to their moment of heartache the promises of Jesus that can never fail.   I cannot think of anything better than standing in the tradition of the earliest believers who regarded themselves as ‘witnesses to the Resurrection.’