Act of Remembrance.

Today we remember those who are casualties of war and military conflict – men and women of armed forces; families who live in dread and those who have lost sons and daughters, parents, wives and husbands; those who now live with the ongoing legacy of injury to body and mind, traumatised in spirit, memory, and seeking to rebuild their inner world.

We remember all who are caught in the crossfire of conflict, the wrong place at the wrong time, acceptable losses, collateral damage, civilian casualties, the vocabulary of evasion because we know that such loss and suffering is wrong, however right any cause.

So we acknowledge our capacity to hurt and to waste, to see the other as the enemy. Yet we ask with anguished hearts, how else can we protect our lives and our own nation – the double bind of making peace by conflict, of making secure by making war, of having to threaten and retaliate when threatened or attacked.

May God lead us in the ways of peace – make us witnesses of reconciliation – give us a holy impatience with the short cuts and the political expediencies. And yes, give us courage to question assumptions that conflict is inevitable in a globalised, polarised and destabilised world. God help us to see all those structures of violent power, of oppressive ideas, of instilled hostility, as part of that great song of the ruthless, and help us to silence it –

by persistent, patient actions of peace,

by resilient, responsive acts of reconciliation,

by gentle, gracious words of goodness,

by faith-filled, faithful prayers of friendship,

by holy, hopeful gestures of  healing.

Let us, therefore, remember in silence before God, all those who died in the two World wars, and those who have died in the conflicts that have continued to ravage our world. In the silence we pray to the God of peace, for those whose lives have been taken in conflict, those who have suffered injury of body and mind, and we will seek the healing peace and reconciling forgiveness of God.

The life and thought of Dietrich Bonhoeffer persists as an essential and critical voice even seventy five years after his death. There are so many reasons to pay attention to the occasional writings and speakings of Bonhoeffer; but in our time of fractious politics, slow and sometimes blatant power grabs, growing support for right wing populism and uncritical adulation of the strong leader, it is the radically uncompromising call and cost of discipleship in following Jesus that challenges Christian communities to decide where ultimate allegiance lies. This is Bonhoeffer the pastor, preaching a Confirmation sermon in 1938. The date is essential context, and the words are explosive in their political as well as theological and spiritual reverberations:   

"You have only one master now…But with this 'yes' to God belongs just as clear a 'no.' Your 'yes' to God requires your 'no' to all injustice, to all evil, to all lies, to all oppression and violation of the weak and poor, to all ungodliness, and to all mockery of what is holy. Your 'yes' to God requires a 'no' to everything that tries to interfere with your serving God alone, even if that is your job, your possessions, your home, or your honour in the world. Belief means decision."

Preached to young Christians facing what we now know as life in one of the most violent, lethal and merciless regimes in European history. The use of the word "master" is likewise laden with intentional contrast, and implies an either-or from which there can be no compromising third choice. One master. Who is it to be? Yes to God means 'no' to all other powers demanding final loyalty of mind, heart, soul and body. Belief means decision, not only one single decision after which it is business as usual; but a confirming decision that means all other decisions take their direction from that living and central commitment to Jesus Christ.

What makes Bonhoeffer such a necessary discomfort to those who are at ease in Zion is his reiteration of the radical, risk-laden demands of the Gospel of Christ. Earlier translations of his book on discipleship were titled, The Cost of Discipleship.The critical edition is more accurate in the technical sense of the one word title: Discipleship. However commendable that title, it remains the case that Bonhoeffer's relentless emphasis on the nature of Christian following of Jesus focused on the cost of discipleship. That cost was inevitable and the sine qua non of faithfulness to God, and the authenticating hallmark of a life following the way of Jesus Christ, bearing a cross and headed for Calvary.

The words from the confirmation sermon were not intended as comfortable invitation to convenient respectability, but as warning and call to a lifestyle and inner orientation at odds with all that is at odds with the way of Jesus. In other words this ongoing 'yes' compels a recurring 'no' to all that demands a different loyalty to alternative values and competing life goals. The life goal of the disciple is to be faithful to Christ, the values are rooted in the commitment of God in Christ to a reconciled world, and that 'Yes' carries within it a lifelong capacity for saying no; and Bonhoeffer is explicit in what is to be contradicted.

"God requires your 'no' to all injustice, to all evil, to all lies, to all oppression and violation of the weak and poor, to all ungodliness, and to all mockery of what is holy."

Those words are freighted with responsibility for the way we live our lives in the 2020 world of political and social divisions. One of the more easily overlooked features of contemporary life is the mockery of what is holy. That isn't new either, it was a social toxin flowing through the veins of National Socialism and its effect was the weakening of the immune system, making minds and wills less receptive and increasingly resistant to moral values of human worth, dignity and fundamental rights. 

The mockery of what is holy is a theological version of the cliche 'nothing is sacred anymore'. But when that which one group in society reveres and holds as of essential value to their lives is mocked, ignored, or treated as trivial, the result is a dangerous diminishing of human capital and ethical safeguards. Bonhoeffer saw that happening over the years before the 1938 sermon. The mockery of what a society has deemed to be holy, pushes back boundaries and rewrites in coarser and less humane language what is acceptable, decent and for the common good. Eventually people themselves, those who hold on to what is holy and to be respected by consensus, are themselves mocked, diminished, and devalued.

At that point Bonhoeffer could see with prophetic clarity, the fundamental Yes to God which orients the whole of life, demanded a faithful No to all in life that contradicts justice, goodness, truth, freedom, care for the weak and poor, and reverence for the holy. Yes implies No. You cannot serve God wholeheartedly and something else at the same time. The criterion for the Christian is the cross of Christ, a dying to all other claims on our will, conscience, heart, mind and body.

I find these words of Bonhoeffer so uncomfortably apt in 2020 Britain and beyond. But I know of no other way to be faithful to the fundamental Yes I've said to God as a Christian, than to say with continuing conviction, and with relentless faithfulness, No. No to words that are lies; No to policies which humiliate and threaten the poor; No to policies of injustice and callous disregard for refugees and immigrants; No to hostile environments, to racism and antisemitism; No to the abuses of power when it is used to remove the very levers put in place to hold power accountable; No to the rhetoric of division; No to the deifying of capital, money, wealth, stuff and its consequent global inequity; and No to the laying waste of the only planet we have, in pursuit of all the above.

And in all those sayings of No, those who follow Jesus faithfully in the 21st Century do so fully  recognising that the cost of discipleship is stated very plainly. Say Yes to God, and you say No to much else that is taken for granted as the way the world works. 

(The sermon 'The Gift of Faith', was preached on April 9, 1938. See The Collected Sermons of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, (ed) Isabel Best, (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2012, pp. 201-206)   

An autumn red leaf,

beside green clover wet with still falling rain,

resting an inch from the dirt path.

A serendipitous coalescence of images,

gifted to us in those rare unlooked for moments of significant seeing,

when we are spoken to,

and the word we hear is Yes.

   Whimsical Haiku
Beside today's path,
a providential arrow
or mere fallen leaf?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thought for the Day 

Monday 19

Psalm 23.1 “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.”

The first word is the name of God, the one who promised to be the faithful guide and strong protector of Israel. And it’s personal, because the Lord is my Shepherd; he knows your name, your face and your heart. In Scripture the shepherd is often to illustrate God’s strength, care and always promised presence. The Lord is the Shepherd of the ninety nine, and the one who is in trouble. 

Tuesday 20

Psalm 23.2 “He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside still waters, he restores my soul.”

There is both tenderness and toughness in the shepherd who knows how to look after sheep. Rest and nourishment are needed to keep the body healthy; but the Shepherd of our souls cares for our whole being. Sometimes our inner spirit is frayed, and our heart is weary. The Lord, our Shepherd looks after us, providing the nourishment of his Word, inviting us into the stillness of prayer, and the ministry of the soul-restoring Holy Spirit.

Wednesday 21 

Psalm 23.3 “He guides me in paths of righteousness, for his name’s sake.”

This Psalm is about God taking initiatives. “He makes me lie down…he leads…he restores…he guides.” God leads us in right paths. Sometimes we might think we know better, but God knows the future, as well as our past and present. He will bring us to the right place. God’s name is true and his promise is faithful, and for his name’s sake he will go ahead of us, guide us and be there with us and for us.

Thursday 22

Psalm 23.4 “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me, your rod and your staff, they comfort me.”

Faith sometimes has a note of defiance. “Even though, no matter what, I will fear no evil…” Fear isn’t a choice; sometimes we are afraid, scared and anxious. Faith is not the absence of fear, it is the movement of the heart turning from whatever we fear, to the God we have learned to trust no matter what. Even though life becomes scary, God is still there, “you are with me”. Comfort is the sense of being surrounded by a strength greater than our own. “The Lord is my Shepherd…..you are with me.”

Friday 23

Psalm 23 5 “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil, my cup overflows.”

This is God as host, the hospitable God who provides rest, friendship, food and his own presence. To anoint the head is a sign of honour and welcome. The table is laden, the cup is never empty. We are shepherded to the best seat, at the best table, to eat the best food. In the presence of all in life that threatens us, God sets a table, and anoints us with the Spirit. Think of bread broken, and wine poured out, Christ’s presence and the communion of saints.

Saturday

Psalm 23.6 “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.” 

The Shepherd goes ahead, leads, guides, protects and looks after the sheep. The Psalm finishes by saying that all the way we have travelled we have been followed, by goodness and mercy. God’s blessings are often most clearly understood when we stop and look back the road we have come. Then, looking forward, the confident hope that “in my Father’s house are many dwelling places”, and one of them has our name on it.

Sunday

Revelation 7.17 “For the Lamb at the centre of the throne will be their shepherd; he will lead them to springs of living water. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”

Psalm 23, and this verse are often sung or read at a funeral service. There’s a reason for that. Sometimes we need pictures and memories to express our faith in the hard to describe grace, love and mercy of God. The Lord is our Shepherd, Jesus is the Good Shepherd. Through Christ we come to springs of living water, springing up to eternal life. The image of God wiping away tears is one of the most tender verses in the whole Bible. The Lord of all creation moved by the tears of his creatures.

We've all had to find our own ways of coping with a restricted way of life while we co-exist with Covid 19. Apparently lots of folk have been tuning in to Bob Ross, the American painter, instructor and television host on his own programme, The Joy of Painting. It helps them sleep during the anxieties of daily life that have become everyday experience for all of us, they say. If you've never watched him, he can be found on BBC 4 IPlayer and there are dozens of programmes.

His soft playful voice, gentle enthusiasm, conversational style, make watching him at work a form of therapy for the imagination. Even the titles, often in unapologetic clichés,  sound like an invitation to somewhere not far from Eden: Twilight Meadow, Bubbling Brook, Winter Stillness, Cabin in the Woods, Lazy River. But nearly all of his paintings have trees; foreground, background, on horizons, up close, forests of fir trees, dominant, solitary majestic pines, unobtrusive thickets, low hanging branches over lakes and streams – all over the place, trees. This is the man whose words became a meme, “There is nothing wrong with having a tree as a friend.” I agree. Wholeheartedly. Without reserve. 

I don't paint, at least not with oil, acrylic or watercolour. If mixing and working stranded cotton counts, then I paint in textiles. But I do take photographs, and amongst my favourite subjects are trees. During these past months we have done a forest walk most days. The paths, the trees, the flora, lately the fungi, the wildlife, all have been sources of healing and quietening. But the trees? They have become familiar companions, known faces, and we have enjoyed them through early spring, summer, and now well into autumn. 

Trees are a big deal in the Bible. From the Tree of Life to the avenues of trees in the Holy City, whose leaves are for the healing of the nations. My favourite prophet, Deutero-Isaiah,had a soft spot for trees. There is that word painting of nature's loud applause of the Creator at the end of chapter 55:

You will go out in joy
    and be led forth in peace;
the mountains and hills
    will burst into song before you,
and all the trees of the field
    will clap their hands.
   Instead of the thornbush will grow the cypress,
    and instead of briers the myrtle will grow.
This will be for the Lord’s renown,
    for an everlasting sign,
    that will endure forever.” 

Walking along the banks of the River Dee yesterday, these trees were applauding in colour. Isaiah 55 is a chapter deeply rooted in faith and hope, faith in the God of new beginnings, and hope that the prophet and people will be part of that new thing which God will do. That phrase, "Instead of" is a summons to comparisons. Instead of this, that!  Instead of the wounding scrubby thornbush, the elegant tall cypress; instead of tearing briars, the beautiful myrtle, its flowers and leaves used by brides and in victory parades. Isaiah is anticipating the reversal of the curse and the fall, when God renews the earth and the whole creation rejoices and bursts into applause.

Going back to people who have found some solace and quietening in watching Bob Ross painting, it isn't difficult to imagine the sheer tedium of chronic anxiety, and for many the slow erosion of emotional nutrients as we all try to cope with distancing, face coverings, and the prohibitions on gathering together for mutual comfort, support and companionship. Isaiah's words are a promised interruption to the tedium, and a confident looking forward to the shared rejoicing of those who may now be near despair. The words that come before the promise of applauding trees are the words from which faith springs and hope flourishes:

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
    neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the Lord.
 “As the heavens are higher than the earth,
    so are my ways higher than your ways
    and my thoughts than your thoughts.
 As the rain and the snow
    come down from heaven,
and do not return to it
    without watering the earth
and making it bud and flourish,
    so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater,
 so is my word that goes out from my mouth:
    It will not return to me empty,
but will accomplish what I desire
    and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.

The uncertainty and widespread suffering caused by Covid 19 has taken a huge toll across our world. There is no end in sight and while there are many reasons to be hopeful, and much that encourages us in the kindness, cleverness and commitment of all kinds of people, it's clear that life will not be back to normal any time soon.

Isaiah, and his love of trees, is a contrary voice to those inner anxieties and persistently negative voices that are in danger of undermining our faith and our hope. We will rejoice together again. Our thoughts are always limited, often self-concerned, and understandably preoccupied with those corrosively worrying what ifs. God's thoughts are different. There is a heaven of difference between God's thoughts and ours, between God's words and our speechless fears. God's promises are made in words, and his words don't bounce back empty – they accomplish and achieve God's purposes.

These trees I have come to know as signposts on our walks. One day they, or their seeds some time down the years, will clap their hands at the surprising joyfulness that surges through a creation being made new. The cypress will point the way, and the myrtle will clothe the roadsides with the flowers and foliage of a cosmic celebration. Sometimes, just sometimes, theology requires imagination unplugged. That's how hope is sustained, by thinking the previously unthinkable, and by a vision as ludicrously hopeful and Godlike as trees applauding a world made new.  

(Pastoral Letter to our Church Community in Montrose)

Dear Friends,

During my time as a student in the 1970’s at the Baptist Theological College of Scotland (as it was called then), the Principal was the Rev R E O White. From him I learned so much. The best teachers are those who teach us to think for ourselves, and who model what they teach. REO was a demanding teacher, and sometimes assumed we knew more than we did. But those who sat under his teaching learned the importance of argument, evidence, organised thought, and a willingness to follow truth wherever it led. That meant too, careful and reverent study of the biblical text, learning to think and act pastorally, with humour and humanity, as one who, in following Christ will care for Christ’s people with the love and humility of the Servant Christ.

Every day at College started with prayers led by each of the students on a rota basis. Mr White always sat behind the lectern, his face visible to the class but not to the one leading the prayers. One morning I chose to read from Psalm 119. I knew the passage well, but I didn’t pay attention to the verses that followed my text. I read out to the class: “O how I love your law, I meditate on it all day long” (v 97) This was my text for the day. But I thought I would read the verses before and after – and then, committed to reading my announced passage, I read v 99 to the class, “I have more wisdom and insight than all my teachers….” I was aware of the class looking at Mr White, whose shoulders had started shaking with hard to suppress merriment at the very thought!

I became friends with Mr and Mrs White when I left College, and visited them regularly. When years later I became College Principal he spoke to me with warmth and that same wise encouragement to grow into God’s calling. I reminded him of that morning, that text, and my embarrassment, and this time we both laughed. When Mr White died I spoke at his funeral on behalf of the College, and gave thanks to God that this man, of such wisdom and insight, had never stopped being my teacher.

These are times when as Christians we are perplexed and uncertain about the way the world is and the way the world is going. Wisdom and insight are at a premium. We are still in the full flow of a global pandemic which is disrupting all that has been familiar to us; we are right to be concerned about the political divisiveness in our own country, in the United States, and increasingly across Europe; every day the flow of refugees and the building pressures of migration challenge governments to act with justice and humanity; the growing inequalities between rich and poor likewise raises questions of justice and peace; and the inescapable consequences of climate change for our world threaten to overwhelm: these are huge challenges for humanity. They cannot but compel the church of Jesus Christ to reflect long and deeply about what God is saying through these events and movements in our times. 

More than ever, in our own Christian lives, and as a local gathering of Christ’s church, the words of James carry an important promise: “If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given him.”(James 1.5) Then there is that foundation text for wise living: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” (Proverbs 9.10) If we forget the Creator, we will neglect the creation, to our peril. If we despise other people made in God’s image, then we insult the One in whose image every human person is made. If economic gain is the goal and bottom line of life, then money and profit, not God, is our god. If division and conflict with others is the new way of politics, then what role the peacemaker and ambassador of Christ whose message is reconciliation?

Wisdom is the ability to look at the world as a God-loved world, into which Christ came and died and rose again, and to be a people of faith and faithfulness. Wisdom is to face honestly the enormous problems our world faces, and to pray with faith and hopefulness, “Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Wisdom is to know and believe the love of God, and to be agents of that love, inspired and energised by the love of Christ crucified and risen wherever God has placed us.

We are back to the three great virtues of Christian discipleship – faith in Christ and in the faithfulness of God; hope in the good news of Christ’s death for the sins of the world and his resurrection as the foundation of all hope in life and death; love as the eternal truth of who God is, and the final word God has spoken in Christ who, “while we were still sinners died for our sins”, “and not for ours only but for the sins of the whole world.”  (I John2.2)

Lo! the hosts of evil round us,
scorn thy Christ, assail his ways!
From the fears that long have bound us,
free our hearts to love and praise.
Grant us wisdom, grant us courage,
for the living of these days.

Save us from weak resignation
to the evils we deplore;
let the search for thy salvation
be our glory evermore.
Grant us wisdom, grant us courage,
serving thee whom we adore.

That was one of R E O White’s favourite hymns! Make it your prayer this week.

Your friend and pastor,   

Jim Gordon

I am not a lawyer. I am a concerned citizen, and someone committed to the common good. Below is a quotation from the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, a man who expects to be taken seriously as a political leader entrusted with the good governance of our country, the safety of our citizens, the upholding of the laws of the land as passed by Parliament, the stewardship and curatorship of our economy, and to act responsibly as the head of Government on behalf of the people, all the people. And this is what he says to his own Conservative Party members:

“We’re also backing those police up, protecting the public by changing the law to stop the early release of serious sexual and violent offenders and stopping the whole criminal justice system from being hamstrung by what the home secretary would doubtless – and rightly – call the lefty human rights lawyers, and other do-gooders.”

This is dangerous nonsense, and an abuse of the Office of Prime Minister, by the person currently entrusted with that Office. It is worth deconstructing this statement to expose the inner springs of its dangerous rhetoric.

The dog whistle phrases "backing the police up", "protecting the public". These are the rhetorical feel good promises and commendable goals. We all want the police to be supported and the public protected – but no mention of the massive cuts to police resources that have been imposed by this and previous Governments in the past decade. 

The focus on two already recognised categories of crime and their consequent social and legal issues. The public, and the Government recognise that there is a need to review and adjust current legislation and provisions around early release. But such changes require sophisticated and careful review by legal and judicial experts who should be properly resourced and engaged in producing appropriate legislation which addresses legitimate concerns.

"Stopping the whole criminal justice system from being hamstrung..." While these are serious crimes, and the early release of those who commit them must be examined and under constant review and scrutiny, it is not these cases that hamstring the criminal justice system. According to The Law Society it is gross under funding and continuing cuts that make the legal mills grind slowly. 

These are the four rhetorical springs that wind up to an outrageous degradation of the work and professional integrity of lawyers, who are essential components in an efficient, impartial and rights focused criminal justice system. Take time to read the last words as they stand on their own, before the rhetorical smokescreen of pseudo virtue and faux political seriousness: 

"hamstrung by what the home secretary would doubtless – and rightly – call the lefty human rights lawyers, and other do-gooders.” This is the Prime Minister speaking to his Party, overheard by the country. Here is my question – why does the Prime Minister of one of the world's major democratic nations view human rights negatively? And why complain about people who are trying to do good?

"Lefty human rights lawyers and do-gooders" is a phrase loaded with much freight and trundled out as if it were a matter of universal agreement that doing good as a human rights lawyer is a bad thing, and lawyers should all and only be sympathetic to the political ideology of the Right.

It assumes that the law is politically partisan; and clearly the Prime Minister believes it should be, provided it is Right leaning. This is an astonishing betrayal of his Office.

It suggests that those who defend the human rights of the accused by using all legal means are somehow obstructing the law, when in fact they are implementing, upholding and exercising the law as legislatively intended. This betrays astonishing ignorance of the role of defence lawyers.

It suggests that there is something unacceptable about doing good, which in this context means the lawyer, any lawyer, left or right, will do all in their power and within the power of the law to ensure that accused and victim are treated fairly and equitably before the law. This shows an astonishing lack of moral awareness and social perception.

I am not a lawyer. I am a concerned citizen. Here is the response of one QC:

Amanda Pinto QC, the chair of the Bar Council, which represents barristers, said: “It is shocking and troubling that our own prime minister condones and extends attempts to politicise and attack lawyers for simply doing their job in the public interest.

“Lawyers – including those employed by the government itself – are absolutely vital to the running of our grossly under-funded criminal justice system. Their professional duty is to their client and to the court, and not to play political games.

It is indeed shocking and troubling. And yes, it is indeed dangerous nonsense.