Reality - Grief - Hope - Reflections on all that's happening in a troubled world

I found myself making connections between a cataclysmic event that shaped a great deal of thinking that's reflected in the Old Testament and the awful news that's coming from Mosul in Iraq, from Ukraine, and from Gaza.

It follows on from this morning's reflections - if you haven't already, have a look at those reflections too.

I wan’t sure whether I wanted to go.

I felt it would be ghoulish.

But something made me change my mind.

It was a baseball game.

The evening we arrived in New York we went to a Baseball game – something special to New York.  And it was exciting – I could see it having a fascination a bit like cricket.

We came out of the stadium and there was a sculpture to photograph of a black baseball player and a white embracing – the first black player to play Basegball in a major league had been picked by the Brooklyn side of the day.  And is celebrated by the door of their 2002 stadium

2002 is a significant date for the building of the stadium.

We left early – as the sixth inning was coming to a close and as Brooklyn had just scored three off one ball.   That was their final score – and it was enough to win them the game at 3-2!

I told you it was  as interesting as cricket!

We left at 10-45 conscious we still had to venture through the Subway back to our hotel!  There was just time to do the Boardwalk of  Coney island and see the world’s biggest wooden roller coaster albeit at a distance and the largest ferris wheel, named of course after George Ferris!

As we were leaving the stadium we noticed a wall of honour – a memorial wall.   We had paid homage to the wall of honour and the memorial wall at Liverpool’s Anfield Stadium the last time Leicetser City played in the premiership.  It had been most moving.

This was moving not just because it was a monument to those who had lost their lives in 9/11, it was especially moving because it slowly dawned on you looking at the wall that there were so many firefighters.

It’s one thing to lose your life in that bulding, another to enter into a building that is about to collapse.

We felt it right to go to honour the people of New York.

To see the water cascading into the black hole seemingly an eternal fountain, to see the names, to see the scale of the towers, the pinpoint accuracy of those flying the planes – the significance of the target – the world trade centre.  To see the replacement.

There was an ambivalence.

It was an ambivalence shared by those we talked to most about 9/11.   Is the new Liberty tower a statement of power, business as usual.  Is there an acknowledgement of what has happened.

We were directed by one of those who was ambivalent to the African Burial Ground. Another tower block, this time the graves of upwards of 15,000 black Africans.  Unmarked graves outside the city wall away from consecrated grounds, thousands of miles away from home – slaves.   When in building a new tower block 400 and more graves had been unearthed they were honoured.  A national memorial put in place.   A moving site to visit.

But not so accessible.

Not so many people there.  A couple of families.

A couple of African American children playing in the water spinkerss, their father on a mobile phone.

Strangely iconic.

It raises questions about what has happened and facing up to the significance of it.

Michelle, who has recently joined us of a Sunday evening, had given me a book to read by Walter Brueggemann shortly before our visit.   It had been a powerful book and resonated with some of what I had to say in my lectures.

We stumbled across a bookshop while we were there – and came across his latest book.

Reality Grief Hope.

Written this year it is a powerful call to the American church to face up to the reality of what has happened in 9/11.

Written in the l ight of what has happened in Iraq and in Afghanistan since – there is a stark reality that the problems of the world cannot be solved by the military might of America.  Much as that may have been the dream.

There is a need to face the stark reality that it is not the solitary power of so much of its narrative.

It is a powerful and hard-hitting book that makes you think.

What Rueggemann does is to suggest that at the heart of the Old Testament the writers of the Bible grappled with a similar cataclysmic event that made the people think again about their world.

The fall of Jerusalem, the destruction of the temple changed the way they had of looking at the world.

WE can learn today, suggests Brueggemann who we can resp[ond to the world of today.

First we need to face the stark reality of what has happened – a loss of power.

Then we need to grieve – re-discover the power of lament.

Ask the difficult questions.

Habakkuk is a book that comes out of that period.

It is a book filled with waling and gnashing of teeth as the world falls about your ears.

Habakkuk 1

O Lord, how long shall I cry for help,

   and you will not listen?

Or cry to you ‘Violence!’

   and you will not save?

3 Why do you make me see wrongdoing

   and look at trouble?

Destruction and violence are before me;

   strife and contention arise.

4 So the law becomes slack

   and justice never prevails.

The wicked surround the righteous—

   therefore judgement comes forth perverted.

This is what it felt like.  And it was OK to say it.

This is what it can feel like at the moment.

It is disturbing what is going on in the Middle East.

I wonder whether there are things for us to learn.

Maybe especially at this moment in time.

A week on Monday sees the centenary of the First World War – and the start of four years of commemorations.

Last week it happened.  The Christians did leave Mosul.  Andrew White, Anglican priest in Baghdad was poignant on the radio this week.  William Dalrymple, historian of those communities, was filled with despair in the paper this week.

At the end of the First World War the powers that had won that conflict sought to impose the European nation state on the peoples of the Middle East – the straight line borders of Iraq, the monarchies of Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and the like.

And of course the Balfour Declaration about Palestine – with the British Mandate over Palestine.

Something profoundly disturbing is happening just as we approach that commemoration.  The world created out of that war in the Middle East is unravelling – profoundly disturbing things going on.

How should we respond.

Maybe we should face up to the stark realities – maybe we should be filled with a sense of grief not simply for that massive loss of life a century ago, but for its impact in the world of today too.

As we face the reaility, articularte the grief, then there comes a sense of hope.

And it is a very real hope that in the writings of the Old Tesatment that come at this juncture in its history carry with it a call to renewed action and resolve.

You see it in Habakkuk.

I will stand at my watch-post,

   and station myself on the rampart;

I will keep watch to see what he will say to me,

   and what he will answer concerning my complaint.

2 Then the Lord answered me and said:

Write the vision;

   make it plain on tablets,

   so that a runner may read it.

3 For there is still a vision for the appointed time;

   it speaks of the end, and does not lie.

If it seems to tarry, wait for it;

   it will surely come, it will not delay.

4 Look at the proud!

   Their spirit is not right in them,

   but the righteous live by their faith.

Hold fast the faith.

Keep to that way of Justice.

There is still a vision.

That is something for us to take to heart.

]

And it is something that comes to us out of the maelstrom that is Gaza too.

Felicity said I should follow Facebook – I am nearly persuaded.  For when we made friends with that school in Betlehem, when we visited the East Jerusalem Baptist church, when we made contact with Alex Awad and the Bethlehem Bible college we were able to stay in touch.  And we are in touch.

And it has been harrowing.

For of course, the Bethlehem Bible College has a secton over in  Gaza.

Their statement has that prophetic feel about it.

Holding on to faith as the person who co-ordinates the college students in Gaza, Faten spoke of her faith in the face of two children in the Lighthouse school being killed …

And also challenged to the way of Chrsit, the way of justice – hold fast the vision, run with it.

Today God weeps over the situation in Palestine and Israel. Today God weeps over Gaza.  With God, our hearts are broken when we see the carnage in Gaza and in Israel.

We at Bethlehem Bible College consistently called for a just peace for both Israelis and Palestinians. We always sought a nonviolent resolution to the conflict. “All forms of violence must be refuted unequivocally”, stated the Christ at the Checkpoint manifesto. We also believe that as long as the occupation of Palestinian territory and the siege of Gaza remain, the conflict will continue to escalate. To quote the manifesto again, “for Palestinian Christians, the occupation is the core issue of the conflict”.

As Christians committed to nonviolence, we do not and cannot endorse Hamas’ ideology. However, we believe that the people of Gaza have the right to live in freedom and dignity. This means that the siege over Gaza should be lifted and the borders should be open. The people of Gaza need a chance to live.

We oppose Hamas launching rockets at Israeli town and cities. At the same time, we are shocked by the unproportional and inhuman response by the Israeli military and the disregard of civilian life and specially innocent women and children.

We are grieved by the mounting hate, bigotry and racism in our communities today, and the consequent violence. We are specially grieved when Christians are contributing to the culture of hatred and division, rather than allowing Christ to use them as instruments of peace and reconciliation.

In the face of this, we affirm – using the words of our own Dr. Yohanna Katanacho:

We are against killing children and innocent people. We support love not hatred, justice not oppression, equality not bigotry, peaceful solutions not military solutions. Violence will only beget wars, it will bring more pain and destruction for all the nations of the region. Peacemaking rooted in justice is the best path forward. Therefore, we commit ourselves to spread a culture of love, peace, and justice in the face of violence, hatred, and oppression.

We call on all the friends of Bethlehem Bible College to pray for an immediate ceasefire, followed by serious efforts to address the root of the problem not the symptoms. We pray comfort for the bereaved families. We specially pray for the Christians of Gaza, who although are currently under bombardment, yet they are offering shelter and support for the displaced and wounded. We finally call for you to pray for all those - Palestinians, Israelis and internationals – who are committed to spreading a culture of love, peace, and justice in the face of violence, hatred, and oppression.

[Note: Pray for the Shepherd Society – a ministry of Bethlehem Bible College – as we contemplate practical ways to minister and walk along the destitute and displaced in Gaza. We will soon share with you how you can help us respond to the huge needs.

A statement by Bethlehem Bible College’s board of directors, president, deans, faculty, staff and students – and the local committee of Christ at the Checkpoint.]

We need to stand by our resolve … hold to the faith and follow in the footsteps of Jesus.  We are in for some disturbing raking of the embers of memory in the context of what is going on in our world today as we mark the anniversary of war.  Good, maybe that the churches are coming together in the Minster on 4^th August to reflect and to pray – a walk from Chrsitchurch to the Minster and then stations for prayer and quiet reflection.

There is a resolve to hold on to in the words of Habkkuk

17 Though the fig tree does not blossom,

   and no fruit is on the vines;

though the produce of the olive fails

   and the fields yield no food;

though the flock is cut off from the fold

   and there is no herd in the stalls,

18 yet I will rejoice in the Lord;

   I will exult in the God of my salvation.

19 God, the Lord, is my strength;

   he makes my feet like the feet of a deer,

   and makes me tread upon the heights.

Exactly the resolve Paul invites us to share in Romans 8

35Who will separate us from the love of Christ?

I tend to take that in a comforting, passive sense.  Who will separate us from the embrace of the love of Chrsit who keeps us safe.  What if it is more active.  Who will separate us from the pro-active business of living a life of love, the love of Christ?

 Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? …

37No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Hold the faith.

Hang on to the Hope

And keep on the work of brining love into a hurting world.

Reality - Grief - Hope

We’ve been using the booklet through the summer … and I still am.  And I don’t think I had made the connection before.

Let the Flame burn – that year the flames of the  Spirit circulated around the churches and we kept a record of the comments and prayers that were made – the inspiration for our reflections since Pentecost …

The Power of the Holy Spirit to lift us up when we are down.  How important that the Spirit brings unity, the Spirit brings Hope, the Spirit brings light as we are challenged to be the light of the world

And today we stay with that theme – the Spirit brings light and remember that Jesus is the Light of the World

I hadn’t made the connection until this week.

Of course … it was the year leading up to the Olympic Games.  We were thinking of the Olympic Torch, And the message we put together from the Churches of Cheltenham is still on the back window of our car – Jesus Said, I am the Light of the World.  More than gold.  Simple but quite effective statement from the churches of Cheltenham, prompted by the churches initiative More than Gold.

Of course.   That’s the connection.

We watched the Opening Ceremony of the Commonwealth Games … and were not disappointed.  It was tongue in cheek, it was dramatic, it was full of fun … and there was a very real twist in the tale.

Or rather the twist wasn’t quite right.  The Duke Of Edinburgh and the Queen had fun trying to undo the baton as they put the message into it a long time ago – having travelled round so many countries the Commonwealth Games President couldn’t get it off … and Chris Hoy couldn’t either.  I was longing for the Queen to suggest letting the woman there have a go!

I was pleased that we had managed to see the Baton relay as we had seen the Olympic torch relay – something special bringing those countries together.

Moment before we came face to face with the darkness of the world at this instant.  The Commonwealth Games President is Prince Iman of Malaysia. The First Minister of Scotland, Alex Salmond, had led a moment of remembrance for the victims of the Malaysian airliner that had been shot down.  One of those moving moments.

That of course is not the only thing that has happened these last few days.

oly Spirit

It did happen last Sunday.  The Christians left Mosul.  Historic, Biblical Nineveh, Iraq’s second city.  It was one of the most poignant interviews on the radio yesterday as Andrew White, Anglican priest who has worked among the Christian community of Baghdad for many, many years had tears in his voice as he was asked, is this the end of Christianity in Iraq?  He was as passionate as ever – this is not against Muslims.  Muslims are our friends and have been for centuries.  Muslims are being threatened, they too are the victims.  It is against the terrorists, he said.  What a commitment to the people of Baghdad he has had – it was when Mark  Evans was Minister at our Belvedere and Erith church that we first came across Andrew White who had long-standing links with that church.  Thanks to Mark we have followed the passionate involvement he has had with Iraqi Christians.  It was distressing to hear his interview.  The bleak prospect that lies ahead.

And then the continuing news that’s coming out of Gaza.  I had been wrong last week.  And wrong before.,   Gaza is 30 miles by five to seven miles wide.   From Cheltenham to just the other side of Witney on the A40.

900 and more killed.   Most of them women and children.  Distressing to see the messages coming from those we have got to know in Bethlehem.

The impact on the Scout group – all with families over in Gaza too.

On Bethlehem.

A message from Bethlehem Bible College –

A statement by Bethlehem Bible College regarding the current crisis in Gaza

Friday, Jul 25 2014

Today God weeps over the situation in Palestine and Israel. Today God weeps over Gaza.  With God, our hearts are broken when we see the carnage in Gaza and in Israel.

I want to pause there a moment – because that comment touches something that is right at the heart of the Bible, the importance of which is all ltoo easy for us to overlook and underestimate.

We are called to weep with those who weep.

There is a time to every purpose under heaven … a time to weep.

As Jesus found when he joined the grieving Mary whose brother had died an untimely death: The shortest, starkest verse in the Bible: Jesus wept.

The worship songs of the Book of Psalms are not by any means all praise songs.  There are the songs of lament when there is no other choice but to weep

By the rivers of Babylon,

There we sat down

And there we wept.

At the heart of the Old Testament story is a cataclysmic event that results simply in weeping … the devastation of Jerusalem, the destruction of the temple and the desolation of the people in their loss.

They grieved … and what’s so important to recognise they began to think through their response.  Key parts of the Old Testament emerge from this period.   How these Scriptures respond to such catastrophe can help us as we weep with those who weep.

It’s something I was prompted to think about in the reading I did before going to the States, in the conversations I had with our friends in the States and in the reading I have been doing since.  One key Amercian thinker and scholar of the Old Testament was personally known to a number of folk at our conference and interesting to catch a glimpse of the person behind the name.   Walter Brueggemann’s latest book had just been published earlier this year – he invites an American audience to make connections between the catastrophe that had hit them in 9/11 and the catastrophe of the fall of Jersualem in that OT story.

How vital to face the reality of what is happening.

How important to grieve – to lament.

And then there is a hope to discover but a hope filled with challenge, that calls for a prophetic response to the world around us.

He points to this part of Isaiah as it arises from the ashes of destruction … Isaiah 40:27-31

Why do you say, O Jacob,
   and speak, O Israel,
‘My way is hidden from the Lord,
   and my right is disregarded by my God’?
28 Have you not known? Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
   the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He does not faint or grow weary;
   his understanding is unsearchable.
29 He gives power to the faint,
   and strengthens the powerless.
30 Even youths will faint and be weary,
   and the young will fall exhausted;
31 but those who wait for the Lord 

            shall renew their strength,
   they shall mount up with wings like eagles,
they shall run and not be weary,
   they shall walk and not faint.

The reality must be faced – the grief articulated

My way is hidden from the Lord,

And my right is disregarded by my God.

Gone

Dark

Rough

Bleak

In the midst of this darkness – only when it is faced.  Only when it is put into words.  Only when the grieving happens and is out in the open. 

Only then can there be grounds for hope in the God of creation …

28 Have you not known? Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
   the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He does not faint or grow weary;
   his understanding is unsearchable.

Have you not known?

Have you not heard?

Then comes the powerful point – the purpose of the grieving.  This God creation gives power and strength to the faint and to the powerless.

29 He gives power to the faint,
   and strengthens the powerless.
30 Even youths will faint and be weary,
   and the young will fall exhausted;
31 but those who wait for the Lord 

That’s the first key word.

How vital that little word is.

Wait …

Wait for the Lord.

Hang on in there.  It may not come immediately.  It will come.  It will  not let you down.  Wait, Wait for the Lord.

Then comes a remarkable insight in this prophetic word – wait for the Lord and the Lord will lift you up to do something, to become active again. 

Those who wait for the Lord

            shall renew their strength,
   they shall mount up with wings like eagles,
they shall run and not be weary,
   they shall walk and not faint.

These are words of action …

Renew

Mount up

Run

It is in this sense, it seems to me, that the statement that comes out of Bethlehem Bible College is a truly prophetic statement –

We at Bethlehem Bible College consistently called for a just peace for both Israelis and Palestinians. We always sought a nonviolent resolution to the conflict. “All forms of violence must be refuted unequivocally”, stated the Christ at the Checkpoint manifesto. We also believe that as long as the occupation of Palestinian territory and the siege of Gaza remain, the conflict will continue to escalate. To quote the manifesto again, “for Palestinian Christians, the occupation is the core issue of the conflict”.

As Christians committed to nonviolence, we do not and cannot endorse Hamas’ ideology. However, we believe that the people of Gaza have the right to live in freedom and dignity. This means that the siege over Gaza should be lifted and the borders should be open. The people of Gaza need a chance to live.

We oppose Hamas launching rockets at Israeli town and cities. At the same time, we are shocked by the unproportional and inhuman response by the Israeli military and the disregard of civilian life and specially innocent women and children.

We are grieved by the mounting hate, bigotry and racism in our communities today, and the consequent violence. We are specially grieved when Christians are contributing to the culture of hatred and division, rather than allowing Christ to use them as instruments of peace and reconciliation.

In the face of this, we affirm – using the words of our own Dr. Yohanna Katanacho:

We are against killing children and innocent people. We support love not hatred, justice not oppression, equality not bigotry, peaceful solutions not military solutions. Violence will only beget wars, it will bring more pain and destruction for all the nations of the region. Peacemaking rooted in justice is the best path forward. Therefore, we commit ourselves to spread a culture of love, peace, and justice in the face of violence, hatred, and oppression.

We call on all the friends of Bethlehem Bible College to pray for an immediate ceasefire, followed by serious efforts to address the root of the problem not the symptoms. We pray comfort for the bereaved families. We specially pray for the Christians of Gaza, who although are currently under bombardment, yet they are offering shelter and support for the displaced and wounded. We finally call for you to pray for all those - Palestinians, Israelis and internationals – who are committed to spreading a culture of love, peace, and justice in the face of violence, hatred, and oppression.

[Note: Pray for the Shepherd Society – a ministry of Bethlehem Bible College – as we contemplate practical ways to minister and walk along the destitute and displaced in Gaza. We will soon share with you how you can help us respond to the huge needs.

A statement by Bethlehem Bible College’s board of directors, president, deans, faculty, staff and students – and the local committee of Christ at the Checkpoint.]

This is nothing less than the call of Christ

I hadn’t noticed it before …  but it struck me reading those words again. 

Maybe they are not simply passive words of reassurance, but active words of challenge …

Jesus said, I am the light of the world, those who follow me will not walk in darkness but will have the light of life.

To follow in the footsteps of Jesus is not to walk the walk of destruction, violence, and death – that is to walk in darkness. 

To follow in the footsteps of Jesus the light of the world means walking in the light and so having the light of life within.

My mind went back to the Opening Ceremony of the Olympic Games.  That evening Daniel Barenboim, the conductor had completed a cycle of the Beethoven Symphoniees with his East West Divan orchestra, bringing together Arab and Israeli players from across the divide in Palestine and Israel.  No sooner had Beethoven’s Ninth with its moving Ode to Joy come to its climax than Daniel Barenboim was crossing London to the Olympic Park.  As the ceremony came to its climax he was there carrying the Olympic Flag.  A most moving moment.

Writing as both an Israeli and a Palestinian DanielBarenboim spoke this week in the Guardian of the impossibility of a military solution to what is essentially a human problem as two peoples lay claim to the same small piece of land.   He had something very powerful to say about compassion.

Compassion is not merely a sentiment that results from a psychological understanding of a person’s need, but it is a moral obligation. … In this conflict, we are all losers. We can only overcome this sad state if we finally begin to accept the other side’s suffering and their rights. Only from this understanding can we attempt to build a future together..

To think of Jesus as Light of the world gives us an active challenge.  To rise to that challenge we need nothing less than the unseen, strenghhening power of the  Spirit that brings light.

Bethlehem Bible College has a presence in Gaza.

The writer of those challenging words quoted in thatstatement from Bethlehem Bible College,a member of staff, Dr. Yohanna Katanacho:yesterday wrote this …

Faten is not only a student in the MA program at Bethlehem Bible College – Gaza extension, she is also the coordinator for the Gaza students. She is a citizen of Gaza and a committed Baptist. This week Faten encountered few extra difficulties.

First, she encountered the death of two young children: Wissam and Jihad. Both of them are young students at Lighthouse School where Faten’s sister, faiza, works. Lighthouse School is a Christian organization that has been offering help to needy families in Gaza. They have 200 kids in Kindergarten through 6th grade. I called Faten and she informed me that the two kids were tired of being at home. They went to the roof (a flat roof) in order to play after a long curfew and no electricity at home. Sadly, this was the end of their lives. They were killed by Israeli air strikes. Faten and her sister, as well as others, were grieving the loss of these precious and innocent lives. As followers of Jesus they valued every life and invested in spreading life, not death.

Second, Faten’s building shook from a nearby explosion and many windows were broken. She told me that the inhabitants of the building were not in it. However, she and her sister stayed in the building because they know that their neighbor is physically challenged and might need help. In the morning while Faten was taking her devotions, reading the same Bible that we read, her building shook from a big explosion. God protected both sisters as well as their neighbor. I asked Faten if she has an area where she can find a safe refuge. She chuckled and said that the only refuge she has is God and He is enough for her. I asked her: does she go to church and pray with other believers? She responded that all the meetings have stopped. There is a curfew outside and it is dangerous to leave home. However, once in a while they risk their lives to get to an adjacent grocery store.

I am amazed by Faten’s sense of divine sovereignty. She wholeheartedly believes that her life is in God’s hands. God is her refuge in Gaza. God called her to serve Him in this difficult place and she will honor her Lord.

Interestingly, some Israeli Jews refer to Psalm 91 during this war. In their interpretation, the psalm mentions flying missiles (v. 5). They add that the Hebrew name of the Israeli incursion consists of two words (צוק איתן). The first letter of every word becomes a number in Hebrew (צא), that is 91.

Simply put, the Palestinian Faten is seeking the protection of the God of Psalm 91. She is doing it in the name of Jesus.

Please pray for Faten, her family, and for Lighthouse School. Please remember the kids of Gaza.

The Real Presence

One of the Ministers we stayed with was unexpectedly also a soccer coach ... something we hadn't anticipated in the States.

In one service he asked the question, what's going on in communion

As we gather togethr around the table today to break bread and to share the cup it's good to pause a moment and ask what Communion means to us.

What's going on as we break the bread and share the cup?

Something very personal for each one of us to reflect on.

Tom shared many things, but one thing stood out for me.  I'm not sure it's something that I have grown into in the way Tom has, but it is something that resonated with me.

Words alone cannot capture the mystery of the presence of God.

When words are not enough we do some ritual.

I am now a more sacramental person than I was.

What's going on for me in communion starts with that simple observation;.  It is something we are DOING.  What we are doing, though it may be in a stylised way is effectively what has been DONE over the last 2000 years.  It is special to me that as I preside at the table I use the words that were first handed on to me by my father 50 years ago.  They were handed on to him by the Rev Ben Davies, Minister of his church in Abersychan in South Wales 40 years before.  Just a couple of people and it takes me back 90 years.   Startling to think how few links in the chain back to the time of Christ.

I have received from the Lord that which also I have deliverred unto you ... that the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he brake it saying, This is my body that is broken for you, this do  in remembrance of me.

And after the same manner also, he took the cup saying, this is the cup of the New Covenant - this do as oft as ye drink  it in remembrance of me.  For as oft as you eat this bread and drink this cup ye do show the Lord's death until he come.

Something I find always very moving that sense of doing the very thing Jesus did and all those who have gone before us have done.

But there's more to it than that.

There's very much a presence of Chrsit with us as we break the bread and drink the cup.

But where it the real presence of Christ to be felt?

Is it in the bread and in the fruit of the vine that we drink? This is my body, this is my blood?   In some maasure, but that has not had that ring of truth for me.

Is the bread the wine simply symbolic of the body broken and the blood shed for us.   Yes ... but again that's not enough it is more than a symbol.

Is the presence somewhere else?

Is it in that promise of Jesus: where two or three gather together in my name, there am I in the midst of them?
That's something special to me.  The real presence is there as we gather together to break bread and share the cup - it is not something to be done in solitude it is as we meet together that the presence of Chrsit, the risen Christ is there.

And one more level comes home to me ... it is the thought of the unseen yet very presence of the HOly Spirit with us - it iis the Spirit that makes real the presence of Chrsit with us.

Just as we eat the  bread and it is real, so the Spirit's presence is real within us.

Just as we drink of the cup and it is real, so too the Spirit's presence is real within us.

It is the Spirit that makes all the differnce,

The Spirit that brings the light of Chrsit's presence into our hearts and into our lives.

Let the flame burn is the prayer at the heart of that book of promises we have received from our fellowship of churches, the Congregational Federation.

There is a power in teh presence of the Holy Spirit with us.

He is the comforter, the strength, the fortification alongside us and with us wherever we go.

When we are all too conscious of our weakness the Spirit it is that lifts us when we are down.   Taking Communion at someone's bedisde there is a very sense of the touch of Christ reaching out in healing and in blessing and in peace.

It is the fact that  even at home or wherever it is we share in the bread broken and the cup that we sense we are part of teh body of Christ.

Drawn to be one with him and one with each other.

It is the Spirit that brings hope in the midst of despair.

The Spirit that brings light into our darkness.

So it is that we gather in the name of Christ Jesus to be touched by the Spirit at the point of our deepest need and sense the healing, the blessing, the light of Christ's presence shining in the darkness.

We have a very real sense of the darkness in our world at the moment.

As we moved into our prayers of concern, I reflected on tthe things that trouble us in the news - the plane in the Ukraine, and it comes home having been on a flight recently.

The news from Mosul, having over the years of the wars in Iraq made the connnection with Nineveh and the oldest Chrsitian communities some still speaking the language of Jesus.

And Gaza.  1.7 million people walled into an area that stretches from here to this side of Oxford with just a couple of miles on each side of the road.  350 killed, so many of whom are women and children, 50,000 displaced from one small part of that area to another.

On Saturday I received an email and attached letter from Robert Pestell, now the Chaplain at the Sue Ryder Home.  We shall meet on Tuesday morning, not Wednesday this week at 9-30 to have a time of prayer for the world and its many needs.  And again at 7-00 pm in the evening.

Leading into our prayers of concern I shared Robert's letter.

A Call to Pray

It seems to me that we are at a very significant moment in the life of our world. A moment that demands a response, with the voices of moderation, reconciliation, forgiveness, healing and compassion being heard. Perhaps even the voice of common sense that says ‘enough is enough’, for we can no longer sit back and allow evil and barbaric acts to happen in a world that we have a part in

.

The downing of MH17, the continuing crisis in Israel, the conflict in the Ukraine and the unresolved situation in Syria all point to a world where things are going very badly wrong, with many people suffering terribly and unnecessarily.

This is not a world that I intentionally want to be part of and so I am calling upon you all to come together in prayer, meditation, reflection so that there may be a movement of the human spirit that brings a positive and powerful influence upon those who exercise authority and responsibility so that inhumane and destructive decisions and acts can be challenged and changed.

To this end I am asking that you join with me in setting aside half an hour each week on a Tuesday morning at 9.30 a.m. so that together we can lift the sufferings of this world and our fellow human beings in our prayers and reflections, asking that the needs of all people become a joint responsibility so that lives may be changed for the better.

My prayers will be shared with others in the Chapel at the Hospice where I serve as Chaplain. Will you join with me in adding your prayers and reflections to this ground swell of the human spirit so that together we may try to make this world a better place for everyone?

If Tuesday at 9.30 a.m. doesn’t work for you then find another time, preferably with others, so that there is a shared experience and desire for change.

As a Christian the words of 2 Chronicles 7:14 come to mind,

‘If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, pray, seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land’. (NRSV)

I believe that the situation is so serious that people of faith or not need to come together and openly declare their support for change to happen in this our world.

Action needs to happen and together we can make a difference, please help to make this world a better place for us all.

Revd. Robert Pestell

Chaplain,

Sue Ryder Hospice,

Leckhampton Court, Cheltenham

robcpestell@gmail.com

0750 424 0238

The Spirit of Hope

It's good to be back home!  We have had a wonderful time in the States with friends from the National Association of Congregational Christian churches.  The theme for their conference is one that goes right to the heart of our faith:  The Lord your God is with you wherever you go.  It is echoed by Jesus in his final words to his followers:  And I will be with you always to the end of the age.

Reading the books of Joshua and Judges and other parts of the Old Testatment I find troubling at times, not least when reading passages describe what amounts to genocide:  my Bible lectures had been exploring a strategy for reading the Old Testament as Christians that seeks to read it through the eyes of Jesus.

How precious it is to claim that promise of his presence with us wherever we go.

It's something we found for ourselves as we visited friends in the conference and then went on to visit friends in four churches.  I have always felt that to belong to one local church is to belong to the one world-wide church of Jesus Christ.

Travelling to the mid-west of the States was a great experience as we found that in deed the Lord our God is with us wherever we go.

We visited Des Moines and Kay and Rich welcomed them to their Berwick Congregational Church.  I had been reading a fascinating book on the Underground Railroad that had enabled slaves to escape from the South to the North - it was in large measure as the inspiration from churches, not least our Congregational churches in New England moved to the West that they took with them a commitment to the gospel that sought to see it applied throughout life.  By contrast the Southern Baptists were touched by the same awakenning of the Spirit, but sought to express it in a renewed personal faith.

It was not insignicant to me to see what I would associate with a New England style of church architecture here on the outskirts of Des Moines in Iowa.

It was good last week to be welcomed by Tom and Wendy to the First Congregational Church of Spencer - three hours north of Des Moines.

It was great to meet up with their son and his wife, both active in the theatre world of Chicago, and to share in their Saturday evening and Sunday morning services where the theme of our conference played a large part in the message I shared - the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.

I had not realised that we had a number of churches in New York.  We were delighted to make contact with Edith and Julie of the Plymoth Church in Brooklyn, not far from the hotel where we were staying.  Under the inspirational ministry of Henry Ward Beecher, it had played a part at the northern end of that Underground Railway.  A leading campaginere to end slavery Beecher had preached on two occasions to Abraham Lincoln who had been in the congregation, maybe helping to shape his commitment to the anti-slavery movement.   The wonderful sculptures in the church grounds depict Henry Ward Beecher with a slave woman and her daughter.  Beside them is a sculpture of Abraham  Lincoln by the sculptor who did the sculptures on Mount Rushmoor.

Ordained and a member at the Brooklyn church Julie is working as Minister for Education at the Riverside church in New York.

 The pulpit just behind Felicity was one that Martin Luther King used on five occasions: it was here that he launched his campaign against the Vietnam War.  A church that had been very much involved in the Civil Rights movement it was good to see the part they played today in shaping not just the community around them, we saw the food bank very much at work, but also in shaping the thinking of the nation as a whole.  It was Julie that directed us not only to Ground Zero and the memorial there, but also the African burial grounds, where four times the number of people are buried - slaves in unmarked graves.  A most moving memorial, but off the tourist trail ... and not nearly so accessible.

In all our travels we very much had that sense that the Lord our God is with us wherever we go.

That's a very strong sense to me as I have grown up with the close family connection between our Congregational Federation and the NACCC.  It was back in the 1960's and the 1970's that my father and his contemporaries over here made very real friendships with people in teh NACCC.  Our visit felt to me as if I were visiting members of my extended family.  The warmth of welcome was great.

Particularly so over coffee after the Sunday morning service in Spencer.  I noticed a picture on the wall that I recognised.

 When I was little that was a picture my father had had on the wall of his study.  When he died it remained on the wall in my  mother's house.  When she died I put it up on my study wall.

It's particularly precious to me as I always imagined as a child that the beloved disciple on whose shoulder Jesus's hand is resting was my father - there was a distinct likeness, as I imagined!

In the print on the wall of the Spencer church the inscription is from Mark 16, quite possibly adapted from the closing words of Jesus in Matthew:   And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.

When I got home I had a look at the picture that is on my study wall and indeed it was the same one.  But the text beside it was different.

Who chooseth me must give and hazard all he hath.

Quite different.

I couldn't place it in the Bible so I googled it and found that it was from Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice

It is when Portia is being wooed by the Prince of Morocco and invites him to choose from a gold, a silver and a lead casket, each with an inscription on.   If he chooses the one with her portrait on he gets to marry her.  TI's the lead one that bears these words.

How on earth did my father's version of the picture come to have that quotation on it?!!!

Maybe there is a significance - the promise is there, but a choice has to  be made as well.  We have to make the choice to go into all the world and to respond to Jesus's last command.

Making that choice can be difficult.  Carrying out that resolve even more difficult.

This is the point at which the message we are exploring in the Sundays after Pentecost comes into its own.  In our own strength it is not possible: but we have a strength from beyond ourselves to draw on that will make all the difference in the world.  We turn to Romans 5:1-5 and think today of the Spirit of Hope.

We gave copies of the booklet that had been produced by the Congregational Federation to those we stayed with.   It is a celebration of the Holy Spirit.

We looked first at the Power of the Holy Spirit, a power from beyond ourselves we can draw on in times of need and in times of weakness.

It is an enabling power that enables us to rise above and beyond our own capacity, not least together as a church.

It is the power of the Holy Spirit that lifts us when we are down.

The Spirit brings unity as we are tied into the vine and as we are the branches that together make up the vine.

And today we celebrate the way the Spirit brings hope even when we find ourselves swimming against the tide ... maybe particularly then.

I come back to that picture.

It hands in a particular place on the wall in my study.  It reminds me of the call Christ gives to go into all the world, of the choice I need to make to follow that call and of the promise of his presence with me wherever I go.

In my study that picture hangs in a particular place.

Our stay in the USA started in Omaha at our conference, a city built on the banks of the Missouri, the USA's longest river.  It was on its way towards the Mississippi and making its way there fast as it was in flood.

I regretted not having put on to my Kindle the complete works of Mark Twain - I could have dipped into Tom Sawyer, maybe!

Just above my father's picture is a picture given me by someone who visited the States twenty five years ago and more.  It has a prayer which I think is from Mark Twain.

That text from Romans speaks of endurance, and trouble and hardship and patience - we can only get through situations that bring that kind of thing our way and all too often overwhelm as we make this prayer our own.

Lord, help me to remember that nothing is going to happen to me today that you and I together can't handle.