Category: Thoughts

I’m posting some non-sense on Facebook each day to keep my friends entertained. I will also post them here (on this post) from time to time so if you miss an instalment or are not my friend on Facebook you can still read them (please do not take them seriously!!).

Disclaimer: None of this is true and no animals were hurt during the writing of these thoughts. More to come another time (if you can stand it).

Post 1.
I’ve been trying hard to survive my time shut in the house due to Covid-19.  Being a good Methodist I’m missing the endless business meetings, of course.  So in an effort to stay sane I’ve formed a Covid Flourishing Committee.  I’m having trouble finding members to join though.  I tried persuading my family but they all have prior engagements, apparently. We meet on a Saturday evening which clashes with the Choir I started yesterday but sacrifices must be made (to be honest nobody wanted to join my Choir either). I have managed to persuade one person to attend the meetings.  I tried all the usual things: flattery, encouragement, begging.  But in the end I resorted to my old favourite guilt and so I’ve agreed to attend the meeting – on a temporary basis (I imagine that means I will be able to give up in 20 years or so).

Post 2.
First item on the agenda was to plan some means of entertainment.  We all agreed to learn a musical instrument. I started with the drums but apparently we need all the pans for cooking! I then tried the bagpipes but the neighbours wanted their cat back and I couldn’t get the pipes I had available to fit anyway. I then bought up all the toilet roll in the town and tried to make an organ from the tubes but I had a great deal of trouble sticking it all together (and the crowd of angry protestors outside the house is distracting).  If anyone has an idea for an instrument you can make from 500,000 tins of beans (I’m imagining some kind of wind instrument) perhaps you could let me know.  Oh, good news is I finished my first bottle of hand sanitiser, only 394,999 more to go. It is a good job the Churches are shut, at least I have somewhere to store it all.

Post 3.
I’ve had to rearrange things to get everyone in for the meetings.  I’ve set out chairs around my study – an achievement in itself given its diminutive size and lack of any carpet showing through the piles of books (yes they are all important and yes I will read them one day). I have put coloured sheets on each of the chairs to represent my various moods during the meeting: Red represents anger (I seem to be sitting on that one a great deal), Blue represents sadness, Green represents calm. But then I ran out of sheets so my paisley pyjamas represent when I’m sleepy, a plastic sheet represents when I’m feeling sick about something and I’ve spread some nails on one to represent when I feel uncomfortable (this one seems to be very effective but it is taking me 10 minutes each time to remove some of my discomfort). Now that is done it is back to business.

Post 4.
We have a plan to help with social distancing – the appropriate pole. This will be a pole 2 meters long that everyone must carry.  If you meet someone when out for a walk you simply poke them with the stick to ensure they keep the appropriate distance. This stick might also be useful in the future should you encounter someone you don’t like the look of and want to keep your distance from (e.g. members of the clergy who wear cassocks everywhere, politicians, salespeople and relatives, etc) . We experimented with an exclusion hoop to wear around your middle but when walking down the pavement we kept pushing young children off the pavement and in front of cars (for some reason the Ambulance service didn’t like us doing this). You may consider wiring up the pole to the mains in case someone comes to your door and won’t keep their distance.

Post 5.
Good news, we have decided to do a live stream of our service at 11:00am every Sunday. Unfortunately, we will be having our service at 8:30am and so it is all over by 11:00am. However, you might be in time to watch me drinking my after service cup of coffee and talking about what is the matter with the world today and haven’t we had good weather. We will also be live streaming our prayer meeting on Mondays at 2pm (the meeting is at 4pm) and a time of fellowship will be at 8pm (we are meeting at 6pm). I hope you appreciate the careful planning that has gone in to this arrangement.

Post 6.
I’ve been closely following the experts on FaceComic (it has less pages and is easier to read) and am developing some ideas of how to avoid getting the virus.  My first theory is that the virus seems to find its way up people’s noses, so perhaps if noses were turned the other way it would stop it.  Apparently, pliers don’t work, I’m told the swelling will go down in a few days. Instead I’ve taken to going everywhere upside down. Lacing my shoes with my feet was a little tricky and reversing the car is difficult but I’ve only hit four other vehicles so far so things aren’t too bad, although the Police have been very obstructive.

I’ve been thinking about how we might celebrate Easter this year – during our shut-in.

Why not decorate your window for Easter? Put some flowers in it or a cross or something just to show some kind of celebration.

You can make use of a couple of posters I’ve produced. One for Holy Week (Palm Sunday to Good Friday, inclusive – in case you get confused) and one for Easter saying He is risen! You could print them off an put them in your window and you can download them in pdf format from here Holy Week Easter

Have you ever considered making a prayer space in your home?

Maybe, this is a good time to find a bit of room to set yourself up with the place you can go to pray.

Start by finding a space (spare room, corner of a quiet room, etc)

Then get yourself a comfortable chair to sit in.

Then get a table of some sort – small and low works best I think. On this table include some things to help you. Maybe a candle and/or a cross. You can put some pictures there – maybe of people you wish to pray for. If you are artistic why not draw some reminders.

Get a pad of paper to write prayer requests on (and a pen or pencil of course).

Place a bible on the table as well for some reading as part of your prayers.

Then make use of this space each day (you might find a regular time works best).

Don’t stop praying.

Maybe I’ve got too much thinking time on my hands but I’ve been thinking about John Wesley’s ideas about pre-venient (he often called it preventing) grace.

It seems he thought about freedom not in the sense of free-will (though this is important) but in the freedom we have to allow God to work in our lives.

So in the example (I’ve nicked this from Dr K Collins – this is my version of his illustration, no doubt his is better) of an alcoholic who after being dry for several months one day goes to a bar and has several drinks and then goes and knocks someone over and kills them on the way home. Is this person responsible for their actions? Generally we would say yes they are. Why? Because there was a point at which they could have done something different. Although there is an illness and great temptation and lack of control from the alcohol there was a point at which they had the chance to behave in a different way. Wesley believed that this chance was that the person could have made use of God’s preventing grace to avoid drinking.

This preventing grace is offered to everyone – not just the faithful.

And this is what Wesley would mean by the freedom not to sin. Not the idea that we have choices (that is free will and an important part of understanding faith) but that we have a choice to allow God’s preventing grace to help us.

Pre-venient grace (or preventing grace) is the loving character of God that acts before we ever do anything. Seen in the creation of everything before God creates people. Seen in the birth of a child whose soul is made by God prior to any interaction with people after birth. God acts first. One of the reasons we Methodists are ready to baptise infants – God acts first and we respond.

So God offers us a chance not to sin through his grace and we are free to take up the offer or reject it (sadly too often we simply reject it).

It brought me great sadness to learn that we need to suspend services for a while in the Methodist Church. It will be difficult for us not to meet together, but then it is a simple reminder that the church is much more than a gathering of people on a sunday (and for us Methodists, even more than its meetings!).

God has not changed and neither has our relationship with God. There is great power in us gathering but as the church spread out into our communities there is much we can do to support others through this difficult time.

Our top priority must be to pray – I hope that was obvious. Read your Bibles – there are plenty of online resources to help. Read other Christian books. Do some reflecting on your relationship with God and how it might be improved.

But can we also find some practical support we can offer to each other and our neighbours (I mean neighbour as Jesus described the word). Make good use of your telephone and try to ensure that those who are vulnerable or on their own still have the occasional someone to talk to. Those of us who use the Web or Social Media etc. can make use of it as well. If people are shut in near you (and you know about it) why not offer to help with shopping etc. Don’t put yourself at risk to do this (leave shopping on door step, etc) but some folk might need our support. Let’s show the world what Christians can do.

I have a saying when I go walking with young people – every hill has a top. When you are struggling up a long steep hill it is wise to remember this. We are struggling up that long steep hill together now but remember that this will come to an end.

We are more than Sunday mornings.

What preconceptions do you come with to Bible study? These will have a big effect on your interpretations.

Perhaps this is best seen in the way you view miracles.

Do you believe that the miracles in the bible are actual events that are pretty faithfully recorded by the witnesses of the events? This would be the traditional approach (and I suppose mine). I certainly believe God to be capable of miracles and have no problem believing they happened.

If, however, you believe that miracles are impossible and then you read the bible miracles and think they must be misunderstandings of natural events. This will bring you to a particular way of viewing the bible miracles.

Or maybe you think that they are not even events but just myths designed to teach a lesson.

These are preconceptions, you may have others about language, inspiration, the Holy Spirit, revelation, etc. It is important you know what your preconceptions are so that it is possible to tell others where you are with this.

When Christians get together for bible study if they have very different preconceptions then it can lead to a great deal of confusion and maybe some heated disagreement. Perhaps in these circumstances it is better to take a step back and talk about your preconceptions and why they matter to you before trying to study together.

I suppose one important question that I am not sure I know the answer to is: are there preconceptions that are so far apart that they stop us from studying the bible together? At one time I would have said no but I am starting to wonder if this is in fact true.

When Jesus faced Pilate being tried for his life, Jesus explained that he was the truth and in response Pilate asks the questions what is truth? It is a question at the heart of us all. It includes, I believe, the quest for meaning both in ourselves and in the Universe. Is there such a thing as truth and if there is where do we find it?

I think the answer to the first part of that question is easy, we understand the answer in a very intuitive way. Maybe this is the only way we can understand this question – yes there is such a thing as truth. We see it in the world of Mathematics of course – who would want to doubt that 1 + 1 = 2. I know some will say, ah yes but what is 1. We could debate it but I would want to maintain that everyone who can think knows intuitively what one is – no one really needs to explain it we know it. If someone takes away our 1 we know about it. If we manage to double our 1 we understand what that means. Anyway, I’m not writing a book here. Truth does exist, we know it deep down and we are desperate to find it.

So where do we find this truth? I’ve already claimed that part of it is just known to us, but this does not satisfy does it. What we know intuitively is suspect and we are searching for truth here.

At one time people sought truth in Philosophy. A noble cause and maybe a good place to look – everything we know (including maths) has some Philosophical root – you can’t do science for instance without having a Philosophical set of rules to enable you to do it. But Philosophy leaves us feeling confused. People disagree on the simplest of things and can’t work it out. If we want truth then Philosophy leaves us cold – hence Pilate’s question to Jesus.

We then turned to religion but we found religion wanting. Not only was there contradiction in religion but it seemed to multiply superstition – which ultimately leads us away from truth.

We then turned to science. Surely a dedicated examination of the world using the Scientific method (that bit is Philosophical by the way) and trusting only to verifiable facts will show us what truth is. At first the quest was exciting and promised so much. But then we discovered that scientists can’t agree on a whole host of things and sometimes they agree only to later tell us they were in fact all wrong. The idea of what is right or wrong was left open and it seemed we could believe almost anything – all from science. It’s apostles will tell you otherwise – that one day they will indeed discover the truth and they are willing to die for the truth they believe they have already found but ultimately we face up to the fact that is fails us in the search for truth – indeed it leads down so many dark paths that it demonstrates on its own it cannot guide us.

So we turned to academics – perhaps the Universities can help. They explored the problem and read what others said and concluded – there is no such thing as truth, it is all subjective. Wait, what? You can’t be serious. Intellectually they make the argument and teach this nonsense to our children and they end up more confused that all the rest of us. What an easy answer though – there is no truth. When we look for an answer they tell us stop looking and just accept the inevitable – ‘live, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die’. Presumably they would add study to that list. But as the Bible tells us (where that quote comes from) that people’s search for truth using human reason will always take us to this fatalistic response. Rubbish – there is such a thing as truth and existence is defined by our search for it.

When Pilate searched for truth he did not understand that truth stood in from of him. Truth is found in God and more particularly in God’s revelation of himself to us. The answer to the search for truth is Jesus and not anything else.

We must step beyond human reason to find it – our minds fail us, they are just not big enough to find the answers and it is clear – in case you are a science fiction buff – that no super computer will find the answers for us, the truth is that artificial intelligence is actually developed in the human mind and the human mind is not clever enough to find such answers.

To find truth we must learn to trust our only source of truth. Jesus.

I keep hearing people – including people in the church – tell me that the church is responsible for pretty much every evil that exists in the world. It is the churches fault that the environment is a mess, the church defended apartheid, the church oppressed women, covered up child abuse and supported slavery.

Of course, in some simplistic way this is true. Christians have done all these things and worse in the past and said they did it in God’s name (they were wrong). And although I was not part of these things I beg the world’s forgiveness that this is true.

However, these statements are far too simplistic. The first thing is that this thing that people call “the church” does not exist and never did. There has never been a collective mind of the so many churches that exist through history. We have disagreed over various things since the first churches came into being. There is a central truth that holds us together (namely the gospel of Jesus Christ) – maybe we can say “the church” in this context but the rest of the time it is simply not true to refer to “the church” as if we are all responsible for these evil ways of thinking.

Within Christian thought is the idea of a remnant that remains faithful to God despite the pressure to conform or the threats of violence. Sometimes there is a smaller group within the larger that is in truth the remnant and that remains faithful to the teaching of Christ.

In every generation there have been those who have turned to the Bible and found that we should look after the environment, that women are equal to men, that abuse of anyone is wrong, that we all carry the image of God in equal measure regardless of a persons skin colour or ability or sexual expressions, etc. This remnant has kept the faith and over time influenced the world enough that we now live in an age where many of the wrongs of the past have been corrected. These things corrected because of the Bible and some of the Church – not despite it.

The suffragettes used the Bible to argue and inspire their cause. Those who opposed slavery used the Bible to show how we are all equal and worthy of dignity and respect. Those who opposed apartheid turned to the Bible to help them in their struggle. The Bible inspired so many of them in the early struggles but so many who struggle for a hearing in the world today forget so quickly where they came from that they accuse their revolutionary ancestors of crimes they are not guilty of. It is a shameful thing to abuse your ancestors. It is even more shameful when those accusations come from within the church itself.

Perhaps where we have failed is to stand up and be counted when we know something to be wrong – to be a sin.

Please stop twisting history and throwing mud instead of reasonable discussion and argument. If you really are searching for truth – and I hope you are – please be prepared to explore.

A lovely video for you for Easter