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Thoughts

Safeguarding

Off to some Safeguarding training today. A very necessary, if somewhat harrowing experience.

The church in recent years has been scared by reports of Priests and workers who have abused those put in their care. We have to hang our head in shame that we were part of an organisation that both failed to protect those in its care and then tried to cover up what was going on. Of course these things happened in a time when everyone tried to cover up this kind of thing – that, at least, is not exclusive to the church.

The church has a dilema. It has had a high proportion of abuse problems in its past. This is doubly bad because Christianity teaches that we should be caring for the abused and oppressed. However, it also has such a high number of problems because it has been the place where most of the work with children and vulnerable adults has taken place. When you are the one doing all the work it is no surprise that you will be the one who also has all the problems. The churches dilemma is this: do we continue with the work and risk more cases of abuse or do we simply stop all the work and appear to be squeaky clean?

My feeling is that we must do all we can to prevent abuse but still continue with the work. It wouldn’t be right to abandon our work of caring for those that most people don’t seem to be bothered about. Who is bothered about helping young people discover fullness of life and helping them become useful members of society? We have tended to leave this stuff up to churches and now they can’t do as much we want our schools to do it – when their job is really about education. I’m not sure that a school can successfully help young people in this way given the restrictions they face on what they can and can’t do or say. I for one am not prepared to abandon young people (or vulnerable adults) to fend for themselves from now on.

I have heard the question asked: who in our society, outside of school hours, knows the names of the young people who populate our streets, save perhaps the drug dealer?

Yes, the church must continue to work with young people and vulnerable adults and then we must do all we can to protect them in our care.

Categories
Thoughts

The Gospel and the Greeks

Does the new testament have more in common with Greek Philosophy than the gospel? I don’t think so and neither does Ronald Nash.

Much is often made of the similarity of some of the teachings of the gospel to some of the teachings of the Greek Philosophers. This had led some to believe that Jesus didn’t actually have an original thought but instead just cobbled together some of the teachings that were around during his day – or at least the writers of the new testament cobbled them together.

Ronald Nash was so disturbed by the claims that some were making about this (and still do) that he wrote a book called “The Gospel and the Greeks”. In it he wanted to put across the arguments that had already taken place over this issue and he thought (and incidently much of the acedemic world thought) that the claim had been well and truly refuted. The web has a wonderful nack of resurrecting problems that everyone thought were solved once and for all.

If you are confused about this issue then you could do a lot worse than read Nash’s book.

Categories
Church

Simply

In our Methodist Area there is a new adventure in church going on. Steve Jones is starting the process of setting up a connection of seekers in our area.

You can follow his progress at his blog  www.steve-jones.org

If you want to know more about Simply then Steve would be very happy to talk with you.

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Thoughts

Easter Day!

Here is a part of my sermon for this morning:

Jesus is not just a man with a strange story but is the source of wisdom for us all. He is the head over all. He is the saviour of mankind. He is the second person of the trinity. He is God himself. So put your faith in the one who has come back to life.

And what does it mean to us that Jesus is now risen from the dead?

Where do I begin? You could come to church every week for the rest of your life and only begin to hear a little of it.

But among so many other things it means:  the promise of eternal life; it means the start of a new relationship with God; it means in the midst of darkness there is always a light; that when all seems lost there is hope; that when we feel we can’t take another step we can find the strength to step forwards; that when we are afraid we can face that fear and carry on; it means that when life is getting the better of us we know God has got the better of life.

It means that today we can start to celebrate and nothing – absolutely nothing – can stop us.

Amen

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Thoughts

Good Friday

I really don’t like Good Friday. I don’t like it because nobody else seems bothered. In some ways it is appropriate that people don’t care – they didn’t care when it happened.

Today, though, I won’t be able to settle to anything. I would prefer to be alone somewhere quiet but that isn’t so easy to do.I will be leading two services so that is perhaps the next best thing but I sometimes think we are so concerned about how its going to be done and who is doing what that we miss the impact of the day.

Today Jesus dies. See you on Easter Day.

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Thoughts

Maundy Thursday at last

Well, we’ve reached Maundy Thursday at last. Holy week is always a busy time for me  – not just because there are extra services to take but also because there are extra sermons to write, hymns to pick, service to prepare, etc. Even when much of the preparation has been done before the week there is still much to be done. Of course the extra services take their toll as well – I am always exhausted after taking a service – is this just me?

I wonder if Jesus felt the same. He did an awful lot in that last week. Lots of teaching, cleansing the temple, praying, etc. I suspect a large part of him was getting pretty nervous about what was coming but maybe he also felt relief that it had at last come.

It’s a trivial example but I don’t like certain things and don’t like when they are in my diary. There is something of a relief when the waiting is over and the event has come – it’s not that I like the event but also that the waiting can be as bad – if not worse – than actually facing the moment itself.

Although Jesus must have dreaded this day I think in some ways he was relieved when Judas finally set off to betray him.

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Internet Thoughts

Don’t feed the trolls

There are people who find it amusing to write obsene and offensive stuff on web sites. You may have been a victim of this yourself or maybe even done it yourself. People who do this regularly are known as trolls.

There was a BBC TV programme about this and you can view it on iplayer at the moment.

Our immediate response to this kind of thing is to ask for laws to stop it. The problem is that in these kinds of situations the law is not the right tool. If you try and stop people posting anything offensive then how do you still allow free speech? It might seem obvious to us what is an offensive message and what is not but its really hard to write that into a law. However there are laws already designed to stop this kind of thing and if you are a victim you should talk to others about it (especially people like parents and teachers or employers) and if it’s really bad or you feel at all threatened then go to the Police.

Here is the UK Government web page on cyber bullying. Although cyber bullying doesn’t have an age limit of course.

So maybe we want to remove anonimity and force people to declare who they are, but this creates problems for those who are trying to expose the people of power who abuse that power.

In the so called ‘Arab Spring’ the web played an important role in getting the message out to others. If we remove anonimity then we remove any protection people have from those who wish to abuse them.

It’s very complicated.

However, I think there are some things that we can all do when online that will help.

The first is not to feed the trolls. If you come across an offensive post then don’t respond to it or make anything of it. Posts like this are made to offend and to get a response. If the troll gets the impression nobody cares (or have even read) the post then they will need to get their kicks somewhere else. It’s a sad truth that often trolls are not the usual kind of evil person you might expect. Many believe they are doing something positive for the web by challenging the inane that so often appears. They are wrong of course and seem to give no thought to the harm they cause. So if you read an offensive post then don’t respond. Jesus called it turning the other cheek – what a smart man and ahead of his time too.

The next thing to do is to think again about your own posts. Are you feeding the anger and hate with what you post? Could people take things the wrong way? Do you think its funny to mock others and put that in your posts? Do you easily get drawn in to conversations where others are saying hateful things.

The trouble with the web is it is very public. To say you hate someone to their face is bad enough but if you post it on a web site others read it – some of them will not be able to see any humour in what you have said and others will use it as fuel to attack the person you have offended.

So let’s not feed the troll. Don’t respond to hateful attacks on the web (whoever they are about) and don’t feed that little troll inside yourself that may contribute to the problem.

Categories
Thoughts

Is God angry with Jesus?

I’ve written a new post on the Jesus Course blog about the crucifixion, see it here.

Categories
Thoughts

Apostle’s job description

And he (Jesus) appointed twelve (whom he also named apostles) so that they might be with him and he might send them out to preach and have authority to cast out demons.
(Mark 3:14-15 ESV)

See my blog on the Jesus Course website

Categories
Thought for the day

Jesus continues with an unpopular message

Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”
(Mark 1:14-15 ESV)

I’ve heard many people try to claim all sorts of stuff about Jesus, people are always trying to make out that Jesus is just like them. Perhaps John the baptist could make that claim because when John is arrested Jesus just carries on with the same old stuff that John already said.

Today this message is still important but it has become a very unpopular message. We live in a time where people want to claim that no one ever makes a mistake or is wrong – after all to tell someone they are wrong is putting them down. Claiming that you know a truth that others don’t is also frowned upon – unless you are an atheist scientist of course.

Jesus says in this simple message that we are all doing something wrong – deep down we know this is true despite what others say – deep down we all know that there are things about our life that are not in accord with the way God wants us to live.

But Jesus doesn’t say this to make us feel bad – far from it – instead he wants to expose what is wrong so we can know God’s forgiveness. Repent and believe the Gospel is all about turning your back on the old wrong ways and choosing God’s loving forgiveness.