The Litmus Test

1 John 4

⁷ Dear friends, let us love one another, because love comes from God. Whoever loves is a child of God and knows God. ⁸ Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love ……. if this is how God loved us, then we should love one another. ¹² No one has ever seen God, but if we love one another, God lives in union with us, and his love is made perfect in us.

                                                                                                     

These remarkable words come to us across the millennia written either by a very old man, or by those closest to him and they still have the power to shock us into seeing things very clearly. The man was the disciple “whom Jesus loved”, John.

 

In recent months we have all been appalled by sights on our television screens, scenes of explosion and horror. We see scenes of dreadful things being done in the name of religion and faith.

 

Here is the litmus test. Do you want to know what the mark is of real faith? It is the way that we deal with each other.

 

It is very simple, to be recognised as a Christian, we need live in love. How do we do this? I recently heard a revealing interview with a holocaust survivor recounting the time when she publicly forgave a doctor who had experimented on her in Auschwitz as a child knowing that apart from her twin, the rest of her family had been gassed to death. For her it was quite simple ….  “I would much rather get a hug and a kiss from him than what I used to get”……….  Remarkable. She passed the litmus test.

 

Coincidentally, though this is the lectionary reading, we are looking at 1 John at the manse home group during June (Tuesdays 9^th and 23^rd @ 7.30 pm and Wednesdays 10^th and 24th @ 2.30 pm), we always have lively discussions and a time for sharing. Be nice to see you there

 

Alan

Pizza Church!

I thought I would like to let you know about something we are about to try at church - we are calling it "Pizza Church" and though we call it a new idea, it is actually a very old idea.

There is something attractive about eating and talking together - so many of our evangelistic tools (e.g. Alpha) are based around that very concept. It is not a new idea, the very first Christians used to do church this way.

Pizza Church will meet on the first Thursday of each month at tea time - 5.30 - 6.30pm and is for busy people on their way home from work who would like a little time to slow down and eat and share together. We will share an hour or so as people come and go as they are able, to pray, to worship and share some thoughts together about our busy, confusing world. People aren't expected to turn up at a particular time, or to commit to anything, its just saying that if you would like a spiritual experience in your life but Sundays aren't good for you, them try something different, midweek at Bramhall United Reformed Church, Robins lane, Bramhall SK7 2PE
Take Care
Alan

Easter!

I am often asked about resurrection – “do you really believe?”  I am quite happy to say that I do, but exactly what I believe is a little more difficult to put into words. I find the story of the early disciples compelling. They turn from a group of people who fail to recognise the physical body of the risen Jesus to a group of people in many cases martyred for refusing to recant their belief – that Jesus had done the impossible – gone from life to death and back.

We know for example that Jesus’ brother James went from someone who frankly did not believe that his older brother was anything special to someone who became the leader of the church in just a few short years. Like many of his contemporaries, he also was martyred. I think that says something.

If you sense a “but”, it’s more of a qualification than a doubt and is simply that I think we have misunderstood what “resurrection” really means. The Bible tells us honestly that people Jesus had known and loved for years failed to recognise him – why is that? He walked for miles talking to his friends without them recognising him. Mary thought He was the gardener, Thomas refused to believe until he could put his hand in Jesus’ side, even Peter couldn’t quite accept the impossible. What are the gospel writers actually saying to us?

I think it’s horribly simple. It is that death changes things.

An undertaker of my acquaintance working in the South African townships during the Zulu/ANC war tells of a time he got the bodies of two elderly women mixed up – each lay in an open casket before weeping relatives. No-one noticed that it wasn’t – grandma, mum, auntie. Incredible but true and I can recall the sense of wonderment in his voice as he told me the story.

Death changes us, physically and spiritually in ways we baulk away from.

I often hear people say things like – “it wasn’t Mum in the coffin, her spirit had already gone”.

God loves to repeat the theme of resurrection in our lives. We keenly look forward to a new start, a fresh beginning, We want to rush over the “dying” part straight to the resurrection, but we can’t and I have to say from experience that it is only in dwelling in the dark space that bereavement leaves that we begin to understand the true worth of resurrection. Take time this Easter to sit in your own darkness, but not too long because this is the time when miracles happen.

 

Take Care

Alan

“Je suis Charlie”

I am sure that all of us have been appalled at the tragic events in Paris this week which have captivated a horrified world. How can it be some followers of any world faith based upon peaceful teaching can think that it is ok to massacre innocent people?

 

Islam, though it may be a massive worldwide movement is nevertheless a largely “unreformed” religion. It has not had the opportunity to reform itself in the same way that, for example, the Catholic Church had in Europe in the 16^th century. The Reformation, though horribly painful at the time, laid the groundwork for Christian churches  (of which our church is one) to deal with the trials of the “Age of Enlightenment” and develop a changed, yet stronger faith.  Our faith is no longer based upon flimsy tales and a desire to take holy words literally,(let’s be honest, there are more than a few difficult passages in The Bible)  but one securely based upon principles of peace and justice and the love of a caring Father.

 

How it is that some Muslims attacks Muslims, Christians, Jews and those of no faith alike based upon a literal reading of a just a few passages from the Quran?  But is this fair? How about the right wing Christians in America who believe that scripture justifies the murder of staff who work in abortion clinics? Are they so very different?

 

It is also not a problem limited to Christianity and Islam. I have been in Jerusalem in streets with signs which say “please leave, your presence here offends God”, and let us not forget that Sikhism, one of the world’s strongest faiths was primarily started as a means of finding middle ground between Hinduism and Islam, a war in which tens of thousands died.

 

The essential problem is one of fundamentalism – of believing that God speaks to me more than He speaks to you, of believing that I hold a truth which you do not. The magazine “Charlie” is no respecter of Faiths and taunts Christianity along with Islam, but perhaps we all need it to remind us that we should not take ourselves too seriously, and that any faith which believes that it has the right to hurt people is no faith at all.

 

Two thoughts to end this with. The first is to remind people that we are still (technically) in the season of Christmas, a season in which we celebrate God becoming human, sharing our faults and failings. Immanuel – God is with us? Really? I wonder what He makes of all this.

 

The second, to quote directly from the Quran,  '’if an innocent man dies, the whole of humanity dies”.

 

Je suis Charlie

 

Alan

Thom

This is a very personal blog. It concerns the death and subsequent funeral of my good friend Thom. Thom was born into a catholic Irish family but brought to England only a few days old to be first fostered then adopted into a Christian family of strong, if somewhat fundamentalist views. As he grew, over time he formed his own views which now seem so complex. On one hand he was to the end passionately thankful to his family for giving him a firm and loving family and instilling in him the socialist virtues which he held so strongly to, but on the other, very deliberately moved away from organised religion of any sort. He was respectful of the faith journey so many of his friends and family walk, but said very firmly that it was not for him. And I respected him for that. He was sharp, incredibly insightful and full of compassion as well as flippant argumentative and dismissive.

We were out walking a little over two years ago (a shared passion) alongside a Scottish Loch when he told me that he thought that he had a stomach problem and was in some discomfort, but after tests, it proved to be something much more malignant.

Thom was a good and valued friend to me and so many and there was standing room only at his funeral. Like many of my colleagues, I have taken rather too many such services but rarely have I been specified as the person to take the service beforehand. In Thom's case, a handwritten note written the day before he believed he would die under the surgeon's knife........... "I would like the Rev'd Alan Poolton to take my funeral..."  At first it seemed like a typical Thom joke - asking a Christian minister to take the funeral of an atheist, but Thom was a complex person who evaded labels. An example of this was his choice to have a singer at his service who sang the Londonderry air - the first verse sang to "I cannot tell how He whom angels worship" followed by "Oh Danny Boy". The mixture seemed to sum the complicated (even conflicted?) person that he was, but I miss him......

RIP Thom

Take Care

Alan

The past

I was thinking recently about my mother who passed away summer 2013. Not unusual you might say, and I suppose that is true.

Vera was like most of us, a mixture of the remarkable and the very ordinary. Her very ordinariness touched so many lives. My brother in law Will and sister Barbara helped out running an international Bible School, mum used to sit around and talk to people - anyone who would listen really. After she passed away messages of sincere condolence came in from literally all over the world. I doubt whether I shall make the same international impact.

But this blog is about a subsequent event. To mark the anniversary of her death, my sister Barbara and I spent a day nostalgically re-living our roots, in particular the area where I spent 5 years to the age of 10.  I still have a small mental scar which marks the place as small child of being torn away from my school friends when we moved away, but I have absolutely no doubt that it was the best thing to do, and if we had stayed then I would not be the person that I have become. My father took the decision to move his family to an area of greater opportunity, and I am thankful that he did.

Memories are dangerous things. I have for example a very clear recollection of walking to school down a certain road. The moment when I relived that journey only to find that the journey I remembered so clearly was not only not possible, but had never been so, was for me a troubled moment of self-realisation, that our past is a slippery and dangerous place.

So, when Barbara and I went to see the house that I lived in from the age of 5, all kinds of feelings came flooding back. For example the front wall which my father built is still there. The car access to the house is at the rear and as we walked down the rough track there was an elderly gentleman unloading groceries outside. I did not wish to frighten him so I approached and explained that Barbara and I were remembering the death of our mother and had travelled back to the house we left 47 years before. The mas stopped, looked at us and said "Oh you must be The Pooltons, my wife and I were talking about you the other day".

Here was the garage my Dad built, incredibly I suspect that the kitchen was the one he put in and in many ways I became that small child again. But I was a small child who moved away and as I relived so many of the memories (the local library, the Co-op with those wonderful vacuum suction cash tubes which sucked your money away), I realised the truth, that the past is gone. We cannot access it again and the world we knew may look similar to this one, but it is not. The idea of revisiting (even re-inventing?) our past is beguiling, but fundamentally untruthful. Whenever (and this is true of church) try to live in yesterday, we become dislocated from the present. It is a message and lesson we all need to learn.

Take Care

Alan

The tale of the plumbob

I recently had to drill a wall to put a large (and heavy!) mirror into position. It was only after opening the packaging that I realised that the mirror had two side positioning points rather than a single central one. The significance is simple, with a central fixing, positioning it to be level is easy – you just hang a wire and move it around until it looks level. Easy peasy. Two fixings are an entirely different matter; you have to drill two exactly level horizontal holes. The slightest measurement out and the mirror is never level and every time you look it in you notice the imperfection.

Those of you, who know me, understand that I am not the best DIY-ER in the world, but nevertheless I took extraordinary care in measuring and drilling. The result – according to my spirit level and plumbob was a complete success – until I put the unit back underneath it. You see, the mirror was straight, the wall was straight, but the dressing table underneath was not. To make it level, I had to put folded bits of cardboard underneath the legs to raise one side!.

So much for perfection.

It made me think of the way we look at the world. There are those people I know, and have known over the years who are real perfectionists. They see the world as something to control (some even use the phrase – a “control freak”) and become agitated when others around them fail to see things their way.

I wonder how God sees our world – especially at Christmas time? The narrative of God being born into poverty and the humiliation of a birth outside of marriage seems to many as frankly, rather vulgar. After all, if God is the “prime motivator” (the phrase used many hundreds of years ago to define God) of all things, surely he has only himself to blame if things do not work out as he ordered them?

When  I look at God working in today’s world – trying to sort out the mess we all make both on the everyday level and on an international level, I see the hand of someone “folding bits of cardboard” trying to bring back into true, to match the spirit level and plumbob.

The God whom I have come to know as a friend of many years is one who loves to take the mess of the ordinary and beyond hope, beyond expectation, make something remarkable from it.

Take Care and have a good Christmas

Alan

Giving to Caesar ..........

.......What is Caesar's, and giving to God what is God's.........

We live in a complicated world and I think we would all like to see the world in clear "right and wrong" terms, but the truth is that we struggle. The Bible is supposed to be a means by which we are transformed but the honest truth is that too often we bring certain views to the Bible , ignore the bits which do not support our views and concentrate only on those portions which do. We all do it. None of us is immune.

So for us, the issue is "what do you believe belongs to God and what belongs to Caesar?"

As a member of the ordained clergy, many of my forbears believed that living a cloistered life was the best way to avoid the dilemma. If you have nothing to do with the outside world, everything surely belongs to God?

But that does not work for most of us. The simple truth is that we live in a world where we have dues to pay in all areas of lour lives. The problems arise when we get the "two worlds" confused.

On the west wall of Jerusalem - the stretch technically outside of the famous "western wall" lies one of the world's great archaeological sites. It is massive and includes many wonders including the main pavement through the city, the remains of shops which sold doves for sacrifice in the temple above and the stones which were thrown down by the Roman troops when the temple was destroyed in AD 70. (yes that's me sitting on the remains of the Temple wall)

You may ask what this has to do with the idea of coins and "giving to Caesar what is Caesar's". Well, you have to bear in mind that Jesus taught about money (and its place in our lives) more than on any other subject. This may come as a surprise, perhaps not. Importantly it lead to one of the great confrontations in Jesus's ministry - I am referring to the overturning of the money tables in the Temple. This is a much misunderstood story  and to really understand it you have to look at the next couple of pics.

This is how the Temple looked in the time of Jesus (and the photo of me sitting on the former Temple wall stones is set at the base of the long wall running left). The shops and stalls at the bottom still leave their remains on site and though the steps are long gone, it is clear where they attached to the wall. Take a careful look at the door at the top of the steps which led into the Temple area (Temple Mount) - its very important.

At the base, the money changers (Roman coins into Jewish Temple coinage) and sellers of doves etc for sacrifices gradually took over more and more of the shops, then up the stairs until they actually ended up through the doorway and into the Temple itself. (nowadays it is a window into the Al Aqsa Mosque - see next pic)- The large window with the brickwork below which supported the stairway.


This - for Jesus was the ultimate insult. People were using the Temple ("A Place of Prayer for all the nations") and using it for making money.

I would suggest that if Jesus found this conflict important, those of us who seek to base our lives around His teaching should take note. So where today are the areas where the holy and the secular cross over and get confused?

The lines are different for all of us, but we will see them criss-crossing our daily lives. If you look, you will see them.

Here is a prayer for the day

Father, we want to live like Jesus, but we get confused. We want to be able to see clearly what often seems unclear. We hear of wars far away enacted in the name of religions. We see vast profits being made by big corporations at the expense of the poor and we wonder what we can do about it.
We ask for wisdom and for "ears to hear" and "eyes to see" what you want from our lives.
Amen

The parable of the football supporter

Well, actually Jesus told a parable about tenants in a vineyard who refuse to pay their rent. The landowner (God in the parable), sends ambassadors then finally his own son to reason with them, but they ultimately end up killing the son as a way of showing the landowner "who is the boss".  Jesus asks "What would the landowner do?" his listeners replied that he should come himself to take action, throw the tenants out and get new ones who would pay him more respect.

Seems bizarre I know, but think of it like this...........

There was once a foreign, very wealthy businessman who fancied owning a football club (say, Manchester United, Liverpool, Cardiff City, Hull City, Aston Villa....... the list could go on).

The new owner doesn't know much about football (think Blackburn Rovers) but sends his representatives, even family members to act on his behalf. He makes what seem to him to be sensible business centred decisions. But he does so without talking to the supporters club ("tenants" in today's story). He tries to change the name, change the shirt colour, take too much in the way of revenue out of the club to finance debt (which he ran up buying the club in the first place). There is uproar, and he even ends up unable to visit his own football stadium (think Newcastle United).

The question is not "who owns the club" because we know that legally he does own it, of that there is no doubt, but the real question is one of emotion - so "emotionally" who owns the club? The legal owner or the supporters?

You can imagine what the comments are like on the coach to away games....... "What does he know?...........", "But we have always played in Blue" (think Cardiff City) , "I suspect him of trying to sell the ground to a supermarket"..... etc etc.

Now think back to the vineyard......... "We do all the work, he does nothing"..... "He lives off the back of his workers"...... "We should own it not him"............ "When was he last here?".............

So the question is not clear, nor was it meant to be. But the idea of a vineyard speaks of the world around. We are all tenants, and as Crocodile Dundee said "arguing about who owns the land is like two fleas arguing about who owns the dog"

Whether you own where you live or rent it, whether you are a member of a supporters club or not, whether you are a massive landowner or not, we are in the parable no more than tenants who will one day have to give an account for what we have done with the world around us. After all we no more than two fleas on the back of a dog.............

Take Care and Blessings

Alan

Forgiveness (2)

I have been thinking much recently about the death of Rev'd Ian Paisley a couple of weeks or so ago. Perhaps if the news of his death had not been eclipsed by the lead up to the independence referendum in Scotland more may have been made of it

Ian Paisley was a man who divided, and still divides opinion like few others (perhaps Margaret Thatcher?) especially in Northern Ireland.

When I heard of his death my mind went straight back to a trip to Northern Ireland in 1997 on behalf of theology faculty at Manchester University and training college where I was just finishing my ordination training.

The trip lasted around a week as I recall and was filled with remarkable experiences. I came away, having met politicians from all parties and peace groups with a perplexing set of memories of a political environment which to the outsider (I count myself as such) is almost impossible to fully understand. But at the heart of the "troubles" was not only a political divide, but also a religious one, and perhaps the largest of larger than life figures during the "troubles" was Ian Paisley. He is loved and despised in equal measure. I remember going round his church and staring at the glass windows showing stories from his life and being absolutely appalled at the arrogance of the man. That was certainly, if unfortunately true, but in the final 5 years of his time as a politician and practising minister, another Ian Paisley emerged.

In my experience, most people become more hard line and less tolerant as they grow older, but publicly at least, Ian Paisley was the opposite, reaching out in a way which due to his immense standing in his political and faith community only he could have.

In a quite staggering change of heart Ian embraced his former opponents in a way which was beguiling and effective. In a few short years the political situation became transformed.

I wrote last time about forgiveness - about asking "What would Jesus do?".

One of my memories of the trip includes a female colleague of mine innocently asking a member of the protestant faith community why they would not enter dialogue with Sinn Fein. The reply was another question - "Would Jesus have spoken to his enemies?". We looked at each other and the penny finally dropped with us. Yes, I think he did actually. I think that was the whole point of his ministry.

R.I.P Ian Paisley

Forgive? – What does that mean?

The lectionary readings for the coming Sunday are based around the idea of forgiveness. The gospel story is a strange one. The story is couched in extremes, done deliberately so in order to emphasise the main points. It is the story of the unforgiving servant…. The story goes: A man had many servants. The main servant owed his Master a huge amount of money (in our translations sometimes written as millions of pounds). Perhaps the servant was in our vocabulary an accountant? Who knows, the story does not go into detail. The Master asks for a statement of account, at which point the shortfall becomes obvious. The servant asks for forgiveness and the Master cancel his debt, the forgiven servant in a reversal of roles then refuses to offer the same charity to someone who owes him a much smaller amount. The purpose of the story is clear. We have ourselves been forgiven, but to be part of the narrative of the Kingdom of God, we must do the same – “freely you have received, freely give”.

 

But it’s not as simple as you may think.

 

This week saw the anniversary of 9/11 (I wonder if you can remember where you were when you heard? I was carry out a funeral visit to the family of a friend of mine who had committed suicide by setting fire to himself). It was on the anniversary that President Obama committed himself to the “destruction of Isis” (The self-proclaimed Islamic State).  I attended a clergy meeting the same day. One of my colleagues was suggesting that without the 9/11 attacks, there may well have been no invasion of Iraq, or Afghanistan, the Arab spring may well have been different and without the vacuum of power left, no Isis to roll across Syria and Iraq carrying out horrendous cruelties as they move. So actions may have profound consequences beyond our ken.

 

What would the Christian response be to this? What was the response to the rise of Nazism? To ignore and turn the other cheek? Forgiveness requires one (at least) of the parties to acknowledge that a wrong has been committed, and attempts to make things right . The problem with our world at the moment is that no-one is prepared to acknowledge any wrong, only to assert their own rights, often in the name of religion.

 

Around the world Christians wear bracelets with the letters WWJD? Written on them. It is a reminder to us all when faced with any dilemma to ask the question – If He were here, What Would Jesus Do”?  

 

Its one thing to ask the question, but yet another I would suggest to carry the answer through.

 

Take Care

 

Alan

Things come back...........

My mother (OUR mother, sorry, my sister Barbara and I) passed away last summer, a little over a year ago. For over 4 years prior to this she had been struggling with a particularly cruel form of vascular dementia which slowly robbed her of her memories, her recognition of others and finally of her very self.

She was nevertheless a real woman of faith (if not sometimes a little peculiar) and had been a real pillar in my life for as long as I can recall. During one of the most troubling periods - approx. 4 years ago, she fell and broke her hip, complications ensued and she ended up having barrier nursing in hospital for 6 months with  C Difficile. It was a horrible time , and now thankfully, a receding memory.

Her generation have seen more change I suspect in this world than any other.

Whilst in hospital, the wedding ring she always wore - originally belonging to my grandmother went missing. On top of the trauma of Mum being in such a pitiful state, it seemed like the final straw. Of course we contacted and complained to the hospital but with seemingly no result.

Moving the  story on four years, another elderly relative ( this time from Ireland) was taken ill whilst staying with my sister Barbara and her husband Will and ended up seeking emergency care from Social Services  He was rushed into one of the several care homes Mum had previously been in. As Will went into the home, a member of staff saw him, recognised him and said "I think we have your Mother - in -  laws wedding ring in the safe". 4 years ago, the hospital it seems, had found it after all and simply forwarded it to the last address they had for her - one of the care homes. 4 years on, the ring came home, a lost treasure.

The Bible speaks much of treasure, lost and found. It speaks of people being lost and found, the sure principle is that none of us are truly lost, we are all known to God and never so far away that He cannot hear us.

Take Care
Alan

Machine code?

Karen and I have been away on holiday recently. We spent a fascinating time on Orkney crawling in and out of the various Neolithic mounds which pepper the islands and everyone was very welcoming.

Though we didn't intend to, we visited two very different churches on adjacent Sundays, firstly at St Magnus's Cathedral in Kirkwall and yesterday when visiting relatives I called in to a local United Reformed Church in Malvern.

It was this last visit which has made me think. The URC was much less grand than St Magnus's, nevertheless, the speaker made me stop and think in ways I have never done before. The basic reading was a fairly well trodden one - whether we have the self esteem or not to view ourselves as the offspring of a creator God. It is a very often visited theme for me (since I have church members with a puzzling low sense of self worth), but what I heard made me sit up and take notice....

(She said)....  "Most people in church do not see themselves as children, but as machines. It is clear from the language we revert to instinctively, it is the language of industrialisation." (She said) In all my years in the church, I have never been invited to the birthing of a dream but only to the launching of projects

We speak of getting "geared up" ...................

of things "running down" ........................

of "oiling the wheels".......................

of things running like a "well oiled machine"..............

She said that she was once referred to (by a Bishop) as being "a cog in the church machine"

The implications are astounding.

The New Testament has a very different picture, instead of being part of a machine, we are described as being a part of a body. The eye cannot say to the hand, "I have no need of you" etc

......................  "You are the body of Christ, and individually members of it"

The teaching is one of a body. We have a saying - "do not cut off your nose to spite your face" have you heard it. It says that whether we like each other or not, we belong together, Jesus' teaching in John chapter 17, praying that his people would be one illustrate this perfectly. We are not machines, we are flesh and blood, when one hurts we all hurt, when one bleeds we all bleed. When one feels good and has something to celebrate - the birth of a child, a wedding anniversary, a fresh enlightenment, we should all rejoice.

I don't know about you but the older I get the more battered my body feels. I can't abuse it as I did when I was younger, I take longer to recover and I feel the aches and pains more, and that is the same with us all, we ache , we hurt, we may not like each other, but we do belong together.

Being honest...... and saying sorry

Like lots of sports fans I have two conflicting images from recent weeks.

I freely admit that I couldn't quite believe it when Luis Suarez "allegedly" bit yet another member of the opposition after a horror strewn yet quite brilliant couple of years, and yesterday I was really touched and felt the hurt of Mark Cavendish when he had that terrible accident in the lovely Yorkshire Dales stage of the Tour de France.

What struck me about both events was the way the two individuals reacted to them. The mealy mouthed half breathed apology from Luis Suarez, days after insisting that he "fell" into Giorgio Chiellini leaves a bad taste behind. Here is someone, unable to admit to anyone, perhaps even himself that he has caused injury to others. He may be a fine footballer, but as a human being....  I am not sure that he holds the same high standard.

Mark Cavendish almost immediately afterwards - whilst dealing with the pain of a dislocated shoulder and ligament damage said straight away... "It was my fault, I take full responsibility and shall be apologising to the other riders".

Saying sorry, being honest about the kind of people we are and the hurt we cause others is fundamental to the Christian faith and living fruitful, honest congruent lives.

Today's passage from the New Testament speaks of Jesus saying that the "yoke" or load which he offers is easier than the one you bear already. Why? Because His yoke has at the centre of it, a message of offering forgiveness and seeking repentance.  Of saying "sorry" and being prepared to offer the same to others - freely give, freely receive.

I just want to challenge you this week to be aware of every slight, every hurt you either cause or receive, and then consciously offer, or ask for forgiveness.

I do not wish to comment on Elton John's fine song, sorry may be the hardest word, but it is also the first step towards healing.

Take Care

Alan

Manchester Metropolitan Church

Last Sunday, pastor Andy Braunston and I in effect did a swap. Andy spoke at Bramhall in the morning and Karen and I went to Wilbrham St Ninians' in the afternoon to the Manchester Metropolitan church where Andy has been pastor for around 20 years.

Manchester Metropolitan Church (according to the website) is the only LGTB church in the area (stands for Lesbian Gay Trans and Bi sexual).

I just wanted to say what an incredibly inclusive and caring community has been built there. What is it like to be in place where everyone has at some point been ostracised? Well it could have been very defensive, talking about rights and so forth, but the reverse was true. A very welcoming and accepting community. It was also - and this threw me a little, multi linguistic. Andy has a group of French speaking asylum seekers in his congregation so when the reading was in English, and on the screen in French, I was a little unprepared!

But in many ways it was like what church used to be like - one minister to one church, a medium sized congregation where everyone knew each other and seemed really concerned for the support each could give and receive. That, I would suggest is pretty much the ideal self supporting faith community. Respecting each other's space and individuality but offering support if it was needed.

The congregation was also a good deal younger than most!

So I just wanted to give you a thumbs up Andy

Best wishes

Alan

Pentecost Sunday .............So how did the Holy Spirit change sex?

Of course, On one level it is nonsense talk about God having a particular gender. God is after all, so The Bible tells us, spirit - ("and those who worship HIM must do so likewise"). But we all live in a world where gender is an issue which literally divides the world. Weekly we hear of appalling atrocities happening in Asia and Africa where war is waged on helpless and innocent young women.
So the necessity to talk in sexualised language is our fault, not God's.

But we think in gender terms. Our whole vocabulary splits into "he" and "she", and when we talk about God not having a gender, the sad result (as the reference above shows) is that God becomes male.

But it was not always this way.

In the very start of the Hebrew Bible, and consistently though it, the proper noun given to the Holy Spirit is female (see Proverbs 8). The imagery of creation is quite clear - it is that of procreation - a male God and a female Spirit bringing forth life in the universe. Even the earliest name for God implies that God and "being" are the same thing, and in the way that we understand life......... it takes two to tango.

In fact, the earliest believers gave her a name, they called her "Sophia" (as in the "Hagia Sophia" in Istanbul which means "church of the Holy Spirit").

Gradually though, as we move from the two gender language of Hebrew (where the Spirit is female) to Greek,(three genders), the Holy Spirit become neutral, and when we translate that into good old no nonsense English, neutral, of course becomes male. So we start off, on Pentecost Sunday by apologising (confessing) to God for the awful mix up in passport control which has seen Ms God become Mr...

This is not new and controversial, it is very old, and very secure.

As a world and human race we all need that spark of life in our lives which She brings. That sense of hope, of being able to see possibilities where we thought none existed. That is who She is, it is what She does, and She loves to do it still, So fling off the male pretentiousness on this day of all days and let Her bring light and life into your world this day.

I spoke previously about a great influence on my life - the Narnia stories. Aslan (male I am afraid) creates life by breathing onto things and it reminds us on this day of days that the people who wrote these texts so long ago made no distinction between breath and the Holy Spirit, It is the same word. She is the same thing and creation comes where she goes.

Have a good Pentecost Sunday, especially if your name is Sophia.... or Sophie!

Rev'd Alan Poolton

Many roads, one God?

The lectionary reading for this week is one that I grew up with as a child - "I am the way the truth and the life, no-one come to the father but through me". It was for many years a passage which underscored my pure faith and belief as a Christian. Nowadays though, I have to say, it troubles me.

Over many years I have worked alongside, and learned to deeply value men and women of faiths different from my own. I recall a local Rabbi who taught me so much about the Jewish faith and what it meant to be a persecuted people. He told me once that he felt protected and cherished by God like a small and tender bird in the hand. He asked me if I felt the same and I can honestly say that I did, and still do. I won't name him, but I am in no doubt that he was a man who walked with God, and I honour his faith. But he did not believe that Jesus was the only way to The Father, and he did not believe that no-one can come to God except through Jesus. 

We reflected that he was a Jew and I a Christian essentially because of accidents of birth, and if our positions were reversed, then as men of faith it is likely that our religious stand points would likewise be reversed.

This week has seen many remarkable events. The world's largest democratic country, with (relatively) free and fair elections. I am referring of course to the magnificent Indian election where a possible 800m people were able to vote and around 90% appear to have done so.

Some of these people will be bad people, there will be many murderers, rapists, fraudsters and the like, but there will be many Hindus Muslims Christians and a myriad other faiths represented in people who live good devout lives according to the faith they were brought up in, each believing that they hold the true way, and that others are mistaken. Are we saying that the vast majority of that 800m will be condemned because their faith is in someone or something other than Jesus?

How then, as today's Christians are we to reconcile this?

C.S.Lewis faced the same dilemma and tried to answer it honestly. In "The Last battle",  he depicts a battle which may well represent the final battle between good and evil - i.e. the people and animals of Narnia versus those of a neighbouring, hostile and country called Calormen who worship a different deity called Tash. It is a battle in which Aslan the Lion is noticeable only by his absence. A Prince of Calormen offers to go through a doorway which he believes will bring him face to face with Tash, a deity he has worshipped honestly since a child believing him to be the true god. What he finds the other side is Aslan who accepts him as a true son. Lewis is saying clearly that whoever you worship, as long as that worship is pure and honest, that God will accept it as his own.

I recently spent some time leading sessions with Christians of different churches some miles away. I asked what had brought them to church. The answer was unanimous - family. One man had attended the church all of his life, even though he now lives next door to one of my own church members and travels a long way to church each Sunday. Why? Because that was the church his parents went to.

If this is true of your church and mine will it not also be true of people who were brought up Muslim? Hindu? Jew? Of no faith?

What do you think?

Alan

Xenophobia

I am writing this to you as I study my postal vote ballot paper for the forthcoming European Elections with something approaching dismay. I receive mine early as I always choose to vote by post.

There are 11 parties to vote for, but only vote. I find myself asking "what has happened to us a nation?" Most of the parties are overt in their nationalistic fervour, stating clearly that Britain should be OUT of the European Union, and some simmer just below boiling point at the prospect of non- British workers here in the UK.

Some years ago I was fortunate to spend some time living and working adjacent to an "informal settlement" (squatter camp to you and I ) in Johannesburg, South Africa. Approx. 5m people living in cardboard and wooden shelters with no running water, no gas or electricity and no sewerage. If you think that the UK has an immigration problem, - South Africa has a worse one. The camps are at the same time dangerous and filled with desperate but generous and educated people. (As I write this this my mind returns to "big John" a veteran of the apartheid wars, fluent in 11 languages  and church elder but living in a cardboard hut).

However, this is not about South Africa, it is about you and I as we wrestle with the practical implications of the teachings of Jesus, about welcoming the stranger, about walking the extra mile, about taking only what you need and offering grace in exchange for welcome. I am left asking - as I often do - what would Jesus do?

I do not think that there is an easy answer to this because as I read the Bible stories, I find that Jesus was often invited to make political gestures (such as the coin with the face of Caesar) but rarely chose to do so.  Instead he dealt with poverty, hunger and need where he found it, and I suspect that He invites us to do the same.

But that does not help me as I look at my ballot paper. What would Jesus do?

I guess that my church is not the only one to have helped asylum seekers. We have welcomed a family quite recently and I supported them at tribunal. I stare at the paper and find myself completely fulfilling F Scott Fitzgerald's definition of an artist - someone who holds diametric points of view yet still functions. "Can we afford to take in every stranger who knocks on our door as a country?" No. "Can we afford to turn them away?" Equally, No.

But I stare at my ballot paper, 11 choices, but only 1 vote.

God Bless

Alan

Has the world gone crazy…… or is it me?

You have to be careful asking that question because you might not like the answer, but sometimes, just sometimes, things happen which take your breath away.

I have to admit that I am a "News Junkie". I could quite happily have links open all day to 24 hours news, but news items are not quite always as they appear, and when I first read this (it was actually Karen who showed it me), I thought it was a hoax….

 This comes from the New York Times, reported via The Independent


Georgia’s Republican Governor, Nathan Deal, is expected to sign the (gun) law, which will offer religious leaders the choice to allow guns into their places of worship.

 It goes on to say……………..

 Should a church decide not to allow firearms on their premises, those who violate the ban will face a maximum fine of just $100 (£60).
Places of worship have the option of prohibiting guns, but to do so, they have to post signs throughout their property. This is in America, not the UK I am glad to say where there are very strict gun laws

So to add to public display signs such as “No smoking, no pets, please switch off your mobile phone”, we can now add “please check your firearm with the duty elder prior to entering”

It may seem bizarre, but it does leave us asking genuine questions about the “baggage” we bring with us when we come to church and indeed why we come to church at all.

 We have left the tortuous story of betrayal and another kind of death behind (one which did not involve firearms) at Easter, and we walk into a world of resurrection, of new beginnings, of new possibilities and new hope.

The difficulty always arises when we try to mix the two worlds without proper reflection. Yes we are called to live in a world of violence of injustice, but we are supposed to be part of the solution, not part of the problem.

Jesus was uncompromising on the issue, and those of us who would seek to become disciples must do likewise.


Take Care

 Alan

Easter – why I believe

Surely you can’t be serious? Someone coming back to life?. Well as it happens, personally I do. I appreciate that there are other, equally valid points of view, but I thought I would tell you (since it is me writing the article!) why I believe.

 I think you know me well enough by now that I am not someone who just takes things “because they are in the Bible”, as some of my colleagues do. I am the first to say that scripture can be read in many ways, and that it is our job as 21st Cent believers – those who walk a daily life of faith, to interpret ancient truths in the light of the world we live in.

 But I also know too much history not to take the narrative seriously. We do know for certain for example, that the first Christians went from a group of inept and cowardly group of people into a group of people who massively changed their world in one generation. We also know that the first disciples, dispersed by the first diaspora, having lost country, way of life and family, indeed all that was important to them, nevertheless went to the end , often martyred, maintaining that Christ had risen, and that life was now different.

Why would anyone do that?

 I have on my bookshelf works which as a young man influenced me greatly, - “The case against Christ” and “Who moved the stone?” in particular. But for me simply and purely, belief is a personal stand point. More than this, I see echoes of the Easter resurrection in my life and in others around me. It is almost as if there is a little of that moment left over desperate to find new means of expression – a new job, an opportunity you thought gone forever come back again, a healed relationship, small deaths in all of us which find greater resurrections.

 Such was the notoriety of the resurrection in the years that followed the event, that Jesus’ relatives were summoned all the way to Rome to stand before Caesar. He had heard all the stories and wanted to reassure himself that there was no lineage he would have to contend with. They showed him the rough worn hands of carpenters and fishermen. No there was no royal lineage, except that has come down through all of us and swirls about the days of our lives reminding us that God has not finished yet….


Have a good Easter and God Bless


Alan