Machines

I really tried. Honestly. A TV programme called 'All watched over by Machines of Loving Grace' sounded like a fine way to end a rain-roaked bank holiday with a bit of academic rigour.  It seemed to be telling me that there is a  computer programme that shapes our ends, rough-hew them how we will. Divinity has nothing to do with it, as Shakespeare thought. We have no choice in the matter: sooner or later nature dictates how life develops and ends up. The computer will ensure that our needs are met by a pre-established pattern of nature. It has always been so, although we didn't know it until a screen linked to the etheric demonstrated what was there for anybody to see: an inevitable pathway to fulfilment, and/or disaster. So there is nothing I can do about it: I am programmed by some ineffable force. Freewill? forget it. After 45 minutes of this hour-long stuff, I must have dozed off, because I woke to see Swansea getting into the Premiership. 'Must have been meant' I thought, and slid off to bed. The programme-planners on BBC2 had some hopes, popping 'Machines of Loving Grace' into the schedules on a bank holiday when viewers would have to be razor-sharp alert to make head or tales of it. A glass or two of best Chilean red had left me looking for something less strenuous to watch, and that it was all total baloney. Or was John Calvin right to teach predestination.? 

Cynicism

Any expression of hope, or show of human decency, is currently greeted by the British public with ill-conceaaled cynicism, or as something mildly amusing. So the visit to Ireland and now to the British Parliament by President Obama is received by the chattering classes with interest, but mild scepticism. The media are in raptures, apart from the Daily Telegraph, which may have caught the mood of the general public by being a touch cool. Never mind the brilliant oratory, what was in it for him? I have heard it asked. All Obama wanted was a boost for his 2012 election chances, it is inferred.  We have seen too much bad behaviour among people who are supposed to be our protectors and friends, really to believe in unalloyed goodness.  The default attitude is that nothing in British society really works, no promise is to be trusted; there are no good fairies, everything that sounds like good news is to be suspected. We are all being cheated, swindled, led up garden paths by banks, adverts, politicians, the media, and preachers. The presentation of a product, an idea, a philosophy, a guru, which calls for belief, trust and commitment is subject to the  Paxman sneer. It may be justified, but we have become conditioned now not to believe that anything is altogether good. Whatever, says St Paul, is noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, worthy of praise,'think about such things'.   I don't know how the ancient Philippians reacted to this invitation.  It sounds mighty optimistic in the United Kingdom in 2011.

Preaching

Preaching has got the bad name it well deserves. People do not like to be 'preached at' by those whose authority they suspect. Doctors they will listen to. Stand-up comedians they will laugh at. Politicians they will jeer. But there are hundreds of preachers in British churches who would do Christianity a favour by giving it up. Something like half a million sermons are being delieverd every Sunday to around five million churchgoers. A commercial business with such a massive evangelical outreach would expect  success. Churches are not succeeding. And one reason is because, by and large, the preaching is so poor.

Churches know this, and many of them have abandoned the traditional sermon in favour of discussion groups, visual aids, 'messy' church, and silent meditation. Good preachers, all the same, should be able to attract and keep large and growing congregations. Most preachers fail, for one or all of several reasons.

1) They preach too much. Long gone are the days when a minister was expected to preach two sermons each Sunday, with a solid Bible study during the week.The emotional and intellectual energy required for such a regime is too great.  2) They have not mastered the techniques of public speaking. Preachers have a lot to learn from 'stand up' comedians about timing, humour, voice projection and eye-contact. 3)They may not be entirely persuaded by their own arguments, and it shows. Preachers need a passion for their subject, and congregations quickly recognised insincerity.  4) They may be banging an irrelevant drum. Certain doctrines that were believable 100 years ago cannot be presented as scientific and historical objective truth now. People know too much after ten years or more of full-time education, and watching experts on television to be able to swallow as anything but glorious mythology six-day creation, a virgin birth and a bodily resurrection.

Preachng has a future, but it need to be offered by convinced and convincing Christians who know and believe what they are talking about, and have mastered basic skills of communication. There are far too few preachers about who measure up. The few we have should be celebrated and widely known. And all of us should be subjected to assessment by the kind of honest critics who report on films and TV programmes. 

end

Osama bin Laden

With the death of Osama bin Laden Christians are entitled to be thankful that a man who symbolised evil in the world is no longer alive.In the long list of those who have brought terror and distress to the human family this man came near the top. As with many of them, bin Laden was reputed in his personal life to be polite and gentle, and he genuinely thought his philosophy would prove to be beneficial for mankind as a whole. We know that evil often comes with a smiling face, and soft hands, but it is deeply ingrained in human affairs. The call of international statesmen for us all to be alert to the possibility of reprisals is urgent. Even more urgent is the need for people actively to embrace a philosophy of peace and goodwill with as much fervour as bin Laden embraced his twisted beliefs. It is good at this time to read again that superb prayer by Kate Middleton at her wedding to Prince William. As we are dismayed by the presence of evil people in the world, we are encouraged by the opposite presence of people of simple goodness. God be praised ! The devil, as our scriptures say, does not sit waiting for us to fall into his trap: he 'seeks whom he may devour'. Evil is a busy, determined enemy,who succeeds in proportiomn to our anaemic failure  to resist.