deficit

Politicians are feeling about for a formula that may restore moral values and economic hope to the nation. We should not distinguish between these two ambitions: they are firmly linked, and depend together. Our leaders speak of the big society and now 'responsible capitalism', and nobody is sure what they mean. Jesus Christ does not speak in riddles; we all know what he means when he speaks about loving our neighbour and behaving responsibly. The University of Essex has produced a report which talks about a boom in dishonesty, and a nation heading for an 'integrity crisis'. As if we didn't know ! If there is to be hope for the nation it will not be through the pronouncements of politicians grimly tackling our immense 'trillion pound deficit'. There is a far greater deficit: of love, integrity, and faith. The transformation we all hope for will not begin in stately halls at Westminster or even Brussels. It will begin at ground level in the thousands of little cells of love which we call churches. To say 'Jesus is Lord' is not a bland religious motto: it is the most powerful political manifesto we can sign and promote.

Blessed

Sunday mornng: to an exquisite village church at Oakamoor, Staffordshire for simple Free Church worship. Home for superb lunch prepared by smiling wife. Sunday evening: to the parish church for compline. The lay reader arrives in the nick of time, and gallops through the prescribed order for evening prayer. It takes 20 minutes, and we are not led to think prayerfully about Christians in Nigeria, under heavy attack from a ferocious Islamic sect. Many dead. Feel guilty because I will now sit secure and safe for at least four hours doing nothing except drink tea, and be conducted round the nation on TV. First to the glorious British countryside in 'Countryfile', then to the Alexandra Palace to see breathtaking snooker. Then to Mancheter to see Man City play Tottenham. Then to the Emirates to see Man United against Arsenal. To travel to all these events in person would cost more than the annual TV licence (But hang on....  I do not have to pay it, being legally ancient). To access these events by buying tickets would be a cost beyond  all possibility. To get ringside seats and hear commentators explain what's going on - no chance. I just sit and drink tea. 'We have a better view here than we would have actually being there' I reflect. All this, plus not having to face Islamic Terrorists...... To prayer, and to bed, richly blest. What have we done to deserve all this?

Speed

Our political masters (that includes you, Ms Greening) appear to think that we can only embrace the future by investing untold sums of money in a primal need to hurtle about the face of the earth at ever faster speeds. It is a fallacy, The real need is to discover better ways of working together using all the far cheaper means of communication. With all the gizmos now available to us we do not need to leave home, never mind the office, to attend fruitless meetings.The Bible holds no brief for high speed anything. It wants us to slow down. 'Lie down in green pastures' (Ps 23), 'Be still' (ps 46) 'Let us walk in the light of the Lord' (Isaiah 2.5). The greatest characters of Old and New Testaments pottered about the ancient world on camel, horse, or on foot. Their chief concern was not high speed rails, but proper shoes. A name from Isaiah (8.1) indicates the scorn in which the urge to move faster was held by the prophet. 'The Lord said to me, take a large scroll and write this name on it: 'Maher-shalal-hash-baz'. It's the longest name given to anybody throughout scripture. It is an HS2 slogan, which should be written on every 250mph ticket, for it means; 'Quick to the plunder; swift to the spoil'.

literal

It is a troubling thought that four out of every ten people in America believe that the Bible's account of creation in the mythical book of Genesis is literally and historically true. Apparently five of the six  Republicans who are possible candidates for the November election are among those who deny evolution and think mankind was created in the last 10,000 years. What is troubling is that so many Americans in positions of authority - airline pilots, doctors, teachers among them - reject the most obvious findings of science. How can a nation of such massive influence and power live in denial of truth? Not long ago a professor of theology, John Schneider, was obliged to resign his post at a 'Christian' university in Michigan because he questioned the creationists' belief that all humans desceneded from a real Adam and Eve, and denied that the 'fall' of man was an historical event. Evangelical Christians rose up in wrath to demand that he and a colleague should be fired. and he resigned being 'pressured to leave'. America is producing some profound theological thinkers who embrace evolutionary science as the only possible reason for us being here. But they face strong opposition from fundamentalists who insist that Charles Darwin was misguided. The idea that some of the most influential and powerful people on the planet are so opposed to enlightenment science is literally beyond belief. That there is a large element of churchgoing Brits who hold the same blind convictions indicate just how much the church and the education system have yet to do to explain how faith and science can live together in constructive harmony.

judgment

Look, all you football club managers, 'not guilty' pleaders, and family squabblers: just face up to it: somebody has got to be the judge. Technology may or may not provide absolute definitions of what actually happened- did the ball cross the line? Was the accused really the man caught in a camera? Did  the tipsy husband really say that to his weeping wife? In the end we only have human judgment to offer in every hunman dispute. Is Iran making a bomb? Is Cameron taking us too far, too fast over the UK deficit? Given that we cannot turn to an all-knowing Wizard at the end of the yellow brick road, all we cn do is appoint the best qualified people we can find to be referee, umpire, arbitrator and moderator to judge human disputes. Then we must abide by their decisions. It is tiresome to hear arguments about penalties, sendings off, and offside flags after almost every high-profile football match. Fatuously,I know, millions of pounds depends on these decisions. Teams go up or down, players lose ridiculous sums in 'wages' and reputations are ruined or enhanced by what referees and their assistants say and do. Of course, they get things wrong. and the watching hordes become furious. But we are stuck with a system that can only be human, and human beings are at their best, fallible.  There are things that only God knows. 'Will not the judge of all the earth do right?' asked weary Abraham over the wickedness of Sodom, and no technology coud have helped Old Isaac to sus the deceit of his son Jacob in stealing his blessing from his brother Esau. You see how complex life is, all you ref maulers. Just count your blessings, and your money. Get over it, and get on with it. 

Insights

Insights into the mysteries of faith might be expected to come mainly from notable pulpits, where our trained theologians and men and women of religious eminence offer their views on life and belief. Of late, though,  I have been blessed with Godly insights from people with no obvious right to speak of holy things. It is as if those who are very busy in the secular world, pause for a moment - perhaps it has to do with Christmas - and reveal a light granted to them in their daily labours. They do not seek it, but it descends on them en passant and is the more powerful as a result than anything we professional God-botherers know. Here is that very worldly man Taki in the Spectator magazine: 'Although the Gospels were written by non-professionals, they exude more truth and power than you find in Homer and Dante and Milton put together.... People like Dawkins have never engaged with religion in a serious manner. They are shoddy self-proclaimed scholars who can only doubt and proclaim their doubts as proof of the absence of God and Christ. Give me a real scholar like Pascal, who proved mathematically that one cannot go wrong by believing in God. Then I happened on finance expert Martin vander Weyer writing that he waa asked to preach a sermon in his parish church at Helmsley, Yorkshire - 'A thing I was certain I would never be asked to do'. It was about Godliness and economics, setting out things 'the City must learn to avoid if its professionals and companies are ever to be trusted again.'  He pointed to a blistering report by a law firm on 'The Trust Deficit' which contains more ethical wisdom than anything I have read lately in the religious press. So 'Where can wisdom be found?' asks Job (28.12) In unexpected places, and do not forget anything by Matthew Parris, a reluctant atheist who writes like a prophet in The Times and elsewhere.

Practise

The Prime Minister has created a pre-Christmas stir by calling on the nation to r


The Prime Minister has created a pre-Christmas stir by calling for a revival of 'Christian moral values'.The nation's 18,500 clergy in the main Christian churches will be calling for this every week, but it takes the PM to get the idea onto the front pages. Mr Cameron says that he is personally only a 'vaguely practising Christian' and is 'full of doubts' about theology.  That leaves him where most non-churchgoers stand, and begs the question of 'what is a practising Christian'?  What changes a nominal Christian into a practising one? The immediate answer is that a practising one attends a church regularly and takes part in the prayers, and sings the hymns, and listens to the sermons. Can you be a Chistian withluout actually doing all that? Increasingly, the answer is  that perhaps you can, because church is what has been manifestly rejected. Dietrich Bonhoeffer asked: 'Can Christ be Lord, even of those with no religion?' What a good question !!Christian Research tells me that in 2010 there were 1.3m Anglicans, 1.5m Catholics, and other categories, adding up to roughly seven percent of the population. That hardly makes a 'Christian country' if the criteria is churchgoing. But perhaps the meaning of 'practise' is to have a general belief that there must be a God and that Jesus told us as much about him/her/it as we can hope to understand, but it matters as much as it matters that the sun has risen again. Do we derive moral values from a nominal God, or from one who has offered us a recognisable code from which we get moral guidance? And if he has, how can we neglect it? Practising surely means taking seriously what we have been shown about the nature of God and what he requires of us.  TWO Addenda: Matthew Parris, an atheist Christian prophet, writes brilliantly in The Times today (December 17), and I have heard a scientist say of his new-born child that she is all he will ever see of the 'God particle.' Brilliant !!










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