Thought For The Week

CREATING COMMUNITIES OF WHOLENESS WITH CHRIST AT THE CENTRE

9th May 2008

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY 5

Good morning.

The death toll seems to rise with every news bulletin and the suffering is unimaginable and unknown. The borders of Burma could do nothing to shut out the water or the wind of Cyclone Nargis, but it seems as if there is little that the Burmese junta will not do to close the doors of their nation to help, or even to the news – facts are still in short supply.

All that we know is that it is terrible and getting worse. The aftermath of a cyclone is every bit as tragic as the storm itself. With no clean water, no food, no medical help, people are still dying.

I was asked last week at Christian Basics course that I am helping to lead, how we can live out a practical faith. There’s stuff that we can do at work and at home, in our own personal lives. Day by day we need to challenge ourselves. Are we living by God’s laws of love, or are we messing up our lives and those of the people around us? What can we do to change, what can we do to make a difference, what can we do to live out the love and justice of God?

All of those questions are relevant to every part of our day by day routine. But they are just as applicable to the exceptional moments. Earlier in the week I received an urgent appeal from Christian Aid for donations to help Burma. It was one of dozens of emails that flood my inbox each day and I’m ashamed to say that I deleted it.

I could make the case that I support Christian Aid [and other development agencies] in other ways, including financially. I could say that I was suffering from compassion fatigue, or just from fatigue. But there was still a cry for help and I blocked my ears, shut my eyes and turned the other way.

Christian Aid week begins on Sunday – it’s going to be a big day as we also celebrate Pentecost, the birthday of the church. There will be collections in the street and the supermarkets, adverts on TV and a whole range of events in churches and communities across Swindon.

Will we close our eyes or open them? Will we turn away or get involved and do something to help? Will we try to live out a practical faith, one that makes a difference, one that enables people across the world to live out the full and abundant, just and free life that God wants for all of us?

Christian Aid says ‘We believe in life before death’ do we share that belief? And if so what are we willing to do to make it a reality?

8th May 2008

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY 4

Good morning.

It’s birthday season in our house. A few weeks ago Alice was 5 and I got to 36 [and the countdown to 40]. Next week Kathryn will celebrate her 1st birthday and Adam will reach the grand old age of 7. And then there are both of the Grannys, an uncle and a Godson, all within a 5 week period. The children are getting more invitations to their friends’ parties than we can remember and there isn’t a week that goes by without wrapping presents and writing cards.

But there’s an even bigger birthday coming up on Sunday; and when I asked my children what I should talk about this morning this is where they took me.

On Sunday Christians celebrate Pentecost, the gift of the Holy Spirit of God to the disciples in Jerusalem. On Sunday we remember and celebrate how, in the power of God’s Spirit, the disciples turned from terrified men into leaders of a new community and church, and started to share the good news of Jesus Christ. They gathered together thousands of believers on that day alone to create the first ever church.

From the Sudan to Sri Lanka to Swindon, from Shrivenham to Gorse Hill, Purton to Priory Vale, we’re still doing that; creating communities, churches, to celebrate the Good News that Jesus loves and forgives and calls each and every one of us. And so on Sunday we take time to celebrate how it all started and sing ‘Happy Birthday’ to the church.

The Christian Church touches so many of our lives, even if we’re not often around on a Sunday morning. But we’ll have probably have had a Vicar come into school, or been to a christening, wedding or funeral led by a minister. In North Swindon, where I’m vicar, in an average week I talk to up to 1,500 people, in school, in church and in the community. Perhaps you’re one of them.

Birthdays are a great opportunity to say thank you. As we prepare for this birthday of the church, as we look back and look around at all, what could you say thank you to God for?

7th May 2008

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY 3

Good morning.

There are times when it’s almost a relief to be just a little bit off the map, to be away from the big centres, separated from London, Bristol and the rest.

From Rodbourne to Parks, Abbey Meads to Old Town we can celebrate all that is wonderful about Swindon, enjoy our communities, and get on with our lives, at work, at home.

But food prices are still going up and up and up and people seem to have finally noticed the cost of petrol. I’d thought that when it got to £1 per litre that would be the symbolic barrier, but it passed almost unnoticed. Only now is it hurting our pockets as well as our world.

And yesterday a man was arrested in Swindon on suspicion of connections with the Tamil Tigers; a terrorist organisation fighting for an independent state within Sri Lanka.

As soon as we hear of ‘terrorism’ we imagine Osama Bin Laden and Al-Qaeda, militant islamism and rogue states. And with the words go fear. It doesn’t often touch us directly here in Swindon, one of the benefits of being slightly off the map; yet the fear is pervasive and all encompassing.

However the world is so much bigger and far, far more complicated than our first imaginings. So many people fight for so many causes in so many ways.

It’s easy to give an outright condemnation of terrorism, and as US presidential hopeful Barak Obama and his former pastor Jeremiah Wright have found, politically suicidal to even begin to say that we might share responsibility for the fear and brutality of terrorism that affects everyone. But easy is not always right, and to be ‘politic’ and popular isn’t always to be wise.

And there is one final truth that is again rarely said, but is, from Ireland to South Africa, historically self-evident. ‘Terrorists are hardly ever defeated by armies alone.’

Whether we agree with each other or not, we all need to start talking; and even more important, to start listening. Only then can we hope to understand one another across the walls of nationality, religion, land and politics, and find, instead of terror, the peace that God longs for all of us to enjoy.

6th May 2008

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY 2

Good morning.

What was once almost unimaginable, a joke for the bar or the news quiz, is now a reality, and or one whole day, and many more to come, Boris is Mayor of London.

When our politicians fail us we tend to look to celebrities to take over. So when the incredibly gray [and appropriately named] Governor Grey Davis of California had bored everyone to tears, Arnold Swartznegger was instead elected to lead the largest state in the USA and the fifth largest economy in the world. Only Arnie’s Austrian birthplace has prevented him from the scary prospect of running for [and quite possibly winning] the White House – as in the Simpsons!

But between the celebrities and the politicians there is that rare breed of men and women who manage to be both at once. The unusual thing about London this time around was that the ballot paper was packed with these celebrity politicians, tory toffs, gay coppers and newt loving socialists – all straight off the scene of ‘Have I Got News For You’. And London still looked for a change.

What do we look for in our leaders? Jesus, talking, just before his ascension into heaven to his rag tag collection of fishermen, housewives, prostitutes and even tax collectors that he had assembled to lead his new church, had some astonishing advice. He told them first to wait for God and for his Holy Spirit. ‘You can’t do this on your own’ he told them, ‘and you can’t do it all at once.’ ‘So wait a while, and do it all in God’s name and in God’s power and not in yours.’

But then, in the power of God, Jesus told his friends to go out and tell people about him, to encourage and challenge, to build and create a new identity and a new community – one that people would be really proud to belong to, one that would, in God’s name, bring justice and hope, love and life to everyone.

We’re not very good at waiting, and we like to take the credit, as much of it as possible! But there are times, and more than we might imagine, when leadership is more about listening then talking, more about sitting still than rushing around, more about waiting then deciding; and allowing and even enabling others to get praise in our place.

Swindon continues as a Tory Council after the local elections. If we were to directly elect a mayor, who would we choose and what qualities would we be looking for?

5th May 2008

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY 1

Good morning.

It was an entirely innocent enquiry, as to the state of my hay fever – not much of an issue on this sodden Bank Holiday. But the Bride’s question at the end of her Wedding Rehearsal left me completely floored. How on earth does she know that I’ve been sniffing and snivelling all week and generally feeling sorry for myself, I haven’t been that bad during the practice have I?

And then I remembered that I’d written about it all in the ‘Faith in Focus’ column in the Swindon Evening Advertiser.

Whether in the Swindon Adver, the North and West Swindon Link, the Highworth, Shrivenham and Blunsdon Outlook or even here on BBC Radio Swindon’s ‘Thought for the Day’ I am always surprised [and I guess pleased] at comments arising from what I have said or written; and have to take a moment to get my brain in gear before I respond.

What no longer surprises me is that the stuff that overwhelmingly gets the most responses is when I talk about my own personal working or family life, or when I talk politics. Perhaps it’s because people have almost given up on the idea that the church and its leaders can either be ‘normal’ or have something to say about the body politic, the communities and the world that we live in. I’ve never worried about having something to say – whether it makes any sense is a completely different matter! Politics later though…

My last adver column was a kind of diary - about crashing out, albeit in a small kind of way! [That’s a bit like a phrase that came up in a church strategy session recently – that we should ‘seize the day, carefully’!].

It was the last time that I was due to be on Thought for the Day – I’d done the Easter Monday, then I left an empty chair – for which my apologies! I wasn’t much use for the rest of the week.

I’ll do the whole week this time round, but I still have much to learn about God’s fourth special rule, or commandment. That’s it’s a good idea to take time off, and not to work yourself into the ground! Whether you’ve already got soaked at the Swindon Literature Festival, or are looking forward to getting soaked in the stocks at the Salisbury Cathedral Mediaeval festival, take some time off and have a good bank holiday!

Previous 'Thoughts For The Week'

April 2008 / March 2008 / February 2008 / January 2008 / December 2007 / November 2007 / October 2007 / September 2007 / August 2007 / July 2007 / June 2007 / May 2007