Words Matter

My Ramblings from August/September Newsletter

How many of us remember this rhyme?

“Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me”

But is this true? Think about how the words you say effect other people and then try to make the case that words don’t matter.

Words can be used as weapons or as gifts, as tools to hurt or to heal, and we always need to be aware of this fact. Language communicates and it can communicate many things.

In the end it doesn’t matter if you “didn’t mean” that cruel or thoughtless remark or that you were “just joking.” Sometimes, words just hurt. And we who use them have a responsibility to do so with an awareness of the impact they may have.

We are all very conscious of the words, anger and confrontation that seemingly are the meat of daily life at the moment. We have all been subjected to the rhetoric of fear and distrust too much lately, and it seems to be coming from all parts of our world, so that we may wonder what is going on. Has humanity succumbed to collective paranoia?

The answer of course is that we don’t know, but we do know that what we say to each other, to friends, to colleagues, at home or at work can all influence (in small but significant ways) how others think, feel and react. It is therefore beholden upon us as followers of Jesus to consider very carefully what we say. Remembering these words of Jesus from Matthews Gospel.

“But I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken. For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned” (Matthew 12:36–37)

And to remember the words of St Paul in his letter to the Ephesians,

 “Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen” (Ephesians 4:29)

How we speak what we say, the words we use really, really matter; they convey the deepest wishes and thoughts of our hearts and minds and they can be used to destroy and maim others.

I would hope that we who live in such beautiful and tranquil surroundings have a more benign and compassionate view of the world and with those hopes in mind offer as an addition to your prayer life over the next few months the World Peace Prayer

Lead me from death to life,

from falsehood to truth;

lead me from despair to hope,

from fear to trust;

lead me from hate to love,

from war to peace.

Let peace fill our heart,

our world, our universe.

This prayer was first used in 1981 by Mother Teresa when visiting the Anglican Church of St James, Piccadilly, (where incidentally I did my church placement when training for ministry) and is an adaptation from the Hindu Upanishads by a former Jain monk Satish Kumar. Its use in encouraged by the world peace prayer society.

I hope you will accept my invitation to include this in your daily prayers and I pray that we may be constantly challenged as Christians to live and work together as salt, light, and leaven and along with people of other great faiths, and all people of goodwill, understand that our words matter and that we are each responsible for what we say to others. For although we may survive the ‘sticks and stones’ that break us, it is our words and the actions that flow from them that truly have the power to destroy or heal.

Blessings and peace from Highland Perthshire

God's Native Language

June/July Newsletter article reflecting on how God speaks to us in the language of love

God’s Native Language

“Today the lost are found in His translation.

Whose mother-tongue is Love, in every nation.”

 From Sonnet for Pentecost Malcolm Guite

We are very fortunate that our ‘mother tongue’ our ‘native language’ is recognised as one of the worldwide universal languages, when we travel we can almost always find someone who speaks our language.  But this is not true for vast numbers of people. This is a fact that the story of the Disciples in Acts at Pentecost brings into stark reality, as the Holy Spirit coming upon them enables them to speak the good news to people in their ‘native tongues’. Yet in our world so many people have been damaged and traumatised by being forced to abandon their language and by the resulting impact upon them culturally.

Some classic examples of this:

In the US,

“In April, 1917, the United States declared war on Germany. In addition to sending troops to fight in Europe, Americans waged war on the language of the enemy at home. German was the second most commonly-spoken language in America, and banning it seemed the way to stop German spies cold.”

And after Culloden,

“Their culture was demolished, their native language - Gaelic - was banned and marked as a hanging offence if spoken, the wearing of tartan was also made a hanging offence and even the Bible was not allowed to be learnt in their own language, never mind written”

And sadly the list could go on and on producing a culture of assimilation and dominance that has repercussions for centuries.

What you may wonder has this to do with the church, with our faith as Christians? The story from Acts tells it all. God send the Holy Spirit so that his people can be spoken to in their own tongues, in the depths of their hearts in a language they fully understand and identify with. And God’s native language? well I think that is clear, he doesn’t speak in Hebrew, Latin, Greek or English these are human constructs, but he does speak to all nations in his own language in one language only ‘the language of love’ his ‘mother tongue is love’ for every nation.

Love for you, love for me. Love for the whole of his creation.

With blessing to you all

Liz Baker

May 2016

2016 Series of Sermons for Lent - Making the Sacramental Real

1. Temptation

What have you given up for Lent?

Those who were at the Ash Wednesday service will have heard me say quite a lot about this  and it has been turned into a ritual  that doesn’t really  get to the point, how its no good if you give things up for Lent for self improvement, for self gratification so we feel holy and important, but a time to get closer to God, to make God a real part of our lives. And this is the theme that we will follow during Lent Holy week and Easter. Its called it making the Sacramental Real,  and can you really think this week about bridging the gap between the sacred and the secular. For you can’t act one way in the secular world and then switch on Sunday and become holy and righteous.

Its really a matter of how we see ourselves in relation to God, how  we become a truly sacramental people.

Now as said on Wednesday our Lenten journey should not be an easy one, a way to improve our health, our figures it should be a journey of discovery that significantly affects our everyday life, that focuses us on the fact that we are dependent upon God for life and breath. That everything we are and everything we have is a gift from God, and that all the good things we have, even life itself, are God’s gift to us. That every day in every way our lives are sacramental as we ‘break the body and shed the blood of creation’ (Wendell Berry) for our food, our clothes, our energy. Our daily subsistence isn’t separated from our spiritual journey; we are whole beings, not dualistic creatures. The mystery and wonder of the incarnation is that we have an embodied faith - Christianity is a holistic religion - mind, heart, soul AND BODY are all involved here.

And they come together in the man Jesus who faces all the things we do in our gospel reading this morning as he looks temptation in the face and chooses the Jesus chose three great paths, sacramental paths to freedom. When similarly tested, many of his followers have failed to choose the same pathways; and the same goes for each of us here today, for we have all  at times failed to choose these pathways of freedom.
So despite the fact that Lent is a time for fasting and penitence, its not about dwelling on how sinful we are, its not about trying to be holy, so if you have made resolution for Lent and you slip up and eat the chocolate bar or have a glass of sherry don’t berate yourselves, you haven’t failed, real failure is forgetting that we are God’s children and that our living should be a sacrament of love for all of God’s creation.                                                                                          
This means being loving and careful in all our dealings in all our doings, its about living life as the sacrament it truly is. So despite saying that ‘giving up’ or using our own  personal preferences to ensure what you might call selective fasting for Lent is not what its all about. Lets be clear about this it is important to look for something that we might do that will deepen our relationship with the creator.
How about this for an idea. In our culture we are so fixated on the individual that we forget we are part of the whole, how can we love God and his creation if we forget that we are part of it, part of the web of life, part of the dust of stars, part of the body of Christ. We can’t, and this thought came to mind,  did you know, there are some languages that have no words for I or Me only words for us, we (the people). So my goal is to cut those words out.  This is so hard  to do but trying it has created a great awareness of how often  I use these words, and when you try to stop you realise what a new perspective it gives to everything you say and do, and that what this is all about, Lent is about finding a new perspective for your life, for you relationship with God. And that new perspective is right there in the temptations Jesus faces, when he chose not to ‘give up but to ‘take up’ a way of living
1.The first temptation is for Jesus to turn stones into bread  It is the allure of materialism, the belief that our happiness comes from things. Of course, physical things are not bad in themselves Food, clothing, shelter—these things are good. For that matter jewellery, perfume, a membership at the gym, can all be good as well. The problem is when we forget the relative importance of things versus love; when we forget that the things we own say little about our Divine identity and purpose. We in the wealthy developed nations fall most easily into this pitfall because we have managed to attain so much. It’s been calculated that if everyone on earth used up the same amount of raw materials, fuels and so-on that the average European consumes, it would take four worlds to sustain the earth’s population.                                                          
When Jesus says to the tempter, ‘Thou shall not live by bread alone,” he ’took up’ the pathway of Simplicity –of being content with fewer things, and with things that matter more. That’s a great recipe for a life that depends on a vital connection with God, and that enables all of God’s other creatures to live in peace alongside of us.                                                                                                     

 2.The next temptation is that of coercion. The devil says, “I’ll give you power—let me show you how.” This is upping the temptation scale;. Coercion is a great temptation for bright people, because bright people know the world is askew and wish to change it—and if we can knock the world into shape then everyone will be happier. That’s how the devil presents the case. Its we know best.            
 Beginning with the Emperor Constantine in the fourth century, Christians have chosen the way of coercion.—this is what Gandhi had in mind when he said “I like your Christ…but your Christians are so unlike him.”  Jesus, in contrast, ‘took up’  the path of Service. God knows that people transform not because they are forced to do so, but because they see examples of sacrifice. Ultimately, the way of Jesus is the way of the cross—the way of costly love. This is why Mother Teresa is so well loved, and our politicians…less so.                                
 3.The last temptation of privilege. Can’t you just hear the devil saying, “Hey, Jesus, why don’t you throw yourself off the top of this tall building? Ordinary folk, they’d fall and end badly. But you’re special. Angels will catch you—won’t that be cool? Won’t people just be so impressed with you?” You don’t have to spend long in the corridors of Christian influence before you can spot the temptation to privilege and fame. It may not be stated so bluntly, but I’ve sure caught the tone of Christian messages that say, “I’m really exceptionally cool and successful—and you can be too if you come to my church.”  But Jesus ‘took up’ the way of Humility. We are called to the spirit of Jesus “who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped,  but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant” (Philippians 2:5-7).  Jesus,  God incarnate chose to live as a very ordinary Middle Eastern peasant, subject to all the hardships of our common humanity. He ‘took up’ our humanity And today, despite the increase of those who are spiritually unaffiliated some 2 billion citizens of earth still own the name Christian, having been influenced by the suffering servant.

So as we begin the season of Lent, perhaps we should not think so much of what we can “give up,”  but what we can ‘take up’ what we can learn from Jesus’ experience, the choices he made in the desert so long ago.. Take a moment, and cement in your mind the choices that Jesus made in the wilderness:  those of Simplicity, Service and Humility. Ask yourselves : what can I do to walk these paths on my this Lenten journey? AMEN

Change and Chance

From the sermon from this morning with thoughts and prayers for the meeting of the Primates of the Anglican Communion this week.
Readings 
Isaiah 43: 1-7 
Acts8: 14 - 17
Luke 3: 15 -17, 21-22
 

Change and Chance

10^th Jan 2016

Oh how we hate change, how difficult it is to change our lives to take chances, and yet over the last few weeks we have seen some the the most vital changes and chances been thrust upon us by God himself. In case it skipped your notice one of the biggest happened at Christmas, when God changed everything by coming to earth as a human baby, by taking an amazing risk, an unbelievable chance and again when everything changed when those wise men arrived to worship the infant and changed how God was perceived by Jew and Gentile.

This week the story moves on to  the Baptism of Jesus, the moment when everything changes, the moment when this man becomes who he was born to be, the  son, the saviour, now recognized in the words ‘you are my son, whom I love, with you I am well pleased’.

This dramatic moment of change for Jesus, when everything in his life will be altered beyond recognition is also a moment of chance, of opportunity, for all those who then and now will try to follow him.

‘Do not be afraid, for I have redeemed you, I have summoned you by name; you are mine’ these words from Isaiah ring in our ears saying to us all

“ Don’t fear, because I am with you, because I sent my Son to you, because he accepted his role as redeemer when he was baptised, you have the wonderful and life changing chance to become who you were meant to be, a redeemed and loved people.

I think we can clearly see that God certain 'does change'.

Now what is  truly remarkable  is that these great texts  are our readings on this Sunday, just before the Primates of the World Wide Anglican Communion beginning their meeting tomorrow.

It is being touted as a very difficult meeting indeed, with all the divisions that abound in the  communion being aired all over the media, such as newspapers, radio and internet, with the Guardian reporting that Archbishops from conservative churches in Uganda, Kenya, Nigeria, South Sudan, Rwanda and Congo are likely to walk out of the summit within a day or two of its opening on Monday.

And the cause, of course, much  big than our mission to spread the Gospel, more important than world hunger, climate change, the refugee crisis and the devastating violence all around us, is the issue of human sexuality and  how we consider it in relation to the meaning of biblical truth. The Bible says many things, lets take a look at the prohibitions in Leviticus for example:

Look this squarely in the face and acknowledge that how we view things today is very very different to how it was in the past, in other words we don’t follow all of the laws that are given to us in the Bible, we break many things that were taboo, but today are considered normal. So the fact is ,change has come about :

So if you're going to ignore the section of Leviticus that bans things such as tattoos, pork, shellfish, round haircuts, polyester and football, how can you possibly turn around and quote Leviticus 18:22 ("You shall not lie with a male as one lies with a female; it is an abomination.") as irrefutable law. And yet that is what is going on today.

Startling isn't it, as is another fact about the primates meeting

"Now perhaps and even more startling fact about the primates meeting is this. When the leaders meet this week there will be no women amongst them. Men will make the decisions. There are no female archbishops in the Anglican Communion".  (these words from  The Primates Meeting  - A busted Flush - posted on Facebook) www.unadulteratedlove.net

And what this means is that approx 50% or more of the people involved in the church have absolutely no say in what the primates decide"

Now contrast all that with the life giving opportunities for change that come from the teaching in the Gospels, how Jesus goes about his ministry, how he turns everything upside down, how he offers in a personal way the sentiments expressed by Isaiah, saying to each and everyone of us.

‘Do not be afraid for I have redeemed you, I have summoned you by name you are mine’

God it seems, unlike his people continually calls us to take chances, to change, to not be afraid of looking at the world with new eyes.

Now make no mistake, change is painful and hurts, there are always consequences, we can see this in the struggles over ordination of women, women bishops and of course with that big one of human sexuality.

Even small changes changes can be hard –  yet without  a willingness to embrace change  there would no church, people would have stuck to the old ways, no reformation, nothing would ever move and God’s purpose for the world would always be stifled.

Changing how we do things, how we respond to the word of God is constantly in flux, constantly changing, to keep it static is to entomb it.

This is what we as Christians must fight against, tying up the Almighty Word to suit our own ends. Now I am not saying that is what is going to happen at the Primates meeting, just really want to show you that no matter who we are, we can all fall prey to this refusal to accept that maybe, just maybe God wants us all to open our eyes to the chances for change and renewal we  all have to make, so that his world becomes a more just, a more equal and  a much more holy place.  Amen.