Sunday's Sermon

Justice & Mercy (The Beatitudes) 29^th January 2017

On a warm spring day many years ago I sat with a colleague drinking coffee and discussing their goals, how to fund them and what the results would be. I was reminded of that this morning as I listened to the news and tried to square the ever-growing circle of today’s readings with the reality of the world today.

Our subject was Nuclear Power, my colleague was an activist (please ask detailed questions later) and want to ban weapons and power and saw that as an achievable goal. I pointed out that the Pandora’s box was opened when the bomb fell on Hiroshima and you couldn’t put it back, that the goal of trying to save the planet from nuclear destruction was a good one but be aware this is not a goal you are going to achieve. At this point they turned to me and said, ‘well then what is the point? If I felt I wasn’t going to succeed I wouldn’t do it!”

Ah, do you ever feel like that, when you declare your faith i.e. “nothing ever changes , what is the point?” I think we all do, especially when we see those professing the name of Christ utter words Of Franklin Graham ( son of Billy) who has stated that ‘ the ban of Syrian refugees is not a bible issue.

“Jesus' command to love and welcome the stranger did not mean the US should welcome more refugees.

"It's not a biblical command for the country to let everyone in who wants to come, that's not a Bible issue," he said.”

How ironic then that our readings from Micah and Matthew todays M & M’s should be so diametrically opposed to that view. And what does the Lord require of you  ‘do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with your god’ And the beatitudes:

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

“Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

“Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

“Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.

“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.

“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

It does render you speechless doesn’t it that for all the insistence on the Bible on the most important parts like the passage from Micah, the rights of the aliens in your land and their treatment, the beatitudes the commandments, love God & Neighbour, the Lord’s prayer which people parrot out of their mouths every Sunday it hasn’t changed anything

I spotted a great cartoon on Facebook this morning ; it goes like this:

Jesus is teaching the crowd and says ‘Love you enemies, do good to those who hate you’

a shout from the crowd ‘ But Jesus what about if they’re Muslim’

Jesus answers ‘OK, let me start over from the beginning, let me know where I lost you!’

‘Let me know where I lost you’ – In the fear of the other perhaps, in the need to take rather than to give, in the desire for greatness, in the inability to see life as a gift that all must equally share. And this mind set is infections, I have this postcard on my desk it says in Gaelic & English;

‘One snotty nose can infect a whole Church'

AKA, one idea can infect the whole be it congregation, community or nation. For once an idea takes root in a person in a group, in a nation it can spread, it can overturn all in its path, it can become an infection. This week saw Holocaust Memorial Day a day we remember the 6 million Jews and others murdered in the Gas Chambers, we also remember the victims of other genocidal acts and it seems we still do not learn, that ideas good and bad can become infections that spread.

I apologise for being depressing this morning and I don’t really want to be, because I do believe that even the smallest act of kindness, or mercy of peacemaking can help to change things. But it takes action, the action of all who disagree with the teachings of hate and bigotry and vengeance and I could go on. You will of heard this quote sometimes attributed to Edmund Burke

“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.”

So doing nothing is not an option, keeping silent is not an option, tutting about it quietly and accepting the status quo is not an option, coming to church on Sunday and declare the faith of Jesus and the ignoring responsibility for the rest of the week is not an option.

Such actions or lack of action leads to an emptiness of hope, of love, of compassion, which in the end leads to becoming part of the very evil  you despise. If you take nothing else away from this morning remember not my words but the words of Micah ‘

‘what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness,

and to walk humbly with your God?’

and the words of our Lord Jesus Christ himself, which can help to mitigate evil and emptiness and aid our troubled world, one of the Beatitudes

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled”  Amen

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