Reflection for Remembrance Day 2014

Micah 4: 1-8
Matthew 5: 43-48

It surely can’t have escaped anybody’s attention that this year marks the hundredth anniversary of the beginning of the First World War.  There have been special programmes on television this year, both documentaries and dramas and special events held not just in this country but all over the world.

When I think of the First World War three things come to mind.  The first is the television comedy, Blackadder Goes Forth.  I’m specifically thinking of the end of the final episode when Blackadder and his companions are about to leave the trenches and “go over the top” and charge the German lines (you can watch it here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vH3-Gt7mgyM).  After nearly six episodes of comedy things turn serious.  Baldrick turns to Blackadder and admits that he is afraid.  The others, including Blackadder voice their own fear.  Then the whistle blows and they climb the ladders and charge the German lines.  In slow motion they are all killed and then the scene fades and is replaced by a Flanders field full of poppies.  Brave people are not those who feel no fear, they are those who are afraid but go ahead and do it anyway.

The second thing that comes to mind is the visit I made to Belgium with school when I was fifteen, because we were studying World War One.  I remember we went to two of the WW1 cemeteries.  It was a very sobering experience, even as a teenager, to stand among rows and rows of identical white headstones, each one of them representing a soldier who had been brave enough to give his life for something he believed in.  Even as a teenager I was stunned into a subdued silence!

The third thing that comes to mind is that the First World War was once called “the war to end all wars”.  Sadly, as all the other wars of the 20th and 21st centuries attest, it was no such thing.  The sad truth is that human beings continue to fight and kill each other over land, or ideology or religious belief.  Sometimes that fighting is in a just cause to oppose a great evil like the Nazis to defend the weak and innocent, evil it can be argued it would be a greater evil not to oppose.  At other times that fighting is motivated by selfishness, greed and hatred.

My study of the Lectionary readings for Remembrance Sunday tells me that war is contrary to the will of God, it is far from God’s best for us and God’s desire is for peace on earth.

In the reading from the book of Micah that desire of God for peace on earth is abundantly clear.  Inspired by God Micah prophesies a time when “they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.”  In that future paradise war will be truly a thing of the past because we will live in harmony with each other and with all creation.  There will be nothing to fight about because we will all have enough and we will all know the truth about God.  This is the utopia promised at the end of the book of Revelation when “the home of God is among mortals.  God will dwell with them; they will be his peoples and God himself will be with them; he will wipe every tear from their eyes.  Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more.”

Our passage from Matthew’s gospel gives us guidance as to God’s will for us until the time we will spend eternity in paradise, in the very presence of the living God.  It comes from the Sermon on the Mount.  Jesus has already said, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.”  Now Jesus says “You have heard it said, ‘You shall love your neighbour and hate your enemy.’  But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”

It is easy to hate your enemy when they are faceless, when they are not really thought of as human beings, but as the enemy.  But if we start to see our enemies as human beings, human beings with the same passions, drives as vulnerabilities as ourselves it is not so easy to hate them.  If we start to actively pray for them we start to see them as God sees them and our attitude changes.  It is very hard to fight people who are like us in so many ways; it is very hard to kill somebody you have prayed for.

During Christmas 1914 there was an unofficial and totally unplanned truce along the Western Front.  British and German soldiers began to exchange seasonal greetings and songs between their trenches; on occasion, the tension was reduced to the point that individuals would walk across to talk to their opposite numbers bearing gifts.  On Christmas Eve and Christmas Day many soldiers from both sides independently ventured into no man’s land, where they mingled, exchanging food and souvenirs. As well as joint burial ceremonies, several meetings ended in carol-singing. It is widely believed, though doubted by some, that troops from both sides were also friendly enough to play games of football with one another.

It’s hard to kill somebody you have played games with, exchanged gifts with and sung carols with.  When the truce end officers on both sides had to force the soldiers to resume the fighting.

Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.

If you love your enemy you cannot fight against them and you cannot kill them.  1 Corinthians chapter 13 tells us, “Love is patient, love is kind.  It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.  It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.  Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.  Love never fails.”  To love your enemy is to be at peace with them.

War is a sometimes necessary evil; it is sometimes necessary to defend either yourself, your family or your country against an aggressor with evil intent.  Until God renews our earth when Jesus returns it is sometimes necessary to defend the innocent and defenceless by opposing evil with force.  But it must always be a last resort, when all other options have failed!

In times of conflict we should, even as we honour the bravery of those giving their lives for a cause they believe in, pray for peace, God’s ideal for the world!

I’ll finish with a couple of verses from a modern hymn:

We pray for peace,
but not the easy peace
built on complacency
and not the truth of God.  We pray for real peace,
the peace God’s love alone can seal.

We pray for peace,
and, for the sake of peace,
look to the risen Christ,
who gives the grace we need
to serve the cause of peace
and make our own self-sacrifice.

It's Not In The Bible!

Last Sunday morning I was preaching on the opening verses of Mathhew 23: 1-12.  I'm not going to reproduce the full sermon here, you'll probably be glad to know, but I am going to expand on one of the thoughts I had on Sunday morning.

I was talking about Pharisaical attitudes in the church today, about things that are expected of Christians in the average church that, as far as I can see, have no basis in scripture.

The first is that old chestnut, dress standards.  I am aware of the general principal of modesty of dress, of not dressing to inflame the desires of others and generally agree with it: but some churches go too far.  Usually nothing is ever said out loud, but a message is nevertheless communicated in more subtle ways.  There is, for example, nothing at all in the Bible about men wearing a suit, shirt and tie in church, yet men who don't like wearing them are forced to conform every Sunday.  If they don't they are looked down upon, even in 2014.  I remember the fuss that was caused the first time I went to a very middle class church in jeans, open neck shirt and a leather jacket.  I think they almost refused me entry!  Women in churches have the same pressure put on them to look smart and 'respectable'.

You know what, as long as we are't dressed provocatively, with the intention of inflaming the desires of others, I don't think God really cares what we wear: he's more interested in our hearts than our attire!

It's the same with behaviours, behaviours that are traditional rather then mandated by the Bible.  The whole standing up to sing hymns thing (or for the Holy Communion Great Prayer of Thanksgiving, or, in some churches, the gospel reading) is just tradition; yet the looks you get if you decide to stay seated in some churches, even if you cannot stand without great difficulty, would kill.

And don't get me started on the whole pew thing or organ thing!  Where in the Bible does it say Christians must sit on pews or only sing their hymns to the accompaniment of an organ?  You know what, it doesn't!

These are just a few examples of church expectations that have nothing to do with the Bible and everything to do with human tradition.  We must all think carefully about our attitude towards these and other traditions: we shouldn't want those traditions getting on the way of those who still need to know Jesus as their Lord and Saviour.  As soon as they do do they need to go,

Conservative Evangelical and Proud!

It's funny, but after a few years of my theology moving in a more liberal/progressive direction I have found myself in recent months moving back to what many would consider a more conservative evangelical theology.

I don"t think I could ever, in my whole life, have been described as a fundamentalist;  but for most of my teenage years, twenties and thirties I was avowedly a conservative evangelical, fed on a steady diet of books by inspired Christians like David Watson, Derek Prince, AW Tozer, RT Krndall, Michael Green and John Stott.  The Bible was the inspired word of God, it's authors inspired and guided by the Holy Spirit as they wrote, the message of God filtered through individual human personalities bit still the message of God.

It also seemed to me that the churches that were growing, that were successful, were the ones that preached this conservation evangelical faith, that took God at his word and had faith that it is true!

Then came a season of questioning, of some doubt.  I started local preacher training and was advised to read authors from a wider theological spectrum.  I was told that this reading would challenge my faith but the, ultimately, I would emerge with a more "mature faith."  This wider reading continued, of course, throughout my time of training as a Student Minister.  In retrospect I was fortunate, though, that some of our tutors were evangelicals themselves.

Since leaving college and starting my service in Circuit as first a Probstionet Presbyter and now as an ordained Presbytet in full connexion I have been wrestling with my theology, with where I stood on understanding the scriptures, what I believed about healings and miracles and the existence of the devil, what I thought about universal salvation.

I have read and read and read.  I have prayed and prayed.  I have asked God to lead me to where he wants me to be, theologically.  I've read books by progressives like Brian McLaren, books by liberals like John Robinson, John Shelby Spong, John Dominic Crossan and Marcus Borg.  Equally I re-read some of my books by older conservative evangelical authors and also devoured Billy Graham's autobiography and other conservative evangelical books that were new to me.

Who was right?  The conservative evangelicals?  The liberals and/or the progressives?  How could I make a choice?  All argued very persuasively and all said their position was the correct one.  The liberals and progressives sometimes mocked and ridiculed conservative evangelical theology, which disturbed me and which I felt was a deeply unloving and unchristian thing to do.  Equally I was uncomfortable by suggestion from the evangelical camp that those who disagreed with them we in league with Satan or being tricked by him.

Just a few days ago, on Facebook, I described myself as a progressive evangelical.  I would no longer do so.

At heart, deep down inside, I am convinced of the conservative evangelical position on most theological issues.  This will come as a surprise to come of my friends and maybe they will not like it, but it's where I feel God had led me.

That doesn't mean blind faith and it doesn't mean that I am ignoring everything I was taught.  It does not mean that when studying the Bible I will ignore the type of literature a particular book contains.  T does not mean that I will ignore historical context and textual context.

But it does mean that, for me, I have decided to trust God, to trust in his power and knowledge above that of human beings.  I believe the Bible to be much more than a record of human thoughts about  God.  It is divinely inspired!  I am convinced that Jesus was truly Human and divine ( and not just a human being who was really close to God as some Liberals suggest).  I am convinced that Jesus died for my sins in my place and that he physically rose from the dead.  I believe that he did all the healings and miracles attributed to him, exactly as they are recounted in the gospels and that such miracle can and do happen today.  I believe that there is a devil and demons who are absolutely opposed to God: and that they are already defeated foes, beaten by Christ's death on the cross!

I think that the church has gone too far in trying to be "relevant" and softening or even distorting Christianoty instead of being a counter-cultural voice for change.

I will be joining Methodist Evangelicals Together and linking in with the New Wine networks.

After several years I know what my theological convictions are.  I' mm ot saying I have all the answers or that I have all the answers, because those who have that attitude ate almost certainly wrong.

I am saying that I've come full circle, back to the point where I can comfortably and without concern confess to being a conservative evangelical Christian!