Paul Flowers

For a host of reasons I am reluctant to comment on the evident and alleged sins of others, especially when the media is busy at it.  In the case of Paul Flowers my policy serves me especially well as with each succeeding day I am increasingly bereft of anything to write that adequately expresses my amazement.  Less a case of not casting the first stone; more of being too gobsmacked to think of even looking for one to pick up.

 

 

In this context I was in a service this week where we sang the following words.  They are a translation from the French (well, if you look closely one key word is not translated) by John Wesley.  With his brother's prodigious hymn output it is slightly surprising that he tapped into a European mystic's hymn except that Antoinette Bourignon's words exactly describe the desires for consecrated holiness for which Methodism was born.  It's a long way back from here.  But God is gracious . . .

 

While in this region here below,
No other good will I pursue;
I'll bid this world of noise and show,
With all its glittering snares, adieu!

 

That path, with humble speed, I'll seek,
In which my Saviour's footsteps shine;
Nor will I hear, nor will I speak,
Of any other love but thine.

 

Henceforth may no profane delight
Divide this consecrated soul;
Possess it thou, who hast the right,
As Lord and Master of the whole.

 

Wealth, honour, pleasure, and what else
This short-enduring world can give,
Tempt as ye will, my soul repels,
To Christ alone resolved to live.

Invaders

The other Sunday, by way of illustration, we noted in a service the countries of the world that Britain had not invaded.

NOT invaded.

I imagine this supposed fact is open to considerable historical controversy but it doesn't need to be exactly right to be very telling. Invasion includes more negotiated occupations of nations too.  Just 22 nations have avoided British boots.

Here is Stuart Laycock's short list of the only countries Britain has not invaded in case you haven't used the link above.

 Andorra

Belarus

Bolivia

Burundi

Central African Republic

Chad

Congo, Republic of

Guatemala

Ivory Coast

Kyrgyzstan

Liechtenstein

Luxembourg

Mali

Marshall Islands

Monaco

Mongolia

Paraguay

Sao Tome and Principe

Sweden

Tajikistan

Uzbekistan

Vatican City

 

Stuart, probably wisely, abrogated all moral judgment about his list and described it as a bitt of fun.   In doing so he was probably neatly reflecting the sense of responsibility most modern Britons feel for the past, though this Sunday we like to remember some noble victories over nasty enemies in the last century.

 

It creates quite an alarming image when the nations stand before the throne of God's judgment.  In my mind's eye I imagine all these peoples being questioned about their responsibilities for the nationally and ethnically inspired wrongs amid humankind's history - and frequently seeing them pointing over at, er, us.

 

No wonder we stop and pray and think about the wars of the world.

All Souls

This is an interesting day to me this year, the year in which I laid my Dad's remains to rest.  Mostly but not exclusively in Catholic settings this is All Souls Day, or the Commemoration of the Faithful Departed.



There is unquestionably a fellowship between the Church on earth and the Church at rest but this has been an awkward fellowship to define.  It has alarming, spooky elements when Spiritualists or those inclined their way seek to speak with the Dead.  It is only a little better in the one way communication by which the Saints are allegedly spoken to in prayer (without any assurance that they can hear and no Bible promise that suggests they can).  In evangelicalism a peculiar two part problem arises when the Faithful Departed are dispensed with in somewhat the way of any text containing the word Thou, i.e. they are fine but they are history.  This, however is countered by a hope that in the sweet by and by we will meet on that beautiful shore and reconstitute our families.

This latter hope has always bemused me given that my Grandad was also someone else's nephew or Grandson - so how would that work?  Jesus was asked a similar question about married reunion - what happens if a wife has remarried six times?  Who's she married to up there?  Jesus answer is authoritative and exactly explains what the future state is all about - one family in God not Mr and Mrs, Father and Son.

Or to put it another way, today a son celebrates not a departed father but a departed brother in Christ; a widower not a departed wife but a departed sister in Christ. 

There are other times when old relationships, contingent to this world, may be reflected upon with tears or cheers.  But once in a while it is good to remember our soul-fellowship; to remember that relationship in baptism which binds us eternally; to remember the Lover whose love modelled the best of our earthly love without ever being matched down here; to remember that unity in Him that holds us tighter to him and to each other than any imitation found in the relationships recorded on birth, marriage and death certificates. 

This is the fellowship planned and formed and preserved by the love of Jesus.

Yikes!

So I decided to press the Google home screen Halloween thingy.  It tells me about witches.

A witch is a practitioner of witchcraft, which is the use of magical faculties, most commonly for religious, divinatory or medicinal purposes.

Origin: Early human cultures
Grouping: Homo Sapiens
Sub-grouping: Supernatural human
Food source: Strange Brew, candy
How to avoid: Don't eat red apples from strangers; hide if you see a flock of flying monkeys
How to defeat: Throw a pail of water

 

The definition is decent enough, the origin and grouping somewhat dissonant with the sub-grouping (surely a supernatural human originates Somewhere Else and is more like a super-group than a sub-group).  Still, this is all serious stuff in a way.

 

No, wait.  Someone in the Googleplex thinks , 'It's about the kids really - let's get kid-friendly' and plonks in some comic food sources - especially candy.  After all we don't want anyone - nay, even any animal (vegans can be witches too!) getting eaten.

 

Hey no we don't want our kids to feel that the witches might really be able to GET them.  Let's make witches really easy to avoid.  Strangers and Monkeys take a hit here.

 

And given the limited possibility of having eaten such an apple proffered by the stranger, there is a moderately easy solution via a pail of water (though I imagine if practised in the child's bedroom this endangers the child's life from an irate parent).

 

Well, what fun that was.

 

Not.

 

Because the first parts are true (for supernatural human read in harmony with the divine creative principal which is the Witches' own definition) it would be useful for Google to have stuck to the facts later on.

 

The food source is the same supermarket or farm shop or village market as everyone else. 

 

Avoidance is nigh on impossible - and very discriminatory.  I'm quite surprised that Google have got away with that.  It's not going to play well if they try the same thing about Atheists, Muslims or any other religiously orientated definition of people.

 

How to defeat.  Again Google has gone all discriminatory.  Google wants to defeat a religious expression?  At least on this last point Monotheists and Witches can agree that there is - in the spiritual sense - a conspiracy of victory and defeat which spans the centuries.  Sometimes it's been expressed very unpleasantly one way or another.

 

Let me say this in sympathy of witches:  I really don't think that Google has any right to seek their defeat, or encourage children to do so.  Furthermore the average Pagan Witch would have a great deal more respect and harmony with a pail of water than a global Western-based behemoth corporation or the targeting child.

 

Yet in its simple way Google has stumbled upon spiritual warfare.  Where there is supernatural there is battle and, in the End, defeat or victory leading to harmony.  The Bible describes this as the Lord Jesus eventually putting all his enemies beneath his feet.  The Witch, on the other hand, might describe victory as beliefs in the likes of Jesus or Mohammed being subsumed in the great creative divinity god/goddess/force thingy.

 

If ordinary humans are to be on the winning side spiritually, the Bible explains, they'd be a lot wiser to put down the bucket of water and climb (as it were) the hill with a cross on it where one of them who was also God defeated other spiritual powers by the greatest possible sacrifice.  Blood, not just water.