Hope amidst the dry bones - A sermon for Pentecost Sunday based on Ezekiel 37: 1-14 and Acts 2: 1-13

Sometimes countries and peoples experience disasters and calamities from which they can see no prospect of a dignified recovery. I would guess that at the moment many Tamil people feel that way after recent events in Sri Lanka. We see it also in those people who flee the land where they had hoped to live out their lives in a desperate quest to find a new home where they can repair their lives.

The people of Israel had their share of such disasters. Much of their land had been destroyed by Assyrian armies. 2,700 years ago what remained was destroyed when Babylonian armies swept down from today would be Iraq. These armies destroyed Jerusalem and devestated much of the surrounding land. A people were left with precious little hope of a political, economic or military recovery. And to make matters even worse, the invaders got hold of the movers and shakers who might have found a way ahead, and took them back to live in Bablyon far from all that they held dear.

We cannot overestimate the scale of humiliation felt by the people of Israel whther left behind or taken into exile. Our imaginations are unequal to the catastrophe. Native Indians or Kurds given their respective histories would have a greater sense of empathy with this suffering than we could ever be capable of.

Anyhow people struggled to come to terms with what had happened. One such person was Ezekiel. His writings are so vivid and disturbing that young Jews were once encouraged not to read these writings on their own. Indeed as one of my tutors used to say, Ezekiel shows all the signs of post traumatic stress syndrome.

But the vision of the valley of dried bones has to be amongst the most remarkable of scriptures. Exekiel has a vision of a scene of battle. Many of Israel's finest have been slain and even denied the decency of burial. Ezekiel sees their remains and hears a message calling on these bones to reform with flesh and tendons and so forth. But the vision suggests that they can only find life and vibrancy when the breath of God's spirit is breathed into them. Then the story becomes not so much about individuals but about the reforming of a community that belongs together. Why? Because whilst the message of God is personal, it is a message that time and again calls us into community.

Now some years later thanks to a pagan named Cyrus, those in exile began to be allowed to return. And as they began to rebuild the city, the Temple and a community that associated itself with God, Ezekiel's vision became very precious indeed.

Now let's move on a few hundred years. In Jerusalem, Jews have gathered to celebrate one of their greatest festivals, Pentecost. Pentecost has much in common with our Harvest Festivals. People brought their first fruits to God but more than that this was a time when the prosperous shared their bounty with widows, servants, poor people and even stranger in remembrance of a time when their ancestors had been dependent.

In a room were 120 followers of Jesus. They hadn't exacty covered themselves with glory a few weeks earlier when Jesus had been taken prisoner. But now they had been told of a time when they could continue the work of Jesus even to the ends of the world. Unlikely you might think but they had been promised that just this sort of unlikely outcome would be possible for they would receive the same Holy Spirit whose power they had seen at work in Jesus.

And so it was that at Pentecost, they experienced that power. And now they have a courage that would once have been unthinkable and so they go out into the streets to share the good news about Jesus and to speak of the Kingdom for which he had lived and died, the Kingdom that would bring hope to precisely the sort of people who had hitherto been the losers in society. Here was a message the the poor were precious. Here was a message that outsiders really counted. Here was a message that thos weighed down by guilt were of value for here was a kingdom that fulfilled the messages of liberation that had been scattered on God's people from the earliest of times.

And what of us? The Spirit is still at work today. The Spirit can fill us and remake us. The Spirit can guide us as to the people that we should be. And the Spirit can enable us to respond to the callings that God makes upon us.

This is the day when we celebrate the work of God continuing through us. But for that to be a reality we need to be open to the transformation offered by the Holy Spirit and a people who seek power from the Spirit in the tasks to which we are called.

Yes despair is often a reality in our lives and in our community. Yet the message of Ezekiel and of Pentecost is that it need not be the final word. For when hope is at its lowest God breathes new hope, new possibilities and the means to make them the new realities.

Ia this how I'll vote in Euro Elections.

My results were;

Party Match
Green Party 59/69
Mebyon Kernow 58/69
Liberal Democrats 50/69
Libertas 50/69
Conservative Party 40/69
Labour Party 38/69
UK Independence Party 21/69


As it happens I intend to vote Green Party and this survey shows such a vote is in line with my beliefs. I am thrilled to learn how far I am from UKIP.

Up, Up but not away - A sermon for Easter 7 based on Ascension using Acts 2: 1-11 and Ephesians 1: 15 - 23

I have always found the idea of Ascension rather difficult. As a child of the 60s I was fascinated by the Apollo missions to the Moon. So when I look at the accounts of the Ascension of Christ, I cannot help but have a crude picture of Jesus as a human spaceship surrounded by smoke as he goes up into the air- all with a voice stating;

"We have lift off!"

It is a flawed picture that has its roots in a pre Galileo and Copernicus world in which heaven was regarded as up there, hell down below with planet earth in between. That does not work for us in a scientific age. Perhaps the best we can manage is that Ascension represents Christ entering a different dimension of reality than that which we know.

Yet whilst we can not adequately get our heads around the Ascension of Christ, it is a vitally important feature in our Christian understanding. Indeed St Augustine saw it as the crown of all Christian festivals. Why? I think the answer is twofold. Firstly it points to the glorification of Christ. And secondly it explains his no longer being a physical presence on earth with all that such a realisation entails.

For a moment let us look at each of those answers.

Glorification means that Christ is the supreme authority. Paul makes that clear in his epistle to the Ephesians when he writes of the Risen Christ being seated in the heavenly realms "far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come."

For a moment just think what that means. It means that Christ is supreme over all the rulers of the world and that his kingdom is greater than any of the empires that is assembled by force or diplomacy. Now think again! What would this have meant to those who heard such a message? It would mean that the Christ who had been publicly executed by Rome was now supreme over Caesar. And in an age in which Rome proclaimed the divinity of its Caesars, it would be understod by Rome and indeed by onlookers to be a challenge to what was then the greatest empire that the world had seen. No wonder that the empire came to hate the Christians. No wonder they were despised for this bunch of nobodies were claiming to follow an authority that could only undermine Rome.

Indeed the Ascension has been described as the most political of all the Christian festivals. For it has the capacity even today to put the powers in their place. Still it challenges them when their path is destructive or when they fall short. Still today the Kingdom of God confronts the kingdoms of this world when they are life denying rather than life enhancing. And should we wonder what is the nature of the Kingdom that the Risen Christ calls us to, then we can look back to Luke's account of how Jesus begins his ministry when he speaks of a call;

"to preach good news to the poor
to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to release the oppressed,
to proclaim the year of the Lord's favour."

Yet how can these things be without Jesus? Well this brings us to our second answer. Ascension is necessary to explain the termination of the physical presence of Jesus. But that is not an end without a beginning. And the beginning is glorious. For here are the good tidings that the work of Jesus is no longer confined to time and place. All the stories we have of Jesus are confined to a short period of time in a small parcel of land. He may never have travelled further whatever the legends of Glastonbury or Cornwall suggest or Blake imagines in his epic poem "Jerusalem." His very humanity limits what he can do.

But Luke tells us that this limitation is over. The work of Jesus is going to continue through his followers. They are going to continue his work in Jerusalem and Judea where they are, in Samaria a place they would gladly bring down fire upon and ultimately anf frighteningly to the very ends of the world. This work is going to begin with the very people who have a track record of failure but then it will continue through future generations in all manner of places and situations. What a tall order we may think!

But this vision comes with a promise. Jesus knew the limitations of his followers. He probably knew that we would be little if at all better in future generations. So he speaks of a promise. And that promise is of the Holy Spirit who will come upon the people of God enabling them to respond positively to the challenge. That of course is what we will celebrate next Sunday at Pentecost.

But in the meantime let us cherish the message of Ascension. Jesus Christ is not a lifeless corpse. Far from it he is the Risen Ascended Glorified Lord of all. His Kingdom will not fail. His work goes on in all manner of places and we are each challenged to seek our place in his continuing work.

So this Sunday even as our time as a fellowship here in Instow is drawing to close, may we resolve to be about the continuation of Christ's work in the power of his Holy Spirit.

A General Election is needed for renewal of democracy

With public anger running high over the endless revelations concerning the abuse of expenses in the Houses of Parliament, the words of Oliver Cromwell in his dissolving of the Rump Parliament seem rather apt;

It is high time for me to put an end to your sitting in this place, which you have dishonoured by your contempt of all virtue, and defiled by your practice of every vice; ye are a factious crew, and enemies to all good government; ye are a pack of mercenary wretches, and would like Esau sell your country for a mess of pottage, and like Judas betray your God for a few pieces of money.

Is there a single virtue now remaining amongst you? Is there one vice you do not possess? Ye have no more religion than my horse; gold is your God; which of you have not barter'd your conscience for bribes? Is there a man amongst you that has the least care for the good of the Commonwealth?

Ye sordid prostitutes, have you not defil'd this sacred place, and turn'd the Lord's temple into a den of thieves by your immoral principles and wicked practices? Ye are grown intolerably odious to the whole nation; you were deputed here by the people to get grievances redress'd; your country therefore calls upon me to cleanse the Augean Stable, by putting a final period to your iniquitous proceedings, and which by God's help and the strength He has given me, I now come to do.

I command ye, therefore, upon the peril of your lives, to depart immediately out of this place! Take away that shining bauble there, and lock up the doors. You have sat here too long for the good you do. In the name of God, go!”

Certainly the current House of Commons is now, be it fairly or unfairly, somewhat reviled by the electorate. Its moral authority has gone. Surely it cannot limp on until next May.

Yet there needs to be a pause before dissolution. The Euro and Council elections are now taking place againsta background of public fury. That is unfortunate for good candidates who are seeking to serve the public. I suggest we need the General Election to take place when there has been time to take stock.

In that time it will be necessary for local paty members to review their sitting MPs to decide whether they are suitable to be put before the alectorate again. It will also be a time to consider what we want of our MPs. Not only should we expect some care to be taken of the public purse. We should also expect fulltime MPs who treat being a member of the House of Commons as their one and only job. We need to think in terms of stronger Parliamentary committees that are freed from party controls and which involve members in a more active monitoring of the executive - for the sake both of the executive and protecting MPs from idleness! We need to begin an urgent debate on ending the first past the post electoral system which has the corrupting influence of giving some individuals a job for life in what are safe seats and replacing it with multi member STV elected members or some other system that meets the needs of the time.

The next General Election must give serious consideration to the cleansing of the Aegean stables that have been exposed. The new Parliament must adress the above issues and brings it conclusions to the public within a reasonable space of time for approval.

For all of this to happen it is necessary for the Speaker to step down as soon as possible. He is not the author of all that has gone wrong but he is tainted by failure to challenge a corrupt culture. A new Speaker of integrity and independence needs to be elected - someone like Frank Field or John Bercow. Then this Parliament nust be sent packing in the Autumn.!

Make Poverty history - for MPs

Nice take off of a Bono promotional.


HAT TIP: Beau Bo d'or

Greater love - A sermon for Easter 6 based on John 15: 9-17

One of the worst pieces of Christian doggerel has to the one that goes like this;

"I've got Jesus,
My friends are few.
I've got him
so I don't need you!"

Friendship is such an important thing. We all need friends. By this I mean not the sort of people we go out for a laugh with. This is fine and good. But it falls short of friendship as it was known in Jesus' time. For to people in that part of the world that was known by Jesus and John who wrote this scripture, friendship was something much more. It was a serious commitment which involved honour. It was a real commitment through which a person looked out for the welfare of the other. More than that, it implied a two way process of reciprocal friendship

Now think for a moment. As Jesus calls the community, in which he has invested such effort, his friends he is giving them a mighty status. They are not simply followers but friends with the one from whom they have learnt. They are brought into a privileged relationship with Jesus. And as his followers we too have the joy and privilege of friendship with Jesus.

These words of Jesus are words that are spoken under the shadow of the imminence of the cross. And it is the cross where we see the true commitment that Jesus offers us out of friendship.

"No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends."

And it is precisely this that Jesus does for us. He empties himself of all but love for us and experiences the worst of shame, pain and rejection that the empire can inflict. For what? For friendship with us. The friendship that comes without limit. The friendship that challenges us as to our response.

Brennan Manning tells a story of how an Irish priest from a rural parish found an elderly peasant kneeling by the side of the road praying. The priest approached the man and said;

"You must be very close to God."

After a little hesitation the old man looked up from his prayers, smiled and replied;

"Yes, he's very fond of me."

And so he is!

And so he is!

And just so he is very fond of me and you!

Speaker Fagin sends MPs off for pickpocketing

HAT TIP: Beau Bo D'or

The true Vine - A sermon for Easter 5 based on John 15: 1-8

Today's scripture leads us into a much used symbol from our Jewish roots. The Old Testament has a number of occasions in which the people of Israel and Judah are likened to the vineyard of God, expected to produce fruit.

On a number of occasions these vineyards fail to produce sufficient fruit and this failure is portrayed as the cause of disasters that follow. Now, however,Jesus presents himself as the true vine, the vine that will not come up short, the vine that will produce good fruit. Seen like this, Jesus' statement is one that is designed to shock.

But there is meaning for today in what Jesus says. For here is a call to real intimacy. Listen to those words;

"Remain in me and I will remain in you."

You see, we may live in God's vineyard but we are not left to sink or swim. Far from it! We are called to tackle the challenges before us not alone but as those who are close to and fed by Christ who is the true vine.

But fruit we are certainly called to produce. Now this does nor necessarily mean success. Faithfulness to Christ does not necessarily entail success. After all it was only a few weeks ago that we were remembering what felt like complete defeat of the Jesus movement on Good Friday. Even as Jesus left his followers, there was every chance that this new movement would be snuffed out. It sumbers were small and its leaders were not exactly known for their heroism.

Of course, we prefer the signs of success. We would like our churches to grow. But ultimately faithfulness is more important than success. Sometimes the mission of a church is complete and it is time for other expressions of being church to trake their place. This hurts as we want to feel that we are where it is happening but ulimately all any church can do is to live and witness faithfully. But sometimes even like Moses not getting to enter the Promised Land, we miss out on the moments of triumph.

Now do not be discouraged by this. It has always been so. Following Jesus is not easy. It wasn't easy for Jesus. Just so, it can be a bumpy road for we who follow him. At times we need to be pruned in our lives and practices. And yes, uncomfortable as it is we can be the branches that are disposed off. But Methodists of all people should know this. Such as this can be seen in our Covenant Sevice where we acknowledge that Christ may use us or set us aside. After all the vineyard is his.

So what is the fruit that we are called to produce if it is not about the trappings of success or quick fixes that sometimes seem attractive to us? I think that Jesus is talking here about our exhibiting in our lives something of his nature. Think of those fruit of the spirit such as love, kindness and patience. These are the fruit that need to be produced within us and shared with others. What Jesus is talking about is our being filled with the attitudes of Jesus as a people who seek to truly live in his world to his praise and glory.

But through it all, the calling is to be a mobile people. God may be unchanging but thw world does change. And as followers of Jesus, we can not be a static people. Traditions, practices and even our theologies sometimes need to be moved on if were are to be the people that God would wish us to be in our time and place. After all despite the tendency for churches to become unchanging places through being listed, our calling is not to be museum curators but to the the lively people of God for today. For as we see so often in the scriptures, just when we are getting to comfortable and set in our ways, we need a kick up the backside so that we can move on with God.

And yet, this scripture is full of comfort. Things do not all depend on us. We need to get away from thinking that the world depends on us. Instead we need to get our priorities in order that we might depend on Jesus who is the true vine. So once more, may we take those words of Jesus to heart;

"Remain in me, and I will remain in you."

"There's a fly in my soup" - "Quiet! they all want one!"

I know that McDonalds is not exactly cordon bleu cooking but finding this in with the French fries is shall we say not exactly good taste.

A day of misery as Thatcher moves in - May 4th 1979

30 years ago I was a student. I had been a member of the Labour Party for 3 years. Much of the Summer of 1978 I had spent helping Falmouth Camborne's Labour candidate, Peter Tebbutt canvassing throughout the constituency. At that time we had been optimistic and felt shattered when Jim Callaghan chose not to go to an Autumn poll.

Things were very different in the Spring of 1979. It had been a difficult winter on the industrial front and defeat in the House of Commons had forced a General Election date that was certainly not of Labour's choosing.

When not at university I was active in the campaign. But the good feelings of Summer were well and truly gone. Even estates that we expected solid support from, were unwelcoming. By May 3rd, we were resigned to defeat both locally and nationally. Of course, we pretended that a miracle might happen but this was but whistling in the wind.

As Margaret Thatcher entered 10 Downing Streeet. ironically quoting St Francis of Assissi on reconciliation, I felt that a dream of a progessive society had been shattered. Initially i thought this would be but for a season. How wrong I was! Ahead of us lay 11 years of a Thatcher Premiership and 18 years of Conservative rule. Nothing would be the same again.

But before looking at Thatcherism, it is worth noting that pre Thatcher Britain is often misrepresented. Sure there were problems, but the inlation created by the Heath Government resorting to the printing presses and unemployment were coming down. More than that, living standards were on the up and generally Britain looked set for a decent future.

What followed was noting short of the decimation of the decent society. Ideologically driven ministers pushed the country into recession. Unemployment rose to three million whilst the Prime Minister sneered at those who protested as "moaning minnies." My home town was one that suffered badly albeit not as badly as mining towns who were the victims of a maliciously destructive policy and who were castigated as "the enemy within." For people like me, Thatcherism meant being stuck in a job I hated and was ill suited to ( remember the unemployed were denigrated by many a Tory MP and press baron). In mining communities and other communities where the staple industry was destroyed, hope was destroyed and in many such places huge social problems continue today. The Specials knew what they were saying in their song "Ghost Town."

At the same time as peoples hopes were being crushed, the rich just got richer. By the late 80s with the Big Bang and other innovations we had the sick "loadsamoney" barrel boys. Derulation of the City opened the way for the louts who have today landed us with the current economic difficulties. Yes, we were becoming a divided society and the Tories led by their Iron Maiden were well and truly on the side of the haves against the have nots.

And in that conflict they reached great lows. The use of the police to crush the mine workers was one such low. As a number of police officers have recognised since, what happened undermined a sense of the police being for the people. After all now they were used to destroy the way of life of an honourable group of people.

Often the Falkland War is spoken of as being a great Thatcher achievement. Leaving aside that it was Government actions that gave the green light to the Argentinians to invade the islands, I cannot reconcile myself to the slaughter that was to follow. Good Britains and good Argentinians lost their lives due to a pair of unworthy governments. And around it grew a nasty nationalism which was arrogant and contemptuous of others. Were that there were more Robert runcies to confront it as he did when he inisted on praying for the victims on both sides much to Thatcher's fury.

But most of all I remember the Thatcher years for the breakdown of community. I realise that Thatcher idn't do "society" but for that ignorance of hers a heavy price was paid especially in our cities and goes on being paid. And even today as we struggle with a housing crisis, Thatcher's failure to replace the council houses that were sold off has left us with a disgraceful deficit in social housing which shames Britain to its core even today.

The reality is that the Thatcher years were years in which some of the most unlovely ministers to ever grace the Treasury benches fawned over the increasingly shrill exhortations of their nanny, the bargain basement Boadicca who reigned in Number 10.

The full record of those years is much longer. the indictment of Thatcherism would fill many pages on a host of issus. Of course there were occasional achievements when ministers pushed Thatcher into the odd corner but they were few and far betweeen. That the Conservative Party is today gaily praising her is a reminder that they have not changed and are still unworthy to hold office even if Labour is doing its best to make sure they get there by default.

Back in the ancient writings of Genesis, Cain asks if he is is brother's keeper. In a decent society the answer is YES. Because she and her fellow ideologues could not appreciate this, the social experiment they inflicted on the nation could be no other than monstrously insidious. That her heirs, have failed to break from this poisonous past, has left us a much less pleasant and hopeful nation than was the case in 1979. For all around community is broken and the signs of solidarity are fractured.

Yet we can fight back and to that end I conclude with a piece of music from th 1970s which still speaks loudly to us today;

UK government dump Iraqi translators

So this is how we treat those Iraqi civilians such as translators who helped our troops.

Seems that our friendship is about as reliable as Judas Iscariot!

Guerilla worship

What a wonderful way to bring hope to a city!


HAT TIP: Dream

I'm in love with Margaret Thatcher

No I am not in love with Margaret Thatcher but with tomorrow being the 30th Anniversary of the General Election that swept her to power,the Not Sensibles come up with as good a reason to support her any I have heard!




Think I'm off to throw up!

The US torture scandal - time to put Bush and co on trial

This video featureing Condoleeza rice makes it clear that the Bish administration authorised torture. the only way out of that statement is to deny that waterboarding is torture which only the most deluded or sick individual could possibly do.



Rice behaves with apalling arrogance in these exchanges in particular to the first student who challenges her. This arrogance should not be appeased. Frankly I hope that Rice, Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and co are brought to justice. I know that in the US as in the post Nixon era there is a desire for national healing but to me it is more important that seriosu crimes be dealt with. Certainly a country with a tendency to telephone number jail sentences for poor and ill educated offenders, should not exclude the powerful from the justice they inflict on others. My prime sympathyis with those who might have to share a prison wing with these monstrous criminals.

May Day - Workers of the world unite!

On this may Day I have pleasure in offering Billy Bragg's version of "The Internationale."



And do you can join in here are his words which to my mins are an improvement on the original words;

Stand up, all victims of oppression
For the tyrants fear your might
Don't cling so hard to your possessions
For you have nothing, if you have no rights
Let racist ignorance be ended
For respect makes the empires fall
Freedom is merely privilege extended
Unless enjoyed by one and all.

CHORUS: So come brothers and sisters
For the struggle carries on
The Internationale
Unites the world in song
So comrades come rally
For this is the time and place
The international ideal
Unites the human race

Let no one build walls to divide us
Walls of hatred nor walls of stone
Come greet the dawn and stand beside us
We'll live together or we'll die alone
In our world poisoned by exploitation
Those who have taken, now they must give
And end the vanity of nations
We've one but one Earth on which to live

And so begins the final drama
In the streets and in the fields
We stand unbowed before their armour
We defy their guns and shields
When we fight, provoked by their aggression
Let us be inspired by life and love
For though they offer us concessions
Change will not come from above.

May such thoughts inspire you dear reader in the struggle against the barbarism of capitalism!