This night - A sermon for Christmas Eve based on Luke 2: 1-20

There is something familiar about this night, a night in which we are still as we prepare to celebrate the coming of Jesus into this world. But let not the familiarity take from us the awe at what is accompished in this night.

You see this is the night in which we celebrate the wonder of Incarnation which put simply means God taking on human flesh. Or as Charles Wesley puts it in poetic language;

"Our God contracted to a span incomprehensibly made man."

Yes tonight we celebrate God in the baby becoming one of us. And there we can encounter a mystery that can occupy and stimulate us throughout our lives. Yet this evening I want for a moment to look at how God's working in these happenings, informs how we see the world and ourselves.

One of Luke's themes is Jubilee. Jubilee was a biblical concept that took hold amongst the early people of Israel as they built their nation. It was a concept rooted in justice. Every 50 years debt would be cancelled (whatever would the bankers say about that?), slaves would be free and families would regain possession of their ancestral land. This would stop power and wealth being concentrated in just a few hands and serve as a protection against the ravages of poverty. But like so many good ideas it had ceased to happen and society had become inherently unjust.

Yet Luke sees the hope of a new era of Jubilee. Already Mary in her Song, the Magnificat, has spoken of a reversal of fortune in which the poor and powerless would be raised up and the mighty brought down. And this is very much at the heart of Luke's Nativity.

The story begins with the pregnancy of young peasant girl. Shamed she may be yet within her womb she carries the very presence of God. Given respite from the unkind stares of the self righteous only by a journey to Bethlehem for registration, she is the epitome of powerlessness and rejection.

But what of the powerful? In Luke's story it is the machinations of empire that require the trek from Nazareth to Bethlehem. There is nothing nice about this trek for a preganant woman yet by creating the need for the journey, the empire unknowingly prepares the path for the One who comes to judge the powers.

Soon Mary will be in a home - the word translated as inn is elsewhere used by Luke as an upper room and a different word again is used in Luke's only reference to a commercial inn - a home probably owned by relatives for we have already been told she had relatives in that part of Palestine. Doubtless full to the brim, the home owner would have supplied the traditional hospitality of peasant society.

Soon, very soon would come the final contraction. Soon the baby would be born ready to face life as an outsider with questionable birth.

But wait! Another twist is ready to break into our story. Now the action turns to the fields outside of Bethlehem. And here are rank outsiders, shepherds. Unclean, the lowest of the low, men who lived outside the margins of decent society. Yet to these comes the announcement of the holy birth. It comes from angels, those who pronounce the perspective of God. And what do these expendables do? They take heed. They take the risk of leaving their flocks. Why? So that even they can see what God has done.

It is a marvel of Luke's story. The events of this night bypass the powerful. This instead is a night in which it is the lowly people who are exalted as Mary has herself sang that they would.

Oh this is a night of glorious new beginnings. The values of the world are a changing as God works amongst the nobodies whilst passing the powerful by. For in this night God is changing the world upside down. Caesar Augustus in Rome may have been lauded as "saviour of the world" but now Luke's angels pit him against Jesus a "saviour" for the world. In time to come we see that played out in conflict between the empire's "love of power" and the "powerless love" that Jesus will embody.

Bob Dylan once sang "the times, they are a changin." And on this holy night they sure are changing. Divine embodied love and grace are entering the world. A presence and a vision that are worth our following are now unleashed amongst us. And today wherever power, war, economics and even religion dehumanise the lowly, this night proclaims loudly that they are contrary to the ways of God.

Mary, we are told, pondered these things. Perhaps we too need to find some space amidst the busyness of this season to ponder them too. After all this child most certainly is not for just one day.

Immanuel has come - A sermon for Christmas Day based on John 1: 1-14

Today is a day of so many expectations. So much effort is taken to create the perfect Christmas for ourselves and those whom we love. This has to be the day when the food is perfect, the day in which each present is appreciated, the day in which harmony reigns supreme with all those awkward tensions suspended.

Yes, we so often long for the perfect Christmas. It is that magical time of year. Think of the cards that have been exchanged - all respendent with beautiful pictures of the Holy family, Santa or even a snow that does not threaten us on the roads.

And yet the gospel stories of the Nativity are far from perfect. Our gospel writers offers us, teenage pregnancy,the poverty of a struggle for shelter when most needed and a misuse of power that sends its victims in desperate search of asylum. Suddenly the story is not just about an event of 2,000 years ago. It is as much about the world in which we live in today.

Now as then we live in a world which is populated by winners and losers. The desperate economic events of the past year suggest a time of hardship ahead in which the stakes will be painfully high for those who are without. In a real way the spiritual temperature of this and other nations can best be gauged by how we identify with the needs of the vulnerable in an age of austerity.

One of the wonders of the Christmas story is that it shows God identifying with those who are often rejected. The child is born of a shamed teenage peasant girl. The first visitors were those shepherds who were specifically kept away from the nation's religious life and indeed who were shinned by polite society. Later would come foreigners whose traditions and religion were far removed from that of Israel. And when a King of Israel becomes a magalomaniac with a love of power, the family of Jesus take flight becoming asylum seekers.

In the Nativity we see not just God becoming flesh but identifying with humanity in its most vulnerable and despised forms. We see Light entering even the darkest and most painful of places in a way that means the darkness can never put it out.

Christmas is a special day. But it is more than a day. It is an ongoing reality. For when trees and decorations have been taken down, when turkey and pudding have been well and truly eaten, when presents seem not new but as if they have been with us for ages, then the work of Christmas goes on - the work of bringing love, hope and dignity to all. But we are not left alone to continue this work. We have Immanuel - God with us!

Praise to God for hope abounds. The Christ is with us!

Look for the reality! - Christmas message from The President of the Methodist Conference

I have pleasure in commending this Christmas message from Rev David Gamble, President of the Methodist Conference.



“I wonder how we shall remember Christmas 2009?I have to admit that I don't always remember Christmas for very Christmassy reasons. Sometimes it is things to do with home or family.

"For example, 1995 was the Christmas we got a new cooker. It was delivered at the beginning of December. Eventually someone came to disconnect the old one on the morning of Christmas Eve, which seemed like good news, but wasn’t so good at 3.00 in the afternoon when still no one had come to connect the new one. They did come eventually – but not until very late.

"Or I remember Christmas 1988. My wife, Liz, was pregnant and our baby was due in the middle of March. But then, just after Christmas, Liz went into hospital and our son, Joe, arrived two months early. When they came home at the beginning of March, I’d been so busy going to work, taking family members hospital visiting, doing the washing and so on, that the Christmas decorations were still up.

"Or 1980, when my mum, who was housebound, asked to be taken out Christmas shopping on the last weekend in October. She bought and wrapped all our presents. The next day she contracted pneumonia and she died on the Monday. We opened her presents on Christmas Day. Many people associate Christmas with the death of someone special to them.

"Other memories relate to work. In my first Circuit I was chaplain to an open prison for women. One Christmas we took a small group from the prison carol singing around the local village. Unfortunately, when we got back the group was one short!

"So, many Christmas memories don’t seem to have much to do with the Christmas story itself. They’re not about the carols or the Christmas Day sermon, but about things – happy and sad - that were going on in our lives and the world at the time. Who will ever forget Christmas 2004, when, in the middle of the season of goodwill, the tsunami struck?

"But that is part of the paradox of this time of the year. On the one hand is the Christmas story, which we like hearing again and again. On the other hand we have the real world; things going on for us, our neighbours and friends; things on the news, new cookers not turning up, people in prison, people being born too soon, people being ill, or dying. The real world.

"But that’s the whole point! Christmas is actually much more about the real world than it is about a lovely story of far off places in far off times.

"It's about a young unmarried mother. And our country has the highest rate of teenage pregnancies in the European Union. It’s about a homeless couple and their young child out in the cold. Look on the streets of our cities. Think of the television pictures of refugees.

"It's about shepherds who didn't go to church and weren't all that respectable being there to witness how God was doing something new - while the churchgoers and the religious leaders weren't there.

"It’s about wise men looking for a new king and finding him not in a palace but behind a pub.

"It’s about Mary and Joseph having to escape with their baby, as sanctuary seekers. Who is to say they wouldn’t have been desperate enough to hide themselves in the back of a lorry coming through the channel tunnel in their attempt to save their precious son? And what kind of a welcome would they have received here in 21st Century Britain? And for those who didn’t escape, it's about innocent children being brutally killed. You don’t get much more real than that! And for Bethlehem in 2009 you could also read Baghdad or Afghanistan.

"Christmas is about the real world – as we know it. And it’s in that real world – at times very cruel, painful and dangerous – that God acts. Not in heaven. Not even in the temple. But right in the middle of human life at its toughest. People being born, people dying, people on the run, people with nowhere to go, people for whom there is no room.

"Remember the meaning of the name Immanuel in Isaiah’s prophecy? God is with us. That's the central part of the Christmas message. God is with us. And behind and within the lovely Christmas story is the truth of God with us in our world and in our lives. In good parts and bad, joys and pains, hopes and fears.

"Remember, too, that some people won’t be able to suspend normal life for a few days over Christmas. If you are literally starving; if you are a refugee or a sanctuary seeker; if you are a child being abused in your own home, worried sick that your dad’s going to be around more over the next few days – you can’t suspend normal life, however much you’d like to.

"If the gospel is really the good news it claims to be (and I believe it is) then it has to be good news for the hungry, the hurting, the oppressed, the abused. Good news. God is with us.

"Sharing that good news is a huge challenge – but it’s also our great joy. God be with you.”


Methodist News Service

Peering into Christmas - A sermon for a carol Service

And so this evening we have heard the gospel stories concerning the coming of Jesus into the world - well we have heard three of them for Mark's interest in Jesus only begins with Jesus as a man coming to John the Baptist's revival gatherings at the River Jordan.

Mark may not be our focus this evening but the other gospel writers most certainly are. So let's hear the message of each of them.

Matthew's gospel is a very Jewish document. He is constantly looking for references in the Hebrew scriptures to throw light on his story. And yet his gospel is one that is eager to tell its readers that those of other nations and cultures may be more pereceptive that they themselves are. One would almost expect that in such a Jewish document that it would be within Jewry that Jesus finds a welcome. And yet Matthew tells us of mysterious visitors from the east whilst Israel's own king plots the murder of the child. Indeed Matthew suggests that such is the ferocity of King Herod's actions that the Holy Family are forced into exile in Egypt - asylum seekers of their day! As such this Jesus is not so much tied to a nation but one who is for and belongs to all peoples

Luke in his gospel portrays Jesus as the friend of outsiders. And this is a feature in his account of the birth of Jesus. Jesus may be born in Bethlehem which is but a few miles from Jerusalem where the political, economic and religious elite are to be found. But Luke tells us not of a Jdeputation of the "Great and Good" coming to visit the child. Far from it! He tells of the social pariahs who were shepherds being the first to visit Jesus. But we can hardly be surprised for Luke has already told us of Mary's Song in which this young Palestinian girl envisages God as bringing role reversal in terms both of power and wealth. Later when Jewish rites are observed at the Temple we will see that Jesus' parents offer the sacrificial offering of the poor and before they leave it is the seemingly unimportant Anna and Simeon who perceive the importance of the child whilst there is only silence from the Temple establishment. Those who might be termed "nobodies" would seem to be closer to God's purposes that those who might be seen as the "somebodies."

John does not offer us a nativity to thrill our imaginations. Instead he offers us a reflection in the form of his prologue. Using the Greek "logos" or "Word" that not only was present with God at the beginning but which actually was God, John takes us into the heart of what Christmas is all about. His message is that the Word has become flesh. In other words in Jesus, God has entered into all that it is to be a human. The promise of an angel to Joseph that the child will be called Immanuel which means "God with us" has found fullfilment. Through the child born in Bethlehem we find not God looking down at us but being alongside us.

Now I know that it is immensely difficult to comprehend a child who is fully human and fully divine. Yet that is what lies at the heart of the Christmas story. And it is a story that changes and challenges us and our world. Our places of darkness are illumined by the Light that darkness can never be put out. Our suppositions are brought into question for this child challenges our orthodoxies with a new way of being. Matthew and Luke in their memorable stories hint that the world can never be seen in the same way again.

And what of us? Tonight and in this season we can marvel as poets, story tellers and artists have for some 2,000 years at the wonder of it all. But from the wonder comes a call - a call to explore for ourselves the claims that this child has on our lives and on our vision. Tonight we gaze into the wonder of it all. But the wonder is not just for a season. Instead it demands our ALL!

The Holy Land and prayers on speed!

One thing I tend to be quiet about is how my faith was nearly destroyed by an encounter with Christian Zionism. Its tendency to trate Palestinian aspirations as expendable, its holy war mentality against Islam and its leanings to oppose proper compromise to bring about peace in the Middle East are abhorrent in my opinion. More than that Christian Zionism gives an unpleasant picture of God.

Another concern of mine is the dangers of the misuse of prayer. Too often I hear people to all intents and purposes suggesting that we can twist God around our own agendas.

Now when I see prayer used in a way that is contrary to God's imperative to seek justice, liberation and peace I am mightily offended. My sense of offence is stronger when I see this coming from the only church in what was for over thirty years my hometown to have a real youth presence.

This week's prayer points shock me to the core. Part of my anger is that if this is what is pushed on young peiple they are getting a warped view of Christianity. The other part of my anger is that this ideology is one in which peoples' lives can be sacrificed for sick theology. I dispute the following as genuine prayer points.

Pray that all efforts to establish a Palestinian state will come to naught and that Abbas will not be able to secure the support he is seeking.

Pray that the Jewish people among the nations, particularly those with high percentages of anti-Semitism, will make aliyah (immigration) and come home to the land of Israel

The theology that underlies these prayer is one in which religion becomes not an aid to peace but a block on peace with justice which treats equally seriously the aspirations of Israelis and Palestinians, the people of all three Abrahamic faiths.

As for the emphasis on Aliyah, this is a church that longs to see all Jews migrate to Israel. I for one find the thought of there not be a Jewish presence in Europe deeply troubling. For some Jews such migration might be something they desire especially if they are experiencing a rum deal in their present homes. But rejoice that there are Jewish people who live good lives in varied countries and who contribute to their homelands through the culture, insights and faith they offer. More than that there are complex issues re migration given Palesinian descendants of those who feld homes in 1948 and indeed 1967 for example. Years ago I watched a video in which a Christian Zionist expressed hope for millions of Jews to migrate into Israel on the fround that it would make giving up the West Bank impossible.

To me Christian Zionism is a distortion of Christianity. It fails to treat all people as equally precious to God. It gets in the way of a complex peace process. In short it is a virulent form of theological masterbation which sings praise songs whilst the children of God suffer!

I am rather boringly middle road on the issues of the Middle East. They are both pressing and complex. They need sensitivity and wisdom not theology on speed. And certainly I cannot be middle road on a Christianity that abdicates the sensitivity we see in Christ.

Is it not sad that some churches would seem to require a government health warning or at least a spiritual equivalent. That is unless by some chance that congregation is made of international relations experts.

We need Peter Tatchell

A particularly sad piece of news has come in a statement by human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell that he is standing down as a Parliamentary candidate for the Green Party in Oxford.

Particular reason for sadness is that Tatchell cites brain damage emanating from beatings that he has taken from Robert Mugabe's thugs and vicious Russian hompohobes. Certainly Tatchell's attempt to arrest Zimbabwe's dictator was heroic and certainly in keeping with a man who has always been prepared to put himself on the line for the causes of freedom to which he is so powerfully attached.

Back in 1983 in the Bermondsey by election Tatchell was viciously vilified over his sexuality. To make things worse the Labour Party for whom he stood effectively disowned him for his support for extra parliamentary action against the Thatcher government which was at the time pursuing the sort of vicious policies regarding unemployment which hopefully will never be tolerated again. Tatchell knew that Parliament is not the be all of democracy. Important as it is, it can never be used as a justification for putting up with injustice.

I cannot claim to always share Tatchell's views but he is more consistent in his support for progressive policies and human rights than most. the list of campaigns which he has been involved in is considerable and he has done so at considerable personal risk and with little appetite for monetary rewards which marks him as being of a very different fibre to some whose backsides are places on the benches of the House of Commons.

Clearly Tatchell is going to continue his campaigning work and for that we should be grateful. A national treasure who is clearly in nobody's pocket, Tatchell is a man who has given politics a good name. It is to be hoped that his health will improve and that he will continue to be a nuisance to the establishment and to all those whose business is the oppression of others. We certainly need him!

BBC must not be silenced on Trafigura by cuddly lawyers Carter Ruck

This is a Newsnight presentation concerning the squalid company Trafigura. I have posted it on this site in protest at the BBC's climbdown to wealthy libel lawyers Carter Ruck. Frankly it is time to protest at libel laws that protect the rich but not the poor and that enrich lawyewrs such as Carter Ruck.

Trafigura and Carter Ruck - made for each other.

And please watch the film!


HAT TIP: Iain Dale



Meanwhile Tim Ireland takes us back to the real issues concerning Transfigura with these videos about the disgraceful conduct of Transfigura;









And please read this.

Trafigura have a right to defend themselves but not by silencing accusations of destruction of peoples' lives. The resort to legal bullying means that the matter cannot be ducked. The truth must be found. Doubtless Carter Ruck will be unleashed on those who promote the story but if thousands of bloggers do so as was the case regarding Usmanov a couple of years ago, the freedom of debate can prevail.

Please link to this story and in so doing give a voice to the voiceless and defend free debate.

Finally it's a waste of time suing me. I entered the Methodist ministry with little money. I can't say that being a Methodist minister has exactly brought me into the super rich cataegory. On that basis I an doubtless many of you are no match for for Provate Eye's favourite lawyers. What people like me have is a conviction that we should live in a society in which those who prey on the powerless are confronted and also a conviction that wealth should not be a means of shutting down the inconvenient debates.

O Holy Night - a beautiful rendition

HAT TIP:

God's bomber?

Skimming the media yesterday I came across this gem by Tony Blair's biographer, Anthony Seldon.

My favourite paragraphs are;

His spirituality in this context is centred on the parable of the Good Samaritan, which he has quoted in speeches. That says that we cannot cross the road if we see suffering on the other side of the street.

He saw Iraqi suffering at the hands of Saddam Hussein and believed that it was his duty to not cross the road.

But please as someone who has spent much time with the parable of the Good Samaritan, where does the scripture tell us the the Samaritan bombed the crap out of the people of Jericho?

Or is God's bomber a modern interpretation?

Christmas cards for Mr Woolas please

Let's be honest I have touble getting arsed enough to write Christmas cards. When I do send them I prefer to send them to someone I like. And frankly Home Office minister, Phil Woolas is some way down any popularity list of mine. He always strikes me as rather Daily Mail on speed.

Still there are times for compromises and so I am going to follow this lead from the Methodist Church along with the United Reformed Church and the Baptist Union. Wht? Because the issue is to big to ignore.So this is what they have to say


Methodist, Baptist and United Reformed Church leaders are reminding people to send Christmas greetings to Immigration Minister Phil Woolas MP, asking him to end the detention of children in the asylum system.

Last month, the Churches launched One More Card, a campaign encouraging people to add Mr Woolas to their Christmas card list. Eight-year-old Moya is among those who have already sent cards. In her handmade card she writes: “To Mr Woolas, Happy Christmas and please stop locking children up in detention.” An image of her card is available here: www.flickr.com/photos/methodistmedia.

Britain is the only country in Europe to lock up the children of people who have had their asylum claims declined and the Churches are calling on the Government to keep families together.

Paediatricians, GPs and psychiatrists have described children seeking sanctuary in the UK as among those most vulnerable in society, requiring special and humane treatment.

Dr Rosalyn Proops, Officer for Child Protection at the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health said; “We are very concerned about the health and welfare of children in immigration detention. These children are among the most vulnerable in our communities and detention causes unnecessary harm to their physical and mental health. The current situation is unacceptable and we urge the Government to develop alternatives to detention without delay.”

Revd Roberta Rominger, General Secretary of the United Reformed Church, Revd David Gamble, President of the Methodist Conference and Revd Jonathan Edwards, General Secretary of the Baptist Union of Great Britain have already sent their card and are asking others to make sure they don’t miss the last posting date before Christmas.

People should send cards to Phil Woolas MP at the Home Office, 2 Marsham Street, London SW1P 4DF and can find tips for drafting their Christmas message at wwww.jointpublicissues.org.uk/childrenindetention.


Now let's get writing so that Mr Woolas might metamoorphise from Scrooge into Santa!

Best Christmas song ever!

I advise all readers to join me in downloadingthis classic so that it can this year's seasonal Number 1.

Now how can I get it into Christmas service?

Interfaith in Plymouth

Today in my role as Interfaith Officer of the Plymouth and Exeter District of the Methodist Church I visited Plymouth Centre for Faiths and Cultural Diversity for a seasonal lunch attended by interfaith enthusiasts of many faiths and graced by the Mayor of Plymouth and his mayoress.

I encourage you to explore the website of the centre as it shows an exciting portrayal of interfaith work in Plymouth. Set up by Jonathan Marshall MBE it is a hive of activity and an example for any community which seeks to erect bridges rather than walls. It is both a centre of activity in itself as well as providing educational provision and experiences to help people in the less than multicultural South West to understand the faiths of others and their cultural expression.

I enjoyed the opportunity for networking especially with a young Muslim woman and a retired Hindu academic. As always it was good to know people for whom they are as well as to share our stories and experiences.

For some time I have felt that there needs to be a simple process in interfaith relations that takes on three stages.

The first stage is to share meals with one another. Christians ought to know that Jesus often built the most unlikely relationships by first sharing in table fellowship. There is something in sharing a meal that symbolises acceptance of the other person.

The second stage is to share the things we have in common. The three Abrahamic faiths for example have much in common. I personally love some of the writings of Sufis such as Rumi and find the Prophet to be an inspiring figure whilst there is much about Jewish community living and creative theology which I find uplifting.

The third stage is necessary for honest relationships but can only be addressed after the first stages have been well and truly developed. This is the honest entering into dialogue about the things which trouble us and on which we differ. the fact is that all faiths are not the same but the areas that itch can only be faced when positive relationship building has taken place.

Too often some people want to race to the third stage. To hurry this process is a recipe for misunderstandings and animosity. It also gets in the way of that which we should all be committed to which is the buildings of healthy communities characterised not by tension or mere tolerance but instead communities which exhibit respect.

Put poor first say Methodist, Baptists and URC

Three UK Churches are calling for protection for the poor and job security in a response to think tank Reform’s call today to cut public sector jobs.



Ahead of the Government’s Pre-Budget Report, the Methodist Church, the Baptist Union of Great Britain and the United Reformed Church are challenging the centre-right think tank, which has called for job cuts in the police force and NHS in order to reduce public borrowing.



Paul Morrison, Policy Adviser for the Methodist Church said: “The Government must prioritise maintaining employment and improving opportunities for those on benefits. Previous recessions have been marked by sustained high unemployment even after economic growth has returned and we must not allow that to happen again. Unemployment is a personal disaster, a social disaster and by taking large numbers of people away from paying tax, an economic disaster.”



Economic gains over the past decade have not been shared equally as the gap between rich and poor has increased. Evidence shows that this economic inequality has a massive negative impact on social cohesion, solidarity and wellbeing. The Churches are calling on the Government to produce a budget that prioritises jobs.



Commenting ahead of the Pre-Budget Report, Frank Kantor, Secretary for Church and Society for the United Reformed Church, said: “The Government’s finances are in trouble because tax revenue has decreased dramatically. It is vital that any tax rises or spending cuts do not further shrink the tax base by costing jobs. A return to high and sustainable employment is essential for both society and the economy.”



Graham Sparkes, Head of Faith and Unity for the Baptist Union of Great Britain, added: “A Pre-Budget Report that puts people’s welfare before market gains is vital. We cannot just return to business as usual – we need a system that promotes social justice, international co-operation and environmental sustainability. It will take more than one Pre-Budget Report to achieve this, but we pray that Wednesday’s announcement will take us in the right direction.”

Methodist Church News Service/

I agree with the thrust of this but I would add that the urgent need is to create campaigning organisations against cuts in public expenditure and unemployment. To this I shall return over the weekend.

The war on Christmas

This is the time when we get media stories about a war on Christmas. Normally it is absolute rubbish peddled by those who wish to set faith comunities against each other.

However this story concerning Father Christmas visit to children incarcerated at Yarls Wood is a rejection of the inclusive nature of the Christmas story of God's taking flesh as a sign of divine love for all.

So the home Office are the first this year to spit in the face of Christmas. Sometimes this country fills me with shame!

John the Baptist takes the stage - A sermon for Advent 2 based on Luke 3: 1 - 6

It was a few weeks ago. My daughter Kaye and myself had driven to ASDA in order to get a few items. Entering the shop, we found Christmas decorations and an inane dancing Father Christmas. Kaye, who is probably even less tolerant of nonsense than I am, suggested she should slap the Father Christmas - he wasn't real- across the face. I confess that strangulation was more appealing to me.

So what caused this reaction? Well I think we both felt that this was yet another example of rushing mindlessly into Christmas. Typical of a present day obsession with instant self gratification!

Now I know that I am capable of boring on a grand scale regarding the importance of the observance of Advent. I just cannot see how we can just jump into Christmas without a time of preparation and reflection first. Anything else for me just demeans the whole significance of Christmas.

And so it is that today we turn to the somewhat uncomfortable figure of John the Baptist. Poor old John! He never makes it into our Christmas cards. Indeed he is often seen as being as welcome a Christmas figure as the Grinch. And yet all of the gospels tell us of him as the one who prepares the way for the Jesus event. So I guess it does us well to consider John in our Advent preparation.

Luke places John's mission in time. We can't be sure of the exact year but around 28CE seems a reasonable guess. Luke's method is to tell us what else was going on at the time of John's mission. this he does by telling us who were the powers at that time. We are reminded of Tiberius as emperor, Pontius Pilate as procurator of Judea and that horrible collection of sons and heirs to Herod the Great of massacre of innocence fame. what these people have in common is their misuse of power in the interests of those like themselves, the disproprtionately rich and powerful. And then we have the religious powers. By this time Annas was no longer High Priest. that position had been shifted by Rome to his son Caiaphas. But togrether they had abused their power to create an aristocracy which was to dominate Jewish religion, economics and politics.

See! What these people have in common is the ability to manipulate power. And don't they do just that! For these are the people who see power as a means to dominate others whilst exalting themselves. So when Luke sets these robber barons up against the movement of God through firstly John the Baptist and then the Jesus to whom John pointed, he is helping us to see a momenous clash beginning through irreconcilable world visions.

For on the one hand there are those who exalt power, status and the extremes of wealth whilst the God movement comes into being, challenging this culture of domination. Here is the tidings that because something has been the way in the past, it is not necessarily how God seeks to weave the future. Indeed God is working through the very nobodies whom the powers of domination would have despised. not from a place, a garrison or a seat of traditional learning does the God movement come but instead it has its beginnings in the wilderness - the margins of society!

Of course the wilderness had longed played a part in God's revelatory purposes. Moses had received his burning bush call in a wilderness. In the wilderness the freed slaves had been formed into a nation. Soon Jesus would go into the wilderness to contemplate how to work out his mission. It is the place where away from the prattle and busyness of life, people can hear the calling of God, the very thing we should be seeking at Advent!

What is the call we encounter in the wilderness? That's a big question but one aspect is that it involves our being open to change. John demonstrates this in his ministry of baptism. Today we have lost our sense of the sheer radicalism of baptism. This was after all a time when baptism was in Jewish eyes something for the gentiles. It was a means by which they were brought into the community of Israel. But surely people would protest, this was hardly needed for Jewish people who after all were the heirs of Abraham. Yet Luke tells us the Jewish people flocked to the Jordan to undergo what was in effect an admission that they did not have it all. For here we see the indicators that God is about to do a new thing. That is why the baptism was a baptism of repentance.

For us all too often repentance is about craven feelings and being sorry. But in scripture, repentance is about turning in a new direction, making a new beginning. Surely this seems to tell us that people were responding to a message that the tried and tested was not necessarily all that was needed and that instead they recognised that new beginnings and new perspectives were part of the ongoing journey engaged in by the people of God. Now just possibly is not this what Advent should be about for us?

And then finally this pasage looks to Deutero Isaiah who is thinking of the return from exile half a millenium earlier. this scripture looks to preparing a path for the Lord which puts right the imperfections of the day. What does that say to us? I think it certainly rebukes the strand of thought that looks only to end times without engaging in the dilemnas of the world. To me it suggests that we are called to address the wrongs of the world in a way that seeks to be in harmony with the Kingship of God. This means working for peace and reconciliation between diverse peoples. It means taking the wellbeing of the planet seriously when scarce resources and climate change threatens so much to so many people. It means working for economic justice and greater equality in a world that still needs to learn that the needs of the poorly housed and economically challenged surely come before the greeds of executives who despite seven figured salaries still moan on and on about bonuses. For it is when we commit ourselves to God's ways in God's world that we are enabled to discern God's salvation.

Christmas is still three weeks away. We can put all our attention on the big day and accordingly miss out on its purpose. Or we can take Advent seriously and through its observance take seriously the call of Christ to be at the heart of our lives. For Christ who has come into the world some 2,000 years ago surely cannot be left in the mists of history. In our Advent observance we are challenged to let him lose within our lives as our guide even if the direction surprises us. In our Advent observance we look to the fulfillment of his Kingdom in our world with great hope. So today Iam not going to wish any of you a happy Christmas. A fulfilling, faith building Advent must surely come first.

Those RBS banking bonuses

I am not instinctively anti banker. After all my own brother in law works for a major bank and is by no means the only banker I have been related to. However, I find my blood pressure raised when I read that RBS executives arfe threatening to resign if they don't get their bonuses.

Now I know that bonuses are a part of bank culture. Plenty of workers get bonuses and they make financial decisions with this in mind. Whilst I prefer the idea that people are paid a salary for work done, I don't think that all bonuses in themselves are bad. Cap them at £10,000 by all means. After all most bank workers get nowhere near that amount in bonuses.

But of course this is about people at the top, the scandalous people already trousering £1 million per annum or so. Now I am all for class war if we stop people earning such inflated figures. And I am especially so when these are the people whose mentality has screwed up the economy leaving far to many on jobseekers allowance of £64.50 a week. A public flogging is more in keeping with what some of these people deserve than a bonus to enable a second holiday home.

The sad thing about the story to which I linked is that the preposterous Lord Mandelson is preparing the grounds for a surrender to the greedy. Surely in the name of humanity, housing for the homeless, free university education and better access to drugs in the NHS are more worthy causes than enriching the sickeningly over rich. and if it is about handouts surely doubling the benefit for those on £64.50 jobseekers allowaance is more worthy than super bonuses for the richest bankers. Indeed as we approach Christmas, it is so much more in tune with the redistributionist sentiments of Mary's Magnificat.

But of course realists will say we have to keep these rich scroungers happy because our system needs them more than steel workers, nurses, teachers etc. I can't properly answer that point other than to say that if such is the case, our economic system stands condemned and old Karl was right. Indeed what better economic gospel imperative could there be than;

From each according to his abilities. To each according to his needs.

Maybe an indea whose time has come!

Methodist Church uses investments to resist climate change

The Methodist Church’s investment arm has outlined how its investments reflect Methodist teaching on the environment and take forward the fight against climate change. It aims to ‘create and manage portfolios with a carbon footprint that is relatively low and measurably declining.’



‘The new policy explains how we will encourage companies to limit and reduce greenhouse gas emissions,’ said Bill Seddon, Chief Executive of the Central Finance Board of the Methodist Church. ‘We will also look for better disclosure of emissions, including those produced from a company’s supply chains.’



The policy builds on the CFB’s work on climate change over many years. It has long been a signatory of the Climate Disclosure Project, is a founder member of the Institutional Investor Group on Climate Change and works with other churches through the Church Investors Group. It regularly asks companies to disclose greenhouse gas emissions. ‘We are now looking for action to accelerate the reduction of those emissions,’ said Mr Seddon.



The new policy helps to integrate church investing with church teaching, most recently expressed in a report entitled ‘Hope in God’s future’.



Steve Hucklesby, Methodist Church Policy Adviser, welcomed the CFB’s approach: ‘We are delighted that the CFB has adopted this policy. Climate change threatens to cause irreversible damage to the planet’s eco-system causing suffering to millions of people over the coming decades. It is vital that governments commit to massively reducing greenhouse gas emissions at the Copenhagen Summit, but we should not just leave it to them. We can all play a part and companies also have a responsibility to act. With this policy, the church will also be making its voice heard in boardrooms.’



Tackling climate change issues through an investment policy will not always be straightforward. ‘We know we will not always get it right,’ said Mr Seddon, ‘but the Methodist Church will always seek to act as a responsible investor.’

Of course as admitted CFB will not always get it right. Of course, when it comes to the world picture this is but a drop in the ocean. However, it does represent a commitment to working to make investment decisions that are in line with church teaching. And as such it provides an example to other churches as well as to pension funds etc.

Them peskey Christmas songs

Oh dear! I feel like banging my head against the wall after reading these problems with well known Christmas songs by the excellent Mad Priest.

While there, have a look at some of his other stuff. It's certainly not dull there!

Voices on climate change

With Copenhagen coming up, three major churches have come together to call for a binding agreemenr concerning climate change



The leaders of the Baptist, Methodist and United Reformed churches have called on the government to put pressure on the world’s richest countries to reach a binding agreement at next week’s climate change conference in Copenhagen.



The churches argue that since developed countries such as the UK and US owe their wealth to activities producing high levels of carbon, they also have a moral responsibility to take the lead in setting measures to counter global warming.



The statement comes amid widespread acknowledge that agreement on a climate treaty at Copenhagen – needed for when the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012 – is unlikely.



The Free Churches have been supporting developing countries in their fight for a deal that mitigates the effects of climate change on the poor and vulnerable, and allows poor nations to develop economically.



The Revd John Marsh, moderator of the General Assembly of the United Reformed Church, said:



“We share the anger and frustration of the world’s poorest countries with the intransigent positions adopted by negotiators of some of the richest countries ahead of the Copenhagen Summit which has rendered a binding agreement unlikely. The time for talking is over.



“The richest countries have a moral obligation to ensure that a series of clear decisions are now made in order to have a treaty committing them to a cut of greenhouse gas emissions of at least 40 per cent below 1990 levels by 2020. We

call on the government to do everything in their power to persuade their American counterparts to commit to this timeframe and target at Copenhagen.”


Meanwhile the excellent James Hansen argues that current proposals are inadequate and would give a false sense of achievment.