See the sleepy doggy
Curled up in her bed,
Lots of little doggy dreams
Running round her head.
She doesn't like the snowstorm,
She doesn't like the wind.
She's dreaming of sunny days
Sunbathing with her friend.
Sleepy Doggy
Author: arcdac
Holy Innocents
The Feast of the Holy Innocents takes place on 28th December.
Doctor Who tells us that time is “wibbly wobbly timey wimey”. That is what we experience throughout the forty days of Christmastide.
Just a few days before the Remembrance of the Holy Innocents we celebrated Jesus’s birth as a teeny tiny human baby. Then at this feast day we jump forward a couple of years to after the magi’s visit and Herod is ordering the slaughter of many children in an attempt to kill Jesus. Then the following week we go back to that visit of the magi before we leap forward to Jesus being a man at His baptism and then a couple of weeks later Jesus is a teeny tiny baby again as He is presented at the Temple.
But for now, let us return to the day when we remember the Holy Innocents whose deaths Herod was responsible for.
Each year we remember that Joseph heeded the warnings and instructions he received, that he took his family to Egypt and that as a result of this the prophecy was fulfilled and Jesus was kept safe to grow into a man, fulfil His mission and be our salvation.
But we skim over the bit where many innocent children were killed by a scared but cruel man who wanted Jesus dead because he thought he would lose his power.
“A voice was heard in Ramah, sobbing and loud lamentation; Rachel weeping for her children, and she would not be consoled, since they were no more.”
In the Holocaust, approximately 1.5 million Jewish children, and tens of thousands of non-Jewish children were murdered.
The Nazi’s targeted children as part of their ideological goal to create a “radically pure” society and eliminate future generations of “unwanted groups” including Romani, Polish and disabled children.
In the hope of killing one child, Herod had many killed.
Looking back at Moses, who came into the world to bring a kind of deliverance, a new king had risen to power in Egypt. This new king knew nothing of Joseph1 (the Israelite who saved Egypt from the famine). He just saw how numerous the Israelite people were and, wanting to stop the numbers increasing, ordered the death of every Israelite boy born.
There is a constant battle between good and evil in the world and in our own lives.
Evil will always lash out violently towards good. Evil will use any means necessary in an attempt to retain power. There will be resistance when we do good in the world. There will be temptations as we turn away from sin. The strength of these temptations show how committed to change and how committed to doing good we are.
There is wickedness in the world. There are, very sadly, people in this world who will slaughter or arrange the slaughter of thousands and thousands of beautiful, innocent, babies and children, for their own ends, to get what they want and to keep their power.
Evil does not hold back it’s hate for the young and God does not hold back His grace from the young.
God gives us His grace freely and in abundance out of love for us. He is a generous God and there is more than enough grace to encompass everyone no matter their age. He protects us with His grace.
Our world today is, again very sadly, not that different from the world throughout history. We can still see the callousness of Herod and those like him. We still live in a world where innocents are murdered.
We can lament and cry for them. We can pray for their families and friends. But the massacres still continue. Change begins in the human heart and is expressed in what we do and think and say.
It is hard to change a world ingrained with death. But we can contribute to this change. We can demonstrate charity and patience and sanctity of life.
Christ came for our lives, to give us life abundant, sacred and unending.
Herod represents all the powers that stand against Christ; all the people that reject Christ and all the elements of ourselves that want nothing to do with Christ and prefer their independence to His will.
What are we willing to destroy because of our refusal of Christ? What aspects of our own lives and the lives of others are we ready to destroy because of our refusal of Christ?
Herod’s massacre of the innocents is a warning to us. After his death, Herod’s kingdom was divided between the sons he hated. In less than 100 years, everything Herod had built, including the monuments he had intended as structures for his glory, had been reduced to ruins.
Herod is remembered as a petty tyrant. He is not mourned.
We mourn the innocents, the children of Bethlehem, yet they are so often forgotten.
But, in heaven, “where like stars, His children crowned, all in white shall wait“.
- Genesis ↩︎
What have we forgotten?
Once upon a midnight clear, there was a child’s cry. A blazing star hung over a stable and wide men came with birthday gifts.
We haven’t forgotten that night down the centuries; we celebrate with stars on Christmas trees, the sound of bells and with gifts. But especially with gifts. You give me a book; I give you a tie. Aunt Martha has always wanted an orange squeezer and Uncle Henry could do with a new pipe.
We forget nobody, adult or child. All the stockings are filled … all that is except one. And we have even forgotten to hang it up. The stocking for the child born in a manger. It’s His birthday we are celebrating. Don’t ever let us forget that.
Let us ask ourselves what He would wish for most … and then let each put in his share. Loving kindness, warm hearts and the stretched out hand of tolerance. All the shining gifts that make peace on earth.
The Bishop’s Wife 1947
But it isn’t just that stocking for the Christ-child that gets forgotten.
Every Christmas churches, and many of us in our homes, have some sort of nativity scene. It reminds us of a profound truth, the incarnation, that moment that God became flesh and walked among men. We celebrate God’s love and grace, that He laid aside His heavenly glory to be born in the humblest of ways to save us by dying for us.
Everything and everyone in these nativity scenes is glorifying the Saviour of the world.
Everyone shown in the nativity is portrayed as a worshipper of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The angels worshipped Him. (Luke 2: 8-14)
The shepherds worshipped Him. (Luke 2: 8-20)
The wise men worshipped Him. (Matthew 2:1-11)
Even the animals, in their own way, worshipped Him. (Romans 1:19-20)
And this is quite right and proper but we have forgotten someone and something.
Jesus came to this world to save us from our sins and reconcile us with God. He came to give His life for those who hated Him and wanted Him dead. As Jesus said in Mark 2:!7 “They that are whole have no need of a physician, but they that are sick: I came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.”
So who did we forget?
We’ve left out the ignorant. Let us take Caesar Augustus as an example of this. He ordered a census in order to charge more tax. We don’t know what prompted Augustus’s timing but we do know that God was behind the timing.
When God sent His Son into the world there were several factors that made the time right which we overlook, such as the conditions which made it easier to spread the Gospel. Conditions such as Roman law which protected Paul and others as they travelled around the Roman world preaching the Gospel. Roman peace which meant there was a lack of wars within the Roman Empire, enabling the Apostles and other early believers to travel freely without fear. The Roman roads which made travel easier and the Greek language – which was the most common language used at that time and which was an expressive language enabling the deep truth to be explained in great detail.
When Augustus issued his decree he did not know God was using him to fulfil the prophecy of Micah 5:2, that out of Bethlehem in the land of Judah would come the one promised. Both Mary and Joseph were descendants of David, their family line from Bethlehem, and so the order of census forced them to travel to Bethlehem where Jesus was then born.
Whilst being ignorant of the part he played, Augustus was part of God’s plan for Jesus’s birth. Jesus came into the world to save those ignorant of God, the lost, from their sins and from themselves.
It’s not just the ignorant we’ve forgotten, we have also left out the indifferent. Take the innkeeper for example, who kept watch over the inn and collected money from travellers. When Joseph arrived at the inn with a very pregnant Mary the innkeeper was not bothered. He turned them away telling them there was no room. Seeing their plight and that Mary could give birth at any moment, he could have, perhaps, offered them his own room but instead he was indifferent to their need and even the offer of the stable was just an afterthought. He was unmoved and indifferent but still a part of Christ’s birth.
There are many like that innkeeper – only preoccupied with themselves, not moved by the Gospel message or our witness to them. Yet Jesus came to save them too.
John 1:11 “He came unto His own and His own received Him not.” Jesus came anyway. He died to save the indifferent anyway so that if they do hear Him and come to Him they can still be saved.
But we haven’t just left out the indifferent and the ignorant. We have also left out the incredulous.
In Luke 2:15-18 we hear how, having believed the angel, seen and worshipped Jesus, the shepherds returned to their sheep telling everyone they met about the baby in the manger and the angel’s message. The people the shepherds told were astonished but they did not go to see and worship baby Jesus themselves. They heard the story, were impressed by the story but then did nothing about it.
Jesus still came and died for these people – those who are so wrapped up in their own lives that, despite being impressed, they ignore the invitation given to them to be saved. The message may be impressive but it can only save you if you turn to Christ in faith. Receive Him and be saved by His grace.
But it is not just the incredulous, the indifferent and the ignorant we have left out. We have also left out the self-righteousness. Those so blind to the truth and who Jesus is that they fail to see even when they see it for themselves with their own eyes. Let us take Saul as an example here. He was a very religious man and a zealous Jew but his self-righteousness had blinded him to who Jesus was. When God “opened his eyes” on the road to Damascus he sees himself as a sinner, repented and God saved his soul. Saul became Paul.
Salvation does not come by doing good alone. Jesus, in His death on the cross, did what we cannot do. Jesus opened a way to God for all who believe in Him. When we truly believe we are saved.
But we didn’t just leave out the self-righteous, the incredulous, the indifferent and the ignorant. We also left out the wicked. The wicked such as Herod, who slaughtered those precious, innocent children. Herod who, once he knew death was near, had 70 Jewish religious leaders executed for the sole purpose of having people weeping as he died. The soldiers who followed these orders of Herod should also be included here. Jesus died to save people such as these so that the wicked could be delivered from their evil.
He died for people like Herod and the soldiers following his orders, for murderers, addicts, thieves, manipulators stepping on people just to get what they want, for those who do not care about others’s feelings and needs, for those full of meanness and hate, for politicians, bankers, stockbrokers, teachers, homemakers, drivers, vicars, priests, bishops and all sinners.
Jesus Christ died for everyone who has ever or who will live, for you and for me.
If we had been there the night of Jesus’s birth then the likelihood is, sadly, that we would not have noticed, that we would not, for whatever reason, gone to worship Him at His birth. Because we are sinners just like everyone else. But He still came, out of grace and love, for us. Our salvation wrapped up in a tiny human baby.
So let us believe anew, repenting and turning to Him who forgives and loves us. And, like the shepherds, may we spread His love and the message of the greatest gift of all to all whom we meet so that they have a chance to also be a part of the salvation Jesus bought for us all.
Let Our Little Lights Shine
A long time ago, possibly even in Bethlehem, a story about a little owl called Plop was very popular. The main thing about this story was that Plop, the baby owl, was scared of the dark.
I wonder, who here is, or used to be, scared of the dark?
And how many of you sometimes think that there are monsters or bad things in the dark? Or that the darkness is something bad?
And when a light appears do you feel better?
The opposite of dark is light. So if darkness is bad or scary then the light is good and friendly.
The magical thing about light is that you only need a teeny tiny spark to transform the darkness.
That light, that tiny spark, shines in the darkness and the darkness cannot overcome it.
There is a lot of darkness in the world, selfishness, greed, things that cause hurt, sin. But a light came into the world and the darkness cannot overcome it.
Jesus is the light of the world, the light in the darkness. And like when one candle shines in the darkness and then another is lit, and then another and another; soon all there is is light.
Jesus starts with us, forgiving the darkness in us so that we can shine; and as each of us are filled with His love, light and forgiveness, the light shines brighter and the darkness diminishes.
Jesus shows us the way to live a good life, full of light and offers us His power to live that way. When He comes again and God’s final judgement comes upon the world the darkness will be banished forever.
When you hold your Christingles look at the candle, as it is lit remember Jesus, the light of the world, whose light vanquishes the darkness.
Let that light into your hearts and lives lighting the way for others to find their way out of darkness into light.
Our task is to be those Christingles (it’s okay, dressing up is optional) to share the joy that comes to us through Jesus and to be His light bringing hope to those in the dark.
In the beginning there was nothing but God. And God created the world and everything in it. He filled the world with all sorts of good things – plants, animals, mountains, rivers, seas, the sun, the moon, and even people. And God saw that everything He had made was good.
But it didn’t stay good. The people did things they should not do. They did not look after what God had allowed them to borrow. They did not look after the world or each other.
This made God sad because He loves us. So He sent us a rescuer, but not just any rescuer. He sent us the best rescuer of all – His precious Son.
Jesus came to be the light to the world, to defeat the darkness and help people come to know God.
A light for everyone, shining in our world, our lives and our hearts.
Even though we are celebrating Christ’s birth (his first coming) on Christmas Day, we are already looking ahead to Easter when Jesus died on the cross and rose again to defeat all the powers of darkness, to defeat all those scary monsters, and to be our salvation.
The ribbon which represents the outpouring of Jesus’s blood also reminds us of the great outpouring of God’s love for us which encompasses the whole of creation.
Christmas and Easter are two parts of the story of God’s love for us. May we live out the truth of that story in our own lives, may we accept again this Christmas the greatest gift of Christ’s light and may we let our little light shine out of the darkness to the glory of God. Amen.
Mary …
We tend to use a mixture of readings from the Gospels of Matthew and Luke to revisit the miracle of Jesus’s birth. Here, Matthew doesn’t tell us how the Virgin Birth took place—except that it was by the Holy Spirit. Whereas, Luke gives a little more detail, the angel telling Mary that the Holy Spirit will come upon her, and the power of the Most High will overshadow her. The Virgin Birth is a divine miracle in the power of the Holy Spirit.
But Matthew does tell us two things about Jesus, one being what he does: “You shall call his name Jesus for he shall save his people from their sins”. Many Jews were looking for a Messiah who would come in conquering power. But Matthew shows us the much deeper human need. Jesus comes to save us from our sins—our spiritual needs far outweighing other needs.
The miracle of the Virgin Birth is also a sign of the far greater miracle and mystery of God becoming flesh and taking his place amongst us as one of us – the Incarnation. God didn’t just send angels, prophets and messengers—he came! In Jesus, God has come close; has taken human nature and human life to himself joining human nature to his own divine being. This is all of the Grace of God, who is a God who stoops to take us by the hand. In this respect, Matthew quotes from the Old Testament: ‘The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him “Immanuel”—which means, “God with us.”’ If the name Jesus is descriptive of what Jesus does, Immanuel is descriptive of who Jesus is—God with us.
The miracle of the Virgin Birth points towards both the humanity and the deity of Jesus. He was a human person born in the normal way. He is also the eternal God who has come to us—the God-man. Jesus didn’t begin his existence at Christmas, but as eternal God, entered into time and space at Christmas. For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given… (Isaiah 9:6).
So many people are ‘in the dark’ about God and don’t see him clearly. Yet, if you want to know what God is like, you only have to look at Jesus. Jesus Christ is the “Word of the Father, now in flesh appearing…” He is the revelation of the will, wisdom and person of God. His teaching is the
instruction of God. His death is the death of God-for-us. His resurrection is the victory of God! The meaning of Christmas is first and foremost a message of amazing grace, of a God who comes near.
The miracle of the Virgin Birth is a new creation, the beginning of a whole new world. What we can’t do for ourselves, God has and is doing. Into a world of brokenness and sadness God has come by means of a supernatural birth in the power of the Holy Spirit. But it doesn’t end there: the same Spirit who hovered over Mary and brought about a miracle of new life and transformation in her can also do the same in us! Regardless of who you are or what you have done you can start a whole new life as part of the new world. Jesus is the answer to our deepest needs. He is God come among us in order to save us from our sins and to rescue us from the deepest cause of our alienation and brokenness. When we start from the inside out we can have hope that the entirety of our life can experience the transformation he brings.
John the Baptist
Matthew 11:2-11 is a reading which often gets overlooked.
John the Baptist is in prison. He has been in prison for some time and knows he will not leave it alive because Herod’s wife wants him dead. She has not yet, however, found a way of securing his death and Herod is intrigued by John and so listens to what he has to say. Consequently, John is treated with respect and his disciples were allowed to visit him freely. His disciples keep him up to date with what is going on in the world outside and report to him what they have witnessed of Jesus.
John sends his disciples to Jesus with the question “Art thou he that should come?”
This is where opinion amongst well-known commentators differ.
Some state that John sent the disciples only to remove their doubts.
Others state that this question came directly from John with the answer being directed to John; who may have been feeling impatient at hearing about the signs and wonders but not seeing the appearance of God’s kingdom in a way he expected and so was falling into despair in prison.
Many Christians struggle with this passage and John’s question. This is not surprising considering what else we know about John.
John the forerunner. The one sent to “Prepare the way of the Lord”.
John, who, before he had even been born, recognised his cousin as Lord and Saviour and jumped for joy in his mother’s womb.
Seeds of doubt planted by the devil reach their peak at times of great despair and can cause people to question even the most important fundamental truths.
We hope that, nay we know that, John’s faith did not fail him.
However, at a time of despair, languishing in jail, confirmation of what he knew to be true would consolidate and strengthen his faith and hope.
Yet, if John had sent his disciples to Christ with the question for their satisfaction then we know that Christ pointed them to what they had heard and seen; directing them to the way in which salvation was to be found.
John, who at Jesus’s baptism witnessed the Holy Spirit descend on Jesus and heard the voice from heaven confirming Jesus as God’s beloved Son with whom He is well-pleased, had shown Christ to his disciples.
John saw that some of these disciples were envying for his sake and some were making the same misinterpretations as many of the Jews did about the Messiah. John wanted to ensure, before his own inevitable death took place, that his disciples were satisfied from their own experience of and sight of the works of Christ; and so he sent them on this errand.
“Poor men have the good news proclaimed to them,” Jesus added when He spoke to John’s disciples. He invited them to His kingdom and told them of peace and pardon.
It was predicted in Isaiah that the Messiah would indeed preach good tidings to the meek (the gospel to the poor).
Jesus knew that John the Baptist, whose heart was with the poor, knew that He was the one who united power and tenderness and could be none other than the expected king.
From verse 6: Blessed is he who shall not take offence at my poverty and lowliness of life and who will not reject me and my doctrine.
John wanted, not to force Christ’s hand into revealing Himself before His time came but, to ensure that he had completed his mission and passed the baton over to the one for whom he had been preparing the way.
Jesus then gave testimony to John, and to all he had achieved.
What Jesus said about John was not only to praise John but also for all the people.
Those who listen to the word will be called to give account of their improvements. Do we think that once the sermon is over the work is done? No! It most certainly is not. In fact, that is when the great work really begins.
Fervency and zeal are required by all. Self must be denied; the bent, frame and temper of the mind must be altered.
Those who have an interest in salvation will not mind what the terms are nor how hard they seem.
Things of God are of both great and common concern.
God requires no more from us than the right use of what he has given us.
People are ignorant because they will not learn.
John was sent to prepare the people to receive the Messiah and he fulfilled this commission. He preached repentance and faith in Christ.
As John prepared the way for Jesus then so we must prepare now.
We must prepare our hearts and minds, making them right and open ready to receive Him again this Christmas and for when He comes again in glory.
Not only that but we must spread that good news so that others also have the chance to repent and prepare.
Once Upon A Time …
… there was a little baby born in a stable who would become the saviour of the world. He was visited by shepherds and magi, whilst the angels sang and a star shone.
And that is precisely the problem – too many people treat the reports of Jesus’s birth as if it was a nice little fairy story for children. There is too much complacency, too much commercialism and too much watering down the truth because it’s easier to fall in with non-believers, materialism and instant gratification than it is to stand firm in the faith. Humans like an easy life but the ironic thing is that taking the easier road leads, at the end, to suffering.
The road less travelled, narrow and difficult though it may seem at times, is the path to God’s house. Whilst the journey may seem hard, the end is worth it. It is better to travel the more difficult road with Christ by our side and wait for our reward at the end of the journey than it is to opt for the easy journey and the consequences that await.
Advent is a time of waiting, watching and preparing, of truly listening to God with our heart and with all our senses, of opening our hearts and minds, of making changes and being prepared to be changed, of praying and inviting Jesus into our lives and our hearts. It is a time to get ready to climb that difficult path up the mountain.
Jesus is the gift that keeps on giving. He is real and the path to life, not just a story for Christmas. He is our Saviour, our Redeemer, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords who rules through love not war. He sacrificed himself to defeat death and the devil to save us. He shows us God’s mercy, love and grace. He grants us forgiveness and shows us how to live.
This year, why not use this time of Advent to evaluate yourself and your faith, to choose Jesus, the greatest gift of all, to choose life not death. Yes that means making difficult choices and choosing the harder path over the easier one. It means loving the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength and loving your neighbour as yourself. It means loving, forgiving and praying for your enemies. It means listening and obeying our Lord and Master and following him.
But what a friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs he bears. What Joy, Love, Light and Peace we gain as a child of our Heavenly Father.
Hell is truly an absence of God, of not being in his loving presence. So stop treating Jesus’s birth as a fairy story and give it back the significance it requires.
I pray that you all receive God’s blessing this Christmas.
King of Kings
The Sunday before Advent, we celebrate Christ the King, which concludes the church year as we begin the Advent Season and the new church year the following Sunday.
Whilst one of the more recent festival days of the church, having been added to the church calendar in 1925, it is when we join together to give thanks to Christ our King and to be reminded that all nations fall under the reign of God’s Son, and to remind the world that we all live under this reign, whether or not we acknowledge it.
Jesus is our King and is the King of kings.
So, what kind of king is he?
In his epistle to the Colossians, Paul tells us that in Jesus, our King, all things in heaven and earth, both seen and unseen, have been created through Jesus and for Jesus. There is nothing, no nation, no government, no earthly ruler that has not been created through Jesus and for Jesus. He is the Lord over all. King of kings and Lord of lords.
Paul goes on to tell us that without Jesus being an active part of our world everything would fall apart. Jesus is the glue that holds all things together. The ultimate sticky back plastic.
Paul tells us that our Almighty and all powerful God rescued us from the power of darkness into Jesus’s kingdom, where there is love, forgiveness, grace and mercy. All ruled over by the gentle, loving hand of Jesus. An all – powerful king who chooses not to rule by force but by love.
In Luke chapter 23, Jesus is being crucified and mocked. Jesus, our all – powerful king, allows himself to be crucified – killed in a cruel, torturous, shaming way; choosing to reign from a cross, willingly dying for us.
Yet it is this that shows us what it means to have Jesus as our king and what kind of king He is.
A king who is literally dying to save us. A king who took our humiliation and punishment for us. A king who was tortured and died and refused to save himself. A king who gets what he does not deserve – death on a cross – so that we can have what we do not deserve – life in his kingdom. A king of overflowing love showing us God’s overflowing love for us.
And he does not stop there, as demonstrated when, even though he was dying, he still found the breath to forgive the repentant thief.
Jesus is a king who is always ready to forgive and to welcome a repentant sinner home.
Christ, our king of love has let us off the cross, giving us the opportunity to be his disciples and live each day for him.
I invite you to think about what that means for you.
We give thanks for Christ our King, the all-powerful, who chooses to reign by love. The king who died so that we might live.
So, let us live not for ourselves but for him. Let us make the most of the opportunity to live each day for the king who died to save us and continue to do so until that blessed day when his kingdom will come in all it’s fullness and glory.
Remembrance Sunday
Luke 20:27-38
A question about the resurrection.
When I was looking deeper into this reading from Luke, I noticed that one of the commentaries entitles it “The Sadducees ask Jesus a ridiculous question”.
The Sadducees were like an ancient version of modern liberal theologians. They only accepted the first five books of Moses as authentic; disregarding what was written in them whenever they chose to do so. They did not believe in the resurrection, spirits or angels. They liked worldly things and cooperated with the Romans in order to keep their privileges.
There is a saying that there are no stupid questions only stupid answers but, in this case, it is the other way around. The Sadducees ask a ridiculous, hypothetical question based on Deuteronomy 25:5-10 in the hope of tricking Jesus into justifying their views. It is even feasible that the story they told was one of their stock in trade, told regularly purely in an attempt to cast ridicule on the resurrection of the dead.
Jesus’s reply, however, was a reminder that life in the resurrection is quite different to this worldly life with practices that are different to earthly life practices.
Revelation tells us that the glory of heaven will be a relationship and connection with God that surpasses anything else.
The question was not actually asked, however, to debate about those in heaven who had been married more than once; although Jesus tells us here that jealousy and exclusion have no place in heaven.
It was asked in order to attempt to refute the resurrection.
Jesus’s reply: “Nor can they die anymore, for they are equal to the angels, are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection.”
Jesus reminds us that life in heaven is eternal and shares some of the characteristics of the existence angels experience; although by being called children of God and children of the resurrection is a greater honour than that of the angels – these titles not having been given to angelic beings.
Jesus confirmed (and goes on to prove in the passage) that the resurrection is real and that there is no death in that life to come. And of course, this was a double blow for the Sadducees having had Jesus also confirm the existence of angels.
This teaching of Jesus , confirming the resurrection, is particularly poignant on Remembrance Sunday, when our thoughts turn to those who gave their lives, the mystery of death and what happens next.
We remember those who, throughout the centuries, received the news of their loved one’s death or that they were Missing In Action.
We remember those, who, today, yesterday, and in years long past made the ultimate sacrifice; and those who, sadly, will be making that sacrifice tomorrow.
They gave, and give, their lives for our tomorrows, for peace, freedom, justice and stability.
The scale and horror of the First World War was such that, at the time, it seemed impossible and unthinkable that such atrocity could be repeated – giving it the name “the war to end all wars”.
Sadly, reality turned out very different. Many millions more lives have since been, and continue to be, lost in all the many conflicts that have continued since around the world.
Most of us, most people, at least most of the time, want to live in peace.
So, what is it that is within humanity that creates this, appearingly, insatiable, appetite for conflict and war. Both for actual conflict and war and that which is created for, rather shamefully named I think, “entertainment purposes” such as video games.
Deep down beneath all the surface reasons or, dare I say, excuses, for conflict is that much used and much misunderstood word sin. The difference between the people we are and the people God made us to be. And what did God make us to be? He created us in His image. In the image and likeness of a loving God for the express purpose of being a loving people that love one another.
As Jesus said in John 15: “This is my commandment that you love one another as I have loved you” and “I am giving you these commandments so that you may love one another.”
There are far too many shocking stories, accounts and images of the atrocities of war – including those that continued to be committed after peace treaties were signed. We are supposed to learn from our mistakes and yet these still continue to take place.
But, there are also the poignant images of the Allied and German cemeteries filled with crosses.
Picture those rows of white crosses, be immersed in the silence.
Rows and rows of white crosses.
Take the command to love one another seriously.
Row upon row.
Understand that Christ went to the cross to overcome our separation from God and from each other.
Rows and rows and rows of white crosses.
If only this commandment was followed and the sacrifice understood all around the world then maybe, just maybe, the glimmer of hope given by the light of Christ will stay lit, not all will be lost and we would actually be able to allow Remembrance Day to fulfil it’s dream and truly mark the end of war!
Don’t be a Pharisee …
The Legend of the Stones
Two women approached a wise man and asked for instruction. One of them regarded herself as a terrible sinner. In her youth, she had deceived her husband, and she tortured herself constantly with the memory of her infidelity.
The second, on the other hand, had lived her entire life within the law and by the rules. She wasn’t conscious of any serious sin, had nothing much to reproach herself with and felt quite pleased with herself.
The wise man asked both women about their life. The first went as she confessed her great sin. She felt her sin had been so great that she had no right to expect forgiveness. The second said that she had not committed any particular sins.
The wise man said to the first woman, ‘Go, daughter of God, and look for the heaviest boulder you can find – one that you can barely manage to carry – and bring it to me.’
‘And you,’ he said to the second woman, who could not recall any serious sin, ‘go and bring me as many stones as you can carry, but they must all be small ones.’
The women went off to do as the wise man had told them. The first brought a huge boulder; the second brought a whole sackful of small pebbles.
The wise man examined the stones and said, ‘Now do as follows. Take the stones back and replace each one of them exactly where you picked it up, and when you have put them all back where you found them, come back to me.’
The women went off again to carry out the wise man’s instructions. The first very easily found the place from where she had taken the huge boulder, and she replaced it where it had been. But the second had no idea where she had picked up all her little pebbles, and had to return to the wise man without having carried out his instruction.
‘You see,’ said the wise man, ‘that’s how it is with our sins. It was easy to take the big, heavy boulder back to its place because you knew exactly where you first found it. But it was impossible to remember where all those little pebbles came from.’
And to the first woman, he said, ‘You are very conscious of your sin. You carry in your heart the reproach of your husband and of your conscience; you have learned humility, and in this way you have been freed of your wrongdoing. You, however,’ he said to the second woman, who had come back still carrying her sack of little pebbles, ‘you, who have sinned in many small ways, do not know any more when and how you did wrong; you are not able to repent. You have grown accustomed to a life of little sins, to passing judgement on the sins of others while becoming more deeply entangled in your own. It has become impossible to free yourself of them.’
A story by Leo Tolstoy retold by Margaret Silf
To paraphrase from part of the Gospel of Luke, chapter 18: The Pharisee thanks God that he is not like other people. He details his religious practices and self perceived righteousness and considers himself more virtuous and superior to others.
The tax collector feels unworthy and simply asks God to have mercy on him, a sinner.
Jesus states it is the tax collector and not the Pharisee who went home justified by God. God values the tax collector’s humility, not the Pharisee’s self-righteousness.
Jesus told this parable to warn those who trusted in themselves but who treated others with contempt. He warns them against spiritual pride and calls for us to have humility in prayer and in life. Our justification comes solely from God’s grace and mercy and not from our own achievements.
Humility is essential for a right relationship with God whilst spiritual pride leads to self-righteousness and being rejected by God.
It is easy to fall into the trap of behaving like the Pharisee. I know someone who, on a regular basis, beats their chest and says “I thank God I am not like other men”.
Modern day Pharisees are not all as obvious as this but are characterised by their self-righteousness, a tendency to burden others with strict rules whilst not following them themselves and a focus on power and control of over serving.
They may appear religious whilst lacking genuine faith whilst adhering to certain rules or attending church yet without a corresponding difference in their daily life. They may focus on strict adherence to rules and traditions, creating heavy burdens for others yet ignoring the spirit of the law. They judge and condemn others, even misrepresenting their motives whilst projecting their own shortcomings onto them.
They believe they are more righteous than others but are unwilling to admit to their own sins or weaknesses.
They are more concerned about other’s opinion of them and how they are seen than they are about having a genuine relationship with God.
But, even for Pharisees, there is hope.
To not be a Pharisee, hear the words of Jesus. Jesus is the Light of the world, whoever follows Him will not walk in darkness but have the light of life.
Don’t ignore the content of what Jesus says, or you’ll miss out. Hear Jesus’s word and His message. Actively listen to Him by reading and paying attention to Scripture. If you ignore Scripture, if you ignore the Bible, if it just sits on a shelf gathering dust, then you are ignoring the word of Jesus.
Regardless of how busy we are, we make time for what matters most. Nobody is too busy to hear Jesus’s word.
Hearing Jesus’s word – reading the Bible is non-negotiable for both first-time faith and for growing faith. You can’t believe in and become like Jesus without His word. Hear His word.
See Jesus’s light. Light is a big metaphor. Jesus is an exposing light, an illuminating light, and a welcoming light.
He exposes what is hidden, calls out sin, and banishes darkness. He illuminates, revealing or making known the way, shining out in the darkness and showing us what we need to see. He is a welcoming light guiding us and inviting us home.
See the light, put your faith in Jesus, and be welcomed home. Follow Jesus’s path. Jesus’s promises of light and life are only for those who follow Him. Truly believe and truly follow Jesus.
This doesn’t mean just recognising that Jesus was a real person – and there is historical evidence of this – it means seeing and listening to Jesus, going wherever He leads and doing what He says. Literally following Him. Not just being a Christian but being a Christ-Follower. True believing where your highest allegiance is to Jesus; whatever He wants, that’s what you want.
Don’t be a Pharisee.
Hear Jesus’s word.
See Jesus’s light.
Follow Jesus’s path.
Be humble.
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on us, all sinners.
Just because 