iGod

A poem for Ash Wednesday - TS Elliot

Because I do not hope to turn again
Because I do not hope
Because I do not hope to turn
Desiring this man's gift and that man's scope
I no longer strive to strive towards such things
(Why should the aged eagle stretch its wings?)
Why should I mourn
The vanished power of the usual reign?

Because I do not hope to know again
The infirm glory of the positive hour
Because I do not think
Because I know I shall not know
The one veritable transitory power
Because I cannot drink
There, where trees flower, and springs flow, for there is nothing again

Because I know that time is always time
And place is always and only place
And what is actual is actual only for one time
And only for one place
I rejoice that things are as they are and
I renounce the blessed face
And renounce the voice
Because I cannot hope to turn again
Consequently I rejoice, having to construct something
Upon which to rejoice

And pray to God to have mercy upon us
And pray that I may forget
These matters that with myself I too much discuss
Too much explain
Because I do not hope to turn again
Let these words answer
For what is done, not to be done again
May the judgement not be too heavy upon us

Because these wings are no longer wings to fly
But merely vans to beat the air
The air which is now thoroughly small and dry
Smaller and dryer than the will
Teach us to care and not to care
Teach us to sit still.

Pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death
Pray for us now and at the hour of our death.

II

Lady, three white leopards sat under a juniper-tree
In the cool of the day, having fed to satiety
On my legs my heart my liver and that which had been contained
In the hollow round of my skull. And God said
Shall these bones live? shall these
Bones live? And that which had been contained
In the bones (which were already dry) said chirping:
Because of the goodness of this Lady
And because of her loveliness, and because
She honours the Virgin in meditation,
We shine with brightness. And I who am here dissembled
Proffer my deeds to oblivion, and my love
To the posterity of the desert and the fruit of the gourd.
It is this which recovers
My guts the strings of my eyes and the indigestible portions
Which the leopards reject. The Lady is withdrawn
In a white gown, to contemplation, in a white gown.
Let the whiteness of bones atone to forgetfulness.
There is no life in them. As I am forgotten
And would be forgotten, so I would forget
Thus devoted, concentrated in purpose. And God said
Prophesy to the wind, to the wind only for only
The wind will listen. And the bones sang chirping
With the burden of the grasshopper, saying

Lady of silences
Calm and distressed
Torn and most whole
Rose of memory
Rose of forgetfulness
Exhausted and life-giving
Worried reposeful
The single Rose
Is now the Garden
Where all loves end
Terminate torment
Of love unsatisfied
The greater torment
Of love satisfied
End of the endless
Journey to no end
Conclusion of all that
Is inconclusible
Speech without word and
Word of no speech
Grace to the Mother
For the Garden
Where all love ends.

Under a juniper-tree the bones sang, scattered and shining
We are glad to be scattered, we did little good to each other,
Under a tree in the cool of the day, with the blessing of sand,
Forgetting themselves and each other, united
In the quiet of the desert. This is the land which ye
Shall divide by lot. And neither division nor unity
Matters. This is the land. We have our inheritance.

III

At the first turning of the second stair
I turned and saw below
The same shape twisted on the banister
Under the vapour in the fetid air
Struggling with the devil of the stairs who wears
The deceitful face of hope and of despair.

At the second turning of the second stair
I left them twisting, turning below;
There were no more faces and the stair was dark,
Damp, jagged, like an old man's mouth drivelling, beyond repair,
Or the toothed gullet of an aged shark.

At the first turning of the third stair
Was a slotted window bellied like the figs's fruit
And beyond the hawthorn blossom and a pasture scene
The broadbacked figure drest in blue and green
Enchanted the maytime with an antique flute.
Blown hair is sweet, brown hair over the mouth blown,
Lilac and brown hair;
Distraction, music of the flute, stops and steps of the mind over the third stair,
Fading, fading; strength beyond hope and despair
Climbing the third stair.

Lord, I am not worthy
Lord, I am not worthy
but speak the word only.

IV

Who walked between the violet and the violet
Who walked between
The various ranks of varied green
Going in white and blue, in Mary's colour,
Talking of trivial things
In ignorance and knowledge of eternal dolour
Who moved among the others as they walked,
Who then made strong the fountains and made fresh the springs

Made cool the dry rock and made firm the sand
In blue of larkspur, blue of Mary's colour,
Sovegna vos

Here are the years that walk between, bearing
Away the fiddles and the flutes, restoring
One who moves in the time between sleep and waking, wearing

White light folded, sheathing about her, folded.
The new years walk, restoring
Through a bright cloud of tears, the years, restoring
With a new verse the ancient rhyme. Redeem
The time. Redeem
The unread vision in the higher dream
While jewelled unicorns draw by the gilded hearse.

The silent sister veiled in white and blue
Between the yews, behind the garden god,
Whose flute is breathless, bent her head and signed but spoke no word

But the fountain sprang up and the bird sang down
Redeem the time, redeem the dream
The token of the word unheard, unspoken

Till the wind shake a thousand whispers from the yew

And after this our exile

V

If the lost word is lost, if the spent word is spent
If the unheard, unspoken
Word is unspoken, unheard;
Still is the unspoken word, the Word unheard,
The Word without a word, the Word within
The world and for the world;
And the light shone in darkness and
Against the Word the unstilled world still whirled
About the centre of the silent Word.

O my people, what have I done unto thee.

Where shall the word be found, where will the word
Resound? Not here, there is not enough silence
Not on the sea or on the islands, not
On the mainland, in the desert or the rain land,
For those who walk in darkness
Both in the day time and in the night time
The right time and the right place are not here
No place of grace for those who avoid the face
No time to rejoice for those who walk among noise and deny the voice

Will the veiled sister pray for
Those who walk in darkness, who chose thee and oppose thee,
Those who are torn on the horn between season and season, time and time, between
Hour and hour, word and word, power and power, those who wait
In darkness? Will the veiled sister pray
For children at the gate
Who will not go away and cannot pray:
Pray for those who chose and oppose

O my people, what have I done unto thee.

Will the veiled sister between the slender
Yew trees pray for those who offend her
And are terrified and cannot surrender
And affirm before the world and deny between the rocks
In the last desert before the last blue rocks
The desert in the garden the garden in the desert
Of drouth, spitting from the mouth the withered apple-seed.

O my people. 

 

VI

Although I do not hope to turn again
Although I do not hope
Although I do not hope to turn

Wavering between the profit and the loss
In this brief transit where the dreams cross
The dreamcrossed twilight between birth and dying
(Bless me father) though I do not wish to wish these things
From the wide window towards the granite shore
The white sails still fly seaward, seaward flying
Unbroken wings

And the lost heart stiffens and rejoices
In the lost lilac and the lost sea voices
And the weak spirit quickens to rebel
For the bent golden-rod and the lost sea smell
Quickens to recover
The cry of quail and the whirling plover
And the blind eye creates
The empty forms between the ivory gates
And smell renews the salt savour of the sandy earth This is the time of tension between dying and birth The place of solitude where three dreams cross Between blue rocks But when the voices shaken from the yew-tree drift away Let the other yew be shaken and reply.

Blessed sister, holy mother, spirit of the fountain, spirit of the garden,
Suffer us not to mock ourselves with falsehood
Teach us to care and not to care
Teach us to sit still
Even among these rocks,
Our peace in His will
And even among these rocks
Sister, mother
And spirit of the river, spirit of the sea,
Suffer me not to be separated

And let my cry come unto Thee.

 

ASD

Me and the Prostitute

When I was a young man I met a prostitute. No, not in that sense.

It was in the late Eighties and I had just started working in London’s glittering West End for an ad agency. Everything was new and I was still trying to get to grips with my pocket-sized London A-Z.

Thinking I would take a short cut through some back streets to get to the tube quicker I found myself going down this dimly-lit grubby street. It had been raining and so I had one of those black city-type long rolled up umbrellas. Well, I was trying to make an impression.

Walking fast I caught sight of a heavily made up girl leaning on a door way smoking a cigarette, half-bathed in red light. She was wearing, well not very much to be honest, but what she was wearing was in leopard skin print. But what really struck me were her long black suede boots. They seemed to go half way up her body. I remember thinking what an absolute picture she looked and began considering the kind of person she must be.   

Well, I lost my concentration and managed somehow get my “man about town” umbrella caught in one of my shoelaces. I began to run uncontrollably towards this lady trying to stop myself from tumbling over – but, alas, too late. I ended up slumped awkwardly face down in a puddle by her thigh length black suede boots.

I felt this hand reach down and grab mine and pull me up to my feet. My briefcase and its contents were scattered unceremoniously across the street. Not good.

“Are you alright? Can I do anything? Do you need any help? I looked up with utter embarrassment and saw something unexpected - kindness. Not for the first time that evening I had been caught unaware and wrong-footed.

I have learnt over the years, thanks to this chance encounter with a sex worker, that kindness is what makes us human. There is much in society that tries to demean its virtue and label it as the act of church-goers, do-gooders or weak people.

The Roman philosopher and emperor Marcus Aurelius declared that “kindness was mankind’s greatest delight”, but humanist thinkers such as Voltaire saw it as a weakness and argued that there was nothing in it for the individual. He vehemently disagreed with the Christian virtue of “love your neighbour as yourself.”

Nowadays this Enlightenment thinking has gone deep into our society to make us naturally suspicious of any kindly behaviour. It is often dismissed by clever people as being sentimental or moralistic.

Some say that we are only kind to each other to get something out of it for ourselves.  Maybe, but for the Christian our motivations are different. We live not for ourselves but for the pleasure of God. Again, not a popular concept in a secular individualist society. Yet in that place, personal fulfillment and life purpose has a chance to go deeper than if we just live for our own ends.

Admittedly there is vulnerability in doing acts of kindness, but it is a risk we take. We learn to take on board “the greatest commandment” given by Jesus: “love the Lord your God, with all your heart, with all your mind, with all your soul and with all your strength.” And along with that, “love your neighbour as yourself.”

Now it may seem a foolish thing to believe in today’s culture but, hey, seeing today’s society as it is, I think I’ll take my chances and be a kind fool for Christ and see where it takes me.

ASD

Starting the year well and all that jazz

(Article by ASD reproduced from the Sudbury Mercury newspaper)

Around the New Year I was visiting family in Hastings and went for a walk on a particularly wet and windy day. Traipsing through the soggy half-closed streets in the old town I noticed a scruffy looking arrow sign for a Retro Shop. I felt it needed following. Now calling something retro means we can admire old junk and feel good about it or, if you prefer a kinder definition, it’s coolness on a budget.

What happened next was totally unexpected. On entering the small, dull-lit shop I saw staring at me in the vinyl records section a long-forgotten favourite LP (Long Player for the download generation).

The record was called All Star Festival, a compilation of jazz songs put together in 1963 to raise funds for United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

There is a particular track on it from ‘the first lady of song’, Ella Fitzgerald, called All of Me. Now I know I am being objectionably subjective, but it has to be the best ever version of the Marks and Simon classic. It has the most amazing vocal arrangement and a startling performance to match. Quite frankly, there’s not much not to like?

Trying not to give away my excitement I sauntered casually up the counter to the young guy chewing gum and asked how much he wanted for this scruffy old record. “Six quid!”

“I’ll take it!”  After asking for a waterproof bag I hurriedly left and rejoined the battering winds and rain on the seafront almost kicking my heels in the air with unabashed delight. Almost.

Finding something we want in life is an amazing experience. But rediscovering something that has brought us joy in the past can be equally as satisfying, if not more.

Jesus talks at length about lost things: lost sheep, a lost coin, a lost son and lost opportunities. This is what he does when he wants to make a big point and not lose his audience. He gives us a perfect picture of joy recovered. In this case a relationship with God the Father.

Losing our joie de vivre isn’t good. Our joylessness can become the lens in which everything else in life is viewed through. Some would say it makes us hard, cynical, untrusting and emotionally cold towards others. Whatever it does, it is a bad place to be.

It is not that life doesn’t continue, but it is just not as rewarding or fulfilling as it could be. We may not even be aware that something is missing from our lives.

So what’s to be done as we begin a New Year? Well, at this point Christians tend to listen closely to the Bible’s words where it utters, “the joy of the Lord is our strength”. We get on our knees, do some ‘carpet time’ and spill our hearts out to God, because we think there is something in prayer. Why not give it a go for yourself and see what happens?

Meanwhile, if you have lost the number for your local church you can find a full list here.

Happy hunting.

ASD

A new year of promise, pageantry and potential. What’s not to like?

I am rather excited about this year. Now I admit it might just have something to do with the fact that it is the year of the Olympics. My family were fortunate enough to get allocated some tickets for the games. Okay, so it’s not an event that I would naturally choose to watch but, hey, the others are happy. Yes, I am slightly embarrassed to tell you what it is, so let’s just quietly move on shall we?

2012 is also a leap year, which means you liberated women can propose to the man in your life on 29 February.

It is also the Chinese Year of the Dragon, though I am not quite sure what anyone is ever suppose to do with that knowledge, but thought you should know anyway.

The other big event is, of course, the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. There will be a river pageant like in days of old floating down the Thames with a boasted flotilla of 1,000 boats.

A specially designed river barge will hold her majesty, which we are told will be 64 feet in length, decked in red and gold. That will be quite a sight to behold, but nevertheless I can’t seem to get the image out of my head of the queen being told to jump off the barge and open the locks by her husband. “Put your back into it, Liz, we’ve still got another six to go until we reach Windsor!”

The other day I found a somewhat dubious online blog called The Year 2012 that gives you an endless stream of information on all things 2012. It contains the weird, wonderful and just plain wacky. And, if you were to believe everything it said, you’d probably want to stay in bed for the whole of the year.

So what are you thoughts on the future? Excited, Worried? Non-plussed?

At the beginning of each year I usually encourage our church to reflect a little on our own personal visions for our lives. We ask: what are our expectations? What do we want achieve? What do we want to improve upon?

Maybe it is improving the quality of the relationship with our children or spouse. Maybe it is something simple like reading more, praying more, giving more. Maybe it is working on some personal character issues.

The point is we are created to be purposeful. We believe that God wants us to reach our full potential as human beings and get the most out of the precious life given to us.

After all, didn’t Jesus say, “I have come that you may have life and have it to the full?”

So we go into the New Year with fresh expectations that it will lead to a year of life-changing experiences. It will undoubtedly have its challenges and difficulties, but it is in these times that faith is fashioned and our awareness of God’s involvement in everyday life grows.

For many of us, 2012 it will undoubtedly be a full year, but hopefully will be a personally fulfilling one too. For the Christian who believes in the Life-Giver, it comes with that deeper profundity still, which is something that we are more than happy to share with you. Maybe one of your own life goals could be to come to church sometime soon.

Whatever you do, I wish you a very happy and life-enriching New Year.

ASD

Christmas Olympics

A dear friend of ours Helene from All Souls, Twickenham, always manages to raise a smile with her creative Christmas cards. Thought it worth posting to share the Christmas love wider.

Hope you are all well into the Christmas by now. I know we are are at SVV.

ASD

Keep Calm and Enjoy Christmas

(My article reproduced from Community News.)

I remember sitting in a church a few years and hearing a vicar talk about how Christmas is a time of peace and goodwill, and how we needed to find space to just be.

As a young parent I thought, “Yeh, right!”

In all honesty, I strained to hear how the talk finished as one daughter almost caused an international incident by stealing another child’s Buzz Lightyear, while the other threw a habdab because I asked to her give back an elderly lady’s walking stick. Peace in heaven maybe, but peace on earth was stretching it.

In the midst of a busy conference recently I came across a flavour of tea called Moment of Calm. Although not quite tempted to have a cup, it did remind me of those unavoidable ubiquitous Keep Calm and Carry On posters and mugs, which seem to be everywhere like a cheap suit. Originally a wartime poster produced by the British government in 1939, it now has its own parodies such as: Keep Calm and Have a Cupcake and Now Panic and Freak Out. Calmness is something we are seeking everywhere.

I wonder, though, if it possible to have a true moment of calm this Christmas?

When I think of having a calm Christmas myself the familiar Austrian carol Silent Night, Holy Night by Franz Xaver Gruber comes to mind.

What makes the hymn special for me is that it is said to have been sung simultaneously in French, English and German by troops in the trenches during the famous Christmas truce of 1914. It was one of the few carols that soldiers on both sides of the front line knew.

It was estimated that on that Christmas Eve around 100,000 troops ceased fighting and instead, quite bizarrely, shouted Happy Christmas to each other before eventually going over the top to exchange, not gunfire, but presents. There was even a friendly game of football.

I suspect Silent Night has never had a less holy setting, but it was sung where hope in a saviour of the world was needed most. I am sure it was also sung with gusto. It was a symbolic moment of peace and humanity amidst one of the bloodiest and needless wars in modern history.

It tells me that if there can be calm in the midst of the Great War then, perhaps, aiming for some of our own peace and calm this Christmas is not beyond our reach.

We will, of course, be remembering our troops this year who will be far away from home, but for ourselves let me ask: where will we look for our calm? Will it be in a tea bag or somewhere a little more soulful like Church?

There are a number of local churches who have planned Christmas services where I know a time of peace on earth will be on offer (see Church Services on page 4).

But if you do have noisy excitable kids, like ours, you’re very welcome to bring them to our hour-long Christmas Eve Family Carols service at 7pm in the Delphi Centre. Why not come early for free mince pies and mulled wine? It’s usually a lot fun and just the thing after you’ve done all your shopping and preparations. We’d love to see you. We’ll even promise to sing Silent Night, Holy Night too.

Meanwhile, may I wish you a happy Christmas on behalf of all of us at Stour Valley Vineyard Church.

ASD

Life Version 2.0

(My article reproduced from Community News)

I have a love-hate relationship with technology. I love it when it makes my life easier, but absolutely hate it when it interferes with my routine and it becomes the master, not the servant.

Quite unabashed, I have been an Apple Mac user ever since my second year at ‘vicar factory’ back in the early 90s. Before then I kindly borrowed someone’s Toshiba Portable MS DOS computer, which in truth wasn’t that portable. Not only was it heavy and left dents in my knees, but the battery life was shorter than a queue to the Crazy Paving Appreciation Society’s Annual Lecture.

Nowadays, alongside my lighter laptop, I also have my mobile or should I say ‘smart phone’, but as I discovered recently this has not been without its problems.

I attempted to upgrade my phone software to the latest whizzy-whiz, faster, better-than-ever-before version. Also known as iOS 5. In truth, I was not unhappy with how things were before, but the thought of something better and free, well…it was simply an offer I couldn’t refuse.

So on a quiet weeknight I hit the download button to let technology do its best. Unfortunately it decided to do its worst. With a big gasp I watched my entire set of emails, calendars and contacts disappear before my eyes. (And, no, my emails weren’t backed up!) If ever there was a time to find a grown man crying in a corner it was then. The promise of a better-connected life had let me down.

It has made me think how we can often put a lot of blind faith in things that are not necessarily proven, but given enough hype can accept anything as truth. We want to believe that something will make our lives better.

It is natural to want to upgrade the standard of our lives. We can look at the current version and think, “This just sucks! Maybe something has to stopped functioning in our life or we see something in someone else’s and want what they have.

The late Steve Jobs, founder of Apple said famously in a university plenary speech:

"No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new.”

The immensely successful and talented Steve Jobs recognised his products were not ultimately enough in them self. That is quite something, isn’t it?

Life has a spiritual profundity that modern science still struggles with any integrity to make redundant. There remains this longing in us all to be known, loved and accepted for who we are, not for what we have achieved. Many Christian commentators have called this a God-shaped hole wanting to be filled by himself through his Son Jesus Christ.

If the promises of God are true and Jesus is who he says he is, it requires a full upgrade to a new way of seeing and experiencing life. The old version will never do.

St Augustine, the early church father said rather wryly:

“I have read in Plato and Cicero sayings that are wise and very beautiful; but I have never read in either of them: ‘Come to me all you that labour and are heavy burdened.’” [quoting Jesus]

Is God’s Life Version any better than the modern alternatives around?

I give the last word to Paul the low-tec Apostle who said this about the great iPriest, “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!"

ASD

'Red Rev' Giles Fraser?

Just reflecting about the resigination of the Canon Chancellor of St Paul's Cathedral, Rev Dr Giles Fraser. While left-leaning The Guardian fetes the man, I hear, maybe not surprisingly, the Daily Telegraph takes another view.

Whatever side you take, he typifies the need for the Christian to speak up and get involved in politics and injustice, even when it doesn't always make you universally popular with your own peers.

US Christian activist Shane Clairborne says:

"Theologian Karl Barth said, 'We have to read the Bible in one hand, and the newspaper in the other.' For too long we Christians have used our faith as a ticket out of this world rather than fuel to engage it.

"In his parables, Jesus wasn’t offering pie-in-the-sky theology… he was talking about the real stuff of earth. He talks about wages, debt, widows and orphans, unjust business owners and bad politicians. In fact Woody Guthrie breaks it all down in his song “Jesus Christ.” The song ends with Woody singing, “This song was written in New York City. If Jesus were to preach what he preached in Galilee, they would lay him in his grave again.”

"The more I read the Gospels, the more they seem to confront the very patterns of the world we live in. At one point Mary, pregnant with Jesus cries out: “God casts the mighty from their thrones and raises the lowly… God fills the hungry with good things and sends the rich away empty…”. You can’t help but think if she were alive in contemporary America some folks would try to accuse the Virgin Mother of being Marxist or promoting class warfare. But all through Scripture we see this–over 2000 verses about how God cares for the poor and most vulnerable.

"What would Jesus say about Wall Street?"

 What would Jesus say about the Square MIle?

Would he be for locking up St Paul's Catherdral or for an open air church service?

The thing I am taking away is that if we want our message to be heard we have to first hear what culture is saying. This is not so much about wanting to sound populist like a politician, but to help us avoid sounding pompous like an old fogey.

May God grant us wisdom and courage in these times!

ASD

10 Commandments for Church Planters and Pastors

A cracking top ten by Rich Nathan, Senior pastor of Vineyard Columbus, Ohio:

Pastors and church planters face enormous demands as we try to juggle family responsibilities, ministry, and often, school and part-time jobs. How can we live sustainable lives? We read of tragic pastoral failures on a weekly basis. Most pastors don’t last in the ministry for five years (perhaps the only way we pastors are like pro football players!). I’ve been a pastor for 25 years. Here are ten practices that have enabled me to pastor for the long-haul.

#1 Build a rock-solid daily personal devotional life with God. This simply means that you spend time every day soaking in God’s presence. You can handle an enormous amount of pressure, if your foundation is solid. Pressure is not the problem. Weak foundations are the problem. If your foundation is shaky, you won’t be able to handle very much at all. Maybe you’ve heard the expression: “You can’t fire a cannon out of a canoe.” If you are really going to accomplish something; if you are going to be able to achieve and do the great things that God has in store for you to achieve and do, you need a strong foundation. The cannon of your life needs to be bolted into granite. And the granite of your life is your rock-solid personal time with God every day.

#2 Choose a prayer partner, who is a peer and with whom you can be utterly transparent. What I have personally done in my own life for the past 20 years and what we require of every pastor on the staff of Vineyard Columbus is to have a prayer partner. At Vineyard Columbus we take one day every month outside of the office talking and praying with our prayer partner. We have a set of accountability questions that we ask each other such as:

a. Are you struggling with sexual purity in any way?
b. Have you seen any pornography, or anything on TV or in a movie that you shouldn’t have watched?
c. Have you done anything sexually you shouldn’t have done?
d. Are there any emotional attachments forming with someone who is not your spouse?
e. Have you handled your money and financial dealings with absolute integrity?
f. Have you experienced any breach in any relationship? Are you at peace with everyone?
g. Have you forgiven everyone for everything?
h. Are you experiencing intimacy with God on a regular basis?

#3 If you are married, schedule a weekly date night with your spouse. It is really important to stay current and to fuel romance and intimacy with your spouse. My wife and I have a regular date every Monday. It doesn’t need to be expensive. It could be coffee and a long walk through a park or a leisurely breakfast. But schedule a weekly date with your spouse outside your home.

#4 Get financial counseling from a professional financial counselor. Strongly consider (if you are married, with your spouse) going to a course like Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University. Life is sustainable when your financial house is in order.

#5 Ruthlessly avoid all compromising situations with the opposite sex. There are few things that derail people from the plan of God more than sexual impurity. Jim Downing, who is one of the patriarchs of the Navigator organization, was asked some years ago: Why is it that so few people finish well? His response was profound. He said: “They learn the possibility of being fruitful without being pure. They begin to believe that purity doesn’t matter. Eventually, they become like trees rotting inside that are eventually toppled by a storm.” Live a sexually pure life.

#6 Take care of yourself physically. Join a gym. Get into the habit of walking with a friend. Watch your diet. It is not enough that you’re involved in ministry. It is not even enough that you grow in internal purity and intimacy with God. You are a whole person. Your life is integrated - body, soul and spirit. You cannot neglect your body or your emotional life and continue to do well. So, take care of yourself physically.

#7 Do not confuse knowledge or skills or giftedness for spiritual maturity. You are gifted. You may know a lot. You may help many people. None of those things are the same as spiritual maturity. Spiritual maturity is a matter of your internal character, your honesty, your willingness to forgive everyone for everything, your joy during trials, your trust in the sovereignty of God, your endurance in hard times, and your unwillingness to compromise integrity. Don’t confuse knowledge or skills or giftedness for spiritual maturity.

#8 If you are married, take a great marriage inventory with your spouse and have a professional marriage counselor discuss the results with you. Here at Vineyard Columbus we offer a marriage inventory called LIMRI. We have regular marriage retreats. Do a marriage inventory especially at the front-end of pastoring, and every few years after that.

#9 Join a small group (and if married, join with your spouse). Christianity is a team sport. We cannot grow successfully apart from biblical community. Join a men’s group, a women’s group, a coed group, or a recovery group where you can know and be known.

#10 Cultivate the fear of the Lord and a fear of sin. We sinners always dreadfully under-estimate the cost of sin and dreadfully over-estimate our ability to manage the consequences after we choose to sin. Sin costs and once you choose to sin, the consequences are out of your hands. We read in Proverbs 14.26-27, He who fears the Lord has a secure fortress, and for his children I will be a refuge. The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life, turning a man from the snares of death.

Deuteronomy 10.12-13 says, And now, O Israel, what does the Lord your God ask of you but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to observe the lord’s commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good?

Psalm 34.9 tells us this: Fear the Lord, you his saints, for those who fear him lack nothing.

Psalm 128:1 says: Blessed are all who fear the Lord, who walk in his ways.

 

ASD

What are you doing for Hallowe’en?

I am conscious at this time of year there can be some embarrassed coughs over the mention of Hallowe’en parties. As a pastor I have parents coming up to me in church and other places asking what they should do when their child gets invited to a Hallowe’en event. These are not necessarily all Christians either. Whether we have faith or not, there is a lot of squirming and sighing around the 31^st October.

Other people ask me questions like is it really all that bad? After all, what’s wrong with a bit of dressing up and fake blood? Aren’t Christians just getting a little bit anal about the whole thing? Is Satan really waiting around the corner to pounce on our children as they put on their plastic skull mask and latex severed fingers?

Here’s my take.

The thing I find most abhorrent is not the direct allusions to the darkness of horror, although they do concern me greatly, but the way manufacturers and supermarkets prey on the vulnerable with their vast array of related products. It is unrelenting.

Already poor, struggling parents are creaking under the social pressure to keep up with the ‘haves’ with supplying their darlings with DS Ninetedos, Wii, iPods etc, along with all the other seasonal gift occasions of the year. Then the Hallowe’en train comes to town with its expensive Scream masks, flimsy ghoul costumes and devilish chocolate products. Asda alone is expecting to make £280m from the event.

Most of us know that this growing annual event has come from the States, but do we really want to become as obsessed as the Americans with it?  I have lost count on how many US vampire films and TV programmes have been made in the last few years, but that seems to be an ever-growing genre.

Am I simply being a killjoy or could it possibly have an unhealthy underside to it all?

I recently read in one newspaper how grown adults in the UK will be dressing up and pretending to be zombies on the streets in some cities in mock battles to mark the occasion.

Maybe these people have too much time on their hands, but you can’t help but be a little concerned at the level of involvement in this year’s Hallowe’en.

To question the fun, light-hearted spirit of Halloween may get you labeled as an earnest bore who is quietly tiptoed around in the school playground, but you know what? I’ve stopped caring.

I wonder why we have become so accepting of this American import. Fireworks Night was seen as our main thing, but it feels like it is being usurped by Fright Nights instead.

Now I have no doubt there is some fun dressing up in a white sheet going wooo-oooo, but when the sheet is replaced with a mutilated corpse carrying a plastic axe and going ‘Aaaaaagh!’ enough is enough surely?

Then there is the dreadful trick or treating. (sorry I am on a roll!) Is it really okay to knock on a random stranger’s door at night trick or treating? You know what, it really does scare elderly residents and very young children. It is only fun if you are in on the joke.

Besides, I bet their parents are probably the ones who take offence when in the daytime the JWs come knocking. Intrusion is intrusion, but at night even more so, especially when opening up the door to a pack of menacing children.

The Church of England in one of its more thoughtful outspoken moments said recently: “Halloween trivialises evil”. I think it needs to be said loudly and clearly. Hallowe’en sucks as much as a ravenous vampire.

A writer in the Times said last year they saw a Jack the Ripper Hallowe’en costume on sale for £10.99. They commented: “They are still available online this year, with an adorable accessory kit of “doctor’s bag and bloody knife” — a nod to Jack’s penchant for draping women’s reproductive organs around their necks. Well, if you can’t have a giggle over serial killers, what’s the world coming to?”

So, harmless fun or a bad tasteless joke?

The most disturbing side to this all is that we are becoming desensitised to what is good or bad. The lines are blurred with our response being everything is acceptable in moderation. The trouble is Halloween is not moderate, just plain OTT…and annoying.

Of course the Church will not be listened to. Not with the current hostility of Humanist groups and celebrity New Atheists holding centre stage.

My fear is though when faith groups and the odd humourist writer in a quality newspaper stop putting up an opposite view I wonder what happens next. History is not littered with great examples when faith views are excluded.

For me personally, the real evil is in the exploitation of vulnerable people whose lives are already just about held together with duct tape and string.

It is easy to see Halloween as a fun distraction, but ‘evil’ doesn’t not always come with cloven feet, pointy tale, goatie beard and a trident, it is much more subtle and seductive, like consumerism and capital greed.

The alternative is to offer something inclusive and non-consumerist. Christians celebrate God’s Light coming into the world to expose the darkness, but it needs a little imagination to see what that practically looks like.

One thing I know it isn’t is preaching to young children that they are going to hell. Maybe a better place to start is to stand up to injustice and the exploitation of the weak in times of financial pressure and much uncertainty.

Last year a Rector in County Durham urged people to boycott Hallowe’en, as many children already live hard lives and “there is enough darkness and evil to be going on with”. Hallelujah to that.

ASD