Judging by the interviews on the radio, the watchword of those striking today over their public sector pensions is fairness.
Repeatedly over the last few days, union leaders, picketing workers and the compulsory âman-on-the-street-who-supports-the-strikeâ have essentially said about the changes the government are making: âItâs not fairâ.
This post isnât supporting or opposing the strike. Thereâll be Christians on either side of this political dispute. But isnât it interesting how âfairnessâ has become the word used to criticise policy? How deeply entrenched in our psyches is the notion that life ought to be fair?
How often do we honk our car horn at someone nipping in ahead of us, because, well, what theyâre doing isnât fair to us. Or become embittered about someone elseâs promotion because we feel weâre better at our job than them, and so whatâs happened isnât fair. We want life to be fair.
And then the gospel comes along and turns it all on its head. Because it says to us: You really, really, really donât want life to be fair. You really, really, really donât want God to treat you fairly.
âWe were by nature all objects of wrathâ (Ephesians 2 v 3). Treated fairly, we would all face Godâs right anger at our sin. If life were fair, we would all go to hell.
The gospel message is that life can be unfair:
âBut because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ ⌠it is by grace you have been savedâ (Ephesians 2 v 4-5, 8).
Sinners can receive mercy instead of wrath. Thatâs not âfairâ. Rebels can be loved by God. Thatâs not fair. God can treat imperfect people like us as perfect children like His Son, because His Son died in our place. Thatâs certainly not fair.
The best news of all time is that life doesnât have to be fair. We live in a world where sometimes weâre treated unfairly by others; if weâre Christians, we live in a world where we are always being treated unfairly by God. And we live in a world where God calls us to respond to unfairness in life with grace, with mercy, with love.
Thatâs a far, far better world to live in that one where everything is totally fair. Maybe Iâll stop at a picket line on the way home and point that outâŚ
We were beguiled by the adverts and then worn down by the children. So we finally relented and upgraded to a Tivo box. You know â like a Sky+ box â but for Christians (not as much money, and not owned by Big Brother Rupert).
So we could record the shows and movies we like and watch them when we want to. We can pause and rewind programmes on the fly and access a whole new world of online content. TV heaven awaits.
Or does it?
Iâve noticed three nett effects in the 3 weeks since the Virgin Upgrade Geezer drove off:
1. Programmes now take longer to watch.
Because we can rewind â we do! Tracking back and re-watching bits that we thought were funny, or missed when someone went out of the room to brew a cuppa. Admittedly, it also allows us to fast forward through the interminable ad breaks, but still â we inevitably finish watching something after it has long stopped broadcasting.
2. We watch more TV, not less.
When previously I spotted a film I would like to see that was broadcast late at night â I just didnât bother and went to bed. Now, I record it, and start watching after the dayâs work is done, and the teenagers are snug beneath their duvets. Invariably, I am now later in bed than before, having ticked off another of my â1001 cinematic experiences to have before I dieâ
3. I feel an unhealthy sense of debt towards unwatched programmes.
Because we can now record whole seasons of shows, I donât have the opportunity to miss out on an episode â I can (and therefore should) watch them all in sequence.
In short, I have discovered what I should have guessed in the first place. That another promise from the world that I would have my life enhanced and be set free by the payment of a slightly bigger subscription, and a shiny new piece of technology in my home, so easily turns into the opposite. Something that diminishes and enslaves me. Turns out that entertainment requires just as much discipline as work to enjoy it in a godly wayâif not more.
The next month is the biggest evangelistic opportunity of the year.
Between now and Christmas Day, hundreds of thousands will hear the gospel. Tens of thousands will resolve to take Jesus seriously, to look into Christianity, to sort out what they believe.
And by January, tens of thousands will probably have forgotten that resolution.
Itâs one of the perennial problems at Christmas. Amidst the wrapping paper, the party hats and the leftovers strewn over a million houses will also lie the peopleâs good intentions to go to church, or join a course, or read a book about Jesus, in the New Year.
Of course, it needs God to re-awaken the desire to get life and eternity sorted. But humanly speaking, this is one of the ways the evangelistic Christianity Explored website comes into its own.
Itâs a great bridge between Decemberâs carol service, nativity play, chats over mince pies with neighbours, and so on, and the New Year. It allows people to keep thinking about Jesus Christ in their own time, in their own way. It helps to keep the Lord on the agenda until January.
Three ways you can get people using the website this Christmas:
If you canât make these decisions for your church, why not forward this post on to your pastor?
Letâs pray that the Lord would use your outreach events before Christmas, and use the website over Christmas, to bring many people to look at His Son and come to see who He is in 2012!
So thereâs an elderly person in your congregation (Iâm guessing more than one). They donât seem to get out much. Few other than the professionals pop in. What, as a brother or sister in Christ, can you do to help? Here are 5 ideas:
1. Ask them what they need
Elderly people are people first and elderly second. Most are lucid and quite able to make decisions about their own life ... itâs putting those decisions into action that is hard. So the key to good support is finding out what care would be the most useful.
2. Be practical
I recently asked an elderly neighbour how I could help. âCould you come in regularly to straighten the cushions and seat covers please?â came the reply. I could hardly believe my ears! Could that be for real? But all day every day that lady sits and stares at empty armchairs in her living room and the fact that they looked messy bothered her. One simple act that takes just a few seconds of my time makes her view one of a pleasant living room rather than an unkempt one. Not every elderly person will ask for that â some may find it hard to ask for anything - but it may be that something small, simple and practical makes all the difference. Dusting, ironing, shopping or gardening can be invaluable.
3. Be spiritual
Being elderly can mean getting to church is tough. A lift may help but for some just leaving the house once a week is way too hard. But lots can be done to deliver notice-sheets, provide sermon or service recordings (on CD) and ensure that large-print Bible-reading notes are available each quarter. Home communions (where 4 or 5 members of the congregation not just the minister come to visit) can be great times of fellowship. And there is no reason why a housebound person canât host a Bible study group or prayer triplet as long as other members are willing to chip in making the coffee and tidying up afterwards.
4. Be family
Often what frail and elderly people want most is someone to talk to. The simple act of popping round for an hour â preferably with a couple of sticky buns - can lighten the most difficult day. Or a phonecall can do just as well ... what better way to use that half-hour commute?
5. Be fun
And finally, holiday clubs donât just need to be for the kids at church. Themed activity-weeks can be great for the elderly too. Trips to local places of interest can be put on. The church hall can be flung open for music afternoons, flower-arranging workshops, dances, talks by engaging speakers, home cooked meals, watching the footie and fun board-games all surrounding a great gospel message. Many housebound people will be able to manage to come for a âspecial morningâ â maybe bringing their elderly non-Christian neighbours with them (youâre never too old for a spot of evangelism) - but even if they canât, the fun can be taken to them by team members popping in with a meal to be reheated, a CD, a board game and a bunch of roses.
One of my favourite people in the world is a little old lady down my road. Sheâs 87, housebound, in constant pain and utterly reliant on carers (paid and unpaid). Her days largely revolve around her somewhat overweight cat and the television (In The Night Garden and Heart Beat being particular favourites). Yet a more vibrant human being you are unlikely to find. Her sharp wit, political opinions, biblical reflections and engaging stories of years gone by never fail to bring a smile to my face. And if I am having a hard day, I like nothing better than to curl up on one of her old armchairs and soak in her advice. Sheâs been alive more than double the number of years I have so itâs not a great surprise that she has mastered the sort of wisdom that still eludes me!
The trouble is, she is just the kind of person who news reports say we are failing here in the UK. While some elderly people receive excellent support, others it seems have to endure standards of âcareâ that indicate that the old and infirm are barely seen as human by some. A saddening and sickening fact.
The Bible encourages us to aspire to much higher standards of care when it comes to the elderly. It acknowledges that old age is a time of vulnerability (Psalm 71:9). And encourages all people to honour their parents (Exodus 20:12) â including setting a precedent for caring for them in their frailer years (Genesis 45:9-11). It was the custom of the early church to tend to the needs of widows who had no family of their own (1 Tim 5:3-8). And we are all exhorted to support any fellow-believer in need as part of the natural outworking of our faith (Matthew 25:31-46), not forgetting to look to the needs of unbelievers too (Luke 10:25-37). Which all in all means that Christians are called to be passionate about supporting, honouring and encouraging the many in our churches and communities who have age-related struggles.
When the duty of care falls on a small minority, the burden can be immense. We shouldnât be naive about the pressures that can bring. But when shared out among a community of believers, the duty can become a joy. In our next post, weâll be looking at some practical hints on how to do just that ...
Happy Thanksgiving to all our American friends from everyone on the team of The Good Book Company.
"Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever." (Psalm 107:1)
This is a double-rainbow, where the rainbow in the sky reflects off the water to create another rainbow arc in the sky.
"O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens." Psalm 8 v 1
A prominent headteacher has described teenage culture as a âmoral abyssâ.
Whatâs interesting, and important, is that Dr Helen Wright didnât describe the culture her girls are growing up in as a âmoral vacuumâ (a phrase we hear, inside and outside churches, fairly often). And so Dr Wright is, probably without realizing, touching on a crucial and often-forgotten aspect of the biblical doctrine of sin:
When we turn away from God as our moral authority, we always turn towards something else.
Thereâs no such thing as neutralânature abhors a moral vacuum. Our morality is always directed and defined by something. That something should be God. If it isnât, it must be something elseâand the something else wonât work.
So Jeremiah talks about turning away from the âspring of living waterâ (God) and turning to try to drink from âcisterns that cannot hold waterâ (Jeremiah 2 v 13). In Romans 1 we find that the âturning toâ is part of Godâs judgment for âturning awayâ from Him (Romans 1 v 28).
We see this most starkly of all at Jesusâ trial. The crowd demand for Christ to be crucified, and ask for Barabbas, a murderer, to be released to them (Luke 23 v 18-25).
They donât only not choose the Lord of lifeâin doing so, they do choose a bringer of death.
In the UK, we seem to be further from Christian morality than we have been for centuries.
And we havenât replaced Christâs authority with a vacuum, where weâre free to choose how to live, what morality to breathe. We find ourselves in an abyss, where weâre trapped by the consequences of what we longed for, damaged by the very culture that we chose.
So far, Dr Wright, Iâm right with you. But how sad that your conclusion is that âonly education could break the cycleâ. Education can do many things. But it canât save us from ourselves, our choices, our sinful society.
For that, Dr Wright, you need forgiveness for the âturning awayâ. You need to be âturned toâ a God-directed morality and culture.
You need the Son to die and rise for you, you need the Spirit to dwell and work in you. You need the gospel.
Education is not the saviour from the moral abyss. God is.
