tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9898901660479409602024-03-17T13:35:32.605+00:00PaddyAnglicanThe Musings and Rants of an Irish Anglican PriestStephen Neillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15130425037498473898noreply@blogger.comBlogger435125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-989890166047940960.post-25623735201652642872024-03-17T13:34:00.006+00:002024-03-17T13:34:39.856+00:00St Patrick's Day Sermon - St Patrick the Immigrant<blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://youtu.be/Lw5PhRxDWtI">Click here for video</a></span></p></blockquote>Stephen Neillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15130425037498473898noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-989890166047940960.post-12476792687359027752023-11-26T14:09:00.000+00:002023-11-26T14:09:02.476+00:00Sermon - Christ the King and Reflections on violence in Dublin in recent days<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://youtu.be/xh5hKZI1hUk">See Video of Sermon here</a></span></div>Stephen Neillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15130425037498473898noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-989890166047940960.post-67737409112517496092023-09-20T23:40:00.003+01:002023-09-26T10:31:22.238+01:00Locked out and Locked in the Setanta Q Park Dawson Street<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 15pt;">Update - Have had a written apology and an undertaking to give retraining to staff concerned from Q Park and offer of some free parking.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 15pt;">Pleasantly surprised to get a prompt and positive response :)</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 15pt;">So tonight I headed into the city for the first time
in many months for a meeting and parked in the Setanta Q Park on Dawson Street –
I have a toll tag which includes parking which saves the trip to the ticket
machine when exiting. All went well on entering the carpark but leaving was a
different matter! I arrived back at the pedestrian entrance to the carpark at
about 7.40pm only to find the door locked. The only way to enter was to enter
the last four digits of your parking ticket but as I had entered via toll tag I
had no ticket! But there was an intercom which I pressed a number of times and
nobody answered! But all was not lost – there was an emergency number which I dialled
and a man answered and was bemused when I explained my predicament – However a
few moments later another pedestrian exited the door and I was able to get in
so all was well! Little did I know the worst was yet to come!</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 15pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">So I drove up to the barrier and expected it to lift
as my tag beeped as usual but nothing happened – I reversed and tried again,
and again, and again but no joy! So then I looked for the help button on the
exit terminal but where it should have been was an empty hole and no sign of a
button! At this point I reversed and drove back into the carpark and reparked
and decided to search for a staff member. But there no joy either – Nobody was
in the staff office! So I went back to the barrier and saw another motorist
having the same issue – In his case he had prebooked parking and the machine
would not recognise his ticket – He suggested we went back to the ticket
machines and tried the intercom there which we both did and we both reported the
missing help button on the exit terminal. Neither operator would accept our
word and insisted multiple times that <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the button was there as they had had calls earlier
in the evening from it. We both persisted but they effectively said we were
either liars or idiots! So we went back to the exit terminal and the other
motorist managed to with great difficulty reach the call button which had
fallen into the machine but he said it was gone out of reach – however miraculously
it activated and he managed to get out and I then spoke to the operator and she
asked for my reg which I gave and she told me to drive back up to the barrier –
I did this but nothing happened and the button was beyond reach and so I reversed
again and reparked yet again and then once again rang the intercom on the
ticket machine. I got the same operator who again refused to accept my
explanation that the call button on the exit terminal was gone and then accused
me of being abusive – I was certainly exasperated at this stage and apologised
not because it was warranted but because I did not want to spend the night in
the carpark and she said she would dial into the exit terminal if I drove up to
it again – I did this and as I was leaving I asked that she would report the
issue with the missing call button but no reply except to lift the barrier – I can
forgive technical issues but the dismissive and patronising attitude towards paying
customers is not acceptable – Get your act together Q Park – This was an
example of the worst of customer service!<o:p></o:p></span></p>Stephen Neillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15130425037498473898noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-989890166047940960.post-29989440476473792142023-05-21T13:46:00.006+01:002023-05-21T13:46:53.075+01:00Ascension Sunday Sermon with reflection on Navan Assault and Inch Migrant Blockade<p style="text-align: center;"> <a href="https://youtu.be/fAKV3SiIwVM"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Ascension Sunday Sermon Video</span></a></p>Stephen Neillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15130425037498473898noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-989890166047940960.post-45097141403334495042023-05-18T16:57:00.003+01:002023-05-18T16:57:51.947+01:00In the wake of the Navan Bullying/Assault case - A Personal Perspective<p> <span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">My heart aches for that young man in Navan so brutally assaulted - Bullying seems somehow an inadequate word to describe it and yet that is what it is and it needs to be taken much more seriously in all our schools. I speak as one who was bullied relentlessly for a period of 6 years in a very well known private Protestant Dublin school (4th class Primary to 4th Year Secondary) and where it was not taken seriously by those who had the responsibility of care for us the pupils. </span><span style="color: #050505; font-family: inherit; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a style="color: #385898; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit;" tabindex="-1"></a></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">I was the new boy, the fat kid, the vicar's son and I became a target for the bullies - Every day I faced beatings, being spat on, a wedgie every time we had PE or sport and constant mockery - It was soul destroying and I did consider suicide more than once. They were the most miserable years of my life and only for a few good friends I would not be here today. It took me years to get over it and two years of intensive counselling right into my mid twenties before I was truly able to move on. That may all be ahead of this young man from Navan and I pray he has the support he needs to get through this nightmare. I changed schools twice more before finishing secondary school due to my father moving posts. Both (The first a Quaker school and the second a Roman Catholic Co-ed convent) were wonderful and so different. In neither case was bullying tolerated or was it allowed to flourish - It didn't and doesn't have to be this way! </span></p><div dir="auto" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Funnily enough I was invited back to my old school to talk about bullying by one of the teachers who knew my story and thankfully the culture had changed and I believe bullying was finally recognised for what it is: Potentially life threatening and definitely life affecting mental and physical abuse. </div><div dir="auto" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">I have over the years met many of my former bullies and most have never said anything about their former actions - Maybe they don't remember - Maybe they choose to ignore it - Or maybe they are so ashamed they can't bring themselves to mention it - I hope it is the latter not because I bear them any ill will - One of the things counselling taught me was that I couldn't let them live in my head - but because it is utterly shameful and damages and sometimes destroys lives. I do hope this is a tipping point and that bullying will no longer be tolerated in our schools where our children have the right to presume that they are safe.</div>Stephen Neillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15130425037498473898noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-989890166047940960.post-84816715827613556312023-01-13T21:04:00.001+00:002023-01-13T21:04:22.776+00:00Overcoming Negativity<p><span style="font-size: medium;"> The recent wave of vile and senseless
racist protests against the refugee community in Ireland is
profoundly disturbing but in the last 24 hours there are signs of
hope and an alternative and more representative narrative emerging as
the newly formed Ballymun for All and Ballyfermot for All among
others reclaim the recently hijacked voice of the citizens of this
land and affirm that this is still 'Ireland of the Welcomes'.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: medium;">It is so important that the wider local
community in these and other places are fighting back against a small
group of hate filled individuals who are misrepresenting the people
of Ireland and spreading fear and hatred though zenophobic propaganda
and misinformation.
</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Although those who promote this hatred
are in a minority the power of negativity (The Negativity Bias) has
long been recognised scientifically as much more enduring than its
opposite of possitivity and in order to overcome this negativity we
have to make a significant and disproportionate effort to overcome
it.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: medium;">I first saw this demonstrated some 20
years ago when I was a guest at the consecation of the first openly
gay Anglican bishop in Durham, New Hampshire, USA. Bishop Gene
Robinson who is a personal friend of mine and who faced death threats
on the day and had to wear a bulletproof vest during the ceremony and
bravely faced a very dangerous situation throughout the liturgy. His
consecration was heavily protested by the notorious Westboro Baptist
Church and I and all who attended had to walk through their vile and
hateful protest but it was entirely mitigated by a counter and much
larger positive protest by students from the University of New
Hampshire who quite literally demonstrated how Love triumphs over
fear and hatred.
</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: medium;">This is what I was reminded of when I
saw the local communities in Ballyfermot and Ballymun rising up to
reclaim their voice and with it the priority of Love. They have set
us all an example and we must follow by refusing to let hate win and
to give overwhelming voice to the Love that is at the heart of true
community. Otherwise if we leave a void it will be filled by hatred
and negativity – We cannot be passive and assume that the greater
good will prevail. Let us protest for Love and against Hate!</span></p>Stephen Neillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15130425037498473898noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-989890166047940960.post-91044614794425492842022-05-29T09:04:00.005+01:002022-05-29T14:40:00.773+01:00My Sermon for the Sunday after Ascension - 29th May 2022 - We are in Christ so lets live that reality!<p></p><p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"></p><p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://youtu.be/Lqq8zVkIIDY?t=879">CLICK HERE FOR SERMON VIDEO</a></span></p><p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 16pt;">'</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 16pt;">The
glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be
one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may
become completely one'</span></p>
<p class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> Unity
or Oneness is a constantly recurring theme in the New Testament and
it is especially emphasised in John's Gospel and most especially in
the passage we heard today from John 17. Jesus desires and asks of
his father that all may be one. For Jesus the goal is one of ultimate
reconcilliation when all are united through participation in the
divine Unity of God. Despite the misguided behaviour of so many of
his followers then and now who seek to divide the World on the basis
of those who are in and those who are out Jesus is conversely about
drawing people together, creating a unity of diversity and also
revealing the fundamental unity of the whole of Creation.</span></span></span></p>
<p class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">We
have a long way to go to achieve that unity when we look at the state
of our World today – The Ukraine is an obvious example where one
side has denied any sense of common human identity or unity by the
most terrible and gatuitous acts of murder which ignore the humanity
of those they kill. </span></span></span>
</p>
<p class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">So
too is the Texas school massacre of last Tuesday. We have seen
displayed here once again the fundamental disunity in a nation which
is at war with itself over its historic love affair with guns – And
this is rooted in a mindset where the individuals right to bear arms
trumps all other rights and responsibilities. </span></span></span>
</p>
<p class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The
tragic results of this and so many mass shootings before this is the
most obvious demonstration of how exercising our rights with no
regard for others or for any sense of unity can have very destructive
consequences.</span></span></span></p>
<p class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">It
is of course an extreme example and we rightly condemn it but it is
not unrelated to the philosophy which underpins most western society
which is the cult of the individual or in some cases one group of
individuals over and against another group of individuals. Unity is
not high on our agenda. We see that ironically as much as anywhere
else in church circles where certain groups are more concerned about
being doctrinally right than being in right relationship with others
– we see it in our increasingly disfunctional and broken politics
which is so often single issue driven and takes no account of other
issues or people for that matter - we see it in the failure to
respect the rest of Creation in the way we live on this planet and
are now reaping the consequences in terms of global warming and
climate change - we live in a world of THEM AND US and for many
people that is not a problem – they see no issue with it – For me
to succeed somebody else has to fail – Unity is not the goal but
rather my personal realisation of my goals and God help anyone who
gets in the way! </span></span></span>
</p>
<p class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">And
that is the kind of world in which such tragedies as the Texas
massacre will continue to take place – a world where my individual
rights are both the route and destination of life – and this is the
predominant philosophy in our world today and it is antithetical to
any possibility of unity, reconcilliation or healing.</span></span></span></p>
<p class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> Where
did this come from? Ironically Christianity had a large part to play
in this and it goes right back to the events of that 1st Easter.</span></span></span></p>
<p class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">As
you know this is the Sunday after the Ascension and the Ascension
like many other events in Jesus life is depicted very clearly in art
and iconography deriving from the Gospel stories – Indeed right
through from the Annunciation to the Ascension all the key moments in
Jesus life and ministry are recorded in the Gospels and by extension
in art and iconography with the exception of one event which is not
described in the Gospels but only its aftermath and that is of course
Easter – the single most important event in the life of Jesus and
the calendar of the Church. </span></span></span>
</p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> However
as the New Testament theologians John Dominic Crossan and his wife
Sarah Sexton Crossan, in their book Resurrecting Easter, have
observed it was inevitable that in the absence of any direct record
of the Ressurection the Christian imagination eventually created a
direct image of Christ's Ressurrection............In fact 2, one in
AD 400 and the other around AD 700 but they were very different. The
first focuses on Christ alone and is based on the empty tomb and is
seen as part of the individual ressurrection tradition whereas the
second is part of the universal Resurrection tradition because in it
Jesus raises all of humanity with him. In it (and here I quote):
</span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">'he
reaches out towards Adam and Eve, the biblical parents and symbols
for humanity itself, raises them up, and leads them out of Hades.' </span></i></span></span></span>
</p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: black;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;"> </span></i></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Although
the universal image appears initially to be a later one, the Crossans
also note that this universal concept was in circulation at the time
of the earlier individual image as demonstrated in the writings of
St Ambrose of Milan - this next extract written on the death of his
brother in 379 - ' </span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">If
Christ did not rise for us, then he did not rise at all, since he had
no need of it just for himself. In him the world arose, in him heaven
arose, in him the earth arose. For there will be a new heaven and a
new earth</span></i></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">'
</span></span></span></span></span>
</p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">..............and
later they quote the Gospel of Nicodemus which is one of the Gospels
that did not make it into the canon of scriptures: '</span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">Why
then do you marvel at the Ressurection of Jesus? What is marvellous
is not that he arose but that he did not arise alone, that he raised
many other dead ones who appeared to many in Jerusalem'</span></i></span></span></span></p>
<p class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">While
some might dismiss this because it is not included in the canon of
Scripture its basis is absolutely concrete and is found in two New
Testament verses about which very little is ever said:</span></span></span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><a name="en-NRSVUE-24179"></a>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Matthew
27:52-53: </span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><b> </b></span></span><span style="color: black;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">The
tombs also were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen
asleep were raised. </span></i></span><span style="color: black;"><i><b> </b></i></span><span style="color: black;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">After
his resurrection they came out of the tombs and entered the holy city
and appeared to many</span></i></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">.</span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 150%;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> So
it is clear that this much more unified and universal vision of
Salvation is a genuine part of the Biblical and early Christian
understanding of what happened at the Resurrection and the fact that
the narrower concept of individual Ressurection and Salvation held
sway in the Western Church had huge implications not only for our
theology but for the whole of our Western society in its emphasis on
individualism. It is important to note that the opposite is the case
in the Eastern Orthodox tradition which is very much in the universal
tradition.</span></span></span></p>
<p class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 150%;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">And
yet despite the triumph of this narrow view of salvation there is so
much in the New Testament that points towards a more generous view
and dare I say it and as the Crossans suggest in their writings a
view that is closer to what Jesus intended and pointed.</span></span></span></p>
<p class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 150%;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: medium;"> In
his recent book 'The Universal Christ' Fr Richard Rohr, who is I
think perhaps the most insightful theologian at this time, has dealt
with this</span><span> </span></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: medium;">very
issue and I find his thinking exciting and compelling:</span></p>
<p class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">His
treatment of Paul and his writings is especially helpful. Referring
to Paul's conversion he says: </span></span></span>
</p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: black;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">'The
deep and abiding significance of Saul's encounter is that he hears
Jesus speak as if theres a moral equivalence between Jesus and the
people Saul is persecuting. The voice twice calls the </span></i></span><span style="color: black;"><i><b>people</b></i></span><span style="color: black;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">
“me”! From that day forward , this astounding reversal of
perspective became the foundation for Paul's evolving worldview and
his exciting discovery of “the Christ”. This fundamental
awakening moved Saul from his beloved, but ethnic bound religion of
Judaism towards a universal view of religion, so much so that he
changed his Hebrew name to its Latin form 'Paul'</span></i></span></span></span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: black;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;"> </span></i></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Richard
Rohr notes that the key phrase in Paul's writings is '</span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><b>In
Christ'</b></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
which he uses more than any other in his letters, 164 times in total
and Rohr summarises the meaning of this phrase: '</span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">Humanity
has never been seperate from God – unless and except by its own
negative choice. All of us without exception are living inside a
cosmic identity, already in place, that is driving and guiding us
forward. We are all [in Christ], willingly or unwillingly, happily or
unhappily, consciously or unconsciously.</span></i></span></span></span></p>
<p class="western" style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>Paul
seemed to understand that the lone individual was far too small
insecure and short lived to bear either the weight of glory or the
burden of sin. Only the whole [Body] could carry such a cosmic
mystery of constant loss and renewal. Paul's knowledge of 'in Christ'
allowed him to give God's universal story a name, a focus, a love,
and a certain victorious direction so that coming generations could
trustingly jump on this cosmic and collective ride.</i></span></span></span></p>
<p class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">I
don't know about you but the first time I read that it changed my
whole perspective on Paul and his writings.</span></span></span></p>
<p class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">And
its not just in Paul that we find this broader wider vision of
fundamental unity. In St Mark's Gospel Jesus tells the disciples to
proclaim the good news to “all creation” or “every creature”
(not just humans) and Rohr notes that Paul takes this up in
Colossians 1:23: </span></span></span>
</p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">'</span></span></span><span style="color: #3d3d3d;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">if
you continue in your faith, established and firm, and do not move
from the hope held out in the gospel. This is the gospel that you
heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven,
and of which I, Paul, have become a servant.</span></i></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
</span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">'</span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">However we have sadly lost so much of this Biblical tradition – Richard
Rohr comments that '</span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">Paul's
brilliant understanding of a Corporate Christ, and thus our cosmic
identity , was soon lost as early Christians focussed more and more
on Jesus alone and even apart from the eternal flow of the Trinity,
which is finally theologically unworkable. Christ forever keeps Jesus
firmly inside the Trinity, not a mere later add on or a somewhat
arbritary incarnation. Trinitarianism keeps God as Relationship
Itself from the very beginning, and not a mere monarch.</span></i></span></span></span></p>
<p class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Rohr
also places St Augustine within this more universal tradition which
might horrify those who revel in his other legacy of the theology of
Original Sin! In his 'Retractions' Augustine said this:</span></span></span></p>
<p class="western" style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>For
what is now called the Christian religion existed even among the
ancients and was not lacking from the beginning of the human race”</i></span></span></span></p>
<p class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Any
reading of the prologue to St John's Gospel tells us that Augustine
was right:</span></span></span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: black;"> <span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i><b>In
the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word
was God. He was in the beginning with God. All
things came into being through him, and without him not one thing
came into being. </b></i></span></span></span></p><p class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">In
support of Augustine Rohr asks rhetorically:</span></span></span></p>
<p class="western" style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>'[Were]
native peoples on all continents and isolated islands for millenia
just throwaways or dress rehearsals for us? Is God really that
ineffective boring and stingy? Does the Almighty one operate from a
scarsity model of love and forgiveness? Did the Divinity need to wait
for Ethnic Orthodox, Roman Catholics, European Protestants and
American Evangelicals to appear before the divine love affair could
begin? I cannot imagine! ....................Authentic God experience
always expands your seeing and never constricts it.... in God you do
not include less and less; you always see and love more and more.'</i></span></span></span></p>
<p class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">And
so we come back to today's Gospel and that prayer of Jesus which I
think speaks emphatically of a God of all things and all peoples, a
Universal Christ who calls each one of us to live in the Unity that
is already and always was a reality and so bring healing and
reconcilliation to a World that is already in Christ.</span></span></span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: black;">‘</span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: black;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">Righteous
Father, the world does not know you, but I know you; and these know
that you have sent me. I made your name known to them, and I
will make it known, so that the love with which you have loved me may
be in them, and I in them.’</span></i></span></span></span></p>
<p class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">And
finally today's collect for the Ascension reminds us that we are
forever in Christ:</span></span></span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: black;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">Mercifully
give us faith to know<br />that, as he promised,<br />he abides with us
on earth to the end of time;</span></i></span></span></span></p>
<p class="western" style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 150%;"><br />
</p>
<p class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 150%;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">How
different would our World look if we lived this reality that Christ
is all in all and we are all one in Christ? – That is our calling
and it is never to late to start! Amen.</span></span></span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 150%;"><br /><br />
</p><br /><p></p><p></p>Stephen Neillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15130425037498473898noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-989890166047940960.post-69721271959174065882022-04-17T01:28:00.000+01:002022-04-17T01:28:04.308+01:00Easter Sermon 2022 - Easter after Bucha and Sligo<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://youtu.be/bjtBH8XSUnI?t=822"> Click here for Sermon Video</a></span></p><p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Easter
Sermon 2022</span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: medium;">I
am sure that I am not alone in finding this Easter more challenging
than usual – A couple of months ago I was certainly looking forward
to it – the first Easter in three years without the strictures of
Covid measures and lockdowns was an exciting and joyous prospect. But
then the war in Ukraine happened and with it our world has been
thrown into yet another series of crises and a whole nation is
fighting for its very survival in the face of unspeakable evil. The
revelations about the horrible massacres in Bucha and other cities
made me ask myself whether we should or could celebrate Easter while
so many people were trapped in a long Good Friday experience.</span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: medium;">And
closer to home we have had the ugly </span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">spectre
of hate crime and in particular homophobic murder come to the fore
with the tragic events in Sligo. And I have to say as a Church of
Ireland priest I am not comfortable with how our own church has in
the past and still today discriminates against those of diverse
sexuality and has played a part in feeding the fear and hatred that
ultimately results in crimes like the murders of Aidan Moffitt &
Michael Snee. So there is a lot of darkness...........</span></span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"> But
we </span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><b>are
here tonight/today</b></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">
and we </span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><b>are
</b></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">celebrating
the Resurrection, </span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><b>as
we must, </b></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">because
the alternative is to give in to the darkness and the hate and </span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><b>that
is not an option</b></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">.
</span>
</span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">When
I shared my thoughts about the difficulty of celebrating Easter in
the current context more than one of my friends wisely pointed out
that it is always Good Friday somewhere on this planet. Its just that
we are more aware of the plight of some than we are of others.</span></span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br />
</span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">If
Christ is not being crucified on the Streets of Bucha then he is in
Aleppo in Syria, or among the Rohinga Muslims subjected to genocide
by the Burmese military, or in the terrible conflicts in Ethiopia,
Southern Sudan and the Congo. </span>
</span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">And
yet these tragedies do not impact on us in the same way as the
Ukraine war has done and that is understandable if not questionable –
We identify more closely with the people of the Ukraine because they
are more like us – they are europeans in all but name and they look
more like us – Of course it shouldn't be this way – All human
beings of whatever race, ethnicity or religion are equally precious
in God's sight and while our compassion as a nation for the Ukranian
people is commendable it does raise uncomfortable questions about all
those other situations where Christ is being crucified in our world
and our response has been less than audible.</span></span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"> Turning
to the Gospel from John that first Easter was mired in chaos and
grief and bewilderment – The story was over as far as most of his
followers were concerned – Jesus (their great hope) had died and
now the final indignity the discovery that his body has apparently
been stolen – the distraught plea of Mary Magdalene first to the
disciples and then to the angels in the tomb captures the mood so
perfectly: </span>
</span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #010000;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">They
have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.’
</span></i></span></span></span><span style="color: #010000;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">(the
words of one utterly broken)</span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="color: #010000;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">And
it is then that Jesus reveals himself to Mary and she recognises him:
when he addresses her 'Mary' and she responds 'Rabbouni' (Teacher) an
acknowledgement that </span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: #010000;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><b>the
story is not over – </b></span></span></span></span><span style="color: #010000;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">he
still has more to teach her.</span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">Easter
is fundamentally about refusing to close the pages on our story and
God's story – stories that are fundamentally intertwined and
undergirded by the Hope that allows us to imagine the next chapter.
That is not to say we can leave the suffering and hurt behind –
There is no Resurrection without Good Friday but seen through the
lens of Easter, Good Friday is not the last chapter which it may
appear to be – There is more to come. </span>
</span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> Our
lesson from Isaiah 65 paints a wonderful picture of the unfolding of
God's story and our story and it one in which justice and peace are
central and one in which we are assured they will come to fruition:</span></span></p>
<p class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: #010000;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">For
I am about to create new heavens and a new
earth;<br />...................<br />no more shall the sound of weeping
be heard.....or the cry of distress.<br />No more shall there be in it
an infant that lives but a few days,<br />or an old person who
does not live out a lifetime;<br />for one who dies at a hundred years
will be considered a youth,<br />and one who falls short of a hundred
will be considered accursed.</span></span></span></p>
<p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="color: #010000;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">They
shall build houses and inhabit them;<br />they shall plant vineyards
and eat their fruit.<br />They shall not build and another
inhabit;<br />they shall not plant and another eat;<br />for like
the days of a tree shall the days of my people be,<br />and my chosen
shall long enjoy the work of their hands.<br />They shall not labour in
vain,<br />or bear children for calamity;</span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: navy;"><span lang="zxx"><a><span style="color: #0000bb;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">*</span></span></span></span></span></a></span></span><span style="color: #010000;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><br />for
they shall be offspring blessed by the </span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: #010000;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Lord</span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: #010000;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">—<br />and
their descendants as well.<br />.................<br />The wolf and the
lamb shall feed together,<br />the lion shall eat straw like
the ox;<br />but the serpent—its food shall be dust!<br />They
shall not hurt or destroy<br />on all my holy mountain,</span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-right: 2.65cm; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: #010000;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">says
the </span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: #010000;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Lord</span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: #010000;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">.</span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br />
</span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">That
is the story of which we are a part and that is the only story that
can help us move beyond Good Friday to this Easter Sunday which we
celebrate tonight/today. I cannot help but think of a wonderful
sermon preached by Tony Campolo in which he spoke to this very issue
– The Sermon was called 'Its Friday but Sunday's Coming' and I
think in challenging times it is a motto to live by – Its Friday
but Sunday's Coming' It reminds us that Easter changes everthing –
We are people of Hope and Resurrection – people who believe that
the story is not over – people who will not let Hate win but
celebrate the unstoppable Love of God that will ultimately prevail. </span>
</span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Amen.</span></span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><br />
</p>Stephen Neillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15130425037498473898noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-989890166047940960.post-50497016819764813432022-04-05T12:26:00.007+01:002022-04-05T12:41:05.397+01:00Thoughts in the light of the Bucha Massacre<p><span style="font-size: medium;"> <span>Easter
is late this year but Good Friday has come early – Christ has been
crucified again, this time on the streets of Bucha in the Ukraine and
not just once but time after time as people of all ages lie dead in
the streets with their hands tied behind their backs and a bullet in
the back of their heads or strewn over a bicyle or shopping cart
where they fell or in black sacks in hastily dug trenches. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">I can't
get these images out of my head as I go about my daily tasks. They
overshadow everything, as they should for this is all they have left
on this earth and I cannot deny them that – I cannot turn away –
I must see them and acknowledge that they too were only days ago like
me living breathing people who even amidst the horrors of war had
hopes and dreams of a better future. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Everything I do today seems
hollow and empty – I am in the supermarket choosing something for
dinner and I wonder were some of those lifeless bodies out looking
for food when evil men on a whim decided to end their lives. I am not
sure what I bought in the shop and it doesn't really matter because
it seems somehow wrong that I should take pleasure in eating food
that others may have died in the pursuit of. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"> I consider going for a
walk and perhaps to take a few photographs of some of the beautiful
countryside near where I live but I realise that this is not a day
for beauty – I and we have to live with this terrible brokeness and
horror – While these bodies lie on the street there is no beauty
anywhere! – There is but a terrible darkness and for a time I and
we have to be in this darkness alongside our sisters and brothers who
are still being murdered and raped and tortured by the forces of
evil. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">I want to see an end to this Good Friday and look forward to
Easter Hope and Resurrection but at the moment that seems a long way
off and too soon to contemplate – While this slaughter continues
part of me wonders would it be blasphemous to celebrate Easter in
less than 2 weeks time? </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Can we proclaim the Resurrection while
children and women and men are being slaughtered on our doorstep? I
truly do not know how to do that and yet honour those whose corpses
lie rotting on the streets of Bucha, while they and their families
are still living Good Friday.</span></p>Stephen Neillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15130425037498473898noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-989890166047940960.post-77346426338700471862022-01-16T15:26:00.004+00:002022-01-16T15:26:57.530+00:00A tale of two women - Ashling & Mary (A response to the murder of Ashling Murphy) <p style="text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhf6fRlMh1idbWUjPQXwMxTpJbhIeobuWb3Ciqx7N1eZdvn5WVGboL-JsIwq8Bwi8WuNzTVXSct1LrRBY4u3zNBfsSJ4n_2L03seHUHaLMHfcOJFM4BjcC6_wsOabs-Rj76owuIYD5Xsl4v6piGZR4vSLwu75yphft3Xfm4_GuNB733Nuw9qpT5ywut-A=s620" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="330" data-original-width="620" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhf6fRlMh1idbWUjPQXwMxTpJbhIeobuWb3Ciqx7N1eZdvn5WVGboL-JsIwq8Bwi8WuNzTVXSct1LrRBY4u3zNBfsSJ4n_2L03seHUHaLMHfcOJFM4BjcC6_wsOabs-Rj76owuIYD5Xsl4v6piGZR4vSLwu75yphft3Xfm4_GuNB733Nuw9qpT5ywut-A=w451-h240" width="451" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: x-large;"><a href="https://youtu.be/2H2kv8zGnFo?t=634"> SERMON VIDEO CLICK HERE</a></span></b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: x-large;">Text of Sermon</span></b></p><p style="text-align: center;">
</p><p align="JUSTIFY" class="western" style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 150%; text-decoration: none;">
<br />
</p>
<p class="western" style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 150%; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-size: large;">It would be very difficult to
stand in any pulpit in this land this Sunday and not mention the
horrific murder of Aisling Murphy. We wanted to move on from the
monotone of Covid conversations but this event is not what any of us
anticipated or imagined – It is just too awful to contemplate! And
yet we must – we owe at least that and a lot more to Aisling
Murphy.</span></p>
<p class="western" style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 150%; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-size: large;">And while this very specific
kind of event is rare the fear felt by women on a daily basis is
clearly far greater than many of us imagined and I include myself in
that – It has been a sad revelation to hear women talk of how when
alone they carry their keys between their fingers to use in self
defence (my own wife told me this week that she does this), how they
consciously avoid going out in the dark or walking alone because of
the possibility that they may be attacked, raped and or killed by a
man. And their fear is justified – It rarely happens in plain view
but as we are finally acknowledging attacks and assaults by men are
the real experience of a very large number of women.</span></p>
<p class="western" style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 150%; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-size: large;"> Also very sobering is the
realisation that casual sexism and objectification of women is part
of the same problem - yes at the lower end of the graph but any
behaviour which demeans or mocks women and makes them lesser human
beings than their male counterparts does in a subtle way contribute
to the mindset that taken to its extreme allows a man to attack, rape
or kill a woman.</span></p>
<p class="western" style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 150%; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-size: large;">And of course there is also that
characteristic of a Patriarchal society that is inclined to write
women out of history and the church has ben especially guilty of that
in ignoring the significant role of women in the early church, often
glossed over and even hidden. That too is part of the same problem as
it takes identity and agency away from women and makes them lesser
beings.</span></p>
<p class="western" style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 150%; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></p>
<p class="western" style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 150%; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Sometimes these failings seem
quite innocent but their significance cannot be underestimated in
creating a culture where women do not feel safe. </span></p>
<p class="western" style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 150%; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-size: large;"> Some years ago I was conducting
a wedding (in my previous parish) and it was inter-church and I was
assisted by a Roman Catholic priest who was a relative of the grooms
family. As is my practice I shared as much of the liturgy with him as
possible and among the things I invited him to do was the
introductory preface of the service.</span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">You
will probably recall the line in the preface which is inspired by
today's Gospel story: '</span></span></span><span><i><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Our
Lord Jesus Christ was himself a guest at a wedding feast in Cana</span></span></i></span><span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">'
– At this point my ecumenical colleague added with pronounced
emphasis these words</span></span></span><span><span style="text-decoration: none;"><b>
'As was his Mother Mary'.</b></span></span></span></p>
<p class="western" style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 150%; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-size: large;">I smiled to myself at what I
assumed to be him putting the stamp of his own tradition on the
service – I was probably one of the few people who noticed it but
on rereading that Gospel story of that event and in the light of the
tragic death of Aisling Murphy I realise now that intentionally or
not he had done something very important in recalling Mary's presence
at that event because she wasn't simply a bystander – she was
infact the driving force of the story – without her it wouldn't
have happened!</span></p>
<p class="western" style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 150%; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none;">
<span style="font-size: large;">We tend to get fixated on the
miracle itself – All the old jokes about inviting Jesus to your
party and getting him to turn water into wine are wheeled out.</span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span> But
the story is not simply about the miracle itself … it is something
far more profound and every bit as controversial. In simple human
terms, Jesus did what he could to help his neighbours in their hour
of need….and it is an example worth following. Of course it is
also a sign of who he was. He was a young man from Nazareth but he
was much more than this. He was the Messiah, God’s chosen One,
sent to advance God’s Kingdom on earth. </span>
</span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span> But
as I said already without Mary's role in this story we not have this
revelatory event. </span>
</span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span>Even
before this miracle Mary obviously believed that her son was
different, other, special. However it is only after they had seen
his power in action that the disciples<b> </b></span><span>believed in him. </span>
</span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span>Not
so Mary - With faith in herself and in him it was Mary who challenged
the young Jesus to meet the need of the situation in which they found
themselves. This was a wedding party and it was going to always be
remembered as the party when they ran out of drink unless Jesus could
do something to rescue the situation. </span>
</span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span>Jesus
responds in this “the first of his signs” as it is described in
the Gospel and in so doing “revealed his Glory”. </span>
</span></p>
<p class="western" lang="en-IE" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"> But Mary took a big risk – she did
not know what Jesus was going to do and yet she recognised in him the
gifts of God and encouraged him to use those gifts.</span></p>
<p class="western" lang="en-IE" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"> We do not possess the same power as
our Lord but we do all possess gifts and very often we go through
life without using them. Sometimes this is because we are too lazy
or we couldn’t be bothered. Other times and more often though it
is because we do not recognise our own gifts. Maybe we are insecure,
shy, modest, doubtful of our own giftedness?
</span></p>
<p class="western" lang="en-IE" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"> This is where we need other people –
to see us as we cannot possibly see ourselves and to identify in us
the gifts that we have to offer to the community of faith. That is
what Mary did and she deserves the prominent role she has in this
story. Ironically we often describe the scriptures as patriarchal but
in John's Gospel Mary's fundamental role is explicit and undeniable
and yet in the preface to the wedding liturgy it is we in the
contemporary modern church who by the sin of omission loose the
oportunity to proclaim a very important truth in acknoledging her
presence and agency.
</span></p>
<p class="western" lang="en-IE" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">How much good is left undone because
nobody has the vision to see another person’s potential for good
and to call it into action?
</span></p>
<p class="western" lang="en-IE" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">When someone (such as Mary) does they
are helping to fulfill the will of God and helping the other person
to live up to their God given potential – to be the best human that
they can be.
</span></p>
<p class="western" lang="en-IE" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"> And the corollary of that is equally
true – when we demean or mock the inate giftedness of another human
being we are frustrating the will of God and we are damaging the
potential of the other.</span></p>
<p class="western" lang="en-IE" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">Aisling Murphy died because some
depraved individual did not recognise or acknowledge her full
humanity, her giftedness (not just as a talented teacher and musician
whose work involved uncovering and enabling the gifts of her
students) but as another human being into whom God breathed life and
a potential that she had the right to hope to fulfill.
</span></p>
<p class="western" lang="en-IE" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">We may never know the who or the why
of this profoundly disturbing event but we might ask ourselves –
What started her killer down a road that would lead to a hate filled
murder? – What shaped his attituide to women that allowed him to
cross that line? What part did the casual sexism that too many of us
(mostly men and myself included are guilty of) what part did that
play in the early days of his journey into misogony and murder? What
gave him permission as he saw it to exercise power over a woman to
the point of extinguishing her life?</span></p>
<p class="western" lang="en-IE" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"> I don't have all the answers and
there is a huge job of work to be done by all of us (especially us
men) at every level to rid society of endemic sexism and violence
against women, but I think in the example of Mary in today's Gospel
we have a very helpful starting point. Look for the gifts in each
other and draw those gifts out by encouragement – acknowledge the
sacred humanity in each other and resist the urge to demean and
undermine one another. Sometimes we do this unconsciously and pass it
off as a bit of fun.</span></p>
<p class="western" lang="en-IE" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></p>
<p class="western" lang="en-IE" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">Most of us will never go further than
what we see as fun and banter but we have a responsibility to create
a society and a world where women have the right and the expectation
to feel safe and secure and so we have to begin at this very basic
level. Too much of our human identity is built on knocking each other
down – That is not the will of God and as we remember Aisling
Murphy before God today let us do all in our power to end this evil
which took her life and robbed so many people of her gifts and her
love. To do nothing is not an option and gives permission for this to
happen again. For her memory and for the sake of our shared humanity
let us resolve to be agents of this necessary and long overdue
change.</span></p><b><span style="font-size: x-large;"></span></b><p></p>Stephen Neillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15130425037498473898noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-989890166047940960.post-82413719592531362272021-11-28T16:13:00.002+00:002021-11-28T16:13:32.688+00:00What the Dog taught me about God! My sermon for Advent Sunday 2021<p style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="font-size: x-large;"><a href="https://youtu.be/lKml47pJNaA?t=1001"> Click here for the sermon</a> </span></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>OR READ BELOW</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: center;"></p><p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Advent
Sunday Sermon 2021</span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;"><br />
</p>
<p class="western" style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 150%; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #373737;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>Intending
to raise cattle, a family from New York bought a ranch out West. When
their friends visited and inquired about the ranch’s name, the
would be rancher replied: “I wanted to name it the Bar-J. My wife
favored Suzy-Q, one of our sons wanted the Flying-W, and the other
liked the Lazy-Y. So we’re calling it the
BAr-J-Suzy-Q-Flying-W-Lazy-Y.”</i></span></span></span></p>
<p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0.71cm; orphans: 2; text-align: left; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: #373737;">“<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">But
where are all your cattle?” the friends asked.</span></i></span></span></span></p>
<p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0.71cm; orphans: 2; text-align: left; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: #373737;">“<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">None
survived the branding.”</span></i></span></span></span></p>
<p class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0.71cm; orphans: 2; text-align: left; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: #373737;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">That
is a perfect example of the consequences of disagreement and a lack
of unity. The longer I live the more I believe that Unity and Oneness
is essential to living productively and faithfully on this Earth. The
growing crisis of climate change is teaching us that and there is an
urgency to find a true unity of purpose that acknowledges our unity
interdependence on one another and for us as Christians on God.</span></span></span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">One
of the consequences of believing in the fundamental unity of all
things and the centrality of Unity to the message of the Gospel is
that one is inclined to look for and discern moments and experiences
in everyday life where we are given a glimpse of the Sacred/Holy in
our World, where that fundamental unity is demonstrated most
explicitly.</span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">One
that occured to me recently comes from my experience as a doggie
person. Anyone who has a dog (especially a male dog I'm told) knows
well the twin dreads of dog ownership.</span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The
first is that bark at 3am on a freezing winter night which means that
I/you have to get out of our lovely cozy bed and go out into the
garden so that the dog can do his business.</span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The
second flows from the first and that is standing there freezing while
your dog does everything but do his business and spends his time
sniffing every square inch of the lawn or chasing cats or hedgehogs
as you wait interminibly for him to finally circle in on the chosen
spot and do the necessary so that you can go back to your lovely warm
bed before you become hypothermic.</span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">All
very well but where you ask is the glimpse of the Sacred/Holy in
that?Particularly as yours truly may have uttered some very unholy
words while waiting for the canine parambulations to end?</span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">But
that same experience seems to me to present so well two sides to the
experience that we all share throughout our lives and that is the
process of WAITING.</span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">First
the anxious wait for something that we do not want to happen and then
the impatient waiting for something that we want to be completed or
fulfilled.</span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Advent
is a time of Waiting and it two has both those aspects:</span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">If
we understand Advent not simply as a preparation and a lead in to
Christmas but as the expectation of the return of Christ in Glory
then there may be a sort of trepedation or anxiety about that long
anticipated event – we may be in no hurry for this life or this
world as we know it to come to an end and in the words of St
Augustine may be thinking:</span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: medium;">'Give me Chastity – But not
yet!' </span>
</p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">We
have plans and are not quite ready for Jesus' return!</span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Or
alternatively we be counting the days till the end of Advent which
will signal the arrival of the infant Jesus on Christmas day and the
joy and happinness that comes with the Incarnation.</span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The
reality is that we have to live with that tension – Waiting is a
part of our witness – Waiting is a part of our human condition and
waiting is intrinsic to the Gospel.</span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">We
live in an inbetween world and an inbetween time – we see glimpses
of the Kingdom in our lives and it is those glimpses that give us the
strength to live in the moment and to acept the tension and sometimes
even the seeming contradiction in our lives. But to that we must seek
the Unity that is all around us and be reconcilers and healers in a
world which is so divided by those who would deny that unity and
interdependence. </span>
</p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">That
I believe was and is fundamental to Jesus message as articulated in
his prayer to the Father in John 17:</span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;"><a name="en-NRSVA-26769"></a><a name="en-NRSVA-26770"></a><a name="en-NRSVA-26771"></a><a name="en-NRSVA-26772"></a>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: system-ui, apple-system, Segoe UI, Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, Noto Sans, sans-serif, Arial;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i><b>20 </b></i></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: system-ui, apple-system, Segoe UI, Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, Noto Sans, sans-serif, Arial;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">‘I
ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will
believe in me through their word, </span></i></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: system-ui, apple-system, Segoe UI, Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, Noto Sans, sans-serif, Arial;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i><b>21 </b></i></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: system-ui, apple-system, Segoe UI, Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, Noto Sans, sans-serif, Arial;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">that
they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may
they also be in us,[</span></i></span></span></span><a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John%2017%3A20-23&version=NRSVA&interface=print#fen-NRSVA-26770a"><span style="color: #4a4a4a;"><span style="font-family: system-ui, apple-system, Segoe UI, Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, Noto Sans, sans-serif, Arial;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: transparent;">a</span></span></i></span></span></span></a><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: system-ui, apple-system, Segoe UI, Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, Noto Sans, sans-serif, Arial;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">] so
that the world may believe that you have sent me. </span></i></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: system-ui, apple-system, Segoe UI, Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, Noto Sans, sans-serif, Arial;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i><b>22 </b></i></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: system-ui, apple-system, Segoe UI, Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, Noto Sans, sans-serif, Arial;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">The
glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be
one, as we are one, </span></i></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: system-ui, apple-system, Segoe UI, Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, Noto Sans, sans-serif, Arial;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i><b>23 </b></i></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: system-ui, apple-system, Segoe UI, Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, Noto Sans, sans-serif, Arial;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">I
in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that
the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as
you have loved me.</span></i></span></span></span></span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;">I
want to finish with another prayer written by </span><strong><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Pierre
Teilhard de Chardin, SJ who was a very influential theologian and
died in 1955. He had a particular understanding of the inate
sacredness of Waiting and his prayer may be helpful to us as we wait,
not alone for Advent and Christmas and Christ's return in glory but
also I am sure I speak for all of us an end to the pandemic which has
cast such a long shadow on our lives:</span></span></span></span></strong></span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: left;"><br /></p>
<p class="western" style="break-before: page; line-height: 150%; text-align: left;">
<strong><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><b>Patient
Trust—</b></span></span></span></span></strong><strong><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Pierre
Teilhard de Chardin, SJ</span></span></span></span></span></strong></p>
<p class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 125%; margin-bottom: 0.26cm; margin-top: 0.26cm; orphans: 2; text-align: left; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Above
all, trust in the slow work of God.<br />We are quite naturally
impatient in everything<br />to reach the end without delay.<br />We
should like to skip the intermediate stages.<br />We are impatient of
being on the way to something<br />unknown, something new.<br />And yet
it is the law of all progress<br />that it is made by passing
through<br />some stages of instability—<br />and that it may take a
very long time.</span></span></span></p>
<p class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 125%; margin-bottom: 0.26cm; margin-top: 0.26cm; orphans: 2; text-align: left; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">And
so I think it is with you;<br />your ideas mature gradually—let them
grow,<br />let them shape themselves, without undue haste.<br />Don’t
try to force them on,<br />as though you could be today what time<br />(that
is to say, grace and circumstances<br />acting on your own good
will)<br />will make of you tomorrow.</span></span></span></p>
<p class="western" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 125%; margin-bottom: 0.26cm; margin-top: 0.26cm; orphans: 2; text-align: left; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Only
God could say what this new spirit<br />gradually forming within you
will be.<br />Give Our Lord the benefit of believing<br />that his hand
is leading you,<br />and accept the anxiety of feeling yourself<br />in
suspense and incomplete. AMEN.</span></span></span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 150%;"></p><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div>
<p></p><b></b><p></p>Stephen Neillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15130425037498473898noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-989890166047940960.post-49842486910704869492021-07-02T13:41:00.007+01:002021-07-02T16:08:02.696+01:00COVID19 - NO SURRENDER!<p><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Like
most people I am utterly fed up (that's putting it very politely)
with COVID. It has sucked the joy and pleasure out of life. It is
like a dark cloud hanging over our lives and even on the brightest
Summer day that cloud is there – It may not be visible but you can feel its presence nontheless. I would consider myself relatively
compliant when it comes to the necessary public safety restrictions –
indeed I previously argued publically that the churches should not be
lobbying for an early return to public worship.</span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: medium;">However
the recent bad news re the D variant and the pulling back from
planned easing of Covid measures caused something to snap and I took
to social media and had a rant about what I called the 'Stockholm
Syndrome' that appears to be affecting our national psyche. When I
cooled down I had to acknowledge that caution is required at this
point and that until most of the adult population is fully vaccinated
it is probably wise and necessary to hold back on indoor dining and
other social pleasures that we once took for granted. In saying that
I am hugely cognisant of the high price that those in the hospitality
sector have paid and continue to pay due to these measures. For them
especially I long for a return to 'normality'.</span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: medium;">What
disturbs me most though now is the common response when I or others
express this desire to get our old lives back and usually it goes
like this: 'O but this is the new normal – you'd better get used
to it' – Or when I say I am looking forward to ditching the face
mask I have heard the response from more than one person that they
quite like the mask and are in no hurry to stop wearing it – 'At
least it keeps the colds and flu at bay'! I find this not only mind
boggling but also very sad. For me it signals a loss of Hope and a
resigned acceptance of the status quo and I for one am not prepared
to go down that road – Hope is a vital component of our humanity
and when we give up on that I think we may as well give up full stop.
</span>
</p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: medium;">As
a Christian priest Hope is also central to what I do – I try to
witness to the Resurrection, Hope not only to that of Jesus and our own
ultimate destiny but also to the hope of a better tomorrow and the
hope that our yesterdays and today's do not determne or limit our
tomorrows. </span>
</p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: medium;">That
same hope is what keeps me going as I currently witness my 24 year
old son with special needs rapidly going blind – I hope that if not
a miracle in the short term that in the longer term medical science
will provide a way for him to regain that most precious gift of
sight. I don't know but I will contine to hope till my last breath on
this earth.</span></p>
<p class="western" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Covid
may not have taken our sight away but in many circumstances it has
deprived us of the sense of touch which is equally essential to our
humanity. The skin is the biggest organ in the human body and it is
made for touch as we are made for touch. That touch may be everything
from a handshake to a warm embrace, the exchange of the Peace in the
liturgy, a hug of comfort for the bereaved or the passionate embrace
of a lover. The contemporary author and poet Margaret Atwood said
of touch: '<i>Touch comes before sight, before speech - It is the
first language and the last, and it always tells the truth.'</i></span></p>
<p class="western" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: medium;">I still hope for that truth and
I still hope for a return to the messy, tactile, touching and cold
and flu-ridden world that I took for granted and I will never give up
on that hope. I know for now I must be patient but I will not
surrender my life to Covid 19! </span>
</p>Stephen Neillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15130425037498473898noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-989890166047940960.post-32252616585482824602020-07-28T17:10:00.001+01:002020-07-28T17:10:41.334+01:00The New Puritanism! Throwing the Statues out with the Bathwater<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="23ih1" data-offset-key="3aacc-0-0" style="background-color: white; color: #1c1e21; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; white-space: pre-wrap;">
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<span data-offset-key="3aacc-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/shelbourne-hotel-removes-153-year-old-statues-of-slave-girls-from-its-plinth-1.4315733">https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/shelbourne-hotel-removes-153-year-old-statues-of-slave-girls-from-its-plinth-1.4315733</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: large;">This strikes me as a classic example of the increasingly pervasive Neo-Puritan iconoclasm (mostly but not exclusively focused on statues) which while well motivated runs the risk of turning into a Talibanesque random destruction of the artifacts of history and culture which like the society from which they have sprung will always contain ambiguities and even things that are unpleasant and uncomfortable. That however IS our history and our heritage, a mixture of good and bad, light and dark, appropriate and inappropriate. Any attempt to airbrush it is like the common contemporary practice of photoshopping model's bodies (mostly women) in glossy magazines. It is false, dishonest and only results in alienating those who do not conform to increasingly narrower criteria of acceptability. I wonder how many of us would have stood up against slavery when it was the accepted norm in certain parts of the world? We are products of our time and to impose our modern enlightened standards to the art, architecture and iconography of another time is a mono-cultural fundamentalism no more helpful or wise than trying to read the Bible as literal history - indeed if the same logic that provoked the removal of theses statues was applied to the Bible or the Koran for that matter then both would be banned if not burned! There is of course the additional argument that those who do not know their history are doomed to repeat it. The original Puritans while also well intended in overturning the excesses of the pre-Reformation Church threw away much of the richness and aesthetic beauty of church life and worship and created a form of Christianity that was strict, sterile and monochrome.It is only in latter years that some forms of Protestant Christianity have rediscovered the importance of the aesthetic in worship - Some still haven't! Let's be very careful before we throw the baby out with the bathwater again - he or she may not survive this time!</span></span></div>
</div>
Stephen Neillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15130425037498473898noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-989890166047940960.post-47134041655391771712020-06-04T10:34:00.001+01:002020-06-04T10:34:38.580+01:00Lockdown Leadership?<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-IE" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-IE;"><o:p> </o:p></span>I like many
am getting very weary of the lockdown. I feel that perhaps the unlocking is too
slow and at times arbitrary in its progression. However I don’t pretend to be
an expert epidemiologist and would not (despite my frustration) presume to
second guess such eminent experts such as Tony Holohan and his colleagues who
have spent a lifetime of research into infectious pandemics such as we now
face.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-IE" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-IE;">However I
am increasingly concerned by what the journalist Ian O’Doherty succinctly
described this morning on the Pat Kenny Show on Newstalk as ‘Narrowcasting’ –
In using this phrase he clearly was referring to the narrow focus of the
response to the pandemic which is focussed only on the infections and direct deaths
from Covid19 with no reference to the broader picture which of course includes the
thousands of undiagnosed cancers, heart conditions, pulmonary disease, children
in agony awaiting scoliosis surgeries, transplant patients, mental health
patients with suicidal ideation and a growing waiting list of urgent surgeries
which will take years to catch up with and on which many will die because help
came too late! Not to mention of course the ongoing destruction of our economy,
Sport and the Arts and a recession greater than any in our history which will further
hamper us in rebuilding our health services in order to minimise the numbers of
ongoing casualties which most predict will (if it has not done so already) far
outnumber the direct deaths from Coronavirus.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-IE" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-IE;">Do I blame
Tony Holohan and his colleagues for this? No – not for a moment – he is doing
his job very well – he was asked to flatten the curve and he and his colleagues
with our cooperation have done that – He wasn’t asked to look at the bigger
picture, the side effects on other areas of medicine or the devastation of the
economy and society. And rightly so because he wasn’t qualified to do so. The
problem is that nobody on NPHET (which he chairs) – the group <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>appointed to coordinate the State’s response
to COVID 19 is qualified to look at the economic and social consequences of
their policy – They are all medical!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-IE" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-IE;">The sad
truth of this is that the Taoiseach and his ministers, have abrogated their
responsibility to lead. It started well with a truly statesmanlike speech from
the Taoiseach and initially it seemed a broad government ministerial
involvement but as the weeks have gone on we have heard less and less from the
Taoiseach and the only visible leadership figure in the country is Tony Holohan
whose daily updates have become the closest thing we have to governance in the
country. This is neither fair on him or on us. He is not elected or qualified
to lead our country through this crisis. Of course one might argue that in the
present political shambles the Taoiseach himself has a very fragile authority –
but at the moment he is all we have got and he needs to step up to the plate
and take this burden off Tony Holohan’s shoulders and put it on his own and
give a broader leadership to this country which takes account of the broader
consequences of this pandemic and the disastrous effects of the counter
measures. If the lockdown must continue so be it – I would prefer to hear that
from the Taoiseach and know that other factors including but not exclusively
the advice of Tony Holohan had been taken into account in making the decision.
I know that these are not easy decisions and that lives literally hang on what
is decided but that is the responsibility of Government not the chief medical
officer.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />Stephen Neillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15130425037498473898noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-989890166047940960.post-59372290444664250112020-03-27T12:00:00.005+00:002020-03-27T12:01:24.346+00:00Worship from Home on our Parish Website<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><a href="https://cs-nl.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">PARISH WEBSITE</a></span></div>
Stephen Neillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15130425037498473898noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-989890166047940960.post-45298492831972101832020-03-15T01:20:00.003+00:002020-03-15T01:20:32.621+00:00An open letter to fellow clergy and bishops of the Church of Ireland and other religious leaders of all faiths. <br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Dear friends – I write to you as the rector of a <st1:placetype w:st="on">County</st1:placetype> <st1:placename w:st="on">Kildare</st1:placename>
parish within the commuter belt of <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Dublin</st1:place></st1:city>
city and the Diocese of Dublin and Glendalough. This weekend I took the
difficult decision to close all of our churches until the end of the month or
indeed until advised that the current Coronavirus threat has passed. This was
not an easy decision and not one I took lightly but I did it because I was
conscious that ANY public gathering increases the risk of spreading infection
within the community.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It is not just those who might attend church that are
vulnerable but everyone they subsequently interface with which will inevitably
include the aged and the immuno-compromised. I like many in the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Church</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Ireland</st1:placename></st1:place> am rector of a parish where the
age profile is very high and so a significant number of my parishioners are in
a category (80+) where if they catch the virus, one in eight of them will likely
die! Please dwell on that for a moment! These are people who have served our
church all their lives and have sustained it through thick and thin and now we
are wilfully risking them these precious twilight years! <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is
not a chance I am willing to take! In addition to this I have a number of
recovering cancer patients, transplant patients and those with respiratory
issues who are extremely vulnerable to this virus. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And I am also conscious that it is not just my parishioners
that I have a responsibility towards but also those in the wider community – My
church is part of that community and if we are negligent we risk not only our
own health but also those who we interface with in our daily lives and we have
an equal duty of care to them.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I am aware that the Government in neither jurisdictions has
demanded that we close and so those churches that remain open are not in breach
of the law but that does not mean that there is no moral imperative to do
otherwise! </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Is our piety really more important than the health of the
most vulnerable members of society?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Do we believe in a God who demands that we sacrifice the
vulnerable in order to maintain public worship during a temporary crisis such
as this?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If we can say hand on heart that continuing public worship
will not increase the risk of infection then all is well but the reality is we
cannot and all is not well! This is a chance for those of us of religious faith
(no matter what creed or denomination) to stand up for the vulnerable – It’s in
the Gospels as far as I recollect…….</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
NB: I am aware that the bishops of Cashel, Ferns &
Ossary & Limerick & Killaloe Dioceses<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>have advised church closures and welcome the wisdom of their respective
decisions</div>
<br />Stephen Neillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15130425037498473898noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-989890166047940960.post-44862021792060781362020-01-06T18:09:00.001+00:002020-01-06T18:09:47.348+00:00Sermon for Epiphany - A shared Vision for 2020<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
Sunday by Sunday clergy of all denominations get up
into pulpits like this one, the length and breadth of this island, and deliver
a message or a reflection that hopefully resonates with their congregation -
something to takeaway - something to mull over - something perhaps to disagree
with - but hopefully something for the week ahead or perhaps something that
speaks to the experience of the week just past.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span lang="EN-IE" style="line-height: 150%;">The reality is that despite these efforts less and
less people see the importance of coming to our church buildings to participate
in the liturgy or to listen to whoever it is that is nominated to preach and
reflect on the scriptures.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span lang="EN-IE" style="line-height: 150%;">There are other voices however that they do listen to
and engage with and this weekend the nation mourns in Marian Finucane one who
had become not just <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u>a</u></b> voice
but <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u>the</u></b> voice of the weekend
- her influence every bit as great as the combined outpourings of hundreds and
even thousands of preachers across the various churches. That is the reality -
One voice did that - and <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">yes</b> she had
the advantage of broadcasting on the National radio service and therefore the
potential to be heard by every soul on this island. But there is more to it
than that - In a world of huge choice where live media is under threat she
managed to achieve the highest figure for an individual broadcaster with a
listenership of 374 thousand people on a regular basis.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span lang="EN-IE" style="line-height: 150%;">Why and how? - Those are questions I have been
puzzling over the last 48 hours and in listening to the extensive commentary on
her legacy I think I know the answer. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span lang="EN-IE" style="line-height: 150%;">She had huge empathy (having lost her daughter of
eight years old) she knew what suffering was, she had an interest in people and
didn't just look for the facts when she was interviewing someone but also a sense
of the person - who they were and what motivated them - she also had no time
for spin or waffle - she valued the truth and integrity in others.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span lang="EN-IE" style="line-height: 150%;">And she walked the talk - I had no idea of the huge
amount of voluntary work she did on the ground in <st1:place w:st="on">Africa</st1:place>
and how she was loved there by locals who had no knowledge of the other Marian
we all thought we knew.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span lang="EN-IE" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>And she
was a true friend to those who needed her - so many having come forward in the
last few days. I was particularly moved by Fr Brian Darcy's account of how
Marian had reached out to him after an interview she had done with him at a
time when he was going through his own dark night of the soul - she was so
worried about him when he left the studio that she got hold of his mobile
number and left a text message to ring her without disclosing her name - when
he did she counselled him to get help and not try to cope on his own - no doubt
speaking from her own personal experience - he said that nobody had ever done
something like it for him before and was obviously hugely grateful. He the
priest had been ministered to by the radio personality - no reason why not but
it is still hugely significant and I think marks a very important moment of
both crisis and opportunity. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span lang="EN-IE" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>All of
that and more besides is I think why her death has left such a void - For
people who had no other Church Marian created a community around her founded on
empathy, interest and compassion in and for the other and she motivated people
to be kind to each other.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span lang="EN-IE" style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I think
her death can be a teaching moment for those of use who used to think of
ourselves as the voice of the weekend (or at least Sunday) - We are not as
important as we think! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span lang="EN-IE" style="line-height: 150%;">This is a wake up call for churches across this
island. I'm not suggesting that we are so arrogant as to think we can fill the
void left by Marian - there may well be another voice waiting in the wings to
carry the baton and that would not be a bad thing but we can still learn
something by observing what it is that connects with the people of today.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span lang="EN-IE" style="line-height: 150%;">This is the Eve of the Epiphany - the manifestation of
Jesus the Christ to the w</span><span lang="EN-IE" style="line-height: 150%;">ider world - How are we to share the Good News and
connect with people in a world where so many churches are inclined to withdraw
and isolate themselves from a world in which there are no longer the 'voice of
the weekend'? There is an increasing tendency to keep Jesus safe from all that
would taint and disturb. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span lang="EN-IE" style="line-height: 150%;">Within our own Anglican Communion we see a move
towards a New Puritanism which narrows and chokes the path of God's Grace in
the Church and the World and finds comfort in the tidiness and security of
absolute unity in doctrine within communities where diversity is aggressively
discouraged.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span lang="EN-IE" style="line-height: 150%;">That to me is not a viable way for the Church to be in
the World - so what is the alternative? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span lang="EN-IE" style="line-height: 150%;">It seems to me that its a case of back to basics and
that means back to life and earthly ministry of Jesus Christ which was far more
radical than the Gospel we are inclined to preach and live and one which no
church on this planet could hope to control or circumscribe.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span lang="EN-IE" style="line-height: 150%;">So unpredictable and even dangerous as this may be we
do need to set this Jesus free.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span lang="EN-IE" style="line-height: 150%;">The famous classic 'The Brothers Karamazov' by
Dostoyevsky contains a poem within the book called the Grand Inquisitor - In it</span><span lang="EN-IE" style="background: white; color: #222222; line-height: 150%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span lang="EN-IE" style="line-height: 150%;">Christ comes back to Earth in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Seville</st1:city></st1:place> at the time of the
Inquisition. He performs a number of miracles (echoing miracles from the
Gospels). The people recognize him and adore him at Seville Cathedral, but he
is arrested by Inquisition leaders and sentenced to be burnt to death the next
day. The Grand Inquisitor visits him in his cell to tell him that the Church no
longer needs him. The main portion of the text is devoted to the Inquisitor
explaining to Jesus why his return would interfere with the mission of the
Church. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span lang="EN-IE" style="line-height: 150%;">Everything is under control and the people have been
made compliant and do not need the messiness of Free Will or any of Jesus'
other radical ideas to make things untidy. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span lang="EN-IE" style="line-height: 150%;">If Jesus is released he will as Archbishop Michael
Curry of the American Episcopal Church commenting on the same poem says "<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">mess things up</i>". Curry also
observes the irony that "<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">there
stands Jesus of Nazareth whose life and teachings are a threat not only to the
surrounding society but, sadly, to a church that professes his name but tries everything
possible to keep him and his message hidden away from view......it has been so
easy for the church in various generations, including our own, to disregard,
disarm and domesticate Jesus to the point that he may not even resemble the
Jesus of the New Testament.....Whenever Jesus of Nazareth - his actual
teachings, his lived example, and his loving, liberating and life-giving way -
takes centre stage, a revolution of love, a reformation of life and a renewal
of our relationship with God, each other and all of Creation is at hand</i>"<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span lang="EN-IE" style="line-height: 150%;">And so what is a daunting challenge can also become an
opportunity - we in this parish cannot change the world but we can make a big
difference in our little corner of it. And I'm not just talking in the abstract
here - this is something that must come to more than words if we are to play an
effective role in working for the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Kingdom</st1:placetype>
of <st1:placename w:st="on">God</st1:placename></st1:place> here on Earth.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span lang="EN-IE" style="line-height: 150%;">So where do we start - I think it must be again with
the basics: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span lang="EN-IE" style="line-height: 150%;">Scripture and Prayer<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span lang="EN-IE" style="line-height: 150%;">Could I suggest that we consider that portion of
Matthew Chapter 5 containing the Beatitudes and the passage on Salt and
Light<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>which I think point to the radical
roots of Jesus teaching - I have printed them out for everyone along with a
prayer (see below) that we might say together in the weeks and months ahead as
we try to discern how we can together as Church in this parish more fully
present and reflect the person and love of Jesus Christ in all our
relationships and encounters. I have some ideas but the Church is not me - it
is all of us and following a time of reflection and prayer I would love that we
could share our thoughts and ideas together.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span lang="EN-IE" style="line-height: 150%;">To conclude with the words of Archbishop Michael
Curry:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span lang="EN-IE" style="line-height: 150%;">'<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">This crisis may
be a genuine opportunity to reclaim our roots, our origins, our true identity
as Christians, by reclaiming Jesus of Nazareth and his way of love'. <o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-IE" style="line-height: 150%;">Amen.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="chapter-1" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span class="chapternum"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial;">Matthew
5<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div>
<h3 style="background: white; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 15.0pt;">
<span class="textmatt-5-1"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">The
Beatitudes</span></span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 17.5pt; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-size: 18.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></h3>
<div class="chapter-1" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span class="chapternum"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 17.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 18.0pt;">5 </span></b></span><span class="textmatt-5-1"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">When Jesus</span></span><span class="textmatt-5-1"><sup><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 6.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 7.5pt;">[<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=matthew+5&version=NRSVA&interface=print#fen-NRSVA-23236a" title="See footnote a"><span style="color: #b34b2c;">a</span></a>]</span></sup></span><span class="textmatt-5-1"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> saw the crowds, he went up the mountain;
and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. </span></span><span class="textmatt-5-2"><b><sup><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 8.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt;">2 </span></sup></b></span><span class="textmatt-5-2"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Then he began to speak, and taught them,
saying:</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span class="textmatt-5-3"><b><sup><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 8.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt;">3 </span></sup></b></span><span class="textmatt-5-3"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">‘Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is
the kingdom of heaven.</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span class="textmatt-5-4"><b><sup><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 8.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt;">4 </span></sup></b></span><span class="textmatt-5-4"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">‘Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be
comforted.</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span class="textmatt-5-5"><b><sup><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 8.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt;">5 </span></sup></b></span><span class="textmatt-5-5"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">‘Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit
the earth.</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span class="textmatt-5-6"><b><sup><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 8.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt;">6 </span></sup></b></span><span class="textmatt-5-6"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">‘Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for
righteousness, for they will be filled.</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span class="textmatt-5-7"><b><sup><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 8.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt;">7 </span></sup></b></span><span class="textmatt-5-7"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">‘Blessed are the merciful, for they will
receive mercy.</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span class="textmatt-5-8"><b><sup><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 8.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt;">8 </span></sup></b></span><span class="textmatt-5-8"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">‘Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will
see God.</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span class="textmatt-5-9"><b><sup><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 8.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt;">9 </span></sup></b></span><span class="textmatt-5-9"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">‘Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be
called children of God.</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span class="textmatt-5-10"><b><sup><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 8.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt;">10 </span></sup></b></span><span class="textmatt-5-10"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">‘Blessed are those who are persecuted for
righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span class="textmatt-5-11"><b><sup><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 8.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt;">11 </span></sup></b></span><span class="textmatt-5-11"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">‘Blessed are you when people revile you and
persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely</span></span><span class="textmatt-5-11"><sup><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 6.5pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 7.5pt;">[<a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=matthew+5&version=NRSVA&interface=print#fen-NRSVA-23246b" title="See footnote b"><span style="color: #b34b2c;">b</span></a>]</span></sup></span><span class="textmatt-5-11"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"> on my account. </span></span><span class="textmatt-5-12"><b><sup><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 8.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt;">12 </span></sup></b></span><span class="textmatt-5-12"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great
in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before
you.</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span class="textmatt-5-13"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 17.5pt; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-size: 18.5pt;">Salt
and Light</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 17.5pt; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-size: 18.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></h3>
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<span class="textmatt-5-13"><b><sup><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 8.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt;">13 </span></sup></b></span><span class="textmatt-5-13"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">‘You are the salt of the earth; but if salt
has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for
anything, but is thrown out and trampled under foot.</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span class="textmatt-5-14"><b><sup><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 8.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt;">14 </span></sup></b></span><span class="textmatt-5-14"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">‘You are the light of the world. A city built
on a hill cannot be hidden. </span></span><span class="textmatt-5-15"><b><sup><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 8.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt;">15 </span></sup></b></span><span class="textmatt-5-15"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the
bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the
house. </span></span><span class="textmatt-5-16"><b><sup><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 8.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.0pt;">16 </span></sup></b></span><span class="textmatt-5-16"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">In the same way, let your light shine before
others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in
heaven.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="textmatt-5-16"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">PRAYER<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div>
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<span class="textmatt-5-16"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;">Lord Jesus
who taught us to pray 'Thy Kingdom Come', give us we pray a fresh vision of
your Kingdom in this place and a sense of our shared and individual callings to
discipleship. Give us courage to let you into our lives, and faith to follow
you wherever you lead us. Forgive us for those times we have not responded to
your calling and those occasions we have been obstacles to your loving
purposes. You have called us to be Salt and Light - Renew us in this calling
and where we have lost our saltiness and light restore us so that we may commit
ourselves afresh to serving you. We wait on you Lord - Lord Hear our Prayer.
Amen.</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br />Stephen Neillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15130425037498473898noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-989890166047940960.post-5000963862399885682019-12-25T13:20:00.002+00:002019-12-25T13:20:50.438+00:00Christmas Sermon 2019 - A celebration of humanity<br />
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<span lang="EN-IE" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 150%;">I love Christmas and in
this I know I am not alone. For most people - for most of you I would imagine
it is a cherished time - a time for family, a time to stand back and pause for
a while, to appreciate some of the things and even people we take for granted
in this life. Yes of course for those who have lost a loved one in the past few
years Christmas can be difficult and can become something to survive rather than
celebrate. And that is sad, but sadder still because it need not be so -
Christmas is for all of us, whether happy or sad. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-IE" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 150%;">I say that because at
the centre of this festival is the Incarnation in which God chose to become as
one of us - God chose to become human - and he did so in the most vulnerable
form possible - a human child - the baby Jesus. And this Jesus didn't exactly
have an easy time - forced into exile as an infant - forced to flee for his
life with his parents and some 30 years later dying the most brutal death on
the Cross. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-IE" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 150%;">We know little of Jesus
early years until he reappears on the scene and begins his public ministry in
Galilee but it is fair to assume he had happy times as well as the traumas of
his birth and death - he had friends - we know that, not only his disciples but
Mary and Martha and Lazarus - and it is clear again and again that he had a
deep awareness of the Father's Love and he in turn had great love for not only
his friends but his enemies. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-IE" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 150%;">And so at Christmas
while we gather around the manger and look at the Holy Child of Bethlehem we are
also witnessing an incarnation that moves beyond the stable, beyond an innocent
child into this extraordinary man Jesus who has taken upon himself not only the
joy of humanity but also all the potential for pain and hurt that is a part of
the human condition. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-IE" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 150%;">God became fully human
in Jesus and that means that every part of our humanity and our human
experience is God infused.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-IE" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Why did God come to us
in human form? Because that is what he made us to be and he did a pretty good
job - God saw hope and potential in humanity and essentially became incarnate
as one of us not to call us to something else but rather to be the best human
beings we can be.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-IE" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Unfortunately elements
within the history of the development of Christian theology have given us a
disproportionate sense of shame and guilt about the human condition which is
neither just or true. Sometimes this church induced guilt has bordered on self
hatred which is a terribly destructive force in people's lives - How could we
hate and why should we hate that which is made in the image and likeness of
God? We are fundamentally good - that doesn't mean we are perfect but rather
than being wretched and hopeless we are perhaps broken but simultaneously
hopeful and full of potential.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-IE" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The Incarnation says it
is ok to hurt or to fail, to grieve, to be angry, to feel loss, to doubt
because all these things are human and so are we and we cannot reasonably be
expected to be something we are not. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-IE" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 150%;">We live in a world where
so many people are pressured to try or to pretend to be something they are not
and so live lives that are disingenuous and self destructive. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-IE" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The pressures that many
of our young people feel to conform to a particular body image or behaviour
have produced a lot of casualties whether through bullying, self harm and
suicide. And we need only look superficially at social media to see how many
people feel pressured to present a particular face or mask to the world <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>which may be far removed from their reality.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-IE" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Or look at our politics
which worldwide is becoming increasingly dysfunctional and a big part of that
is a culture of spin, alternative truths (whatever they are) and expediency
which forces many good people to live a lie, and that can never be a good
thing. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-IE" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Jesus came to set us
free from all this - <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>so that we might be
ourselves, our best selves - to realise the God-given potential in each of our
lives and when we cannot or will not do that then we quite simply tear
ourselves apart - We are alienated from ourselves!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-IE" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-IE" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 150%;">There is nothing as
disarming as a baby - grown men and women crumble at the sight of a newborn
infant - I think that is why God chose to come in this form - because we need
to be disarmed and remove all that is not real and genuine in our lives -
anything that suggests that we are not good enough - that we need to do
something to become part of God's story - The truth is that God has come to
meet us in the Incarnation and to make his story our story - we stand on Holy
ground on this earth but we also inhabit holy bodies. We need to learn to love
ourselves without feeling guilty - That's the thinking I believe behind those
words of Jesus 'to love your neighbour as yourself' - Self love is the
beginning of the love of others and in loving ourselves we are simply
acknowledging the beauty of what God has done in us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-IE" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 150%;">And that is also what
God is doing in the incarnation - acknowledging the beauty of what he has
worked in us - God fell in love with his creation and chose to identify fully
with it in birth and in death - and yes in Resurrection but lets not rush there
too quickly as if this death was not real - It is one of the weaknesses of our
Protestant heritage that we find it hard to look at the broken body of Jesus on
the Cross and replace it instead with the empty Cross.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-IE" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The fact that Jesus did
die on that Cross means that this Christmas story we celebrate tonight/today
can embrace those who grieve as well as those who celebrate. The Resurrection
changes our eternal perspective but it does not take the pain of death away - There
is no need for false joy or empty celebration - each of can be who we are - we
can put away the masks and the burdens of others expectation and simply be who
God made us to be - we can be honest and true to ourselves and whether we find
our selves in pain or in happiness we are accepted for who we are - we are good
enough - we don't need to pretend.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-IE" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 150%;">I am reminded of a
wonderful observation by the contemporary biblical scholar and theologian
Walter Brueggermann who said <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">'Churches
should be the most honest place in town, not the happiest place in town</i>.' I
think he had a point - A banal and vacuous happiness has become the
principal<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>goal of modern life and for
those who are not happy its relentless and often shallow pursuit can become a
tool of exclusion and separation. The Christmas greeting itself whether you say
Merry or Happy Christmas contains pressure and expectation that not everyone
can deliver.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-IE" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 150%;">As we gather at the crib
we see a little baby - and a baby is the most honest thing in all creation - a
baby does not<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>pretend or hide behind a
mask or live a lie -<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>a baby does what it
says on the tin - there is no filter and no deception- A baby but this baby in
particular says it is ok to be you - no matter whether you are filled with
sorrow or joy, whether you are happy or sad, you are invited to fall into the
loving arms of a God who entered our humanity and made it something sacred and
beautiful. You are, each one of you sacred and beautiful<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-IE" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 150%;">We may not always be
happy - hopefully we are sometimes <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>but
our lives are filled with meaning, purpose and truth because of what God has
done in Jesus and that is surely something that we can all celebrate. Amen.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />Stephen Neillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15130425037498473898noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-989890166047940960.post-55930338287894945112019-07-18T21:20:00.001+01:002019-07-18T21:20:57.184+01:00Trump & Making a Prisoner of Love<br />
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<span lang="EN-IE" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;">'Go
back to where you came from!' - Its hard to credit that a sitting US President
would speak such hateful words, not just once but repeatedly to four female
politicians, all American citizens and all but one born on US soil. It is
reasonable to say that anyone who denies the explicit racism in this statement
is either deluded or dishonest. It is hateful language and sadly hate appears
to have become the default mode of communication for this extraordinary <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">US</st1:place></st1:country-region> presidency. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-IE" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Regrettably
Trump's <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">America</st1:place></st1:country-region>
is not the only place in the World today where hate is all too visible. Look at
the tragedy that is the <st1:place w:st="on">Middle East</st1:place> and the
ongoing calamitous wars and the consistent and routine ill-treatment of the
vulnerable and again hate is in the driving seat.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-IE" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Closer
to home and while thankfully the recent marching season in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Northern Ireland</st1:place></st1:country-region>
has not been as violent or as disruptive as recent years the mutual hatred
manifest in sectarianism is alive and well and there are still some on both
sides of this divided community who would rejoice at the painful death of one
of the other tribe. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-IE" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;">And
lest we get complacent here in the Republic, according to a report issued by
the Irish Council for Civil Liberties last year, '<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Ireland has one<span style="background: white;"> of the highest rates of
hate crime against people of African background and transgender people in
the EU</span></i><span style="background: white;">'. That is surely cause for
shame.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-IE" style="background: white; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Hate is thriving and somehow we have to find a way to defeat
it. Martin Luther King had a lot to say about engaging with hate but it always
came down to Love. These are among his famous remarks on Love and he did walk
the talk.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-IE" style="background: #FEFEFE; color: #0a0a0a; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;">'We must meet the forces of hate with the
power of love.'</span></i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-IE" style="background: white; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;">,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>'</span></i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-IE" style="background: #FEFEFE; color: #0a0a0a; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Hate cannot
drive out hate; only love can do that' & 'Love is the only force capable of
transforming an enemy into friend</span></i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-IE" style="background: #FEFEFE; color: #0a0a0a; font-size: 10.0pt;">.</span></i><span lang="EN-IE" style="background: #FEFEFE; color: #0a0a0a; font-size: 10.0pt;">'</span><span lang="EN-IE" style="background: white; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-IE" style="background: #FEFEFE; color: #0a0a0a; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;">These are familiar words and will resonate
especially with those who have grown up in various faith traditions (not alone
Christianity) which speak of the power and centrality of Love. Indeed they are
not unfamiliar to secular humanists either - Love is almost universally
recognised as a necessary part of that which makes us whole and truly human.
Without Love we are as <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">St Paul</st1:city></st1:place>
so famously observed <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">'a noisy gong or a
clanging cymbal</i>'.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-IE" style="background: #FEFEFE; color: #0a0a0a; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;">We can all, no matter what faith or tradition,
contribute to the displacement of hate in this world. Speaking as I do from the
Anglican Christian tradition I follow one in Jesus whose whole earthly life was
a demonstration of pure Love, and the broadest possible understanding of that Love
whereby he defined it in terms of the equivalence of love of neighbour for love
of self. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-IE" style="background: #FEFEFE; color: #0a0a0a; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;">When he was asked to clarify 'who is my
neighbour' Jesus responded with the Parable of the Good Samaritan which
declared a love without limits! This Samaritan, a traditional enemy of the Jews
demonstrates love of the stranger and love of the enemy, an indiscriminate love
which doesn't look for qualification or justification. This man who he saved
was half dead, stripped naked, and there is no mention of him speaking so there
was no way for the Samaritan to know who or what he was beyond the fact that he
was a fellow human being and that alone was enough to provoke his loving
response.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is a far cry from the unashamedly
racist sentiments of Donald Trump which continue to enjoy the uncritical
support of the vast majority so called 'Evangelical Christians' in the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">US</st1:place></st1:country-region>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-IE" style="background: #FEFEFE; color: #0a0a0a; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;">However its not just Trump's Christian
supporters that need to ask questions of themselves, For any of us who are of a
religious disposition this parable brings little comfort for it is the
religious and pious, the priest and the Levite who pass by on the other side
and leave this man for dead. Why? Because they are not driven by what is loving
but rather by what is right according to the law, in this case most probably a
concern for ritual purity which would be damaged by association with blood or a
potentially dead body.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-IE" style="background: #FEFEFE; color: #0a0a0a; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;">But times have changed - we have moved on and
the Church of today will as Jesus did always do the loving thing. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-IE" style="background: #FEFEFE; color: #0a0a0a; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;">If only! The greatest tragedy of contemporary
Christianity (with few exceptions) is that unlike Jesus we do not preach or
live a wide and extravagant love as he did - we do not preach or live <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>a love that challenges convention and the
organised religion of the day - we preach and live a love that upholds the
Status Quo - a love that is qualified and doctrinally circumscribed, a love
which is rooted in the desire to preserve the purity of the institution. We as
Church are the priest and the Levite in the parable. This is nowhere more
evident than in the bitter division within almost every Christian church and
denomination on the subject of human sexuality. Based on anachronistic
interpretations of a paucity of scriptural verses we drawn boundaries around
who is in and who is out, whose love is genuine and whose love is acceptable to
God. Ironically we try to soften this with phrases such as 'hate the sin but
not the sinner' or a declaration that we are welcoming to all, but those who do
not conform to our terms soon find that there is a limit to the welcome and so
a limit to our love.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-IE" style="background: #FEFEFE; color: #0a0a0a; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;">What extraordinary arrogance on our part! In
drawing any limits on Love we are effectively trying to limit and circumscribe
God. Love is of God and is the essence of God and as such is unpredictable and
beyond our control. Our attempts to do so are futile but also undermine our
ability as churches to be transformative in society. Hate will triumph as long
as our love is anything less than unreservedly generous and universal.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-IE" style="background: #FEFEFE; color: #0a0a0a; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;">While we continue to debate who is worthy and
who is not we are not just rendered ineffective but we are part of the problem.
We are feeding the hate! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-IE" style="background: #FEFEFE; color: #0a0a0a; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;">There are many within the churches today who
complain about the marginalisation of the churches in modern <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Ireland</st1:place></st1:country-region>. Part
of this is most certainly the aftermath of the abuse scandals (which were not
unique to Roman Catholicism and were a part of the legacy of the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Church</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Ireland</st1:placename></st1:place> too) but I believe that today a
much bigger factor is the blatant hypocrisy of our churches in failing to
follow the example and teaching of Jesus. Part of my work involves interacting
with young people in our parish school and in Confirmation preparation and I
can say I have never seen a generation with a greater sense of integrity and a
passion for justice. They can smell hypocrisy a mile off and if the church is
to have any future then we need to get our heads around just what unconditional
Love means.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-IE" style="background: #FEFEFE; color: #0a0a0a; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt;">So what is my answer to Donald Trump when he
says <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">'Go back to where you came from</i>'
- My answer must be and one which I would claim for every living person (who
would wish it) on this planet - 'I will go back to the One who created me and
loved me into being and nothing you can do or say can make me less beautiful or
less precious in the eyes of God.'<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />Stephen Neillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15130425037498473898noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-989890166047940960.post-4168992745712838202019-03-31T13:48:00.001+01:002019-03-31T13:48:41.315+01:00 Mothering Sunday Sermon 2019<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="line-height: 150%;">What is Mothering Sunday about? Is
it simply the Church’s version of Mothers Day – Well no – Mothering Sunday was
around long before Mother’s Day even though it is difficult to buy a Mothering
Sunday card today but the shops are full of Mother’s Day cards. We still do
focus on mothers and women in general on this day in the life of the church but
strictly speaking as a festival Mothering Sunday is not primarily about human mothers but
rather Mother Church and has evolved into </span><span style="line-height: 150%;">what it is today over a 500 year period.</span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 6.0pt;">
<span style="color: black; line-height: 150%;">During the 16th century, people returned to
their Mother Church for a service to be held on the 4<sup>th</sup>
Sunday in Lent. This practice was known as: "a-mothering". Subsequently
Mothering Sunday became a day when servants were given a day off to visit their
mother church with their family.<sup><o:p></o:p></sup></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 6.0pt;">
<span style="color: black; line-height: 150%;">Children who were in service were also given a day off on that date so they could visit their families and
Mother Church. The children would pick wildflowers along the way to place in
the church or give to their mothers. And in time the religious tradition
evolved into the Mothering Sunday secular tradition of giving gifts to mothers.<sup><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mothering_Sunday#cite_note-bbc-2"></a></sup>
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="line-height: 150%;">The readings we use in church today reflect the theme of
motherhood with the Old Testament reading coming from the book of Exodus - <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the story of Moses where his mother lets him
go, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>not once but twice so that he may
survive – first when she puts in the papyrus basket and the second time when
she finally relinquishes him to Pharaoh’s daughter who took him as her own
son……Loving and letting go are all part of motherhood – And an even greater
pain is foretold in the Gospel from St. Luke where Simeon tells Jesus’ mother
Mary that “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">a sword will pierce your own
soul too</i>”.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="line-height: 150%;">And it is appropriate that we use
these readings because the idea of <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Mother</st1:placename>
<st1:placetype w:st="on">Church</st1:placetype></st1:place> is of course
derived from our human understanding of mothering. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="line-height: 150%;">It is also important that we focus
on mothering because the Church over the centuries has lost an appreciation of
the importance of the feminine in humanity as women were so often written out
of history in the patriarchal culture from which we are only just emerging –
and we are not there yet! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="line-height: 150%;">When I was training for ordination
there were some (women included) in the theological college who at the time
believed that while they could be ordained they should never be a rector (never
mind a bishop) because a woman should not hold a position of authority and
should remain a perpetual curate. Today there are still clergy in the church
(mostly men) who believe that to be the case.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I
found this totally shocking when I first encountered it having come to ministry
training having already completed an undergraduate degree in Theology and
Biblical Studies and one of the optional modules I had taken was Feminist
Theology in which I was lectured by our now Children’s Minister Katherine
Zappone. I am still reminded of the occasion in one of her classes when I
declared that I had found the feminine within myself! There was a stunned
silence in the class before one of my colleagues burst out laughing and the
rest of the class soon followed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Katherine if I recall was however greatly impressed!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="line-height: 150%;">Before you write me off as slightly
confused, the context of my declaration was a discussion of the scientific
reality that we are all a mixture of what we classically distinguish as male
and female – for example both Oestregen and Testosterone are present in the
bodies of men and of women albeit in different ratios and therefore some men
display what are classically seen as female behaviours and vice versa.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>There
is though a serious issue which we need to consider as a Church and that is the
way in which we have suppressed the feminine elements of our faith. </span>Yes of course Jesus was a man but
God is beyond gender and yet we are content to use language of God which only
reflects the lived experience of 50% of humanity.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="line-height: 150%;">Right up to the Reformation the
figure of Mary was hugely visible and revered throughout the Church, East and
West and then with the Reformation and the rise of rationalism and literalism
which suppressed the symbolic and the artistic representations of Mary and
other saints the feminine dimension within the life of the Protestant churches
in particular was hugely reduced. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="line-height: 150%;">Richard Rohr the contemporary
Catholic theologian comments on this and says quite critically that ‘<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">many Catholics divinised Mary …… have a poor
theology of Mary but an excellent psychology: Humans like need and trust our
mothers to give us gifts, to nurture us, and always to forgive us, which is
what we want from God’.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<span style="line-height: 150%;">He goes on
to give a very concrete example: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">‘I once
counted eleven images of Mary in a single Catholic church in <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Texas</st1:place></st1:state> cowboy country. I see that as a
culture trying unconsciously, and often not very successfully to balance itself
out. In the same way Mary gives women in the Catholic church a dominant
feminine image to counterbalance all the males parading around up front!’<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>But
even outside of the explicitly religious there are vestiges in our language of
an almost forgotten appreciation of the centrality of the feminine in life. The
phrase ‘Mother Earth’ reflect the association with the primary role of the
female in Creation and yet that has been effectively suppressed or at best
ignored. The </span><span style="background: white; color: black; line-height: 150%;">Hebrew for Spirit is<em> ruach </em>which is a
feminine noun. In Genesis 1:2, the verb for hovered takes on the feminine of
the noun. So, Genesis 1:2, the beginning of the Creation narrative could be
translated, “<em>the Spirit of God she was hovering over the face of the waters</em>…”
In other words God’s creative spirit is depicted as feminine from the very
beginning.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="background: white; color: black; line-height: 150%;">Little wonder then that the
Church in its earlier years and still in the Catholic and Orthodox traditions
has such a strong attachment to the figure of Mary who represents the ongoing
presence of the feminine in God’s ongoing creative work in the world. Richard
Rohr points out that she is present at key moments in the Gospel story and
plays a key role in our faith experience ‘<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">From
her first yes to the Angel Gabriel, to the birth itself, to her last yes at the
foot of the cross, and her full presence at Pentecost where she is the only
woman named at the first outpouring of the Spirit……in Mary we see that God must
never be forced on us, and God never comes uninvited……In Mary, humanity has
said our eternal yes to God….Far too often the feminine has had to work in
secret, behind the scenes, indirectly….We see Mary’s subtlety of grace,
patience and humility when she quietly says at the wedding feast of Cana, “They
have no wine” and then seems totally assured that Jesus will take it from
there. ……<st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">.While</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Church</st1:placetype></st1:place> and culture have often denied the
Divine feminine roles, offices and formal authority, the feminine has continued
to exercise incredible power at the cosmic and personal levels. Feminine power
is deeply relational and symbolic – and thus transformative – in ways that men
cannot control or understand. I suspect that is why we fear it so much.’<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="background: white; color: black; line-height: 150%;">And so back to Mothering Sunday
– how different would Mother Church, the Church look if we embraced a fuller
and more balanced vision of Church and recovered the feminine dimension of our
faith which is not just about Women’s Ordination but opening ourselves to the
fullness of God’s creativity in our world today. God is still at work in our
world today and perhaps a wider vision of that presence will help us to be a
more authentic and more effective force for good and for change. On this
mothering Sunday we give thanks for our experience of mothering and pray for
the wisdom to say yes to it in all its fullness and possibility. Amen.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="background: white; color: black; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="background: white; color: black; line-height: 150%;"><i>*In Italics</i> extracts from Richard Rohr's '<b>The Universal Christ - How a forgotten reality can change everything we see, hope for and believe</b>'</span></div>
<br />Stephen Neillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15130425037498473898noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-989890166047940960.post-51024947954747066142019-03-16T19:56:00.000+00:002019-03-16T19:56:02.786+00:00Sermon for St Patrick’s Day 2019 - A response to the massacre in New Zealand Mosques<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
What does <st1:city w:st="on">St.</st1:city>
Patrick's Day mean to you? Is it about the parades, the green beer and a nice
long weekend? Is it about our Patron
Saint and the stories told about him and attributed to him, some of them true
perhaps and more of them legends? Is it about the history of Christianity on
this <st1:place w:st="on">Island</st1:place>? Or is it an opportunity to
celebrate our Irishness, our culture, our identity and indeed identities plural
because it is not so easy to define what it means to be Irish today? </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="color: black; line-height: 150%;">When I was growing up Irish identity was assumed
to be Catholic and Nationalist and we Protestants were a small minority who
kept our heads down but now we are part of an increasingly diverse Ireland which
is uncomfortable with identifying with any religious tradition and if anything
has come to define itself in terms of its plurality and openness to difference.
I think this is a good thing but we still have our moments - times when we get
sucked back into that them and us way of thinking.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="color: black; line-height: 150%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Like
many people on this island I watched with disbelief the shambolic behaviour of
the British parliament last week in dealing with the ongoing Brexit issue and I
was provoked to post some very negative satirical material on social media
which to the neutral observer might be deemed anti British. It is a fine line
that is very easy to cross when defending ones own nation becomes an attack on
another and I think in hindsight I probably crossed that line - and that is not
a good thing. Celebrating or even protecting our own national identity should
not necessitate attacking or undermining another!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="color: black; line-height: 150%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Today
we live in a world where a very strident and aggressive nationalism is on the
rise and is characterised by demonization of various minority or marginalised
groups.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is a politics of hate and
makes no apology for that.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
Sadly it was part of the narrative that brought
about the result of the Brexit referendum which was fuelled by the politics of
fear and hate concerning immigrants and refugees. It is also to be witnessed in
the domestic and foreign policy of the <st1:country-region w:st="on">United
States</st1:country-region> under their current president who cannot bring
himself to condemn Nazi intimidation in his own country and has created an
entirely false narrative equating immigrants with terrorism when virtually all
such incidents on <st1:country-region w:st="on">US</st1:country-region> soil
have been perpetrated by white <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">US</st1:place></st1:country-region>
indigenous nationals.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="color: black; line-height: 150%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Just
a few days ago we saw the outworking of this mindset in the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">New Zealand</st1:place></st1:country-region>
massacre by Brenton Tarrant who in his manifesto praised Donald Trump as a
'symbol of renewed white identity and common purpose'.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="color: black; line-height: 150%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>If
all of this is sounding too political for the pulpit let me assure you this is
not about party politics - but the kind of politics that Jesus himself was
concerned with - Jesus was probably crucified because of his politics. The
Gospel when you take it seriously and try and implement it in the world is a
very political instrument.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="color: black; line-height: 150%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>So
how do we respond as Church to this? - Many people have said that 'Thoughts and
Prayers' are not enough and that we need to be proactive - not just salving the
wounds but addressing the very roots of the problem. One response to the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">New Zealand</st1:country-region></st1:place>
massacre published in the Guardian was an article by Masuma Rahim who said
this: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">........it’s not just Muslims who are
losing their lives at the hands of far-right nationalism. It’s <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/pittsburgh-shooting">Jews</a> and
Sikhs and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/charleston-shooting">black
people</a>. Because when fascism comes to call, it usually doesn’t care what
shade of “different” you are. All it knows is that you are different, and it
does not like you for it.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">My fury and my pain is not lessened
when a Jewish person is killed, or when a Hindu person is killed. We share a
common humanity and that is sufficient for us to feel rage and pain. ............
It’s time to make a stand. Defend our rights.</span></i><i><span style="line-height: 150%;">........ Use your position to send a
clear message that hatred has no place in society. .......Too many have died.
More will die if you fail to act. History will judge you for it.</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="line-height: 150%;">I want to pick up on one of the phrases that Masuma Rahim
used and that was 'common humanity' which straight away resonated with me as I
am currently reading a wonderful book which is all about embracing a more
generous worldview and faith that focuses on those things that unite us rather
than divide us as peoples and nations. In this book, <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Universal Christ</i></b>,
Richard Rohr makes the comment that '<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Frankly,
Jesus came to show us how to be human much more than how to be spiritual, and
the process still seems to be in its early stages'.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="line-height: 150%;">Well that is certainly an understatement - we have a lot of
work to do on our humanity when these atrocities can be committed in our name
and in the name of faith and we must do all in our power to stop the Gospel
ever being used to condone, hatred, exclusion and persecution.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="line-height: 150%;">In this same book Richard Rohr identifies some specific issues
with the way that Christianity has evolved which is at best not helpful in the
current crisis and at worst may actually fan the flames of hatred. Much of
these failings are truths that we have forgotten but which were part of our
faith tradition from the very beginning.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="line-height: 150%;">He calls for a recovery of an 'incarnational worldview' which
is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">'the profound recognition of the
presence of the divine in literally everything and every one'.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">'Without a sense of the inherent
sacredness of the world....we struggle to see God in our own reality, let alone
respect reality, protect it or love it. The consequences of this ignorance are
all around us, seen in the way we have exploited and damaged our fellow human
beings, the dear animals, the web of growing things, the land, the waters and
the very air.'<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="line-height: 150%;"><o:p> </o:p></span>He also points out that we have narrowed the remit of the
Gospel and ignored some key Scriptures such as
the prologue of St John's Gospel which makes it clear that Christ has
existed from the beginning of history - Christ as he puts it is not Jesus last
name:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span class="chapternum"><b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; line-height: 150%;"> </span></i></b></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was
God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being
through him, and without him not one thing came into being. ............... And
the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory
as of a father’s only son, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>full of grace
and truth.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="line-height: 150%;">And yet despite this proclamation of the universal nature of
the Incarnation our <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">faith became a
competitive theology with various parochial theories of salvation instead of a
universal cosmology inside of which all can live with an inherent dignity......As
a rule we were more interested in the superiority of our own tribe, group or
nation than we were in the wholeness of creation.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="line-height: 150%;">This is where it gets uncomfortable because this is exactly
the theology which feeds and legitimises the kind of tribal zenophobic nationalism
that is so destructive in our world today and it is not authentic Christianity.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="line-height: 150%;">Rather says Rohr: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">'Authentic
God experience always expands your seeing and never constricts it....In God you
do not include less and less; you always see and love more and more. The more
you transcend your small ego, the more you can include. </i>And Jesus says:<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> 'Unless the single grain of wheat dies, it
remains just a single grain. But if it does it will bear much fruit.'<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="line-height: 150%;">I said earlier that much of our failings are about truths we
have forgotten - If proof were needed just listen to the words of this extract
from the Breastplate, attributed to St. Patrick:<span style="color: black;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black;">Christ be with me, Christ within me,<br />
Christ behind me, Christ before me,<br />
Christ beside me, Christ to win me,<br />
Christ to comfort and restore me.<br />
Christ beneath me, Christ above me,<br />
Christ in quiet, Christ in danger,<br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Christ in hearts of all that love me,</b><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Christ in mouth of friend and stranger.</b><o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black;">I bind unto myself the Name,<br />
The strong Name of the Trinity;<br />
By invocation of the same.<br />
The Three in One, and One in Three,<br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Of Whom all nature hath creation</b>,<br />
Eternal Father, Spirit, Word:<br />
Praise to the Lord of my salvation,<br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Salvation is of Christ the Lord</b></span></i><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black;">.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black;">In a world
scarred by fear and hatred, distrust and disillusionment let us embrace and
proclaim, as did St. Patrick <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>a more
generous Christ who alone can reconcile and heal our brokenness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Amen.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />Stephen Neillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15130425037498473898noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-989890166047940960.post-29646711509907518342019-01-19T17:55:00.000+00:002019-01-19T17:59:00.395+00:00Sermon for Sunday 20th January 2019 - 2nd Sunday after Epiphany<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="background: white; line-height: 150%;">Attending
a wedding for the first time, a little girl whispered to her mother, "Why
is the bride dressed in white?" "Because white is the color of
happiness, and today is the happiest day of her life," her mother tried to
explain, keeping it simple. The child thought about this for a moment, then
said, "So why's the groom wearing black?"</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="background: white; color: black; line-height: 150%;">The groom in today’s Gospel
reading John 2:1-11) may not have been wearing black but he was probably having a dark
moment when the wine ran out at his own wedding but thanks to Jesus all is well
and the celebrations continue and he even gets the credit for saving the best
wine till last!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Shaky start or not it
all ends on a happy note when a scarcity becomes an abundance. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="background: white; color: black; line-height: 150%;">And this is not just a story
about Jesus performing what some would describe as magic trick – <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">No</b>, the text tells us that this is a
sign, the first of his signs which revealed his glory and brought people to
faith in him.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="background: white; color: black; line-height: 150%;">And its not an isolated incident
either – it is in fact reflective of the generosity and mercy of God in
providing for us in our times of need.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="background: white; color: black; line-height: 150%;">The Old Testament reading <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>from Isaiah (62:1-5) is very similar in its structure –
It begins in the wake of pain and shattered dreams in the wake of the
Babylonian Exile and the return to the site of destruction that was Jerusalem –
In the midst of acknowledging this pain the Prophet promises a new reality, a
new hope on the horizon:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #010000;">The nations shall see your vindication,<br />
and all the kings your glory;<br />
and you shall be called by a new name<br />
that the mouth of the <span class="sc"><span style="font-variant: small-caps;">Lord</span></span> will give. <br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--><br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #010000;">And then in
language that is echoed in the Gospel reading we hear this description of the
new relationship between God and his people:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">For as a young man marries a young woman,<br />
so shall your builder<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null"><sup><span style="color: #0000bb; text-decoration: none;">*</span></sup></a> marry
you,<br />
and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride,<br />
so shall your God rejoice over you.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And just like the Gospel
where scarcity becomes abundance we hear these words:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> All mortal flesh shall take refuge<br />
under the shadow of your wings.<br />
They shall be satisfied with the abundance of your house; •<br />
they shall drink from the river of your delights.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="line-height: 150%;">This is a God who is present in the lows as well as the highs
of life – This is a God who reminds his people that he is with them and has not
abandoned them.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="line-height: 150%;">And how is God present to us – well one of the ways is in the
gifts that we have been given. Today’s Epistle (1 Cor 12:1-11) deals with just that in the
context of the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Corinthian</st1:placename>
<st1:placetype w:st="on">Church</st1:placetype></st1:place> where there had
been some tension between the members over rivalry as to who had the best
gifts.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Paul says this<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">: </i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> Now
there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties
of services, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but
it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. To each is given
the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good</i><span style="color: #010000;">.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="line-height: 150%;">Very clearly he is saying that these gifts are not about
feeding our own egos but building up the Church, the body of Christ. These gifts
are complementary and not to be seen as a hierarchy of gifts but given
individually to the members for the sake of the whole – and everybody has got
one – nobody is left out – the abundance of gifts belong to all and so the
generosity and Grace of God is experienced in community primarily. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="line-height: 150%;">Being a follower of Jesus is not about solo runs! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="line-height: 150%;">We need the gifts of our sisters and brothers in Christ to
thrive both individually and as community, as Church. And that is especially
important when things go wrong, sometimes when things go terribly and horribly
wrong – that we are not alone – that God has called us both individually but
also as a people to follow him. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="line-height: 150%;">And so back to that Gospel and as we have already noted it is
about the generosity of God’s provision for his people but in this case the
abundance of that generosity is quite extraordinary. 6 * 20 or 30 gallon water
jars filled with wine amounts to as much as 1000 bottles of wine!!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That is totally over the top – there must
have been some very sore heads in Cana of Galilee after that wedding. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="line-height: 150%;">But in saying that, God’s love for us and his provision for
us is way over the top – more than we can ever earn or fully appreciate. Some
of the best attempts at expressing it have been in some of the great hymns of
our tradition such as <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Amazing Grace</b>
– the title says it all and <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">How Great
thou art</b> which opens with the line: <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">O
Lord my God! When I in awesome wonder</b>! <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--><br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<!--[endif]--></i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="line-height: 150%;">But its not only about the extent of God’s Grace – it is also
about its eternal quality – it doesn’t come to an end – there is always more –
there is always grounds for hope and for renewal.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After the miracle at <st1:place w:st="on">Cana</st1:place>
the steward comes to the bridegroom and says:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">‘Everyone
serves the good wine first, and then the inferior wine after the guests have become
drunk. But you have kept the good wine until now.’<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We
are called to be a people who never give up hoping – who never stop expecting
that God is going to do something wonderful in our lives<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>- it is not a life without hurt and pain –
there will be valleys as well as mountain tops but that does not need to
undermine our capacity to experience God’s presence throughout some of the most
difficult patches of our lives. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="line-height: 150%;">I personally find great hope and
inspiration in the writing of a Jewish Rabbi, Harold Kushner who wrote what is
almost universally recognised as the greatest book on living with grief in
modern times. It is called ‘When bad things happen to good people’, written in
response to the death of his young son from a rare illness, and this passage is
I think especially relevant: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="line-height: 150%;">QUOTE:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="line-height: 150%;">It is that reality that gives me
hope – it is that reality that has helped me through the darker times in my
life – God for me isn’t a God who comes to the rescue when it all falls apart
but God is there too when it is falling apart and as long as I or we or you can
discern that presence there is a tomorrow and there is the possibility to begin
again, to hope again. The best wine is yet to be served.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="line-height: 150%;">Last Tuesday was Martin Luther King
Day and I can think of no better words than his to speak of that Hope – These
were his last words delivered in a sermon in <st1:placename w:st="on">Mason</st1:placename>
<st1:placename w:st="on">Temple</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Church</st1:placetype>
in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Memphis</st1:city> <st1:state w:st="on">Tennessee</st1:state></st1:place> on the eve of his assassination: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "georgia"; line-height: 150%;">Well, I don't know what will happen now. We've got some
difficult days ahead. <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "georgia"; line-height: 150%;">But it really doesn't matter with me now, because I've been
to the mountaintop. And I don't mind. Like anybody, I would like to live - a
long life; longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I
just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And
I've looked over. And I've seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with
you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the
Promised Land. So I'm happy, tonight. I'm not worried about anything. I'm not
fearing any man. <span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm;">Mine eyes have seen
the glory of the coming of the Lord</span>.</span></i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="line-height: 150%;"> <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="line-height: 150%;">Amen.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<br />Stephen Neillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15130425037498473898noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-989890166047940960.post-72510901902410572992018-11-09T16:52:00.000+00:002018-11-09T17:02:31.923+00:00Celebrating a bigger vision of being Irish<br />
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I attended an event today that moved me deeply and filled me
with a sense of gratitude that I live in a country which is able to embrace an
ever increasing diversity of understanding of what it is to be Irish.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The event was a World War 1 Commemoration of the 100<sup>th</sup>
Anniversary of the Armistice and it took place in the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Salesian</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">College</st1:placetype></st1:place>
in Celbridge and was organised by the staff and students of the college under the leadership of Kieran McManamon.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The centre piece of the event was the unveiling of a
memorial stone in a newly set aside memorial garden to all those from the
Celbridge area, regardless of religious affiliation who died during the 1<sup>st</sup>
World War. Wreaths were laid by members of the Irish Army and Airforce and a
senior British Army officer who was representing the British Ambassador. Also present
was the Deputy Head of <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Mission</st1:place></st1:city>
of the Belgian Embassy and a representative of the French embassy, who along
with a representative of the Royal British Legion and students from the
school<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>also laid wreaths. Following this
a service took place in the School Gymnasium. This was led by Fr Seamus Madigan
(Head Chaplain of the Irish Defence Forces). </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The service was beautifully put together and included some
of the most famous war poetry which was inspired by the 1<sup>st</sup> World
War. The names of all those on the memorial were read out along with their
regiments and also a list of others who while not from Celbridge were
associated in any way with the staff and students of the school. I was very
moved that my own Great Grand Father, Charles Arthur Cox<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>who died in the final weeks of the war was
included in the list. I never knew him of course but found myself tearing up at
his name being celebrated 100 years later in a context and setting he could
never have dreamed were possible. (The account of his death is included below).*</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The music which accompanied the commemoration was also very
moving and included pieces by both staff and students including a haunting
rendition by two of the teachers of ‘Christmas 1915’ which tells the story of
the Christmas Day football match between the English and German trenches where
for a brief interval amongst all the carnage there was peace, albeit short
lived.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The service ended with the National Anthem and I can
honestly say I have never been so proud of my country as I was today – We have
come a long way and it is only right that we finally acknowledge our debt to
those who gave their tomorrow for our today.</div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="il"><span style="background: white; color: #222222;">*Charles</span></span><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"> <span class="il">Arthur</span> <span class="il">Cox</span>, Royal Engineers, Scottish Regiment.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;">
<span style="color: #222222;">He died
only weeks before the end of the war and is referred to in the official account
below as Spr <span class="il">Cox</span>:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
During the night of 12/13 October 1918, 416th Field Company
completed a floating bridge across the Sensée Canal, which allowed two
companies of 1/2nd Londons to cross. At 05.15 one of these companies attacked
under a covering barrage and surprised Aubigny-au-Bac, taking many German
prisoners but the Germans counter-attacked the following morning, and the
companies were withdrawn at dusk. That night a fresh patrol went across the
footbridge, despite the Germans being within hand grenade range. The bridge
broke, and Cpl James McPhie and Spr Cox, of 416th Fd Co jumped into the
water to hold it together. McPhie and his men then set about repairing the
bridge after daybreak, while under fire. McPhie and Cox were both
mortally wounded, but the bridge held and the bridgehead was maintained until
after 56th Division had been relieved by 4th Canadian Division on 14 October.
Corporal McPhie was awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross. <br />
The division then participated in the <st1:city w:st="on">Battle</st1:city> of
the Sambre and finally the Passage of the Grande Honnelle, before the war was
ended by the Armistice with <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">Germany</st1:country-region></st1:place>.
</div>
<br />Stephen Neillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15130425037498473898noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-989890166047940960.post-80168185072850064012018-10-06T22:11:00.000+01:002018-10-06T22:17:35.740+01:00Sermon for Sunday 7th October 2018 - The Church after Me Too?<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
‘<i>It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper
as his partner’…. And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made
into a woman and brought her to the man</i>.’</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-IE" style="line-height: 150%;">These
verses and the rest of the passage from Genesis from which they are taken are foundational
to the Judaeo-Christian tradition but are also among the most controversial and
dangerous passages in Scripture!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-IE" style="line-height: 150%;">I
am sure there are some of you in this church today who wince at the implication
of this passage. Reading it through 21<sup>st</sup> century eyes it does appear
to suggest that women are derivative of and so lesser than men. It seems to be
all about the man and when re read that passage we bring our own context to it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span lang="EN-IE" style="line-height: 150%;">And that context is one that
has changed radically over 2000 years and indeed at an accelerated rate over
the last couple of years with the rise of the ‘Me Too’ movement which has
created space for women to name the casual and repetitive abuse inflicted on
women by men in what is still a very patriarchal society and world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span lang="EN-IE" style="line-height: 150%;">That is all too obvious when
you listen to the vitriol directed at Dr Christine Blasey Ford by those who
refuse to take seriously the issue of sexual abuse in the context of the
current Supreme Court appointment procedure in the US – Whether Judge Kavanaugh
is guilty or not, the treatment of Dr Ford in some circles shows a deep seated
misogyny in the highest echelons of political life<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<span lang="EN-IE" style="line-height: 150%;">There
are so many ways in which we consciously or unconsciously denigrate women – Its
not just about sexual harassment & assault in the work place or even rape
but also the continuing objectification of women in media and in the extreme
form in the world of increasingly pervasive pornography where our young people
are learning about sexuality in a very distorted and unrealistic context where
women especially are subject to being treated as mere commodities. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span lang="EN-IE" style="line-height: 150%;">And then there is that often
hidden world of domestic violence which in my ministry I have had my eyes
opened to on more occasions than I could have ever imagined.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span lang="EN-IE" style="line-height: 150%;">And finally look at the levels
of fatal violence towards women by men – this past summer especially within the
greater <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Dublin</st1:city></st1:place>
area has been exceptionally grim in that respect. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span lang="EN-IE" style="line-height: 150%;">All of these abuses from the
mildest to the most extreme spring from the one source and that is the
denigration of the status of women – making them lesser persons and at its
extreme non-persons.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span lang="EN-IE" style="line-height: 150%;">That is not the Christian
teaching and nor is it the way of Jesus who again and again defied the culture
of the day in treating women as equals. He was never afraid to converse with
women – he spoke to women with tenderness and respect and on occasion he was
not beyond chastising his disciples while acknowledging the wisdom and faith of
women over and above his male disciples.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span lang="EN-IE" style="line-height: 150%;">Remember the story of the
woman who anointed Jesus’ feet from Luke 7:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span class="textluke-7-44"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: white; color: black; line-height: 150%;">Then he turned toward the woman and said to
Simon, </span></i></span><span class="woj"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: white; color: black; line-height: 150%;">“Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any
water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with
her hair.</span></i></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="background: white; color: black; line-height: 150%;"> <span class="woj"><b><sup>45 </sup></b>You did not give me a kiss, but this
woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet.</span> <span class="woj"><b><sup>46 </sup></b>You did not put oil on my head, but
she has poured perfume on my feet.</span> <span class="woj"><b><sup>47 </sup></b>Therefore,
I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—as her great love has shown. <o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<span class="woj"><span style="background: white; color: black; line-height: 150%;">Clearly
Jesus did not consider women inferior and yet the Church has through its
history often treated women exceptionally badly and in some cases still does. And
it could be argued that that passage from Genesis is part of the reason and
part of the problem. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span class="woj"><span style="background: white; color: black; line-height: 150%;">It is
also an obstacle for some people – women and men – in coming to faith and so it
a passage we need to look at and take ownership of.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span class="woj"><span style="background: white; color: black; line-height: 150%;">We can’t
just read this passage on a Sunday morning and say nothing about it – I have
done so previously but things have changed and once you become aware of a
problem you can’t ignore it!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span class="woj"><span style="background: white; color: black; line-height: 150%;">If
someone who has perhaps been in an abusive relationship or been experiencing
sexual harassment in the workplace came into our church today (maybe such a
person is here) and hears that passage – what do they hear? Do they find
comfort or is it rubbing salt in their open wounds?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span class="woj"><span style="background: white; color: black; line-height: 150%;">Those
are the kind of questions we have to ask and the questions that arise when we
treat a text that was written likely 2600 years ago during the Babylonian exile
as contemporary social science and history.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span class="woj"><span style="background: white; color: black; line-height: 150%;">Genesis
is both poetic and full of rich symbolism and meaning but we ironically
textually abuse it when we read it as a contemporary text. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span class="woj"><span style="background: white; color: black; line-height: 150%;">The
first question we must ask ourselves is what is the context and the answer is
Creation and the interrelationships of the various members of Creation with one
another and God, so it fundamentally not about power but about <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u>relationship</u></b>. The only power
involved is in God’s hands. God saw all that he had made and it was very good.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span class="woj"><span style="background: white; color: black; line-height: 150%;">The
Jesuit scholar Dennis Hamm who is emphatic that this passage is not about the hierarchy
of men over women says this: <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">Please attend to the plot of the
story! The other creatures were not enough for the Human - Adam needs an
equal, a real companion made of the same stuff….. <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">This is a story about how men and
women were made for each other, not about who's got the power. The rib business
is also a way of celebrating how the marital union—becoming ‘one flesh’—is a
kind of recovery of a union that was meant to be from the beginning of
humanity's creation.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="line-height: 150%;">We are so literalist and simplistic in our reading of
Scripture that we miss the richness of the figurative and symbolic language of
Genesis that was never meant to be read literally and we impoverish ourselves
and distort our faith when we do so.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-indent: 36.0pt;">
<span style="line-height: 150%;">Considering the position that Jesus
took in his relationships and meetings with women of all backgrounds this seems
to me a better way to read this difficult scripture and one which might help us
to reclaim the real tradition of our faith. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="line-height: 150%;">A tradition which is not about the power struggle between
women and men but rather mutual need and mutual dependence where both can
flourish and grow.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>If we accept
that women and men are truly equal in God’s eyes and that both together express
the fullness of humanity then not only is the abuse of women blasphemous but it
is also undermining of the dignity of men as it is of woman. Every one of us
here, male or female was nurtured in our mother’s womb and an essential part of
our humanity comes from that early and formative experience of pure love, the
first relationship of our human lives. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>So back to
Genesis – These are our Scriptures, they are our story and we are responsible
for the way in which they are presented to the world – When they become an
excuse for the oppression of any group within humanity and we do nothing then
we too are tainted with that distortion.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="line-height: 150%;">I will finish with an extract from the Christian Aid Report:
‘Of the same flesh: Exploring a theology of Gender’ (2014)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="line-height: 150%;">It said this:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">‘Christians believe that our being
made ‘male and female’ is a gift of God, and should be experienced as joy for
humankind. When gender becomes a weapon of oppression then something is badly
wrong.’<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="line-height: 150%;">Something is badly wrong and we are part of the solution.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="line-height: 150%;">Amen.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />Stephen Neillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15130425037498473898noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-989890166047940960.post-42623778353028687392018-06-24T18:02:00.002+01:002018-06-24T18:02:55.088+01:00GAFCON 2018 - NO LOVE! - NO REALLY NO 'LOVE'!<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px;">
I’ve just been re-reading the <a href="https://www.gafcon.org/news/letter-to-the-churches-gafcon-assembly-2018" target="_blank">final statement from GAFCON 2018 ‘Letter to the Churches’</a> and something occurred to me - There is no love in it - and by that I mean that in a document which extends to 8 A4 pages and 2,782 words including the glossary there is not one single instance of the word ‘LOVE’ in it!<br />To be sure I wasn’t mistaken I downloaded the letter into my word processor and searched for ‘love’ and the message came back ‘word not found’. There is of course predicta<span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; font-family: inherit;">bly plenty of ‘sin’, ‘hell’, ‘judgement’ and frequent references to ‘sex’ ‘sexuality’ homosexuality’ etc. In short lots of sex but no love!<br />That said I cannot even begin to comprehend how any organization that claims to be rooted in the Gospel of Jesus Christ can produce such a comprehensive and lengthy rallying call to the churches and fail to mention LOVE! I will not insult any who read this as to why this is not just a fundamental omission but is in fact indicative of a movement that has set aside the heart of the Gospel and threatens to undermine the witness of Anglican Christianity which has always based its breadth and generosity on that of Jesus Christ rooted in God’s Love.<br />With Saint Paul surely any affirmation and call to faith must be explicitly about LOVE.</span></div>
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<div style="font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 6px;">
If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal 1 Cor:13:1</div>
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Stephen Neillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15130425037498473898noreply@blogger.com0