COVID19 - NO SURRENDER!

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.

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'.

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.

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.

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.

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: 'Touch comes before sight, before speech - It is the first language and the last, and it always tells the truth.'

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!

The New Puritanism! Throwing the Statues out with the Bathwater

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/shelbourne-hotel-removes-153-year-old-statues-of-slave-girls-from-its-plinth-1.4315733

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!

Lockdown Leadership?

 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.

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.

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  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!

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.

Worship from Home on our Parish Website

PARISH WEBSITE

An open letter to fellow clergy and bishops of the Church of Ireland and other religious leaders of all faiths.

Dear friends – I write to you as the rector of a County Kildare parish within the commuter belt of Dublin 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.

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 Church of Ireland 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!   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.

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.

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!

Is our piety really more important than the health of the most vulnerable members of society?

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?

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…….

NB: I am aware that the bishops of Cashel, Ferns & Ossary & Limerick & Killaloe Dioceses  have advised church closures and welcome the wisdom of their respective decisions

Sermon for Epiphany - A shared Vision for 2020

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.

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.

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 a voice but the 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 yes 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.

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.

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.

And she walked the talk - I had no idea of the huge amount of voluntary work she did on the ground in Africa and how she was loved there by locals who had no knowledge of the other Marian we all thought we knew.

        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.

        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.

        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!

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.

This is the Eve of the Epiphany - the manifestation of Jesus the Christ to the wider 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.

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.

That to me is not a viable way for the Church to be in the World - so what is the alternative?

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.

So unpredictable and even dangerous as this may be we do need to set this Jesus free.

The famous classic 'The Brothers Karamazov' by Dostoyevsky contains a poem within the book called the Grand Inquisitor - In it  Christ comes back to Earth in Seville 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.

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.

If Jesus is released he will as Archbishop Michael Curry of the American Episcopal Church commenting on the same poem says "mess things up". Curry also observes the irony that "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"

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 Kingdom of God here on Earth.

So where do we start - I think it must be again with the basics:

Scripture and Prayer

Could I suggest that we consider that portion of Matthew Chapter 5 containing the Beatitudes and the passage on Salt and Light  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.

To conclude with the words of Archbishop Michael Curry:

'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'.

Amen.

Matthew 5

The Beatitudes

5 When Jesus^[a] saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. ² Then he began to speak, and taught them, saying:

³ ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

⁴ ‘Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

⁵ ‘Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.

⁶ ‘Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

⁷ ‘Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.

⁸ ‘Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

⁹ ‘Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.

¹⁰ ‘Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

¹¹ ‘Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely^[b] on my account. ¹² Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Salt and Light

¹³ ‘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.

¹⁴ ‘You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hidden. ¹⁵ 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. ¹⁶ 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.

PRAYER

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.

Christmas Sermon 2019 - A celebration of humanity

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.

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.

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.

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.

God became fully human in Jesus and that means that every part of our humanity and our human experience is God infused.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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  which may be far removed from their reality.

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.

Jesus came to set us free from all this -  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!

         

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.  

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.

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.

I am reminded of a wonderful observation by the contemporary biblical scholar and theologian Walter Brueggermann who said 'Churches should be the most honest place in town, not the happiest place in town.' I think he had a point - A banal and vacuous happiness has become the principal  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.

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  pretend or hide behind a mask or live a lie -  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

We may not always be happy - hopefully we are sometimes  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.