Open Bethlehem

O Little Town of Bethlehem,
how still we see thee lie!
Above thy deep and dreamless sleep
the silent stars go by:
yet in the the dark streets shineth
the everlasting Light;
the hopes and fears of all the years
are met in thee tonight.

I must have sung that Christmas carol many times over the years. Each time I picture in my mind lots of white, flat topped houses, much loved by my Sunday School teachers when we came to making biblical models. Bethlehem, a sunny place, a happy place.

The truth of course is much different. Today Bethlehem is a city under siege. All around is the Israeli 'security fence', a structure that dwarfs the old Berlin Wall, and which has been condemned internationally.

Over the past few months I have become increasingly concerned by the plight of my brothers and sisters in Palestine, and Bethlehem in particular. I am concerned that my country uses its military bases to load U.S. aircraft with weapons for Israel, an occupying force. I am concerned that some Christians seem fit to support Israel in their attempt to bring about the 'end time.' How arrogant of them to believe they can manipulate God!

However, being concerned and angry is not enough. It is not going to improve the situation for the Palestinian people or the town of Bethlehem. What will help is to bring to the attention of my fellow Christians the truth of what is happening. For that reason I was particularly heartened by the visit to Bethlehem by UK Christian leaders and the publication of their comments afterwards.

The following is an abstract from the Open Bethlehem website

23 December 2006

Leaving Bethlehem this morning after a three-day pilgrimage, the UK ’s church leaders pledged themselves to continue to be a “voice for the voiceless” on behalf of the beleaguered people of the town.

The Rt Revd David Coffey, president of the Churches Together in England , was speaking on behalf of the Archbishops of Canterbury and Westminster , and the Armenian Patriarch of Great Britain, after they received symbolic Bethlehem passports.

The passports are an initiative of Open Bethlehem, a campaign which began in 2005 to draw the world’s attention to the plight of the town, which is in economic meltdown following the construction of a 30-foot-high wall by the Israeli army. The Israeli measures imposed since 2000 have led to a catastrophic decline in the number of pilgrimages to the town, on which its economy depends.

According to a 2004 UN report unemployment and poverty have caused more than 400 Christian families to leave Bethlehem in search of livelihoods abroad.

Shortly after walking through the checkpoint on Thursday, a visibly shocked Archbishop of Canterbury said the wall symbolized “all that is wrong in the human heart”.

“Your visit reassures us that we are not forgotten,” Leila Sansour, Open Bethlehem’s chief executive, told the four pilgrims.

She said the passports signaled “our hope that you will continue to be ambassadors for Bethlehem after you return home”. She asked that “whenever you travel you will speak about Bethlehem and remember us, a people who long to travel in dignity and freedom.”

There has so far been only one passport given: Pope Benedict XVI received the Bethlehem passport in December 2005 from the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas.

“We are fortunate to have such distinguished ambassadors to speak for us,” Sansour said.

The passport asks the bearer to “remain a true friend to Bethlehem through its imprisonment” and that he or she will “strive to keep the ideals of Bethlehem alive as long as the wall stands.”

Mr Coffey in turn presented Leila Sansour with a Christmas card signed by hundreds of people in Durham , in north-east England . The card shows Mary and Joseph approaching Bethlehem but finding the town imprisoned behind a wall.

“We support your struggle for peace with justice”, were the words on the inside of the card.

The Open Bethlehem delegation included a representative of the Governor of Bethlehem, as well as the coordinator of a network of Christian organizations in Bethlehem and a representative of the World Council of Churches.

The church leaders spent yesterday visiting Christian and humanitarian projects in Bethlehem, including Bethlehem University (where 70 per cent of the students are Muslim), the Holy Family hospital and the Arab Rehabilitation Society, a hospital for the disabled.

At the university, the church leaders received from the students a piece of a demolished house belonging to the family of one of the students, as well as a candle and a handpainted tile.

Rather than hand over the stone from the demolished house to his advisers, Dr Williams kept hold of it throughout his visit to the university.

The students spoke of life under occupation, the sense of imprisonment, and their anxieties about their future.

-- end quote --

If you share my concerns may I suggest you visit the Open Bethlehem Site
Another good source is to be found at The Amos Trust

If you find these links helpful, then pass them on. And let us pray that next Christmas in Bethlehem will not only be a demonstration of God's love in sending his son, but also of our care for God's people in Bethlehem.

Dave

Zita Mary Pansy Smith: November 1918 - September 2006

Sadly, the loss of Gill's father in June has been followed by the death of her mother this month. The following are transcripts of the Tributes given at her funeral:-

The Funeral Sermon

Reading 1 John 4:7-12

The reading we have just heard seems a strange one for a funeral service; it is more suited to a wedding and indeed, is often used in that context. So, why has this reason been chosen? Perhaps the answer will become clear as I progress.

If we are to read our newspapers and watch the news on television it would seem that we live in a world devoid of love. This week has seen the fifth anniversary of 9/11. We have heard once again of the ‘War on Terror’- a war that has so far claimed an estimated further 72,000 civilian lives and the lives of over 3,000 service personnel in Afghanistan and Iraq. We have no idea how many have died on the, so called ‘other side.’

It seems that death and destruction have become the stock trade of the media, and it would be easy to assume that the world was full of hate and that love was dead.

But that is not the case. What go unreported are the thousands of small acts of love that take place day by day. In the rubble of Lebanon and the Gaza Strip, there are individuals working, supporting and loving those the world has forgotten, some working for Organisations, some individually.

In our country the same is true. We hear of the gunning down of a 15 year old boy in Moss-side, Manchester, but nothing of the Seventh Day Adventist Pastor, who is up in the middle of the night comforting the family.

So why am I saying all this? I am saying it because Zita was one of those unnoticed people who quietly got on with helping and loving people. Very rarely did she get into the news, and those outside here circle of family and friends most likely never knew some of the things she did. It is not for me to list them here - that is for those who will give the tributes, should they so wish. I simply need to say that Zita showed love to all: her family and friends, of course; but also to those who, through no fault of their own, needed care and attention, but most of all love.

Mother Teresa of Calcutta said: “I have come more and more to realise that being unwanted is the worse disease that any human being can ever experience. Nowadays we have found medicine for leprosy and lepers can be cured. There is medicine for TB and consumptives can be cured. But for being unwanted, except there are willing hands to serve and there’s a loving heart to love, I don’t think this terrible disease can be cured.”

Zita dedicated much of her life making sure that those with whom she had contact, did not feel unwanted and for that we give thanks to God today. Sometimes those acts of love were not without cost. In times, she too was in pain but that did not stop her. Love can be costly, but never as costly as it was to God. “For God so loved the world that he gave his son. Zita’s loving acts may not have been earth shattering but when added to similar acts that happen minute by minute, hour by hour and day by day, they help create a power that can never be defeated, a power that always triumphs in the end because it is the very power of God : for “God is love.”

So, today, we thank God for her example. However, hopefully we can do more than that we can follower her example and the example of others like her, in bringing a little more love into the world.

So the reading from 1 John is most appropriate. “Beloved, let us live on another for love is from God.”

Gill's and Elaine's Trubute

This tribute will be in two parts. In the first part I will attempt to tell you a little about the Zita you don’t perhaps know, because I know that many of you who join with me today, could stand here and give this tribute and most of you know of her life in the village and involvement with St Raphael better than I.

My mother was very much her father’s daughter. She imbibed and shared his fierce belief in people, his ability to be and remain independent in his judgements and actions, but to work within the structures of the society he lived in. Both mothers’ parents came from seafaring families, where men and women were separated for months at a time. During these times men needed to sew and cook and women needed to maintain property and manage the family affairs. So it was that Mother and her siblings were all taught to sew, cook, clean, and decorate regardless of gender. This got both of my parents into trouble from time to time. For example, the first time my mother was ill, it came as a bit of a surprise that she had to give my father detailed instruction on how to boil an egg. My mother horrified her mother-in-law by painting the window frames. I should add that at the time she was sitting on the window sill, painting the outside of an upstairs window and she was quite heavily pregnant.

Mother’s father was a teacher and for that he was viewed as a rebel by the family. The same strength that enabled Grandpa to persue his career in education was shared by mother. This enabled her maintain her stand for those and for that which she believed in. None more so, than in her successful resistance to all the pressure and well intended advise regarding my sisters education. Elaine’s sever dyslexia and the then teaching method resulted in her experiencing very sever difficulties at school. School was fee paying. Our paternal grandfather, who got to where he was by working his way up, did not understand why my parents thought it necessary to pay for our education, never mind that one of the children wasn’t learning. There were times when only my mother stood between Elaine and at the very least, a school for the ineducatable. I wonder if during this time, my mother ever imagined that this child she fought so hard for would become a university graduate?

Mother grew up during the great depression of the nineteen twenties, a time when there was no welfare state. Her father was the headmaster of an elementary school. Grandfather took his duties very seriously. She told us about two brothers who had been expelled from their previous schools. Grandpa took them in to his school. He eventually found they could draw and he encouraged them in this. She told us that when they left school they eventually made a name for themselves as artists. Mother and her siblings regularly lost second best coats or shoes to children at his school who had none. Nor was this the sole province of my grandfather. Mother remembers coming home from school to find her mother rifling the beds for blankets. Granny had gone to assist a farm workers wife who was giving birth to a baby. There were no blankets or coverings in this womans home apart from newspapers. Grandma had no spare blankets so everyone in the house had one less blanket on their bed.

Like the Queen, mother’s life was governed by her strong sence of duty. Whatever the personal cost, mother would always act according to that which she perceived as her duty. She never talked about it, but it underpinned everything she did.

I do have to say that at times she was very sorely tried. She once told me that, following her engagement to my father, she was introduced to his extended family. She found the inspection by elderly aunts quite vexing. On one occasion she was asked if she liked housework. When she replied in the negative, she was asked why she wanted to get married. I believe her honest blunt reply rather shocked this victorian lady.

I would like to tell you about when we grew up, about the chickens, about her care for her mother-in-law and her own parents, her sacrifices, the fun times like the impromptu picnics at West Mersea, the embarrassing times like the washing up in the oven and holding up the London train because she lost her shoe on the track.

I would share with you the love of dancing she shared with my father, Sequence dancing at Kesgrave and the gold medal.

After Elaine and I grew up, Mother joined the Town’s women Guild and through them was able to attend some very interesting meetings on the then modern trends in housing. It seems boring to us, but when she talked about it she really lit up! But then when Grandpa retired for teaching he became a councillor. He was very heavily involved in promoting the idea of social housing. In fact the first council houses in colchester were built in the road Councillor Ham lived. As I said My mother was her fathers daughter.

Faith or Works?

It is some time since we have posted anything here. Somehow summer has slipped by.

The following is a sermon preached by me one the 3rd of September. I had not intended to publish it, but some people have asked for a copy, so putting it up here seemed the best option.

Dave

Faith or Works?

Readings: James 1-17 –end, Mark 7.1-8, 14-15, 21-23

Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the father is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress and, and to keep oneself unstained by the world. (James 1-27)

For by grace you have been saved, through faith, and this is not of your own doing; if is the gift of God – not the result of works, so that on one may boast. (Eph 2-8)

Introduction

These to verses, to some extent, sum up the long standing debate in Christianity – just how are we put right with God? Is it by having faith in the person and sacrifice of Jesus, or is it by living a good and caring life?

However, this debate is older than Christianity. In our gospel reading this morning, Jesus is confronted with the Pharisees. They wanted to know why Jesus was allowing his disciples to eat without washing their hands. Surely, anyone who claims to be religious and a good Jew should be following all the laws and traditions laid down. To the Pharisee, there were rules for everything, and only by following these rules could a person be considered righteous before God.

Throughout the centuries, the church too began to act this way. To put it simply: sin separated people from God; it was as if they had a large negative bank balance with God. To pay off that debt they not only had to have faith in Christ but to earn credits. They could do that by attending mass, going on pilgrimage to holy places and (surprise, surprise) giving money to the church. Even then, the debt was likely to be so large that the balance had to be worked off by torment in purgatory and by people paying for mass to be said for you soul.

All this changed with the reformation and the doctrine of ‘Justification by Faith.’ For a person to be put right with God they simply had to believe that Jesus was the Son of God and that by his sacrifice on the cross he had paid the debt of their sins. The cry of the Reformation became “Faith Alone.” Good work, though desirable, were not essential to the salvation of ones soul. Because of this Martin Luther, the so called father of the Reformation called the Book of James an ‘Epistle of Straw,’ because of its emphasis on works. This difference caused the split between Protestantism and Catholicism

To some extent, these two opposing view remain even today, nearly 600 years on.

The Biblical Argument

The question of faith alone or faith plus works is made difficult by some hard-to-reconcile Bible passages. In Romans 3:28, Paul states: we hold that a person is justified by faith apart from the works of the law: but in James 2:24. we read: You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. Some see a difference between Paul (salvation is by faith alone) and James (salvation is by faith plus works). In reality, Paul and James did not disagree at all. The only point of disagreement some people claim is over the relationship between faith and works. As we have seen, Paul dogmatically says that justification is by faith alone (Ephesians 2:8-9) while James appears to be saying that justification is by faith plus works. This apparent problem is answered by examining what exactly James is talking about. James is refuting the belief that a person can have faith without producing any good works. So faith by itself, if it has no works is dead. (James 2:17). James goes on to emphasise the point that genuine faith in Christ will produce a changed life and good works (James 2:20-26). James is not saying that justification is by faith plus works, but rather that a person who is truly justified by faith will have good works in their life. If a person claims to be a believer, but has no good works in his life – then he likely does not have genuine faith in Christ (James 2:14, 17, 20, 26).

Paul says the same thing in his writings. The good fruit believers should have in their lives is listed in Galatians 5:22-23. Immediately after telling us that we are saved by faith, not works (Ephesians 2:8-9), Paul informs us that we were created to do good works (Ephesians 2:10). Paul expects just as much of a changed life as James does, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come” (2 Corinthians 5:17)! James and Paul do not disagree on their teaching on salvation. They approach the same subject from different perspectives. Paul simply emphasized that justification is by faith alone while James put emphasis on the fact that faith in Christ produces good works.

For me the Biblical argument raises two fundamental questions? What application does it have for us today? Does it really affect life in the 21st century?

Does it really affect life in the 21st century?

If we believe, our salvation is by faith alone then it leads to a very self centred form of Christianity. Nowhere is this better demonstrated than in the Fundamentalist Christian groups in the United States. Their unerring belief that prophecies regarding God’s people Israel and major war in the Middle East which will bring about Christ’s return has lead them influence American politicians , including President Bush to give unwavering support to the Nation of Israel , a county that has ignored more United Nations resolutions than Sadam Hussain ever did. That support has lead to the subdegration of the Palestinian people and now the destruction of Lebanon as well as insecurity for many of the Israeli people. There seems to be little evidence of care for these people from these Fundamentalist groups.

Contrast that with the work of other Christians who are there on the streets of Lebanon, living with the people of the Gaza Strip, doing their best for the people of Iraq as their country slips into civil war. For these Christians, simply believing is not enough they feel called to help in some small way. Sadly, there voice is seldom heard in the corridors of power – what they do often goes un-noticed, but they have a firm belief that ‘faith without works is dead’ and that following Christ for them means ministering among the dispossessed.

What application does it have for us today?

The Church in England faces a huge challenge. Britain is one of the most secular societies in the western world. Why is that so? We are given many reasons, but it is fairly safe to say that a main cause is that we in the church have become inward looking. The Church of England a prime example. Just look at the agendas for General Synod for the past 30 years! It seems we are more worried about our own faith and how that works out in the church, than we are about what is happening in our parishes and the wider world.

What of St. David’s? We too face huge challenges in the future. Do we say to ourselves ‘Well my faith is Ok’ I’ll come along Sunday by Sunday and do my duty to God; I’ll even support other church activities. All very laudable, but if that’s all we do – if that becomes the sum total of our Christian commitment and all our efforts are put into maintaining the status quo at St. David’s – we should not be surprised when we become even less relevant to society outside.

However, If we begin to see St. David’s as the place where our faith in God is both strengthened and renewed, a place from which we can go out into the world so that we can not only bring the message of Christ but also work for him in whatever way he should choose, then St. David’s becomes more than a building and its presence in the parish extends further than the corner of Rocky Lane, its relevance along with the relevance of Christ grows.

Conclusion

Where do I stand?

Faith. You may be the sort of person who has faith, but have never really expressed it other than in worship. You need to seek out what God would have you to do.

Works. It may be you’re the sort of person who is trying to work your way into heaven. You do marvellous things, but deep down there is a void that only God can fill.

Faith and Works. You need to make sure that you keep the balance right between the two. Having a soul friend who you can trust is one idea to make sure you do.

Sermon for the Transfiguration

Gill and I have just come back from Northern Ireland. Last Sunday we worshiped at Down Cathedral in Downpatrick, built, so they say, on the site where Patrick was buried and a place where Christians have worshipped for fifteen hundred years. Today’s building is very different from the original, being built in the early 19^th Century. We also visited a number of other sites. There was the Franciscan Friary just outside Ballycastle, long ruined and used for centuries as a burial ground, the ruined Cistercian Monastery, Inch Abbey and, almost by accident we stumbled on Temple Cooey, a holy well and the site where the obscure Celtic saint built a church in the late 7^th Century and today is a place of pilgrimage for the Catholic population.

Why am I mentioning these things? What have they to do with the Transfiguration?

Well, this Sunday is about change. The word Transfiguration means to change the outward appearance or figure. (You know what a figure is, that thing you constantly try to keep in shape after you turn about twenty-five. Slim-fast, yogurt Atkins diet you know the drill.) But to transfigure something means to change its outward appearance, not what it really is on the inside. Tadpoles become frogs, babies become adults, there is often an outward change, but the essence of the thing remains the same. All the site we visited have changed over the years, certainly in appearance and possibly in use, but, for me, all retained their core of holiness. To those attuned, they know they are standing on holy ground.

Jesus was nothing to look at in His day. Judas had to go up to Jesus and give him a kiss of greeting so that the soldiers would know which one he was! In Jesus’ life He was often overlooked. We hear almost nothing about Him for thirty years. He could get lost in a crowd. He died with common criminals. They rescued His body, but that was hardly unusual in the day. The prophet Isaiah even said that Jesus had no beauty that we should desire Him.

Now on this Transfiguration Sunday, we get a glimpse of Jesus from the inside. We no longer see him in the shadows, hiding behind the cloak of the dirt and muck of the world. Now it is broad daylight. Now we see Him as He truly is, God of God, light of light, very God of very God.

On that Transfiguration Day, the disciples saw Jesus and realized that He really is somebody that mattered. He is in fact much more than that: Jesus is the only somebody that matters. Hidden beneath the anonymity and ordinariness of a travelling Jewish rabbi was the King of King and Lord of Lords. All of the fullness of the Godhead dwelt bodily in Jesus Christ. God became man and now the disciples were getting a picture of how we will be transfigured in God.

Yet August 6, 2006 reminds us of another transfiguration. Sixty-one years ago flyers of the U.S. Army Air Corps dropped an atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima, Japan -- a profoundly dramatic event that forever changed the world. This cataclysm released such energy that a blue sky was transfigured into a blinding white light of an intensity never before witnessed.

To some, it seemed that hell itself had intersected with the earth that day. Fifty to seventy thousand people were instantly killed and countless other maimed and fatally injured.

For more than six decades we have lived with the reality that humans have the capacity to destroy every lifeform God so lovingly created.

Without going into details, on our visit to Northern Ireland we were reminded of the divisions and hatreds that have divided the people for so long. One wonders about places like Iraq, Lebanon and Palestine will ever cope in the future. Left to human devices, I doubt they ever will.

However, what is impossible for humans is possible for God.

One of fundamental beliefs of the Quakers is that 'there is that of God in everyone' There is a principle placed in the human mind which is pure & proceeds from God. It is deep and inward, confined to no religion nor excluded from any where the heart stands in perfect sincerity. (John Woolman, American Quaker, 1720-1772)

In you and me, somewhere in the core of our being, there is something of the Divine. God is not ‘out there’ but living in each one of us. Transfiguration for us is in allowing that Divine core to shine through. That is not an easy process and one which we will never complete in this life, but one small spark of God in one person can do more good than we can ever imagine.

Last Sunday, the text at Downpatrick was from Eph 3:20 “Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to do more than we can ask and imagine.” Whatever we imagine -God can do more.

It may be hard to accept that there is a Divine core within us – harder still to accept is that core exists also in out enemies. But because it does there is hope – when both sides touch the Divine everything and anything is possible.

So then Transfiguration is about change – not just the change that took place in Jesus on the mountain top, but the change that can take place in all. It is not a just a commemoration of an event in the life of Jesus but a picture of what is waiting for all of us.

The Transfiguration is also about hope – that when all the earthy shell with all its faults is dropped at the core is the Divine. It is that Divine which enables those things we think impossible to be possible. It is the hope for the world.

It is about opening ourselves up to hear the voice of God and his word for us. However busy Jesus created time and space for himself in order to hear his father’s words. Ought we not do the same?

I can do no more than to leave you with a prayer of St. Paul’s – again from Ephesians 3.

I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses all knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Now to him, who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than we can ask or imagine, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, for ever and ever. Amen