Lot's Lot

Sometimes the choices in life seem good at the time. But they lead us bit by bit into a situation when we suddenly realise how far we have moved out of God’s plan for our lives. It may have been a career decision, or a relationship choice, or something else where the grass seemed greener, more secure, more exciting. But now, you feel stuck, unable to move on or out, and increasingly influenced by the culture around you.

Its kind of like the path that a man called Lot took when he made the choice to separate from his Uncle and head over towards the fertile plains of Sodom. The choice was most probably an astute one, given the economics of the situation, and the need to settle down from the nomadic lifestyle and put down roots. But the poor guy didn’t seem to have the foresight to see that its not just about the money. That the end result of living in a godless culture would lead him not just to distance himself from God, but to open himself and his family up to all sorts of risks. And its not just about the sex. Thats what Sodom has come to be famous for in history. But a society with few controls on moral behaviour rapidly becomes a society that opens itself up to violence and injustice.

But what struck me by the whole Lot and Abraham story is that incredible passage in Genesis 18 where Abraham debates with God over the fate of Sodom and his nephews family who are living there. What struck me is that sometimes a good man, like Lot, can be stuck in an intolerable situation, and become spiritually unable to help himself to escape. What he needed was an Abraham, living on a higher plain, walking in communion with God, to intercede and pray on his behalf.

What a powerful spiritual tool is intercession. To be able to stand in the place of people who cannot or will not pray for themselves, and who are maybe not even conscious of the dangerous situation they are in. I walk through the park and down by the river, and I see countless faces, marked by worry an anxiety. And I wonder, who is stand up for them . Who is interceding before a holy God and pleading for their lives, for God to break through and overwhelm them with His mercy and love. I wish I could be that one.

By the way, the picture is of a 5th century mosaic depicting the parting of the ways between Abraham and Lot that is situated in the Church of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome

Breaking Through

So there’s this big rock. A massive lump of granite, taller than a building, and it seems to have been sitting there for centuries. Originally it would have probably stood on its own in a patchwork of rice and wheat fields. Now its hemmed in by the growth of the city around it, and in fact forms part of the compound of “Beakthrough”, Bangalore, where our daughter Sharon and husband Rohit now live, and where we spent ten days of our Christmas holidays in India.

What fascinated me about this rock was its energy. On the early mornings, as the sun was making it over the horizon, I would walk through the garden, climb the steps up onto the back of this mountain, and gaze out over the busy roads and there commune with God. It was an easy place to talk to God. Now, I’m not one given to attaching spiritual significance to places, but I sensed a particular vibe there that made it easy to pray. A little oasis of spiritual peace in the midst of all the temples and mosques.

But the energy of the rock lay in its one unique feature. Two or three massive fissures ran down through the rock literally splitting it right down the middle. And within these fissures, the roots of an ancient tree forcing their way down through to the earth. And on the pinnacle of this rock, the wizened branches of this old tree reaching up to the heavens. You have to see it to really imagine the sheer power of life that managed to split a rock in two. The phenomenon inspired the name of the outdoor activity and team building company that Robin and Linda Paul have been running there since 2000 - “Breakthrough”. Helping individuals and teams to break through in terms of performance and communication.

So in the shadow of this powerful symbol of the strength that life has over death, that growth has over inactivity, I give glory to God, the author and perfector of this faith that helps me see beyond the mundane and to perceive the wonder in the ordinary

http://www.breakthrough-india.com/

There and Back Again

Wow. 2010 has started and its January 25th already. I guess I’ll begin the year with two more mini movie reviews. Courtesy of Air India, they were what I watched on the flight over to Bangalore on December 10th and back again on January 2nd.

Anna doesn’t quite understand my fascination with Bollywood. I guess I must have looked a bit odd on the flight. The passengers seated around me were all Indian and tuned into the English channels on the in flight enter

tainment. I was the only one watching the Hindi movie! This obsession, if you like to call it that, began around 1999 when we were working in Pakistan. The first movie that really fired my imagination was Kuch Kuch Hota Hei with Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol. I guess it has something to do with the catchy tunes, the elaborate dance sequences, the melodramatic acting and the corny dialogue, the set piece plots which are often total fantasy and yet rooted in the culture of the subcontinent and its interactions with other cultures. But Bollywood has come a long way from that stereotype, and has grown up in many ways.

I haven’t had the chance to watch much on offer in recent days, and so I was considerably impressed with the quality of both “Delhi 6”, on the way out, and “Love Aaj Kal” on the return journey. The latter was a cute and contemporary love story, and the cultural nuances were painted by juxtaposing the contemporary relationship with one of twenty years ago which is played out in a series of flashbacks. Delhi 6 was also good, not only because of another excellent soundtrack by A R Rahman, but in the way it expresses the life of the community in a corner of Delhi as an often confusing mix of ancient and modern, tradition and superstition, mixed religious sensibilities of the older generation and the yearnings and passions of the younger.

Kind of sums up our trip to India - that totally sensory overload of smells, sounds and colour that hit us between the eyes on landing in Bangalore, and followed us to the beaches of Goa. It was the combination of ancient and modern, the go-ahead 21st century city, bursting at the seams with energy and struggling to keep up with itself, and the calm and serene way of life of the Goan coast and countryside being ruthlessly taken over in the name of tourism. More about these themes later, I am sure.

Two War Movies

I’m normally not a huge fan of war films. I never really got into “Saving Private Ryan” and their like. But this last week I watched two world war II movies in rapid succession, because they happened to be on the television channel and found both to be compelling viewing.

The one, “Downfall”, was in German with subtitles, and depicted the last days of Adolf Hitler in his bunker while Berlin fell around him. Bruno Ganz´s portrayal of Hitler was mesmerising.

The other, “Enemy at the Gates” from 2001, is a little bit earlier, but none the less, a remarkable vision of the Battle of Stalingrad from a Russian perspective. That was the first battle the Germans lost, and spelt the beginning of the end of the Third Reich (and apparently the battle with the highest number of casualties of all time)

I suppose I found them both interesting because they didn’t give the normal British or American interpretation of that particular period of warfare, and also because they both showed the devastating impact of all out war on a people and a city.

My generation grew up without the idea of war as an immediate reality on the doorstep. There were plenty of other issues to deal with in the 60’s and 70’s, but war was not one of them. It was hard for us to imagine the level of deprivation and suffering that marked our parents generation, for whom, values of honour, loyalty and endurance were not just on their lips - they were written in their lives and part of their beings.

The thing that I came away with from those two films, was the madness, the savagery, the hell that marks so much of conflict that tears up our world, but in the middle of it all, glimpses of human dignity and real heroism. On the spiritual level also, I see myself and those around me caught up in a cosmic battle between the forces of good and evil, with the same measure of ugliness and pain, deception and betrayal, but also with a real hero and a confidence in victory

........................."He who does what is sinful is of the devil,

because the devil has been sinning from the beginning.

The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's work." 1 John3:8

"You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them,

because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world." 1 John4:4

Being Irish

Today I feel a bit ashamed to be Irish. Even though, being of Ulster Presbyterian stock, I could disassociate myself from dark misdemeanours of the Roman Catholic clergy in the Republic. I could join others in pointing the finger - that’s them, not us. But I feel tainted.

I feel tainted, when the world’s media glares on my island, and at an institutional abandonment of the principles of truth and light and care, in preference for lies and darkness and self-service. And all that in the supposed interests of God and His church.

I feel tainted by a shared humanity. And a deep knowledge within myself that, I too harbour the potential to do harm and to cover up the harm with lies, and under the cloak of religiosity and good works.

“Men have always loved darkness, instead of light,” says John the Apostle, “because their deeds were evil”.

I suppose what angers me, though, is that when something like this happens, and there is much apologising and wringing of hands, there’s also a kind of attitude of “let’s put this thing behind us, and get on with the business of managing our world better – after all, we’re not as bad as all that, are we”.

Why don’t we ever listen. Why don’t we ever see. Stories like this, and all the other sin-filled stories that fill the newspapers this morning, only go to show the truth of what was told long ago, that

..............................................The human heart is the most deceitful of all things,

and desperately wicked

We are all infected and impure with sin.

When we display our righteous deeds,

they are nothing but filthy rags.

Like autumn leaves, we wither and fall,

and our sins sweep us away like the wind.

But, God who is rich in mercy, because of his great love for us,

made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in our sins—

for, it is by grace you have been saved.

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son,

that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

From Jeremiah 17, Isaiah 64, Ephesians 2 and John 3

Season of Mists

Morning. 7am. No birdsong. Muffled noise of cars from the northern Highway. A plane rising from Lisbon Airport. The usual sounds of the morning air silenced by a white shroud of November mist sweeping down the river to the ocean.

Its like this most mornings these days and reminds me that life is not always as clear as we would like it to be. And once the mist has cleared, which often happens around midday, the colours of day take on an amazing brilliance, and it seems the air smells sweeter.

We’ve just had a weekend of fog also in the calendar. Halloween on Oct 31 followed by All Saints Day, Nov 1st and All Souls Day, Nov 2nd . The one, a confusion of children’s parties thinly overlying a somewhat more sinister underworld, the other two days, vaguely understood religious traditions to do with the dead passing through on their way to Paradise.

It’s a pity that so little of the real majesty of a God who has made a sure and tested way of finding eternal hope and an escape from this world of sin and uncertainty is not more visible in these cultural events that dot the calendar. It’s easy to pass off Halloween parties as so much innocent fun and those who would say otherwise as spoilsports, but what if this world of ghouls and witches is not so make believe as they make out. Is it not so much better to celebrate the reality of God’s great rescue plan

He has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light. For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves.

....................................................................................................................Colossians 1:12

Mustard Seed

Sunday was the turn of the seed and the sower in our series on the parables of Jesus. Picking up with my finger tip a mustard seed, it amazes me that something so tiny, insignificant, infinitesimal, has the potential for life. To the untrained eye it has no more worth than a grain of sand, but for the one who knows, it holds a wealth of growth and fruitfulness.

Looking around our room on Sunday evening at where we are at as a community of Christians, we may seem a small and insignificant group, yet we have the most amazing potential for something massive and awesome that God is wanting to do. Holding out this Word of Life in a crooked and soulless generation, and shining here like stars in the universe

This last week, the Portuguese newspapers related two events which, in one sense, had little to do with each other and yet had everything to do with each other. One was the launch of a new edition of the Bible by the Sociedade Bíblica de Portugal to mark 200 years of its existence. Not so much a new translation but an elegant new presentation, without chapter and verse numbers, created to look and be read as a work of literature

The same week heralded also the launch of Jose Saramago’s new novel “Caim”. Saramago is Portugal’s nobel prize winner, and best known author, probably best known for his book “Blindness” for which . Unfortunately his words at the Press Conference showed neither much nobility of spirit, nor vision. In a vitriolic and bitter attack on the integrity of the Bible, he called it a catalogue of violent acts and the worst aspects of human nature, and not a book suitable to be put before children.

Yes, if you don’t know the difference between a mustard and a grain of sand, you would be inclined to sweep up both and throw them out in the rubbish.