iGod

Science versus Religion. Really?

 

Tom Waits, the American singer wrote: “Like all great things in the world, women and religion and the sky…you wonder about it, and you don’t stop wondering about it.”

I think I have a curious mind, but it wasn’t always that way. My younger me resonated more with another American singer Sam Cooke who sung: “Don't know much about history. Don't know much biology. Don't know much about a science book. Don't know much about the French I took. But I do know that I love you.”

Yet, now science fascinates me. I mean, where to start? It turns out that the universe is still expanding much like Pound stores. The edge of the universe is estimated to be some ninety billion trillion miles away.

The solar system we live in fills less than a trillionth of available space. It is part of the Milky Way and takes some 200 and 250 years to orbit just once.

Apparently before everything was anything, there was a point, called singularity and then there was a bang involving inconceivably high temperatures, loaded with enough energy and potential and possibility to eventually create what you and I know to be life, the universe and everything in it.

Let’s now talk about time. I know this is going to sound like a script from Doctor Who, but time is not consistent. It bends, and warps, and curves.

And if you stand outside on a clear night and see stars, the light you see from the stars is as they were when the light left them. You are looking literally into the past.

Coming a bit closer to home, on a summer’s day you are enjoying the sun as it was eight minutes ago. And techno geeks talk about real time!

Now science does a brilliant job of telling me why I don’t have fins or fur, but what about the soul?

One of the problems science faces is that theories turn into assumptions. And we are often none the wiser when they do. The universe is complex, wonderful and, let’s be honest, just a little scary.

Friends have said to me: you are an intelligent man, how can you believe in the concept of God? (Okay, I made up the ‘intelligent’ bit!) Surely once we have enough knowledge of the universe the notion of God will be redundant and it will have to reside in the history book?

But that belief rests on a very deep faith indeed. One mathematic physicist (not a Christian) deduced that God has to exist because singularity comes down to such a knife-edge you are forced to fall one way or the other. His conclusions led him to believe in God.

Some talk simplistically, and even derogatively, about God being a ‘friend in the sky’, or a cosmic-mythical story for the weak and uneducated, but that attitude betrays all sorts of problems. We have to adopt the same open-mindedness as we do with the pursuit of science and be willing to engage with the possibility of an omnipotent divine being.

So when I talk about God I am talking about the source of all truth, the foundation of all life, the mystery of the soul and the universe, the one who instils the desire to create art, music, dance, poetry, to show compassion and inspire others to greatness.

I just can’t believe that this is all there is and that we are simply collections of neurons and atoms. In fact, the possibility that there is more - a supernatural power - makes life even more awe-inspiring.

Of course, the problem scientists have is this ‘crazy little thing called love’. It is just plain irrational and really should not have a place in our rational, reductionist modern life. And yet, incredibly, it does!

To believe in a God of love who sent his only son into the world is an outrageous thing to suggest. But is it any less believable than some of the grand theories of science. What’s my proof? After all, God can’t be seen. True. But then I haven’t seen a gamma ray. Have you?

I find myself pondering the lyrics of Sam Cooke: “And I know that if you love me too. What a wonderful world this would be.”

A legacy of sport that keeps on running

Well, the biggest sporting occasion this country has ever known has begun and our family has been fortunate to get tickets for the games. We will be attending the synchronised swimming event in the Aquadome. (Hm!) Although, I confess, to knowing little about this sport, but I am sure it must be more than matching swimming costumes and latex hats.

My own sporting achievements have been less than meaningful. When I was young, long-distance running meant missing the bus and haring down the road to avoid being late for the school bell. While an unfortunate rifle shooting incident involving a missed target and a scoutmaster saw the premature end of my scouting days. No medals there.

One of the many ways in which the Olympics are being celebrated this summer is through the re-release of Chariots of Fire in digital remastered form. The scene of the athletes running in slow-motion across the sands, accompanied by the haunting Vangelis soundtrack, still has the power to evoke feelings deep within me.

One of the heroes in the film is the Scottish athlete Eric Liddell, a man known for his strong Christian faith and personal conviction. As the story unfolds we see Liddell taking a stand not to run on the Sabbath (Sunday). A position that seems inconceivable today.

Whether someone shares another’s conviction of faith or not, I find courage often draws the admiration of others. It has a universal attraction and appeal to many people.

It is this human quality in Eric Liddell that inspired David Putnam to make the film.

Liddell says to the crowd in the rain, “You came to see a race today. To see someone win. It happened to be me. But I want you to do more than just watch a race. I want you to take part in it. I want to compare faith to running in a race. It's hard. It requires concentration of will, energy of soul.”

Against all odds the film was eventually produced, overcoming various financial and distribution crises along the way. Putnam observed recently, “At every turn there seemed to be what I can only describe as a “hidden hand” that helped provide the best solution to each seemingly impossible hurdle.” It resulted in an Oscar.

Eric Liddell had his own moment of glory in the Paris 1924 Olympics, winning gold and breaking the world record. But he was later to die ingloriously from a brain tumour brought on by severe hunger after being arrested and interned by the Japanese in China during the Second World War.

His family said later that Eric was never a great speaker, but he was able to communicate his message in the way he lived his life. You remember the line: “I believe God made me for a purpose, but he also made me fast. And when I run I feel His pleasure.”

Ultimately it is not how we say it, but what we do that speaks the loudest. Life is uncertain, sometimes precarious, often challenging and seldom dull. But I believe, like Putnam, there is a “hidden hand” waiting to help.

Being a Christian is not a weak option; neither is it a light decision. It comes from a “getting it” experience, a deep place of conviction, and somehow matters more than anything we are now doing—however good we are at it. As Eric Liddell’s last words state: “It is complete surrender.”

 

ASD

How are we doing at doing good?

I have often found myself prefixing four simple yet powerful words to a sentence when trying to get our children to behave or to do something. You know the ones: “If you are good I will take you to the toy shop.” “If you are good I’ll let you have a friend round.” “If you are good you can stay up longer.” And so on.

Of course, there are different understandings of what it is to be good. You might have heard, “Sarah’s mum lets her do that.” Or “Grandpa says it’s okay?” Instant conflict!

I suspect being good or doing good matters to most of us. Sometimes it is out of vanity. At other times we are simply moved by compassion to make a situation better and in the process we feel good too. To encourage us more, scientific research shows that we have improved mental health when we do something for others - it takes our mind off our own woes.

One thing is for sure, doing good definitely does not just belong in the domain of churches, faith groups or charities. Many companies, too, are encouraged to have social ambitions alongside their commercial goals. Just look around at your local supermarkets and you’ll see what I mean. However, this is nothing new.

Back in the Eighteenth century Josiah Wedgewood, the celebrated pottery maker, gave affordable housing for his workers. He also trained them in an age of wide-scale illiteracy. Wedgewood, also the grandfather of Charles Darwin, provided adequate food supply for his staff and went on to build one of the first so-called company towns. Extraordinary achievements in themselves, but he went further.

He eventually became part of an international campaign that would help to see black slavery abolished. Wedgewood was part of a Quaker-led initiative that had as its advertising slogan “Am I not a man and a brother?” He engraved these emotive words with an image of a slave in chains kneeling and praying for mercy. It was a sentiment that caught the imagination among both the religious and the secularists campaigners of the day.

Josiah Wedgewood made the message into fashionable jewelry for well-to-do ladies. It contrasted greatly with the religious upper classes who at that time only stood in prayer as it would be demeaning to do otherwise.

Today many commentators talk about having a social footprint. We are faced with the challenge of leaving either a positive or negative mark on society.

None of us are as good as we would like to be. We have all done things that we know we should not have done, and possibly even feel guilt-ridden about. Is there any hope for us?

I find my own encouragement in the words of the famous hymn Amazing Grace, written by ex-slave trader John Newton: “Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound / That saved a wretch like me. / I once was lost but now am found / Was blind, but now I see.”

Goodness comes, even from the word alone, from God. In Jesus we see the perfection of all that is good and worthy. This kind of goodness is holy. I know that I shall never be as good as I would like to be, but by God’s grace and mercy, I am working on it. Like Newton, I can also find forgiveness when I screw up. Meanwhile, keeping close to God in prayer is the thing that helps keep it real for me.

How are you doing at doing good?

ASD

Easter is not just for the religious type

A local vicar and pastor stood by the side of the road holding up a sign that said, "The End is Near! Turn yourself around now before it's too late!"

"Leave us alone, you religious nuts!" yelled a driver as he sped by. Then from around the bend they heard a big splash.

"Do you think," said one clergy to the other, "we should just put up a sign that says, 'bridge down' instead?"

I have heard people say that they are not the religious type, insinuating that, perhaps, I am.  As if I came out of my mother’s womb clutching an open Bible with a full-robed choir singing the Hallelujah Chorus by the bedside. I mean who sets out in life to be religious?

For some strange reason though a few atheist writers recently, such as Alain De Botton and Richard Holloway, find “religion” attractive. In fact, the former writer has gone so far to try and set out a religious life for non-believers. Then there is AC Grayling who has even written a bible for the atheist.

Someone once wrote, “To be is to be connected. And to be connected is to be plugged in.” The Bible states that we are all “made in the image of God”. These are both big, big statements and this is a small, small brain here that reflects upon them. Yet, life is a big experience and so I think it deserves a little of our time to dwell on the big stuff once in a while, don’t you?  And it is also okay not to have a conclusive answer in two minutes. Some things are meant to be pondered over a lifetime. Maybe even over eternity.

I guess for many people though “religion” in the UK stands for a shrinking minority of church-goers who hate gay people, resent women and despise those who have abortions, but anyone with a bit of savvy will know that this not quite the case but, of course, it makes a convenient headline.

However, personally speaking, if my faith does come across as judgmental, intolerant and exclusive, it bothers me and the finger needs to be pointed firmly back at my face.

Mahatma Gandhi once said, “Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.” Sadly, I think at times he is right. I have met many non-Christians whose conduct is better people than Christians. Religion in itself does not make anyone a better person - Christian or atheist. But, of course, choosing to follow Jesus is not principally about ethics, it has to do with an awe-inspiring divine-human relationship.

Shortly our local churches will be celebrating Easter, a time we celebrate new life in Christ through his resurrection, but maybe we could see as the time when Jesus Christ, the son of God, came as the non-religious type for the non-religious type to draw all people to himself into a real, relevant and restored relationship with God the Father.

I truly believe the message of salvation is still as powerful and pertinent as it was 2,000 years ago, because you see Jesus’ death happened in a secular setting, not in a private religious community. It was not really a religious event at all. It happened in the city of one of the busiest and most important trading outposts of the Roman Empire.

On Good Friday we remember how Jesus, isolated and with a minority following, gave his life in a divine act of love for the majority, regardless of belief or faith. Now, I am not wanting to impose my position on anyone, but I do want to put it out there to our community.

We are all free to accept or reject, but let me leave you with this last thought: did Jesus really die just to make us religious? It just doesn’t stack up for me.

Maybe see you at Stour Valley Vineyard Church 10.30 am on Easter Sunday at the Delphi Centre.

Happy Easter!

ASD

Life Version 2.0

(My article reproduced from Community News)

I have a love-hate relationship with technology. I love it when it makes my life easier, but absolutely hate it when it interferes with my routine and it becomes the master, not the servant.

Quite unabashed, I have been an Apple Mac user ever since my second year at ‘vicar factory’ back in the early 90s. Before then I kindly borrowed someone’s Toshiba Portable MS DOS computer, which in truth wasn’t that portable. Not only was it heavy and left dents in my knees, but the battery life was shorter than a queue to the Crazy Paving Appreciation Society’s Annual Lecture.

Nowadays, alongside my lighter laptop, I also have my mobile or should I say ‘smart phone’, but as I discovered recently this has not been without its problems.

I attempted to upgrade my phone software to the latest whizzy-whiz, faster, better-than-ever-before version. Also known as iOS 5. In truth, I was not unhappy with how things were before, but the thought of something better and free, well…it was simply an offer I couldn’t refuse.

So on a quiet weeknight I hit the download button to let technology do its best. Unfortunately it decided to do its worst. With a big gasp I watched my entire set of emails, calendars and contacts disappear before my eyes. (And, no, my emails weren’t backed up!) If ever there was a time to find a grown man crying in a corner it was then. The promise of a better-connected life had let me down.

It has made me think how we can often put a lot of blind faith in things that are not necessarily proven, but given enough hype can accept anything as truth. We want to believe that something will make our lives better.

It is natural to want to upgrade the standard of our lives. We can look at the current version and think, “This just sucks! Maybe something has to stopped functioning in our life or we see something in someone else’s and want what they have.

The late Steve Jobs, founder of Apple said famously in a university plenary speech:

"No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new.”

The immensely successful and talented Steve Jobs recognised his products were not ultimately enough in them self. That is quite something, isn’t it?

Life has a spiritual profundity that modern science still struggles with any integrity to make redundant. There remains this longing in us all to be known, loved and accepted for who we are, not for what we have achieved. Many Christian commentators have called this a God-shaped hole wanting to be filled by himself through his Son Jesus Christ.

If the promises of God are true and Jesus is who he says he is, it requires a full upgrade to a new way of seeing and experiencing life. The old version will never do.

St Augustine, the early church father said rather wryly:

“I have read in Plato and Cicero sayings that are wise and very beautiful; but I have never read in either of them: ‘Come to me all you that labour and are heavy burdened.’” [quoting Jesus]

Is God’s Life Version any better than the modern alternatives around?

I give the last word to Paul the low-tec Apostle who said this about the great iPriest, “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!"

ASD

'Red Rev' Giles Fraser?

Just reflecting about the resigination of the Canon Chancellor of St Paul's Cathedral, Rev Dr Giles Fraser. While left-leaning The Guardian fetes the man, I hear, maybe not surprisingly, the Daily Telegraph takes another view.

Whatever side you take, he typifies the need for the Christian to speak up and get involved in politics and injustice, even when it doesn't always make you universally popular with your own peers.

US Christian activist Shane Clairborne says:

"Theologian Karl Barth said, 'We have to read the Bible in one hand, and the newspaper in the other.' For too long we Christians have used our faith as a ticket out of this world rather than fuel to engage it.

"In his parables, Jesus wasn’t offering pie-in-the-sky theology… he was talking about the real stuff of earth. He talks about wages, debt, widows and orphans, unjust business owners and bad politicians. In fact Woody Guthrie breaks it all down in his song “Jesus Christ.” The song ends with Woody singing, “This song was written in New York City. If Jesus were to preach what he preached in Galilee, they would lay him in his grave again.”

"The more I read the Gospels, the more they seem to confront the very patterns of the world we live in. At one point Mary, pregnant with Jesus cries out: “God casts the mighty from their thrones and raises the lowly… God fills the hungry with good things and sends the rich away empty…”. You can’t help but think if she were alive in contemporary America some folks would try to accuse the Virgin Mother of being Marxist or promoting class warfare. But all through Scripture we see this–over 2000 verses about how God cares for the poor and most vulnerable.

"What would Jesus say about Wall Street?"

 What would Jesus say about the Square MIle?

Would he be for locking up St Paul's Catherdral or for an open air church service?

The thing I am taking away is that if we want our message to be heard we have to first hear what culture is saying. This is not so much about wanting to sound populist like a politician, but to help us avoid sounding pompous like an old fogey.

May God grant us wisdom and courage in these times!

ASD

John Stott - a small tribute to a great pastor, theologian and author

Former vicar of All Souls Langham Place in London, and a key leader among evangelicals worldwide, John Stott died at 3.15pm yesterday (27 July) in his retirement home at St Barnabas College.

He was surround by family and close friends. They were reading the Bible together and listening to Handel's Messiah before slipping away in his sleep.

John leaves behind a massive legacy. Much has already been writen in the last 12 hours about the man, so I feel my own small contribution here will be extremely poor by any standards.

However, I can still fondly remember him coming to our college in the early Nineties and speaking at Chapel. Being theological students he expected much from us and only spoke from his New Testament Greek. Incredible! It was one of the few times I can even remember that happening. I just sat there colouring in the pages of my Good News BIble. But he was not a dry academic scholar, he was a man who was in love with the Lord, more than the words he studied.

For over seventy years he has remained an influential and redoubtable figure on the landscape of post-war Christianity, often arguing for the place of Bible-based faith among his Christian Liberal colleagues when at times he was a lone voice.

He had the most amazing skill to reason and articulate at a level most could people could understand, he did not just write for fellow scholars. The simplicity of his well-crafted arguments showed the depth of his studies. They came with such confidence. He depature has surely left a gaping hole in our lives. However, we do have the most amazing library of books left behind penned by him over the years.

Doug Birdsall, executive chairman of the Lausanne Movement, put his global influence in context: "John Stott impacted the church around the world in many ways.  Perhaps his greatest contribution was to articulate clearly and to defend robustly the evangelical faith which he always understood to be biblical faith, grounded in the New Testament.  Evangelicalism was to Stott an expression of historic, orthodox Christianity...

"Everywhere John Stott travelled to teach, he encouraged 'double listening'. This was a listening to the voice of the Spirit of God through his Word, and listening to the voice and the needs of our broken world."

A memorial website has already been set up at http://www.johnstottmemorial.org/

Well done, good and faithful servant. Enjoy eternity with the one that saves.

ASD

 

 

 

 

Rapture - that was awkward!

So last Saturday came and went. The rapture due for the 21 May 2011 failed to materialise.

Just as well I prepared a talk for Sunday morning. Otherwise, that could have been really awkward!

Apparently a revised date by 89 year-old American pastor Harold Camping is in the diary for October. Watch this space, Christmas could be cancelled.

ASD

 

A reflection for Good Friday - if you are religious or not

At noon, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon. And at three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”).

When some of those standing near heard this, they said, “Listen, he’s calling Elijah.”

Someone ran, filled a sponge with wine vinegar, put it on a staff, and offered it to Jesus to drink. “Now leave him alone. Let’s see if Elijah comes to take him down,” he said.

With a loud cry, Jesus breathed his last. The curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. And when the centurion, who stood there in front of Jesus, saw how he died, he said, “Surely this man was the Son of God!” (Mark's gospel, the Bible)

My youngest daughter loves reading stories from her Children's Book of the Bible. I tend to let her chose one, which hopefully isn't too many pages. Amidst the other stories is the account of Jesus' death. The Church calls it Good Friday. To a child of seven or even a mature adult it is perhaps hard to see why this could in any possible way, shape or form be called a good day.

But here's the thing.

Even the most hardened of skeptics I meet admit that Jesus stood for life, love, justice and faith. Through history and society people have broadly cheered at his indignant approach to upsetting convention and exposing hypocrisy and abuse. But every hero apparently has his day and we get disprited when people don't live up to our hopes. Much like politicians and expensive footballers, I guess.

DId Jesus get too big for his boots or did the people big him up for their own needs? A large number really just wanted a king to lead a revolution and overthrow the Romans and live life again on their own terms again.

Last Sunday we rememembered Palm Sunday, the day when Jesus rode into Jersusalem at the time of the Feast of the Passover, not as a people's king or a vainglorious rebel leader, but as a pilgrim on a way to a festival on a donkey and colt.

On Maundy Thursday we remembered how he met with his closest disciples for the Passover meal, a meal that symbolised the salvation of the Jewish people, by the retelling of the story of their exodus from Egypt many hundreds of years previously. They had a last supper together in a upper room, taking the bread made without yeast and the cup of wine and passed them around to each other.

The night would end in betrayl by one disgruntled militant activist member whose trust in Jesus had worn thin by a lack of perceived action.

And so we come to Good Friday or bad Friday, depending on your viewpoint as a child or not. It may interest you to know that the cross was known as such a horrendous form of Roman torture and death that for the first part of the Church's development no reference to the cross as a symbol is to be found. it was only latterly in the Western church first that the cross started to be depicted as a main symbol of Christianity and that was through art as much as anything else.

Today, Jesus' death is overlooked by many in a secular society because he is seen as a narrow-minded, judgementalist, religious bigot out to conform everyone to one view, regardless of other views, cutlure etc.

However I have to say this is what others have made him, not himself. Much like in his day.

This 'king' did not live up to socio-political expectation at so many levels.

Firstly he never owned property, he always had something borrowed to him. His parents borrowed a stable (not born in a palace). He borrowed friends' houses to stay in (no possessions of his own). He borrowed a donkey and colt to ride in Jerusalem (not a steed). He borrowed a guest house room for the last supper. And at the end he even borrowed another man's tomb to be buried in.

Recently I heard atheist Rick Gervais say in an article in the New York Times that he thought he was a better Christian than Christians because he kept the 10 Commandments. He had come across those who profess to follow Jesus but had dubious actions, citing Ghandi who said. "I like your Christ, I don't like your Christians." Often the church has to be shamed by unexpected sources for it to come to its senses.

Sometimes It is hard to see beyond the moment and get perspective for Christians, agnostics and atheists alike. Easter gives our lives perspective whether we are religious or not.

So what makes Jesus' life, death and resurrection relevant for us today? Because his death historically happened in the hands of a secular institution, the Roman Empire, and so stopped it from becoming a small religious regional affair, making it unknowingly everybody's business. Hence, becoming a world faith across all cultures and backgrounds today.

The Easter story slows us down to remind us of our falibility and human weakeness. It reminds us that untimately we all want to be saved from something or ourselves.

Beyond being one of the earliest human rights activists, Jesus Christ demonstrated a purity that most of us, if we are honest with ourselves, yearn for. It came with great and awful sacrifice.

We want hope. We want to believe in better. We, therefore, need to be reminded of the pain to gain.

So when I wish you happy Easter, I mean 'happy Easter!'

May you find peace and love in the power of his life, death and resurrection.

ASD

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Learning to go slow to go fast (short article)

(Recently written for a local community magazine.)

There was a story of a man who prayed to God for patience. After about two minutes the man looked up at his clock and said, “Well?”

I must admit I am not a patient person by nature. If something can happen now, why wait? The only problem is living life always in fourth gear can be exhausting. We may appease ourselves by saying we have no choice but to go that speed, but more often than not there is a price to pay.

I read recently that a speed camera trap on the M6 has netted £3m. An incredible 5,569 motorists have been caught breaking the 50mph speed limit by the fixed cameras at roadworks at a junction of the M6 near Carlisle. The previous year’s record was held by the M11, so obviously East Anglia must have slowed down a little.

Have you noticed that impatience can lead to anger? We may find ourselves getting irrationally cross when we are ill or when the car breaks down or when something unexpected steals our time. It can affect our nearest and dearest relationships, whether we are conscious of it or not. For instance, we can miss out on enjoying our marriages and families. Time lost forever.

When I wake up early every morning I can’t help but think of all the things I have got to do that day. It is very tempting for someone like me to get on the laptop straight away and start working, but over the years I have learnt to park my thoughts, be it temporarily and learn to be in the presence of God. So what do I mean by being in the presence of God?

Quite simply, it means saying some prayers and turning to a passage in the Bible and meditating on it. In my conversations with God I hand over my concerns, pressures and anxieties. I surrender my issues of time and human capacity and ask God to show me what is important, rather than urgent. It is amazing how easily we allow the lesser things to steal our time to stop the more significant things from being done.

I find myself naturally praying for wisdom and discernment. In my church tradition we call this a ‘quiet time’, but nowadays I tend to call this my ‘worship time’. The daily discipline gives me a constant reminder that I am not God of my life, but he is, if I will let him. This is my act of daily worship to someone who is infinitely greater than me and able to do immeasurably more if I only ask him.

John Wimber the founder of the Vineyard Church, my denomination, said famously to the church, “To learn to go fast you have to go slow”. We have to focus on being before doing. Take time to simply be. Or as I say to my leaders, in terms of spiritual growth, we are not about getting the job done, but the person finished.

Whether you are a church-going Christian or someone who just about believes in God I would encourage you to get a modern translation of the Bible, flick through the front index and find the book of Psalms. Maybe try to read one a day. You can then also look up the book of Luke and read about Jesus and the things he said and did.

I promise you, prayer and the Bible do transform us, but you need to have patience. Maybe, like me, that is your first prayer. I encourage you to give it a go. You can buy a Bible through our church website bookshop or from WH Smith. Prayer is free.

ASD