Thuggery                          Word on the Week                    20thJuly 2024.

The dictionary definition is that of a violent and aggressive man, especially a criminal.   It may require to be updated as most criminals are patient and calculating.   The people they influence and inflame do the dastardly deeds.

However, they break the laws of the land and in a week when the candidate for the US Presidency was shot at and our own Mary Lou MacDonald revealed that she received a death threat it seems that violence is all around us.

It breaks out in the protests against housing refugees or economic immigrants in places that have suffered from social neglect and poor Government policies.   Local backlash, fanned by inflammatory news in the media, triggers violence.  

The issue of tents to immigrants when there is no other housing available, only for these same tents to be forcefully removed portrays a government which does not know what to do.

Violence does best where there are injustices.   These can easily be fanned into flame by fake news.    Fear can be whipped up when Immigrants are given a bad name.   Single males, language barriers and no prior liaison with the community produce a toxic mix.

The irony is that so many of us have immigration in our family’s past.  In many cases the indigenous people assisted the incomer.   Today sons and daughters fly off to the pleasanter spots of the globe and report favourably on the reception they receive.

But at home violence spreads.   It appears in main streets, buses and lodges in the brain in a “they are out to get me” motivation, so I strike first.    And if we saw ourselves as the victims of injustice we too revert to violence, perhaps it’s internalised but it’s in our heart (Genesis 6 verse 11). 

There was only one man in the Bible of whom it was said “He had done no violence” and that was Jesus Christ (Isaiah 53 verse 9).   Indeed, it was for these sins, internalised or articulated, that Jesus died and rose again to prove he had conquered sin (1 Corinthians 15 verses 3 to 4).

Nobody likes to be called a thug.   But when we realise that it was for thugs that Jesus died maybe I should revise my likes.   After all, the repentant thief on the cross did just that and was welcomed into paradise (Luke 23 verses 40 to 43).

Or as the Apostle Paul said “Our citizenship is in heaven” (Philippians 3 verse 20).    And there all the thugs who come to Christ will be made new!

I reckon I was about age eight when I heard the Rev. Ingles Black preach a sermon on Henry Francis Lyte.   It remained with me largely as a result of his hymn “Abide with me, fast falls the eventide.” It measures the ageing process!

Henry was born in Kelso in Scotland, educated in Ireland, went to Trinity College where he won the prize for the best poem for three years!   He thought about Medicine but decided to “go into the church”.

He was ordained and served a brief curacy in Waterford before moving to Marazion in Cornwell.   It was here that two important events took place in his life.   Up to this time he had lived a worldly life and when a neighbouring clergyman sent for him, afraid he was dying unpardoned, the pair of them set about reading the Bible in earnest.

As they searched the Scriptures they found comfort in St Paul’s Epistles.   Henry received the gift of God’s grace and was converted to Christ.  The clergyman also found peace with God and died happy in the knowledge of sins forgiven and acceptance with God.  

In due course Henry was moved along the south coast to All Souls, a church in Brixham but not before he had married the local Methodist Minister’s daughter!    He ministered among the seafaring population of the town with her at his side.   Rather bizarrely she refused to leave the Methodists so they went their separate ways to public worship!

Brixham was where William of Orange landed in1688 to claim the English throne from King James 11 who was his father-in-law!   It had become a naval base and the occasional visits of ships affected the morality of the town!    However, fishing was the main employment and despite his ailing health he became well known and loved by the community.

Henry was able to use his poetical gift to set the psalms to music.   His first book was psalms in metre.   He also wrote many hymns.  This is the first verse of the most famous; “Abide with me fast falls the eventide; The darkness deepens, Lord with me abide   When other helpers fail and comforts flee, Help of the helpless O abide with me.

There is a note of triumph running through the hymn.   It comes from Henry resting in the fact of Jesus presence with him (Deuteronomy 31 verse 6).  The last verse breaks into the glory:   Reveal Thyself before my closing eyes Shine through the gloom and point me to the skies; Heaven’s morning breaks and earths vain shadows flee; In life, in death, O Lord, abide with me.

Dashboard