Kingdoms Collide            Word on the Week                     11^th November 2023.

The 11^th hour on the 11^th day of the 11^th month in the year 1919 the first armistice day was held in the grounds of Buckingham Palace.   Optimistically, it was to commemorate the war to ‘end all wars’!   It is now known as Remembrance Day in the UK and is held annually at the Cenotaph in London.

This visual reminder of the horrors of war has not stopped the warring human tribes from their propensity to slaughter each other!   Armament factories are never out of business!    Politicians, asleep at the wheel, fail to spot the Putin’s of this world until it is too late.

It is easy to see the faults in others but this blog is concerned with another Kingdom, a heavenly one.   It is identified on earth by its founder saying “I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it (St Matthew 16 verse 18).    The gates of the city being the strongest part of its fortification but they are not strong enough to keep hell from being taken!

We pray, Thy Kingdom come.   So how is the kingdom to come?   Who is in the draft?  God has called all his children to participate in the work of the kingdom.   Everyone who has been brought into a relationship with God through Jesus Christ has been drafted into the ministry of church-building (2 Peter 2 verses 3 to 9).

The Lord has given us the leaders we require to carry out these works of service.   They build up the people of God until they become mature in the faith not tossed about by every wind of teaching.   Now expressing the truth of redemption in Christ out of love we build up the whole body as each part does its work (Ephesians 4 verses 11 to 16).

What are some of the hindrances to the Biblical vision of church?   For some it has become the spiritual version of going to a concert.   They get a high.   They experience ministry professionals at work but have little commitment to the health of the church or to its work in the world.   Their relationship to the church is self-focussed i.e. what can I get out of it!

There is also that incongruous worshipper, the ‘sermon sampler’.   I would fall into this category thanks to the immobility of old age and the convenience of Zoom!

Rightly executed the sermon takes the Bible portion and nourishes the hearers.  This enables the Kingdom of God to advance as repentance and forgiveness of sins in the name of Jesus is proclaimed in all nations by church-goers who testify to its reality in their lives (St Luke 24 verses 45 to 48).

AI at Bletchley Park                 Word on the Week                 4^th November 2023.

This week the great and the good showed up at Bletchley Park, Milton Keynes, the home of the UK principal centre of Allied code-breaking.  It became famous after WW2 having previously been kept secret.

Its purpose today was not so much code-breaking as understanding where Artificial Intelligence is leading us.   Its progression from a tool of trade for writers, whereby it does the research, to one which generates the ideas itself is progressing by leaps and bounds.

Elton Musk, the owner of X (formerly Twitter), wishes to create a market place for free speech where ideas can flourish but now sees his ideas being overtaken by GAI.   This stands for ‘Generative Artificial Intelligence’ a tool that will think for you!

In fact, such rapid strides are being made that he was forecasting the end of work as we know it, humoid robots taking the jobs!    The driverless car, which successfully navigates city traffic, illustrating the point he was making.

I asked GPT for some information on the tunnels of Gaza which are key components in the Israeli Hamas war.  This is part of what I got from ChatGPT: –

The tunnels in Gaza are an extensive network of underground passageways used for a multitude of purposes. They are mostly dug using manual labour and often hidden from plain view. The tunnels have played a crucial role in the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestine as they are used for smuggling weapons, transporting supplies, and launching attacks.

The Israeli military considers the tunnels a threat to national security and has frequently targeted them, leading to further deaths and destruction.

In summary, the tunnels in Gaza are a complex network with both civilian and military uses, shaping the region’s history. However, they are also a source of danger and conflict, causing casualties to residents and being at the centre of the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestine.

This is an abbreviated version.   I asked for 300 words and got them!   The more obvious places where it can help humankind are in medicine where it can hunt down the cancer cells and leave the healthy ones to function.

When it comes to robots we have a unique opportunity for humans to play god!   Now the potential moves from the paranoid dictator to the rogue humoid robot.  But –

‘The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created…and he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy.For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him,and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross (Colossians 1:15/20).

It is good to remember that Jesus reigns over all and will return to set all in order.  

Halloween                            Word on the Week          28^th October 2023.

The name Hallowe’en comes from All Hallows’ Eve. It appears on the traditional church calendar, as the eve of All Saints’ Day. It arrives next Tuesday 31 ^st October the day Protestants remember Martin Luther’s spectacularly triggering of the reformation. On 1 ^st November, faithful Catholics will light candles and pray for departed souls to observe All Saints Day.

Originally celebrated in May, this day was moved to November 1, possibly to absorb the pagan Celtic festival of Samhain. It heralded the end of summer and the start of the dark days of winter. Our Celtic forebears believed that the boundary between this world and the otherworld thinned at that time of year inviting contact with the spirit world.

In order to trick the devil into deceiving you were someone else masks were worn along with clothing that would complete the disguise. Acts of mischief would take place and the remedy was usually paid in sweets and fruit and nuts! I can remember when TV first appeared two of our neighbours children dressed as walking TV’s from which they broadcasted their demands!

Commercial interests have taken over, what is a lean trading time of the year, by a multitude of ‘trick or treat’, witches and warlock’s disguises to use in the many parties on the night.

One year we were in Philadelphia at Halloween when we saw the extent families would go to in celebrating the festival. Many houses used their front garden to display their enthusiasm for the event. One I do remember had illuminated skeletons engaged in some fiendish dance! I know the boundary between the spirit world and purgatory is supposed to be thin but there are limits even in make-belief!

The Bible doesn’t have much time for such antics. The prophet Isaiah was quite forthright, “When men tell you to consult mediums and spiritists, who whisper and mutter, should not a people enquire of their God? Why consult the dead on behalf of the living?” (Isaiah Chapter 8 verse 19).

Jesus, who was called the ‘Prince of Devil’s’ by his enemies, the name given to satan, told his followers not to fear those who could kill the body but to fear Him who could cast the body into hell (Matthew 10 verse 28). He told the parable about Lazarus to illustrate the one-way traffic there was after death. There is a great chasm of separation that cannot be bridged (Luke 16 verse 26). King David understood this following the death of his son — “l will go to him but he will not return to me” (2 Samuel 12 verse 23).

Now is the time of God’s favour, now is the day of salvation (2 Cor.6 verse 2).

Rain, Rain, Go to Spain         Word on the Week              21^st October 2023.

Rain, Rain, go to Spain and never come back again!   This, or something like it, was an unexpressed wish of many as they splashed through storm Babet yesterday.    There is something of a random nature about where these Atlantic storms will make landfall – for this one it was the South Coast of Ireland and mainly the town of Midleton.

Babet has been likened to a slow moving train of rain to hit Ireland.   The results were disastrous.   Flood barriers, where they exist, have proved inadequate and occasionally do more harm than good!   Good drainage is hard to maintain at this time of year with fallen leaves blocking outlets.

Met Éireann’s three colour system yellow, orange or red seems to have been lifted from the child’s game where those searching for the hidden one were prompted by the leader shouting out the colour appropriate to how near they were to the hiding place!

Red was always the closest as with Met Éireann where it spells danger.  A national flood warning service is being developed.   This will forecast the amount of rain falling in under an hour illustrating the severity of the downpour.

The monitoring of high water levels in river systems and the analysis of weather data since 1991 shows a need to adjust the base figures to allow for stronger winds and higher temperatures.   The state has produced its latest advice “Be Winter Ready”.   Let’s hope they take to heart their own advice!

On the home front, with the land already saturated, we had to cope with surface water flowing from the fields into the farm yard.   One place the waters meet is the hen-run where the inflow is faster than the outlet!   The rising waters reached the henhouse and I am glad to report there were no losses!

The good news is we will not have a global flood!   God’s covenant with Noah makes it plain there will be no repeat.   The rainbow in the sky marks the fulfilment of the promise.    The promise is to all living creatures including those who commandeered the rainbow for their flag! (Genesis 9 verses 8 to 17).  The Apostle Luke speaks of the end times in Luke 17 verses 26 to 30)

As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man:  They ate, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. Jesus also said,Likewise, as it was also in the days of Lot: They ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built; but on the day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all.  Even so will it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed.   Jesus offers grace for this type of rain!

O Jerusalem                    Word on the Week                     14^th October 2023.

Once again the attention of the world is centred on Israel.  The Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu – mortified by intelligence lapses – has seized the opportunity to threaten the Hamas terrorists with extinction.  

Their breaching of Israel’s Southern boundary occurred all too easily and the killing of civilians went ahead without any intervention.   Indeed, Hamas were able to capture over 100 hostages which they threaten to kill – one for every Israeli raid into Gaza.

Israel has assembled a large army on the Gaza border and Netanyahu has promised a response that will “echo across the generations”.   This has commenced with the air force pounding Gaza day and night.   Taking cognisance of the international community, warnings precede the attacks which are allegedly targeted on Hamas posts.

More recently Israel has ordered that Palestinians leave Gaza, which is the same area as Co Louth in Ireland, in order that they can get at the Hamas.  Where the Palestinians are supposed to go is not stated!

In recent times Hamas have gained political power over the Palestine Liberation Organisation so any hope of the two state solution happening has gone.   Hamas has been indoctrinating the Gaza schoolchildren with hatred of Israel with the goal of Israel’s extermination.    These views are echoed on Israel’s Northern boundary by Hezbollah so Israel has most unpleasant neighbours!

Making proportional responses in warfare has always been a problem for Israel.   At least three times in the Pentateuch the limitation of “an eye for an eye” has been invoked.   Israel has always been tempted to take two eyes in retaliation (Deuteronomy 19 verse 21)!   

The problem is that Israel is still locked into the Old Testament.  The Apostle Paul ‘s great desire was for his peoples’ salvation (Romans 9 &10 verses 1 to 4).   He saw it as a veil over their eyes which would remain until it is removed.  Sadly, it has remained to this day but when it is taken away there will be a turning to Christ for salvation (2 Corinthians 3 verses 14 to 18 & 4: 1 to 6).

It was the hardened hearts of those in Jerusalem that caused Jesus to lament over the city.   He could see both their rejection of Him and their fate (St Matthew 23 verse 37 to 39).    There will be a day when the Jews are converted (Romans 11 verse 26).   May you know God’s mercy dear Reader and not be left behind (Romans 11 verse 30).

Personal Pronouns                    Word on the Week          7^th October 2023.

Perhaps one of my most satisfactory joys of leaving childhood was to put behind me what I learned about pronouns.    In some ways I was glad I was not a Frenchman with their attributing either masculine or feminine gender to words.   One less thing to remember!

If you live long enough it seems like things come round again and pronouns have become important!    It appears that personal pronouns have become fluid.  No more are they to be anchored to biology!   This new use of pronouns was introduced at the South East Technological University this week where one lecturer raised an objection to its compulsory nature.

However, the Taoiseach adopted a conciliatory tone and said “everyone should try to use people’s preferred pronouns and try not to take offence if people make mistakes.”  When he was asked if refusal to call a person by their preferred pronoun was an example of unlawful discrimination he commented that we need to be a little more relaxed about these things.

Perhaps he felt he was encroaching on the Enoch Burke case where Burke was imprisoned for disobeying a court order not to attend the school premises.  Burke on the other hand believes he is in prison because he refused to use the pupil’s preferred pronoun but rather stay with the biology.

In any event the Taoiseach added if someone uses the wrong pronoun deliberately to offend then the law would act.   So we had better watch how we use our personal pronouns in future!   

Let’s go back to the beginning.   We were created male and female in God’s image.   The start was good but then along came the first test which we sadly failed and brought about the fall (Genesis 1 verse 27 & 2 verse 17).

Names are important in the Bible.  They often describe the person’s character. In the case of God, He reveals Himself to Moses, first by reference to his forebears then by calling Himself “I am” (Exodus 3 verse 14).

When Jesus walked the earth He was consistent in how he wished to identify Himself.   He continued the “I am” identity which made him one with the Father, a fact recognised by the Jews who tried to stone Him rather than recognise Him (St John 8 verses 28/9).

Names are important in a fallen world.   Your identity is part of who you are.   You may not always be pleased with your identity (or the colour of your eyes) but it soon becomes part of you.   To fight against the body you have been given is like the pot calling the shots against the Almighty (Isaiah 45 verse 9).

The remedy is to take up Jesus’s invitation to come to Him for rest for the soul (St Matthew 11 verses 28 to 30).

MV Matthew                     Word on the Week                     30^th September 2023.

The ship, under its new name, ‘Matthew’ sailed into Irish waters this week.   It had come from the Dutch island of Aruba in the South Caribbean as the MV Honmon to Willemstad in the Dutch protectorate of Curaçao on August 18th from where it sailed to Georgetown in Guyana on the north Atlantic coast of South America to collect a cargo.

The cargo was cocaine, procured by a Colombian drug cartel for sale in the European market.   So far 2.2 tonnes of cocaine have been recovered, partly hidden on deck in a ship’s life boat.   The vessel is 189 meters long and has a cargo capacity of 64,000 tonnes, so there is plenty of room for more of the stuff to be found!

The MV Matthew had failed to stop when requested by our Navy’s offshore patrol vessel the LE William Butler Yeats despite her firing a couple of shots across her bow.   It was left to a team from the army Ranger Wing to abseil down from a helicopter and secure the vessel.   She is now undergoing inspection in Cork harbour by the authorities.

Just prior to these events two men purchased a trawler in Castletownbere.   They were inexperienced sailors and with stormy seas ended up aground on a sandbank off Blackwater, in Co Wexford.   Their objective was to rendezvous with the MV Matthew and distribute the cocaine via harbours in these Isles.   The two men have now been rescued by helicopter and duly arrested.

The audaciousness of this enterprise is breath-taking.   And this is not by any means the first cargo ship to cross the Atlantic with a drug cargo.    The market continues to expand as addiction spreads and the resultant misery in terms of human suffering increases out of control.

What seems to be in control are the global gangs which locate in various places and control a portion of the drug trade.   In these locations the governing bodies cannot control them and with the purchasing power the drug money at their disposal buying ships becomes feasible.

The naming of the ship Matthew is interesting.  When Jesus called the tax-collector there was little doubt his reputation was in tatters (St Matthew 9 verses 9/11).   The ship’s Iranian captain appeared to have head and neck injuries, was air lifted to hospital, made a fast recovery and is now in Garda custody.   It will be interesting to see if the captain wishes to emulate the Apostle and transfer his allegiance from drug-smuggling to Christ.

Let us pray he may be the first of many.

Stardust Fire                    Word on the Week                     23^rd September 2023.

It was St Valentine’s night, February 14^th 1981 and the Stardust nightclub in Artane, Dublin, was packed to capacity.   A fire broke out which was to claim the lives of 48 young people and injure over 200.   It was tragic.   

Such was the scale of the disaster that initially it was attributed to arson or terrorism.   Gradually the investigation reached the conclusion that the fire developed from poor safety practices and building code violations.   The 5 exit doors were chained and locked to prevent access to the nightclub.   The toilet windows were barred with steel bars for the same purpose.

In 2009, four relatives of those who had died were successful in establishing an inquiry which duly found there to be no evidence to support the arson theory.   These findings enabled the owners, the Butterly family, to pursue a claim for compensation against the city because of the arson finding, and were eventually awarded IR£580,000.

This year, following multiple reports, a legal enquiry under Michael O’Higgins SC has been established and meetings began this week.   These have brought into the light the 5 locked exits and barred toilet windows which pertained while approx. 800 patrons were in the nightclub.

Initial pleadings have produced accusations and denials as to who instructed the locking of the doors.    The community, who lost loved ones and have had to live with the scars of that fateful night, want answers.  

Who instructed the exits to be locked?   As with any disaster there must be those who know the truth.   The owners and staff who were on duty that fateful night have had to live with their consciences for 42 years.   So far the problems of guilt and shame have silenced those who are guilty.

Michael O’Higgins has a mammoth task to elicit the truth.   In addition to the fatalities there have been about 25 attempted suicides in subsequent years all relating to the fire.   There needs to be some acknowledgement of wrong, some admission of guilt to ease the troubled conscience.

It is not as if all the rest of humanity is guiltless.   The Apostle James puts the bar at the highest notch.   He says to sin at all is to be guilty of breaking the entire law (St James 2 verse 10).   That is why we need a saviour.   And that is why Jesus came.   Noel Richards hymn says it clearly: –

You took all my guilt and shame,
When You died and rose again;
Now today You reign,
In heaven and earth exalted.                                                                                                

The relief of sins forgiven brings with it the peace of the Lord (St Luke 7 verses 48/50).

Rugby                               Word on the Week                     16^th September 2023.

In case there is someone who doesn’t know, the Rugby World Cup has got under way.   This is a world-wide event with Ireland lining out against Tonga tonight.   All games are being played in French Stadiums.    These are located in various cities culminating in the final in Paris on Saturday 28^th October.

The game was invented, so the legend has it, in the playing fields of Rugby school, England, when a player picked up the ball and ran with it!  A couple of years later in 1846 the students wrote down some laws which, with few changes, continue to this day.

The major rule prohibits passing forward which, in itself, requires considerable discipline.   I recall a friend from overseas, who was new to the game, marvelling that in order to progress forward you had to pass the ball back!  He was quite astonished that such an illogical game could have been invented!

Over the years the game has become faster and the players heavier.  It is said that a Mother’s heart misses a beat when her 7-year-old son announces “Ma, I am going to play rugby!”   However, the first few years it is touch rugby – a modified version of the game that is played, which is less likely to cause injury.

In fact, there has been a crackdown on cases of head injury in recent times.  We now have a mandatory sending off for examination by the medical staff.   They carry out a Head Injury Assessment (HIA).   The rules vary between Rugby Associations but GRTP (Graduated Return To Play) is strongly enforced.

Rugby is very much a team game.   Players rely on each other to assist them!   To do this team members must turn up extra fast and without hesitation join in the fray.   To play well one player must have faith in the other to be there when he is needed!    You should see what this looks like if you tune in at 8.00 pm tonight!

Since we are in France I was reading one of my favourite Frenchman’s works.   He is Blaise Pascal the scientist from the 17^th century.   His sensational conversion experience took place when he was age 31.   For his remaining few years he devoted himself to Christian writing including this analysis of faith.

He wrote with astounding clarity, “in faith there is enough light for those who want to believe and enough shadows to blind those who don’t.’ Blaise Pascal.

Or as Jesus said, “I am the light of the world.   Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” (St John 8 verse 12).

Christian faith is itself a gift from God (Ephesians 2 verse 8).

Back to School                 Word on the Week                     9^th September 2023.

Here comes the sun – schools must have resumed!    What cruel fate has decreed that the resumption of schools and colleges would be marked by gloriously sunny weather!    It does not always occur – it just seems like it does!

School or college was once the place where life skills were taught, identities formed and eventually a world view gets constructed.   Among the many views in circulation today the Christian view is seldom present.   JB Philips saw this coming many years ago and in his Bible translation of Romans 12 verse 2 coined “Don’t let the world around you squeeze you into its own mould, but let God re-mould your minds from within, so that you may prove in practice that the plan of God for you is good, meets all his demands and moves towards the goal of true maturity.”

The text comes after the most thorough working out of the Gospel in the previous 11 chapters of Romans.   The Apostle recognised from personal experience that the danger of silencing Christian witness was very real.

Isaiah put the Christian witness so well in Chapter 43 verse 1 But now, thus says the Lord, who created you, O Jacob, And He who formed you, O Israel:
“Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; You are Mine.”    He is our creator, He formed us in the womb.   He is also our redeemer who saved us and gave us an identity as his sons and daughters.

Each of these aspects of the Christian faith is under attack in our contemporary Western World.   The chances are that the attack will start at school and certainly be present at college.   When it comes to the work scene the breakdown of morality is being fuelled by many things including the misuse of the smartphone which produces its own porn addicts.

It is into this culture that we are called to operate.   Some of us have found it hard and ceased from the work of witnessing for Christ.   All of us find it difficult to start a Christian conversation.    This world has never been a friend to the grace of God.

To assist at witnessing Andy Bannister has written ‘How to Talk about Jesus without Looking Like an Idiot: A Panic-Free Guide to Having Natural Conversations about Your Faith.’    Andy writes from a background of much experience.

The writer of Hebrews has a heavenly perspective.  Having quoted from the past sees the hero’s as encouraging us in the present to follow their lead (Hebrews 12 verses 1 to 3).