The 22^nd winter Olympic Games opened this week in the Russian town of Sochi. Build over the last seven years on a piece of marsh land President Putin, who has links with the area, drove the project to its successful completion.

It was a herculean task to get the job done. The final bill of €37.5 billion is almost as much as the combined costs of the last two summer Olympics in China and the UK. It is as much a statement of Russian pride in regaining some sort of world ranking as it is a showground for a couple of week’s winter sports.

The 3,700 athletes from many nations marched into the stadium in front of 40,000 guests. The absence of some Heads of State, not uncommon at winter Olympics, took on a more political meaning as the unrest continues in Ukraine and Syria. The need for a high security level was underlined when there was an attempted hijack of a plane on a flight out of Ukraine. The hijacker ordered the plane to go to Sochi but was overpowered.

Following the tradition at these events to showcase the high points of the country’s history we were treated to an amazing display of talent and technical triumphs. Starting with the mythological troika of three horses pulling the sun we then entered a fairytale Russian city with its onion shaped towers and carnival atmosphere. The scene changed to Peter the Great’s time with his conquering ships making a way down to the Black Sea.

A ballerina played the part of Natasha In Tolstoy’s War and Peace and the 1917 revolution was depicted by a train and steelwork all accompanied to the music of Stravinsky’s Firebird suite.

The arena was darkened for World War 2 where Russia lost 27 million people. This was followed by the reconstruction of the new Russia complete with moon rocket and, rather quaintly, couples with prams representing the baby boom.

The show took on almost a religious air with the climax marked by anthems, oaths, flags and speeches on athletes living together in peace and harmony with no discrimination or performance enhancing drugs. The competitors were reminded that they were ambassadors for their countries and the obtaining of medals was to be second to competing fairly.

The Bible does not give us many glimpses of the glory but it is clear that Jesus is central to all that is happening there. St John surveying the assembled multitude recognised that they were singing about the risen reigning Jesus “they sang a new song, saying,

“Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation (Revelation Chapter 5 verse 9)
Who are these people? St Paul, using the analogy of an athlete writes of himself, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that Day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing. (2 Timothy Chapter 4 verse 7/8).

Make sure of your place for that occasion on that Day – put your faith in Jesus.

There are some things that humanity should never forget no matter how strong the desire is to forget them. The 69^th annual Holocaust Memorial, which was held this week in many countries, is one of these things. The Third Reich’s genocide of Jews living within their territories cost the lives of 5,500,000 and should never be forgotten.

Of course there will always be “Holocaust Deniers”. People who are so anti-Semitic that they support the fiction, it never happened. It was a myth, they say, perpetrated by the Jews themselves to gain sympathy! Others point out that Hitler’s death camps, in addition to Jews, slaughtered millions of Romani, Polish and Russian civilians, homosexuals, people with disabilities and Soviet prisoners of war.

This year’s Memorial in Ireland had four survivors present. Those are people whose eyes had witnessed indescribable evil. In fact General Eisenhower, who saw the aftermath of the camps with all their horrors, had the foresight to request Press Reporters and Photographers be sent to these places to record for posterity the dreadfulness of the slaughter and secure the evidence of the inhumanity of those who ordered and those who carried out the killings.

Their aspiration had been to breed a master race drawn from Nordic races led by Hitler’s Germany who were to exterminate from Europe any who would spoil purity of these Aryan supermen.

The motivation of the Holocaust was purely ideological, rooted in an illusionary world of Nazi imagination, where an imaginary “Jewish conspiracy to control the world” was opposed to a parallel Aryan quest. No genocide has been based so completely on myths, on hallucinations, on stupid ideology—which was then executed by very rational, hardheaded Aryans.

Hitler saw the church as a conservative influence on society which suited him during the duration of the war. In his speeches he would praise Christian culture when it suited him. He viewed Jesus as an Aryan who fought against the Jews! His goal was to eventually eliminate Christianity.

Hitler shot himself to avoid capture and people said “Hitler is finished”. But for Hitler there was an appointment which he must keep, “just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment”. The one thing about this judgement is that it will be perfectly just. Not one of us will have a word to say in our defence. All will be revealed. “No creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.” (Hebrews chapter 4 verse 13)

So whether our sins are obvious or concealed we need one to represent us and this God has provided in Jesus, St John writes “My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world”. (1John Chapter 2 verse 1)

Our Advocate is Jesus – but you have to repent and believe the gospel.

This being the birthday of the Scottish National Bard it is fitting to reflect on some of his qualities which have immortalised his work in many countries. Two centuries since his death have not lessened the relevance of his “love poems” or his stirring lines on behalf of democracy.

“My love is like a red, red rose” is a prime example of the first and “The rank is but the guinea’s stamp, the man’s the gowd (gold) for a’ that” gives a flavour of his democratic views.

Burns had a hard life as a farm labourer, always on the edge of poverty and made worse by his frequent love affairs. These earned him the ire of many fathers reaching a climax with him fleeing to the West Indies. However he had published his first book of poems and on hearing of their success soon returned to Scotland and to acceptance with the literary classes of the day.

The “Burns Night” annual celebration on the 25^th January has its own “liturgy”. The haggis is ceremoniously preceded by a piper and laid on the top table. Then the “Selkirk Grace” is said and the “Address to the Haggis” recited. After the meal there are various toasts culminating in the “immortal memory”. This is a sort of secular sermon extolling Burn’s poetry and the evening concludes with the singing of “Auld Lang Syne” .

It is perhaps in “The Cotters Saturday Night” that Burns reached the heights of poetic grandeur capturing the old Cotter (small farmer) at his fireside weary after his week’s work listening to the tales of his young folk as they call in from their week’s work. They make room for a neighbour’s son who is attracted to their eldest daughter and all eat a simple meal of porridge, with milk from the cow who is chewing her cud beyond the partition.

After the meal they sing a Psalm and the father opens the Bible, which he inherited from his father. He reads confidently from both Testaments recognising how the second person of the trinity, Jesus Christ’s “guiltless blood for guilty man was shed” and how His followers took the message to many lands including his beloved Scotia. The evening concludes with the older ones departing to their several homes and the Cotter and his wife getting down to pray that the Lord would provide for them, “But, chiefly, that in their hearts with Grace Devine preside”.

Or as St Paul put it a little more fully but with the same burning desire for his loved one’s salvation, “so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength 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 knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Ephesians Chapter 3 verses 17-19.

This week RTE broadcast the design and delivery of twins from India to Ireland. The surrogate industry was explained to us in an hour long programme bringing us up to speed with the new technologies of our “brave new world”.

Seán and his partner Fiona had been seeking a child for 5 years and spent €30k on various treatments but without success. The fact that both had children from previous relationships and were now into their 50ies would seem to indicate that their childbearing days were over. Not in 2014. Thanks to the assistance of the surrogacy clinic in Mumbai.

The clinic provided the couple with a “menu” of potential egg donors and surrogate mothers from which to choose. They selected a strong young girl called Shoba, who had children of her own and needed the money, to be the carrier and then chose another healthy girl who produced six “quality” eggs.

Three eggs were selected, fertilised by Seán, and implanted in Shoba who stayed for a couple of weeks in the clinic and the couple, after parting with €25,000, went home.

One of the clinic’s rules is to limit the carrier to two embryos and as all three were doing well a radiographer was employed to “stop the heart of one of the babies”. Shoba returned to her village where the couple was assured she would not be smoking or drinking. Irish habits die hard!

Nine months later Seán and Fiona got the phone call that Shoba had returned to the clinic and that birth was imminent. They returned to Mumbai and after the twins had a thorough health check-up they were presented with Donal and Ruby. Shoba was sent home immediately after the birth with €6,500 (for twins) which approximated; we are told, to 20 times her normal annual income.

It took six weeks to get the exit visa’s to leave India and emergency documents were prepared to allow the twins, who are stateless, to enter Ireland. Amid the joy and celebration of their homecoming there was not much thought for the future of the kids with their ageing parents and questions of who actually am I? Perhaps Seán and Fiona will show them the RTE documentary! But then they might go looking for Shoba!

Births in the Bible to barren women came after prayer and supplication e.g. Hannah (1Samuel) and Elizabeth (St Luke 1). They marked out special men of faith who were used by God to draw people back to Himself.

In a post-faith era where science permits selfishness to reign we have the poor being exploited and abortion used as a tool of trade in the godless world of baby design.

Protection having been removed from the weakest i.e. those in the womb, the next level of exploiting impoverished young women, albeit in India, now becomes acceptable.

Children were never treated as commodities by Jesus. He considered them as important as adults equally worthy of love. He likened their trust in their parents as comparable to the trust people must put in Himself it they are to enter the Kingdom of Heaven (St Mark Chapter 10 verses 13-16). The children do not automatically belong to the Kingdom but like adults must come to Jesus and by faith receive Him for themselves (St John Chapter 1 verse 12).

In a recent speech in Edinburgh Mary McAleese our former President `outed` the Scottish Cardinal O’Brien who had resigned, apparently when some priests threatened to expose him, last year.

Mrs McAleese had the naive idea that the Cardinal should have held his ground and thus show support for the many gay priests in the ranks of the church.

This is just the most recent trumpet blast of the liberal agenda. These people have succeeded in making waves right across the Western world labelling any who would oppose them as homophobic.

In Ireland their agenda rolls on. They have succeeded in changing the abortion law using the Halappanavar case, (paying scant regard to the facts), to gain support for the theory that we need liberal abortion laws to become a modern state, free from the shackles of church governance.

Emboldened by the current climate a gay priest claims today that teaching on sexuality needs re-casting. For guidance he suggests that we may look to science, psychology and experience. Apparently he believes that this way would lead to more compassion. Presumably he wants his behaviour to be condoned.

Those who believe the Bible recognise the Adamic nature – they are all too familiar with it in themselves. The desire to re-make the rules to sanction gay behaviour might suit one person. Another might say he is fed up using self restraint and would like to sanction adultery. The net result is “Everyone did as he saw fit” Judges Chapter 17 verse 6.

How then should we live? We will either be moulded by the Word or the world. The two are at enmity with one another, John chapter 17 verses 14/17. We are not to cherry-pick the verses to obey. As St Peter put it “They stumbled at the word being disobedient” 1Peter Chapter 2 verse 8. But when we stumble it’s not the Word that needs to change it’s us.

The major change takes place when we realise our foolishness and repent turning from our own will to follow Christ. The Holy Spirit then enables us to submit to the word and lead lives characterised by obedience. This new found obedience Jesus said is indicative of our love for Him. St John Chapter 14 verse 15.

Whose agenda are you following? The Word or the Worlds’. You cannot opt for both.

Why do bad things happen to good people? The cry rings out again and again. It’s not fair! They have suffered enough!

This week the cry was picked up by a Journalist whose father-in-law was burned out of his home on Christmas Day. As fate would have it the poor man was in the shower when the building went up so he literally lost everything in the ensuing flight! To compound the problem he had not renewed his fire insurance and the policy had lapsed!

Another tragedy this week struck a distant relative of ours. She, along with her daughters, had nursed her husband for seven years after he had suffered a brain haemorrhage. He had been unable to communicate with them but they faithfully kept up the vigil visiting daily throughout these years. He died two years ago. We now hear that she has contracted Motor Neuron disease – a progressive illness with no known cure. It’s not fair. You want to shout it!

If we were to stand back for a moment from the poignancy of these situations we could imagine our evolutionist friend saying that this is what you could expect from a world created by a series of random acts of chance. On the other hand an atheist friend might seize the opportunity to blame God – even though he doesn’t believe in him – and ask how a good God could allow this to happen. Either he is not good or he is not capable of preventing these things.

But whether we believe in evolution and or go down the popular path of the atheist these personal disasters shake our self centred way of life and make us look for answers.

When you reflect on bad things happening to good people it is hard to ignore the crucifixion of Jesus. By any standard he was a good person. His death was the cruellest the Roman soldiers could devise. This begs the question, “Why didn’t God stop the trouble?”

There is no doubt he could have stopped it but didn’t. Perhaps death is not the worst thing that can happen. Perhaps there was purpose in it that we only partially know but we believe love was at the centre of it – “This is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins” 1John Chapter 4 verse 10.

There are times when the trouble does not stop and we feel like the Psalmist “How long O Lord will you forget me forever?” Psalm 13 verse 1. But we are reminded that God’s love is transcendent and hear Jesus words, “I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.” St John Chapter 14 verse 3. And that sort of love will sustain us through the darkest night.

Only a few mince pies left! But it was good while it lasted. The weather gave us a blast and now the blow-out is over. Inside the furniture has been returned to its former position and outside the branches, dislodged by the gale, have been gathered up. Normality has been restored!

The Christmas story has been enacted in a multitude of Churches with youngsters getting into the various roles extracting from them fresh meaning.

During one of these performances Mary got distracted and dropped the child. His head made an ominous noise as it bounced off the floor. Fortunately it was only a doll. However there he lay until the presentation was over, ignored, overlooked by the actors as they got on with their parts!

This year for me the shepherds were a revelation! Having a small acquaintance with sheep I always thought of the Shepherds as respectable characters with beautiful sheepdogs so it was disillusioning to learn that those on the Bethlehem hillside were a rough bunch. In truth living with sheep does contaminate one, as we can testify at lambing time! Had the birth been in the Inn they may not have gained admission! As it was the stable was entirely appropriate. Trust our God to have an eye for detail.

The shepherds did not come empty handed. What they brought was better than the sentimental suggestion often made that they brought a lamb. It was the message communicated by angel “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord” (St Luke chapter 2 verses 10-11). The three titles encapsulate the wonder of it all. They reveal the baby to be the Messiah (the Christ) who had come to save his people from their sins (St Matthew Chapter 1 verse 21). The title Lord means that this is the enfleshment of the Lord God (total God and total man) born to die for his own.

Do not be like the children in the play who were too busy getting on with reciting their lines to bother about Jesus. Instead emulate the shepherds who heard, investigated and saw for themselves that it was true. They went back to their work “glorifying and praising God for all that they had seen, as it had been told them.” (St Luke chapter 2 verse 20)

There had been hints and predictions but they were in the distant past and largely forgotten. The royal tribe of Judah had encountered bad times and been reduced to peasant stock. Not much could be expected from them. The myth of the Messiah! Country occupied by Romans. The Religious were squabbling over rights. Corrupt rulers only interested in retaining power. And not as much faith around as would cover a grain of mustard seed!

But then there was old Simeon. `Expect the unexpected with God` seemed to be his motto. The least likely the occurrence the more likely God was in it! So it was when the shepherds’ news broke, while others scoffed Simeon got ready. Nor was he disappointed. He was the first outside the family to recognise Jesus as God’s anointed.

You would have thought this would have brought the Priests running to meet Messiah but there was only old Anna the prophetess and she well over 80 years old. She differed from Simeon, who was now content that his life’s goal had been reached. She became the first active witness telling all who wanted to hear that the redeemer had come.

It was about six months later that some philosopher-priests, possibly Zoroastrians from Persia, arrived at Bethlehem. They were star-gazers and God had graciously used their craft to bring them to visit Jesus. On their way they visited King Herod and somewhat naively quoted to him from his own scriptures the prophesy: “But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you will come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel”

Now Herod believed the word and took the child’s arrival to be a threat to his throne. His slaughter of all children under the age of two has a contemporary feel to it as the stamping out of Christians continued today in various parts of the world.

Warned in a dream Joseph emigrated with his family to Egypt and stayed there until, with the death of Herod, the danger passed. Hosea’s prophesy “Out of Egypt I have called my son” has a fine ambiguity to it as Israel the nation was also referred to as “my son”. The redeeming of the nation from bondage in Egypt by the blood of a lamb was to find its ultimate fulfilment in the Son who is, as John the Baptist put it, “The lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world”.

So God continues to do the unexpected. As the hymn-writer has put it:

He left His Father’s throne above,

So free to infinite His grace;

Emptied Himself of all but love,

And bled for Adam’s helpless race;

‘Tis mercy all, immense and free;

For, O my God, it found out me.

And may this infinite grace of God continue the unexpected and find you this Christmas with his redeeming love.

The Central Remedial Clinic was founded in Dublin in 1951 and is a National centre for the care, treatment and development of children and adults with physical disabilities. It is funded by the State and philanthropic sources. It is the alleged misuse of the latter which has kept it in the news all week and led the entire Board to resign yesterday.

Apparently the salaries earned by some Board members had been topped up from monies received as donations for the care of disabled children.

The extent of this practice was uncovered when the Board was brought before the Public Accounts Committee. The largest top-up went to the former chief executive who received more than €135,000 in addition to his salary of €106,000. He also got a golden handshake of €200,000, paid out of charitable donations, when he retired this summer.

On examination the assets of the CRC were found to be considerable and there was a question mark over pension contributions which went into, what one member of the PAC described as, a “phantom fund”.

The immediate effect of these revelations has been a large reduction in giving which is doubly unfortunate as this would have normally been the time of year when donors give most generously. A secondary effect has been the disillusionment with charities in general as all have suffered a drop in income and, in one or two cases, are themselves under investigation.

Ireland is a relatively generous country having somewhere in the region of 8,000 registered charities. Some regulation is now planned to ensure that proper attention is given to the auditing of accounts and a version of these displayed on the charities website so as to inspire future donor confidence.

The giving of alms has a long and noble history. Giving to those in need by those who can meet the need is one of the pillars of piety mentioned by Jesus in St Matthew Chapter 6 verses 1-4. He commended giving in secret.

Now-a-days giving is seldom in secret as there is usually a gift or an opportunity for gain given as an inducement to the giver to be generous. What marks out the believer is secret giving where only God knows where it comes from. This way of giving where the worthiness of the cause justifies the gift gains the approval, Jesus said, of his father in heaven.

How the recipient spends the donation is outwith his control although it may influence future gifts!

The churches in Macedonia are given as a good example. They first gave themselves to the Lord then gave generously to the poor in Jerusalem. This is still the right way to do it. Read what happened in 2Corinthians 8 verses 1-5.

Since his death on Thursday the extraordinary life story of Nelson Mandela has dominated the media. Headings like “From Prisoner to President” struggle to encompass the magnitude of all he accomplished in turning South Africa, from almost certain racial civil war, to a democracy with a substantial degree of justice and equality.

Violence marked his early years and led to his arrest. At his trial he recognised the possibility of the death sentence and famously declared that he was prepared to die for his country. His sentence was commuted to life imprisonment and he served 27 years on the brutal location of Robben Island.

During that time his then wife Winnie carried the militant torch and was intermittently arrested and jailed herself. When Mandela was finally released from prison in 1990, he was firmly committed to peace, reconciliation, and forgiveness. But this is hard for Winnie to take. She was not ready to forgive and reconcile. Revenge and retribution are more attractive to her; she has suffered too much at the hands of hate. Eventually this leads to their separation.

Mandela’s strategy worked and the first free elections were held in 1994 when his ANC Party swept to power. His task as he saw it was almost complete. The question remained as to how to unite the people? He chose rugby, a white mans game, and in the final of the 1995 World Rugby Cup, where South Africa beat New Zealand, he donned the SA strip and identified with the national side in a magnanimous effort to unite the post-apartheid nation.

Unlike other Presidents he did not seek to cling to power and after the introduction of democracy with its framework for justice, freedom and equality he departed from politics to devote his remaining years to the altruistic works which he had founded.

Any reflection on his life must acknowledge the redemptive power of suffering. His 27 years internment could easily have left him bitter emulating his wife in her view of how apartheid could be broken. He went into prison a terrorist and came out a man of peace. He had come to realise that reconciliation could only come through forgiveness which in turn leads to true freedom.

Jesus’s prayer from the cross for forgiveness for sinners (St Luke Chapter 23 verse 34) was taken up immediately by one of the dying criminals (who would have been classed as a terrorist in his day) as he recognised the One who could meet his need. The cancelling of guilt, freeing the conscience, and the reconciling the man to God that followed with Jesus declaration, “ Today you will be with me in paradise” (verse 43) gave him his first taste of true freedom.

Mandela’s legacy gives tangible hope for freedom from bondage to racism but for freedom from all sin we need to listen to Jesus, “If the Son sets you free you will be free indeed” (St John Chapter 8 verse 34).