God in a very scary Presidency

I enjoy supermarket shopping here in Ripon, especially in their last hour when it is quieter and I often get into conversations with the person on the till. Tonight, seeing this paper on the belt, the lady exclaimed “he’s going to ruin the world.” 

I watched President Trump’s inauguration in full yesterday as I am an avid watcher of history and yesterday was history for sure. I wasn’t really prepared for the tirade of what is wrong with everything and the announcement one after another of things which were woop wooped by most of the crowd present as they will, the returning President said, indeed make America great again. I remember standing back in the summer of 2016 in Calvert church in Hastings and saying in a sermon I knew America would vote for Trump and some laughed at that out loud. But even I never ever dreamt he would return like this. I have never ever read the Daily Star (!) but its headline today was interesting…

Several things have struck me since watching the inauguration and seeing the executive orders and hearing the vision over the last 24 and a bit hours. First, God in all of this. I’m not sure the President put his hand on the Bible but he made it very clear that he had been saved by God to save his country, and he said we will not forget our God. Franklin Graham, son of Billy prayed in my view a horrific prayer that Trump back again after a dark time where he had been wronged is God’s will. Perhaps it is but I need God to explain a lot to me! The President and his team went today to Washington National Cathedral for a service of prayer. Bravely, the Episcopal Bishop of Washington while noting his conviction he had been saved by God, she said “in the name of God, I ask you to have mercy on the people in our country who are scared now.” She went on to name gay, lesbian and transgender children, undocumented migrants and their families and she said “they may not be citizens or have the proper documentation, but the vast majority of immigrants are not criminals.” She asked the President to “ show mercy.” Watch the news and look at the President and Vice President’s faces. “The person giving this sermon should be added to the deportation list” wrote a supporter later on social media.

The scary thing - and I know some of my readers are in America and please tell me if I’m looking in from the outside and have it so wrong - the scary thing is in twenty four hours we can leave an agreement on climate change, we can leave the world health organisation, we can declare a national emergency on our borders, we can pardon all sorts of people who clearly did wrong. And we can whip up a crowd by making signing executive orders on a stage at a rally entertainment and throw felt pens into the crowd like some rock star. Haven’t we seen this before? It’s very dangerous. What also was very unnerving was the presence of very rich people around him, and a message that we will get richer at the expense of others. Elon Musk whether that was a Nazi salute or not, is a character who seems to want to create division and smile about it.  

So what to do? We can only watch and pray and hope that a divided nation doesn’t become more divided. I have just found the liturgy today’s cathedral service used. Ironically it began with this hymn. I guess we see if this President really believes God is for all, or, as I suspect, for some…

For the healing of the nations,

Lord, we pray with one accord;

For a just and equal sharing

Of the things that earth affords.

To a life of love in action

Help us rise and pledge our word.

 

Lead us, Father, into freedom,

From despair the world release;

That, redeemed from war and hatred,

All may come and go in peace.

Show us how through care and goodness

Fear will die and hope increase.

 

All that kills abundant living,

Let it from the earth be banned;

Pride of status, race or schooling,

Dogmas that obscure your plan.

In our common quest for justice

May we hallow life’s brief span.

 

You Creator-God have written

Your great Name on humankind;

For our growing in Your likeness

Bring the life of Christ to mind;

That, by our response and service

Earth its destiny may find.

Week of prayer for Christian Unity

I preached this sermon last night to folk in Bedale. My first invite as Yorkshire North and East Methodist District Ecumenical Officer. 

Do you believe this?

Let me begin with an oldie but a goodie you may have heard before…

Once I saw this man on a bridge about to jump. I said, "Don't do it!" He said, "Nobody loves me." I said, "God loves you. Do you believe in God?"

He said, "Yes." I said, "Are you a Christian or a Jew?" He said, "A Christian." I said, "Me, too! Protestant or Catholic?" He said, "Protestant." I said, "Me, too! What denomination?" He said, "Baptist." I said, "Me, too! Northern Baptist or Southern Baptist?" He said, "Northern Baptist." I said, "Me, too! Northern Conservative Baptist or Northern Liberal Baptist?"

He said, "Northern Conservative Baptist." I said, "Me, too! Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region, or Northern Conservative Baptist Eastern Region?" He said, "Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region." I said, "Me, too!"

Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1879, or Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1912?" He said, "Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1912." I said, "Die, heretic!" And I pushed him over.

 

We live in a world where difference threatens us or we pretend difference isn’t there. Just look at the world this weekend. We have a ceasefire between Israel and Gaza beginning today but do we trust it? Then next month is the third Anniversary of the war in Ukraine and then there’s tomorrow and the inauguration of President Trump which some people think is scary. His official picture, did you see it – is scary whatever! I have distant cousins in America I’ve found on line. Two of them live in Texas and think Trump is Jesus returned to save them. Another lives in Minnesota and wants to emigrate to Canada – soon!

 We see difference in where we live not near that sort, not mixing with people not like us and never ever supporting the wrong football team. 

 

I did a funeral in Ripon last year and the man was a passionate Liverpool supporter. His brothers told me we want you to say he supported Liverpool, Liverpool reserves and any team that isn’t Everton! 

 

A Christian was stranded on a desert island by himself for many years. He was rescued, and the rescuers were confused to see that he hadbuilt two churches. They asked him why.

Pointing to one of them, he says, "Well, that's the church that I go to." And pointing to the other, "And that's the one I don't go to."

The story of the church has had its sad moments. We’ve highlighted our differences and suspicions of each other rather than celebrate that which binds us together. I’ve been a minister in the Methodist Church for the last twenty-eight years and it used to be we were very separate and we were almost proud of our division. One of my first churches was in Stalybridge in Greater Manchester. There were two distinct groups in the church. One sat one side, and one sat the other side and the atmosphere could be a bit frosty. When I commented on this I was told “they are Wesleyan and we are Primitive!” Methodist union was in 1932, the Primitive chapel round the corner had closed in 1951 and this was 1997! 

How do we come together? I’ve seen a shift,and I hope this is true for your context here that we are thinking less about where we are different and we are thinking about what we agree on and what we can do together. I’m seeing groups of Christians praying together, worshipping together, doing mission together and making friends.

 

Imagine you were around in the fourth century and you were invited to meet with other Christians to discuss matters of faith and doctrine. You are invited to a gathering with others from all over the world to thrash out what you believe. This is the 1700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea in 325 which gathered at the invitation of the Emperor Constantine Christian communities from around the world there to strengthen their relationships as the Church of Jesus Christ. 

The first Ecumenical Council in 325 was a gathering of Christian bishops in Nicaea, now Iznik in present-day Turkey, as the first attempt to reach consensus in the church through an assembly representing all of Christendom, and to affirm the Christian faith in the triune God.

In Nicaea, Christians who only recently had been persecuted in the Roman Empire were able to gather under the patronage of the Emperor to affirm their faith and witness to the society around them.

Then, as now, the call to unity was heard within the context of a troubled, unequal, and divided world.

As I’ve said already, we easily focus on what divides us, we should concentrate more on what we agree on, and it is our common life in Christ and our belief in a God revealed as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer. That call to unity is as urgent as it was 1700 years ago as we live in an equally troubled, unequal and divided world today. I find it mind blowing that we’ve been saying words we agree on since the fourth century as the Nicene Creed was the result of our forebears discussion and another council in Constantinople in 381. 

All sides stayed at Nicaea for two months, through May into June. In our frenetic lives, we rarely give each other the space we need to listen and understand each other …And then discover after we’ve shared time together really listening to each other a new trust and a commitment to work together. 

So around our county we are beginning to see Christians making covenants to walk together, we are beginning to see deeper trust between clergy and rules long held being bent to enable better sharing of resources and we are beginning to see Anglican priests serving as Methodist ministers. Go to Helmsley and talk to Melanie the vicar. It’s exciting! 

 

Jesus told Martha in John 11 he was the resurrection and the life. He’d come to bring life to her grief by raising her brother and his friend to life. He asks her if she believes. In the end authentic Christian presence in your town will not be judged by how you do things in your separate churches although it’s good we have different ways of worship and spirituality as we can learn from each other, it will be how we are judged on what we believe and whether we can share it. Later in our service we will say the Nicene Creed and as we say it we celebrate our partnership in the Gospel, our common life in Christ and our responsibility to be the Church in Bedale today and tomorrow. 

 

A man arrives at the gates of heaven. St. Peter asks, “Religion?”

The man says, “Baptist.”

St. Peter looks down his list and says, “Go to Room 24, but be very quiet as you pass Room 8.”

Another man arrives at the gates of heaven. “Religion?”

“Lutheran.”

“Go to Room 18, but be very quiet as you pass Room 8.”

A third man arrives at the gates. “Religion?”

“Presbyterian.”

“Go to Room 11, but be very quiet as you pass Room 8.”

The man says, “I can understand there being different rooms for different denominations, but why must I be quiet when I pass Room 8?”

St. Peter tells him, “Well, the Methodists are in Room 8, and they think they’re the only ones here.”

 

To give a different Methodist view we’d better throw in some John Wesley. John Wesley described religious liberty as the “liberty to choose one’s own religion, to worship God according to one’s own conscience.” He insisted that every person living had a right to do this. Wesley’s essay, The Character of a Methodist, says this “from real Christians of whatsoever denomination they be, we earnestly desire not to be distinguished at all.  Dost thou love and serve God? It is enough. I give the right hand of fellowship.” In his sermon on the Catholic spirit he wrote “if your heart is right with my heart, give me your hand.” 

So where are you as churches here? Let me tell you a final story. I had a little chapel in Somerby in Leicestershire. A Friday fellowship met which had Anglican and Methodists in it. The Anglican Church was freezing and our multi purpose refurbished chapel was warm. They would have tea at the end of the meeting and they’d always had two trifles, one they’d call church trifle and the other chapel trifle. Of course Methodists were meant to eat the chapel trifle because church trifle had quite a lot of sherry in it, about half a bottle. What happened? The Methodists wanted to try something out of their comfort zone and they found what the other church offered inviting and lovely. 

Friends, this isn’t 325, it is 2025. Do you need an ecumenical council? What do you believe? Jesus offers your churches life, a journey out of a tomb, a creed and a future. “The unity of the Church” wrote William Temple, “is a perpetual fact; our task is to not to create it but exhibit it.” 

Do you believe this?

Seeing colours again

January this year has begun with snow and ice and an unsteady beginning. And then there’s the thought of Donald Trump taking over America on Monday! I loved the BBC interviews on the news the other night with the people of Greenland! 

We’ve seen day after day of white stuff, the worst winter weather this part of North Yorkshire has seen in 15 years. But today green started to emerge on the ground, the paths became less lethal and a farmer told me sheep have started moving about whereas they’ve been in a huddle to keep warm up to today. 

Also tonight as I drove to Pateley Bridge the colours ahead of me were red and orange. A contrast to the drabness we’ve had over the last few days. Then before I came home the moon was bright illuminating the darkness. 

This is the Christian hope fourteen days into January. The light shines and is seen again when the dullness and dark moments have done their worst and God breaks in again. 

I was reminded this afternoon of Kamala Harris’s concession speech in November.

“There is an adage: Only when it is dark enough can you see the stars.

I know many people feel like we are entering a dark time. For the benefit of us all, I hope that is not the case. But, America, if it is: Let us fill the sky with the light of a billion brilliant stars.”

Maybe our task this year is simply hope for colour and light to come. The icy ground, the drab skies and the fear of journeying and scary political rhetoric to come do not set the agenda.

A few days into January - Keep buggering on!

A few days into January and we are dominated by snow and now ice and Elon Musk. We aren’t even into a Trump presidency yet. How do we change the narrative that can easily make us fall? 

Lord Vishnu sat on Mount Chomolungma and wept. Along came Hanuman, the monkey god, and he said, 'What are you crying at? And what are all those ants down there shouting for?'

'They're not ants,' said Vishnu. 'They're people. I was holding the Jewel of Absolute Wisdom; and I dropped it; and it fell into the World and broke. Everybody has a splinter; but they each think they've got the whole thing, and they run around, screaming at each other; and no one listens.'

We need a different narrative seven days into 2025!

“A cold coming we had of it,
just the worst time of year
for a journey and such a journey.
The ways deep and the weather sharp,
the very dead of Winter”

“They came a long journey, and they came an uneasy journey. They came now, at the worst season of the year. And all but to do worship at Christ’s birth. They stayed not their coming till the opening of the year*, till they might have better weather and way, and have longer days, and so more seasonable and fit to travel in. So desirous were they to come with the first, and to be there as soon as possibly they might; broke through all these difficulties, and behold they did come.”

Lancelot Andrewes and T S Eliot communicate the urgency and immediacy of responding to the birth of Jesus for the Magi, despite all the difficulties. With snow and war and threats and worries 2025 hasn’t started well for some people. We need a story that will break in to people’s madness. It’s dangerous out there, not just with ice underfoot and temperatures tomorrow night of minus seven degrees, but there is a narrative that is threatening. 

In the week of Epiphany, let’s remember the magi were brave enough to follow a star and ignore the power mad Herod. They returned home by another road. In a world where people are screaming at each other to be top dog (or top ant as in the story) we need, like them to keep focussed on where God is calling us to journey. I have developed a pain in my right foot. The doctor calls it plantar fasciitis. Apparently rolling a tin of beans under my foot might alleviate the pain! I am struggling to walk long distances. It’s hard to keep going. But despite the discomfort of my foot and the ice under it I do keep going. Even though it’s hard. 

We are called to be faithful and to keep going and to seek help when it’s painful or we don’t know which way to go. I was very moved last night catching up with i player television watching John Betjeman’s 1974 programme A Passion for Churches, exploring the Diocese of Norwich. There was one bit showing a priest saying morning prayer and there was no one but him in the church. But, said Betjeman, the village knew the parson was interceding for them. 

My Superintendent, Gareth, in staff meeting devotions this morning asked us what biblical character we identify with at the beginning of a new year. I said Moses. There are ups and downs. There are times of wilderness wandering, exasperation and upset but a vision to journey on. We may not see the destination but we are called to follow. My prayer with so much uncertainty as 2025 is in its infancy is that we simply have enough in us to cope and keep on the path safely.

As Churchill famously put it: “Keep buggering on”! I wonder if the Magi were given that advice??!

Changing plans

Well they did forecast snow! My phone rang at 8 this morning and it was the steward at Boroughbridge giving me the weather situation. We decided to cancel our covenant service. This took some phoning round as it was also a joint service with the Anglicans. But it was sensible to keep everyone safe. The steward at Allhallowgate then also rang to ask we cancel the evening service. So no services at all for me to take today! That sermon took ages to write :)

I put my walking shoes on and walked to Allhallowgate who still had a service this morning. 13 of us were led by Keith Phipps. We all sat on the front two rows. There was a convivial atmosphere and it was lovely to receive today unexpectedly. Keith led us with some reflections on Matthew chapter 1 and 2 of the coming of the Christ child and its setting in history, of a journey of the magi and the threat to Herod. It struck me as Keith shared the number of times in the story plans have to be changed. The magi have to follow a star to an unexpected place. Joseph has many dreams and has to respond. Herod is rattled by a rival king. The holy family can’t return home quickly and have to settle in a foreign country. 

Snow disrupts us. We look out of the window and it looks pretty. As we walk out in it, people speak to us. We share an event. And church this morning had a party atmosphere! There was a lot of laughter! Bethlehem was not where the story should have ended. And as we enter 2025 maybe major things will thwart our script. I never expected to have a preaching free Sunday even though the weather forecast for this area was dead right. We maybe even got more of the white stuff than was expected. 

The snow has come on the eve of the Epiphany. I was going to a service marking that this afternoon. Remember that story has an ending about a different road. Maybe having encountered God, like snow, we have to make different plans or let what has been meticulously prepared for go. 

A light is guiding our path— we need to set out upon a conscious spiritual journey. One that we never expected to take. We need to become the Magi. Load up our metaphorical camels and set out across the landscape of our soul to where it is that the light appears. 

Keep warm. There’s more snow coming overnight! 

The first Sunday of a New Year

Here’s my sermon for tomorrow in case we are snowed in and need to read it instead…

The Word became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory…

 

On this first Sunday of 2025, let me put the mighty opening of the prologue to John’s Gospel into the present tense: the Word becomes flesh and dwells among us and we behold his glory – right now, in this moment, in this new year.

 

Friends, it’s said that seventeen per cent of people in this country give up on their New Year resolution within a month. Be that eating healthier or taking more exercise or giving one compliment a day or going a whole twenty four hours without checking your e mails or looking at your mobile phone, or refraining from gossip. That was the list of one of the writers in the Yorkshire Post towards the end of last week and it’s only day five and she’s struggling. The year hasn’t begun well for many people. There’s a lot of flu about, and other horrible viruses, the weather cancelled new year celebrations outside and there’s a threat of snow and ice and as for the world the sad and lowly plains are just as sad as they were before Christmas. And yet, we gather for worship and we confront that negative and gloomy narrative with the story of God’s care and concern. This is still Christmas and today I want to suggest we focus more on God and less on our not being able to keep to unrealistic goals which make us feel worse when we fail and we keep looking for hope. I want to explore that God breaks into time, that God believes in us and that God invites us to join him in whatever God is doing. John Wesley instituted his covenant service as a reminder of the providential care and grace of God despite ourselves and the world. 

Let us look for Christ wherever we go.

Let us never stop seeking. Believing that there is a light that shines in the darkness which the darkness shall not overcome.

 

First then, God breaks into our time. Has God a right time? We are ruled if we aren’t careful with that time we call chronos. Every second counts. In the watchnight service in the cathedral on New Years Eve, Canon Michael used this reflection on time in his sermon:

To realise the value of one year, ask a student who has failed in his exam.

To realise the value of one month, ask a mother who has given birth to a premature baby.

To realise the value of one week, ask an editor of a weekly.

To realise the value of one day, ask someone who is given daily wages.

To realise the value of one hour, ask the lovers who are waiting to meet.

To realise the value of one minute, ask the person who has missed the train.

To realise the value of one second, ask the person who has survived a car accident.

To realise the value of one milli second, ask the person who won the silver medal in the Olympics.

We live our lives by how much we can achieve in a course of time. Go to Aldi and watch the person on the till throw the stuff at us. It has to be quick. There are apps about how not to procrastinate. Some ministers brag that they never take a day off because they are too busy or are too busy to be adaptable. And yet, if we continue this obsession with the clock and productivity, we will all burn out by February. We will have no time to look for God breaking into time. God’s time is called kairos, time of opportunity. Galatians has it summed up:
“But when the time that God had decided arrived, he sent his Son into the world. A human mother gave birth to him. He was born a Jew, under the authority of God's Law.” The Christmas story is that God breaks in at the right time, when he’s exhausted every other idea to get through to us and he sends us part of himself. We sing of it incessantly before and during December and then we forget it! I think this year we need to look for those moments God breaks in. Where’s the good news? Where are the moments of grace? Where is the hope?

Someone sent me these words the other day:

“Hope has holes in its pockets. It leaves little crumb trails so we, when anxious, can follow it. Hope’s secret? It doesn’t know the destination. It only knows that all roads begin with one foot in front of the other.”

God breaks in.

Then God believes in us. Enough to invest in us. The Word becomes flesh and dwells among us. Matt Haig in one of his writings suggests that as a New Year turns it isn’t good for us to be okay. He writes: The world is increasingly designed to depress us. Happiness isn’t very good for the economy. If we were happy with what we had, why would we need more? How do you sell an anti-aging moisturiser? You make someone worry about aging. How do you get people to vote for a political party? You make them worry about immigration. How do you get them to buy insurance? By making them worry about everything. How do you get them to have plastic surgery? By highlighting their physical flaws. How do you get them to watch a TV show? By making them worry about missing out. How do you get them to buy a new smartphone? By making them feel like they are being left behind. To be calm becomes a kind of revolutionary act. To be happy with your own non-upgraded existence. To be comfortable with our messy, human selves, would not be good for business.”

And yet, God loves us enough to send us Jesus. Not just as a guest but incarnate. Here with us always. We don’t wait until we are perfect, he comes as flesh to as Wesley would put it change our vileness into almost divinity. John tells us that the Word became flesh and lived among us. Became human. The whole character of God wrapped up in a baby who was born in poverty, was a refugee and lived fully in community. He did not cease to be fully God but he was God wrapped in our clay. How could this happen? Well we need to go back to John’s Gospel to complete the image.

And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth. 

Jesus emptied himself – one commentator says that meant he made himself vulnerable to the battering by evil forces that we face. But what he could never rid himself of was God’s nature which is grace and truth.

That’s why, at every turn in his public ministry, it is always grace that wins. In encounters with outsiders such as lepers, excluded women, even the dead, God’s grace and truth breaks through and reveals itself.

It’s why the hungry are fed, the sick are healed, the downtrodden are lifted up, the unjust are challenged, those who twist religion are taken to task … and why Jesus’ disciples are taught that their task is to do the same thing.

 

So maybe this year part of our promise back to God is to not just believe in him because he believes in us but convince others who are struggling in the darkness that they are held in his embrace too. The covenant God breaks in and believes in us and then invites us to join him in what he’s up to.

 

We have to take notice of him again. We need in our meetings in church to pause and ask what is God doing or saying?

We all get letters or e mails we have to respond to. And if we ignore God and we wonder why things aren’t going well then I think God looks at us and says I made it so easy all you had to do was turn to me and you did anything but…

 

Lancelot Andrewes’ Nativity sermon, preached for King James on Christmas Day 1622 is worth revisiting today. In that sermon, Andrewes said the Magi readily undertook “a wearisome, irksome, troublesome, dangerous, unseasonable journey” to follow the star to the Christ child. Then looking out on the royal court that formed his congregation, Andrewes said that people of his own day were so complacent in their faith that they would not likely travel to the manger if they were as close by as the shepherds, much less as far away as the Magi.

Andrewes went on to speak of his mid-seventeenth-century fellows, saying that they make great haste to other things, but not to worship God. If Christmas were to involve a long journey begun in December, Andrewes said, “Best get us a new Christmas in September; we are not like to come to Christ at this feast.” For Andrewes the travel, the journey, the seeking, amounted to nothing in themselves. The only motivation of the Magi was to find and worship the Christ with all their souls, their bodies, and their worldly goods. Andrewes said our goal should be the same.

We are encouraged to set out this year giving our best, keeping our eyes and hearts open, and trying not to be discouraged. Friends I can’t fix whatever a second Trump presidency will do or Syria or Ukraine but I can help you and others around me. I’ll end these thoughts then with the late Jimmy Carter. President Carter only did one term as President of the United States in the 1970’s. His Presidency was mostly about peace or lack of it. But he was a good Christian man from a Baptist background in Georgia. For decades, you could walk into Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, on some Sunday mornings and see hundreds of tourists from around the world crammed into the pews. And standing in front of them, asking with a wink if there were any visitors that morning, would be President Jimmy Carter – preparing to teach Sunday school, just like he had done for most of his adult life. And I noticed when they showed part of his inauguration in 1976 he quoted for all the world to hear this call of God from the prophet:

In this outward and physical ceremony we attest once again to the inner and spiritual strength of our Nation.

As my high school teacher, Miss Julia Coleman, used to say: "We must adjust to changing times and still hold to unchanging principles." 

Here before me is the Bible used in the inauguration of our first President, in 1789, and I have just taken the oath of office on the Bible my mother gave me a few years ago, opened to a timeless admonition from the ancient prophet Micah: 

"He hath showed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God."

The first Sunday of another year of God’s grace invites us to remember the grace of God, his breaking in, his belief in us and our responsibility if we profess any faith at all to respond. If we remember and respond then I think whatever this year brings it can be a happy one. Friends, let’s start well and start with God. Amen.