We Christians think because we repeat a piece of scripture it will make sense to anyone who hears it or reads it.

Now I realise that the Holy Spirit is the great revealer of truth however do we not have a responsibility for the way we communicate?

I remember I used to pass an advertising board on the Glasgow-Kilmarnock Road; written in big letters were the words “Christ died for our sins”. The people who put it there meant well, but how many of the motorists passing by understood the implications? It’s hard to understand why Christians talk the way they do. Too often it requires an understanding of the sub – text, indeed for some Christian talk you require a degree of understanding in theological terminology.

Yet why is it that even these five simple words, “Christ died for our sins”, appear meaningless to the average motorist? At a very practical level it is because we no longer live in a culture where sacrifice is part and parcel of living. I think this is why some people say to me “it’s all a bit too deep for me”. In reality, I wonder if what they are saying is, “ I don’t really want to think about such an idea because it is too disturbing. “

You might wonder why anyone would even want to ask the question,”Why did Christ die?” Has the death of Jesus, a first century Jewish religious teacher, really got any bearing on my life in the 21st Century?

Well for a start, think about it, the western world measures time from his birth. So what was it about this man that has so influenced the course of history?

The life and death of Jesus invites us to think more deeply about things. It takes us to the place where we begin to think about sin. These days, even to use the word ’sin’ is to court laughter, or at least a rye smile in some circles. However mention the word ‘bankers’ and all of a sudden sin is a meaningful word.

Others still question its validity in a secular society and view ‘sin’ as an incursion into the well patrolled waters of political correctness. The prevailing culture is that to recognise the existence of sin is to restrict or endanger personal freedom and growth.

Yet ‘sin” as a word, describes activities with which we are all involved and ashamed. It reminds us that personal rights also carry with them the responsibilities of living in community.

So what is sin? In the Bible sin is described as self-adulation. It is a word to describe what we do when we put ourselves in the place of God. When we neglect to give God the respect that is due to him because he is God. It is the times when we try to exclude God from our lives and take control ourselves. When we do this, very soon we find being God isn’t as easy as we first thought. Ask “Bruce Almighty”? It doesn’t take long for Bruce to realise that he is a sinner.

We humans are a strange lot. I remember listening to a radio broadcast from Madrid Spain. It was the memorial service for the hundreds who were killed by terrorist bombs in a railway station in early March 2004. The grief of the Spanish people was overwhelming; indeed as you ponder the ramifications of such heinous acts you become aware of the inescapable pain that lies at the heart of humanity. The human predicament is that we are capable of doing the most grotesque and selfish acts, yet we have the ability to carry out some of the most self sacrificial acts of love.

If you are still with me, then perhaps you are beginning to see where the life and death of Jesus of Nazareth connects with 21st century humanity. He speaks to us all about the personal and communal struggle we all face with the choices of good and evil.

The key to understanding the death of Jesus is found in understanding the identity of Jesus. The source documents (known as the gospels} give a detailed account of his life. In these writings the writers are under no misapprehension; they are certain that Jesus was God come among us.

Now that might seem far fetched to you; but ask yourself, if God exists how would he reveal himself? Why not take the form of one of us? The story of the gospel is God’s way of righting wrongs. God’s personal commitment and integrity to bring about a relationship with people like you and me. God in Christ has done what we could not do for ourselves. The Bible teaches that in some amazing way the death of Jesus atoned for our wrong doing.

I guess what I’m suggesting is that we find ways to unpack our theological terminology so that the motorist might begin to connect with the biilboard. Lets have a white background a smoking revolver and a wooden cross with the caption ” How do you make a wrong right? ” with a smaller caption Check out www.italker.org.uk . The lengths I’d go to promote this blog! Check this cross reference out

We all know that we are living in a fast moving world. If we knew just how fast perhaps it would scare us all to death. I guess the greatest impact of speed on all of our lives over the past twenty years has been the meteoric rise of the internet. . The truth is there is nothing much faster than a mouse. Click and your there. Its like a huge big brain that we can all access in order to communicate and with which to communicated. Who would have believed even ten years ago that over 70% of our homes in Britain would be connected to the internet?

The Click On Resource

We use it for shopping, for recreational purposes, for business, for education, for social networking. What has made the internet so successful is the ability for users to become producers as well as consumers. All this has come about because the internet has ceased to be simply a place where you go to find information. It is also a place where you can go to give information. In other words the internet has become more and more interactive. I wonder if we have something to learn from this model in the church. Too often our churches are all information based, not much action and no facility for interaction. Take it we feed you but no feedback please!

This shift in internet usage has been given the name Web 2.0. When the web first became popular it was the place where you downloaded what the producers wanted you to have. You visited a corporate website and it was full of information. There was no place to ask questions to engage with the idea. The idea or the information was given and that was what web pages were about. In today’s world-wide web the idea is more sophisticated. I not only want to read what you have to say – I also want you to know what I think of what you’re saying. I also might like you to see what I have produced or created.

Check me out !

In today’s web world it is not just businesses and organizations that have websites, anyone can have a website. This is the age when my view is as important as the feature writer of a major newspaper. The rise of personal blogs has been phenomenal over the past two years. The internet is the 20th century equivalent of the printing press. The world of ideas can never be the same again.

It is in this area that I think we in the church should be directing more of our thinking and creativity. Last year Sanctus Media a small media production company working out of St Andrew’s Bo’ness here n Scotland began to explore the possibility of creating a new kind of church on the net.

Sanctuary First ( www.sanctuaryfirst.org.uk} is a creative web space that is being developed into a place where people can begin to engage with daily worship and connect with others who want to explore in an adventurous way alternative ways to be communities of worship. The site is not completely developed yet but it is up and running and already creating an interest on the world wide web. When completed it will be a users and producers space.

The dynamic that makes SF different is its ability to allow the local church to become the catalyst to create a touching place where users can meet face to face and engage with the material in a way that allows them to open themselves up to God. Stage two is to take the site to the place where the users not only engages with the material but become producers creating material for worship and reflection or comments on the existing material. Some of this is happening already but it is being developed to a greater extent.

All this is a far cry from church as some people know it. However when the idea that the user can become the producer catches on it will begin to revolutionise church as we know it. It’s a kind of biblical idea anyway. Jesus called his disciples not simply to be users of the but he called them to be producers of the fruit in John 15.

Imagine a church where worshippers are invited to write their own songs of praise, write their own prayers, make a film to illustrate a scriptural text, submit a picture that speaks of the God’s grace. Contribute to a sermon through a dance. Imagine a church that is focused on turning worshippers into producers in kind and in action. Now that’s a church more people in the next generation will want to join. That is a church where people are inter- connected. It is in these kind of churches that more and more of the internet generation will feel at home and make their contributions.

The answer is of course we shouldn’t but we all need to understand more clearly what lies behind the idea of Lent.

At the Reformation the reformers departed from the idea of a church calendar. They argued that everyday was a Christmas and an Easter and we were called to live out the fullness of the gospel in our everyday lives. Over the years many of the reformed churches have come to see the value of having special times in the year to celebrate and reflect on important aspects of Christian teaching.

Lent is seen as a time of reflection, a time of preparation, a time of repentance and a time of service to others. It has also been a time when some Christians have engaged with the idea of fasting. Hence people giving up chocolate or alcohol for Lent.

Should we as Christians encourage this practice? My answer is yes if you are doing it for the right reasons. Its not about getting into God’s good books, its not about making up for your past. Why? Because Jesus’ death on the cross has brought us into that relationship already. So what we do is not about us. What we do is all about God. When we do these spiritual exercises its because we wish to express out gratitude to God for all he has done for us.

The wonderful thing about it all is when we begin to look out beyond ourselves in service to others we discover that God gives us in return more than we deserve or expect. For we serve not expecting anything in return. There is a wonderful correlation between prayer and fasting in the Bible. When men and women pray and fast there is a whole new dimension of expectancy opened up before them. Jesus taught us that some things in life can only come about through a life of prayer and fasting.

One more thing I’d like to say on this topic. There is an element of humility involved in all of this. None of us really know the spiritual habits of each other. This was brought home to me many years ago. I was attending a member of my congregation who didn’t have long to live. We were reminiscing over the past. The man said to me. “ You know I loved Sundays – I never used to break my fast on a Sunday until I got back from church on a Sunday evening. Oh how that made Sunday so special for me! ” It made me aware that for this man Sunday had become a truly holy day. A day set aside to honour God. And he did it through his fast. So should we all fast? Yes if we are in good health, but we should be reluctant to tell others we’re doing it. Jesus said, when you fast hide it from others , so it doesn’t look like your boasting.

This year we’ve put Chocolate Sunday in the middle of Lent just to remind us that too often we want a Chocolate faith. One that doesn’t cost us too much and is an instant hit when it comes to finding our comfort spot. The truth is the Gospel calls us to the place where we are called to take up the cross and follow. “Giving up” is often a much more agreeable idea than being invited to “take something up” We inevitably ask for how long? Will it be heavy? Will we get any help? Will we be on our own? Let’s face it cross carrying is not exactly a popular pursuit. Yet it is at the heart of the Christian’s call to service. Oh and lets be careful we don’t just use Lent as a loan bank. You know using its spiritual excercises just on loan. We make sure we put it all back after Easter.

So what I’m suggesting is this. Lay the chocolate down if you need to , but the one thing that is “a must” is to pick up the cross and follow.

How that will work out for us all in our lives will be quite different. It might mean a great commitment to serve in the church. It might mean a great effort to make certain relationships work. It might mean sharing your wealth and your time with someone in need. The strange thing is this most of us know about the cross because it the heart of it is a call to die to ourselves and our own ambitions and dreams and live for Christ. I guess that’s really what Lent is all about. Happy Easter!

Chocolate Sunday is all about debunking the idea that we should give our little pleasures up during Lent. I really think Lent is about a greater challenge. It is an inviatation to pick up the cross and follow Jesus. It is a challenge not to deny yourself chocolate but to deny yourself.

I was reading an article in the Guardian newspaper today which was focusing on the ethical dimension that needs to enter into politics. Nick Clegg the leader of the Lib Dems outlined his philosophy of human nature. He said he started from the premise that human beings are by nature good. The drive of his arguement was that if we can get the right economic policies in place and promote a society of “fairness” then things will get better. I thought to myself, Nick your following the old Liberal deception. All men and woman are by nature good. the truth is that all men and women left to their own devices will seek to do what suits them best not what suits the wider community best. We are all by nature sinners. There is hardly an action we carry out that doesn’t have the potential to be twisted for our own advantage. Take for instance the things we do or do not do at Lent.

The fact is that t many of us give up chocolate or give up this and that during Lent and we feel smug when we’ve finished. Its almost as though we pat ourselves on the back and tell people how proud we are of our self control. Its so strange we say we’ve given these things up for lent and all the time we’ve givn up following Jesus. The chocolate thing is more about our image and the Lent idea is more about an opportunity to engage in a slimmimg programme. You know deep down that you really need to lose some weight. Lent then becomes an excuse to allow you to do something that you’ve wanted to do because you want to improve your self image.

The real meaning of lent goes beyond the chocolate. it invites you to journey with Jesus to the place of obdedience to the place where you say ” Father not my will but your will be done.” So i guess the 40 Day Challenge is a call to pick up the cross and in doing so change your world.

“People are often, unreasonable,
illogical, and self- centred

Forgive them anyway

If you are kind people may acuse you
of selfish ulterior motive.

Be kind anyway

If you are successful you will win some
false friends and true enemies

Succeed anyway

If you are honest and frank
people may cheat you.

Be honest and frank anyway

The good you do today
people will often forget tomorrrow.

Do good anyway

When you spend years building,
someone could destroy overnight.

Build anyway

If you find serenity and happiness
people will be jealous

Be happy anyway

Give the world the best you have
and it may never be enough

Give the world the best you’ve got anyway

You see in the final analysis
it is between you and God
It was never between you and them anyway

Mother Theresa of Calcutta

Holding your nerve. Getting up in the morning to face the day. Engaging with the everyday issues of living, these experiences can sometime be overwhelming. There are times when we’re not even sure who we are. To often we’re trying too hard to please this person and please the next person.

Holding on to an identity that grounds us and saves us from being swept overboard can be an almost impossible challenge. Too often we’re ashamed of our past or even our family tree. The world is full of people who want to be someone else. Recently I was reminded of Henri Nouwen the well know 20th century thinker and theologian. Have a listen to this sermon preached by Nouwen in which he speaks so passionately about the love of God and knowing that you were the beloved child of the father.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Do you know he once spent three or four days just sitting in front of Rembrant’s painting of the Prodigal Son. He said it changed him from the inside out as he began to understand what it meant to know that he was loved by the father unconditionally.

I don’t know about you but after hearing this sermon I was greatly encouraged. All of us are much more that we will ever imagine. If we could plant ourselves in the love of God how differently we might look upon ourselves and on others.

We talked a lot last night
Thinking out loud
Maybe too loud
Questioning
What would be allowed
Searching
Trying to reach out
To touch
To grasp
ideas beyond us.

All of us were looking for a voice
From within
Our voice
Your voice
Trying to connect
To see
To hear
To understand

Shaping words,
meanings,
phrases.
Throwing out seeds
looking for soil to grow a harvest.

Today was no exception. We were down at the branch this morning tranferring money to a couple of project which we support in India. We couldn’t have had better personal service even 50 years ago. However I’m afraid what happens in the friendly community of Bo’ness is seldom reflected in other banking establishments.

I came across this piece of correspondence supposedly written by a 98 year old lady to her bank manager. I must confess I couldn’t help but identify with her feelings about our impersonalised banking world and I also enjoyed the chuckle as i read her letter.

Dear Sir,

I am writing to thank you for bouncing my cheque with which I endeavoured to pay my plumber last month. By my calculations, three nanoseconds must have elapsed between his presenting the cheque and the arrival in my account of the funds needed to honour it. I refer, of course, to the automatic monthly deposit of my Pension, an arrangement, which, I admit, has only been in place for a mere thirty eight years. You are to be commended for seizing that brief window of opportunity, and also for debiting my account £30 by way of penalty for the inconvenience caused to your bank.
My thankfulness springs from the manner in which this incident has caused me to rethink my errant financial ways. I noticed that whereas I personally attend to your telephone calls and letters, when I try to contact you, I am confronted by the impersonal, overcharging, pre-recorded, faceless entity which your bank has become. From now on, I, like you, choose only to deal with a flesh-and-blood person.
My mortgage and loan payments will therefore and hereafter no longer be automatic, but will arrive at your bank by cheque, addressed personally and confidentially to an employee at your bank whom you must nominate. Be aware that it is an offence under the Postal Act for any other person to open such an envelope. Please find attached an Application Contact Status which I require your chosen employee to complete. I am sorry it runs to eight pages, but in order that I know as much about him or her as your bank knows about me, there is no alternative. Please note that all copies of his or her medical history must be countersigned by a Solicitor, and the mandatory details of his/her financial situation (income, debts, assets and liabilities) must be accompanied by documented proof.
In due course, I will issue your employee with PIN number which he/she must quote in dealings with me. I regret that it cannot be shorter than 28 digits but, again, I have modelled it on the number of button presses required of me to access my account balance on your phone bank service. As they say, imitation is the most sincere form of flattery.

Let me level the playing field even further. When you call me, press buttons as follows:

1. To make an appointment to see me.
2. To query a missing payment.
3. To transfer the call to my living room in case I am there.
4. To transfer the call to my bedroom in case I am sleeping.
5. To transfer the call to my toilet in case I am attending to nature.
6. To transfer the call to my mobile phone if I am not at home.
7. To leave a message on my computer (a password to access my computer is required. A password will be communicated to you at a later date for the Authorized Contact.)
8. To return to the main menu, and to listen to options 1 through to 8.
9. To make a general complaint or inquiry, the contact will then be put on hold, pending the attention of my automated answering service.

While this may, on occasion, involve a lengthy wait, uplifting music will play for the duration of the call.

Regrettably, but again following your example, I must also levy an establishment fee to cover the setting up of this new arrangement.

May I wish you a happy, if ever so slightly less prosperous, New Year.

Your Humble Client,
Myrtle J Watson.

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Switching on and off emotions is one of the hardest things you have to do in this job. I don’t know about you but looking at the video of the home under water makes me feel very sad. I saw a quote the other day it says it all ” When you spend years building someone or something could destroy overnight. Build anyway!” I think we are people of resurrection. I’ve been so encouraged by the rsponse of those who are in a position to help. I know of a few people who have offfered support andI know one donor in particular who has been an inspiration to us all with his support and generosity at this time. What has happens in Peru literally can happen in this country in the spiritual world. You can spend your life building an idea or a community and it can all disappear overnight. What is important is the now and also understanding that God is in the business of pruning and cleaning as well as fruit gathering. We were reminded of this when Alec Carstairs the treasurer of the Vine Trust reminded us in our joint Board meeting that in order for growth to continue sometimes we also have to be willing to make changes. I’m sure we all have to learn this lesson time and time again.

Click here to view the embedded video.

When I visited Peru last week I was able to neet some of the boys who have been affected by this disaster. I was also privileged to hear and see them perform click here to listen to their recorder group.