ARCHBISHOP TUTU AT THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY

Certainly history was in the making yesterday morning as the little frail looking man dressed in purple appeared in the play pen. By the end of his address the general Assembly gave him a standing ovation. ” Turn the wilderness into a garden of wonderful flowers.” He thanked all those who stood with him in the struggle because of them  he said, ” we are free today.”

SPEAKING AND FACING THE TRUTH

Well that’s me back from te General Assembly. It has been a challenging week in many ways for so many people. Someone sent me an email asking me if the church had gagged me. when it comes to my blog.   They were referring to the moritorium that has been placed upon ministers of the Church of Scotland commenting  to the press about the induction of homosexual people into ministerial charges. It is a crude instrument that is being used to try and prevent among other things,  the press from making up ridiculous headlines.  You know the kind that have been around recently.

I think it was one newspaper when reporting  on a report to the General Assembly on the issue of sex offenders attending church ran with a headline to the effect that “Kirk Supports Sex Beasts”  the truth of the report was that the Kirk is seeking to protect children at church from people who may have been involved with sex offenses. In doing so they were laying down procedures that should be followed  by the Church leaders when aware of such a person attending public worship.

I don’t believe the spirit of the moratorium is to prevent ministers speaking about and discussing the issues within the context of genuinely interested inquirers especially within the family of the church and community. It is more to do with preventing ministers from debating over the airwaves things that they might be better discussing face to face in a friendly manner. Certainly congregations will be expected to discuss and send their opinions to the Special Commission that has been set up to look into this matter.

I don’t think it will stop me in the least from contributing to the debate. For while I contend for a “Generous Orthodoxy ” (not my phrase but Brian MacLaren’s the author of a book with this title) , I hope to do so with respect and courtesy for those who see things in a different light. Never the less it would be a poor church that would try to stop a minister of the Gospel speak forth that which God has called him or her to say.  However we are all responsible for our words and the effect that they can have on others.  Let us hold to the counsel of John the beloved disciple and while we may disagree learn to love each other. By the way thank you James Hogg for the photo below. You thought I looked Presidential, personally I think I look as though I’m singing a version of “I did it my way”

BOGLE”S PARAPHRASE

Even if your world collapses all around you. Jesus said “I will never leave you to clear it up on your own” There is nothing too difficult for Him to do. So with great confidence think about this. If you have God as your helper what else do you need. Why would you be afraid of what others might think about you?  Heb 13. 5-6

Heb 13

Recently I’ve been reflecting upon the whole notion of confidence.  We mere mortals need to be more humble as we pass through time into eternity. Especially those of the evangelical kind. Sometimes we can act as though we know everything, or we can give that impression. We leave no room for doubt or those who might want to question.

Dare I say it, I’m sure when growing up I was even part of that merry band. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying we cannot speak of what we have come to understand with a certain amount of confidence. Peter  in his epistle tells us to be ready to give a reason for the hope that we have deep within us.

I’m simply saying we need to remember, we don’t see or understand the complete picture. We  only see through a glass darkly, as Paul says in Corinthians 13. Anyway here are some musing on the topic. While You read  have a listen to ” Gabrel’s Oboe, “Gabriel’s Oboe” from the Mission. I find this piece of music has a wonderful reassuring quality saying all will be well.

TIME ETERNITY ON THE TANNOY

To be standing in the midst of chaos

Like a traveller passing through the night

To feel there’ll be no tomorrow

If you don’t get on the next flight

An announcement on the tannoy

Tries to re-assure your mind

But the voice is so familiar

You  could be listening to yourself

To be walking in the midst of protest

Like a prophet fool of doubt

To know there will be a judgement

Even if the Jury’s out

Then you read a headline in the newspaper

Of what you dreamt the night before

And it sounded so familiar

Like the opening of a door

To be stumbling on the edge of freedom

Like a blind man gaining sight

To take one step forward

And begin dancing in the light

And a voice like a thousand rivers

Roars a welcome not yet heard

And etermity spins in silence

Leaving time to close the door

Just found the amazing iPhone function that allow you to take xray pictures. How cool is that! Now in case you don’t believe me here is the proof.

I’d like to thank everyone for all their messages of good will. I’ve been quite touched by the kindness of my friends and family. I also appreciate how a number of elders have stepped in to help out with pastoral duties including conducting a funeral. We are so blessed at St Andrew’s with people who step up to the plate when required.

Its so frustrating not being able to use both hands. This morning for instance, what a scramble I had trying to butter a piece of toast. Trying to have a shower was easier with the plaster. You see there is no plaster on the arm now just a big bandage and a sling. Its also a lot more painful now that the wires are in place. Hopefully that will settle down before I venture up to Aiemore on Sunday.

Talking about broken bones, here’s a song from Soustarr recorded a few years ago reflecting on the plight of being wounded. Broken Bones

I’ve been working on the sermon for church later today. There is going to be a bit of a tie up between the morning service and Sanctuary First. I’ve been reflecting upon that great little text in 1 Corinthians 16.9 where Paul says this ” a great door of opportunity has opened up for me, but i face many adversaries. I going to be encouraging every one of us to make the most of our life opportunities. We can’t live our lives in regret. never can we live our lives in fear. Too many people over the years have held back from the call of God on their lives because they could only see the obstacles rather than the opportunities. So tomorrow will be “Open Door Sunday”

I think the evening service has the potential to be really interesting. One of the themes we will be looking at is the living dead that inhabit the church. Here’s a sample of the material we’ll be reflecting upon.

A scene of first aid - blue lights flashing emergency noise soundtrack - someone being brought back to life. Paramedics flat on the ground - receiving the breath of life from a passer by. The point is that the church is facing an emergency. The scene depicts the struggle for the Christian who is slipping back into the world. The church is called to be like the rescue ambulance seeking to strengthen Christian life. However the church is dying no longer able to carry out rescue missions.The passion for renewal and revival is now outside the church in the most unexpected places. God is Emerging in the lives of people who would normally pass by.

GET REVIVED OR DIE? - ALBERT BOGLE
(The actor pacing up and down looking at the audience then at the paramedic flat on her back Desperation can be detected from the voice)

They’ve got to wake up!
You better wake up!
So much to do
It’s absolutely ludicrous
I can’t believe what I’m doing
I can’t believe what I’m saying
I can’t believe what I’m seeing
This is a crisis.

Religion is dead
Church is dead But I,-
We need something to believe in

Imagine
Para medics being resuscitated
By the patients
If you where told that
You’d laugh in disbelief
But we’re living in an upside down world
How did the church get into this state?
Something happened!
Something terrible is happening
The world has gone crazy
And the Church with it

Oh what ever happened to you?
Why have you stopped talking?
Why have you stopped explaining?
Why have you stopped believing.?
It was your job to bring us back to life
To bring us hope
Salvation
Meaning and purpose
But you lost
Your heart
Your passion
You got side tracked
into alternative programmes
You stopped believing people were sick
You became sick yourself
believing lies
You got caught up in a counterfeit world

You’ve got to wake up
Start coughing
Breathing
O Please just start
Living again
Loving again
Singing again
Caring again
Healing again
Believing again

I’m the outsider here
I’m not into rescue
I need to be rescued
I’ve got my own problems
My own plans
But people like me need help
Children need love

Don’t look at me like that
You look dead
I’m not like you
I’m the outsider here
I’m not a Church
I can’t do it your way
I’m into relationships
I like it minimalist
Not too complicated
O Please wake up
Strengthen the things that remain

Song - Bob Dylan – From the “Slow Train Comin” - When You Gonna Wake Up

Its the second day in the new year and war seems to be round the corner for the Palastinians and the Israelis. Have a look at this Rueters web page my heart goes out to such people caught up in the middle of years of mistrust and injustice on both sides.

I’m wondering where Tony Blair is in all this? I thought he was the special emissary in the middle east? I haven’t heard his name mentioned once in the news. I wonder of Israel and Hamas are escalating all this because they will find themselves brought round the bargaining table when Barack Obama is sworn in as President of the USA later on this month?

I’m sure if the Palestinian homeland question could be resolved and Israel’s right to exist agreed, we would see a huge shift in the whole relationships between East and West. I often think that we’ve not moved on a great deal over the years. We are still fighting over who own and controls land.

Meanwhile here’s a song from Bono PEACE ON EARTH

This post is going to be all about lights at Christmas. Its truly wonderful how a candle can light up the darkness. I know it sounds like stating the obvious but to me it is always full of wonder. I think to myself so where did the darkness go? Of course its still there but the light has brought another dimension so that your eyes see things that otherwise would be hidden. Every Christmas there is always something or someone I see in a new light.

WE SEE CHRISTMAS LIGHTS

Last night I wa at the Dockers Welfare Social Club to listen to the Songwriters Christmas Song Competition. It was a great night organised by Stephen of “We See Lights“. It was great to hear a load of new Christmas songs. If you want to hear what some of them sounded like click here

CHRISTMAS LABYRINTH

I think the labrynth at St Andrew’s Parish Church Bo’ness is one of the most spectacular Christmas Light experiences you will ever come across. It was written by Maggie Lane who was our probationer minister during Christmas 2006.  A team of people still run with it and have created quite a wonderful Christmas encounter. It was designed to encourage us to make a journey to follow the star like the wise men of old to find the child i the manger who is the Saviour of the world.

there will be different stations for you to stop at on the journey giving you an opportunity to participate, to think, to pray.  Music will accompany you on your journey. You will be given an MP3 player to guide you through   your journey. the journey can be done 15 minutes or it can take you longer depending on how long you choose to stay at each station.

Word has got out this year and I believe we had a a good number of people going through the experience yesterday. So if your reading this and you can get over to Bo’ness between 2pm-4pm and 6pm -8pm today then I believe it will be an experience you’ll remember for a long time.  The thing I find encouraging about this is to see  people of all ages going through the labyrinth. If I  can get a hold of one of the tracks from the MP3 player I include it in my next post.

On other thing, I said I’d mention something about the other projects in India. take a moment to pray for those who suffer from the dreaded disease of leprosy.  Mount Zion Church in Chennai have been helping a group of people who suffer from leprosy who live together in a colony outside the city. Its about 40 miles from their church but they go every second week with food and money to help them. Last year you may recall we had an appeal in the town of Bo’ness to send them blankets.  Please keep this group of people in your prayers this Christmas. We sent £400.00 on Monday for the support of this community. A small amount but it wil go a long way to feed people with rice this Christmas.

Over the years there has been much speculation about Joseph the father of Jesus. Many writers have tried to think through what it must have meant for Joseph to have taken on such a role knowing that Jesus was such a special child and not his own.

Joseph is a bit of a mentor for all Dads, but especially those who are caring for children they are bringing up as their own. The great thing is that he did it and did it successfully. I’m sure there are times when those who are in such a role feel a bit like an outsider and may even feel what they are doing is out of place. What an encouragement to be reminded that God entrusted his Son Jesus into the hands of another. Here’s a great song written by one of the Bogle Band Colin Jamieson and sung by Iain. I hope you enjoy it. Joseph As you listen take a moment to pray for all who are members of blended families. Christmas can be one of the most enjoyable but also one of the most stressful times if you are in such a position. However learning to trust God can be an amazing step forward in all family disputes.\

JOSEPH

I’m known to my friends as Joe
But do they really know me?
I doubt it.
Okay People know our names
but they don’t really know us.
I’m a carpenter
I make things
I like working with wood.
When it comes to understanding
Women - well
that’s a different kettle of fish

I didn’t think I could deal
with the problem I found myself in.
It has been a difficult one
This whole situation about
Mary’s pregnancy
Freaked me out!
video

I was ready to walk away .
Then, the whole thing changed overnight.
I had a dream and the next thing I knew
I had a change of attitude.
I now know I can work at this
Make it work
I’m a worker by nature
I think God knew that
“Work it out ,“ he said
Work it out Joe!

Do you know how difficult it is to take photograph of a flag flying. I think I must have pressed my iphone thirty odd times before I captured a few pictures that I liked. This is taken from the top of the church tower looking down the Forth to the Bridges.

I’m looking forward to hearing and reading some of the childrens’ stories as they begin to get posted on the blog. So here are the questions: At what time and date was the flag raised up on the Flag Pole? (Guess a time if you need to) Tell me a little  bit about St Andrew and tell me why it is important to celebrate using St Andrew as our Patron Saint. The child that writes the best story and gets the time closest to the actual for the flying of the flag will win £5.00. We had the local paper taking some pictures today of our preparations of the big day on Sunday. So lookout for the picture when its published in the Journal

I climbed up the Church Tower this afternoon and Rae filmed my weekly podcast looking out over to the Forth Bridges. It’s quite a trek climbing up the narrow stairway that leads to the top of the tower. As you climb you are confronted with the dust and the cobwebs that are to be encountered on the stairs. Its a kind of parable often to get to the real view of life you have to fight through the cobwebs of past generations.

It was well worth the climb to look out over the Forth and see the whole of the land unfold before my eyes. I pray that God will help us see the opportunities that we have as a congregation to serve Bo’ness and Scotland.

We are also having a quiet day on Saturday in the church. its a chance to talk about the Holy Spirit to a group of people who have been part of the Alpha Course. I think we all need times of quiet reflection in order to grasp the wide panoramic view of life that God wants us to have. Pray is key to understanding the view.

I remember seeing this cover on the front of Time Magazine in June 1971 and thinking, God is doing something in our generation. It really was exciting times. These were the days of Christian outreach cafes and Christian rock concerts. Today we’d refer to this kind of stuff as “Emerging Church”

You may recall an article I posted in October 2007 about my past life as a singer with the Living Stones in the 60s and 70s. This was an interesting rock band because we were among he first Christian Rock musicians in Scotland. Here’s the title track from an album we released in the early 70s entitled  “Jesus Music” The song was written by Jimmy Sommerville our bass player. the recording was poor it was one of the first albums released under the GRF banner . A few years later Greenbelt Festival was established and we had the joy of playing at that first Greenbelt. i think there was around 4000 people attended.

We were not the first but we were among a number of young Christians trying to engage with the 60s revolution. This all came back to my memory today because I received an email from Arthur Blessitt highlighting a movie that is going to be doing the rounds in the States in the near future all about his life. We were really quite a busy band playing all over the show, we even played with Arthur Blessitt at the famous Greene’s Playhouse in Glasgow. I’m sure there must have been well over 2000 people in attendance that day
THE CROSS

He is quite an amazing servant of God. His ministry has revolved around literally carry the cross all over the world for the past 40 years. I wish his movie about his live much success. I planned to meet up with Arthur in india last year. Unfortunately his plane was flying into Chennai while my plane was leaving the runway. Well maybe one day we’ll meet up again.

I was speaking to someone at the end of last week. We ended up talking about the fact that God often uses the things in our lives that we are ashamed of to make us into better people. The cracks and the scars still remain but they make us more valuable.

I told the person this story. When I was a young minister i used to take my daughter out on some of my parish visits. One day an elderly lady gave SJ a present. It was a dolls cup and saucer, one that she had when she was a little girl. It must have been at least 80 years old.

Well we took it home and duly put it on a safe shelf in the house. SJ was warned it was something she should keep - it was really too fragile for play. Well one day she stood up on a chair grabbed the cup, and of course the whole thing came tumbling down fell on the floor and the saucer broke into pieces. You can imagine it was tears all round. We gathered up all the pieces and put them in a bag and forgot about them. A few months later i was relating to someone the story of the broken saucer. the lady told me that her father loved fixing things and she was sure he could piece together the saucer, which he duly did.

The story doesn’t finish there. I was telling the story as an illustration of God’s patience and kindness in one of my sermons. A member of the congregation, Ann Mahoney was taken on with the story and she wrote some words inspired by the sermon. When we were recording an album of songs another member of the congregation, Ian Walker wrote a tune to fit the words and Ian sang the song on the album. Well it doesn’t finish there. A year or two later I visited a member of the congregation who was in hospital nearing the end of his life. I noticed he had been listening to some music through his earphones. “So what were you listening to,” I asked. “The church praise album,” was the reply. He then continued, ” I’ve been playing the song, ‘Broken Lives Worth Mending ‘ over and over again all day. You’ve no idea the comfort I’m getting from it.” He continued, “Its such a comfort to think that God thought I was worth fixing”

And all that happened because i took SJ on a parish visit. Makes you think how all our lives are inextricably linked to each other and to God.