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Diary of a (Maybe) Retired Pastor

Tag: god

  • Smile

    mayberetiredpastor

    Smile

    God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

    Genesis 1:31, Old Testament, The Bible

    Shortly after the New Year, we went to a concert featuring a guitar and cello duo (1). An unusual pairing and an unusual choice for us (we usually choose orchestral concerts). We did not really know what to expect but what we experienced was a scintillating evening in which the two musicians demonstrated genuinely virtuosic levels of musicianship. The guitarist managed to make his guitar sound like a whole orchestra filling the room with depth and power and colour of every shade while the cellist made her cello sing and weep and dance and clap with extraordinary feats of bowmanship. As the two musicians got into their stride, I could not help but smile throughout the programme. The concert ended to deserved rapturous applause.

    Like hot baths, concert going is a luxury – not the most outrageous of luxuries, but in the context of the hardship and poverty millions experience it is very much the experience of privilege. Some may wish to argue that such things should not be indulged out of sympathy and solidarity with those whose circumstances do not permit such things, or, that it is shameful to enjoy such things with the world in its current state. Such positions do not find a great deal of favour with most and a cynical person might see this as evidence of the irredeemable self-centredness of people in general.

    The Westminster Catechism states that Man’s chief and highest end is to glorify God, and fully to enjoy him for ever. (2). Countless sermons have been preached across the world on how this should be practised in everyday life, but one that I do not recall having ever heard preached (and one that I myself have not preached (yet!)) is one where the enjoyment of what God has created is, perhaps, the greatest way to glorify God of which we are capable. The Creation account repeatedly reminds us that God looked at what He had done and was pleased. He liked what He had done – including, and especially after, His creation of humankind.  There are indeed, despite the many horrendous instances of ugliness we have imposed upon the world, countless instances in which the sheer beauty and grandeur and wonder of the material universe just causes our hearts to stop in awe, or our eyes to open wide or, indeed, our faces to smile. When we do that are we not, in fact, smiling in unison with God as He surveys His handiwork and smiles? Is this not the true essence of giving Him glory and enjoying Him? And, amongst those instances of wonder and beauty, are the artistic creations of human beings, the most amazing work of all the works of God.

    There is much in our world over which we should mourn and grieve; much that we should feel guilt and shame about, but let us not ignore all that which bears the true stamp of the Creator and smile with Him as we behold His handiwork.

    1. https://events.humanitix.com/mediterranean-strings-manchester acc. 11/2/26 17:34
    2. https://thewestminsterstandard.org/westminster-larger-catechism/ acc. 11/2/26 17:37

  • The Night Is Far Gone

    mayberetiredpastor

    The Night Is Far Gone

    For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government will be upon his shoulder, and his name will be called “Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” 7 Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, upon the throne of David, and over his kingdom, to establish it, and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and for evermore.

    Isaiah 9:6-7, Old Testament, The Bible

    One morning in Advent, my devotional reading for the day coincided with a broadcast on the radio of Handel’s aria of the same passage from the Messiah – For unto us a child is born, a son is given …  seeing the text on the page and hearing it sung at the same time to the music of Handel of course made a great impression on me that day.

    2025 has been a year in which a great upheaval of the pre-existing world order has taken place. In a matter of months, conventions and understandings which had underpinned our world since the second World War were unceremoniously overturned. Might has been given a freedom and authority which we thought we had done away with, and truth has become merely a matter of who can shout loudest and longest with the result the poor and the weak are simply inconveniences to be swept away by the rich and the powerful. Most troubling has been the emergence of a form of Christianity which seems to preach a gospel that dresses itself in ideologies not seen since 1930’s Europe. It is unrecognisable from that preached by Jesus yet loudly proclaimed as the true gospel by, again, the rich and the powerful. 2025 is leaving behind, for me at any rate, a bitter sense of foreboding.

    That day, when text coincided with song, a candle was, for me, lit in the dark. Christmas is, of course, the celebration of the birth of a king – a king like no other, a king who brings the dawning of an age of justice, righteousness, peace – the dawning of hope. Text and song reminded me of that. The Son of God had been born amongst us, and His life, death and resurrection are a matter of record. It is the promise that the lion will lie down with the lamb, that every tear will be truly wiped away. The birth of the Son ushered in the dawn of a new age, an age which will never end. It was the herald of a new kingdom that will not be denied. The shedding of His blood was the payment of all debt, the cleansing of all corruption. His resurrection was and is the triumphant defeat of all enemies. His return is certain.

    This present darkness is temporary. It may seem long, it may be bitter, but it will not last. The King will return. So, despite this year, and even if there are similar years to come, with text and song aligning together that day, Christmas was once again a celebration of joy. The King has come and we cry with all the saints, “Maranatha, come Lord Jesus” (1).

    1. 1 Corinthians 16:22 & Revelation 22:20, New Testament, The Bible.

  • A New Age Has Dawned

    mayberetiredpastor

    A New Age Has Dawned

    7 When the thousand years are over, Satan will be released from his prison 8 and will go out to deceive the nations in the four corners of the earth—Gog and Magog—and to gather them for battle. In number they are like the sand on the seashore.

    Revelation 20:7-8 New Testament, The Bible.

    The Millennium  is the period of the 1000 year reign of Jesus Christ on earth in the book of Revelation of the Bible. It comes prior to a final explosion of Satan’s rule before the New Creation is inaugurated. Exactly how this is to be understood in actual historical time is much debated. In the New Testament, time has two forms: chronos time which corresponds to measured, chronological time, and kairos time which measures teleological significance. The Millennium seems to be this second kind of time (although the church holds a variety of understandings of it) in which there is a period of time (not necessarily 1000 chronological years)  in which the rule of Christ can be seen to be hold sway which then gives way to a period when Satan is allowed to exercise power. We seem to have entered just such a transition from the Millennial rule of Christ to the rule of Satan.

    The invasion of Ukraine by Russia and the savage war against the Palestinians by Israel are remarkable not only because of the suffering they inflict on ordinary people but because of the unashamed lying by the Russian and Israeli authorities. Even as the world can see with its own eyes through nightly news reports the unjust suffering inflicted by the Israelis and Russians so they categorically deny and lie without shame as they propagate their “truth” to the world. This leaves many open-mouthed and astonished at their sheer brazenness. The world wonders how they can get away with it.  

    The two world wars of the 20th century led to the establishment of an international framework of conventions and laws whose aim was to prevent not only war but the kinds of atrocities that were perpetrated by evil men in the name of national interest.   Institutions such as the United Nations, the International Court of Justice were established so that law in the widest sense (such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Geneva Conventions) would govern the affairs of the world and not the whims of megalomaniacs. National leaders were no longer immune from accountability but were subject to international law. But, as with all law and convention, these are only as effective as the enforcement that is applied and in the present time those with the power to enforce have no interest in doing so and, in fact, seek to undermine that international order at every turn.

    The United States is the one power in the world capable of enforcing the international order of the 20th. century but, with the election of President Trump in 2016 and then his re-election in 2024 the United States chose to turn away from that international order and usher in a new age. President Trump governs through lies and falsehood and has no interest in the international order of the preceding century. His rise to power has ushered in a new age where the truth is irrelevant and falsehood is unashamedly lauded and enables Putin and Netanyahu. It is the age when the Father of Lies – Satan himself – rules (1).

    A significant part of President Trump’s support has come from conservative Christians in the American church. It is this very part of the church that would most avidly affirm that they seek the rule of Christ and the Millennium in history, and yet it is their actions that have brought an end to the, arguably, Millennial rule of Christ of the 20th century and the freeing of Satan from his chains in the 21st. century.  The Bible is, of course, a book of hope and promise, and while Revelation predicts the resurgence of Satan it also promises the end of his power. It also promises judgment when all will be judged according to their deeds and justice will be enacted. The irony that it is conservative Christians that have enabled the unleashing of Satan’s rule is not lost in the Bible. All will be judged (2).

    1. John 8:44, New Testament, The Bible
    2. Revelation 20:7-15, New Testament, The Bible

  • The Promised Land Forever?

    mayberetiredpastor

    The Promised Land Forever?

    The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: 2 ‘Come, go down to the potter’s house, and there I will let you hear my words.’ 3 So I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was working at his wheel. 4 The vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter’s hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as seemed good to him. 5 Then the word of the Lord came to me: 6 Can I not do with you, O house of Israel, just as this potter has done? says the Lord. Just like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel. 7 At one moment I may declare concerning a nation or a kingdom, that I will pluck up and break down and destroy it, 8 but if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turns from its evil, I will change my mind about the disaster that I intended to bring on it.

    Jeremiah 18:1-8, Old Testament, The Bible

    According to a recent poll, 82% of Israelis are in favour of expelling the Palestinians from Gaza (1). The validity of the poll is disputed but there can be no doubt that a significant fraction of Israeli opinion is in favour of not only the expulsion of the Palestinians from Gaza but also from the West Bank. The reasons for this may be mixed but it is clear that for many in Israel, and especially the Israeli government, it is a theological conviction – as one Israeli woman put it in a recent BBC interview, “God gave us this land” (see e.g. 2). But they are not alone in  holding this belief, it is a view held by some Christians outside of Israel whose attitude is that Israel is justified in anything it does to “recover” the lands given to it by God.

    Such a belief is based on a profoundly faulty understanding of the Bible. The promises of God are considered, in this belief, as unilateral and unchangeable, but the relationship between God and His people is actually defined by covenant. God’s promises to His people are covenant promises. There are two sides to a covenant, on one side, God promises to uphold His obligations provided that the other side – His people – uphold theirs. Since God is faithful and does not change, the question  is will the people be faithful and uphold theirs? The whole history of the people of Israel in the Bible is that they consistently fail to do so, and as a result, they lose their privileges under the covenant. God’s graciousness is evidenced by the fact that He repeatedly offers the people a way back.

    The prophets in the Bible constantly rail against the people of God warning of their many failures and the consequences if they fail to repent and keep the covenant. The quotation above from the prophet Jeremiah is one such warning. Here, the famous example of a potter and how the potter shapes and decides the fate of a piece of pottery is used to drive home the point that God can and will punish the people if they fail to keep the provisions of the covenant. Jeremiah’s prophecy is particularly relevant to the question of the “Promised Land” because he explicitly warns that the land will be taken away from the people which is exactly what happens with the Babylonian conquest.

    For those holding a theological view of the ownership of Gaza and the West Bank, the unbridled vengeance carried out by the Israeli government since the Hamas attack and the deliberate programme of ethnic cleansing places them far outside the covenant and thus beyond the privileges of the covenant. The covenant demands better of the people of God.

    Since Jesus Christ, the only way back to the covenant is to recognise that He is the Son of God and own Him as Lord and Saviour (3).  And, in the renewed covenant, the Promised Land can now be seen as merely a pre-figuring of the true Kingdom which comes only with the new creation. There is nothing special about the patch of land between the River Jordan and the Mediterranean, no special rules apply, and certainly no difference in the ethical and moral treatment of the land and its people.

    1. “Yes to Transfer”, Haaretz, 28th. May, 2025
    2. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c8d1j3v2y3mo
    3. Gospel of John, 3:18, New Testament, The Bible

  • Jesus Wept

    mayberetiredpastor

    Jesus Wept

    I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. 3 For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my people, those of my own race, 4 the people of Israel. Theirs is the adoption to sonship; theirs the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving of the law, the temple worship and the promises. 5 Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them is traced the human ancestry of the Messiah, who is God over all, forever praised!

    Romans 9:1-5 New Testament, The Bible.

    Palm Sunday. Two thousand years ago, a man stood overlooking Jerusalem and wept. He wept because a people whose history should have led them to the light of God chose, instead, spiritual darkness. They welcomed Jesus as King but then crucified Him as blasphemer. They would not acknowledge the gift of divine grace that was being offered to them.

    Today, little has changed. Jerusalem remains the city over which Christ weeps. Its leaders still do not understand the grace to which their inheritance points and they continue to act as if they were children of darkness (1). The Old Testament teaches clearly that the orphan and the widow and the stranger are protected by God, but they kill and destroy the orphan and the widow. They starve a people into submission. They go back on their promises. Such a people, the Old Testament prophets say, will be broken beyond repair because they have turned away from God and done evil (2).

    The Jewish people are privileged because they were given the commandments of God and they were taught by Him in intimate and direct relationship. They were destined to be a people of light bringing goodness and blessing to the world. They were prepared to welcome the Son of God. Many Jewish people today live in the light of their inheritance bringing blessing to the world, but Jerusalem and her leaders have turned away from their inheritance. That way leads only to judgement.

    1. The Gospel of John 8:42-44, New Testament, The Bible
    2. The Book of Jeremiah 18:9-10, Old Testament, The Bible

  • Not A Matter Of Right And Wrong

    mayberetiredpastor

    Not A Matter Of Right And Wrong

    12 the night is far gone, the day is near. Let us then lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armour of light; 13 let us live honourably as in the day, not in revelling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarrelling and jealousy. 14 Instead, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.

    Romans 13:12-14, New Testament, The Bible.

    Off the cuff remarks can be dangerous. We inadvertently say things we would never dream of saying in a more considered manner. These “Freudian slips” can also reveal deep, unsettling truths about ourselves or about our view of the world. Last week, the Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer, made an off the cuff remark in response to a reporter’s question. He said  that “it is no longer a matter of right and wrong”. I confess that I have forgotten whether the context was the uproar concerning the so-called “loop-hole” exploited by a Palestinian family to gain entry to the UK or the aftermath of the White House ambush of President Zelensky.  But, the remark stands out as a deeply revealing comment about the state of our world at the present time. Right and wrong no longer have any role in the international relationships of our world. President Trump’s State of the Union address made clear what matters: “America will be rich again!” was his triumphant cry which was greeted with huge applause and cheering from the majority benches.  

    So many biblical texts spring to mind in response to such a declaration (the parable of the rich fool Luke, 12:13-21; serving God and Mammon, Matthew 6:24; the root of all evil, 1 Timothy 6:10, to name but three) that it seems unnecessary to state how unbiblical and anti-Christian such a world is. Except that so many apparently professing Christians appear to be in complete agreement with such sentiment. The world is in a very dark place.

    Last time, I wrote that Christians need to speak the light of truth in the darkness, so, the Palestinian family did not exploit a loophole but followed Home Office procedure to the letter and fully within the law (1); President Zelensky is not a dictator and did not start the war.   But truth is more than words. It is also about how we live our lives. Our daily acts that demonstrate who we are following and which reveal the light of a different Kingdom ruled by different laws: not bowing to Mammon, the god of wealth; welcoming the outcast and stranger; treating others as we would want to be treated; receiving and giving grace; serving one another and not grasping for ourselves.

    It is the season of Lent, the period of fasting in the church calendar before the celebration of Easter. The true fast that God desires is the breaking of injustice, the releasing of the oppressed, the breaking of every bondage, the sharing with the poor and hungry,  homing the homeless and clothing the naked (Isaiah 58:6-7). Every small act that contributes to these pushes back against the darkness that is enfolding us.

    1. https://www.declassifieduk.org/rights-and-wrongs-over-gaza-judgment-exposes-starmer/

  • The Strongest Democracy?

    mayberetiredpastor

    The Strongest Democracy?

    First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings should be made for everyone, for kings and all who are in high positions, so that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and dignity.

    1 Timothy 2:1-2 New Testament, The Bible

    We have been in the US since the beginning of the January on grandparent duties. Consequently, we have had a ringside seat as President Trump began his second term as president. It has been like watching a horror show – deeply disturbing yet fascinating at the same time! He has already done many things that have left us open-mouthed,  but the  most disturbing was the very first thing he did on taking office: the pardoning of those who had been convicted and sentenced for their actions in the January 6th attack on the Capitol building at the beginning of Biden’s presidency.

    I was astonished to realise that an American President apparently has untrammelled powers of pardon. Previously, I had assumed there were strict conditions on who could be pardoned and that this only happened rarely. But President Trump in an unceremonious flaunting of untrammelled power set aside mass convictions and sentences that had been imposed after due process of law. What we see here is the unravelling of the rule of law. The law is not perfect but it ensures that everyone is held equally accountable (in principle) before it. This was severely undermined by the Supreme Court ruling that a president cannot be held legally accountable for actions taken in the capacity of president and now, Trump, by overturning convictions he doesn’t like, has made the law subject to the personal whims of the president and there is nothing that can be done about it.

    This seems to me to be a major turning point in American democracy. Americans have delighted in boasting about the strength of their model of democracy. But now we see that, at its core, it is weak and, perhaps, now is crippled. Unspoken convention has been the thing that has held American democracy together, but now there is a president who pays no heed to unspoken convention and who is supported by a Congress that likewise has abandoned convention. The consequence is the crumbling of democratic rule. In it’s place we have the rule of a dictator – although I suspect Trump would prefer the title “King”. Which is ironic given the history of the US.

    Christians are commanded to pray for kings, governors and governments. This is sometimes read as simply praying for the well-being of the ruler(s). It is, in fact, a holding to account of all human rule. We ask that they be held to account and conformed to the standard of the heavenly court. Certainly, this is a time for prayer for Americans.

  • Rachel Wept

    mayberetiredpastor

    Rachel Wept

    When Herod saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, he was infuriated, and he sent and killed all the children in and around Bethlehem who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had learned from the wise men. 17 Then was fulfilled what had been spoken through the prophet Jeremiah:

    18 ‘A voice was heard in Ramah,
        wailing and loud lamentation,
    Rachel weeping for her children;
        she refused to be consoled, because they are no more.’

    Matthew 2:16-18 New Testament, The Bible.

    Matthew’s Nativity account contains the harrowing account of the massacre of the innocents, the result of the actions of a ruthless political leader. Mary and Joseph had to flee with Jesus to escape Herod’s persecution and, as many a sermon has pointed out, Jesus began life as a refugee.

    Herod the Great, the politician in question, was a ruthless and uncompromising Jewish ruler. The killing of unnumbered young children mattered not the least to him in  the pursuit of his political objectives. That was twenty centuries ago. Today, the land is again ruled by a ruthless and uncompromising Jewish ruler whose actions are orders of magnitude greater in ruthlessness than Herod’s. And once again the words of the prophet Jeremiah can be aptly quoted – Rachel indeed weeps once more for her children as Prime Minister Netanyahu pursues his political objectives with little, if any, regard for the price paid by thousands of innocent families.

    His excuse is that it is a matter of self-defence, and in this he has been supported by many we would have hoped would judge better, arguing that the right to self-defence trumps all other concerns. Others do not see it in the same way and are appalled at the tragedy and loss inflicted on innocent families. Regardless, whatever human courts might say there is one court which no ruler, no government can avoid. Against the rulings of this court there is no appeal.

    The Bible declares that vengeance must be limited to an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth (Exodus 21:23-25) a limit that has been contemptuously breached by the Netanyahu government. More critically, it is clear that, by making His Son share in the tragedy of the massacre of the innocents, God has declared in favour of the innocent and the persecuted.

    Jeremiah’s prophecy is simultaneously a word of comfort and promise to those who have suffered, and, a divine judgement against those whose deeds have poured out tragedy on the lives of those who weep. While Netanyahu’s government may hold human courts in contempt they will be held accountable to the one court that matters: they will each, individually and corporately, have to give account before God Himself.   

    As for you mothers who weep, your cries have been heard; the Lord God Almighty Himself will hold your persecutors to account.

  • People Of The New Song

    mayberetiredpastor

    People Of The New Song

    And they sang a new song, saying:

    “You are worthy to take the scroll
        and to open its seals,
    because you were slain,
        and with your blood you purchased for God
        persons from every tribe and language and people and nation.
    10 You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God,
        and they will reign on the earth.

    Revelation 5:9-10, New Testament, The Bible.

    An outraged Daily Telegraph headline sometime in the summer last year demanded to know why a church had decided to drop the word “Church” from its name. At about the same time, one of the congregations I had initiated at my last church had set about renaming itself.  This set me off on a train of thought concerning the significance of names, particularly in relation to churches. Why do people choose the names they do for their churches or congregations? What does it mean for them and why does it matter? I tend to lean towards the functional and utilitarian with a quirky twist, hence, simply using the time at which the new congregation met on a Sunday as the name (7:15!) seemed perfectly adequate to me and when it started meeting at a new time it simply added a little quirkiness and mystery to the congregation! Clearly, this did not sit so well with others who, well, need something more approachable and human? (My wife thinks the Big Bang Theory’s Sheldon and I bear some remarkable affinities, although not, perhaps, in brain power!).

    Names are to do with identity and, so, outraged of Tunbridge Wells above presumably felt some attack on their communal identity when the local church decided to drop the word “Church”. When it comes to groups or organisations, names need to communicate something about what they are, and people need to be able to identify with these groups or organisations. What should a church or congregation seek to communicate as it describes itself? What should Christians seek to communicate about themselves? For good or bad “church” and “Christian” are themselves names deeply embedded in our culture  and loaded with thousands of years of meaning – some of it not very flattering – but once, they were new, freshly minted, communicating something vibrant and fresh and unexpected to the wider culture. The Bible itself testifies to this newness in its very division into the Old Testament and the New Testament. The “New” Testament is the book about the church, about the Christians – something new and unimagined. Is there a way of re-capturing this freshness and newness?

    The book of Revelation – the last book of the Bible – has, as one of its threads, the depiction of worship in heaven. It is about the songs that thread eternity and underpin the fabric of creation. In this sense, it is nothing new in the literature of the Bible. Worship in heaven is timeless and universal, never ending and never changing, but then Revelation introduces something quite remarkable, quite stunning: a new song is heard! The timeless, unchanging worship of heaven is changed! What has brought this about? It is Jesus Christ, His death on the Cross and His resurrection has caused heaven to break into new song, new worship, and the writer of Revelation leaves us in no doubt as to the significance of this as he ends his book with the description of a new heaven and a new earth – a new creation taking the place of the old because a new song is sung.

    In choosing names for themselves, Christians have not, as far as I know, ever chosen the name “People of the New Song” but that is what they are, and it is an identity that perhaps would help them to be as new and as fresh as they were all those centuries ago.  What song will Christians sing going on into the New Year?