Some of my more detailed reviews - books, films, theatre trips, software etc. I will also post the text of some of my sermons here.

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Eight Bells and Top Masts: Diaries from a Tramp Steamer

by Christopher Lee

published: April 2nd 2002 by Headline Review (first published 2001)


isbn 0747264201
 
Initially I had a problem with this book. The style is off-putting. The diary entries are interspersed with commentary. The commentary refers to the person writing the diary as 'the lad'. I know when I look back at myself 35 years ago I'm not the same person, but actually I am. The Lad, the author growing up, on his first job chose to work on a tramp steamer as the era of the tramp steamer was ending, to be replaced by containers and bulk carriers. It is (eventually) an engaging tale of growing up, and the diary entries show the development and growth of character as the story progresses. 
There's the drama of life aboard, brief visits ashore and the problems of living in very close quarters with strangers.  
This type of life can no longer be experienced so it is a view into another world. The author should have been out of place in this world with his bright observations, but he wasn't and we benefit from that.
The book ends with a few pages on the history of British Shipping - very interesting, but I would have preferred a postscript on what the lad did next.

Sunday, August 15, 2010

Leave here vindicated (Luke 18:9-14)


Introduction

What do you think this passage is about?
Prayer? Well, yes Jesus uses the way people pray in his parable, so there are some important lessons about prayer.
Arrogance? Pride? Humility? There is certainly a lot in the parable about arrogance or pride and humility.
Final judgement? The previous parable is certainly about justice, and notice how this one ends – The tax collector 'went home justified before God'. His sins had been forgiven.

Pharisees

The Pharisees had grown up as a response to Helenism – the spread of the Greek empire. They were Jews who were keen to make the point that they were different and hold to the ancient traditions. They were responsible for the traditions that were later written down as the Mishnah, which is a commentary on the Talmud.. They separated themselves from the rest of Judaism and dedicated themselves to living life as they believed the Torah said it should be lived. There is nothing wrong with their aims. In Jesus' time they were generally looked up to by the rest of the Jewish people. “I'd love to have a faith like theirs”. The description of the Pharisee in the parable is fairly typical of Pharisees. They gave a tenth of everything they received, not just everything they earned. It was said of them that “they even tithe their herbs”. The Torah calls for fasting only on special festivals, but the Pharisees fasted twice a week – on Monday's and Thursday's. They have been described as the keen church goers of their day, the equivalent of attending every Sunday, Monday Prayers, a home group every week, never missing any of the courses, always helping with Alpha and giving 12% from gross (before deductions) income.

Tax Collectors

At the other end of the religious scale were tax collectors. They made their money by collecting as much as they could in taxes from the people. Each had an area and a target amount to be returned to the Roman Revenue service. They also had to live, and any extra they collected they kept as their pay. No-one likes paying tax, but paying it to a foreign government that is occupying your country is even worse. They were the Muslim Jehadists of their day. Don't associate with them, or even go near them, unless you absolutely have to. They have no respect for you. You are just one of their targets.

What went wrong with Pharisees

These are the stereo-typical views that would have been in people's minds as the parable was told. We know that stereo-typical views are not always realistic views. People do not conform. They don't behave the way you expect and believe that they will. Many Pharisees had become proud that they lived their lives to the difficult rules that their religion demanded of them. As a result they considered themselves better than other people who they thought didn't even try to follow God or keep to His law.

What goes wrong with Church people

It can happen to us too. We go to church regularly. We follow the law of the land. We pay our taxes. We follow the rules of the Church. It's easy to see that we're better than all those skiving benefit fraudsters who we're subsidising, isn't it!

White Cottage

A man bought a cottage in Scotland on the side of a glen, in the middle of nowhere. The cottage was painted white. Where ever he was in the glen the owner could always see the white walls of the cottage gleaming in the sunlight. Even on dull days the cottage stood out against the dark greens of the hillside. He was very proud of his cottage. Then winter came and the snow fell transforming the glen into pure white undulating slopes. When the man looked back at his cottage he realised how dingy it was against the brightness of the snow.

White Cottage Interpretation

The snow was whiter than white. The colour of the snow represents Gods standard. By that standard none of us are white enough. None of us are able to blend in with God.
All of us have our own colourful personalities. These colours make us anything but pure white, anything but holy. Rather we like to do our own thing, and run our own universe.

Planet Pete – The lie

On Planet Pete things would be very different, I can tell you. There are so many things I wouldn't put up with. My justice would be so much swifter, and the punishments would fit the crime. So we wouldn't have to put up with all these drug addicts and thieves. I would be in charge and I would be GOOD!
That's essentially the same lie that Eve swallowed and Adam accepted willingly. I can be like God – I can do a better job.
That's where the Pharisee was. He was so taken up with his own goodness that he had forgotten what goodness really is. Instead of loving God and his people he was boasting to God of all the good things he does for his religion, and then just to be sure God got the point, comparing himself to the tax collector. In the process of the comparison the tax collector was rubbished.
It's so easy for us to become like the Pharisee.

Pharisaical Traits Check list

Here's a brief check list to see if you're on the slippery slope.
Prayer Life – How will you know Jesus if you don't speak to him regularly. If your prayer life is intermittent you could be in danger of becoming like the Pharisee.
Tiredness – If you're too busy and always tired, ask who you are doing it all for. It probably isn't God.
Anger – If you loose you temper with people you could be trying to take over how they run their lives, something that even God wouldn't do.
Criticism – Are you critical of others? Does that make you look better?
Defensiveness – How do you react to criticism, are you defensive or dismissive. If you can't laugh at you mistakes and failings with someone else. You could be in danger of becoming like the Pharisee.
Success – Is the success you have all yours, or is it attributed to the God who gave you your abilities and supports your life?
Impatience – at having to listen to, or wait for others because your time is too important to waste.
Exclusivity – Unwillingness to associate with people you consider lower than you.
Any of these thing could indicate that you are on your way to becoming like the Pharisee.
[pause]
What went right with the tax collector
The tax collector on the other hand would not even look at God. He hung his head in shame at the way his life was lived. He beat his chest, as if to punish himself, and begged for mercy.
The tax collector knew that he was not whiter than white, that he was not even white at all. He knew that the only approach to God was to admit his failings and ask for mercy.
It is a very biblical approach:
Pr 20:9 Who can say, “I have kept my heart pure; I am clean and without sin”?
Ps 51:17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
Jer 9:24 but let him who boasts boast about this: that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight,” declares the LORD.
These the tax collector would have known, these have been written for our benefit since:
1 Jn 1:8 If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.
1Jn 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
1Jn 1:10 If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives.
Jas 4:6 But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”
The tax collector knew God and had the right sense of perspective, as it says in
Isa 57:15 For this is what the high and lofty One says — he who lives forever, whose name is holy: “I live in a high and holy place, but also with him who is contrite and lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite.

The result

Now we come back to the theme of justice. The right attitude to have before God is to recognise that you are guilty and your only hope is that the judge will be merciful.
If you plead for mercy and nothing happens then you've wasted your time, but it was still worth the effort. It isn't like that with God. Those who are repentant – truly sorry for their failings and determined to do better will be the beneficiaries of God's mercy. Those who plead with God will be forgiven.
Like the tax collector they will leave the court vindicated and fitted for eternal life.
Turn with me to Psalm 51, and lets say the first six verses together.
Page ____ in the Red Bibles
Page ____ in the Black Bibles
Before we say these verses think back to any of the check list that caught you ear and determine with God to put them right. [pause] Then you too can go home justified before God. Vindicated in your plea for righteousness.
Lets say together:
Ps 51:1 Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions.
Ps 51:2 Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.

Ps 51:3 For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me.
Ps 51:4 Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are proved right when you speak and justified when you judge.
Ps 51:5 Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.
Ps 51:6 Surely you desire truth in the inner parts; you teach me wisdom in the inmost place.

Sunday, August 01, 2010

Guard against Greed (Luke 12:13-21)

I wonder what you're thinking right now?
I hope you're quite relaxed and are ready to listen to the things I am going to say and hopefully listen also to the promptings of the Holy Spirit as I speak. Perhaps though it's not quite like that. Perhaps you're thinking 'How long is he going to go on this morning?' or you're thinking about what you will do this afternoon, or tomorrow. Those thoughts can be quite fleeting – gone in a few seconds, but perhaps you have something more pressing on you're mind. What ever it is has become an obsession. It's all you can think about. That's the problem that one of Jesus' hearers had at the start of our reading today. He hadn't listened to a thing Jesus had been saying, instead he had been thinking about his brother. No that's not fair. True his brother was the obstacle, but what he had really been thinking about was his inheritance. Why else would you say “Teacher tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me?”
There's clearly a sense of injustice here. The Jewish law is quite clear.
[Slide 3] – Law on inheritance (Deut 21:16-17)
“when he wills his property to his sons, he must not give the rights of the first-born to the son of the wife he loves in preference to his actual first-born, the son of the wife he does not love.
He must acknowledge the son of his unloved wife as the first-born by giving him a double share of all he has. That son is the first sign of his father’s strength. The right of the first-born belongs to him.”
So if there are three sons the eldest gets half and the other two get a quarter each.
We do not know anything about the man who is trying to get his inheritance. If the inheritance was very small it was normal in Jesus time not to split it up, but for the brothers to continue to work the farm as their father had done – with the eldest in charge.
Whatever the arrangement this man was involved in Jesus is not going to be drawn into his problem. When he says “Who appointed me judge or arbiter over you?” he is not denying that he is God, just recognising that the legal role that is required is not one that he has or wants. Village elders had the job of resolving these types of disputes. Jesus mission is to teach the people about the Kingdom of God and how to live in it, and that is just what he does with the story he tells next.
Helpfully for us, he introduces the parable by telling us what it is about.
[Slide 4] – Mr Greedy
when he says “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” Jesus then goes on to tell the parable.
[Slide 5] – Head Line - God calls time on Barns Plan
“The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop. He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’ “Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.” ’ “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’ “This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God.”
[Slide 6] – What the parable Doesn't say:
Wealth is bad
There are some very good examples of wealthy people who are generous towards God. The most notable example that I can think of is the Viz-a-viz barn. It's an old barn that is converted to be a training centre for young people. It is a very nice place to be and has its own car park. As far as I'm aware the owner has given it free of charge.
Growth is bad
God is not against growth in business, indeed it was seen as a blessing in the old testament.
Investment is bad
God is not against investment in the future. In the story of Pharaoh's dream in Genesis 41 where the 7 thin cows eat the 7 fat cows the interpretation is that the Egyptians should save the excess in the good times so that they do not starve in the bad times. There is no reason why the same cannot be true for us. I have seen this parable used to say that paying for insurance and saving for pensions is unchristian. That is definitely not what the parable is about.
Comfort is bad
God is a God of love. That is central to Christian belief. God would not wish an uncomfortable lifestyle on any of his people.
[Slide 7] – What the parable does say ..
The parable tells us that greed is a sin. The greedy put themselves first, to the exclusion of everyone else. God is not considered, his people are not considered, his creation is not considered. It is not the activities that the farmer plans because he has such a good crop that are sinful. It is the attitude behind them that is sinful.
[Slide 8] – Types of greed.
Greed for money and greed for food are the types of greed we most readily think about.
Lets take a look at the video clip from “The Robin Hood Gang”. This guy has just completed a bank robbery lets see his reaction …
http://www.wingclips.com/movie-clips/the-robin-hood-gang/love-of-money
I love that last scene where he kisses the case full of money and shows what he really loves. That scene is a very typical view of greed, but greed can cause serious problems:
She owns a string of hotels. She owns the Empire State Building. She is a billionaire. Yet, in September 1989 Leona Mindy Rosenthal Helmsley was convicted of 33 counts of tax evasion, for which she spent time in prison. According to Time magazine, she emerged as a penny-pinching tyrant who tried to stiff just about everybody. No amount of money was too small to fight over. After the sudden death of her only son at age 40 in 1982, she sued and won the lion's share of his estate, $149,000, leaving his four children with $432 each and his widow with $2,171.
Greed affects us all.
What would you be willing to do for a very large sum of money, they say that everybody has their price, so £5 million? What would you do for £5 million? Or do you need even more?
[Slide 9] What are you willing to do for $10,000,000?
Two-thirds of Americans polled would agree to at least one, some to several of the following:
Would abandon their entire family (25%)
Would abandon their church (25%)
Would become prostitutes for a week or more (23%)
Would give up their citizenships (16%)
Would leave their spouses (16%)
Would withhold testimony and let a murderer go free (10%)
Would kill a stranger (7%)
Would put their children up for adoption (3%)
OK, those were Americans, but they're not so different from the rest of us.
When you've finished being shocked ask yourself “Would I do any of those?”
Now we are beginning to see the destructive nature of greed.
[Slide 10] - Blank
Leo Tolstoy once wrote a story about a successful peasant farmer who was not satisfied with his lot. He wanted more of everything. One day he received a novel offer. For 1000 rubles, he could buy all the land he could walk around in a day. The only catch in the deal was that he had to be back at his starting point by sundown. Early the next morning he started out walking at a fast pace. By midday he was very tired, but he kept going, covering more and more ground. Well into the afternoon he realized that his greed had taken him far from the starting point. He quickened his pace and as the sun began to sink low in the sky, he began to run, knowing that if he did not make it back by sundown the opportunity to become an even bigger landholder would be lost. As the sun began to sink below the horizon he came within sight of the finish line. Gasping for breath, his heart pounding, he called upon every bit of strength left in his body and staggered across the line just before the sun disappeared. He immediately collapsed, blood streaming from his mouth. In a few minutes he was dead. Afterwards, his servants dug a grave. It was not much over six feet long and three feet wide. The title of Tolstoy's story was: How Much Land Does a Man Need?
Not only can greed harm others, it can also harm the greedy person, but some would say that there is a positive side to greed. The following quotes come from http://www.philforhumanity.com/Greed_is_Good_and_Bad.html
He says “For instance, greed is good, because it is the most important incentive for people to work hard, get a good education, start a business, or invest in a company. This makes people productive and contributing members of society. And in return, people are paid a salary, become more educated, and (hopefully) build wealth so that they can in return live a prosperous, more comfortable, and full life.”
I have to completely disagree. The incentive he is speaking of has nothing to do with greed. Greed is characterised by the accumulation of wealth, or whatever, for its own sake and to the exclusion of all else as indeed he says towards the end of his article:
“Greed is typically considered the accumulation of wealth for personal satisfaction. It has no useful purpose except to become rich and to continue getting more wealthy. It is a strong desire in each and every one of us that is extremely difficult to overcome. Only through continuously contributing and donating to society can we find true rewards that are far greater than the illusion that greed provides.”
Well the first part is fine and he is right that greed is difficult to overcome. He doesn't expand on the 'true rewards' which make it difficult to understand just what he might receive if he overcomes his greed.
It's a secular web site, so I can't expect him to get the point. His thinking will be along the lines of the worlds thinking in general - “get as much as you can while you can – because you can't take it with you”.
Or as Malcolm Forbes is supposed to have said “He who dies with the most toys wins.”
That is Jesus' main point in the parable. “You can't take it with you”. Who will get all your riches after you're gone?
If someone asks at your funeral “How much did (s)he leave?” The answer will always be “Everything”.
[Slide 11] - Ecclesiastes 2:13-23
Ecclesiastes puts it this way:
For a man may do his work with wisdom, knowledge and skill, and then he must leave all he owns to someone who has not worked for it. This too is meaningless and a great misfortune.
What does a man get for all the toil and anxious striving with which he labours under the sun?
All his days his work is pain and grief; even at night his mind does not rest. This too is meaningless.
The problem has been clearly stated, but so far we haven't looked at any alternative. Here are some passages that give us a clue to attitudes that might help us avoid being greedy. Of course, they are all about putting God and his people above your personal desires.
Prov 11:24-26
24 One man gives freely, yet gains even more; another withholds unduly, but comes to poverty. 25A generous man will prosper; he who refreshes others will himself be refreshed. 26People curse the man who hoards grain, but blessing crowns him who is willing to sell.
Prov 11:4
Wealth is worthless in the day of wrath, but righteousness delivers from death.
James 4:13-16
13Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” 14 Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. 15Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.” 16As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil.
Conclusion
Jesus said “Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” We have seen how catastrophic it can be for us and those around us if we fail, and give in to the temptations that world offers. We have seen that it is ultimately of no benefit. If we succeed and keep ourselves free of greed, then there may be something left of value that we can take with us into eternity.