SOUL SURMISE

A TURNING OVER THE TABLES RANT AGAINST THE US PRESIDENT

I don’t like turning over tables in the temple. It was not a regular practice of Jesus. Oh, in private I can vent and rage but publicly I am more circumspect. 

BUT… turn over the tables I must today. This photograph of the President of the United States Of America holding up the Holy Bible and taking a photo opportunity outside a Church having just tear gassed peaceful protestors to have the photograph taken! It beggars belief in a Presidency that has beggared belief. 

This abuse of God’s Word and God’s house is everything that was going on in the Temple that day that Jesus turned over the tables and went on a rage. On your backside President. You are messing with the wrong God.

Now, I did not blog about the horrific hate crime that the police carried out on George Floyd last week. Read that sentence again. My goodness, it is chilling. No, I am not American and I don’t live in America so I shared my friend Rev Neil Craigan’s excellent blog instead (#BlackLivesMatter - His Name is George Floyd). Neil ministers in Minnesota so he had every right to speak.  

However, when a President of any country uses the Holy Bible in such disgraceful ways I as a minister of a church have very right to speak out. 

America, you are a democracy and have the right, as you go on and on about, to vote in as your President whoever you jolly well like. We have not done that well with democracy ourselves. 

However, America, when you start messing with your relationship between Jesus, the humble selfless loving Lord of the Universe, and then dare to link him with what appears to be a racist tyrant then it needs to be called out.

American church leaders. Every single one of you. The Kingdom of God is crying out for you to take a stand today and be tear gassed by this man rather than endorsing him.

I found it remarkable that there were Christians I knew who voted this charlatan into power. They said that there was no choice. Really? Hilary was this bad? They talked a lot about pro-life. That’s where Hilary was weak, they suggested! 

PRO-LIFE! What kind of hypocrisy fights for the baby in the womb BUT allows police officers to murder a man in the public street, on video for the entire world to see. PRO-LIFE! The very idea of this Presidency being built upon this one hyphenated word is simply laughable, if we weren’t all weeping at the consequences!

So, world listening in. Whatever you think of Christianity it has NOTHING to do with this photograph. Indeed, I would suggest that following Jesus is opposed to everything that this photograph was callously contrived to do.  

The Holy Bible, that the President is holding up, speaks clearly about value of every human life on the planet. It declares that every human life was created in the wonderful imagine of God and every one of them are so precious to God that God left heaven and lived on earth and died the most excruciating death at the centre of human injustice and suffering. God did this for the love of humanity.

He then broke through death, was resurrected, ascended to be given headship of the Universe. Jesus runs that in a radical alternative way to tyrants. He washes feet, he touches lepers, he forgives enemies, he sits with women of no reputation.  

What this means is that black lives don’t just matter. They more than matter. Black lives are precious. God made George Floyd in his image. Jesus died for George Floyd, his life and the justice he deserved. 

President… that Bible? Flick its pages to the four Gospel accounts of the life of Jesus. Read those revolutionary tales of how the world can be. Then, ask yourself where Jesus is in that video of the inhumane murder of George Floyd. Is Jesus the police? Is Jesus the crowd watching? Or is Jesus George Floyd? 

Jesus is certainly not a President holding a Bible outside a church having tear gassed a peaceful crowd to get to it. Jesus was, it would seem in my reading, tear gassed for the publicity.

Enough! Oh you can have this madman run your country. That is your democratic right BUT when you injure the name and reputation of Jesus then I will be turning over every table that I see around you. 

DEACON BLUE - THE LOCK INN SESSION - EP

Now here is a treat. The Lock Inn Session -EP. Four Deacon Blue songs all stripped back.

I have been fascinated by Deacon Blue songs, naked of band arrangements, since I saw a TV interview back in 1988. It was the first TV interview I ever remember seeing with Ricky Ross and Lorraine McIntosh and sitting at a piano Ricky showed the interviewer how Ragman sounded before the band added their contributions. I had just heard the piano version of Raintown as a b-side on the re-released Dignity.

 

Of course since then we had such versions of Circus Lights, Wages Day, Bethlehem’s Gate and Ricky’s recent Short Stories Vol 1.  

 

The Lock Inn Session bring us four more such incarnations and should not be taken for granted. Both Ricky Ross and Lorraine McIntosh have been through Covid 19, Ricky first then Lorraine. They were isolated from each other for weeks.

 

In the time since they have more than made up for it. This is a couple whose thirty years of marriage befits us all. Lorraine McIntosh has never been a backing vocalist in Deacon Blue. She’ is an extra instrument and when it comes to her soul mate Ross, she knows the exact amount of harmony needed. There’s never too much. Always just enough. 

 

This is a beautiful and unique project. One of those Coronavirus blessings against the run of play. They do four songs. All of which make their Lock Inn points. Dignity, one of my very favourite songs of all time, has a whole new take on “a place in the winter for dignity.” The refuge we need within our enforced refuge. Indeed.

 

Weight of The World off the recent City of Love albumbecomes even more cathartic in its stripped back strength to deal with the weight of these days. 

 

The sweetest surprise for me is (What’s So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding. I’ve loved this Nick Lowe chorus as a mantra for thirty five years and more. However, this version brings it back to the bone, the words took on fresh poignancy. 

 

What's so funny 'bout peace, love and understanding?

What's so funny 'bout peace, love and understanding?

And as I walk on through troubled times

My spirit gets so downhearted sometimes

So where are the strong and who are the trusted?

And where is the harmony, sweet harmony?

 

What's so funny 'bout peace, love and understanding?

What's so funny 'bout peace, love and understanding

 

I am hearing it, clearer than I ever had.

City Of Love?! Well, this is a Gospel song. About Glasgow and the love within its streets that can translate to Belfast or any other city. Yet, there is something lingering longer in this city of love. This is about a gloriously filled future hope. It is an eternal love. In Biblical terms one thing remains - love. 

Again here it post March 2020…

 

Lost the will for keeping on

Just as the winter is dragging

What can I do with all of this?

Where can I put what I'm carrying?

 

Goodness, that is close to all our experiences. 

 

If you've got the will you've got to keep on going

No matter what the world is saying

No one can stop you, not until

You reach the end and lay down your burden

 

Oh my but those are words for this marathon of resilience. If we take time to reflect on these Coronavirus Days we will find city upon city filled with love. Either it is the NHS front line, the hospital cleaners, the Foodbanks, the imaginative volunteers bringing food to the isolated and vulnerable. Or even the spouse looking after spouse in isolation…

 

All that remains is the city of love

All that remains is the city of love

 

The city of love

All that remains is the city of love

 

The Lock Inn Session -EP is a sonic treat for these times BUT never think that Deacon Blue just recorded 4 songs as some ear candy treat. They are too reflective for that. They have more intentionality with their art. These are four songs for the times. Coronavirus Times and Ricky Ross and Lorraine McIntosh know all about that.

A BONFIRE IN A HURRICANE - A NEW SONG... AND A PRAYER ON PENTECOST SUNDAY 2020

On Pentecost Sunday 2020, after my sermon, we played this brand new song (written by Steve Stockman and Jonny Fitch... performed by Jonny Fitch... lead guitar by John Trinder... a three minute summary of that sermon... and then prayed the prayer below...

 

 

God

Here we are on Pentecost Sunday

All together

Yet all in different places 

And uneven spaces

Lord, we are united across geography

From British Columbia to Alberta to Ohio 

From Holland to England, Scotland Wales

Back to Ireland and home to Fitzroy Belfast

Lord we together in Jesus

But…

Some of us are only children loving the space, with our daughters at home, loving this time

Some of us are older, alone and feeling the isolation

Some of us are children and a little bored

Some of us are parents trying o juggle homeschooling and work

Some of us are under pressure in business

Some of us are enjoying the breather

Some of us are students under pressure

Some of us are going through labour alone while our husbands wait in the car park

Some us are teenagers and missing adolescent adventure

Some of us are grieving and having to do it at a distance

Some of us are enjoying nature, reborn

Some of us don’t want to go back to what life was like before

 

Lord, we come before your Holy Spirit

Together in uneven spaces

And we are anxious, confused, uncertain, wondering, hoping, loving

So on this Pentecost Sunday

Lord blow a bonfire in a hurricane through us

Revive us, refresh us, reorientate us, reboot us

Lord, the great ideas of Jesus’ alternative ways

Cost him his life

Lord toss that wild idea everywhere

Holy Spirit inspire a new human strain

Of mercy, humility, equality, justice and grace

Lord blow away the vacuous straw of urgent joyless chaff

And nourish Christ like ambition, values and selfless love

Lord purify us, 

Forgive us Jesus

When we made you safe and nice

Dying and being raised to life for nothing more than a few petty little habits

Lord forgive us when the world looks at your Church

And sees plodding, predictable platitudes

Instead of a full force gale of goodness, kindness and hope

Lord here we are on pentecost Sunday

Together in different geographical places and eleven coronavirus spaces

We offer ourselves

Blow through our fears

With fearlessness

Like a bonfire in a hurricane.

In Jesus's name

Amen.

 

you can watch the entire service HERE ON FITZROY TV

THE 2020 IRISH BLESSING SONG - My Reflections

Tomorrow is Pentecost. It is the day that we Churches celebrate the day that God poured out the Holy Spirit across humanity, founding the church and beginning the creeping reality of the kIngdom.

To celebrate such a blessing, churches from all over the entire geographical width and breadth of Ireland have come together to send out a message of hope and vision and grace.

These past few months have been tough times for very many people across our island. There has been anxiety, fear, frustration and a lot of disorientation and confusion, never mind the death toll and grief.

In the midst of the darkness there have been little candles of light flickering. The environment has had a breather. We have met our neighbours. We have started to value our doctors, nurses and hospital cleaners. We have reassessed what is important.

Maybe the Irish Blessing is a blessing across Ireland before the song itself is even heard. For centuries our churches have been guilty of being the slowest to get over the Reformation and Counter Reformation wars. They were centuries ago, for goodness sake. Most every other country is over it.

We have remained cold to one another playing out theological sectarianism in our churches while politicians play it out in elections and paramilitaries play it out on the streets.

Before I even got to hear the Irish Blessing I was blessed by having a long glance across the hundreds of churches who took part. All the main denominations and a wide array independent churches come together in harmony, working together to bless rather than divide the island. Might it be saying in the performances beautiful grace notes that the war is over.

Listen to the wonder of the music. The short few minutes of the video belies the hours and days of work that has gone into the planning, scoring, playing, recording, editing and mastering.

Listen to the words of this old Irish hymn, one of Ireland’s greatest pieces of poetry, music and spiritual insight. Allow it to be wash over your soul. Send it out over our cities, towns, villages and town lands. Let it wash over the land.

On that first Pentecost morning, the disciples were holed up in lockdown, frightened and wondering how it would end. In that dark place God blew the walls off with blessing.

On this Pentecost morning, all of us in lockdown and unable to meet in our churches, listen to the fact that for these few moments of the Irish Blessing, as the churches yearned to bless the island, we blessed ourselves by not only singing these words but by listening to them and living them out… all together.

Now that is a blessing!

It goes live here tomorrow morning at 9.45 - The Irish Blessing 2020

THE IRISH BLESSING GOES LIVE TOMORROW MORNING at 9.45

Tomorrow is Pentecost. It is the day that we Churches celebrate the day that God poured out the Holy Spirit across humanity, founding the church and beginning the creeping reality of the kIngdom.

To celebrate such a blessing, churches from all over the entire geographical width and breadth of Ireland have come together to send out a message of hope and vision and grace.

These past few months have been tough times for very many people across our island. There has been anxiety, fear, frustration and a lot of disorientation and confusion, never mind the death toll and grief.

In the midst of the darkness there have been little candles of light flickering. The environment has had a breather. We have met our neighbours. We have started to value our doctors, nurses and hospital cleaners. We have reassessed what is important.

Maybe the Irish Blessing is a blessing across Ireland before the song itself is even heard. For centuries our churches have been guilty of being the slowest to get over the Reformation and Counter Reformation wars. They were centuries ago, for goodness sake. Most every other country is over it. 

We have remained cold to one another playing out theological sectarianism in our churches while politicians play it out in elections and paramilitaries play it out on the streets.

Before I even got to hear the Irish Blessing I was blessed by having a long glance across the hundreds of churches who took part. All the main denominations and a wide array independent churches come together in harmony, working together to bless rather than divide the island. Might it be saying in the performances beautiful grace notes that the war is over. 

Listen to the wonder of the music. The short few minutes of the video belies the hours and days of work that has gone into the planning, scoring, playing, recording, editing and mastering. 

Listen to the words of this old Irish hymn, one of Ireland’s greatest pieces of poetry, music and spiritual insight. Allow it to be wash over your soul. Send it out over our cities, towns, villages and town lands. Let it wash over the land.

On that first Pentecost morning, the disciples were holed up in lockdown, frightened and wondering how it would end. In that dark place God blew the walls off with blessing. 

On this Pentecost morning, all of us in lockdown and unable to meet in our churches, listen to the fact that for these few moments of the Irish Blessing, as the churches yearned to bless the island, we blessed ourselves by not only singing these words but by listening to them and living them out… all together. 

Now that is a blessing!

It goes live here tomorrow morning at 9.45 - The Irish Blessing 2020