revcycling

I’ve spent quite a bit of time over the last weeks regretting jokes about media studies students : given that some rudimentary knowledge of video editing might have come in useful in lockdown. I’m grateful to those who have pointed out, directly or indirectly the amateurishness of my attempts to continue some sort of ministry without personal contact. The lighting, the sound, the framing it’s all a bit rubbish. It’s not suprising; framing was something I thought the Sweeney did to criminals Back In the Day.

And speaking of jokes from Back In the Day, how I used to laugh with my vicar friends about how if one of us was feeling really antisocial we could apply for the job of The Ceefax Vicar (I think that really was a Thing, You Know When) . We’re all Ceefax Vicars now: so what do we have to worry about?

Well thanks to the Internet the things in the background have taken on a whole new importance. Do we celebrate the first British Cabinet meeting by Zoom by having a flag in the background? Does our toddler burst in followed by the wife, commando crawling on the floor? (I was personally disappointed that his next video interview didn’t feature this) Or do we have a bookshelf? Empty? (Labour’s Angela Rayner criticised for that) Or full? (various people, including some clergy criticised) Because if you have an empty bookshelf then, according to some of Twitter, you must be thick. And if you have a full bookshelf then you can’t be “real” or a “man of the people”.

Remember when you got told “don’t judge a book by the cover”, by your Mum? She was absolutely right. If we have to judge people then we should do so by what they say and do, not what’s in the background and I’m sorry for the times I’ve fallen into that trap.

My bookshelf is in the background on my laptop camera view because a few years I moved my desk to stop myself staring out of the window. It says nothing except it’s a place to put my books and it’s not very tidy. Now before we get too much further into Through The Keyhole country I’m off to fix the background on my next Zoom meeting to something exciting…

“No one would have believed in the last years of the nineteenth century that this world was being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than man’s and yet as mortal as his own…”

No one would until one, man H G Wells, imagined it in his War of the Worlds (first published in hardback 1898).

Here’s why it is a lockdown favourite of mine and why you should read or reread it now.

Every generation has it’s own War of the Worlds – although I have yet to watch the latest BBC adaptation (still available on iplayer). The War of the Worlds (1953 film) reimagined the Martian invasion for 1950s Cold War America. More recently Steven Speilberg again transposed it to modern America, bringing out it themes of personal survival against the odds in a post 9-11 world in his 2005 movie, loosely based on the book. In perhaps the most bizarre tribute to HG Well’s masterpiece a DVD called Visions of Mars, made by the Planetary Society,  containing the original story as well as an audio recording of the famous Orson Welles radio braodcast was landed on Mars itself by the Phoenix lander in 2008.

Wells’ Martians bring the mighty British Empire to its knees when it is at it’s strongest. The implication is that if the Martians can beat the British Empire the human race has had it. And from the perspective of the end of the nineteenth century you could say Wells had a point. The British Empire was at it’s strongest militarily. And so the battle for the planet is fought, perhaps incongruously to a modern reader, over the English Home Counties. However this kind of imaginary battle was not unknown to readers of the time: a whole genre of invasion fiction was spawned by The Battle for Dorking: Reminiscences of a Volunteer published in 1871. By the time war really did break out in 1914 over 400 stories and books had been published with invasions usually from France and then increasingly from Germany.

When I was younger, I was engrossed in the author’s realistic descriptions of the rapid disintegration of society. The Martian attack with their superior technology and weapons echoed the colonialists defeat of less developed human nations around the world. It served for its original British Edwardian readers both as a salutory reminder of what it was to be on the wrong end of a superior military-industrial complex but also of the fragility of their superiority. Because in the end it is not the might of the British Army, or even the British Navy, whose defeat is described so powerfully and poignantly by Wells, that stops the Martian machines in their tracks. It is, of course, (spoiler alert) germs.

Now as I read it, it means something different to me.  I walked past a building site yesterday, now silent and deserted. Seeing the the abandoned machines in the silence reminded me of Well’s London after the Martian attack: the Martians have been defeated by “the humblest things that God, in his wisdom, has put upon this earth”.

And I thought, maybe we are the Martians now.

You’ve had Dry January, Red January, Veganuary? How did that go?

Maybe you kept Movember and gave up shaving your top lip?

Do you still involuntarily shiver at the name “Ice Bucket Challenge”?

There are so many “challenges” going around to raise money or awareness that I wonder how many people have forgotten there is a forty day period starting this year on Ash Wednesday February 26th. Traditionally called Lent it is the 40 days of fasting, prayer and preparation for Easter observed by millions of Christians around the world.

I have still not decided how I’m going to mark Lent this year: I am of the school of “doing something extra”, maybe some more prayer (really difficult for Vicars). I don’t believe that God wants us to be miserable so I don’t see the point of just giving something up for the sake of giving it up. If I’m going to give something up, I think it’s important to give something extra: use the money you don’t spend on chocolate or sweets to give to charity.

Whatever you choose to give up, it’s actually a chance not just to get slimmer or fitter or a “better person” but to really appreciate the good gifts that God has given us. Like they say, you miss them when they’re not there. It’s also a chance to remind ourselves who is really in charge: not our needs, but God, who holds all of our souls in life.

Drugs are being openly taken, bought and sold in Clitheroe and the surrounding villages. Drugs are “rife” to quote one of hundreds of comments responding to my original question on Facebook’s “Clitheroe Gossip”. This is my shot at summarising some of those comments and then drawing some conclusions.

There is no typical drug-user. There are still some supporting their habit through crime but today’s drug taker can be anyone from a kid smoking weed in the park to “arrogant, upper class people…coked up to their eyeballs” in the most expensive pubs and restaurants. Many are in “respectable” jobs social workers, childcare, health care workers, teachers. Many are in their 30s, 40s and older. Some are addicts; for some it is simply what they do to have a “good night out”, or even after a wedding or a funeral.

“Everyone’s doing it”: not true, certainly from the posts and messages I’ve received. But this is arguably one of the most potentially harmful things that could be said: it is a phrase used to pressure vulnerable adults and childrens into drug-taking. That is the main concern of many of the people who posted. Even those who are quite tolerant of drug-taking do not want it be as open and public as it has become. Because it is so prevalent that it is seen as the “norm”. Drugs are relatively cheap and for people under 18 far more accessible than alcohol where strict licensing and enforcement has limted supply.

Is it a problem? Some people say it is an increasing problem: some say that it has always been there. Both could, of course, be right. We certainly shouldn’t use it to demonise young people or any other group. Many people posted about the negative effects on their neighbourhood: noise, litter and anti-social behaviour with used needles and drug paraphernalia left lying around. Some pointed out the effect of legal drugs, especially tobacco and alcohol presumably with the implication that some or all drugs should be legalised: but that wasn’t my question. My question was what we as a community can do if there is a problem. I believe that there is a problem if young children are being involved in dealing and distribution with large amounts of money being used as inducements. The wealthy drug users who some of you have told me about are not engaging in a victimless crime when they take cocaine: there is a whole system of exploitation and violence involved in the drug supply chain. There have also been a number of drug-related deaths in the Ribble Valley in recent years.

A number of people support legalisation – but that wasn’t the question I asked and that is for others to decide. Although no-one said this, let me: drug-dealing is against the law and people don’t like seeing the law being openly flouted. If people can break this law without consequence, what other laws can they break? Laws are supposed to protect the weak and powerless and if they aren’t enforced (whatever law it may be) then the message is that the powerful are in control. The perception is that police no longer enforce the law. People say they have contacted 101 or crimestoppers but “nothing happened”. I and others have been warned that there is a lot of money involved in this business and we would do better to stay clear of this issue and although I have not been physically threatened others have been.

So what can we do? Firstly, we need to educate people: this Facebook post has opened my eyes to the scale of drug-taking and dealing in my town. Awareness has got to be the first step. Thanks to Mandy Brennan for forwarding these links: the first one is particularly helpful for looking out for signs of young people being exploited

https://www.nationalcrimeagency.gov.uk/…/county-lines https://www.nhs.uk/…/cannabis-use-rising-middle-aged…/

https://www.nhs.uk/…/cannabis-use-rising-middle-aged…/

https://inspireeastlancs.org.uk/how-can-inspire-help/whoweare/?fbclid=IwAR2y-OlURb8jFzC9xGaUoDtJc1ztnMUjQYS1IfhgpJ5kMWMI6ZXL3RaiMzI

Secondly, the statutory bodies need to be involved. People posted that the police and council are in denial but there is no denying there are problem areas. This is a public order issue and a public health issue and we need to hold our public services to account and ask what is being done and what more can be done.

Thirdly, a number of you have volunteered to help in whatever way you can – thank you. I really appreciate all the positive comments and hope that as a community we can do something to make this a better place for all of us to live in. I’m thinking of holding a meeting sometime in the New Year and inviting as many people with an interest and expertise to see if we can address some of the areas raised by you: but this has made me realise that this is not just one issue but a number of complex and related ones. Watch this space!

I have a lot of sympathy with Lee and Lizanne, having to deal with what their children are taught in school and particularly in school assemblies.

I was particularly upset by one assembly that my child told me she was part of. I can only paraphrase what the teacher said: it may not be a fair representation but it is basically what was reported back to me.

“Work hard. It’s imprtant to work hard because then you can get good results. Good results are what it’s all about because if you get good results you can go to college and university and then you can have a good job and earn lots of money.”

Unfortunately while Lee and Lizanne can pursue legal action and wage a media campaign I can only try to explain to my children that different people believe different things. Some people believe there is a God and some people don’t. Other people believe in the same God but in different ways. Some people believe in entirely different gods. I realise that all adults have their own agenda and I explain that to my children.

And so I should declare an interest: I also deliver school assemblies, mostly in church schools. Here’s what I hope children will hear from me and take home:

“Today I heard an amazing story about Jesus. It made us think. It doesn’t matter how clever I am or what I look like or how good at sports I am. If I get things wrong or mess up I can be forgiven. I am a child of God, made in his image just like everyone else and he loves me forever.”

Bicycle thieves

People who don’t pick up their dog poo

People who pick up their dog poo and then hang it on a bush

The National Health Service: when I was younger I wondered about the priorities of those who answered NHS tothe question “what is the most important issue for you in voting?” As I have got older I understand more the benefits, particularly for the those who are older.

WWDD? A few years back wristbands and tee-shirts with WWJD? were popular. Those unable to make up their minds on tricky ethical issues were encouraged to ask themselves what would Jesus do? Every day we all face questions that may puzzle us as we navigate the moral maze.

Maybe we should try asking what would Donald Trump do? And then do the opposite.

For example: if you read a less-than-flattering tweet or come across someone whose views you profoundly disagree with, then you may be tempted, especially in the small hours of the morning, to reply, perhaps quite rudely. That’s what the Dona ld would do. You, of course, should do the opposite: roll over and go back to sleep. Or maybe just say something nice.

Or perhaps you owe somebody money. It’s tempting to refuse to pay them, file an expensive counter-suit against your debtors and then bully them into accepting a much lower amount than they are owed. That’s what Donald has done on a number of occasions. So do the opposite: just pay people what you owe them. It’s not the best way to make a fortune but at least you can sleep at night.

Let’s say you see an attractive young woman: should you attempt to grab her by any part of her anatomy? WWDD? That’s right – its wrong! Even if you could get away with it multiple times, as he has, it’s still wrong. I think it goes without saying that I would advise you not commit adultery even once, let alone commit sexual assault and then brag about it on camera.

One last thought – maybe it’s not just a helpful rule-of-thumb for the ethical conundrums of everyday life. Maybe it can be applied to politics as well. After hearing Trump’s advice to our Prime Minister on Brexit (“She didn’t listen to me” – I know, Don, I know, she never listens to me either) I found myself wondering – if he and foreign multi-millionaires like Rupert Murdoch are so keen on it, is it really going to make me and my country better off?

Anyway,  just a few thoughts from me, I’m off to be racis… oh hang on WWDD?

Sermon preached on 8th July 2018 at St Mary Magdalene Clitheroe on the baptism of Eliza Louise Brown.

Football is coming home: everyone is saying it, including someone singing it at 7.30 this morning outside the Vicarage. But in this morning’s gospel, Mark 6:1-13 tells us that Jesus who we’ve read over the last few weeks, stilling the storm, casting out demons and even raising Jairus’s daughter from the dead did not have a good reception when he came home.

“Where did this man get these things?” they asked. “What’s this wisdom that has been given him? What are these remarkable miracles he is performing? Isn’t this the carpenter? Isn’t this Mary’s son and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas and Simon? Aren’t his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him.”

It seems to have been a problem of expectation. This is Jesus the carpenter’s son, we expect him to be good at, well, carpentry. Expectations can work both ways.

Those of you old enough to remember previous World Cups will know that England (who last won the World Cup in 1966 when I was one year old) has struggled with unreasonably high expectations. The World Cup belongs to no-one by right. And Gareth Southgate has done a fantastic job of managing expectations  so that each England win has been a pleasant surprise and delight.

What do we expect from God? Maybe Christians can expect too much: we pray for rain now but we know that the weather forecast tells us something different. But sometimes I think my expectations are too low: I pray for too little with too little hope that God will answer my prayers.

And after the disappointment of Jesus’ visit home: who could have expected that the 6 parties of disciples who Jesus sent out into the world would convert an Empire of 30 million people in around three centuries?

But I know this: I hear from school kids that the assembly they get in some state secondary schools goes something like “work hard, get good results, get a good job and then you can have a nice car and a big house”. We have a far more ambitious vision for Eliza today. Through baptism we claim her identity as a unique child of God, loved by him before she was formed in her mother’s womb. We don’t know what  lies in the future for her but my hope is that is she fails, she fails spectacularly, picks herself up again and lives her life to her full potential as one loved for all eternity by God, until she comes at last to her home in heaven.

To Downham this morning to worship in one of the most beautiful churches I know. The mid-week service is Book of Common Prayer Holy Communion and attended by a handful of villagers. But which readings to use? On Sunday the congregation, some of whom I know will be there this morning, will have heard the Book of Common Prayer readings set for Sunday. Perhaps today will be a saint’s day? Not in the Anglican calendar – but joy! in the Roman Catholic Church’s it is St Anthony of Padua.

St Anthony is one of the most quickly canonised saints (about a year after his death at the age of 36 in 1231) and was famous for his passionate preaching, knowledge of scripture, and care for the sick and the poor. He is most famous today as the patron saint of lost things or lost causes. Wikipedia lists his other patronages as being (amongst many others) Brazil, swineherds, pregnant women, counter-revolutionaries and oppressed people.

One of my favourite stories about St Antony was that he tried one of his famous sermons on some townpeople who really didn’t want to listen. So he went to preach to some fish in the river instead. The fish gathered to listen and the people of the town decided that maybe he did have something worthwhile to say.

Happy St Anthony’s Day! I put in a word for the England 2018 World Cup Squad. Perhaps you should too.