Psalm 42 - Thirsty

Put your hope in God
  for I will yet praise Him.
     My Saviour
        My God

Many in our 'material world'
Put hope in their gods —
   their possessions
   their bank balances
   their positions in society
   their connections.

They look at me and sneer
"Where is your god?"
I might not have many visible possessions,
My bank balance might be very low,
        even less than zero.
In the eyes of society, I might be a "Nobody",

But I know that
 the God of Heaven is my Abba —Father
 God is my Rock and Redeemer.

When things look bad,
I will yet praise Him.
When I am feeling sad
I will yet praise Him.

God is my Hope
A very present help in troubled times

I'm thirsty — I crave the Water of Life
I search for the eternal spring,
I find its source in Him.

They're thirsty —
       but their wells are dry.
They run to their resevoires,
       but cracked as they are,
The sustenance, on which they relied,
       has dried.
       They cried.

They madly dash about,
    hoping to find a river in the drought
But all that remains on the cracked river beds
are a few small smelly puddles,
Putrid pools with shiny oil rings on the scummy surface,
Making mocking mirages in the scorching sunlight.

I'm thirsty — I crave the Water for living.
My thirst is quenched at the eternal Spring
I find its source - pure and Life-giving,
in Him.

They're thirsty, blind and angry —
They scream, "Now, where is this God?"
We cannot see Him,
He must be nowhere.
Does God even exist?
They lie there dying and shake their fist.

God sends me - the one they despised.
With the Water of Life.
Bucket loads full - and overflowing
To revive and refresh their shriveled souls.
Are you thirsty?
Do you want to know:
The eternal Spring of Life
The nourishment of Life
The Way, The Truth and The Life.
You can find God within you,
As you thrive and grow.

Joshua 22 Effect of Exclusion

I have been mulling over this chapter over the past few days. It intrigues me. I will admit that it is narrative I was not familiar with. I know lots of Bible narratives, but this one had escaped my notice. So in case you like me had skipps over this bit let me try and give you the story in a nutshell.

These events come in, as you probably guessed, when Joshua was still in charge, The promised land had been occupied by the "Children of Israel". Who was Israel? He was Jacob, renamed Israel, and the children, were the descendants of Israel, and they belonged to "tribes named after the sons of Jacob and sons of Joseph (for the half tribes). Back track a bit to before they crossed over the Jordan, they were camped in the region on the Eastern side of the Jordan for quite a while. Now, as you do, a bunch of them kind of liked where they were living and wanted to stay. These people who were from the Tribes of Reuben and Had and the half tribe of Manasseh (One of Joseph's sons), asked Moses if tgey could stay, Moses agreed on condition that the men of the tribe FIRST cross over the Jordan with the rest of the Tribes and help take occupancy and settle the land, before going back to set up their own homesteads. So they had the bits that they liked apportioned to them on that condition. The men of Reuben, Gad and Manesseh are conscripted, and occupying the promised land was no walk in the park. SEVEN years it took them to get things in shape on the West side, and the Tabernacle, the centre of Jewish worship, the location of the Ark of the Covenant, was set up at Shiloh. 

After seven years, Joshua summons the men of Reuben, Gad and Manesseh, and said, you can go back to your families. You are being honourably discharged, having done your duty and served well.   Go back to your families who are on the other side of the Jordan River but keep on Loving God, obeying his commandments and serving Him with all your heart and soul. 

So they go. They take their spoils of war, which is a bit like, in the modern sense, the severance and retirement packages. They were told to share this with their families.  They go back, and the first thing they do, on getting back is decide to build a humongous altat. It was not meant, as far as I can determine, not to be an alternative to the Tabernacle at Shiloh, but what they termed a "remembrance".  There was a problem with this altar, and that is, in the Mosaic law, there was to be only ONE centre of worship and that was where the Tabernacle was. 

Somebody on the Eastern side must have seen this altar, and thought, "Hang on a bit, what's going on here? That's not right. and the rumour mill started. If they are building an altar then they must be worshipping other gods, and the ten tribes on the East side were inflamed with righteous indignation. They all head for Shiloh and are willing to go to war against those on the West side of the Jordan. That is an extreme action of a zealous bunch. 

So often injustices and violence comes as a result of rumour and misunderstanding and most often, it is the people who are regarded as different for some reason that become the target of violent repercussions of a misunderstanding. I believe this was what could possibly have happened here.

Fortunately, instead of them taking a preemptive strike, they decide to send a delegation of leaders to find out what is going on there.  

After being challenged and accused of treachery and told that their ''sin" could destroy the whole nation, they explained their motive. This is the bit that got my attention. 

Then Reuben, Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh replied to the heads of the clans of Israel: 22 “The Mighty One, God, the Lord! The Mighty One, God, the Lord! He knows! And let Israel know! If this has been in rebellion or disobedience to the Lord, do not spare us this day. 23 If we have built our own altar to turn away from the Lord and to offer burnt offerings and grain offerings, or to sacrifice fellowship offerings on it, may the Lord himself call us to account.

24 “No! We did it for fear that some day your descendants might say to ours, ‘What do you have to do with the Lord, the God of Israel? 25 The Lord has made the Jordan a boundary between us and you—you Reubenites and Gadites! You have no share in the Lord.’ So your descendants might cause ours to stop fearing the Lord.

So the crux of the matter was that Reuben Gad and Manasseh thought that one day the bunch over there will look at us, our children and grandchildren and will say, that we are not part of them, that we are not part of God's people and will refuse to allow us to come to the Tabernacle to worship. They will view the river of Jordan, that they had all crossed together as a barrier between them. This altar was not built as the others thought as a rebellion against the Lord, but as a remembrance that they belonged to the Lord. 

Were they wrong to do this? Were they mistaken?  Could it be that despite the original purpose of this altar, over time, it could have become a substitute for Tabernacle/Temple,  not only a different place to worship the one true God, but an alternative to the one true God? I don't know. It is possible. Whatever is the case, the thing I find intriguing is the thought that worried the two and a half tribes was the idea that one day they might come to be regarded as foreigners, and that they would be excluded from regular worship in the Tabernacle. They were going to be told YOU DON'T BELONG! 

They feared that this might occur in the future. Were there fears well founded? 

I believe they were, even if, I do not think that the idea of building an altar was tgevbest way of dealing with this. As we see from the narrative, the altar was seen as rebellion instead of remembrance. It became a bone of contention instead of a unifying force. 

I think of how the people of Israel became a divided people, the Northern Kingdom of 'Israel" and the Southern kingdom of Judah, which included Benjamin.. I think of the Jews of Jesus time and how they despised the Samaritans who worshipped on Mount Gerazim . AndvI think of today, when one part of the body of Christ says to another part, you do not belong to this body. Go away. We di not need you. One denomination will point an accusatory finger at another denomination, andcsaya they are not real Christians. 

Something has divided them and caused them to see the one's on the other side of the Jordan as outsiders. 

What is your Jordan, is it a theological difference? There are a lot of those. Is it a racial or cultural divide?

In our modern age, with communication devices and transport that link continents across oceans, it is hard to understand how a River could become such a barrier as to split a nation, but it did, and you need to remember that it took a miracle for the nation to cross over the Jordan in the first place.

Psychological barriers are far more challenging than physical ones.  At the root of this fiasco was a fear, a dread, that future generations, due to unfamiliarity would grow apart to such an extent that they would no longer be recognized as part of the same family, the same nation.

How is that possible? Look at Israel today, where Jewish people are at odds with Palestinians. Palestinians, as Muslims have a common heritage and view Abraham as their Patriarch too. And yet the division is such that even the religion is different. 

All over the world there is a growing distrust of the immigrant. The beginning of the idea that you do not belong here, you are not a true believer. That is what is happening here.

I am not sure that building an altar was the right answer for Gad, Reuben and Manesseh. Personally, I think that it would have been better had they pledged to ensure that Gad, Reuben and Manasseh people regularly participated in the worship at the Tabernacle, and encouraged the other tribes to come to their region to enjoy their hospitality.

However, I am intrigued that the controversial altar was allowed to remain, and the delegation did not insist on its destruction.

The conclusion of the matter was, it did not matter which side of the Jordan River they lived, they all loved and served the same loving God.

Today,  seek out what unites you to others, not what divides. 

"Christ is preached to an Ethiopian"

I thought I would check out the lectionaries readings for tomorrow. The 1st reading is Acts 8:26 - 40 and so I went to www.biblegateway.com and put the reference in the search engine. Up it came with this title:
Christ is preached to an Ethiopian

So what, I hear you ask is wrong with that - that is what the passage is about isn't it.

If you are going to add subtitles to the Biblical text, please do not miss the main point. If you are unsure as to what the main point is, then consult the text. And since you are publishing a version, you should consult the text in its original language. Read it and see what is repeated. If you do that with the text in question, you will find that he word Ethiopian is not repeated but the word  eunuch is.

So what is the big deal about that? Jews did not have a problem with Ethiopians. Remember the "Queen of Sheba" . However, Jews did have an issue with eunuchs. A eunuch was cut off from the assembly, in accordance with Mosaic law. For the Christian sect to welcome into fellowship a eunuch marked a huge departure from the Mosaic law system.

The word ευνουχος -eunuch is repeated  four times. How many times did the writer use the word Ethiopian? You guessed it - ONCE. 

So, having established that to the writer was more interested in the fact that this person was a eunuch than that he happened to hail from Ethiopia or that he happened to be a "powerful" man in the government of that country, we need to ask why. Why did the writer emphasise that he was a eunuch rather than simply "a man" - a descriptor used once for him in verse 27.

Well the writer, Luke, like any good journalist, focussed in on the most newsworthy aspect of this story, and that was that this convert was a eunuch. In order to understand why this fact was so amazing one has to have some background information.

In Deuteronomy 23:1 it specifically prohibits eunuchs from entering the "congregation ", or the temple. That was effectively a permanent exclusion from the covenant, Eunuchs, like lepers, were completely excluded and should any eunuch attempted to enter the temple, that would have been regarded as a defilement and the consequences for the eunuch would I am sure have been very severe.  

God did seem to be softening his line on this if we read in Isaiah 56:4
For this is what the Lord says:
“To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths,
    who choose what pleases me
    and hold fast to my covenant—
5 to them I will give within my temple and its walls
    a memorial and a name
    better than sons and daughters;
I will give them an everlasting name
    that will endure forever.

So God is giving his Temple and its walls. That is very significant when you consider that under the Mosaic law, it was the Temple that eunuchs were excluded from. But this is Isaiah, and this is, I believe a prophesy - future tense. 

Could it be that this account of the the eunuch and Philip is a fulfilment of that passage in Isaiah. Was God not doing a new thing here, that the translators and editors of the NIV in the 20th and 21st centuries AD. have failed to realise. Either they have failed to realise it, which is itself terrible, or worse they have deliberately ignored it because they do not want to deal with the implications of that realisation. Namely, that we serve an Inclusive God, a God who is beyond Gender. A God who though ever red to throughout with masculine pronouns, has among his many names -El Shaddai, which means "many breasted".  

Our God wants to be in relationship with every person, though God also chooses to allow us to choose to be in relationship with him. If I look again at the passage from Isaiah, it seems to me that what is important is not the physical attributes of the persons genitalia, but the ethical attributes of the person's soul.  "Those who choose what pleases me". Clearly, being a eunuch is not a matter of choice. But such people who are eunuchs can still choose what pleases God. 

What got me really excited about the story of Philip and the eunuch in Acts 8 is the place where having had the scriptures explained, the eunuch asks Philip what is stopping him from being baptised.  Bearing in mind that baptism was the New Covenant equivalent of circumcision under the Old Covenant, baptism is the welcoming into the congregation, the very type of person that had been hitherto excluded. The man did not cease to be a eunuch, because lo and behold, at the end of the narrative, it says that the eunuch continued on his way rejoicing. Not only was he welcomed into the congregation, but he became a minister of the Gospel, instantaneously ordained to take the Gospel to Ethiopia. 

I do not wish to suggest that the eunuch's ethnicity is not significant. Actually I think it is very significant that the first reported Gentile convert to the Way was Black, and again, we are often told that the first Gentile convert was "Cornelius."


I have just asked Siri who was the first Gentile convert to Christianity, and it showed me a Wikipedia article about “Cornelius the Centurion” - if that is correct, then either Luke got his Chronology mixed up because he reports on the eunuch’s conversion before he talks about the centurions conversion, but then how would we know that is the case since the same document, the Acts of the Apostles, is the only historical record of both narratives. The only other explanation that would make Cornelius the first, and that would be that the Ethiopian was not a Gentile, and if he were not a gentile, he must have been Jewish, but again, I am stymied because Luke does not mention that he is Jewish, he writes that he was a man from Ethiopia. 

I am left with only one other option in my opinion, and that is that God chose to convert a black African man (more senior in rank in his government) before he converted a white European man who had a military rank, but relatively junior to that of the Candace’s official, but that the Eurocentric theologians prioritise Cornelius conversion because he in their eyes was more important. Maybe Cornelius, being a “real man” so to speak, without the baggage of being a eunuch. 

So if I might be so bold as to suggest an alternative “headline” for this narrative in Acts 8:
First Gentile convert to Christianity: a Black African Eunuch.

Finding God

Where do you go to, my friend, when you're alone in your head?"
What is the journey you take while you lie still on your bed?

I don't meet to travel so far,
Chasing after an elusive star!
I do not need to spend months or years,
To climb a mountain in the Himalayas

Some people, like tumbleweed,
Get blown about this way then that.
Some people, like a stagnant pond,
Stay put, slowly being suffocated
By the smothering of water-weed.

Tumbleweed trippers want the latest things
Look out for trends
Life is exciting and "on-the go"
Forget about commitment and settling down
That is boring - we have need for speed -
Then suddenly, something happens that
Stops us in our tracks
This life of haste starts to show its cracks.

The Pond ponderers, like to think things thoroughly through,
Always take a more conservative view.
Their reactions are ponderous and slow .
They hesitate and hold back,
Dare not take risks,
Make a single mistake.
Tradition, tradition, it's the only way,
Things should stay just as they are,
All this 'progress' is going too far.
The problem is we cannot have a contingency
For every eventuality
-for things outside our control.
If we don't move quickly,
We will fall into a hole.

So what IS the answer, I hear you cry?
How do we live life before we die?

To be honest, my friend, I do not know.
I think we can live it, both too fast, and too slow
All I would say, is we should do our best,
To love ourselves and each other
And trust God for the rest.

We're all on a journey of discovery,
Of what it means "to be me"
The best you can be is to try and be real,
Discover who you are and what you can do -
And make every effort to be you -
Through and through.

God is not distant and hard to reach.
God is with you, inside you and around,
The presence of God does abound
On a mountain, by a lake,
On a city street or country lane,
In a bus or on an aeroplane.
God is there, no matter who or what,
We can find God everywhere.

© J. Fairlamb 2017

Forgiving Others

Matthew 6:14-15New International Version (NIV)

14 For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins. 

Forgiveness is probably the most prickly and provocative issue of faith. There are two sides to this:

The meaning of forgiveness 

Its implications and the question of who has a right to forgive and what is forgiveable.

The more the severe the offence and the greater the pain that is inflicted, be that physical, psychological or even financial pain, the harder it is to forgive, no matter what the background is. 

However the background is not irrelevant either - since the relationship that existed between the person wronged and the wrongdoer before the offence was committed, will mean that the pain is increased. Also, the attitude of the wrongdoer afterwards will often be a crucial factor in deciding whether or not to forgive.  

It is hard to make generalisations in relation to this topic because situations vary so much, but I will try and concentrate of the issue of forgiveness and not get into the intricacies of circumstances, but recognise that such intricacies are very complex.

Hearing some explanation from the person who caused the offence, can sometimes help to diminish the pain caused, if for instance, the person explains that the action was accidental and they had not intended to hurt the other person, or it may only serve to inflame the situation because, the person may be perceived as "making excuses" or blame shifting.

But how do we as Christians respond to this unequivocal call by Jesus to forgive those who wrong us? Because it is hard to look at and deal with this issue in the abstract, it may help for you to think of an occasion when you were wronged by someone. I am going to put a few questions to you, which you can reflect on.  There are no right or wrong answers. it might help for you to write down your answers. This is not supposed to be a navel gazing exercise, and I encourage you to try and restrict yourself to reflect only on one incident, rather than on any time you have ever been unfairly treated. At the end I will share a suggested prayer, to help you navigate this path of forgiveness. 

1. What happened? Who was involved? Was a law broken, and if so, did the person face prosecution? What was the outcome of that prosecution? 

2. In what ways did what happened hurt you, cause you pain? (This may sound like a redundant question, but i think it is useful to consciously state what that hurt was.) When you are experiencing physical pain, and you see a doctor, the doctor will ask you to describe the pain - where does it hurt? What kind of pain? (burning, stinging, heaviness?)

3. Now, as you think back on that incident, what is your emotion? Do you still feel anger when you think about what happened? (Anger in and of itself is not wrong or sinful, but it can often cause us to act sinfully). 

4. At the time, you became aware, how did you react? Especially how did you behave towards the person you held responsible for the issue? How do you feel about  that reaction now?
5. Do you want to forgive this person? 
5a. If you do, how has that gone for you. When you reflect on what you answered to questions 1 to 4, do you feel that you have forgiven this person.
5b. If you don't want to forgive the person or you feel such that you can't forgive the person, what is it that makes you feel that way? 

FORGIVENESS has to happen internally and be an act of the will (You have to decide to forgive someone because you believe that is the right thing to do) or it will not be forgiveness. Just SAYING you forgive the person does not make it happen. 

 Forgiveness is a journey, and it can be a very rough road, especially if the thing that needs to be forgiven is a long established pain.  I believe that we need God's help to reach that point, and so I am sharing with you a suggested prayer.

Dear Lord,

You are the God who forgives my sins but you also want me to forgive others when they do wrong to me. 

I am struggling with this situation. I am still [upset/angry] with [name] about [explain the situation]. 

When I think about this person I feel...

I know I should forgive this person but I don't want to because...

Lord I surrender that situation to you. 

Please heal my pain? 
I receive your healing. 
I give you my resentment of ...

Lord, you said you give us a peace that the world cannot give. I receive that peace. 

Lord, with your. help, I can forgive ... . I seek your help.  I ask you to me find in my heart, Love for that person, and bless them every time I think about them. 

In the name of Christ who forgives us,

Amen..

Prayer of Lament

My last blog was about Lament and Rejoicing. I spoke about the mournful memories of past and the reflection on tragedies and injustices whilst as Christians, we remember that there is a "city on the hill" and we have hope.

In that Blog I was reflecting on the Jewish commemoration known as Tisha b'Av - remembering the destructions of the Temples in Jerusalem, both Solomon's Temple destroyed by the Assyrians and the Second Temple destroyed by the Romans.

I also reflected on the commemoration of one of the most hideous battles of the First World War, that took place a century ago - the Battle of Paschendaele - where a quarter of a million lives were lost. Yes ultimately the Germans surrendered and the Allied forces one, but it was an horrendous war and that was a particularly horrendous battle.

I also reflected on the passing of the 1967 Sexual Offences Act that partially decriminalised homosexual activity - a good thing - but also a marker that things were not good and that LGBT people faced terrible injustice both before and after the passing of that Act into law. The law made it safer but not entirely safe for LGBT people, and the commemoration was also a reminder that while here in the UK LGBT people experience freedoms and rights, our forebears would not have dared to imagine, that the same cannot be said of every country. There are still far too many countries where LGBT people are imprisoned and even executed for being who they are. So while recognise and celebrate the progress, we also lament that these are not freedoms enjoyed by all.

But we do not need to look at history for cause to lament - current affairs give us much to grieve about - and I think of the many terrorist and violent actions that take place. Charlotteville is much in the news as it should be - a heinous act carried out by "White Supremacists"  (I use the quotes as I cannot see anything even good, let alone supreme in what these people believe). I am disgusted that the President could not bring himself to lay the blame where it belongs. But we also lament the violence that has recently taken place in Kenya, and the ongoing violence of knife and gun crime (and now we add the effects of corrosive liquids such as acids), that may have no particular ideological motivation (except perhaps the territorialism of street gangs), but is none the less devastating to the families that are affected.

"How long, oh God will you keep silence?" and then almost by way of answer, "How long will we fail to be your voice?"

Lament - the tears -are expected - let them flow like a river, but let it not only be tears -let us stand up. The young woman who was sadly killed by the car said in her final message on social media - "If you are not outraged, you are not paying attention." Oh Lord, we are outraged.

Fascism was not destroyed as it should have been by the defeat of the Axis Powers in 1945. It persists and its proponents in every part of the world are getting more vocal and strident.

The only anti-dote and defuser of fascist hate - is deliberate love and solidarity with those who are targeted.

With God's help - YES WE CAN.

Lament and Rejoicing.

Philippians 4:4 clearly is a command to Rejoice - Always. How is that humanly possible - especially when faced with the terrible things that happen that can only be described as tragic. How does the believer marry these two seemingly polar opposite responses to what life throws at us.

There is in the Bible the Hebrew book of Lamentations - which is read during the fast day of Tisha b'Av (9th of Av [Hebrew Month]) It is a period of Mourning for observant Jews, when they mourn the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem. On Tisha b'Av (Wednesday 2nd August 2017) It begins at sunset of the previous evening, when we gather in the synagogue to read the Book of Lamentations. Besides fasting, we abstain from additional pleasures: washing, applying lotions or creams, wearing leather shoes, and marital relations. Until midday, we sit on the floor or on low stools.

We also know that Jews commemorate the terrible evil of the 20th Century - the Holocaust. This is also an annual looking back and feeling the pain of a nation and a people who were deeply wounded - by the incarceration and genocide of Jewish people, and other groups too (including disabled and homosexual men), in Nazi concentration camps. 

So year in and year out, Jewish people look back and reflect on and feel the pain of these awful tragedies and injustices perpetrated against their nation. But even they acknowledge that it is not all solemn misery, even in the midst of these solemn occasion, they leave scope and permission for joy. There are certain Mitvahs which require the consumption of wine, which cannot be put off. One of those is a brit (circumcision of an eight day old son) 

Consumption of meat and wine is permitted on Shabbat, or at a seudat mitzvah (obligatory festive meal celebrating the fulfillment of certain mitzvot) such as a brit(circumcision), or a siyum celebrating the completion of a course of Torah study (i.e., a complete Talmudic tractate). The Lubavitcher Rebbe, of righteous memory initiated the custom of conducting or participating in a siyum on each of the Nine Days (even if one does not avail oneself of the dispensation to eat meat).

Chabad Teaching about Tishab'Av - From Tragedy to Joy This link has a long video teaching of a Rabbi - 

The almonds that were bitter have become sweet.  Interpreting Jeremiah's vision in Jeremiah 1.  When writing about hard memories whether on a very personal level or on a wider scale such as these commemorations, you don't want to make light of things, as if you are not taking it seriously, but that said, I think most religious philosophies I have come across, have a view of things will ultimately be sorted out and better things will come. That is the hope of Christians, with the Secoming of the Christ.

The Rebbe said that they should participate in a siyum each of the nine days - so during the deepest time mourning during the three weeks - there was a celebration. 

As Christians, we view joy not as merely an emotion, but as fruit of the Holy Spirit (Galatians 5:22) and we are called to rejoice - that is celebrate - because our lives are in Christ. We have this hope, But notwithstanding our cause for hope and rejoicing, we should recognise that we still experience the pain of injustice and tragedy, and it is entirely appropriate to mourn the pain, the loss and the tragedies. 

How do we, as Christians, or as people, respons when tragedy hits and as we remember these tragedies. 

Today, there is a commemoration of one of the heaviest battles of the First World War, Passchendaele (in Belguim) The battle took place 100 years ago - it started on 31 July  and concluded on November 10th and there were very many killed in that bloody battle. From what I read, the battle is not got many redeeming features. Lloyd George described Passchendaele as "one of the greatest disasters of the war. 

So why do we keep on talking about it - surely we should laccentuate the positives - let's talk about the vitories and not think about the defeats. Let's use broad brush strokes when comes to the less happy news - and be upbeat - why do we "commemorate" our losses when, after everything is said and done, the victory was ours (speaking from the perspective of the British of course) . 

I think these commemorations are extremely important for many reasons, but one big reason, is it honours lives and the sacrifice of those who went to war to defend their shores. This is not endorsing or agreeing with the war, but once war is declared, people need to defend, and in so doing, people lay their lives on the line and many did during that 102 day battle. Their fight, brought about our freedoms - is it possible that we could have our freedoms, had there been no war to fight - its hard to say. So I think times of reflection about the injustice and tragedy of war are important as well the times when we celebrate the victories. 

Another thing we are commemorating and remembering is the 50th anniversary of the passing of the Secual Offences Act - that partially decriminalised homosexual acts betwwen adult men in England and Wales. It was far from adequate in and of itself and did not put an end to homophobia, but it was the beginning of a long process that still has some way to go, if looked at on a global scale. It reminds us that gay men were persecuted by State and Society. 

In recognition of this, I attended an excellent service at St Martin's in the Field in Central London. It was an ecumenical service that was addressed by the Dean of St. Paul's Cathedral, Revs Canon Mark Oakley. The title of the service was Where Love and Sorrow meet. 

Revd Sally Hitchener towards the end of the service, made the observaion that many young LGBT people take for granted the freedoms that they experience today to be themselves and perhaps don't consider the pain and persecution experienced by previous generations who fought the battles, and bore the scars, both litteral and emotional of those battles that ultimately culminated in the freedoms that these young people take for granted. It is an irony, she said that the right to be yourself as an LGBT person (although this can extend to many other categories of people), was only accomplished because someone fought against the injustice of that right not existing. And she admitted she sometimes wanted to make the young people understand about every blow and insult that previous endured along the way to the freedom that we experience today. 

I think there is definitely scope for the commemoration of this act, not because it in itself solved the problem, but it represented a significant change in direction. It is also, an opportunity to educate people about how things once were. I think, that if we are better informed about history, and not an airbrushed history (for fear of upsetting children) but an honest recounting of how things once were, will make people more appreciative of their present freedoms. 

It is not so we can wallow in misery about bad things that happened a long time ago, but a remembering that things have not always been as they are now, and that we should be aware that things have not always been like this. 

Like Jews do during the three weeks that lead up to Tisha b'Av, we can solemnly remember the injustices inflicted on people and mourn them, but we can also remember that hope gives us reason to look forward to a time when all injustice will cease, and God will be in complete control. he can therefore be hopeful, but we can also try and remember, that in the midst of the sad memories, we are connected to a just and merciful God whose mercies are new every morning - in other words - God's love and mercy for us is constant - not variable and conditional as many people seem to think. 

I would like to conclude with a stanza from the opening the opening hymn at the service at St martin's in the Field - it wass written by Frederick William Faber and the first line is "There's a wideness in God's Mercy" 

For the love of God is broader than the measures of man's mind;

and the heart of the Eternal is most wonderfully kind.

But we make His love too narrow by false limits of our own

and magnify His strictness with a zeal He will not own. 

There is plentiful redemption in the blood that has been shed

There is Joy for all the members in the Sorrows of the head

There is grace enough for thousands of new worlds as great as this

There is room for fresh creations in that upper home of bliss.