Songs of Ascent and a Poem for Ascension Day

Over the last few weeks I have been doing little chats on Facebook Live, in which I have been reading excerpts from Henri Nouwen's excellent book, Turn my mourning into Dancing, and also sharing whatsoever thoughts that I have discovered or come across through Sermon's or online chat. 

On Monday this week, I was having my own little celebration, as it has been four years since I became a UK citizen. I mentioned on Monday, that as it was going to be Ascension Day on Thursday, I was going to spend the next few days reading some of the "Songs of Ascent" from the Book of Psalms - these are Psalms 120 - 134, that the people of Israel would regard as their songbook as they made their way up to Jerusalem to celebrate the feasts of Passover, and Shavuot (Pentecost) and other High Holy Days. 

I do not know if they had specific Psalms relating to whichever feast it was they were making their way to Jerusalem to celebrate, but suffice to say there are many of them and so given I only had three day to do, and thus only three Psalms I started with one I am very familiar with at the start of this section Psalm 121.

Psalm 121

A song of ascents.

1I lift up my eyes to the mountains—

where does my help come from?

2My help comes from the Lord,

the Maker of heaven and earth.

3He will not let your foot slip—

he who watches over you will not slumber;

4indeed, he who watches over Israel

will neither slumber nor sleep.

5The Lord watches over you—

the Lord is your shade at your right hand;

6the sun will not harm you by day,

nor the moon by night.

7The Lord will keep you from all harm—

he will watch over your life;

8the Lord will watch over your coming and going

both now and forevermore.

On Tuesday morning I was not feeling well and so as you can imagine my Facebook broadcast did not happen, so instead I decided to write this blog.  I still felt there is something of value I could share with you.  I did think about what Psalm I wanted to share and it was Psalm 124 that was going to be my Song of Ascent for Tuesday:

Psalm 124

A song of ascents. Of David.

1If the Lord had not been on our side—

let Israel say—

2if the Lord had not been on our side

when people attacked us,

3they would have swallowed us alive

when their anger flared against us;

4the flood would have engulfed us,

the torrent would have swept over us,

5the raging waters

would have swept us away.

6Praise be to the Lord,

who has not let us be torn by their teeth.

7We have escaped like a bird

from the fowler’s snare;

the snare has been broken,

and we have escaped.

8Our help is in the name of the Lord,

the Maker of heaven and earth.

 That last verse, Ps 124:8 caught my attention for a number of reasons.

It was the word HELP it appears in Psalm 121 that I read on the Monday but also in another Psalm I have written about in the past, Psalm 46. Verse 1 says:1God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble." 

So I looked into it a bit deeper.   עֶ֭זְרֵנוּ ez-re-nu 

I was reminded about the story of Eben-ezer, You can read the full account in 1 Samuel 7:2-14. But in summary, after a victory by the Israelites over their enemy, he Philistine's, Samuel laid a stone and called that stone Eben-ezer, which means stone of help, saying "Thus far has the Lord helped us.. the interesting thing, to me, about this place was that not long previously, those Philistine's had in that very same place knocked back the Israelites. So it was both a place of defeat and victory. You can read about the defeat in 1 Samuel 4.  Yet Samuel still acknowledged that God had helped them there.   I also, note that in that place, was a place of returning of the Israelites to the Lord, where they tasted and repented of their idolatry.  It could be that, although this battle happened before the writer of Psalm 124, David, was on the scene, he will have heard about Eben-ezer from his brothers, and the victory they witnessed. Maybe, Psalm 124 was written with that in mind. He could have been thinking about his own encounter with the Philistines and in particular the gigantic man, Goliath.

I share a link to a hymn that mentions Eben-ezer, Fount of every blessing.

I was also struck by the rest of that verse eight of the hundred and twenty fourth Psalm, where it says, our Help is in the name of the Lord, maker of heaven and earth. The reading from Acts 17, where Paul addressed the people in the marketplace in Athens. He said he noticed that they were a religious people and had statues for the many different deities,  and even one shrine to "the unknown God"
He said that he would speak to them about this God, because this God was the (one and only) creator of heaven and earth, and in whom we "Live and move and have our being" as, Paul noted some of their own poets had acknowledged.

Ascension Day

Today is Ascension Day, the day we think about Jesus rising up into the clouds to return to "The Heavens".  Well, I share with you a poem I have written for Ascension Day:

The moment had to come,
The time when His visit was over, 

They thought it had all been over, over a month before,

When they saw him hanging dead on a wooden cross 

However, Jesus work is not yet done,

There would be the amazing surprise,

For Mary in the garden, 

For Cleophas on the road, 

For Thomas in the locked room, 
and for many others' eyes. 

Jesus met them by the lakeside 
And in those familiar spots, 

Jesus touched and spoke healing to Peter 
And restored trust and love,

And reminded each and everyone, 

That in and through us, 
His work is not yet done.

On that day, just before He went, 

He gave us this command:

Go and make disciples of all nations - 
Everyone's included!

Baptise them in the name of the Father 
And of the Son 
And of the Holy Spirit,

Teach them everything you know - 

but go, 
Go, and keep on going, 

For I, will always be with you

And I will always be where you are going to, 

Even to the end of Time. 

Then as the disciples watched,

Jesus went up, 
Up and kept on going up, 
Into the sky, 

Until He was no longer visible to their natural eye.

Poem is written by me, just now, so it's ©John Fairlamb 2020

Advent Poem 2019

Start off with the End in mind
Whilst the End doesn't justify the means -
The End really does give the means meaning.

Advent - four weeks to look forward to the End
In the End, the King is coming!
Everything will be alright,
in the End.

That's real HOPE.
We look forward to everlasting JOY
Where PEACE is the rule and
LOVE is our guide in life.

The End is not the end —
it's a new beginning.
It can happen at any time,
And King is forever your friend.

World without End
Amen

Poetry at Pride - Waltham Forest Pride 2019

Yesterday, at Pride I was scheduled to read one of my poems but due to the inclement weather, that part of the program that was going to take place in the open air was understandably cancelled.

But I prepared it including some introductory thoughts and so if you might indulge me, I would like to share with you what I was going to say, including, of course the poem.

Homophobia takes many forms and they are it all to do with sexual activity.

You might have seen recently a news item about a nine year old boy called Charlie, whose love for musical theatre has turned him, unfairly into a target of bullies at school. This understandably made Charlie sad. His drama teacher posted on Twitter about this, and asked people to respond with the hashtag #CheerupCharlie, which the Musical Theatre community with stars from the West End sending great encouraging messages. 

You might rightly ask, "Why in 2019 in the UK, is a boy's interest in musical theatre - singing and dancing - a cause for people to pick on him and abuse him, physically, verbally and emotionally?" 

The reason is, as I see it there are very strong gender-based stereotypes about what boy's are girls are supposed to like. 

This is my answer to those stereotypes, written in December 2014. 

Some boys like to play with trucks

Other boys like dolls

Some boys practice rugby rucks

Others, gymnastic flicks and rolls,

All that could be said of girls,

Some like their hair short, others in curls

A toy’s a toy, a plaything, a tool,

A thing that they learn with, at home or in school.

One child wears jeans and a t-shirt,

Another, a blouse and skirt,

Whether girl or boy, it doesn’t really matter

Help the child feel good, whether thin, or fatter.

“Your gender-blender agenda,” I hear you declaim,

“It’ll bring us all down! it’s such a shame!”

I don’t know this agenda of which you speak,

What I know is, God made us all unique.

Now let me tell you that’s not my game,

I don’t want all children to be the same.

Boxing or Ballet,

That should be A-okay,

Doesn't matter what people say,

They don't make you lesbian, bi, straight or gay.

Many achievements towards which children aspire,

Whoever they are, let them do as they desire.

Some people take toys out of boxes, then

They put their children in,

Nicely labeled, each one to define

Girl aged six, boy aged nine.

Toys can fire a child’s imagination,

Help them discover, they’re a special creation.

© J. Fairlamb 28-12-14.

Ann Widdecombe: You cannot condemn Prince Harry and Meghan for championing LGBT rights.

This week, The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, Harry and Meghan celebrated the birth of their son, Archie.

The government conceded that UK will participate in European Union Parliamentary elections,

And Ann Widdecombe announced that she will stand as aa candidate to be MEP for Brexit Party. 

Also, by coincidence I read a bit of old .news, though it was new to me. Shortly before Harry and Meghan married, they let it be known that they would champion the rights of LGBT people around the world. Anne, writing in the Daily Express,  said that they should not champion rights but should champion plights.

I responded in an open letter to Anne in the following Open Letter


Open letter to Ann Widdecombe

Dear Miss Widdecombe,

I realise that this letter is a very slow response to something that was published a year ago. This is because I only just came across the opinion piece you wrote for the Daily Express with the misleading headline:
“Meghan Markle will be a breath of fresh air in a stuffy family” says Ann Widdecombe.

I would take you to take you to task for that statement alone, except that there is so much more. Not only is it deeply insulting to Queen Elizabeth, but it is extremely rich coming from one of the most stuffy people I know. What was made to sound like a compliment to Duchess of Sussex, was in fact completely undermined by your real purpose of the opinion piece.

You wrote: Earlier that week my doubts had grown when reports appeared in the press about how she and Harry were going to champion the rights of the LGBT community.
First, royals don't champion rights, they champion plights. That's what Diana did with the victims of AIDS and landmines and very effective she was too.

I am not sure what qualifies you, Ann, to lecture royalty on what they may or may not champion.
Why on earth should the royals not champion human rights? You say they are championing the rights of the LGBT community — actually they are the rights of LGBT people.

How can you take the view that human rights are controversial? These are the same rights that you take for granted, and would become extremely vocal if you believed that your rights were not being respected.

Here in the United Kingdom, the road to equality began in 1967 with the limited decriminalisation of homosexuality in England and Wales, with changes in Scotland and Northern Ireland coming many years later, and has continued to this present day , with the occasional blip, such as the notorious Section 28, of which I understand you were a huge fan. Now we have equal marriage (except in Northern Ireland) which is very significant step towards full equality, though, full equality is not yet completely realised.

However, the UK is way ahead in terms of equality than many other countries, including a significant number of Commonwealth countries that still criminalise homosexuality with punishments as severe as death by stoning, in Brunei, and lengthy imprisonment. So for many LGBT people who are citizens of the Commonwealth and subjects of the Queen, their human rights are being denied in the most horrendous ways. Their very right to life itself is challenged. People should have a right to protections under the law. That is, if someone threatens the life of a person, they have a right to seek help from the police and if they are the victims of crimes, they have a right to report those crimes to the police and have them investigated and have the perpetrators charged and prosecuted. However many LGBT people in these countries cannot risk making such a report. Lesbians who are subjected to what the the perpetrators regard as “corrective rape”.

You say the royals champion plights - I agree, if by that you mean speaking out against the plights of many shamefully treated. Championing the rights of LGBT people in the Commonwealth is to speak out against their shameful treatment by regimes that do not treat all their citizens with equality and justice.

This is a moral issue and not merely a political issue, as you would have us believe. Equality is a core British Value — this pertains to sexual orientation and gender identity as much as it applies to race, religion or sex. Since the Royals represent Britain, it is right that they also speak out on issues of equality and against instances, of which there are too many, of human rights abuses against people by reason of their being lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender.

Every year many asylum seekers come to UK as refugees. A significant number of those will have faced persecution in their own countries because they are LGBT. If we could prevail upon countries to change their policy in regard to LGBT people, we might be able to reduce those who seek asylum for that reason. But that should not be our primary motivation.

I am fully aware that most hostility towards LGBT people is wrapped up in religious perception that homosexuality is sinful. As a Christian myself, I do not accept that characterisation and believe such an interpretation, at least as far as Christianity is concerned, is based on a faulty hermeneutic. However, even if that were true in regard to Christianity, we cannot impose on the entire populace laws based entirely on a religious doctrine where not everyone subscribes to those doctrines.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex understand this, clearly Ann, you do not.

Yours in complete sincerity,

John

_____________________________________________________________________________________

I am not so gullible as to think that Anne would change her perspective one iota, and I certainly would not hold my breath for an apology from her, but I do hope people in the area where she stands for election, will read this and really understand that Ann Widdecombe  is essentially against the human rights of LGBT people. Please do not elect this person as an MEP.

Disposable Income - Indispensable People

Money makes the world go round

Buying, selling, receiving, and giving

Living

Dollar, Euro, Yes, Rand and Pound

Is this where happiness is found?

Some have lots of them - too many have none.

Many people weigh other people’s value

By the balance the balance they have in their bank account

And the monetary value of their material assets:

Fancy cars, fashionable clothes,

Foreign currency, fabulous homes, etc.

Is this what life is all about?

The well healed look down on the down-trodden

Those born to privilege of wealth

With the proverbial silver spoon in the mouth,

Sneer disapprovingly at the single mum,

Struggling to make ends meet,

To feed her children, have a safe place to sleep.

Many sleeping on the cold, hard street,

Lives disrupted by crises caused by

Credit-crunches and stock-market-bubbles bursting

Because selfish, sly, stock-brokers steal

From Faceless victims as they massage the money,

Making it seem like something super when

It’s nothing but a scam.

Many hard-working people put away a bit each month

For the day when they could relax and retire,

Trusting their “Financial Friends” to do the right thing,

But, in a flash and a bang, there were reserves were gone,

And with therm, their security.

They turn to the state and appeal

“Please help us” they squeal

But they are harshly told to “Get in line!”

Meanwhile the wealthy moan about the “Worthless Workshy” spinning their tales of woe,

All the while milking the system for all its worth

Ferreting away their surplus filthy lucre, so they don’t have to pay their fair share.

Money should not be the measuring rod,

Wielded to weigh a person’s worth./

Our worth is our being - HUMAN BEING

We are of inestimable worth because

We are - people.

Wherever we were born

Whatever is our heritage

Whether born with a title - or a foundling deserted by family

We have value

“Created Equal”

With the Freedom to find our place -

The freedom to be - whoever

With the right, as children,

To protection and nurture, education, recreation,

To be healthy, or at least the means to healthcare if we are ill,

And comfort, if we are scared

With a right, as older people

To dignity and respect, shelter and self-determination (if that’s safely achievable)

Most of all,

For everyone,

Acceptance and Love

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.