Bail-out

I was preaching from Haggai this weekend, and couldn't help myself from inferring a connection between Haggai 1:6 and the Irish economic bail-out:

You have planted much, but have harvested little. You eat, but never have enough. You drink, but never have your fill. You put on clothes, but are not warm. You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it.

Of course its not just the Irish, but basically all the Western economies. The fact is, we (including myself) are locked into a way of life defined by consumption, which dooms us to making things, consuming them, yet always wanting more. The bottom line is that it does not satisfy, yet (it seems) that is all we know.

I am convinced that the biggest 'enemy' of Christian faith in the West is not other faiths (though they pose real issues), nor is it even hard secularism, but it is actually consumerism - a life defined by consumption.

Getting Stuck In

Twice this week I have been encouraged that Christians and their churches are actually getting stuck in at the grass-roots level. As previously mentioned, I was at an award ceremony earlier this week. It struck me that all five of the award winning projects had significant involvement from churches, or Christian input.

Then I was at a Community Mission day seminar in London, where there were 40 to 45 Christians across the age and denomination spectra who were obviously all getting stuck in to a range of mission initiatives in their areas.

Numerically it might seem small, but God can do alot with the few. Maybe there is hope for us yet.

The Small Society

This week I was privileged to accept an award on behalf of the community association of council estate residents that I help run, since we won joint first prize for the street party the association organised on their estate earlier this year.

At the ceremony I had to do a short talk about the project. I took the opportunity to have a (somewhat tongue in cheek) dig at David Cameron's Big Society. Here is the text of that part of my speech:

"Whilst there is much talk of the 'Big Society', I would like to suggest an alternative, the 'Small Society', demonstrated by the work of our community association. You see the association represents the little people, the people who (let's be honest) most of society would prefer to pretend don't actually exist, investing their time and energy for the benefit of their fellow residents. Those same little people having a vision for their area (an area seen by many as insignificant and of no value) that says this area is a place to value, a place that despite its problems is one where things can get better, things can change.

Maybe if we all did that in our small societies, it would add up to something truly Big"

Now read The Magnificat, Luke 2:46 - 55, especially v52.
 

Hard Secularism

Today I heard of an incident involving an adoption panel evaluating a person's suitability to adopt. Apparently a suggestion was made that the person may not be suitable, since as a committed Christian they may 'indoctrinate the child'.

Surely this kind view should be held up as religious discrimination. Maybe it should be countered with the suggestion that atheists or even ardent agnostics should similarly be seen as unsuitable, since they may well 'indoctrinate' the adopted child with an atheistic position.

So a Christian adopter may well want to take the child to a Sunday worship service? Indeed, just as an atheist might well take a child on a Sunday to a car boot sale, or worse, to a cathedral of materialism (shopping centre) for a regular dose of consumerist type worship.

I wonder, which is ultimately more harmful to the child, and to society as a whole?