PC Gary Bentley reflects

 

A I’ve been a police officer a lot longer than I’ve been a Christian- I got confirmed in rank in 2002. I got confirmed as a Christian in 2016. I had a Christian upbringing and I led what I felt was a decent life, but I hadn’t opened the door to Jesus and I only called upon him in prayer if I was worried about something. As an adult I never prayed to say thank you, I didn’t go to church and I never read a bible.

Then in 2014 I went to Kenya for my 40^th birthday and took an anti-malaria tablet which went on to give me side effects of depression and anxiety which I lived with for the best part of two years. In all the years of policing I had never been as frightened as I was when I became depressed. It was the unknown, a battle I didn’t know how to win. Having dealt with many suicides in my career I began to fear if that was a path I might travel down. When I learned the truth, that God loved me, that He had put me here and He had a purpose for me, life became bearable, then I stopped just existing and started living again. My days became filled with joy not despair. I can’t thank God enough for what he has done for me. I now listen to God’s Truth and not the enemy’s lies!

So now I am not just a police officer but also a Christian. How does that work? Police officers, whether Christian or not, join up because God has put into their hearts a desire to help others, to make a difference, to put something back into their communities. So you are already looking to follow a lot of Jesus commandments, whether you realise that fact or not! We swear an oath when we join and many of the things we are swearing to do are about showing integrity, according equal respect to all people, preventing offences against people and property.

My favourite link between the bible and policing however is the story of the Good Samaritan. (Luke 10:25-37) The man who had been robbed and left to die was a Jew, the man who stopped to help was a Samaritan. It means nothing if you purposefully ignore a hurting soul. Love your neighbour. Police officers mirror this man’s actions. We don’t pick and choose who we help. We signed up to protect, to treat people with equal respect and so even if the person in front of us has been physically or verbally abusing us only moments before, we will help them. We put ourselves in danger, like the Samaritan.

As a Christian in the police we can’t easily share the Gospel. Politics and religion are two areas we aren’t allowed to share opinions on. However other officers often ask me about my faith and I can then share my journey story and how God has saved me. I have a tattoo on my right forearm of Ephesians 2:8 and I wear my CPA lanyard. Both are conversation starters. We are planting the seed of the kingdom by sharing our own experiences, by living righteous lives which these people will take notice of, and God will do the rest. 

From a reflection given By PC Gary Bentley at All Saints 25th October 2020

Essentials

 

A man without a mask went into a Welsh supermarket and tore away the plastic sheeting which was preventing customers from accessing “non-essential” items. People should not be going into stores without a mask, so I immediately felt a strong disapproval. And if you don’t agree with the rules, here or there, this form of direct action is not the way to deal with the situation.

Nevertheless, I was struck by his assertion that children’s clothes are not “non-essential items”. It’s hard to disagree with that. Especially with the weather becoming cooler and damper. I would imagine that most families can cope for a few weeks, but clothes can become spoilt, lost or stolen and children grow out of them. I think I get that point, at least.

It’s even more true that children need food, and it is shocking that in modern Britain we have families who cannot feed their children properly, and that it is left to a footballer to challenge the situation with child food poverty. I gather that the Welsh lockdown situation on essential items is to be clarified. I wish that caring for children’s welfare in poorer families would also be clarified and remedied.

I wonder just what we honestly think of as “essential”. We need food, but do we really need the vast choice presented at the average supermarket? Do we need it pre-chopped, processed, microwaveable, ready to serve every whim? Do we need the sheer variety of fruit flown in from around the world? Do we really need every possible variety of our (daily) bread? Our current crisis demonstrates how we expect so much that is not truly essential.

What is essential? Knowing our true needs is a spiritual issue. Jesus warns us not to become too concerned or worried about what we eat or wear, and he lived in considerable poverty among those who were ignored or rejected by society. He could see that we can become overtaken with acquiring more and more, with our own status, focused on our needs and desires. His message was that the essential approach was to trust in God and follow the way of the kingdom.

In days like these, we become aware of the limitations of our world’s options, and hopefully more conscious of the needs of others who are in greater need than we are. It is truly a wretched situation but it has valuable lessons for us if we will but notice. The true essentials are to love God and our neighbours as ourselves and this dual command is the essential filter for all we think and do.

 

Cleanliness?

 

Doug writes:

 With the virus re-surging, I wonder what new protocols we need in our streets and pathways? We need to maintain social distance, so how do we do that? Every time I go to town or take a walk it becomes an issue. People just aren’t good at it; there are well-publicised cases of well-known people breaking the rules, but it can happen everywhere and anywhere.

Walking from the All Saints side of the town to the shops is a challenge in itself. The passages under Gascoyne Way are scarcely two metres wide. Pathways are not very wide either, so a lot of walking in the road is needed, which can, of course, be dangerous. In many shops there is little room, even with restricted numbers, and whether there or in a larger supermarket people generally try until they see something they want urgently which happens to be very near you or I.

I have begun to feel rather like the Priest and Levite in the parable of the Good Samaritan (yes, I know they are not good role models!) as I avoid people assiduously. Nothing personal, but we can’t be sure where the virus may be.

It goes against the grain to clearly and deliberately make a wide berth of anyone who approaches, but “Space” is the word from on high. In this new situation, I want to use the classic English “sorry” all the time as I make my little detours. It’s for your sake too!

Sometimes other people may be coming towards me and they beat me to it, avoiding me like the plague. I feel deeply insulted before realizing that it is indeed for the common good. So I seek to say thank you to them, hoping that calling out the words will not project droplets in their direction. Perhaps a little liturgical bow would be better, but they probably aren’t Anglicans. Unfortunately.

I do think that we can ensure that we use the sanitiser provided in so many places, a bit sticky for a while but very good for protection. And we need to keep using them, time and again, even if it means a heavy build-up. We should be thanking all who provide these facilities, it can’t be great for them. We don’t exactly love it in church, it’s an awkward distraction in our worship, but it’s essential for the time being. Thank you everyone who helps to keep us free from the transmission of the virus, and thank you to everyone who keeps the need for space and cleanliness at the forefront of their minds. Didn’t they used to say that “Cleanliness is next to godliness”?

Bible Sunday

 

It used to be that we kept all our books, the shelves became more and more crammed, we would buy extra shelving and then when there was no more wall space for shelves, we packed them in rows in double layers and stacked them on the floor.

I remember there even used to be a bit of trend for ‘coffee table books’, large well illustrated, glossy covered and impressive tomes often bought for their sheer pleasure as they were just so good to look at but perhaps not necessarily read.

 

Somehow it has become easier to part with them now, realising that we probably won’t get around to reading them again or even that we will read them at all, giving them to the church book stall or Oxfam and finding a sense of relief at the idea of more room but also wondering a little whether we might miss them, as though they were actually old friends.

One of the books that we all hold onto, though, are our Bibles, often handed down from generation to generation containing family trees. I even found my childhood piano lesson reports used as a book mark when I took the photograph for this blog; and oh, those lovely dedications written in bibles given at our christening or as a prize at school.

But far more importantly, and often in an up to date translation, we realise that this is the greatest book ever, containing the most wonderful story ever told - a message far too important to throw away.

Today we celebrate Bible Sunday  and give thanks to God for the gift of his word in poetry, prose and song, with its rich history, tradition and inspiration. We give thanks for its continuing impact on communities and individuals and above all the life changing salvation that it shows us.

 

Your word,
that lamp for our feet,
reveals to us
the stony ground
we often tread upon,
where, stumbling
in our weakness,
we reach out a hand
for you to hold,
asking simply
that you lead us
once again
to firmer ground,
toward that rock
upon which
our journeying began,
where, in safety
we can rest awhile.

John Birch Faith & Worship  

Blasphemy?

Doug writes:

The shocking murder of a teacher in Paris has brought thousands of people onto the streets to support freedom of speech. The brutal killing is another example of terrorism fuelled by religious extremism, like the Manchester Arena bombing which is also in the news. How do we cope with this?

Samuel Paty was killed for doing his job, which was caring for, educating, young children and speaking about freedom and equality. Frankly this hits home to me particularly because two of our sons are teachers, but we know that these atrocities can happen to anyone.

The attacker was only 18 years old, and lived miles away but he read social media outpourings about this situation. Why would he decide that he should act on it? There are those whose beliefs go into areas of judgment and vengeance in a way that most of us would never countenance.

The cartoons which seem to have brought about this and earlier attacks were published by a satirical magazine, Charlie Hebdo. Retribution followed. Yet it is one thing to feel hurt at what someone has said or written, it is totally another to kill them. And to retaliate in the name of a compassionate, merciful God should be unthinkable.

I sometimes wonder whether the idea of blasphemy is meaningful. If a person does not believe in (your) god, then how can they be said to be offending the deity? They don’t know what they are talking about. If someone is unkind to you or me, calling us nasty names, it may feel hurtful but as they don’t even know you their judgment is meaningless. But for a believer to be insulting to the god which they really believe in and feel they understand, that might be authentic blasphemy. And for the believer to kill someone who has spoken in a challenging way, to do it in the name of the god they claim to believe in so strongly when all people are children of God, isn’t that the ultimate blasphemy?

St Luke

For St Luke’s Day, an excerpt from “Behind the times” a short non-Sherlock tale by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Dr Winter is clearly unhappy with modern ‘progress‘ and has some attitudes which we cannot entirely approve of, but his approach to caring reflects something vital about caring in a time as now when we can feel isolated and uncertain. In the Gospel for today, Jesus sends his followers with a message firstly about Peace, and about the closeness of God.

Conan Doyle was a GP, and he and his other colleague Patterson don’t appreciate his outdated practices…..

 

-Yet his patients do very well. He has the healing touch—that magnetic thing which defies explanation or analysis, but which is a very evident fact none the less. His mere presence leaves the patient with more hopefulness and vitality. The sight of disease affects him as dust does a careful housewife. It makes him angry and impatient. "Tut, tut, this will never do!" he cries, as he takes over a new case. He would shoo Death out of the room as though he were an intrusive hen. But when the intruder refuses to be dislodged, when the blood moves more slowly and the eyes grow dimmer, then it is that Dr. Winter is of more avail than all the drugs in his surgery. Dying folk cling to his hand as if the presence of his bulk and vigour gives them more courage to face the change; and that kindly, windbeaten face has been the last earthly impression which many a sufferer has carried into the unknown…….

When Dr. Patterson and I—both of us young, energetic, and up-to- date—settled in the district, we were most cordially received by the old doctor, who would have been only too happy to be relieved of some of his patients. The patients themselves, however, followed their own inclinations —which is a reprehensible way that patients have—so that we remained neglected, with our modern instruments and our latest alkaloids, while he was serving out senna and calomel to all the countryside. We both of us loved the old fellow, but at the same time, in the privacy of our own intimate conversations, we could not help commenting upon this deplorable lack of judgment. "It's all very well for the poorer people," said Patterson. "But after all the educated classes have a right to expect that their medical man will know the difference between a mitral murmur and a bronchitic rale. It's the judicial frame of mind, not the sympathetic, which is the essential one."

I thoroughly agreed with Patterson in what he said. It happened, however, that very shortly afterwards the epidemic of influenza broke out, and we were all worked to death. One morning I met Patterson on my round, and found him looking rather pale and fagged out. He made the same remark about me. I was, in fact, feeling far from well, and I lay upon the sofa all the afternoon with a splitting headache and pains in every joint. As evening closed in, I could no longer disguise the fact that the scourge was upon me, and I felt that I should have medical advice without delay. It was of Patterson, naturally, that I thought, but somehow the idea of him had suddenly become repugnant to me. I thought of his cold, critical attitude, of his endless questions, of his tests and his tappings. I wanted something more soothing —something more genial.

"Mrs. Hudson," said I to my housekeeper, would you kindly run along to old Dr. Winter and tell him that I should be obliged to him if he would step round?"

She was back with an answer presently. "Dr. Winter will come round in an hour or so, sir; but he has just been called in to attend Dr. Patterson."

 

An Internet Patron Saint

 

The good news for anyone praying for less online bullying, assistance when zoom goes wrong or a much faster internet connection is that the Vatican may well be declaring that there is a Saint to assist us in our prayers. Showing that the Church is in touch with the 21st century, the Pope is putting forward a 15-year-old computer whiz to become the first patron saint of the internet.

Carlo Acutis, an Italian schoolboy who helped spread Roman Catholic teaching online before he died of leukaemia in 2006, is to become the protector of web surfers. “That’s my hope — he would be an ideal example for all young people,” said Cardinal Becciu, the Vatican spokesman whose post  is head of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints.

Carlo became deeply religious during his childhood in Milan and would donate his pocket money to the city’s poor residents. He used his talent to set up websites for priests. At the age of 10, he began to create an online exhibit about religious miracles, which has gained huge popularity since his death.

"Integrating technology and understanding the digital 'landscape' is new mission territory for the church” a leader said. Last year, Pope Francis paid tribute to Carlo, declaring that his use of the internet to “communicate values and beauty” was the perfect antidote to the dangers of social media. In a document he wrote after a synod on youth, Francis quoted a phrase coined by Carlo warning other youngsters not to lose their individuality on the internet: “Everyone is born an original, but many die like photocopies.”

As Carlo’s fame spread, people started to pray and in February, the Pope attributed a miracle to the teenager, triggering his beatification, the first step toward being made a saint. The beatification ceremony will be held Oct. 10 in Assisi.

When he was close to death, Carlo had said: “I want to offer all my life and my suffering for the Lord and I want to be forgiven” The Vatican said: “He said that at 15! A little boy who talks like that strikes us, and I think it encourages everyone not to joke with our faith, but to take it seriously.”

Declaring a patron saint for web surfers is in keeping with the Vatican’s push to promote an online presence. The pope’s digital outreach efforts include his popular Twitter accounts, which boast more than 50 million followers, including 900,000 of his feed in Latin.

 

Most churches turned to Zoom and live streaming during this pandemic the Church of England said that more than 17,000 services and events are being provided parishes and 3,000,000 views of national on line services! Apparently one in five viewers are not church attenders so the internet has become more important to us all than ever.

Pope Francis has described the internet as a “gift from God” but has also warned that hours spent alone online “can have the effect of isolating us from our neighbours, from those closest to us.” In 2016, he said nuns should be allowed to surf the internet in their convents but should not let online time become “occasions for wasting time or escaping from the demands of fraternal life in community.”

If Carlo does become the patron saint of the internet, it is hoped that he can steer users away from loneliness and turn their surfing into a social, life-affirming experiences.

Heavenly Father,

Thank you for the good gift of the Internet and social media through which we can create, communicate, learn, and worship you.

Thank you for the ways you have blessed our world and made our lives and communication easier because of the Internet.

May my words and action build others up and point them to your love, my relationships through technology communicate your kingdom,

Through Jesus Christ. Amen

Writing a Letter to God

 

Janet Bird writes:

Sometimes I find it difficult to pray, especially at the moment when life seems so difficult. Sometimes I even wonder where God is in all of this and if He’s even listening. I was speaking to a friend recently about how I feel and she said “Have you actually told God how you feel?” I had to admit that I probably hadn’t because when I pray I feel I have to say thank you and then pray for other people. Anyway when I am praying my mind often wonders and even to me I don’t always make a lot of sense.

My friend then asked if I had ever thought of writing a letter to God telling Him exactly how I felt and although my initial reaction was to dismiss the idea, as surely God knows how I feel without me having to tell Him, but then I started thinking perhaps it might help me get my thoughts together in a more coherent fashion.

I remembered just how thrilled I always am when I get a letter from someone and thought that perhaps it was worth a try. When I had some spare time and could be sure that I wouldn’t be interrupted I sat down to write. Perhaps not surprisingly the words seemed to just spill out of me in a way that they don’t when I say my prayers. I didn’t feel ashamed if my thoughts wandered because this letter was work in progress and I would present it to God when it was finished, I wasn’t expecting him to listen to my ramblings, just read the finished article.

However I now realise that there is no finished article but it continues to be work in progress. I commended to God what I wrote but now continue to write when I feel the need. Somehow this seems to have brought me closer to God although of course I still say my prayers in the normal way most of the time. Often my prayers are more like arrows which I shoot as and when I think of something but writing letters makes me stop what I am doing and what I am thinking and really concentrate on my relationship with my loving Heavenly Father.

Harvest and Caring for our World

 

This week we celebrated Harvest, and Isabel and Soraia helped us to focus on our world. Here are some prayers and a reading from the service. Dorothy and Fiona set up amazing and thought provoking displays.

 

God, our Creator, as we reflect on the mystery of our fragile planet, we celebrate the wonders of earth as our home and give you thanks at this harvest time.

We praise you for the provision of our needs with food and shelter, for the variety of life and its abundance. Every day we rely on earth’s provision of our sustenance.

But help us to remember how we have polluted our planet and exploited it. Teach us to sense your presence pulsing through earth as a living green-blue sanctuary.

Teach us to love earth as our home. In the name of Christ, the Word of God, who is the creative impulse in all creation. Amen.

‘The Word of the Lord in creation’. The Psalmist calls us all to praise God because of what God’s word has done. The Word is the means by which God created the skies, earth and all the seas.

Verses from Psalm 33

Rejoice in the LORD,

For the word of the LORD is upright,

and all his work is done in faithfulness.

He loves righteousness and justice;

the earth is full of the steadfast love of the LORD.

By the word of the LORD the heavens were made,

and all their host by the breath of his mouth.

He gathered the waters of the sea as in a bottle;

he put the deeps in storehouses.

Let all the earth love the LORD;

let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him.

For he spoke, and the earth came to be;

he commanded, and it stood firm.

A Prayer Poem

The spider spinning webs

the whale swimming the ocean

the poppy glowing in the field

the world in all its commotion

May we have eyes to recognise it all

and see the glory that is yours

 

The magpie in the garden

the otter by the lake

the flower in the rainforest

the vole, the fish, the snake

May we have eyes to recognise them all

and celebrate the wildness of your imagination

 

The desert creeping south

the icecaps breaking free

the climate growing warmer

less rain for you and more for me

May we have eyes to see it all

and know the pain creation feels

 

The power within the wave

the current within the wind

the volt within the sunlight

recycled instead of binned

May we have eyes to recognise it all

and insight to use your gifts well. Amen

 

 

 

Further Revelation

My blog about the U.S. group which relates the book of Revelation to Donald Trump seems to have attracted a lot of positive interest. Last night the man himself gave further insight into the matter with an election “debate“ in which he bullied his way through giving no opportunity for rational engagement.

Revelation, the final book of the Bible, was subject to considerable debate when the church looked at which books would be “canonical”, or approved. There are wonderful chapters and others which are perplexing. The writer, John, is in exile because of the heavy persecution which the Christian believers were suffering and it is not difficult to see that his writing about conflict and final victory stems from that. It fits all too well with the Trump perception that what he considers American values are under attack and that he is constantly being misrepresented by sinister forces.

John’s vision is one which encourages the persecuted churches to remain faithful and to trust God. The first seven chapters represent the glory of Christ taking his place in the heavenly realms, and assures us that “There was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and people and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb”. It is a glorious, widely-embracing perception of God’s love and salvation. Chapters 19-22 end the book with a further affirmation of God’s victory, best summed up as “Behold, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them; they will be his peoples and God himself will be with them; he will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more”(21.3-4).

Between these chapters there is the portrayal of a cosmic struggle, with intense apocalyptic imagery. For people going through heavy persecution by a seemingly all-powerful empire whose emperor is regarded as a god, the battle portrayed must have felt supportive, couched as it is in imagery which they would have understood. Whatever we may make of these chapters, they are about the struggle of God’s people against evil (and they do contain shafts of light) but they are represented in a way which Christians have struggled with from the beginning. Many times people have looked at the wars and evils happening in the world and taken them as signs of the end of the world – and let’s face it, such events can feel like that, even more than Covid-19 – but they have misunderstood the nature of the writings. We should note that in Mark’s Gospel Jesus says “If anyone says to you at that time ‘Look, here is the Messiah’ or ‘Look, there he is’ do not believe it. False messiahs and false prophets will appear and produce signs and omens to lead astray, if possible, the elect” (Mk 13.21-22). It appears that it is, indeed, all too possible.

As an exercise, we could look afresh to note that there are verses in Revelation which could also be taken to refer to a current world leader, though in a different way. In chapter 13 the dragon (the evil one defeated by St Michael and his Angels – Tuesday was their feast day, the day immediately before the debate/debacle - can this be mere coincidence? ) - gives authority to “the beast” who “in amazement the whole earth followed…. They worshipped the dragon for he had given his authority to the beast, and they worshipped the beast saying ‘who is like the beast, and who can fight against it?’ The beast was given a mouth with haughty and blasphemous words, and it was allowed to exercise authority for forty-two months’ ( Rev 13.3-5).’ Suspiciously close to the period in office of a US presidency, perhaps a haughty one at that, one whose followers think he can do no wrong? could it be???…… Emphatically No, tempting as it is, because the whole idea of applying Revelation to current world events is foolish and dangerous, at least to our own psychological and spiritual well-being and quite possibly for the world around us.

I am sorry  and concerned that people are being misled by people reading into the Bible the idea that a specific politician is the only way to follow. Not least because, as I said before, two friends have taken this movement seriously and I will probably never be able to communicate with them again. Amid the confusion of our times, let us hold on to the eternal love of God and the victory of Jesus over sin and death, and knowing that God cares for us so much that he gave his Son, let us pray “Come, Lord Jesus”.

 

 

Lord Jesus, come to people who are fearful of the future, to reassure them that nothing can separate us from the love of God.

Lord Jesus, come to those who are confused about the way to live, show them how to see our world from a  truly divine perspective.

Lord Jesus, come to those who would seek to do injury to others to try to force change in an evil direction.

Lord Jesus, come to us all, daily, with the warm embrace of your love, the assurance of sins forgiven and the hope of eternal life and peace in your kingdom.

Your kingdom come. Amen