Taking Stock

 

Last week the Federal Reserve over in the States made a shock move by cutting interests rates by 3/4 of a percentage point – the biggest move in 26 years. Their decision comes on the back of a significant down turn in the economy and is aimed at preventing a recession compounded by the likes of the sub prime crisis (cheap credit to you and me), drops in the housing market, rising oil prices and uncertainty in the Far East. The stock markets have responded accordingly with their highest fall since the terror attacks of 9/11 as everyone abandons them under the yell of, ’sell, sell, sell’. As they say, when America sneezes the world catches a cold.

Meanwhile in Europe, Jerome Kerviel has just been arrested for loosing his bank, Societe Generale, £3.7 billion in a wager that didn’t pay off. It’s said that for every percent drop on the Markets he was loosing the bank around £400 million. Adversely, Societe Generale’s loss was somebody or bodies gain. I guess what goes round, comes round.

Finally back at home the Government continues to underwrite the failings of Northern Rock to what is the equivalent of £2.000 for every tax payer, whilst deciding whether to sell out, to amongst others, Sir Richard Branson. As the Chancellor, Alistair Darling remarked, ‘The Government is not in the business of running banks’. Little need to when you own the Treasury, I’d have thought.

So with all this talk of money, perhaps now is a good time to take stock – since it appears not a good time to sell it!

The Bible has a lot to say on the subject of money, take Paul’s words for example: ‘Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.’ ‘Uncertain’, that’s the word that came to mind. I knew there was a verse related to money that contained the word ‘uncertain’. We’ll come back to it later.

Chris Evans once said that it is not money but the opportunity that money affords which makes it important. So is that why we strive after it, because you can trade it for opportunity? Does money have a lower value than the opportunities it can be traded for – an exotic holiday, a new second hand car (oxymoron included free), a brown leather settee? Money per sae has little worth if it can’t be traded for something that really matters, but then can what really matters be bought? I’ve never seen love for sale, have you?

Let’s not be naive, we all need cash and used wisely and invested properly you can save yourself some of the headaches found in the modern world. How much we need is a matter of debate, and whether now is a time to buy or sell is a matter for you and your Financial Advisor. But one thing is certain, if we think the accumulation of wealth holds the keys to a happy life, we are building on an uncertain foundation, and don’t just take my word for it, ask Jerome Kerviel.

Why Pray?

Yesterday, the theme for the sermon was prayer. “Is anyone in trouble,” wrote James, “he should pray.” It’s a good start.

In fact, statistics tell us that up to 40% of us pray. Of those 16% pray daily and 25% weekly. Apparently there is a lot of praying taking place! At Charis, the best attended and most spontaneous time of prayer we held was on the 9th September 2001 – I remember the time well, since we invited people to come and pray on the day of the terrorism attack on the Twin Towers in New York. With just a few hours notice, lots of people came out to pray. People pray when there is trouble ahead.

The subject of prayer provokes many and varied responses; from those who think prayer means everything to those who consider it to mean nothing and a whole gambit in between. But one thing seems to be common to the theme of prayer, people pray when they are in trouble. Of course, God desires that trouble is not the only reason for our prayers, since praying is more than simply shouting for help; its about communicating and connecting with God.

As such prayer should not be seen as an art form but a passion. Our prayers should not be a measured by their eloquence, but their sincerity. As Jesus said, “…when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words.”  Prayer is not about length or structure, it’s about building a relationship with God.  Over the years, I have explored many different forms and types of prayer and discovered that all have their place. The important thing is not the type but the opportunity that prayer affords to each of us.

I’ve also discovered that prayer is not always answered – and certainly not in the way I would expect. And for some, this can become a reason not to pray. Why bother if nothing happens? Well, people do give testimony to answered prayer and many are the stories I have both given and heard in this respect. But it is true, that not all prayers are seemingly answered and we need to be honest about it. The bigger question is; if my prayer is not answered does that make it invalid?  Does it make the sincerity of my prayer either futile or foolish? Or is something else happening in that situation?

On discussing the life of Mother Teresa, Gerard Baker, columnist for The Times, quoted from her autobiography, Come Be My Light, where she repeatedly expressed the most excruciating of doubts about the existence of God and the faith to which she had dedicated her life.  I have not seen the book myself, but imagine it to be a painful read.

He writes, “that someone as self evidently devout as Mother Teresa could have been tormented for so long by such doubts should not be read as confirmation that the atheists have got it right.  The lesson of Mother Teresa’s long, dark night of the soul is precisely the opposite, in fact.  That faith, by its very nature, entails doubt.  If we could be really, truly certain, about the existence of God, what, really, would be the point of it all?”

I read in Isaiah just recently, “Truly you are a God who hides himself, Oh God and Saviour of Israel.” A God who is hidden, eh! But, if he is hidden, then he can be found, and that is what prayer is all about.  It gives room for doubt, fear, and dare I say, even unbelief, but at the same time, provides a refuge that is unsurpassed to those who are in the midst of trouble. As Alan Lewis wrote, “To pray is to confess not the abundance but the exhaustion of one’s verbal, intellectual, and spiritual resources. It is surrender…” and that is not such a bad place to be.

Fowl Play?

This week, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Jamie Oliver have been doing their bit for chickens. We eat over 850 million of them each year in the UK and now their plight is being brought to the attention of the nation as two of our famous chefs come to the rescue.

For anyone unfamiliar with the life of a humble chicken – the none free range variety – a summary of their short existence goes something like this: Hatched in incubators in the factory, they are then dispatched down the conveyor belt, boxed into a van from where they are emptied into a barn, fed and watered without natural daylight, pumped with antibiotics to avoid disease, culled if they show weakness, reared for 39 days then slaughtered and prepared for the supermarket shelf. Of course, most of this takes place behind closed doors and now the public is slowly being wakened to their plight by a series of television shows. So what are we to make of it?

I like my chicken so ought I to care how it arrives on my plate, or simply look for the best bargain when out shopping? In Jamie’s programme, he went on to tell us that the British poultry farmer gets 3p – yes, 3 pence for every bird produced under intensive farming methods. That in itself has got to be a clue that somewhere, something is not right. We also got to see the different methods of farming on offer and, how ultimately, the way the chicken is reared is determined by consumer demand. That’s right, the plight of the chicken is in the hands of you and me.

It appears that somewhere along the way we have become so detached from the process of rearing life stock that the meat we see wrapped in cling film in the fridges has little connection with a real life animal earlier in the food chain. This detachment means that our conscience is not involved and therefore our choice is determined by only one factor – price. When faced with the reality of the process taken to provide us with whole chickens, plucked, prepared and giblets removed, we might start to think differently or at least that seemed to be the conclusion of the programme.

Outside of enjoying some time off this Saturday I was also left with final preparations for my sermon at Charis on the Sunday as well as writing my blog. The sermon includes this statement from Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians, ‘from the beginning God chose you to be saved…’ and my blog is about chickens! Now that’s diversity for you – or is it? Does God care for chickens, and should I care? Well, my sermon looks at the issue of God choosing us to be saved. Therefore, I go on to ask the obvious questions, saved from what and for what? I conclude that biblically we are saved for three things: to have a relationship with God, to receive eternal life and also to be reconciled with creation. Now, if we are to be reconciled with creation then our care for creation becomes a priority and surely that must have implications for the way in which we breed animals for food. Or at least it is appearing that way to me. We are not here to abuse the earth, but act as stewards of it, and that being the case it may well affect my pocket, and my spending habits too which could result in a better life for the chicken before it finally ends up on my dinner plate.

The Gate of the Year

In London the New Year got off to a fiery start with a fantastic firework display. Elsewhere, the New Year brought fresh speeches from some of the nation’s public figures. Here are a few snippets from two of them.

Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, in his speech said, ‘For Britain, 2008 will be a year of real and serious changes. With important legislation making long-term changes in energy, climate change, health, pensions, planning, housing, education and transport, 2008 will be a year of measurable change in public services.’ Well, no doubt he will be measured at the end of the year on the back of that statement!

On a slightly different note, yet with similar theme, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams made his New Year speech. His title, ‘God doesn’t do waste’. In it he applied the thought of disposability to human life and relationships with these words: ‘What I wonder is – how much this influences attitudes in other parts of our lives? In a society where we think of so many things as disposable; where we expect to be constantly discarding last year’s gadget and replacing it with this year’s model – do we end up tempted to think of people and relationships as disposable? Are we so fixated on keeping up with change that we lose any sense of our need for stability?’

He has a good point. Are we living in an age of transferability – viewing people as commodities to be used until they no longer have value to us and then discarded?

Whatever our take on the New Year, it will come to us with both challenge and opportunity and probably not in equal measure. Rising up to it when it comes will take courage and determination and for that we need some inspiration to move forward. Mine came from a poem, written by Marie Louise Haskins and quoted by the King George IV during a New Year’s Eve message. I trust its truth will be birthed in us all at the start of 2008. It reads:

And I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year: “Give me a light, that I may tread safely into the unknown!” And he replied: “Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the Hand of God. That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way.”

And so may we all hold tightly to the hand of God as we venture through the joys and trials of the New Year.

Let me conclude by taking this opportunity to thank you for reading the blog over 2007 – I hope to continue into 2008, so please enjoy and feel free to comment. And if you do it enjoy it, don’t forget to email the link to a friend.