Blessed are the peace makers

Back in October I wrote these words following the bombing of local businesses,
(It) 'can only destroy and empty the value and joy out of life.'

As I sit down this evening there is a sinking feeling, a young man has been taken from those he loved, a community has had a member torn from its fabric.  I will soon be 40 and for many of those years this tearing of the fabric of community was a daily reality.  I do not want that for my children!  I do not want it for myself!

Jesus in the sermon on the mount said that peace makers are blessed, are where God wants them to be doing His will.  I know that there is only a very small number of people involved in these acts of terrorism but we cannot be complacent.  We must work with every ounce of our strength and oppose this violence.  To build peace we must reach out across the one community we live in, in Northern Ireland.  Yes there is difference and diversity, but we must embrace one another.  We need not all be the same but we can respect one another and our differences.  The different identity of another does not negate our identity!

I am involved in the Ministry of Healing here in St Peter's Derry/Londonderry.  We meet on the 4th Sunday of the month at 4pm.  The next service will be on 22nd May.  At that service we will pray for peace, and we will continue to pray that we can bring healing to our community.  Healing in the fabric of our torn and battered community, and healing in the lives of those who have been broken by the life of our society over the past 40 years! 


There are new torn lives after this latest murder!  We stand with them.  We pray that in the midst of pain they might know that we are there.  We have no words but we are there, the church, the body of Christ.  We are being Jesus in the midst of their pain.


There are also others who have had old wounds, thought healed, reopened.  They too need our care and support.


I am carrying Psalm 23 as a support in the midst of this.  We must remember God is there, even in the darkest times and he is sufficient to our needs.  He can lead us through.

Psalm 23

A psalm of David. ¹ The LORD is my shepherd, I lack nothing.
 ² He makes me lie down in green pastures,
he leads me beside quiet waters,
 ³ he refreshes my soul.
He guides me along the right paths
   for his name’s sake.
⁴ Even though I walk
   through the darkest valley,^[a]
I will fear no evil,
   for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
   they comfort me.
 ⁵ You prepare a table before me
   in the presence of my enemies.
You anoint my head with oil;
   my cup overflows.
⁶ Surely your goodness and love will follow me
   all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the LORD
   forever.

God Calling

Life: why do we do what we do?  It is something that I have reflected on numerous times throughout my own life.  When I first felt that God was calling me to become ordained it was frightening.  I reacted a little like Moses who had a great set of reasons why God shouldn't use him!

Now, I find myself on the other side of the equation.  Seventeen years ago I attended what was called CACTM (Church's Advisory Council for Training for Ministry).  It felt like your life in their hands!  I had been journeying through my sense of calling with my chaplain in university and other Christian friends, but now I was going to have my calling tested.  It was nerve wracking! What would I say to convince them that my calling was genuine?  What would I do if they said no, or even wait?  As I  prepare to attend what is now called, the Bishops' Selection Conference, I have been praying for wisdom and for those who will be testing their sense of call.  I believe it is an important part of being church.  We don't just act on our own sense about things but we believe that God works in and through his people.

If I was nervous as a candidate, I am no less so as a selector!  In the past, my life was in their hands but now their lives are in my hands!  But then on reflection, I believe in a God who is sufficient.  Sufficient to lead me, sufficient to guide the candidates for ministry, sufficient to make clear the way ahead.

One of my favourite psalms is Psalm 139.  In it the psalmist reflects on God and their relationship.  God is always there!  He is never absent!  If I were to be able to speak to each of the candidates now, to help them, I would direct them to these word.  I hope they help you as you journey through your daily decisions great and small.

Psalm 139

For the director of music. Of David. A psalm. ¹ You have searched me, LORD,
   and you know me.
² You know when I sit and when I rise;
   you perceive my thoughts from afar.
³ You discern my going out and my lying down;
   you are familiar with all my ways.
⁴ Before a word is on my tongue
   you, LORD, know it completely.
⁵ You hem me in behind and before,
   and you lay your hand upon me.
⁶ Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
   too lofty for me to attain.
 ⁷ Where can I go from your Spirit?
   Where can I flee from your presence?
⁸ If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
   if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
⁹ If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
   if I settle on the far side of the sea,
¹⁰ even there your hand will guide me,
   your right hand will hold me fast.
¹¹ If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me
   and the light become night around me,”
¹² even the darkness will not be dark to you;
   the night will shine like the day,
   for darkness is as light to you.
 ¹³ For you created my inmost being;
   you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
¹⁴ I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
   your works are wonderful,
   I know that full well.
¹⁵ My frame was not hidden from you
   when I was made in the secret place,
   when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
¹⁶ Your eyes saw my unformed body;
   all the days ordained for me were written in your book
   before one of them came to be.
¹⁷ How precious to me are your thoughts,^[a] God!
   How vast is the sum of them!
¹⁸ Were I to count them,
   they would outnumber the grains of sand—
   when I awake, I am still with you.
 ¹⁹ If only you, God, would slay the wicked!
   Away from me, you who are bloodthirsty!
²⁰ They speak of you with evil intent;
   your adversaries misuse your name.
²¹ Do I not hate those who hate you, LORD,
   and abhor those who are in rebellion against you?
²² I have nothing but hatred for them;
   I count them my enemies.
²³ Search me, God, and know my heart;
   test me and know my anxious thoughts.
²⁴ See if there is any offensive way in me,
   and lead me in the way everlasting.