PCI General Assembly
Address of Incoming Moderator Dr Norman Hamilton
to the Opening Session of the 2010 General Assembly
A Message Worth Sharing
I am sure that all of us here this evening are well aware of the battering that the churches in Ireland have taken in recent times -- and that not without reason. On top of this we face the challenges of highly articulate philosophical attacks from the Richard Dawkins of this world, as well as a whole industry of often cynical commentators and columnists.
I am most certainly not suggesting that take on the role of a poor hapless victim -- not at all. What I am saying is that we are in quite new territory in this generation, where church status in wider society is evaporating, accepted beliefs are under the most intense challenge, and where there are many others groups and institutions offering their own pathways to a shared and better future.
Yet many of those same groups have big challenges to face themselves. Politicians and the world of politics continue to be seriously damaged by scandal and even dysfunctionality right across these islands. European money has almost run out for much of the community and voluntary sector, and speaking of money, the banks are certainly no longer regarded as flexible friends to either businesses or the general public.
The business sector has a long haul to work its way out of an economic recession that may well not be over, and the Trades Unions are rightly concerned about employment prospects, especially in the public sector which has yet to see the full force of the economic downtown.
All of this may seem rather downbeat and maybe even depressing -- not what we all come to the opening night of the General Assembly for! Yet it is in this new context that there is great opportunity for the light of the Bible, the love of God and work of the Spirit to bring hope, encouragement and much needed grace to individual lives, local communities and indeed the whole land. So let me sketch out very briefly a little of what this might look like.
The OT prophet Jeremiah was quite explicit when he made it clear to God's people that one of their key roles was to seek the welfare of the whole community where God had placed them, and that included the welfare of those who had even oppressed them. Jesus followed this through with his astounding command in the Sermon on the Mount (Matt 5.44) to 'love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you'. The apostle Peter repeated the message when he wrote to a church under serious pressure that Christian people were to be a blessing to others as a pre-requisite to being blessed by God themselves. (1 Peter 3.9)
The scriptures are absolutely clear on our need for salvation in Christ. They are equally clear on the need to seek, pray for and work for the welfare of all our neighbours and everyone in our wider community. We are not only called and privileged to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength, but we are called and privileged to love our neighbour as ourselves -- and in the parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus makes it abundantly clear that our neighbours include those who are very different from us in background, culture and even religious practice. Their welfare is to be hugely important to us.
The pressures on Christian people that I mentioned a few minutes ago have led many into a dark spiritual cul de sac where our faith is 'privatised'... so that we have little confidence to proclaim and show the liberating power of the gospel and of Christ in any public arena... even in our own families and to our neighbours, never mind in the public square as the prophets, apostles and Jesus himself did. It is no accident that our Special Assembly in August in Coleraine is entitled 'Confident in Christ'. I really do want to encourage all our congregations to be represented there, for any church or individual that has little understanding of or confidence in the power of the risen Christ is going nowhere fast.
We really do need to resist the temptation -- and it is a strong one -- that man lives by politics alone. We do not. Politics is certainly important. Indeed democracy is one of the jewels of a good Christian heritage -- and I want to say that publicly here tonight with some of our political reps present.
We value you personally, and we value the work that you do. But the privilege of choosing political leaders and representatives can -- and often does -- degenerate into passing the buck to them for every perceived problem and evil, and then criticising them when they appear powerless to fix them for us. How often do so many of us who are Christian people complain about our leaders - long before we even think it proper to pray for them and ask for the Spirit of God to guide them in their work. Giving in to the temptation to always expect Stormont or the Dail or Westminster or the local council or the doctor or the teacher or the social worker or the community group (the list is endless...) to fix things for us is to deny the power of prayer, the work of the Spirit and the Biblical imperative of active warm hearted Christian citizenship which was regarded as normal - right throughout the Scriptures.
Active Christian citizenship in the here and now of course throws up some big new tests as well as opportunities. Let me give one example. As a society, we have not yet learned that challenge is different from opposition. It is quite proper for the church to be challenged about what we believe and why we believe it -- and that we are able and willing to respond coherently, graciously and in a compelling way.
But the political world too needs to embrace and welcome constructive and rigorous challenge for its own good as well as the good of everyone in our whole society. No political party has a monopoly on wisdom, any more than a church has.
If the moral, spiritual and intellectual capital of wider society is neither sought by nor offered to those who govern, we should not be surprised if there is poor government. Wider civic society has a direct responsibility to provide a good seedbed for the growth of good government. Apathy is a disgrace to all who practice it, for it undermines the healthy relationships that are needed for a healthy society.
So in the public arena, as well as in the personal arena, I want / we want to bring our best insights into scripture to public policy -- with all due humility that we are not infallible in our interpretation of Scripture, nor do we want to impose our beliefs on others. But we do have a message worth sharing with wider society and with our leaders. And it has an enormous challenge built into it. For the claims of atheists and secularists to have the truth themselves or to argue that they are in some neutral faith-free zone -- such claims too need to be vigorously challenged and properly refuted. And, it has to be said, the church throughout this whole island is desperately short of people able and willing to do this... which is itself a terrible commentary on our spiritual and theological weakness.
The book of Proverbs (14.34) is quite clear that righteousness exalts a nation, whilst sin is a disgrace to any people. It is important that we challenge each other, both privately and publicly, but always graciously, as to what is right and what is not. What is good and what is not. What is worthy and what is not. There is a golden thread woven throughout Scripture that how we deal with other people flows from how we personally experience God dealing with us. We show mercy because God shows mercy to us; we persevere because God has persevered with us; we are patient because God is patient with us; we are understanding because God is understanding with us, so that the righteousness which we put on offer, comes not from our own "almost empty" barrels of righteousness but from the heart of God Himself. Public righteousness matters every bit as much as personal righteousness and I will return to that latter area in a moment.
One of the most pungent areas where we desperately need a recovery of righteousness in public is in the area of community relationships, both inside communities and across communities.
You might expect me to say this, coming as I do from 22 years in North Belfast, but the healing of relationships is a real Christian priority for every single one of us here this evening, whether we live in the city, the town or in a rural area, - whether we live in Cork or in Coleraine -- Dublin or Derry.
Let me give you an example from the areas OUTSIDE of Belfast.
The latest figures from the PSNI - and I have them here - show that in 10 of the 25 District Council area outside Belfast, there had been a rise of over 25% in sectarian motivated incidents between 2008/09 and 2009/10. In only 2 of those councils had there been a reduction of more than 25%.
There is a problem with sectarianism right across much of Northern Ireland, and it is acute in what might be seen as some very surprising places.
The failure to agree a community relations agenda and community relations strategy is, in my view, a public disgrace, given our history. That disgrace is heightened by the apparent failure of much of wider society to even be concerned about it, never mind outraged by it.
And it is a huge discouragement to the many individuals and groups whose vision and work for a healthy and integrated society over the years continues to be so unappreciated and undervalued. Our apparent contentment with widespread social apartheid is, to quote again those words from the book of Proverbs, a disgrace to the nation. Made no less by the fact that this is not a new issue at all -- St Augustine, 1600 years ago, wrote: 'For it is one thing to see the land of peace from a wooded ridge, and another to tread the road that leads to it'
I would love to be part of a public discussion, carried out with grace and with rigour, as to how to face this demon in our midst. I might even be bold enough to say that I would like to help kick start the moribund, even non existent, public discussion about what a coherent, shared and healthy society looks like. And I would want to do so, on the basis of bringing my best understanding of Scripture to that discussion. Every generation, every society, every individual... we all need to bring our failures to the Lord and have them exposed -- for as Jesus told us plainly in John's Gospel (8.32) it is the truth that liberates... Isn't it strange that such liberating truth from the lips of Jesus seems so unattractive at times? As does the call of Micah (6.8) in these profoundly discomforting words... He has showed you O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.
Surely we are denying our Lord when we back away from the compelling calls in Scripture that judge us, but also invite us to seek forgiveness and mercy? This is part of the profound message of the Bible that is well worth sharing on this most troubling of problems. We would all benefit, surely, from discerning it properly - and hearing it loud and clear... and for every minister of the Gospel -- alongside their church leadership teams -- to help embed that message of judgement, forgiveness and mercy in the life of our own congregations, and in the life of our own parish area -- wherever that may be.
And there are plenty of other issues too on which a Biblical perspective is desperately needed... to affirm the great dignity of our being created in the image of God (as set out in the book of Genesis) by an unambiguous commitment to proper human rights and to a faithful commitment to equality as the Bible sets it out. There is plenty of scope to debate, discuss and ultimately discern exactly what that would look like, but the difficulty in doing so should not back us away from the very precious standing of every human being in the eyes of God, and the implications of that. It is that very special standing that moved God's heart in eternity and brought Christ to the cross for our salvation. We dishonour the Lord if we dishonour any other person by their God given rights and dignity being violated.
At this point let me return to the issue of personal righteousness as being every bit as important as righteousness in the public sphere.
If there are things in wider society that we do not talk much about, equally there are things in church that we do not talk much about. One of those is our own spiritual health. For example, I am often asked as a minister if I am busy. I am never asked -- how it is with the health of my soul. And this is not my experience alone. Is it yours? Probably! Privatising faith again -- and that rips the heart out of vibrant, encouraging and uplifting fellowship.
And yet, if we wish to carry through the Bible's injunction so energetically described in the words of the OT prophet Zephaniah (3.9) as serving the Lord by standing 'shoulder to shoulder', we must know where others are with the Lord, as well as being honest about where we are ourselves. We cannot abandon each other, or even venture into the public square, if our souls and minds are not ready for the encounter. Fellowship / standing shoulder to shoulder -- matters -- a lot. We desperately need to re-work / redescribe / even re-discover what this great gift of God looks like in an era when, as I said earlier, the church of Jesus Christ is under such sustained pressure.
What does it mean to stand shoulder to shoulder in Christian fellowship with someone who is under the most severe pressure in their work environment; or with the home help who is being harassed by a difficult client; or with the teacher struggling with children who have little parental support, or the politician torn between personal conscience and party policy, or the police officer under threat in his or her home, or -- dare I say it -- with the church pastor or elder for whom Christian ministry is an uphill struggle... what does fellowship and having a healthy soul look like to such people when they find themselves in tough times?
These are very real issues, and are so important, that I want us all to think about them very seriously over the coming weeks and months. On Wed evening of this week, I would like to invite you all to join us for an evening of reflection and discussion on the health of our souls. There will be four contributors, with four differing church backgrounds, opening up their hearts on this, and then there will be an interactive discussion on what they have shared with us. There is no point in seeking righteousness in the public square if we are not equally concerned about what is going on in here... in our souls, our minds, our wills and our attitudes.
Doing this is rather like putting a car through an MOT -- we will find out what is working well and can be relied on, whilst at the same time identifying those things that are not right and may well need changed or have some serious attention given to them or work done on them. God's MOT if you like.
Please come, and please DO bring your mobile phone -- Why? You'll find out on Wed evening!
We have covered much ground here this evening, and Stafford and I hope that you have been uplifted and blessed by God over the past hour and half. Before we bring our final praise to the Lord, I want to ask my dear brother in Christ -- Sir Nigel Hamilton, former head of the Northern Ireland Civil Service -- to come and lead us in prayer.
© Presbyterian Church in Ireland. info@presbyterianireland.org Information correct at time of upload.