What Stephen Hawking hasn't yet discovered

I was very interested to read about the forthcoming release of the film, ‘The Theory of Everything’, which details the relationship between the famous physicist Stephen Hawking and his first wife, Jane.  In the film, Hawking is shown as a young man who is sporty, witty and charming, and, of course, a genius.  But at the age of 21 he is diagnosed with a terminal illness which threatens to rob him of his faculties.  Jane is determined to stand by him as he faces this awesome struggle, despite the warnings of her father that, “this will not be a battle, Jane, this is going to be a very heavy defeat.”

Jane is apparently lady with a deeply held Christian faith.  Stephen, on the other hand, has been quoted as saying:

"We are such insignificant creatures on a minor planet of a very average star on the outer suburbs of one of a hundred thousand million galaxies.  So it is difficult to believe in a God that would care about us or even notice our existence."

And, of course, logic is on his side.  It is almost inconceivable that, should there be a God, he would deign to concern himself with humankind!  In fact, we find very similar thoughts in the words of David in Psalm 8:

‘When I consider your heavens,
    the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars,
    which you have set in place,
what is mankind that you are mindful of them,
    human beings that you care for them?’

Yes, it truly is almost beyond belief that God should interest himself in our little planet.  Yet the wonderful, amazing, mind-boggling truth is that God, in his infinite love for human beings, came to planet earth as one of us through the birth of Jesus Christ!  As The Message translation puts it:

‘The Word became flesh and blood,
    and moved into the neighbourhood.’  (John 1:14)

The creation which Stephen Hawking and others study is truly amazing.  But far, far more wonderful is the truth that the One who brought it all into being loves each one of us, and longs that we might know him and love him.

‘How silently, how silently

The wondrous gift is given!

So God imparts to human hearts

The blessings of his heaven.

No ear may hear his coming;

But in this world of sin,

Where meek souls will receive him, still

The dear Christ enters in.’

In danger of missing the point

With each passing year I find myself longing in ever greater measure to throw off many of the modern "trappings" of Christmas and return to the simplicity of celebration.

The run up to Christmas in our consumer society seems to be increasingly filled with busyness, activity, stress, and pressures of many kinds.  The Money Advice Service reckons that something like £26 billion will be spent in the UK on festive celebrations this year.  Companies do their very best to create TV adverts which will temps us to "spend, spend, spend."  The eBay ad, for example, tells us "When you're ready, come and get it.  It's a great big world and it can all be yours."  The truth is, it's an impossible, illusory and potentially dangerous dream.

I love this time of the year, but with so much else going on right now, I find myself struggling at times to focus on the message which lies at the heart of the Advent/Christmas season.  Someone recently asked Sue whether we are ready for Christmas and she replied that we don't even know for certain where we will be living on Christmas Day!  Our house move seems to be imminent but we don't yet have a date.  The house is currently full of boxes and we are living in semi-organised chaos, so we have no idea how Christmas will pan out if we are still here, with family visitors due to arrive!

Then, of course, we are having to handle the ongoing situation with our grandson Max having been in and out of hospital in recent weeks.  The deadline for sending Christmas cards will soon have passed.  Added to that are all the preparations for special Christmas services and events, and other matters which require attention.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining, because I still feel tremendously blessed in so many ways, and I am still loving the Advent journey.  It's just that I find myself far too easily tempted to take my attention from the simple yet glorious heart of Christmas - the birth of God's Son, Jesus Christ.  That is why I love the advertising campaign from churchads.net which aims to remind people where Christmas really starts: with Christ.  I have watched this so many times to help me refocus:

Help us, O God, not to miss the point of this season, but to fix our hearts and minds on the One whose birth we celebrate.  May we know his peace in our hearts, now and always.  Amen.

All the lonely people...

One of the churches of which I am privileged to be Minister is New Parks Methodist Church.  The church building is situated on a large council estate.  Within the last year or so, a recognition arose that in some ways the church had become detached from the community which it sought to serve.  Rather than come up with some ‘great ideas’ which might not work, a decision was taken to meet regularly to pray and try to listen to what God was saying (always the best place to start!)

A number of members of the church family have met together week by week, committed to waiting until God gave them a clear vision of the way forward.  In the meantime, links were being made with various community groups.  After a number of months of praying and listening, a strongly held belief arose that God was challenging the church to address the needs of some of the lonely people in their community, and to offer opportunities for friendship to those who feel isolated. 

There is no doubt that loneliness is a huge issue in the UK. The following is an extract from an article in The Guardian:

...Three months ago we read that loneliness has become an epidemic among young adults. Now we learn that it is just as great an affliction of older people. A study by Independent Age shows that severe loneliness in England blights the lives of 700,000 men and 1.1m women over 50, and is rising with astonishing speed.

Social isolation is as potent a cause of early death as smoking 15 cigarettes a day; loneliness, research suggests, is twice as deadly as obesity. Dementia, high blood pressure, alcoholism and accidents - all these, like depression, paranoia, anxiety and suicide, become more prevalent when connections are cut. We cannot cope alone...

...A government study in June revealed that Britain is the loneliness capital of Europe. We are less likely than other Europeans to have close friends or to know our neighbours…

A desperately sad state of affairs.  As I pondered the issue, into my mind came the well-known Beatles song, “Eleanor Rigby”, which includes the haunting lyrics, “All the lonely people, where do they all come from?”  

I found and listened to a version of the song on YouTube.  As I listened, I read some of the comments which others had left.  One comment really struck me:

“I was listing to this song and looking through the comments and I have finally realised that I am all alone and I don't know where I belong.”

The New Parks project is still in its early stages, but I know it reflects God’s heart for those in desperate need of love and friendship.

My septimana horribilis

In November 1992 The Queen gave a speech at Guildhall to mark the 40th anniversary of her Accession.  In it, she referred to recent events as part of an 'annus horribilis' (a Latin phrase meaning ‘horrible year’).  Several events within her family that year had caused the Queen considerable anguish.  I failed miserably in my Latin exams at school, but I believe that aspects of the past seven days in my life could rightly lead me to describe the week as ‘septimana horribilis.’

Early last week we received news that our nearly 3-year-old grandson Max had been taken into hospital.  It was discovered that he had an extremely low platelet count, a condition which could be quite serious.  I visited him in hospital and prayed for him.  It seemed that he was making some progress, but then the following day his condition deteriorated.  His platelet count had dropped further, he was being very sick, and the medical staff were very concerned that he might be bleeding into his brain.  Of course, this could potentially be life-threatening.

Around the time this was all happening, I was working on my sermon for the following Sunday morning.  The theme was “Hope”, and the Bible reading was the account of the visit to Mary by the angel Gabriel in Luke1:26-38.  One element of the sermon was how this young girl, Mary, despite the shocking message given to her by the angel, was able to see hope for the future and reach out in faith to God, believing that the impossible would take place just as God had said.  She heard very clearly the angel’s words, ‘The Lord is with you.’

Mary had a choice, and she chose to trust God.  As I pondered her response, I found myself really challenged.  I had been into the hospital and prayed for Max, yet now he was getting worse and his young life seemed under threat.  I don’t mind admitting that I shed a few tears as I thought about the suffering of our beautiful little grandson.  When we are faced with really tough situations, we all have a choice.  We can give up on God, we can try managing in our own strength, or we can believe and trust God.  I knew all along that I couldn’t with any integrity preach what I didn’t believe, and I resolved to reach out to God in faith as Mary had done.  I thank God that Max is now home again, though his parents have been told to do what they can to keep him from hurting himself because of his condition (no easy task with an energetic youngster!)

The fact that later in the week I ended up in A&E myself, and had to have various tests, injections and scans, is another not very pleasant element to last week which I haven’t space to relate in full!  Thankfully I was ultimately given the all-clear.

Though in some respects last week was pretty horrible, I feel, nevertheless, tremendously blessed in many ways by the experience.  I have been reminded what an amazing family and very good friends I have, and that it is loving and supportive relationships which really matter in life.  I have been reminded also of the power of prayer; so many of our family members and friends stood by us during our difficult week, and we felt lifted on a wave of prayer.  And of course I have experienced again the love and faithfulness of God.  He doesn’t promise that life will always be easy or trouble-free, but he does promise in every situation we face, ‘I will never leave you or forsake you.’  And that makes all the difference in the world.