The empty bag

I was watching the television programme “the wonder of life” in which an eminent scientist said that life was nothing but kinetic energy, no more significant than the rolling of a rock down a hill. So I ask a question, are we nothing more than empty bags of energy and impermanent presents which leaves nothing behind but the energy which started it?

With the greatest goodwill in the world; it would not be to a scientist that I would turn the answers about the nature of our existence. Humanity cannot be boiled down to an equation; it is not suffering times wisdom that equal soul. It is trite but true to say that we are more than sum of our parts. I cannot prove this; I can show no evidence for this I cannot give you a calculation which is even infers it. I believe with this question we have come to the edge of science we have come to the end of the path where only fact can take us. It is time to take the leap beyond mere facts to the deeper truth.

Science often tries to justify religion by describing it as some sort of advance fear mechanism but religion contains within it a truth beyond the sciences conception of this truth is this. That though we may just be bags of energy, we are more than this. Religion knows that our Lord and Master made as to become greater than we were, he let us to strive towards perfection as we stagger towards him open armed.

It seems ridiculous to have to repeat this but I will, the value of one man is beyond calculation his purpose beyond fathom and his glory beyond the counting for it has pleased the Lord thy God of Israel to anoint him as a child of God and forge him up on this earth. It is God’s well to give each of us a sole and eternal essence like his are part of ourselves that is beyond the laws of physics beyond the shackles of this world and which will escape when this bag of nothing finally ends its role down the hill of life.

In conclusion I would like to remind you of an old saying. I am nothing but dust in motion for a light came from dust and will return to dust but all that I am will survive. All that I am is eternal, and all that I am is pleasing in the sight of God for he thought me as I am him and him in me. Let science calculate their empty bags in letters and let us preach the truth of the eternal soul. For no man is saved my calculation but only through making that leap from fact to truth.

How to save the Tory party

It is with the deepest regret, that I have recently had to see the decline of my beloved party. There was once a day when Tory party policy advantaged all, when we sought to raise all people up. There was a time when we would have wept in his same to overseen a stagnating economy, with unemployment so high.

This was before the dark day when the do nothing’s, when the so-called ultra-liberals took over the party. Their fundamentalist beliefs that government intervention in any form is only self-defeating has led us not to be the party of governance but to be the party of inaction. It is simply not good enough to very, very slowly reduce corporation tax and take a few poor men out of taxation in these harsh times. To put it bluntly, it is not enough to have a no policy, policy on the economy any more.

It is time for the Tory party action once more, to gird our loins and actually have a policy for growth. It is time for tax breaks for exporting businesses, it is time to build houses and for the government to guarantee loans to house builders . It is time to cut corporation tax and to cut tax on all capital investment in this country. Alongside this we need a three year tax-free period for all new businesses, and a five-year one for all new physical retail businesses. It is also time to end all tax credits (apart from those for childcare) and take more people out of taxation altogether. It is also time for the government to provide start-up capital in areas with limited childcare capacity.

We should also guarantee housing for people who move out of the low employment areas into areas of higher employment, alongside a new intensive course for all people who seek employment, eventually extending this scheme to all people who wish to improve their current standard of living. We need to abolish the job centers as they stand and replace them with online application and intensive job training centers targeted to find people employment regardless of length of time unemployed.

We will refund this from a scrapping of Trident and a ruthless suppression of all official expenses and luxuries. We will fund this with debt if necessary and cuts if possible. We will also seek to legalize as many currently illegal substances as it is prudent to do so. Alongside this we will legalize prostitution. We will scrap H2S and give half the money to train firms to do as they wish as well as allow private road construction, funded through tolls. We do not take these measures lightly, but when UK plc needs new revenues it is silly not to explore them when there are already people taking and using these things.

10 Predictions for 2013

1: The euro crises will rumble on but slowly resolve it self

2: The US / EU grip on international organisations will be further weakened

3: The EU will go into a recession reducing the most of the Euro

4: EU leaders with threaten exit but not do anything

5: Japan’s economy will continue to stagnate

6: China will increase her economic influence in the US and EU

7: More talk but no action on Syria

8: Coalition will threaten to split but remain together

9: UK sluggish recovery will continue

10: Basically 2012 mark 2 

Reporting service

Order of service for Reported service

Call to worship: Psalm 22: 3-5

3 Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One;

    you are the one Israel praises.[]

4 In you our ancestors put their trust;

    they trusted and you delivered them.

5 To you they cried out and were saved;

    in you they trusted and were not put to shame.

Hymn: StF 351: In Christ alone

All age address: Have you ever been really ill?

·         Ask them what their parents do to look after them when they’re sick

·         How much better it is to be well

·         God – sent Jesus to heal the sick (all of us)

Hymn: StF 635: My Troubled soul, why so weighed down

Dismissal

Collective Psalm 22: 22,24,26-31

22 I will declare your name to my people;

    in the assembly I will praise you.

24 For he has not despised or scorned

    the suffering of the afflicted one;

he has not hidden his face from him

    but has listened to his cry for help.

26 The poor will eat and be satisfied;

    those who seek the Lord will praise him—

    may your hearts live forever!

27 All the ends of the earth

    will remember and turn to the Lord,

and all the families of the nations

    will bow down before him,

28 for dominion belongs to the Lord

    and he rules over the nations.

29 All the rich of the earth will feast and worship;

    all who go down to the dust will kneel before him—

    those who cannot keep themselves alive.

30 Posterity will serve him;

    future generations will be told about the Lord.

31 They will proclaim his righteousness,

    declaring to a people yet unborn:

    He has done it!

Prayer of adoration / thanksgiving

Hymn  287: When I survey the wondrous cross

Reading: Mark 15: 33-38

Reading: Mark 2: 13-17

Reading: Mark 8:34-38

Sermon:

·         We are all sick

·         We all feel forsaken by God

·         Jesus knows our pains

·         He heals the sick

·         Cross is strength not suffering

Hymn: Old rugged cross

Collective Psalm 22: 1-2, 6-11, 19

1 My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

    Why are you so far from saving me,

    so far from my cries of anguish?

2 My God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer,

    by night, but I find no rest.[b]

6 But I am a worm and not a man,

    scorned by everyone, despised by the people.

7 All who see me mock me;

    they hurl insults, shaking their heads.

8 “He trusts in the Lord,” they say,

    “let the Lord rescue him.

Let him deliver him,

    since he delights in him.”

9 Yet you brought me out of the womb;

    you made me trust in you, even at my mother’s breast.

10 From birth I was cast on you;

    from my mother’s womb you have been my God.

11 Do not be far from me,

    for trouble is near

    and there is no one to help.

19 But you, Lord, do not be far from me.

    You are my strength; come quickly to help me.

Prayers of confession / forgiveness

Prayers of intercession

Lord's prayer

Offertory

Hymn: 345: And can it be

Dismal

Oos 23122012

Order of service for December 23rd, Caversham heights, 10.30am

Call to worship: Titus 3 4-7

Advent liturgy

Hymn: H&P 232 Tell me the old, old story

Prayer of adoration

All age address: what is your favourite story?

·         This is a story of salvation

·         Birth of gods kingdom on earth

Prayer of thanksgiving

Hymn StF 627: Everyone needs compassion

Short welcome for peace candle: Isaiah 9: 6-7

Peace candle lit

Dismissal

Reading Luke 2 4-20 (can be done in two parts)

Prayers of confession / forgiveness

Hymn: StF 202 Hark the herald-angels sing

Sermon: true story of Christmas

Prayers for the coming of the kingdom

Hymn StF 216 See him lying on a bed of straw

Prayers for the housebound

Prayers of intercession

Lord's prayer
Offertory

Hymn: H&P 135 Go tell in on the Mountain
Dismal 

Harvest

What does harvest mean to you? (Symon)

Ask people about what the harvest means to them?

In the Psalm we were given a picture of God as gardener

He fills the rivers with waters

Blesses the its valleys and trees

And blesses it with his love and mercy

But there is one fruit it does not mention and that id the fristfruit

When I think of harvest I think of this

Luke 13:34

34 “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing.

We our also a creation of God

We our his first fruit

It is hard to think of us as fruit I know

But it is for us all other creation was formed

It is to keep us that God blesses the harvest

And just as we gather the fruits we grow

So God will gather us in

So when I think of the harvest I think of the day when God shall call me home

Deuteronomy 26:1-11

How do we offer back to God? (Symon)

In accordance with are reading we have:

Come from the world God made for us

We have marked the wonders of God

We have given thanks that ours is a land of milk and honey

And we have rejoice in all the good things

but what our we to give him?

I am reminded of a Christmas song: In the bleak midwinter

What can I give Him, poor as I am?

If I were a shepherd, I would bring a lamb;

If I were a Wise Man, I would do my part;

Yet what I can I give Him: give my heart.

Fruit and vegetable our all well and good

Our time and money are better still

But what God really wants is You

You are his harvest

You his chosen person

Yes I know no of you think worth of it

Hardly the best of humanity

Hardly blessed in his sight

If I am fruit I am bruised and a bit mouldy

but so much dose he love you

That he causes the rivers to flow

He causes the sun to shine

And he even sent his first fruit

His own son

To call you home

So when you think God has forgotten all about you

Come be part of the harvest

And he shall rise you to be the first fruit

Why I support austerity

I recently attended my local preacher meeting, during which there is always an update on the church who is hosting it. This particular church had started providing emergency food aid (in partnership with others) to those in need in there local area. I was a little surprised, as the area in which this church stood, was not deprived or disadvantaged. It was a small town in south East England and food aid was required.

So why do I support the policy causing this food aid?

Firstly I must admit that this is the outcome I would expect. Food scarcity is always the outcome of increased global consumption and local recession. In a time of resource constraint I would expect those in the worse economic position too feel it more then those with greater accesses to resources.

This is not to blame those forced by forces far beyond them. To say that before the crash the country, the household and the individual overspent. If a person who is employed lives in debt they will be utterly destitute if they should loose there job. This is the situation many people have found themselves in.

One of the causes of this overspend is of course the fall in real terms wages but a vain attempt attempt to maintain current living standards. I often compare this to a impoverished Emperor , who is fooled into thinking thin air is the most fashionable robes and then buys them. He is foolish twice, once to buy thin air and the second time to use money better used else where (in paying of his debt perhaps).

We could argue who fault all of this is but we our faced with it none the less. Both the nation and the individual overspent and massively and for very little tangible outcomes. I concede there was useful spending as well for example new hospitals and school buildings. I however submit a new hospital operates just as well if not designed by an award winning architect. It was exactly this vane spending to which I refer. Infrastructure spending is one thing but no nation is enriched by modern, initiative buildings just functional ones.

So we our left with no money to spend. We have rather pleasant looking but empty visitor centres and people starving because they themselves lived of debt in the good times and I support the policy effectively pulling the plug on all the spending that partially supported this?

Yes and Yes again

One of the first effect of the global melt down was for good or ill the fortunes of Britain where held by the dreaded rating agencies. Effectively, Britain is owned not by its people but its debt holders and if the APR (Bond yields) where to raise too far BANG! At best ,massive devaluation of sterling (which would massively increase the cost of imports) and at worse Bankruptcy and who would be able to bail out the UK? Who?

So why not increase our tax take to pay off our debts and build some more pleasing ornate buildings? Why not? The required businesses people and investors we so desperately need would simply leave. We our beggars, not masters, we need them far more then they need us. Oh we could threaten to freeze them out of the UK but such an anti business anti free market move would end any chance of recovery and make Ukplc UK on the Volga.

No the bitter pill is this, without the ability to borrow more money for fear of the credit ratings and without the ability to tax people more without causing a flight of international capital we are ensnared. We must cut expenditure and do what ever private capital wishes in order to get there money voluntarily. I would say that there are far better target for cuts then the poor but they our either protected by government or by the electoral will of the people. No we must cut spending and pay off our debts, like those who our blessed to still have a job.

The UK must look beyond the EU for trading opportunities, shaking hands with anyone willing to spend a few pennies in the UK. Indeed placating Latin America with over various issues would be a good start. We our beggars remember and it is time we acted like them. Oh and by the way I know dealing with murders and corrupted people is not easy but neither is seeing people beg for emergency baskets.