Accommodation

Accommodation can refer to things like help, assistance, aid, obliging, indulgencing or it can mean making alterations to fit new cicumstances requiring adaption, adjustment, modification, reconciliation, fitting and harmonization.

When used in connection with our political stalemate I think it is a concept very worth consideration. Usually when people are in dispute the talk is of compromise. When the Whiterock parade was re-routed by the Parades Commission for the second tiome there was a hope that a compromise could be achieved but there is the fundamental difficulty with all compromises and that is that it looks for the middle ground and often means that no one is really ever happy with the solution and so it is no solution at all. We need a much more creative way to square the circle and create a much more long term solution. I think the idea of accomodation is a better way forward. If both sides start from the view of accommodating the other side the conclusions will be much better than the middle way- in the middle way both parties take up their negotiating positions which are not realistic positions at all but positions from which they can allow for movement. If I am willing to accommodate you then I will be looking for way to make us both happy.

How can the Loyalist accommodate the Nationalist and how can the Nationalist accommodate the Loyalist? To start with each will WANT to look at the problem from the other's point of view. To be able to do this they will have to take up positions to view the other side. Can we get to that place where we both want the best for the whole people? Can we get to the place where we are both willing to make changes to accommodate the other? To begin this proces of thought we will have to find ways of taking the heat out of the situation. What is it that adds heat for both sides?

A Community at prayer

On Saturday we had a morning of prayer and reflection in the church. This had been arranged in connection with the Community Council. The turn out was not great but that can be, partly, explained by the haste in which it was organised. There had beeen no time to announce it on a Sunday but we wanted t9o act immediately. I thought it was encouraging that the council would be prepared to advertise it in the press and make it an initiative of its own. The News Letter, one of the biggest papers in Northern Ireland, covered it on tweo days including this photograph. Thankfully the Lord is not moved by the number of people nor by the sound of our voices- C.S.Lewis onece saud that when menm prayer its not that God changes His mind but that they change theirs. We need to be in the vanguard of working for change in our city and country. WEe cannot just sit back and do nothing, not even be satisfied with praying-sometimes we become the answer to our own prayers. Sometimes we have to act as a result of praying. What should the church be doing in Belfast?

Faith .gif
Originally uploaded by jack in the box.

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Love Ulster

When does patriotism become idolaterous? In the midst of the street protests and the street rioting in Northern Ireland there is the "love Ulster" campaign. In the community of Belfast and all over this tiny province there are people who are deeply frustrated and angry about what they perceive to be the gross injustice that they have experienced over the last 30 years since the begining of the, so-called, troubles. Talk to anyone of the majority of Protestants [also called Unionists or loyalists depending on how they see themselves] and they will give a list of concessions made or taken and always demanded by the nationalist [or republican] community: the loss of the RUC and the Stormont government are only two examples.

The "love Ulster" campaign have published a newspaper which perports to be a record of the death and suffering of their community and I am quite sure that it has not had a healing or calming effect on the population- some had hoped that it would give people a chance to tell their story as was the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission. I am also sure that it would be of great benefit if people were given the chance to talk to one another about their stories from both sides of the community and indeed even from within the community: we forget and some do not know that there are several communities within the protestant community and the strife between two parts in recent days is an example of that.

In this common territory the mix of denominational allegiance and political allegiance is very strong but there are people who have bucked the trend. My feeling is that there is something very wrong about the thinking behind "for God and Ulster" as if God were subservient to Ulster. I have no quibble with those who have a patriotic heart but we need to question if it is the land or the people that we love? Someone said to me the other day, as we waited for the street protest to be lifted, "I'm sure Mars is a nice place". It might be but without any people the peace must be deafening. When Jesus talks about peace he was not thinking about the peace of the school that has no children he was thinking of harmony between people. Does patriotism have any real meaning if it only relates to the soil? does peace have any real meaning if it excludes those we don't like?

If I am to really love ulster I will have to love all her people- those who share my faith and those who don't, those who agree with my political aspirations and those who don't. There will be peace in heaven but it will be a totally differant knd of peace. In this land or is it country or nation or just province, we are are a part of a tangled mess. We were not alone in creating that mess but we all have to live with its effects and surely we all have a part in straightening out the wool. But how can I love those who are different to me? Put another way, how are they to love me? I think Christ sets me free to serve and free to live with those of another culture and religion.

The more purest out there each want nothing less than the whole cake but the reality is that none of us can have the whole thing and we will have to accomodate each other - is that different to compromise? i think it is. In compromise no one is happy but in accomodation we all seek to reach out to the other party- could we do that? Are there Christians who can do that in Northern Ireland, in Belfast? If Christians can't do that no one can since we have benefited greatly, even eternally from the work of Christ which accomodates us in our state of sin- he gave all that we might live. If I love Christ I will also love Ulster including all her people.

Broken Relationships

This morning I was reading from Romans 12 in which Paul says that we are not to let evil overcome us and "as far as it depends on you be at peace with all men". In the last while we in Belfast have been engulfed in evil and have been experiencing a mighty web of tangled relationships. None of this tangle was made by us, we have inherited it from a previous generation. We have been experiencing the results of that web so that there is a total breakdown in our society between various factions; between the Protestants and the Roman Catholics, between the differant loyalist factions and between the government and the unionist people not to mention the breakdown between the police and the loyal sons of ulster. I use the various names to illustrate the nature of the web and the complications cretaed. All of this means that there is no simple solution yet we have to struggle to find a way of living together in respect and peace.

Then this afternoon I had a meeting with some community leaders and a little light has begun to shine and evil is not just as prevalent. in that meeting it was decided to sponsor a time of prayer and reflection in our church on Saturday morning!


There is much anger in the community in which I live and work and it is an anger by various differing people for various reasons. There are those who are angry at the peace decifit being experienced by the unionist community who see themselves as the sacrificial lambs being led to the slaughter by the British government and some unionist MPs. They think that violence has been seen to pay and so they have turned to that route but they have failed to see that violence has produced another kind of fruit where families are in crisis and anti-social behaviour is rife in the lives of many of the young people who have been allowed to roam the streets. They are the christians and the more right wing thinking people. The big question for every Christian is how do we support the community without being pompous and condemnatory and how do we maintain the standards lived and declared by Christ?


On Saturday we will pray and we will encourage the community to pray with us and ask God to do His work among us even if that means Him doing things which we will not even like. At the heart of our problems is an evil and a sin which must be dealt with. there are those who consider that these are days of exile for western Christians and we need to learn how to function as Christians in exile which is very different to Christians in "Christendom". Yet even in exile Christ is still King and God has not gone away"

One of the casualties in all of this is the Christian witness of a professed Christian order. The Orange Order stands for religious and political freedom and every new member pledges to be a Christian by profession of his lips and lifestyle.

One of Us

He starts with the fake- those who want to be baptised just because it is the popular thing to do and he ends with the real McCoy- the Lamb of God He rejects their outer conformity and pointed to inner cleanliness He minimised his own baptism as a mere washing with water but maximised the baptism of Jesus as a baptism of fire and the Holy Spirit. He points to the sin of man and looks to the sinlessness of the Son of God This was a time of great darkness- but here we have the light of the world. There had been a silence from God for many years Roman Empire was beginning to decline. It had begun with the ideology of the Republic but had become corrupt and morality had gone through the floor family life was in tatters- divorce was so common people began to date their years according to who they were married to the democracy of the Republic was replaced by government by a small ruling clique corruption was rife Look at the names of the people mentioned by Luke- Herod Antipas, Philip his brother, Pilate the Roman governor and Tiberius himself. We know a little about Herod- he ruled for 40 years at the pleasure of Rome. He had John imprisoned because he didn’t like what John was saying about him- iy was the truth but that did not matter- John told him he was immoral and needed to repent- he was married to his wife only for political reasons and when he got tired of her he divorced her to marry [?] Herodias the daughter of his half brother who was also the wife of his other half brother. When her father acted violently against Judea and did great damage many people thought it was divine retribution. Tiberius himself had grown tired of Rome and went of to the island of Capri and allowed his political cronies to lead the Empire while he lounged in decadence and immorality. For just a time as this the sovereign God raised up John the Baptist who prepared the way for Jesus the Lamb of God, the Messiah. Luke’s intention in writing this Gospel outline is that men would know the “EXACT TRUTH” about this man Jesus. John came as a chinck of light at a time of darkness and points to one who was the light. He wants to reach the people about their spiritual heritage at a time when they had lost of sense of the divine God of Israel. How do you preach the gospel to a people who have lost their spiritual anchorage and get their instruction from the street? God’s answer was by the INCARNATION of God and by that I mean by making God come to the people in the flesh of humanity. John came to introduce Jesus and to prepare the people for Jesus- everything about John was a message- His clothes His food His language he used The wild prophet from the Old Testament preached about repentance and redemption- he was a black and white character, right was right and wrong was wrong. There was no grey areas.He was no respecter of persons be they king or pauper- everyone needed to turn to the living God and the way to demonstrate a willingness to change was to come forward to the river for baptism. What was new about this was that in their tradition no Jew had a need to be baptised- that was for converts to Judaism- that was for gentiles who were dirty and needed to be cleansed, not for law abiding Jews but John is preaching to Jews! He told them that they were not safe just because they were children of Abraham- Some will say “but I am a protestant” or “I am a Presbyterian” and others will say “I was brought up in a Christian family” On Friday night there were Protestants and Presbyterians marching down the Shankill Road in the regalia of soldiers and with the flags of triumph but no sense of the Protestantism they profess- they too have lost their anchorage. - How does the church of Jesus Christ reach them? - How does the church of Christ reach those who have no time for sectarianism and perhaps because of it have even less for Christ? - How does the church of Jesus Christ reach out to a whole section who will never read the Bible or hear the gospel of Christ? Luke’s whole message is that “You will be my witnesses”. We are His witnesses. The gospel message is SEEN in Christ. Why do you think it was necessary for Jesus to be baptised? This was no Christian baptism- it was a call to REPENTANCE- this man Jesus had no sin to confess and nothing to repent of, so why be baptised? Why would a man who was without sin allow himself to be baptised by a man who had? To repent means that we are agreeing with God about our need for forgiveness It means that we want to change direction and live differently- that was the thrust of what john was saying- the crowd came to him- “what are we supposed to do? “If you have two coats give one away” the tax collectors came and asked “what are we to do?”- “no more extortion…” the soldiers came and asked “What are we to do?”- “no more shakedowns, no blackmail be content with your rations” Repentance is an inner choice which leads to an otter change in the way we live- how could Jesus change to become a better person, inside and outside? How can you improve on perfection? You can’t, Jesus was not baptised because of any imperfection. So why was he baptised? Here we have the crux of the story right at the beginning of the story- “Lord Jesus Christ you have come to us you are one of us Living Lord” Jesus came, as one of us. We know that Jesus was a man of compassion and as he looked at the city of Jerusalem he wept for her. We know that he was a man of sympathy and even empathy- and that means more than feeling sorry for the people- - for the hungry - For the blind - For the sick - For the dying What it means is that he could understand them, he spoke their language, he felt their pain. The reason? He BECAME one of us. I don’t think we understand the extend and depth of the incarnation nearly enough- from the moment of Jesus birth he took on human flesh and really did become one of us. When he went forward to be baptised by John he was saying “I am one of you” He had no sin of his own to repent for and when he died on the cross he had no sin to die for but he BECAME SIN that we might have life. God tells us that He loves us and it is crucial that we understand that He loves us- there are many people in this community who feel worthless but the gospel informs us that we are not worthless, this community is not Godless, the reason we work for the betterment of this society is that it is not rejected by God but loved. When Jesus died he died AS SIN. It is the sin that God rejects not the person and in Jesus Christ it is sin which is out to death. Jesus’ identification with us is so great and so complete that HE BECAME OUR SIN. Now here is the application- trust him to deal with your sin. The fact is that he has already put it to death so trust him to make you into the person he created you to be. Right at the start of a new session of the church year begin by telling him that you trust him- that he has put your sin to death and that he will make the necessary changes in your life to improve your experience of it. This is no lecture or school lesson. – he understands us he knows about death in the family as one who lost his father early in life he knows about death and dying from personal experience He understands the trouble keeping the family business going He understands the temptations which are all around- the temptation to show the world that he was the boss, the temptation to put an end to his captors He understands the frustrations of working with your hands and with your mind. He understands justice and miscarriages of juestice This is where the action is- here we have a God who is with us all the time and for all the time. Will you trust him?