TRUE GREATNESS

True Greatness

The other night we had the battle of the giants- the English Premier Champions against the European Champions. While it was a draw the European champions had the moral victory! What make a team great? What make a nation great? What is it about Britain that makes her great? When Knox Mitchell was ordained in this church as the first minister in 1867 everything about Britain was great and Belfast was a great city within a great Empire. Britain was, as the USA is today, the richest nation in the world- the globe was predominately pink to show that the British Empire reigns without challenge or equal-from Canada in the west to New Zealand in the east and that included huge swathes of Africa in the middle. Belfast was the 20^th largest city in the UK and was a world leader in Ship buildings, engineering, rope making and, of course in the Linens industry.

In parallel to this the working man and woman was experiencing life at the raw edge- while they helped to make Britain great a Belfast a leading city of industry they experienced few of the benefits and when they were unemployed or sick they were shown little sympathy or practical help. In 1900 an article in Bibby’s Annual had a picture of some unemployed men and it goes on to say,

“These men should be made to feel… that their condition is a disgrace…Teach them how to play, run, jump, sing, to get a move on things. Play is action and all action is good!”

At the same time Belfast remained fairly unaffected by the famine which was hitting the rest of the country cutting the population from 8million to 4 million in a matter of years.

When people came here to worship they knew that they were part of a great nation in a great city and that the population had increased extremely quickly because of the expansion in the linen industry- what you find as a rule is that at a time of poverty people rush into the city to find work because the irony is that while the city was becoming prosperous many ordinary people were not-at a time of general prosperity people rush out of the city to seek the better life- so today the trend is in reverse to that of the 19^th century. As people gathered here they gathered in a great city to worship a great God.

Today we find ourselves in a nation which has lost its position as top dog and is seeking to adapt to being a nation of equals in an international scene where empire is no longer acceptable and we are just one of many equal nations and what makes matters worse for us is that our nearest neighbour across the border has been on a fast track of prosperity. We are like the once great football team who can only look back to the glory days.

Belfast City Council has a development department which has produced a document which looks back in history but also looks to the future and concludes with this statement:

“All cities need a clear sense of direction to achieve their goals and, for too long, Belfast has not had a clear vision of what it wants to become.”

That is a very interesting statement. The name of our city comes from the Gaelic –Irish and Scottish- BEAL FEIRSTE and it takes the name from the river Farset [as in the Farset Hostel on the Springfield Road]. The meaning in English is

“the mouth of the sandbank”

Belfast is built on the sand! No wonder we have problems. Here we have a living parable which stands to warn us.

G. K. Chesterton once said that when a people stop believing in God its not that they stop believing in anything but that they start believing in everything and s0 they loose both cohesion and a sense of direction. We need to gain our direction and start to build on the ROCK. For some their direction is on the aspiration of a united Ireland and for others it is a return to the Ulster of old- both aspiration and both impossible for life moves on.

WE need to get back to basics and realise that these aspirations are illusionary and lead to nowhere acceptable for anyone. While we have been pre-occupied by holding our ground and we have lost sight of the God we worship. WE are looking at the wrong things- some are looking intently at the unity of an Ireland which has never existed and in the process have lost the people they want to unite and for others they have focused upon maintaining a colonial Ulster as part of a Britain which no longer exists.

While nations rise and fall God remains the same. If we ask the question- what kind of city do we want to be we can only begin to answer that by centring our focus on the one who si truly great.

Isaiah was a prophet for a people rather like us and for our times. He was speaking to a people who were

• discouraged and despondent
• who felt that the tide of events had been against them for a very long time
• who feel like king Kinute
• who have ceased believing in the cause of Christ in this place

WE make a big mistake if we think this is the worst of times and that there have never been such bad times, the truth is well put by Charles Dickens in a “Tale Of Two Cities” when he said,

“It was the worst of times, it was the best of times”

read the Bible and see if that is not true0- we are not unique either in the world today or in the history of the world.

As we prepare for celebrating communion together lets focus on the one who is Sovereign Lord of ALL.

A great nation and people is a people who follow a great leader and the leader we follow is incomparable because he is the divine Lord. Isaiah says look at Him very carefully and then you will see that he is worth following and will not let you down and will form your vision.

Look at :

• What He has DONE v12-he created the world from NOTHING. In the NT He completes that creation by sending Jesus Christ who gives us SALVATION from our past sins and a HOPE for the future. In Adam we are in bondage, in Christ we are free. This is a freedom which is infinitely greater than any political freedom or franchise. Even those who live under tyranny are free. At present we are free within the confines of our humanity but the day will come when we will be free without restraint.
• NATIONS- In the past Great Britain ruled the world. Today it is the USA and tomorrow? China?

God says that God looks at them and calls them insignificant and meaningless- they rise and they fall at the hand of God.v15

• WORLD- today the world has a huge population of over 6billion and rising every second but when compared to God they are like grasshoppers and yet he also says that God knows the name of every one of the stars in the sky at night.
• LEADERS- When Knox Mitchell was minister it was Gladstone the GOM [later the MOG] and Disraeli [immortalised her in the name of the street.. Today it is Bush, Blair and Putin and many others whose names are not known to us but who wield awesome power and Isaiah says v23 He brings them to nothing.

In short we come to worship the incomparable Lord, God and Saviour and if we focus on him then we will see that being like him is our goal- that is our vision. In Him we have real and true greatness so lets look to him and we will be a great people once again, a Great Britain, a United Kingdom and a people at peace with ourselves and that will transcend political greatness and a desire to accommodate one another. I doing this we will build on the rock and not the sand and we will unite with one another in true unity.