Before plunging into talk number 228, I will reprise the closing words of my first ‘View’ penned in dated December 2005:
The Organ plays the Vicar speaks
Candles flicker old pews creak.
For those who listen, the old walls say
Hope is here this Christmas day.
Rector at that time Pat Phillips, fulfilled my hope of rescue from a previous ban from writing for the magazine when an anonymous reader took offence to something written.
Being ostracised because of something said is not a new phenomenon; the philosopher Socrates, who taught about Virtue & Democracy lived his beliefs and lived frugally but spoke words which outraged a small coterie of listeners.
They then abused the democratic procedures he had argued for to bring about his death via a cup of hemlock. Additionally, John 10:33, records the Pharisaic group also condemned Jesus for his words of belief whilst simultaneously giving no value to his actions for ordinary people bypassed by the rulers of the time.
This brings me to ask a New-Year question: Are our beliefs for 2025 going to be the same as 2024 or even an earlier year? Note: I am asking about beliefs not resolutions.
Nature abhors a vacuum even a vacuum of belief and because we cannot live practical lives without beliefs if we choose not to believe in a loving Creator God, we have already chosen something else.
We may not know what that something is until we ask ourselves, “What do I value the most, or what is it I spend most time thinking about? When you answer that that then is your God.
Money, Power, intellectual and bodily pleasures are common alternative Gods, but there are hundreds of others such as football teams or even your job. Some alternatives are subtle such as, envy, self-righteousness, greed, or indulgence. Whatever our God is, we had better be very careful as to what we have put as our apex belief.
That Belief will naturally drive all our actions. Even down to the little actions such as throwing litter down or not giving way to other drivers? Even tinier things such as irritation at a doddery old man on the zebra crossing. There are good reasons why our ancestors put a loving, demanding Creator at the very top of the Ethical Tree.
The tree has limbs and branches such as Tolerance, Compassion, Sympathy, Selflessness, Hope and Humility and which produce fruits which are the little acts of assistance to others and the kindly thoughts we pass on to others.
The past few months of restricted activity due to a foot operation have been educational; I am more understanding of those folk whose manoeuvrability is less than my own, and grateful for those kind people who have changed their own routines, to help me with some of the things I could not do for myself.
Believing in the highest rather than in second best, makes it easier to thank others and to change our own routines.
Beliefs are expressed in words but when they give rise to actions they matter.
The Higher our ethical principles the better the chance of a better world.
As a Christian I believe the highest point of value starts with the first item on the stones brought down the mountain by Moses 6000 years ago.
However, From the very beginning not all agreed and today an extract from a student’s essay on the books of Genesis & Exodus reads:
“The first Commandment was when Eve told Adam to eat the apple“.
View from the Pew 