On Wednesday, Stephen had the opportunity to speak at St. Ninian’s at the funeral of Paul McCauley. Paul worshipped with us from November 2021 until his sudden death 13 months later. As a congregation we are still in shock at his sudden death, and yet we’re grateful for the evidence we saw of God’s grace in Paul’s life. You can listen to what Stephen said here (audio slightly muffled):
Can you live without it?
What would be on your Christmas list if you could choose ten things and money was no object? In the lead-up to the World Cup, GQ magazine asked a number of famous footballers to name ‘Ten things you can’t live without’. Those they interviewed included Dutch defender Virgil van Dijk, Germany winger Serge Gnabry, and England trio Declan Rice, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Bukayo Saka. You can watch the results on YouTube. Some of the answers are predictable – football boots, trainers, fancy watches, and iPads for watching TV shows while travelling. There were also an eye-opening amount of grooming products mentioned!
One item most people wouldn’t have expected to be included was a Bible. However that’s exactly what Arsenal and England’s Bukayo Saka pulled out. He said that he tries to read it every night before he goes to bed. Sakha’s interview has currently been watched almost 2 million times, and that quote was picked up on at a press conference in Qatar. Earlier this month a journalist asked Saka if he was still reading his Bible every night. The 21-year old replied that he was, because it was ‘really important’ to always have the presence of God in his life. ‘The main thing for me’, he said ‘is having faith in God’.
For me, one of the great joys I have is seeing people who would never have picked up a Bible in a million years, starting to read it. To see homes in this community where there is now a Bible for the first time. To see people’s new-found enthusiasm as they read a physical copy of the Bible, read it on their phones, or listen to it. Not because Bible reading is an end in itself, but because it points us to Jesus. ‘The Scriptures’, Jesus said, ‘bear witness about me’. That includes not just the parts of the Bible written after he was born – but also the parts written beforehand. In fact, some of the most familiar parts of the Christmas story were written seven centuries before Jesus was born: ‘Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son’…’Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given…of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end’. The same prophet – Isaiah – also described in detail Jesus’ death in the place of his people and explained what it would all be about: ‘by his wounds, we are healed’ (Isaiah 53:5).
When he was interviewed on Desert Island Discs a number of years ago, Comedian Lee Mack said it was an odd thing that people didn’t read the Bible. One of the questions those on the show are asked is which book they would take to a desert island, along with the Bible and the works of Shakespeare. Mack said this about the Bible: ‘I'm glad you get the Bible, because I would read the Bible. I think it's quite odd that people like myself, in their forties, are quite happy to dismiss the Bible, but I've never read it. I always think that if an alien came down and you were the only person they met, and they said, “What’s life about? What’s earth about? Tell us everything,” and you said, “Well, there's a book here that purports to tell you everything. Some people believe it to be true; some people do not believe it to be true.” “Wow, what’s it like?” and you go, “I don’t know, I’ve never read it.” It would be an odd thing, wouldn't it? So, at the very least, read it.’
So let me give you an invitation for 2023: Would you be willing to read the Bible with me? One of my fellow football chaplains, John MacKinnon (Clyde FC), works for an organisation called ‘The Word One to One’. They produce little booklets containing John’s Gospel, divided up into different ‘episodes’. The idea is that two people will sit down together, for 30 minutes at a time, to read through this New Testament book which explains who Jesus is and why he came. Some helpful explanatory notes are included, as well as some questions to help get discussion going.
If meeting up seems too daunting, I can just give you a copy of the first booklet, and it will serve as a guided read through of John chapter 1. Or just look up the gospel of John or Mark online. In the words of Lee Mack – ‘at the very least, read it’. You might be surprised!
Published in the Stranraer & Wigtownshire Free Press, 29 December 2022
Morningstar Premiere
Last week we co-hosted a screening of the new film Morningstar as part of its Premiere Tour. Morningstar, produced by Budapest-based Murdo Macleod (son of FCC minister Rev. William Macleod) is about the life of John Wycliffe, ‘The Morning Star of the Reformation’. The Stranraer showing was the 24th of 27 screenings across the UK.
In the words of a review by Premier Christianity: ‘Don’t be put off by the low budget. This film about radical Bible translator John Wycliffe deserves to be watched’. The screening was held in Stranraer Baptist Church, with us providing the refreshments. We are thankful to have good relationships with our Baptist brothers and sisters – Stephen meets up with the Baptist pastor every couple of months to discuss a book and pray together. Morningstar, as well as Murdo’s previous film, Knox, can be watched online or bought on DVD via morningstarfilm.co.uk and trinitydigitalfilm.com.
When life doesn't go the way you dreamed
This week has seen the first matches of an unusual, mid-season, World Cup – very controversially hosted in Qatar. We’ve heard a lot about Qatar’s ban on homosexuality, a little bit about the 6,500 migrant workers who have died in Qatar since they were awarded hosting rights in 2011, and nothing about Qatar’s Christian population who are facing increasing violence and forced shutdowns of their churches. According to the organisation Open Doors, Qatar is the 18th most dangerous country in the world to be a Christian – having jumped 11 places in the last year. For a Qatari man or woman to convert to Christianity, in a country where conversion from Islam is not recognised, takes real conviction – far removed from the virtue signalling of wearing armbands until threatened with a yellow card.
But amidst all the controversy, one story worth highlighting is that of Liverpool forward Roberto Firmino. The 31-year-old won’t be in Qatar, having unexpectedly failed to make the Brazil squad. Earlier this month he shared his disappointment on Instagram: ‘Yesterday things didn't go the way I imagined or dreamed for my life but I can look back and have a grateful heart to God that he has already allowed me to live that dream’.
Disappointment is something that we’ve all felt. Children know the disappointment of not getting what they want for Christmas. Many of us who are older know all too well the pain of crushed dreams, unfulfilled ambitions, and longings long-since given up on. We can all identify with Firmino in hoping for something that never comes to fruition.
But although we often think of disappointment as not getting what we want, there’s another kind of disappointment too – the disappointment of getting exactly what you want, but still feeling empty. That’s a disappointment that we can often feel at Christmas time. Perhaps all the places around the table are filled, the dinner comes together perfectly, but the whole experience still somehow falls short of our hopes.
That’s the kind of disappointment that Rugby World Cup winner Jonny Wilkinson experienced after scoring the winning drop goal against Australia in the last minute of extra time. It was what he had been longing for his whole life, and yet here’s his honest take on how it felt to achieve his dream: ‘I had already begun to feel the elation slipping away from me during the lap of honour around the field. I couldn’t believe that all the effort was losing its worth so soon. This was something I had fantasized about achieving since I was a child…I’d just achieved my greatest ambition and it felt a bit empty’
That disappointment which Wilkinson experienced – of getting exactly what you want but still being left empty – is surely the worst disappointment of all. If you’re disappointed at not getting what you want, then you can hold on to the hope, however slight, that you might still get it. But if someone gets what they’ve always wanted, and they’re still left feeling empty, then they often don’t know where to go from there. Their whole way of looking at the world is shaken.
For the Christian, however, disappointment in whatever form it takes doesn’t have to crush us. As Firmino was able to say: ‘I stay here confident that God has the best for me’. He quoted from the Biblical book of Isaiah: ‘You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you’. He also quoted well-known words from the book of Jeremiah, which say: ‘For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future’.
In fact, many have come to see that the second type of disappointment as a blessing. If we get what we’ve always wanted and it still leaves us unfulfilled, surely that disappointment is telling us that we were made for something bigger than this world can give us. A happy marriage, a loving family, career success, the perfect holiday – none can bear the weight of all our hopes and dreams – because only God can. In fact, putting the weight of those hopes and dreams on another human being can crush them – because only God can bear that weight.
Firmino ended his Instagram post with the hashtag ‘Jesus is Enough’. Only when we can say the same will we truly be able to deal with disappointment.
Wycliffe Film
On Wednesday 7th December we will be co-hosting a screening of a new film about the Reformer and Bible translator John Wycliffe. Wycliffe is known as ‘The Morning Star of the Reformation’, hence the film’s title, Morningstar. The screening, which is part of the movie’s Premier Tour, will be held in the Baptist Church, with more details on the poster below:
More information about the film is available on the official website, morningstarfilm.co.uk.