The days when every child could tell you about the heroes of the bible are long gone, but the story of Jonah is one that is often recalled. It’s because the tale of a man who tries to run away from God is totally unforgettable. But just in case,  these are the highlights.

God tells Jonah to go to the city of Nineveh and tell the citizens that God is going to destroy every last one of them because of their wickedness. Jonah doesn’t much fancy acting on God’s request, so he boards a boat going in the opposite direction. While aboard, a violent storm batters the ship, and Jonah realises that the only way that the ship can be saved is if he is thrown overboard. The reluctant crew do as Jonah asks and the storm subsides. Jonah meanwhile is swallowed by a giant fish where he spends three days coming to his senses. The fish spews him  on to dry land, Jonah goes to Nineveh to deliver the message form God, the people of Nineveh repent, and God decides that having turned from their evil ways he will not bring the destruction he had threatened. 

Which would be a great place to end the story. But in the book of Jonah we can read a final chapter where we find the title character sitting despondently at a distance from the city waiting to see God’s wrath poured out onto the evil people.

Why is Jonah so downcast? 

‘Because you are a gracious and compassionate God’ says Jonah, ‘slow to anger and abounding in love. I knew that you would relent. I’ve wasted my time and risked my life telling them that the fire of God would be spent upon them. But it hasn’t come.’

But God asks Jonah if it’s right for him to angry? ‘Get your priorities right’ says God. ‘If you’re more worried about yourself than the thousands of people living in the city, then you need to look at the kind of God I am.’ 

Some see God as an angry deity who sits at a distance, occasionally lobbing a thunderbolt and indulging in a bit of smiting. But that doesn’t reflect his true nature. Jonah got it right. Our God is gracious and compassionate. Mostly though he is the God of love, ready to forgive the repentant and welcome them into his kingdom. And there’s no better place to be.

(February 2020)

Discovered on stone tablets inscribed more than 4000 years ago, the ancient civilisation of Sumer in Mesopotamia can lay claim to be the first people to record a recipe. And theirs was for beer! They began a long tradition of the writing down of ingredients, and a method of combining them, so that others could copy and recreate a dish of some sort.

Isabella Beeton in the middle 1800s was a pioneer of the modern cookery book. Mrs Beeton’s Book of Household Management sold 60,000 copies, and cemented her place among the greats of the genre. In more recent years, TV favourites James Martin, Mary Berry, Jamie Oliver and the Hairy Bikers have sold hundreds of thousands of volumes, regularly writing new books to satisfy the appetite of a hungry public.

Scientists have also suggested some recipes of their own. From what’s needed to make a sun, to the essential elements for a planet, to the ingredients for life. In these cases they theory sounds good, but the practical application is of less use, as building suns and making planets and even creating life is impractical in a science lab.

Although they can suggest the ‘how’ there’s less agreement over the ‘why’.

Perhaps the answer can be found in human creativity. Our desire to make and create, to beautify our surroundings and environment, to build and model and mould tells us something about God’s  creative urge. In the opening few verse of the Bible we read how God made humankind in his image. So it’s no wonder that we reflect back something of our creator and his urge to create. Without recipe or guidelines or ingredient list, God created because he could.

(January 2020)

Usually found only between two halves of a burger bun an all beef patty and special sauce, gherkins are one of those food items that divide consumers neatly in two. Those that find them awesomely delicious, and those that would chew off their own fingers rather than eat one. Quite why they should become a popular if somewhat surprising decoration for the Christmas tree in some nations is something of a mystery.

Of the most popular origin legends, one from Spain suggests that it is done in honour of St Nicholas who rescued two young boys who were being held captive in a pickle barrel. Another from Germany originating in the 16th century has it that a pickle is hidden somewhere in the branches of the tree, and is then given as a gift to whichever child can find it. An exciting treat for some, world’s worst treasure hunt for others.

Although there is nothing especially unusual about the two main protagonists in the Christmas story, Mary and Joseph find themselves involved with a whole series of surprising discoveries, encounters and events. Dealing with the unexpected is an underlying theme. Messages from God delivered by angels. A once in a lifetime census. A birth in a grim and wearying environment. Visits from all strata of society – royalty from the East, local labourers & shepherds. An angry King with murderous intent.

At its very heart, the story of the birth of Jesus is all about the coming to earth of the baby who is the Saviour of the World. But it’s also a story of ordinary people faced with extraordinary circumstance and meeting for the first time a God who is so intimately involved with the world that he created, that he was willing to step right into it. 

This is where our story meets with the stories of Mary and Joseph. 

There’s every chance that you might well encounter God while sitting in a pew in a church building, singing carols, or joining in a Christingle. It’s far more likely that you’ll meet him somewhere surprising or unexpected. In the faces of the hungry or homeless. Over coffee with a struggling single mum. On the school gate with a bereaved dad. Perhaps even hanging decorations on the Christmas Tree, whatever they are!

Early on in JRR Tolkien’s epic masterpiece, Lord of the Rings, there’s a passage describing a birthday party and accompanying firework display, put on by Gandalf the Grey, a wizard of Middle Earth. 

In the book, Tolkien describes how the local inhabitants had not seen fireworks like these for many years, as trees, flowers, birds and sailing ships were all created by the wizard’s work with coloured smoke and light. The finale was a large dragon that breathed out fire and, circling over the heads of the guests, was the signal that supper was to begin.

Fireworks are often used to mark celebration of some sort. A birthday party, a wedding or New Year. Celebrating the 5th of November, and the good fortune that the UK government had in escaping from the treasonous Guy Fawkes intent to blow up the Houses of Parliament, sounds reasonable enough. Although coupling it with the tradition of lighting a large bonfire seems an odd way to mark the missing of a catastrophe – using  as its centrepiece the result that was likely to engulf them had Fawkes plan come to fruition. 

Historians have long argued over how the nation would have changed if the Gunpowder Plot by Fawkes and his colleagues had succeeded. As the date chosen was for the opening of parliament, it was not only the MPs who would have been present in the chamber, but the King and Queen alongside many senior palace and other government officials as well. With the plan coming to fruition, the structure of government would have collapsed, a whole level of authority removed. It would have meant starting again from scratch with instability and uncertainty the inevitable consequence.

Although fire can cause damage and destruction, it can also be used to cleanse and renew.

Farmers burn the stubble on the fields that have been harvested to prepare those fields for a further planting. Metalworkers and jewellers refine precious metals in the immense heat of a furnace to remove impurities. God too is like a ‘refiner’s fire’. We are made more like him through the trails and difficulties, the ‘fires’, of our lives. It may be painful to go through those burning flames, but we come out the other side holier and closer to him.

(November 2019)

In the world of sport, scoring systems range from the simple and and easily understood to the downright bizarre. 

Football is straightforward enough, as are hockey, badminton, volleyball and squash. Tennis though seems needlessly complicated.

A match in tennis consists of three or five sets, the winner being the first to two or three sets, each of which has a number of games. The aim is be the first to get 6 games to win a set, and be ahead by two. If the number of games is tied at six each then there is a tie breaker to decide who wins a set. Unless it’s the final set, then the players keep playing until one of them is two games ahead. Each game sees the players seek to be the first to score 4 points, and be ahead by two. But rather than points increasing in the obvious progression of 1 – 2 – 3 – 4, instead the scoring system goes 15 – 30 – 40, and then the next point the game is won. Unless they are at 40 for each side, in which case it’s called ‘deuce’, and the next player who wins a point moves to ‘advantage’, then winning the game if they successfully take the next point, or moving back to deuce if they don’t.

There are all sorts of theories as to how the scoring system arose, but it’s true origins are somewhat obscure, various alternative origins having been suggested for nearly 500 years.

Finding a way to keep score is not just limited to sport. 

In music there’s the number of albums sold, the frequency a song is played on the radio and the size of crowds at a gig.

In the jobs sphere it is often the salary being paid or the title on the plaque fixed to the office door.

When it comes to seeing things God’s way, the view can be markedly different. Rather than achieving monetary wealth, sporting triumph or a number one single, success is in keeping the hungry fed, the homeless housed, and above all else loving God. It may not see the same public plaudits or swelling of the bank balance, but the end result is definitely a win!

(October 2019)

The Camino de Santiago, or The Way of St James, is a series of pilgrimages that lead to the shrine of the apostle St James the Great in the Cathedral of Santiago. The majority of those travelling the Camino would begin in France, and often walked the Way for months or sometimes years at a time. It follows for the main part an earlier Roman trade route and was one of the most important Christian Pilgrimages of the Middle Ages. Over the next few centuries the number of pilgrims reduced significantly, until in the late twentieth century only a few hundred people made the journey each year.

Beginning in the late 1980s, and following it’s listing as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Camino has seen an extraordinary reversal of fortune. 2016 saw more than a quarter of a million individuals receive their certificates for completing their pilgrimage at Santiago having walked 100km or more.

Director Emilo Estevez’s 2015 movie The Way, follows the story of a Dr Thomas Avery, an American who goes to France following the death of his son who had died while on the Camino. Originally intending to return home with his son’s ashes, Avery ends up walking the pilgrimage himself carrying the ashes to complete the walk that his son had begun. 

The film explores how this affects Avery and other travellers who he journeys with. Although getting to their destination is important, the film focusses on the significance of the journey itself and ends with Avery setting out again on another adventure 

There has been a suggestion that the ultimate goal of every Christian pilgrim is the journey’s end where heaven is the final destination. But with Jesus there is already the hope and the promise of an eternity with God. This makes the journey for all followers of Jesus such a vital part of our lives with him. Without the journey itself, where’s the opportunity to grow, to learn, to mature, and to meet and encourage others who are walking on a different path?

The truth is that a walk alone going a different way offers so much less than the journey made when the walk is with God.

 (September 2019)

Henry Ford’s vision of the future was one in which no-one earning a good salary would be unable to afford one of his Model T cars. Most famously, his description of the choice he would make available to customers is one of his best known quotes.

‘Any customer can have a car painted any colour that he wants so long as it’s black’ 

Ford’s belief was that it was only 5% of customers who wanted something different. The ninety-five percent would purchase a car without making a fuss or requesting an alternative colour. This, says Ford, is why you should concentrate on the 95% rather than the five.

Visit any car showroom from any model from any manufacturer, even his own,  and you’ll see how much Ford’s legacy when it comes to customer choice still exists.

It doesn’t.

It’s not just the colour of the vehicle that it’s now possible to choose, but engine size, interior trim, diesel or petrol, sunroof or not, wheel diameter, sat-nav, dog guard, tow bar and more. The potential combination of variations is endless.

The primary reason for buying a car is usually that it can successfully take you from A to B. The speed comfort and cost may change, but if the vehicle looks and feels great and just sits on a driveway, then choosing to invest in a bus pass might be a better decision.

When it comes to making the choice of how to spend our money, what is our primary motivation? Is it practicality or beauty? Function or design? Or is just about the price?

Although in the commercial world there is often a distinction made between cost and looks – some companies actually stress one over the other or that their product straddles both – there doesn’t have to be dividing line made between the two. God would suggest that there is a another way. 

Christians understand that God sees value differently. For him, it’s determined neither by usefulness of attractiveness. It’s a belief that all living things have worth by virtue of that life itself. And from the one who created it in the first place, who’d expect anything else?

(August 2019)

There was once a common held perception among the fashion conscious that of all the sartorial sins, the greatest was mixing stripes and spots.

Although the term ‘a crime against fashion’ is often used to point out ‘interesting’ clothes choices or designs in a lighthearted way, there was a time that stripes were considered, quite literally, criminal.

In the middle ages, adorning yourself with stripes was a dangerous choice. In 1310, a cobbler in one part of Northern France was condemned to death because, according to local archives researched by author Michael Pastoureau, ‘he had been caught in striped clothes’. A rather extreme reaction, but the prevailing opinion at the time was that striped clothing was only worn by social outcasts, such as ‘prostitutes, jugglers and clowns’, and was considered ‘demeaning, pejorative or clearly diabolic’. The same underlying belief about stripes was still felt centuries later as bold stripes adorned the prison uniform of American inmates from the 1800s.

A markedly different approach was taken back in the Brittany costal area of France, where the classic blue and white striped tops became a popular choice. Fashion designer Coco Chanel even based a collection on it in the at the beginning of the twentieth century, and  the French Navy some forty years later gave all of their seamen a woven top with twenty-one stripes, one for each of Napoleon’s victories.

Not content with the big hair that was a staple part of glam metal acts of the 1980s, rock band Stryper wore yellow and black striped outfits as part of their image. The band took their name from a verse in the book of Isaiah in the bible, ‘he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed’.

Christians have understood this verse to be a prophetic description of Jesus, the stripes being the marks of the beatings and floggings he received before his crucifixion.

It’s quite a turn around for stripes, from being an object of derision and scorn, to being the mark of redemption. But then that’s exactly what the Christian faith is all about.

(July 2019)

Based on author George R R Martin’s multi-volume fantasy epic, the TV show Game of Thrones has attracted a great deal of both praise and criticism. Weaving various narratives of its large cast of fascinating characters into a grand overarching tale, it has drawn in many as the various individuals scheme and fight their way to be crowned as ruler of the mythical seven kingdoms. 

In the final episode, Tyrion Lannister, who has somehow managed to survive throughout the entire series, speaks to a council of peers as they discuss who should become the new ruler of the fictional continent of Westeros. He suggests that Bran Stark, crippled by a fall several years earlier, is an unlikely choice, but the best choice. For one particular reason

“What unites people?” Asks Lannister. “Armies? Gold? Flags? Stories. There’s nothing in the world more powerful than a good story. Nothing can stop it. No enemy can defeat it. And who has a better story?”

Stories have a power to live in the hearts and minds of a culture, whatever form they come in. Whether it’s Aslan the Lion from CS Lewis’s Narnia chronicles, the boy wizard Harry Potter, archaeological adventurer Indiana Jones or cockney flower-girl turned toast of elite London society Eliza Doolittle, some are stories to aspire to, some to identify with, some to warn, but all of them inspire.

The life of Jesus Christ has been described as the greatest story ever told. But that seems to suggest a tale that has an ending. The declaration made in churches week after week that “Jesus is alive” speaks of how his story is not finished. His story carries on. Released from the pages of the bible, and in the lives of all those that love and follow him.  

Each of us has our own unique story, one where we might be the focus, the leading player playing the central part. Friends, family or others may well have significant roles, but they will come and go as our story twists and turns. When Jesus becomes part of the chronicles of our lives, the pages are are brought to life, the journey is fuller, and the ending is sure.

Then, who has a better story?

(June 2019)

Of all the weird and wonderful names that have are used for newspapers around the word, the Arran Banner has to be one the most bizarre. Published every Saturday on the Isle of Arran, the weekly publication gets the inspiration for its name from a variety of potato developed in the early twentieth century by a local man on the island. With subscribers from all round the world, the Arran Banner is known for the feisty discussion that takes place on the letters page, covering subjects as diverse as climate change to local traffic and ferry services. 

As the prominence of online sources for consumers looking to find their news rises,  the death of traditional newspapers has long been predicted. The decline in sales of print editions has been dramatic, and several tiles have ceased publication completely. 

The immediacy of social media means that news, true or false, is now available in real time. There is no need to wait for tomorrow’s paper to discover what might have happened the previous day.  Any death of a celebrity, natural disaster or terrorist atrocity will be known world wide minutes after it occurs. The idiom, ‘bad news travels fast’, could be the motto for the internet age.

But why should bad news be the driver of the news cycle, when there is so much to celebrate?

The book of Proverbs in the bible, a ‘collection of collections’, brings together wise sayings, instructions for moral loving and right conduct, all under the repeated theme of submission to the will of God. A variety of authors, some named, others left anonymous, have contributed to the several hundred ‘proverbs’ that make up the completed work. 

Among the sayings, two of them in particular have something important to say about news; 

‘Bright eyes gladden the heart; Good news puts fat on the bones.’

‘Like cold water to a weary soul, So is good news from a distant land.’

Although there is much in the world to be concerned about, good news, whether it be a sporting achievement, a wedding or a birth, or the awesomeness of God’s creation, the bible tells us that  good news can feed our very souls.

(May 2019)