Thomas Chalmers and 'A Very Fine Field of Operation'

Having turned the ripe old age of 41 recently I received 'Out of Harness' by Thomas Guthrie.  Published in 1883 (10 years after Guthrie's death) it is a collection of auto-biographical essays.  Of the 20 essays 7 are devoted to his ministry in the Cowgate in Edinburgh and are entitled Sketches of the Cowgate.  Other chapters include The Original Ragged School, New Brighton, A Winter Gale, The Streets of Paris, Sunday in Paris and French Protestantism and several others. 

There are some great quotes in the book particularly about Thomas Chalmers.  Allow me one example; Courted by the great, Chalmers' sympathies lay with the masses. Their oppression roused him like a lion; their neglect stirred his indignation; their sufferings touched his soul with such tender pity that the horrors of the Irish and Highland famines were like to break his heart. He loved mankind. His aspirations were not to drag the upper classes down to the level of the lower, but to improve the economic, educational, moral and religious condition of the lowest stratum of society; and so, as when the base of the pyramid is raised, to raise all the courses of the superstructure up to the royalty - sitting high on the throne (Out of Harness, Dr Thomas Guthrie, p 127).

Dr Thomas Chalmers

One of the main reasons I wanted to get this book was because of the famous conversation between Dr Chalmers and Dr Guthrie in 1837 which is described in the book.  It is often mentioned in Free Church circles and I've always wanted to read it for myself.

 

Thomas Guthrie was called from the sleepy parish of Arbirlot, Angus in 1837 to the bustling city of Edinburgh.  His charge was Old Greyfriars so the Cowgate became his parish.  Guthrie describes his field of service;

The streets were a puddle; the heavy air, loaded with smoke, was thick and murky; right below lay the narrow street of dingy tenements, whose toppling chimneys and patched and battered roofs were apt emblems of the fortunes of most of its tenants.  Of these, some were lying over the sills of windows innocent of glass, or stuffed with old hats and old rags; others, course looking women with squalled children in their arms or at their feet stood in groups at the close-mouths - here with empty laughter chaffing any passing acquaintance - there screaming each other down in a drunken brawl, or standing sullen and silent, with hunger and ill-usage in their saddened looks.  A brewers cart, threatening to crush beneath its ponderous wheels the ragged urchins who had no other playground, rumbled over the causeway - drowning the quavering voice of one whose drooping head and scanty dress were ill in harmony with song, but not drowning the shrill pipe of an Irish girl who thumped the back of an unlucky donkey and cried her herrings at 'three-a-penny' (Out of Harness, Thomas Guthrie, p 126).

The narrative continues that as Guthrie stared down on the scene of utter degradation Dr Chalmers came up behind him;

 

Hopeful of success, he surveyed the scene beneath us, and his eye, which often wore a dreamy stare, kindled at the prospect of seeing that wilderness become an Eden, these foul haunts of darkness, drunkenness and disease, changed into "dwellings of the righteous where is heard the voice of melody."  Contemplating the scene for a little in silence, all at once, with his broad Luther-like face glowing with enthusiasm, he waved his arm to exclaim, "A beautiful field, sir; a very fine field of operation" (Out of Harness, Thomas Guthrie, p 130).

 

We may think that these scenes from 170 years ago have little relevance to us today.  But how would we respond to such a scene?  Would we be heartbroken and stirred to action like Chalmers and Guthrie?  Are some of the housing schemes of Scotland any less chaotic and dysfunctional than the 19th century Cowgate? 

 

When Guthrie came to Edinburgh he came to a city gripped with industrial and social upheaval.  Overcrowding, poverty, alcoholism and abuse were rife.  The main reason for ragged schools was because children were being thrown out on the streets by drunken parents to beg and steal.  In his Autobiography he estimates that less than 5 in 150 attended church.  But he didn't despair.  He developed a Biblical vision for his parish and especially for the poor.  He visited systematically, he worked tirelessly, served sacrificially and loved indiscriminately. 

Most importantly Chalmers and Guthrie had a strategy and structure to win a geographical area for Christ.  As Guthrie said of Chalmers and his 'parochial system'; to change the face of a district required, in his opinion, a more extensive and efficient system of cultivation - a school for children; a church with its door open to the poorest of the inhabitants; and a large staff of zealous men and women - each with their own section of families to visit, and all working in harmony, like bees in a hive, under the direction of the minister, their captain, bishop or superintendent (Out of Harness, Thomas Guthrie, p 128).  Surely this is what we need again.  We need a team around our ministers who can reach out to a local area caring for body and soul.  The great issues of our age are family breakdown, debt, isolation, addiction and poverty.  As Guthrie argues time and again, the gospel is the answer but this does not abdicate the church from responding with practical expressions of love in seeking to reach out to the broken and marginalised in our society. 

But what about schools?  The church needs to reassert its influence in education after decades of secular humanism pushing religious instruction to the margins. The Free Church in particular has a proud history of building schools and lifting thousands out of ignorance.  It is interesting to note that the great priority of the Free Church in 1843 was for schools and mission (by 1844-45 £50,000 had been raised for the School Building Fund). It was not until 1845 that the Manse Fund was established and Guthrie took on his role as the 'great beggar man' as he was called by Rev Wallace Duncan of Peebles. 

Guthrie (in many ways prophetically) said in his evidence to the parliamentary committee of 1853 'I do not wish the government to supersede our efforts; what I wish the State to do is, to supplement them' (Memoirs, p 468).  He was, of course, referring to his beloved Ragged Schools, but the point was well made.  The state has long since superseded the efforts of those with a personal or charitable interest in education and the 'one size fits all' state system struggles to respond to the complex (and often tragic) issues facing many children today. Children from poorer backgrounds in particular are suffering in schools where poverty and generational family breakdown are rife. Many churches are providing breakfast clubs where kids often testify that it is their only meal of the day.  The schools do their best but so much more is needed.  Could this be the time for a re-look at Ragged Schools? This Guthrie fan certainly thinks so.  In the meantime we have 'a very fine field of operation' across Scotland.  The challenges are huge but let's recapture the spirit of Chalmers as we seek to tackle them. 

Loving the City



Thomas Guthrie, the famous Edinburgh minister and philanthropist, preached a series of sermons that were eventually published under the heading of 'The City, its Sins and Sorrows'.  The edition I have was published in 1857 and it says that the discourses were delivered to gather support for a 'Territorial Church in one of the dark and destitute districts of Edinburgh.'   The book is four sermons from Luke 19 v 41 'And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it.' 

Guthrie was not really an expositor but rather a graphic preacher who used great sweeping pictures in his sermons to rail against the evils of poverty, drunkenness and ignorance.  He waged a long campaign for temperance and often spoke of the evils of drink.  In the third sermon he says; "I pray you do not hate the drunkard; he hates himself.  Do not despise him; he cannot sink so low in your opinion as he is sunk in his own.  Your hatred and contempt may rivet, but will never rend his chains.  Lend a kind hand to pluck him from the mire.  With a strong hand shatter the bowl - remove the temptations which, while he hates, he cannot resist.  Hate, abhor, tremble at his sin.  And for pity's sake, for God's sake, for Christ's sake, for humanity's sake, rouse yourselves to the question, What can be done?"  (The City its Sins and Sorrows, Guthrie, 1857, p 74).  

What is so interesting about The City its Sins and Sorrows is to read of Guthrie commending cities and encouraging the Christian Church to engage and embrace in city life rather than shunning it for the country. In the first sermon Guthrie rises to his usual heights of flowery language; "Cities have been as lamps of light along the pathway of humanity and religion. Within them science has given birth to her noblest discoveries. Behind their walls freedom has fought her noblest battles. They have stood on the surface of the earth like great breakwaters, rolling back or turning aside the swelling tide of oppression. Cities, indeed, have been the cradles of human liberty. They have been the radiating, active centres of almost all church and state reformation. Having therefore no sympathy with those who regard our cities as corresponding to the excrescences of a tree or the tumours of disease, and would raze them to the ground, I bless God for cities" (The City its Sins and Sorrows, Guthrie 1857, p 8-9).  Guthrie goes on to talk of the many advantages of cities;

• The highest humanity is developed in cities 
• The highest piety is developed in cities
• The highest happiness of saints is found in city life

This theology needs to be re-emphasised in every age as some Christians again seek to withdraw from our cities to the 'safer' suburbs and rural areas. There are large areas of our cities, particularly some of the more deprived areas that have little or no gospel witness.  James Montgomery Boice puts it much better than I can; "Some Christians are opposed to the city for reasons based on the very points I am making. They regard the city as godless. They think of urban cultures as being mans invention and therefore alien to God, who placed the first man and woman in a garden, not a city. That is true, but it is not the whole story. The city is godless. But the problem with the "godless city" is not the city but the "godless," and people living in the country without Christ are godless too. Again the problem of "civilisation without God" is not civilisation itself but rather its godless characteristics. And so far as the garden goes, while it is true that the Bible begins with a garden, it is also true that it ends with a city, the new Jerusalem. Our task is not to abandon earthly kingdoms but to build God's kingdom in the midst of the godless ones and in so doing look forward and show the way "to the city with foundations, whose builder and maker is God" (Hebrews 11 v 10) (Two Cities, Two Loves, Montgomery Boice, 1996, p 74).

 

Guthrie, was not the first great preacher to write about cities.  Augustine famously wrote The City of God which was probably the most influential book of the Middle Ages.  There are few greater theologians than Augustine and if you want to know more about him RC Sproul's address here is well worth listening to.  Written over 13 years, The City of God was the first serious attempt to write a Christian philosophy of history and to explain the two clashing kingdoms or worldviews that have dominated history. 

Augustine argued that from the first rebellion of the fallen angels against God "two cities have been formed by two loves: the earthly by the love of self, even to the contempt of God; the heavenly by the love of God, even to the contempt of self".  Augustine represented the church as the City of God and the earthly city as the earthly society being characterised by Babylon and Rome which had fallen to the Visigoth king Aleric 3 years before Augustine had started writing The City of God.  A large part of the book is given over to arguing against the prevailing  view that the barbarians had conquered Rome because the ancient gods had been forsaken for Christianity.  As Montgomery Boice writes Augustine showed  "on the contrary, that the city [Rome] had been punished for its sins.  In its early centuries Rome had been a nation of stoics.  It had strong families and honest governors.  It had almost created civil law and had given order and peace to the world.  But the seeds of decay lay within its debased religions, which encouraged rather restrained the corrupt sexual nature of human beings" (Two Cities, Two Loves, Montgomery Boice, 1996, p 20). 

 

Augustine's City of God and Guthrie's The City, its Sins and Sorrows remind us that we need a theology for our cities. When the Christian church gets this wrong it leads to a lack of engagement with our cities and a flight to the suburbs and country. It also leads to ghetto churches in our cities where we have a 'Highland church' or an 'African church'.  Some of these churches have evolved to make the attenders feel comfortable but often have no serious engagement with the community they have been placed in. 

Men like Tim Keller have pioneered urban church planting in New York with Redeemer Presbyterian and has helpfully written a book called Church Centre on much of what he has learned.  It is great to see some pioneering work going on in some of the neediest areas of Scotland through 20Schemes and Niddrie Community Church.  There are some great organisations that are helping to bring about urban community transformation such as Glasgow City Mission, Bethany Christian Trust and The Trussell Trust.

There are some great examples of engagement with deprived schemes here in Aberdeen such as The Lighthouse Project in Tillydrone and in Seaton with Seaton Community Church.  The work in Seaton is being supported by Bethany Christian Trust and a foodbank will be launched at some point in the future.  Barry Douglas took a step of faith less than a year ago and established a church in an area short on gospel witness.   It is great to see how the work has grown and to see his vision for the marginalised and also to see a growing youth work.  We need more of these pioneers in Scotland today.

The longstanding work of Deeside Christian Fellowship is seeing some real fruit as they continue to work with some of the most marginalised men and women in The Lighthouse Project, Tillydrone.  A number of men from The Lighthouse recently helped to paint the little thrift shop called the First Port of Call which Bethany runs.  It was a complete privilege to work alongside some of these men who had been notorious in their community for all the wrong reasons.  The Outreach Pastor, John Merson, has been a personal inspiration to me as he has quietly worked away with these men over many years.  While many church planters seek the limelight John is a very humble man working away in quietness and humility to build the kingdom. 

 

We, as the church, need to support these pioneers, church planters and organisations working in our inner cities with some of the poorest and most marginalised communities in Scotland.  We need old truths presented with a new and fresh reality.  Guthrie said "I have no hope of accomplishing this object if the churches are to be laced up by their old rules, and people are to leave everything to ministers and missionaries."  We need to end the one man ministries that have been so detrimental particularly in Presbyterian circles.  As Keller says we need to realise that church planting in inner city areas is relational, low key and very long term.  As the church we need to be in this for the long term if we are going to see any long term results. 

Just as Guthrie and Chalmers had a Biblical vision for our cities in the 19th century we need to have a similar vision today.  I'll leave the last (quaint) word to the great man himself; "Let each select their own manageable field of Christian work.  Let us embrace the whole city, and cover its nakedness, although, with different denominations at work, it should be robed, like Joseph, in a coat of many colours.  Let our only rivalry be the holy one of who shall do most and succeed best in converting the wilderness into an Eden, and causing the deserts to blossom as the rose" (The City its Sins and Sorrows, Guthrie, 1857, p 111).  

 

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Growing up Scratchy - Living with Eczema

For the last 40 years I have lived with a fairly low profile but very high impact disease - eczema.  It's difficult to explain to somebody who doesn't have eczema just how much it affects your life.  Perhaps the best way of explaining what eczema feels like is to explain that it comes from the Greek word 'ekzein' which means 'to boil'.  Eczema at its worst feels like your skin is on fire.  Incredibly 1 in 5 children and 1 in 12 adults in the UK suffer from eczema.  There is loads of different information about the different types of eczema here.

Eczema is a 'non-disease.'  It's not high profile or life threatening so the medical response is patchy and poorly resourced.  I may be paranoid but I can't help feeling that some of the doctors I have seen seem to imply that I could be doing a lot more to help myself.  A recent consultant gave me the third degree for missing my patch tests (we were on holiday at the time).  While this is my own experience our son Alasdair has a very supportive GP and dermatologist at the moment.

I had fairly extreme eczema as a kid but have always suffered with bad eczema on my hands as an adult.  At best it can be irritating but at worst it can be debilitating and can make work complicated.  Last year my hands become infected 5-6 times over the summer and autumn.  Large blisters appeared on my hands and my fingers became infected.  I lost 3 nails on my right hand with the infection and was on non-stop anti-biotics for months.  The result?  After about 25 years away from dermatology I am back on their books. 

The smell of cold tar and the familiar names of dermovate, betnovate and eumovate are part and parcel of the Dermatology Dept at Lauriston and it feels like I've never been away.  There is an almost Victorian feel to the Dermatology Department with a complete absence of any high tech equipment.  The Victorian feel is backed up by the patriarchal system of male doctors giving instructions to an army of female auxiliaries who fetch and carry files and take blood samples from willing victims.  My first visit back to dressings after nearly 25 years away involved red paint being dabbed on my cuts, cold tar smeared on my hands and walking out with mickey mouse gloves.  I had some strange looks as I sipped coffee in the Elephant House before going in to the National Library!

Last Saturday we attended our first family weekend with Eczema Outreach Scotland.  It was great to meet other parents affected by eczema and hear some fairly familiar stories.  The event was in the Howden Park Centre in Livingston and while our boys politely declined the dance workshop they had a great time at the arts and crafts (no. 4 son Ali was a bit scratchy and shy).

As with so many inspirational charities, Eczema Outreach Scotland, was set up by one mother frustrated with how little support there was for families affected my eczema.  The founder is called Magali Speight (pictured below with Kirsteen) whose daughter suffers from eczema.  Magali proves what one person can do with energy and vision.  After only one year the organisation has around 150 families who have received their welcome pack and attended their growing number of events.

Those with kids who have eczema are affected in all sort of ways - from sleep deprivation, food allergies, to endless hospital appointments and the usual round of comments in the supermarket as you explain that your son (or daughter) isn't a burns victim.  Most of us have experienced the frustrations of a less than zealous medical response.  I remember sitting in a consultants office with our 2nd son Calum around 7 years ago.  His face was red raw with weeping sores and he was screaming in pain night after night.  Despite this the consultant said there was nothing else he could do for us.  Not for the last time we walked out of a medical appointment feeling unsupported and very alone. 

Of our 4 boys 3 have eczema with little Alasdair (centre below) being by far the worst.  When we tell people that he has hardly slept all night for the last 3 years, people think we are exaggerating.  He can go through phases when after 2-3 hours of sleep he can be unsettled for the rest of the night.  At times I've gone in to work on 3-4 hours of fitful sleep.  Talking to some other fathers at the event last week, sleep deprivation comes up the most challenging issue.  Some spoke of being in medical jobs where a mistake could lead to disastrous consequences and found little support from their employer.

Is there hope?  Yes there is.  Kids can get better - there is always hope they can grow out of it.  Calum (10), despite having extreme food allergies has almost outgrown eczema apart from the soles of his feet.

Family is a huge help.  James (13) has eczema so has an incredible bond with Ali.  Often he will help him calm down when he is in a scratching fit. Use extended family to get a break, have a meal and have a good sleep!

As a couple it is important to work as a team.  If both of us are having a sleepless night it can be horrendous.  Better that at least one sleeps and the other tries to calm down the scratchy kid or that we take 2 hourly shifts.  All the couples I have spoken to say that having a child with eczema can have a significant impact on your marriage and family life.  Acknowledging this and talking about it can be first step to seeking more support.  If possible get other family involved so that even once a month you can have a full nights sleep.

Organisations like Eczema Outreach Scotland are excellent.  Bringing families together for mutual support is such a help and even though it doesn't solve the problem, at least people feel less alone as they struggle through. 

Assertiveness can help.  Some GP's don't routinely refer eczema sufferers to dermatologists.  If you are struggling, insist on a referral and keep fighting until you get one.  Once you see a specialist you will hopefully remain in the system until things are a little better.

Lastly, and most importantly for us, faith is a huge element of our life with eczema.  We believe in a God who hears and answers prayer and in a Saviour who knew what it was like to suffer.  We don't believe that suffering is meaningless but we believe that 'for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose' Romans 8 v 28. 

The Psalms are also a great comfort to us - in them we find a great reality and comfort.  Let me leave you with one of my favourites; 'You who have made me see many troubles and calamities will revive me again; from the depths of the earth you will bring me up again.  You will increase my greatness and comfort me again Psalms 71 v 20, 21. 

A Trip to Murrayfield and the Shiny Bubbles of Fame

We had a great weekend in the Murray house.  Saturday was taken up with a trip to Murrayfield to see the victorious Scotland Rugby Team beat Italy 34-10.  The tickets seemed out of our reach but a very generous benefactor donated some tickets to us.  We were sitting in the gods but Davie and Calum enjoyed their first rugby game all the same.  There was great excitement with some of the tries particularly Stuart Hogg's stunning 80 yard run.

It always amazes me how nearly 80,000 people can watch a rugby game, with no segregation and a plentiful supply of alcohol and yet there is no trouble.  Compared to the aggressive atmosphere of some of the football games I have been at in the past, rugby is a very pleasant day out and one I wouldn't hesitate to take the kids back to.

The weekend got even better when we turned up for church on Sunday and the boys found themselves sitting in front of Euan Murray from the Scotland Squad. 

Murray has never tried to be a celebrity Christian but doesn't shy away from his principles as this Guardian interview proves.  Here are a couple of paragraphs;

He [Murray] suggests that the path many professional sportsmen follow is "rotten". He tries to explain. "All the shiny bubbles," he says, holding out his big hands and shaking his head in sadness. "The money, the possessions, the fame, the great elusive relationship – all bubbles that appear perfectly spherical, all the colours of the rainbow. They're bright and shiny and light as a feather, and you chase them because it's good fun, but the minute you get them they burst and they're empty." He pauses. "I'd had enough of chasing bubbles."

What were the "bubbles"? "The attraction of all the glamour and glitz that society puts up on a pedestal and says is the be all and end all. All the tinsel, you know? The success. There are many ways of measuring success – it could be in popularity, the funniest guy, or the guy with the best scores, it could be money, it could be getting the best-looking girl, lifting the most in the gym, having the best clothes, it could be being the best rugby player in the world." He trails off. "It's not wrong to be funny, or have a great-looking wife. It's not wrong to have money and to want to be the best player in the world, but if that is your idol then that is wrong." (The Guardian, Thursday 4 February 2010).

There are so many stars who pursue the 'shiny bubbles' that Murray describes above and find that as soon as they have them they are empty.  The recent tragedy of Paul Gascoigne is testament to the elusive nature of a celebrity sport lifestyle. 

At the age of 25 Murray had everything that the world could offer and yet he had an emptiness.  After an accident in 2005 when he was knocked unconcious Murray began to read his Bible which began to challenge his lifestyle.  As Murray read about Jesus and the need for the new birth, he began to seek the Lord and came to know Christ in a personal way. 

As well as being open about his faith in Christ, Murray has always stood firm on the Lords Day which is so rare amongst high profile sports people and even most Christians nowadays.  My oldest boy James is a great fan of Eric Liddell so I'm very pleased that the boys have guys like Murray to look up to.  There is more from Ragged Theology on the Lord's Day here.

I know Euan doesn't seek the limelight but if you want to hear more about how he lives as a Christian and a rugby player you can listen to it here. 

Lunch with the Vicar of Baghdad

I met a remarkable man last Saturday - Canon Andrew White who ministers at St George's, Baghdad.  His church is involved in a whole variety of ministries through the Foundation for Relief and Reconciliation in the Middle East.  Every week St George's feeds around 500 men and women as part of their Food Relief Programme.  Every month around 2000 people attend their medical clinic which is provided free of charge. 

While we may be on slightly different pages theologically, the 'Vicar of Baghdad' was an absolute inspiration.  His church is a light in the midst of darkness and is bringing reconciliation to a fractured and divided city.  One of the only Christian churches in a violent city, St George's is famous world wide for leading community transformation.  What can we learn from this remarkable ministry in Scotland?



Canon Andrew White and the real Andy Murray

Perhaps one of the greatest tragedies is that so often the church in Scotland is not leading community change.  But that hasn't always been the case.  While Dr Thomas Guthrie (1803-1873) was one of the finest preachers of the Free Church in the 19^th Century, his greatest legacy was surely as a social reformer.  This is summed up on his statue in Edinburgh which declares he was ‘a friend of the poor and the oppressed’. His legacy extends far beyond the church and Guthrie impacted the whole country with his vision for the marginalised.  His legacy epitomises the two great priorities of the church; truth and love. 

When Guthrie was called to Old Greyfriars in 1837 he walked the streets of the Cowgate and the Lawnmarket and was appalled by the 1-2000 'ragged children' he saw all around him on the streets.  He wrote, campaigned, organised, spoke and inspired until these children were fed, loved and educated.  Guthrie didn't stand around wringing his hands, he got involved.  His memoirs contain the following quote which sums up his daily work; ‘…it was not the disease or death – it was the starvation, the drunkenness, the rags, the heartless, hopeless, miserable condition of the people – the debauched and drunken mothers, the sallow, yellow, emaciated children – the wants both temporal and spiritual, which one felt themselves unable to relieve – that sometimes overwhelmed me…’ (Memoirs and Autobiography, p 157).  It is encouraging to hear that even the great Thomas Guthrie got overwhelmed sometimes!



Food Relief Programme in Baghdad

Like Guthrie, we might despair about the needs of our communities today but Christians can (and should) be at the forefront of community change.  We sometimes think that most people went to church in the past but Guthrie talks about his early visitations in Horse Wynd in Edinburgh where less than 5 in 150 people ever went to church.  Guthrie saw some awful sights in his pastoral work.  Amidst the rapid growth and large scale Irish immigration, Edinburgh had developed the most awful social problems.  Many in the church wanted to ignore these problems but Guthrie faced them head on with a coherent Christian vision.

We all need each other and we all need strong cohesive communities.  Our cities prove Guthrie's point that 'the solitude of a crowd is the most painful of all.'  So many people (both in Iraq and Scotland) are living in fractured and broken communities.  To bring about community transformation we all need to get involved, we need to listen to local people and we need to help provide the facilities and resources that can help with community transformation.  As Canon Wright said of his ministry we need to 'love, love and love.'  It is hard to think of a better example of Christian love in action than St George's in Baghdad feeding and healing people.



St George's Baghdad

Most of all we need to be salt and light in a decaying world.  Creating community should be natural territory for Christians.  As Keller says 'God created all things to be in a beautiful, harmonious, interdependent, knitted, webbed relationship to one another.  Just as rightly related physical elements form a cosmos or a tapestry, so rightly related human beings form a community.  This interwovenenss is what the Bible calls shalom, or harmonious peace' (Generous Justice, p 173). 

It must be easy for Canon White to despair.  Guarded by a small army, travelling to church in an armoured convoy, members of his church being killed on a weekly basis would cause most of us to head for the nearest plane home.  But he continues to bring reconciliation to a bitterly divided city and nation.  Canon White is slightly more cheerful than his predecessor who came to Iraq about 2700 years earlier.  Despite Jonah grumbling about the mercy and grace of God, and bitterly complaining about the lack of air conditioning, the gospel impacted Nineveh in a powerful way.  Nearly 3 centuries later the gospel is still impacting lives in Iraq.  God is building his church and the gates of hell shall not prevail.

As Christians we should know what real, harmonious community looks like and feels like.  It is that shalom that Keller mentions - something we want for every community in Scotland (and Iraq).  Not just people reconciled with each other but more importantly with the God who lives in perfect community in the Trinity.  It can only ultimately come through the gospel influencing our nation and transforming individuals and communities.   But it won’t happen until Christians roll up their sleeves and get involved in our broken and fractured society.  If St George's can do this in a war zone, what excuse do we have in Scotland?



Jonah by Michelangelo



 

An Inspiring Day in Leith

I had a great day today at the launch of the 'Peoples Map of Leith'.  The event took place at the Macdonald Road Library in Leith.

My colleague Ian Dyson has been doing the most amazing job over the last 2 years working for Bethany Christian Trust funded by Inspiring Scotland.  The Leith version of this project is called 'Inspiring Leith' and Iain has been doing a great job in bringing the communities of Lorne and Dalmeny together to have an impact in their community.  He has been involved in helping local people to set up the Lorne Cafe, the PDP Men's Games Cafe, Friends of Dalmeny Park Street, a Lunchtime Cafe at St Andrew church for pupils from Leith Academy and various litter pick ups including Kirk Street. 

Today's event was really well attended by a wide variety of people from Leith.  The Peoples Map was a great way of bringing old and young together to capture stories and memories of Leith.  As most people know Leith is a unique place and has a very different identity from Edinburgh.  I think they also have a football team who won the Scottish Cup a long time ago.

The peoples Map of Leith

I've been at some of Inspiring Leith's events before (like a great night of Curry making at Punjab'n de Rasoi on Leith Walk in December).  One of the things that strike me about community events is that they rarely go as planned.  Just like the community, these events can be very diverse, hard to predict and at times, a little bit messy.  This is often why so many of us don't really get involved in our communities other than in a very half hearted way.  It can be difficult, messy, exhausting and time consuming.  We also don't have much control when we get involved with our communities and most of us like to be in control!  I was talking to a leader of a Christian charity recently who told me that in a recent survey they did in a Scottish city most people surveyed responded that their community was no bigger than their immediate family.  What a sad indictment on 21st Century Scotland!  How can we change this?

1.  We need to get involved. 

Ian Dyson told me the story of a woman he met who was thinking of emigrating.  She was fed up with the litter, the drugs, the youths hanging about and the general depression around her community.  The next time he met her she had decided to stay and change her community.  Along with Inspiring Leith she organised a litter pick up in her street and established a Tenants Association to work together towards creating a better environment.  Imagine what would happen if every community had even one community activist like this?

Perhaps one of the greatest tragedies is that so often the church in Scotland is not leading community change.  Despite a church on almost every street corner the church is often the absent partner in community transformation.  But that hasn't always been the case.  When Thomas Guthrie walked the streets of the Cowgate and the Lawnmarket in the 1830's he was appalled by the 1-2000 'ragged children' he saw all around him.  He wrote, campaigned, organised, spoke and served until these children were fed, loved and educated.  He got involved. 



Thomas Guthrie's statue in Princes Street Gardens - 'a friend of the poor and the oppressed'

We might despair about our communities but Guthrie and others have shown that Christians can (and should) be at the forefront of community change.  As Tim Keller says 'the only way to reweave and strengthen the fabric [of community] is by weaving yourself into it.  Human beings are like those threads thrown together onto a table.  If we keep our money, time, and power to ourselves, instead of sending them out into our neighbours' lives, then we may be literally on top of one other, but we are not interwoven socially, relationally, financially, and emotionally.  Reweaving shalom means to sacrificially thread, lace, and press your time, goods, power, and resources into the lives and needs of others' (Generous Justice, p 177).



Ian Dyson in front of the Peoples Map of Leith

2. We need to listen to the community

If our communities are going to change, local people need to be involved with the solutions that will bring about transformation.  For too long communities have had services that have parachuted in to 'rescue' individuals and families.  Ultimately this solves very little.  On the other hand, community inspired projects create capacity and confidence for local people to take on other challenges.  As the Peoples Map of Leith showed very clearly, major projects like the Kirkgate Shopping Centre at the bottom of Leith Walk destroyed so much that was good in Leith and many feel the heart was ripped out of the community.  Local people know best and should be trusted about the future of their communities.

3.   We need to invest in community

At one time churches were at the heart of most communities in Scotland but sadly this is no longer the case.  People are now very reliant on community facilities.  The problem is that when councils close down these facilities the glue that often holds communities together is weakened.  The young people end up hanging on street corners, the older people become more isolated, the mothers who used to attend the mother and toddlers group get more stressed, and the ultimate effect is greater expense on other services.  This is why we can't afford not to invest in our communities.  For comparatively little expense, community facilities and investment provides much more in return with greater cohesion and a better living environment for all of us.

The Peoples Map of Leith show us how intertwined all our lives are.  We need each other.  We all need community.  Our cities prove Guthrie's point that 'the solitude of a crowd is the most painful of all.'  So many people are living in fractured and broken communities. 

Wouldn't it be great if the Christian church was leading community change once again?  Rather than seeing churches open for 3-4 hours per week wouldn't it be great to see them open every night and once again at the heart of their communities?  To do this we need to get involved, we need to listen to local people and we need to invest in the facilities and resources that can help community transformation.  This should be natural territory for Christians.  Why?  As Keller says 'God created all things to be in a beautiful, harmonious, interdependent, knitted, webbed relationship to one another.  Just as rightly related physical elements form a cosmos or a tapestry, so rightly related human beings form a community.  This interwovenenss is what the Bible calls shalom, or harmonious peace' (Generous Justice, p 173).  As Christians we should know what community looks like and feels like.  It is that shalom that Keller mentions - something we want for every community in Scotland.  We need to stop keeping it to ourselves and start living it!

Guthrie on the Lords Day

Like most Christians of his time Thomas Guthrie believed the Lords Day (Sunday) was to be kept as a special day of rest and to be used for public and private worship.  Like marriage the Lords Day is a creation ordinance.  If God rested on the seventh day, it is a fairly powerful argument that we need to rest one day in seven.  We believe that the Sabbath moved from Saturday to Sunday when Christ rose from the dead.  The Christian Sabbath, of course, used to be a great protection against exploitation of the poor and it is sad today  to see the Lords Day swept away in our 24 hour consumer driven culture. 

There are many stories about peoples negative experiences of the Lords Day, of swings being chained up on Sunday and children being cooped up all afternoon without being allowed to blow off steam.  No doubt there has been legalism in the past with greater concern on the outward form rather than the inner reality, but there can be little doubt that the loss of the Lords Day in Scotland has been a huge blow to our national life.  Research abounds that families are not spending enough time together and the decline in the traditional Sunday get together had has a damaging effect on family life.  It is unusual even to find Christians today who believe in the Lords Day and the Church is poorer as a result.  There is more teaching on the reformed view of the Lords Day at the bottom of this post.

We as a family, make the Lords Day a really positive family day and my hope is that my own children look forward to it as a day of rest, learning, enjoying God's creation and worshipping with the people of God.  Some of our best memories as a family are visiting our local Bellsquary Woods on a Sunday afternoon to feed the ducks.

Thomas Guthrie was a great proponent of the Christian Sabbath and was frequently asked to speak at rallies and meetings on the subject.  He often mentions how grieved he is about those who do not keep the Lord Days in his Memoirs.  Guthrie expresses his shock when travelling through London on his way to France in 1826; 'I see no religion here; they sell and buy openly upon the streets on Sunday.  I was shocked the first Sabbath upon leaving my lodgings, when a fellow in the street asked me if I would buy an umbrella.  When I went a little further I was asked to buy fruit' (Autobiography and Memoir, 1896, page 229). 

He was further shocked when he arrived in France and in a letter home on 17th January 1827 he says; 'It is on the Sabbath more than any other day that I think of you all at home: the awful scenes which obtrude themselves upon my view suggest by contrast the very different circumstances in which you are placed.  When I see the tricks of the jugglers and hear the music of the musicians, and observe the busy traffic of the merchants, and the reckless levity of the people on the Sabbath day, I think of the quiet streets of Brechin; and the stillness of our house is brought sadly to my remembrance, when I hear, in this one the light song instead of the sacred hymn, and see, instead of the Bible, the cards and dominoes upon the table, and the people, instead of repairing to church, driving off every Sunday night to the playhouse' (Autobiography and Memoir, 1896, page 231). 

Later on in his Autobiography when Guthrie was in Arbirlot, he talks about a farmer who took his harvest in on the Lords Day. The farmer was an adherent rather than a member of Guthries church but it was still very unusual to do any work on Sunday.   It must have been around around 1835 and it was a very wet summer.  Suddenly on a Friday the clouds began to clear.  Most of the community turned out on Sunday to thank the Lord for the change in the weather and were all set to get to work on Monday.  But one farmer had gathered his 'servants and cottars' together on Sunday and ordered them to gather in the harvest on the Lords Day.  Despite remonstrating with the farmer, the workers were conscious that their livelihoods depended on him and they carried out his orders with an uneasy conscience.  Being members of Guthries church, the workers were summoned before the session, but due to the circumstances, the session recommended to Presbytery that great leniency and tenderness should be shown to them. 

Guthrie says that the 'petty tyrant raged and fumed!  talking tall, big words about the liberty of the subject, and ending personal attacks on me by a challenge to defend myself and my Sabbatarian views at a public meeting in the church.'  Eventually a meeting was arranged in the manse and Guthrie says that the farmer had little to offer against his own thorough Biblical knowledge.  The farmer exerted great pressure to get the Presbytery to erase all records of the incident which they refused to do. 

It turned out that the farmer had harvested too early.  Guthrie tells us; 'Other farmers waited till Monday before they lifted stook or sheaf; and when they were stacking their crops in good condition, his barn-yard was smoking like a kiln.  His grain had not been ready for carrying on the Sunday, and every stack built on that day heated, as they call it, and had to be taken down on Monday; so this oppression of his underlings and breach of the Sabbath-day cost him, besides loss of character, loss of labour, of time and grain.  The people, as well they might, were much struck with this: his sin had found him out, and his neighbours who feared God, respected His law, and trusted in the old promise of harvest as well as seed-time, saw in the sound condition of their stacks and stack-yards how, in the words of Scripture, he that believeth shall not make haste'  (Autobiography and Memoir, 1896, page 108). 

Guthrie was a confessional Christian and held that the teaching of the Bible was summarised through the Westminster Confession of Faith and the Larger and  Shorter Catechism.  If you have never read them I would encourage you to read them.  One of the most helpful books for understanding the catechism is Thomas Watsons Body of Divinity published by the Banner of Truth.  Chapter 21 of the confession summarises the Biblical teaching on the Lords Day;

7. As it is the law of nature, that, in general, a due proportion of time be set apart for the worship of God; so, in his Word, by a positive, moral, and perpetual commandment binding all men in all ages, he hath particularly appointed one day in seven, for a Sabbath, to be kept holy unto him: which, from the beginning of the world to the resurrection of Christ, was the last day of the week; and, from the resurrection of Christ, was changed into the first day of the week, which, in Scripture, is called the Lord's day, and is to be continued to the end of the world, as the Christian Sabbath.

8. This Sabbath is then kept holy unto the Lord, when men, after a due preparing of their hearts, and ordering of their common affairs beforehand, do not only observe an holy rest, all the day, from their own works, words, and thoughts about their worldly employments and recreations, but also are taken up, the whole time, in the public and private exercises of his worship, and in the duties of necessity and mercy.