Andy Hunter's Greenview Blog

sly and unseen

2012-01-23T10:32:00.006Z

Came across this 'challenging sight' in the crypt of St Martin in the Fields (off Trafalgar Sq) a few years ago - it came back to me when reading 'One Day' recently (see below).

'She philosophically noted dates as they came past in the revolution of the year... her own birthday; and every other day individualised by incidents in which she had taken some share. She suddenly thought one afternoon, when looking at her fairness, that there was yet another date, of greater importance to her than those, that of her own death, when all these charms would have disappeared; a day which lay sly and unseen among all the other days of the year, giving no sign or sound when she annually passed over it, but no less the surely there. When was it?'

(Thomas Hardy, Tess of the d'Urbervilles - quoted in One Day, David Nicholls)

Ecclesiastes 6:12 Ecclesiastes 12

John 3:16 John 11:25-27

1 Corinthians 15:51-57

Iron Clad Wisdom

2012-01-09T17:08:00.003Z

A line from 'The Iron Lady' - recently released Margaret Thatcher bio-pic in cinemas now.

'Watch your thoughts for they become your words; watch your words because they become your actions; watch your actions because they become your character; watch your character because it becomes your destiny'.

Psalm 1; Romans 12:2

New Year's Day Swim

2012-01-03T20:00:00.002Z

Continued the old Glasgow (South) Crusader Class tradition of the NY Day swim in the Enoch Burn (on the 2nd this year with the 1st being a Sunday).

A balmy outdoor temp of 3.5oc this year - but the water was still pretty icy and shaking hailstones out your underwear when getting dressed wasn't much fun - can't understand why we don't get more interest in this!

Christmas Eve @ Greenview

2011-12-19T16:47:00.002Z

6.30pm - All Age Carol Service

11.15pm - Traditional Watchnight Service

Make your daughters sceptical of men...

2011-12-08T11:35:00.004Z

While visiting Southern Baptist Theological Seminary I was able to sit in on one of Russell Moore's lectures - in this blog he picks up on one of the themes of that lecture. He doesn't repeat it in the blog but the line that stood out for me when he spoke on this subject was - 'Bring up your daughters to be sceptical of men in general, so they can be committed to one man in particular'.

Read HERE to find out why.

Scottish Government Consultation on Same Sex Marriage

2011-11-30T19:02:00.005Z

The closing date for submissions to the Scottish Government's consultation on redefining Marriage is Friday 9th December. You can take part in this on-line via the websites of The Scottish Government or The Christian Institute. Those have an interest and concerns about the changes being proposed should take the opportunity to make their views known.

Below is a slighly reduced version of a letter I have sent to my consistuency MP & MSP on the subject.

Dear Tom / Nicola

Scottish Government Consultation on Same Sex Marriage

I am writing to you on the above subject as a Christian Minister but also as a father and citizen...

The arguments against the redefinition of Marriage to include homosexual partnerships have been well made by groups such as ‘The Christian Institute’ and ‘Care for Scotland’. You will not be surprised that I share their concerns, and would want to express my own apprehension that a trans-political institution of a universal and historic nature (stretching back millennia) should be thought of as something for an individual government to redefine.

Indeed the move to redefine marriage seems wholly unnecessary as there is already provision for those who wish to legally bind themselves to one another in a Civil Partnership. Even if you have no issue regarding homosexuality it is obviously not the same as heterosexuality and therefore it is hardly discriminatory to recognise that difference. It seems that words are being manipulated to make ideological points – why not redefine the word ‘uncle’ to mean ‘cousin’ to suit those who are uncles but would like to be cousins?!

There are many other concerns that could be raised, both philosophical and practical. However, one major concern is the increasing sense of threat and imposition that Christians (dare I say, evangelical Christians) feel towards them in our society. That many Christians have little confidence that a redefinition of Marriage will not simply be the first step in ultimately forcing Christian Churches to conduct Same Sex Marriages should be no surprise. The Civil Partnership legislation was introduced with guarantees that they would remain an entirely secular provision – a few years later this consultation is underway with a view to legislating for them to be conducted in religious premises.

Christians are wise enough to know that their views on such matters are out of step with many in the political and indeed media world. We also realise that for many in wider society this is not an issue they necessarily feel strongly about. However, the right of people to practise their religious beliefs without imposition and threat is the cornerstone of a truly free society. It might be argued that Christians have not always extended such rights to others at times (including homosexual people) and that is something we must acknowledge. However the danger is that now ‘the boot’s on the other foot’ that such unfairness is simply perpetuated in the other direction.

Current trends in our society regrettably suggest that is the ‘direction of travel’. Recently I sat with a Bulgarian pastor at a conference in Hungary. As a young Christian in 1970’s Bulgaria he was not allowed to attend university because of his Christian beliefs. He was not alone in suffering such exclusion at that time in ‘Iron Curtain’ countries – many children from Christian families were denied education, selected out for extra Communist indoctrination or even removed from their parents. Sanctions taken because Christianity was deemed to be an unacceptable challenge to the prevailing political ideology.

In our own society we read about cafe owners being cautioned by the police for displaying Bible verses, and people being disciplined by employers for expressing reasoned disagreement with homosexual practise. A lovely Christian couple, I know of, who applied to be adoptive parents in Glasgow were, despite being cleared for adoption, subsequently ‘interrogated’ on several occasions regarding their views on homosexuality. Despite clearly stating they believed that all people should be treated with respect, tolerance and kindness, they were told informally that their Christian beliefs were going against them actually having children placed. They wondered, as I did, if had they been Muslims they would have had such scrutiny or been told their religion was a problem...

So as a Christian Minister, a father and one of your constituents can I ask you to use the influence you have to counsel against the redefinition of Marriage – and in doing so both uphold its historic and universally understood premise, and prevent a further move destined to alienate large numbers of Christians among others in our society.

Thank you for your time in this matter and for your hard work generally.

Yours sincerely

Andrew Hunter
Senior Staff Worker
Greenview Evangelical Church

The Last Japanese soldier

2011-11-27T22:17:00.007Z

The Gospel is a message – it’s news, ‘good news’. That is, it is something that needs to be communicated – to be told – to be articulated. This means that despite good works and godly lives being foundational to Christian witness – that witness will be incomplete and indeed ineffective without words. The need for the gospel to be heard, known, understood, comprehended as a message, a proposition – cannot be bypassed.

Carl Trueman describes words as the basic currency of communication - that for all the artistic alternatives cannot be substituted if there is to be concrete and clear transmission of God’s work in Jesus Christ. Serious people dealing with serious business understand this. When you apply for a mortgage the Bank Manager doesn’t power-mime or try to expressively dance out the basis of such an agreement. He doesn’t give you a candle and suggest you sit in the corner for 15 minutes and think about what a mortgage might mean to you. Rather he explains the ‘terms & conditions’ - 'this is what the Bank will do and this is what you need to do'. If you don’t understand he will explain it again – using perhaps different words, but like all serious business only when all the parties are locked into a common understanding expressed in words is there a basis for a meaningful relationship.

So we need to speak – we need to tell the gospel - proclaim, herald, announce, articulate, explain, verbalize it. Back in the 1960s & 70s there were occasional stories about Japanese soldiers discovered on remote Pacific islands. Cut off during the war and isolated they had been unaware that the war was over. They were ‘fighting on’ years, even decades, after peace had been made. The great news that hostilities had ceased, that weapons could be laid down, and that after the long years of conflict people could at last go home – was of no consequence to these men. It made no difference to their lives – because they hadn’t heard the news!

How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? (Romans 10:14)

Above: in 1974, Japanese soldier Lieutenant Hiroo Onoda, complete with Samurai sword, was finally discovered on a Pacific island. For 30 years he thought World War Two was still being fought.

Holding the Queen's umbrella

2011-11-23T19:27:00.008Z

Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds
James 1:2

James begins his letter by facing two realities – we will face trials, not ‘if’ but ‘whenever’. Secondly, those trials will take different shapes at different times for different people – ‘trials of many kinds’.

Yet his opening exhortation is to consider facing such trials as ‘pure joy’. We might be forgiven for thinking James’ pastoral skills sound a little pious and simplistic. Is this just some crass ‘cheer up, could be worse, look on the bright side’ advice to make us cringe in the presence of real suffering and desperate difficulties?

Well no – because James isn’t saying ‘enjoy’ your trials or that there is masochistic pleasure to be found in our sufferings. Rather he is encouraging us to put our afflictions in a bigger context – to see that they have a purpose and indeed their very presence is a sign of God’s favour to us.

Imagine being asked to hold the Queen’s umbrella as she does a walk-about on a wet afternoon. You patiently follow Her Majesty keeping her covered from the rain, your arm aches and you yourself are increasingly getting soaked and chilled by the weather battering your unprotected self. At the end of day you’re asked what you did today – you answer, 'I held an umbrella up for 2 hours, got soaked and have cramp in my arms and shoulders'. ‘What a rubbish job’, comes the response. ‘No’, you quickly reply, 'it was a privilege, a joy to have done it’.

The ‘joy’ was not in the umbrella holding – but in the knowledge of who you were holding it for and the effect it was having.

We face trials of many kinds not because life is just a lottery of random ups and downs – but under the sovereignty of God. He allows His people to pass through difficulties precisely because He loves them and is working out great things for them. Further to be ‘asked’ by God to bear burdens is a mark of God’s special regard for someone: ‘Have you considered my servant Job? There is no-one on earth like him’ (Job 1:8). Job faced his trials not because he was a guy in the wrong place at the wrong time – but because God had a purpose to be worked out through them and was able to trust Job with such a calling. And there is no greater honour that that.

Isn't Christianity just a crutch for weak people?

2011-11-08T15:47:00.002Z