Jackson's tale is a fable of the ultimate emptiness of victory, even in the supposed winner-takes-all world of showbiz. - Guardian Editorial

I am writing on the day that news of Michael Jackson’s death is being digested by the world’s media.

Some are eager for another “Diana moment”, some of his fans are distraught, and the critics are attempting to assess Jackson’s legacy.

What we can’t escape is that there was another side to Jackson.  He was never found guilty of child abuse, but allegations dogged his last years, and there were some very dubious things he admitted to in his 2003 interview with Martin Bashir.

How should we remember Michael Jackson, the King of Pop with frightening demons?

We could pretend that none of the bad stuff happened, but that does no justice to those who were hurt by him (as apparently Anne Diamond did the morning after).

Tonight we prayed for the Taliban.

One of our folk had been praying for British soldiers in Afghanistan and felt God speak to him - "I love the Taliban as much as I love you Robert"

So we prayed for our enemies.

Which is never comfortable.

It feels like treachery.

You want to add lots of caveats ("...of course we don't agree with them" - as if God doesn't already know that),

It's odd.  We care for the ones we agree with.  Breaking that link doesn't happen often enough. 

The "People we agree with" = "People we care for" link.

Wherever I went (writes Oliver James) I found that religion seems to be a powerful vaccine [against the 'Affluenza virus'].  I should not have been surprised: because the scientific evidence has long been there: much to the consternation of social scientists, on average, regular churchgoers suffer less depression or unhappiness than unbelievers.  This is regardless of the kind of religion, or of the nationality, gender, age, social class or ethnic background of the believer.

Almost by definition, religious people are less likely to be materialistic and to have Virus goals or motivations and more likely to be preoccupied with things spiritual.  One study, of 860 young American adults, showed this very clearly.  Those with materialistic values, such as wanting money or prestige, were far less likely to be religious, and they were unhalpier, drank and smoked more, and, in the case of the women, were at greater risk of eating disorders.  Compared with non-believers, the only sort of religious people who are not protected against depression are the ones whose involvement in faith is guided by self-seeking ends (known as 'extrinsic religious orientation'), seeing belief as an investment, such as hoping that prayer would be instrumental in making them successful in work or love. 

If you had to produce a 5 minute DVD about your Church, which could be dropped through the letterboxes of your community and successfully make it to their DVD players, what would you come up with?

This is the challenge that Langside Church set themselves.  I watched the film today and was seriously impressed at the light touch, David McLachlan's introduction, the questions at the beginning and the way that the congregation found so many of their members who could talk to a camera and not sound stilted.

The video's here:

We Are Here, Where Are You? from Langside Church on Vimeo.

Less happily, the Langside building had a fire a few weeks ago.  This was a terrific new sanctuary which has now been lost (I'm not up on whether it can be repaired).  The congregation are currently worshipping across the street, with the hope that God will create something positive out of such a negative situation.

The Oldest Kind Of Story

The story we are hearing this morning is the oldest kind of story that we know about.

It sometimes called a “Killing the monster” story.

Where there emerges a great, seemingly unassailable monster

And the monster exercises terror over whole populations

The innocent, the righteous have no chance

Against this weaponised beast

This is from the end of Sunday's forthcoming sermon here, and also almost verbatim from the last chapter of Rob Bell's Sex God.

New Creation

I want to pick up on something that Paul says here “he says in Christ, new creation, the old has gone, the new has become.”

That you are a new creation, the new has become, the old has gone.

This means that the old is loosening its grip,

It still haunts

It can still wound,

But there is a new creation that is bigger, brighter, that has the last word.

The old is temporary.  The new is permanent.

Rob Bell tells the story of a wedding he once did.

Rob Bell brings you to passages in stunning new ways.

“Whooppee forever” is his exploration of singleness.  Not in the slightly condescending tones that marrieds sometimes provide (“those who live with the realities of singleness” was one quote I heard).  His reasons for why sex might be redundant in heaven are elsewhere.

His final section is about ancient betrothal speeches.  These show again how for John the primary metaphor for heaven is marriage (how sterile was that sentence?  – “whoopee forever” as the chapter title puts it)

So anyway the betrothal happens when the girl of the house reaches her early teens.  The Mum will give Dad a nudge (that’s the way it was in India, I guess that men often need female prompting to attend to domestic necessities) and the Dad will begin to suss out suitable candidates.

Eventually one will be found and everyone will come to the bride’s house to agree the engagement.

Up until this point the bride still has a choice.  The moment that everything depends on is when the husband-to-be (hesitant, barely shaving, shaky and wobbily in adult things) gives his possible future partner a cup of wine.  If she drinks it, it’s a yes, she’s dancing, the marriage can go ahead.  If not, then the things off, and he’s the guy who just got the most public knockback that anyone came up with before Cilla and Graham hosted “Blind Date”.

If the cup gets drunk, then the groom will clear his throat, try not to mumble and give a speech.

This isn't an obsession at the moment, but as a result of reading Rob Bell's "Sex God."

Bell talks about a celebrity couple that filmed the first years of their married life together (this sounds like Jessica Simpson), and then shortly after split up.  Bell's response was "too many people under the Chuppah."

The Chuppah is a the prayer shawl under which a Jewish wedding ceremony, and then the consummation occurs.

The Jewish wedding ceremony borrows Exodus language (from Exodus 6) for the language of betrothal

"I will take you out"

"I will rescue you"

"I will redeem you"

"I will take you to me"

It is striking that the language of the Exodus is also the language of marriage. 

That's me back now.  I have been trying to think of my top moments from a week that has affected me far more than I had imagined.  There is something curiously transforming about ascending that Mound each day, being thrown together with a group of folk you would never have chosen for yourself, the whole intention being that their opinions will rub against yours, and that through that, somehow the Church will be richer.

At lot of the best moments were over coffee, Chinese or on the Glasgow-Edinburgh train.  But on the floor of Assembly it was:

5. Speaking with my Dad - this was when I moved the motion on growing Churches.  I couldn't understand why the moderator called Mr. Glover to speak after the motion had already passed. It turned out it was my Dad lending some support from the balcony (it's at about 3 mins here)

4. The Youth Reps - a particular thrill was Andrew Rooney (from Flemington) and William McIntosh (from Cambuslang Parish) speaking on behalf of the youth assembly.  It's at about 4 mins, also in the same place.

3. Walk In My Shoes - a movie based on stories from the Poverty Truth Commission

2. Desmond Tutu - inspirational from a man who embodied the hard won truths of which he spoke

1. And I have asked George Whyte to second this motion Jim Stewart made the speech which felt like it allowed folk like me to come back in to the Assembly.  In asking for a two year moratorium on the ordination of ministers in same-sex relationships, he turned to the affirmational wing of the Church and said "I know this is big, but I am asking you to help me." 

I had heard that Jim might be making the speech.  I didn't know that George Whyte, Presbytery Clerk of Edinburgh and the man who moved the motion which upheld Scott Rennie's appointment, was going to second Jim's motion.  Some have suggested that it was a cop-out, that it won't change anything in the long run.  I am still hoping that what we were witnessing was pure grace.  The best kind of grace.  The kind you don't see coming.