Monday 26 December 2016

Life, Light, Love

A Sermon based on John 1:1-14 preached on Christmas Eve at Easton Methodist Church, Portland, Dorset, on 24th December 2016.


One might look at this world and say “What a mess”.  Of course to do so might ignore the many good things around us and in our lives.  But there might be some justification in saying “What a Mess”.  Think of the news of terrorist attacks, ongoing conflicts, the inequality on the world, the homeless on our doorsteps, the way people can treat each other.

The Bible would tell us this is a result of sin, when people decide they know better than God and when they turn from God’s ways.

Billy Graham the well-known evangelist shared this in a sermon in 2006.
“Once I was walking near my home, and I looked down and saw an anthill that had just been crushed. I saw that the carefully planned home was ruined and that several ants had been killed and many injured. I wished for a moment that I were an ant. I wanted to be one of them so I could explain that I wanted to help them. But I had no way of communicating with them, so I went on my way. But when God looked down and saw the world devastated by sin, He did not go away! “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). That is what the incarnation means. God did something about our plight.”
Some will know that this year I am Chaplain to the Portland Town Mayor who has a Navel background within her family.  She has therefore had a badge made for me which tells people I am her “Sin Bosun”.  It’s another word for a Navel Chaplain.  The interesting thing about a Navel Chaplain is that whoever they talk to in the Navy they assume the same rank, coming down to the lowest rating and yet able to converse on equal terms with the Captain of a ship.   – How like that is the Incarnation?  Jesus coming to us on our terms,, relating at our level.  Yet we should not forget that he has the ear of God also as an equal member of the Trinity.


This is all encapsulated in the first verse of John 1
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 

The Word = Jesus.

Both Jews and Greeks would have understood that the Word meant something of divine power and authority – not just to do with speech but to do with action as well.

Charles Wesley put it like this in one hymn
Let earth and Heaven combine,
Angels and men agree,
To praise in songs divine
The incarnate Deity,
Our God contracted to a span,
Incomprehensibly made Man.

I wonder what you want for Christmas  What do you wish for?

A man walks into bar with an ostrich.  He sits.  Bartender asks for order.  “I’ll have a beer”.  Turns to ostrich “What’s yours?”  “I’ll have a beer too” says ostrich. (I have to say at this point that the Man and Ostrich were not good Methodists.) Bartender pours beers .  “£6.20 please”. Man reaches into pocket pulls out exact money.

Next day man and ostrich come into bar again.  Same thing.  Beer – ostrich too.  Man pulls out exact money from pocket again.
This becomes a routine until one evening quite late the two come in again.  “Usual?” says bartender.
“Well it’s close to Closing time so I’ll have a large Scotch” says the Man.     “Same for me” says the ostrich.
“That will be £7.40” says the bartender.  Once again man pulls out exact money from pocket and places on bar.

Bartender can’t hold back curiosity any longer.
“Excuse me Sir.  How do you manage to come up with the exact change out of your pocket every single time?”

“Well”, says Man “Several years ago found old lamp up in attic.  When I rubbed it a genie appeared and offered me two wishes. First wish was that if I ever have to pay for anything I just put my hand in my pocket and the right amount of money will always be there.”
“Brilliant” says Bartender.  “Most people would ask for a Million pounds or something  but you’ll always be rich for as long as you live”
“That’s right” said the man. “Whether it’s a pint of milk or a Rolls Royce the exact money is always there.

The bartender asks, “One other thing Sir….What’s with the ostrich?”
The man replies “My second wish was for a chick with long legs”.

I wonder what you want for Christmas?  What do you wish for?

Well I don’t know what you do wish for, but I’ll tell you what you can have as a result of God coming among us in Jesus as John explains in the first chapter of his gospel.

The benefits of this Incarnation -

Life v4
 In him was life, and that life was the light of all people. 

12 Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God – 13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.

John 10:10 (when Jesus is talking about being a gate for the sheep that enables protection and provides good pasture) I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.

I don’t know whether you feel fulfilled.  Or whether you ache to be doing something, or involved with something that makes you feel fulfilled as a person.  As if the person you are was made for just such a thing.  Maybe that is a career, maybe some contribution to others, maybe a place to live.

This is not about money, or status, or power, but about being the person you were always meant to be.
Maybe it is a Care Worker (offering compassion and support); Teacher (who understands it is about vocation not a job); feeding the hungry on Westham Bridge; working with a charity and supporting it; seeing your skills and gifts blossom.

Jesus speaks of fulfilled life such as this.  John 14:6
Jesus answered, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

John 4:14 (During an encounter with a Samaritan woman at a well) 14 …whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.’


John 1:4 - In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.
Light is another benefit of the Incarnation.
The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. 

The World can be dark:
Terrorist atrocities.
War and Conflict – Aleppo is not the only place.
Floods and Famines.

Our communities can have dark places:
Domestic Violence
Child Abuse
People crippled by debt
The need for Foodbanks

Our lives can be dark:
The painfulness of loss
The challenge of ill health – mentally, physically, emotionally, spiritually
The scars of the past
The absence of esteem or love.

Into these dark places Jesus wants to be born – to shine light on that which is wrong, that which needs help, that which needs dealing with, to shine the way ahead.

To light what may be one small candle in the world, our communities or our lives – but that one dark candle even on its own is a powerful start.  For darkness cannot even overcome one candle.

Where is there a need for light in our world, community, lives?  Maybe we have been struggling in dark places for too long.

Choose light!
I read about a photograph on the wall of the museum of the concentration camp at Dachau is a large and moving photograph of a mother and her little girl standing in line of a gas chamber. The child, who is walking in front of her mother, does not know where she is going. The mother, who walks behind, does know, but is helpless to stop the tragedy. In her helplessness she performs the only act of love left to her. She places her hands over her child's eyes so she will at least not see the horror to come. When people come into the museum they do not whisk by this photo hurriedly. They pause. They almost feel the pain. And deep inside I think that they are all saying: "O God, don't let that be all that there is."

In ways that might be only intellectual curiosity or in ways where we acknowledge the awfulness that we can find in the world it may be we have let run through our minds Don’t let that be all that there is”

Such darkness can exist in the world and in lives!  But we can choose light!
John 3 says 19 This is the verdict: light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20 Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. 21 But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.

Do you remember that poster that has appeared in countless offices and many other places.
“Due to budget cuts the light at the end of the tunnel has been turned off”.

We may feel like that sometimes but the light of Jesus can never be extinguished.  The Jewish Leaders and the Roman authorities thought they could do that.  But you can’t do that to Jesus – oh you can try, and sometimes it seems such a weak light – but you can never, never totally extinguish it.
The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome[a] it.

Even when you bury it the light of Christ has this uncomfortable habit of bursting out of the tomb.

Another benefit if the Incarnation is
Love
Channel 4 has a programme called “The Undateables”
It is a documentary series following people with challenging conditions who are looking for love. Sometimes people feel unlovable.  Jesus is the one who reaches out to touch, to love the undateables, the untouchables, the unlovables.

I do not know whether you feel unloved.  Maybe at this moment – or maybe for a long time.  The love that Jesus brings into our life is immense – there is nothing like it.

It is the nature of Jesus to love.  Remember the opening verse of John 1 told us of the nature of Jesus being God with us. 
1 John 4:16
God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. 

Just before that the writer of the epistle of John says

1 John 4:9
 This is how God showed his love among us: he sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.

God is full of love.  When he created the world and us within it he created out of love. He takes the first step in love.  He reaches out on love.

John 15
9 ‘As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. 10 If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. 11 I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. 12 My command is this: love each other as I have loved you.13 Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.

In our lives we can know life, light, love in a way that is impossible without Jesus.  For he brings into our lives the touch of the divine.  It’s like he lights the blue touch paper of life.  And this is not the end of the story – for all that is promised in the birth of Jesus is found to be so in the death and resurrection of Jesus as life conquers death, light conquers darkness, love conquers evil.

In a short while many people will be opening Christmas gifts. 
I wonder what you want for Christmas?  What do you wish for?

The best gift we could ever, ever, hope for and indeed receive is the gift of life, light, love that we can receive through Jesus.  A gift that helps deal with the mess of the world and our lives and which benefits us in so many ways.  And we receive it simply, by inviting the Christ Child that was born 2000 years ago in Bethlehem to be born in our hearts and lives today.

“If our greatest need had been information, God would have sent us an educator.
If your greatest need had been technology, God would have sent us a scientist.
If our greatest need had been money, God would have sent us an economist.
If our greatest need had been pleasure, God would have sent us an entertainer.
But our greatest need was forgiveness, so God sent us a Saviour.”




John 1:1-14
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was with God in the beginning.  Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.  In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.  The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
There was a man sent from God whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.
The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognise him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God – children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Saturday 10 December 2016

A Christmas Message

It has been an interesting year politically.  Brexit and President Designate Trump have been just two examples of that.  “Predictable” might not be the best word to describe the state of politics or indeed the World at this point of time.  For many who live on this planet unpredictability and uncertainty are the stuff of daily life.  Maybe your life has felt like that in the past.  Maybe your life feels like that today.

Into an uncertain world around 2000 years ago was born a baby called Jesus.  Health, hygiene and Herod (the local king serving under the Roman occupation) meant that there were plenty enough risks around.  The baby Jesus was vulnerable.  Yet this is how God acts.  Rather than avoiding risk, uncertainty and unpredictability Jesus is born into the very centre of it.  Jesus understands our vulnerabilities, the uncertainties of the world we live in, and the lives we have.  Jesus being born into the midst of that uncertainty 2000 years ago brought the potential for change.  When Jesus is invited into the situations of uncertainty and vulnerability that we find ourselves in today he also brings that potential of change.


Just as Jesus reached out to us through a baby born in Bethlehem, and just as he reaches out to us today, so may I invite you to reach out to him and invite him into your life, your home, your circumstances this Christmas?  Why not go along to a church service this Christmas to find out more?

Tuesday 15 November 2016

Lay down your Life

A short reflection shared at The Cenotaph on Portland, Dorset, at the Remembrance Sunday Observance on 13th November 2016 at which there were around 700 people present.

John 15:12-14
My command is this: love each other as I have loved you.  Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command.

Today is a day when it is right to think about laying down life.  And laying down life can be about how someone dies, but it can also be about how someone lives.

On Friday, March 6, 1987, the Ferry MS Herald of Free Enterprise capsized in just 90 seconds as it set sail from Zeebrugge, Belgium, towards Dover with the bow doors still open. The disaster claimed 193 lives.  There was great sadness on that day, and as always in the face of awful disaster great acts of heroism as some lost their lives and others……

Let me tell you about one person that day. Andrew Parker used his 6ft 3in height to bridge a gap between two metal barriers and allowed his wife, daughter and 20 other passengers to crawl across his back to safety.  He lay down and became a human bridge in an extraordinary act of courage.  He was awarded the George Medal.  Andrew did not die that day.  He lived but he still laid down his life. 


I tell that story because it reminds us that lives can be laid down in different ways.  We meet today and remember the lives that were laid down in death – those who were part of the Armed Forces specifically, but we remember many others who were caught up in conflict and who lost their lives.

In John’s Gospel we have the words  Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 

We remember those who made that supreme sacrifice of their lives.  But we remember too that those of us who are left, those who are alive, can also lay down our lives.  Both those who have laid down their lives in death and those who have laid down their lives in life can make a difference to this world.

Jesus was talking about himself in those few words from John’s Gospel.  He was going to lay down his life for his friends.  He was to die on a cross where he formed a bridge between God and people.  He expected his followers, his friends, to follow his example – in death if need be, and always in life.
So in honour of those who have laid down their lives (Jesus in a way that was different to all, but others who have made that sacrifice whom we remember this day) might we make a decision to lay down our lives each day that others discover something better, something more of life?
Sometimes it’s not so difficult and sometimes it is so difficult.
Do the shopping for someone;
Look out of the window and check that the neighbours lights are on or off at the right time;
Join a community group;
Support a charity that helps others;
Hold a coffee morning to raise funds for a good cause;
Join a political party – or create your own – to make the world a better place;
Stand up to the bully you see picking on the weak and vulnerable;
Resolve to lay down your life – as a way of life.
Sometimes it’s not so difficult and sometimes it is so difficult.  But it is always worth it.


Take seriously the words of Jesus to lay down your life – in death and in life, that we might honour those who have gone before and help to make the world a better place.

Sunday 23 October 2016

Faith for the Future

Are you walking into God's future?
Faith for the Future:  A sermon preached on 23rd October, 2016 at Easton Methodist Church, Portland.  The sermon is based on Deuteronomy 34:1-12. The full text of the reading is below.


Deuteronomy is a collection of great speeches given by Moses who led the people of God, the Israelites, out of Egypt to the edge of the Promised Land.  Moses and Joshua are the two main characters apart from God of course.  Moses dies just outside the Promised Land having led the people of God for 40 years.  The story continues seamlessly with the book of Joshua as Joshua becomes the new leader.

Our theme today is "Faith for the Future".

Moses was told, ” I have let you see it with your eyes, but you will not cross over into it.’  How frustrating that might be if those words were spoken to us.  We go the edge of something great but do not get to experience it.  Yet sometimes that is the role we are called to.
  
Moses is shown the Promised Land. He gets a glimpse of God’s future for his people, although will he not enter into that future himself. Moses has spent years walking and journeying in faith, believing God for the future and God is faithful. Sometimes we are blessed with entering into the future that God has prepared. Sometimes we are the ones who pave the way or build the foundations. This is just as important and sometimes a more challenging aspect of faith. Faith is not mentioned in this passage, but surely Moses stands as an example of faith and perseverance.

This week Team GB athletes from the Olympics and Paralympics were in the news. Celebrations took place in Manchester and London including a trip to Buckingham Palace.  One part of the Olympics is relay race.  The starter is not the finisher!  They pass the baton.

We have to pass the baton of faith, of vision, of journey, of building.  Our Christian journey is a rich mixture of inheritance from those who have gone before and their vision and those who are to come – who we will start things for.  Together we are called the Communion of Saints. 

So here we are today thinking about Faith for the Future.

In order to have faith for the future I suggest we need to have or do the following.

Walk by faith
2 Corinthians 5:7
"For we live by faith, not by sight."

This is the life we are called to.  This is the life Moses was called to.  He was challenged to see what human eyes might not see.  He was called to look with the eyes of faith.

Exodus 3 has Moses’ encounter with a burning bush.  It burned but did not burn.  As Moses drew near he heard the voice of God.  Out of that encounter Moses is told he is standing on holy ground – God is there.  He is told God’s name – I am who I am. This is important in explaining to the Israelites that he has the authority of God.  He receives a call and commission to lead God’s people out of Egypt – a task he does not feel up to.

Moses is challenged to see with eyes of faith, to walk by faith.  To see the impossible become possible, to enter into this high and hard calling.  To all intents and purposes in human terms what God was asking was impossible.  There were too many barriers.  But the walk of faith does not stop at such barriers. We walk by faith.  We are called to have eyes of faith.

We can see by faith what will be.  So one challenge today is what can you see growing or happening by faith in the future?  The steps we take today might be the thing that enables that to come into being.
  
What is God calling us to see in his mind’s eye today?  Where are we being called to walk by faith?  In human terms it may look impossible.  But close your eyes and look with his eyes.

Let's pause for a moment in silence.

Is there something for you, for me, today?  Is there something that we can see with eyes of faith?  Something God is calling us to?


In order to have faith for the future, we need to 
Act by Faith

And so Moses acted.  He took his first steps into the future of God’s purposes.  He went to the Israelites; he went to Pharaoh; he led the people out of Egypt; he headed towards the Promised Land.  This was not without its challenges, problems, pain, delays. 

Charles Wesley said, “FAITH, MIGHTY FAITH, THE PROMISE SEES, AND LOOKS TO GOD ALONE; LAUGHS AT IMPOSSIBILITIES, AND CRIES IT SHALL BE DONE.”  So whatever God calls us to, whatever we see by faith, we need to say “It shall be done”.  We need to act by faith.

It’s a bit like that book by John Ortberg “If you want to walk on water you’ve got to get out of the boat”.

So what steps are we called upon to take an make as we move into God’s future?  That might be a step as an individual for something God is calling us to do perhaps some kind of ministry for him?  It might be a step about what we do with our lives.  The step or decision we take today may build our lives for better or worse.  Or it might be a step as a church.  I do believe we have seen a sign of what God can do when we exercise faith in relation to stepping out and confirming that we would repair the roof here at Easton Methodist Church when we did not have the money.  We said that as a Church Council because we believe that God wants mission and ministry channelled through this place.  That meant nearly £25000 minimum to be raised in 5 months.  And out of the blue it just arrived!

There are other steps we are being challenged to take in relation to this place – a big vision – a comfortable, warm, well lit, flexible worship space in the Sanctuary.  Way beyond what we are doing to make the place water tight.  But if that vision is right it won’t be accomplished tomorrow.  It will need to be started and we will need to take steps now.  And those that take the first steps will not necessarily be those who take the steps further along or indeed who take the last steps.

But then what else does God have for the future?  Maybe this house needs to be refurbished because God is going to fill it.  Why not?  Maybe God wants us to step out in faith in terms of ministry and mission in new and expanded ways.  Maybe that will take time, effort, expense.  Maybe the task will be great and will take time to come to fruition.  Maybe…........  Whatever God has for us we take steps today that are vitally important which help move us further into God’s future.

We walk by faith seeing by faith, but we act as well.  We examine ourselves and say does God have me?
Does he have my time?
Does he have my talents?
Does he have my wallet or purse?
Does he have me as a living sacrifice?

Does he have me so that when he calls me to act I will?

God today may be speaking to us as individuals and as church saying take a step forward, move now, make this thing happen, look to the future.  Don’t build a wall round the present and try to keep it like this for ever.  It doesn’t work.  God is on the move.  He calls us to be on the move as well.

In order to have faith for the future we need
Trust in (Trust = Faith) God’s unfolding plan for the Future

"God buries his workmen, but carries on his work."  This was quoted in my Local Preachers' Accreditation letter from the then President of the Methodist Conference.  It is a Charles Wesley quote that appears on a monument to John and Charles Wesley in Westminster Abbey.

The story of the people of God carries on in Joshua 1:1 – and God speaks to Joshua, Moses successor.  Moses died.  God and his will did not.  We serve God and his purposes.  The legacy we build is not our own but God’s.  I want to serve the purpose of God in this generation as the worship song goes.

Maybe we haven’t always looked to and for God’s future.  Maybe we haven’t always responded to God’s call.  Maybe we haven’t always been obedient.

Sometimes we recognise that we have drawn back from God's future or even tried to prevent it.  It is like the "Undo" button on a computer which takes away the last thing.  Unfortunately we can’t do that in life.  In each of us that is true.  We have done what we have done.  We can be forgiven for it if it was bad, but we cannot undo it.  If the Devil reminds you of your past remind him of his future.  The past is the past.  But we can affect the future.  We can decide to live for God and his purposes and trust that we have a part to play in God’s unfolding purposes and future.  And it may be that our part is to build the foundations for some work of God.  It may be others who see the end result.  That is why we should not devalue that which we are called to know.

And in this building work we have Jesus himself to be the head of it and the power of the Holy Spirit within us to help us in the task.

Walk (by faith)
Act (by Faith)
Trust (in faith)

Milan Cathedral was started in 1386 and mostly finished in 1965, though some details were not completed until later. The construction took almost six centuries.

We are not just building for now we are building for tomorrow.

Moses saw it through.  He kept going even though he would not see the end result.  But God used him to form and found that new land and the people that were to enter it.

We may not all get to whatever the Promised Land is on earth, but we can all be a part of the journey towards it.  Amen.


Deuteronomy 34:1-12
Then Moses climbed Mount Nebo from the plains of Moab to the top of Pisgah, opposite Jericho. There the Lord showed him the whole land – from Gilead to Dan, all of Naphtali, the territory of Ephraim and Manasseh, all the land of Judah as far as the Mediterranean Sea, the Negev and the whole region from the Valley of Jericho, the City of Palms, as far as Zoar. Then the Lord said to him, ‘This is the land I promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob when I said, “I will give it to your descendants.” I have let you see it with your eyes, but you will not cross over into it.’
And Moses the servant of the Lord died there in Moab, as the Lord had said. He buried him in Moab, in the valley opposite Beth Peor, but to this day no one knows where his grave is. Moses was a hundred and twenty years old when he died, yet his eyes were not weak nor his strength gone. The Israelites grieved for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days, until the time of weeping and mourning was over.
Now Joshua son of Nun was filled with the spirit of wisdom because Moses had laid his hands on him. So the Israelites listened to him and did what the Lord had commanded Moses.
10 Since then, no prophet has risen in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face, 11 who did all those signs and wonders the Lord sent him to do in Egypt – to Pharaoh and to all his officials and to his whole land. 12 For no one has ever shown the mighty power or performed the awesome deeds that Moses did in the sight of all Israel.

Monday 17 October 2016

Clowning Around

There’s nothing wrong with a bit of clowning around is there?  I suppose it depends on who the clown is and what clowning around they are doing!  In the news at the time of writing are a number of stories of people dressed as clowns who are deliberately chasing and frightening people, apparently sometimes with weapons (hopefully mock ones) dripping with blood.  It is alleged this craze has its origins in America and has now moved to the United Kingdom.  I do not know whether that is true.  I do not know whether there have been many clown sightings or whether some have been made up.  I do not know whether any who do dress up as clowns and chase in this way think they are “clowning around” or whether there is something more threatening and sinister going on.


I do know that some Police forces around the country have been making statements about activities such as this and warning that they do not find actions such as this funny.  I am aware of some younger children who are distressed and scared.  I have some sympathy for the other news story about the man who is dressing up as Batman and chasing clowns.

It is particularly sad that we are dealing with these stories of clown sightings given the long and noble tradition of clowns.  Personally I have not always found clowns hilarious although there have been many occasions when I have found them very funny.  I recognise that sometimes clowns can exhibit and represent great sadness and that the International Film Industry has been able to use clowns to create suspense, drama, and fear within films.  This hardly helps the clown image!

If this is a craze I guess it will come and go with something else replacing it which will perhaps be more threatening or indeed more benign.  In the meantime we may have to be alert for those who want to make mischief or worse.  Halloween approaches and some may well use that as an opportunity to cause difficulties or indeed to scare people.  Children and vulnerable adults, sometimes already threatened by some of the very scary costumes around, may well fall victim to costumed clowns or those in other costumes.  Some of these will only intend to enjoy themselves and have a laugh, but others of will use the cover of darkness (maybe physical and spiritual) to cause havoc.

There will be those in our society that recognise that occasions like Halloween do not really help our society to grow and develop and become wiser or healthier.  This is partly because we live in a society now that is hedonistic and individualistic and which wants to indulge in whatever way they find satisfying.  There is little thought given to consequences and repercussions for themselves or society.  In recognising the unhealthiness of the behaviour of those who think it is good to scare other people and to use something like Halloween to that end there will be those who look for alternatives to Halloween.  I am delighted that once again on Portland in Dorset we will be organising a Light Party (see the poster on this blog post).  Maybe there is a Light Party near you this year.  If so why not think about supporting that rather than Halloween which some use for mischief.  We live in a society which can get very confused between right and wrong.  Shops using the slogan “Happy Halloween” do not begin to get the contradiction in that.  As a society let’s stop clowning around and wise up.