Francis de Sales, Bishop of Geneva, Teacher of the Faith, 1622
Seventh Day of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity
Psalm 122
I was glad when they said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord.’
And now our feet are standing within your gates, O Jerusalem; Jerusalem, built as a city that is at unity in itself.
Thither the tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord, as is decreed for Israel, to give thanks to the name of the Lord. For there are set the thrones of judgement, the thrones of the house of David.
O pray for the peace of Jerusalem:
‘May they prosper who love you. Peace be within your walls and tranquillity within your palaces.’
For my kindred and companions’ sake, I will pray that peace be with you.
For the sake of the house of the Lord our God, I will seek to do you good.
Psalm 128
Blessed are all those who fear the Lord, and walk in his ways.
You shall eat the fruit of the toil of your hands; it shall go well with you, and happy shall you be. Your wife within your house shall be like a fruitful vine; your children round your table, like fresh olive branches.Thus shall the one be blest who fears the Lord.
The Lord from out of Zion bless you, that you may see Jerusalem in prosperity all the days of your life. May you see your children’s children, and may there be peace upon Israel.
Psalm 150
Alleluia.
O praise God in his holiness; praise him in the firmament of his power.
Praise him for his mighty acts; praise him according to his excellent greatness.
Praise him with the blast of the trumpet; praise him upon the harp and lyre.
Praise him with timbrel and dances; praise him upon the strings and pipe.
Praise him with ringing cymbals; praise him upon the clashing cymbals.
Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.
Alleluia.
Hosea 2.2-17
Plead with your mother, plead - for she is not my wife, and I am not her husband - that she put away her whoring from her face, and her adultery from between her breasts, or I will strip her naked and expose her as in the day she was born, and make her like a wilderness, and turn her into a parched land, and kill her with thirst.
Upon her children also I will have no pity, because they are children of whoredom. For their mother has played the whore; she who conceived them has acted shamefully. For she said, ‘I will go after my lovers; they give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink.’ Therefore I will hedge her way with thorns; and I will build a wall against her, so that she cannot find her paths. She shall pursue her lovers, but not overtake them;
and she shall seek them, but shall not find them. Then she shall say, ‘I will go and return to my first husband, for it was better with me then than now.’ She did not know that it was I who gave her the grain, the wine, and the oil, and who lavished upon her silver and gold that they used for Baal.
Therefore I will take back my grain in its time, and my wine in its season; and I will take away my wool and my flax, which were to cover her nakedness. Now I will uncover her shame in the sight of her lovers, and no one shall rescue her out of my hand. I will put an end to all her mirth, her festivals, her new moons, her sabbaths, and all her appointed festivals. I will lay waste her vines and her fig trees, of which she said, ‘These are my pay, which my lovers have given me.’
I will make them a forest, and the wild animals shall devour them.
I will punish her for the festival days of the Baals, when she offered incense to them and decked herself with her ring and jewellery, and went after her lovers, and forgot me, says the Lord.
Therefore, I will now persuade her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her. From there I will give her her vineyards, and make the Valley of Achor a door of hope. There she shall respond as in the days of her youth, as at the time when she came out of the land of Egypt. On that day, says the Lord, you will call me, ‘My husband’, and no longer will you call me, ‘My Baal’. For I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth, and they shall be mentioned by name no more.
1 Corinthians 9.1-14
Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are you not my work in the Lord? If I am not an apostle to others, at least I am to you; for you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord.
This is my defence to those who would examine me. Do we not have the right to our food and drink? Do we not have the right to be accompanied by a believing wife, as do the other apostles and the brothers of the Lord and Cephas? Or is it only Barnabas and I who have no right to refrain from working for a living? Who at any time pays the expenses for doing military service? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat any of its fruit? Or who tends a flock and does not get any of its milk?
Do I say this on human authority? Does not the law also say the same? For it is written in the law of Moses, ‘You shall not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain.’ Is it for oxen that God is concerned? Or does he not speak entirely for our sake? It was indeed written for our sake, for whoever ploughs should plough in hope and whoever threshes should thresh in hope of a share in the crop. If we have sown spiritual good among you, is it too much if we reap your material benefits? If others share this rightful claim on you, do not we still more?
Nevertheless, we have not made use of this right, but we endure anything rather than put an obstacle in the way of the gospel of Christ. Do you not know that those who are employed in the temple service get their food from the temple, and those who serve at the altar share in what is sacrificed on the altar? In the same way, the Lord commanded that those who proclaim the gospel should get their living by the gospel.
The Collect
Holy God, who called your bishop Francis de Sales to bring many to Christ through his devout life and to renew your Church with patience and understanding: grant that we may, by word and example, reflect your gentleness and love to all we meet; through Jesus Christ our Saviour, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Showing posts with label geneva. Show all posts
Showing posts with label geneva. Show all posts
Saturday, 24 January 2015
Tuesday, 27 August 2013
Responsibility to protect
I have to say that I am struggling on so many levels with the situation in Syria and on even more with those around me who are accusing our nation of 'war-mongering' and bemoaning the fact that we're merely 'looking for a fight' and here's why:
I can remember the travesty of international justice and the frustrations of UN Forces' commanders when they were rendered impotent in the humanitarian role of protecting civilians in Both Rwanda and Bosnia (take a look at 'Hotel Rwanda' and think back to the Balkan conflict to see what I mean).
I struggle to come to terms with a world where Saddam Hussein managed to deal so effectively with the Shia population that was the Marsh Arabs through draining of their homelands and the use of chemical weapons (and that means that 'yes' he did have weapons of mass destruction at some stage) against those of Kurdish descent (how many people even know of Halabja which remembers the twenty-fifth anniversary of it's bombing with chemical weapons this year?).
In Psalm 82 (v.3-4) we find this:
'Defend the weak and the fatherless; uphold the cause of the poor and the oppressed.
Rescue the weak and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked.'
What we have before us is something that today we call the 'Responsibility to Protect' (R2P) and it is something that supports the intent of the passage above and, existing closely in tune with the heartbeat of God, resonates with all descent people (theist and non-theist).
It is not rabble-rousing, nor jingoistic or vote-catching. What it brings into focus is three elements that need to be considered and these are presented to us in the images of those dead or dying we see broadcast onto our television screens from Syria.
There are three considerations:
It is the duty of each and every state to protect their people from genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity; and the duty of the international community to assist in the prevention of these acts.
Where evidence exists that such atrocities are occurring because the state is unable, or unwilling, to act to stop them then once all peaceful means have been exhausted other, more militarily robust means, are all that remain.
In a nutshell, this is the bottom line:
If a nation cannot, or will not, protect it's own people then the international community must act to ensure that this protection is afforded and when all else fails it is acceptable for them to do so by use of military force.
This is the situation before us with regard to Syria and should the UN Security Council decide that this is the place that has been reached by the current crisis (and it is a crisis) then there are many steps before we find ourselves with a 'boots on the ground' scenario, but this is the ultimate destination should more peaceful ways fail.
It would help the situation greatly to have the Russians become a little more obviously engaged in what is right rather than the protection of their ally (and sales market) in defending Syria. The steps open would be trade embargos (which would hit Russia), sanctions (such as those which have stopped North Korea getting ski lifts - now that's a thought to savour isn't it?) and other restrictions and political strategies.
It's not a swift route, and it never should be, because military action is a last resort rather than a kneejerk (after all whilst politicians start wars it's the armed forces who stop them and pay dearly for treaties written in their blood).
So we need to stop responding with our own kneejerk responses and stop the 'warmongering' cries - because R2P is a balanced, measured and slow process which has nothing to do with regime changes (a mistake that we saw perhaps with Iraq) or dogma, doctrine or national interest (and I mean other nations, not the nation where the problems are occurring). What R2P demands is a strong constitution and a desire to make real the words, 'NEVER AGAIN' true for every nation across the globe - for genocide and the use of weapons of mass destruction must be opposed globally, always and everywhere without let, hindrance, bias or favour.
So tomorrow when the British government discuss the option regarding Syria, use your heads and think; your knees and pray and remember that those who would have peace must train armies and be willing to use them - as the last resort.
Sadly civil wars see ruling powers act against civilian populations using the might of the government machinery (and military might) and the danger is that in supporting the citizens we might just be supporting the self-same terrorists who will turn on us later (remember Russian and Mujahedin and who armed them only to have the same arms turned on our troops by the same people now?).
We need to read, test the news reports and understand the situations and, when what we see on our televisions occurs, act in a right and proper way as nations and as the members of those nations who are part of the international community.
Pray for peace -work for peace- be ready to engage the wicked if (or perhaps when) this is seen to have failed.
Simples or what?
Pax
I can remember the travesty of international justice and the frustrations of UN Forces' commanders when they were rendered impotent in the humanitarian role of protecting civilians in Both Rwanda and Bosnia (take a look at 'Hotel Rwanda' and think back to the Balkan conflict to see what I mean).
I struggle to come to terms with a world where Saddam Hussein managed to deal so effectively with the Shia population that was the Marsh Arabs through draining of their homelands and the use of chemical weapons (and that means that 'yes' he did have weapons of mass destruction at some stage) against those of Kurdish descent (how many people even know of Halabja which remembers the twenty-fifth anniversary of it's bombing with chemical weapons this year?).
In Psalm 82 (v.3-4) we find this:
'Defend the weak and the fatherless; uphold the cause of the poor and the oppressed.
Rescue the weak and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked.'
What we have before us is something that today we call the 'Responsibility to Protect' (R2P) and it is something that supports the intent of the passage above and, existing closely in tune with the heartbeat of God, resonates with all descent people (theist and non-theist).
It is not rabble-rousing, nor jingoistic or vote-catching. What it brings into focus is three elements that need to be considered and these are presented to us in the images of those dead or dying we see broadcast onto our television screens from Syria.
There are three considerations:
It is the duty of each and every state to protect their people from genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity; and the duty of the international community to assist in the prevention of these acts.
Where evidence exists that such atrocities are occurring because the state is unable, or unwilling, to act to stop them then once all peaceful means have been exhausted other, more militarily robust means, are all that remain.
In a nutshell, this is the bottom line:
If a nation cannot, or will not, protect it's own people then the international community must act to ensure that this protection is afforded and when all else fails it is acceptable for them to do so by use of military force.
This is the situation before us with regard to Syria and should the UN Security Council decide that this is the place that has been reached by the current crisis (and it is a crisis) then there are many steps before we find ourselves with a 'boots on the ground' scenario, but this is the ultimate destination should more peaceful ways fail.
It would help the situation greatly to have the Russians become a little more obviously engaged in what is right rather than the protection of their ally (and sales market) in defending Syria. The steps open would be trade embargos (which would hit Russia), sanctions (such as those which have stopped North Korea getting ski lifts - now that's a thought to savour isn't it?) and other restrictions and political strategies.
It's not a swift route, and it never should be, because military action is a last resort rather than a kneejerk (after all whilst politicians start wars it's the armed forces who stop them and pay dearly for treaties written in their blood).
So we need to stop responding with our own kneejerk responses and stop the 'warmongering' cries - because R2P is a balanced, measured and slow process which has nothing to do with regime changes (a mistake that we saw perhaps with Iraq) or dogma, doctrine or national interest (and I mean other nations, not the nation where the problems are occurring). What R2P demands is a strong constitution and a desire to make real the words, 'NEVER AGAIN' true for every nation across the globe - for genocide and the use of weapons of mass destruction must be opposed globally, always and everywhere without let, hindrance, bias or favour.
So tomorrow when the British government discuss the option regarding Syria, use your heads and think; your knees and pray and remember that those who would have peace must train armies and be willing to use them - as the last resort.
Sadly civil wars see ruling powers act against civilian populations using the might of the government machinery (and military might) and the danger is that in supporting the citizens we might just be supporting the self-same terrorists who will turn on us later (remember Russian and Mujahedin and who armed them only to have the same arms turned on our troops by the same people now?).
We need to read, test the news reports and understand the situations and, when what we see on our televisions occurs, act in a right and proper way as nations and as the members of those nations who are part of the international community.
Pray for peace -work for peace- be ready to engage the wicked if (or perhaps when) this is seen to have failed.
Simples or what?
Pax
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