Weekly Update - 14th October
Dear friends
This coming weekend a number of folk from the church will be going off together for the 'Church Weekend Away', which means that Sunday will be a little different. There will be a service in Stocket Grange at 10am and a service in the Community Centre at 11am, but the online service at 11.00am will be a pre-recorded one. Unfortunately there will be no service broadcast over the phones this week. The YouTube service can be found here: https://youtu.be/QgDistiAVzs
Attached are the words for the online service and a notice sheet, and below is my letter for this week...
One of the unique features of being a minister is that people feel the need to apologise when they swear in front of you. I often have people saying sorry and getting embarrassed for using even a mild swear word in my presence. Ironically, they sometimes use the words “Jesus”, “Christ” or “God” in their apology and then don’t apologise for that! I tend to make a little joke of it so as to save their embarrassment, although often my ‘joke’ is - “don’t apologise to me – God still hears you even when I’m not in the room.” (At least I make that joke to save the embarrassment of those who are not Christians. If you are a Christian, I hope you know that you should never use swear words and should be embarrassed if you do!)
On the one hand I realise that the apology is coming from some feeling that it is ‘disrespectful’ to swear in front of a minister, and I do appreciate that. On the other hand, I find it slightly odd to think that it is so disrespectful, or even wrong, to swear in front of me that it requires an apology and yet not wrong to swear at other times. If it is wrong to swear in front of me, is it not wrong to swear in front of anyone?
This might seem like an odd thing to be writing about, but I’ve been thinking about integrity recently and how important it is for us, as representatives of Jesus, to always act with integrity. In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus says, “do not swear…All you need to say is simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.” (Matthew 5:36,37). To be accurate, Jesus is not speaking about the use of swear words, but of “swearing oaths” – such as “on my mother’s life I promise” or “God strike me down if I’m lying”. Jesus may be talking about a different sort of swearing here, but he is addressing the issue of integrity. We should be people who can be trusted in every situation: what we say should be honest; who we are in front of one person should be the same as in front of another. It’s a matter of integrity.
Being a person of integrity is important not only because we are representatives of Jesus, but because God hears and sees everything: which is significant, although perhaps not in the way you might first think. My joke about God hearing you even when I’m not in the room, implies that we should be people of integrity because otherwise God might be displeased with us. But it is the other way around. God loves us and is always with us in order to bless us. When we act without integrity (tell a white lie, manipulate, steel, cheat, say “yes” when mean something else) we are trying to control the world around us using our own ‘wit’. But when we act with integrity, even to our own disadvantage, we are demonstrating that we have such trust in God that we are willing to be obedient. Integrity reflects our relationship with God. It also reflects our relationship with others. To act with integrity towards others is a sign of love, for we are treating them as valuable in their own right. To do otherwise is to treat them as something to be used for our own ends. Which is another reason we don’t use swear words – because everyone is worthy of the same respect.
As you probably know, a number of the congregation are going away together for the weekend from this Friday. There will still be a service in the Community Centre at 11 am, although it will not be broadcast online or over the phones. There is also a service in Stocket Grange at 10am.
May you know the peace and presence of God in your life and may you live with obedience and trust.
With love from Sarah and myself,
Ian
Rev. Ian Aitken
iaitken@churchofscotland.org.uk
www.stockethillchurch.org.uk
Aberdeen: Stockethill Church of Scotland
Scottish Charity Number - SC030587