Spratton  & Cottesbrooke  3[rd] and 4[th]  Sundays  after Easter.2010 

I've always enjoyed collecting trivial facts..  It helps to break the ice at a party.   For example,  did you know that there are more non bald men in the world than hairs on a normal human head?   No I didn't: but does it matter, leaving aside the question of whether or not it's true. .At least it sounds interesting.  
So a week yesterday when I was in Peterborough with Esme  and Mary and over 1000 others  to witness  the Installation  of our new Bishop , Donald Allister  it caught my eye when the Order of Service announced   that he was the 38th holder of the office since it was established in 1541. 
 So the office  back quite a long way  though by comparison with some others in this country  it's relatively new one might say. .  And here I am in full trivial pursuit.   I discovered that  there have been 42 monarchs of England since 1066 and 104 Archbishops of Canterbury since St. Augustine landed in 598,  and about 683 Lords Mayor of London whose office was created before King John signed the Magna Carta.    
 Our new Bishop was formerly the Archdeacon of Chester and was brought up in the Wirral and has spent most of his life and ministry in the diocese of Chester.  At one time he was a medical student at Cambridge but switched to theology after two years. So a man of many different parts.  
The Cathedral was full. . Plenty of colour, mitres, robes  and wonderful music and some dramatic ceremony as the new Bishop knocked resonantly on the great west Door with his staff to gain admittance and was welcomed by the Dean of the Cathedral.    
And in his sermon he gave us his mission statement based on St. John's gospel and the words of Our Lord " Feed My Sheep".   Because that is what Bishop Donald wants to do in many different ways.   
He will undoubtedly be making his presence felt.  Once a week he will be in Northampton, at Bouverie Court, the Church's library and resource centre near Northampton. And he encouraged us to call on him for help when necessary. He emphasised how much he wanted to meet us all at whatever our capacity, be it vicars, members of congregations, lay readers, sidesmen, organists.  
He wants to work with us and local clergy in spreading the gospel of Christ, and bringing people back to the Christian faith.  
He will work, too,  with other denominations with the church and other faiths.  .  
 It was inspiring stuff.  I left with the feeling that in Bishop Donald we had a man to lead us in difficult times , who was ready to roll up his sleeves and get stuck in. He used two crosiers during the Installation. One when he came in, his own and one when he left, the Cathedral's. On both of them were inscribed the words " Feed my Sheep". 
So we have a new Church leader to get behind.  
And soon we'll be electing a new government.   How should we as Christians approach their choice in the coming election?   The debates may or not may not help you to make a choice.  For me there's too much of the X Factor about them,- or is it Pop Idol?   Looking back over recent eyars, I can't helping agreeing with the historian Barbara Tuchman that Mankind makes a poorer performance of government than of almost any other human activity. 
So by what yardsticks could we measure our candidates ?    
In the United States they are very evident: Christian beliefs are part and parcel of any politicians life. When I was working for the British Government in California, I was invited every year  to the Governor's prayer breakfast in Sacramento   At this some 600 people, many of them from the legislature, would tuck into bacon and waffles, coffee and rolls. We'd be entertained by a Gospel Choir in full throat. Then individual speakers would says a few words about their work in the community, some of them ex gang leaders, former prisoners or people working on the streets with the homeless.   And we'd have a main speaker, a local leader  who described his own interaction with the Gospel of Christ. 
The first time I went, it was for me quite literally a life changing experience.  The speaker was a former senator from Ohio who had become an active Christian during his 12 years in the Senate and then left office to work with charities.  His talk was quite brilliant describing how his Christian faith had motivated his life.   I sent William Gibbs a tape of it, urging him to play it in the churches here.  But we didn't have the technology for that, so I fear it's now languishing somewhere in my attic and may be William's .  But that breakfast speaker's  thoughts, his enormous Christian commitment,  go marching on. 
Over here, however,  politicians downplay Christian beliefs.  I can't find any reference to them in the campaign literature of our candidates.  What goes on in our breast is entirely suppressed,  as Eartha Kitt once sang of Englishmen.   "We don't do God" as spin doctor Alistair Campbell famously told Tony Blair when he wanted to end a speech with the words  "Goodnight and God bless you"   
t wasn't always thus.  In the nineteenth century Gladstone the greatest PM of that century was constantly involved with his Christian beliefs, both in public and private  -  literally scourging himself on occasions for what he saw as his sins.  He did charity work through a London chapel.   In 1848 for example  he established the Church Pentitentiary Association for the Reclamation  of Fallen Women, along with the Bishops of London and Oxford. . I doubt whether any candidate today would be keen to put such activity his or her election manifesto. Nowadays we speak of the Sex Industry and attack people trafficking., which I suppose you could call a spin off from Gladstone's activities. 
But Christianity has  always had a slightly ambivalent relationship with politics.   " Render unto to Caesar the things that are Caesar's and unto God the things that are God's" Jesus famously told the Pharisees   His Ministry was quite separate from the politics of the time, though his followers and many outside his immediate circle did not want it that way :  Many of them They were looking for deliverance from Roam occupation  But they were told "My kingdom is not of this world".   
So when the first Christians came together after the Resurrection, they lived apart from society, away from the politics of the time  in what we would today call a commune, with goods and money being pooled for the common good.  They were of course persecuted outside power and critical of it: Rome the " Whore of Babylon"  in Revelations and the emperor the  "Beast of Anti Christ".
All that changed when Christianity became the official religion of the Roman empire in the 4[th] century.  Even then there was a City of God, as St. Augustine of Hippo put it, and a City of Men and the two should be kept apart. .  But over the centuries  the two became intertwined . Christianity became militant in the Crusades .  By the time he became Lord Protector  Oliver Cromwell, came to rely on his own sense of divine mission "The Lord, or rather I command you" he used to begin his letters.   Today any of our leaders who said such things i n public would be regarded as deranged..  
But then sadly recent events have shown that we need regard politicians with deep suspicion anyway
So by what Christian standards should we judge the ideal candidate  in this election?   I think we have some idea of the sort of people whom Jesus would have endorsed. In the sermon on the Mount in which  he lists  eight different attributes in the Beatitudes:
Blessed are the poor in spirit.  He was looking for a man with humility  Open to the word of God.  The opposite of pride.  Openness and inner peace.  If we were all like that there would be no war.
Blessed are those who mourn: that is people who recognise their own human weakness  for they shall be comforted  by the Holy Spirit. So we live in hope of that and have a desire to improve ourselves. 
Blessed are the meek .  Obedience and submission to the will of God are certainly not in vogue these days, but they will bring one peace in this world and in the next.  
Hunger and thirst after righteousness.  For example, Christ's candidate must have the gift of fortitude so one may be courageous in seeking justice and fighting for what is right.  
Be  merciful 
. Love, compassion, and forgiveness towards one's neighbour will bring peace in your relationships. We say in the Lord's Prayer: Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. As we are merciful to others, so our Heavenly Father will be merciful with us! Jesus reminds us that whatever "you did to the least of my brethren, you did it to me"   That's going to be a tough  one too. In the last 13 years our elected representatives have created 4300 offences, as opposed to the eight that appear in the Ten Commandments. 
 
Blessed are the pure in heart.  To be pure of heart means to be free of all selfish intentions and self-seeking desires.  What a beautiful goal! From what we read about expenses that purity was sadly lacking in the last Parliament.  But we mustn't be too censorious.   Remmeber what Jess said about moats and beams in the eye?   How many times have we  performed an act perfectly free of any personal gain?. An act of pure and selfless giving brings happiness to all. 


Blessed are the peacemakers. I would hope our candidate will be someone who  is not a member of the Yaboo school of politics.       He must brings peace to another; but you cannot give another what you don't possess oneself. Hence the Lord wants you first to be yourself filled with the blessings of peace and then to communicate it to those who have need of it. By imitating God's love of man, the peacemakers become children of God. 

"Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness.  
Jesus said many times that those who follow Him will be persecuted.  There is today  undoubtedly a feeling about in this country that Christians, if not persecuted, are under pressure and that politicians are indifferent  to them.   Lord Carey, the former Archbishop and others said so in a letter to a newspaper recently and that theme has been echoed by our present Archbishop I believe.  So our candidate needs to stand up for his moral beliefs. 
                                       
                                       
So there we have it eight different kinds of blessing that our candidate should possess.  Can such a paragon of virtue be found ?  I doubt it.  As I see them the Beatitudes are goals. 
The two leaflets  that I have had put through my letterbox do not mention any of these attributes.   But I though it would be interesting  to set out  a few ideas that are far from trivia - to break the ice if you meet the candidates.  You might start by asking them to name a couple of Beatitudes.  If they can tick even four out of the eight boxes, I think they will be doing well  -  so would any of us.  
[ Chaplain and US visitors to the House of Commons] 

Teach us good Lord to serve thee as Thou deserves......
