Last Sunday I was told off in the nicest possible way for not keeping the blog entries at least up to date. The last one was in September and this is now December, but to me it seems like only last week I did it! Honest! Time just seems to fly past with no regard to season or person. Already there is the typical Christmas rush to get stuff bought. There were Christmas items in my local supermarket before Halloween and I think many feel like mice on a tread wheel running harder and harder just to catch up and never quite making it. This advent we are looking at those who bore witness to the events and this week we are thinking of the shepherds. They were on the edge of their communities so much past them by as they were stuck out in the fields. Slightly disconnected from society, the last to hear what was going on. They were the first to hear the Good News of Immanuel – God with us. I have often wondered why they were the first to hear. Was it because they were on the margins, relatively poor and these could be good enough reasons – but perhaps it was because they were waiting and watching. There is not much to do in a field at night, but gaze at the stars as you listen for the signs of danger. Perhaps being able to wonder what this thing called life is all about. It may be that they were first to hear because they were actually listening.

How often do we complain about the commercialisation of Christmas, every year it gets worse, but we still play along. We moan about it, but still do it. Have you tried sitting listening for the echo of the first Christmas coming to your inner ear? To hear the call to come form where you are to meet with God, the one who reveals himself to us in a way we can relate to. I hope you can take time over the season to stop – wait – listen and hear God wants to be with you, will you invite him to your Christmas celebration – after all it was his first.

I have been watching some of the Scottish season being run on BBC4. It has been interesting to see where the music and art trends developed from. But there was a programme called "The Scots - natural born sinners". It was a bit negative and somewhat gloomy let alone completely misrepresenting Calvinism and conflating Calvinism and Knox. Tthough a student of Calvin was no puppet and his ideas has his own twist. But there was a comment towards the end by Andrew Marr who looking back said (paraphrased) what would Calvin think of today we are materially more comfortable and spiritually more bankrupt - it was the only comment that I could fully agree with on the whole programme. Yes we, as a society and people have so much - even the poorest have more than most in other countries and yet there is a discordant note of dissatisfaction in people. There is a hunger and thirst for something that will satisfy, money isn't doing it, the nice house, car, job, family, sexual encounters, drink or drugs leave them emptier and more damaged than when they began. Now is the time for the Christians of the nation to get up and dare to be the next Knox, not judging and condemning form pulpits but in fearless proclamation of the gospel. Jesus is the one fix other things can't match. In this case there is no public purse to bail out the spiritual bank account of the nation, it is up to the faithful of Christ to deposit kingdom coin with those we met, work with, relax with, laugh and cry with - we need a new awakening in our land, people with a real heart for God. Are you one of them?

I'm sure everyone is aware of the ongoing debate as to whether the Lockerbie bomber (Megrahi) should be released or die in prison. What is prison for? Justice, rehabilitation or retribution. No act of justice can replace a loved one, perhaps it can satisfy a need for apparent justice for lesser crimes by taking a criminal out of circulation. If it were to rehabilitate the criminal then our prisons should be centers of education and training excellence - but they are far from that with inmates locked up for significant proportions of the day and in particular short term inmates have next to no chance to get any rehabilitative engagement. Though we talk of justice and rehabilitation our prisons serve the natural urge for retribution and so we can understand those who demand that Megrahi stays inside until he dies. It's the Old Testament eye for an eye principle but if we were to suggest to some that this is the case they would be offended because they are too civilised to possibly be regarded as responding from their primal urge to get their own back, or for the community to discipline or smack the offending member. On life maiming and life taking crimes I doubt we can act justly, it is beyond our ability. The judge passes a sentence and the first thing the family do is to say that it is not long enough. There is another Old Testament verse that comes to mind Mic 6:8 "To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God." What will it mean for us to act justly - does it not mean that we should act proportionately and consistently and if so then if any other prisoner would be freed under the same circumstances then justice would demand of us the same response. To love mercy - there are few in the debate who are talking words of mercy to a dieing man. Some are and have the desire to get to the truth of events and see Megrahi as a scapegoat (another biblical theme) but I think they are of the opinion that Megrahi is not central to the event and they want too know who is responsible. Ultimately there is the call to walk humbly with God. Can we really judge justly in such cases - are we value and influence free to be impartial and consistent. Have we the integrity to judge. Does the number of deaths magnify the crime is not one life just as valuable as 300, each life is priceless, no scaler system can be applied. Perhaps there is a time when we need to walk humbly with God and let him judge - but that may be too simplistic for some. You will notice that, till now I have not expressed a view on the case so I will now nail my colours to the mast - and it is a personal view - I think he should be released and allowed to go home and die with his family around him, to try and find some peace in his life, because if it were me in prison in the same situation that is what I would hope they would allow me to do as Jesus said (Matt 7:12) "So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets."