Somewhere
recently I read an article about how the birth of Jesus brought
together both high and lowly in society. The shepherds, probably
simple folk, were keen to hurry and see the sight that a revelation
of angels had told them about. The wise men, altogether different, of
aristocratic line and steeped in the learning and wisdom of the East,
stuck to the convictions their researches had led them to. They
travelled far and displayed steely determination in reaching the new
King who, they calculated, must have come to the land of Judah.
High
and lowly. I sometimes worry about the likelihood that the life of
any given church might appeal to one class but be off-putting to
another. I think to myself, “This church is too middle class. They
can never expect to appeal to the residents in that rough and ready
estate across the way.” Yet we must never underestimate the power
of the Gospel to jump across social boundaries.
At
the moment I am excited to be reading a major biography of George
Whitefield. The writer is recounting the career of this eminent
18th-century Christian preacher and evangelist, who exercised a
hugely influential ministry on both sides of the Atlantic. The social
divide in his day, certainly in Britain, was in many ways more acute
than it is today. Yet all sides, rich and poor, clamoured for
preaching visits from Whitefield.
Arnold
Dallimore, Whitefield's biographer, reports this about Whitefield’s
early ministry: "Charles Kinchin, Rector of Dummer in Hampshire,
expecting to be at Oxford for some time, asked him to officiate in
his stead, and he accepted.
“Kinchin's
parishioners were poor and illiterate, and Whitefield learned a
valuable lesson among them. He was becoming too fond of his
University associations and admits that, at first, he was ill at ease
among the Dummer people and longed for his Oxford friends. But this
attitude was soon changed and he wrote, 'The profit I reaped from …
conversing with the poor country people was unspeakable. I frequently
learned as much by an afternoon’s visit as in a week’s study.'
The experience among the Dummer villagers proved effective, for never
again was there the least suggestion that he was not equally happy in
ministering to the poor and illiterate as to the wealthy and
learned."
Truly
those were times the people of Jesus’ day would have recognised.
Jesus undoubtedly appealed to the more thoughtful of the ruling
classes in Israel. But as we are told in Mark 10:37 when Jesus taught
in the Jerusalem Temple, “... the common people” [or, “the
crowds”] “heard him gladly” (KJV).
This,
I must admit, is a challenge to me when I begin to imagine that the
religious “gene” in British people has somehow died out, that
hardly anybody is capable any more of responding to the good news of
Jesus the Saviour, and that I must content myself in the cosy company
of the few that have. No, God has promised us that He has His people
from “those who dwell on earth, ... every nation and tribe and
language and people” (Revelation 14:6 ESV).
“He
speaks, and, listening to His voice,
new
life the dead receive,
the
mournful, broken hearts rejoice,
the
humble poor believe.”
-
Charles Wesley, 1707-1788
Rich
or not, influential or not, wise-man-like or shepherd-like, have you
heard and thrilled to the voice which is for you this Christmas time?
And have you let yourself be blessed by talking to someone from a
level of society you don’t normally associate with?
Just
a reminder, by the way – please view my Christmas broadcast, a new
venture for this year. You can watch it by clicking on this link:
It’s
quite safe and you don’t need to install any software.
