Warnings

In mid-January there was a spate of warnings about how ready Britain was or was not to defend itself and its interests from attack. The headline warning seemed to come from General Sir Nick Carter in a speech at the Royal United Services Institute. He announced that if war were to break out between Britain and Russia, Russia would very likely win. Britain needed to study closely the ways other countries were exploiting international situations to gain advantage to themselves.

Cyber warfare looms as a particular threat. In this interconnected world, mischief makers can bring down whole systems and disrupt people’s everyday lives.

How far the warnings from the military top brass will be heeded is not certain. We have learned to distrust experts. I think of the way in which academic after academic was wheeled on to tell us what disasters would befall us as soon as we voted to leave the EU. In the end, nothing drastic happened, and we won’t be nearly so ready to listen to those experts next time.

Warnings are also part of the armoury of any religion that reaches out to people. The public is just as dismissive of these as it is of other self-styled experts. The man with the sandwich board announcing 

“Prepare to meet thy God” 

has long been a figure of fun. Perhaps, the thinking goes, he’s seen a danger that we can’t see … but then again, he may simply be an addle-brained zealot.

Our mediaeval forebears heard their fair share of warnings from preachers about a future in an eternal hell for those who committed the Seven Deadly Sins. Hell was presented in lurid terms. There is evidence that they took these warnings enormously seriously. They could be driven, for instance, to bequeath stupendous riches to monasteries (which probably didn’t need them) to avoid hell or at least a long period in purgatory.

We no longer have that culture. Even those of us who take Jesus seriously (and I do) when He teaches,

“Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea. And if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than with two hands to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire. And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life lame than with two feet to be thrown into hell. And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell, ‘where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched’” (Mark 9:42-48 ESV)

will most likely not spend nearly as much time worrying about going to eternal torment in hell as our distant ancestors. We have every confidence that the work of Jesus Christ on the cross is sufficient to cover all our sin and keep us clear of hell. But that doesn’t excuse us from being grateful for such a great deliverance and from stirring ourselves into action. “Strive,” counsels the Master:

“Strive to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able” (Luke 13:24).

Sad times, joyful times

I write this entry at a time of great sadness. Our much loved church secretary, Dick Cole, who was in fact the sole leader of our church for decades before I arrived, has passed from us. We all feel truly bereft and wondering where we go from here.

The memorial service is billed as a celebration of his life. It was an active life well lived, a cause for many happy memories. The celebratory funeral is frequently called for nowadays – for people to be happy for the life of someone rather than grieve because they’ve passed away.

At the same time, we would all surely agree with the old piece of wisdom says that you have to give people space to grieve – permission to feel sad and lost because somebody that they loved has gone. If you deny them this, you may deprive them of an important means of expressing what they may really feel and, indeed, of moving on.

I know this is by no means the intention of the family in this case. They nurse a great sense of sadness and pain and, I am sure, understand that others will react in the same way too.

In thinking about how Jesus would respond to all of this, I found myself turning to John’s Gospel, where He spoke to His followers about the time when He would no longer be with them on earth. He was trying to prepare them for the event, although they were unable to cope with it and mostly blanked it out of their minds. This is what He told them:

“But now I am going to him who sent me, and none of you have asked me, ‘Where are you going?’ But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send Him to you” (John 16:5-8 ESV)

And then Jesus outlined all the benefits that the Holy Spirit would grant to His followers. He would indeed express the mind of the risen and triumphant Jesus, now reigning in heaven, guiding and directing His people still on Earth.

We can all think how great it would have been had Jesus stayed on: how many more miracles would have been performed, how many more questions answered, how much more depth of impact achieved for the people that Jesus was trying to lead. On the other hand, His sphere of influence did not extend much outside His native area of Palestine in His earthbound days. With the coming of the Holy Spirit the message was able to go, as the Bible says, all through Judea and Samaria and away to the ends of the Earth. It is only by His leaving for heaven that we in our country and day have been able to hear the message and benefit from it. While sharing the first disciples’ disappointment that He had to leave this earth, we rejoice in the outcome.

I guess we were all praying that our church secretary would recover: he certainly put up a tremendous fight for life. But now that he has gone it is just possible that we will be able to face up to certain realities which perhaps we avoided in time past. These are issues we need to grasp hold of in our little fellowship as we face the future. Maybe the cause of Jesus Christ in our village and beyond will benefit as we grapple with these things. Maybe this is a page in the book of our history which was waiting for a line to be drawn at the end of it. That line can only now be drawn and a new page turned. It is to the credit of our secretary, and builds on his legacy, if we can now make up our minds and turn that page.