Interpreting This Present Time.

Our Gospel reading this evening is a difficult one - one of those we might prefer to skip. Jesus brings challenge and choice. He speaks of crisis.

He knew the pain and suffering that lay ahead. And yet so often His followers just wanted the thrills and spills of His miracles, the glow of following in His wake.

Could they not see that His message was in direct contrast to that of the religious leaders of the day? Could they not see that conflict was inevitable?

Not conflict for conflict's sake - but inevitable conflict because of differing visions and values
- because of holiness clashing with hypocrisy
- because of holiness coming face to face with sin

Jesus had a prophetic role that brought Him into conflict with others. And we, as His followers, have a prophetic role today, - to pronounce and to stand up for heaven's values on earth.

It is so easy for the church, especially the church in the west, to slip into a comfortable, unchallenging mode. Sermons on sin, on holiness, on judgement, on the second coming of Christ, are rarely heard. Conflict is avoided at all costs. Theology so often conforms to the politically correct attitude of the day.
It conforms rather than transforms.
It adapts to current trends.
It is reinterpreted to suit modern expectations.
It doesn't challenge.

It seems that lectionary readings -perhaps with the exception of this evening! - avoid the difficult and challenging passages. "Love" is everything - love, not in the 1 Corinth 13 sense, but "love" in a vague, woolly sense that papers over real issues. "As long as you have love nothing else matters".

And so Jesus asked the question (V51): "Do you think I came to bring peace on earth?"

We would surely have answered "Yes, but of course!" But Jesus says an emphatic "No!" ("ouchi!") "No, I tell you, but division!" And that is not what His followers wanted to hear.

Yes, Jesus was the Prince of Peace. But what sort of peace? Mere absence of conflict? No, Jesus' peace is a much deeper, more radical thing than that. "My peace I leave you," He said "Not as the world gives peace" (Jn 14:27)

Jesus' peace comes through the pain of the cross
- and the cross is a place of choice,
- of conflict as well as of reconciliation
- It is a cross-roads.

We are called as Christians, not to be deliberately confrontational, but to stand firmly and uncompromisingly for Gospel truth. And this will inevitably cause division - including, Jesus says, division within families.

Rosemary and I experienced for ourselves something of this when we both felt clearly called by God to serve as missionaries in East Africa. My parents, who had been missionaries, and who would have understood, had died. Rosemary's parents had never come across this sort of calling. They didn't understand it at all. They couldn't relate to the idea of God calling people to do something. And they were bitterly opposed to our going. They thought - understandably in human terms - that I was irresponsible, reckless, stupid, callous, to be taking their precious pregnant daughter and baby grandson off to a remote location in the African bush, to "do good" to people who probably wouldn't appreciate it. Why not get a well-paid, comfortable practice in this country, with a secure future, and do good to people here? Rosemary's father even wanted to buy me a practice!

The "loving" thing would have been to stay here and do what they wanted. The "obeying" and the right thing to do was to do God's will. It caused huge tension and falling out at the time, and for a long time I was the unforgiven black sheep. It brought division - "Parent-in-law against son-in-law".

In the end we were reconciled in a wonderful way - but that is another story! God's will, God's truth, has got to be our first loyalty
- not in an arrogant way
- but in an obedient-to-God way

Jesus talked of His being the cause of families dividing - and in a Muslim family total ostracism, even death, can result from someone turning to Christ.

But Jesus went on to talk of being the cause of much more widespread division than that. And He challenged the people - "Can't you see the signs of it? You interpret the weather. Why can't you interpret the times?"

In those days before weather forecasts, and in that eastern Mediterranean area, the weather signs were obvious
- clouds blowing in from the Mediterranean in the west meant rain
- hot, dry wind from the Negev desert in the south meant hot dry weather.
- It was obvious!

"So, if you can interpret the weather" Jesus said "how is it that you can't interpret this present time?"

The people wanted a Messiah who would bring them victory, peace, prosperity, a comfortable life. And Jesus said, "Can't you see that everything I say, everything I stand for, brings Me into confrontation with the religious authorities, and with the ruling authorities?"

"I have come to bring fire on earth" He said.
"I have a baptism to undergo" He said.
"I have come to bring division" He said.
All very uncomfortable words. Not what we, or the people then, wanted to hear. "Can't you see it? He asked. "Can't you see the signs?"

And of course His head-on clash with authority led, not to peace and comfort and prosperity, but to a cross. And the same applies today.

David Blair (no relation to Tony!), writing in this week's Scripture Union notes, says: "In our present age, where moral values have often been reduced to personal preferences, and human rights have sometimes been twisted into subtle pursuit of gain, the doctrine of God's wrath is indeed unpopular, and seldom preached in our churches. We should heed Richard Niebuhr's scathing definition of all attempts to water down the Gospel: 'A God without wrath brought men without sin into a kingdom without judgement through the ministrations of a Christ without a cross.' "

The church in the West has to a large extent eased itself into a comfortable armchair, where Biblical values are replaced by current sociological trends; words like "sin" and "judgement" are discarded as being old hat and embarrassingly judgemental; where anything and everything goes so long as there is "love"; where all roads lead to heaven, and it would be arrogant and politically incorrect to claim any uniqueness for Christ.

In other words, part of the church has become flabby and ineffective, and barely distinguishable from our secular society. You would hardly know it was there!

And Jesus might well cry out:
"Don't you see the weather signs?
"Can't you see what is happening?"

Christian values are threatened not only by the laid-back attitudes of those within the church, but also by Government legislation. Just 3 debates in Parliament illustrate this.

The Assisted Dying Bill - which was recently defeated in Parliament, but whose supporters vow to bring it back - would in effect legalise euthanasia, and challenge the concept of the sanctity of life. In that debate some of our church leaders in the House of Lords did speak out strongly - all credit to them.

The Religious Hatred Bill - which was defeated by just one vote - would have made it illegal to stand up in church and proclaim that Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life, and that no one comes to the Father except by Him. Preaching of the uniqueness of the Gospel, because it could cause offence to other faiths, would have been open to prosecution.

The Sexual Orientation Bill, to be debated this autumn, will make it illegal to refuse to employ someone on the grounds of their sexual practice. In other words, if a church's leaders feel that it would be wrong to appoint a practising gay minister, and did not do so for that reason, they would be committing an offence and be open to prosecution.

Now we may have differing views on homosexuality, but a law that enforces a secular point of view on the church will inevitably, overnight, criminalise thousands of Christians and churches, not to mention those of other faiths. Those who hold their views sincerely and thoughtfully, and believe them to be based on Scripture, are not going to change their view just because the Government says so. Conflict is inevitable.

We need to keep informed as to what the Government is up to, and to be prayerful, and if necessary active in protest.

"How is it that you do not know how to interpret this present time?" Jesus asked

The foundations of our society are shifting. Christian values are no longer our bedrock. Life in the future is not going to be the same for Christians in this country. Times of persecution could well lie ahead.

And not just in families, not just in this country, but world-wide the signs are there -
- militant forms of Islam and Hinduism are on the march, not only in the Middle East and India, but in Indonesia and Africa. What is going on in Somalia right now gets little in the headlines, but is profoundly significant for the church in East and Central Africa.
- In many countries Christians are suffering persecution, imprisonment and death for their faith. The organisation Open Doors monitors this, and cites many, many cases.

Are we aware? Do we care? Is this part of the wave of persecution and suffering that Jesus said will happen before He comes again?

To be a Christian - not a "Christian" in the cultural sense, but a Christian in the real sense, a follower of Jesus Christ, committed to Him - has never been an easy option. And all the weather signs are that it is going to get even harder.

"I have come to bring fire on earth."
"I have a baptism to undergo - the baptism of the cross."
"I have come to bring division."

Hard and uncomfortable words from our Lord and Saviour.

As Christians you and I have to make hard choices,
- to stand up for what we believe
- often to swim against the tide
- to take up our crosses (our crosses, not our armchairs) and follow Jesus
- to watch the weather signs, and pray for His coming again.

Whoever said that it is easy to be a Christian? Certainly Jesus didn't!

We need more Christians prepared to stand out, to be different, and to take a prophetic role.

Thank God for Archbishop John Sentamu who, this last 10 days has given up his holiday in Salzburg, shaved his head, is camping out in a tent in York Minster, and is fasting on water alone for 10 days - all as a protest, a sign, a prayer, a prophecy, calling for peace in the Lebanon, and Israel and Gaza.

Some may laugh at him.
I doubt that God is laughing.
He is more likely weeping with him

May God give us, too, the courage to stand up and be different!

David Webster