Over the past 2 weeks we have seen on our TV screens scenes of utter devastation from the earthquake in China.
And something that has struck me is the way different buildings were affected.
There would be a scene of flattened rubble from collapsed buildings, then right in the middle of it all a building rising up and still standing.
Cracked maybe, and a bit askew, but standing. How come?
In the one building everyone crushed to death.
In the other everyone surviving.
And it all boils down to the quality of the structure
- the strength of the foundations
- the reinforcement of the walls.
One of the big questions now beginning to be asked is:
"Why did so many buildings totally collapse?"
"Why did that relatively new school building, with hundreds of pupils in it, totally collapse, with the loss of everyone in it, while other older buildings, adjacent to it, remained standing?"
"Had builders cut corners to make bigger profits? Making inadequate foundations? Leaving out the metal reinforcement in the concrete?
- in other words, doing a shoddy job?"
"Why did some buildings stand, while others crumbled?"
And in many cases the answer will come down to foundations.
Foundations!
St Paul, in his letters, refers on a number of occasions to foundations.
Spiritual foundations.
In today's reading (1 Cor 3:10) he writes:
"By the grace God has given me I laid a foundation as an expert builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should be careful how he builds. For no-one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ."
Yes, Jesus Christ is the only rock-bottom solid foundation on which to build faith.
And on Him needs to be built a strong and solid building, built, not by a cost-cutting, quick-fix, jerry-builder, but built as by an expert.
So, how are your and my foundations?
The thing about a foundation is that you can't see it.
You can't easily examine it or test it.
If we had studied the buildings in Sechuan before the earthquake I guess they would all have looked much the same.
We would not have been able to say:
"Keep out of that one - it would not be safe in an earthquake!"
"That one's OK - its foundations are strong!"
We would not have been able to distinguish between them.
What has distinguished between them - those with strong foundations, and those without - has been the earthquake.
And the difference has been devastating
- the difference between a building remaining standing and safe
- and a building reduced to a pile of rubble, a death trap for everyone in it.
And it all boils down to foundations.
So, how are your and my foundations?
How are our Christian foundations?
How strong, how secure, how safe is our faith?
The strength of buildings may be tested by earthquake - as in China.
Or by cyclone and floods - as in Burma
Or even by drought.
20 years ago our apparently strong and solid house began to develop cracks in the walls. We could even enjoy the view through one crack!
And that was due to drought, and to shrinking of the clay soil, and subsidence.
So before it was too late our foundations had to be reinforced, by digging a 10 foot deep trench underneath the walls, and pouring in tons of concrete.
And now it is strong.
Earthquake. Flood. Drought.
All test a building's foundations, and show them up for what they are.
Our Christian foundations, our faith, is today being tested in all sorts of ways - and I think will be increasingly tested in the coming years.
We may of course face illness, or bereavement, or redundancy.
We may face family and relationship problems which test our faith.
But also there is persecution.
In so many parts of the world Christians are, right now, as we sit comfortably (or, in view of the chairs, uncomfortably!) here, Christians are being tested by persecution.
Thankfully that isn't happening here - yet! Yet!
Just this week we heard of a Somali convert from Islam, 29 year old David Abdulwahab Mohammed. Since his conversion he has been living in Ethiopia, but he went home to visit his family in Somalia. He thought it would be safe. But once back in Somalia his cousin told him he must revert to Islam. He looked his cousin in the eyes and said, "I can't. I follow the Messiah." So he was shot dead.
He is the fifth Christian to be murdered in Somalia in recent weeks.
And these are just a few of thousands worldwide who face persecution, imprisonment and death.
We don't yet experience that sort of threat.
But there are strong though subtle anti-Christian secular currents in our land.
Christianity is being steadily side-lined.
It is being made to seem irrelevant.
There is a powerful secular agenda running through our laws and our land.
Look at the debates and the votes in Parliament this past week.
They are complex issues, some of them.
Difficult issues - hybrid embryos and saviour siblings.
But the official Government line in each case was one of pragmatism rather than principle.
And abortion.
200,000 abortions are carried out in England and Wales each year.
Six times the population of Malvern.
Wholesale destruction of human life.
And Parliament has voted that nothing should or need change.
In fact it is the intention of the Government to do away with the need for 2 doctors to sign before an abortion can be carried out.
Abortion on demand will soon have officially arrived.
And then there is the matter of whether a child needs a father or not.
Apparently not, according to the new legislation voted through.
God was clearly mistaken when He invented the mother/father family.
And so presumably we don't need God the Father either.
Some time back Harriet Harman and Patricia Hewitt wrote (in their paper called "Family Way: a New Approach to Policy Making") this:
"It cannot be assumed that men are bound to be an asset to family life".
Fathers of all kinds are, officially, superfluous.
Harriet Harman gave the official Government line on marriage the other day.
She said (I quote):
"Marriage is irrelevant to public policy."
Repeated Government financial legislation has at best not encouraged marriage, and in some instances discriminated against it.
Better to live together than marry.
The earthquake of Government policies is shaking and testing the foundations of our faith and of our Christian heritage.
And then there is the intellectual earthquake - what St Paul calls in our reading: "The wisdom of this world which is foolishness in God's sight." 1 Cor 3:19
Richard Dawkins wrote his onslaught on faith, "The God Delusion", and it was reviewed at length in every paper, discussed on the radio, promoted as a best seller in the window of every bookshop.
A "must" to read.
But when equally intellectual Christians, such as Alistair McGrath, wrote responses - nothing!
Or when any Christian book is published, however excellent, it is completely ignored by secular bookshops.
"We don't promote religious books - that would show prejudice!"
They plug anti-religious books.
But not pro-religious books.
The one is intellectually acceptable; the other is prejudice.
The papers, the media, frequently have an anti-Christian agenda.
Either hostile, or just mockingly amused.
And what about our schools and our children?
RE lessons, in this supposedly Christian country, are required to treat all religions equally.
RE is often taught by non-believers,
Many schools no longer have any Christian content in their assemblies.
And the latest proposal is that children - not their parents, note, but children themselves - should be allowed to opt out of RE lessons if they want to.
An earthquake of secularisation is shaking our nation, and the tremors are getting stronger.
All this could be so depressing, but we need not be discouraged. In fact, worldwide, fantastic things are happening.
In Iran many are turning to Christ in spite of the fanatical Islamic regime.
In China the church is exploding.
We see evidence of Christians with strong foundations in many lands.
So what about us?
How are your foundations? How are mine?
We need strong foundations of faith as never before.
And our children need them.
How do we build strong foundations?
How do we pour in the concrete?
St Paul says: "No-one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ."
But how do we build strongly on that foundation?
You know here in the Priory we have so many opportunities to build.
We need of course to be regular and consistent in our attendance at church,
And our children regular in their groups.
Building up faith week by week.
Then there are housegroups - lots to choose from.
Do you belong to a housegroup, studying the faith in more detail, learning along with others?
We are currently in the middle of a wonderful series of studies on the Epistle to the Ephesians - good, rich, basic Christian doctrines.
There has just been the START course for young people, and there is the Alpha course for adults - both giving the basics of the faith, the solid foundations.
The Marriage Course will be running again this autumn, looking at how we build up a strong marriage - ideal for every couple, however long or short married; to make good marriages even better, and to deal with some of the challenges of marriage.
Then there is the new Theology Reading Group.
Next month for our local Primary schools we shall be doing the Scripture Union Lifepath here in the Priory. 360 schoolchildren will, in fun ways, learn about the faith that caused this church to be built.
We have easy access to all sorts of Bible Reading Notes, and of course to the Bible itself.
Are we all in the habit of reading our Bible daily, and letting it soak in?
As we were reminded at Lee Abbey, daily Bible reading and prayer is in the first place a discipline; but in time a discipline becomes a habit; and then a habit becomes a delight.
And so, bit by bit, the foundations of faith are laid down - strong foundations.
And it's never too late to start.
Difficult days, of one kind or another, lie ahead.
The ground beneath our feet is shaking.
Society around us is, in many ways, collapsing.
Paul, in various places in his letters, urges Christians to stand.
"Stand!...... Stand! …… Stand!" he says.
So lets stand firm, on the rock which is Jesus Christ,
Building a faith which is rock-solid.
There is no place in today's world for nominal Christianity
- for casual Christianity
- for cosy, cushy Christianity.
Anything that isn't genuine is going to be shaken until it crumbles.
And that is the good and positive side of what is happening in our country.
Christians are being challenged to stand up and to speak up.
To be real.
And who knows?
Perhaps those with a secular agenda will unwittingly and unintentionally trigger off a Christian revival on our land.
So, may we mean it with all our hearts when we sing, as we shall have sung this morning:
"Christ is made the sure foundation, and the precious corner stone."
"All my hope on God is founded"
David Webster
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