I wrote this blog for the Evangelical Alliance a few months ago and re-posting it here so I can find it in future. The original is: http://www.eauk.org/culture/friday-night-theology/to-die-is-gain.cfm
On the 28th
October 313AD the world was changed.
Against overwhelming
odds, but with newly-discovered Christian faith in his bosom, Constantine won a
battle to become emperor of Western Europe.
Within 12 years he had become the first emperor in a generation to unite
the whole Roman Empire and he had done it with Jesus’ name at the very centre.
If you’ve lived in the
West then being part of the church has made your life more comfortable ever
since. It was never supposed to be this
way.
As St Paul put it 250
years earlier: “For to me, to live is
Christ and to die is gain.”[i]
The heroes of the
early church were the martyrs not the well-paid men who rub shoulders with
culture’s elites. They had Polycarp
martyred at 86[ii]. We have Rick Warren brilliantly praying at
Obama’s inauguration. They had Felicity
and Perpetua – two young mothers thrown to the wild animals[iii]. We have Bishops serving in the House of Lords
and faithfully preaching at royal weddings.
Tuesday’s shocking
murder of Fr. Jacques Hamel at 85 – simply for being a Christian – reminds us
that the gospel is offensive. It reminds
us that the church is not safe. It
reminds us that the world needs Jesus.
The Gospel is offensive
The Gospel is the news
that Jesus, in his life, death and resurrection, has achieved something for us
that was desperately needed and beyond our ability to achieve. We need his victory over death because we’re
dying. We need his victory over sin because
we’re sin-addicts. We need his victory over
evil because evil not only invades our world; it permeates to the very core of
our ego.
The gospel is
offensive because it opens people’s eyes to the truth that they are dying
sin-addicts with evil hearts. It is
offensive because we were told that we can be whoever we want to be. We were told ‘impossible is nothing’. We were told ‘just do it’. And when our eyes are opened to the truth
that we can’t our psyche is wounded.
No manner of prophets,
pillars or prayers. No manner of
success, sex or celebrity. Nothing we
can do is enough. So the message of the
Gospel is offensive.
When deranged people
are offended they do dreadful things.
From Nero, Domitian and Diocletian to Nazis, Daesh, and the
disillusioned person down your road. The
gospel is offensive and we will see more deranged people doing dreadful things
to the Church of Jesus before He returns.
The Church is Unsafe
Father Jacques Hamel
was a priest near a city called Rouen. Although
history has visited tragedy on the region many times before, Rouen feels rather
close to home, like it should be safe.
I’m a pastor in Leeds, and it’s unnervingly easy to imagine a similar
tragedy here.
We’ve received
communiqués on security in light of this attack and there is a heightened sense
of nervousness around. I’m struck by the
reminder that the church is uncomfortable.
It is not safe to leave your phone lying around on a Sunday. It is not necessarily safe to leave the door
open on a Tuesday. But it is not safe to
pray in Gethsemane. It is not safe to
bear witness to Christ in the amphitheatre.
It is not safe to be a Christian.
“Who said anything
about safe? 'Course he isn't safe. But he's good. He's the King, I tell you.”[iv]
a description of Jesus immortalised by CS Lewis.
The World needs Jesus
Because he didn’t
pursue the safe and comfortable, Jesus won a victory over sin, over evil and
over death.
If we are willing to
live shared lives. To live with open
doors when it’s not safe. To live with
open hearts when we’ve been hurt before.
To live with open hands when we will be taken advantage of. If we are willing to live shared lives then
the victory of Christ will shine brighter even as the darkness deepens. It’s not safe anymore (if it ever truly was)
but we will certainly “shine like stars
in the universe as we hold out the word of life.”[v]
The challenge to you
today? Recognise the reality of whatever
danger you’re in and choose to stand for the Gospel anyway because the world
needs it and Jesus is with you.
Maybe one day someone
will write that on the 26th July 2016 the world was changed. The true church woke up, got up and stood up
for the gospel when it wasn’t safe and Jesus took the glory.
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