We are living in interesting times to be a follower of Jesus aren’t we? It seems as if over the last few months every week there has been a news story suggesting that in this country anyway Christianity is on the wane and is under attack by secularists and atheists.
In February we had several such news items. The Court of Appeal found that Christian hotel owners Peter and Hazelmary Bull from Cornwall acted unlawfully in banning a homosexual couple from the hotel they run. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-15811223
We also had the court ruling that said it was illegal for Bideford Town Council to have prayers before meetings. An action brought by an atheist.http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-17060065
Then Richard Dawkins’ “Foundation for Science and Reason”, published the result of a survey that found that Britain is not as Christian as is claimed in census information.http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/9081215/Christians-dont-want-religion-to-influence-public-life.html
Then Trevor Phillips Chair of the Equality Commission said that Christians who want to be exempt from equality legislation are like Muslims trying to impose sharia on Britain. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/9087775/Christians-arent-above-the-law-says-equalities-chief-Trevor-Phillips.html
Then earlier this month The Sunday Telegraph published a story that said the Government will fight a case at the European Court of Human Rights in which two British women are seeking to establish their right to wear a cross at work.
A document seen by The Sunday Telegraph disclosed that ministers will argue that because it is not a “requirement” of the Christian faith, employers can ban the wearing of the cross and sack workers who insist on doing so. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/9136191/Christians-have-no-right-to-wear-cross-at-work-says-Government.html
We also have the issue of gay marriage. And although the proposals seem to suggest that churches will not be obliged to marry gay couples, some Christians have spoken out against this saying that it undermines traditional marriage between a man and a woman. Cardinal Keith O'Brien, the leader of the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland, said the "grotesque" plans would "shame the United Kingdom in the eyes of the world" if implemented. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/mar/04/catholic-leader-government-gay-marriage
And last week leaders of Muslims and Sikhs in the UK also expressed opposition.http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/9154043/Muslims-and-Sikhs-attack-Camerons-gay-marriage-plan.html
On Wednesday just gone Academics Dr Sarah Johnsen and Dr Adam published Research into the involvement of faith groups in social and charity work has highlighted “inaccurate and out-of-date assumptions” still blighting their work. Basically, the research found that government money was still difficult to access, with civil servants wrongly assuming a faith organisation will put pressure on people they help to convert. The research also found some charities operate in the same way too.http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/9156381/Faith-groups-prevented-from-doing-vital-community-work-by-anti-religious-prejudice.html
Then finally we have the news that in a bid to boost the economy, Sunday trading hours will be relaxed for two months during the Olympics a move also opposed by many Christians. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-17419351
So the last month / six weeks has seen plenty in the newspapers for Christians to get their teeth into. And all in all it can seem as if our faith is being attacked on a number of fronts.
But then among the gloom and doom came the stories surrounding Fabrice Muamba – the Bolton footballer who collapsed following a heart attack during a match against Tottenham Hotspur. Fabrice Muamba dropped on the pitch as if dead. The next thing that happened, after the paramedics reached him, was a member of the opposing team dropped on his knees to pray. No one jeered. http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/andrewbrown/2012/mar/19/fabrice-muamba-football-prayer-natural
Since then there has been an outpouring of prayer requests on his behalf since then.
According to a report in The Guardian newspaper Fabrice Muamba's fiancée has called for fans to pray for the Bolton Wanderers midfielder, who remains in a critical condition after a heart attack on the pitch against Tottenham Hotspur on Saturday.
Shauna Muamba, told fans on Twitter: "God is in control. Please keep Fabrice in your prayers ... Please keep praying for Fabrice, it's really helping, I can feel it xx."
And the Chelsea player Gary Cahill lifted his shirt after scoring a goal last Monday to reveal a T shirt underneath with the message “Pray 4 Muamba”
So what’s going on?
On the one hand we seem to have a plethora of stories suggesting the rise of secularism. But then we have the public calls for prayer for Fabrice Muamba. What’s going on?
Let’s leave 21st century Britain for a while and go back 600 years before Jesus was born. There we find the people of Judah under threat. They are under threat from the neighbouring super powers of Assyria, Egypt and Babylon. And in the end Babylon prevails taking control of Judah and taking many of its people into exile in Babylon. But for now Jeremiah – truly a prophet of doom – warns the people of Judah and its Kings – of impending danger.
And Jeremiah emphasises in his prophecy that God is going to allow these things to happen because the people of Judah have broken their side of the covenant made with God via Moses. A covenant symbolised more than anything else by the tablets of stone on which the 10 Commandments were written.
During the exile the people of the Judah begin to question God. Their world had collapsed. They had been taken from their land – promised to them by God don’t forget. So did this mean that God had forgotten his chose people? Was God powerless compared to the apparently more powerful Babylonian gods who had won the war? How could the community survive the disaster that befell them? Did they have a future? And if so what did it look like? If they were able to return to their homeland and if they did who would rule them?
All these are issues that come out in the Book of Jeremiah and in the Book of Isaiah.
But one thing underlying all these is the big question. Had God really turned away from them because they had broken the covenant?
No he had not. Eventually God restores them to their land. And more than that
31 “The time is coming,” declares the LORD,
“when I will make a new covenant
with the house of Israel
and with the house of Judah.
Jeremiah 31:31
So why was a new Covenant needed? What had changed? Well nothing on God’s side of the agreement. He continued to love his people. But they had failed in their love for him. And so in a way of showing his people how much he loved them and cared for them God promised a new covenant. A new covenant established through his son Jesus to show what God’s love looks like. And to show what a world that was based wholly on God’s love would look like.
So if Jesus was the new covenant what of the old covenant? The covenant made through Noah and Moses and so on? Did that cease to exist with Jesus?
Sometimes preachers do put that interpretation on it. That the old covenant was only made between God and the Jewish people. So with Jesus and his Good News for everyone the old covenant is abolished.
That is certainly a valid way of thinking of it. But in a way I think we shouldn’t be thinking in terms of a new covenant but rather a revised covenant. An improved covenant. For all the new covenant does is build upon what was in the original covenant. Love.
And that is the key difference. The original covenant was founded on love and proper relationships. But it became too legalistic and prescriptive. The new covenant is not based on things written on tablets of stone.
32 It will not be like the covenant
I made with their forefathers
when I took them by the hand
to lead them out of Egypt,
Instead God will:
“ … put my law in their minds
and write it on their hearts.”
In other words we will know in our minds what God expects of us but more importantly our hearts will ensure that the response to the new covenant is founded on love.
I say our because in Jesus the new covenant was established for all people. That is the most important thing perhaps about the new covenant. God’s love as represented by the new covenant is for all.
So what has any of this got to do with the situation we find ourselves in today?
It seems to me that during the exile of the people of Judah there were people who kept the faith alive. People who kept saying God is faithful. There is no other God. People like in Psalm 137
1 By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept
when we remembered Zion.
And if you read the Book of Ezra contained in there are lists of people in exile who were descended from priestly lines who kept the message alive during exile.
They kept the faith alive. They kept telling the stories. They reminded the exiles of God.
One of the points of dispute with the Richard Dawkins survey published last month was the number of people calling them Christians. The 2001 census – the last available data – found 70% of the population called themselves Christians. Whereas Dawkins argument is that far fewer than that attend church. To be a Christian you need to attend church so therefore the real number of Christians must be lower.
And the survey conducted by Swindon Church Together last year about what Christians contribute to this town found that only 4% of the population attend church regularly. As opposed to 10% nationally. http://www.swindonchurches.org/index.php?module=pagesmith&uop=view_page&id=89
SO maybe Dawkins has a fair point.
But how does that explain the outpourings of prayer for Fabrice Muamba? Such people may not be church goers but they seem to have some faith.
It seems to me that in a sense we are those people in the exile of secular Britain today. We are the story keepers. We are the ones to keep telling the Good News. Charged with keeping the flame of Jesus alive.
What the Fabrice Muamba story tells us I feel is that in the hearts of many many people God’s love is still written. They may now know it. They may not know the saving love of Jesus. But deep inside God’s love is beating.
God speaking through Jeremiah said that a time would come when:
34 No longer will a man teach his neighbour,
or a man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’
because they will all know me,
from the least of them to the greatest,”
Meaning I suppose that a time would come when all people would know God and his love. And there would be no need to teach them of it. We are not in that time and there has never been such a time.
I just want to briefly comment on the Gospel. And one verse:
34 The crowd spoke up, “We have heard from the Law that the Christ[f] will remain forever, so how can you say, ‘The Son of Man must be lifted up’? Who is this ‘Son of Man’?”
John 12:34
The crowd were made up of people who had not heard of Jesus and his Gospel. They knew that a Messiah – the Christ - was going to come. But they did not know who Jesus was. And they did not understand that through his crucifixion – his lifting up and his glorification – he was going to save them.
And many people then and now still do not get it. They still do not understand the wonderful saving love of Jesus. But many do have God’s love written on their hearts. And it is for us to show them what this means. It is for us to say yes pray for Fabrice Muamba. And then explain to them why they are praying and what that prayer means.
Do you remember the story of Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch in Acts 8. But in that story Philip is prompted to go to the Ethiopian official who was reading the Book of Isaiah. And Philip says to him “Do you understand what you are reading?” And the Ethiopian replies “How can I unless someone explains it to me?” Acts 8:31
"How can I understand unless someone explains it to me?"
That is the challenge that faces us. For how will the people of this country who have God’s love in their heart understand what it means unless we – the keepers of Gospel – explain it to them?
