Interesting timesBy the Reverend David Burgess
As I write it’s the Tuesday after the General Election and the only political certainty is there’s no political certainty. Any one of three outcomes for the government of this country is possible, and two of the three hang on a series of alliances which in the normal course of events would be virtually unthinkable.
Hopefully, by the time these words appear in print, things will have settled. But what sort of future will our democracy be facing?
There’s a curse which reportedly dates back to ancient China – “May you live in interesting times!” In other words, may life for you lack the comforts, reassurances and certainties which would make your life truly satisfying and fulfilling.
I’d like to make a parallel with the history of the Christian Church at its very beginning. The events surrounding the Crucifixion, Resurrection and the lead-up to the Ascension constituted a six-week period full of uncertainty for the Disciples. Just who and what was Jesus – this friend of theirs who could now appear and disappear at will and walk through locked doors? Was he really going to leave them for good as they thought he’d done at the Cross? And what was going to happen if he did?
The stories of the Ascension and Pentecost, the twin festivals which we’ve just celebrated, answer those questions. But it didn’t end there, because the early Christian Church certainly did live through interesting times and indeed was the cause of some of the events of those times.
Uncertainty marked much of what the Church did in the first century AD. Missionary work was a risk in itself and in one of his letters Paul recounts in grim detail what he went through as a result of his endeavours. In the early 60s the Church suffered persecution at the hands of the Emperor Nero which by tradition claimed the lives of Peter and Paul amongst many other Christians. And at the end of the century John the Evangelist cries out “Come, Lord Jesus!,” perhaps in hope and expectation, perhaps in uncertainty, and perhaps all three. Interesting times indeed.
There’s no guarantee of any easy life, irrespective of your faith or lack of it. However, these early Christians held on to something beyond the here and now – they had to because of what so many of them were going through, but they also wanted to because they believed in God’s promise and Jesus’s fulfilment of that promise.
If times were to get much more interesting in our society, would we too have the faith to hold on to what we believe?