How to be scared

A few years ago a visiting minister came to our church to preach. It was about the time that some very high profile stuff was filtering through the media about the Gnostic Gospels and their challenge to the Gospel traditionally preached in the Christian church. The media were putting their own spin on this as ‘new revolutionary findings’ etc. and a whole load of other guff, which bore little relation to reality (given they’d been known about for yonks – Gnosticism is hardly new).

I was therefore bemused when this visiting minister used these headline stories (now old fish & chip wrappers) as the basis for his sermon. Not that there’s anything wrong with that per-se. No, it was that he started by suggesting the congregation had heard about the stories and that they might (indeed would) be ‘understandably worried and frightened’, ‘disorientated and lost’, ‘confused and distressed’ and other such “Don’t panic!” phrases.

He then went on to explain in step-by-step language, the truth behind the headlines as if, at the end, the assembled worthy might breathe a sigh of relief and say things like, “Oh thank you Minister, we were all so scared and we hid in corners until the nasty Atheists went away. You’ve reassured us that the world is safe and pleasant again and we can go back to our cups of tea, coffee mornings and afternoon naps.”

I got to thinking of all the things, which upset a conservative congregation and wondered, in the wider scheme of things, where they’d fit in to a scale of ‘Very Scary Things’. So, I came up with what might happen if a survey were to be conducted where Christians across the world, are asked what scary things are happening to them, which challenge their faith and their lives etc.

This is what it might look like: -

‘And an edict went out across all the land from Caesar Augustus regarding that a Census . . . . oh sorry, wrong story…..’

‘And a letter went out from the church to churches across the world asking what challenges they faced as Christians in their churches, which really scared folk and challenged faith’

From a country in the Middle East came a letter saying, “Please pray for us at this time. We have always lived in peace with our neighbours but lately, there has been a rise in attacks on us as new converts are accused of apostasy. People have been too frightened to return and in one terrible case a man was beaten in front of his family and his market stall trashed. We live in fear for whilst we do not wish to put people, our ourselves, in danger, we do not wish to stop preaching the gospel. Our Minister and his family have been threatened with violence via anonymous letters and phone calls unless they leave the country. Please pray for us.”

From a church in Asia – “We are only a small church but we have set up a school for the local children. We are meticulous in making sure we teach and not preach. Many of the children have little in the way of food and recent typhoons have left most homeless and hungry. The schoolbooks we have show happy white middle-class children who are well fed, clothed and have nice houses. We are trying to develop our own materials to more accurately reflect the lives of our pupils but it is not easy for we have no money. It is hard to teach when the children are hungry and the parents are now keeping their children away from school. Please pray for us but do not just pray, please give to us. We need your money, your food, anything so that we do not lose our will to keep going. Thank you”

From a church in South America – “We are a church but we have no building. Yes, the church is the people but when you have no building it is hard. We face regular attacks by guerrillas who camp in the forests. There have been several kidnappings and we do not have the money to pay for release. Some of our brethren are returned with terrible wounds, some are not returned at all. We are accused by the guerrillas of supporting the government because we will not give willingly to them and the church is seen as ‘state’. We are accused by the government of supporting the guerrillas for we live so far away from the city. We worship our God but it is harder for us than ever before. Please pray for our safety.”

From a church in Scotland, “We were really so upset when we were asked to learn a new hymn! Some of the older folk are saying they’ll not come back. These are very scary times for us”

And so gentle reader, the battle hymn, ‘Onward Christian Soldiers’ comes to mind, A bit like this: -

“Onward Christian Soldiers,

Scared of all that’s new.

With the Cross of Jesus,

Hidden all from view.”