 | The Geelong City Parish, UCA |
 |
I am not sure how often you read in the papers or listen on the radio to debates of a religious nature, but things seem to be hotting up at the moment around the place of religion in society.
There has been much ink spilt recently over the meaning of various members of the Government attending worship services before the last Federal Election and also over the now leader of the Opposition’s views on Dietrich Bonhoeffer.
There have also been very loud comments from some militant atheists from the Northern Hemisphere.
I have spoken before about the recent book The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins (the author of The Selfish Gene). Dawkins argues that God does not exist and that the world would be better without religion. Shades of John Lennon and his song “Imagine…”:
Imagine there's
no heaven Imagine there's
no countries |
Dawkins book has been on the best seller list for months and finally on Friday I bought a copy even though I had been holding out from doing this because I didn’t want to contribute to Dawkins’ copyright income. (By the way I believe that Christian thinker Alistair McGrath is about to publish a book called, somewhat obviously, The Dawkins’ Delusion. It has been suggested that the book group might read both books at the same time.)
But returning to the public debate on religion and society, you may have also heard about the recent campus crusade style meeting held at the Salk Institute in California entitled, “Beyond Belief: Science, Religion, Reason and Survival” at which key speakers appealed to people to sign up as firm non-believers. Keynote speaker, Steven Weinberg, said, “The world needs to wake up from the long nightmare of religion. Anything we scientists can do to weaken the hold of religion should be done, and may in fact be our greatest contribution to civilisation.”1
Another speaker at this event was deeply concerned that some members of the British and American academy of sciences actually dared to believe in God.2 Apparently the days of witch hunts and heresy trials are not over – you are not allowed to believe in God these days to be accepted into some circles!
Now there are reasonable questions than can be raised about Christian notions of a loving God (and it is about the God we proclaim as Christians that I will focus on here today rather than notions of religion in general):
| - For a start to
believe in God does involve faith. Not blind faith or even unreasonable
faith, but faith. - To accept that God is the God of Jesus is another step of faith and also raises the question about how do you reconcile this God with the reality of suffering in the world? Which, friends, is a fair question. - And then what about not only the wars that have been fought in the name of religion and more particularly in the name of different brands of Christianity or indeed between different groups of Christians? |
Taking each of these points in turn and working backwards - The Church must and has repented for its provocation and blessing of wars in days past … the violence done in the name of the Prince of Peace is a terrible dark stain on the history of the Christian Community – but as Alistair McGrath points out in his book The twilight of atheism the greatest mass murders in history were not believers but atheists, Hitler, Stalin and Mao. Maybe Christianity has a dark history, but the atheists have nothing to crow about. I don’t want to imagine al la John Lennon a world without religion (especially without Christianity) it may well be a world that looks like a Stalinist Gulag.
The question of God and suffering is also a hard question, but like many Christians I find hope in the cross where we discover God not absent from suffering but through Jesus actually revealing that the divine is present in the darkest places of death and suffering.
As we remember the experience of the ANZACs this especially comes home to us. I read last year the book The unknown soldier by Neil Hanson which tells the stories of three servicemen from the First World War all of whom produced wonderful diaries and letters which documented their experience on the Western Front and all of whom were killed and their bodies were not found. One serviceman was from England, another from Germany and another from the USA. Their stories give a no holds bared picture of the horror of that terrible trench war. When we remember those who served in many wars at this time of the year there is I believe comfort and hope in the good news that the message of the cross is that nothing can separate us from the love of God even the trenches of the Somme, even the pain of grief for a loved one lost many years ago.
Now to the question of belief in God – the God we know in Jesus.
Despite the blathering of those who take a militant atheistic position that we must prove God exists according to their understanding of what it means to prove something, we will not and cannot prove that God exists in this way. By the way, just as they can never prove that God does not exist. We can certainly argue, as I have already said, that belief in God is inherently reasonable – is not irrational! In the end, however, to believe does involve a step of trust, a step of faith. To come to God is an act of the heart as much as the mind! Faith involves well --- faith! It involves responding to the stirrings of the Holy Spirit in our lives.
So in summary:
| The Church must
and indeed has repented of its provocation and blessing of War. Yes there is suffering – but the divine is intimately caught up with those who suffer. And yes faith requires faith! |
ow to our text and the way it connects with what we have explored so far this morning.
The world in which the book of Revelation was written, the last book of Bible, was a world caught up in major crises and for Christians a world marked by persecution. The war between the Jews and the Romans had led to the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple and the decimation of the Jewish world and Christians in particular were under threat from a pogrom ordered by the Emperor Domitian.
The book of Revelation has been misunderstood over the years. Often people in mainstream churches ignore it, because they get sick of the crackpot comments from people who claim that they really know what the book is all about – often claims including the dating the end of the world or the second coming.
Some of the great scholars of Christian history like Luther and Calvin had little time for the book of Revelation.
But it is actually an important book containing much encouragement for Christians under threat.
There is the wonderful image at the end of the book of the new Jerusalem – of heaven come to earth – connected with the wonderful words of assurance that in the end “every tear will be wiped away, that death will be no more.”
There are the messages to of encouragement and critique of the seven churches in part of modern Turkey by the author, John of Patmos.
And then there is the wonderful image that forms our gospel lesson for today – a spectacle that out does Hollywood and even the Olympics – all the inhabitants of heaven and earth a gathered together around a grand throne and pay homage.
And as John tells us the one on the throne is not some mad despot or some bright-lights obsessed celebrity – not even the Lion of Judah – but the lamb – the one who died/who was slain out of love for all creation.3
| Then I heard every
creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the
sea, and all that is in them, singing, “To the one seated on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!” (Rev. 5:13) |
This passage encourages the reader to hold onto the good news that even in the face of persecution and doubt there is one who really counts: this one is worth your loyalty and trust. This one is the one who has given all for us and all creation. What do we say to those who are baptised, just before plunging them into the water?
| N and N, for you Jesus Christ has come, has lived, has suffered; for you he endured the agony of Gethsemane and the darkness of Calvary; for you he uttered the cry, ‘It is accomplished!’ For you he triumphed over death; for you he prays at God’s right hand; for you, N and N, even before you were born. In baptism the word of the apostle is confirmed: ‘We love, because God first loved us’. |
So where do you stand?
It is not always easy being a believer these days. If we are not actively persecuted or attacked, our faith is often seen by many as irrelevant.
Sisters and brothers,
Ignore the shrill voices of those who seek to undermine all people
of faith.
Sisters and brothers,
The God of love welcomes you, the God of love values you, the God
love offers you life in all its fullness, the god of love offers
sure and certain hope.
The God of love has spoken in the one who has given all for you – the lamb upon the throne – Jesus – the Christ – the Son of God.
The God of love is present with you always through the power of the Holy Spirit – God is present even now.
Sisters and brothers,
Hold fast to the faith – the God is a great God – a
God steadfast in love.
Resources:
1 Quoted in an article by Frank Devine, “Believing
in God” in Quadrant, March 2007.
2 Op. cit.
3 M. Eugene Boring, Interpretation- a bible commentary
for teaching and preaching – Revelation, John Knox Press,
Louisville, 1989.
__________