As I look into the coming seven weeks, my final ones as pastor of the Bristo congregation before taking up post as Mission & Ministry Advisor to our Baptist Union of Scotland, I find myself reflecting much on a week spent with three days at our annual Baptist Assembly followed by four days at IBTS in Prague. The theme of the Assembly was Outrageous Generosity and that of the conference in Prague, Incarnational Discipleship. The former emphasised what is given in Christ and proffered in and through those who receive Him; the latter looked at the emphasis and implications in the Gospels of being a follower of Jesus. And the two are meant to go together. Meant.
But we struggle, as Christians, in doing that very thing. In a culture saturated with consumerism, we expect and demand the Gospel to be the news of the best bargain ever: God’s love and acceptance, completely free! God as an ever welcoming, bigger, better Santa Claus. Yet, as we see Europe and the world face the consequences of economic greed and moral self indulgence, we so easily allow ourselves the lie that the Holy God’s generosity can be shaped by our own preferences and peccadillos. And the Christ of the Gospels, who calls men and women into holiness and holistic discipleship, can become strangely unattractive and distant to us.
The speakers at our Assembly were excellent. The conference, featuring the teaching of that wonderfully gracious, enquiring and experimental ethicist, Professor Glen Stassen together with the outstanding work of some of our Research students, was so stimulating. What I am left with is a sense of the excitement and the huge challenge of what lies before us all.
For God, whatever man might say or aspire to, will have His way. The call of the Gospel is not only an invitation but also an imperative; a command, that both directs and decides humanity’s final destiny. The future is filled with the presence, purpose and power of God: the only question is how many of those who now live will be alive into that future. And the responsibility of sharing and showing the significance of this lies with those of us who have glimpsed and gather to the full revelation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
So this Sunday I will preach on Matthew 5. Or Romans 14.17. Or both. We’ll see. Either way, I can only be confronted in my soul with the stark tension of finding comfort with a God who leads us to feel profoundly uncomfortable in this world. Or a comfort in this world which disengages us from the real Jesus. Because belonging to Jesus exposes us to the reality of the demons that demand loyalty for us to be happy here; and there is no rapport between Jesus and the demons.
When you and I carry the real presence of God into the spaces and places of this world and its present ruler, cosmic conflict is unleashed. Powers and prejudices become exposed. And a choice between walking in the path of the Saviour, or finding the false peace of Satan with all its economic, sexual and social delusions, stands open before us.
The choice for all of us, while we still have life and breathe in this body, is still there. Pray that each may make the choice that leads into life in all its fullness.
