A dynamic faith

Eric Liddell (1902-45) was known as the Flying Scotsman because of his athletic ability.

He won seven caps in the Scottish rugby team.

But his outstanding achievements took place at the Paris Olympics in 1924.

He refused to run the heats of the 100 metres on a Sunday. So, he competed in the 200 metres gaining a bronze medal.

Then, surprisingly, he won the 400 metres. After qualifying in science and divinity, he went to China as a missionary with the Scottish Congregational church.

During the Second World War he was imprisoned by the Japanese in Weishien, where he died from a brain tumour just before the end of the war

Why did Eric Liddell devote his life to missionary work when he could have enjoyed a comfortable existence at home? For that matter, why did Mary Slessor (1848-1910), who worked in the Dundee jute mills, train as a missionary then go to spend her life in Calbar, in Nigeria?

She cared for the children so much that she was known among the people as the Great Mother.

Why did Peter Marshall overcome many hurdles to become a minister, eventually being appointed chaplain to the American senate in 1948?

But, in more humble surroundings tomorrow, why will so many people still attend a service of worship in their church and chapel?

Let us count, not the many people who will not attend church, rather the many who will spend time in their place of worship.

Quite simply, because there is a personal power in the Christian faith.

That power is vitally dynamic and intimately personal. It is both dynamic and personal because it throbs with the presence of Jesus.

This is the Jesus of the gospel from 2,000 years ago. But this is also the Jesus in the here and now of our daily life.

Jesus, who healed the leper and restored sight to the blind, is the same Jesus who helped you and your family through the ordeal of that major operation.

Jesus, who comforted the widow of Nain and was with Martha and Mary when their brother Lazarus died, is the same Jesus who walked with you through the valley of the shadow of death during that family bereavement.

Jesus, who gave care and understanding to the neglected and marginalised, is the same Jesus who helped you overcome that personal crisis that was threatening to undermine all you had striven to achieve.

The Jesus, whose golden presence brightens so many lives, is the dynamic personality whose inner strength transforms our ordinary routine in the here and now of our today. You and I know Jesus has been like that for us.

Let me describe the inner attraction that courses through our Christian day. ● A calm appraisal at the start of a new day when we face what lies before us. ● You can say your little prayer in your cereal bowl. A quiet resting when that day closes and you return your day to God. The sense of somebody who is willing to stay beside us come what may. ● A sense of something more to life than we can create for ourselves. ● A conviction that there is something worthwhile to live for, and the Galilean called Jesus will help us achieve it. ● Then, painfully this Jesus who will not desert us when we make mistakes and feel embarrassed and annoyed with ourselves.

But the Christian faith has one ultimate quality whose unique dynamism makes Christianity the must-have for every soul.

Established on the Easter Jesus, who factually died and actually rose again, this Christian faith offers ultimate fulfilment for our human life.

There will be a time and occasion when our mortal body will cease to function, when we will die.

But dying in and with Jesus is the culmination of our life. Dying for the Christian is not decay and disappearance.

Dying is a return to God ,the Source of all life, from whom Jesus came and to whom Jesus will restore us.

No one has expressed this better than Paul.

“For I am persuaded that neither life nor death, nor angels and principalities, nor height nor depths, nothing shall separate us from the love of God found in Christ Jesus our Lord”(Romans 8.38-39).