Religious giants
Wittenburg is Martin Luther’s town.
He taught in its Augustinian monastery.
He posted his 95 theses on the doors of the main church, the Schlosskirke.
The church windows are filled with the flags of the reformation countries along with a picture of their leading church reformer. One window is filled with the Scottish flag, and the figure of John Knox because, in 16th century Europe, Scotland was a prominent reformation nation. Scotland produced religious giants and wrote monumental literature.
Andrew Melville helped compose the 1st and 2nd Books of Discipline.
These overlooked books contain the basic belief of the Scottish church.
In 1560, the reformers produced the‘Scots Confession of Faith’, which is a uniquely Scottish declaration of the Christian faith. Unfortunately, by 1640, it was overshadowed for political reasons by the inferior
Westminster Confession of Faith. Scotland produced defining Christian literature written by religious giants.
But there was another minister who was a gentle giant.
He was Rev Robert Bruce and he was the minister in St Giles Edinburgh.
Andrew Melville was his teacher and the elderly John Knox was his friend.
The young Scottish reformed church was in danger of becoming entangled in political arguments and religious rivalry.
Bruce was a gentle minister an always spoke of the‘Mercy and Majesty’of God.
His moral integrity and personal faith enabled him to protect the young reformed church.
He established the shape of the parish church.
The minister preached and taught to a recognised congregation within a territorial parish.
The minister, and elders, exercised a pastoral care over this parish community.
Bruce established the shape and life of the parish church.
It is difficult for us to recapture the prominence that the church used to enjoy within the Scottish nation.
Children had to be baptised, young people were married in the kirk and everyone had to have a decent Christian burial.
There was a general Christian way of life, set standards of conduct, many‘Do’s’and‘Don’ts.
When I was young, the ten days of the General Assembly received prominent coverage in newspapers and television reports.
In 1946, John Baillie, another theological giant in Scotland’s church, chaired the influential committee that produced the report‘God’s Will for Church and Nation’.
This report greatly helped our weary British nation to recover from the ravages of war.
These scenes belong to our past history.
Has our Christianity become a forgotten faith with derelict ecclesiastical buildings silent memorials to more grandeur days?
We certainly live in a time when, according to Matthew Arnold, the tide of faith is,‘Withdrawing down the vast edges drear, and naked shingles of the world’(‘Dover Beach’).
We are called on to be religious giants.
To have religious courage as we reshape the pattern of our Christian life.
To exercise intellectual courage as we reinterpret the fundamental doctrines of the faith.
Only then can the gospel speak decisively to this age.
We are called to recreate the place and position of the church and chapel in a way that will restore the presence of Christianity to Scottish society.
A Scotland that mistakenly imagines a dead Christianity.
This is no easy task and will require of us that we be giants of the faith as Bruce, Knox, and Melville were in their day.
As a minister, I have walked with ordinary people who were spiritual giants.
I was dwarfed by the grandeur of their faith.
The little lady who was‘auntie’ to the village for she helped every child.
The gentle lady who did not possess one cell of badness in her whole being.
The missionary in the church who could create the reality of God’s kingdom wherever he went.
The church members who served their country during the war.
They often became prisoners of war.
Finally, they returned home to become reliable citizens and Christian giants.
You can be like those religious giants for Jesus.
‘Those who wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength.
They shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not be faint’(Isaiah 40 31).
A little prayer – Gentle Father God, when we trust our own strength we stumble and fall. Encourage us to walk tall in the footsteps of Jesus. In Jesus’Name, Amen.