The challenge of modernity
During my pastoral visits, I once spent an afternoon in deep and challenging discussion with one of my members.
She was a lovely person, deep in thought, balanced in outlook, gentle with others.
But she challenged me,‘Mr Cant, how can I believe in the saving gospel of Jesus when I see all that is happening in the world and at home?’
My friend, of course, was right. We have been thinking of God’s presence through the Spirit, and how we live at peace with God,
But the harsh reality in our modern world is a challenge we cannot avoid.
Is the world a better place because of Christianity?
Paul Tillich recounts the conversation he had with a Jewish friend.
Has God’s promised Messiah come to the human family, they discussed.
Tillich, the Christian, said Jesus was God’s promised Messiah.
His Jewish friend asserted that the Jews still awaited God’s Coming One.
He then pointed out to Tillich that the world was not a better place for 2,000 years of Christianity.
We dare not avoid this challenging assertion.
Is the world any better because of Jesus, Easter and the Spirit of God’s presence?
This is the challenge of modernity.
Our modern world – in fact, the passage of history over 2,000 years – certainly places our faith under enormous tension.
Under the strains in personal living, against the records of nations, documented in the sufferings of people, the existing order, challenges our belief in the divine guidance of God.
Jewish theologians struggled with this dilemma.
After Auschwitz and the Holocaust, how could they continue to believe in the covenant God of Israel?
We share the same dilemma with our Jewish believers.
The gospel of the kingdom of God is challenged by the stubborn presence of evil in the cruel events of history.
This tension is clearly described by Paul in 2 Corinthians 1-10.
This is his‘Happy’letter to the Corinthian church.
It reflects the harmonious relation Paul finally enjoyed with the Corinthian Christians.
These chapters also contain some of Paul’s most serene and elevated thoughts.
Read the wonderful chapter four –‘Having this ministry (and our faith) by the mercy of God, we do not lose heart’(verse 1).
Paul remains confident, despite the challenge of his times (verses 2-4).
Paul is faithful to Jesus because Jesus continues to be steadfast for Paul.
‘For what we preach is not ourselves but Jesus Christ’(verse 5).
Then Paul declares the abiding truth of the Christian faith unchanged through all the vicissitudes of life.
‘For it is God who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ’(verse 5-6).
Folks, take out your Bible and carefully read these wonderful verses. This is the precious treasure of heaven, found within our own fragile lives.
As Paul’s says,‘We have this treasure in earthen vessels’(verse 7). This idea always reminds me of the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls.
These invaluable documents had been originally deposited in clay jars for safe-keeping.
Centuries later, the Bedouin shepherds found these priceless documents within the nondescript jars.
We exist within an unredeemed world.
The dynamic forces of wrong and evil still cause pain, suffering and distress.
We must be courageous to retain faith in our providential
God.
When confronted by so much evil, only brave people can worship God in Jesus.
Only certainty of faith can face the challenges around us and answer the questions within.
But our certainty of faith can witness to the reality of Jesus.
Our courageous believing possesses God’s power to condemn the wrong around us.
Jesus continues to be Sovereign in the world because at Calvary Jesus was the Saviour of the world.
We will meet the challenge of modernity with the gospel created in eternity
‘I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end’, says the Lord God’(Revelation 1.8).
A little prayer – Gentle Father God, surrounded by life’s challenges, help us to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus.
Let us answer today’s evil with good. Let us witness with faith to our unbelieving world. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.