Truth Despised

The Christian faith may be ‘Good News’ to many – to many millions indeed throughout the world; but it is considered ‘bad news’ by many more. Christianity has been despised by the proud, the prurient, and the powerful since its beginning. As I said in last week’s talk entitled ‘Truth at odds with the World’, it is in the Christian ‘Gospel’s’ challenge to those political, social, cultural and sexual mores increasingly popular or accepted in the world today that we encounter such heartfelt animosity and, yes, fear; and where Christianity is most despised and Christians increasingly persecuted.

But right there at the beginning it was Christianity’s challenge to the Roman Emperor and to Roman life which caused Roman writers to describe it with such derision and disparagement: what Christianity advocated unashamedly undermined almost everything the Romans held dear and built their life upon! When the Romans threw away their sick, the Christians founded hospitals; when the Romans threw away their unwanted babies, the Christians found them homes; the Romans idolised might, the Christians revered love. We know this to be true because the Romans wrote it down!

I don’t think most people realise just how much Christianity was at odds with the Roman world. But then I don’t think most people realise just how much Christian moral, social, and sexual ideas formed Western society and still, despite opposition, permeate so many of the ideas and ideals the majority of people still hold dear. They may think or choose to believe that these ideas just somehow came about naturally; but history tells us very different. And I don’t think most people realise how much so-called ‘new’ understandings of what life is and what human beings are, are in fact regressions to the very moral and spiritual darkness from which Jesus, the Light of the World, called us and calls us still to shine into that darkness as saving lights to him.

And so the words in this morning’s two readings serve a timely reminder that in every generation Christ’s truth will be despised and, if his followers remain faithful, we will, in Jesus’ own words, ‘be persecuted on his account.’ It always has been thus; and so each and every Christian disciple in each and every generation needs to examine honestly and as objectively as possible these two things - ourselves and the society we live in: and we need to ask ourselves this. If our society is at odds with Christianity and despises it, what am I, called to be ‘salt’ and ‘light’ in the world for Jesus’ sake, doing about it? And then, if we’re brave enough, this much more challenging and disturbing question. ‘If my honest examination of contemporary society reveals that increasingly it can no longer be described as ‘Christian’, if I have not recently been ‘persecuted and had all kinds of evil uttered against me for Jesus’ sake’, then what is the current state of my ‘salt’ and the location of my ‘light’?

These are tough questions, I don’t deny it; which is why telling the whole truth about Jesus and his saving love for us must be told, and not just the comforting, cosy part. He calls us in his love to find in him rest and peace for our souls; but he also calls us to ‘take up our cross and follow him’. This is why he can say, as he does there in verse 12 – and remember this is from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, so we are talking about the very heart of his teaching – ‘rejoice and be glad!’ And before that in v 11 ’Blessed are you’. Why? Because you have stood up for me and been faithful: our reward in Heaven is given to us not because of achievement but because of faithfulness.

When we look at our society today, increasingly we see social and moral problems which require the major surgery of God’s truth and his love but which receive instead either sticking plaster solutions or quack medicine or worse. And when we examine these issues with an open and objective mind, and a Christian one, we find that at the root of them are the proud, the prurient, and the powerful - people interested only in themselves, their sexuality, their power over others. There has been a concerted campaign going on for years now to undermine Christianity and all it represents, the traditional family and all it represents, love and respect for home and country and all they represent. This is not to say that there are not perfectly healthy and respectable different ways to be ‘made in the image of God’ and a member of society, but we should not be foolishly naïve about the forces trying their hardest to destroy these precious things and set up the most dystopian alternatives.

Let me give you just a few examples of where we Christians can be the ‘salt’ and ‘light’ these situations need. If you disagree with me, of course come and argue your case after the service: otherwise, join me with your placards!

On 14th Feb 2020 in the High Court, the judge ruled for Harry Miller, an ex-policeman, against The College of Policing and The Chief Constable of Humberside regarding an alleged ‘hate crime’ because he tweeted a Christian view on transgenderism. It transpired in the case that Humberside Police held over 130, 000 registered offences of such ‘non-criminal cases’. They accepted that these could be pointed to in any vetting search on the person concerned by a potential employer. (I couldn’t take my placard to Humberside Police Headquarters, but I did go to their website and make my views known.)

Or again, last week I mentioned how the truth is often buried because it is regarded as ‘bad news’ by those wishing to promote a particular cause or agenda. In America, a commonly used hormone blocker has been found responsible for over 6000 deaths including some children, whilst a report in an Australian medical journal in October 2019 said this about the use of such a drug on children and teenagers:

‘Puberty blockers are given to adolescents so that they will have enough time and serenity to make up their minds about which path to take.’ So transgender doctors say, but the report also says this:

“How can the child be expected to ‘think straight’ when denied the sustaining effect of, in particular, GnRH on various parts of the brain that integrate memory, cognition and emotion into rational action? “What effect can be expected from the administration of cross-sex hormones on the growing brain? There are no relevant studies, but imaging of brains of adult transgenders has revealed shrinkage of male brains exposed to oestrogens at a rate ten times faster than ageing, and has revealed hypertrophy of female brains exposed to testosterone. Neuronal death has been noted on bench studies.” The report continues. ‘Nearly all teenagers are bundles of unfamiliar hormonal activity which provoke increased risk-taking, heightened anxiety, romantic interests, mood swings, and new friends. What transgender medical treatment may do is scramble these on top of suppressing pubertal changes.’’

Or something quite different. In United Nations established refugee camps, Christian refugees are regularly denied access or vital supplies. Why? Because the camps are in reality controlled by extremist Islamist groups. You have only to look at how few Syrian Christian refugees have made it to this country.

Or thinking of those Roman babies left out to die but collected up by the Christians and found homes. Can you think of a modern equivalent? I can! There are groups who believe that women should be offered the opportunity to have their unwanted child, and have parents waiting to adopt the baby rather than destroy it. But increasingly they are being prevented even from giving women all the facts so that they can make an informed choice.

There are many more cases in many walks of life both at home and abroad.

So what can you and I do? Are we to sit quietly and say nothing because, well, it’s all too complex, too difficult, and we might upset people, people we know! Or will you be ‘salt’ and ‘light’? Will you not only consider the issue but get stuck in? Will you hide your light, or will you allow it to shine so that people are drawn to it and can see the issue more clearly?

We don’t have to be perfect examples of humanity before we take up our cross and follow him. We don’t have to hold Oxbridge degrees in Theology before we speak of him. (In my experience that has often been a hindrance rather than a help to many Christians but I’m not going there this morning.) We do not have to have the gift of the gab: as Paul said to the Corinthians in our reading just a couple of weeks ago, ‘I did not come to you with great eloquence.’ He could have done – he was a very bright button - but he did not: the ‘Good News’ of Jesus can be presented to the ignorant and the blind in simple terms. Some certainly will despise it and us for sharing it. You and I Jesus calls not to change people but to share his truth and his love with them in order that they might have the opportunity to change: and to the humble and sincere searcher for truth Jesus promised to make himself known.

We are to be ‘salt’ and ‘light’ in order to draw attention to him. When we do some loving or ‘neighbourly’ act, when we say something wise or helpful to another …..and don’t mention him, we draw attention to ourselves, and so people go away thinking ‘what a nice person’ rather than ‘he or she did or said that because of this person Jesus Christ.’ Salt and light, remember!

I havn’t had time this morning to touch on Psalm 2 but I do recommend you pray it through. Verse 4 reminds me of the adage, ’If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans.’ And ‘with fear’ in v 11 is the English translation. Translating is often tricky. Here ‘fear’ is better translated ‘with appropriate awe and wonder’.

Let me finish as I finished last Sunday with this thought. If you feel uncomfortable because what the world says is ‘ok’ you feel is not - as a woman, as a man, as a parent, as a disciple – because God’s word tells your mind it is not, and God’s Spirit stirs your heart to feel profoundly that it is not, then you can be sure that God is with you. But then you need to do something about it. He will not leave you on your own; but it is in our sufferings ‘on his account’ that we really get to know Jesus and grow in confidence in our faith in him. So be salt! Be light! And ‘rejoice and be glad!’ As the Psalmist says in the last verse of his psalm, ‘Happy are all who take refuge in him.’