Risky Living

Monday, 04 October 2010 00:00

At the end of September I attended the Council of the European Baptist Federation near Rome. They were superb days filled with good fellowship, interesting conversation and memorable worship. Forty five Baptist Unions were represented from all over Europe and the Middle East. It was deeply moving to meet with the pastor of Baghdad Baptist Church and to hear of the way in which it has thrived over the past ten years. It was also good to meet people from Turkey, Bulgaria, Ukraine and Armenia as well as many people from these islands. But amidst all the torrent of words one particular phrase struck me particularly.

We had the privilege of welcoming a church from Bahrain into the EBF. The leader of the church is an Egyptian doctor and he spoke movingly of the pressures that the church lived with in a Muslim nation. He spoke about the difficulties people encountered at work, and about the constant dangers they faced. And then in an offhand comment he observed, as if it were a truism, “but then of course it’s always been risky to be a Christian.”

The phrase struck me forcibly because that really hasn’t been my experience. Being a Christian has often been challenging and demanding – but not risky. I have never faced physical threat or rejection on the basis of my Christian faith. So the Egyptian doctor’s comment made me think hard. Firstly, it taught me something more about the importance of having fellowship with Christians internationally ... because we all belong to the body of Christ. We are all related to one another in the deepest way imaginable. I recognized afresh my responsibility to pray for my brothers and sisters in parts of the world where the risks of Christian faith are a daily reality.

But the Egyptian doctor’s comment also forced me to ask why Christian faith is so, apparently, risk free in this country. You could certainly argue that it is because Christianity is still the bed-rock of this society, and that amidst the oceans of agnosticism and indifference there is still a sneaky respect for Christians. May be so. But I am fearful that we live such risk free lives because we no longer challenge our society. We have been pressed into the mould of our society’s life, and no longer have any concept of the fact that the Kingdom of God would turn our society on its head. The biggest fear is that in our risk averse society, we as Christians have perfected the art, and have created a space for ourselves in which we are content to challenge and bless a rapidly declining number of people.

It would be plainly absurd to go out looking for more risks. But perhaps, as we pray for our brothers and sisters in other riskier places, it would be good for us to pray that we may become increasingly courageous and bold in our faith, whatever the risks and dangers.