Living With Danger - October 2007
At the end of September I attended the meetings of the European Baptist Federation in Budapest, Hungary. Budapest is a splendidly grand city but the scars of its communist past are still very evident. The dreary grey blocks of flats which encircle the city are a depressing reminder of a degrading episode in Hungary's history. Hungarian Christians were placed under enormous pressure throughout the communist period but such experiences are by no means confined to history. During my time in Budapest I spoke with the pastor of the Baptist Church in Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Sarajevo is still etched deeply on all our memories as the city that experienced the longest military siege in modern history. The city is predominantly Muslim these days (85% against 45% before the war) and the pressures upon the tiny Christian population are immense.
The pastor told me of the Sunday earlier this year when the news broke of the deaths of Christians at the hands of Muslims in Turkey. He wondered what their reaction would be. Would they be fearful, anxious or depressed? It was none of these things, he told me. The people were peaceful and confident in their reaffirmation of their Christian faith and witness. They recognized that they could easily lose their own lives for their faith . but they were not prepared to be blown off course. They were committed to Christ whatever happened.
I found that very challenging. We don't live with such pressures in this country. But I wonder how we would react if we were placed under such threats. We are told that there have been more Christian martyrs over the past century than in the rest of history put together, so we cannot afford to ignore the challenge. First of all it needs to affect our prayers for the world wide church. We need to pray for those whose lives are places under constant threat because of their love for the Lord Jesus Christ. As the writer to the Hebrews put it, we need to pray for those in prison as if we were in prison with them, and we need to pray for those who are ill-treated as if we were experiencing the same suffering (Hebrews 13.3).
But, secondly, it needs to challenge us to reflect on our own faith. It is very easy for us to live Christian lives of stunning superficiality. We need to reaffirm that one day a week Christian faith is simply not an option. Worship which only entertains and titillates is not worthy of the name. Service which is just a case of doing what we like doing is not what Jesus had in mind when he called us to take up our cross and follow him.
This is all very challenging but as brothers and sisters around the world suffer for their faith we must, at the very least, allow their experience to challenge the superficiality of so much of our comfortable Western European Christianity.
Previous articles...
Summer Reflections (September 2007)
Moving On (August 2007)
Looking at old age with new eyes! (July 2007)
To assemble or not to assemble?! (June 2007)
Freedom - The Search Goes On! (May 2007)