Why bother with the Christian faith?

 

From the Rectory

 

Why bother with the Christian faith?

 

Well, I’m convinced that the Christian faith is, you know, true: that Jesus was and is God come in the flesh, that he died for our sins, that he rose again, that he will come again to judge the living and the dead. And if there is any chance that is so, nothing matters more. It is literally, according to the Bible, a matter of eternal life or death. You really should drop everything now (more or less) and weigh this up before it's too late!

 

But even if you were not convinced of that, or if it turned out not to be so, I think the Christian faith deserves your serious attention.

 

Most people in the UK have not thought long and hard about the Christian faith and worked out why they reject it. Many think of themselves as “Christians” without a very clear idea of what that means and entails. Growing numbers think of themselves as “Atheists”, “Don’t knows”, “Not religious” or “None of the above”, but very often not for a well-articulated set of reasons. For many that is just how they feel. Biblical Christianity no longer seems plausible in the way in which it was the almost automatic default setting for most people in Europe for most of the last two thousand years. I would dare to suggest that this seismic change merits your sustained adult scrutiny.

 

I once knew a Baptist minister who was coming up to retirement age. He had dedicated himself to his work in a rather rough part of Cardiff for a lifetime. His wife had died. His congregation wasn’t large and the finances were challenged. He said to me that he wouldn’t change a thing, even if it turned out Christianity wasn’t true.

 

I find that a remarkable statement. And it is rather difficult to square with what the Apostle Paul says in 1 Corinthians chapter 15. He says that if Jesus has not been raised from the dead then we are to be pitied above all people.

 

If Christianity is not true, there is a case for eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die.

 

But what in fact is your best life now? Is it really possible to eat, drink and be merry? Can we ever drink enough to make us merry enough? And what about the hangover and the debt?

 

Maybe the Christian faith actually represents the wisdom of the ages (at least as it has been understood in the West). As I say, I think it is all literally true. But even if it were not, I would say that it is psychologically true. It tells us a human story and meets our human needs as not just watery machines or higher apes but broken gods. This world is not enough because we were made for eternity, for friendship with our Maker. Our hearts are restless until they find their rest in Him. This seems to me to fit our human condition and is a kind of evidence for Christianity.

 

To put this another way, the Christian faith is not only true but good and beautiful. It is so good and beautiful that even if it were not true, we would do well to live as if it were.

 

What in fact are the alternatives? No one can really say. We muddle on. We make the best of it. We grab what pleasures we can. We try not to think too hard and to do no harm. But what is harm? Who knows? And who cares? Or why should I care? Is morality only taste and expediency?

 

These are big ideas and broad brushstrokes, but I hope this makes some sense.

 

Anyway, for what it’s worth, that’s how it seems to me. The Christian faith: true, good and beautiful. And well worth bothering with. See you on Sunday!

  

The Revd Marc Lloyd