Sunday Evening Series
25 Jan 2023
"Rip Van Winkle" is a short story by the American author Washington Irving, first published in 1819. It follows a Dutch-American villager in colonial America named Rip Van Winkle who meets mysterious Dutchmen, imbibes their liquor and falls asleep in the Catskill Mountains. He awakes 20 years later to a very changed world, having missed the American Revolution. (From "Wikipedia")
The story has since become a classic among fairy tales, with different versions being passed on down the generations.
The church in 2023 can feel a bit like Rip Van Winkle. We are used to believing and practicing certain things, but the world around us has changed radically - and very quickly. This is particularly true in the area of sexuality and personal identity.
It is within some of our living memory that homosexuality was illegal in the UK, and for decades after that there was legislation preventing it being taught about in schools. In the last ten years gay marriage has been legalised around the world - and now there is legislation being proposed which would have the effect of making suggesting that homosexuality is wrong illegal.
Biological sex, the most obvious distinction within the human race, was unquestioned until very recently. But in the last few years there has been the rise of the trans agenda in public life - and the Scottish Parliament have recently passed a law making it very easy for someone to “change” whether they are male or female “for all purposes”.
While many have cheered on these changes, there has been a greater group (sadly often amongst the young) who have been left floundering, being told to find an identity for themselves without any help or anchor.
Sadly the Christian church has not spoken clearly here. The established denominations have often wobbled, and then compromised when faced with these questions. At present there are some confused proposals going through the synod of the Church of England which both states that their position on marriage has not changed, while also giving provision to bless same sex relationships. Everyone can see the problem with this.
It can be tempting, especially if we are older, to want to pretend these issues are not happening - particularly if they do not directly affect us. But we do not have this luxury. We live in the real world, and so must apply the word of God to our situation. It is also the case that for many of us these questions have a very real application. We are faced with these questions amongst our friends and neighbours, and family. We deal with them at work. We are asking these questions personally.
As a church we need to be clear on where we stand and why. It may soon become very costly to believe and practice as we always have on these things - so we need to be sure, and to “count the cost”.
That is why on Sunday nights I am going to preach a series of sermons looking at these issues. It’s not because I am obsessed by them, I would far rather preach a Bible book, or on the doctrine of Christ! I feel I cannot ignore them any longer.
I am particularly concerned that although we may, in general terms, know what is right and wrong on these issues, the drip feed of the worldview of our culture is so persistent that we might have accepted some wrong understandings (particularly about what it means to be human). These may not lead us to compromise now, but they are a bit like a time bomb which will go off eventually. After all, the other denominations who have veered off track on these issues haven’t done so overnight.
More than that - we need to be clear on who God is, who we are, and what his good purpose is for us and how sin has affected that. We must believe it, stand for it and delight in it! If God’s word reflects God’s character then there can’t be any parts of it that we are embarrassed about, or becomes like a bit of small print we never talk about.
We also need to share God’s heart. Jesus ate with tax collectors and sinners, and was misunderstood because of that. If he did that as our sinless saviour, then how much more should we, when we know our sin is so great? But in these areas I find we simply don’t know how to relate to people, and so can sadly be charged rightly with being unloving (even if it does come from our confusion rather than hate). The gospel is always good news. Jesus came for sinners, sufferers and the confused.
So I would encourage you to come on Sunday evenings. If you can’t attend - listen to the recordings online. I want them to be interactive in the sense that I welcome questions that you would like me to deal with - do let me know if you have any (theological, biblical or practical).
More than anything else, it is my prayer that we don’t live in our world as spiritual Rip Van Winkle’s confused and frightened by the world around us. It is to his glory that we live confident in the Lord and his word, a non-anxious presence in a changing world, pointing our confused friends and neighbours to the identity that can only be found in Christ, and fighting sin in the hidden parts of our own hearts.