"Save us from weak resignation to the evils we deplore..."

(Pastoral Letter to our Church Community in Montrose)

Dear Friends,

During my time as a student in the 1970’s at the Baptist Theological College of Scotland (as it was called then), the Principal was the Rev R E O White. From him I learned so much. The best teachers are those who teach us to think for ourselves, and who model what they teach. REO was a demanding teacher, and sometimes assumed we knew more than we did. But those who sat under his teaching learned the importance of argument, evidence, organised thought, and a willingness to follow truth wherever it led. That meant too, careful and reverent study of the biblical text, learning to think and act pastorally, with humour and humanity, as one who, in following Christ will care for Christ’s people with the love and humility of the Servant Christ.

Every day at College started with prayers led by each of the students on a rota basis. Mr White always sat behind the lectern, his face visible to the class but not to the one leading the prayers. One morning I chose to read from Psalm 119. I knew the passage well, but I didn’t pay attention to the verses that followed my text. I read out to the class: “O how I love your law, I meditate on it all day long” (v 97) This was my text for the day. But I thought I would read the verses before and after – and then, committed to reading my announced passage, I read v 99 to the class, “I have more wisdom and insight than all my teachers….” I was aware of the class looking at Mr White, whose shoulders had started shaking with hard to suppress merriment at the very thought!

I became friends with Mr and Mrs White when I left College, and visited them regularly. When years later I became College Principal he spoke to me with warmth and that same wise encouragement to grow into God’s calling. I reminded him of that morning, that text, and my embarrassment, and this time we both laughed. When Mr White died I spoke at his funeral on behalf of the College, and gave thanks to God that this man, of such wisdom and insight, had never stopped being my teacher.

These are times when as Christians we are perplexed and uncertain about the way the world is and the way the world is going. Wisdom and insight are at a premium. We are still in the full flow of a global pandemic which is disrupting all that has been familiar to us; we are right to be concerned about the political divisiveness in our own country, in the United States, and increasingly across Europe; every day the flow of refugees and the building pressures of migration challenge governments to act with justice and humanity; the growing inequalities between rich and poor likewise raises questions of justice and peace; and the inescapable consequences of climate change for our world threaten to overwhelm: these are huge challenges for humanity. They cannot but compel the church of Jesus Christ to reflect long and deeply about what God is saying through these events and movements in our times. 

More than ever, in our own Christian lives, and as a local gathering of Christ’s church, the words of James carry an important promise: “If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given him.”(James 1.5) Then there is that foundation text for wise living: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” (Proverbs 9.10) If we forget the Creator, we will neglect the creation, to our peril. If we despise other people made in God’s image, then we insult the One in whose image every human person is made. If economic gain is the goal and bottom line of life, then money and profit, not God, is our god. If division and conflict with others is the new way of politics, then what role the peacemaker and ambassador of Christ whose message is reconciliation?

Wisdom is the ability to look at the world as a God-loved world, into which Christ came and died and rose again, and to be a people of faith and faithfulness. Wisdom is to face honestly the enormous problems our world faces, and to pray with faith and hopefulness, “Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Wisdom is to know and believe the love of God, and to be agents of that love, inspired and energised by the love of Christ crucified and risen wherever God has placed us.

We are back to the three great virtues of Christian discipleship – faith in Christ and in the faithfulness of God; hope in the good news of Christ’s death for the sins of the world and his resurrection as the foundation of all hope in life and death; love as the eternal truth of who God is, and the final word God has spoken in Christ who, “while we were still sinners died for our sins”, “and not for ours only but for the sins of the whole world.”  (I John2.2)

Lo! the hosts of evil round us,
scorn thy Christ, assail his ways!
From the fears that long have bound us,
free our hearts to love and praise.
Grant us wisdom, grant us courage,
for the living of these days.

Save us from weak resignation
to the evils we deplore;
let the search for thy salvation
be our glory evermore.
Grant us wisdom, grant us courage,
serving thee whom we adore.

That was one of R E O White’s favourite hymns! Make it your prayer this week.

Your friend and pastor,   

Jim Gordon

Comments

[ANg ALMOND]

I love Fosdick's hymn - always been fascinated by the fact he wrote it in 1930 for the dedication of Riverside church, built with a substantial gift from J D Rockefeller...and yet still refers to being 'rich in things and poor in soul'. I wonder how JDR reacted to that line? But it is a challenging hymn, and one with words very appropriate now, for 'the living of these days'