Minister’s Letter

Rev Graham Miles

Being a Christian in the 21st Century

One question often begs another and the title of this article is no different. One problem to solve might be 'is being a Christian ever any different whatever the century?'. I would like to approach it by firstly thinking about the society we live in, secondly a specific aspect of it and finally the unchanging nature of our humanity.

The Post- modern Society

Sociologists argue about what kind of a society we live in. Is it still a modern society or has it become post- modern? I do not think it matters in our relationship with God and being a Christian. For arguments sake I will say post- modern. In the 21st century society everything is choice. . In what we buy and where we go but also what we believe. We can be a follower of Jesus or not as we wish. We can choose to believe in God or deny his existence. This does not matter (we are told) as is just one story amongst many. The message of Salvation the post modernist would say is just one amongst many ways to salvation . There are individual stories, and the Christian would agree with this. We believe the Son of God enters our story and every ones. The other side of this is that there is no longer one big story for all, the meta – narrative which is reality and absolute truth. The God message is just one of several meta – narratives. For the Christian we have to serve and witness, love and share the Gospel within this context. It seems to me that the message has not changed and whatever societies story God calls out in love. For Christians and we believe all is the truth and needs to be heard and responded to.

When I was on sabbatical in the supermarket I saw many products being offered. It reminded me that we have the best offer of all in Jesus Christ our Lord. In western societies that are increasingly secular it can be argued that it is harder for the message to be heard and therefore more difficult to be a Christian This should not stop us sharing the message. In earlier societies there is ample evidence that our message was lost and many never heard. We need to recognise the truth, ‘ How can they know if they have never heard’?

The Wealthy Society

When we talk of being a 21st century Christian it we means be a believer in our western modern and free society. There are many people in this world who do not live in 'our kind' of society. I think for the Christian our society can make the walk of faith harder. This becomes more so the more affluent we become. This is nothing new, the story of the rich young man in the Bible reminds us that it is age old. The example of Christian faith and love in situations of great poverty and communities with nothing challenges us greatly. The more we have in a throw away society the more we are open to choosing the world’s ways rather than Christ’s. I am not knocking what we have and want more and more of the world to experience it but, comfortable Christianity can be a problem. The more choices we have the more the world appears to offer. As a result the more we have to listen out for the answers to the question ‘what would Jesus do?’ Therefore when we are relatively affluent in our society God expects much of us but we often do not look beyond ourselves to our fellowships , communities and beyond.

Humanity

The Christian message is as relevant today as it has ever been. It would not make sense for the resurrection to not speak to us in the 21st century, anymore than it being tied to 1st century Palestine. The resurrection is for each and every age is ‘Christ is alive ,let Christians sing’ This is because humanity and what it is and means to be a human being does not change. We know far more than our ancestors but we are still basically the same. We have been given so much by God in terms of knowledge but that does not mean he is dead or in a box. Jesus Christ is in our world and God dwells in us through the Holy Spirit.The human race and therefore our response needs to be the same because God’s response to us is. Societies change but his love does not We are what and who we are but so is God. We continue to ask the great questions and God is the answer to them yesterday, today and forever.

Finally

We can see that being a Christian in today’s world is not easy. We can also see it never has been. Jesus will always turn things upside down because that what he did . However difficult the situation he shares the task with us. More difficult may be but we are asked to go in to all the World and that includes the here and now!