In the book The Bravehearted Gospel, Eric Ludy notes that, “Many [people] today
have inherited a faith that has no real life or power. Instead of zeal there is apathy. Instead of courage there is timidity. An instead of confidence there is paralyzing
doubt”. This quotation sums up what the
Church in Jamaica and worldwide is facing at the moment in the midst of
economic, social, moral and spiritual crises that appear to be unparalleled in
human history. The reality is, though,
that, as Qoheleth (The Preacher) clearly states in Ecclesiastes, “There is
nothing new under the sun” no matter the sphere of life in which we are
experiencing upheavals and crises. This
does not sound too encouraging, but it is the truth.
I outlined the preceding realities in light
of the issue of the threat of crime and violence and the challenge of
homosexuality. Many Christians seem to
think that the world is coming to an end now because the forces of darkness are
dominating this planet. The recent mass
gatherings and demonstrations orchestrated by church leaders and their
declarations of possible martyrdom in the event that the Supreme Court open the
floodgates to the normalizing of the homosexual lifestyle by declaring the
buggery law unconstitutional could be seen by some as a last gasp attempt at
life and relevance by a half-dead entity called the Church.
Those of us who are Christians need to
realize that the Church no longer holds the positions of privilege that it
enjoyed since the time of Constantine.
The forces of secularization and those with a sinister futurist agenda
have orchestrated this current scenario that bewilders those of us who lack
insight and foresight. Jamaica is no
longer a Christian nation, if we could have classified it as such. This means that, as Himes and Himes note in
their book Fullness of Faith: the Public
Significance of Theology, “the church must be engaged with but not seek to
control society”. Nevertheless, its
responses are understandable given the fundamental nature of the implications
of crime and homosexuality with respect to the perpetuation of the human
species.
I suggest to my Christian brothers and
sisters that we should not be apathetic, timid, nor paralyzed by the vexing occurrences
around us. The Church should return to
its roots and recapture the transformative “power” that it demonstrated at its
inception in the first century of this era.
We need to demonstrate life-inspiring zeal and passion for the Lord and
the lost again. We need to be courageous
in our attempts at realizing our core mission of transforming the world. We also need to reject paralysis of whatever
kind and move forward confidently knowing that no matter what is happening in
our society and in the world, God is at work slowly but
surely fulfilling His purposes for mankind.
We need to be more Christologically redemptive, penetrative,
illuminating, and contextualized in our communities and leave the rest to the
Creator, Sustainer and the Judge of the universe.
