He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!
~Revelation 21:5
OurThe scariest films ever made arenot the ones we would presume.
Contrary to popular belief, films laden with serial killers, gore, and even elements of the spectral,phantoms and ghostly destroyers are not the most terrifying to us.In fact, a good case can be made that 'Threads' (1984) is among thes cariest of movies in the scariest of genres. It is a bleak, post-apocalyptic, hero-less vignette on life in Britain after nuclear war.
Why is that considered so much more terrifying? Probably because of the realness.
With phantom beings and serial killers,we are able to comfort ourselves that they are somewhat unlikely for us to encounter, but the ever-present threat of nuclear holocaust is different. For most of us, we love and cherish our world, want it to succeed, and the
thought of some irrational, drunk on power men dragging us into an unwinnable hellscape of nuclear war... somehow doesn't feel unrealistic.
But this is the very crucible in which faith is formed. Since the early church Christians have dwelt in earthly tents, had to serve dictators, and have been caught up in the throes of waning, crumbling empires.There is nothing new under the sun. While the circumstances change - the spark of faith passes from generation to the next, enabling us to hope in God in the midst of darkness, bleakness, or blessedness.
The mystery is that, despite the fading hopes we can feel given our cost of living crisis, rumours of wars, and political instability, God is making all things new. A paradox perhaps, but one we can see to be true if we exercise a little faith.
Perhaps a concrete way to see this is in the church. For years now our national church has been trying to brace us for the reality of falling numbers and receipts. A big adjustment is necessary.
So yes, the church is shrinking. But it is also growing.
As recently as last month, we shared the joy of welcoming a host of new members by profession of faith into our church family. There are parts of the South and Far East where the church continues to explode. You see, often in the midst of threat, hopelessness and despair, God is doing something new and birthing a great movement of hope.
This is why advent is so precious. In the darkness and of the mid-winter, in a tiny outpost of a pompous imperial power, God birthed the hopes of the nations for generations to come. The hopes of the failing and fledgeling, the fears of the world-weary and the grief-stricken.
What is that hope?
However dark and long the shadow of world events, church decline, or personal grief and heartache, He has begun to make all things new. And He will not cease until all is made new.
Yours in Christ,
David
The Brig - December 2024 Edition
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