It was an interesting talk and I reflected how seduced I was by his reasoning. He stripped Jesus’ teaching down to its core and showed how life changing this core could be.
There are many voices today affirming positive values whereever they come from and there is much good will towards those who proclaim them. The underlying assumption is that we are moving towards a world where people are solving their problems themselves and answering life’s questions on their own. Jesus is bracketed with Socrates, Ghandi and Mandela as great teachers who help in this process.
We are moving towards a world where the secular, in the sense of this beautiful world we inhabit and which we can see and touch and think about, will eventually yield the answers to all our problems. Many young people are intoxicated by the opportunities technology provides. Those who see the world as charged with divine meaning are seen as odd and old fashioned. Their time is over.
If all I have written above is so, it is the first time in human history that people believe they have no need of God or gods. It is the first time that we have said we can manage on our own. I had a letter from America recently in which I was thanked for prayers for a sick person, “I am sure all that positive energy will do some good.” Positive energy? So that is what prayer is now! It is like some kind of radio wave in the atmosphere which carries a healing force. I have no wish to make fun of the writer of the letter; I simply quote her as I think she represents a view common in some parts of the world. Everything is reduced to human or physical forces which we can explain.
There is a passage in the beginning of the fifth chapter of Luke’s gospel where Peter’s assumptions are broken open like cracking an egg. He is going on about fishing and all he knows about it when suddenly he is overwhelmed by a huge catch. His reaction is to fall on his knees and say to Jesus, ‘Leave me, Lord; I am a sinful man.’ His world has been broken into and he is suddenly aware of a whole new perspective. The modern secular mind is uncomfortable with miracles; ‘there must be some other explanation.’ It is true; we should not rush to call events ‘God’s will’ or ‘an act of God.’ Sometimes it is. Other times it isn’t.
What we can say and believe is that God rejoices in the progress of people everywhere. But those same people are missing an awful lot if they ignore that He is at work to give them even more than they can ever dream of.
Post published in: Opinions & Analysis