Page 2 - Contact Summer 2017

Norman’s Viewpoint | Home
Over the past weeks in church we have been
exploring the theme of Home on Sunday
mornings. That theme of home runs like a
golden thread through both Old and New
Testaments as God calls people to come home
to Him. We have been made by Him and for
Him and we find our ultimate purpose and
satisfaction as we surrender to Him – as
Augustine said “our hearts are restless until
they can find their rest in you.”
It is strange that so many of us resist that inner
longing for God. We end up worshipping and
giving our lives to anything and everything – to
the created things rather than to our Creator.
Our society needs to hear this message to
“come home”, but even more than that it needs
to see this message being lived out in us, the
followers of Jesus.
At a conference I attended last month in
London one of the seminars reminded us that
this year we celebrate 500 years since the
Reformation. It looked at the surprising
similarities between 16th century and 21st
century Europe.
A major difference of course is that outwardly
Europe is much less religious today than then
and the church has nothing like the hold (for
good or ill) upon culture and society that it had
then. The church did need reformation
of course as it was part of the problem.
The speaker indicated at least five similarities
between what faced Martin Luther’s society
then and the challenges that face us today,
namely – the growth of individualism; the
rise of poverty and a migrant crisis; the revolt
against elites and the rise of populism; the
attraction and threat of Islam; the prospect of
international conflict.
Reformed Christianity in the power of the
Spirit began to make inroads to each of these
under men like Luther and Calvin. They were
far from perfect but God used them to renew
Christianity and the culture. The challenge for
us as Christians is to rise again to these issues
and to call people home to their saviour and
God. For that to happen our faith needs to face
the same challenges and to respond rather than
ignore them. Our faith needs to be selfless (and
not consumeristic); real (not fake), relevant
(and not outdated in its forms), passionate (and
not done out of cold duty); and showing love
and unity among us as churches (rather than
being divisive). As this happens people will sit
up and take note and hopefully say “God is
really among you.” (1 Corinthians 14:25).
Have a blessed and refreshing summer.
Norman