World Cup Blogs 29: Sweden

Sweden put in a, well, Swedish performance in this World Cup.  Never incompetent but never exciting.  Their performance against England was as unremarkable as the Colombians' was eccentric.

I'm not sure what it is about Sweden that makes it so laid back - after all the Swedish winter presumably requires some determination to get through each year.  But laid back they are.  All the passion in our local IKEAs comes from the queuing customers from Britain.

When I visited Sweden some years back I did encounter some laid back elements in things spiritual.  Yet there were exceptions, and one especially glorious one.

I went to a church that caters for people like me by running parts of the service in English. It included Believer's Baptism and the Pastor asked just one simple question of each candidate. It wasn't, in one sense, the most satisfyingly theological baptismal question, yet a strangely fundamental one,

"Will you follow Jesus all the days of your life, and not turn back?"

Each candidate in turn affirmed.  The final candidate was a doctor who had come to Sweden from a difficult African country.  He was also asked the question, but his reply was not "Yes", or "I will". Instead he said, with a big smile, "Yes, of course".

Was he young and naive? Hardly - he was a Doctor. In that man I glimpsed the kind of faith that changes churches, communities and countries. This bewildering, to the outsider, commitment to things not seen is commented on in Hebrews chapter 11;

How did they do it? They saw it way off in the distance, waved their greeting, and accepted the fact that they were transients in this world. People who live this way make it plain that they are looking for their true home. If they were homesick for the old country, they could have gone back any time they wanted. But they were after a far better country than that—heaven country. You can see why God is so proud of them, and has a City waiting for them.

Am I, I ask myself, a competent Christian or an of course Christian?

Pliable or Obstinate

Lent is a time for self-examination.

Sunday morning we had read to us in Church the story of Pliable and Obstinate talking with Christian in Pilgrim's Progress.

There is no question about it.  When it came to following Christ as I grew up I was obstinate.  Or at least I thought that was true - until, well, I thought about it.  Even listening on Sunday morning it occurred to me that although these characters are allegedly opposites they are (and Bunyan cleverly makes this point) two parts of the same. They are always on the road together.

Obstinate and Pliable in pursuit

The reason I was obstinate and not willing at all to be baptised - to be a committed follower of Jesus - was because I wished to remain pliable.  That is, I wanted my options open, not my Self crucified to rise in new life from Someone else.

On further reflection I thought of the groups of young people in my home church who would return from camp or conference to be baptised in flocks while I watched obstinately.  Some are still my Christian friends, plenty fell away almost, as it were, before their towel was dry.  They were pliable.  Yet in meeting them occasionally - or hearing of them via their families - it turns out that they are now obstinate!

Broadly speaking the most obstinate people spiritually were previously pliable.  And any Evangelist will tell you that there is no more obstinate pairs of ears than the ones either side of a mouth that has said, "No, I've changed my mind about being a Christian".  Or as the writer to the Hebrews scarily and clearly puts it:
 It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit,  who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age  and who have fallen away, to be brought back to repentance. To their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace.  Land that drinks in the rain often falling on it and that produces a crop useful to those for whom it is farmed receives the blessing of God.  But land that produces thorns and thistles is worthless and is in danger of being cursed. In the end it will be burned.

Hayley Cropper - Happy Days!

At the National television Awards Julie Hesmondhalgh, who acted Hayley's character, picked up - probably quite rightly - an award for such a dramatic piece of televisual theatre.  It brought a very happy ending.  That's what we all want after all isn't it?

Julie said, "We’re so happy with this storyline. We’d like to thank the charities and everyone who helped us with it. And our wonderful writers and storyliners."

 

Ah.  If only.

 

If only, following miserable illnesses, tortured decisions, and the dark, final curtain of death a real person could pick up an award and spread some happiness!

 

My best friend, as a matter of fact, did.

 

Let us look only to Jesus, the One who began our faith and who makes it perfect. He suffered death on the cross. But he accepted the shame as if it were nothing because of the joy that God put before him. And now he is sitting at the right side of God’s throne.

Andrew Bailey

Today was the end of Andrew Bailey.

Andrew is still alive (as far as I know) but disappears into history for most of us as of today.

 

For it is his signature, as Chief Cashier of the Bank of England, that has changed pieces of paper into promissory notes - or, as we might say, real dosh.

 

 

 

Now, moving to another highly-paid job, we rely instead on the signature of Mr Salmon.  I do not know Mr Salmon either of course.

 

It is at least a little bit interesting that in the history of the Bank of England its notes have always been guaranteed by the signature of a man.  There may be irony there: it is certainly a pattern that also exists in the localised environment of our family . . .

 

Of deeper interest may be the continual reproduction of new signature notes (now somewhat inconvenient with electronic notereaders) as one office holder passes to another - a kind of economic never-ending relay race.

 

Casting a Biblical eye over it reminds me that the priesthood operated like this before it ended: Now there have been many of those priests, since death prevented them from continuing in office; but because Jesus lives for ever, he has a permanent priesthood.   Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.  The Lord is a better guarantee of everything important than anyone else is of anything.

Losing when winning

Home from holiday!

Among many visits we visited a house that had a plate in the bedroom just like the one below.  It had been owned by a successful businessman who had lost his faith (having previously intended to be a priest) - he then lost his house to the National Trust but that was a smaller loss according to the plate. 

It reminded me of the British Olympic Gold Medalist Triple Jumper Jonathan Edwards who I had just seen talking on television about his own loss of faith.  He found virtue in the thought that his faith had really helped him to win the Gold Medal at the Sydney Olympics in 2000 - "It was where I was at the time - it's not where I am now" - 'it does seem incredibly improbable there is a God'.

Ah well - better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.

Or maybe not.

We shouldn’t need to keep talking about why we ought to turn from deeds that bring death and why we ought to have faith in God. And we shouldn’t need to keep teaching about baptisms or about the laying on of hands or about people being raised from death and the future judgment. Let’s grow up, if God is willing.  But what about people who turn away after they have already seen the light and have received the gift from heaven and have shared in the Holy Spirit? What about those who turn away after they have received the good message of God and the powers of the future world? There is no way to bring them back. What they are doing is the same as nailing the Son of God to a cross and insulting him in public! [Hebrews 6, CEV]

But is it true?

But in Church last night we reflected that Hebrews tells us that By faith the people passed through the Red Sea as on dry land; but when the Egyptians tried to do so, they were drowned.

By faith.

Before God blew with his wind the LORD said to Moses, “Why are you crying out to me? Tell the people to get moving! (Exodus 14:15 NLT) And with that step of faith, God (who it is impossible to please without faith) blew.