Courage on the revolutionary road 

Today’s reading is taken from St Paul’s Letter to the Romans and is tremendous source of encouragement to Christians as we face the challenges of our daily lives. St Paul was a man who’d been persecuted for his faith – and would ultimately die for it. This letter to The Romans, was to a Church that was under constant threat and had to meet in secret. I suspect that the Church in Rome was electrified by his words.

In saying that, ‘At a time when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Paul is saying that on the road that every Christian travels, that God is with us. It one thing to lay down your life for your friends. It is something else entirely to lay down your life for those you don’t know.

There are Christians today who are persecuted for their faith, in countries like: Iran and Afghanistan. A friend of mine is an Iranian Christian, and until recently lived in Tehran. He was an elder in the Underground Christian Church. They worshiped God in secret as a very close-knit community. They had to be very careful. If the secret police caught wind of what they were doing, they would face torture, a sham trial and summary execution. In Iran it is an offence to covert from Islam. In Iran it an offence to proselytise, to convert someone from Islam. If faced with similar strictures, would you be brave enough? Would I be brave enough?

My friend was advised that his name was on a list of people that the secret police wanted to speak to. He was advised by the other elders to flee. Not to save himself, but to save his friends. If arrested, my friend knew too much about the Underground Church in Tehran, which would then be brutally and systematically dismantled. By fleeing, he was protecting his friends and protecting the underground Church.

There is a charity called ‘Open Doors’ that supports Christians all over the world who are facing persecution. The ministry of Open Doors has its origins in one man and one journey. In 1955, a young Dutchman went to Warsaw, in what was then communist Poland, and discovered the existence of a persecuted church. He became known as Brother Andrew, and from 1955 to 1967 he travelled throughout Eastern Europe, delivering Scriptures, encouraging persecuted believers, and recruiting others to help him.
The publication of God’s Smuggler in 1967 catapulted Andrew to worldwide renown. An entire generation caught the vision of supporting the persecuted church.
 
The vision soon extended from the Soviet Bloc across the world. During the 1970’s the work of Open Doors, with the work of people just like Brother Andrew. In 1975, the Love China Conference brought to attention the persecution of Chinese Christians, and it was in China where Project Pearl took place. Where 1 million bibles were delivered in one night. Open Doors to serves millions of persecuted Christians in over 70 countries, working with churches and local partners to provide Bibles, Christian materials, training, livelihood skills and advocacy.

Let me tell you about another Brother Andrew. I lived in a village in Cumbria called St Bees for my formative years, where the local vicar, Reverend Trevor Park, would drive a battered old camper van across Europe and into what was then Communist East Germany. He claimed to be a tourist, wanting to learn more about the perfect system in East Germany.  In reality, he was smuggling hundreds of Bibles into East Germany with every trip. It’s just as well the camper van wasn’t weighed on the way out and on the way back as it would have several hundred Bibles lighter! 

If he’d been caught, he would have faced at best deportation. Most likely he would have faced a very long and unpleasant prison sentence. I wonder how that would have been explained to the Archdeacon. Another accomplished Bible Smuggler was someone that many will remember, our former Bishop of Dover, Trevor Wilmot.

Christianity is and always has been a revolutionary faith. It was revolutionary when Jesus walked among us. It was revolutionary when Paul wrote his letter of encouragement to the Romans. It is still revolutionary today. Are you prepared to walk this revolutionary path?

Amen


Reader Chris Scoble