Over the next few posts I will intersperse perspectives on Europe with a few comments on our journey… maybe half-way down Italy now with last night, today and tonight to be spent in Terracina. Sleeping under an ancient temple to Jupiter – well not under it literally, it simply sits on the highest point about 1km from where we are. Maybe if we get closer we will feel to give it a kick but seems pretty much without any current influence. We are here as we are within a short distance of the old ‘two Sicilies’ border that cut off the papal states to the north and the so-named kingdom of the two Sicilies to the south – two Sicilies as there was a base in Palermo (Sicily) and Naples/ Napoli (mainland of Italy). That border is our focus today. But this post is about Europe, as also is our journey and interaction with Sicily these months!
We all have perspectives and they are influenced by (in no specific order) our personality, experience, theology – particularly of God and of eschatology. It seems to me the most important thing is we act with authenticity and integrity – true to ourselves and to our convictions. I need to be open to correction, to change but I am not about (nor should I) to change easily. My convictions are mine. Not quite in the same league but before Jesus laid down his life he made the statement that no-one could take his life from him. We are not to be swayed easily. On some areas of theology I am in the minority (historically and currently) but I am not about to count the votes and go with the majority. I write that simply to say should you read these posts there is no need to agree, but they might explain the why’s and what’s of our lives.
There is perhaps a predominant view that Europe is post-Christian and ‘secular’, thus being without any real hope. Mine is that it is the centre of hope!
Two Stories
Nothing exegetical in what follows but for the past 25+ years the interlinked stories in Mark 5:21-43 have been important for me. They are the stories of the woman with the continual haemorrhaging issue and Jairus’ daughter.
In summary a woman who a) has been deteriorating in health for 12 years and b) whatever ‘solution’ the doctor provide do not improve her condition but c) she is getting increasingly ill. And a) a young girl born 12 years before with b) all the hope and joy that a new birth brings but c) one day falls ill and dies.
Maybe you are ahead of me but I see the ‘sick woman’ as a picture of Europe and the young girl as a symbol of where the hope and enthusiasm lies.
Historically, Europe was the cradle for the gospel, from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth was understood by Paul to be throughout the oikoumene of the Roman Empire (e.g. Col. 1:6). From Europe beyond, but by the time the beyond was happening the ‘clothing’ for the gospel was that of Christendom – the making of ‘Christian nations’ (an oxymoron), with privileged and dominating position given to that form of Christianity. (Maybe this is why ‘Christian’ votes often go to the authoritarian option – perceived as more like God!!!????) My simplistic approach is not-perfect but not privileged pre-Constantine but centralised, institutionalised, dominating and oft-times oppressive post the ‘conversion’ of Constantine. (For a much better insight try Roger Mitchell’s Fall of the Church (Amazon link – will seriously need to repent today… but at least you can see the book there and order elsewhere.)
Thank God for Africa, far East, South America where there is a vibrancy and a rate of conversion to Jesus that should make us envious… that to me is like the young woman. Hope, hope and more hope. The future… But…
Imagine that the Christian faith is like a train on a track. The front carriages are the church in Europe, followed by other later Western filled carriages, followed by the places where faith in Jesus is vibrant. And the train-track has run out and would have needed to cross a bridge to get to the future. The first carriage(s) has fallen over the precipice – but the ‘problem’ is that it is one train… the other carriages are on the track, and go join them and do the charismatic two-step and rejoice but they will also follow suit. The young girl will speak of the future until…
My perspective!
I have (past tense) spent many months in Brazil. Huge the shift that has taken place there with coming to faith. But still huge manifestations of occult power. I have often said that 2% of a population with faith should have long-time ago shifted all of that nonsense. But I have been present inside a secure conference centre where each entrant has to have a pass to enter and voodoo priests have materialised inside with poison for our food! That should not happen… but if our focus is on power we will feed such manifestations. (To be clear I am all for the miraculous, healings and deliverances but the container is ‘presence’ and not simply power – another post another day?)
Europe. We will continue to be enthralled by what is going on elsewhere and I hope we stay deeply impacted by the wonderful transformative power of the gospel, but all of that can be like the doctors coming to the aid of the woman in the story. ‘Rather than getting better… spending all her money…’
OK I have made a start. The woman has to touch the garment of Jesus; the young girl will be discovered to be also carrying a gene that means maturity will not be reached. Work to be done in Europe for the woman is healed when the focus was on getting to the young girl. Hence my hope, my enthusiasm; but not to restore something that has been. No making that form of Christianity great again. Travelling paths we have not trodden before, but ancient paths that will show in spite of understandable despair we carry the same story I wrote of yesterday – in an obscure middle eastern province one person has been raised from the dead. Maybe sleeping under the temple to Jupiter is a good reminder – that was the Pauline world and they had much opposition but the gospel is the power of God to salvation – to the Jew first (religious power losing its hold) and also to the Greek (the sophisticated way of describing the oikoumene of the Roman Empire). The Pauline gospel, not the Martin gospel, nor the Reformed gospel, nor the gospel that is often on offer.
Let Europe be the place of discovery and restoration.
I know we’re in a mess, in really deep waters here in Europe. But would that not be a promising place to be in if it was all about God’s grace in Jesus Christ to be revealed in our midst?
It may be ‘foreigners’, refugees, and migrants though who will take the inheritance; and I am not complaining.
What those churches of the global South and of the East are currently carrying is insufficient for our salvation under the oppression that is currently arising. Still, there is a fire burning deep under the land that is hot enough and powerful enough to set it all on fire again.
“It all”, my sense is would be towards the end of this century; around the time of 2085/95, I wonder? There’s lots of preparation work to be done and lots of pain and suffering to go through until then.