It has been said that
we understand ourselves better as individuals and as a nation if we have a
sense of history. That was one of
the great strengths of Winston Churchill, something that was brought out very strongly
in a recent television series on the Churchill family. Winston, it was said, was a great war
leader because he studied the life of his ancestor John Churchill, the
seventeenth/eighteenth century soldier and statesman. From him Winston learned the importance of having clear
objectives, taking hard decisions and motivating those under his
leadership.
The television series
was presented by the controversial historian David Starkey. In a newspaper article he wrote prior
to its screening he said that the trouble with most modern politicians is that
they have no sense of history. He
mentions one honourable exception in the present UK cabinet but even he,
according to Starkey, does not seem to be learning the lessons of history.
It is a problem we have
in the Church. We tend to think of
ourselves as cast adrift on a modern sea of troubles, facing hazards never
before encountered and which are threatening to overwhelm us. A close study of the Church in her
earliest days, however, will show that her very existence was threatened by a
departure from Gospel truth, slack moral standards and a dangerous drift away
from a sense of Christian community.
Paul and the other apostles had to work hard to hold things together
until a new sense of purpose was established and Jesus’ vision of a world-wide mission
could go forward.
In these troubled times for the Church we need to get back to our
sources to discover afresh what was important to those who were closest to
Jesus and who made great sacrifices to preach His truth and show His ways to
the world. We are called to engage
with our times but never to disparage the lessons we can learn from our
ancestors in the Lord who knew what it was to see great days of the Spirit.
