At
our Spring URC Ministers Retreat a hymn was sung at Evening Prayer from the URC
hymn book – Percy Dearmer’s hymn (528) “Jesus good above all other.” I noticed
the word in the final line of verses 1 and 5 – “give us grace to persevere,” –
“and with joy we’ll persevere” Persevere. Often people ask me how I am. I
usually reply, “Ok, bashing on, observing the 11th commandment, Thou
shalt bash on.” Bashing on, not giving up, and getting there. Here’s a thought
“A river cuts through rock not because of its power but because of its
persistence.” I like the phrase “Triumph is just "umph" added to try.”
For
most of us the Christian life is about bashing on, about perseverance. Often it
is a long haul, persisting often amid setbacks and frustrations and continuing
to ask and to seek and to knock at the door. To bang on that door. Alas the
Christian faith is not like the final act of a Pantomime at the Durham Gala
Theatre where everything is effortlessly changed so that there is no more
uncertainty, no more struggle, no more darkness and despair. That might indeed
be the case if the Christian gospel was one of cheap grace – of forgiveness
without repentance, of healing without vulnerability, of progress without
setbacks and gain without pain. However, it is not – it is one of costly grace
and in the words of the 20th century Lutheran German theologian
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, executed by the Nazi’s two weeks before the end of the
second world war “Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and
again, the gift which must be asked for, the door at which a person must
knock.”
Yet
perseverance often brings out the best in people’s character – traits such as
discipline, self control, gratitude, zest, optimism, curiosity, courage and
conscientiousness – what we might call grit: the ability to keep going, to keep
bashing on, despite repeated failures and setbacks. People with perseverance grow.
People without zest are either defeated by life’s challenges – or more likely –
become risk averse. They play it safe - although anyone like me who spends time
listening to life stories often come to marvel at my friends and families
resilience and survival instincts. And that experience of resilience or
survival, changes people, for good or ill, for joy or sorrow. Today’s
autobiography in your growing pile of leaflets reflects the life of Nelson
Mandela, former President of the Republic of South Africa. The National Service
of Thanksgiving to celebrate his life and work was held in Westminster Abbey
last Monday. In prison he kept the faith, he
didn’t give up on his dream, prison crafted in him the character that would
become the template for how black South Africans would be delivered from
oppression; on his release he led his people to the promised land of a Rainbow
Nation. He persevered.
I
am often fascinated by the stories of people who persevered, who overcame
repeated failure and rejection, who survive despite the odds of what life threw
at them. Winston Churchill seemed so dull as a youth that his father thought he
might be incapable of earning a living in England. Charles Darwin did so poorly
in school that his father once told him, "You will be a disgrace to yourself
and all your family.” Albert Einstein's parents feared their child was dull,
and he performed so badly in all high school courses except mathematics that a
teacher asked him to drop out. Phil Martin who founded a British pub chain in
1979 named his company after the teacher who said he would not make anything of
his life. The pub chain is called JD Weatherspoon which in 2012 had operating
income of £107m, and a profit of £45m in the same year.
Or
take the lonely single mother close to destitution who sat in coffee bars
writing children’s novels to earn some money only to find that the first 12
publishers to whom she sent the manuscript rejected it. She kept going. Her
name is J. K. Rowling. Another book written for children was rejected by 21
publishers. The book was eventually published. It was called Lord of the Flies, and its author
William Golding eventually won the Nobel Prize for Literature. The most famous
failure of our time must be the late Steve Jobs. Three blows of fate shaped his
life: dropping out of university, being fired from the company he founded, Apple, and being diagnosed with
pancreatic cancer. Rather than being defeated by them, he turned them all to
creative use, eventually returning to Apple
and developing 3 of the iconic inventions of our time, the iPod, the iPhone and
the iPad. In 1962 four young men were told at the Abbey Road studios that
guitar bands were on their way out. The verdict was “The Beatles have no future
in showbusines.” J.K Rowling, William Golding, Steve Jobs and the Beatles were
not as far as I know religious people, but some people just persevere, they have
learned to embrace failure instead of fearing it.
Last Sunday night, 12 Years a Slave won the Oscar for best picture, recognising Steve
McQueen’s skilful adaptation of Solomon Northup’s own story. Northup wrote
about his abduction and consequent struggle to both survive and live during his
time as a slave. The film explores complex themes; it shows how plantation
owners used biblical texts to justify oppression, while a Canadian
abolitionist, convinced that all are made in the image of God, plays a key role
in helping Northop’s release.
Young William Wilberforce, a slave trade abolitionist, was discouraged one night in the early 1790s after another defeat in his 10 year battle against the slave trade in England. Tired and frustrated, he opened his Bible and began to leaf through it. A small piece of paper fell out and fluttered to the floor. It was a letter written by John Wesley shortly before his death. Wilberforce read it again: "Unless the divine power has raised you up... I see not how you can go through your glorious enterprise in opposing that (abominable practice of slavery), which is the scandal of religion, of England, and of human nature. Unless God has raised you up for this very thing, you will be worn out by the opposition of men and devils. But if God be for you, who can be against you? Are all of them together stronger than God? Oh, be not weary of well-doing. Go on in the name of God, and in the power of His might."
At
the start of his parliamentary campaign, Wilberforce, in concluding his three
hour speech detailing the facts of slavery, said, ‘Having heard all of this you
may choose to look the other way but you can never again say that you did not
know.’ Yet the combination of blindness and wilful ignorance meant that it
needed 20 more years to abolish the slave trade and then decades to root it out
of North America.
Such
people inspire me. On my Christian journey I have discovered that God has faith
in me rather than I have faith in God. He lifts me every time I fail. He
forgives me every time I fall. He believes in me more than I believe in myself.
He mends my broken heart. I never cease to be moved by the words of Isaiah:
“Even youths grow tired and weary and the young may stumble and fall, but those
who hope in the Lord renew their strength, they soar on wings like eagles, they
run and don’t grow weary, they walk and don’t grow faint.”
Perseverance. I hope some of my
examples of inspiring people may help you are as you continue in your faith and
as you gingerly step out into Lent, your personal journey this year to the
cross. Perseverance is commitment, hard work, endurance, not giving up, trying
again and again, to keep on going even when you become discouraged. Bashing on.
As Bonaparte said victory belongs to the most persevering.
So may God grant you the wisdom,
patience, hope and love that is needed for the long road ahead this Lent, as
you persist in your faith, as you live authentically in the place God has set
you, as we wait and persist in hope, because God is good. And if you can be
hopeful, patient and good as we persevere – trust me - all shall be well.
Readings: Genesis 2.15-17, 3.1-7;
Matthew 4.1-11
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