2009 Letter No 02

Each month Bill writes a pastor's letter for our monthly church magazine called 'The Messenger'. Here is the letter for February 2009:

There has been a great deal of very understandable excitement and expectation about the inauguration of President Barack Obama in the United States, not least because he is that country’s first black president. I am among those who are pleased and excited by his election, although it seems that some sections of the public expect him to be an almost Messianic figure, and we know that there is only one Messiah, whose name is Jesus. Any leader or saviour who is merely human will be imperfect, and – at best – the leadership they offer and the salvation they effect will be partial, and will be tinged with the pride, selfishness and greed to which we are all prone.

Nevertheless, these are historic times. On the news I have heard quite a number of African American veterans of the civil rights movement of the 1960s saying that they never expected to live to see this day. And it has reminded me of one of my favourite Baptist preachers, Martin Luther King Jnr. I have a cassette recording of two of his famous speeches, made in the 1960s. I used to listen to that cassette in the car, but there are two good reasons why I no longer do so. First, I no longer have a cassette player in the car. Second, I never managed to stay dry-eyed while listening to his moving words and a tearful driver is not a safe driver.

In the dark days of segregation and lynch-mobs in the American South, Martin Luther King managed to conjure images of hope that life could be different. The future did not have to be the same as the past. He cast his vision in the memorable words, “I have a dream.” It was a dream that called people to action rather than to mere wishful thinking, and it was a dream which came true on a deeper level with the election of Barack Obama to the White House.

"I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood … This is our hope. This is the faith that I go back to the South with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day."

Life does not have to be the same in the future as it has been in the past. Things can change, often very suddenly and unexpectedly. One of the wonderful truths of the gospel is that we are not trapped by our past, and that God can lead us into a fulfilling and fruitful future from wherever we are at the moment. We have a God who has prepared a wonderful future for us, and who calls us to live in the light of that future, even in the midst of present darkness and the shadows of the past, because it is God’s future which has the final word.

It is worth holding on to that truth. The future does not have to be the same as the past. It is not inevitable that things will get worse. With God, downward spirals can be reversed. Certainly, we know that evil will not be eradicated before Jesus returns. There will still be much darkness, but while we wait for that day, God can still bring hope into situations of despair, and he is still in the business of transforming lives. This is good news indeed, and it should lead us to raise our heads and look to the future with hope, rather than trudging with heads down, as though we were on the losing side. As Christians we are on the winning side. I know – I have read the end of the book!