Charles Darwin

Most people have an opinion of Charles Darwin. And those that don't will have by this time next year.

As the Natural History Museum opens its doors to a new Darwin exhibition, a year of lectures, events, publications, debates, and exhibitions gets underway. Even the most devoted Darwinist might be a little tired by December 2009.

For some, Darwin is the great liberator, a scientific Moses leading his benighted people out of the intellectual slavery of superstition and ignorance. For others, he is the great Satan, architect of a theory that led to atheism, materialism and genocide.

Neither picture is remotely accurate.

Darwin himself was a rather ordinary man. He did have extraordinary gifts of observation, patience, association and speculation. And he was also remarkably courteous and respectful (qualities not immediately obvious in some of his modern disciples). But beyond that, he lived a somewhat conventional, mid-Victorian life.

He did lose his Christian faith but, in truth, that faith owed rather more to the ordered, rational, natural theology of William Paley than to any personal, Christ-centred conviction. 'I do not think that the religious sentiment was ever strongly developed in me,' he admitted in his Autobiography.

Moreover, he lost it for a good reason - not so much his theory of evolution (although that played a part) but more because he witnessed his favourite child, Annie, aged ten, die a slow, painful and degrading death. Few people, no matter how strong their faith, could endure such a loss without severe doubts. In this, as in so much else, Darwin has much to teach us.

Darwin's Christianity was more philosophical than theological, built on the seemingly secure foundation of universal human reason, rather than on the particularities of the Christian story, let alone the counter-intuitive scandal of the incarnation and crucifixion. Yet, as soon as Christianity moves away from the foot of the cross and loses sight of the crucified God, it became defenceless against accusations of suffering and injustice. No amount of philosophical justification or arguments for the immortality of soul is enough. The pain, the sense of injustice, the sense of loss becomes overwhelming. Christianity stands by the cross or it doesn't stand at all.

In truth, Darwin's own faith never stood anywhere near the foot of the cross. But which of us can say ours does?

Nick Spencer (LICC)

KNOWING FOR CERTAIN

SUNSET ON THE PEMBOKESHIRE COAST PATH MJ2006

IT'S INTERESTING HOW THIS KEEPS COMING BACK AGAIN......SEE PREVIOUS BLOGS AND SERMONS ON 'I KNOW THE PLANS...'(JER 29:11).
WE ARE REMINDED YET AGAIN THAT IF GOD KNOWS THE PLANS, THAT IS ENOUGH FOR NOW, EVEN THOUGH WE CANNOT SEE AT PRESENT.

As the sun was setting, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and a thick and dreadful darkness came over him. Then the Lord said to him, 'Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own.' Genesis 15:12

Being one person (or one family, one community, one small business) in the middle of a very big picture can be very disturbing. 'My hands are tied', 'I cannot change the outcome', 'I don't know how to protect myself', 'I don't know where to turn', 'I don't know what to do'.

God had given Abram grounds for ambitious expectations about the future, a belief that his dynasty would make the world a better place, a sense that he had a big part in God's plans, but he could see nothing. He had only glimmers of understanding that any of this would happen. There was only darkness. He could not see the big picture. So, God said to him, 'Don't worry - I know what will happen to you. Just know for certain that these are my plans for you and they will work out. in the long run.'

Abram would not see any of these long-term plans work out, nor, incidentally, would he know that the promises would only be fulfilled completely at the end of time. The picture is much bigger than the son who has not yet been born to him, much bigger than his descendants, much bigger than the children of Israel living in the Promised Land, or exiled from it. The picture is the whole of human history.

We cannot see the whole any more than Abram could - and his calling was special and unique. We cannot tell what part in God's plan our little moments play. We, too, sometimes are in places of darkness. But we can know for certain that the God who has revealed himself in Jesus Christ is wholly trustworthy, will keep all his promises and will make sure that his best of all plans works out in the end. Meanwhile, as an essential part of that plan, we walk with him circumspectly, ethically, and joyfully, even in the dark, knowing that we are writing our own unique and highly significant story into God's big one.

THANKS TO Margaret Killingray (LICC)
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An astounding story !

It was either the most astounding coincidence, or an act of God; literally. The small Methodist Church needed a new building, so when somebody donated a piece of land they accepted. It was low-lying land so they constructed a wooden church and put it up on brick pilings. Days later a storm lashed the town and the locals witnessed something amazing. The church building, still intact, was afloat! The flood had lifted it off its pilings and sent it down the road. At the town centre, as dozens of people watched helplessly, it made a sharp, inexplicable right turn and continued on. Finally, in the same decisive manner it veered off the road, it headed straight for a vacant lot and stopped dead in the centre! The flood waters eventually receded but the building is still there. In fact, 130 years have passed since the church, now called Providence Methodist Church, floated itself to the most desirable location in town. What’s amazing is this: The lot where it settled had originally been the congregation’s first choice for their building, but landowner Sam Sadler turned them down. The morning after the flood, he presented the pastor with the deeds to the land! ‘”For I am the Lord. I speak, and the word which I speak will come to pass”’ (Ezekiel 12:25). No doubt about it; when God makes up His mind, nothing gets in His way!
Thanks to 'Word for Today'www.ucb.co.uk

Remembering all of you

Barmston, East Yorkshire MJ2004

In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy.It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart. Phil.1:4, 7

Astonishingly, Paul, who met so many people on his constant travels, appears to have remembered the individual Philippian believers, holding them all in his heart, and 'longing for them with the affection of Christ Jesus' (v.8). He wrote to the Philippians from prison; yet, far from going on about his own problems, his concern was focused on them.

Innumerable people come into and out of our lives, year after year. But how many of them do we consciously remember? Of all the people that I have known, the one with the most phenomenal memory is John Stott. Over the years, in his teaching ministry, John met thousands of Christians all over the world. When a man from India, say, whom John had met three years before in Chennai, came to London to attend a course at LICC, John would welcome him by name, and then ask by name after his wife and children. An extraordinary memory and meticulously kept records, no doubt. But also an extraordinary love. A love that cherished every individual. A love that prayed.

The story is told of a young man who forgot an appointment with John. When he rang up, mortified, to apologise, John replied, 'I used to forget engagements too, until I started praying through my diary every morning'.

We are often embarrassed when we forget people - particularly if they remember us! But there is a more frequent - indeed, almost daily - forgetfulness, which is less excusable. When I forget a phone call, a neighbour's operation, or a colleague's child's illness.When my personal concerns stop me from listening to someone else's. isn't it often though a lack of prayer and a lack of love?

In a climate in which people don't really listen to each other, and so readily forget others' needs, an outstanding witness to Christian love is simply this: to remember and to ask: 'Is your wife better?' 'How did your son do in his exams?' 'How did that difficult meeting turn out?'

And sometimes one can say, 'Would you like me to pray for you?' And surprisingly often the answer may be 'Yes'.

Helen Parry (LICC)