“Encourage the fainthearted”
(1 Thess. 5:14).
Continuing our
reflection on encouraging the fainthearted:
“At my first
defense no one supported me, but all deserted me; may it not be counted against
them. But the Lord stood with me and strengthened me, so that through me the
proclamation might be fully accomplished, and that all the peoples might hear;
and I was rescued out of the lion’s mouth” (2 Timothy 4:17).
To encourage
others we must live lives of obedience to Jesus Christ, in word and in deed –
no matter the cost.
I wrote the
following to a friend in July of this year; it is lightly edited:
A year or two
ago I watched a short film, The Rover of Tobruk, the story of Bob Quinn,
a legendary Australian Rules football player who was awarded a medal for
heroism during his service at Tobruk during WWII. Quinn’s story, as a football
player, a solider, a friend, a “mate,” is remarkable. I have since read a few
articles on Quinn, but none really captures the full scope of his character the
way the film does – the articles have generally been worth reading, but they
all tend to miss important points.
For many years
Quinn would not talk about what really happened at Tobruk that led to his medal
for heroism, and his reason was profound – a life lesson for me. His unit was
under intense fire, a job needed to be done, and wounded mates needed to be
rescued. His comrades were frozen with fear…they couldn’t move, they couldn’t
respond to orders. Quinn acted, fulfilling their mission, bringing wounded back,
doing what had to be done. Quinn would not talk about this, he would not talk
about his mates’ failure of courage.
When he finally
gave the interview that led to the film, it was with the stipulation that the
interview would not be released until after his death (which was in 2008).
Why?
Because he
wanted to make sure that all of his mates had lived their lives and passed
away. He wanted nothing negative printed about his mates on that terrible day
in Tobruk. Quinn said that, before that day, he had seen their bravery, he had
seen their courage, he had seen their care for one another, but on that day
they just couldn’t do it again. He did not look at them as failures, they were
still his “mates” and he wouldn’t let them down, not on the awful day and not
afterward.
And this is my
life lesson from Bob Quinn, if we have courage when others don’t, let’s be
thankful, if we answer Christ’s call to obedience when it eludes others, let’s
be thankful. After all, don’t we want our mates to survive this hell we are in
as much as we want ourselves and our families to be overcomers in Christ?
Novatian: Well,
I can understand fear. The Emperor was a terrible tyrant. Perhaps here we can
learn mercy and find ways to support the weak. Paul writes that his
imprisonment has given courage to others…if that is what it takes are we
willing?
Would we not
desire to welcome weak brothers and sisters back home, where they belong?
When I think of dear Polycarp, I think of
relationship and not creed (though I dearly love the creeds). “For eighty-six
years I have been his servant, and he has done me no wrong. How can I blaspheme
my King who saved me!”
Now, as the Bard wrote, “Here is the rub.”
Polycarp was committed to his King, he would
not deny Jesus. This is different than denying or affirming a creed, a set of
beliefs, a confession. Somehow we have come to think of Christianity as belief in
a few cardinal statements rather than as being in an unfolding relationship
with Jesus Christ. I have thought a lot about this, but I have not yet found a
fruitful way to talk about it.
This is personal for Polycarp, and it ought
to be personal for us. Can I deny Vickie is my wife? Can I deny Jesus is my
Friend, my King, my Lord, my Savior?
But I fear that so many professing Christians
are “professing” in the sense they profess belief in a confession, but do not
profess and confess a relationship with Jesus Christ.
My own sense is that the German church during
Nazism gives us the closest image to the church in the U.S. The alignment of
the Lutheran and Reformed churches with National Socialism and Germany First
(Make Germany Great Again) is clear to me. The very term Third Reich with its
creation myth for Germans and our own 250 years of “freedom” ought to be
apparent.
And the marginalization of those voices
within the “church” in Germany who spoke for Jesus and the Gospel…just as we
see today in varying degrees within the professing church in our own nation.
I think the German pastors and academics knew
what they were doing to one degree or another…they had their justifications
just as pastors in our country have theirs…they ignored reality, ignored
suffering, ignored terror…just as today. Power intoxicates, alignment with
earthly authority and privilege makes us drunk. We love having crowded
churches. Why we even have our own Horst Wessel.
I suppose I sorrow most for the
congregations, for the sheep. As a pastor/teacher/whatever I am frankly afraid
to violate my calling, my charge, my imperative to wed people to Christ 2 Cor.
5:11; 1 Cor. 9:16. Do we not tremble at our charge? How can we not tremble?
When I was a teenager I wrote Richard
Baxter’s oft quoted statement in my Bible, “I preached as never sure to preach
again, and as a dying man to dying men.” I have not always exemplified this,
but I have never forgotten it. Does anyone even know of Baxter today?
The same is true of C.T. Studd’s line, “Tis
only one life, twill soon be past, only what’s done for Christ will last.” He
gave up a career in cricket – he was what we would call a superstar – for the
mission field. Just as Eric Liddell gave up his sporting opportunities for the
mission field, dying in a Japanese internment camp.
Who do I want to be associated with on that
Day? I think, by God’s grace in Christ, I’ll stand with Polycarp, Studd, Liddel,
and Paul – it is absurd to me to think I even have a choice – Ha! Where else can
I go but Jesus?
As Jim Elliot said, “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep, to gain what he cannot lose.”
Amen.
The best way to encourage others is to
demonstrate courage in Jesus Christ in our own lives, courage in word and deed,
the courage of devotion to Jesus Christ. Let us carry others when needed, and
teach them, in turn, to encourage others and carry them.
We ought not to shoot our wounded…in Jesus
Christ is healing and courage.
“For God has not given us a spirit of fear,
but of power and love and a sound mind” (2 Tim. 1:7).
