Believe It Or Not (1 Corinthians 15.1-11 and Mark 16.1-14)

Introduction

Happy Easter! Jesus is alive! 

We don’t always realise this, but the New Testament letters were mostly written before the Gospels so our first reading is the earliest record of the resurrection that we have, probably about 15 years after the events.

I'm going to focus first of all on this passage, 1 Corinthians 15 (page 1091) where Paul says, “I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain. For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.” 

This is, he says, a matter of first importance. That’s not first in sequence, it’s first in significance. It’s at the very top of the list of absolutely essential things to grasp in life he says. 

Here in v1-4 is the essential core of what Christians believe. “I received it” Paul says. “I passed it on to you like a relay baton as my top priority.” And like in a relay race, if you drop the baton you are disqualified from the race.

The great theologian and former Bishop of Durham Tom Wright calls what we find here the ‘irreducible minimum’, without which this is no longer the gospel, if we don't hold at least this we are not Christians, we are still stuck in our sins, estranged from God and lost for all eternity.

What is this irreducible minimum? Two things. First of all, Jesus’ atoning death as a substitute, in our place, and secondly, his stunning physical, bodily resurrection from the dead. These two events must have prominence and precedence and pre-eminence in our faith. This is the gospel. Without this we have nothing of value to say to the world.

Empty Tomb

On Sunday 26 November 1922, after years of study and investigation, the British archaeologist Howard Carter found the entrance to an ancient burial chamber. With a trembling hand, Carter made a breach in the doorway with his chisel, and peered in aided by the light of a candle. 

“As my eyes grew accustomed to the light,” he said, “details of the room within emerged slowly from the mist.” He gazed in wonder at piles of treasures; what he later described as “strange animals, statues, and gold - everywhere the glint of gold.”

Lord Carnarvon, who had been funding his research for nearly a decade, called out to him from the top of the steps leading down to the tomb. “Can you see anything?” he said. And Carter shouted back in a voice cracking with emotion, “Yes,” he said, “wonderful things!”

It took Howard Carter ten years to catalogue all 5,398 items found in that tomb, of course as we know, of the boy Pharaoh Tutankhamun. It remains to this day the greatest ever discovery in all Egyptology. It will probably never be surpassed. Carter went on to write about his discoveries with these words; “It was the day of days, the most wonderful that I have ever lived through.”

Another Sunday, as far as we can work out the dates, we’re not sure but the best guess is 5 April 33AD, three women peer into another tomb in the Middle-East. And what do they see? Wonderful things! Truly wonderful things! It would become for them the day of days, the most wonderful that they had ever lived through.

Because as they squinted into that tomb, hollowed out of the rock, they didn’t see gold or jewels or ebony; or any exquisite, dazzling, priceless sarcophagus, or treasures of any kind. All they saw that morning was a discarded, bloodstained burial shroud left behind and lying on a stone slab in a vacant cave.

Sometime shortly before they arrived, the most momentous event in world history had taken place. 

It means Jesus has got the whole world in his hands.

And I want us to focus on his hands just for a moment. 

• those hands that had wiped sweat off his brow in the carpenter’s workshop where he grew up
• those hands that opened blind eyes with a single touch
• those hands that wrote in the dust before discharging a sinful woman from the accusations of self-righteous men
• those hands that received and blessed the children who came to him
• those hands that cleansed untouchable lepers with a  compassionate touch, so tender
• those hands that broke bread and lifted the cup at the last supper 
• those hands that carried the cross to his place of execution
• those hands that curled up in agony as they were smashed against the coarse wood of his cross 
• those hands that held to his lips the cup of God’s wrath against sin before he drank it dry
• those hands that hung limp and lifeless as he was lifted down dead from the cross 
• those hands that turned stone cold in the cool of the tomb… 

But the grave couldn’t handle him and death couldn’t hold him. 

And on that first Easter Day, all of a sudden his wrists begin to tingle, and his fingers begin to wiggle, and his hands begin to move, and his arms begin to stretch - and those hands throw off his burial shroud and push him up from the slab, he shoves the one-and-a-half ton stone out his way and those hands are now on his hips, as out from the grave he strides, victorious over death forever!

That’s the day of days! That’s the most wonderful day that this world has ever lived through.

Between Good Friday and Easter Sunday

We know where Jesus was at the moment of his arrest - in the Garden of Gethsemane, several hundred metres from Jerusalem’s city walls. We know where he was at the moment of his resurrection three days later - in another garden; this time a memorial garden close to Golgotha. For Friday and Sunday it all seems clear enough. But where was Jesus on Saturday?

This is the question a Bishop asked a class of sixth formers about 10 years ago. “Where do you think Jesus was between Good Friday and Easter Sunday?” Dead silence… And then a sixteen year-old girl raises her hand and gives this reply. “I don’t know exactly, but I wonder if he was in deepest hell, looking for Judas his lost friend?”

The Bible doesn’t exactly put it that way. The First Letter of Peter says he was in the place of the dead preaching to disembodied spirits from the time of Noah.

But I do think that young person’s reply shows an understanding of how wide and high and low and deep the love of Jesus is. This is the Good Shepherd who goes looking for one lost sheep. 

Between Good Friday and Easter Sunday Jesus was also settling a few accounts with the devil. 

If you’ve seen the film based on Homer’s Iliad called Troy you'll remember a scene in that film where the armies of Greece and Thessaly are lined up against each other, ready for battle. And they come to an agreement. They decide that, to save massive bloodshed, each army should select a champion, a bit like David and Goliath, and they can fight it out between them and the victory will go to the army of the victor. 

Thessaly select a brute of a man called Boagrius. What a specimen! He’s about 7 foot tall, shaven headed, eyebrows joining together, all muscle, he’s an absolute beast. And he strides forward with a mean frown on his forehead and a snarling mouth. 

Then the Greeks bring out their champion; Achilles. It looks like a mismatch. Achilles is muscular and fleet-footed by most people’s standards but Boagrius is a monster. Everyone watches with baited breath. They advance towards each other. Boagrius takes a great javelin and hurls it at Achilles. Achilles raises his great circular shield and just fends it off like it is some kind of insult and he continues to stride forward, completely fearless. 

Boagrius seems to find it amusing though and he hurls another spear. The same thing happens; Achilles just swats it away. Then, as Achilles approaches, out comes Boagrius’ huge flashing sword but it is scarcely out of the scabbard before Achilles has athletically leapt towards him and he dispatches him in one move. Boagrius drops to the dust face first and with a mighty cheer the day goes to the Greeks. What a scene!

Then Achilles, unflinching, strides out towards the Thessalian army all lined up in rank and he looks up and down, and left and right, and he shouts out “Is there anyone else?” And everyone steps back. “Definitely not me. Maybe him…” 

Listen, between Good Friday and Easter Sunday Jesus descended to the place of the dead. He had taken an absolute battering at the cross. It was brutal. It was carnage. He got the full force of human wickedness, he took a complete hammering – literally - they smashed the loveliest life ever lived against the cross of shame.

But between Good Friday and Easter Sunday Jesus faced off all the powers of hell and said “Is that all you’ve got? Is there no one else? Does no one else want to have a go?” Is there no other challenger? Is there no other adversary? 

There was no one else! All the powers of evil cringed and shrunk off into the shadows of hell. Sin and death, like rats on a sinking ship, panicked and ran. Every demon, every evil spirit cowered and recoiled. And when he’d seen them off, as the old hymn says, “up from the grave he rose with a mighty triumph over his foes.”

Jesus rose from the dead. And the resurrection of Jesus authenticates, validates everything he said and did. If Jesus did not rise from the dead, you don’t need to take any notice of what he said. It’s of no consequence. 

But he said he was going up to Jerusalem - and he went. He said he would be mocked, beaten, spat on and handed over - and he was. He said they would crucify him - and they did. He said after three days he would rise again - and up from the grave he rose.

People say, “Yeah, but what about other religions? What about other philosophies?” Well, what about them?” The evangelist J. John puts it this way; “You’re walking down a street and it branches in two, and you don’t know which way to go… there are two men lying there; one’s dead and one’s alive. Which one would you ask for directions?”

The Buddah, Moses, Patanjali, Mohammad, Confucius and all the rest of them are all dead. Jesus is alive. He alone of all religious figures brings real forgiveness today, true freedom, deep healing today, new life, fresh hope and a bright future today to all who come to him in faith. 

The First Witness

Now let's  look at Mark’s gospel now (page 967). It says in v9 that Jesus appeared first to Mary Magdalene. The other three gospels agree. She’s gone at first light with two other women to wash Jesus’ body, hastily buried the previous Friday, and embalm it with spices. It’s her last act of devotion. 

But when she gets there she finds that grave has been disturbed and the body is gone. And the emotion of the weekend gets the better of her; she can’t even have any closure and she just wells up and loses it right there. 

She’s got tears running down her cheeks. She feels wretched. She’s been sobbing for three days and now it’s getting worse. Her eyes are wet and weary from constant crying. All she’s got are unanswered questions. Who’s taken the body? Where is it? Why has it been moved? 

Ancient tradition says Mary Magdalene had been a prostitute. She is sometimes identified with an unnamed woman who had lived a sinful life who poured perfume on Jesus’ feet earlier in Mark’s Gospel. 

It tells us here in v9 that Jesus had delivered her of seven demons. To have one was a living nightmare – she had seven of them. Just think of the oppression, the attrition, the heaviness, the shadows, the torment, the constant harassment that she lived with… 

We don’t need to know what the demons were or how she got them. All we need to know is that when she met Jesus, they had to go and her living nightmare was over with a word of his command. 

No wonder she loved him! This was the only man who had ever treated her with dignity. No wonder she stayed to the very end at the cross and no wonder she was first to arrive at the tomb.

Ending

About 6 years ago I met a man called Dennis Balcombe. He is based in Hong Kong and he often travels into mainland China to visit outlawed churches where there is an unprecedented spiritual revival. It is estimated that Christians now number around 100 million in China. Now, this man had heard rumours of great signs and wonders accompanying the preaching of the Gospel there including resurrections from the dead, so he was eager to make enquiries about it. 

Everywhere he travelled in China people said, “Yes, it’s true” and one man even came forward personally saying, “I was one of those who was raised.” Others present confirmed his testimony saying they had been mourners at his funeral when it happened. He had been certified dead the previous day. 

That man will die again one day. Those who are miraculously healed will grow old and will one day die. 

But Jesus was raised and lives for evermore - he saves the desperate, he transforms lives, he healing the sick and he mends broken hearts.

That's why today and every day can be the day of days, a day of wonderful things, the like of which we shall never see again, the most wonderful this world has ever lived through.

Let’s stand to pray…

Sermon preached on Easter Sunday 2016 at All Saints' Preston on Tees.

Thanks to Simon Ponsonby at New Wine 2015 for the inspiration for much of this material. Too good to waste!

Great Old Testament Prayers: Daniel (Daniel 9.1-19)

Introduction

Two weeks ago, I came across some statements people have made on the accident claim forms they’d sent off to their insurance companies, and here are some of them…

·         “I was backing my car out of the driveway in the usual manner, when it was struck by the other car in the same place it had been hit several times before.” 

·         “As I approached the traffic lights, I started to slow down but the traffic in front of me was more stationary than I thought.” 

·         “I was driving along the motorway when the police pulled me over onto the hard shoulder. Unfortunately I was in the middle lane and another car was in my way.” 

·         “The pedestrian had no idea which way to go, so I ran him over.”  

·         “I collided with a stationary truck coming the other way.” 

·         “Going to work at 7am I drove out of my drive straight into a bus because it was 5 minutes early.”  

Actually, I'm no different in some ways. I find it so much easier to identify other peoples’ mistakes than to spot and admit my own.

Confessing a Nation’s Sin

Daniel’s prayer in chapter 9 is one of the most noteworthy prayers in the Old Testament. And it is striking because, instead of blaming others for his mistakes, Daniel does the complete opposite. He actually says sorry to God for other people’s mistakes. 

In continental Europe, we British have a reputation for apologising for things we have not done. The Italians actually have a proverb for this anxiety for good manners: “Knock an Englishman off his feet” they say, “and he’ll apologise to you before he hits the pavement!” 

So we ought to feel at home with this. But we don’t. Whenever I ask God to forgive me, I don’t confess everybody else’s sins as well, I’ve got enough of my own without confessing yours as well! But Daniel’s prayer is one of the greatest in the Old Testament.

And in order to explain why, I need to give a bit of background, so if history isn’t your thing you’re going to glaze over now, but if you can manage to stay with me for just a few minutes, it will help you understand much better what’s going on in this prayer. 

The Background

So - the book of Daniel is situated in what we call the years of exile – we’re in the 6th Century BC - when there was no WiFi. For many, many years before that time, prophetic preachers used to warn God's people that they were in breach of the terms of their covenant with God. 

You see, they lived under a mutual agreement; you live like this and God will bless you. You live like that and he won't. 

And the consequences of non-compliance had been made very clear when this covenant was first agreed. The people understood that God reserved the right to evict them from their land if they didn’t stick to their side of the covenant. That's the basic story of most of the Old Testament. 

As the years went on, there were, in fact, two kinds of prophet who spoke publicly throughout Israel’s history; most of them reassured people with promises of peace and prosperity and a few others alarmed people with warnings of foreign invasion and destruction and deportation. 

Basically, the ones who said nice things were very popular, and the ones who were a bit more ‘doom and gloom’ were ignored or treated roughly. 

But they were right. There were several invasions and in one of them, in 605BC, a few thousand high ranking officials were led off under armed guard to Babylon, 800 miles away, never to see home again. And among them was a young man in his late teens called Daniel. 

Even when that happened, the popular message was, “Oh, don’t worry, it’ll only be for a few years.” But it lasted much longer than that as we’ll see.

Fast forward a few decades… On 6 October 539BC, King Belshazzar is out partying with his friends in Babylon. And there’s still no WiFi… Everybody thinks they are in an impregnable fortress city. Its walls are a picture of strength and power. They measure 56 miles round the city, they are 300 feet high, 25 feet thick, they extended 35 feet below the ground and another wall lies 75 feet behind the first wall. 

In addition, there is a wide and deep moat that encircles the entire city. It makes Fort Knox look like a doll's house. Even Ethan Hunt and the Mission: Impossible team would have a tough time getting into Babylon in its pomp.

But as Belshazzar and his drunken guests party away, they don’t know that the Persians have spent the past few months up river building dams to divert the Euphrates away from Babylon. 

As darkness falls and the sounds of revelling and drinking fill the night air, the Persians close the dams. The river empties exposing two undefended channels under those immense city walls. Persian special troops tunnel into the city and before the Babylonians even know they are there, the city is overrun and it's game over. 

Daniel chapter 9 is situated just after that momentous event, almost a lifetime after the exile began. And it finds this godly man Daniel, now in his eighties, asking himself a very simple question, “How is this change of regime going to affect my people, God’s people?” 

He looks around and he wonders whether this new reality will mean his people can go back home again. 

And to find an answer to his question, he looks not to the words of men but to the word of God. What he finds is this: Jeremiah, unlike the popular, false prophets, never said, “It’ll be only for a few years.” He said, very specifically, (in chapters 25 and 29, over 20 years before the exile started), “No, the nation will be in exile for 70 years.” 

So Daniel quickly does his sums and he works out that he has already been in exile for… 67 years. Isn’t that exciting? If Jeremiah is right - and Jeremiah was always right - Daniel’s people would be able to go back home within the next three years!

But it wasn’t as simple as that. There was a problem. Because, like all God’s promises, every one of them, God’s promise of a return after a 70 year absence had a very important little condition attached. In the very prophecy where God says you can return after 70 years he adds: “If you seek me with all your heart.” 

And Daniel looks round and his heart stops - because he realises that no one is praying. No one is seeking God. Everyone has become comfortable and settled down in Babylon. People have put down roots. They have got used to being away from their Promised Land. They can go back if they call on God and turn to him with all their hearts but no one is – so Daniel gets on his knees and prays for the fulfilment of that 70 year promise. 

So that’s the background. Are you still with me?

Here’s what Daniel says in his prayer: 

1) First of all, he says that God is good. Daniel’s prayer is one of worship all the way through. He speaks out truth about God's righteousness, his covenant love, his mercy, his forgiveness, his truthfulness, his faithfulness, his might and his power. 

God is good. It's a long time ago now, but I can still remember how shallow and empty my life was before my first encounter with God in Jesus Christ. God is good. The Lord is here. His Spirit is with us. He has shown you all you need to know about him in the person and ministry of Jesus our Lord and king. 

2) Secondly, he says this is serious. Daniel’s prayer speaks of how dire the situation is for his people. All our popular synonyms for the word 'sin' are flattering – I talk of my faults and my failings, but Daniel uses vocabulary like “twisted” and “treacherous.” We are guilty of treason he says. 

From the top down, from highest government all the way through national institutions and civic society Daniel confesses the guilt of the whole nation and he identifies with it. 16 times he says “we” but he never once uses the word “them” even though he was just a boy when God' patience with his covenant people finally ran out and they went into exile. 

Our sin is serious too. It sent an innocent man, Jesus of Nazareth, to the cross to suffer and die in our place. They beat him black and blue, put nails through his hands and feet, pressed a crown of thorns on his head and left him to die to atone for your sin and mine.

3) Thirdly, he says we are getting what we deserve. Daniel’s prayer says, it’s no one’s fault but ours. God sent prophet after prophet and no one listened. There are no feeble excuses like on those car insurance claim forms. Daniel says that God’s judgement is absolutely fair. 

Daniel never once mentions his own moral goodness even though he is one of only two figures in the Old Testament about whom nothing bad is said, (the other being Joseph). 

We can’t boast to God in prayer about being good Christians either – we can only pray, like Daniel did, on the grounds of God’s mercy and his good name.

What about the UK?

So much for Daniel and his nation.

Does God still relate to us as countries as well as individuals? Throughout the Old Testament there was a special relationship with Israel, as we know, but what about other nations? What about us? Has the UK got any kind of agreement with God? What does God think of the UK? 

Firstly in the Bible, when you look, you find that God did relate to other nations, not just Israel. Isaiah 19 for example, says this; “The Lord will make himself known to the Egyptians and in that day they will acknowledge the Lord. They will worship… they will make vows to the Lord and keep them. The Lord will strike Egypt and heal them. They will turn to the Lord, and he will respond to their pleas and heal them.” 

So this foreign nation, outside the covenant people of Israel, made vows to God for which there were consequences for compliance and non-compliance.

But has Britain ever made vows to the Lord? Has the UK ever vowed to serve the Lord? And what about our national institutions, our town councils, the military, our education system, the monarchy, Parliament, the NHS, the BBC, the judiciary? If we have made agreements with God does the Lord deal with us the way he dealt with countries like Egypt? Does he strike us and heal us? Has he committed to turn to us when we cry out to him?

And the answer is “Yes.” In Kingston upon Thames in the year 838, England formally became a nation and we consciously adopted Christian values. The Saxon kings at that time united the kingdoms of these islands under their rule and when they did so they chose to acknowledge the gospel as preeminent in the nation. 

So the coronation protocol of Ethelred the Unready in 978, says this: “Having been chosen by the bishops and people, [the king] shall with a clear voice before God and all the people promise… to maintain the laws of God, and the true profession of the gospel." 

The king was given a Bible and he was told that it is the benchmark of wisdom and should guide him in the decisions he made. After that he was presented with the orb and these words were said: “Receive this orb set under the cross and remember that the whole world is subject to the power and empire of Christ our redeemer.”

Ethelred’s coronation service was almost identical to our Queen’s in 1952 and in most of our lifetimes Charles will be crowned in the same way. The same words will be said. The same symbols will be used.

And when our nation was founded, they recognised the prophetic importance of the Church and wove it into the fabric of the nation. The Church said to the king in effect, “We will recognise your right to rule this land but you need to hear from us the voice of Scripture. And you need to model the nation’s existence on the covenant relationship we see in Scripture between God and his people.” 

That’s why for example, we have bishops in the House of Lords; it’s nothing to do with privileges – they’re there to be a prophetic voice in the law making process. It’s another question how effective they’ve been over the years, but that is why they are there.

We know of course that political sovereignty no longer rests with the monarch, but with Parliament. But when power was transferred, they were very careful to ensure that the same acknowledgement of Christ and his authority was set out in the House of Commons.

Did you know that more time per week is spent in prayer in the House of Commons than is spent in Prime Minister’s Questions? Well, it’s true! Every day, before Parliament sits, the Speaker’s chaplain renews that centuries old prayer of dedication and commitment to almighty God.

The prison service in our country is based on Christian restorative justice, that lives can change and evil can be overcome with good. Even today, you cannot legally be a prison in the UK if you do not have a Governor, a Doctor and a Chaplain. But our jails are difficult places to be a Christian today.

What does God think of all this? What does he think of the grand royal coronations and weddings we arrange at Westminster Abbey, with their deeply Christian content, while just 200 metres away our Parliament passes laws in utter defiance of God's commands?

And what happens when nations break vows to God as ours surely has? What happens when, over time, all our institutions change and gradually erode the values of their founders? 

The BBC which was founded in 1922 with a stated vision for Christian service. The first Director General, John Reith, was a follower of Jesus who felt he should apply for the job while on his knees in prayer about it. And when they appointed him, he said right from the start that the airwaves were a national asset that should broadcast Christian values to the nation and the world. 

In the first Broadcasting House in Upper Regent Street there is a Latin inscription that says the following: “This temple of the arts and muses is dedicated to Almighty God by the first Governors in the year of our Lord 1931, John Reith being Director-General. And they pray that good seed sown may bring forth good harvest, and that all things foul or hostile to peace may be banished thence, and that the people inclining their ear to whatsoever things are lovely, honest, and of good report, may tread the path of virtue and wisdom.”

The very first Head of Religious Broadcasting at the BBC said Sunday should be set aside for broadcasting the kingdom of God to the British nation. They saw radio and later TV as a means of bringing Christian opinion to the widest possible public. 

One of his successors in the Religious Broadcasting department, James Welch, said: “I want to reaffirm the centrality of Christian faith and the survival of Christian civilisation. He secured an obligation as a matter of BBC policy that they shouldn’t just preach the gospel, they should allow the opportunity for conversion to Christ. He even said that this particular point should never be omitted from the BBC’s charter. 

So has the BBC made a vow to serve the Lord? Yes, emphatically. Has it fulfilled its vow? One of the former governors of the BBC, a Christian, wrote to the Director General and Chairman when the Corporation moved to its new Head Quarters a couple of years ago.

He asked if the BBC would renew its founding commitment to proclaim Christian values. He suggested a verse from the Bible for a plaque, from Haggai 2.9 which says “The glory of this present house will be greater than the glory of the former house,' says the Lord Almighty. And in this place I will grant peace.” The answer was “No. It would be inappropriate in this day and age, and we want to avoid offence…” 

The Bible says in Romans 1 that societies which sever their connection with God’s grace are slowly given over by him to the consequences of their own choices. 

Ending

But, as I close, you’ll notice that Daniel doesn’t take to the streets with placards. He doesn't shake his head and tut. He doesn't complain and whinge. He doesn't write obnoxious letters to the press. 

He sinks to his knees in earnest prayer. Daniel 9 tells me that Britain doesn't need a Christian protest movement, as much as it needs a Christian prayer movement.

And you know what? That is what Britain is going to get. Because, as you may have heard, our Archbishops of Canterbury and York wrote to all clergy in the Church of England a few weeks ago expressing their longing “to see a great wave of prayer across our land.” 

They have called us to set aside the week of 8-15 May to pray nationwide for the renewal of the Holy Spirit on the church and for the confidence to rise up with a fresh commitment to proclaim the gospel of Jesus. 

I believe this nation can return to the Lord.

At the New Wine leaders conference two weeks ago Justin Welby said, and I quote him word for word here; “I believe from the bottom of my heart that the long years of winter in the Church, especially in the Church of England, are changing. The ice is thawing, the spring is coming. There is a new spring in the Church… There is no despair in the Church because we serve the God who raised Jesus Christ from the dead.”

June is now going to come and lead us in prayer…

Sermon preached at All Saints' Preston on Tees, 13 March 2016

Believe It or Not

Towards the end of 2012 I was reading an article online about the interrelation between faith in God and scientific knowledge on a particular issue. It was an interesting enough piece. I didn’t agree with all of it but I appreciated that the journalist did a decent job of representing different shades of opinion. Let’s say it was fair. I saw that the article was open to comments so my curiosity got the better of me and I decided to read on. Oh dear.

The litany of patronising, insulting and often ill-informed comments was just wearisome to read. And not only from the majority of contributors who were vocally antagonistic towards God. The discussion also excited some grammatically challenged interest from some honorary representatives from the Flat Earth Society and the League of Angry Fundamentalists as well. There was descent into caricature from both sides. It was Richard Dawkins meets the leader of Westboro Baptist Church. In short, a troll’s playground.

This was not a one-off though. It seems that every time I scrolled through the Have Your Say or Comment is Free section on any Christianity-related BBC or Guardian web posting, whether it be about a new space probe or the Archbishop of Canterbury taking on payday lenders, I seemed to find the same angry tones and shocking prejudices. 

New York City based church leader Tim Keller recently summed up well the increasingly strident intolerance of Christian faith in civic society: “What we are being told is that you are beyond the pale, not just that we’re wrong, but that respect for us is wrong... it’s not just that you’re going to disagree with us, but basically you are saying we really don’t even have a right to be in the public square.”

The duplication of certain insults (I kept coming across flying spaghetti monsters, sky fairies and imaginary friends) shows that there is a herd phenomenon in which people are taking to throwing someone else’s rocks. It makes me sad.

It sometimes feels like certain corners of our culture reserve their deepest loathing and greatest ridicule for people like me who believe in the existence of God and the uniqueness of Christ, and who sometimes want to express or commend those views. 

There are so many poisonous ideologies in our world. At the same time, I see so much good done in society in the name of Christ. I understand of course that not everyone is going to agree with Christians about a whole range of issues, but it’s the strength of feeling, the message board spite, the anger, and the outrage against Christian belief that bewilders me.

Anyway it made me stop and think. Why do I believe in God? Specifically, why am I a Christian? What if Christianity is like The Truman Show – an organised fantasy in which I am an oblivious victim? What if the force for good I see and the spiritual feelings I have are just a clever mirage? What if I do only follow the Bible’s teaching because I am a weak person who is too lazy to think for himself? What if I am just clinging to an infantile myth about eternal life because I am scared of death or something? What if I, like a compliant child being good for Santa, simply never really grew up?

I decided it might be a useful exercise to jot down the reasons why I have found Christianity to be believable, to be true. I came up with 26. I then tried to arrange the different reasons in some kind of order. 

Firstly, I thought about the origins of the universe, its incredible fine tuning, the improbably life-favouring properties of our planet and the appearance of life from non-living matter. Each gives me some encouragement that my working hunch about the existence of a creator might just be correct. 

Then there are things to do with the human condition and why there is so much unhappiness and suffering in the world. Philosophers and theologians like Augustine and Aquinas and Luther and Pascal have mused about these things for centuries. What people like them have said helps me to appreciate the reasonableness and coherence of the Judeo-Christian world view. 

The heart of the book is about Jesus. For some, he was an enigmatic and non-violent mystic who said some quotable things; a cross between Mahatma Gandhi and Abraham Lincoln. For others, he was one of many visionary revolutionaries who pushed his luck too far and ended up in an early grave; a hybrid of John Lennon and Che Guevara maybe. There are many other ideas out there about who he was. I think he is totally in a class of his own, deserving of not just admiration but devotion as well.

Then I thought about why the Bible gives shape to Christian faith. I know some people hate the Bible, many find it boring and others even reject it as immoral and repugnant. Some of it puzzles me and, honestly, parts of it disturb me. But most of it challenges me and shapes me. I treasure it above every other book. The Bible’s remarkable unity, its unparalleled resilience and its amazing potency are among the reasons I believe in its divine inspiration.

Then I explored other ideas, some of which I have gleaned from personal experience. These are not just things I’ve mused about. They are mostly things I or others have personally seen and felt.

And finally I tried to explain why I came to reject the three biggest alternatives to being a Christian in today’s world (being an agnostic, an atheist or belonging to some other religion).

In Part 1, I talk about why I believe Christianity is true. Part 2 shows some of the ways that Christianity works. I am very aware that most people in the Postmodern era don’t care if it’s true or not. As has been said, most people will only start to become interested in Christianity if they think it might help them have better sex. Otherwise, forget it.

Typically we’re told, outside the Church, people don’t know much about Christianity, don’t care to find out, have little or no religious vocabulary, are more interested in spirituality than religion, relate better to dialogue and conversation than presentation, favour experience over knowledge and prefer visual not textual communication.

Frankly that makes this book a non-starter for a lot of people, I know that. Maybe I’ll write another book someday looking at questions like ‘who am I?’, ‘how can I be happy?’, ‘what is the spiritual realm?’, ‘how does the spiritual realm impact my life?’ And maybe even ‘how can I have better sex?’ That might be a first for a Church of England vicar…

There are some things I say which touch on this kind of theme but finding answers to these questions were not why I became a Christian.

It occurred to me that probably none of my 26 ideas on its own would absolutely convince me that Christianity must be true. But together they build a case which satisfies my curious mind and makes sense of my felt spiritual experience. Each chapter is like a piece of a jigsaw puzzle; it’s only when it’s put together that you can see the full picture and appreciate how all the pieces interlock with the others.

The book first appeared in a series of blog posts on this site, one every two weeks, throughout 2013. Several people encouraged me to publish the series in book form which I was reluctant to do for three reasons. Firstly, what’s the point? If you can access the content for free online why pay for a printed version? 

Secondly, the blog carried important links to books, articles, and videos which due to the length of the URLs would be cumbersome and unworkable in written form. 

Thirdly, there are many, many books on all this sort of thing available from people more learned and eloquent than I am. In what I imagine to be a saturated (and pretty small) market, I imagined I would labour in vain to find anyone interested in publishing it.

But some of my friends insisted that a physical book in the hand reaches some parts that new media cannot reach. And extended footnotes or supplementary chapters can do the work that web links do. And self-publishing avoids sending dozens of manuscripts to publishers who take one look at the title and file a wad of A4 in the wastepaper bin.

I had to adapt the content for book format and I made many minor revisions to the original posts. If you are basically sympathetic from the start I hope it will help you see that the faith you instinctively feel has much to commend it. No, you’re not strange. It really does make sense and hold together.

And if, as seems unlikely, anyone reads it having decided already that faith is the preserve of village idiots and dangerous sociopaths, I hope they will find evidence there that, despite what you may read on social media, Christians do not believe in fairies and unicorns or denounce as infidels those who do. Well, not many of us anyway.

Believe It or Not is available from Amazon in paper or as a kindle version.