Village Shepherd

Each year I visit the local Church of England primary school, to tell the older children (10 and 11 year olds) about confirmation and to invite them to confirmation classes with a view to being confirmed if they so desire. I try to explain that confirmation is taking on for themselves the baptism promises which were made on their behalf by their parents and godparents, usually when they were babies. I also explain that the classes are a lot of fun, with games and discussions and things to do and prayer times.

Six years ago when I visited the school for the first time, about fifteen youngsters turned up to confirmation classes. We had a lot of fun together, their understanding of God and the things of God deepened, and they were confirmed. But each succeeding year, fewer children have been interested.

This year when I visited the school, no-one at all was interested, despite there being a popular "Christian club" within school. I asked the children how many of them didn't believe in God, and to my shock and horror about half the class raised their hands (and this is a very spiritually aware school, where RE and Collective Worship have a high priority and are well taught.)

There followed quite an interesting discussion and the children raised a number of difficult questions. They asked how there could be a God, since the tsunami happened and thousands of people lost their lives. Why didn't God prevent it? They asked how Jesus could be a saviour when it said in the Bible that when Jesus returns, it will be the end of the world. They asked why people they knew and loved didn't come back to life, if Jesus did.

It was quite a difficult time during which I felt utterly inadequate to begin to help these youngsters grope towards God. I also felt very disturbed that clearly their parents had quite an immature idea of God and had therefore dismissed God as non-existent. One child asked, "Why is it so difficult to find God or to hear God speak?" and again, I had no easy answer.

Perhaps St Paul faced a slightly similar situation in Athens. Athens as a cultural centre of the world, was wealthy and comfortable and full of intelligent people. With a plethora of local gods looking after the crops, husbandry, human fertility, the weather, the outcome of wars, any love interest, sport and hunting and so on, they perhaps had no need for God.

But Paul did plenty of homework before he attempted to address the people. He wandered around the city, looking and noticing and taking everything in so that he knew where the people were coming from and was properly prepared to approach them.

He chose a place where people would expect to hear debate and new ideas and powerful arguments. He didn't denounce them for following the wrong ways, but praised them for their spirituality. Then he started with a point of contact within their own context -- the altar to an unknown god -- and used that to begin to unfold the story of God's relationship with human beings throughout the ages. And he was astute enough to quote from poets who were well known to his listeners, so that he grounded the new ideas firmly within that which was familiar to his listeners. Once he had established the groundwork, he began to identify Jesus Christ as God's agent, and slipped in the crucial fact of Christ's resurrection from death.

In some ways perhaps St Paul had an easier task than Christians in the West today, for he was bringing new thought and new ideas, and expanding the ideas people already held. In Athens he was preaching to gentiles, so had no ancient and strong Jewish tradition to challenge. He started from scratch and appealed to the Greek belief in divinity as responsible for the origin and existence of the universe.

Paul also acknowledged the constant and recurrent attempts by human beings to find God, which he described as "searching for God and perhaps groping for him and finding him" but he added, "though indeed he is not far from each one of us."

Perhaps this is what people need to hear today, that as they grope for God they may find him, because God is not far from each one of us. Perhaps, rather than denouncing folk religion such as Healing Crystals or Colour Therapy or nature worship or whatever the current bandwagon is, we Christians need to start from there and show how God is present within all of life but is most clearly manifest in Jesus Christ.

Perhaps we need to find a place where people congregate - such as a supermarket or garden centre -- and somehow proclaim Christ there. Perhaps we need to engage people in the discussion of topics of deep interest to them, such as why God allows tsunamis and whether or not the second coming of Jesus will spell the end of the world. Perhaps we need to help people to pray in such a way that they will be able to actually connect with God, for God is not far from any of us.

And perhaps all this is the task not of "professional" Christians such as priests, but of ordinary Christians who are concerned to bring Christ to an increasingly alien society. And perhaps if we are able to begin some of this, ten and eleven year olds will begin to believe in God again and adults will be able to put away childish things and begin to enjoy an adult perception of God.

Jesus started with just 12 apostles. St Paul was virtually alone. It can be done -- if we have the will.