2 Timothy

It is the custom in the movies to give someone, before you kill them, the opportunity to do one final thing, or maybe say some final words. Or perhaps you want to offer someone the opportunity to choose what they will have as their final meal. Do you have a dying wish? Well, apologies for sounding a little macabre at this point in the summer, but if that was you in that position, what would be your single dying wish — the last thing that you would like to do before you die?

John Bunyan was a Baptist minister in a town called Bedford, a town which is in the news this week for all the wrong reasons. In the year 1678 he published a book called The Pilgrim's Progress. If you've never met it before, it proved to be hugely popular as soon as it was published, and indeed has been translated into multiple languages, and since it was published in 1678 has never once been out of print.

It is a joy if you find yourself in the privileged position of giving someone good news. You know that the person you're speaking to is going to want to hear the news you have for them, and so it is a pleasure to be the one to say it. If you work as a midwife and you get to say the words, “Congratulations, you have a healthy baby boy or baby girl” — what a joy to be the person to deliver that news.

It is increasingly the case that Britain is not an easy country within which to be a Christian. Now, sure, I realise there are far harder countries to be a Christian. I would rather be a Christian in Britain than in North Korea, for example. I’m aware of that. But compare us to some countries where it is the expected thing to do that you would go to church. If you’re anywhere else on a Sunday morning, people will start to wonder why were they not in church that day. Is something wrong with this person’s life?