John Bunyan - "He who would valiant be."
1 Cor 12
I remember Terry Waite talking about the time when he was in Beirut and
about how he had received a postcard with a picture of a man in jail, writing
away. Terry thought to himself, "Well
if you can do it, so can I." The
man he was talking about was John Bunyan, and as we celebrate his life today, I
thought it would be good if we could be inspired by his life.
John Bunyan was born in 1628, in Bedfordshire. He was the son of poor parents, and sometimes referred to himself
as a tinker. He had no formal
education, and it's likely that he taught himself to read by reading the
Bible. He fought for the Parliamentarians
during the civil war, following which he became pastor to an independent
congregation in Bedford in 1653.
However, following the royal restoration in 1660, he was imprisoned in
Bedford jail for 12 years-during this time he refused to accept freedom in
exchange for his silence about the political situation. While in prison he wrote many books. Here was a man of courage and
conviction. After his release, he set
about evangelistic work throughout the country. He is widely regarded as the most influential Christian leader of
his time. He is the sort of person
whose life makes us feel very inadequate but also very inspired.
But what was the foundation for his courage? I think there are two things I would like to draw out this
morning. Firstly, Bunyan wrote a book
called "Grace abounding to the chief of sinners". He once said this, "One leak will sink
a ship, and one sin will destroy a sinner." More than anything, Bunyan knew that he desperately needed the
grace of God in his life.
Joan Collins interviewed in The Sunday Times 'I have never done anything
bad to anyone. Never. And that is one of the things I am proud of. I have
never hurt anybody. I have never been vicious about anybody, never taken
any drugs, never tricked anyone; on the contrary I can say many many people
have done it to me - men, husbands, business associates, lawyers, the list
is endless... I basically think that when one meets one maker, if I do,
there won't be anything I've done that I need to feel ashamed of. Nothing.'
He knew the reality of his brokenness.
We might look at him and see a wonderful person, indeed we might look at
each other and see wonderful people.
But the source of his courage and greatness was in his humility before
his God. His understanding that just as
much as anyone Jesus had died for him.
Jesus wept over Jerusalem, and predicted its downfall. On the outside Israel had kept its religious
life going-there were plenty of religious people about. But Jesus saw the cancer at the heart of the
temple and the reality of the sin that made him weep for his people. It is not appearance that matters to God but
the reality of our lives, and that is something that Bunyan knew deep in his
heart.
The second thing we can learn from Bunyan is probably found in the title
of his most famous work "Pilgrims Progress". Progress demands change and action. For Bunyan being a Christian was about
progress. He was very good on doctrine
and knew a lot about the Bible but more than that he hungry for experience of
God, for reality, to see God working in his life. His writing was practical, his preaching was life changing and
earthy. What he wrote came out of his
experience of a God who worked not only in Jesus' time but in his own
life. A few days ago it was Hamish's birthday
and we gave him his presents one at a time.
Or at least tried to. As soon as
he had seen one present, he wanted to open the other. He was hungry for more gifts, hungry for new things. And that is the kind of hunger that Bunyan
had, and which sustained him in his faithfulness to God even through 12 years
in prison.
We can learn the hunger of wanting to see the reality of God's action in our lives from Bunyan. Paul writes that the spirit of God is here to give us gifts-God wants to work in the life of his church with wisdom, knowledge, healing, prophecy, and tongues. He wants us to know him as a God of the present, to be progressing in our experience of his love and activity in our lives. If we call Jesus Lord, then we have the holy spirit. Bunyan would call us to a life of marrying what we believe and say to the gifts we exercise in our lives. There is a lot of unpacking and learning to be done here. But, like him, can we be courageous? Can we be pilgrims who want to progress, who know that God always wants to do more in our lives than we know now.
So John Bunyan is a witness to us calling us to know our need of grace,
and calling us to know the reality of God at work in our lives, giving us
gifts, and helping us to grow. He would
call us on, encouraging us and probably saying, "He who would valiant be,
let him come hither."