When Papa Came to Call
Last week we had an important visitor to my patch in west London. He was visiting the oldest
Roman Catholic College in England just round the corner from Pope's Grotto - a pub named after Alexander Pope but quite appropriate, I thought, for the visit of Benedict XVI. He was also nearby one of our church members (a daughter of Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones) who assured me she wasn't out cheering as the Popemobile went by. I thought you'd all be reassured to hear that.
Now I and others like me are having to clean up after him. It seems to have sparked many people to ask what the big deal is about the reformation - was it necessary and haven't we gotten beyond it and aren't Protestants and Catholics saying the same things and shouldn't we all be friends together?
It used to be easy to know what a roman catholic was. In Scotland it was a Celtic Football (read soccer) supporter, in Belfast a Republican sympathizer, and in Canada someone who voted for the bloc quebecois.
But now I live in England it is quite different. They feel themselves to be very grown up about all this down here (England is always 'down' when you're a Scotsman in every sense of the word). They are appalled at the clear distinctionsI've just outlined. One of the reasons for this must be the typical English politeness which is very sweet, butit may also be because of their general view of what the church looks like. On Monday night I went to the installation of the rector on a local Anglican church and therobes and ritual didn't look much different from the papal mass at the weekend. Of course my evangelical Anglican friends have less liturgy than we have in our church services but the general publicdon't think in those terms.
Benedict spoke out against the marginalisation of Christianity in British public life, defended the sanctity of life, and even took a potshot at the media (i.e. the BBC) for its negative representation of believers. And when he spoke to a joint group of Anglican and Roman clergy alongside the Archbiship of Canterbury his talk was coherent and clear in contrast to Rowen Williams who continues to be incomprensible due to the fact( sowe are assured) that he is very clever! He affirmed the uniqueness of Christ and the fact of the resurrection but also that as successor to Peter he had a unique responsibility to clarify the truth for the church. This Pope knows what Catholics believe and he has the chutzpa to spell it out. During his visit he spoke clearly about: the inclusiveness spelled out in Vatican II that embraces other religions as somehow anonymous faithful, the veneration of the reserved sacrament, the salvific power of the sacraments, and that a beatified John Henry Newman is now assured a place in heaven. But tell this with a note of disapproval in your voice to the average evangelical here and you will be told what one person told me today, that we are being divisive and narrow minded and are dredging up issues from the past which are keeping people from coming to Christ today. Sentimentality abounds on occasions like a papal visit, the press coverage of christian subjects, the massive crowds at the open air events singing songs we used to sing at Billy Graham crusades, and the general geniality of the various churchmen do make us look rather sad and irrelevent, even if they look a bit weird going around in their night attire.
Benedict's visit reminded me if I needed reminded that the Reformation was needed then and is needed still and that there are even more issues between us and Rome than there were at Trent. But we evangelicals need reforming too and I look forward to adding my voice to that of others in calling the evangelical church back to the word of God and the message of the Reformers and fathers.
