A day without sunshine is like night, as is a church without Jesus.

In my last posting I suggested that we need to read books like The Golden Compass, and teach our children to read them, because we need to learn how to listen to those with whom we disagree. This skill suffered greatly during the age of Christendom, and we must recover it in this post Christian age. We must rediscover the biblical truth that everyone has something to contribute. If God can speak through a donkey, as in the story of Balaam (Numbers 22:21ff), or Persian King Cyrus (Daniel 10:23), or a Baptist preacher on a Sunday morning for that matter, he can certainly speak to us through an author like Philip Pullman.

For example, Pullman sets before us a world in which the Church is a heartless juggernaut, crushing all in it’s path, with only its own ends in sight. This is a disturbing image precisely because it reminds us of some Church history we vaguely recall; misty images of crusading knights, courts of inquisition, witch trials and the defense of slavery. But, if we consider Pullman’s version of the Church carefully we will notice something very instructive. There is never a mention of the gospel story: no Christmas, no Good Friday, no Easter. This is a Church without Jesus.

And this, I believe, is a word from the Lord, spoken through this militant atheist. Jesus is the divine corrective the Church needs to be the Church. The Church is the Body of Christ after all, and without him it becomes, not only a dead thing, but a killing thing. Jesus is what was missing from the Crusades, Inquisition, witch trials and defense of slavery. If we want to put distance between ourselves and the Church of The Golden Compass, we need to keep Jesus at the centre of things.

An atheist farmer of some local notoriety was working in his field one day when the local Baptist preacher dropped by. They chatted for a while about this and that, but we all know what Baptists are like, especially preachers, and the conversation soon took its inevitable course.

“Jacob”, said the preacher, “this is a beautiful piece of land. It’s green and lush and productive. I hope you understand that this land, and all this beauty, belongs to God, and God alone.”

“Well Reverend, I know you believe that”, the farmer replied, “and I respect your belief. But you should have seen this land when he was working it.”

The preacher is asking, What would this land be without God?, and the farmer is answering, What would it be without me? From a biblical perspective this farmer is providing a necessary corrective to the preacher’s God-alone theology.

I’ve always liked that little story, partly because the atheist gets the punch line. It’s important for believers – for me that is — to remember that, in most jokes, you get the punch line for being right. So, pretty much everyone gets the punch line eventually.