The latest series of the Apprentice remains compelling viewing as the show approaches its end. Who will win - who will be fired? I find myself watching it and wondering what would I do in such and such task? How would I personally rise to the challenge without hopefully becoming a thug in the boardroom? The scary part of the show is that when you are fired then that is that and you take your bags and go home then and there. No time is lost.Do I believe that God has hired me? Yes, I do. A few weeks a go I recalled the story of being 17 when a friend knocked on the door and said "I'm going to be a priest!" and I replied out of blue I replied "So am I?" It was as sudden as that. Yet I don't feel that God hired me at that point, as extreme as that was. I hold that God hired me on June 10Th 1972; the date of my baptism. And the task? The challenge? The task is the task God gives to every Christian, to spread the Good News of Jesus Christ and to co-operate with the Holy Spirit in making earth Heaven.
Levi, or Matthew, was hired very suddenly. Jesus said "follow me" and he did, leaving his controversial employment. We can only speculate why Matthew responded so specularly? Could it be that in his profession he had little else to lose? Or maybe, if any of us came into the presence of Jesus Christ our hearts would feel moved to do something then and there, a snap decision.
The task for the baptised in this century is monumental. Believe you me, the challenges of secularisation and climate change are going to rock our societies like never before. How will the Christian children of this century help the spreading of the Gospel and the work of making earth into heaven? We cannot just leave the faith formation of our children to someone else. The Church cannot shrug and say it is the parents and the parents cannot shrug and say it is the Church? There has to be a creative partnership. This means that the Church values the creative input of young people and their leadership. It also means that parents need to buy into the concept of children being spiritual. I quite frankly believe that if we dont do this the Church of England, and other denominations like it, will CEASE to exist in twenty odd years time. Cease to exist!
Ephesians 6, is my favourite Bible reading. "Put on the armour of God." Its about making a conscious effort to be a Christian and not just drifting. I want to give you an example here. The EU directive on employment was put into force in the UK under the Employment Regulations Directive December 2003 for Religion or Belief Discrimination. It states that Employers need to make provision for prayer rooms. I told my last congregatin this. A gentleman and new convert in my last church took up saying daily prayers of Morning, Midday, Evening and Compline prayers. He went to his employer, Cine World and asked for a prayer room. Why not! Guess what, he got a space allocated. Not the best, but he got one. Brothers and sisters in Christ, we need to start knitting our own prayer mats and showing our employers our prayer books. Once they know we are praying at work, they'll know we Christians, they may start to be a bit more ethical, and they will know we are serious.
The wonderful thing about being hired by the Almighty is that he his a far better employer that Alan Sugar, even though he does like us to be equally candid in the boardroom. The rewards are eternal. However, we should be careful, and take the work of God seriously, lest we find ourselves at some future date at the pearly gates, duly, fired.
