The good old days

Some years ago I noted a clever ad published by the Episcopal Church. It was featured in Print magazine's annual review of excellent design. The ad featured a Rubens' painting of Daniel in the lion's den with the comment, "Some people think stress is a 20th century invention.". I thought it clever but find myself at a loss to remember how it was to induce me to attend an Episcopal Church. But that is not my point.

The insightful part of the ad was its naming of the "my life is harder" attitude that infects us frequently. It is good to be reminded that there are others who have suffered before us and in addition to us. Sometimes rather spectacularly.

I was reminded of this reading Psalm 3 this week. Verse 2 goes like this:
"How many there are who say of me,
'There is no help for him in his God.'"

To hear some people talk, you would think that it has only been in the last generation in America, as liberalism and secularism has gained ascendancy that there has been scorn for people who put their trust in God. Imagine my surprise to discover that the psalmist encountered this doubt and scorn thousands of years ago. Like stress, perhaps this brand of derision is not a 20th century invention. Perhaps we don't have it harder than those who have gone before us.

There is little to be gained by whining about the age of doubt in which we live. It does not encourage our own faith - it gives us a sense of entitlement to the good old days when people were not ridiculed for their faith. Those days, it would seem from the wisdom of the psalmist, never existed. The entitlement we feel for them, especially as American Christians, just makes us angry and bitter. And angry and bitter are NOT attractive and winsome to those who don't believe. Making them poor evangelistic strategies.

Psalm 3:2 is a great reminder that the voice that mocks and belittles believers is not exclusively a post-enlightenment or modern phenomenon. But what is more remarkable is not the centuries-long persistence of that voice, but rather the persistence of faith in spite of it.