Churchill

After France collapsed to the Germans in 1940 he said to the House of Commons,"I expect that the battle of Britain is about to begin. Upon this battle depends the survival of Christian civilisation. Upon it depends our own British life, and the long continuity of our institutions and our Empire. The whole fury and might of the enemy must very soon be turned on us.

Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this island or lose the war. If we can stand up to him, all Europe may be free and the life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands. But if we fail, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science.

Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, 'This was their Finest Hour'".

It has only been 60 years, but I can say it was their finest hour.

I wonder upon what battle we are depending for survival, our way of life, the continuity of our institutions. This Sunday many of you, if you come early, will see a video that will cause you to think. What is the battle? Is the "persecuted church" a blown out of proportion, right wing propaganda tool? Are churches really being demolished? Is Christianity really being over run? Has Christianity in France collapsed? Has the battle for American Christianity begun? Sounds sensationalistic and over the top to me too.

I do know some prayer, deep thinking and research are in order. We will not stand up to what we do not think is harmful to the cause of Christ. Just for the record, this is not a call to arms, but a call to be the church, to love, to have real community, to serve and to speak the truth.To work together as the body, compelled by gratitude. To brace ourselves to our duty so that a thousand years from now, if Christ tarries, they will say it was Christendom's finest hour.