Click here for the E-pistle Online http://epistle.parkchurchbeaver.org

Amazing Grace/Amazing Change

Last week Becky and some friends and I saw the new film, Amazing Grace, the story of the anti-slavery work of English statesman William Wilberforce.  I would recommend it to you highly.  It is not playing locally, but you will find it at several theatres in the wider area.  

Wilberforce entered Parliament towards the end of the American Revolution and at age 21, he was the youngest person ever to become an MP.  Three years later, he had already grown tired of success and the excesses of a young single man’s life in late Georgian England.  He describes a spiritual awakening in the summer of 1783 and the birth of a deep evangelical faith.  For awhile he considered leaving politics for the ministry,  “He confided in his friend Pitt, now prime minister. Pitt told him not to withdraw. With ‘ten thousand doubts,’ he approached John Newton. The aging saint advised him, ‘It is hoped and believed that the Lord has raised you up for the good of his church and for the good of the nation.’” (click here for the full article)

Despite disappointments, setbacks, poor health and threats on his life, Wilberforce persevered in the cause for which the Lord had raised him up.  On March 25, 1807, 200 years ago next Sunday, the slave trade was abolished throughout the British Empire and the Parliament that had once mocked him stood in standing ovation (contrary to the rules of the house) to their faithful colleague.  

The movie is a good movie and the subject more than worthy.  It is a film about faith and perseverance and the power of a Christ-driven person to make a difference in the world.  If you don’t see the movie now, you can plan on a movie discussion night at the church as soon as the DVD is released.  

But the film is about more that something that took place 200 years ago.  Slavery and the slave trade is illegal in every corner of the globe.  But it persists.  In fact, human rights advocates tell us that there are more men, women and children held in slavery today than at any other time in human history.  27 million human persons, as I will say Sunday, “created in the image of and loved dearly by the Living God,” have been bought and sold and remain in slavery.  Over 50,000 children will be sold into sex slavery this year alone.  On Sunday we will talk briefly about what may be the most heinous of all forms of slavery.  I will tell you about one victim of the global slave trade who Becky and I happened to have met.  

If all this sounds too audacious to believe, let me encourage you to go to the website of Amazing Change, a coalition of contemporary anti-salver advocates. (Click here) Sign the petition and learn more about what you can do and we can do together.  

Sunday’s service will conclude with “Amazing Grace.”

See you Sunday.