Many people in St. Kitts-Nevis today see the Church as a sleepy or perhaps a dead organization, doing very little. No doubt, part of the responsibility for this image rests right on the shoulders of the Church itself, because we in the Church have not been what Christ would have us to be. Yet, the Church hasn’t always been the way it is today.
The question is what then the Church of Jesus Christ ought to be?
Let’s look at the Church when it was dynamic, fresh-blown from the Master’s hand. A handful of men came into a city called Thessalonica, and they hadn’t been there but three Sabbath days until the whole city was in pandemonium.
The Church in St. Kitts-Nevis isn’t being accused of turning the Federation upside down today. But is it? If so, then that is really a shame! It is interesting to note that the late Pastor Connor who started a great revival in our Federation, used to say that when the early Christians preached there were either riots or regenerations. I wish that were still true today.
My friends, consider with me what the Church is like. From God’s perspective, the Church of Jesus Christ is center stage in this Federation. Everything else is just the backdrop, the scenery for the real action that is the eternal transformation of human beings.
I believe we need to hear again the voice of Jesus Christ as He speaks to His people. We need to hear clearly the message that He brings. Yes, the message that He gave to His Church when He called His people unto Himself (Matthew 10; Mark 3:13-15, 6:7-13). The message was, in effect, simply this: Come, help Me change the world which includes St. Kitts and Nevis.
The way our Federation will be changed, according to Christ, is not via the method of the “social gospel” that is reorganizing the affairs of men, the Federation is going to be permanently changed only when the hearts of its citizens are changed by God.
You can take the same sinful people of St. Kitts-Nevis, shuffle them around, restack them one way or another, and reorganize them, but they are still going to be the same immoral, covetous, greedy people they were before, unless Christ changes their hearts.
My friends, Jesus did not preach slum clearance. He did not take men out of the slums. He took the slums out of the men, and soon men got rid of the slums. Because, you see, as a man “Thinketh in his heart so is he” (Proverbs 23:7). This Federation is what it is because of what its citizens are in their hearts.
It is the gospel of Jesus Christ that sets men free and severs the bonds that hold them in captivity. The gospel also has social impact. For example, it is the gospel of Christ which was preached by the early Moravians in this Federation that has produced literacy. Yes, the men and women who had accepted the gospel learned to read and write, and with that came the blessings of civilization to our nation.
My prayer today is that God would take away the blinders from our eyes so that we might see the important role Christians play in our Federation. Christ said that His people would be the salt and light of the world (Matthew 5:13, 14). My friends, God use Christians to help prevent the complete corruption, decay and putrefaction of our Federation, so let the Church arise and be alive in Jesus name. Amen!
