Well ... what a game THAT was on Saturday.
I keep running through the phases that led to one or two great tries on the screen inside my head ... watching our boys taking the pressure in the scrum, at the line-out, in the loose.
Somehow, the pain and the strain of those thirty men testing themselves painfully against one another comes across more clearly because of the quietness of the crowd in our empty stadiums in this COVID era.
With very few people allowed in the crowd this year it seems that you can hear the cries and groans as the pressure comes on in the set pieces much more LOUDLY, and there's certainly a lot more clarity in hearing what the referee is saying to the linesmen and the TMO.
There is no doubt what is going on, on the field. This is a TEST match series ... and we're seeing much more plainly the painful physical reality of the testing that takes place.
Putting your body on the line exacts a price
There are ex-Internationals living near me, and you can see now in their retirement the toll that representing their country has taken on them physically ... they limp a little, gently, in the street ... but nobody tries to pull a fast one on any of them when they take their car to the garage!
They have a dignity.
They have a status.
They have a standing.
They were our warriors putting their bodies on the line for the sake of our national pride.
They stood the test.
They have lasted.
They won through.
They have overcome.
(And they hurt when they get up now each morning, and they limp!)
Perseverance isn't very popular today in church
Perseverance is not something you think about with 'Church' in mind ... it sounds more like the preserve of rugby players.
But in the early church a GREAT deal was made of the value and importance of perseverance, as our hugely encouraging Verse for the Day reminds us today ...
"Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because,
having stood the test,
that person will receive the crown of life
that the Lord has promised to those who love him."
James 1:12
Now a trial is never a pleasurable experience. It is ALWAYS there to try to catch you out, and who likes it when someone's trying to catch you out?
But the word James uses here in this verse is not just a trial or a test but a fiery one.
(Not nice - it's gonna hurt, and there are injuries that arise along the way).
Biblically, faith in Christ was always
lived out in a couldron
There has ALWAYS been real opposition to real Christian faith.
It can make you feel like a failure and a fraud when people take against you. But James is saying 'Look, it's a test and a try-out, the chance to do something good and great and glorious in God's Name!'
The blessing lies beneath the bubbling of the pot
I know that it feels more like a grinding in the front row of a particularly ghastly scrum, but James says 'blessed' is the one who perseveres through it ... and then (because it doesn't feel like this at the time) he goes straight to giving the reason that he says this.
See it like this:
It's as if you're camped on the opposition's twenty-two, with phase after phase of punishing and brutal forward play.
Penalty advantages are being traded and played right and left because neither side seems to making any headway. Only the bruise-count is making progress in this game!
Christian life in a hostile world can feel JUST like that.
And then the hooker pops up from nowhere ball in hand ... makes a crashing dive for the line and a mass of bodies pile up to try to assist or prevent his effort.
'Try or no try?' is the question.
Has the work, has the pain, has the bloodshed and the grief out on the field of play, been persevered in and borne fruit at the end of the day?
It's all down to the call of the referee, with the touch judges, the re-plays, the third match official and the evidence of the slow 'resurrection' of the pile up of both packs from the pitch in the park to answer the question in hand.
Was it all worth it? Was the pressure they've taken, the testing they've faced likely to prove productive or pointless?
The wait to see if the ref's going to 'call it' and point to the posts can be agonising.
NOT so for you, says James to the persecuted Christians he's addressing.
... it's a foregone conclusion
The adjudication has already been promised.
The try's been called already before it's grounded (this isn't rugby!)
The winner's medal's already struck with your name on it.
"Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because,
having stood the test,
that person WILL receive the crown of life that the Lord
HAS PROMISED to those who love him."
The 'Ref's already called it as a try.
The Point
Following the Lord will bring us opposition ... because He was opposed and if you're following Him it simply wouldn't be normal if the same fact of facing opposition weren't true of you.
This authenticates your faith and it doesn't discredit it!
The lie that 'the blessed life' is always comfy is ... a lie.
Blessed, says James is the one who perseveres under trial, the FIERY trial, not one of those light run-outs at team training on Wednesday night.
Persevering under that sort of trial is where blessing lies, because the wreath - the victor's crown - is already ready for the Christian who perseveres in trusting Christ to keep them through their trials.
The try's already called and the victor's crown has been prepared.
So pack down says James, get your head into that scrum, bind tightly to His team and push ... push on.
Forward is the way, in future hope ... a hope that's already sorted and secured even as you pack down and push on.
The Takeaway
Around the world today ... North Korea, Afghanistan, Somalia, Libya, Pakistan, Eritrea ... check this LIST ... God's people are facing the truth that James expounds to the suffering fellow-believers of his day.
This isn't anything unusual ... not to be experiencing it is unusual in the history of the Church of Christ across the ages across this world!
We face such tiny pressures in comparison to these other guys we've mentioned, but that's really not the point that James makes here.
The takeaway is that THIS is the life that's blessed: to be a follower of the unpopular and persecuted Jesus and to persevere following on behind Him in His way.
Don't shirk the cost of faithful living.
The promise is to perseverers.
The try's already called and the victor's medal's already minted ... in the name of Christ ... for those who persevere, not fade away.
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