DAY 22 – COUNTING TO ASCENSION

FINAL WORDS

Psalm 103

This intentional journey of following Jesus to the cross – and beyond – has been absolutely compelling for me. I’ve paid attention to things I had not paid attention to before – viewed them in a different way because of seeing them through different eyes when seeing and reviewing them sequentially. Today is the 22nd day past Resurrection Sunday.

I know that there is a possibility I am wrong in ‘accepting’ 33 A D as the year Jesus died and was raised to life again. A lot of time has elapsed since the events of that year. But – it fits well for me, and Sir Isaac Newton did a lot of research to lead him to believe that was the year – which I learned after I came to that conclusion – so, cautiously I accept it, yet often add the +- preceding it so any readers will know that while it is possible – even probable – it could just be ‘near’ that date. It isn’t a proclamation that my faith hinges on!

But speaking of proclamations that my faith does hinge on – and is definitely encouraged by – I’ll pass along a story. For a little background: at 9 a m Sunday morning at FAL (now True Grace Church), Rick Forcier leads an adult Understanding the Times class. Rick is an amazing guy – extremely intelligent, and a real history buff. This is a story he shared in 2010:

James Renwick, of Scotland, was only a lad when he witnessed the execution of a field preacher of the Covenanters. The Covenanters were a group of persecuted Presbyterians who had covenanted together to maintain the Reformed faith in Scotland. That martyrdom drew Renwick to the Covenanters, and with their aid, he became an ordained minister in 1683 following a period of theological study at the University of Groningen in Holland. Renwick’s ministry coincided with the period knows as the ‘killing time.’

In 1685, James VII, a Roman Catholic, became king of Scotland. The king did not like unapproved religious gatherings so he “. . . issued indulgences guaranteeing freedom of worship if meetings were held in private homes, chapels, or places dedicated for this purpose.” Any other services convened in secret or in open fields were against the law and considered to be organized rebellion. 

Many ministers, tired of the struggle, accepted the conditions of the indulgences, but Renwick and a few others continued to preach in the fields and villages, often to those who were in hiding and wandering in the mountains to survive. In one year Renwick baptized 600 children. Because he didn’t abide by the King’s rule the government determined he was a traitor and issued a warrant for his arrest. Because his many friends protected him he was able to preach without capture for three more years.

After his arrest, 26-year-old Renwick refused an offer of clemency that would require him to acknowledge the king’s authority over religious matters.

On the eve of his execution he wrote his friends: “He has strengthened me to brave man and face death, and I am now longing for the joyful hour of my dissolution, and there is nothing in this world that I am sorry to leave but you.” From the gallows before a crowd in Edinburgh on February 17, 1688, Renwick was allowed to say his final words. His final words before he was hanged: he sang Psalm 103, read Revelation 19, and prayed, “Lord, I die in the faith that Thou wilt not leave Scotland, but that Thou wilt make the blood of Thy witnesses the seed of Thy church, and return again and be glorious in our land. And now, Lord, I am ready.”

We are to honor those in power – unless and until they defy God’s laws. This story will make Jesus’ command at ascension in our ‘parallel’ journey of reminiscence and remembering even more compelling. Stay tuned….

James Renwick was only 26 years old when he died for taking a stand for his faith. He was the last Covenanter to be hanged in public. One year later King James VII was in exile and the persecution was over. 

(I borrowed Rick’s story – but he credits the location of his information to: The Last To be Hanged, THE ONE YEAR BOOK OF CHRISTIAN HISTORY, Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, IL, 2003, pgs 96-97.)

So – our assignment for the week following when Rick told us the story was to think about what our last words would be if we had to choose between dying or denying our faith.  For Renwick it was not an issue of denying but a demand to keep his faith bottled in a certain way. He was asked to keep it private, not make it public. He was told he couldn’t go out to those in need who weren’t in confined approved structures. And he politely declined. He died for what he believed in. And what he believed in was the very freedom the United States of America was founded on. 


My heart wells up in awe and pride for this young man and the Presbyterian heritage he represented so well.  I was Presbyterian from 1970 – 2008, and though the last church I was part of lost their rudder, I love that the denomination was rooted in solid valid faith in God.