HARDTALK

HARDTALK is a half hour news/interview show on BBC television. The host, Stephen Sackur, is the main interviewer. I first heard him on the show in 2003 in an Istanbul hotel room.  He interviews people from all over the world, and his guests include politicians, monarchs, UN officials and other important people. He asks very hard questions of the people who come on his show. I do not know if he is an atheist, a Christian or a Buddhist or a Muslim, or a Liberal or a Conservative .  I wonder why people want to come on his show. Maybe they want to show that they can survive one of his interviews. Donald Trump was on about a decade ago. If  any of the  people have done anything questionable, he goes right after them really hard. Some regular people who have done extraordinary things get a pass from him in terms of really hard questions.

I would not want to be interviewed by him. I would scared that he would call into question my role as pastor/person. He might ask, “ how much did you church grow while you were pastor at Floradale for 25 years ?, and “ How how many people did you lead personally to follow Jesus ?” And “ you are called to care for the widow, stranger and orphan. How did that go ?”. And what did you say in a public way about the First Nations apartheid system that you have there in Canada ? “. And finally, what did your church say about the abuse of Palestinians by the Israeli state ?”

These are the kinds of questions that he asks. He is tougher than nails. And yet people agree to come on his show, even when they know he will ask just the right question, calling into question their position or policy or careers. He interrupts when, they do not answer his question or are answering the question by evading it.

Is Jesus of Nazareth like Stephen Sackur or is he more like me, not wanting to offend ? When Jesus tells fictional parables ( very short stories ) about everyday life, sometimes his life threatened by the senior officials in politics and religion. “ What must I do to gain eternal life “,  is a question asked to Jesus by a lawyer/teacher . Jesus responds by telling a story that the lawyer knows the answer for himself, but walks away.

What if HARDTALK would want to interview me ( you ), and Stephen would ask, “ Do you call yourself a Christian ? “ I would say yes . And what makes you think that Jesus/God/Holy Spirit would accept you as a believer ? Sackur gets down to the fundamental issues very quickly.

There are many hard sayings of Jesus that Sackur could bring up during the interview, like “ Sell all that you have and then come follow” , “ love your enemies”,  “ Forgive [ everyone ] for they do not know what they are doing”, “be like children” . How would you answer for your life and faith ? Just saying that “I believe” what Jesus did on the cross is for my salvation, will not cut it with Sackur, nor with Jesus. There must be fruits of the Spirit within the lives of Christian . Listen to Sackur on HARDTALK, and tell me what you think .

Fred Redekop