I rather recently read an article by one of our best known historians here in Sweden named Dick Harrisson, who also used to be my sons professor in History at Lunds university. The headline was :"There is a militant anti-Jesus current in our society" Some say that he never existed. He is a fairitale figure. Harrisson has just written a book about the Historical Jesus and to say that he never existed is ridiculous. I also read that there is a change in the attitude towards Jesus, especially among young people. Many will say that they believe in God and are even open to the idea of the Holy Spirit. But increasingly, Jesus has become the stumbling-block. They say things like, ‘I don’t get the Jesus bit.’ ‘The battle today is around Jesus.’ Yesterday I listen to the actor Peter Stormare, well known for many Hollywood movies. He said he has faith, not a religious person but a spiritual one, he mentioned Jesus but avoided the obvious facts about him. Fear !?
Living in a city as I am, in Malmo, Sweden, it feels natural to talk about bridges.In the year 2000 we got a bridge over the Sound to Copenhagen, Denmark. A bridge between two nations once fighting each other, now connected.We need to continue to build bridges, between different cultures, ideas, people etc. These bridges are harder to build but necessary in the society we have today.We need these bridges in order to reach people with the "Good news"