23rd February 25

1.  John Bunyan's Pilgrim’s Progress is my daily devotional at the moment and I've reached the point where Christian and Hopeful are imprisoned in Doubting Castle.

They are on route to the celestial city. Pilgrim's Progress is an allegory of the Christian life and the challenges that will face, or indeed have faced, us in our Christian journey, next to the Bible it has been a source of strength for Christians for centuries.

On their journey, Christian and Hopeful take a wrong turn, and come off the highway and they take a path on to By-path Meadow, and there they sleep and are discovered the next day by Giant Despair who owns Doubting Castle. The dictionary definition of despair means complete loss or absence of hope.

Giant Despair imprisons them in a very dark dungeon, which is nasty and smelly. They lay for 3 days without food or water and were in chains and Christian was depressed for it was him that led them into the hands of Giant Despair.

Bunyan is of course speaking about his own experience; imprisoned in Bedford for his faith; his crime, holding church services which were outwith the Church of England, and he found himself in a literal dark dungeon from 1660-1672; he was a prisoner, held for his Christian faith.

Bunyan is speaking not just of a physical dungeons or prison; he is speaking of a spiritual prison. Giant Despair lives up to his name. He is the enemy of the Christian faith. He shows no mercy on pilgrims.

2. Giant Despair and his wife called Diffident are cruel people, they show no mercy and Giant Despair takes the two pilgrims to the edge of their life; he beats them so hard; he encourages them to take their own lives. He takes them out to the stocks and shows them the bones of fellow pilgrims who never made it. So, to say the least, the pilgrims are on the edge of life.

Giant Despair seems to have won the victory.

Despair to the Christian is a real enemy, and it is like a dungeon, a prison with no windows, no opportunity to escape, and the walls feel as though they are closing in.

Despair robs us of our Christian joy.

As Christians, we can all get trapped in Giant Despair's Castle.

What are the issues that may cause us despair as Christians? Here are a few!

3.The future of the Church. There is much despair around the Church at the moment. The topic of conversation is often about what's happening to your church? These are challenging times for churches in Scotland. These are dangerous times, for it's easy to get trapped in Doubting Castle, to feel that Giant Despair is in control and we can feel far from God. We may feel little support from the church, and the church that we knew in earlier years is crumbling around us.

Our personal livescan bring despair, perhaps our health is not as good as it once was; we may feel unable to do the things the we once could, getting older can bring its own challenges, and looking around us and missing our friends and members. It's easy to slip into Doubting Castle and Giant Despair beats us hard.

Giant Despair and Doubting Castle are very real in our world at this momentin time, and we only have to watch the news and all over the news seems to bring despair. The world does not have the answers and those who do, have answers do not appear to be rooted in reality, and they do not take people into consideration.

Who’s not in despair at what we see in Israel and Gaza, Ukraine and Russia?

One of our elders, and one of the wisest men that I have talked to, said on Friday to me, “It's sad that people do not respect each other anymore”, and he's right! In a world where the lack of human respect has almost disintegrated, at local and global levels.

And for the younger generation, it's difficult for them, coming to a church where there are handfuls of young people, whereas 50 years ago there were bus loads. Young people are increasingly reliant on social media – fake news – artificial intelligence, these are very difficult days for them as they navigate their journey in life.

Dwelling on the pastcan also bring despair; as we remember the golden age; when for some of you, when you first arrived in Bishopbriggs, new housing, new beginning, and the baby boomer's age. So, as we look back and we see institutions dying, and the church losing its relevance and credibility, we might well feel the grip of giant despair.

But hasn’t every generation had its Doubting Castle; every generation has had its Giant Despair, the World Wars, the Great Depression; I'm sure that these were times of turmoil and doubt and despair.

In Pilgrim's Progress, Christian had reached his lowest point, and he said to his companion Hopeful, “Brother what shall we do? The life we now live is miserable. For my part, I know not what is best, to live here or to take my life.” Giant Despair had left the means for them to take their life, rope, knife and poison.

If you are ever in Doubting Castle, and you meet with Giant Despair and his wife Diffident, then pray to God, that you also may have a friend beside you called Hopeful.

Hopeful brings reason to the situation. He acknowledges the dreadfulness of their present, and he said death would be a better option than what they are going through. But “let us think this through”, he said. The Lord of the country, that’s God, does not permit murder and we are forbidden to take our own lives. But let us remember that all of the law is not in the hand of Giant Despair; others have escaped from the castle, and God who made the world has power over the Giant, he may cause the giant to die, or he may forget to lock the prison, or he may take another of his fits, and then I will do everything to escape. These words we are told calmed the mind of Christian; a hopeful Christian can bring calmness and peace to every situation.

In the midst of Doubting Castle and in the grip of Giant Despair, it is good to have a hopeful friend who brings calm and peace to your mind.

Who is hopeful to you? Who brings these moments of peace and hope into your life?

Then we discover that Christian and Hopeful turn to God and they pray in their cells. They bring God into their despair.

It was Christian, who then suddenly realised, that in his pocket he had something that would release them from Giant Despair, and he remembered that he had a key which would unlock the doors of the dungeon.

4. The key was called promise, and so at daybreak, just before Giant Despair arose, the two pilgrims crept from their dungeon, and put the key of promise into the lock of the dungeon gate, and then headed for the courtyard; and the same key of promise, opened the courtyard door, and then they went for the large outside door of the wall of the Castle; and the key turned slowly, but with a big push the door swung open, but it gave a loud creak, and Giant Despair woke up, and he came after the two escaping pilgrims; but he fitted again, and his legs failed him, and so the two pilgrims, Christian and Hopeful, made it out into the countryside, and they put a sign up to warn other pilgrims, which said, “Over this stile is the way to Doubting Castle, which is kept by Giant Despair, who despises the king of the Celestial Country, and seeks to destroy his holy pilgrims”. Many future pilgrims read this sign and they escaped the danger of Doubting Castle, Giant Despair, and his wife Diffident.

So, what has this to do with our gospel reading this morning and our Old Testament reading about Elijah?

In our gospel reading we discover Jesus speaking to people who were trapped in Doubting Castle. They were Jews and who were full of doubts, and imprisoned by their own religion.

5. He said to them, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.”

Jesus provides a way out for them. The way is through the key of promise, and if they hold to his teaching, then they will have the key of truth, and that key will unlock their prison in doubting castle and set them free.

They already think they are free because they claim to be of Abraham's family, and they claim that they never have been slaves; but that's not true, because their forefathers had been slaves in Egypt and Babylon in the past, and in the present slaves to the Romans.

They ask, why do we need to be set free? and Jesus points out to them, that they are slaves to sin. He knows their hearts and he knows that they are blinded by their own sin. But Jesus points out to them that he is the Son of God, and that so if the Son sets them free, they will be free indeed.

6. Even the strongest of us can be trapped in despair. Elijah, one of God's greatest prophets, was a man who found himself in the grip of Giant Despair.

He had defeated the prophets of Baal in a great contest and afterwards he went on the run, he ran away because he feared Queen Jezebel, who was after him for revenge, and he rested in the wilderness ready to give up and die due to the weight of his situation. It was here that God met with him and fed him and gave him the strength to go on.

6. God took him to a cave and from the entrance to the cave, God appeared to him in an earthquake, in fire and then in a still small voice. It was when he heard the still small voice that he was able to go back the way he came. The earthquake and fire were to catch his attention, for the still small voice. God can speak into our doubts and despair, but we must be willing to listen!

What it says to us in our generation is that Jesus can free us from our burdens, he can free us from our despair, he said the truth shall set you free and he claimed to be the way, truth and the life.

We are all vulnerable to Doubting Castle, we can all take our eyes of the path to which God has called us, and we can become so fragile and locked in our own prisons of doubt and despair but today I'm here to be a signpost telling us that God has made a way of escape for us.

So how do we escape from doubting castle and giant despair?

Well, I've already mentioned two ways, have a good friend called Hopeful, who will bring encouragement to your soul and bring reason to the table and remember the key of promise which every Christian has in their possession. The key of promise is found in Jesus, in his life, his teaching, his example and his death and resurrection.

He has overcome the world, and so he will give you the strength, and make a way for you to escape from the chains of despair that hold you fast.

It is the key of truth which Jesus has given to all who follow him.

The Apostle Paul was no stranger to Doubting Castle and Giant Despair, often he was imprisoned for his faith and in prison he encouraged others to continue on the Christian path. Paul speaks of a spiritual armour in Ephesians 6 v10 – 18 that brings us protection against Giant Despair.

“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armour of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore, put on the full armour of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God and pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.

8. My final thought this morning, is that other people may pull us down into their despair – television can pull us into its imaginary world and trying to normalise the world making their standards ours.

When we are in despair; when we enter Doubting Castle, and we allow the Giant to take control of our lives; take courage and rely on God's presence which is always with you. Let his word of promise be your hope and strength – and remember that in Christ you have more than enough to cope. Serve others – be kind, love your neighbour, take the focus away from your own despair by reaching out to others in need.

Remember what hopeful told Christian, that despite the situation, God is still in control.

Amen