Some police cadets were taking their final exam before graduating. There was just one question: ‘You are on the beat in your uniform when you see smoke billowing up from a nearby house. You get to the house and realise that there is a family trapped inside. The smoke has become so bad that it is restricting visibility on a nearby road which causes a multi-car pileup. One car, coming round the corner is going too fast and loses control, rolling down a hill towards a fast-flowing river. As you are watching, the most wanted man in the town gets out from one of the damaged cars and starts running away. What do you do?’
The shortest answer to the question went: ‘I would remove my uniform and blend in with the crowd’.
I think this is often how we feel as Christians. We feel bewildered by the challenges we face in our world today. We feel our faith is being privatised, marginalised and pushed to the edges of society. We feel the temptation to blend in with the crowd and take off our Christian uniform. But we mustn’t do this. Peter commands us to stand out from the crowd and wear our Christian uniform without fear or shame. So, what are the elements of our Christian uniform?
