In the mid-nineteenth century the American financial system was facing an existential threat from counterfeit currency. Something had to be done and so the Treasury established a secret service to go after the counterfeiters. But at the turn of the century, it was a threat to democracy itself that galvanised the service into the one we are most familiar with today – on 6th September 1901 President William McKinley was shot and later died from his wounds. Now the service had a more urgent task, to protect the President at all costs even to the extent that agents must put themselves in the line of fire.



So it was that when shots rang out as Donald Trump was making a campaign speech in Butler, Pennsylvania, he was immediately pushed to the ground and swamped with agents. Had more shots followed the initial volley they would have sacrificed their lives to save his.



In a similar way we too once faced an existential threat, not from fake money or an assassin’s bullet, but from the problem of sin which separates us from a holy God. We too needed someone willing to sacrifice themselves for us, and that’s why God sent His Son Jesus. His love poured out for us on the cross covers all our sin.




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