Politicians are right to talk up morality in the wake of the explosion of criminality on our streets and the Church should support them in that. But morality, even in its Judaeo-Christian form, is not the ultimate answer to humanity’s need; the bread of life is and the Church should be proclaiming Him.
At a children’s holiday club our local church held last week – following a weekend of devastating rioting in London - we looked at Jesus’ claim in John’s Gospel: ‘I am the bread of life; he who comes to me shall not hunger, and he who believes in me shall never thirst’ (John 6v35 - RSV).
The negative word ‘never’ is important in that verse when considering the spiritual and moral plight of the young people who took part in the criminality last week.
The fact has to be faced that they are finding satisfaction and fulfilment in the ‘gangsta’ culture that glorifies defiance of the established forces of law and order. It is their bread of life. They find meaning, fulfilment and a sense of belonging in that culture. And they are enthusiastic missionaries for its values, spreading the word through social media.
Gangsta is their god and they are finding him exciting and satisfying. Or, to be more spiritually accurate, Gangsta and Mammon formed a syncretistic alliance in the riots and that was what proved so attractive to the young people who took to looting.
In stating that those who come to Him will ‘never’ hunger, Jesus was not claiming that there are not alternative gods to Him. There manifestly were when he said those words and there manifestly are now.
He was making a statement that can only be properly grasped in the light of eternity. The eternal Son of God was teaching us that those who resort to alternatives to Him will one day find themselves empty, abandoned and unfulfilled when they stand before Him on Judgement Day.
The rediscovery of civilised morality is manifestly a vital temporal need for UK society and was even before the outbreak of criminality last week; but it is not the ultimate answer for men and women under the sentence of death.
As mortal creatures, one day we will face God at the Last Judgement and unless we have fed on the bread of life and come to the eternal Son of God, we will find ourselves destitute.
That is the eternal message the Church must proclaim. A temporal message that harps on about rediscovering Christian values as the vital social glue cannot hope to stand up to the spiritual zeal of the ‘gangsta’ missionaries.
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Something I have often wondered about is why over here in N.Ireland if someone burns a chapel are they deemed a sectarian bigot by the church. Yet if John Knox did so then the churches say he was a religious hero defending the true faith and eradicating heresy.
ReplyDeleteI imagine it is the same on the mainland. If a group of teens go out and attack the state forces and rebel against authority they are thugs and hoodlums. Yet when the Covenanters did the same thing they were heroes of Christianity fighting against an oppressive state that didn't care for the people.
Anyhow maybe a problem with the Church is that we often say we care about people's dire situations but in reality don't... sure a prayer here or there for those in need, but work towards food, jobs, education and entertainment for the poorer sections of society are forgotten about.
Maybe we need actions as well as a message?
I like what your ex-pat Russell Brand wrote (http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/aug/11/london-riots-davidcameron):
ReplyDelete“These young people have no sense of community because they haven't been given one. They have no stake in society because Cameron's mentor Margaret Thatcher told us there's no such thing.
“If we don't want our young people to tear apart our communities then don't let people in power tear apart the values that hold our communities together.
“As you have by now surely noticed, I don't know enough about politics to ponder a solution and my hands are sticky with blood money from representing corporate interests through film, television and commercials, venerating, through my endorsements and celebrity, products and a lifestyle that contributes to the alienation of an increasingly dissatisfied underclass. But I know, as we all intuitively know, the solution is all around us and it isn't political, it is spiritual. Gandhi said: "Be the change you want to see in the world."”
We've (the church) meekly gave a pass to the rest of the crock that Thatcher and Regan sold the world: There is no life of spirit that we are ALL part of; no greater/deeper community we live and move and have our being in and are accountable to. T&R shoved Hobbes' war of all against all at us and we, with the rest of our society, accepted it. Now, when the pirates of Wall Street and The City rape and pillage with no consequence and certainly no audible outcry from the community or the church the young people brought up into this world can say with some legitimacy that they are simply having the same kind of great fun with their rioting and pillaging, they are doing nothing but what their elders and the rich, powerful and connected do…so how dare we chastise THEM.
I’d suggest re-reading this blog and substituting “rich, powerful and connected” in place of “young people”. Maybe we’ll see ourselves in it and realize we sold out to “gangsta and mammon” long before these children were born.