The first decade of the millenium gone and with it the perhaps the desire that it would be a millenium marked by hope and justice where suffering, cruelty and unfairness are dealt with. I had hoped that the words of Micah 6: 6 - 8 would have been more prominet in the lifes and attitiude of Church, Politician, State and individual. To refresh your memories (as I'm sure some will have forgotten) Micah's words are:
"What can we bring to the Lord?"What kind of offerings should we give him? Should we bow before God with offerings of yearling calves?
Should we offer him thousands of rams and ten thousand rivers of olive oil?
Should we sacrifice our firstborn children to pay for our sins?
No, O man, the Lord has told you what is good, and this is what he requires of you:
To do what is right,
To love mercy, and
To walk humbly with your God."
What of the Millennium Development goal - agreed by over two hundred nations and with eight key objectives to build a fairer world? Objectives that would see child poverty abolished, malaria gone, access to medication for all (with and without HIV!), educating the poorest people in the world and more - what of it thus far? Rowan tells us we can believe in a world which has hope for those with the least power, the poor, the marginalised, the dispossessed. He tells us what a terrible and gruelling' ten years they have been thanks to war, terrorism, natural disaster and of course the financial collapse which has shaken the rich nations and caused aid to dry up faster than a summer puddle when the sun comes out! Plenty to distract us but not to stop us from endeavouring to make it work, apparently!
Rowan tells us, "The truth is that there are fewer and fewer problems in our world that are just local. Suffering and risk spread across boundaries, even that biggest of all boundaries between the rich and the poor. Crises don't stop at national frontiers. It's one thing that terrorism and environmental challenge and epidemic disease have taught us." Wow, perhaps he means that we live in a 'global village' (attributed to Marshall McLuhan in the early to mid sixties), nothing new there - but what are we doing about almost forty-five years of this realisation? What is the reality?
There is an election coming this year and the politicians will soon have the hustings before them. This is the time that we Christians should be pushing the right agenda. An agenda that sees more than the pathetic 'lukewarm' commitment of our government to worldwide justice and equity. To see an end to kids dying because pharmaceutical companies won't let their drugs be made available because it affects their mark-up! To see an end to nations firing rockets into other nations knowing they have the support of other (Western) governments (who will stand by) as they close borders to dying people - refusing them the hospital care they so urgently need.
"What can we bring to the Lord?"What kind of offerings should we give him? Should we bow before God with offerings of yearling calves?
Should we offer him thousands of rams and ten thousand rivers of olive oil?
Should we sacrifice our firstborn children to pay for our sins?
No, O man, the Lord has told you what is good, and this is what he requires of you:
To do what is right,
To love mercy, and
To walk humbly with your God."
What of the Millennium Development goal - agreed by over two hundred nations and with eight key objectives to build a fairer world? Objectives that would see child poverty abolished, malaria gone, access to medication for all (with and without HIV!), educating the poorest people in the world and more - what of it thus far? Rowan tells us we can believe in a world which has hope for those with the least power, the poor, the marginalised, the dispossessed. He tells us what a terrible and gruelling' ten years they have been thanks to war, terrorism, natural disaster and of course the financial collapse which has shaken the rich nations and caused aid to dry up faster than a summer puddle when the sun comes out! Plenty to distract us but not to stop us from endeavouring to make it work, apparently!
Rowan tells us, "The truth is that there are fewer and fewer problems in our world that are just local. Suffering and risk spread across boundaries, even that biggest of all boundaries between the rich and the poor. Crises don't stop at national frontiers. It's one thing that terrorism and environmental challenge and epidemic disease have taught us." Wow, perhaps he means that we live in a 'global village' (attributed to Marshall McLuhan in the early to mid sixties), nothing new there - but what are we doing about almost forty-five years of this realisation? What is the reality?
There is an election coming this year and the politicians will soon have the hustings before them. This is the time that we Christians should be pushing the right agenda. An agenda that sees more than the pathetic 'lukewarm' commitment of our government to worldwide justice and equity. To see an end to kids dying because pharmaceutical companies won't let their drugs be made available because it affects their mark-up! To see an end to nations firing rockets into other nations knowing they have the support of other (Western) governments (who will stand by) as they close borders to dying people - refusing them the hospital care they so urgently need.
Sadly, we do not share the risks and we continue to deny and dash the hopes of the very people mentioned at the beginning of this message such that possibilities remain exactly that - possible (but unlikely)! We are fat, comfortable and willing to voice our support as long as we don't have to pay the piper. We have denied the words of the Psalmist (82:3) in that we have not "defended the cause of the weak and fatherless." We have surely failed to, "Maintain the rights of the weak and the poor," and surely the LORD will hold us accountable for this?
We are told that. "There is hope," and yet in the same sentence we are told that nine million children die every year before reaching the age of five. Can this be justifiable in the world which can enable us to communicate as we can, to grow food as we do, to produce pharmaceuticals that cure disease in ways that can only, in the light of the previous millennium, be regarded as bloody miraculous? And yet man's generosity and compassion has not kept up with his technological advances - we still languish in the dark ages and in the darkness of the soul that denies the Christ and the Love of God.
Rowan speaks so well and brings us back to the fact that in each other we see the image of the living (and invisible) God - the reason that 1 John tells us that we cannot see the image of God in one another and hate them perhaps? But can we claim any real successes when no major headway has been made?
It's all well and good the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, making statements like, "We have made important progress in this effort, and have many successes on which to build. But we have been moving too slowly to meet our goals." He states the obvious and I see little or no evidence that gives me hope in man - only in Christ and more specifically - Christians. Rowan is right - we cannot water down the goal and we cannot forget them - the voices of the dead who have died as a result of the sins of our fathers and their governments are compounded by those who have, and are, dying on our watch. The Church needs to rise up and SHOUT - the time for politics has gone and the call to Christian endeavour is surely long past due.
It's all well and good the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, making statements like, "We have made important progress in this effort, and have many successes on which to build. But we have been moving too slowly to meet our goals." He states the obvious and I see little or no evidence that gives me hope in man - only in Christ and more specifically - Christians. Rowan is right - we cannot water down the goal and we cannot forget them - the voices of the dead who have died as a result of the sins of our fathers and their governments are compounded by those who have, and are, dying on our watch. The Church needs to rise up and SHOUT - the time for politics has gone and the call to Christian endeavour is surely long past due.
Again, Rowan is right when he calls people to respond to needs as if they were closer to home - well done, but perhaps still not enough. The time for measured concern is here, as in many of the issues of liberal and revisionist thinking (and practice), ceased. It is time to be direct and directive. For as Rowan (again) rightly says:
"In a world where risk and suffering are everybody's problem, the needs of our neighbours are the needs of the whole human family. Let's respond just as we do when our immediate family is in need or trouble. We may be amazed by the difference we can make."
And it needs to start here - we've lost ten years and we're losing the battle for the world, humanity and the Church it seems.
Happy 2010 - don't just hope (and/or) pray that Christians make a difference - BE THE DIFFERENCE!
Another 'good' message Rowan - thoughtful (as ever) but like your take on Church, perhaps just a little lacking on doing something - but hey, lots of concepts for the thinkers. Now, where does this leave us doers?
Another 'good' message Rowan - thoughtful (as ever) but like your take on Church, perhaps just a little lacking on doing something - but hey, lots of concepts for the thinkers. Now, where does this leave us doers?
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