What Hope for the World?
At
this time of uncertainty with the threat of war and terrorism, with the economic
situation sending us mixed messages we might wonder where God is in all this.
How much is this His plan and how much have we brought it on ourselves
through selfishness and greed?
When Jesus Christ, the Messiah, came to earth 2000 years ago the Jews
were also living in uncertainty. They
were ruled by a foreign power and a selfish puppet King, surely not what God
would have chosen for His people, so why did He allow it then and why
does He allow it now?
Israel
now rules not only itself but others who live within its borders and is seen as
a threat to the neighbouring Arab lands.
But the whole Moslem world seems to be against both it and those
countries which support it. Does
this make Islam the enemy of the West?
Has that conclusion been reinforced by the fact that most of the
International terror attacks have been perpetrated by Moslems or are the
terrorists just dissatisfied unhappy people that just happen to be Moslems?
There
is no doubt that the earth’s wealth and resources are unequally distributed
and there is no way that some of the Third World countries will ever catch up.
When I taught computer studies in Zimbabwe, twelve years ago, I knew that
they needed this skill but also that
it could not make any difference at all to those out in the bush who had
virtually no education and were struggling to make a living.
These people today are even worse off and we blame a tyrant ruler and a
corrupt regime. They
are not Moslems but many of them also blame the West.
There
are many different situations in the world where people have a grievance against
affluent nominally Christian countries.
Are these grievances justified? Surely we don’t believe that we have a God given right
to the best that creation affords whilst others suffer in poverty and
degradation. Our God is a
righteous, just and loving God. He
sent His son to die for these people whatever we might think of them, the
terrorists and the dictators, the gang leaders, the common criminal and even the
paedophiles and child murderers.
So how does the Church react?
We are God’s chosen people for a purpose, we have a responsibility to
discover that purpose and to act on His instructions.
It is not for us to condemn but be Christ to the world today.
At the start of His ministry Jesus read the passage from Isaiah 61.
“The
Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to
preach good news to the poor.
He
has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the
blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.”
(Luke 4:18-19)
Surely God has made it
clear to the Church that this is now their role, the Great Commission - Matthew
28:19-20 spells it out:
“…Therefore
go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father
and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I
have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the
age.”
We
have a responsibility to obey His commands but we cannot do it without love.
We have to love both God - the first commandment - and love the rest of
mankind - the second. Awesome
when we don’t very much care for some of the people that Christ died for.
But He
said that if we love Him we will obey Him (John 14:15,23) so do we really love
Him? Why are the churches in
conflict with each other, why don’t we speak with one voice, a voice that will
be heard by all sections of our community in Britain and in all the world?
This grieves our Lord for He prayed that we might be one (John 17).
This could be a voice of real concern for the world, a voice that
expresses hope for all people both now on earth and for the future in Heaven.
A voice that cannot be denied by those who have not yet met Jesus.
This
unity of the Church and love for our fellow man starts with me and you working
and praying together in the power of the Holy Spirit.
May Christ’s name be glorified.
This
issue will I hope challenge us.
Peter Bement our new Vice-Chairman suggests some self-examination, and of
the role of A.R.M within the Church in Wales (Page 5). Our look at S.O.M.A (page
12) shows what we may have to give
to the world-wide Anglican Church.
An account of the work of the Maranatha Community by one of our members,
Mavis McMutrie (page 16) shows that there is work for us all as we pray for the
world. Brian Favell has
started to write again and produced a new issue of his own magazine, ‘The
River’ in September. He
sent it to me just after we had produced the last issue of our magazine with a
note that I could use it.
I have therefore already put it onto the web-site The River. But the reason behind his activity is that he sees the ‘Church
in Crisis’, I have therefore
reproduced two of his essays (page 7) which should make us think further of our raison
d’être. Brian
Newsom in his capacity as secretary of A.R.M.(Wales) took notes during Steve
Morgan’s talk at our A.G.M. The
summary produced just might give us that added push ‘to do something
new’.(page 10) Brian
has also reviewed David Pytches autobiography ‘ Living at the Edge’
(page 18) which leads us back to acknowledging that the Holy Spirit can make us
very different people if we are prepared to let Him have control of our churches
and of our lives.
I leave you with a few words that the Lord gave me in prayer.
Joy rides on the wings of our Saviour
Mary Newsom