FaceValues - SOCIETY: Where is society heading?
Sermon preached at Barclay Church, Edinburgh by Rev D. Graham Leitch
based on materials provided by FaceValues
8 September 2002

For a couple of weeks last month it was impossible to pick up a newspaper, listen to the radio or watch TV for long without hearing the names or seeing the pictures of Jessica Chapman and Holly Wells. And a whole nation held its breath hoping and praying that Soham would hear their laughter and see them play again.

This week the press and media will be working overtime to find a new angle to mark the first anniversary of the appalling events so many of us watched unfold a year ago and will be constantly reminded of again and again throughout this week.

Both events - the one in a peaceful English country village, the other in the heart of America's largest city; the victims of the one leaving two sets of parents bereaved, the victims of the other as many thousand parents bereaved; the one carried out by an individual, the other by a terrorist network - both events share two characteristics: In the first place, they are unspeakably evil. And in the second place, they beg the questions "What's the world coming to!" and "Where's society heading?" What kind of world are we bequeathing our children?

BLIND OPTIMISM
"Things can only get better!" we say - but will they!! Optimism's fine but too easily it can blind politicians, business and communities to the reality of what's happening - rising street crime, corporate fraud in the city, rampant substance misuse, growing child abuse and multiplying mental health problems are all symptoms of a deeper malaise.

FACEVALUES
This service - and series - is part of a wider FACEVALUES campaign coordinated by the Evangelical Alliance in the UK encouraging Christians throughout the country to stop and think and, in a PR and media campaign between 16th and 30th September which will reach 30 million people, inviting the whole country to think again about the kind of country we want to be and bequeath to our children.

Starting next week I want to invite you to explore with me the kind of values the Christian Gospel stands for in the belief that, as the Old versions translation of Proverbs 14:34 puts it -"Righteousness exalts a nation" In other words - that right-living is something honoured and rewarded by God.

He cares about us! He cares about the kind of society we live in! He cares about what we do with HIS world!

But today I simply want to prepare the ground by inviting you to consider four questions: 1 Why should Christians care about society? 2 What does the Bible say ? 3. How IS society changing? ... and then, finally, 4. What should our response as Christians be?

1. WHY SHOULD CHRISTIANS CARE ABOUT SOCIETY
Society's more than the sum total of its individual citizens. All of us are members, in varying degrees, of institutions and social structures that, to a greater or lesser extent, influence how we interpret and respond to our experiences. The kind of schools we went to and the peer groups we mixed with, the kinds of families we grew up in and the neighbourhoods we lived in have all shaped our views for good or ill to some degree.

In education the continuing debate about faith-based school and the growing demand for them is a result of the increased concern of believing families - not just Christians but those of other faiths - about what their children are being taught in the state's schools.

In the same way, those who advocate the restoration of national service do so because they believe that a period of military service would change the way young adults behave. Conversely, prisons are seen to be academies of crime that turn first-time offenders into hardened criminals.

Now of course the fact that institutions social structures and not least media pressures (because no-one should underestimate the power of their influence for good or ill) all play their part in shaping us doesn't mean that we have no choice or that we're not responsible for what we think and how we behave.

But it is to recognise that we don't live in a vacuum and we are all susceptible to influence by our social environment. At the same time, we may influence others for good or ill.

We should care about shaping society because society plays a major part in shaping the kind of people we and our children are most likely to be!!

We should care about societY because God does!! And anything God cares passionately about we should care passionately about too!!

2. WHAT DOES THE BIBLE SAY?
Now, as Christians, we take the Bible as our guide and the Bible portrays humans as social beings who need eachother to be whole and fulfilled. In Christian teaching COMMUNITY matters - in the Bible even God is revealed as three persons in perfect community! (See Matthew 3:16-17 and Ephesians 1:3-14.)

So what, you say! The significance of God being "three persons in perfect community" becomes clear when we read (Genesis 1:26). that human beings were created in the "image" of God. Not physically, of course - that would be stupid! But part of what being "made in the image of God" means is that we're social beings with a capacity for forming personal relationships, both with God and each other.

God looked at Adam and observed that it was not good for the man to be alone (Genesis 2:18). Although the image of God in human beings is distorted by the Fall (Genesis 3), we note that it is still mentioned in Genesis 5. Even in the Fall there is still a sense of community: we are all one in Adam, all alienated from God and needful of a Saviour.

Now none of this diminishes the value and significance of the individual, but it does suggest that, from a creation perspective, the individual is not complete in him or herself.

Read the Old Testament and you will see that the unfolding of God's plan of salvation takes place in a community - the nation of Israel. And when God's Law is given in the Book of Exodus, it isn't simply a list of "do's and don'ts" for individual behaviour - a private morality.

No! It's just as much - even more - a list of principles and rules for PUBLIC LIFE - care for the poor, justice for the oppressed, compassion to those in need. God's rules for living in the ten commandments are all about relations - our relations with each others as well as our relations with Him. COMMUNITY AND SOCIETY MATTER TO GOD

The big message of the Old Testament is that COMMUNITY is God's idea - his gift to us - and that SOCIETY - the kind of world we're living in, the kind of nation we are, the shape of our relations with one another - matters to Him!

In the New Testament there's the same emphasis. Even though the central theme of the Gospel is about individuals being born again into a new relationship with God through Jesus Christ, those individuals are born again into a community of the redeemed. (See Acts 2:42-47; 4:32-37) But neither is that community - the church - meant to be a closed ghetto.

When we read the parables of the Good Samaritan (Luke 5:25-37) and of the sheep and goats (Matthew 25:31-46) , when we listen to Jesus commanding "neighbour-love" and warning us to "render to Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what is God's" (Matthew 22:15-22) we surely see this.

God's people should be a community, but not self-contained, independent isolated, remote and apart from society. The metaphors of salt and light (Matthew 5:13-16) and of yeast (Matthew 13:33) express the sort of influence Jesus wanted his disciples to have in society. This includes making more disciples (Matthew 28:19-20) and being agents for change, slowing down moral decay and pushing back the frontiers of darkness in society.

The Christian is called not to conform unthinkingly to the mores and norms of the society he lives in but to question and challenge them and should it be necessary to pray and work to change them.

In Eugene Peterson's paraphrase of the New Testament published as "The Message" listen to how he translates Romans 12:2:

"Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking...."

Perhaps that's just exactly what we have unconsciously been doing for too long!!

As Christians our concern must be not only be with our own spiritual state - though that matters and it's something, of course, that we're individually responsible for - but as Christians our concern must be not only with our own spiritual state (personally), but with the spiritual and moral climate of the community and nation.

This series, FACEVALUES, will encourage concern, educate us about trends and challenge us to pray and act for the improvement of the society we live in and are part of.

3. HOW IS SOCIETY CHANGING?
That society has changed dramatically in the past twenty years and that the rate of change is accelerating is plain. There has been a sea-change in attitudes which is threatening to sweep all before it.

There has been a turning away from the foundational values which lie at the heart of the Judaeo-Christian tradition - perhaps most of all in relation to sex, marriage and family life but in many other areas too - and accompanying it, as is seen in church membership and attendance statistics - a turning away from God.

In private life and in public policy alike the Christian rule-book has been torn up and Christian values are spurned.

Yet in the modern thirst for alternative religions combining eastern mysticism with all manner of baseless superstitions (combined with the responses of so many to events such as the death of Princess Diana five years ago and, more recently, the WTC attacks and the murders of Holly and Jessica) there is abundant evidence of a desire, a hunger or thirst, which is not presently satisfied by the churches.

FOUR IMPORTANT CHANGES
Where's our society going and what's our response? Social scientists point to four ways in which British culture is changing.

ME FIRST?
One of the things that has happening is that society is becoming more INDIVIDUALISTIC. I don't have the figures for Edinburgh but one third of London households are single person households and, in the City of London, more than 57% are in this category.

But much more significant than such statistics are the self-orientated attitudes that go with individualism. We are living in an increasingly narcissistic culture. in which MY pleasure, MY convenience and MY fulfilment come first of all. Its the same in work, shopping, relationships and even religion - what suits me and what I fancy is what comes first. SELF-FULFILMENT or SELF-REALISATION's the name of the game - and the self-denial about which spoke when he told his wouild-be followers "If anyone wants to come after me he must take up the cross and deny himself" is anathema to the modern spirit.

LIVE TO SHOP?
Closely related to this individualism and focus on self is CONSUMERISM. The exaltation of the individual is experienced most blatantly in shopping malls that have become the air-conditioned cathedrals of our consumerist age. In the guise of freedom of choice and with the complicity of the marketing gurus an ever-widening range of products is offered to attract, tempt and seduce us.

But while confectionery, breakfast cereals and all manner of foods crowd the aisles and the tills ring out their tunes 24 hours a day, while pleasure reigns and each new luxury soon become yet another necessity - children still play in squalor, AIDS ravages populations and millions starve. "In the post-modern world, heaven is a vast supermarket; hell is a corner shop stocking only one brand of aspirin or toilet paper, or more significantly, only one brand of religion, morality or marriage". (Rodney Clapp)

DO IT MY WAY?
It's only a short step from individualism to relativism. There is no longer a place for absolutes. "I did it my way" is the anthem of the individualist and the proud boast of the relativist alike. It is one of the great paradoxes in contemporary culture that while non-conformity is "in" everyone rushes to buy the latest fashion and be cool!!

But , you see, on society today it is accepted that everyone does their own thing! The verdict of the Bible "in these days everyone did as they pleased" or, (as the old version has it) everyone did what was right in his own eyes" it true again now.

The old moral consensus, rooted in the Judaeo-Christian heritage, is disintegrating. We see this most clearly in the statistics for family breakdown (40%), single parent families (20%), cohabitation outside marriage and births outside wedlock (one-third) and in changes in sexual mores. One child in four will sooner or later experience the traumas of family breakdown. Patricia Morgan of the Institute of Economic Affairs has noted that none of these phenomena is new. "The only difference now" she says, " is that today's family forms are yesterday's immoralities. What is new is the scale on which they are occurring and the claim that these trends are nothing to worry about".

If they are nothing to worry about why are individuals today less stable - why is there so much unhappiness, why is there so much anger and vandalism and senseless street crime, why are the mental health services overwhelmed, why is integrity so rare why is drug abuse and drunkenness so common, why is what seems sick so appealing!!

EVERYONE IS RIGHT!
Relativism spawns pluralism. A relativist culture allows no one to claim that his or her way is the only way. Post-modern tolerance allows everyone to believe whatever he or she chooses so long as they keep it to themselves. This leads to the privatisation of faith. Religion belongs in the private sphere but not the public square. Those campaigning for the abolition of religious education and religious assemblies do so on these grounds. It is the justification given by some local authorities for not funding Christian projects from the public purse. Pluralism also lies behind calls for the renaming of December 25 as "Winterval" rather than Christmas.

Carried to its logical conclusion pluralism not only means the outlawing of all attempts to evangelise people of other faiths but the outlawing of robust religious debate - it isn't that nobody's right when it comes to religion - everybody's right!

To close our eyes to these trends and ignore their effects is perhaps what the Christian church has done for too long. To quote Bush and Blair's oft repeated remark and apply it here: TO DO NOTHING IS NOT AN OPTION

4. WHAT IS OUR RESPONSE?

TO UNDERSTAND THE TIMES
Like the men of Issachar (1 Chronicles 12:32) we need to understand the times. This means being informed about cultural trends and trying to understand their spiritual significance.

It means finding out how young people today tick and trying to step into their shoes and see things as they do and then (crucially) discover why!

It means becoming familiar with contemporary culture through reading its books, viewing its films and watching its programmes and then (crucially) developing a robust Christian critique of them. And being as ready to praise and encourage the good as to see what's bad for what it is!!

UNDERSTANDING THE TIMES means seeing beyond the surface to the hidden assumptions that lie behind and beneath peoples attitudes and actions.

Now sometimes there will be things to welcome and approve and rejoice in - things like the emphasis on SOCIAL INCLUSION, the policy of zero tolerance of domestic abuse, better care for the elderly, changing attitudes towards drink and driving.

But often there will be things to question and, if need be oppose. - things that undermine family life, the exposure of children and young people to harmful influences and the casual attitudes to sex which has reduced it to little more than a self-indulgent recreational pursuit in a succession of one night stands or with a succession of temporary partners of either sex according to your proclivity!!

When the pros and cons are weighed, it's hard to avoid the conclusion that British culture and society is heading in the wrong direction, drifting away not only from its Judaeo-Christian heritage but away from God. UNDERSTANDING THE TIMES IS ESSENTIAL.

TO BE SALT AND LIGHT
There are three possible responses to the dramatic changes taking place in society today:

We can adjust our message to accommodate ourselves to these trends. We can retreat from the world into the security of the sub-culture of our own religious ghetto. Or Christians and churches together - trans-denominationally - can begin to formulate, express and live out the counter-culture of the Christian way.

Accommodation and retreat are not options for Christians committed to the service of the Kingdom of God. We are, in Jesus well known pictures, to be SALT and LIGHT.

SALT to preserve what is good and healthy and to prevent society from going rotten - just as salt was rubbed into meat or fish to keep it from spoiling. And salt to add flavour to human life. Too often the picture we give of our religion and faith is that it make life bland rather than exciting, drab rather than colourful! The calling of Christians is to be SALT and LIGHT.

LIGHT to be at the front and show the path. LIGHT to banish misery and fear. LIGHT to drive back the forces of evil in whatever from they are manifest.

TO UNDERSTAND THE TIMES.... TO BE SALT AND LIGHT.... TO POINT A NEW WAY
One way of thinking about counter cultural engagement sees society as a marching column. The social leaders and opinion formers at the front of the column are leading us in the wrong direction, towards a moral and spiritual abyss.

Rather than breaking ranks to find a safe spiritual haven in an ecclesiastical ghetto, Christians faithful to their calling will remain in the column but call out prophetically to those around us that society (the column) is heading in the wrong direction and needs to wheel towards the spiritual high ground. Just as Jesus took human form to reach us for God, he calls us to engage with our culture to show God's ways to our contemporaries, so that they might know him too and live in the way he intended. That is the goal of FACEVALUES.

TO LIVE THE BIBLE
In practice this means bringing a biblical perspective to bear on everything with which we are involved.

It will start at home in the priority we give to family-life and the values we practice and convey there. It will affect us at work and shape what we do as well as the way we do it. It will influences our relationships, guides our decision making and priorities, cause us to rethink our voting behaviour and involvement in the widert community.

The goal is a lifestyle that reveals our relationship with Jesus Christ and commitment to God's ways like the lettering running through a stick of rock. It is an active discipleship that recognises no boundaries beyond which our Christian faith and values cease to be relevant.

FACEVALUES is an invitation to live up to our calling and to live out our faith in the community - to become a church without walls!! TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE - TOGETHER

An authentic Christian lifestyle isthe firsy step to effectiveness in mission in a post-modern society. The claim that our Maker's way works best needs convincing demonstration or it will be dismissed as arrogant rhetoric.

But while the witness of individual lifestyle is an essential prerequisite for achieving a transformational impact on society it is not enough!

Few individuals can change whole societies. Even exceptional individuals, such as Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, achieved what they did because they inspired and led popular movements.

FACEVALUES is a call to every Christian and every church to become a popular movement for change - a call to work in partnership to persuade our society that it is heading in the wrong direction and that Christian values point to a better way.

AMEN

Previous sermon

Back to index

Next sermon