News : Repairing a Broken Society


For many of us the world is a broken society in need of repair whether close at hand or further afield. How do we begin this process and what can we do?

Around 440 BC Nehemiah faced similar questions as he considered the need to rebuild the city of Jerusalem and restore the people of God . That may seem a long time ago, but although building techniques have changed - thankfully, human nature remains the same and so today we can look at the book of Nehemiah to find answers to help us repair our broken society.

During most of the morning services in May and June we will be looking at the book of Nehemiah to try to find some answers to help us to repair our broken society. Why not join us and help in this immense task!

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Below you will find the lead article from our regular monthly magazine The Rhubarb Patch ...

WHO CAN YOU TRUST?

Over the past few weeks the news has been awash with the scandal of MPs’ expenses. The ramifications will rumble on at least until the next election and a substantial number of sitting MPs are likely to be deselected by their parties even if the legal authorities take no action against them. The details of some of the expense claims have been quite incredible in terms of both their scale and their nature but should we be surprised? The fact is that the expenses system was designed to be manipulated and a large number of MPs took advantage of the opportunity. The result, though, is that as a society we are left with a dilemma: can we trust people like that to make our laws and to work for the good of all in our country when so many have proved unworthy of our trust?

The answer, it seems to me, is that we have no alternative, humanly speaking. For the Bible teaches that “All have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory” (Romans 3:23 ) and John tells us that “if we say we have not sinned we deceive ourselves.” (1 John 1 : 8 ) Jesus goes a step further and challenges people over their judgement of people caught doing wrong – “let him who is sinless cast the first stone!”(John 8:7) If we are honest we know that what the MPs have been found out in is not restricted to Parliament and “maximisation” of expenses is a common feature of many workplaces (although perhaps not in the same league as some of the examples we have had paraded before us recently!)

The fact is that we are all imperfect and Christians are merely sinners saved by God’s grace. The only One we can trust is the Almighty and therefore the only way in which government can continue is if we give our trust to politicians but underpin it with our prayers that the Lord will guide and direct those we have elected. They may still choose not to be guided and they may fall prey to their inbuilt sin and greed but we must continue to pray, for Government, for Councils, for MPs and for Councillors, don’t be surprised when these people fall from grace but don’t give up praying when they do.

What these circumstances do is give Christians the opportunity to share the reality of the sinful nature of mankind and God’s remedy in Christ – forgiveness for our sin through Jesus’ death on the cross sealed by his resurrection on the third day. If your workmate, friends, family or neighbours are talking about the scandal and how awful it all is point them to Jesus who, in the end, is the one who will make all things new!

John McLaren