What Does It All Mean?

Sometimes it can feel as if our world is falling apart. Just look at the news: One of Iraq’s most sacred mosques has been destroyed, clearly with the intent of provoking a civil war. In America, Congress and the Senate are up in arms because President Bush has contracted with the United Arab Emirates to manage American ports. Well, crikey, I actually applaud him for doing this, but there are others who are on the warpath because of their supposed paranoid logic that if it’s Arab – it must be dangerous!

And here at home an absolutely cunning group of desperados have heisted somewhere around 50 Million pounds by kidnapping and terrorising an 8 year old boy, his mother, and father. And the icing on the cake today is that the Mayor of London deliberately and maliciously compared a Jewish reporter from a respected newspaper with an SS, swastika wearing, Nazi who worked in a concentration camp!

So what does it all mean? Are some people just born bad, destined to destroy themselves and others, create strife, unfairly judge cultures, and insult and demean others? Our faith says ‘no!’ Our faith says that every one of us is born good, made in God's image. But if this is true, why do so many good people end up doing or saying such monstrous things?

Jesus spoke His last words to His disciples: ‘Go out to all the world and share the Good News, not just by talking about it, but by living it, helping people to see what a real life looks like, just as I helped you to see that.’ Having said that, Jesus ascends to the heavens and disappears from sight.

What happens next is...well…absolutely nothing! Nobody moves or does a thing, till finally an angel speaks up: ‘Don't just stand there looking up at the sky. Get busy. You have work to do. People need YOUR help if they are to make lives that are worth living.’

We all need one another's help, lots of it, day in and day out, if we are to make lives that are worth living. And we all owe the same kind of help to one another. So many of God's good people end up stumbling badly or even destroying themselves because, at crucial moments, other good people may be sitting on their hands or staring up at the sky.

Just as great lives start small and are built a piece at a time with the help of many people, so it is with monstrous lives: They are crafted slowly, over a very long time, with many good people sitting on their hands on the sidelines. Heroes and monsters are not born; they are made.

Being Christian certainly isn't about being perfect. It's about getting better, a tiny piece at a time, with the help of our friends. If we truly want the beautiful world we say we want, we have to help one another get better. We have to help! And that brings us to our question:

Are we helping? Am I? Are you? If not, why not start now!

We’ve already been given a demonstration how to!