Preacher: Canon Graham Morris
Date: 04/08/2024
PCH Sunday 4th August …
“Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.”
Paul pleads to his followers in Ephesus “I beg you, bear with one another in love,”
Many of us have been bewildered and speechless as we wrestle with the fallout following events in Southport where three young people have had their lives prematurely taken from them. Innocently they had been enjoying a Taylor Swift-themed dance and yoga class. A number of people stabbed some still recovering!
This is bad, and regardless of creed or colour; humanity is plunged into in-humanity as the shocking events continue to unfold during the course of this last week. Reports of militant groups from the far right and left have seized upon the opportunity to cause massive disruption in cities across this nation.
This civil disorder is nothing short of abhorrent, and once again we witness thug like behaviour claiming to be protecting the interest of this country. Mob rioting, deliberate acts of destruction and hatred being directed towards those who are trying to hold the line in terms of respect for one another.
This is one of the core values that forms the building blocks of our society today. Values that are being undermined and eroded by extremist political groups.
The deaths of those attending the Taylor- Swift dance class have been pushed disrespectfully into the background as these extremist groups have banded to see this as an opportunity to demonstrate using violence.
This is a tragedy that has touched our hearts.
Apart from being appalled at the violence and condemning the rioters why should we care about this story and how should we respond?
One commentator has suggested that as Christians, our first response will be compassion, sympathy, and empathy. It is also right that we seek justice, but we must be careful not to use justice as a pretence for revenge.
What does this look like? On one level it is to grieve and mourn alongside the parents, friends and Southport community. The Prime Minister and Home Secretary embodied this in visiting Southport on Tuesday. We can express our support by offering our prayers and perhaps even reaching out to the local church to see what they need.
But as we learn from the book of Job, trying to infer an explanation to inexplicable acts of suffering can often be unhelpful in such circumstances. We long to know why the 17-year old man attacked a group of young children happily dancing to Taylor Swift songs.
But we may never know. And that is hard; indeed, it almost feels unacceptable in a culture that feels the need to know everything, because we want to feel we can control everything –
including tragic and evil acts.
We should guard against our own desire to assume we can understand reasons and explanations for evil, just as we should have healthy scepticism of political and other leaders who declare they can do so.
This leads to another key lesson to learn from the tragic events of this week: truth matters.
As Christians we must love truth. We must pursue it with vigour. We must be prepared to work hard to find and defend it. This week we have seen the power of lies that lead to violence and destruction.
We have seen how groups and individuals will weaponise love of country, a notion of a lost good society, and even the name of Christianity in their desire for power, privilege, and gain.
Far-right groups who do such things are no friends of truth or the Truth.
God teaches us that there is an unbreakable bond between love and truth, just as there is a bond between lies and sin.
In the famous passages on love to the Corinthians, Paul writes, “love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.” (1 Cor 13:6)
We worship the one who is Truth himself. And we receive the gift of right standing with God, in him, by faith, through the truth of the gospel.”
Lastly, we cannot be neutral about truth. That means we cannot be bystanders to lies and falsehood. When it comes to the lies the far-right and far-left groups spread about those they want to de-humanise and ‘other’.
Their diagnosis and solutions to the difficulties many in our nation experience are lies, and we must have the courage to call that out because we love our neighbours, because we love truth,
and because we follow the one who is the Truth, the way, and life.
Jesus Christ our Lord.