Living in times of turmoil, there is something Christians must remember by J John for Christian Today
Confined for three months within the United Kingdom I’m finding it hard to avoid a sense of national turmoil. There is the dreadful Covid-19 pandemic and ongoing issues of how the government should have responded. There is the way the appalling killing of George Floyd in the USA has ignited a bonfire to do with how we treat Britain’s past acts of history and its present mixture of cultures and races. There is also concern that the orderly departure from Europe we were promised has been replaced by the prospect of a chaotic and damaging exit. 2020 is certainly going down as the year to remember that we would like to forget.
These are tricky matters to comment on: profound, sensitive and complex. I am aware, too, that I have readers in many other countries where they are going through their own particular troubles. I am also conscious that I have readers from across the political spectrum. So I’m sure I have many British readers who believe that Boris is doing ‘a good job under the circumstances’ as well as those who consider that he and his colleagues should be immediately charged with at least criminal negligence. I’m also aware that these ‘statue wars’ issues of culture, race and history are complex and deeply felt.
Given that, it’s tempting to say nothing, but I think this is neither wise nor right. We Christians must be involved in some way. But how are we to approach these matters? I don’t want to offer specific answers here; they require longer treatment and there are other people who are much better qualified. Yet what I can offer is some suggestion about how we begin to find answers to these issues.
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Our starting point must be to recognise the fact that we all find ourselves between two opposing power systems: the Kingdom of God and the kingdom of this world. It’s a division clearly expressed by Jesus himself (Matthew 22:15–22). In summary, the kingdom of this world represents those systems, structures and organisations of politics, economics and power that owe no allegiance to God. They set their own agenda and goals and seek to gain them with the aid of political persuasion, finance, the media and even, if necessary, with force.
