As I write these words, there have been four nights of rioting in various parts of the UK. When you read these words, will the situation have escalated – or died down?
It has been fascinating to hear the different solutions that have been put forward. Perhaps more money needs to be spent in deprived areas, it is suggested. Perhaps police need more powers, or stronger methods of enforcement. Others suggest that families need to take more responsibility. All these things may be true. However, most of the comments on the riots ignore the basic diagnosis that Jesus gives us, because they focus on external solutions. Jesus makes it clear that the basic problem is an internal one – within people: “For from within,” he says, “out of people’s hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside,” (Mark 7v20-23).
The Christian diagnosis is that our hearts are infected by “sin” – that little word with “I” in the middle. Sin is a self-centred life, with “self” upon the throne of our lives rather than Christ. Where sin reigns, it will run rampant when left unchecked. Hence the frequent observation that many rioters have looted and ransacked because there is no restraining force – be it police, family, community or anything else. People have rioted because they feel they can get away with it.
And there’s the rub. For we ourselves know that we too often do things because we feel we can get away with them. Whether that is fiddling expenses or tax returns, a quiet affair, an inappropriate website, a snide word about someone behind their back... And we might ask ourselves questions about our use of the environment, or why we have so many goods when so many in the world have so little. Sin ensures we all “get away with” what we can, often even without thought or awareness...
God is the only external force who can make the ultimate difference: “Where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint,” (Proverbs 29v18), or as the Good News Bible paraphrases the same verse: “A nation without God's guidance is a nation without order.”
And only God can bring the real internal change that is needed – a change within our hearts as we become aware that we fall short of God’s standards and desperately need a rescuer. Jesus’ friend Peter reminds us: “In your hearts set apart Christ as Lord,” (1 Peter 3v15). So let us first of all examine our own hearts – where are they with Christ, today?
And then let us pray for a change of heart among the nation as a whole in response to the revelation of God in Christ. It is changed hearts that then change the dysfunctional attitudes, structures, priorities, culture, relationships, laws, media, consumerist spending habits (including our own) and inequitable distribution of wealth within a nation.
It is changed hearts – be that changed Christ-centred individuals in key places such as a local community, council or parliament; or changed Christ-centred groups (churches functioning as salt and light in their locality, such as St Mary's Tottenham - see for examplehttp://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2011/aug/10/tottenham-riots-church – that will bring about in our nation the changed outlook, attitude and behaviour – the revolution – that is needed.
