We must love one another or die

 

I am not sure if this is a politically correct statement of Christian faith, or just a howl of hopelessness in a troubled world. It is certainly as stark a warning as there can be, that we must overcome our differences in order to live in harmony with others in the world, or else risk losing life itself in a terminal catastrophe..

Many people have difficulty forming relationships with those around them. But, as our little survey of community has well demonstrated in these last few weeks, we need community in order to have a sense of our own value, we need to appreciate those who share our common values, and all the other ties that bind us together and make us strong.

But still, we don't have peace; everywhere we look we see the opposite. My talk is about the big BUT in the discussion of community. It's as though by forming communities we are doomed to form tribes and – when the going gets tough – to be sucked into conflicts that come to look endless, bitter, and inevitable. Survival of the fittest becomes a battle cry whenever there is pressure on resources.

At the personal level, the tribe becomes the excuse for behaviour which would be completely inexcusable without the convenient reinforcement of belonging to a group whose ultimate raison d'être is survival. When conditions become difficult – economically, in terms of population numbers, even climatically – the response of the group is often not what the response would be at an individual level.

When we see our neighbour in trouble, a wartime spirit of comradeship is often the welcome result, giving us the heart to continue, to soldier on. Clap for the nurses, bang a saucepan for the health workers. But just as often, the response is to shut out the inconvenient new housing estate, the small boats full of desperate immigrants, the starving children dramatised in charity adverts. We plead not-in-my-back-yard, forgetting that we were once in the same situation. We have all been strangers somewhere. Small boats have been bringing newcomers to our shores since the Bronze Age. Nothing new there.

So I find it especially heartening that still at big football matches proceedings begin with a rendition of Henry Lyte's “Abide with me” - a traditional anthem of hope in troubled times, expressing a true community of feeling in the, perhaps unlikely, context of heartfelt football rivalry:

Gavin     Feb 2024

         Abide with me; fast falls the eventide;
         The darkness deepens; Lord, with me abide;
         When other helpers fail and comforts flee,
         Help of the helpless, oh, abide with me.

          Swift to its close ebbs out life’s little day;                                                                                                    Earth’s joys grow dim, its glories pass away;                                                                                               Change and decay in all around I see—                                                                                                         O Thou who changest not, abide with me.

I need Thy presence every passing hour;
What but Thy grace can foil the tempter’s pow’r?
Who, like Thyself, my guide and stay can be?
Through cloud and sunshine, Lord, abide with me.

I fear no foe, with Thee at hand to bless;
Ills have no weight, and tears no bitterness;
Where is death’s sting? Where, grave, thy victory?
I triumph still, if Thou abide with me.

Hold Thou Thy cross before my closing eyes;                                                                               Shine through the gloom and point me to the skies;                                                               Heav’n’s morning breaks, and earth’s vain shadows flee;                                                                   In life, in death, O Lord, abide with me.