Half the world is lonely. We can go to the other side of it for a holiday, but a good many people have moved away, and so old communities are full of newcomers and families are not now so close. You can take your qualifications and get a job anywhere, and people do – so the chances of knowing people well diminish, and of growing old with the same people become less likely.
If half the world is lonely, the other half is cynically looking after number one, because nobody else is going to bother. Perhaps that’s too bleak a picture, – its not one I’m going to leave you with – but for many today it’s probably a fair representation of their outlook.
How could it be any different? Some will look for a fairy story romanticism, others hark back to the good old days, others pretend not to notice. None of those works very well. There’s a better way. It’s a way which is realistic about the present and the future. Everybody wants “Somebody on my side” – that’s part of the offer. Not somebody against everyone else, but somebody with a real concern, and understanding, and the ability to change things.
Everybody wants to be understood, – and that is part of the offer.
Everybody wants to be respected, and – well that does rather depend on what you do; let’s stick with being understood.
You may have recognised that the answer comes from Romans 8 (and specifically Romans 8:26-39, which we read for Sunday 26 July in the Revised Common Lectionary). Paul knows all about the problems! He has written about the reality of evil, and of the failure of a set of rules, however good, to solve the problem. Now he is talking about God’s solution – a way of life that involves faith, and grace.
It is not an instant cure. Paul speaks of how we don’t even know how to pray about the problems – perhaps that is a reference to praying in tongues, when the person praying doesn’t know what he is asking. But he is confident that with God’s help, nothing can stand against us. And he is confident in having God’s help.
That’s the crunch. How can we know the God’s help isn’t kept for someone else? For someone more deserving, someone nicer, someone more able . . ?
If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?
Romans 8:31b, 32
That’s the answer! Jesus, and Jesus’ life, is given for us all – for each one, without exception. That is how we know we’re not alone. That is how we know there is someone on our side. That is the truth of love conquers all.
And so we have confidence in winning – a complete victory assured. And so we can – should – must – live in a way that is impossible for other people. We really do live in a different world to most of the people around us. We need to understand that, to make sure that we are confident and secure in God’s love for us.
Then, as that changes us, we need to tell other people. That’s why we Churches with activities aimed at those outside. Your Church is not there to provide you with your preferred spirituality. It exists to tell people how God is with us, and it expects everyone who hears that message to be active in passing it on.