Today, we are wealthier than our ancestors would ever have dreamed of. The comforts and utilities of an average home exceed that of a King’s palace in the past. Many people still remember rationing and how difficult it was to obtain basic foods both during and after the war. Yet today, in local supermarkets we have a choice of foods from virtually every country in the world. We are healthier today than previous generations. The life expectancy rate is far higher than even 30yrs ago. We can travel to places in our world in a matter of hours when it would have taken previous generations days, weeks, months or even years to get there. Notwithstanding the threat of terrorism, our nation is the safest it has ever been from wholesale destruction in its history. We possess personal choice in things big and small. In whom we marry to where we live and where we choose to go on holiday. Yet, the most conspicuous characteristic of our society is its selfishness. We live in a society where we are generous with our money, but selfish with our priorities and with our time.

Nationally, this great country which has the fourth largest economy in the world, a magnificent and proud history, yet only offers itself as a place to live and work rather than as a culture and flag that people look up to as bigger than themselves and something to help build and improve. We are becoming a mongrel nation, a place where patriotic loyalty is seen as an embarrassment. To be English, to be British, is something we should be proud of and something those who choose to live here take pride in as well. However, we have social engineers and foreign terrorists in our nation today intent on destroying our historical institutions and traditions, and everything that has made this country great. We also have politicians who want to literally give this country to Europe. This combination has left many young people especially with a national identity crisis.

A lot of people want to move to a community and enjoy the benefits of that community but do not want to contribute to its improvement and well-being. Many people leave their doors in the morning, get into their cars, go and work all day in another town, come back home, get out of their cars and shut the door and don’t emerge again until the next day. Then at the weekends they go to other places to enjoy whatever pursuits they wish to. They live in a community, want the benefits of that community, but give no contribution to its welfare and social richness. This is not to blame such people, just a reflection on how things are.

The lack of a national identity to be proud of, the reduction of local community involvement, combined with the unprecedented breakdown of family life has led to people who no longer feel a sense of responsibility to other people. We have a very selfish society where people put themselves first and are more determined to get their rights than demonstrate a responsibility to their neighbour. In our society we have a major breakdown of relationships on so many levels. We do not live in a vacuum, we exist with other people. Relationships are more important to us as people than anything else. A healthy society is made up of people who can relate to their homeland, the local community, and their personal networks of friends and family in constructive and healthy ways. As human beings we crave relationships, we need relationships. The number one regret of many high achievers in life is quite often in the area of relationships. On September 11 2001, those who realised their lives might be coming to an end sent emails and phoned from the burning buildings and in some cases from the planes themselves to say three simple words, ‘I love you.’

The greatest hurts we receive in life are through relationships. Relationships wound us, yet they also heal us. The call of Christ to his followers is to be a community of people who, in relationship with him, are themselves on a journey to wholeness in the areas of relationship, and seek to invite others to begin the journey also. The greatest challenge of the Christian life is to seek to express the teachings of Christ in the midst of the stark reality that we live in a society where the unconscious ideology of many people is “I will do what I want no matter how much it inconveniences somebody else, my local community or even tarnishes the reputation of my country.” The call of Christ is not to feed the egotism behind that thinking, but to challenge it and show a better way. The life of faith is not easy, it can be quite hard to consciously choose to follow Christ, but it is very rewarding.

We may have more wealth, more choice, more possibilities open for us, yet in the area we crave most, that of genuine and authentic relationships, as a society many people are starving. The book of Genesis demonstrates the breakdown of relationships between people and God, and subsequently one another so that Cain murdered his own brother because he felt no need to behave responsibly towards him. The happiness of life does not consist in our being devoid of emotions, passions and desires, but in our learning to command them. Cain failed to command the jealousy he felt toward his brother and he slew him. Most of us may not do this physically, but how many people do we verbally slay either to their faces or more weakly behind their backs?

We are thinking, emotional, passionate human beings. The strength of that passion needs to be commanded so that we are constructive not destructive people.The greatest relationship of all is the one that God offers with himself, through Christ. It is a healing relationship wherein we come to know the beloved creator and experience and know him in ways so sacred and beautiful it is hard to put into words and diminishes the reality of it in the effort to do so. When this relationship with God is discovered and accepted, we commence on an authentic journey where we see our true selves and are challenged by our own responses towards other people. We realise we are our brothers keeper. It is a life with God at the center wherein we treat others in the way we want to be treated ourselves. All people, whether followers of Christ or not, are there brothers keeper.