Whilst the streets of London smolder in the aftermath of days of arson, rioting, and looting there is no moral code advocated in Britain that I can see. The chivalrous code of the knights of yore, the socialist code of the early 1900’s and the code of the capitalist work ethic are gone. People are appalled by what is happening in London and other British cities right now, but the bigger question is ‘Why not?’ We advocate that people should be true to themselves, that they should look within for answers. However, what if author Joseph Conrad was right and that within each of us is a Heart of Darkness? The self-serving nature of humanity is just unrestrained when we cannot get what we want by the means that society lays out for us.

Commercialism’s myth tells us that we must consume. It generates dissatisfaction in our hearts by telling us that we need an X-Box 360, a new car, and a slim spouse to be happy. It also tells us that we are entitled to these things because of the nature of who we are. Many go one step further in believing that they do not have to work for these things. They become angry when these things are not given to them. A social welfare system that is corrupt encourages some who lack ambition to receive unemployment benefits or disability benefits when they could actually contribute to society. What we see is more depression and anxiety in youth than we have for a long time. There is no greater purpose. The break-down of the economies of many countries has exposed the lack of the power of money and possessions to bring purpose. Or at least has exposed the need for more and more money and possessions to medicate us against our own ailments. Wildly optimistic pop-culture believes that deep-down everyone is good. They just need the right circumstances. Comedian Louis CK is right to point out that ‘Everything is Amazing and Still No-one is Happy’  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itn8TwFCO4M  . People learn too soon to become entitled to what they only knew existed five minutes ago.

On the surface, as USA Today points out, the riots on the streets of Britain seem to have ‘little unifying cause.’ That is because people are looking for answers like the shooting of Archduke Ferdinand for the start of World War I. Of course the shooting of Mark Duggan in Tottenham was the spark, but it set ablaze something that had been ready to ignite for years (just like WWI). Some blame austerity measures by the British Government. Why shouldn’t people tighten their belts to ride out the storm as they have in Britain during the rationing of World War II? It is because in World War II people still had a sense of the deep soul-satisfying spiritual truths that C.S. Lewis communicated in his radio broadcasts. Now there is no light to shine in the darkness. If people stare deep enough within they see only darkness and despair – they need a light from the outside.

The light of a local shop or warehouse set ablaze will bring a spark of vitality. Shoplifters like Winona Ryder in America didn’t need to shoplift, but she talked of the buzz she got walking out of a store with the goods that she had taken. Even my own mother, as a child, walked out of a candy store with candy she had lifted. There is the thrill of living in the moment, of being part of a chaotic joy-ride. However, the joy ride will come to a crashing end. It is not sustainable. USA Today went on to say, “But many appeared attracted simply by the opportunity for violence. “Come join the fun!” shouted one youth in the east London suburb of Hackney, where shops were attacked and cars torched.”

Is this a race riot? Some commentators on BBC were saying that the Afro-Caribbean community has been mistreated by police, but USA Today writes, “East London’s diversity was on display amid the charred hulks of cars and the smell of burning plastic. Some looters were young women with manicured nails and customized BlackBerry smart phones. Others wore dreadlocks and stained shirts or appeared to be homeless.”

Some claim this is anarchy, “This is the uprising of the working class. We’re redistributing the wealth,” said Bryn Phillips, a 28-year-old self-described anarchist, as young people emerged from the store with chocolate bars and ice cream cones. Phillips claimed rioters were motivated by distrust of the police, and drew a link between the rage on London’s street and insurgent right-wing politics in the United States. “In America you have the tea party, in England you’ve got this,” he said.” This is a superficial understanding of anarchy. Anarchy is the belief that people should govern themselves. It is popularized by the Sex-Pistols, but was dealt with better by the movie V for Vendetta. Parents are meant to stop this, apparently. The police want parents to sit down with their children. However parents make no connections with the blazing London of V for Vendetta that they will watch with their kids and the blazing businesses in London outside their front door. The worldviews embedded in movies and even Disney and Sesame Street advocate looking to ourselves. Look at how the youth who have been in the heart of the Disney system are growing up. The Lindsay Lohan who was a child star was not convinced by the roles she played to be good. The head of the police wants to label this activity as “gratuitous violence, criminal damage, and burglary.” However, the youth he confronts would call their actions wild fun, destruction, and taking back what’s theirs.

If morality is just a matter of perspective, how can we tell them otherwise? If right and wrong are something I just choose, who am I to tell the yob with a knife to my throat that he can’t cut it. We’re just two masses of hydro-carbons formed by our environment. According to many university professors there is no good or evil. To those with their eyes open there is a darkness. It is revealed most clearly in the hearts of those who mug a wounded youth when pretending to help him http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14456065  It is revealed under the night skies of England’s cities. In John 1 we read about how Jesus came into the world to bring hope. In the west (I believe Europe is further down the path America is traveling) more than ever we need hope. Our youth are without direction, our economies cannot satiate our greed. As Gary M. Burge writes in his commentary on John:

The desperate condition of humanity is set against the goodness of God and his overtures toward the world in Christ. This alone, this supernatural intervention, is the only possibility for men and women today. The darkness of the world cannot defeat the Word (1:5) because the Word created the world and understands everything that has gone into it (1:3) … This is the hope to which John clings: Despite the fallenness and corruption of humanity – a corruption at the very heart of things, despite the hostility of humanity to God – nevertheless God empowers men and women to be transformed to become his children (1:12). This is hope: that despite the darkness, One Light shined and this Light worked to illumine others. Despie the darkness, the glory radiated in the world (1:14b), displaying the grace and truth of the Father (1:14a).

Street Pasors (below) are just an example of some who are trying to communicate God’s hope.

John 1:1-18

 ¹ In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ² He was with God in the beginning. ³ Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. ⁴ In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. ⁵ The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome^[a]it.

 ⁶ There was a man sent from God whose name was John. ⁷ He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. ⁸He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.

 ⁹ The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. ¹⁰ He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. ¹¹ He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. ¹² Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— ¹³children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.

 ¹⁴The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

 ¹⁵ (John testified concerning him. He cried out, saying, “This is the one I spoke about when I said, ‘He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’”) ¹⁶ Out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given. ¹⁷ For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. ¹⁸ No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and^[b] is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.

Questions

1. What word is used to describe Jesus?
2. What two opposites are contrasted?
3. Explain in your own words how Jesus is the Word who brings hope?
4. Do you have the hope of Jesus in your life?  How does it show in how you live?
5. How could you bring hope to those whose hearts are darkened?