The Christmas story is a love story. It is the story of how God so loved the world that he sent Jesus to be born in Palestine and to live among us. But it is not just a love story to make us feel good about ourselves; it is a love story that should also inspire us to love the world. If we get the relationship between Creator and creation wrong, then we are lost.
There are various ways in which we can love the world. We have recently seen the world leaders and environmentalists meeting in Copenhagen to try to find a solution to reduce climate change which will have a catastrophic impact on many of the poorer nations. We are called to ‘love thy neighbour’ and I have no doubt that there are the technological solutions to address climate change but as always will greed and pride get in the way?
Zimbabwe was once the ‘bread basket’ of Africa and produced food for export. Today, it is in the grip of long-term poverty and starvation caused by massive inflation, the destruction of agriculture and a brutal regime. It has one of the lowest life expectancies in the world.
A recent study* has shown that Britain is the third most unequal society in the world and how inequality leads to greater crime, homicide, teenage pregnancies, obesity, mental illness, illiteracy and drug and alcohol addiction. Unequal societies lack justice and produce unhappy people. In more equal societies people are less greedy and competitive and more constructive and happier. For Jesus, justice was at the heart of his message about God’s love for the world.
The challenge to all who follow the teachings of Jesus must be to put love into action through prayer, protest and example because if God so loved the world, then so should we.
+ Dominic Monmouth
* The Spirit Level: Why More Equal Societies Almost Always Do Better, Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett, Publ. Allen Lane, 2009
