CHRISTIAN GROWTH CYCLE: 2.2

SERVING
SOCIETY

Tim Britton

INTRODUCTION
‘Love your neighbour as you love yourself.’

Now that we belong to Jesus we have an eternity of service in front of us.  Isn’t that exciting?  Actually, it is, because it is the key to fulfilment, to happiness, to everything that people are searching for.   What gives you the greatest buzz: doing something you’ve wanted to do for a long time, or enabling someone else to do something they’ve wanted to do?  Making yourself happy, or making another person happy?  We do get a great buzz when we’ve done or achieved something, especially if we’ve worked hard for it, and there’s been a chance that we may not pull it off.  But if we work equally hard to give someone else a sense of achievement, they are happy and we are happy for them, and the satisfaction we gain from giving them pleasure makes our sacrifice worth while – especially if the recipient really appreciates the hard work we’ve done.  How much more satisfaction shall we get from giving God pleasure, from helping God to achieve his goals, from knowing that God really appreciates all that we have done?  That’s what Christian service is all about: we are doing God’s pleasure, and in doing so find, incidentally, the highest fulfilment.  That’s what we’re for!

Christian service is what we do for God. Some of it is direct service: through prayer and praise and thanksgiving, we are serving God directly.  But most of our service is indirect: we serve God by serving other people - what we are doing for others we are doing for God, and he counts it as the same as if we were serving him directly.  So in Colossians Paul tells Christian slaves: ‘Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human master, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward.  It is the Lord Christ you are serving.’ (Colossians 3:24.)

In this part of the Christian Growth Cycle we will look at how we serve Christ and serve humanity in our every day lives. The fundamental principle is given in Jesus’ command, ‘Love your neighbour as yourself’., which covers all the social and environmental aspects of life.  First, I want us to look at our attitudes to Things – money and possessions. Then we’ll be looking at our attitude to our bodies, and to sex and gender issues, and finally we’ll look at our attitude to power - the power we have to make a difference in the world, issues of politics, justice, social concern.  Our theme song could be, ‘Jesus, all for Jesus, all I am and have and ever hope to be.’  

CHAPTER 1: MONEY AND POSSESSIONS

When King David gave a generous gift towards the building of the first temple in Jerusalem, he said to God, ‘Everything comes from you, and we have given you only what comes from your hand’ (1 Chronicles 29:14).  God is the owner of every single thing on earth, however small or big.  He is the one who created everything.  He is the one who gives people the power to make every article or tool or work of art.  Everything owes its existence ultimately to God.  All food and clothing and shelter comes from God.  That’s why Jesus taught us to ask him for it, ‘Give us this day our daily bread’.  All money belongs to God.  All our possessions belong to God.  Whether we like it or not, we are stewards, accountable to him for the way we get money, what we spend it on and how we use the things we buy.   This is true for everyone, Christian or not.   Christians have the advantage of knowing something about God’s activity; we know that he is the one who gives us money and possessions, and so we are able to trust him for what we need, to praise and thank him for his good gifts, and to enjoy them as gifts of a loving Father.  We know that we are stewards, accountable to him; and we know that we can give God great pleasure by the way in which we make and spend money, and by the way we use the gifts he gives us.  We know that money is not the aim of life; as Jesus said, ‘Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well’  (Matthew 6:33).  So this is the first principle to grasp hold of: that everything I have comes from God and belongs to him, and needs to be received with thankfulness and used in a way that does him proud.

Once that is grasped, we can think about how we can serve God and others by earning our living, enjoying our wealth, and doing without.

(i)	Serve as you Earn
	God’s plan is for human beings generally to earn their living.  When Adam was created, he was immediately given work to do in the Garden of Eden.  That does not mean that everyone needs to be in paid employment.  A parent at home looking after children is most certainly earning his or her living.  Retired people have already earned their living.   Nor does earning your living mean that you are of more value than those who do not earn their living.  We’ll think more about this later.  Nevertheless, it is true that generally speaking, God wants human beings to earn their living.
	It matters what we do to earn our living.  We will have to account to God for all our actions.  Some jobs ought not to be done.  Some ways of doing business are sinful.  The fact that a job provides someone with an income, or that sharp practice enables a business to compete, does not justify them before God.  If we are servants of Christ, what we do for a living is done as a member of his Body, and needs to be something he can be pleased with.  Often we do not value the work we do enough.  We see it simply as a means of making money, or as a chore that has to be done, or as a task which interests us so much that it doesn’t really count as work!  It is helpful to see the work we do as of value in itself to God.  Looking after the family is important.  Helping society to function is important.  That’s the reason for most of the laws in the Bible, which are summarised by the command to love your neighbour as yourself.  If our work is providing luxury items, well, that could be one way of loving our neighbour.   Making something costly because it is a work of art or of skill can be of value to society and to God – God approves of excellence!  However, we also need to be prepared not to do work which is displeasing to God, even if that means sacrifice.  We can trust God to guide us into whatever is best for us and for his kingdom.
	It matters how we do our work.  Paul writing to slaves, says, ‘Obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ.  Obey them nor only to win their favour when their eye is on you, but like slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart.  Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not people, because you know that the Lord will reward each one of you for whatever good you do, whether you are slave or free’ (Ephesians 6:5-8).  It is Christ we are serving, whether we are working for an employer or for a teacher or for the family or for our own interests, and we can give him great pleasure by the way we do the work he’s given us.  The reward we get from God is not just for religious or charitable acts; it is also for the good we do in our everyday work!

(ii)	Invest in Eternity
	What do we do with the money God gives us?  Some people think that’s a question that doesn’t need asking – the money I earn is mine, it’s nothing to do with God!  Wrong!  Every penny we get comes ultimately from God.  Money itself is not evil; it is the love of money that is a root of all kinds of evil (1 Timothy 6:10).  For many people money is a god: making money is their aim in life, under the mistaken impression that money will bring happiness.  For others, money is their security; they cannot trust God to look after them, and they fear being without enough.  For us, money is a gift from God, given to us for his own good reasons, to be used in accordance with his good purposes.
	The first reason God gives us our money is so that we can use it to buy the necessities of life.  
	The second reason is so that we can use it to help others.  Paul said, ‘Those who have been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with their own hands, that they may have something to share with those in need.’  When we are being generous, we are reflecting the generosity of God, and God will be generous to those who give and give.  We teach people to give to God a minimum of 10% of their income, giving it to God’s work through the local church and through Christian charities.  That 10%, or ‘Tithe’, is what people gave in the Old Testament for the work of the temple; in addition, they were expected to be generous to the poor.  If I gave less, I would feel that I was keeping back from God what was rightfully his – the prophet Malachi told people who didn’t give their tithes that they were robbing God (Malachi 3:8-10).  But we aren’t expected to be generous out of religious duty.  Our generosity reflects our love for God and our gratefulness for all he has given us, and the fact that we are not hanging on to it shows that we trust him for our needs.  We can never be the poorer for being generous: ‘whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously’ (2 Corinthians 9:6).  Jesus taught us, ‘Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth….But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven…..For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also…You cannot be a slave to both God and Money’ (Matthew 6:19-24).  If we are giving to God, he will give us far more in return.
	The third reason God gives us our money is simply that we can enjoy God’s good gifts!  While we should always hold lightly onto our possessions, we should also enjoy what God has given us – God  ‘richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment’ (1 Timothy 6:17).  This is not a licence to be materialistic, or to become shopaholics.  Nevertheless, God does want his people to enjoy life! Jesus did!  As long as our hearts are in the right place, we won’t go far wrong.

(iii)	Let go and Let God
	There are times when people cannot earn a living. Babies do not earn a living; yet they are valuable and have a right to be loved and cared for.  The same is true of many others who for one reason or another cannot earn a living.  Although God’s general plan is for people to earn their keep, it is not his plan for everybody always.  Yet everyone is special, everyone is valuable, everyone is made in the image of God and is loved by him.  Our value is never measured by who we are or what we do, but by what God says about us.  Therefore never look down on anyone who by current standards is poor, never value a person by the job they do or devalue them because they are unemployed.  Each person is a unique creation of God.
	There are times when we do not control the use of the money we earn.  If we are married and hold everything jointly, we cannot decide by ourselves how to use the money or possessions God has given us both, even though we may be very sure we know what God wants us to do.  We have to do the right thing by our partner.  If you are not sure what to do, ask the Holy Spirit to guide you, and talk to your partner about it honestly and openly and peacefully.
	There are times when we should not even try to ‘earn our keep’, to ‘do our best’ or to ‘maximise our income’.  God created us to be part of a world where there are rhythms and seasons.   Part of that is the rhythm of work and rest – six days on, one day off for re-creation.  We are not designed to go at full steam all the time!   Holidays are good for us, even if we are not in paid employment!  So let go of the need to keep working flat out – it is not a God-given need, and even if you don’t get tired everyone else does watching you!  Let go of the need to earn as much as you can, to keep improving your lifestyle; material improvements are not equal to spiritual improvements, and often our rich lifestyles are at the expense of other people’s well-being.  As the old adage has it, ‘Live simply that others may simply live.’
	I end with a couple of quotes from St Paul: ‘Godliness with contentment is great gain.  For we brought nothing into the world and we can take nothing out of it.  But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that.  Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap…’ (1 Timothy 6:6-9)  ‘I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty.  I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.  I can do everything through him who gives me strength.’ (Philippians 4:12,13.)

CHAPTER 2:  BODY AND SEX

You may know the story about a vicar who decided to preach about sex.  He was in despair about his sermons - he could see how bored people were, but didn't know what to do about it.  One weekend, trying to prepare his sermon, he said to his wife, 'What's the use?  I might as well climb into the pulpit and talk about riding bicycles.'  And he decided to do just that. On Sunday morning his wife rather apprehensively went to look after the crèche, as she always did, leaving her husband to face the congregation alone.  But on his way into the pulpit, a far more brilliant idea entered his head. 'Not "Riding bicycles" - that 'll never wake them up', he thought.  'I'll preach on sex.  I'll startle the whole congregation and preach on sex.'  So he did - and it was the sermon of his life.
Afterwards, the congregation mobbed him.  A woman rushed into the crèche and went up to the minister's wife.  'Your husband was wonderful!' she said.  'You should have heard his sermon.  Such a brilliant choice of subject.'  'Really?' said his wife, astonished.  'I thought it was a very odd choice considering he's only done it three times in his life.  To be perfectly honest with you --' she whispered confidentially '--the first time he fell over and the second time his hat blew off.'

This chapter is about sex - but as part of the wider issue of our attitude to our bodies.  There are three things I want to say.

1.  Accept God's creation - yourself!  Love yourself!  The command to love your neighbour as yourself implies that we are to love ourselves.  God loves us so much that he gave his only Son to die for us.  If that's God's view of us, we mustn't quarrel with him; we too must love ourselves.  Indeed, if we love our neighbour but do not love ourselves, is our love for our neighbour as healthy as it ought to be?
	A woman came to her vicar once who had real problems with her identity, and her view of herself.  Her parents had wanted a boy, not a girl, and she grew up wanting to be a boy and regretting her femininity.  Despite being happily married, she still found it difficult to accept herself and her gender.  She felt that God has made a mistake in her case, and could not love herself.  One of the things the vicar did to help her was to point her to Psalm 139:13-18.   (Read it.)   Now apply those verses to yourself.  (Reread vs 13-15.)  You are meant!   God did not make a mistake when he made you, despite the fact that he did not make you to be Wonderwoman or Superman.  Just because God did not create you perfect, that doesn't mean you aren't meant.  Even those with genetic disorders are meant - they are loved by God, and are meant to be loved.  No-one in this world is created physically perfect; physical perfection has to wait for the new creation after Jesus returns.  (I suspect our ideas of perfection in the new creation will be different from those propagated by the media today.)
	Our problem today is that we are surrounded by advertisements and films which have the message, 'Don't accept yourself.  Don't stay the way you are.  Change your appearance, or your dress, or your diet, or your deodorant, and you'll be happy!'  They are on to a winner, because so may people are dissatisfied with their appearance, with their bodies, with the way God made them.  But God tells us to accept ourselves.
	Accept your body, with all its imperfections.  The imperfections may be genetic, part of your inheritance from your ancestors.  Or they may be acquired through accident or through general wear and tear.  Old age brings a host of imperfections to our bodies!   Just accept the fact that you are not perfect and that you never will be - and that time will not improve matters but may well make them worse!  All this is the way things are.  Along with the imperfections come many advantages - the energy and hopefulness of youth, the strength of mind and body we have in our prime, the increasing experience that comes with age.  Your body is unique, reflecting the uniqueness of your personality.  Your body is made by God as we've just seen; it is acceptable to God, so much so that his Holy Spirit is content to live within it.  Your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, a living temple, much more a dwelling place of God than the most beautiful cathedral, and much more important to him.
	Accept your gender and your sexuality.  Genesis 1:27 says, 'So God created human beings in his own image, in the image of God he created them, male and female he created them.'  When Paul says, 'In Christ there is neither male or female,' (Galatians 3:28) he is talking about our equality in the sight of God.  Gender has no affect on our status or our value in the eyes of God; men are not superior to women nor women to men, in his eyes.  Along with gender comes sexuality - we are sexual beings, having God-given sexual desires and the God-given ability to fulfil another person's sexual desires.  Unfortunately, this fact has been distorted in so many ways.  Victorian morality gave the impression that sexual desires and fulfilment was something dirty.  20th century morality breaks the link between sexuality and gender, so that many people are confused about who they really are.  But God intends there to be male and female, attractive to each other and needing each other.  Don't down play this, by pretending that because men and women are equal there are no differences between them.  Don't make false assumptions about sexuality, such as the idea that attractiveness depends upon a six-pack stomach or a page three figure, or that sexuality depends upon a sexual relationship and that single people are somehow less of a person than others - look at Jesus Christ.
	
2. Accept God's blueprints for happiness - his will for human behaviour.
The Bible reveals not only truth about God, but also truth about ourselves.  Our Maker has given various instructions, which are given to help us make the best of our lives.   Several of these instructions refer to the way we use our bodies, and especially to the way we use our sexuality, and they show us what we are designed for.  Much of what is said is obvious just from our biological makeup - but not all.  Our bodies are designed to need feeding; yet gluttony is not good for us, and the book of Proverbs speaks against it.  Alcohol in moderation is seen as a good gift; yet drunkenness is forbidden.  Sex is celebrated; yet the Bible is very clear that it is designed for marriage only, and sex outside marriage is forbidden, whether it is fornication, adultery, or homosexual activity.  The fact that sex is designed for the male-female relationship is obvious from biology; but the fact that it is designed only for marriage is not so obvious, though if you look at the universality of marriage, which in some form or other is there in practically every culture, and the damage that is done to a society where marriage is not esteemed, there must be good reasons for this rule.  But marriage is not designed just as an outlet for sex - there is much more to it than that.  Above all, marriage is designed to reflect the love of God, and the sexual act is meaningless if it is not more than anything else an expression of sacrificial love.
	The Makers' instructions are our blueprint for happiness.  Accept them as such.  To disregard them is to abuse your body - and if you are a Christian, your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit.  Sex outside loving marriage - whether promiscuity, adultery, or homosexual - is an abuse of your body, and ultimately harmful both to yourself and the other, however much you love each other.  If you love the other person, do not have sex with them unless you are married.  Likewise substance abuse of any kind, whether drugs, alcohol, or food, is abusing the Temple of the Holy Spirit, your body.  This is not negative kill-joy teaching.   This is teaching aimed at giving fulfilment and lasting happiness.
	Questions do get raised about all this.  People especially question whether it is right to be so negative about sexual expression outside marriage, especially between members of the same sex.  Isn't that being homophobic and discriminatory?  In today's society, everyone has relationships outside marriage, don't they?  Most young people who come to get married in church already live at the same address.   Is this really bad?  What should be our Christian attitude?  This is a very big question, which we haven't time to go into in detail.  But there are some principles which should help us in our thinking.  The first is that ultimately all human beings are accountable to God our creator, and that his will is all that matters. God is good, and his will is good, and even if many good and well-meaning people disagree with what God says, it is safer to go with God.  The second principle is that fulfilment in life does not depend upon satisfying all our desires, nor even upon fulfilling every potential, but upon our relationship with God.  A nun can have an amazingly fulfilled life, and all of us benefit from a certain amount of self-denial.  The third is that each Christian is united with Christ and a dwelling place for the Holy Spirit; we are not our own, but have been bought with a price, and are therefore to honour God with our bodies.  And the last principle is that we need to love and honour all people, even those who disagree with us.

3.  Serve God with who you are - do not wait until you become what you want to be, nor give up because you are no longer what you once were!  We meet some people who live so much for the future that they don't have time to enjoy the present, and others who seem to live in the past and feel that their day is done.  God wants us to serve him joyfully today, to serve him with who we are today, in the circumstances of today.  How are you feeling today?  Whether sad or happy, tired or full of energy, the way you act within your circumstances can give God great pleasure.  The trick is to be absolutely honest with God and open to him.  God wants us to be people of integrity.
	Do you feel old, no longer able to do the things you once found easy?  Your body is still the temple of the Holy Spirit, and you can still serve God, though in different ways.  Accept the changes gracefully, and serve God as you are now.  Your spiritual service may be of greater value than anything you have done up to now.
	Are you married?  Do you have a family?  Serve God in your family relationships.  The struggles of family life, the balancing acts we have, the struggle to make time for one another, all these things are part and parcel of living for God in his world, and he is rooting for us in them, forgiving us our failures and encouraging us to go forward.  Let your marital relations be an expression not just of your love for your spouse, but of God's love flowing through you. 
	Are you single, whether through choice or circumstance?  Serve God as you are, looking to Jesus as your example and inspiration and source of power.  In all your relationships remember that you belong to God, so honour God in your body.
	Is your lifestyle something other than God's blueprint, and you don't see how you can change, even if you wanted to?  Maybe you are in a relationship which isn't what God intends; or maybe your lifestyle simply isn't a very healthy one.  The person you need to talk to about this is God himself; and you need to do so with complete honesty about yourself, your feelings and your circumstances, and you also need to be completely open to what he has to say through the Bible and through the Holy Spirit.  If it is too difficult to be open to what God has to say, ask him at least to make you willing to become open to God.  If he needs to change you, he can do it.  If he needs to challenge you, he can do it - but always in love, affirming you as a person, not loading you with guilt.  So be honest and open, and then go with the flow of the Holy Spirit working in your life.
	Don't make excuses for not serving God with all that you are.  God does not ask more from you than he will enable you to do.  If you give to him all that you are today, you will find that tomorrow there will be even more of yourself to give, for when we give ourselves to God in loving service our lives become more fulfilled.

CHAPTER 3: POWER

God is our strength and song, 
And His salvation ours; 
Then be His love in Christ proclaimed 
With all our ransomed powers.

	How do we use 'all our ransomed powers' in the service of Christ? All of us have power of some kind or another. At the very least, we all have some physical strength, and all of us have some ability to make a difference to other people's lives, whether by a kind word or by a cruel one, by a good deed or a bad one.  Likewise, everyone is powerless to some extent; even the most powerful person in the world cannot get their own way all the time.  King Canute could not control the tides, whatever his flatterers might say.  The question is, what do we do with our power, and how do we cope with our powerlessness?

	The Bible speaks of two main kinds of power, strength and authority, and each human being is accountable to God for the way they use the power God gives them.  
Strength.  The Greek word for strength is 'dunamis', from which we get the words dynamo and dynamite.  It includes physical strength, and also intellectual and spiritual strength.  It includes the kind of power a bully might exercise, or an army; on the intellectual side it includes the power a clever person may have to win arguments, or the power an advertiser may have to persuade people.  On the spiritual side there are people who are able to cope whatever their circumstances, just because they are naturally strong in spirit.  All this is 'dunamis', the power to act or to make things happen.  But just because we have the power to make things happen, it doesn't necessarily mean we have the right to make things happen. That's where the other kind of power comes in, the power of authority.  
Authority.  Authority is the right to act or to make things happen.   We are in the throes of an election, which will give a new parliament authority to  govern this country.  Authority comes from various directions.  It can be gained from experience or wisdom, so that we speak on a subject with authority; it may be delegated to us from above by the boss, or from below by the people.  There is such a thing as moral authority, when we have the right to do or say something just because it is morally right.  And there is such a thing as spiritual authority, such as when a person is speaking in the name of God.
	Both kinds of power come ultimately from God.  He is the one who gives us strength to act, and ultimately he is the one from whom every authority derives its right to act.  We'll think more about this in a moment.  The point is that we are accountable to God for the way we exercise whatever power and authority he has given us.
	Both kinds of power need to work together.  Just because I have the power to make something happen, it doesn't mean I have the right to make things happen.  And any teacher can tell you the problems of having authority without power, when you have the right to command but not enough power to ensure obedience.  The other side of the coin is our attitude to those with power: we need to respect both kinds.  It is all too common for people these days to despise authority and to respect strength alone.  If that were the rule, government could only be by tyranny.  God commands us to respect authority: that is the principle behind the command, 'Honour your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land the Lord your God is giving you.'(Exodus 20:12).

	So how do we serve Christ when given power, or when I seem powerless?
	The basic rule is: love God, love your neighbour, love one another, make disciples.  Whatever our position, we must not lose sight of the purpose of life: to bring people into the kingdom of God, so that they have the joy of being now and for ever in the realm of his power and authority.  We must not lose sight of the fact that we are members together of the body of Christ, and that we please God best when working together.  The command to love our neighbour as ourselves sums up the whole of God's commands concerning our relationships with one another, and is especially important when we are given power or feel helpless.  When I was at school in the 60s the years above us claimed the right to lord it over us, plundering any goodies they might find.  Whether it was the spirit of the age or what, my year saw a sea change in the spirit of the school; as we became more senior we felt we had to respect those below us and treat them in the way we had wanted to be treated.  It is all too easy when given power to forget how it was to be powerless.  It is also easy for the powerless to become embittered, and to forget that those with power are human beings who are loved by God; or to become jealous, so that we delight in knocking them off their pedestals; or to become party-spirited, so that we view anyone in authority as 'them' rather than 'us', creating a barrier which is unnecessarily difficult to cross.  The command to love God with all our heart means that we exercise power as those who are under his authority.  Jesus taught us that the greatest leaders are those who use their power in humble service.  God commands us to have particular regard for the weak and the powerless.  And he commands the weak and the powerless to live as children of the King of kings, seeing Christ as the real master they serve, and as their good shepherd.

	Let's look as some particular issues.  I'd like us to spend a few moments thinking about the 'might is right' issue and how it affects individuals, communities, and the environment.  I'd like us to think a little about our democratic rights; I'd like to think about how we can empower the powerless, and what should be our attitude when we are victims of persecution.  Obviously, I can only scratch the surface of these things; but it is worth looking at the Biblical perspective even if only briefly.

1) MIGHT IS RIGHT
	Just because we can do something, does that give us the right to do it?  As Christians, we say no.  Yet the spirit of the age says yes, and that spirit is easy to pick up.  We all say that bullying is wrong.  Yet bullying is simply the expression of  'might is right' on the playground.  Outside the playground we see it all over the place.  At the international level, Saddam Hussain's activity is an obvious example.  But  America is also tempted to use its power to go it alone in its star wars programme, and in its refusal to co-operate in reducing greenhouse gasses.  At the community level we see Muslim majorities imposing Sharia law in their areas, and even forcible circumcision of Christian minorities in Indonesia.  Even in this country we hear calls to impose our cultural values on refugees and immigrants.  There is a tyranny of the majority which is totally unconscious, yet very real for the minorities living with them.
	The issue comes into clearer focus when we consider our relationship with science and the natural world.  The Bible truly says that human beings have dominion over the nature, but that does not give us the license to domineer; rather, we are to be responsible stewards of nature, using the power we are given as those who are accountable to the Creator.  Science is not a god; scientists are accountable to God for their research, and those who use new knowledge are accountable to God for what they do with it.  The ability to clone human beings does not mean that it is right to do so, any more than the discovery of a chemical that could destroy life on earth would mean that it would be right to manufacture it.  The ability to genetically modify organisms does not confer the right to do so.  However, it is also true that if we have the power to do good and do not use that power, we are equally at fault; and this applies to our ability to reduce waste by conserving energy and recycling materials.  Are we doing all the good to the environment that we should be doing, individually as well as nationally?
	Always we have to ask whether there we the authority to do these things - meaning not just an authority given to us by other human beings, but also a moral authority - is it right in God's eyes as well as in ours? 

2) DEMOCRATIC POWER
	What does the Bible have to say about democratic power?  King Charles I was famous for his belief in the 'Divine right of kings'.  He knew that Romans 13:1,2 says, 'Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established.  The authorities that exist have been established by God.  Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has established.'  King Charles understood that to mean that God had appointed him king, and that he therefore had the authority to do what he willed, and everyone should submit to him as to God.  The Puritans believed that the authority of kings could legitimately be restricted and regulated by the people through parliament, and that Romans 13 does not forbid a change in the way authorities are established, nor does it forbid the disobeying of an authority when that authority is going against God.  The apostles in Acts 4 disobeyed the authorities when they told them not to preach in Jesus' name.  We now live in a democracy, and believe that the government has a right to act if it has been fairly elected and is carrying out the manifesto on which it was elected.  However, even with an electoral mandate, any government's authority is ultimately derived from God, and the government is accountable to God for its actions.  At election time, we have an opportunity to call the government to account; let us do so with Christian principles in mind, and ask which party is most likely to help God's cause, not which party is going to make me most comfortable.

3)  THE POWERLESS
	What about the powerless?  We all feel powerless in some situations.  When we are in that position, what we want most of all is the power to do something to change things.  It is not that we want others to make the changes on our behalf, without any input from us; we want to have some influence ourselves.  If we are in a position to help the helpless, we need to imagine what we would feel like in their shoes; and if it is possible to give them the power to help themselves, that would be far better than just to provide what we think they need.  Health workers can give patients some say in their own treatment.  Employers can consult employees even in matters concerning the running of the company.  Love your neighbour as yourself. 
	There are occasions when you feel absolutely powerless, and no-one can or will help you.  Christians facing persecution, or situations which are too disastrous for words, nevertheless have some power.  We all have the power to pray - if not in words, then in silent agony; and we all have the power to react in Christ-like ways.  Through prayer, even the worst situations can change; through Christ-like behaviour, even the worst situations can be made holy.  When victims forgive evil, as Christ forgave those who nailed him to the cross, although the evil does not cease to be evil, something pure and even more powerful is introduced.  Look again at the cross.  On the cross the Son of God, whom the wind and the waves and all forces of evil obeyed, hung naked and helpless with nails through his hands and his feet.  Powerless, Christ conquered sin and death and hell - for you and me.  And he says to us all as he said to Paul: 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.'  (2 Corinthians 12:9.)  Let us respond to the cross, by using whatever power God gives us, and whatever weakness we have, in a way that glorifies him.