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The GB News Advent Calendar, Day 18
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Hi, I'm Richard England, Vicar of Crofton Parish. Here at St Edmund's, we have the Ten Commandments on the wall
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In the Bible, they were given by God to Moses. I wonder how you feel about the thought of God giving us laws
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Maybe you're okay with it. God is God after all, and we're not
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But maybe you find the idea of any authority figure dictating our behaviour a bit oppressive
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Without God, though, we have to decide for ourselves how we want to live
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As the great Russian writer Dostoevsky put it, without God, everything is permissible
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And at first that sounds great. Freedom, autonomy, responsibility, what's not to like
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But give it time and eventually all that freedom collapses into the age-old human problem that might makes right
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Sometimes it's kings and queens. Sometimes it's politicians. Sometimes it's billionaires. But eventually, without a faith in a God who stands apart from our social structures
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and will hold us all to account, we find it impossible to come up with something that works for everyone
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the strong and the weak, the rich and the poor. That's why I don't mind the idea that God might direct us how to live
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Not just because God is God and we're not, but because God challenges us to do the one thing we're not very good at
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Establish societies that work for everyone
