A Response to the Riots

This sermon was given on the morning of Sunday 11th August 2024, after a week of riots and counter-protests in the UK. The New Testament reading was Ephesians 4:25-5:2.

This morning’s Gospel is about bread. When we get to August every third year, we get John’s Gospel, and for about 6 weeks, we go through John Chapter 6, during which we talk a huge amount about bread. If you come to church in August this year without having had your breakfast first, you’re going to get hungry!

I’ve actually preached in this slot both times over the last six years. Today marks my third sermon with these same readings. So, I hope you’ll forgive me if I don’t actually preach on the gospel at all today? 

Don’t worry, Caroline is preaching next week, and I’m sure she’ll cover the Gospel – unless she throws in a wild card?

Instead then, for today’s sermon, I’d like to turn to our New Testament reading, from the letter to the Ephesians.

There’s all sorts of scholarly thought about this letter that I don’t propose to go into today (but am happy to talk to you about this afterwards, if you’re interested) about who actually wrote it, and to whom it was actually written, but – in the grand scheme of things – none of that really matters. One thing that is absolutely clear from the text of the letter, though, is that the author was writing to a multicultural society. There’s a quote on Wikipedia which calls out that the author was writing about “issues appropriate to the diverse religious and cultural backgrounds present in the community.”

The author is writing about unity. In this context, he’s talking about the Jewish people and the non-Jewish people and how, through the work of God on the cross, God wants to do away with these labels that we create, and unite us all into a new single humanity. I’m not projecting here, by the way, listen to what the author says only a few sentences earlier in the letter:

“Now in Christ Jesus, you who were once far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace; in his flesh he has made both groups into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us. He has abolished the law with its commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new humanity”

I want that. 

Don’t you? 

After the events of this last week, when I have been fearful for my work colleagues and friends across the country; more fearful than ever that they might be attacked because of the colour of their skin. Fearful when I’ve been walking down the street and seeing white men with shaved heads – the sort of men you normally walk past most days and don’t even notice, who you smile and nod to at the pub or at the co-op. Fearful too, when I’ve walked past young Asian men. Fearful when I’ve seen groups of young lads on bikes, simply out messing with their mates. All the fear because of these labels in all of our heads. I don’t want white versus Asian. I don’t want Israeli versus Palestinian. I don’t want Russian versus Ukrainian. I want one new humanity. 

How do we do it?

That’s what the writer of Ephesians is trying to tell us, to give us our route out of division and hate. I’m not going into everything that’s in our New Testament reading this morning, but here are a few things I thing are particularly relevant at the moment:

Verse 25 – right at the beginning of our reading: “putting away all falsehood, let all of us speak the truth to our neighbours, for we are members of one another”.

We can get behind this, I know. None of us thinks that telling lies is a good idea. But what about rumour? What about sharing ‘unconfirmed news’ on social media or with our friends on WhatsApp or Messenger apps? That’s what started all of these riots, the rumour that the young man who killed those three girls in Southport was a Muslim. He’s not, by the way, if you haven’t had that confirmed to you yet. But that rumour led to a mosque being attacked in Southport, and gave fuel to the far-right, racist criminal known as “Tommy Robinson” and other extremist grifters on the internet (and some in the Houses of Parliament) stirring up dispossessed and angry people to go out and attack other human beings whom they were told were the cause of their problems.

If we want to be one humanity, says the writer of Ephesians, we need to put this poison away.  We need to not just not spread it, and not simply ignore it and move on – we need to actively 'speak the truth to our neighbours’ – we need to shut this down, straight away, when we see it. This is crucial. As the famous quotation says, “all that is needed for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing”. This is our collective responsibility. We’ve got to counter lies and rumour with truth and fact.

The writer says more in verse 29: “Let no evil talk come out of your mouths, but only what is useful for building up… so that your words may give grace to those who hear”. We need to not just ignore the narrative of division – we’ve got to counter this too. We’ve got to share the stories of communities coming together, of people helping each other, of unity between different cultures and religions. These good news stories do not get amplified on social media; they don’t get the ‘strong’ reactions and don’t get pushed up the ratings. So, share them; don’t just like them, love them, and comment on them. This will help to ensure these stories of humanity at our best are amplified. Let us build each other up, rather than tear each other down.

I’m only going to look at a couple more verses. The next is verse 26 – “[By all means], be angry, but do not sin”. Anger is not wrong. Anger can be righteous. The whole country was right to be angry about the murders of those girls. And we are right to be angry about the targeting of Muslims and Jews and anyone who doesn’t look quite white. And we are right to be angry with the men who have rightly received swift sentences for their crimes, and those who have not yet been apprehended. And we are right to be angry with a political system that has set those men up for failure. And we are right to be angry with the social media grifters who spread the rumours and drip-feed division for likes and shares and better advertising revenue. But don’t let any of that anger lead you to doing wrong. 

This misdirected anger from people involved in the riots and the counter-protests has only amplified the evil we have been seeing. Misdirected anger only leads to more division and more hurt. We need to channel our anger into working for change and working for peace and working for one new humanity. We need to channel it into – as the writer goes onto say in verse 32 – kindness. Putting our bitterness, anger, lies and slander away, and being “kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another” because, as the author writes, God himself in Christ has forgiven us.

Our country is hurting. People are angry and spreading lies and slander. People are being tricked into hating others and hurting them.

But – as the writer of the letter to the Ephesians says – we have a cure. We have a way to create one new humanity: Spread the truth. Spread kindness. Spread forgiveness. Spread them all as thickly and as liberally as you can. 

We can change the narrative. 

It does start with you.

Amen.