Not my sin? How to pray for a nation on the brink

In Hosea 4, where God sets out his case against Israel, it is clear he is speaking to a society that is rotten to the very core. Israel’s idolatry has not remained an isolated problem but has bred a society characterised by corruption, bloodshed, prostitution and murder. When Hosea says that ‘bloodshed follows bloodshed’ and that their sins ‘know no bounds’ he describes a situation where there were not merely sporadic outbreaks but where these sins had become endemic, woven into the very fabric of society.  Everyone from the top to the bottom of society was involved, and all would be punished together. Even the tiny righteous remnant would go into exile with the others, sharing in the punishment of their community.

After the Second World War, some German Christians devoted themselves to a ministry of repentance and intercession for the sins of the German nation, even though they personally had not been involved in the atrocities perpetrated by the regime. The prayers of the Old Testament prophets reveal a similar view of their relationship to their community and its sin. We are not just accountable to God for our personal sins, but do at times share in the guilt of our community and also in its consequences.

When we consider our own society, we can surely only conclude that it is as rotten as the society of Hosea’s day.  It is not reports of horrific murders, child abuse or parliamentary corruption that lead me to that conclusion but the things I witness every day –  the loss of sense of responsibility for elderly family members, decline in attitudes of young people to parents, teachers and other adults in their communities,  the sea-change in attitudes to drunkenness, sexual promiscuity, etc.

But who of us as Christians can say we have been entirely detached from this state of affairs? Examination of our own attitudes often reveals that we have imbibed the world’s values more than we care to admit. And with iniquity vaunted and temptation advertised all around us, many Christians are falling into the same sins that are affecting wider society.  A generation ago divorce was almost unheard of between believers but sadly today we all know of many cases of marital breakdown, adultery and other sexual sins, including amongst ministers of the gospel. The church is struggling to know how to respond to issues like cohabitation, internet pornography, child abuse, gambling addiction and drug misuse – not only in the outside world but among its own members.

It is time for us to come to God with prayers of repentance for the sin of our society.  Let’s not pray arrogantly.  We must plead with God, not as outsiders looking on, but as part of our society and part of its sin. Surely we also need to repent and plead for God’s mercy for the state of our churches, afflicted by so many things that ought not to be and falling so far short of what the community of God’s people should be like.  When God has purified his churches, they can serve their function of being preserving ‘salt and light’ in British society. Perhaps our society may then be turned back from the brink, and we will not have to share in its punishment.