Storm Éowyn has arrived! As I sit down to write this blog, looking out I can see the huge beech tree opposite swaying, battered by the wind. Batten down the hatches, we’re in for a tough ride.
But this is but nothing compared to the battering our neighbouring town of Southport has endured over the last six months. The terrible atrocity by Axel Rudakubana has deeply shocked us all, shaking us to the core.
I've just been reading the full report in the Liverpool Echo, which begins: “Axel Rudakubana lived an unremarkable life in a rural village while he immersed himself in violence, murder and genocide.”
Reading it through it seems inevitable that he was gearing himself up for such an appalling assault. Just one week earlier Rudakubana determined to attack pupils at one of his former schools, but his father pleaded with the taxi driver not to take his son.
So many agencies were involved. In fact, it seems at one stage he was enrolled at a special educational needs establishment here in Ormskirk, where he was found to have used a school computer to look up the 2017 London Bridge terror attack, the IRA and the ongoing conflict in Israel and Palestine.
No less than three referrals to Prevent were made by education providers to the scheme between December 2019 and April 2021.
Just three years ago, his father denied him access to a computer in the early hours. Rudakubana threw food, locked himself in the bathroom and overfilled the bath, resulting in the electricity cutting out. His father called the police.
It seemed that soon after that the teen had not left the house for four to five months, immersing himself in violence. Still only 17, he developed an obsession with genocide, mass murder and war, which culminated with the atrocity at Hart Street.
Sometimes evil shows itself for what it is. In fact, what is truly frightening is that this terrible act of savagery is by no means unusual in our troubled world, even commonplace.
The genocide in Rwanda in 1994, the homeland of Rudakubana’s parents, was particularly brutal, with victims often murdered by neighbours, and widespread sexual violence, with between 250,000 and 500,000 women raped. Over half a million were butchered.
As Christians we realise the existence of evil as a spiritual reality – and we dare to look it in the face and name it for what it is.
In contrast Richard Dawkins would take the opposite line and deny its reality: “The universe we observe has the properties we should expect if there is, at bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil, no good, nothing but blind, pitiless indifference.” Try telling that to the grieving families.
But how we account for the reality of evil has been a continual challenge. Why Auschwitz? Why the Taylor Swift-themed dance class?
For myself, I go along with Fleming Rutledge, whose brilliant book on the Crucifixion of Jesus, I keep on quoting. “There has never been a satisfactory account of the origin of evil, and there will be none on this side of the consummation of the kingdom of God. Evil is a vast excrescence, a monstrous contradiction that cannot be explained but can only be denounced and resisted wherever it appears.”
In other words, as the Bible recounts the story of creation at the beginning of the book of Genesis, the serpent just appears. “Now the serpent was more crafty than any other wild animal that the Lord God had made.” (Genesis 3:1) His existence is not explained, except to say that he derives his existence from God.
What is of prime importance is that God has acted to defeat evil, decisively and at some cost, at the cross of Jesus. So, Tom Wright writes: “Jesus doesn't give an explanation for the pain and sorrow of the world. He comes where the pain is most acute and takes it upon himself. Jesus doesn't explain why there is suffering, illness, and death in the world. He brings healing and hope.”
He continues: “Jesus doesn't allow the problem of evil to be the subject of a seminar. He allows evil to do its worst to him. He exhausts it, drains its power, and emerges with new life.”
We live in the last days, between the reality of Jesus’ victory at Golgotha and the coming of the new Jerusalem, when we read at the other end of the Bible: “God will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more! (Revelation 21:4)
This means we still encounter the reality of evil but a reality whose days are numbered. The apostle Paul, battle-hardened in his stand for the Kingdom of God, was in no doubt. “Our struggle is not against blood and flesh but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” (Ephesians 6:12)
But God does not send us into battle (and that is the correct metaphor) empty-handed. “Put on the whole armour of God,” he urges, “so that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.” (Ephesians 6:11)
So given the menace of evil, we refuse to be intimidated or to seek a safe place to see out the war. We get involved – and surprisingly (given our flawed understanding of spiritual reality) the most effective weapon is prayer. Not just prayer, of course, but prayer while allowing God to work his victory through us.
So, the apostle urges: “God’s Word is an indispensable weapon. In the same way, prayer is essential in this ongoing warfare. Pray hard and long. Pray for your brothers and sisters. Keep your eyes open!” (Ephesians 6:18)
So, we pray in Jesus' name for all those harmed by the Southport outrage and those who would keep us safe.
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