Heaven and society as seen through the eyes of two opposites: Margaret Thatcher and John Lennon.

Imagine hearing your prime minister stating, as if it were a matter of established fact, that there is no such thing as society.

“I think we have been through a period when too many people have been given to understand that when they have a problem it is government’s job to cope with it. ‘I have a problem, I’ll get a grant. I’m homeless, the government must house me.’ They are casting their problems on society. And, you know, there is no such thing as society. There are individual men and women and there are families. And no governments can do anything except through people, and people must look to themselves first. It is our duty to look after ourselves and then, also, to look after our neighbours. People have got their entitlements too much in mind, without the obligations. There is no such thing as an entitlement, unless someone has first met an obligation.”

This famous quote was made in 1996 by Margaret Thatcher, a person I admired but never really liked and a remark I never understood. However I had never before writing this read the comment in context. They are tough words that sound even more so to the modern mindset. Obligation is not a word we hear bandied about on the media, let alone in the context of meeting obligations before an entitlement is even considered. That’s like asking a builder to work on your house, and only paying after the work has been satisfactorily completed. Which is of course exactly what is expected. He has an obligation to do the work he has agreed to do and having done it is entitled to be paid whatever was agreed. We have developed a society in which many people feel free to demand their rights or entitlements without feeling any sense of obligation to anyone. For this reason I think it true to say that it is considered a mess from whatever view you take. Take a view from the bottom of the pile and it seems nothing like enough is being done. From the top, the view may be that whatever is done will never be enough. Don’t get me wrong, the poor should always be helped. But if the sense of entitlement was removed, maybe gratitude rather than resentment would become the predominant response.

What would happen if instead of thinking of ourselves first, we considered what we could do to help others? If we developed a sense of obligation to others. Not a coerced arm twisting form of action but one freely offered. If this sounds like the golden rule taken from the words of Jesus, that is exactly what it is.

“So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you.”

That is a life changing thought. The impulse to care for others based on what we know we need for ourselves. It begins with you and me, and if it works as it should then you and I will both benefit. Society if set up on that principle would probably thrive and each one of us would be happier. We all know that in the real world this does not happen very often. We seem to be set up on the principle of screw you mate, if you are stupid enough to give me a handout don’t expect to get anything back. And if you hassle me I will either disappear or come back with some mates and teach you a lesson.

But if the Jesus way was followed then as John Lennon wrote: Imagine! The opening line of the lyric is ‘Imagine there is no heaven’. I think that is intended as a denunciation of religion, even of heaven in the religious sense of the word. The strange thing is he has entirely missed the point. God offers everything Lennon’s song expresses. His longing for justice and goodness and open hearted charity to be seen and experienced. What Lennon desires is the heaven promised by Jesus Christ. People living in an eternal present, no countries, nothing to kill or die for, no religion, living in peace, the world as one. There will be no sense of my possessions and yours, no greed or hunger and a brotherhood of man shared by all. He described it so well. It is a description of heaven and he could have added another verse. No death, or suffering or tears or regrets and a love which never ceases or grows dull or fades away. Freedom and fulfilment and joy beyond imagining which can never be lost. He got so much right while missing the central point. He saw the vision but failed to see the only one who could make it real, make it happen. If Lennon had imagined just a little further he may have recognised an obligation to God. Thankfulness, gratitude for his life, his talent and the opportunity to use it and rise to the top of his profession.

Here is a quote from John Lennon.

“Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink. I needn’t argue about that; I’m right and I’ll be proved right. We’re more popular than Jesus now; I don’t know which will go first – rock ‘n’ roll or Christianity. Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It’s them twisting it that ruins it for me.”

From that remark you can make your own opinion up about John Lennon. As to his prophecy about Christianity; in the West he is probably accurate, but worldwide he was way off. According to Pew Research, there were 600 million Christians in the world in 1910. In 2015, the number was 2.3 billion and growing. Sometime around 2050, the number will edge 3 billion. As for the disciples, they were not thick. Why should Lennon sneer at those  ordinary blokes who helped the academic St Paul spread a gospel message which converted the entire Roman Empire.