Yesterday when I switched on it appeared to be half way through a broadcast of a rather odd play. I wasn't paying attention really cos I didn't know what was going on..... when all of a sudden I heard a woman say ' Why didn't anyone notice the cracks appearing?' And for some reason those words smacked me in the face and wouldn't leave me alone for the rest of the day.
In the wake of yet another high school shooting in the USA it is not difficult to ask that question of the young man who posted on social media that he was going to become a shooter and then took a machine gun into his school. 'Why didn't anyone notice the cracks?' Close to home we will all know someone who has self harmed ( If you think you don't know anyone, you do. You know someone who smokes or drinks or overspends or overeats. And you probably know someone who cuts themselves or punches walls - its just that they might not tell you they do that) The cracks can be well papered over for a long time before they start to show. And that's the problem. Like a sink hole forming deep underground everything can be hidden for years before suddenly, something triggers the collapse and everything crumbles. 
Two days ago a friend of mine called an ambulance for their elderly and very poorly mother. The ambulance came and took her to hospital where she proceeded to wait for ten hours on a trolley to be admitted. That's pretty grim isn't it? But it is not the half of it. Apparently the ambulance crew are not allowed to leave the patient at the hospital admissions desk until they have been booked in and admitted. So for ten hours TEN HOURS the ambulance crew had to sit with the old lady. There were only two ambulances on duty that night. Sixty calls went unanswered whilst the crew sat in the hospital unable to respond. What is the likelihood that someone died because there was no ambulance available?? Why didn't anyone notice the cracks and DO something. Years ago. I'm not a political beast really but..... seriously. A year ago a friend spent 40 minutes doing CPR on her dying husband whilst waiting for an ambulance to come from a station just round the corner from her house. She didn't make a complaint despite the ambulance driver telling her she should. Her husband died. She had bigger things to think about at the time.It seems to me that silence is our enemy. Cracks appear and get papered over. Cracks appear and we don't like to mention it. Cracks appear and we get used to the cracks and convince ourselves that they won't get any bigger and that we can live with them. The cracks are sometimes our own but often they are other peoples. We hesitate to get involved. We don't want to complain about the ambulance or the school bully.
What would Jesus do?
It seems to me that Jesus confronted cracks wherever and whenever He saw them. Cracks of hypocrisy and religious bigotry. Cracks of sin and sickness. Fault lines in people's characters ( He was really good at that!) Holes in people's theology. Holes in people's hearts. Jesus didn't paper over - He exposed. But mostly He did it in a kind, loving way which showed people an alternative to living with cracks. He promised wholeness and strong foundations. ' I will build my church and the very powers of hell will be unable to put the smallest dent in its walls' ' You must be born again - start afresh with no cracks, smooth and perfect as a newborn baby.... and the Good News is, you can!' When Jesus looks at me He sees every crack and weakness. He knows that if He leaves that hairline fracture, by next week/month/year/decade it will have opened up to be a fissure which could swallow me.
This Lent let's be brave and come to Jesus with our faults and failings. Allow Him to speak to us about them, challenge and confront us if necessary, and dismantle us so that we can be rebuilt again faultless and without blemish. And let us be bold to address the cracks we see appearing in the people and structures around us. We are Jesus in this world and we need to be doing the things He did. Scary and uncomfortable but urgently important if we are to stop our world from crumbling to dust before our eyes.
Lord, help us to see the cracks in ourselves and those around us and to know what to do about them. Give us discernment, wisdom and compassion. Help us not to walk by on the other side. Give us grace for messy people and situations. Let us see beyond the faults into the heart. Let Your kingdom come and Your will be done
Amen
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