THE RELIGIOUS OUTLOOK

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXII, 26 November 1938, Page 15

THE RELIGIOUS OUTLOOK

1 AND THOU • A broadcast address given in St. Martin in the Fields, London, by the Rev. Pat McCormick, M.A., D. 5.0.. Vicar.) You may remember that when i talked at this service some months ago. I spoke of a young couple who desired to start afresh, and I have wanted to go on with that talk, but things have made it impossible till to-night. And the reason why I want to go on is that though what I said seems to have been helpful to others, it did not go far enough—that would be impossible in one short talk —and it did not satisfy me in having enough drive. You may remember the young couple were determined to make a fresh start and we spoke about the necessity of keeping near to God, so that we may have His Powei.

But, you may say. you talk of the ; power of God, how do you know there is such a power, or rather how can I know it, for you seem to have experienced it; I should like to too. It seems to me that it can only come by answering the demands which God makes upon us. You will see what I mean if you look at the way Jesus Christ dealt with individuals. He did : not say “Be good”; He did not say “Be religious”; He said, “Follow Me.” As | we said in that talk, He demands our i love and loyalty; we can only know the ; power of God when we respond with j all our hearts to this demand. And as , you will remember it is a very big demand. You will notice that He wanted people to count the cost before they came to follow Him; He even seemed to try almost to put people off, if He thought they were taking it lightly; He saw that for many people it meant a complete change in their lives and their ideas; so he said repent, that is | change your mind; and He was never satisfied till they were willing to do it j wholeheartedly. And that is just as true to-day. For many people to-day religion is a sort of addition to their ordinary life; it affects only part of their lives. Almost it is like the Sunday clothes which they take off for week-days and their everyday work. For some people again, religion is a rather pathetic attempt to be good, or to be respectable; in fact some people quite think the Church ought to teach | | this; for others, religion seems to mean j i becoming pious and sanctimonious; frankly, I am always frightened of pious 1 people; I may be wrong, but I find so ! many of them unloving, hard and j critical of others; and I canot help remembering our Lord’s words about the Pharisees, who were very good living, pious men. They don’t seem to be progressing in Love, the vital thing, as we shall see in a minute.

But God will have none of that. You can see it right down the ages. The prophets said “What is the good of your temple treading (your churchgoing) if your heart is far from Me?” Thou shalt love the Lord with all thy heart. God demands our all when He says “Follow Me”; He expects us to take Him into every part of our lives; and unless we do, we fail to obtain His power. He calls us to come and live with and for Him as members of His Kingdom.

So you see religion is first of all an answer to the demands of God. “Follow Me” is not a request so much as a demand. The Bible is full of this as Karl Barth says, “the Bible tells us not how we are to speak to God, but how God speaks to us; not how we find a way to God, but how He has sought and found a way to us.” It is because He seeks our welfare, He says “Follow Me,” because He knows that without Him we shall never get satisfaction or Power. So the drive behind Christianity is the demand of God; it is God urging Himself upon us; for that is what Love means, and God is Love. And our response is urgent too; like

the Kings in The Christmas Story wc have seen that star, that light of His love, and we too want to come and worship and bring our offerings. Worship is the response to God's demand, “Follow Me.” We dealt with the way to do this last time, but I would add this; as God is Love the reason why He makes the demand is because He wants you to be your best self; to learn to love in something of the way in which He loves, so that you, your personality may have the Divine in it. I came across a great saying the other day, it was this: "The only real progress in the world is ‘Charity,’ ” where the word charity is of course

used in its original biblical sense, the word used of the Love of God and love of our fellow-men. It is a saying worth thinking out. We are apt to think of progress as a material thing; machinery, flying, or even knowledge, but none of these are eternal. But love is eternal, and progress i love is the progress of personality which is also eternal. You see what I mean, God says to us as persons “Follow Me,” and we can only grow in charity as we get His Spirit, through contact with Him.

, It is a vitally personal matter. Now that brings me to my other thought about what is the drive behind Christianity. It is altogether personal. It . is summed up in the title of a Look I have been reading, translated from (German —an arresting title —I and Thou.

Sometimes I think it is a pity we have almost lost in our conversation these two lovely words "Thou and "Thee,” which were retained by the Quakers; but we do keep them in our prayers.

And our religion is the relationship of "I and Thou” and unless we can sav I and Thou” in our dealings with God | we cannot possibly have the drive which leads us on to follow Him. It is also God's relationship to us: He too deigns *to say “I and Thou” and demands an intimacy so personal that it is at times frightening, and can only be borne because we know He loves us. But don’t forget that it is this intimate personal relationship which is the incentive and the drive of our religion. For Christianity is not the keeping of a code of rules or a system of law. It is not an ethic, or a -means by which we live good lives; it is a personal demand from God through Jesus Christ, to come out and join His Kingdom so that the world may be won, and His Will done on earth as it is in Heaven. lt is extraordinary to find as one goes back to the Gospels how little our Lord seems to say about individual salvation, and how much He says about the Kingdom; I think we have too often changed the emphasis. He seems to say to His disciples “come and follow Me in the fellowship of the Family; if you think of yourself you i will lose your soul, but if you think of j Me and My Will and the coming of | My Kingdom you will forget yourself, I and lose yourself in the cause, in the j giving of yourself to winning the world ' for Me.”

You see what I mean; here is the real drive, the thing that makes Christianity so enthralling; we have heard God’s call; we have seen Him as the Lord of all life; we have experienced something of the Love which is the essence of all life with Him; we are ready to live in that daily relationship of “I and Thou”; we have come to be- | lieve that His way. the way of Love i is the only way worth living, and so ' we admit His claim on us to follow Him ; and work with Him in the fellowship of His Family. And the result is we have a cause to work for, which enables us to forget ourselves, and give ourselves to Him. I wonder whether you think of Christianity like that. May f suggest you try it. If you are like me you , hate being told to be good; you are , even dissatisfied with trying to be ret ligious; but I’ll guarantee you won’t be _: dissatisfied with trying to do your bit . 1 to bring in God’s reign of Love. For ! i whatever it may cost, you will find that , i in trying to live with and for Christ l ! you will forget yourself in thinking of . Him, and not only find yourself doing , all sorts of things for other people, but will realise that you are happier in that, ! than you have ever been before. 3 You really cannot be happy in think- ' ing of your own soul; I find it is such t a hopeless business: I fail so often; ; j but if I forget myself and think of the f cause and of doing Christ’s Will, I am . morose no longer, but happy in feeling > I am doing my bit. Of course I often r fail at that too, and make mistakes. 3 but somehow there is not such a hope■j less feeling. The reason is this; I realise that when I am of some little use 1 j know it is Christ in me Who does it. e That is the secret; the Kingdom of s Heaven is within us, that is Christ is in us, and is using us for His purposes 1 and we know we are one with Him v and His will. The incentive is to please Him. our friend, saviour and guide, and ■l His Holy Spirit inspires us and makes v us happy in doing what He wants. That 3 incentive is a personal appeal,,a per--0 sonal presence, and a personal claim 3 | which we know is glorious when we res spond to it. Now, what is the result? First that e we find we are progressing, we are r progressing in charity; if we are really y trying to please Christ we must be g getting more like Him; it is impossible e not to, if we are trying to do His will; however much we fail, we are really e getting better, even if we are not very c pious people as people look on piety. s Don’t you see? Don’t aim at being pious in that way, aim at being Christ-like, at living with and for Christ. s But what is fhuch more important. h we know that we are taking our part 1 in the Family of Christ—the army of e God—in fighting evil. Don't you realise [S how hopeless it is to try and fight “ alone; we simply can't do it. Think of ** the words I read to-night; we wrestle not with flesh and blood but with e spiritual wuckedness. What use are e we if we fight alone against the powers of evil! It is the army of God which alone can win against the com;e bined forces of evil and selfishness in e the world to-day; and of course it is e the army that counts, not the ink dividual, but the individual gels )f strength, power and happiness from feling he is doing his bit in the army, the Family of God. )f He becomes a saint; not because he u is good but because he is in the fighting is line. y Tell me; in your religious life do you t, ever feel you are in a great army trying to establish God's Kingdom? If

not. surely you have got your Christianity wrong. We have got our conception of Christianity wrong, if we look on ourselves as the unit; of course we all count, but we count tremendously in God's sight; we count as members of the army of the living God; the thing that matters is the army and whether we are playing our part in it. And don’t tell me it is the Church's fault and the divisions in the Church it is an easy excuse, my friend, however much truth there may be in it—for the army of the living God is the blessed company of all faithful people —all who have heard the call of Christ and are trying to respond to Him; but they are not doing their bit unless they are trying to do it together. Don’t you see, Christ's call is to come into His fellowship and fight shoulder to shoulder with others in this mighty conflict with the powers of evil; we simply are useless trying to do it alone. But how glorious to know we are doing it together, even if we have different methods. You see then. I hope, what I mean by the incentive, the drive which makes Christianity a glorious adventure —and I would add keeps us from a vain attempt to “be good” in the ordinary sense of the phrase. It is first, the fact that Christianity is trying to meet the demand of God upon us and to please Christ, our God and King; and secondly it is trying to play our part as His personal friend in His army against the powers of evil. It is a tremendous call, a whole time job and just because it is so difficult in a selfish world and with our selfish nature, we need all the power of God —the whole armour of God—to help us. That is where Prayer, Communion, and all the means of Grace come in. we can’t do without them as they are our sustenance, the means by which Christ fills us with Himself. Neither can we really do without worshipping with our fellow Christians: we need their strength to help us and urge us on; we need the knowledge that we are fighting shoulder to shoulder and the power which comes from that. And remember that saying I qtioted earlier: you are then helping forward the 6nly real progress, for you are biinging about in yourself and in the world, progress in charity. You have found the drive of Christianity because you have heard the call of God, “I and Thou,” and you yourself have learned too to be able to say “I and Thou” 1o Him, and “I and Thou” to members of His Family. Religion has become a right relationship between you and God and between you and your fellow men.