The Religious Outlook

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 80, 14 April 1945, Page 8

The Religious Outlook

THE CHURCH LOOKING AHEAD (by W. Robinson, M.A., D.D.) The Church being eternal, within the heavens, the past, present, and future are within her. It is for this reson that she can and dare look ahead and relate herself to the future. She can courageously relate herself to the future because she is so deeply rooted in the past. The true Church is always the Church securely founded in the past, living her life in the present, and relating herself to the future in a creative way. She is the most dynamic thing in tire world and yet she is often thought to be the most "dead.and alive” thing. This false estimate (which is shared by those within as well as by those without) is partly due to a misunderstanding of her true nature as related to history, and partly due to the fact that she often denies her true nature, preferring to be supine where she ought to be courageous, to be static where she ought to be dynamic, to be concerned for her own safety rather than for the redemption of the world. Her true nature is misunderstood both by the radical and the conservative. It is because, standing within the present, she is related to the past and to the future that her task in this world is always the same task and yet always a new task. I want, therefore, to speak of three dire needs of the Church in this fateful day as she stands facing the unknown future.

TO RECOVER THE SENSE OF HER OWN DIGNITY AND DESTINY

Her first need is to cover the sense of her own dignity and destiny. Her high destiny is that she is eternal in the heavens. She is not a human society. Whilst she has need to be humble before her Lord, she has no need to be intimidated by her critics. It is to the shame of the Church that this may often be true enough, and when it is true let the Church repent in deep humiliation, but let it be repentance before her Lord and not before her human critics. Let her at the same time realise her high calling in Jesus Christ. In the second century, when the Church was a small minority in a pagan world, facing criticisms and hostility and martyrdom, she never lost sight of her high calling. TO RECOVER FAITH IN HER MESSAGE This is her second need. Her high calling is in Christ Jesus. That is the key. We have been passing through an age when the Church has been intimidated by the worldly-wise, an age of openmindness. Some Christians have preferred to be so open-minded that they almost become mindless. We need, as the Irishman said, to get our backbones to the front. I believe it was C. E. M. Joad who once said that the only advantage of having an open mind was that one could shut it! and there is no doubt that we need to be cured of this disease of openmindedness. We have no liberty except liberty in the Gospel. The everlasting Gospel has been delivered. We don’t have to create it. We have to declare it. The Church’s first task in the world is to evangelise, to preach the Word of God, the good news of His everlasting mercy and judgment in Christ Jesus. TO REALISE THAT HER MESSAGE IS FOR HERE AND NOW AS WELL AS FOR HEREAFTER

Humanism is fusionless. It mistakes techniques for life. It proclaims salvation by economies, by psychology, by hygiene, by planning and by a dozen other nostrums. It attempts to build the Kingdom of heaven on earth with earthly bricks. But mere piety is escapism. It cannot escape the selfishness which it assumes it has cast out. Neither can hope to build a new world. Humanism is illustrated by the verse of the hymn (which fortunately is not in our own book) which people appear to sing lustily: Rise up, O men of God The Church for you doth wait. Her strength unequal to the task, Rise up and make her great! Here is a picture of a weak, flabby Church, sick and dying, which will only be resusciated by human effort! It is perfectly Wellsian in its sentiments. But mere piety is illustrated by the parody of the verse: Sit down, O men of God! His Kingdom He will bring Whenever it may please His will: You cannot do a thing! This is mere piety, false Christianity. What we need is something like this: Rise up, O men of God! The Church for you doth wait, Her strength shall make your spirit strong, Her service make you great. This is something more like true Christianity, and yet most modern hymn books which have included the hymn have preferred the first form! What a commentary on the Church’s capitulation to mere humanism as the second form is a commentary on the Church’s capitulation to mere piety! The Church’s task is not only to serve individuals, but also to save and redeem society. Without the world the Church has no mission: without the Church, the world perishes.