THE MARKS OF A LIVING CHURCH

Waiapu Church Gazette, Volume 31, Issue 2, 1 April 1940, Page 7

THE MARKS OF A LIVING CHURCH

little Private Groups or Cells are Forming Themselves"

By SIR WALTER MOBERLY, D.5.0., D.Litt. Broadcast Talk published by kind permission of the 8.8.C.

"The Christian Church was meant to be a creative, redemptive force m the life of the world." To-day we all take it for granted that we can't leave the very poor to •starve, that aged and sick people must be cared for, and that children 'must receive some sort of schooling. But we owe this largely to the pioneer work of groups of Christians m "the remote past — particularly monks and nuns — who undertook it voluntarily when few people bothered about it. The example they set has •gradually raised the whole standard of social behaviour. It is still low enough m all conscience; but at least people have recognised to this extent that they are their brothers' keepers and that they can't simply let the weak go to the wall . Why did the monks do what they did? I. suppose it was because the love of Christ constrained them. They found they ■could not love God, and their fellowmonks as themselves, and then sit •down to their dinner, while leaving the poor people outside their gates to ■die of hunger. Just because they were sincere m their religion their eyes were opened to a social responsibility to which other people were Mind. But though to relieve people m trouble is a Christian duty, it is not enough. The Christian must go on to ask himself why they are m trouble, whether it is through somebody's fault and so can be prevented, above all whether it is through a fault m which he himself shares; and this is likely to produce unpleasantness. In the Middle Ages, if a city merchant or a feudal baron heard that a set of monks were giving alms or shelter to the poor, I expect he mildly approved, though he had no intention of doing anything of the sort himself. But if the monks had threatened the merchant's profits or the baron's power, it would have laeen a very different story; and probably they would have been Knocked on the head. THE PROPHETS OF ISRAEL Yet the prophets of Israel because

they were the servants of God had constantly found themselves obliged to expose unjust kings and landlords, and to champion the poor and oppressed; and that is why they were stoned. So m our own country it was because of their strong Christian convictions that Wilber'force and his friends devoted their lives to the overthrow of the slave-trade and Lord Shaftesbury devoted his life to preventing the exploitation of children m factories. Any genuine Christain must have something of this naming indignation against cruelty and injustice and readiness to go into battle against them and to take the consequences, even if it means treading on the toes of powerful persons. But, if so, , how few of us are genuine Christians! What, do you suppose, does any intelligent agnostic think of us? Does he often say, "Though I can't share their beliefs, I respect these people, for I recognise that they are a great force making for a better world?" Does he really take us seriously at all? Herod took John the Baptist seriously, and Hitler takes Pastor Niemoller seriously; and so they put them m prison. But nobody wants to put most of us m prison: we have been too content to take colour from our surroundings. So now that the world is m this ghastly mess and people desperately want a Gospel, they mostly don't expect to get it from the Christian Church, which, I fear, they regard as a back number. We have indeed left undone those things which we ought to have done; and if we are now even to get a hearing we must begin by admitting frankly our grievous fault. ANGRY CONTEMPT I believe there is a further reason for the angry contempt with which so many people— and particularly the younger people — regard any claim of the Christian Church. "No doubt," they say, "it would be a nicer world if nations would behave as the Covenant of the League dictates, and if individuals would obey the Ten

Commandments— let alone > the SeiSmon on the Mount. . Biltrthe fact is that they don't and won't. .To adjure Europe to-day, to try the Christian way of life, is like the! bleating of sheep m the face of brutal realities." . Now there was a rosy optimism, common m Victorian times, which proclaimed that every day and m every way the world is getting better and better; that, nearly everyone is a decent fellow at heart, and that with a little more scientific discovery and a little more education, we may all hope to arrive before long at the millenium and then to live happily ever after. But the Christian -view is the very opposite of this. ..In the deep disillusion of to-day, there is nothing strange to Christians. They should not be surprised that horrible things are happening to a civilisation which has tried to organise its life m practical forgetfulness of ..God. They know that the evil tendencies of human nature are desperately strong; and that they are like the legendary monster which Hercules ; fought — it had many heads, and; as fast as he struck off one, two new, ones grew forth m its place. We have constantly repeated. in church that we are miserable sinners, but we have not been m bitter earnest, about it. We have forgotten that this is the confession not only of special classes of people, like thieves* and prostitutes and murderers, but of bishops and judges, and ministers of the Crown — -m fact, all of. us. Perhaps we have seen ourselves as St. George slaying the dragon. And we have felt a glow when we . have repeated Blake's splendid lines: "I will not cease from mental fight , Nor shall the sword sleep m my hand, Till we have built Jerusalem In England's green and pleasant land." But we are not really m the least like St. George and we are utterly unfit and impotent to build Jerusalem here or anywhere else. We are unable of ourselves to do any good thing. Before we can have a better social order, we must be changed men, and we shrink from the cost. Yet to work such a change m us is precisely what Christ offers, if only we will let Him. The reformer then who takes an unduly sanguine view of human nature and expects quick returns at a moderate outlay is no Christian. He is guilty of what is called "wishful thinking," and of an unconscious refusal to face disagreeable facts.

This is simply a sin, due to defective care for truth. To be a realist is not only practical politics, it is a Christian duty. A CHRISTIAN CAN'T BE A DEFEATIST But if a Christian can't be an easy optimist, still less can he be a "defeatist." In view of sombre facts it is true he may be tempted to argue like this. "It's not my job as a Christian to worry about public affairs and work for a more Christian order. Let me stick to my proper business, which is to tend my own inner life and that of any others who will, let me help them. Till all men are Christians the world must go its own hard-hearted way; and, so far as possible, I must keep myself unspotted from it." Now this may be plausible, but it's not only unchristian, it's not even honest. It is dishonest because no .one can really contract out m this way. The attempt to do so means m practice that you enjoy the advantages of the existing social order without accepting any responsibility for it. You can't just be a rather superior spectator, you are. inevitably an actor as well: If you say of any transaction, "Oh, that's business, or that's politics," and imply that it is impossible to judge it by Christian standards, you are really finding an excuse for acting m these spheres m a less Christian way than you might have done. Anyone can see the incongruity m the burly farmer who, one Sunday, was singing lustily, "Were the whole realm of nature mine, that were an offering far too small," while fumbling m his pocket to make quite sure that it was a sixpenny bit 4nd not .a shilling that he ■was going to drop into the offertory bag. But suppose he spent part of Monday m opposing violently any increase m: his local rates, quite regardless of the purpose for which the increase was proposed, the contradiction would have been just as great, if not quite so obvious. This "defeatism" is not only dishonest, but unchristian. It is true you can hardly be a Christian at all if you have never been through something like despair, but a desperate human situation is exactly what Christ came to meet. It is just the kind of men we know and are— weak and unreliable— whom He uses. His own Apostles seem to have been, at

the outset, quite commonplace people. Even Peter, on whom Christ said He built His Church, was capable of acting like "a shuffler, a snob, and a coward." So the desperate social and international situation m which we find ourselves to-day is one with' which we know God can deal. It is one m which the most ordinary and ungifted people may find themselves called on to lead a forlorn hope; and if they are, they will find they can do it — not well enough perhaps to earn any sort of medal, but well enough to carry it through. A SPECIAL OPPORTUNITY In one sense there is even a special opportunity to-day. At ordinary times we are so clogged by routine by the multiude of our possessions, by the hostages which we have given to fortune, that we find it hard to make any venture. Now, willy-nilly, we are likely to be freed from this particular obstacle; for we are less sure than usual that there will be any dinner for us to-morrow or that we shall even be alive. If the rich young man m the Gospel had suddenly lost all his money, perhaps he might not have made his great refusal. DIFFERENCE MILLIONS OF CHRISTIANS WOULD MAKE What difference is it going to make to the action of British statesmen at the next peace congress that hundreds of thousands — perhaps millions — of Britons are convinced Christians? Again, what of the vast social changes which every thinking man knows will come out of this war? They may be for the better or for the worse. Are we, as Christians, going simply to sit back and let them happen to us? Or shall we make a sustained effort to discern something of God's plan for them and to play our part m shaping them m accordance with that? In face of such a task we naturally feel rather helpless. But we all have a duty to try to understand the moral issues involved and to make up our minds about them. At the very least we can be on the look-out for convincing Christian leadership and can respond to it when we get it. We may find it m a book, a newspaper article, a newsletter, pr a broadcast talk. If we are all thinking and praying about these issues to the best of our ability, a well-

informed Christian public opinion may emerge which can be a support to Christian statesmen, or, if need be, a warning. DISCOVERING THINGS THAT ARE WRONG But just because we are so helpless as individuals, we must find newways of getting together. In some places to-day little private, informal groups or "cells" are forming themselves. These are groups of Christians who want to bring their religion more closely to bear on their daily lives and work. They meet at regular intervals to try^to learn more* of their Christian duty to society and to co-operate m doing it. They pray together and they discuss, but both prayer and discussion are to lead upto action. These groups are of two' main kinds: One is a group of neighbours. Their object is to discover things that are wrong m their own district, which as Christians they ought to be concerned about and which they could do something ta put right. For example, they may find that they themselves can give some special help to unemployed or sick people, to children " delinquents; or they may be able to secure improvements m the public services; concerned. Thus they make experiments which may be of use to others. The other type of group is composed, of members of the same trade or profession. They consider what there is m the conditions of their work and their professional standards which is a challenge to their common Christianity and what they themselves can. do about it. Christian critics from outside can't do this effectively; they don't know enough about the facts. For instance, an ordained minister can seldom tell a company director or a trade union leader how as a Christian man, he ought to run his company or his trade union. The people who can form a valued opinion about that are Christian directors and Christian trade unionists; that is, men m the situation responsible for acting on any conclusions they reach. Perhaps the most effective step we can take just now towards making the Church the force m the world, was meant to be, is to get together a few of your neighbours or of your fellow workers m your industry or profession, and to form one more of these Christian "cells."