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RETHINKING - The Key to Peace?
North Wales
2002
Mission impossible? New heaven and new earth ....?
Politics is man's attempt to run God's world in man's way.
Politics may keep our heads above water: it can never bring us ashore.
Evacuated from Kent to South Wales in 1940. Billeted on the Treasurer of the Baptist Church in Merthyr Tydfil. Attended three services every Sunday - drawn by the glorious language of the preacher, and the social advantages of the Youth Club. I was, of course, at this time a totally committed Christian!
Until, next door, arrived an Anglo-Indian schoolmate - who introduced me to Rationalism. Exactly what I needed, at age 17! Naturally, whatever could not be explained by reason could not be true!
For ten years after my 'conversion' I was spiritually at sea - outwardly rationalist, but inwardly restless.
A year at university followed, and then military service in NW Europe, Egypt and Palestine. Modern languages degree and teacher training in London ... and things began to happen .....
I found myself searching, searching - drawn to churches of various denominations, but always coming away with a sense of irritation. More and more, I was going to Donald Soper at Kingsway Hall and Leslie Weatherhead, City Temple - all the time worshipping the preachers rather than the God they preached .....
Eventually I reached a point of commitment - or so I thought. Soper's Methodism was winning. "Any questions?" he asked at the personal interview. "I don't fully appreciate the significance of the Cross," I replied. "None of us do!" he snapped. I withdrew! I believe Weatherhead would have been more sympathetic.
The church trawl continued. At college, I found myself editing the newsletter of the University of London Movement for World Government. 'World Government by 1955!' was the slogan; but I was soon led to something which, for me, was to be far more significant.
The Jewish historian, Hugh Schonfield, was founding what he called 'The Commonwealth of World Citizens.' I became a privileged member of an inner circle developing a Constitution for this 'nation without territory' whose members' allegiance was to be to the world as a whole, rather than to individual nation states.
1. The Commonwealth was to have its own parliament, cabinet, tax system, but no territory; and world co-operation was to be realised through the hearts of individuals, rather than by political agreement and imposed organisation.
2. Unexpectedly, this way of thinking provided me with the spiritual key I had been looking for for so long. If world citizens seek to live here and now as though the world were already one, so, surely then, Christian discipleship must mean living here and now as though the Kingdom has already come.
Before the end of my college days, it fell to my lot as student secretary of my hall of residence to entertain a visitor from overseas who was touring British universities. In my room after dinner Professor Carl Friedrich von Weizsacker, atomic physicist, expressed interest in our world government activities.
He listened patiently to my description of The Commonwealth, and then asked, quietly, "Why not the Church?" Was not the Church - the universal Church - already the body which should bring the world together as one?
At the time, I didn't know the answer. Later, I realised, only too plainly, that whatever its manifestations, the Church remains essentially too parochial, too inward-looking - always more human than divine. The worshipper in the pew would rarely claim to be thinking as a world citizen.
I became ever more searching, more critical, in my new-found faith. I wanted to know - still do - why in Christian teaching and preaching we hear so much about sacrifice, redemption and salvation, repentance, forgiveness and compassion - but so little of the practical implications of the Sermon on the Mount.
Is it not true that down the centuries the Church has failed in the quality of its discipleship, in its failure to take Jesus at his word - to preach and exemplify uncompromising faith in 'The Way' he came to demonstrate - the way God intended all human beings, created in his image, to live and love?
Many have said the Sermon is too idealistic. Yet, surely, what can be more truly realistic than Christian idealism?
So, my essential rethinking is this:
Materialistic ambition is perfectly 'natural.' Parents are anxious that their children should work hard at school, pass examinations and gain qualifications. Why? So that they can get a 'good' job, with good pay, with the best possible prospects for the comfort, prestige and pleasure they naturally desire?
Or is it because they want the children to develop a sense of purpose in life - a belief that God has a plan - or plans - for each one, and that therefore they need, through study and training, to make the most of their God-given talents for the benefit of the world around them - and incidentally find true happiness?
God's workers work, not because they expect reward, nor even for self-fulfilment. Whatever the particular purpose of their life requires, they will do the best possible job - for the sake of the job itself and for the benefit of those for whom it is done.
If this is not a right attitude, what did Jesus mean when he said, "Don't be anxious about food and clothes ... concentrate on right living, trusting God to guide and strengthen you - and you will have everything you need?"
We all want more than we've got. This is 'natural.' Yet, if greed is the single greatest source of suffering in the world, then surely solutions must lie in the promotion of unselfish truth and goodness. What really matters in life?
The early Christians were said to have 'turned the world upside down.' They were no longer self-centred, but set the true values of love above all else and found a peace they had never known before. We - even Christians - no longer do this: commercialism and materialistic ambition continue to dominate our lives.
Whatever we try to do politically, socially - even charitably - there can be no real peace in the world until ordinary people find peace in their day-to-day lives as individuals and as families. When the soaps are no longer full of bitterness, back-biting, betrayal, cruelty and violence .....
In deeper reverence praise.
John Whittier
Late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers ...
Wordsworth
formed by the souls of men and by the matter which they bear along
with them. Laboriously, through that medium and by virtue of human
activity, the new earth is gathering its forces and purifying itself."
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin 1881-1955
May this prove to be true .....
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