Sunday Service - May 1945

“The Kingdom of God” says the apostle, “is not meat and drink.” No doubt he means us to understand that eating and drinking have something to do with the Kingdom of God, but that it is not to be thought of under these aspects. Material things and usages are of value only as the vehicles and instruments of spiritual values. They are good only, and in so far, as they provide scope for the spiritual experience, here designated as righteousness and peace and joy. These words have for us an added force when we remember that to the primitive Church the Kingdom of God was not only an ideal state, but also something very real and tangible, nothing less than a rejuvenated creation, a reconstituted society. We are on the threshold of a new world. All are agreed that with the end of the war the old order of things must come to an end, and a new order must come into being. We are looking forward to a time of peace and prosperity in the new social order. Almost from the beginning of the war groups of people have begun to consider schemes for the reconstruction of the world. On the question of a new social order there are in the main two schools of thought among the modern thinkers in Europe. There are those who follow the Marxist mode of thinking. 2) There are those who reject it. The non-Marxist thinkers – and there are many of them like C.E.M Joad, John MacMurray, Middleton Murray, Julian Huxley & H.G. Wells – they hold the view that widespread moral and psychological changes are desirable, if not essential, antecedents of right social change. The Marxists, on the other hand, believe that the changes needed will come more or less inevitably through the conflict between the economic interests of social classes, and that our moral wishes and efforts are largely irrelevant to the process. To the non-Marxists the world problems cannot be solved unless radical changes are effected in man’s outlook and fundamental dispositions; and his main problem is how such changes can be effected. To the Marxists it is largely a waste of effort to attempt to change man’s outlook without first changing the general economic layout. According to the Marxists when proper economic changes are made, the psychological and moral changes will follow almost as a matter of course. At a time like this we will do well to consider the Christian teaching about the Kingdom of God – the reign of God in the world. Man cannot create the new world merely by his wisdom, his power to plan and his foresight. The Kingdom of God cannot be built by man’s cleverness. It is the fruit of God’s grace. It is the result of an act of God in human hearts by which first the individual and then the community are reborn, and a right relationship with God and man is

established. The cure for all human ills is in a change of heart rather than in economic readjustment. The word that is in the lips of all of us these days is ‘Reconstruction’. Reconstruction is outward. The New Testament talks of rebirth – that is inward. Rebirth, regeneration conversion. The world is in need of men and women who are converted – men who will look at the world and their fellowmen with the eyes of Christ; men with a changed outlook, a new attitude to life, a new relationship with other people. As teachers of this generation we are called upon to work for the creation of a new world. How can we do our work? First we must teach our boys and girls that the solution of the world’s problems and the establishment of peace and goodwill among men will rest on the regeneration of the spirit of man rather than on readjustment of any economic systems. The remedy is in the realm of the spirit rather than in the realm of matter. We must help our pupils to have the right attitude to life and have the right relationship with God and their fellowmen. We must work and pray for a change of heart in us and in our pupils. We must endeavour to create a new world – the Kingdom of God, in and around the place in which we live. The Kingdom of Heaven has been defined as the kingdom of right relationships. Let us try to build the Kingdom of Heaven wherever we are – in our homes, in the school, in our parishes and in our neighbourhood. If in the little spheres in which we live and work we cannot create this new world – the Kingdom of God – then how can we expect the whole world to come under the rule of God. Wherever we go we find barriers set up – barriers of race, class, barriers caused by different social positions, different economic standards and prejudices. These barriers prevent fuller understanding of one another. Result – suspicion of one another. If we have the love of God in our hearts we can have these barriers broken.