Staff Service - 18 May 1954

In this verse the Prophet Jeremiah gives us his opinion of society in Jerusalem during his time. It was a severe condemnation of the lives of the people of that time. Outwardly they were a religious people, but in their lives they denied the religion they professed with their lips. Jerusalem at this time appears to have been what we would describe as a ‘church going city’. Jeremiah acknowledged it to be a community which says, ‘The Lord liveth.’ The people declared their corporate belief in the being and sovereignty of God. They were keen to associate acts of worship with the celebration of their major civic festivities.

But it is this outward profession that stirs the prophet to passionate indignation. Because the common life and the individual practices of the citizens show up their faith as unreal, and their religion as a sham. ‘Though they say the Lord liveth,’ cries Jeremiah, ‘surely they swear falsely.’ There is a contradiction between profession and practice. That is what Jeremiah found in the life of his generation. The people call upon God with their lips, but in their general life God’s attributes of Justice and Truth are conspicuous by their absence. ‘Find me one who executeth justice and seeketh truth!’ That is the prophet’s challenge. He is convinced that the search for this individual is a depressing process. One will have to go to and fro through the crowded streets, the busy square and the broad places of the city before that man can be found, if indeed he be ever found at all. ‘If there be found one man who executeth justice and seeketh the truth I will pardon the city,’ said the Lord.

If we look at the situation in our own national life in this island home of ours today, and in the world at large, we may say the situation is very much the same as in the days of Jeremiah. In the days when Jeremiah prophesied Jerusalem was threatened with invasion by the Babylonians. There were signs of their national life being utterly destroyed by hostile forces. The prophet’s mission was to bring the people to repentance and thus avert the calamity. But they would not listen to him, and as was feared the nation was utterly destroyed and they were taken captives to Babylon. We ourselves are living in times when our national life, in fact our very existence, is threatened with extinction by hostile forces. The forces of Communism are on their onward march and we are in danger of losing the freedom which we have learnt to value. The explosion of the hydrogen bomb has brought home to everyone the real danger we are in from the discovery of nuclear weapons. I do not want to be unduly pessimistic, but all thinking people have become rather anxious about the world situation today. We are in danger of destroying ourselves any moment.

Is there anything we can do as Christians in such a situation? Sometimes we have a tendency to look at world events from a detached point of view, as if we are not responsible for the present state of the world. We behave as if the responsibility of solving the world’s problems rests entirely on the leaders of the nations. We must realise that we too have our responsibility in putting the world right. For the world’s desperate needs are neither political nor economic as our leaders want us to believe. Nor is the world’s supreme need the availability of first-class brains, desirable as such a commodity may be. We have by this time had evidence enough that first class brains, unless allied with first class character reflecting the mind of Christ, have a dangerous tendency to become the curse of society. The world’s needs lie deep rooted in a necessity for the development in individual lives of high moral and religious character. Certainly, the life of a country must be organised on a sound basis, but let us not put too much faith in organisations and systems. There must he men of character and integrity to work them. The future of our country depends on the type of men and women who will come forward as our leaders. Looking at the situation in our own country we have often felt that there is a dearth of leadership. It is not that we need more intelligent men or educated men, but we do want men who will stand out for justice and truth.

Diogenes was a great philosopher who lived in the 4 th century B.C. He was the most prominent representative of ancient cynicism, and lived the life of an ascetic. It is said that he went out one day along the streets of Athens with a lantern and a candle at noonday looking for something. When he was asked what he was looking for he replied bitterly and abruptly, ‘A man.’ At noonday with a lantern and candle he went in search of a good man in Athens.

As we begin our work this term le us remind ourselves today that we are not to regard ourselves as mere onlookers of the world situation. We have our share of work in putting the world right. Statesmen, economists and others responsible for the government of the nations are busy preparing plans and schemes and projects to ensure the good government of the people. That is the contribution they are called upon to make. We are called upon to make a contribution of a different kind. We prepare men and women who carry out the schemes and projects planned by the statesmen and politicians. What the country is in dire need of is not schemes and projects, but men and women who love and fear God. It is said that the soul of all improvements is the is the improvement of the individual soul. Our Lord’s emphasis was always the individual. ‘The Kingdom of God is within you,’ he said. If we are concerned about the world’s troubles and are anxious to alleviate and banish them, a beginning must be made with the individual.

A little leaven leaveneth the lump. So, our Lord insisted again and again. Jeremiah declared that if there was one man that was on the side of truth and righteousness, God would pardon the city. So if we are to save our society there must be a change in ourselves, our own lives and our own outlook. We must ourselves be true to our faith, our work, and our personal responsibilities. To put the world right the first thing we must do is to put ourselves right – right with God and right with our fellowmen. We must ourselves stand on the side of truth and righteousness both in our homes, in our sphere of work and in all our relationship with men.

Let us, therefore, dedicate ourselves afresh this morning, and pray that God may make us into men and women He would like us to be. ‘A little leaven leaveneth the lump.’ It is Gods will that the leavening process should start with each one of us.