WOULD JESUS GO TO CHURCH?

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 131, 19 June 1937, Page 11

WOULD JESUS GO TO CHURCH?

• A. G.

Curnow.)

(By

There is a striking confession in a recent hook, "I have spent. many churehless years," says the writer (a lady), "and it is only lately that I have quietly returned to the fold of my fathers." She tells us what led htr to forsake the Church, and the cause of her "churchlesis years" coming to an end. On both points her tee-timo-.iy is obviously smcere and of nnusual iniportance ior our day. She says that for a long time slie coiild only see such things as that Jesus went to the hill-top to pray, declared that true worship was "in spirit," and that it was the offioiats of the organiseu Church of the oue who sent IT.iin to His death. As a consequence she noardoned public worship aud all chuivh. association and bccarne a "bluc-domer. " All this is a familiar enough experience, shared l.y a considerable number nowadays. ond it is possibie that some of our author 'a readers gave her up at this point, with a muttered protest against hacknore-1 comnvonplaces and "the same old tale." If so, it is a pity, for ine-notablo pait of her confession is v-t to come. After a time, she says, "I began to see other things," and she toils ue what they were. That Jesus noc only prayed m the open spaces of Nature, but wcnt rogularly to the Temple, "a tcmple desecrated with worldiiness, ' ' and regularly to tho synagogue, ' • a little, vulgar, sordid, quarrelsome village synagogue." And then comes this; "Jesus, who deseribed Himself as meet. and lowly in heart, avas able to worship according to imperfect usages and alongside of amperfect men. I can hardly consider inysclf superior to Jesus." And the result was that she "quietly returned to the fold of my fathers. ' ' f A tulling argument, and it soems difficult to escape i'rom its conclusion. We hear much of the reasons why people do not go to church. The unsatisfactoriness of professing Christians, the shortcomings of our public serwices, the unattractiveness of church activities, and. all the wildly advertised faults of organised religion generally. Yes, ave church-goers are a long way from what we ought to be, and our churches are a good deal less "attractive" than they uiight be. But then, without excusing ourselves, or palliating modern conditions in the least, things were pretty bad with the organised religion of nineteen hundred years ago, and Jesus did uot cut Himself off from it. The great mctropolitan Temple of those days avas, as our writer eays, "desecrated with worldiiness, ' ' and, as . for the synagogues in every little town and village, even if it is an exaggeration to describe them as "vulgar, sordid, and quarrelsome," they certainly were — weil. at least as uninviting as most of our town and village churches to-day! The evidenee would suggest that they were much more so, but there is no need to press the point. And yet — He went! And went regularly. We remember the word: "as His custom was." Surely this ds final for anyono who has any real rcgard for the outlook and example, the character and greatness, of the Man of Nazareth? It is quite coinmon' for those who contraet out from church association in our day to protest that they "have no quarrel with Christ," that in fact they greatly admi.ro Him, iudeed in the true sense believe in Him, and foliow Him. Have they. thought tho matter out? "If you are waiting for a perfect society beforo you joiu the Church," Wtuddart Kennedy once said to a critic of organised Cliristianity, "you had botter go and eat nuts on a descrt island, for you'll be in a society ono all your days — and that will be a long avay from perfect," A shrcwd thrust, but hero is a better argument: "Jesus . . . was able to worship according to imperfect usages and alongside if imperfect men." And the force of this argument meant that the writer wo have quoted, after "many churehless years .... quietly returned to the fold" she had abandoned. Honestly faced, would it not have tho samo result i.u many other lives? "I can hardly consider myself superior to Josus." Yes, it really comes to that. That is tho issuo.