I have recently noticed something a bit alarming and I probably should not take it seriously because I have seen it mainly on the internet, but I need an introduction to this sermon so you are stuck with it. The alarming thing that I have noticed is the tendency of Christians to become utopians. What I mean by this is on the internet there will be a quote from a supposedly Christian source, which tells us that if we just did such and such the world would be perfect, no God needed. I saw one the other day which said, “If the Church followed the example of Jesus in how he treated women, it could heal the world.” Now please don’t think what I am about to say in anyway implies that we should mistreat women or that I think we should discourage people from acting in the way that Jesus did. I am sure the person who said this had good intentions, but what I want to point out is that we should never believe that solely through our own actions or the actions of humanity in general, we can fix the entire world. The reason for this is first because we are not actually God and second because there is evil in this world and quite frankly some people don’t want to be fixed. Yes we should certainly treat women in the way that Jesus did, but to say it will fix everything is sort of like saying that if you are nice to your mother ISIS will stop beheading infidels. Certainly we should be nice to our mother, but honestly I don’t think ISIS cares.
The problem with statements such as this is that while purporting to be Christian they are really nothing more than the faith in mere mortals that Jeremiah warns against today. It is the same kind of faith that Thomas Jefferson had when he took a penknife to his Bible and left only the sayings of Jesus of which he approved. Or in his words once he finished his surgery what remained was, “the most sublime and benevolent code of morals which has ever been offered to man.” Jefferson created a philosopher Jesus who was not divine but rather offered people some good advice. What Jefferson and modern day utopian Christians have in common is that they believe through the actions of humanity and humanity alone the world can be fixed. And that is really the crux of all utopian ideals; it is up to us. If we just do the right actions then everything will be perfect. But if the twentieth century taught us nothing else it is that utopian experiments and faith in the behavior of man leads to a lot of dead people be it in the killing fields of Cambodia or in the blockading of food supplies in Venezuela.
I was talking with someone the other day and they asked me what the difference was between faith and superstition. I said that my understanding was that faith places power in God while superstition places power in people. The faithful person prays that “Thy will be done” whereas the superstitious person throws salt over their shoulder to ward off evil spirits. In superstition we are in control and God, the gods or whoever wait for us to perform certain actions after which they are obliged to do something in return. I bury St. Christopher in my front lawn and he has to sell my house. And this mentality can be very prevalent in Christianity. It argues that if we do certain things God will reward us with what we want. But that is not saying thy will be done but instead my will be done.
So let’s get back to the Bible. I hinted at Jeremiah’s proclamation a minute ago, so let’s take a second to look at the part I was talking about. Jeremiah says (well actually he is quoting God), “Cursed are those who trust in mere mortals and make mere flesh their strength, whose hearts turn away from the Lord.” This is a problem for Jeremiah and a problem for Christians who seek utopia, because ultimately God will not fit into such agendas, largely because God does not promise utopia in this life. So the only way to even make an attempt to achieve utopia is through trust in mere mortals and by making mere flesh our strength. And like superstition this is very attractive because we are in control, we just need to come up with the right plan and we can make heaven on earth – no Jesus needed. But it never works because heaven on earth can only be implemented by God, it cannot be implemented by us because we are mere mortals and we cannot do God’s job. No matter how many plans and snappy Facebook posts we initiate.
I read a horribly tragic story last year concerning the world’s most prolific murderer Mao Zedong. It happened during The Great Leap Forward, which began in 1958. For those of you who do not remember this, The Great Leap Forward was a campaign to move China from an agrarian society to an industrial powerhouse, so that it could become a worker’s paradise or utopia if you like. One of the first actions taken in this quest was something known as The Four Pests Campaign. As the name indicates it sought to eradicate four pests, which were rats, flies, mosquitos and sparrows. Why sparrows you may ask, well it is because Mao thought they ate too much of the grain. So if you got rid of the sparrows there would be more grain for the people to eat in their worker’s paradise. An account written in Time magazine in 1958 describes how this campaign played out: “At dawn one day last week, the slaughter of the sparrows in Peking began, continuing a campaign that has been going on in the countryside for months. The objection to the sparrows is that, like the rest of China's inhabitants, they are hungry. They are accused of pecking away at supplies in warehouses and in paddyfields at an officially estimated rate of four pounds of grain per sparrow per year. And so divisions of soldiers deployed through Peking streets, their footfalls muffled by rubber-soled sneakers. Students and civil servants in high-collared tunics, and schoolchildren carrying pots and pans, ladles and spoons, quietly took up their stations. The total force, according to Radio Peking, numbered 3,000,000.” No one knows how many sparrows died but they do know what happened the next year. Mao must have been sleeping that day in ornithology class or forgot the other things that sparrows eat besides grain. And the other things that they really like to eat besides grain are insects, especially locusts. So the locusts, with no natural predators, came in droves and had free reign over the countryside. They went to work on the fields eating all that they could stuff into their little locust mouths. What followed next was the worst recorded mass starvation in the history of the world with somewhere between 15 and 78 million people starving to death. China put their faith in a man and his utopian ideals and he rewarded them by starving to death somewhere around 10% of their population at the time.
Now I am obviously not saying that every time we forget God and put our trust in man that millions of people are going to die, but I am saying that it will be worse off than if we entered into the situation with humility and relied on God. Our salvation is never going to come from a man, a government program for a Great Leap Forward or a catchy slogan on Facebook. Should we follow the teachings of Jesus, certainly we should, but we must also remember to rely on him in all things. Jesus final words were not I have told you everything you need to know so just follow these instructions and all will be well. Rather after he tells us to follow his commands he says, “And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” If we did not need Jesus but just his words why would he continue to be with us? We can only follow his commands in his strength not in our own. As Jeremiah tells us today God can never be eliminated from the equation. We must rely on God’s strength in everything so that we may be his both now and forevermore.