2/26/50

Scripture: Matthew 17: 14-21

Text: Matthew 17: 20; “If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed --- nothing shall be impossible unto you.”

A great prophet of long ago said that “where there is no vision the people perish.” Too many are coming to the end of life and dying without fully realizing what faith can do for the living. Faced with a hard reality in their lives, too many dodge its responsibilities. Confronted with some stirring opportunity for service they quickly say, “O, I couldn’t do that. I just wouldn’t know how. And anyway I have to watch out for my health, you know.”

Too few see the tremendous, limitless possibilities of what can happen when the silent, incalculable power of Almighty God enters into life. When one gets hold of that power, one develops the capacity to dream, and to keep on dreaming greater dreams in spite of all odds, because of the assurance that he is in partnership with God. And God has power to make great, good dreams come true.

Do we dare to dream? In this materialistically practical age are we striving only for the goals that seem attainable as a logical conclusion? Or do we dare entertain the greater visions of adventurous faith? Probably religious faith seems fantastic to some people. They ponder despondently that if there is a God, he is so far off in some distant heaven that He is not much concerned with our sore hands and sore hearts here. And yet, all the while, God is just as near as these same hands and hearts, concerned over the anxieties, over the cares and burdens, over the despairings of his children, and willing to help in all our need. “Lo, I am with you” is a promise, through Christ, which he has always kept. If we have faith, even so small as a grain of mustard seed, he is with us with power.

It was an utterly fantastic dream for the Master to assure his faithful hearers: “I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto me.” [John 12: 32]. Overwhelming forces of evil were arrayed against him. He was, indeed, “lifted up” - not only in the hearts of his devoted followers, but upon a cruel cross. And strangely enough, he drew mankind only the more.

Everyone knows the story of what has happened since; death itself could not control him. Countless people have met him and shared his hope and power. Countless people have known the Comforter whom he promised, have experienced the peace which the world can neither give nor take away. There are many who begin the day with him, seeking his presence and talking with him in prayer; who take him with them into office, classroom, store, shop or field; who listen for his counsel when beset with problems.

I once heard a manufacturing executive from the east say that he and one other, finding that the annual bargaining for a workable contract with labor in their industry was one of the most difficult and exacting tasks of the year, always prayed briefly before going in to the bargaining table each day of the negotiation. They told no one at the time -- the two of them just prayed together before going in to each session. He said it made a great difference in the result. They were able to see the fair way for both sides more clearly and more quickly, to conduct their side of the negotiations in a more constructive spirit. He said that, at the conclusion of their latest contract negotiation, the hard-headed and able labor leader who had come from outside the plant to represent the working men in the negotiation, spoke to him with appreciation of the unusual spirit in which they had been able to work out the contract.

There are people who don’t “leave God behind” when they go out of the church doors on Sunday; who depend on his presence and seek his counsel when questions arise; for they know they need him every moment of their lives; people who share with him their joys; who study his word; who lay before him the record of each day. They penitently confess to him their mistakes, but they don’t spend sleepless hours trying to answer problems too deep for their own strength. They lay them before God, saying, “Father into thy hands I commend my life.” With this capacity to transfer their worries to him, they can awaken to another day ready to live, prepared to dream and to dare, knowing that the new day can be the greatest yet lived.

It is a thrilling and transforming experience to find available partnership with God. A man who was engaged in a business vocation told a friend that for years he had depended solely on his own strength, only to end with a feeling of failure. He continued to “make money” but he failed to “make a living.” Then something new happened to him. He discovered the spirit of God coming upon him. He yielded himself to the Voice that seemed to call him. He found forgiveness for his sins, release from his fears, and an unfailing friendship. He never felt alone after that. There was present with him a fresh power, and limitless resources belonged to him. His life was changed. He lived in the spirit of prayer. He found that his business associates had renewed confidence in him. He had a song in his heart and was not afraid to have it sung.

You can be that kind of new person too. Do you and I dare to behold new visions in spite of everything? So often we hear someone say, “If I had the talents and capacities of someone else, I would dream great dreams, too. But God passed me by when all the special abilities were being passed out. He can’t expect me to contribute to life like someone else can.”

Well, I think of a fellow I met at a summer conference at Lake Geneva, WI, some years ago in my student days. He wore heavily colored glasses to hide eyes that couldn’t see a thing. He had been totally blind from childhood. He was an extraordinarily cheerful fellow. He sat in conference sessions with a Braille slate taking notes. Later, he transcribed his notes on a typewriter to send back to the college where he was studying. When the other fellows talked of the girls they liked at home they had nothing on him! His nimble fingers whacked out a neat letter to more than one college girl while he was there! He was president of the college YMCA on the campus where he was going to school, and he thought of going into the ministry. He walked safely all over that hilly conference ground at College Camp just by touching the arm of someone else. No one even had to tell him where the stair steps were; he knew when he came to them, just by the feel of the other fellow’s arm.

Several years later I saw Harry Ernst. He had become a minister in his denomination. He did have a devoted wife. He was at that moment one of the leaders in a camp conference for high school young people. He was as happy and wholesome a fellow as you could find. If he couldn’t do a thing well one way, he would find some other way to do it. He would dream in spite of everything. He knew that God had a purpose for his living and would supply power for his worthwhile service. The good that happened to him right through his misfortunes, can happen to you right through yours.

I once saw Helen Keller. When I walked into the auditorium in Honolulu, where she was to speak briefly while her ship was in port, she was standing with the tips of her fingers on the neck of a guitar. The guitar was being played by a young Hawaiian fellow. Helen Keller’s blind eyes rolled about with happiness. For though she could not see, and her ears were stone deaf, she was “listening” to that Hawaiian music through the finger tips of her left hand and with her right hand she was beating time perfectly to the musical rhythm. Though her ears had never heard the sound of a human voice, nor her eyes beheld the lips or smile of another speaker, she had learned to talk. Her own voice was imperfect in modulation but her speaking sounds were easily intelligible. And she carried on an animated, excited conversation with anyone who was near enough so that her sensitive fingers could lightly touch their moving lips. She was a giant of living faith. And you can be too.

The Rebuilder of dreams gives the capacity to keep the vision in spite of everything. Think of a long line of people who have been struck with cruel adversity. Cripple the baby, or impair the health of a man of faith and you may have a Sir Walter Scott or a Robert Louis Stevenson; put him behind prison bars and he can become a John Bunyan; cover him with the bitter snows of Valley Forge and there emerges a George Washington. Let a man of faith be born in abject poverty and you may find an Abraham Lincoln; burden him with religious prejudice and you may find Disraeli; put him in a locomotive roundhouse and get a Walter P. Chrysler. History is charged with the name, and record, of men of faith who keep on seeing visions despite the difficulty or limitation of their surroundings. You can dream your dreams and see your new visions. For God gives power to make dreams come true.

There is daily assurance from the divine that we have help, whatever be the circumstance. What is your spiritual need? Are you burdened with sin? Hear this assurance: “There is, therefore, now no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus.” [Romans 8: 1]. Are you afraid? Hear this assurance: “Fear not, I am with thee; be not dismayed for I am thy God.” [Deuteronomy 31: 8]. Are you concerned lest good is to be swamped by evil? Hear this assurance: “Fear not, I have overcome the world.” [John 16: 33]. Are you lonely? Fear this assurance: “Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.” [Matthew 28: 20]. Does the thought of death haunt you? Hear this assurance: “I am the Resurrection and the life; he that believeth on me shall never die.” [John 11: 25].

All of this was sealed outside the city of Jerusalem on a skull-shaped hill called Golgotha, where a figure writhing in agony on a cross was able to say, “Father, forgive them.” [Luke 23: 34]. What unlimited love - for all sorts of people - even for you and me!

Have you heard the story of the small boy who went swimming at a beach for the first time? He was enjoying the feel of the water so much that he went out too far in it. He couldn’t yet swim, and so he was in trouble. A life guard saw him struggling and quickly went after him. But before he reached the boy, the lad had sunken just below the surface and was unconscious. The guard found him quickly, carried his limp form ashore and quickly applied artificial respiration. After working over the little fellow for quite a time he finally brought him back to life, and the boy opened his eyes.

The life guard kept the lad on the ground for a while longer, wrapped in a blanket to keep him warm until he could be sure the breathing would continue. As he lay there, the boy looked up and said to the guard: “Thank you for saving my life.”

How many of us have looked to the Savior from Galilee, from Calvary, from the emptied tomb - to the Savior who walked the earth and was tempted like as we -- to the Savior who still walks among our troubled human lives in sorrow and in joy and have said to him: “Thank you for saving my life.”

There is a little bit more to the story of that little boy and the life guard. When the boy thanked the man, the man looked down at him and said, as I am sure the Master speaks to each of us, “Son, go out and prove that your life was worth saving.”

Formed into words, the truth is so simple that it is easily overlooked. “To as many as receive him, to them gives he the power.” If you and I have faith even so much as a tiny grain of mustard seed, any good thing becomes possible. You and I can become new persons, and God will give us the power to make our worthy dreams come true.

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Dates and places delivered:

Wisconsin Rapids, February 26, 1950.

Wisconsin Rapids, January 14, 1962.