3/12/50

Scripture: Matthew 5: 1-12

Text: Matthew 5: 5; "Blessed are the Meek ..."

One of the most awful cries of distress I ever heard fell on my ears once as I worked in my study during my first pastorate. I looked about quickly to find where the sound came from, and decided immediately that it came from the sea beach on the harbor directly in front of the home. When I had taken a few swift steps past the front door and through the gate, I could see over the low sand dune to the water’s edge and, sure enough the trouble was there. It was a very one-sided fight! Two husky canines had set upon another dog. The third must have been a very poor fighter, and had failed to keep his ears close enough to his head. Each of the others had hold of an ear and were shaking hard. Meanwhile, as if by pre-concocted plan, they were working the agonized one out into the sea as if to drown him. Certainly he had no footing by which to continue any defense. Perhaps they lost their own footing eventually, for they finally let go and the canine screams stopped. The unfortunate one was allowed to escape - which he promptly did, at remarkable speed, with ears bleeding, wet hair clinging so close as to emphasize how little essential dog he really was, and tail tucked tightly between his legs. He had been decisively whipped and the two bullies knew it as they strutted off down the beach.

Some such picture as the sight of that well-whipped cur is often called to mind when one mentions the word "meek." And the dictionary does assure us that one meaning of the word, when used in an unfavorable sense, is "easily cowed or imposed upon," "tamely submissive," "spiritless."

I want to point out emphatically that Jesus had no such meaning in mind when he taught his hearers with the words "Blessed are the meek." For meekness also means "gentleness," "kindness" in the same sense in which the word "gentleman" is properly used. It denotes "patience," "well-controlled temper," a genuine kind of "humility."

I suspect that the manly qualities of every boy resist the negative notion of the meek. Any school boy knows that the submissive fellow gets pushed around. And what is blessed about that? Yet Jesus said, "Blessed are the meek." There must be something to it. Else the saying would have died and been forgotten centuries ago. Jesus must have been on the track of something permanent. There must be some quality which evil doers have that gets them into trouble, sometimes destroys them. There must be some quality which people, whom Jesus described as "meek," have which makes for life. For some reason there are the meek around when evil-doers have departed. Let us see what are the qualities of the meek as Jesus thought of them.

It was Clarence Day Jr. who wrote "Life with Father." But long before he thought of writing that, he read his grandfather’s French Bible. He was disgusted with some of its translations. The King James translation mentioned "leviathan." The French translation simply said "crocodile." The King James version said, "Behold now Behemoth" and the French Bible said, "See the hippopotamus" -- nothing to tingle the reader’s spine in that! Moses and Jehovah were simply "irate" with the children instead of "divinely wroth."

But Clarence Day forgot his disgust over the disappointing translations in the French when he came across the French rendering of one of the beatitudes. For the one we read "blessed are the meek" was translated in the French, "Happy are the debonair!" That, Day felt, was something like it! That was the way Gallahad was.

Scholars tell us that the word has such a meaning in the Greek. It means gentle, mild, with overtones of sincerity. It describes the one who will in no circumstance sell his own soul, who stands by his convictions, who manages a quiet kind of gallantry in doing an exceedingly effective job of living.

The French translator must have been following this tack when he translated the word "debonair," which means, "of good disposition," "kindly," "courteous," "characterized by grace and light-heartedness." The debonair might be high-spirited, but not narrow-minded, ardent but not dogmatic, sincere but not intolerant. To be debonair is to take one’s cause seriously, but not one’s self seriously at all. It is to be gentle and gracious in outlook. Jesus must have been thinking about this kind of person when he said, "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life [pour out his spirit lavishly, willingly] for his friends." [John 15: 13].

Jesus understands. Mary Magdalene -- sacrificed , and [meek "illness" thing]? -- anointed the feet of Jesus. [Mark 14: 3,4]

Jesus - "Leave her alone. She hath done a beautiful thing. Wherever the gospel is preached throughout the whole world, this that she has done shall be spoken of as a memorial to her." [Mark 14: 6, 8-9]. Jesus understood.

Albert Schweitzer - in jungle where medicine was needed more than it needed his music.

Wilfred Grenfel - on Labrador coast.

Florence Nightingale going through wards at night -- face silhouetted by her night lamp.

More "Jesus understands": those who stand with strong convictions when difficult; those who are true to the trusts life has laid on them in the strenuous years of middle life; those who accept life’s frustrations and smile and live through them to deeper satisfactions; those who learn joy despite bereavement.

People have loved Saint Francis of Assisi for a thousand years because he found room in common life for the meek -- the debonair spirit. For him, labor was a joyous sacrament supporting the growth of immortal souls. -- single in his purpose. -- and who but our Lord could have known such holy joy as he had!

Of such spirits, Lynn Harold Hough thought when he spoke of a "clan of gallant gentlemen."

Dwight L. Moody - appealed to the "meek" when he appealed with the gospel of duty, transformed by love into radiant desire.

John Wesley -- understood -- translated each "blessed" of the beatitudes as "Happy."

Jesus -"It is more blessed" - ‘happier’ - to give than to receive."

His advice to his first preachers: "I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves. Be ye wise as serpents and harmless as doves." [Matthew 10: 16].

Jesus’ own blitheness when gloom encircled his spirit -- "My Father worketh hitherto, and I work." "Be of good cheer! I have overcome the world." [John 16: 33].

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[The Fate of the non-meek]

Cynic --- "I am perfectly willing for the meek to inherit the earth in due time, but in the meantime I plan to enjoy it." Idea seems simple.

But the offices of counselors, psychiatrists, and confessors are full of the disappointed who are frustrated by having nothing more substantial than this kind of enjoyment.

Another cynic --- "Perhaps the meek will inherit the world; in the meantime they get dreadfully kicked around!" Seems reasonable -- until we remember the fate of the non-meek.

Nazis -- certainly non-meek -- intended no one should push them around -- thought they were realists.

Perhaps no man lives in a non-meek manner without provoking someone else to the same action. After it is over, they are all in bad condition.

It is not the meek who bathe the earth in their own blood.

Mohandas Gandhi -- called "Mahatma" -- was one of the meek. At times he seemed a comical figure in the west -- wore sparse clothing -- goat’s milk -- skinny frame. But, shrewd Winston Churchill did not laugh when the issue was drawn. The little 108-pounder, living on goat’s milk and vegetables, spinning for hours, had a "soul-force." Every "realist" knew it! And knew that such a force, though helpless of arms, had a constructive power beyond calculation.

Gandhi found his power in the Sermon on the Mount, and it was of this quality of meekness that Gandhi could laugh and struggle. He never fought for himself. Always fought for some righteousness, whether with foreign power or with his own people. One of the few great constructive acts our civilization has seen was the freeing of India -- a triumph of the meek.

Characteristics of his life --- the place of Gandhi’s assassination -- treatment of outcasts of India parallels the treatment of Negroes of some parts of the USA. -- Segregated, socially ostracized, economically discriminated against. Gandhi wrote against these evils. More, he went to live with the untouchables! -- Adopted them (as if Abraham had adopted several Negro children!).

British Cabinet Mission came to negotiate with him there at his little white-walled mud hut, looking over courtyard of baked clay beaten by passing of many feet. And they came with perfect seriousness! This was no dramatic spectacle. This was the man who, with a 5-day fast, could end a war in which 350,000 people had been slain! No man in the western world has exercised such an influence - sufficient to end strife (e.g.) between Jew and Arab in Palestine - as Gandhi exercised to end strife between Hindu and Moslem in India and Pakistan. --- But then - we are not that meek. --- which suddenly reminds us again who Jesus said would "inherit the earth."

Ernest Toveltsch was an old man when he saw the turn toward paganism in German thinking. No one read his last book, trying to turn back the choking black clouds of totalitarianism. But looking at his friends who sent a gift to sustain him, he expressed his gratitude in his philosophy:

"It is things like this which will finally bring peace among the nations. Just now the Marxists and the militarists are in the saddle, riding roughshod over the rights of persons. --- They are wrong. ---- Ideas, spirits, are more redeeming than long range guns or even peace pacts. The final factor is spiritual."

So it is in your life, in my life -- in all the world’s life. Blessed are the meek -- the debonair -- for they shall re-inspire, they shall re-possess, they shall inherit the earth. ------ not as a possession for self, but as a means of life spiritually abundant for all.

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Delivered in Wisconsin Rapids, March 12, 1950.