11/5/50

Scripture: Galatians 6: 1-10.

Text: Psalm 55: 22; "Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and he shall sustain thee."

To live is to wrestle with problems. Some are simply solved and some seem never completely solved. Some will say, indeed, that they seldom feel more keenly alive than when facing some problem or situation that calls forth all their intelligence, determination and fighting instinct. On the other hand, few of us sigh for such vitalizing experiences -- they come of their own accord, and with embarrassing frequency! The problem that is quickly solved is quickly replaced with a new one. Now and then we think we have a problem solved only to find that we have merely re-stated it in a new form. And then also, too often, our problems become a heavy load instead of an exhilarating summons to action -- sometimes an unbearable, deadly strain. The complexity and speed of modern living intensifies the pressure.

Small wonder then, that we see a certain slogan appearing this month that is of interest to all observant people. For the second consecutive year, a national layman’s committee, with Charles E. Wilson, president of General Electric as chairman, has conducted a program known as Religion in American Life (RIAL). The program has the approval of 21 national religious bodies and extends through the month of November. The machinery of mass communication is placed at the disposal of this national religious movement. Billboards, car cards, daily and weekly newspaper space for major radio networks and television statesmen will carry messages of religion in American life, much of it donated by the agencies participating in the Advertising Council.

The leading slogan for the Religion in American Life movement this month is this: "Take your problems to church this week -- millions leave them there." Perhaps you saw those words on a picture of a billboard in our Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune a couple of days ago.

Of course the word "church" refers to all houses of worship and worshipping congregations, Christian and Jewish. The slogan suggests that we profit not merely by going to church, but by consciously bringing our problems with us. The claim is worth examining. Though we vary greatly among ourselves in the extent of our religious activity, this is true of us all: we are people with problems.

Most of the problems that weigh us down are not like the problems assigned to us in school, or even like the problems confronting most scientific research. Intellectual problems - those that call for the gathering of knowledge, analysis of facts, forming and testing of theories - are important, but they seldom cause us to lose sleep. The problems that worry us are much more personal and practical. Sometimes they come to us in this form: "What shall I think?" But most often, they come in this form: "What shall I do?" or "Shall I do anything?" or even "Can I do anything?"

They include questions of family life, of education and career, of vocational advancement and conflict, the making and saving and spending of money, the acceptance of success and disappointment. But what good does it do to bring all of our problems, whatever they are, to the house of God? Part of the answer to this question lies in a recognition of several different kinds of problems.

1) "Wherewith shall I come before the Lord?" asks the prophet Micah. [Micah 6:6]. Probably there is no more proper offering to bring before the presence of God than our fears, our troubles, our needs. With God, we can afford to be honest; we need not be ashamed to pour out before Him what is disturbing our hearts. And when we do we are almost sure to notice that many of our anxieties and difficulties are hardly worth getting so wrought up and troubled about -- maybe they hardly seem of the caliber to present before the divine throne.

I think there was a picture published in some of the papers, a few years ago, of a public meeting held in Brooklyn to pray that the Dodgers might win the baseball pennant! Most of us, even the more ardent of fans, regard such a procedure as pitifully trivial. But perhaps our own proposal to pray to God about our concerns will reveal some of them as too trivial to be allowed to crush our living. The problem that is not worth praying about is not a really big problem. And once it is thus deflated, we relax and smile and ask ourselves: "Why was I ever so upset about this?"

2) But though flimsy and trivial troubles, that only seemed important, float away like a handful of leaves on the river, the solid problems remain. What can be accomplished by bringing them here? We can be promised no magic results; no universal formulas. If a problem could have been solved by push-button methods, it could never have been much of a problem. There are no blue prints to cover all cases. Yet, when we bring our problems, we can tap rich and important resources.

There is an air of tranquillity and calm that releases some of our tensions and helps us to face our problems with greater sanity and balance of spirit. There are the treasures of human experience with the ways of God, found in the Scripture --- wisdom rich and profound.

There are, in both the ministry and the membership of the church, friendly people who can listen with their understanding and experience. Through sharing their understanding and experience, you may find your own direction. Besides, a problem can be solved on more than one level. You may be thinking at the moment of how to get out of an immediate jam -- but you are going to have to live with yourself long after the passing of a present crisis. The "practical" course is not practical very long if it is an unrighteous course.

Some of our problems do not stem from ignorance and confusion. We know very well what we ought to do and what God wants us to do. The problem results from the conflict between this knowledge and our timid, or our selfish, inclination to do something else. To solve our problems on the best basis, the most thoroughly human basis; to gain the strength of purpose and clarity of vision to make the best decision, we do well to come here and earnestly pray, "Show my thy ways, O Lord, and lead me in Thy truth."

3) But what about the question to which there is no answer, the situation in which there is nothing to do? Life brings serious frustrations, lasting pains, heavy sorrows, unchangeable bereavements ---- things that cannot be reversed or changed. What good does it do to bring our agonies here, if we must take them with us when we go out again?

It is part of humanity’s common wisdom that what can not be cured, must be endured. We must accept with what grace we can muster the troubles that are beyond correction. But there is a great difference between a numb, pagan submission to inevitable fate and a steadfast faith in the living God. In this place we receive assurance that we are not alone.

I waited impatiently, when a little boy, for my parents to come home from the village after attending a funeral service. A father had died suddenly, leaving a fairly young wife and several children. It was stark tragedy to the family and all of their friends. Yet my mother, when she and father drove into our yard, spoke with wonder about that young wife. She had been a habitually cheerful and friendly soul. And as she returned from the ceremony of laying her husband’s body to its repose in the cemetery; standing with her sympathetic and sorrowing friends, with her children clustered around her, she still smiled. Her patient, trusting soul must have received assurance that she was not alone. For God says to His own, "I am with thee in trouble." His grace, all-sufficient shall be our supply!

Much remains that is hard or impossible to understand, and even harder to accept! But we draw strength from the conviction that God knows, and God cares. His purposes, though unfathomed by us, are not dark to Him. His love abides with us. Not even death is the last word. "Day by day He beareth our burden." "Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and he shall sustain thee." [Psalm 55: 22].

And so we can see substance and wisdom in the November slogan: "Bring you problems to church this week." But a qualifying word of caution must be added about the second part of the slogan: "millions leave them there." The statement is true and proper, but not complete. For the house of God is not only a place where we lay down our burdens, but also a place where we take up our burdens -- the ones we must properly bear.

If a harried individual is to find relief here, he must be able to count on human understanding and sympathy as well as on divine compassion. For what else is human sympathy but a manifestation of the divine compassion?

We begin to understand that God cares when we find that another human being cares. Public worship is the joining of men and women in common aspiration, the sharing of joy and pain, of need and hope, the assumption of burdens together. "We share our mutual woes; our mutual burdens bear."

And we soon find that this interchange of mutual sympathy cannot be just intramural, excellent as that is, but that it must reach out beyond a small circle of friendship and acquaintance. The problems of the individual can not be severed from the problems of society -- of wealth and poverty, of labor and industry, of race and class conflict, of education, clean government, of national rivalries and world peace.

We come here to pray for ourselves, rightly. But we cannot pray for ourselves alone. In the house of God we hear the summons to universal brotherhood and concern for others. We set our personal burden in the framework of the world’s needs, and consider our troubles in the light of all human suffering. We are no longer isolated, struggling individuals, but members of a consecrated fellowship striving for the Kingdom of God.

No magical, effortless, instantaneous results can be promised. The art of prayer requires constant diligent attention. But let us be about it! Let us open our hearts in unqualified honesty, lay our problems before the throne of God, seek His help, His will, and His loving company. And then surely we shall know the day when we confess with deepest gratitude: "I was glad when they said unto me: Let us go unto the house of the Lord." [Psalm 122: 1].

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Delivered in Wisconsin Rapids, November 5, 1950.