5/20/51

Scripture: I John 5: 1-9

There are serious contradictions in the life of people, as seen in experience, and also in that record of experience, The Bible. There we read that God says, “Let there be light.” [Genesis 1: 3]. And also these words: “Men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.” [John 3: 19]. And so a moral darkness covers the earth. God says, “It is good and pleasant for brethren to dwell together in unity.” [Psalm 133: 1]. But we lift up our hands against our brethren in strife. God says, “Peace be within thy walls and prosperity within thy palaces.” [Psalm 122: 7]. But we produce war and poverty.

And so the world is bewildered, and in the throes of an upheaval so terrific that most of us cannot even estimate its magnitude. Thoughtful folk see the very foundations of our civilization shaking and mankind facing irreparable disaster.

What can we do about it? Can the church -- can Christian people encircle the world with strong arms of compassion and help to hold steady its population in a time of staggering uncertainty and suffering?

In an old letter of the second century AD the writer says of the Christians of his day: “They hold the world together.” Do we have that which can and will hold it together in the 20th century? Certainly, so far as it lies in numbers, there are enough Christians to steady and save the world, if we are Christian enough! Our time calls for Christians who are Christian to the limits of mind, heart and hand.

Let us look at some of the forces of disintegration, forces that pull life downward and backward, that disrupt and divide.

1) One of these is racism. An anthropologist and skillful writer, the late Dr. Ruth Benedict, in her book “Race, Science and Politics” declared that racism is dangerous nonsense -- unscientific, political claptrap. We Christians have a book that can do more to melt the evils of racism than anything else. For in that book is the declaration that God “hath made of one blood all nations of men.” The truth of this statement is more pointedly for Christians in the Churches than for anyone else. Actually, business is sometimes more brotherly (for business’ sake, of course) than religion is for humanity’s sake. There are far more places of business where white and colored may buy across the counter than there are churches where white and colored may worship God in Christian fellowship.

Mahatma Gandhi, because he was an oriental, was once denied admission to a church where his friend, C. F. Andrews, was to preach. So he stood patiently outside the door and listened. That is an interesting and disturbing picture. Inside the church, pious occidental Christians ceremoniously worshipping in the name of an oriental Jesus. Outside the church the great-souled oriental Gandhi, denied entrance to the place and the fellowship of worship.

Whether we like it or not, we must be about the ways and means of finding human fellowship between people on the basis of humanity rather than on the basis of racial origin.

2) Another force that is tearing the world apart is chauvinism. The world has repeatedly been put to flames by a false, exaggerated, inflamed nationalism. Men exploit patriotism in such a way that, instead of being a fine loyalty in service, it becomes an exaggeration of selfish interest. The patriotic impulse is a splendid thing when creatively directed. It is extremely dangerous when directed by demagogues.

Our patriotism is at its best when concerned not just with the welfare of our own nation alone, but with the welfare of the whole world which may be accomplished by the cooperative efforts of this and other nations. We have a new organization, the United Nations. But we are not nearly as well united as we ought to be and could be, if the nations would put more of their confidence and effort in the United Nations.

We, the peoples of the world, must support, strengthen and improve the United Nations. Whatever may be its faults and weaknesses, it is still the world’s best hope for a peaceful earth.

The former British Prime Minister, Anthony Eden, has said, while serving earlier as foreign secretary: “Every succeeding scientific discovery makes greater nonsense of old-time concepts of sovereignty. I have been unable to see - and I am still unable to see - any final solution that will make the world safe from atomic power unless we all abate our present ideas of sovereignty. We have got somehow to take the sting out of nationalism. In the light of discoveries about atomic energy I think that the San Francisco Charter should be reviewed, particularly with respect to the veto, which is an anachronism in the modern world.”

And it seems that our own nation was one of those which favored the veto which has since been used most extensively by another power.

Do we want one world? Or do we prefer the separation and strife that have brought such annihilation of human values?

Of course there are other forces, added to racism and chauvinism, that could be mentioned as contributing to class dependence and strife. But let us simply say that any man who builds barriers to brotherhood is building against the kingdom of God and undermining our civilization.

“Tear down the walls! God made of one

All men who live upon the earth;

He is our Father, we his sons,

Whatever be our human birth.”

So let us ask now what we can do to help hold together the shaking world and to build God’s kingdom on the earth.

1) In the first place, we must care. We must feel the hurt when our brother hurts; know hunger when he hungers; share suffering when he suffers. Religion is a passion for righteousness that makes demands upon us. If it is religion, conviction must be flamed to a passion for the right in our souls. A philosophy, or a system of ethics, falls far short of the need, if it be not illuminated with emotional zeal.

How much do we care? How deeply do we get stirred? How much of the world’s suffering do we have on our hearts? A hundred million people in Europe and Asia are trying to exist on a starvation diet of 1500 calories a day or less.

When the millions of India need wheat to stave off starvation, do we care that they shall have some? Do we care that they be given the means and the training to improve their own crops? Or do we shrug it off with the notion that one can’t really help that many people much anyway, and let them look hopefully to Russia for a few thousand bushels of propaganda-laden wheat?

I once knew a social welfare worker who got so that she couldn’t eat good meals at home without thinking of people she knew, and worked with, who never had a really adequate meal. She became over-concerned, in the sense that she was not caring sufficiently for her own good condition and continued usefulness, and had to leave the work for a while.

But there ought to be that in all of us which would cause us soberly to remember, when we do have enough, that there are those - millions of them - who have not. And when we have more than enough, there ought to rise a Christian impulse to share.

I once heard Fritz Kreisler play the violin. Probably he was the world’s greatest violinist at that time. And so I have been much interested to know what kind of man he is. Part of the kind of man he is is revealed in these words of his; Kreisler says:

“I was born with music in my system. I knew musical scores instinctively before I knew my ABCs. It was a gift of Providence. I did not acquire it. So I do not deserve thanks for the music.

“Music is too sacred to be sold. And the outrageous prices the music celebrities charge today are truly a crime against society.

“I never look upon the money I earn as my own. It is public money. It is only a fund entrusted to my care for proper disbursement.

“I am constantly endeavoring to reduce my needs to the minimum. I feel morally guilty in ordering a costly meal, for it deprives someone else of a slice of bread - some child, perhaps, of a bottle of milk. My beloved wife feels exactly the same way about these things as I do. You know what I eat; you know what I wear. In all these years of my so-called success in music we have not built a house for ourselves. Between it and us stand all the homeless in the world.”

I do not know what are Fritz Kreisler’s economic theories; or even whether he has any. And of course his mode of living differs from that of those who live in one place and for whom it is better economy to own a house.

But that spirit, which he has shown, must take possession of all Christian people before we can adequately minister to a broken world. We must care.

2) In the second place, we must share. We must care enough to share. Knowledge and sympathy are not enough. Tolstoy tells of a woman who sat in a theater and wept when scenes of suffering were presented on the stage. But at the same time, her own coachman, ill paid and ill clothed, was almost freezing at the door. And her weeping didn’t warm him at all.

I once heard Muriel Lester speak. There was that, in her great sincerity, that seemed to light up the room around her hearers. She is the founder of the widely-known Kingsley Hall in London, a world traveler, on speaking terms with leaders of many nations, an enthusiast for peace, a friend of the poor in all lands, a radiant, consecrated Christian.

It seems that her father left her quite a fortune, and in such a way that it could not legally be given away. She refused to be bound by that provision in his will. “It rightly belongs to the working people of East London, not to me,” said she. “It was the labor of East Londoners that created this wealth a generation or so ago.”

She went to the courts of London to have the will broken. She failed, and so she took it to Parliament. Finally there was passed, by Parliament, a special law. By this act of Parliament Miss Lester’s inheritance became the “Restitution Fund” providing that: “Whereas the annuitant is of the opinion that she has no right to accept this income while her neighbors lack necessities, holding that God’s law of providing bountifully for all is more wise and decent than the law of the land which secures to a few people more than they need while the many have to endure less than they need. The annuity should be handed back to the people in order to enrich and widen their common life.”

There is somewhat of the spirit of the Master breathing through this act of Parliament. If there were more of the spirit of Muriel Lester among the ranks of church members --- if there were more who care, enough to share, the Christian world of which we have dreamed, and for which we have prayed, would be nearer fulfillment.

I remember a student member of a Chicago church who pledged and paid $60.00. He really couldn’t afford it; he was working his way through school. But the church leaders, before talking to him about it, thought of hundreds of others who are called on to give not $60, but their very lives in the debacle of war. It is a soberly satisfying sight to see one who pours some of himself into the things that build instead of destroy.

3) Finally, we must care enough to pray, consciously, to lift up the needs of the world to God. We must keep alive the sense of fellowship with the Eternal. The only man whose optimism is justified in this hour is the man who is sure of the good God.

God has not been pushed from the throne of right by the forces of evil. He is the ongoing God -- now and forever. Let us call on Him, cooperate with Him; remember that the tasks that are too great for men are not too great for Him.

Let us be in truth what we profess to be, believers in Christ and followers of his way, remembering that whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world.

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Dates and places delivered:

Wisconsin Rapids, May 20, 1951

Wisconsin Rapids, June 16, 1957