6/21/53

Scripture: Colossians 2: 1-7

Text: Colossians 2: 2-3; “That their hearts may be encouraged as they are knit together in love, to have all the riches of assured understanding and the knowledge of God’s mystery, and of Christ’s, in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.”

How we need, and look for, the wisdom that will enable us to live right in our time! We are just like the people of New Testament times, who knew what it is to be bewildered, perplexed, even cast down. And we need the same gospel that was proclaimed to them by Paul and the Apostles.

We have just seen the conclusion of a commencement season which, each year, is a kind of progress report on the achievement of knowledge and the cultivation of wisdom in those students who have been graduated. And wisdom is to be greatly desired, and earnestly sought after, and conscientiously used. But its effectiveness depends on the spiritual quality of the user.

Faith is the foundation of all Christian virtues. And not “just any” faith will do. The zealous faith of the militant communist, with an objective of power to be reached by any means that will work at the moment, brings untold harm and misery to the world, and in the end will bring disillusionment to the communist himself.

The Christian faith, that knits hearts together in wholeness and love, is still the only real hope for the kind of life we would like to live. Of course, it is not easy. We are thrilled by the stately, majestic words of Jesus: “You shall love the Lord your God ... and your neighbor as yourself.” [Luke 10: 27]. But we get caught in the rush-hour traffic, crossing the bridge, after an exasperating day, and the thrill is replaced by old annoyances.

Love means sacrifices -- the giving of one’s self cheerfully. And sacrifice is not so much the “giving up” or “denying” of one’s self as the “giving out” or “spending” of one’s self. The wisdom of our lives is like an electric light bulb that needs a connection with the electric current to amount to anything. Without that connection there just isn’t any light from the bulb. Love, in any positive sense, dies out; and wisdom fritters itself away in uselessness unless fed by faith.

Most of our lives are spent in an exasperating, exhausting, running fight with evil; a fight that seems never conclusive, never finally victorious. And it takes both wisdom and staying power to deal with it.

Some of the young men who saw military service in World War II and served with distinction, had an awful time back in civilian life after their service was ended. A few plunged back into military service where life seemed simpler and superior officers made all significant decisions. One man, much decorated for his courage and achievements, was reported to have left his wife and children and became a hobo, because he was overwhelmed by the little nagging, frustrating details of civilian life. Many others have had the courage and the wisdom to adjust themselves to the sustained struggles that are the lot of most folk in our time.

But if a person is to have the stubborn patience to endure various kinds of mental suffering for long periods of time, he must have a reason for his misery. Governments go to great lengths to give soldiers the reason for their fighting and physical privation. (They will bear a lot!) We must have the faith that gives meaning to long, patient, determined endeavor. English men have endured years of austerity, and for the most part without complaint, because they still believe solidly in England!

But if we need faith in order to have love and patient courage, we need it yet more if we are to be creative. Creativity is precarious enough, perhaps more so than love. If disconnected from its source by weakened faith it is destroyed. Whoever is to expend the great effort of creating some idea, or proving some theory, or testing and perfecting some discovery, needs a sturdy and wise faith.

And there’s the old rub. Not just any faith will do. If we are to be made wise by our faith in Christ, then it must be grounded in reality. It is not enough simply to believe in “something” with all our hearts! We must have a right faith, one that is true to the facts.

Part of a realistic faith is to know that it is not necessarily physically safe. The wisdom of Jesus led him straight to a cross. It has led some of his followers there, too. He may have died courageously, but he did die. His followers of today are up against real, demonic, power. Jet planes, atomic force, flame-throwing tanks and millions of deluded people thirsting for blood. Can faith in Christ halt that array? The answer is not easy; but there is some answering.

Paul spoke of a wisdom that is hidden in Christ. That is to say it is not obvious. Paul had the kind of faith to believe that Christ is the real victor, the final power in the world. The blustering power of the earth only appears to be the winner.

A young seminary graduate, Fay Hill, puts it this way: How does our atomic power help us when the end of life has come and we set out into the unknown? How can electricity help a man when his wife is divorcing him? How large an army is necessary to assuage the grief of parents over the loss of a lovely daughter or an only son?

Right at this point the power of Christ begins. He knows where all the power of man leads him without the guiding, restraining, directing hand of unselfish love. He knows how selfishness, even in sorrow, destroys if left alone. He is with us today despite the crucifixion, comforting the bereaved, encouraging the anxious, transforming the cynical, calling forth love in the hearts of men. His is a power that is hidden, but to the eyes of faith it is revealed as the true pattern of wisdom.

As we affirm our faith in Christ, and constantly beg God to increase it, let us look to the treasures of wisdom which we discover. If we believe that Christ is the Lord of living, then that faith is the assurance that we are not chaff or tumbleweeds blown before the wind. We are really sons and daughters of God, loved by him in spite of all our past sins. We have a task to perform, talents to invest, a part to play in history’s drama. Life has meaning. It may be harsh but it does have meaning.

Another treasure of wisdom is that God has a great love for us. Fay Hill tells of a vivid childhood experience. He and his little brother nearly drove their mother to distraction with their incessant naughtiness. One day, after a particularly hectic time, their mother put them to bed for their afternoon naps, saying: “Sometimes you boys are so naughty that I just feel like going away and never coming back.” She had no intention of hurting or scaring the little fellows, but the remark did impress them. Later in the afternoon, when they awoke, they called their mother. No answer! Feeling that something was terribly wrong, they tumbled out of bed and started looking in the familiar places where she should be. No Mother! They tried to go outside, but were too small to handle the big door knobs.

A little later, the Mother, coming out of a neighbor’s house where she had gone on an errand, saw two snub noses pressed tight against the window surrounded by two tearful and terrified faces. Two very little boys flung themselves at her skirts as she came through the door and one cried out in relief: “O Mama, Mama, we thought you were gone.” For a reasonable length of time thereafter, as measured by such tender years, they were exceptionally obedient and grateful little boys.

Much about that homely little story illustrates our position with regard to our faith. For we fully deserve to have had God just walk off and leave us alone in this big empty universe to destroy ourselves. But He didn’t. Instead, He has forgiven us our sins as oft as we truly confess and repent of them. And our faith in that forgiveness releases our souls for positive, creative love.

Another treasure of a wise faith in Christ is a stubborn stick-to-it-iveness. We expect a long hard fight. We are not panicked by local defeats nor overbalanced by temporary triumphs. The Kingdom of God is the long range aim, and it is our part to build a bit of it where we are.

There is honor in having such a long range and certain aim. A 16th century king in France, Francis I, joined in battle with the Spanish forces in 1525. His army was sorely defeated. He himself was captured and taken prisoner to Madrid. From his prison he sent a dispatch to Paris in words that have an immortal quality. After explaining his defeat, he added with dignity, “All has been lost save honor.”

There is a sense of honor that stiffens one’s desire to ride the storms of life with stubborn persistence. The honor of a long range aim kept Hudson doggedly searching for a northwest passage through the new but unexplored world.

Ray Freeman Jenney suggests that such a persistent honor demands three things. (1) First, that we continually seek for the best. In a paradoxical way, Lynn Harold Hough states the same principle this way: “We give,” he says, “our first-class loyalty to second-class things. We give our second-class loyalty to first-class things.” The Christian gospel requires that “We give our first-class loyalty to first-class things.” Our Christian faith calls for our complete allegiance and witness.

(2) Another ruling principle of our long-range determination is that we must learn to cooperate with the inevitable. A prayer of Reinhold Niebuhr expresses it thus: “O God, help us to have the skill and courage to change what ought to be changed, and the patience to accept what cannot be changed, and the wisdom to know the difference between the two.” We can live victoriously if we do our best to change our lot where it must be changed before we accept what cannot be changed. But some situations do not yield. These must be met not with cynicism or subservience but with positive acceptance.

A great president of Harvard College, Charles William Elliot, was born with a facial disfigurement. After exhausting all medical and surgical search, his parents told him frankly that nothing could be done about that mark. It was a dark hour for his soul. “But,” said his mother, “It is possible for you, with God’s help, to grow a mind and soul so big that people will forget to look at your face.” And he did just that.

[my acquaintance, D. Mayers]

(3) Finally, if we are to be wise enough and persistent enough to meet life victoriously, we must make an intelligent commitment of our lives to God. We are in a constant press of immediate urges that tend to cut us off from the dimension of eternity. This we have to resist by repeated affirmation and nurture of our faith in word and deed.

God is both available and inescapable. In the words of a teacher in the South, we do best to “work as if everything depended on us and to pray as if everything depended on Him.”

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Delivered in Wisconsin Rapids, June 21, 1953.