3/28/54

Scripture: Romans 12

Text: Romans 12: 2

There is power in religious conviction! A distinguishing characteristic of the early followers of Christ was the strength of their lives as they declared their faith. The might of the whole Roman empire failed to check that spiritual power from growing and spreading. Real Christian faith is still a power in transformed lives, far more potent than many folk realize.

Some time ago, a minister sent his New Testament, which had become badly worn, to be rebound. When it came back, he was surprised to see it labeled, on the book edge, “TNT.” There was no room across the back binding for spelling out the words “The New Testament” -- at least not in letters the size of those on hand with that book binder -- so he had simply stamped the first letters of “The New Testament” across the back of the volume. When one thinks of it again -- that is not a bad name for the New Testament! The Christianity which is its enthusiastic message, its good news, is a powerful force! On the day of Pentecost it is reported that suddenly there came from heaven a sound as of the rushing of a mighty wind. One scholar translates it “a mighty blast.” Yet religion may become in us a gentle breeze rather than a mighty blast!

The prospects for the Christian religion, in the present day world, are grim indeed, unless it be known as a power in our lives. A competitor has arisen in communism, which claims no good, but has nonetheless made a materialistic idol of man. This is no day for complacent Christianity. We must lay hold upon the power of a Holy Spirit, to be armored for the conflict over men’s minds and souls.

The secularist mood is present in much of our living. Some of it is in education. The time was when, without the doctrinal emphasis of any particular church, it was accepted practice to read the Bible and pray in the schools of our land. Bickering over the form of prayer, and the particular Biblical translation to be used, had an unhappy part in the disappearance of this custom. At some times and places, there has been reverence only for irreverence. But there is still this much of religion in the public schools; -- that any dedicated Christian man or woman serving as a teacher, exposes the power of one life to the lives of those whom he or she teaches. And this Christian spirit is most important.

And I am one of those who believes that there is enough of genuine religious significance in a Vesper service at graduation time, voluntarily attended by high school seniors and their families and friends, to make its continuance advisable. The matter of leadership in such a service, and the manner of choosing participants may well be constructively discussed, and any necessary changes made. But it seems to me that this evidence of recognition of the sovereignty of God over the mind of man need not be discontinued; but could, and should, be retained in some acceptable, simple form of worship. This would appear to me to conform with the constitutional provision that Congress decline to “prohibit the free exercise” of religion, while at the same time specifying that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion” (which I take it to mean - “no state church.”)

We recall that the constitutional convention decided to invite clergymen to lead in prayer those who were struggling with the framing of this nation’s constitution. And it is the accepted custom of such governmental bodies as the US Senate, and certain state legislatures, to appoint a chaplain to lead the sessions in prayer. It would appear that some such act of religious affirmation might not be out of place in public school life. To suggest that it seems to some inadequate, would hardly indicate that it need be abandoned, but if anything might be strengthened.

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We who believe in the power of Christ’s gospel really want to have its testimony felt in (1) education, in (2) marriage and the home, in (3) neighborhood and community life. Those who have on their shoulders the responsibility for sharing the fellowship of Christ in this generation cannot presume to have sweet soil to cultivate. They will have to contend with bitterness and hatred, with disillusionment and cynicism, and with a mad passion for irresponsible material security bought at almost any price. When we hear the Christian values of love, and generosity, and tolerance, and pity, and humility laughed to scorn, it is time for our positive testimony, in word, and in such acts as this One Great Hour of Sharing, that these Christian values have in them more power than all the tremendous weight or arms.

God needs, in these times, men and women who can be trusted to be loyal to the core to Him and His cause. This is the kind of loyalty that no official committee can ever ascertain. It comes from springs too deep ever to be fully determined except as indicated by its fruits. Even in your own soul you become sure of your faith only in the humbling knowledge of your own frailty and weakness.

Through the centuries, loyalty to God has been called “devotion.” It is a good name and we might well keep it. For devotion, which is derived from the Latin “to vow,” means to commit oneself, to consecrate oneself to the object of devotion, without regard to the sacrifice or the suffering involved. The effort to receive and to expend transforming power is a life-long quest. Francis of Assisi was soundly converted and devoted himself to God at the outset of his religious vocation. But at the close of his life he could gather a few of his favorite brothers around him and exhort them: “Come, now, let us begin to be Christian.”

Devotion requires continued nurturing, continued cultivation, continued renewal, continued beginning again, if it is to prepare us for the tasks that lie ahead. The gospels inform us of Jesus’ insistence that the form of living is not enough. One might conceivably keep all of the Ten Commandments with commendable regularity and faithfulness; he might even have a good record of adherence to the ceremonial law of the time. And still he might lack what is most important -- a heart so transformed and dedicated that a matter of keeping commandments would be like second nature.

The scribes and the Pharisees were particular indeed about observing carefully all of the religious law. And yet Jesus said very directly to his followers that, if they were to know anything at all about the kingdom of God their righteousness would have to be more than the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees. The intent, the spirit, of all of those essential commandments is tributary to the main stream of devotion: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with heart, soul, mind and strength, and thy neighbor as (well as) thyself.” Of course religion that is vital must express itself in some form. But the form must be the expression of religious awareness. It can never be mistaken for the power itself.

Paul, writing to his spiritual son, Timothy, warns him that there will come times of stress when “men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, inhuman, implacable, slanderers, profligates, fierce, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding the form of religion but denying the power of it.” [II Timothy 3: 2-5]. Dr. Moffatt translates it more like this: “Though they keep up the form of religion, they will have nothing to do with it as a force.” The religion that Jesus felt and offered was a force - the kind that stems from transformed lives. Its devotion and its effectiveness in service springs not from “going through the motions” but from constantly remade life.

It is a dismal and disastrous thing when our religion becomes “the cult of the comfortable.” It takes push; it takes conscience, repentance, forgiveness; it takes spending and sacrifice; it takes purpose and effort to do the will of God in a world of evil.

Paul earnestly advised the Christians at Rome that they be not alone conformed to what was customary and acceptable. But he wanted them transformed by the renewing of mind, so that they could prove, or test, what is the will of God in active living.

A member of another church in our community was commenting recently upon the attendance at church services this year. More than one sanctuary is packed with folk who come to worship. She said that after all, the best thing we can do is to pray. If our praying is not “a running for cover” but a soul-baring offering of self to the will of God, it can be a transforming experience for us all.

Let no prayers in these days be like the repetition of dummy words. But let our religion become a force in our lives, transforming us by the renewing of mind and strength. For God is present with dynamic grace when our worship of Him becomes a force.

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Delivered in Wisconsin Rapids, March 28, 1954.