1/2/55

Scripture: John 18: 28-38

Text: John 18: 37; “To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world.”

“How like a web our life appears,

As days are lengthened into years;

The threads, at first so straight and new,

The cares so light, the duties few.

But soon the lines show great increase,

Their many crossings never cease;

Without a plan they seem to be ---

So little they reveal to me.

What end comes to this maze of life

With times of sickness, toil and strife;

With days of pleasure so replete,

With hours of triumph and defeat?

Alone can time the secret tell.

But yet my heart may know full well,

As in the web we find a plan,

So always in the life of man.

And when at last our course is run,

As plainly as the noon day sun

The plan of life will surely shine

To show its Maker’s true design.”

These are lines of no great poet, as any literary critic may easily see, but were written, rather, by a Doctor of Medicine, who has a great zest for life. Dr. Alfred I. Ludlow, after ten years in the practice of medicine and surgery, took a world tour of mission fields about 1910 or 1911 in the company of a man of wealth named Severance. He was so vividly impressed by the possibility of satisfying service to great need, that he spent more than a quarter of a century in Korea, ministering to the sick, training Korean doctors, encouraging and conducting research, grooming Korean workers to take over the work that he had helped to establish. Part of their cooperative, constructive life together, was the chapel and prayer meetings of the staff, often led by Dr. Ludlow himself.

---------------------

With the coming of a New Year, each of us makes a new effort to understand what the lines in the web of life mean for us. Certainly there is more meaning to our existence than the mere routine of things that must be done each day.

In one factory, a woman sat during each working day, for ten years, just cracking egg shells as they passed on a transmission belt. This meant her livelihood, but not her life. Would it be significant, or would it be foolish, to write under the picture of her at that work, the title: “To this end have I been born, and to this end am I come into the world?”

If it sounds a little ridiculous, just recite to yourself the typical day of some friend you know. Or, if you feel a little bolder, try to attach those words to your own daily round! Then contrast your findings with the life of Jesus, who, under severe examination, first uttered those words. Jesus impresses us with an overwhelming sense of purpose and mission. (1) “I am come not to destroy the law but to fulfill.” [Matthew 5: 17]. (2) “I am come not to call the righteous, but sinners.” [Mark 2: 17]. (3) “The Son of Man is come to seek and to save them that are lost.” [Luke 19: 10]. (4) “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it abundantly.” [John 10: 10].

It was not that Jesus neglected the secondary ends of life which are also necessary. “The Son of Man came eating and drinking.” [Luke 7: 34]. And the religious zealots of his time misunderstood and misinterpreted this normal social fellowship and personal replenishment. But he subordinated all minor objectives to the great aim of his living so that he could say, as he did, before Pilate’s judgment bar, “To this end have I been born, and to this end am I come into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth.” [John 18: 37]. Jesus knew himself to be here for a purpose and that gave meaning to every hour of his life.

It is a tragic pity to be “frazzled out at the ends” in pursuit of many secondary goals. Gamaliel Bradford said of Edward Fitzgerald, “Like many people, who have no main object in life, he was often busy from morning till night.” Do we get so busy about many things that we have no time for what is needful?

Man may not be able to prove, or even to discern as clearly as he desires, the purpose at the heart of the universe. But he is happiest, and is most himself, when he is in pursuit of the “goal to which all creation moves.”

---------------------

At a time when business firms are opening new ledgers and taking inventory of their assets, we may all do well to take stock of ourselves. As a church we plan to take inventory of ourselves during our participation in the National Christian Teaching Mission in Wisconsin Rapids on February 3 through 10 of this year. That is now less than 5 weeks away. In addition to the general director, the Rev. Mr. Gebhardt, we will have a guest leader of our own denomination here for that week to assist us. He is the Rev. Robert Y. Johnson, pastor of 2nd Congregational Church of Beloit.

On Friday evening of that week, we will have a meeting of 3 or 4 from each fellowship, study group or service organization in our church for a careful self-study of our programs and effectiveness as a church. On Saturday, we will prepare ourselves for the Community Religious Census. Our own church will need 90 to 100 census takers with captains over each 10 workers. On Sunday, after worship in which the preacher will be our guest leader, the census takers will take the actual census beginning at 1:30 PM. It is hoped that the entire city can be covered by the workers of the cooperating churches in 2 or 3 hours of systematic work.

On Monday evening, census takers will complete any necessary call backs, and the cards will be processed for distribution to the churches given as the choice of those responding to the census. Tuesday evening will be a time of Fellowship cultivation. Wednesday evening is a time of Visitation by teams of two from each church group. And Thursday evening is a time for the study of needed program enlargement of the church.

There are no mass meetings. And each church does its own job, with the exception of the cooperative community religious census, all of it coordinated under the guidance of a general director. The self study is of more spiritual significance than is the effort involved in taking the census.

---------------------

On New Years’ Eve, a host of folk filled restaurants all over our land, eating a last meal of the Old Year and drinking toasts amidst shouts and revelry. Is that of basic significance? We are reminded of two last suppers as recounted in the Book of books. At one, Belshazzar, king of Babylonia, gave a feast for thousands of his lords. Wine flowed freely; the king’s wives and concubines joined the company. They praised the gods of gold and stone, of silver and brass; of iron and wood. Then the king was startled by a man’s handwriting on the wall, that none of his wise men could interpret. In the midst of their purposeless revelry came warning of their doom which was sealed for a man who had come into the world for no other purpose than to eat and drink and be merry, and to exercise the power that fortune had bestowed upon him. [Daniel 5].

The other Last Supper was one that has become a sacred mystery, simple and renewing each time it is commemorated in the Christian fellowship. We must not forget its simplicity, nor its sacrament of hope. On the night of his betrayal, Jesus sat with a dozen men in an upper room. His faithful friends and followers being around him, they ate of simple and nourishing food. As the humble meal drew to a close, he gave those men bread, and he distributed a cup saying that these were to be received as his body and blood, given for them and for many.

From that simple, powerful dedication, he went out to meet his captors and to testify before Pilate: “To this end am I come into the world.”

What cup shall we use as a toast to the New Year now beginning? May it not be this same cup which He instituted, that we take, not in revelry, but in humble and joyous faith?

Whoever faithful, let him receive this sacrament of dedication. Let each of us pledge our own lives to the service of Christ’s cause. “For this cause came I into the world,” said He. Let us, his followers, humbly and gratefully do likewise.

---------------------

Delivered in Wisconsin Rapids, January 2, 1955.

Also in Wisconsin Rapids, January 6, 1963.