11/20/55

Scripture: Mark 14: 3-9.

Text: Mark 14: 8; “She hath done what she could.”

Recently, I saw a Sunday bulletin from another church in which the announced sermon theme was: “With Joyous Abandon.” I do not know what the minister said in that sermon. But I do know a few things that this preacher would like to say today under the same theme. For giving of self and substance brings the greatest and most satisfying fulfillment to both giver and receiver when it comes in that spirit.

Locally, we have chosen to launch our church’s Every Member Canvass today, even though some churches did so a week earlier. Today, the Sunday before Thanksgiving Day, is also marked on many church calendars as “Forefathers’ Sunday.” So let us give our minds a chance to survey both occasions for a short while.

Recently there has been added to our salute to the national flag the words “under God.” In this country, we consider ourselves “One nation, under God.” If that be true -- and I think it is true that ours, and every other nation for that matter, is accountable to God -- then we are ready to hear again the words of the Psalmist: “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord.” [Psalm 33: 12].

One reason for taking a swift backward glance through history is that we may see how blessings have come to this nation through her belief in God. It was the Pilgrim Fathers’ desire that they have, above all else, freedom to worship God as they wished, and felt they ought to do. For that precious right, they were willing to turn their backs on all else, to endure danger in unfamiliar places, and even death for many of their number. They wanted this responsible freedom not alone for themselves, but for their children, and for all others who came to the same shores with similar purpose. So that they might have trained interpreters of the Christian faith, they founded their first college only 16 years after the first settlers came. And that college was only the first of a long line of church-sponsored colleges that in time crossed the continent. It was belief that God endows people with certain inalienable rights that gave body to the Declaration of Independence.

This nation has been blessed in its conviction that God is the Lord. And this is a season of the year when we are reminded to do what that buffeted and determined group of Pilgrims did when they gave common thanks to God for blessings that we in this room would probably account to be meager enough! This nation has been blessed because its God is the Lord. But its spiritual heritage is not preserved by biological heredity. We are not governed by the direct descendants of some early monarch. The sons and daughters, by lineal descent, of pilgrim days or American Revolution, or pioneer expansion, worthy though many of them be, are not sole custodian of our precious heritage. For all of us are the spiritual descendants of the great forefathers who gave us the chance to worship as we believe we ought, and as we desire, to do.

No, to be spiritual descendants of the liberty-loving, God-fearing Pilgrim Fathers means constant reminding and education and re-education, not alone of the 40 million boys and girls born in the past decade, but of their adult elders as well! Some 15 years ago, the National Education Association appointed a commission to define the purposes of the educational process. The commission came through with four defined programs.

1) One is training in human relations. Self-realization is not achieved in isolation. Ancient Greeks had a saying that “One man is no man.” We are made for fellowship. We must get adjusted to other folk. And we need God in this adjustment so that it will be something a lot better than just “getting by.” God has given us the golden principles of love for one another as the interpreter of the Golden Rule. “As you wish that men would do to you, do so to them.” And how do you wish that men should do to you? You are a judge with a prisoner standing convicted before you. You say, “If I were the prisoner, I would probably want my sentence suspended.” So do you suspend sentence just because you assume you might want that mercy if you were the prisoner? The judge with the love of God in his heart is not so shallow as that! Does he not take into account what he really believes to be the welfare of prisoner and society in making his decision to imprison the culprit or to suspend sentence?

The teacher with an unruly pupil is not necessarily “easy” or lenient just because she knows the Golden Rule. For to love one’s neighbor as one’s self is something much more firm and directional than that. All of us, judge and prisoner, teacher and pupil, need constant training in human relations, illuminated by the laws of God.

2) Another purpose of education as outlined by that commission is economic efficiency. Dean Severinghaus, of Columbia’s College of Physicians and Surgeons, made a commencement speech at the Medical College of Georgia in which he said: “Our education should serve us in two ways: first, in the development of ourselves, and secondly, in the development of our skills. And the greatest concern of education should be to keep these two contributions in balance.” If we concentrate only on building our selves, our minds may be full but futile. If we develop only our skills without inner resources and character, we become shallow and even dangerous.

We are “workers together with God.” And we find our “call” to preach, or teach, or practice medicine or law, or to manufacture or distribute, or enter social service as we seek the answer to our questions: “What am I best fitted for?” and “Where am I most needed?” Working with an educated purpose and with our skills and materials, we have a sacramental feeling, then, that everything is God’s. We are not to waste life’s abilities, time or treasure, but to use them, to direct and expend them, responsibly, for the Giver and Owner of life.

3) A further objective of education was thought to be civic responsibility. Are college students as acutely interested in big social questions as they were a couple of decades ago? Do all of us care for the plight of desperate people all over the world as we care for ourselves?

One of the really disturbing aspects of life at this hour in history is our preoccupation with little personal problems to the exclusion of great social interests. Books on peace of mind find a great sale, while books on world peace are said to be a drug on the market. Our interest is easily caught on the subject of how to get ahead, how to conquer fears and anxieties, how to be financially successful and socially acceptable. But America was founded by people who were looking for a lot more than just comfortable adjustment or easy religion. “This nation under God” has been built by people who risked and even gave their lives in fulfillment of civic responsibility. How many of the soldier dead would appreciate our little self-centered ends?

4) Perhaps the first (rather than the last) purpose of education, as defined by the commission, is self-realization. We want to live as long and as fully as possible. We feel that we have powers that are to be realized if we are to fulfill ourselves.

To realize our full potential we need to remember that we are not all our own. Parents have lived, struggled, sacrificed, before each one of us. Neighbors, teachers, friends have put part of their lives at our disposal. A rebellious school boy once said to his principal, “Why can’t I go to the devil if I want to? It is my own life!” No, it is not your “own” life. For, as Paul said, “You were bought with a price.” [I Corinthians 6: 20]. And this price, paid for you by others, is what makes your life so valuable that you want to spend it, extend it, in giving, in service, as a steward of all that has come to you, of good, from whatever source.

Now, let us come, for a few moments, to this matter of our giving of self and substance, to the work that we feel is especially of God through the church. What is “enough” for us to give?

You are pretty well acquainted with what a responsible committee and church members at large think should be the budgeted needs for effective operation of our church during 1956. The letter which went, I trust, to all families of the parish this past week carried the explanation of the proposed budget, as well as pledge cards and a pamphlet commentary on giving. More of these are available for any who wish them.

Our church provides for a single budget including home expenses and giving to our Christian World Mission. I am sure that our members and friends intend to meet it and subscribe it!

But now, what is enough for you and me to give? Shall we give, not alone on the basis of what the church needs, nor on the basis of what is our share on the basis of what others give, but on the basis of what each of us, in the light of his ability and desire, wants to give.

You know national figures on how much Americans spend on liquor, on entertainment, on tobacco, and so on. And you know that the amount spent for education and church together is smaller than any of those figures. I am certain that none of us feels that that average represents a stewardship satisfying to us! For the sake, not alone of the church bills, but of our own bill of health, let us give, not “till it hurts” but until it feels good -- until we have pledged an offering that can be brought with a joyous abandon like that of the woman of whom Jesus said “she hath done what she could.” [Mark 12: 42-44.

The basic philosophy of Christian stewardship is not “how much the church needs” but “how much do I need to give?” How much do you need to give in order to have a feeling of genuine satisfaction in sharing of substance, time, and ability? Let us abandon the country of underdeveloped stewardship and set out for the Promised Land of new health and vigor.

Today we are to register our decision on our expected financial giving to, and through, this church for the coming year. We are also asked to check, on a green card, those areas where we will be willing, when able and called upon, to render service and give time to and through the church.

As spiritual descendants of fine and rugged forefathers, as people who really care, as people who take seriously and joyfully our opportunities in the Christian church, let us make our pledges, with joyful abandon, to the greatest of all causes!

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Delivered in Wisconsin Rapids, November 20, 1955.

(Loyalty Sunday.)