4/29/56

Scripture: Acts 3: 1-16

Text: Acts 3: 15; “You killed the pioneer of Life....”

One of the pleas from business and financial leaders in our land is that our laws concerning taxes, and the other regulations that keep our economy controlled, be kept at such a level that provision is made for “venture capital.” If the economic welfare of our people is to be preserved, and improved, there is constant need, according to this theory, for the founding of new businesses, new manufacturers, new services, that can be started only when there is money available that investors feel can be fairly risked in the undertaking.

The history of our nation is largely that of venture in living. In order to improve their lot and that of their children; to obtain freedom to worship as they desired; and to build life as they dreamed it could be; colonists left the old world and settled on the shores of the new. They accepted great risks in doing so, whether they came to Virginia and its environs, to the southern gulf, or to the northern parts. The group that came to the northern coast paid an especially high price for their venture. An appalling proportion of those who landed from the Mayflower at Plymouth Rock were dead when the first winter had passed. But the survivors hung on and worked with determination to make their venture go, risking their meager resources and their whole life. Not one returned when the Mayflower returned to Europe in the spring.

Not all colonists fared even that well. There were settlements on the new shore that disappeared completely e’er any ship returned at a later season.

During the whole history of this country’s development, the story has been that of men and women who were relatively fearless, or whose hopes exceeded their fears, and who would venture their fortunes and lives in the search for freedom and opportunity in the west, and into the seas, the fields, or the wilderness that had to be charted.

The venture to live, even when it entails known hardships, in the hope of opportunity and freedom, is a characteristic of our thinking in this nation. And it is rooted in our understanding and experience of the Christian religion.

Millenniums ago Moses led the children of Israel out of Egypt, not knowing whither they would go except, eventually, into a promised land. Centuries later, the essential venture had gone out of the Jewish faith to a point where it was confined in legalism and institutionalism. Then came Jesus with a new and refreshing venture. He was not accepted by the majority of those in control. But he has been accepted by multitudes ever since. For in him, people have found the venture that is life’s best, and most precious, security.

Most of us, myself included, do not read the language of the Scriptures - that is, Hebrew and Greek. And so we are indebted to the conscientious translator who chooses the words of our language that seem to him to express best the meaning of the Hebrew or Greek language in the Bible.

James Moffatt translates one of the phrases which was read in this morning’s Scripture lesson using a thought-provoking word. In Peter’s explanation to those who crowded around after a lame man had been healed, the Apostle tells the listeners whose is the power that healed the man. Not Peter and John, but the power of Christ, said he. Then he reminded them that they were part of those who had delivered Jesus to Pilate and had insisted that he be crucified. They had chosen a known malefactor Barabbas, a murderer, to be released unto them and had “Killed the Prince of life” said Peter. He went on to say that God had raised the prince of life from the dead, and that he, Peter, and John were witnesses to this resurrected life. It was not a direct condemnation of his hearers but an explanation of the power that had just made a man whole, and a plea to others to accept a truth new to them.

In attempting to make the translation more vivid, and perhaps accurate, as a translator might think of it, Moffatt uses the word “pioneer”, translating the phrase here referred to: “you killed the pioneer of life.”

It is by the power of Christ, “the pioneer of life,” that people are healed and redeemed. So said Peter to his hearers in the temple at Jerusalem.

It is true that, many times in life, we must fight “holding actions.” There are times when we cannot advance, and when our testing comes in hanging on to what we have gained, even when weakened by weariness and discouragement. But this is a temporary expedient. Long range strategy is to advance. This must be the strategy of Christ’s church and of the Christian way. We are not to be content with the defensive position, nor the apologetic spirit. For we are followers of the pioneer of life.

In translating Paul’s letter to the Philippians, Moffatt understands Paul to say to them that they are to be “a colony of heaven.” There is a close connection between this admonition and the phrase from Acts. A colonist is a pioneer, often establishing living on a frontier. His community may be something like the homeland in miniature. He is a forerunner of civilization if he remembers his loyalty to the sovereign he represents. If we are pioneers or colonists of the Prince or the Pioneer of Life, we have his home base as a model. And we are kept in mind of it through His Church.

The relation of church and state is often an uneasy one for the Christian. He must hold two loyalties in constant balance and tension. He can hardly say that the state is his master and that he will do whatever it commands under any and all circumstances. When conscience demands it, one may have to criticize the state and ask to be excused from its demands if they appear wrong. On the other hand the Christian may not withdraw from the state, nor deny its just claims. Jesus made it clear that one must render to Caesar what belongs to Caesar. And Caesar was the state for them. But of course one must render to God what is God’s. This was absolutely clear to Jesus.

In the case of some young men, Christian conscience has made them conscientious objectors to bearing arms. A certain CO was hailed into court during the war and his case was heard by a judge who was quite unsympathetic to his position. During the hearing, the judge asked him sternly where he thought he would be if he took such a position in Hitler’s Germany. The young man replied that he would probably be in a concentration camp or be killed. “But, by the way, your Honor,” said the young man, “where would you be if you were in Hitler’s Germany?”

Which is to say that the problem is one that calls for solution not alone by extremists of conscience, but by every Christian person. To what, or whom, do we owe our ultimate loyalty? For, as Christians, we follow a King whom the world does not necessarily acknowledge.

Now, as followers of the pioneer of life, if we ourselves be pioneers we are to establish in life’s wilderness, a bridgehead of the Kingdom of God.

There is a sense in which an individual Christian who stays outside the church is a contradiction. His life must be a proclamation and a demonstration. And the demonstration is a social matter. John Wesley used to insist that the Bible knows nothing of solitary religion. If it is genuine, it is going to express itself in conduct among people and with people. There is a divine necessity for the church.

One sign of the pioneer is the building of the means of communication. The pioneer is a road builder, for one thing. Isaiah writes: “A voice cries, ‘In the wilderness prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.’” [Isaiah 40: 3].

Great pioneers have understood the importance of roads. An American traveler in Wales was taken for a walk one evening to visit an ancient church building. The church was located on a beautiful hilltop. The American remarked that in the United States, we build our churches close to main lines of traffic so that they are easily accessible to those who will travel to and from the church. The man’s hostess took him across the church yard to where a wide ditch passed and continued to run straight across the fields. She said, “This is the old Roman road,” and sure enough it was. The ancient stones were still in their place. The church had been built right beside the road of several centuries before.

The Roman Empire is still remembered for its victories and its achievements. It built roads that are famous for their extent and durability. The Romans knew that to defeat an opponent was not enough. To make the victories lasting, they must bind the empire together with roads, for transport and communication.

When Christians see themselves as pioneers, they not only build roads of communication, but build bridges of understanding. Not even the worlds separated by an iron curtain should be left unbridged. The chasm beneath that curtain is one of the widest and most difficult imaginable. But no Christian, and no citizen, should rest at leaving it an unbridged chasm. The bridges to be built can not be built of any flimsy and gullible stuff. For stern material and wary engineering are required. But is it not safer to continue the attempt at understanding across the chasm, even though the discoveries are partly unpleasant, than to let our ignorance of each other pile up while we stockpile the means of total destruction?

The story is told of a corporation personnel director who was responsible for obtaining the future leaders of his company. In his interviews, he was quite apt to say suddenly to a young engineer, “By the way, did you ever want to build a bridge?” If the young man made no response, he was dismissed. But if his face lit up and he replied, “You know, as a matter of fact I’ve always wanted to build a bridge,” he was taken into the company employ at once.

Jesus chooses that spirit in people today, just as he selected that quality in his first disciples. The church is to bring people together, and it does bring them together whenever it is functioning as it ought.

It is a disappointing sight to see a church that feels it is for one class of people only, one race of folk only, people of one political party preference, or one exclusive theological position. The real nature of the church is to bring people together in understanding. And that understanding is rooted in the one common belief that God cares for each and all, and that Jesus, the Pioneer, can save all people from their unhappiness and sin.

We Americans, and especially Christian Americans, need surcease from our fears. In our lust for security, we fear new ideas, we fear communism, we fear change, or controversy or facts or analysis. Too many of us say, in effect, “I have my mind made up, don’t try to change me with ideas or facts.” This is an interesting and disquieting condition at the very time when our military strength and industrial potential is as high as it is. Americans should be as full of restless power as the ocean waves rolling up on every shore.

Out in Des Moines, Iowa, there is, in a hall of the State capitol, a large and dramatic picture of pioneers, with this inscription: “The cowards never started, and the weaklings fell by the way.” That was the spirit of the frontier and the strength of the pioneers.

The Christian faith is an adventurous faith. It has turned many an old custom upside down. It has not been afraid of newly discovered truth, and it has preached a diving discontent with everything that needs changing. It has challenged all the world with a courage rooted in God.

Its church is not an end in itself, but a means to greater achievement. It may, and should, stand up to the criticism of the world, and it should be just as ready to offer constructive criticism of the world’s lacks, errors and needs. It is not the church’s place to avoid issues because they are “controversial.” No church should be frightened, for example, into withholding support of the United Nations simply because some of the thinking about the UN is controversial.

Let the church be filled with a prophets scorn of tyranny, and with a Christlike tenderness for the heavy-laden and downtrodden. Let her cease from seeking her own self, lest she lose her life.

In education let us serve the masses of people, yet let us not assume that the masses set the standards of our life. Education ceases to be significant if it is only propaganda training to reflect what the masses believe or want. There ought to be continual opportunity for differences of opinion and for disagreement as we seek new light and knowledge.

The Christian is supposed to know “a more excellent way” than mere conformity. He believes that “the ‘foolishness of God’ is wiser than men.” Maybe we ought to pioneer in experiments to find spiritual answers to our problems.

There are those who like to point out that Christians are no better than non-Christians in some case at point. It is usually a case of comparing Christianity’s worst with the world’s best. If Miss Jarvis, who goes to church, has a foul temper, while Mr. Dascomb, who never goes to church, has an even temper, the issue is that you don’t know how much worse Miss Jarvis’ temper might be if she did not go to church; and you don’t know how much finer Mr. Dascomb would be if he did go to church.

At least the living testimony of those who have found the converting, renewing, reliable power of Christ is inescapable. And it makes venturing pioneers out of those who have given themselves to Christ’s assurance.

He breaks the power of canceled sin,

He sets the prisoner free.

Christians have experienced the power of Jesus Christ and they have faith to follow the Pioneer of Life where he may lead.

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Dates and places delivered:

Wisconsin Rapids, April 29, 1956

Wisconsin Rapids (Union Service), July 6, 1958