3/24/57

Scripture: Read Matthew 5: 13-16; 43-48; 7: 24,25.

Text: I Kings 4: 29; “And God gave Solomon ... largeness of heart”

Among the Hebrew people, David is revered as a really great king. An outstanding leader from his youth; anointed king despite the insane jealousy of the former king, Saul, who would have had him killed if possible; conscientious leader whose proud spirit could be humbled and made contrite by the frank and fearless reminding of a prophet; David was so important in the minds of his people that great pains were taken to trace the ancestry of Jesus the Messiah back through this great king to Abraham. This is done in the opening chapter of the book of Matthew.

Likewise among the great is Solomon, son of David, who succeeded David on the throne. Solomon’s reign was not beset with wars nor the danger of enemies who might attack from without or within, at least not to the degree with which other rulers had to cope. He could have led a fairly easy life. But he fell to work, with great energy, to improve his kingdom, and in particular to build the great temple in Jerusalem. He was accounted to be wise and just. And, in the book of I Kings we find that it was said of him that God gave him “largeness of heart.” He was no small man!

One of the descendants of earlier Hebrews, living a century ago in England, became a great man in his time and place. Benjamin Disraeli, despite a considerable amount of active prejudice against Jews on the part of some other Englishmen, was so capable and so loyal a patriot that he finally won the post of Prime Minister in England. He was bold and imaginative in the affairs of government, winning fair recognition for his ability as a great statesman. Further, he enjoyed considerable fame as an author. A great deal of meaning is packed into some of his short statements. In his life, burdened (1) not only by the necessity of wise decision in matters of state, but also (2) by petty personal attack upon him because of his Hebrew origins, Disraeli could have been a constantly harassed man. But one of his written statements packs much of the meaning of his life into a very short sentence. The statement is this: “Life is too short to be little.”

Pondering that statement a bit, we would not refute its truth. A French novelist, Andre Maurois, had this to say about it: “Those words have helped me through many a painful experience; often we allow ourselves to be upset by small things that we should despise and forget..... Here we are on this earth, with only a few more decades to live, and we lose many irreplaceable hours brooding over grievances that, in a year’s time, will be forgotten by us and by everybody. No; let us devote our lives to worthwhile actions and feelings, to great thoughts, real affections, and enduring undertakings. For life is too short to be little.”

Theoretically, we accept that truth of that statement, also. We admire Solomon’s “largeness of heart” and desire to be like him in that respect. We desire to be like salt of the earth; light in the world; well founded; on the positive, constructive side of life’s ledgers. But we frequently deny all this in the smallness of our living. We become pathetically little in bitterness or self-pity, disappointing others and stunting ourselves, slaves of our own wrong reactions.

(1) Our lives were meant, by the creator, to be significant, important! Life is too short to be little in attitudes. An ancient legend, about which we know little, relates that when Adam and Eve were driven from the Garden of Eden, the angel who was stationed at the gate with flaming sword to prevent their return, said to them: “Henceforth your hearts must be your paradise.” But when our hearts are the centers of unhealthy, unworthy, petulant attitudes, they become quite the opposite of paradise. “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.” [Proverbs 23: 7].

How do you accept the hard knocks of life? ---- The real disappointments, and even heartaches, that come your way? What do we do with those experiences that try our souls? Do we have enough largeness of heart to live over them; or do we let them get us down by our own small attitude?

There was another figure in British politics whose record proved much lesser than Disraeli’s. He was Lord Randolph Churchill, who wrote a letter to his wife in 1891 saying: “More than two-thirds, in all probability, of my life is over, and I will not spend the remainder of my years beating my head against a stone wall. There has been no consideration, no indulgence, no memory or gratitude -- nothing but spite, malice and abuse. I am quite tired and dead sick of it all, and will not continue political life any longer.” Well, anyone can see that there is a great deal of the rough-and-tumble in politics. And there was a man who couldn’t take it! It was too much for him. A few years later he died, a broken and disappointed man at the hardly-ripened old age of 46.

Many of us give up the struggle with difficult experiences of life, or with some of them. We see what appears to loom as a large cloud over our landscape, we doubt that we can meet it successfully, we lose confidence in ourselves, toss over our faith in God, and become too discouraged to go on. Our wrong attitudes spell our moral and spiritual failure.

Probably wrong attitudes account for a large proportion of the 4 to 5 million alcoholics of our nation, whose plight is distressing to themselves and to all other concerned people. Here is a man who felt that success was his. He had a good job; he married the woman he loved and counted himself fortunate that she would have him. The future looked rosy. But he had not been married two years when he began to suspect that his wife was unfaithful to him. His suspicions were later most unhappily confirmed, and he was crushed by it. He began drinking for the first time in his life. A divorce followed. More drinking led to loss of his job. Even though he tried to regain control of himself, he failed. He apparently saw no glimmer of hope anywhere.

But he did go to a minister with his problem. Whether (1) he wanted a quick solution; or whether (2) he wanted a chance to detail his woes; or whether (3) he just felt he had to talk it out with someone who would listen and understand, I do not know. He did talk himself out enough to give the minister a reasonable idea of his situation. The minister, without laying any blame on him, or on anyone else, tried to open to his understanding a door of hope. He assured the man that his scars could be healed if he put his attention on something else than self-pity, bitterness and vengeance. However, it could not be done by gritting his own teeth in determination to lick it by himself. It would take an honest admission of failure and a frank confession that he could not save himself, by himself. Doing this, and turning himself over to God, he could hope to be healed.

This is the lesson that many an alcoholic has learned, more especially those who have allied themselves with “Alcoholics Anonymous.” For the people of Alcoholics Anonymous are those who freely admit their dependency on a Power outside themselves and greater than themselves, enabling them to live soberly as they wish to do.

Well, this man agreed that this is what he would try to do. He would turn himself over to God. He was sincere about it, and his dedication did succeed. A year later he had been accepted back at his old job. He married one of the finest women of the church he attended. And he was joyfully amazed at the marvelous power of God to help him do what he wanted to do but had failed to do by himself. It seemed to him that God had rescued him out of a kind of bottomless pit and had set his feet again on a strong foundation.

We can’t afford to live in attitudes of resentment and hatred. Whether the offense against us is real or imagined, the effect of our resentment on us is the same -- and it is deadly. We must be rid of it in order to live happily and in balance.

In his early years, Andrew Jackson was a man of deep resentments and hatreds. He hated his enemies; he hated the British; he hated the Indians; he hated several with whom he fought in duel to the death. But there came a time when he turned over his life to God through Christ. Then he won the victory over resentment and hatred and became a different person. Life is too short for little attitudes! Only the greatness of God freely given to those who turn their lives over to Him, is sufficient for our needs.

(2) And life is too short for little purposes. We must have some purpose in order to go on living at all. But not just any little purpose will satisfy our psychological needs. It must be a goal which calls for the best in us. A thoughtful man observed that what he feared most of all was the thought of standing in the judgment, and hearing a holy voice ask, “Well, what did you see in my world?” and having to answer, “I never saw it at all. I was busy telephoning.”

A lot of us are satisfied, or think we are, by the latest fashion plate, by a shiny car, a new television set, a special vitamin pill or a thick beef steak. But do these things take care of our deepest desires or needs?

A highly talented young fellow went, some years ago, to China as a missionary. An oil company representative in the Orient became acquainted with him, observed his abilities, and offered him a job at the then-fabulous salary of $12,000 a year! “No,” said the young missionary. “I can’t take that job.” “Why?” asked the businessman. “Isn’t the salary big enough?” “The salary is big enough,” replied the youth, “but the job isn’t.”

What is the purpose for which we live? Is it a physical appetite? Or a bank account? Or a social position? Or the power of directing some enterprise?

Or is it something big with the call of God in it? When we set out to see what can be made of our lives, how much of patience, self-control, courage and faith can we attain? How much of helpfulness, and kindness will others find in us? Are our purposes the kind that will last long and endure eternally?

A life that is better than our own little human endeavors can make it, a life made good by the guidance and direction of God, is the grandest achievement observable by man. “God gave Solomon --- largeness of heart.”

(3) And yet further, life is too short to be little in faith. Every one of us has faith in something. We have faith in the law of gravity each time we put our feet upon the ground. I have faith in the bank where I put my salary check on deposit. You have faith in the doctor to whom you go for diagnosis and treatment of illness and disease. It is not, for any of us, a question of faith or no faith. It is a question of what we put our faith in.

a. Some of us bow the knee to the god of things. If only the scientific ingenuity of mankind can provide us with enough things, all will be well!

b. Others worship at the shrine of pleasure. We aim to extract from life every possible physical and mental thrill during our little day of life.

c. There are others of us who are devoted to the god of power. We are confident that, given enough economic, political or military power, we can be defended against all adversaries.

A contemporary philosopher [Paul Elmer More] started out to discover the secret of life without reference to religion. He searched through volumes of letters and biography to find out what other men had thought about life. And he kept at it a long while. After many years of research, he came to the conclusion that people, without religious faith, often make a brave cheerful start, but eventually lose their courage and become filled with despondency (like Randolph Churchill quitting public life.)

Some of us require years of buffeting, confident that we can manage quite well by ourselves, before we recognize our lacks. We rely on our own intelligence, and our own strength, to get, or accomplish, what we want. And we may even discern what seems to be a measure of success. Business goes pretty well for a while; health is fine; home reasonably satisfying; friends accord us a measure of respect. And we lay hold on the satisfactions apparently inherent in these things only to find that the satisfactions are not what we thought. They may even burst like bubbles as we grasp at them.

And we discover that we need really deep and enduring foundations to endure sorrow as well as joy; to stand the failures that come along with success. And we do not find the answers to our deepest needs until we acknowledge that we were made by the Creator God, that we belong to Him, and until we turn over our lives to His care and guiding direction. Life is too short of little faith. Let us live for something big, something important.

Shall we live for big projects, big jobs, big headlines? Some people are apparently called to important responsibilities, heavy duties, impressive accomplishments. But the real demand upon them, as is the demand upon all of us, is for persons big in attitude, in purpose, and in faith, by which are accomplished the designs of God for his people of the earth.

God looks for persons as big as Christ. And none but God can make that out of me, or of you; none but God can even begin it. But when, sincerely and wholeheartedly, we live for Him, all the reproach of being little is taken from our selfish lives and we can know ourselves carried up into what is important and significant.

God grant you, what He gave to Solomon ---“largeness of heart.”

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Delivered in Wisconsin Rapids, March 24, 1957.

Also in Wisconsin Rapids, March 1, 1964.

Also at the Wood County Infirmary, March 4, 1964.

[We in this church are poised for decision on a building program. What we do will affect not only ourselves but our children and their children -- not only us who live here, but those who will live here.

Let us dare to think big! I do not refer to the size alone of an edifice. But let us make it adequate for the service it can render as the church home of Christian people. Let us have the space and equipment necessary for good teaching of our religion and good fellowship in Christ. Let us have a chapel for meditation and intimate services. Let us have necessary administration space. And let us build a sanctuary that will stand for years as the place of beauty and serenity and inspiration where we may seek assurance that God it present and guiding our lives.

Let us think big in terms of our giving to support a big venture --- not so much about what we must “give up” as what we want to give out in dedication to a great purpose!!!

Prayer: God, call on us to grow in spirit, in willing venture.

Amen]