3/31/57

Scripture: Matthew 25: 31-45.

“If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. .... If I give away all that I have, and if I deliver my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.” [I Corinthians 13: 1,3]. So said Paul in his familiar letter to the Christians at Corinth.

Love is the outstanding Christian characteristic. Jesus Christ emphasized it over and over. The Hebrew people, among whom he had been born, had lived for generations under the guidance of a set of ethical principles or laws based on the Ten Commandments. Jesus acknowledged the Ten Commandments without changing the dotting of an “I” or the crossing of a “T”. But, when questioned about which were the greatest of the commandments, he summarized them all in two statements. (1) “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy mind and with all thy strength.” And then he said, (2) “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” [Matthew 22: 35-40]. With love of God and love of neighbor firmly fixed in one’s life it becomes natural to live a life that keeps the ten commandments.

Jesus emphasized love over and over. It becomes the outstanding characteristic of his life and his teaching, a chief requirement upon his followers. And it is needed as desperately today as it was in the day when he was talking about it in Palestine.

Many of the questions addressed to Jesus had to do with the means of salvation for the questioner. “What can I do to be saved?” “How shall I live in order to be accounted righteous?” “Who is going to be greatest in the kingdom of heaven, and who will enjoy the positions of honor?” Jesus brushed these concerns aside with his insistence on love as an attitude and as a practical expression. To one he said, “Go, sell what you have and give to the poor.” [Matthew 19: 21]. To disciples, concerned with the places of honor they hoped to achieve with him, he set an example in washing their feet -- not of servile necessity, but with the loving concern of one who would serve. To those who were concerned with heavenly justice and the judgment, he made practical love a test of their expectation, and of their loyalty to him.

Let us look a bit at that parable of the judgment which Jesus gave to his inquiring hearers. He pictures the Son of Man coming in glory and sitting in judgment upon those who claim to be his followers. They can be separated as easily as sheep from goats. The Syrian sheep were white, the Syrian goats were black. So a shepherd, with both sheep and goats in his flock, could tell the difference easily even in the dusk. It was a vivid picture, of the separation that Jesus chose to portray, in his comparison of the people at final judgment with a shepherd’s flock at the end of a day. But the most astonishing part of the parable is the test used by Jesus to determine if one were a “white sheep” to be placed in the favored right hand, or a “black goat” to be herded off to the unfavored left.

Each one is asked not about his manner of worship, nor about his creed. No question is asked about his standing in the community. No one is even asked if he faithfully kept all the commandments! What each one is asked is something like this: “Did you feed me when I was hungry? Did you give me a cup of cool water when I was thirsty? When I was a stranger, did you welcome me? Did you help clothe me when I was without clothes? Did you visit me when I was sick or in prison?” And if one replied in astonishment, “Why, Lord, did I ever fail you? I didn’t see you where I was, but I would have ‘flown’ to minister to any need you felt!” To which the Master made it clear that anyone who gave a needed cup of cold water to anyone in his name, did it unto the Lord. To visit the sick and lonely, to feed or clothe the needy, is to do this unto the Lord. Every make any visits to the local jail? What have you done for that migrant family that lives for a while across town? The need for love and concern by the hungry, the thirsty, the homeless, the naked, the physically afflicted, and the prisoner, are here made the test. What we have done in love for those who need what we can do, is the test.

A good deal of our business life is based upon the mutual exchange of service for service. But what of the love that goes out to those who have no present opportunity to return our offerings of help?

As we ponder this matter, we have questions to ask: “Is the whole of Christian life mere giving of a dollar to a beggar? Is that what ‘charity’ is?” Or is the love which goes with the help we extend toward the needy an essential Christian characteristic?

Some of the surprises of the judgment are enough to dismay us. The loving folk were so humble that it did not occur to them that their daily kindnesses could ever have been a personal service to the king of their lives. They had not supposed that what they had done was worthy of any reward. The unloving, on the other hand, were not ignorant concerning Jesus. They apparently knew him to whom they spoke. But they had been so long unloving that their belief was only a ritual observance and a correct creed. They separated Jesus from the goings of life. They did not suppose that he was concerned with their failure in compassion. The surprise of both the “sheep-like” people and the “goat-like” people is expressed in their almost incredulous question: “When did we see thee hungry?”

But the true saint forgets himself in love. It does not even occur to him that there is any splendor in him. Even the saint, despite much insight, does not realize the closeness of that bond by which everyone, especially the needy, is bound to Christ.

There was a man of humble vocation who pressed clothes all week for a living. He would not charge much more than a bare necessity for his work. On Sunday, he would go and visit people in the local jail. He did not “preach” to prisoners. Neither did he condone any of the wrongs that had landed them there. But he used to say, “They must be lonely.” He would speak admiringly of the leaders of the community and of “how much good they can do.” Christ’s “come, ye blessed of my Father” would have astonished him. “When have I every seen Thee, a stranger, or in prison?”

These are some of the implications that appear to us as we study the parable of the judgment which Jesus gave to his hearers. Now with some of this in mind, let us turn our attention to some of the needs in this world that can be met with Christian compassion and sharing.

Our Congregational Christian Service Committee is the department of our denomination that cooperates with Church World Service in meeting areas of need.

(1) We have been deeply impressed with the needs of refugees fleeing from ruthless tyranny in Hungary, crossing the borders into Austria and freedom, but with little or nothing except the clothes on their backs. Usually worn and footsore, often sick, their plight has tremendously increased the relief and reconstruction responsibilities of Christian church folk.

(2) But these are not the only ones in need of aid. Korea still suffers, in every phase, from the effects of war. Orphans, war widows, amputees, tuberculars, blind folk must have special care. Some 10 million people were displaced by the war. Of these, one in two, or every other one, needs some kind of help.

(3) In Germany, the long-term refugee problem is continually aggravated by the daily arrival of hundreds escaping from behind the Iron Curtain into West Germany. If they are recognized as “legitimate refugees” they can hope to find employment of some kind. If they are not so recognized they may have to live on meager relief grants and church gifts of food and clothing until their status can be clarified.

(4) In Japan, the unemployment of thousands in mining and agricultural areas creates an urgent situation. Typhoons and floods have devastated countless homes and carried away personal belongings.

(5) In France and Italy, Christian institutions shelter the aged, destitute and orphaned, particularly in areas where bitter winters have ruined crops, reducing thousands to meager diets.

(6) The Near East is full of tragedy. The new emergency has left 120,000 refugees in temporary camps, needing shelter, food clothing and medical care. They came mostly from Port Said and the Sinai Peninsula. And these are added on to the 9-year-old problem of 900,000 Palestinian Arab refugees who are still living in camps and on the fringe of the larger cities. They require continuing, long-range programs of relief and reconstruction, including a lot of encouragement toward self-help and vocational training.

(7) In Hong Kong, hundreds of thousands of refugees from Communist China eke out lives of desperation, barely living from one day until the next. For them, medical supplies, food and clothing and materials for self-help projects are vital.

(8) Pakistan and India still suffer from disastrous floods in 1955-56. Tens of thousands of once-fertile farmland still lie useless. Grains, seeds, plows, farm animals are still needed. The thrust of tuberculosis defies all resources available to help health programs.

(9) Fresh tragedies each year in Greece keep more than 2 million people in extreme need. Recurring earthquakes, floods and avalanches make this area one of great concern. Work opportunities are few and earnings are small. Self-help and food distribution programs continue of highest important.

(10) The ministry of the churches provides assistance for those in want in many other areas, including Algeria, Belgium, Burma, the Caribbean, Chile, Gold Coast, Indonesia, Kenya, Liberia, Nigeria, Okinawa, Paraguay, Philippines, Portugal, Spain, Taiwan, Turkey, the United Kingdom, Vietnam, and Yugoslavia.

Now the American churches are not carrying all this load. But they are doing what they can to help other Christians in the work. More than $11,500,000 will be needed in 1957 to sustain individual denominational projects, and joint programs through Church World Service. This includes providing the means of getting government surplus products to relief areas. If the necessary contributions come in, it may be possible to get 400,000,000 pounds of clothing, food, medicine and other supplies distributed. Thirty five commissions cooperate in Church World Service, including our own which is represented largely by the Congregational Christian Service Committee.

The reason why I have asked that the presentation of our offering of today be deferred until late in the service is that I wanted you to know some of these needs that will be partially met by offerings given today in “One Great Hour of Sharing” in countless churches of a host of denominations.

We have the means to help, in loving concern, those whose misfortunes call for compassion in person. Few persons will get to most of these people in person. Possibly no one in this room will visit, personally, even one of these major spots of want and desperate hope. But our gifts of substance, of prayerful attention, of friendly concern will be channeled through the personal efforts of those who are our representatives. They serve in so many ways other than just by distributing relief supplies.

[It is not surprising that many people in Athens have come to love and respect Margaret and Newell Steward during the year and a half they have now represented the Service Committee in that great city. How far their influence has been felt and how it has woven together strands of helpfulness across vast distances is strikingly illustrated in a story here slightly abbreviated that appeared on the cover of the Christmas number of Congregational Minnesota.

“George Mazokopakis is a man of great faith which does not easily give up. His little boy, born with a congenital difficulty that would make him an invalid for life, must be saved. The father followed every avenue of help known on Crete, then sold his home, land, and with some help from friends and relatives went on to Athens. Surely, there would be help at this great center. He took a job driving a bus to earn by every means while he exhausted the resources of the Great City - yet no answer, and it seemed impossible. But George Mazokopakis would not give up.

“By some means he arrived at the American Embassy and was met by a new friend, Mr. Newell Steward. Faith reached out to a pin point on the map - far off in American, Rochester, Minnesota. Mr. Steward wrote the Congregational Conference of Minnesota, the CCSC, and Mayo Clinic for help. George turned everything he could into cash, and with the help of these and other sources came to America with his son, John.

“Rev. Don Bundy of our Rochester Church turned to the Greek Community in and around Rochester, to Rochester itself, and with the Conference appealed for donations across Minnesota. More than $1,000 was needed as father and son set sail on faith. Arrangements were made, the family met, a home found, and the four months’ stay which was to include two operations and a month in the hospital started. Examinations, medical care and the tender love of nurses and new friends whose language was different, surrounded father and son. The boy was difficult - all the fears, apprehensions, and hostilities coming out - but gradually love won and trust appeared. The operations were successful - a fact which no one dared predict until near the end. But George Mazokopakis’ faith continued. And love and skill prevailed.

“In mid-October, Mr. Bundy saw father and son to the Northwest Airlines place, the first leg of the homeward journey. Father and son could not speak English and the Bundys could not speak Greek - but they were joined in a faith, love, and mutual concern which knows no barrier of language for it is of the heart. As six year old John was ready to board the place, grinning all over, he reached over and kissed the hand of Mr. Bundy. This was his thanks to all of us.”

“O God, Father of the forsaken, the help of the weak, the supplier of the needy; who teachest us that love towards the race of man is the bond of perfectness, and the imitation of thy blessed self; open and touch our hearts, that we may see and do, both for this world and that which is to come, the things which belong to our peace.”

-- 7th Earl of Shaftesbury, 1801-1885.

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Delivered in Wisconsin Rapids, March 31, 1957.