2/25/59

Scripture: Ephesians 4: 1-7; 25-32.

There are two groups of people who, by their attitude toward the church, have done real and serious harm to the cause of religion. Not only does the cause suffer in their lives, but many others have been drawn away from the sources of right, and satisfying living, by their attitudes.

(1) One such group consists of those who assert that they have no use for the church. And the other (2) consists of those who appear certain that the church (usually their particular church) is the final ark of the covenant, to be kept untouched and unchanged just as it is.

We have been learning that neither of these groups is right. The surge of interest in the church in recent years attests the discovery of thousands that the church is vitally significant for them and for all who will take it seriously. And the trend toward cooperative understanding and effort, the whole direction which we call the ecumenical movement attests the realization that the Church is greater than our churches. Whatever is of permanent worth in each of the several communions is no exclusive private possession, but may become a contribution to the common strength and witness of the whole church.

The church, as we have it, is neither perfect, nor is it a wreck. It is a wonderful institution, a factor of tremendous importance in working out the problems that face mankind. We believe in the church.

But one of the things which we believe about the church is that it needs continual overhauling. It must grow, or wither. Growth means change. There was that moment in the intimate relationship of Jesus with his disciples when he said to Simon: “Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church.” [Matthew 16: 18]. Something dependable was emerging in the big fisherman. And it was as solid as the church that was to be established on that kind of character.

But it was not changeless. Peter was not perfect, and he never became perfect in his mortal life. He continued to change and to grow. Sometimes he slipped and erred. Sometimes he stood, a tower of spiritual strength.

So it is with the church. And one of the surest signs of its strength is its capacity for self-examination and constructive criticism and for self-renewal. Somehow, prophets have kept coming throughout the history of the church, challenging, criticizing, irritating. And if stones be thrown at the prophet, they are used later for building a monument to his memory.

We believe in the church -- the growing church -- partly because of what it has been, and is, and more because of what it should be and, by the grace of God shall be. And so we call all who are its members, and all of you who are not its members, to enter into it and play your part in it, because of what you can do for the church, and what the church can do for you. To fulfill its rightful place in this strange, rapidly-shifting world, the church, in order to deserve the loyalty of every person, must continue making several adjustments.

(1) It must maintain its self-respect. The church, through its membership, must neither cringe nor strut. It must be simple and self-respecting. The church has sometimes hidden in a corner out of sight; it has sometimes paraded in purple and gold. For both of these maladies we need to remember that the one spiritual head of the church, Jesus Christ, put on no airs; was even despised and rejected by those who would not understand him; but made the world realize that he must be reckoned with!

It is our task to make the world realize the true greatness and glory of the church. There is no other institution to compare with the church for its lasting benefit and goodness through a couple of thousand years. The church is far short of its ideal, but it is far ahead of the pagan drift. It has a right and a duty to maintain its self-respect.

(2) The church does well to maintain the right alliance with knowledge -- all sorts of discovered and discoverable truth. And so the church has a stake in intelligent public education and scientifically ascertained facts.

(3) The church must be concerned both with the personal commitment of individual Christians and with the whole social life within which Christians, and potential Christians, live. It can rightly speak, with the voice of conscience, to the state, to the world of economics, to the area of social customs.

(4) The church needs to work earnestly for spiritual unity. I doubt that complete organic unity would be desirable, or profitable to the spirit. But the whole church, in all its branches, must lend an attentive ear to the voice of its Christ as he says, quite positively, “Hereby shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.” And, for me, that voice comes not only to the members of my own particular family or household of faith, but to the whole community of the several communions in the faith.

(5) Again, the church must feel, and see, that the religion of Christ is a world movement, and the churches of Christ are rightly a world community. There is a bond of kindred fellowship between Christians of every land and every class or status.

To sum up these observations as to how the church shall renew itself in spiritual growth, come alive in spirit and enter into right action; it is of supreme importance that the church shall be truly Christ-centered. Its religion shall be true to the New Testament as institutional Christianity has never yet been but can be, and desires to be. When the church sings, “Bring forth the royal diadem, and crown him Lord of all,” it must really act as if Christ were the head of the church.

We believe in the church that can acknowledge Christ as its head; that will care about the things that Jesus cared for; and that will care less and less about the things which meant little or nothing to him.

It is a startling commentary on our religious life that some of the most controversial theological and ecclesiastical doctrines, which have brought division in the church, are matters about which Jesus said nothing at all. But he did ask: “When the Son of Man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?” And that remains a hard, and necessary, question for the church to face and answer.

Now, having said that we believe in the changing, growing church, let me go on to assure you that the church needs you! It needs unsatisfied people, people who want things better.

There is a sense in which we speak of the church as the “communion of saints.” Used in this way, that expression can be terribly misleading. Truman Douglas points out that it is more accurate to speak of the church as the communion of sinners. The church is made up of those who do not lay claim to any degree of superior goodness. It is composed of folk who know that they are not good. They would like to be good, to grow in righteousness. But they do not attain into such perfection. This, however, may characterize the Christian person: he is the forgiven man. He knows his wrongness, confesses it before God, seeks and receives forgiveness and knows his imperfect life accepted by God and put under the divine discipline.

I have sometimes repeated an easily understood definition of a saint as a sinner who gets up and tries again. The sinner for whom there is no hope, the one who is really lost, is the man who just grovels in his evil with no effort, or effective desire, to become better. But the sinner who is repentant of his sin, confesses it, receives God’s forgiveness, gets up and tries again, becomes the saint even when he stumbles and has to be picked up by the Almighty again.

The church knows that it is no community of the perfect. It is the communion of sinners who live under a lifting vision and are forever trying to attain unto it. And it is the community of forgiveness. Therefore the church needs you, whoever you are!

The Americans of whom God is not ashamed are not those super patriots who think that only a public enemy could hint that some things can be improved in our land. Those patriots who are surely loved by the Lord are the ones who long to see America not to be content as it is, but America struggling nearer the ideal.

The churchmen whom God loves are those who desire a better church, nearer the holy ideal. Those of whom He is not ashamed are the churchmen who are impatient for better things and ways. So if you are critical of the church, join one of its families and help to make it what God wants it to be, as shown in the spirit and teaching of Jesus our Lord. There is just one set of people of whom the Bible says that God is not ashamed. And who are they? “But now they desire a better country, that is a heavenly; wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God.” [Hebrews 11: 16].

Not only does the church need you, but you need the church, at least as much as the church needs you. Several years ago, a well-known and capable psychologist made this frank statement about his own church-going and its motives. Listen to his comment as he says:

“I go to church because I would rather lie in bed Sunday morning. I go because I would rather read the Sunday paper. I go because I know it will please my old father, when he learns of it, and my parents-in-law, whom I shall undoubtedly see there. I go because I shall meet and have to shake hands with people, many of whom do not interest me in the least; because, if I don’t go, my children consider that they have a good reason for not going to Sunday School; because I might be asked to do something I don’t want to do; because I may disagree with what the minister has to say. I go because I do not believe in all of the doctrines of this church, or of any church. I go, in short, because I hate to go, and because I know it will do me good. It requires religion to overcome the selfish impulses of the natural man and to lead him to a more successful and fuller life. I go to church because it has meant giving up things I like to do for things I did not like, at first, so well.”

Well, even if one can find no better reason for going to church than that psychologist had, it is worth while.

Here is another chap who said, years ago, that he would like to join a church even though he had little religious background and didn’t know what he believed. When the minister asked him why he wanted to join the church, he said: “I’ve been coming to this church for the past 2 or 3 years, and I’ve found, just as a matter of fact, that when I go to church and am reminded of God, I can do some things I wouldn’t otherwise do and keep from doing some things I would otherwise do.”

He came into that church, grew in grace and knowledge, and became one of the most useful and vitally Christian officers of the church, a man whose religion commanded the hearty respect of all who knew him.

The church needs you, and you need the church.

This church of which we speak, and in which we believe, does at least these three things of priceless value for human life. (1) It keeps alive the sense of God; (2) it reminds us of Jesus and his way; (3) it makes us conscious of a universal fellowship of which we are a part.

(1) It keeps alive the sense of God, without which, as a British writer puts it, “we should all go to the devil.” Despite all of the ways in which the church needs improvement -- better preaching, more appealing worship, better organization -- there is still something in the church -- its regular services, its spiritual discipline, its Bible reading, its training of youth and adulthood, its hymns and prayers, its missionary spirit -- that keeps people from forgetting God.

(2) Moreover, the church keeps us aware of Jesus and his way. Whatever else one may think about him, if you are intelligent, must you not recognize that he stood for something strong and valuable in human life? Something that can transform the world if it has its way? It is the church that has kept this vision from fading from the sight of mankind. And its sacrament in which Christ’s command is repeated: “This do in remembrance of me” keeps vivid the memory that, if lost, would leave the world immeasurably poorer.

(3) And the church is the one institution that, through the ages, has stood for universal brotherhood, transcending the bounds of family, class, race or nation. This means an unextinguished ray of hope in a time of such passionate divisions as now plague the earth. The church in which we believe stands for universal fellowship on the basis of great, simple, God-inspired ideals.

A study, published some years ago, of the life and work of the Apostle Paul has this interesting statement at its ending: “Much of that for which Paul lived and worked has faded with the passing of the years. Yet still men dream that the world may be saved from ultimate destruction by a universal brotherhood, knowing not a barrier of race or sex or social condition - a dream that would have died in Judea had not a Jew of Tarsus seen a vision on the road to Damascus.”

Without the church, that vision would fade. And without that vision the world is lost. But the church can keep that vision bright and beckoning. And you can help the church in keeping it bright.

Is it not worth while, above all else, to keep such a church in health and vigor? Imperfect as it may be, we believe in it. We believe it is worth the loyalty of your life and service, “even as Christ loved the church, and gave himself for it, that he might consecrate it, and might present it a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but holy and without blemish -- that to all the world might be made known, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God.”

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Delivered in a Union Lenten Service at the Moravian Church, Wisconsin Rapids, February 25, 1959.