4/12/59

Scripture: Romans 12

At this time of year, we have lived through another Easter season. We have been inspired; our sights and aims have been lifted. It should be the beginning of renewed enthusiasm in Christian churchmanship. Very soon after the first Easter, disciples of Jesus experienced that Pentecost of spirit that sent them out with spiritual fire to proclaim and serve their Christ.

It was several years ago that a member of this church, now deceased, spoke before the Women’s Fellowship on this theme. And Miss Anna McMillan raised the question, “How can we hold to the standards we would like to maintain?” Then she proceeded to suggest these answers to the question.

1) First, regular and earnest meditation may well become a habit in our lives. Not just in emergency, but as a regular practice in growing, it is well to ponder the truths illuminated in the Bible. In his final hours, Sir Walter Scott said, “Read to me from the Book.” “What book?” asked his companion. “The Book --- there is but one,” said Scott.

Many a youth, having studied his Bible in church school and at home, goes to a summer church camp, discovers there the rich value of reading in his Bible or Testament and thinking on it in an early morning hour, or before lights out at night, and comes home glad to continue the practice because of its worth.

2) Second, we need more prayer --- intelligent, vital prayer; prayer of acknowledgment, of confession, of praise, of dedication; prayer of meditative seeking and receiving the will of God; prayer that can open our spiritual energies and vision equal to the tasks of our time.

3) Third. We need to cultivate a time of quietness from the pressure and clamor and demand of our living. We need some solitude; some variation and relief; some release from the earthy in order to resume the attack upon the earthy. Jesus gave abundant example in his own earthly life. He would withdraw from the crowds, the demands, the dangers, the hard work of his ministry to a lake, a hillside, a garden where he could be alone with his nearest disciples, or even alone from them. It was at night, in a garden, withdrawn from the disciples, even apart from those especially close friends, that he summoned the renewal and strength for the final and greatest demand of his ministry. If he needed it, how much more surely do we!

4) Fourth. We must have a faith. Not just something that someone, or some organization, has told us to believe; not something merely memorized; but a faith received as a gift, thought about, tested in experience, corrected and refined by use. It is wrong to say, or to believe: “It doesn’t matter what you believe, if you do what is right;” for what you believe determines what you think it is right to do.

Ralph Sockman, in a radio address, has commented: “It has often been said that a person has no more religious faith than he can command in an emergency. And it is quite true that what we do in a moment of crisis is a good test of our religion. It is also true that the courage we may show in an emergency is the result of the conditioning we have undergone in the days, or years, beforehand. When we condition our faith until it is equal to emergencies, then the very emergencies serve to reinforce our faith.”

Now a basic affirmation of our Christian faith is that it places every Christian in a position of maximum personal responsibility to God and to all of his fellow men. No one can stand between the individual Christian and his personal calling to be a believer, a witness, a minister to others. Whether he be a clergyman, or a lay Christian, he is to be a fully responsible, and participating member of the Body of Christ -- the Church.

This is much more than being a religious spectator, more than being an auditor of worship via the radio or in the sanctuary. What is urgently needed is both a personal commitment to Christian belief and living, and some means by which Christian faith and convictions can be expressed in the solidarity of the Christian community, acting together in carrying out the responsibilities and mission of the Church. And the Christian society should differ in improved fashion, from the society around it.

The Christian society is not made up of the professionals in religion, though they may offer leadership in direction. The Christian society is made up of laymen and women, Christian adults, youth, and children, who take their religion seriously, search out and revise and test their faith; and who act upon its convictions.

Christianity began as a lay movement. Our Lord was not a priest, nor a Pharisee. He was a rabbi in the broad and liberal sense that he was a teacher; he gathered around him people who were lay folk. All twelve of his apostles were laymen, one or two from fairly prominent walks of life, most of them from humble, even obscure vocations. Their effectiveness did not stem from institutionalism nor ritualistic correctness, but from devotion to the cause of righteousness as they had learned it from, and seen it in, Jesus. His church was simply the company of those who believed him and were associated with him in living and witnessing the faith. Basically, that is what the church still is.

Some unknown author supplied these comments on churchmanship which appeared in the printed section of one of our church calendars several years ago:

“This is my church. It is composed of people like me. We make it what it is.

“I want it to be a church that is a lamp to the paths of pilgrims, leading them to goodness, truth, and beauty. It will be, if I am.

“It will be friendly, if I am. Its pews will be filled, if I help to fill them. It will do a great work, if I work. It will bring other people into its worship and fellowship, if I bring them.

“It will be a church of loyalty and love, of fearlessness and faith; and a church with a noble spirit -- if I, who make it what it is, am filled with these.

“Therefore, with the help of God, I shall dedicate myself to the task of being all of these things that I want my church to be.”

There is an old legend that when Christ returned to heaven after his work here on earth, the angel Gabriel met him and asked what plans he had for making sure that his work would be carried on. Christ answered: “I have given the message to Peter and John, to Mary and Martha. They will tell others and thus the message will spread.” “But,” said Gabriel, “suppose that they forget to tell their friends, and their friends forget to pass on the message, what other plans do you have?” Christ looked at Gabriel steadily, smiled a wonderful smile, and said, “I have no other plans. I am counting on them.”

Can he count on you?

---------------------

Delivered in Wisconsin Rapids, April 12, 1959

(on a Sunday when the God and Country Award completed the service.)