9/25/60

Scripture: Psalm 11

Text: Psalm 11: 3; “If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?"

It is fascinating to watch preparations for a new building, whether it be a house or a garage; a small shed or a church edifice or a seven-story commercial building. One may have ever-so-rosy a vision of some splendid building that is to be completed soon. But no such building rises until the builders are satisfied that a good, solid, dependable foundation has been laid to support it. The Psalmist has this in mind when he cries, “If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?” This is a classical stimulus to thought on civic uprightness, home life, basic theology, education and most other areas of experience and effort.

The whole field of education is foundation in the life and experience of the learner. This foundation is begun in the very young. There is a side light in Joshua, the 6th chapter, the 26th verse, on parental duty: “He shall lay the foundation thereof in his first born, and in his youngest son shall he set up the gates of it.”

The whole thought of right foundations may pertinent to the emphasis of this coming week as Christian Education week. A practical coincidence in this church is the fact that responsible boards are now studying the report recently received on our Christian Education plant facilities to understand our adequacies and inadequacies in this field.

A denominational emphasis has been for the current biennium on the Christian Higher Education Fund. Our church commendably voted to include a sizable item in its budget this year, and presumably next year, for this Fund which will be of great assistance to the Christian training and campus ministries to youth in our land. (Incidentally, our Wisconsin Rapids church is on the honor roll of churches which have accepted a full quota, or more, for support of the fund.)

But now let us talk of the matter of our faith and its foundations. The great naturalist, Henry Thoreau, once remarked that it is all right to build castles in the air provided we put foundations under them. It is perfectly apparent that the foundation is a most important part of a structure, and yet we need to be reminded of it. Dr. Frederick Meek says, “The foundation is often quite unnoticed and disregarded, because the superficial observation of our society tends to pay much more attention to external impressions than to hidden quality and strength. And yet, for lasting stability and strength, there is nothing as important as the unseen foundation which the casual passer-by is sure to miss.”

In these days of haunting uneasiness and even fear, we need a philosophy of living which will not crumble under the onslaught of disaster. There are philosophies which will not stand the test of time. History’s roads are strewn with them. One was the idea that the world is growing better and better, and that we are moving, surely, inescapably, almost mechanically into a realm of light and comfortable well-being. The continuing increase in the rate of alcoholism, immorality and crime; the rise of sheer brutal power in the world’s politics; tend to belie any theory of the natural unfolding of society into a pattern of goodness.

We are faced with facts that leap at us from our daily newspapers -- facts which underline the great need of strong, sure foundations. And many people echo the Psalmist as he cries, “If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?”

The man of faith is convinced that our unfailing foundation is found in the Creator of heaven and earth. One of the great hymns of the church asserts it with confidence:

How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord,

Is laid for your faith in his excellent word!

The foremost point in our religious affirmation is that our faith is not a fanciful dream, a vivid imagination, a web of logic spun by our own minds, but an expression of God himself. The hymn-writer calls it His excellent Word. When he speaks of the Word, he does not mean “words.” By Word, is meant His whole channel of expression. And God’s expression is found revealed, with varying clarity and intensity, in Scripture; in the person of Christ; in the Holy Spirit revealed in all the earth; in the image of Himself in the soul of people who struggle for the right.

God’s Word does not appear only in terms of sentences interpreted literally. It is, rather, the manifestation of His nature in whatever way He chooses to make it known to mankind.

A great many folk are thrown into confusion because they find it impossible to build upon an unseen foundation. Yet most foundations are largely unseen. It is true that a builder often digs deep, through unstable or shifting material, until he comes to solid stuff upon which to lay his footings. But then he comes to something on which he can depend -- perhaps a layer of hard rock, or constant clay, or other solid material. He knows he can count on it, even though he does not see all of it, because it is there. And so he prepares the footings for his building’s foundation upon it.

It is a superficial point of view that makes judgments only upon what is visible. The greatest forces in life are invisible. If we measure life only on the basis of what we can see, we may have a partial view of the seemingly endless flow of the generations, but little more. We see that man is born, grows to maturity, enjoys something of the blessings of earth’s experience, then dies, and that appears to be the end of it. This view is limited to what one can see only.

But life is much more than the sum total of what we can see. You and I can not see, measure, or confine, the mind’s capacity for thinking; the soul’s sensitivity to beauty or love --these can not be “seen,” and yet, though invisible, they are very real. Every mind is greater than what is seen of it. One thought, or one “book of thoughts,” does not exhaust the capacity of a mind.

When a writer produces a great book, the publishers want him to sign a contract with them for more writing. This is not alone on the basis of what they see, but also upon what is unseen. For they want that contract upon their assumption (their faith) that he can continue to produce significant writing. This is something unseen, but upon it the publishers depend.

If this be true of a human mind, is it not also true of the divine? Emerson said, “All that I have seen teaches me to trust the Creator for all that I have not seen.” We build upon a foundation that may be invisible but nonetheless real and very sure.

We are surrounded by evidences of the divine Being. And it can hardly be that He has exhausted Himself in the manifestations that already have come to us. Someone has put it this way: “Who, that beholds this immense universe, can imagine that the intelligence that gave it birth is spent, and that nothing is to be looked for from it, but effects precisely similar to those that we now see?”

It is our conviction that God has fashioned the soul for greater destinies than can be fulfilled even in this present world; beyond all that is visible lie possibilities not yet realized. For “God is more than a Creator, bringing the world and us into being. He is a Father who trains, plans, nurtures, educates, loves, and guides us into a fuller realization of our capacities.”

Of course these intimations, or promises, of the future are not enough for us. One of our deepest needs is for God who is near to us in our present experiences. And the faith that He is near, with present power for us, is echoed in lines found further in the hymn to which we have already referred:

Fear not, I am with thee, Oh be not dismayed,

For I am Thy God, and will still give thee aid.”

This unknown hymn-writer sings of God who answers our prayers for divine aid. Our human hearts cry out for comfort in affliction, for deep assurance and peace in the midst of turmoil and tension and uncertainty. We are mortal creatures, and ignorant at that. We know that we can inflict death, but how can we conquer it?

We are not unmindful of the works of the mind of man. But we need the assurance of divine aid. We seek to be a part of the good and the permanent.

The landscape is so frequently besmirched with the purely transient, and with the evil, that has come from man’s erring hand. We people of the earth are intelligent enough to create powerful, cunning, and ingenious implements. But we are too ignorant to use them constructively. And if there are “wars and rumors of wars,” it is not because God desires or decrees it, but because man brings it about in his clumsy search for power greater and holier than himself.

Man’s need is for a deliverer, not like Moses to lead him out of physical slavery, but like Christ to lead him into responsible spiritual freedom.

When we search for the foundation upon which to build our faith, it is essential that we place our trust in One who has ability to provide for our spiritual needs. Isaiah sang of him who “stretched out the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth.” [Isaiah 51: 13a].

If we have confidence in His power to create and sustain the universe, there need be little anxiety over whether He is able to give the aid we require. Hosts of people have witnesses to it.

Of course, we strike near home when we suggest that a great deal of our doubt lies not in the area of God’s ability, but of God’s desire. To put it bluntly, many think God could help us, is He wanted to! They are not sure that He is concerned for us.

Yet God is not hiding, but is constantly seeking to make Himself known to us. The search for God is a response to God’s search for man. Surely God does not hide from His children so that he need not bless them. He is constantly outgoing, expressing, revealing. It is only that we need to be more sensitive to the divine expression of himself to us.

Do you remember the Old Testament story of Elisha? This is one of those stories that needs a symbolic kind of understanding. Elisha, like many another prophet of righteousness, was in the bad graces of a king. The king of Syria was determined to be rid of this troublesome fellow and had ordered his capture. While Elisha and his servant were being sought by the king’s agents, it was learned that they were hiding in Dothan. Having learned their whereabouts, the king sent a great array of horses, chariots and men to surround the city in order to impress the inhabitants and to get the prophet.

The servant got up early in the morning; looked out; saw that the enemy encircled the city; hastened to tell his master! Frantically, he said to Elisha: “Alas, my master, how shall we do?” And the response of Elisha was like a benediction from God himself: “Fear not; for they that be with us are more than they that be with them.” Then he prayed, simply that the young man’s eyes should be opened to the resources that God would supply. It is sometimes hard to put it in words, but the story goes on to put it this way: the young man’s eyes were opened, “And behold, the mountains were full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha.” [II Kings: 6: 12-17]

I do not know whether one should insist on saying that Elisha was surrounded by flaming chariot wheels. But I am sure that this is a way of saying that Elisha knew that God had all the resources needed for his protection. And when he prayed, the young servant came also to understand this. Many a person since, has learned the same confidence, that God cares for him, and that care is sufficient, come what may.

No life is without its “fiery trials.” In the hymn is expressed the conviction that God is here, too, never forsaking His own. We can rely upon it!

No foundation, seen or unseen, is more sure than the faithfulness of God. Our faith is grounded on this assurance. For God Himself is our foundation. And God is good.

[Prayer]

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

Dates and places delivered:

Wisconsin Rapids, September 25, 1960

Wisconsin Rapids, May 1, 1966

Waioli Hiuia Church, February 3, 1974