2/11/62

Scripture: Isaiah 61

Text: Isaiah 61: 3b; "...... they may be called oaks of righteousness...."

When I am driving in the car with my wife, and want to know the time, I frequently ask her to let me know it, for she wears a wrist watch. My own watch is a pocket watch. So it is often easier to ask someone else the time than to get out my own watch to see. Probably one of the most frequently asked questions is: "What time is it?" I ask the question; others ask it of me.

Our time-keeping is measured by the interval it takes the earth to rotate once on its axis; and by the time it takes the earth to revolve about the sun. The first we call a day; the latter, a year. We divide the day into hours, minutes, seconds, fractions of seconds. We group days into weeks, months, years, centuries, millennia, and so on. We measure time with clocks, hour glasses, sun dials, and other devices. All of these help one to know the hour or the time of the day.

But another kind of time is important: the time of your life. For God has given you and me certain times to do things. When we are quite young, it is a time for learning the information and attitudes to be acquired in schools. Few people do that in their 50s or 60s. On the other hand almost any time in life is a time for adding new skills, more knowledge, better understanding.

If we do not do some things at the right time of life, it is difficult to do them later --- sometimes impossible. We go through life -- through each part of it --- once. It goes better if we have done the right things, and learned the right lessons, at the right time. For instance, what time is it for children and young people? Someone says that it is:

A time to build strong bodies through regular exercise, walking and work.

A time to build strong character and habits of honesty, truth, kindness, goodness and love.

A time to build strong minds through regular study and reading.

A time to build a love for beauty.

A time to develop a great soul through prayer, Bible study, meditation, attendance at church and church school.

A time to know and to love God.

Well, there is a time for some of those things in the mature years also --- and a time to have acquired, and to use, experience.

We could add to the list. But now is the time that God has given to you and to me. We shall never have it again, for the past is gone. The future is yet to come. "What time is it?" The time is now. It is given by God, to be used well.

Just at this hour, on February 11th in the year 1962, we have the time to gather here to worship God, to meditate in His presence, to sing our praise, and to listen with our spirits for His guiding. During this particular time of meditation, I want to direct your thought to an expression that is part of the "picture language" of the Bible. In that part of Isaiah’s prophecy which was read as Scripture lesson this morning, the prophet assures these people who are called "children of Israel" that his message of good tidings comes to them for their encouragement so that they may be called "oaks of righteousness." That is a good expression -- that people could be, and may be, like oak trees in righteousness -- "the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified."

One of the great needs of our country, and of the world toady, is for people who are like oak trees --- people who, steadily and devotedly, live and serve without turning off to the right nor to the left; who will stand for what is fair, just and true.

If we are to continue the "picture language" that Isaiah uses, we could say that our program of "reforestation in people" calls for the planting, and nurture, of a lot of people who can be called "oaks of righteousness" like some of the rightly great souls that have gone before us and have been gathered up in God’s harvest of time. We need young folk; we need men and women, whose goal has been and continues to be, to live like fine oak trees.

The Rev. Dr. Ben Herbster, who, since last July, has been the new president of the United Church of Christ, has called attention to this text from the Bible and has reminded us of John Gilbert Holland’s verses in which the poet talks about the same thing in somewhat different language:

God give us men! a time like this demands

Strong minds, great hearts, true faith and ready hands;

Men whom the lust of office does not kill;

Men whom the spoils of office cannot buy;

Men who possess opinions and a will;

Men who have honor; men who will not lie;

Men who can stand before a demagogue

And damn his treacherous flatteries without winking!

Tall men, sun-crowned, who live above the fog

In public duty, and in private thinking.

For while the rabble, with their thumb-worn creeds,

their large professions and their little deeds,

Mingle in selfish strife, lo! Freedom weeps,

Wrong rules the land, and Justice sleeps.

We ought to be concerned whenever, and wherever, wrong rules our land, or any land --- or threatens to rule people’s lives. We need to root it out, to build our defenses against it. The best defense against a bad idea is a better idea. It might be right to say that the only defense against a wrong idea is to prove by one’s living that there is a better idea. So, what we need today in our country, and in our community, is a lot of people (even a few people!) whose rightness is like oak trees.

Now, how do we get them? How do we become them?

1) First, the oak tree has its growth from a very small beginning. An old proverb says: "Great oaks from little acorns grow." And I guess that everybody here knows the size of an acorn! When we get this into our heads we can be much closer to achieving our goal than we are. It may take a lot of time and nourishment and water and weather to grow an oak. But it does not even happen unless there is a beginning in the germ and nut-meat seed of a tiny acorn.

I suppose that nobody ever starts out intending to be a liar, or a cheat, or a scoundrel (perhaps a few, but certainly not many). All of us start out with good intentions and high ideals both for ourselves and our children, or our class or our crowd. If there is trouble, it is that we do not take pains to build into our lives the small-appearing details that grow into good character. We are always trying to kid ourselves that just this time we can step over the mark; this time we can give way to temptation; this time we don’t need to tell the truth; this time we can cheat our brothers; because one time doesn’t really count.

And of course this is not true. Every time we disobey a good command; every time we tell an untruth; every time we harbor a mean or ugly thought; every time we are satisfied to stay mean or "ornery"; it leaves its mark upon us. And our growth is more like a weed than an oak tree. By and large, good character, and great ability, is not forged by a few great decisions so much as by a multitude of minor decisions that, taken together, make for us the great decisions.

When the great old sculptor, Michaelangelo, was explaining to a studio visitor a number of additions and alterations that he was making to a statue on which he was working, his friend said: "Well, after all, they are trifles." "It may be so," said the sculptor, "but recollect that trifles make for perfection, and perfection is no trifle." That was his way of saying what we are trying to say now. Just as an oak tree grows from a little acorn, so does great character grow from decisions that may seem very minor at this time.

The more you read in the New Testament, and think of the words of Jesus which you find there, the more you may see that he defined the kingdom of God in terms of relatively minor things like giving a cup of cool water to a thirsty person, giving some food to a person who is hungry, showing kindness to someone who is lonely, visiting someone who is sick or imprisoned. "Inasmuch as you have done it to one of these least, my brethren, you have done it unto me," he said. [Matthew 25: 35-45]. The lives of people who can become like oak trees of righteousness grow from small decisions about things that may not look very important, but which, together, forge destiny.

2) Now another thing about a good oak tree is its watering and nourishment. A person who is growing into a good life like an oak tree must feed upon the bread and water of life and nourish his spirit with the power of God. He must sink his roots down deep into faith. The making of a person is dependent not only on what he does for himself, but chiefly upon what he will let God do within him.

If you ever memorized the first Psalm you remember that when the Psalm writer described a man blessed of God, he says that "He is like a tree planted by streams of water." Think of that word, "planted." It suggests that the tree is not just accidentally by the lake or brook or river. It was put there by the conscious intention of somebody who planted it there. The planter knew that, for a tree to grow well and to become big and strong, it would need a lot of water in years of its growing. And, of course it is only implied, but it goes without saying that the tree was planted in the soil close to the water. There was chosen for that tree the proper environment in which it could grow tall and straight and strong.

So it must be with any person who would be an "oak of righteousness." He must sink his roots deep into the soil of faith in order to be nourished by the moisture and food of life. This need for nourishment is just as true for his spirit as it is for a person’s body.

There are some parents who do not learn this. There are too many young folk who do not learn it for themselves. They appear to think that our Christian faith is an elective that they can take if they want to, and have time for it, but that it doesn’t make much difference in what they will become. The treacherous thing is that at any given time, on any one day, it may not appear to make much difference. But I can tell you that it does make a difference, because I’ve seen the difference. I’ve seen a lot of people who are in some kind of trouble. And when the crisis periods of people’s experience come; when extra courage or strength are needed; it is the people of faith who have it and who expect it. It takes some sold growing to be ready for a storm!

Jesus said, "I am the bread of life." [John 6: 35]. He said, "If anyone thirst, let him come to me and drink." [John 7: 37]. That kind of nourishment taken through days and years, can grow lives that are like good oak trees.

3) In the third place, if a tree is to grow strong and straight and tall, spreading its branches out far and wide, it must not be too much protected. It must grow out where the winds of living blow on it. As it roots down, and grows up, it must, little by little, take the storms of living. People are like that. They do not grow strong and sturdy enough if they are "green-house" sheltered all of the time. They can not always be protected from every danger, harm, temptation of difficulty. Parents have to learn this. Children and young folk have to learn.

I want to say this carefully, so that I do not give the wrong idea. I do not say, nor mean, that a six-year-old child, a 15-year-old boy, and eighteen-year-old girl ought to be provided no protection, no shelter; that there should be no guardianship or no responsible friendship around their lives. Probably you know that I do not believe that, anymore than I believe that a three-year-old ought to be given the car keys in order to learn how an auto works! The problems one works at ought to be suited to the maturity of the child or the youth, or the apprentice.

But, on the other hand, a child does not really mature, a lad does not "grow up," a girl is not really protected with the protection that counts unless, little by little, they can make their own decisions and try their own strength ---- first in trivial matters, and later in matters of more importance, until at length they are able to decide matters of great importance. Oak trees don’t "just happen." They grow. So do people. This is the way maturity is reached.

We parents have to realize that we may protect our children too much and too long; and our children ought to know that they may want to arrive at independent freedom too quickly. Somewhere in between these two extremes lies the amount of liberty and responsibility that children need to attain as they root themselves against life’s demands and storms.

I remember, so gratefully, my own father in this connection. I had finished my university and seminary schooling and was ready for my first full time parish duty. It was to be my decision. I had a wife and child for whose welfare I was responsible. (I had entered a vocation where I was responsible.) Father was interested, but he made no decision or comment, as I sifted the possibilities, rejected several opportunities and finally accepted a call 4500 miles over land and sea from home. I needed money to get there. I had to borrow the money. He signed the note with me, but he expected me to repay it just as I planned to repay it. I had the good feeling that he was still right there to help me and stand with me if I thought he was needed; but that he knew that now I was ready to stand on my own feet and shoulder my own responsibility to weather out whatever storms might come.

What we have been thinking here does not mean that we ought willfully to court danger, just to prove that we "can take it." It does not even mean that we suppose God sends us danger and temptation to see if we can take it. But, since troubles and temptations and dangers do come, it means that we shall make use of those troubles to achieve good sturdy character. When trouble does come, we can accept it, and use it, as a means of growing in grace and the knowledge of our Lord, Jesus Christ.

4) Finally, oak trees grow for a purpose. Probably the purpose is multiple -- many purposes. The oak tree may be used for shade; it reproduces itself in its own acorns formed; it lends beauty to the landscape; eventually it may be used for fine lumber; if it were part of a primeval forest it might eventually die and rot and be metamorphosed by ages-long pressure into coal that can lift men’s burdens, and warm their homes, and drive their machinery.

What we mean here is that a good oak tree has a purpose. Just so ought our lives, if we want to be "oaks of righteousness," to fulfill a purpose. We were put into the world for a purpose - God’s purpose. We were put into the world to serve the needs of mankind, God’s children. We were put here to be steadfast against evil, and strong for right, and a force against the pressures that would take away from others the heritage that God intended for them.

So, in the time that is now; and in each succeeding time that we shall know as "now," our days should be dedicated to the true and the good and the beautiful; dedicated to God’s purpose; dedicated to the accomplishment of His will. Our life is a kind of sacred trust. God has heaped so much of love and resources upon us that we have a stewardship to fulfill -- a responsibility to discharge.

This does not mean that all of us have to be career missionaries, preachers, or religious educators. Of course it does mean that for some of us, now and in time to come. But it means that every last one of us is to make his life count in vocation that is honorable and useful, and that fits in -- like finger, or eye, or ear or arm -- to the needs and functioning usefulness of the whole body.

The world needs "oaks of righteousness." It must have them. That is the only excellence that counts. That is what we must be.

Amen.

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Delivered in Wisconsin Rapids, February 11, 1962.