7/3/66

Scripture: read Jesus’ prayer in John 17.

We invite your attention, on this communion Sunday, to the phrase "Walking in His ways." The whole quotation from the traditional communion service goes like this: "And walking from henceforth in his holy ways." Its meaning is clear in the invitation. We have been admonished to repent, but now we are reminded that we must do more than repent. We must do something. If you feel that you are "in love and charity with your neighbors," and you have the intention to live a new life with the help of God, you must now start walking in His ways -- you must do something about it, and what you do must be in accord with God’s kind of goodness. This demands some action and moves us toward some results.

If, in studying the Bible, you take a concordance and look up the word "ways," you will find that this word, with its synonyms, is used a great many times. Often the word has reference to "paths" -- "the paths of the Lord" or "the ways of the Lord." One of the early uses of the word is in the book of II Samuel, "the way of the Lord is perfect." [II Samuel 22: 31]. If you have memorized the First Psalm, or remember reading it, you recall its last line is "the way of the ungodly shall perish." [Psalm 1: 6b]. It is less a condemnation of the wayward person than an affirmation that his ungodly way can not endure.

A couple of generations ago, some of us heard a good deal preached about a "second blessing." It had its real point, though some of us disagreed with the particular kind of revivalistic emphasis then current. A well known bishop of the time [Bishop Gore] was riding on a train when an enthusiastic convert sat down beside him and began bothering him with the insistent question, "Have you had the second blessing?" The good bishop, a little irked at the fellow’s insistence, replied, "No, I haven’t had it. I’ve had the first blessing; I’ve had the third blessing, the fourth, the fifth and the ninth blessing; I’ve had many blessings from the Lord; but I never had the second."

The point of this insistence seemed to be that everybody is on the highway of living, but only a few get on the righteous or holy way. This is special --- for only the few.

There is a sense in which this may be true. When the children of Israel were moving to the Promised Land, out of their years of slavery in Egypt, they didn’t have much of a trip so far as miles are concerned. But they wandered around, camping from place to place, retracing their steps, without making much progress in one direction. You or I could make the same trip now in a half an hour by propeller plane. It would be an easy trip by automobile if it were not for having to cross disputed boundaries. But the trip was a way for those people. We read that a pillar of cloud led the people by day, and a pillar of fire by night. (Incidentally, that is one of the references that our art window suggests to some who worship here.) Over and over again the Israelites referred to the "way" the Lord was leading them. And their leaders were sure that the Lord would have led them straight through if they had been obedient to His ways, but they wouldn’t take that way.

In the book of Isaiah, we can read: "A highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called the way of holiness." [Isaiah 35: 8]. Perhaps some of us know that Northland College, at Ashland, WI, has, as its motto, that phrase "a highway shall be there." One of the first things you run into in the New Testament is the story of John the Baptist. "Prepare ye the way of the Lord," was his message. [Mark 1: 3]. When we hear it sung by a full choir, it is a thrilling message. John the Baptist’s commission is ours, too. Being a Christian is not just assenting to some belief, nor holding to an ideal only. It is a call to clear the track, and prepare the way as though the Lord could get to a place only when we make it possible. It suggests that we can even help God accomplish his purpose by "preparing a way." John the Baptist believed this and talked it.

You remember well the stories of the birth of Jesus. In one of them, wise men came from the east to see the child. But, after leaving their gifts, they went home by another way. [Matthew 2: 1-12]. It was a precaution, because they had a well-formulated "hunch" that the governor meant harm to the child and they had no intentions of being his informers. But it could have further significance. Their "different way" could suggest that they were different men after they saw the Christ child. A great many people who have seen him --- in cradle, by the lake, in the temple, on the cross, in an upper room --- go on by a different road. That is one of the uses of the word "way."

Of course we find, also, the use of the word "way" in the account of the living Christ after his death and resurrection. He was walking, we read, along the road to Emmaus. The discouraged and baffled disciples with whom he talked were worried, and they said, "We thought it was Christ who was to deliver us, and now he’s dead." The scripture says that they walked, and talked with Jesus "on the way." That way was, for them, a lonely, discouraged way! They walked along with him, unaware of his presence, as it were. They thought everything had collapsed. They felt just as we do when we see all our plans fail, and when the life we had wanted tumbles in. But their Christ was there, even though they did not realize it. And they remembered, later, that their "hearts had burned within" them. [Luke 24: 13-32]. Sometimes this experience of the "burning heart" comes to people like a Pentecost. You recall that the disciples were gathered together, undecided, not a little fearful, convinced that Christ is risen, but not sure what to do about it. But they became sure of his presence as though a spirit of holiness had breathed upon them. Then they went out to do his bidding and to work the will of the Father. [Acts 2: 1-4].

This "burning of the heart" like a Pentecost comes to disciples today, as well as those in the Bible. Sometimes we feel lifted to a new experience as we gather together in fellowship and worship. And we are able to carry the hurts of other people, the aching; to bear the infirmities and sins of our world, remembering that Christ did the same for us. All of these "ways" are like paths. Walking in his holy ways means walking in his holy paths.

But there are other "ways" and "groups of ways" --- ways of doing things. It is as though we referred to Christ’s way of life. If we were talking about our ways, we might speak of our "philosophy of life." We all have a philosophy by which we live. Perhaps you might say, "Not me - I don’t care what happens." Well, that’s a philosophy of "I don’t care."

Years ago, a soda fountain in a drug store was a place where one ordered a drink of his choice without expecting ice cream in it --- just a fizzy liquid like so much pop. But the list of flavors was a marvel to many a small boy or girl. You could order vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, and a long list of other flavors. But now and then some boy would want a soda without having to choose a flavor. So the soda clerk in one drug store had one of his handles at the soda fountain labeled as "Don’t care." Actually, that was a combination of all the other flavors. And if a young customer, asking for a soda, said that he didn’t care which flavor, the clerk just pulled the "Don’t care" knob and fizzed it out into a glass for him.

Well, in some such fashion, we who have a philosophy of "I don’t care" have something real, nevertheless. For some people, it would mean "I’m looking out for Number One." This is my interest --- I’m thinking of me, me, mine, mine. "I can’t do this; I will get that." Well, that is one philosophy. Fortunately for this world, there are many others who are living unselfishly. Their philosophy causes them to do whatever they can to lift the load for others, and they follow that philosophy.

In contrast to the philosophy of self, there is the way suggested by this morning’s meditation --- this holy way --- it is in trying to follow Christ’s way of living. It is of God. "As for God, his way is perfect." Said Jesus, "Straight is the gate, and narrow is the way." This does not necessarily mean a narrow road. Narrow is the procedure of living; straight is the gate and narrow is this holy way of life. The first Christians did not have a name. People who heard of them did not know what to call them; so they just referred to them as "followers of the way." That phrase is found in some of ancient documents. What kind of way? The way to live! They had found a way to live. They had found that there way something to live for. They were now out beyond themselves --- followers of the way.

There are other kinds of ways. Sometimes you run into the expression: "The way of all the earth." So this way is not only a pathway of life, but sometimes the way seems to be referring to death --- not death as release from suffering and entrance into eternal life, but death as the end of everything significant. Some of us have used, or heard, the expression, "The way of all flesh." When we want to indicate that something has gone up in smoke, fizzled out, disintegrated, we may say that "it has gone the way of all the earth."

Many people get to some state where they feel that their lives are like that, and it is all washed up. A young fellow who had landed in jail said to a visitor: "Well, it’s no use any more. I’m through." "Oh," said the visitor, "there will come a day when you will hardly be able to remember this; if you start from here and begin to live right." "No," he said, "I don’t think so. I think it’s all over." It wasn’t all over, or course, but that is a way, and it is in direct contrast to God’s holy ways. For His ways are never finished. They are never "down the drain." The way of God is forever!

"Walking henceforth in his holy ways." Do you like that? We can walk -- though I suspect that most of us like the symbolism of riding better. We want to go places fast -- to get there quickly. But we see little, and comprehend less, with our speed, than we do when we slow down to a walk. You don’t see enough of the flowers to identify them as you drive swiftly past the park. But if you take a walk through the woods, you see many of the flowers; you see the busyness of small animals; you see individual trees; you find a spring or trace a brook; you may see frogs or tiny fish near the water’s edge. It takes time for that kind of understanding.

A young fellow in a seminary, somewhat impressed with all of the things that a minister must do, with hardly enough time to do it, came up with a plan for a quick way to have communion! He said, "We can serve the whole business in ten minutes." "Why don’t you make it five?" asked an older fellow with more experience. He knew that it takes time for communion. It is more than a swift form. If it involves ritual, the ritual is only the means by which we put ourselves in the presence of something great. And that takes some time.

You can see Niagara Falls in a jiffy if you ride past it or fly over it. But you don’t really see much of that natural wonder unless you stop, get out, and walk through the mist to the various platforms and locations from which to watch the splendor of the waterfalls.

When it comes to spiritual things one needs to walk. You don’t rush through everything to get it over. If it is so many prayers to be said, you can hurry that up a bit. You can pray, "give me this, give me that, bless my wife; my son John and his wife, us four, no more, Amen." "Now let’s get on the road while the Lord takes care of that." But it isn’t renewal unless one waits in the Presence to hear and receive, as well as to ask. The Way of Wonder is open to us only when we allow enough time to see it. And we don’t have to crawl, even though we may feel like it when overwhelmed with a sense of some sin or failure. God doesn’t ask for that. We are told to walk - walk in his holy way.

One more bit of emphasis: the phrase is "walking from henceforth in his holy ways." The word hence means to go out of this place; go out from this place. Beginning right now, we are to walk in the holy ways that we have seen and understood.

If you have read something about the life and writings of Augustine (some refer to him as Saint Augustine), you know that he had been quite a rounder in his youth. His mother was sick with concern over his headstrong waywardness. He finally reached a state in which he was ready to admit his sin; was really rather sorry for it and duly penitent --- and surely he had sinned enough to make him feel that way! and he prayed, "O God, make me clean --- but not yet!"

If you think he was a strange one, just check yourself. For I suspect that there is a lot of the spirit of "not yet" in a lot of us. But the way to make a new beginning and to "walk in His holy ways" is to start now, right here in this service, and on the way out, and into the life and work of this week.

It is wonderful how God takes our sins and failures and puts them behind his back and remembers them no more against us when we resolve to start now walking in His way. Let this kind of new living be ours, now and henceforth.

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Delivered in Wisconsin Rapids, July 3, 1966. (Communion Sunday)

Also at Waioli Church, January 25, 1976.

[The following prayer was given with the above sermon at Waioli Church on 1-25-76.]

Eternal God, Thou shepherd of our souls, out of the world’s turbulence we come, with reverence, to worship Thee. Refresh us in the spirit of wonder and of awe. From the noise and confusion of things that man has made, let us turn our thoughts, in this hour, toward what Thou hast made. Deepen in us the reverence, for Thy universe of stars and moon and sun; of mountains and oceans; of birds of the air and beasts of the woods; of beauty and sustenance and destiny. In reverence and wonder, we worship Thee.

Give us fresh vision of the highest. Let Christ dawn upon us anew this day. Make real to us that which is excellent. Break upon our dull sight what is beautiful and strong, that we may take delight in living, and be thankful. Too easily we despise some of life. Teach us to love life as Thy gift, and to be grateful unto Thee. Let us say, with all our hearts, "Serve the Lord with gladness."

We lay before Thee our deep regret for the wrongs we have done and the errors we have permitted ourselves. We have wasted our opportunities and made a sad tale of what could have been a glorious story. We have left our friends sad when they should have been happy, depressed when they could have been elevated, dull when they could have been illuminated. For all that is wrong in us, we repent, acknowledging the reality of human sin. Send us out with true penitence and power, high resolve and firm purpose.

We ask of Thee the depth and strength of character to handle aright the joys, and adversities, of the days ahead. We do not ask Thee for comforts so much as for the ability to endure with whatever hardship comes to us. Let our houses of life be built, not upon shifting sands, but on the firm and solid rock that endures; and enable us to endure, we beseech Thee. Let neither prosperity nor adversity shake us. But let our joy be our opportunity. Let challenge and trouble bring out the best in us.

We lay before Thee our concern for our nation in the world. Teach us to be brothers and sisters, not only in family but in community and all over the earth. Save us from crucifying Christ, or any of his own, by our stubbornness and blindness.

We lift before Thee our concern for the church universal of which we are a part. Bless the people of this church family, and of all church families, who acknowledge Thee and offer to serve Thee.

Bless those whom we love, or can learn to love, with peace and strength and assurance. We ask all of this, and offer our praise and devotion, in Jesus’ name.

[Lord’s Prayer]

Amen.