9/11/66

Scripture: Read Matthew 6: 25-33.

There is a proper sense in which it is expected that some of the services of the church are continued on a year-round basis. Sunday finds people gathering here in this meeting house of the Lord the year round. This is the general pattern, though it is not universal. There are churches where the chief attendance at worship is in the summer season. And there are some churches that close completely for a part of a season. When I was a youth, I lived next door to a Presbyterian minister (not my pastor) whose church just frankly closed when the school and college season ended at the beginning of summer, and reopened in the fall at the time the schools reopened. That pastor was free, all summer, to travel, to relax, to read (and he was a constant reader!) to plan the coming year’s work and to become a renewed man! It showed up well in his renewed vitality of body, mind and spirit each fall!

His church was an exception, of course. Most churches continue much of their program through the summer. Some argue that the devil never takes a vacation, implying that the evil one may be particularly, and mischievously, busy without a church program to curb him! Probably most of us are not impressed by that rather negative kind of dogmatics. But we do like to continue at regular, periodic worship the year round, because we need it, and depend upon it for the lift it gives us in our living.

But even with our continuity of worship services, some of our church activity falls off or changes during summer months. Summer sees the scouts moving away from local troop and pack meetings at this church and going off to summer camp. Summer sees such a drop in attendance of pupils and availability of teachers that the Sunday Church School is suspended for nearly three months. Pupils are invited to attend a two week Vacation Church School and to attend Sunday worship with their families wherever they spend the day. The choir of our church takes a summer rest while we depend upon faithful organists and occasional soloists to lead us in the musical parts of our worship. Some of the boards and committees meet regularly the year round while others come together only on call during the summer. The Women’s Fellowship takes a summer “breather” before coming together again in the fall.

All of this is urged upon us by a climate that decrees a great deal of indoor activity for much of the year and then beckons us outdoors for a few weeks in mid-summer. Now we near the close of another summer. And we find ourselves again at a time of “beginnings.” The public school classes have already begun. Those who will be in colleges or universities are registering and beginning classes. Here in our church, the Sunday Church School reopens today. Women have planned the opening meetings of the Fellowship and Circles for fall. Scouters hope to get the troop and pack reorganized, and look hopefully for leadership for the boys. The couples’ group (Noah’s Ark) and the youth fellowship expect to resume meetings next Sunday. We are joyful that our splendid choir has resumed rehearsals and leadership in excellent music. Both ministers, after some vacation for each, are back at work in the service of their church, and glad to see and sense the beginning of a new season. It is a good time of the year.

For us in this church it is a time of some new beginnings. Our new church home is nearly ready for dedication! We have used it for some time, often under conditions that were trying to us and to the builders alike! We should not soon forget the difficulty and challenge of gathering for worship in the unfinished Christian Education Building for nearly 7 months in 1965. We may confess that, in some way, it was good for us --- but we are not anxious to do it again! What a joy it was to be able to come into this room in December and to gather here from that time on, even though there was much to be completed.

We have appreciated also the steady progress toward completion of the Christian Education and Parish activities portion of our home. The Chapel has been used for several weddings and baptisms, and for funeral services, as well as serving as the place of worship for some of our smaller group gatherings. Landscaping has steadily enhanced the beauty of our buildings. Some of it was achieved suddenly, before the open house in May. More of it has taken shape in the months since. Gardens outside the chapel and within the enclosed area of our building rectangle have been completed this summer. And now the pipe organ is nearing completion -- enough so that we have it in use today for the first time, though there is further work to be done in balancing its action before the October dedication. Joyful, indeed, do we come to these beginnings!

Our season of dedication begins today with dedication of our fine carillon. The carillon was installed early enough and was nearly enough completed so that we have heard its bells through this calendar year. Yet it is only in the more recent weeks that it could be played from the console as well as from the record player. Next month we shall dedicate the church building and its contents in special services on the morning and evening of October 9th, and on the morning of October 16th. Concerts of music are planned for the evenings of October 11th and 23rd.

These “dedication season” events mark not only a completion of construction, but more significantly the beginnings of their use. Our community builds a new hospital in order not just to point with pride to an impressive civic building, but to care more adequately for the sick and to make more nearly possible the restoration of good health to many of our people. We contemplate construction of a new library not alone for civic appearance but in order to make available the riches of knowledge in books to more people. This congregation builds a new church home not just because new church buildings seem the thing to do, but so that people can be aided in being the church. For the church is not the edifice. The church is the gathered company of believers. It is dedicated living. It is a quality of living by people, among people. Our nearly completed church home is only one means available to aid us in being the church. Our dedication of the building and its facilities is not the end of anything except construction. It is the beginning of use and service.

As we begin the longer life of this congregation in this home we remind ourselves of the things that come first. And “first” is not ourselves, but God. “In the beginning God --- created the heavens and the earth.” [Genesis 1:1]. This is the profound, poetically expressed, insight of the Old Testament Scripture in the first chapter, first verse, of the book of Genesis. It is an expression of trust that life began in goodness. In this trust we can go forward in gallant expectation.

We live in the shadow of evil. There are forces of destruction all around us. But the evil in the world is a contradiction of the creation purpose, and so can be redeemed. We are called to be people who trust in that possibility and work to make possible the divine redemption. There is a hymn which begins:

New every morning is the love

Our waking and uprising prove.

New mercies, each returning day,

Hover around us while we pray.

Not only is God “in the beginning,” but His goodness is the continuing reality -- the ground of all being.

In the gospel of Matthew we read that Jesus, in his discourses which we often call the Sermon on the Mount, taught the importance of things that come first. He recognizes the things over which we become anxious -- food, clothing, shelter, status, search for happiness, security, and so on. Then he points out the divine “providing” for the basic need of all creatures and creation. Finally, he sums it up in a classic statement: “Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these [other] things shall be added unto you.” [Matthew 6: 33].

There was a novelist, Alexander Black, who was fond of asking, “If you were to receive a million dollars tomorrow, what would you do with it?” It was his way of inquiring what came first in a person’s desires. What does come first? It is a “leading” question. A person must think about food and clothing, but he should not think about them first. Jesus sums this up in the Scripture which we have read this morning.

Psychologists distinguish between the “focal” and the “marginal” in our attention. A person who is reading a book gives his attention to it, of course. But he may be marginally aware of the temperature of the room, the ticking of a clock, the closing of a door nearby. But the book dims the other impressions. What is the center for us? Life should be a kind of solar system for us --- Christ the sun, as personal focus of the kingdom, and all else revolving around him. We fail when we forget it.

Yet perhaps our fault is not that we are “bad,” but that we are not “good” enough. We live for the “good” when we should be living for the “best.” How can one live for a “kingdom?” The word is forbidding. We of this nation do not have a king, and the word “kingdom,” which describes a king’s realm, is not common to us. But it does describe a spiritual condition, or entity, which is our concern.

George Bernard Shaw has insisted that “the selfish pursuit of personal power does not nerve men” as do unselfish pursuits. Even a fairly good man gets more excited over building a church and promoting a cause than over maintaining a large bank account. Call this passion what we may, it is still a passion within the lives of people who look for worthwhile living.

Someone brings this truth to cases. When business people think of profits first, and people, whose needs are to be served, second, depressions plague us. And when it thinks of people’s desires first and God’s righteousness second, pride betrays us. Economics rests back on conscience; not conscience upon economics.

Another application: Suppose the 19th century church had taken more seriously the demand of Christ that the gospel should be carried all over the world; would wars, then, have been so likely to desolate the earth? When we place the kingdom of God second, then we must spend more money for jails, and policing, than we might have spent on decent homes and city planning.

Henry Drummond, when teaching theological students, used to say to them: “Don’t be an amphibian, half in one world, half in another.” And again: “Do not touch Christianity unless you are willing to seek the kingdom of heaven first. I promise you a miserable existence if you seek it second.” That is not only ecclesiastical and theological wisdom; it is likewise political and economic wisdom. And this verse is also a personal demand. You and I can determine what comes first if we ask, with Paul, “For me, to live is ---” What did he say? “For me to live is Christ.” [Philippians 1: 21].

Life is pleasing when we see the result of some good endeavor. The church school teacher who works hard at preparation, tries to help boys and girls in a class grasp the elements of Christian living, endures the exasperation of wondering how worthwhile it is, finds real pleasure when, months or years later, those same pupils take a fine, responsible place in church and community life. And some of the pleasure of teaching comes sooner than having to wait for the kids to grow up. But to seek pleasure first, often leads only to nausea. When we seek safety first, unwilling to venture at all, we find only a cowardly and defenseless mind. If we seek profits first, we find ourselves in fratricidal conflict.

It is hard for a man to drive a nail upwards, working against the law of gravity. It is wise to live in the movement of the kingdom. Martin Luther led a stormy life. But he once wrote: “My conscience has become free, and that is the most complete freedom.” He regarded himself, then, as a new creature -- Christ’s creature.

In the beginning, then, God! As we begin our life together in a new church season, in a newly completed and dedicated church home and facilities, let our first seeking be for God’s kingdom and His righteousness. There are needs to be met, and we must meet them. If there are church school classes to meet in our splendid now classrooms, there must be teachers. More must volunteer for this service. If boys are to learn, from experience, the crafts of scouting, there must be grown people, men, and some women, who will lead them. If we are to enjoy the benefits of Christian social fellowship, there must be committees of people ready to do some organizing and work. If we are to have a debt-free home in the not-very-distant future, we must be prepared to give to retire the debt. If we are to have a maintenance program, we must subscribe the cost of it -- better than we have ever done before.

But let us indulge in no destructive worry about these things. They demand our attention and we shall be plainly derelict if we ignore them. But let us seek first God’s kingdom of what is right, knowing that other things needful will be added. If we do, there will be those among us who can be found and who will volunteer to teach because it is right; who will be leaders, because there must be leading; who will be supporters because leaders must be supported. We shall give, with generosity and joy, because we want to see the church undergirded here at home and abroad in the world. I think our budgeted giving, as a church, should increase by about 50%. And there are other responsible people who think likewise.

We shall not be careless, nor will we stick our head in the sand like some proverbial ostrich. We shall try to make our calculations carefully. Jesus commended this consideration, also, to his hearers when he once said, “Which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it?” [Luke 14: 28].

We believe that we have the resources, if we have the will, to complete what we have begun in building; to carry forward what we are doing in programs. It takes more than “a good idea.” It takes vision; it takes patience; it takes persistence; it takes the willing determination to follow through. Our new church home is the result, not alone of a good idea given impetus by a thoughtful and generous bequest. It is the result of years of careful and enthusiastic attention by many people.

Our new church year ahead of us will bring satisfaction only through the faithfulness, the devoted work of many; the attention of many; the persistent work of all of us.

“In the beginning, God.”

Let this new church year begin with our dedication to His kind of righteousness. And let all the other things be added in their proper and proportionate place.

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Delivered in Wisconsin Rapids, September 11, 1966.