11/14/76

Scripture: Mark 10: 46-52.

Last August 13th, out in the state of Massachusetts, a distinguished man came to the end of his mortal career. He was the Rev. Dr. Fred Field Goodsell, a retired clergyman of the United Church of Christ, who had a life-long interest in the mission of the Christian Church. Born in September of 1880, in Minnesota, of missionary parents, his view of the possibilities before the church was wide open, venturesome, enthusiastic. After his college and seminary training, he was ordained to the ministry in 1905. Immediately he became a Christian missionary, serving for a quarter of a century in Turkey in varying capacities. He was a friend of scholars -- Muslim and Jewish as well as Christian, and a seeker for understanding among differing people. Long before the word “ecumenical” came into general use, he was a strong interfaith leader.

In 1930 he was called back to Boston to become executive vice president of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. He became a recognized leader in mission strategy, not only in his own denominational fellowship, but in the whole field of Christian outreach abroad. Long after he retired, I met Dr. Goodsell for the last time at dinner in May of 1972 at the home of my daughter in Berkeley, California. He was alert, vigorous, full of curiosity about all kinds of living, unafraid of danger, and vigorous is his faithful outlook. Those who have known him celebrate the breadth of his interests and the strength of his commitment.

At the time of his death, Dr. Goodsell was nearly 96 years of age. In his 95th year, he wrote this prayer, in verse:

Show me, Lord, today

Thy new and living Way.

Plant deep within my soul

The thoughts that make me whole.

Restrain, forgive, direct, protect;

Let self recede and love select

Those steps that trace Thy will;

Thus shall my day Thy love fulfill.

Speak Thy Word of living power;

Hold me fast each passing hour;

Calm my spirit, ease my mind;

Give me grace Thy way to find.

When I falter, lift me up;

I would remember Jesus’ ‘cup.’

His grace and love forevermore

My every weakness can restore.

Rather good for an old man, don’t you think? Quite good for anyone who wishes to witness to his or her faith. It is an example that I would like to follow in my own way. For I want to testify to some of my beliefs.

I believe in the God of our spiritual brethren and spiritual ancestors. I was raised in a Christian home wherein the spiritual fatherhood of God was as real to me as the family fatherhood of my Dad. And I have never found it otherwise.

I believe in Jesus of Nazareth as my spiritual elder brother, leader, teacher, example, friend and Savior. And I wish that more and more of the peoples of the earth could know him in the same, redeeming way.

I believe in the Holy Spirit, guiding gift of God, inspiring personal lives, creating and renewing the church.

And so I believe in the church -- not always in every way it goes -- sometimes divisive, sometimes selfish, sometimes blinded to its mission; but one in spirit and committed to the welfare of mankind under God, proclaiming and practicing His gospel, constantly growing in His spirit.

I believe that we Christian people in the church have a mission to practice and proclaim among our friends and neighbors near at hand; out among the peoples of our own land; and to the peoples of other lands who do not yet know of God, as Christ taught and lived Him.

There is a good deal of belief and some experience of the formal mission of the church in my blood. I’m the son of people who were lay leaders in their churches, and of a mother who was a student volunteer, intending to prepare for Christian service in a foreign land. She did not enter such service. She married my father instead and stayed in South Dakota. But the mission of the church was a lifelong, major interest with her.

I am the husband of a woman who was raised in a mission home abroad and whose father and mother have been a major inspiration in my life, because of their intelligent, devoted, selfless Christian service to all sorts of people.

I was myself for nearly eight years a missionary of the Hawaiian Evangelical Association, often called the Hawaiian Board. And while a pastor in Honolulu, I served as a member of that Board for three following my resignation as one of its missionaries.

For 28 years I served as pastor of this church and took earnest pride in the way it grew in the knowledge and support of the mission of the church, far beyond our own local Christian interests.

I’m the father of a woman who gave two years of her youthful ability and talent to the people of South India as an Associate Missionary of the American Board.

It is a part of my very makeup to believe in the mission of the church to offer Christian helpfulness and service and faithfulness to others, near and far in our own land, and to others all over the face of the earth where the need is so great. And I am glad to take this opportunity, on a November Sunday in this National Bicentennial Year, to testify to these beliefs.

Back in February of 1964, at the World Day of Prayer service held that year at the Wesleyan Methodist Church in Wisconsin Rapids, the speaker was Miss Arian Hudson Paramasamy. She was an outstanding educator and Christian leader from the island of Ceylon, now called Sri Lanka. Miss Paramasamy was a guest in our house at the manse then for two or three days. We made it a “rest stop” for her, except for the one appearance at the service on Friday, for she was a bit tired from many appearances on a speaking tour.

Six years later, while we Kingdons were on a tour around the world, we stopped on Ceylon early in March of 1970. For three of four days, we were guests of Miss Paramasamy at Uduvil Girl’s School in Jaffna. Arian was principal of that school. She not only gave “red carpet” treatment in hospitality, but afforded us an excellent opportunity to see, and sense, the hope that filled the lives of Christian people there at Jaffna. We met other teachers in the school, we were introduced to the bishop of the Jaffna Diocese of the Church of South India and other leaders; we saw students in special demonstration of their interests and accomplishments; we were shown the graves of the first Christian missionary people who came long ago to that part of Ceylon and who had died early, because of diseases to which they had little immunity. Grateful native people still tend those graves lovingly. It is not always easy to be Christian in that part of the world, but the people we met were earnest and radiant about it. Arian Paramasamy retired some six months after our visit there, and has since died, having finished her course in faith.

It was an inspiration to us to be able to visit a number of Christian mission stations around the world and to see numerous people who are active in the mission work which is supported by our gifts and our prayers.

Well, I believe in God, in Jesus, in the Spirit, in the church and its mission. And I believe in the Bible. It is still the Book, the best source of inspiration, illumination, guidance which we Christians have, and which we can offer to others. It is a record and reflection of interaction between God and mankind; of man’s perversity and evil, and of God’s purpose and redemption; of God’s stern demands upon His people, and of his loving expectation toward us.

One of the splendid passages of the New Testament is the beloved 13th chapter of Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthian people, which he ends by proclaiming three things that “abide” --- that last --- faith, hope and love, the greatest being love. We hear a great deal about love. The need for it makes right the emphasis upon it. But, for today I would like to focus our thought just a bit on hope, for that is one of the realities that lasts.

Paul spoke of hope, repeatedly and often. When he wrote his letter to the Hebrews, he spoke of hope as the “sure and steadfast anchor of the soul.” [Hebrews 6: 19a]. He was writing to those Jews as persuasively as he could. Remember that he, like our Lord Jesus, and most of the early disciples (at least the apostles) was born Jewish, trained in a Jewish home, educated in Jewish traditions by Jewish rabbis. Paul knew Judaism by experience, and as a scholar. Now, having turned Christian, he is speaking persuasively of his new-found hope in Christ; and he is speaking, in the letter to the Hebrews, to Jews.

To them he was speaking of one of the great hopes of the Hebrews -- that they might be free to become a great people. Throughout their history, they had seen so much of promise ruined by the disasters that came through their own sins or the cruelty of tyrants. Paul reminds them that God had made a promise to Abraham in their behalf. Furthermore, God had made the promise on solemn oath, said Paul, and nothing could be more binding in the eyes of the Jew of that time. For God had said to Abraham, “I will certainly bless you richly, and greatly increase your numbers.” It had taken a long time for some of that promise to become apparent in results. The “numbers” --- any heirs at all in Abraham’s family --- hung by one precarious single thread in Isaac, the only child of Abraham and Sarah, born very late in the parents’ life. But Paul seems to remind the Hebrews that God had promised --- even sworn it --- and God could not but make it good.

Now he reminds the Hebrews that there are some things that are eternal, unfailing and unalterable. The hope that is set before them by God’s sworn promises is like an anchor that will hold without break or drag. Then he suggests that Jesus is the high priest of that hope that they should be blessed.

We often use the word “hope” loosely. We say, “I hope that the sun will shine tomorrow,” when we know that the weather forecast is for cloudy skies or snow. We say, “I hope that our baseball team with beat theirs.” Or “I hope there will be plenty of snow in late fall for hunting trails or skiing or snowmobiling.” It is like the magic of a wish, with no assurance the desire will be fulfilled. Perhaps you hear another use, or inflection, in the use of the word “hope.” You ask aunt Jennie how her rheumatism is, and for the next fifteen minutes she tells you just how bad it is! You perceive that the clouds are pretty thick around her misery and, knowing nothing better to say, you remark brightly, “Well, I hope it will be better by next week.” And she replies “I surely hope so” in a tone of gloom that precludes everything but the awfullest prospect of advanced arthritis. That kind of “hope” is worse than hollow. It is leaden.

But, in another mood, you say, “I hope that our country may remain honorably at peace with other nations.” And you work for that peace; you sacrifice for it; you pray for it to remain a reality. Or you say, “I hope that health will be restored to my sick body.” There is medicine in that hope. Every doctor knows what an important drive toward health is such a hope. He dreads the loss of hope in his patients or in their families. The drive toward such hope can accomplish wonders. It is like faith in the will of God; like trust, with healing power behind it.

But I suspect that Paul was writing of something yet stronger when he used the word “hope.” There is no uncertainty in his use of the word. It was an absolute granite-like surety. Paul seems to teach others what he himself believes. There is God -- nothing greater, nothing surer -- an absolute truth. God has made a promise to His own --- nay even promised on oath by Himself. Such a promise is a rock eternal. And at length God has given Jesus in witness of that promise. The word “hope” was a great anchor in Paul’s experience --- something solid and sure.

As I look for the word “hope” in the Bible references, I find that it is used very little in the gospels --- Matthew, Mark, Luke and John --- those books that tell us of the coming of Jesus, and his life of work, his ministry to us. It does occur several times in the book of Acts. But in the letters of Paul, it occurs over and over again. He has laid hold of something so sure that he rings the charges on it. “Hope maketh not ashamed.” [Romans 5: 5]. “Seeing that we have such hope.” II Corinthians 3: 12]. “Begotten to us a lively hope.” [I Peter 1: 3]. “That your hope might be in God.” [I Peter 1: 21]. Paul [and Peter] is not just wishing. It is solid certainty that he is talking about.

We saw a lively illustration of hope in the gospel lesson of this morning. Mark does not use the word “hope,” but he illustrates it brilliantly. Here is this blind beggar, Bartimaeus, sitting beside the road that leads out of Jericho. Sick in his soul of his blindness and of his miserable lot as a beggar, he hears that Jesus is passing by. With a sudden hope that is both desperate and complete, he calls out “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me.” Others tried to hush him up --- “be quiet. It is not proper for the great teacher to be bothered by a lowly beggar.” But Jesus heard and said, “Call him!” Then the others around there saw that there was some reason for the blind fellow to hope. And they said, “Take heart; rise; he is calling you.” Bartimaeus threw off his tattered old mantle and sprang up, and felt his way to Jesus. Jesus said to him, “what do you want me to do for you?” “O Master, let me receive my sight.” Jesus knew what kind of hope that was! All he said was: “Go your way, your faith has (already) made you well.”

This story of Bartimaeus brings before my mind’s eye the story of a Hawaiian fellow who was living in the islands at the time the first Christian missionaries came there beginning in 1820. He was a wretch of a man, stunted and deformed of body, and blind from birth. But he had an extraordinarily retentive memory. His name was Puaa iki (“little pig.”) He had been trained in the bawdy kind of hula; he learned the bloody business of a bandit; he learned a special dialect known to only a few; he was trained in harmful mischief and he had paid for his training with hogs, fishes, tapa cloth and other offerings to his trainers. He was a kind of court jester.

But, when he heard of these people who had come to his land as missionaries, he was hungry to hear what they had to say. At first, he was led to the gatherings where the gospel was preached and taught. Then he became so familiar with the route that he came by himself. He drank in the message. He memorized great portions of the Scriptures he heard. It all took some years for him to become a responsible Christian. Missionaries had to learn the Hawaiian tongue; there was no written language there, so the missionaries had to reduce Hawaiian spoken language to a written form before the Bible could be translated for the people. But Puaa iki drank in all he could hear, month after month and year after year. Having been an exceptionally attentive hearer for three years and more, and having developed a consuming passion to be a part of the Christian church, he presented himself for examination to be baptized. Missionaries were very slow, and very careful at first, to be sure that natives knew what they were doing if they wished to be Christian. Puaa iki was given a regular catachetical questioning as to his beliefs, and he satisfied his missionary questioners that his cultivated faith was as surely founded as was that of the Christian reformers.

And so, after some months of probation and further instruction, he was baptized in 1825 --- the very first Hawaiian to be baptized after the missionaries began their work in the Islands. Of course there had been an earlier Hawaiian Christian, a young fellow named Opukahaia who shipped to New England, became a convert, prepared, after some 9 years of education, to go back to his people with the Christian gospel, but died of typhus fever and was buried in Cornwall.

When Puaa iki was baptized, he was given a Christian name: Bartimea (Bartimaeus). The Rev. Hiram Bingham, missionary for 25 years and first pastor of Kawaiakao church, wrote of “spiritual sight coming to the literally blind” Puaa iki. And this Hawaiian “Blind Bartimaeus” became a powerful preacher of the gospel to his people; a man who had lived and died long before I went to the Islands in 1928, but whose name and reputation was still known among informed people. For he was a witness to the faith that brought hope to many, many people. And the Kahului Union Church, where I served for the first 8 years of my own ordained ministry, has recently named its parish social house “Puaa iki Hall” in recognition of his hope and faith.

We, who have come to our Christian heritage through far less miserable routes than that traveled by Blind Bartimaeus of Jericho or Puaa iki “Bartimea,” have great reasons of our own for a faith filled with hope.

We believe in God whose will is to be done; in God who is still here; in God who watches over the living and the dead; in God who cares for every one of us, from the humblest saint to the meanest sinner; in God who is surer than tomorrow’s sunrise; more eternal than the heavens.

Hope thou in God! And tell others about it!

Amen.

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Delivered at Wisconsin Rapids, November 14, 1976.

Also at Babcock and Nekoosa UCC, August 5, 1979.

[Attached to the written manuscript of this sermon is the following prayer, which appears to have been given in Delta and Spider Lake, WI 10-24-71, in Waioli Hui’ia Church 1-21-73, and in Babcock - Nekoosa 8-5-79.

O God, our Father, to Whom we belong and in whom we live, we worship Thee seeking a fresh consciousness of Thy reality and Thy penetrating promise. Too often we are like some creatures of the sea, asking if there is any water; or like a bird on the wing questioning whether there be any air. For, lo, we live and move and have our being in Thee. Yet we spin long arguments about Thine existence, and we debate Thine attributes. This day, we don’t want to debate. We just want to know Thee in Thy presence.

We do not pray as though we could instruct Thee, even in our supplication; or remind Thee of that which Thou already knowest. We pray against our own reluctance --- not against Thine. Let our prayers be the opening of our own hearts that Thou mayest enter in, as Thou hast long desired.

O God, help us never to lose our vision of Thee. Steady our faith in Thee. If any of us here have been shattered by doubt of hurt by disbelief, restore us to such a vision of Thee as to make us triumphantly whole again.

Beget in us a new love of people. Forgive us that so often we are fatigued by others; worn and tired by the multitude and the irritation of their demands. Give us grace to see beneath the surface, to the hearts of persons, to sympathize more deeply with the need that is in human lives, to love better the things that are lovely in people; to excuse more mercifully the things that are unlovely, to mend more hopefully the things that are amiss.

Beget in us a new hatred of sin. Forgive us that we become accustomed to wickedness just because it is so near that we are familiar with it. O God, by as much as we may love people, may we hate the things that destroy people, blackening their lives and despoiling them of their loveliness. Give us indignation against that which is base and vile.

Strengthen our churches, we pray, in all the several families of the faith. For the benefits handed down to us in a precious heritage by a long succession of Thy people, we are grateful. God help us to build better churches in the living of all of us, Thy people. Forgive us that we so poorly represent Thee. Save us from pettiness, and triviality, and divisiveness. Give us more wisdom and loyalty and high spirit, to build better churches for our children after us.

O God, bless our country. Let Thine insistent leading be upon our President and all who serve with him in authority. Save us all from a haughty spirit that follow pride. From all hardness of heart, all trust in violence, all greed of wealth and power, save us, O Lord! In this day of peril and opportunity lift us up to be a force for freedom, for rightness, for peace, for true religion amongst the peoples of the earth.

Beyond the power of our voice to present our varied needs, do Thou meet them, our Father. Gather us into Thy realm beginning here and now. According to the diversity of our needs be the multiplicity of Thy supplies, O God of grace and truth.

We ask it in the name of Christ. Amen. [Silent Meditation]

[Lord’s Prayer].