Religion in Action 11/17/40

Scripture: Exodus 14: 5-15

Text: Isaiah 40: 31 "But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk and not faint."

In the third chapter of the book of Ecclesiastes, the author observes again and again that there is a time for everything. "There is a time for every purpose and for every work." (Ecclesiastes 3:17) One of the things that every wise man, before and since that writer, learns is that there are times, seasons, circumstances for definite enterprises and the well-integrated person takes advantage of the order represented in this truth.

One of the most devoted and God fearing characters of the ancient Hebrew literature was Moses. His religion and his actions matched each other so effectively that he still holds a place of first importance in the minds and affections of devout Hebrew people.

I think that one of the most striking features of the record of this man is his awareness of God. He had felt a special providence in the fact that he was saved from the destruction of the other Hebrew boys of his age and had been nurtured in the royal palace of the Egyptian masters of his people. He had felt a special responsibility laid upon him for the leadership of his enslaved fellows which it seems only a God-quickened conscience could have driven him to undertake. Not always will those reared in such privilege, and living in such security as Moses enjoyed, undertake great and thankless tasks on behalf of justice for enslaved people. Moses was moved by extraordinarily deep religious convictions growing out of his experience with God. And the story of his remarkable leadership can be satisfactorily told only in the light of his certainty that God was leading him.

There were times, during the years when he led his people away from the land of their slavery into a wilderness where they were to wander for a generation and more, when Moses moved confidently in the certainty of his divine leading. There were other times when his ordinary human weakness, or the weakness of his people, might have brought disaster had it not been for the profound religious consciousness of the leader.

Such a time was that when, after escaping, the Hebrews were nearly overtaken by their Egyptian pursuers. The people were near panic. They were at that dangerous point where they might have turned against Moses in their dismay and terror. A man of less strength might have been mentally paralyzed and lost precious moments in fearful supplication to the almighty. But not Moses! He had done his praying before! He cultivated his relationship with his Maker and Sustainer regularly, as a habit, not as a rusty last-resort when the moment of desperation comes.

And this was no time for meditation or petition. It was a time for action! Moses spoke to his people with confidence. Then, quick as a flash of inspiration came the realistic leading. "The Lord said unto Moses, wherefore criest thou unto me? speak to the children of Israel that they go forward." It was a time for action. As soon as they moved, their confidence returned and things began to happen which they had a part in determining.

The religious experience of the leader and, so far as they had it, of the people, was of primary importance to the success of their enterprise of escape and rehabilitation. For they were dependent on being right. But their religion would have been sterile without action. They must move. They had to be prepared to run without panic, or to fight with confidence, as the situation demanded. There is a time for inspiration in worship. There just as surely follows a time for action.

The prophet Isaiah describes the effect of religion thus: "They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not be weary; and they shall walk and not faint."

A friend of ours, Dr. A. I. Ludlow, a missionary physician and surgeon, retiring from a life of active service in Korea, has called attention to the interesting sequence of 5 words that stand out so prominently in this verse.

Wait. Wait upon the Lord. That is meditation. That is what so many do upon their first awakening in the morning, or at other definite times during the day. It is what Muriel Lester implies when she says, "Consider yourself not ready to start the day, ill-equipped, unprepared to meet your fellows, until you have spent at least fifteen minutes in prayer. Count it as much a necessity as washing." Spend this time in a church, in a garden, by a bedroom window, walking abroad, or in other manner, but wait, wait upon the Lord.

That is what we do when, on our day of rest, we gather together in a house dedicated to God in order to worship. Together we wait upon the Lord as our forbears have done for generations before us. We even cling to some of the ancient expressions in our worship which derive much of their meaning for us through the fact that they are held in common with multitudes of worshipers, past as well as present.

As we wait we are reminded that we are more than flesh, more than mind. We are essentially spirit. We are reminded that we are children of the most high God, with God-like capacities. Loneliness and doubting give way to courage and cheer for the day (or for the week.) We are renewed, for that is the second word.

Renew. The waiting is not just an ascetic act of withdrawal. It has a purpose, without which it would be meaningless. A word of warning is always in order to the man or woman who thinks of the waiting phase as all or even most of what there is to religion.

A certain young man once had the ambition to become one of the greatest weight-lifters in the world. Possessed of a fine body, he began building it further by picking up ordinary stones. Then gradually he added large rocks and boulders until he was able, at length, with the aid of a special harness, to lift over a thousand pounds. It would seem that he was magnificently prepared to do some mighty, constructive piece of work for human good. But it was said that he would not even carry in a small load of wood or coal for his old mother’s stove when asked. He tried to reserve his strength for exhibition purposes.

Well, a religious experience reserved for exhibition is useless - perhaps worse than useless. To begin with, a worthwhile religious experience renews, implying that it comes in intervals between work like a period of rest or recreation.

Mount. The third word in Isaiah’s sequence is "mount" - "they shall mount up with wings as eagles." There is inspiration and exhilaration especially in those extraordinarily vivid experiences with God which come to some, almost unexpectedly, during their worship, to some during the communion service, to some at other times.

There was such great exhilaration for the three disciples who were with Jesus on the mount of transfiguration, that they wanted to stay there and bask in the experience and build altars. But Jesus resolutely sent them down again. There was work to do and only the work could give full meaning to their high inspiration. True, he himself prayed often and long, in the night, on the hillside away from others, but he came back to do a prodigious amount of effective work.

Work is the thing that saves the "mounting up" from a reactionary crashing. The ship raised in the locks of a canal must go forward again. Else it will only fall back to its original level, as the water falls back.

Peter was quick to boast of his loyalty to Jesus on a certain exciting night. And yet, because cowardice kept him from right action he was denying with curses that he even knew Jesus before the light of the next morning.

In order to make the waiting and renewing and mounting really take on meaning, one starts to run.

Run. And the running is without weariness. How light is the work that begins with an inspiration! This is especially true of the task that can be quickly "put over" with the speed of the hundred yard dash. A race more demanding in endurance is the mile race. Perhaps Paul had in mind a marathon when he wrote, "Wherefore seeing we are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith." [Hebrews 12: 1, 2a].

Walk. Probably the most demanding activity of all, however, is walking. Without the excitement of the race or the cheering of the crowds, the great bulk of life’s activity must be taken at a walk. Some of it is drudgery. Some of it is routine. But it is necessary. And the effectiveness of one’s religious awakening and renewal is tested in the ability to "walk and not faint."

The Christian finds it no easy task to walk worthy of the way to which he has been called. And yet a Christian should be know by his walk, and by his work.

I think that the service of the Christian Church is primarily that of finding God and inviting others to join us in His presence. In order to put first things first, we "wait upon the Lord" for the renewal of energy which shall carry us up and forward. That seems to me primary. But this experience is vitalized only in the running, walking, and even trudging forward which we must also do. And most of the running and walking and working must be done at our tasks of the day and of the week.

We are inspired with a new sense of justice and we go out to put Christianity into our citizenship. We are impressed with our privileges and we must search to find ways of lending a hand to the underprivileged. We see a new light and we set out to spread the light with our teaching. But that is not enough.

Among things that we can do together are two enterprises which I mention in closing. One is to focus our attention again and again upon the system of living current in our community and nation. We tried to crystallize our thoughts on some of the issues of life as we prepared for and took part in the Economic Plebiscite last Sunday. That is good. But it is no more than a beginning. Our Christian conviction must actively motivate our continuing efforts as citizens; as members of our group. And the difficulty of the task will not excuse us for one moment.

The second practical consideration which I present in closing is the need for a helping hand on the part of millions of distressed people in an unhappy land. If the Master’s lesson of the "Good Samaritan" means anything at all to us, it will motivate us to hold a helping hand toward those in need at this time. Let us make practical our Thanksgiving of this week, by giving as it has been given to us for the innocent needy in China. We read of the suffering and starvation of millions - millions - in China, and we gladly add our gift to the Thanksgiving Day Offering for China civilian relief. We ponder the privileges and duties of freedom and renew our vigilance that it shall not perish from this stricken earth.

"They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not be weary; and they shall walk and not faint."

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

dates and places delivered:

Wisconsin Rapids, November 17, 1940

W.F.H.R., Wisconsin Rapids, January 7, 1941