Call to Courage 5/16/43
Scripture: Joshua 1: 1-9
Text: Joshua 1: 9; “Be strong and of good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed; for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.”
“There is probably more courage in the world today than there has ever been before.” Over a west coast radio station, these words are heard; and the speaker is a man who is now retired. After 34 years of teaching, and more than that of study and of experience and acquaintance with life, Dr. John Wright Buckham makes this statement: “There is probably more courage in the world today than there has ever been before.” [change for 1956: Over a west coast radio station, these words were spoken during World War II. And they may be true today.] Like the hope, which burns so fiercely in all hearts, for a better world tomorrow, the courage of people in a present day is one of the good things that is made to come out of the evils, the sacrifices, and sorrows of the present hour in history. Courage is one of the main foundations of character. And good character is the best thing there is.
Ancient thinkers who studied carefully the problems of right and wrong, put in their system of ethics these four cardinal virtues: courage, justice, temperance, and wisdom. For the most part, these are still the ethical ideals of thinking people. Christian ethics keeps all of these virtues, raises each to a high level, and adds its own distinctive virtues: humility, kindness, magnanimity, and love.
Courage was rated high in the ethics of the ancient Greeks and Romans. It was on still higher moral level among the ancient Hebrews. The great leaders of the Hebrews were heroic in moral stature. Among them, as a worthy successor to Moses and others who had preceded him, was Joshua, whose business it became to lead his people into the land that was promised them when they had come out of Egyptian slavery.
At the beginning of his responsible career, there comes to him this divine assurance: “Be strong and of good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed, for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.” How often has that word been repeated in Hebrew and Christian history! “Be of good courage.” Jesus used it often. “Be not afraid, it is I.” [John 6: 20]. Be of good courage, I have overcome the world.” [John 16: 33]. The best reason for encouragement is implied in Jesus’ statements and is clear in Joshua’s experience: “For the Lord thy God is with thee.” Let these words be our text and our assurance. One could hardly find better.
When Christianity appeared on the earth, a new dimensional meaning was added to courage. It became a grander, finer virtue than ever before. It became so because Jesus himself was the matchless man of courage. Though he never bore a sword so far as we know, nor fought in armed battle, he was supremely courageous. He undertook, and carried through alone, the greatest task any one in mortal flesh ever achieved. First, in solitary struggle, he conquered himself and the temptations that beset him. Then he went forth to a mission that was to find him threatened, deserted, mocked, and killed. With patient endurance he bore his cross, tormented and taunted; and at the same time prayed for forgiveness for his enemies! Is a greater record of courage to be found anywhere?
Jesus’ followers absorbed his spirit, soon took up his cause, drew back at no peril. Many sacrificed life itself for loyalty to him. Persecution was their lot, and martyrdom the fate of many; but the triumph of the living Lord was their sustaining assurance.
By way of acquainting us with a broader understanding of the meaning and worth of courage, Dr. Buckham invites us to view courage in a number of forms. He points out that there is (1) the courage of devotion to duty; (2) the courage of silence; (3) the courage of endurance; (4) and then there is the “everyday heroisms” to which we are called every day of our lives. With his experienced eyes, let us look briefly at these several kinds of courage. (1) First, the courage of devotion to duty. Jesus showed it superbly throughout his life. Perhaps it was never more apparent than when, at the close of the last Supper which he had longed to have with his beloved friends, he rose resolutely, without lingering or hesitation, and said, “Arise, let us go hence.” He knew well where he was going. He knew what Judas had done. He knew that the hatred of the leaders of his own people, and the power of Rome, were about to lay hold upon him. Yet he did not flinch. Early he had set his face steadfastly to go to Jerusalem. Now he went out into the night to face more immanent danger, betrayal, ignominy, suffering and probably death.
The courage of young men, the nation over, in accepting the call of country, and of those who, uncomplaining, see them go, is at least the courage of obedience to a duty. We honor them for the giving up or postponing of what they have wanted to do and to be. No matter what we think about resort to warfare, we may all approve the courage shown in battling for the defense of country.
2) Then there is the courage of silence. Ten days ago I was in the [Several years ago, I had my “one trip” to the] South, to the state of Alabama. One can’t learn enough in a few days to speak with authority on any such vast problem as that of the relationship of different races in a given area. But I did get a first hand glimpse of what it means to men, sometimes to speak their mind and sometimes to be silent.
I have always regretted the fact that I missed hearing Roland Hayes sing in New Haven during my first year of seminary study there, because I got to the door of the concert hall too late to get the last of the standing room available. Hayes is intimately acquainted with the spirituals of his people and sings them with the religious depth they were meant to express. He has had a good deal of training himself in the discipline of silence that shines through an old Negro preacher’s sympathy with Jesus before Pilate. The old preacher had said of Jesus: “He never spoke one mumberlin’ word, Not a word, not a word, not a word.” The phrases are caught up and repeated in one of the fine Negro spirituals. It is the courage of silence under provocation that many a Negro has understood better than some of his white neighbors.
Roland Hayes once stood in a concert hall in Berlin, where a scornful audience began to hiss as he entered, and continued to hiss this American Negro tenor for perhaps 5 or 10 minutes. Hayes stood by the piano, closed his eyes, lifted his head and waited for the perfect silence in which he might begin. At length, perhaps shamed by his composed Christian bearing, the hall quieted and he began in a hushed pianissimo to sing from Schubert. Almost at once the jeering mood was calmed, and his hearers impressed. The victory was such as only Christian courage can win.
Sometimes courage calls for vigorous words. Sometimes it calls for silence. Sometimes it must say “Yes;” sometimes a definite “No.” Sometimes the courage of the wounded in the hospital must be greater than the courage of those in battle. Let us remember with admiration and deep, active gratitude, both!
3) And there is in the courage of endurance, a great insight into the matter of vicarious atonement. These two big words do not cloak a theological fiction. They are a name for that quality of all such suffering and sacrifice as is given for others. Its reality should be vivid for every church member who has accepted Christ’s sacrifice. It should be vivid for every one of us who, as citizens, receive the sacrifice of countless men and women who have suffered to maintain our nation through its history, or who have struggled to build the Christian Church.
In connection with our Wood County Centennial celebration,
we are reminding ourselves of the history and progress of the Christian church
-- all churches -- in the area.
He was followed in the area by a series of preachers, probably of other denominations: Haywood, Holmes, Annas, Edwards. Edwards was an “Old School Presbyterian” who served in the days of close cooperation on the frontier and in mission fields between Congregational and Presbyterian churches. He preached under difficulties in a hall where lumberjacks lived, slept, drank and played cards. Behind a partition one could hear a lusty snore, or the by-no-means-whispered comments incident to a game of cards. The preaching and the attendance at services took consecrated endurance!
Edwards was followed in 1857 by Rev. Mr. Tracy of the Methodist church and Rev. Mr. Smith for those who preferred the Congregational forms and way. During their stay, the Methodist and Congregational meetings were formed. The Methodist church was organized in 1859 with 7 charter members. The Congregational folk continued the functional society arrangement until 1862 when a church was formally organized. Mr. J. W. Harris had arrived in 1861, and his ministry had built up the interest to a point where an ecclesiastical council was called on March 27, 1862. The Council formally organized the church with 10 charter members. And Rev. J. W. Harris was ordained to the ministry at the same time. Rev. Mr. Clary, the official representative of Congregational and Presbyterian boards, came all the way from Beloit to preside at the Council services.
The church grew in vision, in numbers, and in strength through succeeding years. It has had 3 homes: (1) the building now occupied by the Christian Science church, framed in 1862 and completed in 1865; (2) the building now occupied by the Masonic lodge, built about 1890 or 1891 and occupied part of the time by Centralia Methodists, as well as Congregationalists; and (3) this present structure whose cornerstone was laid in 1910 and which was dedicated November 26, 1911.
This church has had a succession of 18 ministers during its history and has grown in membership, sometimes slowly, sometimes more rapidly, until the present congregation of nearly 675 communicant members and fellow worshippers. It has taken patience and faith and the persistent courage of endurance to plant and nourish this church and the other churches of Wood County, during the past century.
The concept of endurance helps to bear away the sin of a world gone wrong.
(4) The courage of everyday heroism is often hard to see. Let it be despised by no one. Whoever wrote these words recorded the truth: “No day passes from morning to night but witnesses countless unrecorded acts of heroism performed by people of no reputation.” There is homespun heroism everywhere. There is a courage of the doorway and of the field and of the kitchen. There is a courage that drives a man to his desk piled high with stubborn problems; as courage that takes another back to the monotony of repetitious tasks. There is courage in the schoolroom and on the street and in the factory. Childhood needs courage (remember that, grown-ups!). So does youth, and manhood and womanhood. The courage of the mother or the husband or the wife who is left behind when death takes its toll is as real as that of the man at the front.
And have you noted the courage of Age? I called once at the home of a man crippled seriously with arthritis. I rang the bell and waited, waited, waited, waited! At length I heard his cheery voice through the screen: “I’m coming, if you’ll just wait until I get there.” He dragged his tortured body down stairs to fire his own furnace everyday, and rode a “stationary bicycle” faithfully in order that his joints might not actually “freeze” to immobility. Yet I never saw a more cheery soul!
Little do the young and strong understand what is in the soul of an old woman who was crippled by “rheumatism” (that is what arthritis used to be called by some folk). So bad was her affliction that she was unable to get untwisted for her daily housework until her two grown sons came, at her request, and one on either side walked her back and forth across the kitchen floor. So it went, the old mother groaning and sometimes screaming with pain until the sons stopped out of sheer compassion for her, only to have her shout, “Who told you to stop? Go on!” And so it continued until she got unlimbered for the day’s painful work.
No group, no race, no age, has a monopoly on the courage that is called forth from everyone, every day.
(5) There is courage, too, in good humor. I suspect we need an extra ration of it in most of our days. The old expression “grin and bear it” ought to have “grin” underlined. The courage to smile has a religious element in it. Humor requires a good deal of faith -- faith in others (how can you tell a good story unless you believe in the understanding of the listener?) It requires faith in life, faith in God. Humor is a gift of God. Like other gifts it may be badly abused, or it may be as valuable as a life raft. It is tragic to let poison creep into the humor absorbed by our children from cheap or perverted comics, funnies or movies, when the same agencies and others can just as well help cultivate a priceless source of courage in the joyous sense of humor.
If you care to, you can probably enumerate many other types of courage, all of which will emphasize it as one of the chief virtues of any good citizen and any good Christian. Courage has its reward. It is significant that Jesus lists a reward with every beatitude. He has much to say about compensations and consequences.
The first and finest reward of courage is character. And character is the greatest of all possessions. Courage is unselfish, for no one is courageous for himself alone. The courageous person acts for the common good, for humanity, for God. No deed of true heroism is lost. It counts in bringing in the righteousness, peace and joy. Its greatest reward is what was promised to Joshua -- the presence of God. “For the Lord thy God is with thee.”
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Delivered in Wisconsin Rapids, May 16, 1943.
Also in Wisconsin Rapids, July 29, 1956. (Union Service, celebration of the Wood County centennial.)