Something Wants You 10/3/43

Scripture: John 12: 23-32

Christian people of many creeds, of many shades of opinion, of many races and lands, are gathering today about the table of the Lord in communion with God. Through the common observance of this supper, it may be that we shall all have more of communion with each other. At any rate, this is the hope of a world that observes world-wide Communion Sunday each year.

Men in army uniforms at post chapels, others in fatigue clothes near battle fronts, will receive the symbols of our Lord’s devotion from the hands of chaplains. Civilians in all sorts of church homes, some of whom speak our language, and others whose tongues are strange to us, are joining in the observance.

With some, the commemoration is marked by elaborate ritual. With others it is as simple as quiet conversation. Whatever character the ceremony takes on, the purpose is as simple as any other great truth - to remember that a way of living was demonstrated for us and all mankind and that it was paid for with life, with flesh and blood, and with pure steadfastness.

I would like to say an intimate word here about the communion. It is not, in my judgment, a time for stirring up emotional tensions or any other excitement. It is a time for simple, candid sincerity. It ought to be a simple, thoroughly sincere expression of grateful devotion to the God whom Jesus worshipped.

Once in a while a husband, dropping all teasing or flattery, all foolishness and finesse, will say again, simply, to his wife, “I love you.” The communion service ought to be entered in a spirit as simple, as honest, as sincere as that.

Do you remember how Tom Sawyer’s escapades worried his aunt nearly to distraction? How he went off with Huck Finn to an island in the river and camped out without telling her he was going? How he stole back home in the night to get something, and while there, stepped quietly into her room and kissed her lightly as she tossed in troubled sleep? How she later found it out and asked why he had done it? And how life suddenly became a joyous affair to her when he answered simply “Because I loved you so much?” Life’s great moments are like that in simple sincerity. And the communion service is a great moment in the Christian’s life.

There is no need for a strained effort, a feeling of artificiality about reaching toward God. You and I don’t have to find some hard and mysterious way to His Presence. All we have to do is to open our hearts to Him, and His spirit is ours! God takes the initiative when man is but receptive.

You and I have our doubts and fears when, in our minds, we get around behind the door from the Almighty. And it is true that all of us have our doubts and fears now and then. No one escapes them - not even our Lord himself escaped them. But even if we would, none of us can long escape God.

In the world war of 25 years ago, a questionnaire was circulated among English speaking armies. The answers to that questionnaire showed that “not five men in a thousand had any real doubt of God’s existence.” The faith of that cross section of humanity was defined as follows:

“There is something going on in the world which demands primarily allegiance. At the Front men hardly know what it is .... They only know - a wonderful majority of them - that something great and righteous wants them and requires of them their help.”

Mark that - “Something wants them.” No fiction of their own creation, but a righteous reality. Well, something wants you; something righteous that demands full allegiance; beauty, truth, honesty of mind, righteousness, commonweal. It is more that some thing; call it God, seeking you out; seeking me out, forever ready to put us on the right road to abundant living. God cannot be ignored, because He is continually at work.

Years ago Charles Darwin formulated a theory of evolution based on natural selection and the supposition that the creation, once set in motion, proceeded thereafter only in natural, logical, sequence. Among other studies, he gave attention to the development of a group of people he visited in South America. The people of this group were so backward and degraded that they seemed little more than animals. Their minds were those of undeveloped children; their bodies diseased; their surroundings crude and beastly. It would seem that ages would have to pass before natural processes could raise these folk to the level of a modern civilization.

Years after, Darwin visited these people again. He found to his amazement that they were transformed. They were clothed. They could read and write. They had schools and churches. They were taking their place among civilized folk of the southern hemisphere. In his journal Darwin admits a miscalculation. You see the missionary had been there and those people had heard of God and had found Him. The spirit of God had, in two short decades, done what natural selection would have taken ages to accomplish, had it indeed operated in the direction of improvement. And so Darwin revised his theory of evolution to take God into account.

God cannot be defied. Men are trying it. They are worshipping brute force, selfish ambitions, a host of idols. But they are crushing themselves in their own devices. “God is not mocked --whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he allso reap.” [Galatians 6: 7].

You can count upon God. The easy and carefree days of childhood do not last always. The storms come and night descends. The way becomes hard and fears beset us. If we have no Father’s hand to reach up to, life becomes tragedy.

But it is not so for the faithful. For we know whom we have believed [II Timothy 1: 12] and are satisfied that He is able to keep us through any day or night; that His way is the only righteous rule of earth; and that his spirit always triumphs ultimately. Atrocious cruelty must finally lose; justice and right will not be denied.

And better than this, He wants you and me. In him we find our true purpose and joy and fulfillment.

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Dates and places delivered:

Wisconsin Rapids, October 3, 1943