11/22/53

[titled Faith of our Forefathers in later version]

Scripture: (Read Deuteronomy 8)

The hymn which we have just sung is one which was written recently in history. [In the hymnal used by this church congregation before the present one was just into use in 1959, there was a hymn which was written fairly recently in history. It began “More Light Shall Break From Out Thy Word.”] It was prepared by Allen Eastman Cross for the celebration of the 300th anniversary of the coming of the Pilgrims. It was first sung in Old South Church, in Boston, at a meeting of the International Council of Congregational Churches in 1920. Partly a voicing of the faith held by all spiritual descendants of the hardy Pilgrims, this hymn begins with a thought spoken by the pastor of the Pilgrims to those about to leave Leiden, Holland, for the wilderness of a new world.

These Pilgrims had come to Leiden from England where they had endured severe persecution because they would not conform to the worship prescribed in the state church. Their pastor was John Robinson. He was staying behind with the people left in Leiden. (Only a part of their group were leaving for the new land.) He, and they, hoped that later he would join them. They could not then know that he would get neither the official permission, nor the necessary financing, to leave Holland before his death a few years later. But in his farewell to the “Mayflower” Pilgrims, pastor John Robinson assured them that: “The Lord hath more truth and light yet to break forth out of his Holy Word.” This is the thought that inspired that hymn [which was written for the tercentennial and was sung many times in this church in the past decade.] just sung here this morning.

As we approach the season of National Thanksgiving, we think naturally of those Pilgrim folk whose attitude is the forerunner of what is now a national holiday with us. Coming to a new land, without their pastor, but with his parting message, and a great and determined faith in their souls, they faced freedom, in its blessedness and its cruelty. They were victimized, to a degree, by the commercial greed of those who sponsored the venture. They were landed far north of their original intended destination in Virginia. Their first winter was severe for them not only because of the coldness, the inadequacy of their hastily-built housing, the shortage of food, the uneasy danger from warring natives, but also because of the sickness that decimated both the colonists and the crew of the Mayflower, standing by through the winter, in Plymouth harbor.

Nearly half of the 100-odd members of their company were dead by springtime from malnutrition and the infections of disease. At one time only 6 or 7 were left in good health. (Elder William Brewster and Captain Miles Standish were among the hardy fortunates.) And these few, who had strength, had tremendous responsibility for carrying fuel, preparing food, nursing the sick, burying the dead, and assuring the company.

The coming of spring brought the opportunity and great urgency, of planting some kind of crops. They did so plant; and that fall reaped a harvest that bore the possibility of another winter to be endured with a little more assurance. Their first governor, John Carter, having died in April, it was a succeeding governor, William Bradford, who decreed a day of Thanksgiving for the harvest and for other blessings of God.

It was a couple of years before another such day of thanksgiving was declared. And through two centuries, days of general thanksgiving were designated by proclamation alone. It was not until the time of Abraham Lincoln’s presidency that Thanksgiving Day was made an official annual holiday (or holy day) in this nation. Consider then, how we may be a thankful people -- not just because president and governors traditionally proclaim a day of thanksgiving, but because gratitude is part of the true nature of responsible, free people.

It is clear that most of us approach the Thanksgiving season not with the simplicity of those Pilgrims, nor with the austerity of their environment. But with the substantial comforts and available materials we have, we may rather approach Thanksgiving with the caution of the Hebrews. As those ancient folk approached their thanksgiving, it was with guarded caution. “Beware,” is the warning in Deuteronomy, “Beware that thou forget not the Lord thy God --- lest when thou hast eaten and art full, and hast built goodly houses --- thou say in thine heart: ‘My power and the might of my hand hast gotten me this!’” We are not an ungrateful people; but the way we think, much of the time, makes it difficult to be thankful.

(1) One of our commonly accepted ideas is that we are independent people. We can take care of ourselves. The Pilgrims, though longing for religious freedom, were not so independent. They depended on shrewd commercial interests for their transportation and some supplies. They were dependent on the tolerance of natives who might have wiped them out. It was friendly natives who showed them how to plant the corn of the new world and pumpkins for food. They knew well their interdependence on one another.

We take it for granted that we may have adequate food, clothing, shelter, and even recreation, reasonably earned and compensated. Except for the occasional turkey hunter and many deer hunters bringing in some food for the sport of it, it is hard to remind ourselves that few, if any, in this room cultivate and preserve the very food we eat; very few have anything to do with the production and processing of the clothing we wear. Which one of us erects all by himself, or even with the help of several neighbors, the house in which he is to be sheltered? The “I” who gets his living as a supposedly independent person is at best the “we” who are vastly interdependent upon each other. We are further dependent upon the whole creative process of God’s world. If the rains come not, where will be the vegetables, grain, cotton, wool and meat? Or if hurricane, or unreasonable rain destroy a crop, where is then our independence?

(2) We entertain a further notion that we are, or may be, “self-made” men; that anyone who has the courage and gumption can “make himself” without help from others, can educate and establish himself. The key word is “energy.” We may assume that the root problem of men and nations is laziness, that “they” just don’t want to work.

(3) We assume that we are or may be anytime we want to be, self-sufficient. We have the knowledge, the ideas and ideals, the plans, the psychological grasp to turn our part of the world into a Garden of Eden. We can accomplish about what we want if we will to do so. We have ourselves to thank, essentially, for our progress.

(4) Another idea we have, especially we Americans, is that we are secure, or can become so. We build military security, even to the point of stopping communism way out in Asia; we devise security from attack; we have considerable economic security; we have social security; we seek political security. Why should we have any gratitude to anyone else, to aught outside ourselves?

(5) We have a considerable conviction that we can save ourselves. Where is the hell of an older theology? And has not our might as a nation thus far saved us from other predators? Our ingenuity saves us from shortages of food and other necessities. Our education saves us from fear and superstition. So whom are we to thank for salvation? Ourselves?

(6) Yet another idea which we have, by which we try to live, is that we own what we have, for we have earned it. What we possess has come through the sweat of our brows, the cunning of our mind, the care of our planning, the persistence of our effort. To whom then do we owe any thanks? Are we not complete in ourselves? Or, if not complete, may we not soon be so?

From a national standpoint, we have created such wonderful resources that we have little enough need. From a medical standpoint, health and longevity have been vastly improved by amazing discoveries. We think we can iron out our mental quirks by psychology and psychiatry. So --- we are independent, self-sufficient, secure, self-saving. We own what we have by earning it. We are complete. To whom or to what shall we give thanks?

I submit that the extremity to which we go in these ideas dooms any such Thanksgiving as the Pilgrims offered up -- unless we should discover the untruth of these, and bring them into the perspective of better and greater ideas. We ought to face some facts. We ought to recognize that these ideas we over-emphasize are near the root of a lot of the world’s anguish. They compound the poisons of mechanism, humanism and materialism. They drive us in immoral directions; they cause us to live in mentally-divided worlds; they tempt us to believe ourselves greater than the Creator, or even to believe that man is pretty much the creator. The dependence upon these ideas is how not to be thankful. For sadly enough, we may want to be thankful, but not know Whom to thank.

These ideas can however be turned from the negative to the positive. And that is what is urgently needed in us.

(1) For one thing, we are dependent upon God, even yet ---- and upon each other, His creatures. Our dependence is even greater than was that of the Pilgrims. They did split the wood that kept them from freezing. We depend almost entirely upon someone else --- many others, to get and deliver the fuel that warms us through the winter. [I don’t even know much about what our furnace burns to warm us. I guess it comes in pipes from somewhere in Canada.] And we depend upon the providence of God that permits the whole complicated area of planning and accomplishment that brings the fuel to our fires.

(2) The God of things as they are has made us. We are not self made. “It is He that hath made us, and not we ourselves.” [Psalm 100: 3]. Our part in the process is to place ourselves, our strength, talents and wills at the disposal of His creative purposes. If we get over-impressed with ourselves as self-made men we may become the objects of pity on the part of all who can see what a poor job man hath done!

(3) God is our sufficiency. We cannot accomplish much by blowing on our own hands. We need to draw on the power of God beyond ourselves if we are to be raised to the levels where we want, and ought, to live.

(4) God is our security ---- so much so that our own destiny is more in adventure with Him than in our own careful planning. “Change and decay in all around I see; O Thou who changest not, abide with me.” We now know, I trust, that we need God to save us from the sin of pride in thinking that we could save ourselves.

(5) We are stewards of God. We may be possessed of a portion of the earth’s goods, but we do not finally, exclusively, absolutely, own anything. All the goods that may temporarily bless our existence are trusts from God. C. S. Lewis in “Screwtape Letters” has the Screwtape Devil saying, “Human beings are always putting up claims of ownership which sound equally funny in heaven and in hell.” We are not so much owners as stewards, entrusted with great blessings, to be used according to God’s purpose.

(6) God completes us, as we can in no way be complete without Him. In our warring, we yearn for His peace; in imperfection, we long for His perfection; in weakness we need His strength; fearful, we hunger for His faith. We need God to complete our lives.

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In our endeavor to learn how to give thanks, after recognizing how not to try being grateful, we may again see what the Pilgrims did. They were relieved at the blessing of a harvest after the terrible uncertainty of all the conditions around them. But their appreciation went beyond the gift to the Giver. Those pioneers felt that they had something to be thankful for, though nearly half of them had died in the new venture. They still gave thanks to the Giver --- God!

We have not begun to give thanks when we enumerate our blessings --- freedom, plenty, comfort, conveniences, and all others. Not until we are overflowing with joy for the Giver of all Gifts do we begin to be truly thankful.

The Hebrews, in a comparatively comfortable time of their existence, were warned: “Beware! Beware! lest thou forget.” ---- lest you become so engrossed and satisfied in the gifts that you forget the Giver! [Deuteronomy 8: 11].

“Know ye that the Lord, He is God. It is He that hath made us and not we ourselves. We are the people of His pasture and the sheep of His flock. Be thankful unto Him and praise His name. For the Lord is good, His mercy is everlasting. And His truth endureth to all generations.” [Psalm 100: 3-5].

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Dates and places delivered:

Wisconsin Rapids, November 22, 1953.

Wisconsin Rapids, November 19, 1967.

The materials in brackets in the text above were added for the later version of the sermon. In addition, the material below was added on to the end.

[This faith that is reflected in the concerns of the Deuteronomic writer; this faith that is so nobly expressed in those Hebrew hymns - the Psalms; this faith that was commended and lived by Jesus --- was also the faith of our forefathers. When we say “forefathers” in this sense, we may mean the Pilgrims. I was amused and enlightened in Hawaii to hear young Hawaiian-Japanese-American Christian speak of the Pilgrims as their “forefathers.” But they were right. I served one church, the majority of whose members were descendants of Portuguese immigrants from Madeira and the Azores. They called their church “Pilgrim Church,” and they were right! Any and all of us who have a grateful sense of responsible liberty may look to the Pilgrims as our ancestors in the spirit. And may the Pilgrims find us to be worthy descendants!

The hymn to which we referred at the beginning of today’s sermon has, in its words, the spirit with which I want to close today’s meditation.

More light shall break from out Thy word

For Pilgrim followers of the gleam,

Till, led by Thy free spirit, Lord,

We see and share the pilgrim dream!

What mighty hopes are in our care,

What holy dreams of brotherhood;

God of our fathers, help us dare

Their passion for the common good!

Wild roars the blast, the storm is high!

Above the storm are shining still

The lights by which we live and die;

Our peace is ever in Thy will!

The ancient stars, the ancient faith,

Defend us till our voyage is done -

Across the floods of fear and death

The Mayflower still is sailing on!

Amen.]