9/18/55

[This sermon is currently missing the first two pages, and therefore, the title and Scripture reference; the transcript below begins on p. 3 of the handwritten manuscript.]

It was no new thing in human experience that Abraham found a thorn in the flesh of Israelite hopes. The Lord God had promised to him that Abraham, and his people, and their possessions, could settle in Canaan as their promised land. But the thorn that went with the rosy promise was that there were Canaanites there, too! That was a real thorn that could go a lot deeper than just pricking the surface of the skin! [Genesis 12: 1-9].

It was not unlike the situation which certain Englishmen encountered in the early 1600s when some came to Jamestown and founded the Colony of Virginia; others came to Plymouth and Salem to found colonies which became New England states. The descendants of them had, 150 years later, wrought out of experience the principle of liberty which found lasting expression and benefit in our national constitution.

But there were numerous thorns. One was the fact that native peoples whom they called “Indians” were there first! And sometimes there were bloody feuds between them. The Canaanites were in the Canaan where Abraham’s people came. And Abraham would have to deal with them. This business of pioneering is usually rough.

Abraham and his family had had pretty good going for a while. They were comfortably settled in the land of Ur of the Chaldeans. But God took hold of Abraham’s conscience like a hand on the shoulder. Abraham was to be made illustrious. A splendid destiny awaited him. If he possessed the faith and gallantry to follow the vision, his name would be made great. He would be the ancestor, the father, of a mighty people.

So, by growing stages, he journeyed toward the promised land. He and the Israelites lived for some time at intermediate spots along the way. At perhaps 75 years of age, he stood on the banks of the Jordan river looking across at low lying fertile valleys. There, sheep could graze safely; grain would grow well; people could find peace and prosperity and an end to their long wanderings. It was the promised land!

But the beautiful vision was jolted by the realization that Canaanites lived there, who had no intention of leaving! With these Canaanites, possession was about nine tenths of the law. And they were not easy folk to get along with. By tradition, they were assumed to be descendants of Ham, who was not the best acting son that Noah had had. And if anyone tried to tell them that Jehovah, the one true God, had directed Abraham and his people to Canaan, they were more than likely to spit out the terse inquiry, “Who’s he?”

Abraham was finding out what most people have to learn, sooner or later, that there are thorns with the roses of promise, Canaanites in the Canaans, hardships and dangers in the promised lands.

1) Take, for example, the promised land of marriage. Like a lovely opening flower, is each wedding of young people whose love has determined them to be one for the rest of their mortal lives. The joy of becoming one household, one flesh, one life, one family; of entering, with the pure feeling of right, into the promised land of their marriage; is something no one would dream of taking from them. The privilege of working together, resting together, playing together, planning together, as they establish their home, near their family, pass on the heritage of a name, direct their children to the values we consider significant -- all this is a rose of rare beauty and fragrance. It is the more so since it is not just the blooming of one person’s selfish ambition, but is the shared desire and hope of two people, reinforced by the well wishing of their families and friends. And one always hopes that the blossom opening there will remain as lovely as the stars of the morning sky.

But presently each couple will discover the thorns that, in one way or another, become apparent on the stem of the rose. Some streak of temperament not recognized before; perhaps a bit of jealousy, or any one of a dozen other forms of instability appear as thorns beneath the bloom of happiness. Sometimes illness, financial difficulty, dissatisfaction with one’s work show up. One must recognize the thorns for what they are, and avoid the injury that comes from seizing the sharp barbs heedlessly or blindly. For a successful and satisfying marriage recognizes the thorns, as well as the rose, and knows the difference between the two. And love can usually grow deeper out of the frank facing of all of life as it is in each marriage.

2) Here is another promised land -- that of college toward which so many young folk set their face with eagerness. Someone foolishly says “the next 4 years will be the happiest of your life!” It’s a crazy remark that puts a premium on immaturity. Adventure in learning and experience, there will surely be in college. But problems and disappointments, and often various kinds of hardships there will also be. And the uncritical youth who expects it to be all rose and no thorns may scratch his spiritual skin hard on the thorns and brambles.

Certainly the significance of four college years is not to be minimized. One expects to live them fully and well, but with his eyes wide open. For many a young person it is the first time that he or she will have lived more largely “on his own,” making decisions, exercising more self direction and self discipline than ever before. If he makes the mistake of using his freedom irresponsibly or foolishly he is apt to run his fingers upon a thorn so vicious as to prick his liberty like a balloon. He may enjoy being out from behind parental hedges; but he must all the more do his own kind of building, and learn to do it well, if he is to pluck the flower of these years without crushing its fragrance. There may even be a few Canaanites around, having enrolled the year before (not necessarily sophomores!) who make his life interesting on the miserable side. Could be an uncongenial roommate; might be another student with a destructive degree of cynicism; once in a blue moon it could even be a streak of intellectual sadism in some instructor; and it might be the uncovering of some weakness of character in his own makeup that needs prompt recognition and mending. But the thorns will be there. And college will be rosier if they are recognized.

3) Or take again the field of your job. You decide what you want to do in life, prepare yourself as best you can, and then look for your opportunity to fit in. The job looks good. You have carefully considered it from many angles. Hours will be OK, pay probably not as much as you would like, but enough to get along on till you can be advanced. You like the place and the people where you will be employed. Wisconsin Rapids is a good town to live in, and so you are pleased with the prospect.

Before two weeks have passed, you find a few thorns in the leaves beneath the rose, and then -- maybe a stem that is just fuzzy with thorns! You wonder if you’ve turned out to be a round peg in a square hole, or vice versa. There may be a few Canaanites around. There’s too much liquor at Christmas time, and more than enough the rest of the time. Or somebody a rung or two higher tries to get you to misrepresent the goods in order to increase sales. Maybe there are things that become part of the job that you just detest.

Or maybe the job as a whole is pretty good except for one thing that you just have to endure rather than enjoy. Whatever it is, there are thorns with the blooms. And they have to be reckoned with.

4) And what about the bloom of religious experience! You had a vision of joy, of relief from spiritual dependency, a feeling of real awakening when you were converted, or baptized, or joined a church, or consciously put your life at the disposal of God’s will. You turned the cup of your broken days upward for God to fill, and it just seemed that it would overflow! You had a sense of cleanness, strength, assurance, strong peace that was like a rush of joy, and you were happier than for a long time.

But then you get stuck with a thorn, and you found some more. Old temptations returned after a season to torment you. Doubts plagued you like the leer on the devil’s face. The Bible lay for long periods unopened and unread. Daily prayer was passed by because you were in too much of a hurry, or just didn’t feel like it. Other attentions pushed church attendance out of the way. And anyway there were some Sundays when you were there that you didn’t find anything that seemed helpful, at least to you.

Or you get impatient with the snail’s pace with which the church appeared to you to move to meet the terrible needs of a desperate world.

O, the thorns were there all right! Is the rose still blooming too?

Well, what shall we do with the thorns? There is no avoiding them. To caress the blossom, or pick it as if they were not there, just means the pain of being stuck or scratched or impaled.

1) The first thing to do is to expect the thorns, or look around for the Canaanites. We can prepare ourselves by an open eyed realism. We become fools if we deny that there is a rose just because there are thorns. But it is equally foolish to refuse knowledge of life’s brambles. We don’t have to go around making a collection of thorns. But we need not always be caught with surprise when we encounter them.

“Man is born to tremble as the sparks fly upward,” says the Scripture. [Job 5: 7]. And “the Lord disciplines him whom he loves.” And often some thorn in life is the means He uses. With St. Paul, it was some kind of “thorn in the flesh” -- perhaps a constant pain, or possibly a deformity, or possibly some disfigurement. He never says what it is in his letters, but he does refer to it as the thorn in his flesh. [II Corinthians 12: 7]. With another it is homesickness for the beloved country.

But whatever it is, it is best met and handled by making its presence serve the broadening of our information and the strengthening of our characters. Christian living is broadened and deepened by the realism of seeing the thorns with the blossoms.

2) And then, again, it is surprising what can be done by putting a rose, thorns and all, upon an altar.

You remember what Abraham did in the face of those Canaanites? He built an altar! It might seem foolish. Why didn’t he just wade in and engage those Canaanites in hand to hand combat? They couldn’t understand anything but the language of force anyway! But the first thing Abraham did was to build an altar. There he and his people found the rallying point for their reverence. There they opened their spirits to the wise and helpful promptings of the divine.

Now about the thorn on that rose of yours -- why not seize the shears and tear off the thorny brambles so that you can enjoy the blossom with no thought of getting stuck?

Or would it, perhaps, be better to place the rose, thorns and all, on the altar, there to learn life in its entirety -- how to accept it, and to endure it, and to joy in it, and praise God for it. Abraham built his altar to the Lord “who had appeared to him.” When we erect our altars and lay thereon our sacrifices, our dedicated gifts; when we place there the fruits and flowers of our whole lives, the petals and the thorns as well, the Lord appears with words of comfort, counsels of strength, treasures of understanding, infusions of courage.

We must find the means to live life well in spite of the thorns. It can be done by seeing and recognizing them, and by dedicating them, as well as the blooms, to living in the obedient service of God.

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Dates and places delivered:

Wisconsin Rapids, September 18, 1955

Wisconsin Rapids, October 25, 1959