2/6/66

Scripture: Read Luke 4: 14-30.

Some years ago, there lived in Chicago a couple who had spent all of their lives in one of the serving professions. The fact is that they had been missionaries for many years, spending their energies, their devotion, their able minds and enthusiastic spirits helping to train the young people of another land for responsible leadership in their day. This couple were still active in church participation and in the teaching of young people in Chicago. They were themselves no longer young in body or years. But they were remarkably, and vividly, alive in spirit.

The telephone rang one evening. The call proved to be a kind of “SOS” from a family member whose problems had gotten a bit too big to be handled alone, and who appealed to them to come, and give comfort and moral support, at least for a weekend. Their answer was a prompt and cheerful “yes,” and they planned to catch the next train. After they had hung up the receiver, they looked at each other with just a bit of dismay at the strenuous prospect. But they both laughed when the husband remarked -- “But isn’t it just wonderful to be wanted and needed?” That sense of belonging, of being needed, of recognized usefulness, is the breath of life to countless people, old and young alike.

I remember my aging grandmother as one who used to attend strictly to keeping her own house in order. It was well-nigh impossible for any of her five children, or their families, to persuade her to come for even a brief visit with them. She gladly welcomed any or all of them who would go to see her. But she always had some ready reason why she could not take time for a visit to them --- except that, when word reached her that there was illness, or any other temporary emergency in which she could help ---- then she would come a-flying! I don’t suppose she would have admitted it; but I am sure that the very knowledge that she could be really useful was like “meat and drink” to her spirit! She would stay for the duration of the emergency, working like a beaver, despite her age and her cane-supported bad leg. The moment the emergency seemed to be ended, she resolutely went back to her own cottage!

More than one household with some sort of problem child, has found the “problem” solved or at least abated, when the child has found some task or possibility which makes the youngster feel needed and useful in the counsels of the family!

I have seen people languish, and fade and die, when they became convinced that they had nothing to live for, no service to render, no one who needed them, no really useful task to perform. And I have seen people snap out of their lethargy into vivid living when they suddenly realized that they were really useful to someone, or were engaged in some significant cause.

Perhaps not all of us realize the necessity of being useful or rendering service to our fellow human beings. Some of us are greatly preoccupied with finding out “who we are;” analyzing what we believe, spending time and energy examining ourselves, our motives, our aims. Some of this is all right -- even essential. But it is a realm in which it is not well to spend too long a time. For we are in better health and state of mind if we look beyond ourselves to the service we can render in the spirit of our faith. It was a prayer of some wisdom which John Wesley uttered when he lifted the petition, “Lord, let me not live to be useless!”

I. There are, regrettably, some destructive qualities of useless living among decent folk! Possibly some of us who believe, earnestly, in attending church do not associate our church-going, as Jesus did, with service. We praise God, as indeed we should, but have we had our powers captured and directed by Him? Some hardly know human life outside their own little circles, and may not want their comfortable serenity disturbed. They would rather be content with harmlessness.

There are some who might define duty in terms of repression rather than expression. And some just expend life in frivolity. Perhaps none of us is entirely free from such unserviceable faults. But we do not find real living in uselessness. Consider the peril of being useless! A new book is being published by Associated Press. It is The Meaning of Being a Christian, by Harry Emerson Fosdick. It gathers up the essence of some of his writing when as a young man he dealt with this subject. He points up some observations that are for us people in this time, just as they were for the people who were reading him earlier.

Over against the virtues of a serviceable life, there stand in sharp contrast such destructive qualities as cruelty, rapacity and hatred. Our Master loosed his wrath on these and all their kin. But he knew full well that the majority of people do not fall away from positive service into positive destructiveness so much as they fall between the two into negative uselessness. It is worth our while, therefore, to notice the intensity and persistency with which Jesus bore down on this deadly sin.

When he was telling parable of the good Samaritan, he did not report any outbreak of evil on the part of those pious travelers - the priest and the Levite - who left a wounded man unattended in his trouble. We look back over that story to see what positive wrong they did. The Master does not disapprove them for anything that they did. His condemnation falls upon them because they did nothing. They just “went by on the other side.” [Luke 10: 30-37].

There is no oppressive wrong done by Dives, in another of Jesus’ stories. It is just that Dives feasted sumptuously while Lazarus lay uncared for at his gate. Dives was useless. [Luke 16: 19-31].

No destructive forces are reported of those whom he declared condemned in the parable of the judgments. The indictment is simply a comprehensive charge of uselessness: “I was hungry and you gave me no food; I was thirsty and gave me no drink; I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me; sick and in prison and you did not visit me.” [Matthew 25: 42-43].

This is one of the central emphases in the teaching of the Lord. Sometimes he illustrates his thought in terms of business. In his parable of the talents, there is no positive dishonor charged against the man of one talent who wrapped up his entrustment and hid it in the ground while his fellows skillfully and profitably traded with their capital and multiplied it. The Master simply accuses him of doing nothing. And the charge is terrific. He is a good-for-nothing servant; he must be “cast into outer darkness.” [Matthew 25: 14-30].

Sometimes Jesus illustrated his thought in terms of agriculture. Three kinds of ground stand condemned as useless in the parable of the sower. One was hard and would not take the seed; one was too stony to give the seeds rootage; one, though rich, grew choking weeds. The gist of the final fault was that, in every case, the ground was useless. [Matthew 13: 3-9].

Sometimes the Master illustrated from domestic life. He pictured a most amiable boy in his parable where a father asks his two sons to go and work cultivating the vineyard. The one lad -- winsome, well intentioned, gracious -- said, “I go, sir.” “But,” said Jesus, “he did not go.” And that negative stands as a terrible condemnation. The boy’s good intentions were useless. The Master’s praise goes to the other son, who, though he at first refused to go into the vineyard, finally repented and did so. [Matthew 21: 28-31].

High on the list of things Jesus hated was uselessness. Recall his condemnation of savorless salt --- good for nothing but to be thrown out. [Matthew 5: 13]. Remember his comment on a candle burning under a bushel basket where its light could not be seen --- useless --- good for nothing, unless it be out where its light can be seen to illuminate the darkness. [Luke 11: 33]. Consider his comment in the parable of the fig tree. “A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none. And he said to the vinedresser, ‘Lo, these three years I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree and I find none. Cut it down; why should it use up the ground?’” [Luke 13: 6-7].

II. The Master used this same standard of judgment concerning institutions as well as persons. The claim of any institution for continuance, or perpetuity, rests on its usefulness. He did not hesitate to force this issue home with ruthless severity on the most venerable institutions of his day. Nothing, for instance, was more sacred in his people’s thought than the Sabbath. They said that God Himself had rested on the Sabbath, the seventh day of the week; that God had given the Sabbath law on Mount Sinai; that the deliverance from slavery in Egypt came on the Sabbath. Rabbis taught that God had created the human race so that He might have someone to keep the Sabbath.

Then Jesus came; and he even subjected that sacred day to the ruthless test of its usefulness. He said that, with all of its venerable history and sacred associations, it must still stand or fall upon its usefulness to people. If, by it, human life grew richer, well and good. If not, no theory of divine institution could sustain it. And so, because the old Sabbath had become a burden upon people, and not a blessing, it is gone in Christendom, and the Lord’s Day takes its place.

Just as the Lord tested the Sabbath, he tested the temple. The House of God on Zion was the most sacred spot the Jews had ever known. During centuries of passionate devotion, they had loved it while they had it, longed for it when they lost it in exile, gladly rebuilt it when regained, visited it annually from the ends of the earth with ardent prayer. And actually, Jesus shared this loyalty. From the time he had been presented there as an infant in dedication, to the time he returned as a 12-year-old boy questioning the doctors of the law, and on the day when, facing the ordeal of the cross, he swung around the brow of Olivet hill and, seeing the gleaming dome on Zion, burst into tears over it, he was a lover of the temple.

But he could see that even the temple could not escape the law of serviceable usefulness. When priests used the sacred courts to squeeze ill-gotten gains from people’s piety; when rabbis got so they dearly loved above all else to be called “teacher” and to sit always in the chief and choicest seats at feasts; when Levites hastening up the Jerusalem-to-Jericho road to be present at the temple sacrifices had no time to help victims of thieves along the road; when Pharisees thought more of the broad phylacteries on their foreheads than about the grievous burdens they loaded upon the people’s consciences --- then the temple had become a place of special privilege to some and not a place of service. Jesus saw all of that and, though it broke his heart to say it, he cried out that the time was in fact coming when not one stone would be left upon another of that magnificent structural institution. To him, useless was a deadly sin. No permanence or greatness could belong to a person or an institution, however sacred, unless it served the people’s needs.

III. All history is a running comment on this principle of Jesus that permanence depends on usefulness. We can not answer a child’s simple questions about the animals they love without recourse to it. Why does a squirrel have a bushy tail? Because if it useful in helping a squirrel in balancing in the branches of a tree. Why do cats and dogs have eyes in the front of their heads? Because they are hunters, and eyes in front are useful to spy upon the game they seek. Why do rabbits have eyes in the side of their heads? Because they are not hunters, but are the hunted, and so they need to be able to watch in every direction for the approach of a foe.

Any living thing falls into the peril of extinction unless it be useful.

Countless social customs and organizations, now fallen into ruin, bear witness to the necessity of usefulness. Absolute monarchy, chattel slavery, the duel, great empires built by brute force -- though they lingered long -- are gone because they failed the test of usefulness. Serviceableness is not just some pleasant ideal superimposed on life by ethical dreamers; it is, rather, one of the most formidable demands of life.

Your motor car -- shiny, new, built of durable materials, product of countless hours of many men’s labors, costly in money --- is good for you only while it is useful and serviceable. When, in only a few short years, it can no longer be depended upon to get you where you must go, it becomes useless and no history of past accomplishments can save it from the junk yard.

No economic system, no international policy, no ecclesiastical establishment, no personal eminence, no social custom has any sure tenure of permanence, unless it serves the needs of people.

IV. The importance of this principle is evident to Christian folk. The institutions and the people that call themselves by the name of Jesus, are not exempt from his laws. Only usefulness can assure their continued influence. No successful defense of doctrines, no possession of regal station, no social prestige or wealth, no theory of divine origin, no venerable associations accumulated through the years, have power to sustain their strength. Only their serviceable usefulness can continue them.

Indeed, this principle, ruthless in its operation and severe as it is, is full of hopeful prophecy. In the life of the church, it may help to heal sectarian division, to infuse new enthusiasm, to reveal new causes, to make clear the relevance of old causes, to translate words into action where they belong. We need a new love of usefulness. [Youth chaperone; Cub master].

1) And so, while we think on these things today let us take a brief look at a couple of humble but significant steps that we may take in service. You know that in the neighboring community of Adams-Friendship there is a group of people who have become convinced that the churches to which they hitherto belonged, and which they had loved, do not serve the needs of the community and of their growing children as they believe necessary. These people want to be a part of the United Church of Christ; its teaching and learned ministry, its mission of consciousness and outreach, its ecumenical attitude, its concern for current among people.

You know, from announcements in our church bulletins and news letter that representatives of our church have joined with representatives of St. John’s UCC to assist the people of Adams-Friendship in their efforts to get established in the United Church of Christ and to present the merits of this United Church fellowship to others in their neighborhood. Three consultative meetings have been held here. The latest was last Tuesday evening when four of us - a deacon, a deaconess and two ministers, met with two from St. John’s church and two from Adams-Friendship. We are ready to enroll members of our church in a joint effort at calling on interested people in Adams and Friendship to acquaint them with the merits and the hopes and the services of the United Church of Christ.

In preparation for the calling program to be conducted during the Lenten season, there will be a training session February 15th for those men and women who are willing to serve. Participants from the two United Church of Christ congregations in Wisconsin Rapids will be teamed, or paired, with callers from Adams-Friendship to make a call or several calls in Adams-Friendship. This kind of service can make useful our willingness, already expresses, to give those people down there our sponsoring advice and support. If you would like to volunteer your service, call Percy Cox of our board of deacons, Dorothy Chadwick of our board of deaconesses, or one of the ministers.

2) A second opportunity to serve in the very near future comes to us in the field of Civil Rights for all. We are acutely aware of their struggle for fair play now on the part of our Negro fellow citizens. We are a part of the life of our great Northern cities and the great South where the struggle goes on. The need for our support continues to be acute. It is a cause that has had the active, cooperative interest of Congregational church people since before the Civil War. It is a cause to which our church fellowship, represented in the General Synod of the United Church of Christ, has addressed itself in this present day. This cause occupied some of the attention of our delegates to General Synod last July in Chicago.

Acting for our Board of Homeland ministries, Rev. Dr. Truman B. Douglass sent out a letter last October urging every church in our fellowship to become better acquainted with the cause at present and to receive an offering for “Racial Justice Now” on Race Relations Sunday, February 13, 1966. A reminder from Dr. Douglass was sent to us and all or our churches in December. And a not-so-gentle, very insistent reminder came last month, in January! Our Trustees have joined the pastor in authorizing such a special offering next Sunday. We have already joined more than 3,800 congregations of our denominational fellowship in declaring ourselves a church willing to practice open membership. We have twice joined in receiving a “Racial Justice Now” offering. Now we propose to do it again, since the need continues to be so great.

Some ask, “Through what channels is our money for this cause sent?” It is sent through the Board of Homeland ministries of our own denomination. In the past, since 1963, our first committee, working through UCC instrumentalities, conferences, churches and interchurch agencies, spent our contributions on such vital projects as voter education and registration, leadership training, and community development in the South; on remedial reading, pre-college preparation, cultural enrichment for deprived Negro high school students; on provision of community workers to our churches, both North and South; and on support of our UCC members and ministers who suffered deprivation because they spoke out for racial justice.

What’s ahead for 1966 as we send our current offerings for the cause? There is the recovery program in Watts, California. Los Angeles churches have formed a commission on Religion and Race to help rehabilitate that riot-torn community. Substantial financial help is needed from national denominations like our UCC and others. Support will be given to a stepped-up campaign for Racial Justice in television and radio broadcasting. Emergency aid will be continued to individuals who incur hardship because of their personal witness. Our offerings will assist in support for ecumenical programs for racial justice such as that of the Commission on Religion and Race of the National Council of Churches. Aid will be given to ecumenical programs for youth in tension areas such as New York City’s Harlem and Bedford-Stuyvesant communities. There will be grants to certain of our conferences, associations and churches for community development, employment, anti-poverty and “catch-up” education, and similar projects.

These are the useful projects that will be given understanding support when we make ourselves useful in the bringing of next Sunday’s special offering for Racial Justice. It will not be a part of our regular offering. It will be received at a separate time in the service so that each one in the congregation will be giving only what he or she wants to send in this cause. Let us think and pray about it, and serve in it!

In these, and in uncounted other ways, let us determine to be useful Christians, and a live, useful congregation in the coming year.

Jesus proclaimed his own mission when he read, in his home-town synagogue, the Old Testament writing: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach the good news to the poor; He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.” [Luke 4: 18, 19]. He closed the book, and told his hearers in Nazareth, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” [Luke 4: 20, 21]. It was fulfilled in his ministry then. Let it be fulfilled now in the ministry of his present day disciples!

Amen.

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Delivered in Wisconsin Rapids, February 6, 1966.