9/17/67

Matthew 12: 1-12.

The hymn, “Faith of our Fathers,” which we have just sung, was written by Frederick W. Faber. He was a prolific writer of hymn verses. He left something like 150 hymns that have been more or less in general use. We have six of them in this edition of the Pilgrim’s Hymnal. I have joined others in singing “Faith of our Fathers” many times through the years. I suspect most of you have, too. It is only recently that I have learned what I could have looked up earlier about the author, Rev. Mr. Faber. He was born in 1814 and was educated for the priesthood in the Anglican Church. But, though he had become an Anglican clergyman, he entered the Roman Catholic church in 1846 when he was about 32 years of age. And I suppose he remained a Roman Catholic until he died in 1863 at the age of 49 years. All of his hymns were written during that 17 years or so that he was a Roman Catholic.

I suppose that both Protestants and Catholics may sing “Faith of our Fathers” with lusty assurance. For by modification of only a few words, it was very early sung in both Ireland and England. To the early Catholic, it was a kind of defiant war song. To the Protestant it was a no less vigorous expression of religious devotion. Some hymnals have omitted one stanza:

Our Fathers chained in prisons dark,

Were still in heart and conscience free;

And blest would be their children’s fate

If they, like them, should die for thee.

This stanza was not printed in the Presbyterian Hymnal of 1933. But it is included in our Pilgrim Hymnal which is presently in use in our church. And we have just sung it as part of our heritage of religion in music! The composer of the music to which the words are set was also an Englishman, despite a French-appearing name, and was organist in St. Andrew’s Roman Catholic Church in Newcastle-upon-Tyre. One characteristic of many hymnals is that many of the verses, and much of the music, comes from such a variety of sources.

This is just one observation appropriate to Heritage Sunday. If you have followed news articles, radio, television spots, and advertisements, you know that this coming week is being promoted as “Wonderful Wisconsin Week” all over this state under the slogan “We like it here.” The governor proclaims it. Chambers of Commerce and other community organizations promote it. And it begins with Heritage Sunday, observed in each church as that church sees fit. We have inserted in today’s bulletin a brief summary of a few background bits in the history of this church. Like a similar insert of a year ago, it reminds long-term members of some things easily forgotten, and it introduces visitors and recent members to some of our church background.

Our carillon will sound, as usual, at noon today when other churches are asked to ring their bells. Our church name appears in the window display at Daly Music and Appliance Store, together with an exhibit of communion service and baptismal font used at an earlier time by this congregation, which is now 105 years old.

Part of our heritage, and that of all Christian churches, is the heritage of Jewish tradition. More than half of the Bible is Old Testament -- the religious interpretation of the origin of earth and mankind taught and treasured by the Jews; the writings of the prophets in their day, the poetry and hymns of ancient Israel, the emergence of a people who felt themselves to have become God’s chosen ones. The Christian religion has deep roots in the Jewish heritage. Much of Jesus’ teaching and thinking springs from it.

Today we have read from the Gospel as remembered and recorded by Matthew. Jesus was trying to help people, and many flocked to him. But he was more and more at odds with leaders of his own day who denounced his independent, unconventional behavior. Strict adherence to religious rules forbade any work of any sort on the Jewish Sabbath day. If people became hungry, let them fast a bit rather than put out the effort to secure and prepare food. To the literalist, it looked like work to pick heads of grain and to shell them out and eat the kernels. It was, to their minds, clearly forbidden in religious law. Yet Jesus’ disciples were doing just that --- and he was not reproving nor rebuking them. And so some Pharisees confronted him with questions: “Look, your followers are doing what it is not lawful to do on the Sabbath.” And so Jesus called their attention to something else that was in their heritage. “Don’t you remember reading about David?” he said; “How there was a time when he, and those that were with him, were hungry, and they went into the temple and ate that bread which was only for the priests?”

Note, in this account, that Jesus’ opponents were not charging his followers with stealing some grain. The law of their time permitted them to take their handful. The charge was that they broke the Sabbath law. One could not reap not thrash on the Sabbath. To pluck a few heads of grain was technically to reap. And to rub away the husk and chaff was to thrash. So, technically, those disciples were breaking two out of some 39 proscriptions concerning the Sabbath, and consequently violating the 4th commandment.

Jesus’ defense, by referring to David, has striking features. He answered the questioners as well as the question. He strove for their friendship, or at least avoided inciting them to a worse hatred. David was their hero, the greatest of the kings that had ruled Israel. Had he not done what was technically breaking the rules for the Sabbath, at the claim of human hunger? Did not the priests, themselves, occasionally break the Sabbath rules?

Jewish law and sacred history showed that there are higher claims than the rules of ceremonial law. He wanted his critics and his followers to find the true value in the Sabbath. At one time he had commented that the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. [Mark 2: 27]. Not only was it proper for good Jews to keep the Sabbath holy (it was the seventh day of the week for them). But experience proved its value for man’s welfare. The same is true for the Christian Sabbath (the first day of the week - Sunday). Jesus champions the cause of mankind in man’s basic need against the claims of ceremonial Sabbath law.

But the human claim is not absolute; a man is not right in doing just whatever he will on the Sabbath. In our time, Sabbath stringency has been replaced to the point of Sabbath license. And Christ deals strongly with that, too. The Sabbath was “made for man,” he says. It is a gift from God to be used as befits the Giver. It is to be used, not neglected or abused. Man’s claim upon the Sabbath is a basic need -- not a selfish whim.

It is God’s gift to the weary that they may find rest for body and spirit. The Sabbath was made -- given, for this purpose. In a fine sense, it is God’s gift to the seeking, that they may realize anew the presence of the Great Goodness. It is God’s gift to the erring and the wrongdoers, that they may find the good news of forgiveness and strength.

Those who had observed the working patterns of wartime in World War I discovered that factory workers accomplished less in seven days of unremitting labor than they could in six days with one day to rest. What is true of body is also true of man’s spirit. “The world is too much with us.” It is good health to observe the appointed times and seasons. Sunday, well kept, is not loss; it is clear gain both in worthy business and in the business of man’s spirit.

Jesus kept the Sabbath in vigorous joy. Worship was the breathing of his soul. It must have hurt him deeply to be accused of irreligion. Elsewhere he shows how the Sabbath should be kept: primarily for worship, for prayer; and after that for “doing good,” and for the hallowing of family ties. He came really, not to destroy the Sabbath but to fulfill it. The Sabbath is made for man -- not for his corruption in its use nor debilitating activity -- but for worship, for rest, for renewal. This was Jesus’ controversy with his critics.

Another controversy with them has to do with his estimate of the value of human life. Here the focus of interest was upon healing. Jesus had gone from the field into the synagogue. He and his ideas were not exactly welcomed by some of the leading men there. They hoped to trick him into doing and saying what would enable them to get rid of him. Here was a man who wanted to be healed. Was it lawful to have him healed on the Sabbath? Wasn’t the Sabbath made of other things, like prayers and discussion of the scripture, and restraint from work?

In the case of the man who was having trouble with his hand, the apocryphal Gospel according to the Hebrews says that the man was a stonemason, and that he appealed to Jesus to make his hand well so that he could work and save himself from the life of a beggar. If that be so, the drama is heightened. There probably was a difference of opinion among the rabbis, the teachers, about the legal requirements concerning healing on the Sabbath. One school maintained that a fractured bone could not be set until the Sabbath was over. Another school was more lenient. Jesus’ handling of the question appealed to the more lenient view.

If a sheep were to fall into a pit, would not one get hold of it, pull it out, even on the Sabbath? Jesus apparently believed that the answer of the critics would be a reluctant “yes.” Then, isn’t a man better than a sheep? Isn’t it right to do well, like healing, on the Sabbath? There seemed to be no question in Jesus’ mind; for the story goes that he went ahead and brought healing to the man’s hand. There is something more than an act of healing for man’s body in this account. Jesus’ saying; “How much better is a man than a sheep?” is a dictum that validates true democracy. We do not yet honor the dictum.

A cheap way to answer his question is the witticism: “It all depends on the price of wool.” But this wise crack reveals more than cheap wit; for we do in some instances care more for animals than for children. The dog in the family does not usually lack for care. The food animals are not neglected, lest the supply of beef, pork, mutton and poultry be imperiled. The racing horses are cared for and groomed lavishly. But there are hosts of children who are poorly fed, miserably sheltered, poorly schooled, often left without love. And there are grown folk as well, so neglected. Democracy is deeper than political form; it is spiritual faith. Does it not fail as political form unless it be spiritual faith?

There is something demonic in man. We can see it in the perversity of the Pharisees; in the violence of man’s rebellion; in the thirst for ruthless political power. And yet, in the same man there are tokens of divine life. People are infinitely precious because they can be host to the indwelling of God’s goodness. This is the ground of man’s worth and dignity. Whatever modern man’s failures, he does recognize the primary value of human life. He will turn from his getting and spending in order to help rescue a child caught in a landslide or trapped in a well. What he needs --- what we all need --- is a greater awareness of the ways in which appalling numbers of people are trapped and needing help.

For democracy is feasible only among concerned people. It is not the convenient tool of solely selfish men. We do well to ponder this at a time when our mayor joins others in proclaiming this same as “Constitution week.” For today, September 17th, marks the 180th anniversary of the adoption of the Constitution of the United States of America. Let’s keep it meaningful in this country, and before the world.

Observance of “Constitution Week” and celebration of “Wonderful Wisconsin Week” has to take place in the light of news from our largest city. Milwaukee is daily, hourly, in the news here; all over the nation; all over the world, friend and foe alike; because some people are marching in demonstrations for some kind of regulation that may give them a better chance at good living; and others are counter-marching in what appears to be a protest against change. Now you can see, because I’m here, that I am not one of the marchers in Milwaukee this weekend. I could have been. Some churchmen are there. They have my respect if they have gone to understand better a critical situation at first hand and to add their voice and influence to what is right in a democratic society. Personally, I do not like the marching in Milwaukee as a technique. I agree with Dr. Ralph Ley, our Conference president, that its net effect is too much apt to be the encouragement of bitterness and hatred, and the increase of separation rather than the removal of these spiritual walls. It may cause more hostile feeling than it can cure. I fear that it raises too much anger, too much of the spirit of being for or against the mayor; for or against Father Groppi; for or against north siders or south siders.

But, having said this, it seems to me most important that, as citizens of a government of, by and for the people, and as people who profess a belief in God, we try intensely to understand a lot more than the fact of marching demonstrations. Despite the fact that there has been some violence and destruction of property, there is reliable reporting that leaders have not encouraged hatred or violence; that they have attempted to be strict in discipline, stressing non-violent procedures, and keeping their goal in mind.

One of the goals is a fair housing ordinance for Milwaukee --- something which Madison and some other cities do have with apparent beneficial results. Those in close touch with conditions on the restive North side seem appalled by the poverty, the squalor, the poor schooling, the wretched housing and poor living conditions. And when buildings are to be razed, there seems to be no place for the occupants to go unless it becomes possible for them to go at least where they can afford to pay for other housing.

I have a feeling of approval for the Catholic bishop’s refusal to remove a priest who has taken an active part in the demonstrations. I have already questioned the technique. But it seems to me extremely significant that, in Milwaukee, white folk are welcomed by black folk if they are willing to be brothers in spirit. This is no longer the case in most American cities. Black people, in community after community, have now slammed the door on white leadership, white interference, white counsel or helpfulness. When the influence of white people is rejected; and when Negro people of ability and community stature are disdainfully branded as Uncle Toms; there is left a vacuum too easily filled by the Rap Browns, Stokley Carmichels, and Cassius Clays with their hate mongering, rabble rousing appeals.

I wasn’t there last night, but I have read with great interest that approximately 1/3 of last night’s marchers, in a fairly peaceful demonstration, were white. I hope that this channel of understanding can be kept open. But it will be so only if all of us recognize the ever present need for understanding, for equal justice, for fair opportunity.

Our church fellowship has had a long history of mercy, of steadfast love, of concern for those whose ancestors were procured by rival chieftains and sold into slavery here in this land. Some of our churches, and many of the members, were involved in the underground movement that aided in the escape of many slaves before the civil war between the states. Our churches helped with establishing schools for freedmen and their children. Our churches, by and large, approve the notion that church membership and fellowship should be open to all people who wish to be Christian, without prejudice as to class or race or nationality. I hope we of this church, and others of the United Church of Christ, can keep our attention mainly on the issue of fair treatment.

Ideally, it seems to me our goal should be equal treatment for everyone. For instance, I would like to see members of this church invite all members of the summer baseball team and their families, to worship with us while in Wisconsin Rapids, whether their skin happens to be black or white or brown. However, may it not also be fair to assume that many people of a race so long held down first by legal slavery, and then by long discrimination, need a bit of extra help and understanding?

A church in Chicago, only a few years back, proposed that its membership be confronted with this kind of program for the racial situation.

I. Emphasis on Fair Housing

A. With adequate controls for both landlord and tenant.

B. Freedom to live where anyone can afford to live.

C. Absolute code enforcement.

II. Job Training

A. Training by industry, with financial aid from government

B. Welfare recipients to be reviewed to determine if trainable.

C. Baby-sitting service provided for mothers who wish to work.

III. Educational Facilities

A. Efforts toward motivation

B. Tutoring programs

C. Television classes

D. Vocational training

These do not exhaust community needs, but don’t they point an understanding way toward encouraging people to help themselves?

Actually, Fair Housing, meeting Job Needs, Effective Education, seem to me to be the concerns of all of us --- for others as well as for ourselves. And where these needs are being inadequately met, let the church be a kind of catalyst for some kind of understanding action. If there were easy answers to these questions, they should have been answered long ago. Because they are problems, and fraught with serious difficulties, they should challenge the best in our nature and abilities.

These times of ours may not be easy. But they are great times. And they call for the great in people who remember their heritage, who want to build a greater heritage for generations yet to come.

The God of goodness is surely interested, more than in sacrifice, in understanding, mercy and uncondescending, steadfast love.

Let us pray. [prayer of 9-18-66].

O God, from whom come all things good in man and nature, we would open our spirits to Thee. Surely Thou art everywhere; yet in this sanctuary would we find Thee more intimately, and be more surely found of Thee. O Thou infinite grace and goodness, lift us with new faith in Thee, and fresh vision of Thee. When dark hours come, and when unanswered questions rise and doubts throng in, let Thine overflowing abundance make life whole again, and beautiful and lightened. Restore to us our confidence and assurance.

We gratefully see the beauty of nature -- its symmetry, harmony and order. We are thankful for the virtues of human life at its best -- for integrity and honor, for courage and goodwill. We are heartened by the accomplishments of man’s energy, the achievements of man’s mind and character. And when love proves stronger than hate, and light rises out of personal or social darkness, we praise Thee.

O God, from whose reservoir of goodness these streams flow, make us more certain of Thee, until we too shall say this day, “O God, Thou are My God.” By this strengthened faith, lift us up. We pray for Christian triumph over social ills and evils. We confess the social sins that disgrace the earth. Wilt Thou haunt the conscience of the world. Deliver us from cynicism and skepticism and lack of faith. Grant us courage to stand up and serve well Thy cause.

Thou seest with what varied individual needs we Thy children seek Thee. Speak to us one by one. We need Thy grace of sincere penitence and the cleansing of Thy pardon. If we are in grief, steady and comfort us; put beneath us such strong foundations that no sorrow shall beat us down. If we are anxious or perplexed, shed light on our path, O God. Today wilt Thou unsnarl some tangled life in this worshipping company. Send us all out with vision cleared, and faith confirmed, to be Thy loyal servants.

Keep us from selfish living in these dangerous and difficult times. Raise up leaders in church and nation; call us all to do our part in attacking the evils which disgrace our country and the world. And let us be dedicated as never before, to serve Thee. So would we open our hearts to Thy transforming presence. In Christ’s name.

Amen.

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Sermon delivered in Wisconsin Rapids, September 17, 1967.

Prayer presumably used 9/17/67 and 9/18/66; penciled dates on the separate prayer sheet are 4-9-72 and 1-18-76.