Doing Good in the Midst of Evil                                           1/26/41

 

Scripture:  Matthew 25: 32-46.

 

Text:  Matthew 25: 40b;  “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.”

Matthew 25: 45b;  “Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me.”

 

These words, from the sayings of Jesus as reported by Matthew, seem to me to be a remarkably faithful picture of the spirit of the Master.  Their implication is not simple to hardened people.  There is terrific and transforming power in the idea they convey.  All men are brothers of Christ.  Brothers of Him, all men are also brothers of each other in Christ.  If we believe that, we are confronted with the obligation to make it practical.  And that is where belief always meets its test.

 

I know a man in a distant community who is fond of saying that an important test of Christian faith is what one does when the offering plate is passed or the every-member canvass is launched.  There is enough truth in the saying to make it worth pondering.

 

A newspaper reporter became fed up with the verbal expressions of sympathy, on the part of a colleague, for a family that had been recently and tragically bereft of its father.  He blurted out, “So you’re sorry for the poor guy’ folks, are you?  Well, so am I.  I’m sorry twenty five dollar’s worth!  Now how much are you, and the other fellows in this office, ready to kick in for that family?”  The reporter was rated by his fellows as a hard-boiled chap.  But he called the spade what it was with more accurate realism than was to be found in all of the expressions of regret spoken earlier by his office-mates.  That twenty-five meant pinching his salary envelope for several weeks so that the family of a former friend might find relief.

 

Jesus did not say to his assembled hearers, “Let all of those who believe it is all right to give a drink of water, or a little food, to somebody who needs it, say ‘Aye’!”  Jesus said, “Inasmuch as ye did it,” or “did not do it.”  The action measured their love of him.

 

It is almost trite to say that we live today in the midst of evil.  Men have always faced danger, disease and sudden death; faced disappointment or disaster; struggled with temptation and sin; toiled, amidst all of it, for the right, for light and life; striven toward hope, and love and faith.

 

Today, we are particularly conscious of life lived in the midst of national concern and anxiety; of the devastation and terror and hatred of war in the world; of propaganda that is warped and often downright perverse.  Our minds and emotions are under pressure that threatens to increase during the months to come.

 

What can we think?  How shall we act?  What can we do, that is right?

 

Well, as Christian people, it is still our ultimate aim to know and to do the will of God, made known to us in Jesus Christ.  Let Christian people gather, with increasing faithfulness at the services of worship in their churches.  Let them read, re-read, search, ponder, and discuss the Word of God.  Let them seek the strength and guidance of His presence.  Let us all see to it that the Church continues to be the Church in these times of widespread crisis.

 

Let us be doing also, in practical expression of our faith.  The right kind of activity is good for our souls.

 

In addition to the plea that we show our devotion in worship and in glad and faithful participation in the activities of our church, I want during this brief period this morning to urge your attention upon two or three specific activities which I commend as worthy of the attention, not only of all citizens, but particularly of Christian citizens.

 

In order to be effective in cooperative work, we are concerned with health.  A familiar symbol of the preservation and restoration of health is the hospital where a community’s doctors and nurses minister to keep the health of all who need such service in repair.

 

Probably most of us in this congregation today have had relatives or friends in our own Riverview Hospital from time to time.  We are glad the hospital is there when it is needed.  But those who have studied it carefully tell us that the facilities of this institution should be greatly increased in order to meet the demands of a growing ministry to the health of our community and our families.  And so the movement for a substantial increase in that plant has been under way for several weeks and the subscription lists are still open through this month.

 

Friends, it is a Christian privilege for everyone to do what he can to make possible this needed improvement.

 

Again, I call your attention today another activity having to do with a particular problem of health and safety.  Today is specifically designated as “Infantile Paralysis Sunday” by those who are organized to fight that dread disease.  During the past year, infantile paralysis struck our nation with unusual severity.  We were acutely aware of it in this section of the country, and our own community has been deeply concerned at the number who were attacked last season.  Before the epidemic had subsided it had claimed nearly 10,000 new victims in the nation.

 

The quick and effective work of the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis helped to keep much smaller than in former years the proportion of those who were left with serious and permanent deformities.

 

The Fund now asks for the contributions of the nation to its work for 1941.  The funds raised are used in the persistent search for the virus of Infantile Paralysis itself, for research in prevention and for treatment of after-effects, for education, for dealing with epidemics, for nutritional research, and for the Georgia Warm Springs Foundation.

 

Friends, it is a Christian privilege to have a part in the battle against this menace to health.  Let us make our contributions gladly as we are able, even if it be only so modest as the dime dropped in the boxes now seen for that purpose in the Post Office and other public buildings.

 

“Inasmuch as ye have done it unto--these--ye have done it unto me.”

 

In calling your attention to a third practical consideration, I enter upon controversial ground where many honest differences of opinion exist side by side.  But I am convinced, for my part, that free Christian people owe merciful and practical consideration to millions of people who face starvation amid the war conditions of Europe this winter - right now!

 

Mr. Herbert Hoover has said that millions of innocent people in the five small democracies of Europe will starve during this winter and spring, unless relief is given from overseas.  The American Friends Service Committee, with representatives on the ground, have endorsed that judgment.  It has been argued that this is an extreme statement; that there is in reality enough food in Europe to go all the way around.  Probably there is enough food stored in Europe to feed everyone, if everyone could get at it.  But the main problem of starving peoples is not statistical totals of food stores, but distribution.  And there are political and economic and transportational obstacles which make the distribution of sufficient food in Europe an utter impossibility.

 

Now what can free American Christians do about it?  First of all, they can give serious, thoughtful, sympathetic attention to a plan which Mr. Hoover has devised out of his former experiences as director of the American Relief Commission during and after the first World War.

 

His plan does not call for the use of American ships.  It does not even call for the contribution of American dollars.  It merely calls for approval and support of a plan to let the countries whose people are to be fed to carry the food with their own ships and pay for it with their own money.

 

This plan, endorsed by the American Friends Service Committee and by at least 4 other relief commissions, calls for an international commission with authority to buy food abroad, safeguard it when it arrives, and distribute it through the commission’s warehouses to the needy families of the several countries.

 

The German government would have to agree (1) to allow free passage of the relief ships through its submarine blockade; (2) to take none of their cargoes for its own use; (3) to take none of the produce at home of those being relieved; and (4) to give the international commission full control of the management, distribution and inspection.

 

The British government  would have to agree (1) to allow free passage of the relief ships through its naval blockade so long as Germany’s guarantees were fulfilled - and no longer.  If the German government failed to keep its agreement, Britain would instantly be relieved from hers.

 

An important part of the plan is that shipments would be so timed that there would be no accumulation of food.  Even in the event of seizure at any given time, there would be no more than enough food for three days for Germany.

 

Sponsors of the plan believe that the consent of both the German and British governments to let the plan be tried can be gained if there is enough public sentiment in the United States to endorse it.  The danger of uncontrollable pestilence and hunger-mad revolution is great enough not to be overlooked even by nations at war with each other.

 

But there is opposition to this plan on the part of people whom we have every reason to believe are sincere.  They acknowledge the tragic and even desperate plight of peoples under Nazi domination.  Nevertheless they fear that the possible pledges of the totalitarian government would never be carried out and that the plan would simply play into their hands while tying the hands of the British government.  These opponents have no other plan to offer for relief.  No other hope is offered to the despairing multitudes of men, women, and children who are doomed, unless help comes from across the seas.  They say that “between the agony of empty stomachs for a time in one part of the world and the agony of stricken souls in every part of the world there can be but one choice.”

 

And yet there is reason to believe that the German government would not only consent to the plan but would keep its word.  Officials of the American Friends Service Committee have said, “No one truly conversant with the facts is seriously perturbed by the prospect of Germany seizing American relief supplies for her own military or civil use.  The American Red Cross and the American Friends Service Committee know from recent experience that the German government has accorded them nothing but courtesy and cooperation in their relief operations in Poland and France.”  And again, “We can assert categorically that there is no danger of seizure of our supplies by military authorities or interference with our administration.”

 

The only suggested alternative to this plan is the grim one that starvation be allowed to do its revolutionary work against Hitler.  The grim and cynical comment is that it might be to Hitler’s interest to approve the plan.  He can’t afford a large scale revolt on his hands.  That is why Europe’s hungry should not be fed!  Perhaps then they will revolt!

 

But this course is a desperate gamble and wretched morality.  It is just as likely that German radio propaganda can convince starving people that the British blockade keeps food from their children’s mouths.  That tactic is just as apt to play against Britain or into Stalin’s hands as it is to bring about Hitler’s downfall.

 

And anyway, does anyone seriously believe with all his heart and soul that civilization is going to be preserved by starving a multitude of innocent people?

 

God has plainly said, through Jesus Christ, that evil cannot be overcome with more evil, but only with good.  In the Christian faith, God says, “If thine enemy hunger, feed him.”  Has God changed his tune since the hungry, the ill clad, the sick and the desperate of Belgium, Poland, Norway and Holland cry out for food and clothing and care?

 

If America can approve and urge, and Britain and Germany accept, a plan to do something decent about this desperate need, it might be that a foundation stone of decency and moral recovery could be laid in the midst of the evil to which we ought not to give ourselves so resignedly.  Such a move might be one step toward saving the world from another Dark Age and placing it in the way of healing and hope.

 

In the name of Him who has saved us and whom we are sworn to follow, let us be willing and glad in any need, to do for others what we would have them do for us, and what Christ would do for any one.

 

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Dates and places delivered:

 

            Wisconsin Rapids, January 26, 1941