The Place of the Church in the Community                        5/18/41

 

Scripture:  Matthew 22: 34-40.

 

Text:  Matthew 22: 37a; 39b;  “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God; ...thou shalt love thy neighbor...”

 

The Christian Church has a place to fill in the life of any community.  The Christian Church, at its best, should have the centrally important place in the life of any community.

 

I.          In reviewing the history of the Church, we find, of course, that there have always been some disagreements, often strife of one sort or another, dissensions, and mistakes among its people and in some of its dogmas.

 

During the first century of the Church, we find Peter and Paul, and their respective followings, in radical disagreement with each other on questions of doctrine and of organization.  And their differences were probably never reconciled, though each was a bearer of the greatest gospel the world has ever heard.  In a much later period we find Church people benightedly burning other Church people, and being burned, over questions of doctrinal beliefs and the application of those beliefs.

 

Church people have all too frequently made the mistake of trying to make life fit into patterns of law and then concentrating on the enforcement, to the letter, of the laws.  And this has tended strongly to make some churches over-conservative.  And progress within the church, as well and through the church, has often had to come slowly through, around, and over, a mess of narrow legalisms.

 

Yes, the church has made many mistakes.  It is not, and never has been, infallible in any of its branches or denominations.

 

II.          On the other hand, the Christian Church has been great in leadership in many directions, and has deserved to be great.  Because of the inspiration it has given to many of its people, and the fervor they have developed in it, it has given many great, good, and useful institutions and movements to the world.

 

[A concrete example of this is found in the development of our own Alexander House Settlement program here on this Island.  The Alexander House Settlement had its beginnings, I am told, in the devoted service of a Church-led and Christ-inspired woman, working among Chinese women.  These women, because of previous lack of culture or training and because of living in a new environment, greatly needed her service.  The program of the Settlement has been greatly expanded and somewhat revised from time to time to meet current needs, and its various phases of work have been put into the hands of departmental experts.  But it had its beginnings in the work of one whose character was very largely trained by the Church.  And her work was backed, in no small sense, by church people.]

 

The whole educational system of America had its roots and beginnings in the Church.  Early settlers on American shore were there, very largely, for reasons of religious convictions - convictions which they wanted to be free to express for themselves and to pass on to their children.

 

These settlers, of New England especially, after years of persecution in their native Europe, first made their religious freedom secure by coming to American shores.  But they wanted not religious freedom alone.  No freedom is worth having unless you know how to use it.  And they soon realized that their children must be educated.  So they - church people, used to the idea of sacrifice and effort for something important - gave every bit they could toward the establishment of schools, and then colleges.  They were, on the average, an unusually highly educated group of people themselves.  And they knew what they wanted, and how important it was, when they set aside a whole year’s taxes for the founding of their University, which later became Harvard.

 

We still have, in the nation, a goodly number of colleges and universities, and a few private elementary and preparatory schools that maintain a connection with the churches that started them.  Some are still largely backed by churches. 

 

Of course, now, the great majority of American schools are public, tax-supported institutions, having no direct connections with the church.  But the whole educational system owes its origin and early nurture to the church, the community of Christian believers.

 

The schools of the Pacific Islands had their beginnings as mission schools.  The church, through it missionaries, is directly responsible for the beginning of modern education in many a foreign land.

 

The great and useful profession of nursing, as we know it today, traces its beginning, as a respectable profession, to a church connection.  Before the time of Florence Nightingale, nurses were a distinctly low grade of people, neither respectable nor deserving of respect, poorly trained and largely immoral - usually a licentious, heavy-drinking, inefficient lot of people.  But Florence Nightingale, a girl of fine family who had first to overcome the strenuous objection of her parents, went to a school of nursing headed by a Christian minister (German, I believe).  This minister was trying to improve the quality of nursing by the quality, character and improved training of the young women who studied in his school.  And it was Florence Nightingale, one of his pupils, trained with the viewpoint of Christian service, whose example and ability revolutionized nursing and made it a highly valuable and respected profession.

 

Other examples might be cited to remind us how the church has been the birth place and nursery of many a good movement not so directly connected with the church today.  To be sure, the church has made its mistakes, as I said in the beginning of this discussion.  But its good contributions to the world have more than justified it in the past.

 

III.         We have been speaking of the past.  Why should the church deserve an important place in the life of our communities today?  I answer, for the same reasons that it deserved its place in the past.  The church points to the source of our finest ideals.  Imperfect as it may be, it is still the greatest fellowship for deepening our devotion to God and for encouraging us to cultivate Christian ways of living.

 

What are these ideals of which I speak?  The church has held many lesser ideals but it has always held up two main ideals whenever it was strong enough, or righteous enough to hold up anything at all worth-while.  These two main ideals are the principles given by the head of the Jesus Christ.

 

First:  Thou shalt love the Lord Thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.  The love of God uplifts and ennobles the heart, gives one a renewed appreciation of the majesty of all the created universe and of its unseen Sustainer.  The love of God becomes a satisfaction to the human heart, which longs to love, and be loved, beyond anything mortally possible.  Love of God is expressed in worship.  And the more beautiful and soul-satisfying the worship, the more perfect is that expression of love.

 

The second ideal:  Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.  A soul in-grown upon itself, forever searching for its own happiness, its own satisfaction, its own rights, is a disappointed soul.  For selfishness leads to unhappiness, to dissatisfaction, to unrighteousness.  And the purer the selfishness the greater the unhappiness and dissatisfaction.

 

To love one’s neighbor, the other fellow, as well as one’s self; to desire fellowship and to try to live in cooperation with other people, giving to mankind as well as receiving from mankind, showing consideration for the feelings and ambitions of others; to act toward them as you would have them act toward you, and then not be too particular whether or not they act that way; to avoid trespassing against others and to forgive readily the trespasses of others toward you - this is one of the ways toward happiness, contentment.  It is one’s greatest contribution toward that righteousness which characterizes the kingdom of God, and the brotherhood of man.

 

It is because of its function in holding up these ideals, that I believe the church is deserving of its centrally important place in the life of the community.  If you find the church holding up these ideals of love to God and mankind, rejoice and join with it in so great a privilege.  If you find the church weak or failing in holding up these ideals, do not strike at it, but get in and do your share to see that it does what it is supposed to do.  Make it centrally important in the community to the Glory of God and the benefit of mankind.

 

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Dates and places delivered;

 

            Kahului Union Church, October 21, 1934

            Puunene Hawaiian Church, October 28, 1934

            Puunene Japanese Church, November 11, 1934

            Wananalua Church, Hana, November 18, 1934

            Huelo Hawaiian Church, January 6, 1935

            Maui Waena Hawaiian Young People at Kaahumanu Church,

                        February 3, 1935

            Wailuku Union Church, April 26, 1936

            Puunene Hawaiian Church, April 26, 1936

            Kahului Union Church, May 3, 1936

            Pilgrim Church, September 27, 1936 AM

            Wisconsin Rapids, May 18, 1941

 

{The following added, presumably for the 1941 version}

 

Today is the fifth Sunday after Easter, which has been designated for a dozen years, in our denomination, as Rural Life Sunday.  Its theme is emphasized in the prayers and comments found on the inside pages of our calendar.

 

Recent generations have seen the fine growth of certain large city churches with excellent plants, skilled leadership, and excellent programs for work and fellowship.  That is as it should be.  For, with the growth of urban and industrial life in our nation, our churches must keep pace with the needs of the people.  They ought to be even better than they are.  And yet we must be reminded of the great importance of the churches of the small towns, or the villages, and of the open country.

 

A vast number of the nation’s citizens still live and work in rural areas.  The cities themselves depend on the country folk not only for supplies - food, clothing materials  and other resources.  But one of the important sources of leadership in the cities is the youth which comes from the country - youth with physical health, solid character, and personal resource.  The rural churches, where the living ideals, Christian ideals of these folk are nurtured are strategically important.  Struggling little churches, with poorly paid but devoted ministers - but in the field, doing the job - are more than deserving of the State and National missionary aid that goes into them from our benevolence giving.  To keep them going is one way of keeping vital the Christian life of our whole nation.

 

Our constant hope, as Christian people in days like these, or in any day, is not in conformity to a selfish world; but in being transformed by the renewing of our minds in the Christian faith.  It must be proclaimed and shared and lived in every corner of our nation, and as God wills in all the world.

 

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Dates and places delivered:

 

            Wisconsin Rapids, May 18, 1941