The Place of Reverence 9/21/41
Scripture: Exodus 3: 1-12.
Text: Exodus 3: 5; “And he said, draw not nigh hither: put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground.”
This was the conviction that came over Moses as he led his flocks in the desert. His vocation at that time was that of a shepherd. He had become pretty well satisfied with his lot after fleeing from the anger of the Egyptian king. He now had a wife and children. He had flocks. He stood well in the estimation of his priestly father-in-law. He really wasn’t bothered much by deeper, more perplexing and annoying realities.
It seemed perhaps a trivial, though interesting experience to him that as he tended his flocks he should see a little bush burning nearby. The bush did not seem to him to be consumed despite the fact that it was on fire. Moses’ curiosity was aroused and he turned aside to see why.
But suddenly a conviction flashed over him, as the voice of the Eternal, speaking to him, something like this: “Moses! Your main task is not that of tending sheep and idly examining bushes. You are supposed to be preparing yourself to be the deliverer of the children of Israel. It is time for you to think seriously of your main responsibility now. Open your heart and listen attentively and reverently so that you may, in a measure, understand my plan for delivering the Israelite people from slavery.”
And Moses reverently removed his shoes and covered his face as an expression of his great respect. He put himself in that emotional attitude out of which the greatest souls are born - that attitude from which the finest of character develops, namely reverence.
Some years ago, a heard a sermon of the subject, “Is Reverence Passing?” And I thought to myself, “Is it possible that we are becoming so objective in our thinking that we are crowding out that deep, appreciative respect for things that are great, beautiful, wonderful, and because of their beauty and wonder, sacred?” That is what the title of that sermon seemed to suggest.
And I do feel that that aspect of life in America may be too much crowded out and lost. We people in America, like people in most other parts of the world, have seen the development of great scientific knowledge. We have seen that knowledge applied to produce the marvelously speedy development of mechanics. We are so impressed with our knowledge of things that our forefathers knew nothing about, that we are in danger of forgetting that there are still vast realities of which we know nothing as yet. (radio & telephone - BBut Northern Lights are still a mystery!)
We have seen rapid strides also in the study and application of psychology. And at times we are apt to feel that we know all that is important or worth knowing about the minds and habits of people. A good salesman is supposed, theoretically, to know enough about men to be able to put over his product a profitable share of the time no matter how tough the customer.
All in all, we have been a pretty confident nation of people. We have been sometimes decidedly self-sufficient in our attitudes.
And yet there are many people who are not satisfied with this way of life. They want rest for their unhappy souls and new strength for their spirits. Perhaps that is why so many Protestant churches are being turned in recent times from plain-looking lecture halls or the meetin’ houses of our spiritual forefathers into beautiful places of worship.
Fifteen years ago, I saw a large church of nearly a thousand members go through a building campaign in Chicago. Their church building, which had been considered a very fine edifice, had been destroyed by fire and they were planning a new building. One of the things that that building committee, elected by the other members, kept insisting upon was that the new church home must be even more worshipful than the old one. It must be a place where people who entered it would feel like forgetting, for a little while, their knowledge of information, their daily livelihood or business, their ordinary interests, in order to meditate in the presence of God.
They said, in effect, “We want an organ that is not a theater organ. But our organ must be mellow and sympathetic in tone and accurate in its reproduction of great religious music. We have decided that, in this church, the center of attention will be a beautifully made communion table. And over the table, on the carved screen that covers the pipes of the organ, we will have carved a beautiful cross. When people sit down in our church and look directly in front of them, they will see first of all the symbols of Jesus himself, his cross and his table.” And so these people went about planning their church, making other improvements too. I saw the building a year later, after it was finished, and truly it was a place where one could not help feeling rested and spiritually uplifted even before a word was spoken or the service had begun.
It is my conviction that the capacity for reverence and the need of its cultivation lies in all of us, that the capacity for reverence is at least possible, in all human hearts. Let man rejoice in his power and his knowledge, but let him just as surely be reverent, silent, attentive, receptive, in the face of what he does not yet understand. Man is at his best when he allows himself as vividly as possible to realize the love and the power of God. Perhaps something else should now be said about reverence. Reverence is in a important sense an end in itself. It can never be used as a means to an ulterior end without definite loss and spiritual corruption. Perhaps I can illustrate what I mean.
I once read a short play by Margaret Larkin entitled “El Christo.”
The story is about a certain group of Mexican people who had the custom each year at Easter time of hanging one of their men on a large cross until he collapsed and fainted. He was taken down before he should die, so that he recovered from the strain, and again lived among the people. But any man who was crucified in this way became El Christo to the people for that year. The mass of those people believed that Christ was in him and they made their confessions to him and did as he wished them to do until the next year when another man was crucified in the same way. A small group of leaders, called the council, elected the man who was to be El Christo and this year it was one Jose Valdez. He was a young lad. His father and all his brothers, who were older than he, had been elected El Christo in years before this. And now he was by himself praying with earnest, youthful fervor, in order to prepare himself to represent Christ to the people for a year. He knew the ordeal of crucifixion would be unspeakably hard, but he was willing and glad to go through it.
Before he was taken out with the cross, however, Jose’s father came in and spoke to him. He said something like this: “Now Jose, it is a wonderful thing to be El Christo. You do well to pray about it. But being El Christo has its uses. In the coming election, I wish to be made sheriff. You yourself can become a government clerk. We can get these offices if you will use your influence just as members of our family have used their influence while being El Christo in the past.”
Then Jose saw the real meaning to the council of the whole thing. The most important thing which they saw was not to become a helpful spiritual leader to the soul-hungry people but to help relatives and friends and self to get desired offices and special privileges. In sudden anguish of spirit he refused to go through with it. After storming at him until he knew that it was no use, his father went out and the council selected an older and stronger man who was anxious for an office but had little of Jose’s reverence for the occasion. While the other man was crucified as El Christo, Jose stayed inside and poured out his disillusioned anguish in prayer.
True reverence can not be used to gain advantages of any kind. The moment a man tries that, reverence is gone and nothing but hypocrisy is left in its place. The Pharisees who pray in the market place to be seen of man have their reward, and it isn’t permanent nor redeeming nor even satisfying.
I present to you a plea for reverence, not just in those public manifestations which are sometimes wrongly taken for reverence itself, but that private appreciative respect for the finest things whether cultivated in public or alone. It is no weakness to put one’s self in an attitude of reverence before the great undefined power of God. It is a source of strength to the whole character to recognize that power, and to try to get in harmony with it. It is no weakness to entertain reverence for real truth, both the unknown truth and that which has thus far been scientifically demonstrated. It is a source of strength.
It is no weakness to have an appreciative respect, a reverence for Jesus. Regardless of all that people have said throughout history, in love or in hostility, about him, no greater person, within my knowledge, has ever lived. And to know his life and sense his spirit is a source of strength.
But the objects of reverence are not confined to Deity, truth, beauty, power, and to Jesus. I believe there is a great need for reverence in our dealings with each other. Perhaps reverence was the greatest element in the remarkable love between Robert and Elizabeth Browning that made their marriage so happy. I feel rather certain that any two people who are to live happily together must have a reverent respect, each for the other’s personality. And I believe this to be true for any kind of partnership.
Is it not true that, no matter how well parents may understand a child, his habits, his desires, his disappointments and ambitions; still they do not understand all? Every person, even a little child, has within himself thoughts and feelings which are his own and are tenderly kept from the outside world. And they must be respected. Each one of us has a separate personality to be held in reverent respect by all others.
Now let not anything I have said in this sermon be interpreted to mean that I scorn the interests and achievements of everyday life. Our daily affairs must go on and machines must move. And people must know about them and understand them and control and direct them. Men must continue gathering knowledge of the world and of each other. Sheep must be tended and burning bushes must be watched.
But let men, at the same time that they see and learn and move, be reverent toward sacred things. Let men reverently listen to the spiritual voice of God, for the good of their own souls, for the uplift of humanity, and for the glory of His name.
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Dates and places delivered:
Kahului Union Church, November 17, 1929
Wailuku Union Church, November 24, 1929
Puunene Japanese Church, December 8, 1929
Wailuku Japanese Church, December 8, 1929
Paia Japanese Church, December 15, 1929
Haiku Dormitory, July 13, 1930
Maui Association Meeting, Paia, March 19, 1931
Huelo Hawaiian Church, October 2, 1932
Kahului Union Church, October 2, 1932
Haiku C.E. October 8, 1932
Puunene Japanese Church, October 9, 1932
Paia Japanese Church, October 9, 1932
Puunene Hawaiian Church, October 16, 1932
Makawao Union Church, June 24, 1934
Kahului Union Church, July 1, 1934
Wanaualua Church, Hana, March 17, 1935
Puunene Hawaiian Church, March 8, 1936
Pilgrim Church, October 25, 1936 AM
Wisconsin Rapids, September 21, 1941