How Practical Is Our Christianity? 10/26/41
Scripture: Luke 10: 25-37.
Text: Luke 20: 27; “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbor as thyself.”
How practical is our Christianity? There are thousands in our city and hundreds of thousands in our state who have embraced Christianity and joined some branch of the Church of Jesus Christ. There are millions of such people in our nation and throughout the world. Men and women have been trained in Christian background and understanding to the point where they have calmly and deliberately said “I want to be a part of the Christian Church and movement.” Others have been turned in sudden conversion and have joined the church in a burst of enthusiasm. Some have grown up in the fellowship of church people and a Christian family and have always taken Christianity as their faith.
There are people who are outside the membership lists of churches who are Christian in much of their attitude toward people, toward their work and toward the Deity. There are some who, having been born in a so-called “Christian nation,” wish to be considered Christian when convenient. (American sea captain in an oriental port.)
A strange observer from some other world might expect that in a world in which so many Christian people live and move and think that all civilization would be dominated by the spirit of Christ. And the spirit of Christ is felt and seen to a remarkable extent in our world. But, how much more it should be present were all of the nominal Christians of the world as thoughtful and earnest about their religious profession as all of us might be and should be!
Our faith in God and in Jesus Christ as our leader toward God, is most real when it is vitally active in the life of each one of us. Our Christianity is a matter of loyal devotion. “What makes a church?” The church is to me a fellowship wherein each of us is trying to deepen his devotion to God and his loyalty to Jesus Christ. It is also a fellowship wherein we make a study of our religion through the reading and understanding of our Bible and through all other approaches of understanding. Here we teach our religion and from here we reach out to share it with others. Here the religion of our homes is reinforced. All of these phases of Christianity are primarily important for us. Our Christianity can be real only as we have made it so thoroughly ours that it springs from within.
To a true Christian, the spirit springing from within brings a poise to living that would not otherwise be possible. His work may be more steadily done. He grows naturally. He is self-controlled to the degree at which he is able to maintain the inner glow.
The spirit from within enables the Christian to feel something of the love of which Jesus so frequently spoke. It is no mere sentiment. Such love is a very real awareness of, and consideration for, others of whose presence and needs we have become aware - the ability to recognize the other person’s point of view whether we agree with it or not; the cultivation of a genuine respect for another’s personality and rights.
A genuine faith has an outward expression. A flame shut up in a tightly enclosed space soon goes out. It is so with the spirit. The most natural way to keep the spirit aflame, once it has been given a start, is to let its light and warmth be freely shed abroad. For it feeds on what comes from abroad. It is no accident that the Hebrews had learned out of their law that the most important law of life was a two-fold law. “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbor as thyself.”
It is no mere accident that Jesus emphasized that two-fold law in oft-repeated precept and in example. There is, in his parable of the Good Samaritan [Luke 10: 30-37], the clear implication that the spirit has gone dead, no matter how meticulously one may have followed the ritual and the legal technicalities, if one grows in upon himself; and the spirit is kept living if one is moved to reach out in help to others and with others, even at the cost of some self-sacrifice.
I am always impressed with the strength of those men and movements which are given to the helping of others, even at the cost of self-sacrifice. I think a great deal of the strength of John Wesley’s movement was in the fact that under his leadership, homes were founded for aged and penniless people, orphanages were built and supported, blankets and clothing were given to soldiers whose provisions were wretchedly inadequate, the gospel was shared freely with the rich and poor, the contented and the wretched alike. That strength was born out of deep religious experiences in Wesley and his followers, but it kept its strength in freely serving others.
To me, the most impressive thing about the Salvation Army movement is its practical service to people. The reputation among his admirers of Jesus himself was that of a man who went about doing good.
Not long ago one of the best sellers among books was Lloyd Douglas’ “Magnificent Obsession.” The theme of the book is the conviction on the part of its leading characters that there is incalculable strength and personal power in giving help to individual people who need it, who may be grateful for it, and from whom no personal repayment of the debt is to be expected or accepted.
Our Christianity may be practical then in two ways. (1) Primarily important is the “mountain top” experience, the spiritual birth and nurture, the repeated contact with God in fellowship and worship which we may find in our Church and in our family and in private expressions of religious devotion.
(2) But an equally important corollary of our faith is our willingness to serve, to help, to cooperate with others in good deeds and worthy enterprises.
[During the coming week, we who live in Honolulu and on Oahu will be presented with an opportunity to test in a specific instance the practicality of our Christianity. We meet here in our house of worship on Sunday for spiritual refreshing. During the following days, we will be presented with the needs of the people of our city and our island represented in the United Welfare fund. The fund now being raised for 1938 in the 20th annual campaign served last year a total of 63,000 men, women, boys and girls through 25 different agencies.
1500 volunteers will not only make their financial gift but will do the actual hard work of speaking, calling, organizing and gathering contributions. Thousands will contribute their good wishes and their money. Let it be clear that Christian people are the quickest of the Samaritans to answer this annual appeal!]
To speak in very practical fashion for a few moments, let me discuss a bit further this United Welfare appeal. Is it a duplication of what the governmental social security program is calculated to do? No. As a matter of fact, those who are informed on the matter tell us that the people of Hawaii will probably spend no more for the organized social security objectives this year than last. The act has merely organized the Territory in such a way that the requirements for a Federal Grant are met.
Only four of the 25 United Welfare agencies are affected by the Social Security Act at all. These are the Social Service Bureau, The Children’s Service Association, the Chinese and the Japanese homes, and they will carry on much as before. All of the rest of the 25 agencies need our help to carry on their work.
We find the United Welfare dollar generally divided as it is spent, in this way: 35 cents of it goes for youth guidance, 24 cents of it goes for family welfare and the care of the aged, 20 cents will be spent for the care of dependent children, and 16 cents for health service. Only 5 cents is spent for administration as compared to 8 cents in mainland campaigns. 95 cents of every Welfare dollar goes straight as an arrow toward these four types of work which you want it to do!
Not all of this work is charity, by any means. Some of it is and rightly so. But a great deal of the welfare work of our community can be classified under prevention of the need for charity or correction.
[It costs, for instance, $5.00 to provide a boy scout with his organization and leadership for a year. Of course a great deal of volunteer leadership and local initiative is added to that. But it costs us as taxpayers $500.00 for every boy who through neglect and bad environment gets into trouble that lands him in the Industrial School!
The care of dependent children isn’t just a matter of cold maintenance. It is a personal service that gives them a far better chance of growing into constructive citizenship than they would otherwise have.
Here then, this week, is our chance to show in another instance how practical our Christianity can be in giving our individual help to this movement that helps others who are in need, who need guidance, who need cooperation. As a matter of fact it even touches a great many of us personally and directly in service rendered through agencies of constructive effort like the Scout movement, the YMCA, the YWCA, and others.]
To return then to our first question: How practical is our Christianity? That is determined first by the degree with which we are spiritually moved, the degree in which we have come alive in the soul’s response to God, and second by the degree to which we put the spirit to work in help, cooperation, and understanding toward other people.
“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbor as thyself.”
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Date and places delivered:
Pilgrim Church, October 10, 1937 AM
Wisconsin Rapids, October 26, 1941