A Lenten Journey; Strength for the Journey           3/29/42

 

Scripture:  Mark 11: 1-10

 

Text:  Habakkuk 3: 19    “He helps me keep my footing on the heights.”   (Moffatt’s version)

 

As we come near to the end of this “Lenten Journey” we remember that Jesus was nearing the end of his earthly ministry.  To our earthly eye, the end of his journey was such a strange mixture of agony and triumph.  Later this week we commemorate the agony.

 

Today we mark the triumph.  It was short-lived as worldly success goes; and it was chiefly symbolic.  Jesus had heretofore stayed far from any appearance of organized strength.  He had tried to make it clear that the righteousness which he taught was not dependent upon swords or armies; nor upon revolution or rabble-rousing.  His appeal was directly to the hearts, the thoughtfulness, the conscience and the hopes of those people who “heard him gladly.”

 

This is one notable occasion when Jesus allowed a popular tribute of triumph; yet it was still the triumph of meekness and lowliness.  It would not seem impressive to those who are primarily impressed with a show of might.  This was not the triumph of a general or a dictator; not that of a king, a president or a superintendent of anything.  It was a simple dramatization of the hopes of miserable common folk.  It probably did not seem at all practical, except as a potential source of trouble, to those who sat in seats of authority.

 

After all, what did Jesus amount to?  Did his teachings have practical value?  Has any religion real and practical value?

 

Many openly say that it has not.  One great nation takes the position, officially, that it isn’t even a good thing for people; that it dulls and lulls them when they should be struggling for better conditions.  Certain other nations have taken the stand that religion, while it may be tolerated and even encouraged in some forms, must be definitely in line with the aims of the state; that it must be subordinated to the will of state leaders and must contribute to the aims of the state.  In other words, it has propaganda value, when so subordinated, but is not to be tolerated as other than such a tool.

 

Not only do some deny the inherent practical value of religion, but many others bear silent testimony in their lives to their lack of faith in the practicality of religion by their indifference to religion and their neglect of it.

 

It is easy just now for those who do not know the gripping power of religion to question the reality and the goodness of God.  It is easy for the unbeliever to say, “If there is a God who has all power and is all love, why doesn’t he do something decisive to save the world from its misery and helplessness?”

 

Some 25 centuries ago, a man with the unusual and unesthetic name of Habakkuk wrote a little book which is included among the smaller books of our Old Testament.  In his day, it was an accepted belief that it paid to be religious, because God would prosper the one who believed in Him and served him faithfully.  “They that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing” was quoted very literally; and whoever questioned it was a heretic, an unbeliever.

 

But this man looked around him and saw that something was wrong with the theory.  It was not always so.

 

For one thing, he was as sure that his own people were God’s chosen people as any one-hundred-percent American could be today.  Yet his people were terribly afflicted.  Like small countries of today, his little country had been swept by ruthless armies; devastated; robbed of flocks and herds and harvests of grain and olives.  The people were left in hunger and despair.  Their story sounds like Norway, Belgium, Holland, Greece and other small countries today.  Why was this?  Was their faith in God foolish?  Was religion useless?

 

Habakkuk set himself to thinking.  He had a vision of truth.  In spite of all that had come, religion could do this great thing for him:  “The Lord the Eternal is our strength;  he makes our feet sure as the feet of hinds;  helps us keep our footing on the heights!”

 

This man lived in a hill country.  He had watched deer climbing, sure-footed over dangerous heights where he would fear to go.  It must have come to him:  “That is what faith in God does for me.  It gives me sure footing in high, hard places.  Faith in God has great value - the greatest there is.  It keeps me from sinking down; from losing courage, helps me walk securely in hard and dangerous places.”

 

Faith in God and in the way that Christ taught often does not “pay” in profits, or security, or even gratitude.

            [Prof. Benjamin W. Robinson - “The second mile” affiliated        with a church with building debt.  sent $25 to chairman -      wealthy man who lived away.  “If you think I should give

            more, let me know.

            reply  “I think you should give another $25.

            so he gave $25 + $25:  $50 more.

            and was never even thanked for it.

            But he can laugh about it and say,

            “I think that did something good for my own soul!”]

 

But what if faith does or does not “pay?”  It doesn’t pay - Martin Niemoeller and his fellow confessional Christians.

What is the worst that can happen to one?  To be poor, to be sick, to be out of work, to be tyrant-ridden, starved or imprisoned?  These are terrible evils.  But one thing is worse - to lose heart, to give way to cynicism and despair, to slip and fall when the going is hard.

 

There are Christian people under the heel of devilish despotism who are keeping chin up with the courage that comes from confidence in God.  [ This is a message for soldiers, mothers and fathers, munitions workers, sailors, all to whom danger and hardship come close.]  We have moments of vision when we mount as with the wings of eagles, feel strong, attempt and dare much.  But we so easily fall back into the low places.

 

In real religion, there is true fellowship with God that can give us sure footing on rough and dangerous places, so that we can, as someone has said, “go on forever, and fail, and go on again.”  “When I said, my foot slippeth, Thy mercy, O God, held me up.”  “The Eternal is my strength; he helps me keep my footing on the heights.”

 

That discovery of Habakkuk is the lesson made more vivid by the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem.  Into danger and death he rode.  Into the teeth of corruption and tyranny he rode.  Into the face of everything that men call “failure” he rode.  His world failed him.  But his God sustained him!  The triumph of Jesus is the triumph of faith in God - a power greater than all the world or of hell itself.

 

In fair weather or foul; in prosperity or adversity; in security or in the terror that walks abroad gain in our day, faith is God, the Father, is the strength for our journey.  O, lay hold upon it!  Let our palms and our “hosannah” be the symbols of joyful spiritual victory over a cruel world!  Let Christ ride in triumph right into our hearts and remain with us alway.

 

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dates and places delivered:

 

            Wisconsin Rapids, March 29, 1942