The Lordship of Christ 4/12/42
Scripture: Joel 2: 21-29
A distinguishing characteristic of a Christian is that he prays. Recognizing that he is not sufficient for life’s demands by himself, and that there is a Power far greater than himself to which he can turn, he does so. He may pray often, long, and formally. He may pray only when conscious of the need to do so. He may put his prayers in spoken words or he may commune with God in meditative silence. He may use the discipline of repeating the words of beautifully expressed prayers in a commonly accepted prayer book. Or he may rely on his own language to express adequately his praise and his petition. But he prays.
In so doing, he has the example of his Lord, Jesus Christ, as his greatest precedent. He who called himself the Son of Man prayed most earnestly, often unconventionally, sometimes perhaps formally. A prayerful moment of concentration brought healing power to someone who was sick. An hour of prayer, or a night of prayer outside on the hills or among the trees, brought refreshment and sharpening of the skill by which he helped thousands on the morrow. He doubtless prayed in the synagogue - has long as the synagogue would have him! His disciples, observing how great was his power through prayer, asked him to teach them how to pray. And he taught them. (The Lord’s Prayer.) [Luke 11: 1-4].
Prayer is communion with God. If you are not sure of God, take Him for a time as a mathematician takes an axiom - testing it out and working as though it were true until satisfied of its truth through reliable experience. If you feel the need of a Power greater than your own limited self, and still, serious doubts cast their shadow over you, pray - pray as though God exists, is there, hears and heeds - and keep on praying day by day. Doubts dissolve; faith revives and deepens. God reveals his reality to those who seek Him with a whole heart.
The manner of people’s praying differs as widely as people themselves differ from each other - differs as widely as individual need and abilities differ. Some pray chiefly in the time of desperation. Some set aside definite times and places for prayer (as do those who attend regularly the services of worship in their churches.) A few achieve an attitude that is almost constantly prayerful in the highest and finest sense of the language.
Gandhi prays in definitely set periods of silent meditation each day. Kagawa prays whenever he needs more strength “as a babe draws nourishment from its mother.” My grandfather used to pray a good deal in the singing of the finer hymns.
The prophet Joel tried to help his hearers to realize the power of confidence in God. Speaking as though he were, for the moment, using the words of the Lord himself, he utters the promise: “And it shall come to pass that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions.”
Those who depend on God and keep their trust clear, in constant communion with Him, shall have hope, visions of possibilities, hope of accomplishments, faith in the ultimate triumph of right.
Occasionally, a great body of the Christian Church will designate a certain week as a week of prayer. In an effort to understand great needs and possibilities together, it is often wise to pray together. Through prayer together, multitudes may find an anchorage in God, may receive renewed energy, may discover afresh the value of Christian fellowship, may make effective their efforts together as Christian people.
One great fact stands out above many others: Jesus Christ is Lord of all who have ever entered the Christian fellowship. He has shown us the Father, God, more clearly than man had ever known Him before. He lived as no man ever lived, and his spirit lives as no other does. Christian people are thrilled at the words of the mighty “Hallelujah Chorus” - “King of kings, and Lord of Lords; and he shall reign for ever and ever!”
Before happiness and harmony can be found in dependable measure among the peoples of the earth, the spirit of Jesus Christ must reign in the hearts of all people, all over the earth. The effort to share that spirit; practice and preach and teach that spirit and help others to discover its transforming power, is the great mission of Christ’s people. You see, we are not alone recipients of the grace of our Lord. We are, in a high and holy sense, all missionaries with the gospel to share.
Christian people uniting in prayer have sought, in their prayers, to acknowledge the “Lordship of Jesus Christ over the whole of life.” If the truth of Christ’s lordship over life ever becomes a spiritual reality in the hearts of mankind - or even an effective part of mankind - this half-mad, power-drunken old world will change for better as no one has dreamed it could change. What more natural thing, then, than that Christians shall unite their prayers for just such a mighty transformation.
Of course, the Lordship of Jesus Christ over the whole of life means his Lordship over the many phases of life which make up our living. Jesus Christ must needs be Lord, first of all, over our individual lives. In a very private, direct and personal way, he must have sway over my life, and over your life. Without consecrated individual people the spirit of God lacks tools that are absolutely necessary for the building of human brotherhood or a divine kingdom.
A young oriental woman married a distinguished Christian husband and went with him straight to the squalor and danger and dirt and discomfort of the slums of a great industrial city to make her home. For years they kept an habitual drunkard under their tiny roof and cared for him. He often threatened violence. More than once he threatened to kill the wife with a dagger that he carried in his clothes. Once, when he made such a threat while sober, trying to get her to turn over some money to him, she looked at him steadily and said, “When I came to the slums I resolved to be always ready to give up my life if necessary.” How many of us have ever consecrated ourselves as thoroughly to the righteous will of God that we put our very lives without reserve in His hands, just as our Lord did?
And then Jesus Christ must be made Lord of our homes. Our earliest impressions, mind sets, habits were formed in the atmosphere of a home. It is so with our children and will be so with our children’s children. No other single influence is so great in the lives of most people as their home, especially in the earlier years of living. How can Jesus every be Lord of life unless he is recognized as Lord in our homes, by our kindness and understanding, by our firmness in the right, by our evident acknowledgment of Him in prayer, in Bible reading and in Christian nurture. “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.” Neglect his training and there is hardly a sporting chance that he will find the way by himself.
A word should be said about the Lordship of Jesus Christ in the church. We get concerned over problems of administration, activity, physical prosperity and organization in our churches. After all, the Christian church is not just a community club. It is the body, the expression, of Jesus Christ, and we are the members of that body. He is its Lord, its Head. It is His spirit that we seek; the knowledge of His goodness; His guidance unto the Father; His saving transformation we need. Jesus Christ is above every thing else in the church. Let us affirm and reaffirm it and say it again. The Lord of the church is Jesus Christ.
Some are concerned about the Lordship of Jesus Christ in the school in this land that is supposedly Christian. Among some educators - not all - there has been a feeling that the democratic process, as a way of life, is sufficient for all human need. No one who has the power of Christ in his life can agree with this theory. There is too much in the experience of man to show that man is not sufficient unto himself. There is far too much in man’s experience that indicates man’s need for God and his dependence on that which is greater than man. I believe thoroughly in the democratic process as a technique for man’s dealings with man. But I am concerned that there shall be no materialistic worship of such a process. I believe that Christian citizens have the right to expect that, in the life of the schools, affecting so much of the character of our children, God shall still be recognized as above man. Though I believe in the principle of the separation of church and state, I believe that the spirit of Jesus Christ should be Lord of our schools, through the lives of teachers. As a Christian, I can not rest satisfied with anything less.
Jesus Christ must be Lord of our so-called “secular” life. Really, it is a mistake to speak of “sacred” and “secular” as though they were separate entities. It implies that Sunday conduct must be different from conduct on the other six days of the week. That thought and speech in shop and office and school and field or on ship may be different from thought and speech in church. Is that really so? It is not so! If we find what we believe to be best for living in the conscious presence of God on Sunday at church, it is our solemn obligation and privilege to carry it to the rest of our living. Christ has a right to be Lord of all of our life.
Let us make Jesus Christ Lord over our whole life - personal, family, church, school, business, community, nation, the entire world. Certainly our Lord calls us to no smaller vision that that.
We do not make real any such vision in a moment of wishful thinking. It takes the efforts of all Christian people of all time. And we need not be impatient about it.
Building of a cathedral - several centuries
Architect - >vision, plan (God)
Builders - workmen (us, each one; others before & after)
That Christ may be Lord of Lords and King of Kings!
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dates and places delivered:
Pilgrim Church, Honolulu, January 14, 1940 AM
Wisconsin Rapids, April 12, 1942
W.F.H.R., Wisconsin Rapids, June 20, 1942