Unfinished Business 4/26/42
Scripture: Acts 1: 1-8
Text: Acts 1: 1 “The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and to teach....”
In the agenda of most orderly business meetings there is made a place for the consideration of old or unfinished business. It is at this point that those present at such a meeting go back to an examination of the progress of some action, or effort, which was too complicated or too important to be completed in one meeting. Unfinished business is not just a “catch-all closet” for the things that were neglected or simply didn’t get done. It is, rather, a continuing thread which ties together the thoughts and efforts of those who are interested in the work of the organization.
One of the disciplines to which I am subjected is the amount of unfinished business, work to be done, of which I have reminders on my desk. Now I frequently feel that there is nothing in this world which would give me more satisfaction than to feel that everything that waits to be done had been definitely finished at the close of every day, and that my desk had been swept clean. A smooth, clean desk-top is one of the most satisfactory sights my rebellious soul can imagine!
But, alas, I know that when my desk top is clean, this only means that a lot of work has been swept off into some drawer or hidden in folders. The work still remains to be done. And I had better discipline myself to the doing of it.
I suspect that I am going to face unfinished business all of my life. And you are too. So is every living person. For no sooner do we succeed in carrying to completion some task than another appears to be undertaken - usually has already appeared - and cries for attention before we can get to it. And of course this is well. It is the way in which we keep the sinews of our bodies and the habits of our minds in serviceable condition. Without another day’s work we would surely decline and decay. And life’s unfinished business is the thread that binds our days together in working continuity.
Consider, for a moment, what happens when we assume that a piece of work has been finished forever. I know from oft-repeated experience what happens when I assume that my lawn is at last looking well and my yard is under control, and that I can restfully enjoy their neat attractiveness from now on with no further worries! You know too. The grass grows rank; the weeds appear; the garden goes from bad to worse; and the new tree or bush that has just been planted looks sick for lack of care or water.
The truth is that the care of a yard is never a finished job. And every day’s work ended, leaves promise of another day’s work ahead.
Consider what happens in a much larger and more important field than our back yards. About 23 years ago a great 4-year war ended in the defeat of the German people. The victorious allies pressed down upon the losers a treaty that, by written acknowledgment, place the guilt entirely on Germany, provided that reparations of appalling magnitude must be paid to the allied nations, took away colonies and much territory including some German people, and thus plunged a defeated people into poverty and despair for a whole generation. They had used up their available resources, money, man-power, food and other supplies in the conflict. They had no real hope of recovery and their young people were in an especially desperate plight with a poverty-stricken existence and little hope for a better future.
I make no excuses here. If the Germans had been victors, it is highly probable that their leaders would have imposed terms just as severe upon the allies. That is one of the many tragedies of war; it leaves people in a mood of vengeance in which the victor is likely to kick the vanquished.
But I do say emphatically that if a more nearly just and merciful peace could have been made 23 years ago, the world might not now have to witness the horrible tragedy of general warfare again. It was the desperation of a proud and great people that drove them to accept the leadership of one who, with all of his excellent ability to command great loyalty, is so tragically oblivious himself to the demands of justice, mercy, and good will toward others.
Even a treaty which approached perfect justice would have left the peoples of the world with plenty of unfinished business on their hands; for mankind simply has to learn to get along cooperatively with mankind unless the world is to be thrown back toward barbarism.
Some years ago, those who had set themselves against the evils evident in the liquor traffic for years felt that, at last, that problem had been settled when national prohibition became a reality in America. The moment it was assumed that that cause could be filed under finished business, the cause became a losing one. Attention was diverted from its evils. People were made to feel that personal liberty was affronted by the law, were persuaded that the problems of unemployment, tax revenue for governmental expenses, and racket control could be solved by re-legalizing the liquor traffic. And so, less than a generation later, the nation has returned to a general use of liquor and a legalized traffic in it. Slowly and painfully we are re-awakening to the evils that go with it as well as its pleasures and alleged benefits. Once again we are beginning to see here and there individual lives blasted by addiction to alcoholic beverage; families suffering because of money, desperately needed for necessities, diverted to satisfy an excessive appetite for drink, corruption of official and personal integrity, disgusting drunkenness in public, dangerous driving on the highways and a score of other evils. The time is coming, is even upon us, when those forces interested in fine character and high community morale will have to take the liquor problem out of the file of finished business and put it again under the heading of “unfinished business.” It is one of those things that demands continuing, vigorous attention, for, like any other appetite it has to be controlled.
People grow weary of struggle and conflict. And rest is
essential to our human natures. That is why a day’s work must be brought to a close, and we must play and sleep and be renewed in order to renew our attack on life’s unfinished business. There is one kind of conflict however that is not defensible or right. And that is continued unresolved conflict within one’s own soul. It is because such conflict becomes unbearable that souls turn to God for light and help. And anyone who truly turns to the Father of all light and life, who resolutely digs up the wrong that lies within his being, confesses his sin and asks forgiveness is saved from that conflict. God does forgive. God does save. God does renew the troubled heart and renew the enthusiasm to attack life’s unfinished tasks.
But even salvation is not a finished business. Conversion, baptism, joining the Church of Jesus Christ is not the end of this business. It is just the beginning. Not even a so-called “second blessing” ends the process of being personally saved. Each day calls for a renewing of the bonds that bind our souls to God. Christian living is a lifelong battle against all sorts of evil including blind self-will. It is a lifelong effort to find the will of God and to do it faithfully.
This is the way our Lord, Jesus Christ, lived. Nothing was finished with finality, except his bodily presence when that ended upon the cross and he acknowledged it with his last words. Everything was begun and renewed. Daily he kept his communion with God freshened. Daily he went about the business of drawing his fellow men and followers nearer to the will of God. Even the most faithful had to be reminded again and again.
Paul puts it correctly in the first verse of the Book of Acts when he writes to Theophilus of “all that Jesus began both to do and teach.” That doing and teaching was continued by the followers of Jesus, and is done and taught by more followers down to this day. And it must be continued by still more of His followers.
A few years ago one of the world’s great missionaries, Dr. Frank C. Lanbach became profoundly certain that he needed more constant contact with God in his daily living. He had opened a new field of work in the Philippines among the half million Moros who are Moslems. Since then he has been not only a missionary to the Moros but has been an experimenting Christian, in the determination to know the will of God for him and to do it each minute of every day. He finds it unexpectedly difficult to keep such a discipline, but gloriously worth while.
We in this church can never be content with our achievements - and this church has had a fine history oof Christian accomplishment. We have unfinished tasks which demand our attention and to which we must give ourselves with Christian zeal as each year goes by.
Even God himself has not created a world to be left and to run by itself. He is continually carrying forward His creation, perfecting a world of his people, revealing His will to the unfolding understanding of man. God’s world is unfinished business and it is our duty and privilege to assume life’s unfinished tasks with Him.
[below are penciled notes which were below the finished sermon]
Advance - in these days.
Pentecost
(Beginning tomorrow, read one chapter of Acts each day until May 24th)
Plan to back our church with unusual vigor in its ministry to our people, its outreach of mercy, and its effort to help in the Kingdom.
------------
dates and places delivered:
Pilgrim Church, Honolulu, September 10, 1939 AM
Wisconsin Rapids, April 26, 1942