God in the Out-of-Doors 7/26/42
Scripture: Psalm 8 (or 23)
Text: Genesis 2: 15: “And the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and keep it.”
One of the great teachers of sociology in a mid-western American school, now a Christian, was raised a Jewish boy in Europe. In a book about his struggles “Against the current” he describes some of the Jewish Sabbaths which he observed somewhat unconventionally.
The Jewish rabbinic law made it clear that walking on the Sabbath must be restricted to 2,000 yards from the Synagogue. These limits, in his home town, were marked out by wires strung on frail-looking poles.
But the little Steiner boy, like many another, found that the beckoning fields of spring, the butterflies, the corn flowers and the poppies were stronger than the rabbinic law; and many a time he drew his mother beyond the wire-marked boundaries on their Sabbath strolls. They both delighted in the fields, the rabbits, the wild flowers.
The out-of-doors has a strong appeal for all normal people. Most of us feel a relief in getting away from the man-made city to the God-made out-of-doors where we are rested and renewed.
You remember that, in the story of the creation of the world as it is poetically written in the Bible in the book of Genesis, man is said to make his first appearance in a garden.
1) God made a beautiful garden and created man there, in
the out-of-doors. Man belongs in nature. Perhaps
that is why we feel at home there.
2) God was there, too. He had made it and put man there.
Man first recognized God there. Perhaps that is why
we sometimes find Him there, too.
Of course it is easy to forget God in nature, too. Not, of course, when we deliberately turn our thoughts toward Him in worship as we are now doing here. But much of the talk, indulged in by some people, about worshipping God in the woods or by the sea, rather than in the house dedicated to His name, is just the expression of an uneasy conscience that knows it ought to be in church.
I always “put salt” on the statement of the fellow who implies that he can find God best while playing golf or fishing on Sunday. I suspect that he will give far more attention to the lost ball or the fish that got away, than he will to God.
For most of us God is most certainly where we are accustomed to find Him:
In the Church:
the building, the fellowship, dedicated to Him
surrounded by memories (of the saints)
led to Him by the
music
message
attitude of others
familiarity
(we always expected to find mother in the house when we came home from school.)
In the Bible:
Good news about God
Especially in the gospels - Matthew, Mark, Luke, John
In them, we see God through the face of Jesus.
If one finds not God in the church and in the Bible, one is not so apt at finding him in the out-of-doors. For it is out of this background of experience that we interpret God in nature.
To the materialist:
The lightening - so many volts of electricity.
The sea waves - so much horse power
so many fish to be caught
so much salt
so much sport
We must take God with us if our hearts are to find Him in the song of birds, the rustling of the trees, the freshness of the seaside, the fragrance of the earth.
Someone suggests the opposite of the great possibility - the “God cometh and findeth nothing in us.” He meets us in the exquisite fashioning of a flower and we do not recognize Him. He floods us with the beauty of a sunrise and we are not aware of it. He renews us in the sunlight, and we know Him not.
We have to have hidden in our hearts the joyful news which Jesus brings when he says “Let not your heart be troubled; ye believe in God, believe also in Me.” [John 14: 1]. Then when we walk out-of-doors every tree and flower and cloud and star may speak to us of Him. In such a mood it is possible to know that God is in his world.
I have been held fairly breathless by the sense of His greatness as I watched the mounting colors of a sunrise from the top of Haleakala. I have been a part of true worship here on the grounds of a young people’s camp when a group were prepared for the experience and sought it.
This can be said truly of the out-of-doors - especially in the summer time when it is mild and inviting - there is here a healing effect on troubled minds and bodies.
I once went to a young people’s camp for a small part in a conference of six days. I spent most of that time on the grounds. When I came I was still affected by an illness which had lasted for two months. It had come upon me when I was tired and poorly fitted to continue my work in the city. It disappeared, definitely and permanently, during those six days in this beautiful camp among other folks who loved it here as I did.
(Social workers glad to get people from slums to out-of-doors
camps for children
boat rides
health camps
Athletics gets folks out of doors - good and bad of athletics)
The out-of-doors, then may:
1) Bring back simple life.
2) Give us an upward look.
3) Revive liberty of spirit along with the freedom of the body
Use it for refreshing now in times like these.
(Text)
-----------
dates and places delivered:
Y.W.C.A. Girls’ Camp, Halekipa, June 25, 1939
Pilgrim Vesper Service (Waimanalo) July 2, 1939 PM
Wisconsin Rapids, July 26, 1942