What The Lord Requires Of Us.                                          11/29/42

 

Scripture:  Micah 6: 1-8    (read)

 

Text:  Micah 6: 8b

 

A great many demands are being made upon us.  Our part in world conflict and in the anticipated world reconstruction means a great effort, and great taxing of our resources.  Our substance is needed, and will be taken in larger measure than ever before.  Our time and attention and effort are needed by our country.

 

And there are other demands which we must recognize as well.  The emergency demands of our country at war are temporary in character.  The demands of God, whose we are, are eternal and are stronger today than ever. 

 

What does this Lord of our life require of us in these days?  Basically, the same duties as in any day.  The prophet Micah, with fertile imagination, and accurate insight, draws a dramatic picture for a people who need some great reminders.  Like most of the ancient prophets, he spoke part of the time as though he were the voice of God commending the people for faithfulness and right dealings, or condemning them for evil ways and faithlessness.  Part of the time he voices the confidence, or the repentance, of man.  In the portion of Micah’s prophecy that I have read this morning, the part which is perhaps most interesting and full of thought is the part in which he speaks as the man - a man who may be repentant, who certainly desires to worship, who wants to find favor in the sight of God.

 

“Wherewith shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before the high God?  Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old?  Will the lord be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil?”

 

This ancient manner of giving to God through a burnt sacrifice had, at least, the great virtue of reminding the giver that his fruits and flocks were given chiefly through a power that is beyond his own best efforts.  The custom emphasized a true humility on the part of man.

 

But Micah wishes to disabuse the mind of man of any impression that he is going to buy the favor of God by his burnt sacrifices.  “He hath showed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God.”  These, then, are the marks of one who truly recognizes and remembers that he is a creation of the Almighty.

 

A number of us heard that excellent Thanksgiving Day sermon by the Rev. Mr. Triggs last Thursday.  More should have heard it, for it was well worth going through the storm to hear.  Mr. Triggs told a story worth remembering and repeating.  A clergyman was invited to dine with a man of considerable means, and was invited, when they sat down, to ask a blessing at the table.  Apparently it was merely a sort of gesture of concession to the minister, for when he had finished, the host immediately remarked that, from his own point of view, that was entirely unnecessary and out of place.  He went on the say “I’m a self made man.  All that I have, I have gotten by my own effort and ability and initiative.  And I owe thanks to nobody but myself for it.”  His guest replied, “Do you know that, if there were a general famine next year very little of your property would be left to you?  And if there were a general famine over the world for two years, we should all be dead?”

 

Scientists tell us that no more than five percent of a harvest is due to man’s efforts, no matter how capable he may be at plowing, planting, fertilizing, cultivating and reaping.  Man still does not have anything to do with putting life into the germ of the seed grain.  He can only manipulate and select it.  Man has nothing to do with the sunshine and the rain.  He can only select his location and then hope.  The seasons come and go without the slightest control from man.  The really vital power which makes man’s life or breaks it, is other than himself and greater than himself.  Man can, at best, try to understand the laws of creation, and of the Creator, and manipulate his living in harmony with those laws.  This is essentially the attitude a religious man.

 

To recognize only his own efforts, and to worship only his own success, is the smallest and blindest kind of idolatry.  The great men of industry and science, and of philosophy too, are those who realize some of the tremendous unknown, and seek to know at least a portion of it.

 

The immortal Lord of our mortal lives requires our worship.  I do not mean merely the singing of church hymns and joining in the responses.  (These have an important place in our training.)  But I mean the recognition and awareness of God and the desire to learn of Him - “To walk humbly with thy God,” said Micah.

 

There are other requirements related to this one - “to do justly” and “to love mercy.”  A part of one’s true humility before God is recognition of his fellow men as creatures with abilities and rights and potentialities similar to his own - partners with whom he ought to live in cooperative fellowship and mutual helpfulness.

 

Now a practical test of one’s sincere devotion to God and his fellows is one’s desire to give.  The bringing of an offering is a true and practical act of worship and belongs in that part of a church service which we call worship.  No matter what excuses we men and women who are Christians may offer, we pass judgment ourselves on our own sincerity by our giving - by what we give, and the spirit in which we give.

 

About the time I entered the ministry of my first parish in 1928, I read in the American Magazine an interesting little paragraph by Albert Payson Terhune.  He wrote:

 

In an office where I worked in my newspaper years there were all elements of men, from the super-Intellectual to the sub-Roughneck.  A reporter died, leaving a large family in dire and immediate need.  One of the editorial department Intellectuals commented to me, in precise terms, on the sadness of the case, dilating on the “criminal non-providence of the semi-poor.”

 

A sport notes gatherer, who had risen from office boy to pork-and-beans pugilist, and then had drifted back to the newspaper, listened with perplexity-furrowed brows to the long homily.  The Intellectual finished his sermon by saying, “Of course, like everyone else, I regret the matter.  I ---”

            “That means you’re sorry for the poor guy’s folks, don’t it?”, interrupted the sporting man.

            “Naturally,” assented the Intellectual.  “Naturally I am sorry for his impoverished family.  But ---”

            “How sorry are you?”  insisted the Roughneck.

            “I’m afraid I don’t grasp your meaning,” stammered the Intellectual, in evident worry at the other’s vehemence.

            “Here’s what I mean,” gruffly explained the Roughneck.  “You say you’re sorry for them.  Well, so am I.  I’m sorry fifty dollars’ worth.  How sorry are you?  Come across!”

 

That Roughneck was sorry fifty dollars worth - a sum which was nearly double a week’s salary; a sum which meant pinching, scraping, and tightening his belt for the sake of a widow and children who had been plunged into poverty.

 

You and I say, “I believe.”    “I believe in God.  I believe in the Christian Gospel.  I believe in the church.  I believe that mercy and justice and love are good for the world - in fact, if there were enough of these virtues in practice, wars would be unnecessary.  But ---”    And God has a right to stop us right there and say, “All right, how much do you believe that?  What do you plan to give to my church this coming year?  What will you give through my church, that the gospel and mercy and truth and justice may be spread abroad among others and a helping hand be ready for the desperately needy?  You have learned to say with your lips my commandment:  ‘Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy mind and with all thy soul and with all thy strength!’  How will you show your love?

 

Will you give of your loyalty and time and strength?  Will you give of your substance, not out of what you think of as your surplus, but some definite proportion of your income which becomes a planned portion of your very livelihood?  Will you give, that I may know, that others may know, that your own honest self may know that your faith is the kind of tree that bears not just leaves but fruit!”

 

God has a right to ask us these questions.  Today we have an opportunity to answer these questions.  This is our “loyalty Sunday,” when we pledge our intention to support the work of God, as represented in this church, for the coming year.

 

We are blessed with much in this land of ours.  The gospel says that “unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required.”  [Luke 12: 48].

 

In spite of the rightful demands of our government in rationing and taxes, we ought to give more generously this year than ever before, for the need is greater and the importance of Christianity to the world clearer than ever before.

 

[Letters have gone out.    Tentative budget.   Explanations.  Pledge cards.  All who are present this morning - lay your signed pledge cards in plates.  Others will receive a call by a member of the canvassers committee.]

                                                                        Regular support.

 

                                                                        Extra support.

 

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dates and places delivered:

 

            Wisconsin Rapids, November 29, 1942

                        (Every Member Canvass Sunday)