Where There Is a Vision, There Is Life 5/20/45
Scripture: Acts 2: 1-7; 12-19a; 21
On no one day was the Christian religion begun. Nor did Christ’s church spring into being at half past nine of a Sunday morning. Yet there are certain occasions that loom large in our remembrance of the beginnings and continuing history of our religion.
Christmas is such a day, when, whether Jesus of Nazareth was actually born on the 25th day of December or not, we nonetheless celebrate his birth, remembering with gladness the advent, into a needy world, of him who has become to us the Christ.
Easter is such a day - a day preceded by the long Lenten remembrance of Jesus’ final teaching and acts, his passion and death. On Easter, we remember and celebrate the most hopeful, joyous fact of the Christian belief - that in the resurrection, the eternal life, of our Lord, with its corollary hope of eternal life and salvation for all his followers.
Both of these days could be considered the “beginning of Christianity” in some sense. Surely some such significance attaches to the birth of our Savior and to the resurrection of our Lord. These two days are important in the calendar of Christian remembrance each year.
There is another day, not so quickly recognized by many of us, which has also been called the “birthday of the Christian church.” It is the day of Pentecost.
Pentecost was an old Jewish feast day. It came the fiftieth day after the first day of the Passover. It usually marked the completion of the corn harvest. Later Jews considered it also a commemoration of the giving of the Law to Moses on Mr. Sinai. Sometimes it was called the “Feast of Weeks” since it occurred seven weeks, or a “week of weeks” after the Passover. The word, “Pentecost,” simply means “fiftieth day,” being built from the Greek expression “penta” meaning five. We are familiar with the meaning in the word pentagon.
Pentecost has quite a different meaning to Christians, however. To Christian folk, Pentecost is the fiftieth day after the Easter or Resurrection day. Its significance is found very early in the book of the Acts of the apostles.
You recall that the Lord had promised before his crucifixion, to send a Comforter. “That He may abide with you forever; even the Spirit of Truth whom the world cannot receive; for it beholdeth Him not, neither knoweth him; but ye know him; for he abideth with you, and shall be in you.” [John 14: 16-17].
Like all others of Jewish upbringing, the apostles were gathered together at Pentecost. But it had a different significance for them than it had for the orthodox Jews. They still awaited something to complete their experience of the Christ. They had known and loved him. They had left all to follow him. He had saved them from their sins, and redeemed them to a great hope. But the fire of an irresistible and unquenchable enthusiasm - that they did not yet have. They still knew craven fear; they were still conscious that they were a pitiful few, in a whole hostile world of earthy people.
Jesus had given them a great promise: “You shall receive power, when the Holy Spirit has come upon you.” [Acts 1: 8; Moffatt] The “power” came to them as they were gathered together on the day of Pentecost.
Human words are hardly adequate to describe great spiritual experience. In the case of the Pentecost experience, the writer of the Acts describes the impression as like a rushing wind, like tongues of fire; certainly so exciting that mere onlookers who did not understand were nevertheless impressed by the excitement and enthusiasm of the apostles.
Peter seized upon that first great opportunity, for quite a crowd had gathered. He assured the crowd that this enthusiasm was not that of drunken abandon, but that it was quite in the spirit of the old prophets. And he quoted Joel: “It shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams ------ I will pour out .... of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy.” That is, they shall know and speak the truth with a holy inspiration. Usually that is the Biblical meaning of “prophesy” rather than the popular meaning of foretelling events.
Well, Peter went on to “prophecy” right then and there. He was so filled with the love of his Lord and the reality of a Holy Spirit that he preached a most moving sermon. The record says that 3,000 listeners in that great crowd of curious people were convinced by Peter’s preaching, were baptized as he urged them to be, and continued steadfast believers thereafter. No wonder Pentecost is sometimes called the “birthday of the church.” Whenever such holy enthusiasm as that is let loose, you can be sure that something is happening!
These men had “seen a vision” and when a person sees a vision life begins to move. The old Proverb runs that “where there is no vision, the people perish;” [Proverbs 29: 18]; - and surely they do - just run down in complacent satisfaction or uninspired misery. But the converse is also true; where there is vision, people are inspired - life begins and moves.
The vision of Pentecost was so powerful that its momentum is still felt today, 19 centuries later. It is the spirit of the living Christ in the hearts of countless people. It is the spirit that sent those apostles out with fine courage to preach the gospel everywhere. It is the spirit that attracted multitudes of people to the Christ in early centuries in spite of the fiercest and most cruel opposition. It is the spirit of the martyrs who could say, as Latimer did to Ridley when they were about to be burned at the stake: “We shall this day light such a candle, by God’s grace, as I trust shall never be put out.”
It is the spirit that moves some of the most capable young people of the Christian faith to devote their lives to the various callings of the Christian ministry. That spirit has sent new Congregational Christian missionaries out from our churches each year to fields all over the world outside our own land. It finds still others eager to go back to where their work was disrupted by war and its aftermath just as soon as they may be permitted to return. And those of Congregational connection are but a few of the Christian missionary forces.
It sends men and women to the desks and benches of industry, and the fields of agriculture, fired with the determination to do right and to live for the glory of God. It is carried in the hearts of statesmen, into the councils of nations, that there may be hope of building peace and community in mankind. The everlasting, never-ending task of those who have caught a great vision is to give the vision to others! The world needs the vision! O how desperately it needs vision, in order to live!
It is a narrow view of religion that takes it for granted that salvation is a personal matter, unrelated to the decisions or experience of others.
You remember that two especially trusted and beloved disciples of Jesus went with him to a high place, since called the “mount of transfiguration.” They saw such a glorious vision there that they didn’t want to leave. They suggested to the Lord that they all stay there, build altars, continue to enjoy the experience themselves. Without hesitation, the Master made it plain that they were to go right back down to the hard world again, and work in the light of their vision. For the world perishes without it!
Less than 2 weeks have gone by since the formal end of hostilities in Europe following 5 and one-half years of unimaginable carnage. We have been soberly grateful for the end of that phase of the world-wide struggle.
26 years ago, the earlier world war came to an end in armistice. People then said, and believed, that no such flood of tyranny and lust for power as they had seen, would ever again overwhelm mankind. Their children would forever be free to live “under their own vine and fig tree, none daring to make then afraid.” England, France, the United States - all of the allied nations - believed that their soldiers had brought and bought liberty for all. And people were sincere in that belief.
Some even expected, and fancied they saw, a revival of religion. It wasn’t hard to believe, when men turned naturally to God in the stress of battle, and people at home held their loved sons and husbands and fathers before the throne of Grace in prayer for their safety.
What happened to these two great, sincere hopes - (1) that war was forever ended and (2) that religion was in ascendancy?
We know what happened to the first. We have seen the terrifying fact that there was no end - only an armistice.
And what of the second? Was there a great, sweeping renewal of religious devotion? As a matter of fact the world found not life, but ashes. The cause may not be hard to find. There was a period of great material prosperity, especially from 1925 to 1929. We were so engrossed in making money that little else seemed to matter. The ancient sin of greed grew and spread. Hard times did not kill it - only brought despair for it.
A German student studying in America in the late 30’s returned to Germany. When he had been back in Hitler Germany for a few months. He sent this message to his student associates in America: “It is amazing - the power of Germany under Hitler. I can scarcely believe it. There is no unemployment in Germany. No one is hungry. No one is poorly clothed. The air force is mighty - terrifying. I have seen the best roads in America but the German roads surpass them! Materially speaking Germany is triumphant. But spiritually speaking Hitler Germany is dead. The state has superseded God. I am breathless as I see what has happened. Germany has vision for the material. Germany has no vision for the spiritual. Germany is doomed.” That was late in the 1930’s. We have seen the doom accomplished!
It can happen here, or anywhere - make no mistake about it - wherever there is no spiritual vision. We need - we must have vision to live - else we perish, and the world with us, again!
1) First, we need awareness of God as a Redeemer. Do we really trust in God? That must be more than a motto; it must be a faith - a passion with us. And God is light and truth - “Lux et Veritas” - not possessions or class or prestige.
2) Second, we need a vision of God’s way for the world - for instance the vision that men should be brothers, all sons of one great spiritual Father. Impractical? It is the only position that is practical. We kill, and die, without it. Must we perish for lack of understanding and courage to do His will?
And again, we need a vision of the right of mutual serving rather than the supposed right of being served. How else shall we be brothers?
3) In the third place we need vision enough to see our particular place in the universe. It is God’s universe. But he has a place of worth and dignity in it for every one of us. It is our spiritual obligation to know our place and to recognize the true place of our brothers, the other fellow.
With vision there comes life and a “New order” not of man’s miserable making, but an order of God’s ordained will. Pray God for the vision!
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Dates and places delivered:
Wisconsin Rapids, May 20, 1945
Wisconsin Rapids, February 6, 1949