For The Building Of His Kingdom                                       10/14/45

 

Scripture: Read Psalm 103

 

I was reading over again this week a sermon preached by a former pastor of this church, Dr. J. Merle Stevens.  It was one which he had delivered in an earlier pastorate in Peoria, Illinois in 1922 at the end of 15 years in that church.  He spoke of the experiences of that church through war; the dawn people had hoped for after that war; the clouds that had appeared instead of clear dawn; the great uneasiness of thinking people as differing kinds of strife continued and disillusionment mounted.

 

It was about that time that a brilliant British journalist, C. E. Montague, wrote a book.  Montague was one of those who went into the first world war firmly convinced that it was a war to end war, and to make the world safe for democracy.  But by 1922 he could see his dreams so far banished that he wrote this book called Disenchantment.  There were great architectural plans for building a peaceful world.  And some of the building machinery had been erected.  But Montague was “looking at the human building material that would have to be used in the building process.”  “Just when there seems to be such a babble as never before about these grandiose structures, bricks have run short,” he wrote.

 

What a pity!  Vast plans and possibilities for rebuilding the world --- and a tragic shortage of bricks.

 

Today we can see how short some of the insights of 23 years ago were and how tragically clear were those of a few men like Montague.  Lincoln Steffens reports how at the Versailles Conference the old French tiger, Clemenceau, turned on Wilson, Orlando and Lloyd George, asking them if they really wanted “permanent peace.”  They assured him they did.  Then Clemenceau told them that would mean their surrender of Imperialism, the lowering of tariff walls, the rectification of economic inequalities, and unrestricted immigration.

 

The other gentlemen at once protested that they did not mean that!  “Then,” shot Clemenceau, “you don’t mean peace, you mean war.”  And Lincoln Steffens said that the old “Tiger” was right.  They did not want peace at that price.

 

One wonders uneasily if we are today ready to pay whatever may be the price of peace.  For nearly 4 years, we have been pouring forth an unbelievable price in treasure and toil and life for the prosecution of war.  Are human resources available now for building the peace, for the rebuilding of a shattered world - as they were flung into world destruction?

 

The very fact that we see so soon the awful need and stern necessity for building the peace, constitutes our greatest hope.  Even while war was waged, a great deal of thought and earnest planning was given to the peace that must follow.  Now it must continue more effectively, as we encounter the problems that were not then foreseen or understood through the clouds of war.

 

Probably, revised and even improved plans will be needed as the building goes forward.  But the greatest concern may well be for bricks.  Are there people; - hundreds, thousands, millions of them - whose lives and understandings are ready to be builded into the structures of peace?

 

That has always been the searching question.  Go back to the story of Noah in the book of Genesis.  According to that story, God found human material so rotted that he decided to destroy it all except Noah and his family - good people with whom he could start again.  But what happened to this brick of sterling worth?  After the conclusion of a rainbow covenant between God and this man, and the terrific destruction of all other life save that on the Ark, -- the next thing you read about is that Noah got really drunk!

 

God was still short of quality material for the building of his kingdom.

 

Are there enough sober, consecrated, loyal people now - not drunken with power, hatred, greed, rrevenge, or sheer selfishness - for God to use in building his Kingdom?

 

The war is over, we say.  And blessed be heaven’s mercy, it is!  Now, are men to turn on each other in a different kind of strife determined to “get what’s coming to them” or to “keep what they’ve got” (as the case may be) at almost any cost?

 

Or will something different happen?  Will those who have, really give some attention to ways in which those who have not may also “have,” in self-respect, without having to resort to “slugging” for it?  Will those who feel they “have not,” be as much concerned for the common welfare of all as for the greed of getting for self and group?

 

We seem to feel that a nation which has a great deal must be thoroughly prepared to defend itself, and possessions, against anybody else who want what it has.  And that seems necessary so long as greed exists.  But are we as much, and more, concerned that the desperate needs of neighbors be met; that others have a fair chance and a helping hand even though it mean considerable sacrifice?

 

In the book of Judges, there is a remarkable fable which throws light on this question.  After Gideon’s death, “the children of Israel remembered not the Lord their God who had delivered them out of the hands of their enemies.”

 

Their leadership was bad, too.  Abimelech, through treachery, killed 70 of his relatives on one stone in order to have himself made king.  He missed only one, Jotham, who hid himself.

 

Jotham went to Mount Gerizim and called people together to listen to this fable:

 

“The trees went forth on a time to anoint a king over them; and they said unto the olive tree, ‘Reign thou over us.’  But the olive tree said unto them, ‘Should I leave my fatness, wherewith by me they honor God and man, and go and be promoted over the trees?’

 

“And the trees said unto the fig tree, ‘Come thou and reign over us.’  But the fig tree said unto them, ‘Should I leave my sweetness, and my good fruit, and go to be promoted over the trees?’

 

“Then said the trees unto the vine, ‘Come thou, and reign over us.’  And the vine said unto them, ‘Should I leave my wine, which cheereth God and man, and go to be promoted over the trees?’

 

“Then, said all the trees unto the bramble, ‘Come thou and reign over us.’  And the bramble said unto the trees, ‘If in truth ye anoint me king over you, then come and put your trust in my shadow; and if not, let fire come out of the bramble and devour the cedars of Lebanon.’”

 

And young Jotham told the people flatly that making the murderer, Abimelech, king over them would result only in consuming fire upon them all.  Then he had to run and hide before he should be caught.  [Judges 9: 1-21].

 

It wasn’t long before his prophecy proved right.  Destruction was upon them.  They had a bramble rather than an olive tree or a cedar for a king.  Shortage of bricks for build the kingdom!

 

How modern is that parable?  For instance: is the house of Savoy in Italy bramble or olive tree? the house that gave willing consent to a modern Abimelech, Mussolini?  And yet Churchill and his government insisted that the monarchy of the house of Savoy be retained.  It looks too much like bramble leadership!  And we see it elsewhere as well!

 

But there is hope too.  Look again at an Old Testament story, in the book of Daniel.  When king Nebuchadnezzar ordered Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego to cease their worship of Jehovah in favor of false gods, he warned that if they failed to obey, they would be thrown into a fiery furnace and burned.  Their reply?  “Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O King.  But if not, be it know to thee, O King, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.”  [Daniel 3: 17-18].  Don’t you feel like shouting at such courage?  God will deliver us - but if not - we’ll stick anyway!  Bricks for the kingdom!

 

What this world must have before it can ever have any lasting peace, is men and women who believe in God, who trust in God, who love God, who work at what they believe to be his will.

 

A Caesar may hope to reform men by changing laws; by changing institutions; by declaring a “new order.”  It is not enough!  It never has been and never can be, enough.

 

Christ wished to remake institutions and lessen laws, by changing men.  That is the only way that works.  Are we ready for Christ’s insight?

 

Of course, Jesus knew at the beginning that it is difficult to move men to surrender their own desires to the will of God.  He had been thrown out of his own home church and town, when he went back there very early in his ministry.  That mass appeal failed.  He picked his own followers by hand - so to speak - both the twelve apostles and the 70 whom he sent out two by two; and trained them long and carefully.  He seemed to believe that the spirit of truth would have to work like yeast, rather than in great quantity.  But he know that the yeast can be powerful!

 

And he knew the stories of Old Testament experience, including the stories of such men as Nehemiah.

 

This young Nehemiah was a Hebrew captive, acting as cup-bearer to the king in a strange land.  The king, Artazerxes, noticed the sadness on the young slave’s face and learned of the burden on his heart - the burden of wretchedness among his friends and relatives in Jerusalem.

 

So the victorious king did a generous thing.  He commissioned the young cup-bearer to go back to Jerusalem to rebuild the walls.  What a mess he found when he arrived!  People dispirited; disorganized; surrounded by enemies!  But Nehemiah brought some order out of chaos and set the people to work, rebuilding the walls.

 

Enemies tried to lure him away from the task.  His reply - “I am doing a great work so that I cannot come down.”  [Nehemiah 6: 3].  No subterfuge succeeded in getting him away.  He only prayed: “Now therefore, O God, strengthen my hands.”  [Nehemiah 6: 9].  At length he was told that his enemies would take his life unless he fled to the sanctuary of the temple at once.  Now there is a time to flee to the sanctuary.  But Nehemiah knew that that was not the time.  Here is his blazing reply:  “Should such a man as I flee?  And who is there that, being as I am, would go into the temple to save his life?  I will not go in!”  [Nehemiah 6: 11].  Nor did he.  He stayed at that wall until it was finished.  Wherever there are God-directed men such as he - the walls will be finished!  [Nehemiah 2-6].

 

There is no need for despair.  There is need for God-loving men and women to stay by their tasks; to talk to others; to invite them into the fellowship of those who care; to welcome them; show them how to take hold of the work as comrades; where and how to find the presence of God.  That kind of practical, friendly “personal evangelism” (if you will) will help mightily in the leavening of battered society on our earth.

 

Out of such material, God can build his kingdom on earth.

 

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Delivered at Wisconsin Rapids, October 14, 1945.