Fun in the Extra Measure 2/10/46
Scripture: Matthew 5: 33-48
Text: Matthew 5: 47; “And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so?”
Years ago, an American man was trying one day to get about the streets of London. It was one of those days when London’s fog was as thick, so they say, as pea soup. Nobody but a blind man who had learned to get about without seeing anyway could find his way easily in such a fog.
As this American tried to find his way along a street to a business address, a young voice spoke up beside him. It was the voice of a boy who was apparently quite familiar with that street and who offered to show the man to his destination. The man accepted the boy’s offer gratefully. When they arrived at the door of the firm which he sought, the man handed the boy a tip. To his surprise, the boy pleasantly refused the money. The man was interested and asked why. The boy explained that he was a “scout” and that a scout never accepts money for doing a simple good turn.
The man was not only astonished; he was so interested in this thing that, after he had finished his business, he asked some questions of London people. Why had a boy done such a service so cheerfully? What is a “scout” anyway? Where could he find out some more about it?
He was put in touch with British boy scout headquarters, and what he learned about scouting in England impressed him as such a fine thing that he went home to the United States all enthusiastic about it. He soon stirred up a lot of interest on this side of the Atlantic ocean with the result that a lot of men saw to it that Boy Scouting got a start in the United States, too. And it has been booming along ever since, to the delight of both the men and the boys. For it is fun to give an extra measure of service or kindness as every Scout knows when he does his daily good turn, with no thought of what he can get out of it, but just the pleasure he can give somebody else.
The richest ideas for happy living to be found anywhere are found in the Bible. In that part of the Bible which is often called the “Sermon on the Mount,” Jesus gave his hearers a lot of these ideas. At one point in his talking, Jesus pointed out the things that most people do; they speak to their own family and their own friends; they love the people who love them, and ignore, or perhaps even hate, the people they don’t know or perhaps dislike. And then Jesus remarked, “If you speak only to your brothers, what is that more than anybody else does? Why, even scoundrels do that. What do you do any more than others?”
Then he suggested some of the extra things that people could do. They could try being cheerful when somebody “jumped on” or insulted or hurt them. They could return good for evil, they could return friendliness for unfairness; they could even try loving their enemies!
Well, that is pretty strong talk, and it comes from a pretty strong man who tried it and proved that, in the long run, it works pretty well and is a lot of fun.
The ordinary standards of people - even people of good reputation, are not enough for those who want the fun of seeing their world get better. What is there in your life that is more than necessary, above the average, beyond the call of duty? What do you do more than others do just for the fun of doing more than you have to?
It has been sometimes said that the gospel of Christ has made headway because some of the followers of Christ outlived, outloved and outdied their contemporary neighbors. They did something more than others.
Next Tuesday will be the birthday of one of America’s greatest men, known about an loved by common people all over the world. He was a man who had his own peculiarities. He was an extraordinarily homely fellow. He was very witty sometimes, and at other times melancholy and brooding. He nearly went insane over some of his troubles. He got into debt and because his business partner pulled out, had to struggle for years to repay his debts. He tried many times to get into public office, and most of the time was defeated at the elections.
But in a few important instances he did win an election, so that he finally became President of the United States. He did pay off his debts, though it took years. He didn’t let his homeliness bother him a bit. His friends encouraged and helped him so that he did not go insane. And Abraham Lincoln came to be regarded as one of the truly great and fine men of the human race.
It happens that this Scout Sunday observance falls on the Sunday nearest his birthday. That is well, because he is a good example of a lot of the things a scout wants to be. It also happens that the Sunday nearest Lincoln’s birthday is known as Race Relations Sunday.
Because Lincoln did so much in the cause of freeing American Negroes from slavery, along with his other important accomplishments, it is appropriate for people to think, at the time of his birthday, about the continued relation of the white and black races, and of the relations of people of all races.
Though it was a splendid thing that slavery was made illegal in this country about 80 years ago, we people of this great country still have a long way to go in finding the right way for people of various races to act toward each other. There are about 13 million Negroes now in our country. Most of them have a kind of third-class ticket for living here. They are no longer slaves, but they are certainly shoved around. On all trains of the South, they must ride in separate cars up nearest the locomotive where it is noisiest and dirtiest. It makes no difference whether the Negro is a garbage collector or a lawyer; whether he is ignorant dirty and smelly, or educated clean and cultured; whether he is a rag-picker or a great scientist. If his skin is black or his hair kinky, he has to ride only in the Jim Crow car. If he is on a train car with white folks coming down from the north, he must get off at the Mason-Dixon line and go forward to the Jim Crow car. The only way he can go to the part of the train where the white folks are is to get a job as a porter or cook or waiter. He can’t sit down in a seat and ride near white folks in the South.
Both in the South and in the North the Negro has a hard time finding a hotel or restaurant that will take him in. Even in Northern cities, church leaders planning church conventions often have a hard time finding cities where the hotels will allow both Caucasian and Negro ministers to stay, and restaurants where they may eat together.
In the South, the Negroes must live in city districts separate from white folks. And it is no better in some Northern cities. The most crowded spot in the world -- in the world, is not in India or China, or Italy or Puerto Rico -- but in Chicago, Illinois, USA. Because Chicago people have “restrictive covenants” which prevent selling homes or other property to Negroes in many districts, most of the Negroes who live in Chicago and who keep coming up from the South, live in a small part of the city’s south side. Thousands of Negro families have so little room to live in, that they sleep 3 and 4 in a double bed at night or sleep in shifts, actually. There is no place for the children to play inside, so they play on the streets and form gangs, first for fun and then for trouble. And the parents have to pay a lot for the housing they do get. Most of the kids who get into trouble, and are sent to the reformatory in that county are from Chicago. And the greatest percentage of those from Chicago come from that crowded district where Negro people live. And it isn’t because black-skinned people are bad, because they don’t behave like that in certain other places where they have a chance to live in roomier houses and go to good schools and good churches. It is because white people are doing practically nothing to help them find better homes to live in where they won’t be so crowded that they can’t even think of good and interesting things to do.
If a Negro youngster is capable and bright and makes a good enough record to go to college, there are some schools that won’t take him no matter how bright he is, when they see that his skin is black. One of the greatest biologists our country has ever had was a boy who wanted to go to (I’m ashamed to say it) a church-supported college. He got clear to the school before the school officials knew that this bright student who was applying for admission was black. When they saw him they refused to let him enter, saying “Niggers are not allowed here.” So he had to go to a northern State University.
Now a lot of that is just silly prejudice. A lot of us do have our prejudices and they are real and it is hard for us to do anything about it. But we ought to do something, and we can do something about it. It is silly to go on treating all people of one color in a certain way just because of color!
At the great Universities of England, people come from Africa, from America (both white and colored) and from other countries and nationalities of the world. There is no restriction because of color and no different treatment required. If he is clean, honest, and bright he is treated like anybody else who is clean, honest and bright.
A lot of us don’t like the idea of sitting at a dinner table where people of the black, brown, yellow or red races are sitting. We squirm inside over the thought of having black or brown hands pass us the biscuits. But if we travel on a train, we get the biscuits that black hands have cooked, and black hands have brought to the diner table - and we think they taste fine! You see how odd we allow ourselves to be?
There are still a good many Americans of the white race who, if they meet on the street of some large city a short person with black hair, almond shaped dark eyes, and light brown skin will think “Jap.” And, remembering the horrible things that some Japanese soldiers, guards and police have done, they hate this unknown “Jap.” And yet 95 chances out of 100, that person on the street is not a “Jap” but an American whose ancestors happen to have been Japanese. And the chances are that he is a good American, too.
Out in California there originated a word for Americans whose ancestors have been Japanese. It is Nisei. Now General Jonathan M. Wainwright ought to know how mean and despicable some Japs can be. For he and his brave men suffered under the Japanese for years following their heroic defense of the Philippines and final surrender to the enemy. And yet you may have seen on page 4 of last Monday’s [February 4] Wisconsin Rapids Tribune a single statement by General Wainwright in these words: “I have never yet found a Nisei who did not do his full duty right up to the handle.”
The color of a person’s skin or the shape of his eyes or nose, or the texture of his hair are not important. The important thing is what is in his head and heart.
It was a Southern state governor, Gov. Broughton of North Carolina, who said recently, “Whenever there is racial conflict, it is good to have educated men of both races sitting around the conference table.”
The relations we have with peoples of other races need more good scouting and more simple Christianity. Scouts are not only White Americans. They are also Negro, Filipino, Chinese, Japanese, British, Dutch, Belgian, French - and so on through the list of most countries regardless of race. And in scouting, it is not the color of skin or accent of speech that makes a good Scout. It is what is inside his skin and head and heart. The same is true of Christian people. Actually, some of the Christians of other races and lands could now teach some of us Christians of this land certain important things about the spirit of Christ that we forget.
Good will is the price of the peace we all want. If a colored person sits beside you in the train, be glad that the country is free enough so that can happen. If an American of Japanese of Indian or French ancestry, or of any other race or nationality, has served our country well enough to earn the commendation of generals, be glad that Americans get that way not by being born to their color, but to the spirit of freedom. That is a spiritual “good turn.” Find fun in the extra measure of friendliness.
One American prisoner of war has offered his services to General MacArthur as hangman for Yamishita. I guess plenty of people would volunteer for that job.
Another, a Doolittle flyer, imprisoned and beaten and mistreated for over 3 years, is preparing to go back to Japan as a missionary, a brother in Jesus Christ. That kind of extra measure is not only his idea of fun for life. It is the kind that will build a better world. Without it no better world can possibly come.
What do ye more than others? Ask any good Scout. Ask any thoughtful, sincere Christian. Ask yourself, if you want to really enjoy living in this tough and truly dangerous old world. It is fun to live, giving the extra measure.
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Delivered in Wisconsin Rapids, February 10, 1946.