The Intention of Jesus 3/10/46
Scripture: Read John 4: 3-34
The Lenten season might be said, in a way, to be a journey with Jesus toward the cross. That thought may have a particular attraction for the mystic. But I suppose that the shadow of suffering holds no great attraction for most of us. If it comes, we wish to have the strength of purpose and character to endure it. But we are more interested in the events along the way. Perhaps it would be a good frame of mind for us, during Lent of this year, to be interested in events along the way -- from the viewpoint of Christ’s spirit.
Of course it takes no simple twist of the dial to know the viewpoint of Christ’s spirit. And so we may, and indeed must, give his spirit a chance with us. This season ought to be given to God that we may know His intention for us. There isn’t anything so important as this.
It is important to know that God seeks us, and that we may find Him, not through some frantic search, but by giving Him the time and mind, to come into our own lives.
Longing, I sought Thy presence;
Lord, with my whole heart did I call and pray,
And going out toward Thee,
I found Thee coming on the way.” [Judah Halleri]
It is the intention of God to approach us. Lent is a specific time for waiting on His intention.
John MacMurray [“The Clue to History”] has advanced the thought that an intention is something more than a belief -- more than some ideal kept polished and orderly on a high shelf away from action. An intention is an ideal, but it is also an act. It does not dread getting its cuff soiled, for its very nature demands activity. Lent shows that God is no Greek deity, splendidly aloof from the human scene. God has been proclaimed by the prophets, the apostles and the churches as One who has something to do; a hand in glorifying the denied, the glorified, the raised Jesus.
We ought to go through Lent at the level of meditation, that God may have opportunity to reach us. But we may well strive, beyond that, to lift our devotions to the level of commitment, in action, to His intentions.
Jesus kept himself in line with God’s intentions. His whole life was a kind of Lent. He came to mankind at a time of weeping and anguish. He was allied to the severe simplicity of John the Baptist’s ministry. He received the symbol of spiritual cleansing and salvation in baptism -- and was, after that, tempted in a wilderrness. All this was part of Jesus’ response to the call to follow God’s intention.
He became committed to a life which was to involve humiliation, suffering and violent death. He deliberately chose this path, not because of its suffering and humiliation, but because the way of God’s intended righteousness led, for him, through the suffering and anguish.
Jesus’ intention was to create a community of mankind - the Kingdom of Heaven; the Kingdom of God; that transcends the tragic little limits of blood relationship, race or nation. The motive force of this community is love. And love is enjoined upon Jesus’ followers, even toward those who do not reciprocate that love. If God yearns with love toward all the people of His creation, so also must all those who would obey His intention, for that is what God is doing in history.
Jesus, loyal to God’s intention, constantly shows, by his action, that love fulfills the purpose of God; and that hate denies the real nature of man -- that hate carries with it the seeds of its own destruction.
Down through the years, Christians have seen that Jesus’ intention throughout life was God’s intention. He entered His Father’s business; He did the Father’s will; He prayed that God’s will might be done on earth. His prayer of pleading trust and agony in Gethsemane ended in the words: “Not my will, but Thine.”
What then of our intentions? This is a Lenten call for us. To accept God’s intention for us, as Jesus accepted it, is to find that in his will is our peace. To refuse to accept his intention to create the universal community is to commit spiritual suicide. Gaius Glenn Atkins points out that the New Testament writers took many words from common Greek language - even street names - and gave them richer meaning. Among such words is the one often translated “fellowship,” and sometimes translated “community.”
Dr. Atkins says that the word seems made-to-order for Christianity. It seems at first to have meant just share-holding in some mutual enterprise. And it has grown through the years. Christianity was then, is now, and always must be, a sharing of burdens, faith and hope, a communion of spirit.
True fellowship - true community - is always nearness in understanding; burdens borne together; happiness shared - and so enhanced - together; interchange of cherished thoughts; a cure for loneliness; a power for action; a comfort beyond words. Such fellowship is both a gateway to fellowship with God, and a fulfillment of fellowship with God. We can find it, and build it, in our church.
The Lenten season is rightly a period of spiritual enlistment - enlistment in attendance and fellowship at our churches; enlistment through the dedication of ourselves and our children; enlistment in membership in the church of Christ; --- enlistment of more people who accept God’s intention as their own. The acceptance of God’s intention as our own brings an end to our own frustrations and futile impulses. It brings, for us, a peace that exceeds comprehension.
Let there be meditation during this Lent. Let there be careful reading of the gospels this Lent - surely. But let them be a part of our intention to let God’s intention be our own.
Now what could be an expression of our own discipline - our intention? Here and there one hears discussion at the approach of Lent as to what this girl, that man, will “give up” for Lent. Will give up eating meat, and eat fish instead; won’t eat any candy bars for six weeks; give up ice cream; do my duty and go to church; no dancing; give up movies. What is the purpose of all that? Just to follow a tradition? To do what others are doing? A kind of spiritual calisthenics or daily dozen? Is it essentially any more than a selfish whim? What relationship does it have to God’s intention? Is it Christian action or just suspension of action? Is any fellowship or communion involved? I can’t see it, in a great many cases. It seems to me that a lot of petty, so-called denials of Lent are just a lot of useless trivia that do not get beyond the circumference of one’s own smug self!
Now there is need for tremendous self denial -- not for the sake of feeding our miserable little ego but for giving ourselves to the awful, desperate need of people in a frightfully stricken world. If we have even a slight sense of community - of human fellowship, how can we hesitate to give ourselves in thought and energy and substance?
Hundreds of people live in misery and filth in caves in Naples - why? because their homes were blasted away by bombs and their housing shortage makes ours seem like heaven’s abundance. Children of Finland walked through Arctic winter in miserable remnants of shoes, their only lunch a single piece of bread. We plan to have available 4 pairs of shoes per person in our country next year!
England and Greece face terrible problems in juvenile delinquency - the worst in their history. Homeless, orphaned children roam the ruins of blasted cities and simply pay no attention to laws as they seek survival and satisfaction of the most immediate urges. We still have homes to shelter and strengthen our own children.
Millions, literally millions are starving, many to death, and we have so much food that it is impossible to understand why any of us should hesitate to support to the full our President’s plea for voluntary regulation so that food from our country may be sent to the starving of Europe and Asia.
There is plenty of reason for self-denial and for a purpose! At the most modest level, a family could go without Sunday dessert; a girl could go without a couple of candy bars; a boy could stay home from the movie - not just for negative self-denial but for the positive purpose of giving that saving for the desperate needs of people! Our country is helping. Every church denomination is helping - and all the help given will still not be enough to heal all the woe - but it can save the life, guard the health, lift up the fallen spirit of untold numbers.
Our own Congregational churches render definite, intelligent, efficient Christian service through the Committee for War Victims and Reconstruction. Probably many of you have pledged your support of its work for the year. Let us all keep those pledges paid promptly - even ahead of time, to save some life andd alleviate some suffering. Some who have already given through this channel will want to give more as a part of their Lenten sharing. The need is even greater than was anticipated six months ago. Anyone who doubts that Lent can be a time of practical Christian action must indeed be blind.
Suppose each family in this parish were to use a Sunday noon menu that represented a $1.00 saving in food costs. How much would that be, burned in at Easter time to the church treasurer marked for the Committee on War Victims and Reconstruction? (We’re going to eat baked beans at our house on Sundays during Lent - and it’s not much of a sacrifice for us, because we like them!)
And honestly, there is a question, isn’t there, whether we have even begun to sacrifice at this level? What can our Denominational Funds do in a hurry? Douglas Horton gives one lone instance among scores.
An interdenominational representative cabled in January that half a million dollars would, if forthcoming immediately, make possible an especially advantageous purchase of army surplus goods in France. Ours was one of the agencies that could respond immediately because of the gifts already in the office. Together with other denominations, $300,000 was assured within the hour, for this purchase that included 12,000 blankets, clothing, underwear, shoes - fearfully needed shoes - medicines, cooking utensils, and so on. That is the Christian spirit prepared for action!
We began this sermon period in today’s service with comments on Lent that may have seemed like abstract ideas. But the place to begin anything worthy is in an idea. We are beginning to realize the vast difference between a world dominated by the mundane “master race” idea and a world dominated by the mind of Christ in the minds of men.
A scientist has recently said that “the only power stronger than atomic power is the power in the brain of man.” There is one power greater! That is the intention of God accepted by Jesus Christ, and controlling the brain of man.
But having gotten this conviction clear, we must proceed to some kind of action. Phillips Brooks says that “We never become truly spiritual by sitting down and wishing to become so. You must undertake something so great that you cannot accomplish it unaided.”
Let us, each in our own way, but as lovers of Christ’s way, undertake something of real action in this Lenten season. May the Lord bless the needy of body and spirit rough our acts.
Let us Pray. God of the patriarchs and prophets and of Jesus, cause us continually to know that Thou art our God. Strengthen us, as thou dids’t strengthen Thy well-beloved Son. May we accept His intention as our own. Help us not alone to be on the Lenten Road with Him, but to be about His business - Thy business and ours. Amen.
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Dates and Places delivered:
Wisconsin Rapids, March 10, 1946
Nekoosa, March 27, 1946