If I shut up heaven that there be no rain, or if I command the locusts to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among my people; if my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.
II Chronicles verse 7:13-14
Five long days have passed. New Years is already a distant yesterday in the many yesterdays of forgetfulness. Few among us have been challenged by the little babe with sprouting wings who has supplanted old Father time with his grin and a sickle. Many of us have been too disinterested, too lethargic, or perhaps too wise to even make a New Year’s resolution. Others more visionary, more restless, who have perhaps imbibed of the crusader spirit, have made resolutions; we have made our resolutions in the light of our own dissatisfaction with ourselves, and the challenge of what we ought to be in 1947. But five days have dimmed our ardor. Our vision has been obscured by the grim realities of life with its desperate struggles. And now, we too, are ready to return to the status quo of 1946.
Much sorrow has made us hard. We have become calloused to the tears and blood of our broken world. The war is but a dim memory. No longer does the stench of death, the wailing of the wounded, the bursting of death dealing bombs and the devastation and utter obliteration of atomic destruction plagues our waking nights.
We have forgotten the plaintive plea of the dead:
Take up our quarrel with the foe
to you from failing hands we throw the torch
Be yours to hold it high: If you break faith with
those who die; we shall not sleep.
Yes, that’s all distant now. Time the great healer has been at work. We have so soon been made to forget.
Nor are we stirred by the things that happen round about us today. We have seen too much of tragedy to be stirred. The crashed airplane, the wrecked train, the starving millions, the mad crime-wave of youth, and the curious rumble of revolution, are all but cold and commonplace headlines in the daily press. Though the distant rumble of the guns is already heard.
The leaven of hate, which is the embryo of war, has already been planted afresh in our world. But we are too drunken with the cup of selfishness and pleasure to pay any attention to it. We are like that doomed people in Byron’s “Child Harold,” who oblivious to the cannon of the invader that rumbled at their very gate, cried out:
On with the dance: Let joy be unconfined;
No sleep till morn when youth and pleasure meet.
That was their night of destruction. This may be our night of destruction, also. But you say. Preacher, you are speaking to as Christian congregation.
What you say may be true of the rank and file of man, but have you any reason to believe that it is true of us. Let us ask ourselves a few questions. How seriously have we taken our Christian obligations which we assumed when we took our vow of allegiance to Christ. In what way have we truly taken up our cross and followed Christ. To what extent has our surrender, devotion and the laying down of our life approximated that of the utter abandonment of Christ to the will of his father, even though that will led to the furnace of affliction and the crucible of Calvary. We have stood with him as he said:
“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that stonest the prophets and klllest them that
came unto thee: How oft would I have gathered you in as a hen gathers her chicks
under her wings, but ye would not.” But when have we spent a waking moment, or
shed a passing tear for our neighbor, or even those of our own household,
because they have not come to Christ? We have heard his great commission: “Go
ye into all the world and preach the Gospel. But who among us has truly proclaimed
the glorious gospel of deliverance, even to those at our own doorstep.
What do you think Isaiah would say to us if he were to stand upon this platform this morning. I think his sermon would read something like this:
Ah, sinful people, in your fevered heaving worlds why think you can turn your backs upon your Maker and Ruler without suffering and bleeding for it? A horse knows its owner, and a dog its master, but you do not know, nor do you possess the good sense of your animals. You are a brood of evil doers; and in selfish arrogance do you imagine that you can live as though you were God himself? Nations are raping nations: man is at the throat of man. Multitudes are calling evil good and good evil, putting darkness for light, and light for darkness. But you have not regarded the word of the Lord, nor have you considered his working in this world. Has this present chaos no lesson for you to say to those who can see it; “See it not” and to those who can prophesy about it prophesy unto us smooth things that are “easy to hear!”
Hear the word of the Lord unto you. What unto me is the multitude of your religious services? Your many churches, your expansive organizations, your gold and your silver and your brass; your exclusive attention to the even operation of your churches, your desire to be nothing more than nice people, the lightness with which you regard your mission and commission — these things and many more have become offensive to the Almighty. Therefore, he will not hear you when you piously and pleasantly bow yourself down in prayer. Wash you and make you clean. Cease to do evil. Learn to do well. Seek justice. Relieve the oppressed. Let us reason this matter. If your sins be as scarlet, can they become white as snow? If they be like crimson, can they become as wool?
Many of you draw near to God with your mouth, and with your lips you honor him; but your hearts are far from him, and reverence of him is but a commandment of men that someone has taught you. Therefore, are the countries of this world desolate, and the cities devoured with fire| for upon the world has descended the Judgment and wrath of God. “Ho Berlin, you rod of my anger,” saith the Lord, “The staff of my indignation,” The sins of my people have reached my nostrils, and the stench of them is unbelievable.” Lying, rebellion, pride, dishonesty is on every hand. The punishment is sure—behold the present darkness and distress. For upon us is a day, a day of the Lord of hosts, upon everyone who is proud and haughty, upon everyone who is great in his own eyes and upon every high tower and upon every fortified area. And the loftiness of men shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be brought low, and the Lord of Hosts shall be exalted.
But the Lord does not punish merely to quench an anger. It is clear that you on this earth will not learn except as you suffer and enter the door of hope through the valley of tribulation. Yet the Lord will not keep his anger forever; neither will he always chide. If you who now stumble in the darkness, see the great light. If you repent and say, “Come, let us go into the mountain of the Lord, that we may walk in his paths and that he may teach us his ways—then indeed it will the great day of his dawn, a day ushered in by the Lord of hosts among the remnant of the righteous. Then it will be that the Lord will judge between the Nations, and decide concerning the peoples; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning-hooks to this end that nation shall not lift up nation, nor shall they learn war anymore”
Take heed therefore and be quiet. Neither let your heart be faint, for in repenting and rest shall you be saved: in quietness and confidence shall he be your strength. Though the Lord give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, your ears shall hear a voice behind you saying: “This is the way, walk you in it. And thine eyes shall see that the work of righteousness shall be peace, and the effect of righteousness, quietness, and confidence forever.
Is God impressed with the state of his church today? Is he filled with wonderment as he walks down the busy street of a large city, and sees the many giant churches and cathedrals spiring skyward? Is he moved by what the multitudes as they flock to the place of worship on the sabbath morning to sing the glorious songs of Zion? Does he sit enthralled and thrilled as the organ pedals bring forth the melodies of “Largo” or the choir makes the halls of the sanctuary echo with Handel’s triumphant “Hallelujah Chorus?”
No, God is not moved by emotions as is his creatures. He looks into the heart of the singer. He delves into the depths of the innermost being of the worshipper. He listens for the beat of the heart behind the organ, and the ring of the reality of God In the sermon of the preacher. When we speak of our magnificent church plant, and our school offices, and our beautiful auditorium, and our comfortable parlor. What must he think? And as he beholds our selfishness, our pride and our Pharisaism and our utter lack of the reality of communion with God, how his heart must melt with anger. Are we any better than the people of Babel. Are we not attempting the same impossible task as they? Are we not seeking to build our tower of works into the heavens to make a name for ourselves. And the judgment of God has visited us, and will visit us, and by chastisement and tribulation we shall be brought to our senses.
Then it is time for us to consider our ways. If we are engaged in the same senseless task as the people of Babel. If our religious life and endeavor is as hollow and as empty before God as that of Israel, it is high time we examine our lives and our program in the light of the purposes of God for us. What Is God’s purpose for his people? Why did God create men, when he knew that he would turn in rebellion, and pride and vanity, and live utterly unto himself? What is the purpose of God for his people?
I believe I see the answer in the first chapter of Genesis, where we have the record of a conference in the eternal council chamber of the trinity of Heaven. “And God said let us make men in our image, after our likeness.” In other words, God is saying: “I will make you a counterpart of myself. I will create a being capable of communion with me. That he may sit opposite to me in Heavenly places and enjoy the eternal fellowship and the glory that surrounds us.”
I see the answer again when God came to Abraham and said, “Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house unto a land that I will show thee, and I will be thy God and thou shalt be my people.” Once more he is calling man for the midst of his fellows and saying, “Free yourself from the sinful society and the entangling alliances of the wicked. Go to a new land and start over again with a new race who will seek after me. That they may be my people and I, their God. I want a people with who I can walk and talk and fellowship.
It was the day of the dedication of Solomon’s great temple. The great building had been completed. The many sacrifices had been offered. The shekinah glory of God had filled the place. The people had feasted and sung psalms and prayed and worshipped for seven whole days. But when the excitement of the celebration was over, and God came to Solomon by night: he said unto him, “This has seemed a glorious occasion. But the hearts of the people are still far from me. There will come a time when I have to bring judgement upon people.
If I shut up heaven and there is no rain, or if I command the locusts to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among my people. If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways: then will I hear from Heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.
It’s the same message. Humble yourselves before me in your transgression and acknowledge your sin and your guilt and your unrighteousness which is as the stench of filthy rags before me. Seek my face. Seek to enter into communion with me. Pray, whisper what is in thy heart into my ear. Then will I hear. Then will I forgive. Then will I heal. And the communion between me and thee will be established. Than will thou be my true counterpart.
And then God came down to dwell in the midst of men. Jesus was the greatest and the fullest and the most complete revelation of the Great God himself, as well as the purpose of God. What was the big message that Jesus proclaimed to men? What was the overmastering secret of his life? I believe we see it in the first verse of the first chapter of the Gospel of John.
“In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God.”
The word “with” in Greek is the word “Pros” which means face-to-face with or looking towards. In this little word we have the key that unlocks the great secret of Jesus’s life. He was eternally face-to-face with God. He was the eternal son of God who lived in the vital communion with the Godhead. But a the perfect man, he also entered into a new vista of communion. He became the perfect counterpart: the perfect image of God, the man who lived in constant communion with God. Jesus was the man who truly walked with God.
That is why he was able to do the perfect will of God even though it led to the Cross. And even in the darkest night, when the sin of the world nailed him to the cross of judgement, and caused him to stagger on the verge of the precipice when he cried out: “Oh God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” In his next breath, he could still reach out and touch his God and say, “Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit.”
And that glorious communion was translated into the lives and experiences of his disciples at Pentecost. How different from Babel this was. Here these faithful followers of Christ, waited, and fasted, and prayed and bowed in humility before God, confessing their sins: seeking his face. And the Heavens were opened: like a mighty rushing wind and a flame of fire, the Glory of God was revealed, and God came down to dwell in the hearts and lives of men. This was the true work of redemption. Man restored to fellowship with God. The intimate fellowship that was lost in the Garden of Eden when Adam fell.
This was the new life for the New Year. This is what the New Life program in our church means. Let us look ourselves. What is our goal? To build churches, to sing anthems? To listen to heavenly music? To hear the preacher’s platitudes. To build a great church? Or are all these but a means to an end? How many of us have tragically erred by making this a means to an end?
The end for the Christian is fellowship with God. To walk with him in the cool of the eve, and the brightness of the morning. To seek his face, to be his counterpart. To enter into communion with God eternally. Allow me to put it in the familiar words of the Psalmist:
“The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures:
He leadeth me beside the still waters.
He restoreth my soul: He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness
For his name’s sake.
Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil.
For thou art with me.
Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
Thou preparest a table before me In the presence of mine enemies.
Thou annointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.
Surely, goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.
And I shall dwell In the house of the Lord forever.”
This is the human counterpart of fellowship with God. This is our reward. We share in the glory and the Good. Communion’s benefits are reciprocal, and when we have drawn back the vail of flesh and sin and selfishness and have entered into fellowship with God in truth and Spirit, our freedom shall be full; our joy complete: and the glory and blessing of God will be revealed in us.
Reverend Arthur Schwabe Blog 