Week 38 Sunday
Week 38 Sunday
Life Is Cooperation, or It Is Death!
John 15:1-9; Acts 4:32-35
In our discussion of guidance, we left out specific mention of a form of guidance that, because of its importance, needs separate treatment: group guidance. This was hinted at in the guidance through the church; but guidance through the church sounds too official and stilted to express what we mean by group guidance.
I am afraid of individual guidance that isn’t checked up on by group guidance; the individual needs the correction or the corroboration of the group. People who say, “God told me such and such,” should be willing to submit that to a disciplined group for reaction. In the end, the individual may have to act on individual guidance, but it is not safe to do so unless one has been willing to get group judgment on it. Individualism is a half-truth, hence individual guidance is only a half-guidance, and unsafe as such, unless corrected by corporate checkup.
Christianity began as a group movement. Jesus gathered around him a small number of people and implanted his outlook and spirit into that group. Christianity began, not as an individualism, but as a collectivism. But it was a collectivism in which the individual found perfect freedom. For you cannot find your freedom in isolation and detachment. You find it only through a group. You are social by your very nature. Two cells came together to produce you, so you are social in your origin and constitution.
Galveston, Texas, had all the advantages of being situated on the gulf and of a wonderful harbor. But three families in Galveston began to compete for the domination of the city. They canceled out one another. Galveston was stunted. Houston had almost none of the advantages of Galveston, for it was situated fifty miles up the winding river. And yet Houston has pulled away from Galveston and has become the largest city of Texas. The secret? The leaders of Houston learned to cooperate.
The law of life is cooperate or disintegrate and die. That law is inexorable. Christianity was right, therefore, when it began as a cooperative order—a group movement, a cell of a new world order.
O God, you are our Lord and we are your family. The family has not learned how to live together, and hence we are torn into fragments. Forgive us and help us from today to learn to live with mutual aid at the very center of our beings and at the center of our purposes. Amen.
Week 38 Monday
The Redemptionists
Matthew 1:18-20; Luke 1:5-7, 13-17
Before Jesus gathered a group movement around him, there was another group movement out of which the group movement of Jesus grew. This existing group movement has been called “The Redemptionists,” made up of those who were “looking for the redemption of Israel” (Luke 2:38).
There was decay within Israel. The voice of prophecy had ceased; religion was formal and dead: it was “dry ground” out of which the Root, Jesus, would grow. Benjamin Disraeli described his religion as the “blank page between the Old and New Testaments.” The page between the Old and the New was blank, except for a remnant, the Redemptionists. They held aloft the torch of reality amid the encircling gloom. They were the seed plot of a new order, the germ of a new world.
We can trace the Redemptionists in the opening chapters of Luke’s Gospel by the family likeness of ideas running through them all. The group may have included Zechariah and Elizabeth, Mary and Joseph, Simeon, Anna, the shepherds (see Luke 1–2). They were intensely nationalistic, and yet they were agents of a new order based on equality of opportunity to everybody. The word just runs like a refrain through the account of all of them. They stood for a justice that made for equality for everybody. Zechariah and Elizabeth were “both just” (Luke 1:6 Moffatt). The angels spoke to Zechariah of “the wisdom of the just” (v. 17)—a phrase that should burn itself into modern civilization; to be just is to be wise, to be unjust is to be unwise. Joseph was “a just man,” but with a new kind of justice: “her husband was a just man and unwilling to disgrace her” (Matt. 1:19 Moffatt). Here was a justice that was mercy, that was redemptive and not punitive. The angels said to the shepherds, “Peace on earth, good will to men” (Luke 1:14 KJV), good will to men; not to some, but to all, apart from race and birth and color.
O God, we see the workings of your purposes through those who are given to one another and to you. May I be a part of a nucleus in whom the future lies as an embryo in the womb—may I have within me the germs of your new Order. Then I shall live now and hereafter. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
Week 38 Tuesday
A Man Foursquare
Job 17:9; Psalm 1; Proverbs 10:28; Luke 2:25-29
The man who summed up the spirit of the Redemptionists within himself was Simeon (Luke 2:25-32), probably the humble center of this group. This man was the epitome of the new order. “There was a man” (v. 25a): He was unadorned by any title or office or rank; the emphasis was upon the fact of his being just a man, which was the keynote of the new order. Nothing counted except this, the man. This plain layman was the vehicle of God’s thought for the new age.
He was not only a man but also a man foursquare: He “was righteous”—toward humanity; “devout”—toward God; “looking for the consolation of Israel”—toward his nation; “and the Holy Spirit was upon him”—toward himself (v. 25b). His faith made him sound in every relationship, a well-rounded personality. Some are righteous toward humanity and not devout toward God. Some are devout toward God and not righteous toward humanity. Some are patriotic lovers of their country, but are inwardly empty—the Holy Spirit is not upon them. And some are devoutly mystical and spiritual, but not interested in the affairs of their nation—they are narrowly personal. In Simeon, God’s kingdom was working as total wholeness and health.
Simeon was right in general, and as a result of that found particular guidance in a particular situation. “By an inspiration of the Spirit he came to the temple” (Luke 2:27 Moffatt). You must not expect particular guidance if you refuse to allow God to give you general guidance in the whole of your life. God cannot be called in as a cosmic bellhop to run your errands in particular situations of difficulty if you shut God out of the total management of your life. God is not the bellhop; God is the Owner and Manager of this hotel called the world. We must come under God’s general and particular guidance.
In that crisis, God found a man totally prepared in his total nature to be the vehicle of a new order.
O God, just as Simeon had kept himself fit in every department of his life, so that in the crisis he was available to you, help me to be fit every moment, so that I, too, may be ready to be used in the crisis—your person for that job. Help me be disciplined and ready for your crises. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
Week 38 Wednesday
Unveiling Human Possibilities
Matthew 19:26; Luke 2:29-32; 17:12-16; 1 Corinthians 6:11
The whole nature of Simeon was fit and attuned, so that when the great moment of his life came, he was not caught off guard, but was ready with insight to see the meaning of the Great Event. He took the Child in his arms and saw in him “salvation, which thou has prepared in the presence of all peoples; a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to thy people Israel” (Luke 2:30-32).
Simeon was an intense patriot, “looking for the consolation of Israel,” and yet he was not narrowed by his patriotism, for he saw this salvation was to be for “all peoples.” How prophetic his vision was; he saw the universality of Christ. But, further, he saw that Christ was not only “salvation” to the Gentiles—the Gentiles whom the Jews called “dogs”—but was also to be the “unveiling of the Gentiles” [marginal reading]. He was to unveil the worthwhileness of the Gentiles, to uncover their possibilities. The revelation Christ was to bring was a revelation of God, but it was also a revelation of humanity. Jesus uncovers our Parent; he also uncovers our brother and sister—lifts the veil from our prejudiced eyes and lets us see the infinite worthwhileness in every person, of every race, of every color, of every class. No longer were the Gentiles to be “problems”; they were to be possibilities. White people speak of “the race problem”; we should speak of “the race possibility.” The problem is not in other races; it is in us, who by our prejudices and fears have made others a problem instead of a possibility. White Christianity needs a baptism of the spirit of Simeon to make our religion into a revelation of possibilities of people instead of into something that bolsters up our prejudices. Christianity is a double revelation—of God and of humanity—and when it is not that, it is not Christianity, but a religious bolstering of racisms.
We need a religious faith that brings faith in people as well as in God.
O God, you are our Lord and the Lord of all. Help me this day to catch your vision of the infinite possibilities in all people, however overlaid by strange wrappings these possibilities may be. And help me set out on the great adventure of bringing out those possibilities in all people. Perhaps, as I do so, some of my own may be brought to light. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
Week 38 Thursday
Your Own Soul Pierced
Matthew 16:21; Luke 2:34-35; Romans 9:1-3
But Simeon was no sentimentalist; he saw the depth of the issues involved in Christ: “This child is destined for the downfall as well as for the rise of many a one in Israel; destined to be a Sign for man’s attack—to bring out the secret aims of many a heart. And your own soul will be pierced by a spear” (Luke 2:34-35 Moffatt). Simeon’s patriotism did not blind him to the fact that Jesus was destined for the downfall as well as for the rise of many in lsrael; a nation would stumble over him to its doom. Patriotism is prattle and piffle if it doesn’t see that a nation can and often does stumble over Jesus to its doom. “Europe has lost Christ, and Europe will perish,” said a Russian author; and this can be said of any nation that loses Christ.
Destined “to be a Sign for man’s attack”: He who came to unveil all people will make some shrink from that unveiling, and make them attack the Light that reveals the ugly depths of their own hearts. Jesus is the world’s conscience. Just as we struggle with and sometimes fight against conscience, so we struggle with and fight against this Man. Jesus is the Person we ought to be, struggling with the person that is. He brings out “the secret aims of many a heart,” and many do not like their secret aims to be brought out.
“Your own soul will be pierced by a spear”: Mary suffered vicariously. The nation would suffer because of its rejection, and Mary would suffer because her nation rejected its redemption. Christ causes a twofold suffering: to those who reject, and to those who love those who reject.
But Mary would suffer because of the very message that came through her, for it was of the essence of revolution: “He has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts” (Luke 1:51)—self-frustration to unbending people. “He has put down the mighty from their thrones” (v. 42)—political revolution. “He has . . . exalted those of low degree” (v. 52)—social revolution. “He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty” (v. 53)—economic revolution. With that message, no wonder Mary suffered.
O God, my Lord, I see that the bringing in of your new Order is no child’s play; it will cost blood and struggle—not of others, but of us who are dedicated to bringing it in. For people love dark but accustomed ways and will fight blindly against the light. Help us be strong, as Jesus was. Amen.
Week 38 Friday
Equality of Opportunity: The Keynote
Matthew 19:21; 20:14; Luke 3:4-6, 11; James 2:1-9
Anna looked for “the redemption of Jerusalem” (Luke 2:38) and Simeon looked for “the consolation of lsrael” (v. 25): the man dealt with the large scale, Israel; and the woman dealt with the near-at-hand, Jerusalem. In this they ran true to form: man thinks of the magnificent; woman thinks of the intimate. Each is needed to bring in the kingdom.
Out of this Redemptionist Group at Jerusalem came two movements—one the movement of John the Baptist, and the other the movement of Jesus—two of the mightiest movements that ever touched our planet. The movement of John the Baptist emphasized the egalitarian attitudes of the Redemptionists: “Every valley shall be filled”—the depressed and underprivileged shall be leveled up; “every mountain and hill shall be brought low”—the overprivileged shall be brought down; “the crooked shall become straight”—people will be judged by merit rather than by cleverness and cunning; “and all flesh shall see the salvation of God”—this equality of opportunity is open to “all flesh,” rather than to racial or national groups (Luke 3:4-5). John continued this egalitarian emphasis in very practical application when he said, “He who has two coats, let him share with him who has none; and he who has food, let him do likewise” (Luke 3:11).
Jesus took up the same note: “Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor . . . ; and come, follow me” (Luke 18:22). “I will give unto this last, even as unto thee” (Matt. 20:14 KJV). Equality of opportunity before God and humanity and life was the keynote of the Redemptionists, and their message was caught up and fulfilled in the kingdom that Jesus proclaimed. This small group, then, was the seed plot of a new order.
Today we must have groups that, while the old order is going to pieces, contain in themselves the germs of a new order. These small disciplined groups are the hope of the future, for the future is in them.
God our Lord, help me become a part of those who belong, not to yesterday and today only, but to tomorrow. For the yesterdays and the todays have been shocked and are shakable. Help us be the epitome of the unshakable; help us be ready with our answer when the half-answers break down. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
Week 38 Saturday
Doing the Impossible
Matthew 13:31-32; 17:20; Mark 9:23; Luke 12:32; Philippians 4:13
The key sentence of the Redemptionists is to be found in these words: “with God nothing is ever impossible” (Luke 1:37 Moffatt). It is also in Mary’s response to the angel’s summons to be the physical vehicle of God’s redemption: “I am here to serve the Lord. Let it be as you have said” (v. 38). The group and the individual put themselves at God’s disposal. God worked through both—mightily!
The most absolutely potent thing on this planet is a small disciplined group, disciplined to great ends. A group of raindrops gathering together on a mountainside are the beginnings of a mighty river. A seed is a group of forces dedicated to growth. Jesus speaks of the seed as “the word of the kingdom” (Matt. 13:19); but he goes on and says, “The good seeds are the followers of the kingdom” (v. 38 CEB). Here “the word of the kingdom” becomes flesh in “the followers of the kingdom.” The followers of the kingdom are the seeds of the new order. They do not give the word; they are the word. They do not seek an answer; they are the answer, the kingdom in miniature. There is nothing so absolutely potent as such a group unbreakably given to one another and unreservedly given to God. They are seed, and there is nothing more powerful than a seed.
It doesn’t take many people to accomplish things. A small determined and disciplined minority can do anything. Someone has said: “Five percent of the people think; 10 percent of the people think they think, and rest of the people would rather die than think.” It is that 5 percent that changes situations. A handful of people made Germany Nazi and Italy Fascist. In 1914, someone said that to find two Communists in Paris (the home of Communism) would be a wonder, to find four would be a miracle. And yet in five years, the Communists had captured Russia and challenged the world. Less than a hundred people produced both the Renaissance and the Reformation in Europe. Dr. W. H. Welch of Johns Hopkins, with a small disciplined group of young doctors around him, changed the medical life of America for decades.
Gracious Lord, I see if I am in a minority with you, then anything can happen. I am determined to stay in that minority with you at any cost. For I see that with you nothing is impossible. I am at your disposal: “I am to serve the Lord.” Amen.