Saints are people who can give themselves in ways which seem fanatical to those who live by the usual ethical and moral norms. Saints are people who live normally by the second mile. It is not sporadic with them. They have thrown the familiar "duty" maps away. They are utter fools for Christ's sake.
They are always finding some cruel little cross to climb up on. They stay there and suffer even when the people deride them and mock them, and thereby they stay closer to Him who stayed on His cross until He died. Now, if Christ be not God, they are utter fools, but if Christ be God, then they are the only sane people in the midst of the insane.
These Christians are a people who will throw themselves into the breach between the peace and healing of God and the loneliness, anguish, and terror of the world's lost. They stand as a bridge between man and God, willing, even eager, to become ground grain, broken bread, crushed grapes, poured-out wine. They are willing to be fed upon by the earth's hungry until those hungry ones can feed directly upon Jesus.
The world has always needed such people, and it has survived because, here and there, there have been a few such people. But the point now is that the world is not likely longer to survive unless there are many such people--unless you become such a person and unless I become such a person. I do not believe this to be an idle threat. I believe that the human race is in immediate danger of extinction.
There is no need to review the crescendo of terror which we are in. We will not go into the details of that which we are so aware of, although I believe it is important that we be willing to face the imminence and gruesomeness of that which is upon us. Christians, who in the true sense of the word are realists, should be willing to look down into the abyss of disaster into which we are being drawn.
We should be able to face three possibilities. The first is that we shall be among those instantaneously destroyed, along with those whom we are close to--those whom we love. I think this is a real possibility. I think we will live with more freedom and less anxiety if we look at this squarely.
The second possibility we should be able to face is that we shall be among those who are slowly destroyed. This is a more frightening possibility, especially if ones whom we love shall also be among those slowly destroyed.
The third possibility is that we will be of the remnant left for the carrying on of life on this planet. One of the tasks of our church, of the Church as a whole, is to prepare us to face one of these possibilities, but especially the third.
Suppose we are one of those chosen to continue the drama of God upon the earth, to pass on the gospel of Jesus Christ, to let future generations know convincingly that Jesus has come to our planet, to build a new civilization out of the ruins? Would we be prepared for this strange honor?
Anything which we do as a church and anything we do publicly in our city, first of all, will grow out of an inward awareness and holiness. It is fundamental to everything which we do as Christains, that we personally develop a style of life which is recognizably Christian. This means that in our family groups, in our businesses and our government offices, when we walk in, a light goes on. This style of life will be recognizable in all of our personal contacts, with public servants in transportation, mail, laundry, and milk; with servicemen, salesmen, telephone operators, trash collectors, janitors, hospital attendants, elevator operators--to anyone who serves us in any way. We shall mediate something to every person we meet.
Terrible Seriousness
We will take with terrible seriousness the sins which plague us: gluttony, sloth, lust, avarice, envy, jealousy, and pride. We will not trifle with these things. It's amazing to me how often we think in terms of a vocation, a public corporate vocation, when our lives are morally confused and bewildered, and we have not cleaned up the very basic things which have to do with personal morality.
The New Testament makes it very plain that we have to deal with this. There will be a simple honesty, openness, a transparency about us, an honesty when we are alone filling out our income tax form, and making sure that when we take sick leave we are sick. We will pay our bills. When we borrow money, we will return it. When we say we will do something, we will do it.
We will know something of repentance. I increasingly have the feeling that more cleansing and more healing can come to our world through repentance than any other way. In the words of the publican, "God be merciful to me a sinner," or as Jesus put it, "Blessed are they who mourn." The word for mourn is penthein. Barclay reminds us: It is the word which the Greeks used in mourning for their dead. It is the word used to describe David's grief for his son, "O Absalom, my son Absalom." It is the grief which comes from a heart which is broken, and the Christian has not gotten started until he knows something about mourning for his sin as one mourns for the departed beloved dead.
The realization that we are offenders against the Holy One is very rare.
Mistaken? Yes. Foolish? Yes. In error? Yes. But guilty of sin--offenders
against a holy God? We are not that. A sense of personal responsibility
is hard to find, and repentance is this. It is the realization of guilt
before God. This is the reason our modern age does not like the word "sin."
It implies personal responsibility. Responsibility for the kind of people
we are, the city and the country and the
world we live in. If we do not feel our own sin and we do not feel
we are to blame corporately, we are not very close to Him because when
we are close to Him we know that we are offenders.
We need to know something about repentance and we need to know about forgiveness. Forgiveness is not that which we extend to a few people, but to all people. One difference between the so-called good Christian and the saint is that the good Christian extends forgiveness to many people, maybe even to most people, but the saint extends forgiveness to all people.
Now all of this has to do with a hidden holiness. It has to do with the development of a style of life which will be recognizably Christian, so that everywhere we go the people whom we touch will know Christ to a degree.
This in itself, however, is not enough. I am assuming that whatever we do, we do as a part of a community of which Christ is head. Isolated goodness is futile. Every man, to be sure, must be a good Samaritan whenever the occasion arises, but good-Samaritan acts are not adequate now--not in our kind of world. And they never were really adequate in the sort of world which we have known. Whatever we do we must do in a representative capacity. When we go to our work we go as representatives of the people of God, and whatever we do we do in this representative capacity.
Into Community
We are seeking to bring people into the Christian community and not just to affect them individually, but to bring them into the Christian community which can mature them and bring them to the point of ministry; so that their belonging to the people of God takes precedence over every other loyalty, over every other group in which there is a belonging.
With Christians everywhere we need to throw away the maps which we have used in the past, to know that we have capacities that we have not exercised. What happens to people under the stimulation of the Holy Spirit is that they discover that they have been living far beneath that of which they are capable.
Another Basis
This is the experience of a nation in time of war. It lives on one basis until war is declared and then it lives on another basis altogether. The forty-hour week goes all to pieces and the nation works whatever period it needs to work in order to produce the armaments and tools which are needed to fight a war. A family under financial pressure oftentimes changes its plans. The wife goes to work; the husband works two jobs. A man who is getting established in his business feels that the nine-to-five day is completely foolish. He works the hours which are necessary to get his business established. A professional man such as a doctor works all hours of the day and night because he is dedicated to the care of the sick and he cannot refuse the call for help.
What all of this means to you and me is that we have a capacity for greater production. Most of us could do considerably more than we do. We do not need as much time left over for pampering as we get. Most of us do not need as much time for sleep and for recreation and for personal activities.
We must make the decision that we will live on a crisis basis because this is the condition in which our world finds itself and this is what the love of God demands anyway. It is just more easily seen in the kind of world in which we shall live out our lives. We are going to do this not for the next week, or the next month--we are going to live on this crisis basis for the rest of our days. We are not going to ask for concessions; we are not going to retire. Sixty-five is a figure we can forget, if we make it to sixty-five.
Not Many Die
Let us make the decision and then find out if we die of the strain. Now, not many people die of this sort of strain. They die of conflict, they die of pressure and tension. They work too hard because af anxiety; and for them work is an escape though it appears that work has killed a dedicated man. Not too many people who have a quiet center die because they work too hard. When we try it, then we will see whether or not we die and if we do, it won't be too serious. It won't be the first time someone died. It might be a very glorious thing if we die this way, but it may be that we will discover that we are strengthened and as Fosdick says, grace is granted "for the living of these days."
The tragic thing is that very few people ever get past the point of looking after their own situation, their own personal lives, and their own families and they keep arguing, "If we take time away from this thing which we need to be working at, if we take it away from our family, we're neglecting this responsibility." This is right at one level and wrong at another level. Unless some people have time left over, unless they have some love left over, unless they have some resources left over for the people who don't eat, for the people who are desperate, none of us is going to have any family. We are not going to exist at all. It is just that simple. This is what the prophets of God are talking about. We simply cannot live alone.
As a church we need to expand our output. We need to begin to move like a mighty army with banners unfurled. For us moving like a mighty army means a new commitment to the sacrifice of quiet service. It means a people gladly bearing a cross. This is not especially dramatic unless we see into its inwardness.
The little band of disciples came back to Jesus, and all that they had done was to go into the homes of people and talk to them about the good news of Christ, the richness of their faith. And when they came back Jesus said, "I saw you. I saw what was happening. Satan fell like lightning from the sky." This is the drama, but it is the drama of quiet suffering and quiet serving. This is the way the Church moves.
I have talked of some of the things we can do. The question is, as we wait in the presence of God, what is He calling you to do?