CHAPTER XI MAKING THE CHURCH CHRISTIAN When Jesus sought to make the community religious, he went first to the house of religion. Where else shall his followers go when bent upon his purpose? Like all institutions, it shows the massed weaknesses of human nature, but when the final balance is struck, what other institution has ever poured so many and so great benefits into human society? The social analysis that concludes to "scrap" the Church has failed to weigh all the facts. In any community, when the Church becomes impotent, it is a social tragedy. The Church continually calls the community to righteousness and goodwill; it hallows marriage and glorifies childhood; it imparts motive and instruction for social living; it provides funds and leaders for social reform; it generates faith and courage to assault the citadels of social wrong; it carries all the benefits of civilization to the backward peoples. It often rejects the prophets, but it first nourished them. The beginnings of organized philanthropy and education; the conscience that abolished slavery and now outlaws alcohol and challenges economic injustice; the spirit that achieved political equality and now seeks industrial democracy-these are the contributions of the Church to modern social progress. Of all the tools that must be used to make the Commonwealth of God, organized religion is the most indispensable. DAILY MEDITATIONS FIRST DAY: Meeting God on the Jericho Road A certain man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho; and he fell among robbers, who both stripped him and beat him, and departed, leaving him half dead. And by chance a certain priest was going down that way: and when he saw him, he passed Very deliberately Jesus brings into the story this despised member of an alien race, condemned because his religion was corrupt, and says that he is more religious than the chosen officers of worship of the chosen people. The terrible failure of the priest and the Levite will bear reflection. The pathos of the story is, they thought they were doing the best they could. They were doubtless thinking about the religious work that had engrossed their attention at Jerusalem; but they were neglecting the more religious human need by the roadside. The tragedy is that they failed that day to meet God in the presence of human suffering upon the Jericho road. Are not those who attempt to confine religious experience to "spiritual matters" in danger of finding themselves without any real religious experience at all? SECOND DAY: What Doth Jehovah Require? When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand, to trample my courts? Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; new moon and sabbath, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with iniquity and the solemn meeting. Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth; they are a trouble unto me; I am weary of bearing them. And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you; yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood. Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil; learn to do well; seek justice, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.-Isa. 1: 12-17. He hath showed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth Jehovah require of thee, but to do justly, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with thy God?-Micah 6: 8. By what dark paths have men sought to find God! In what strange ways have they endeavored to please him! They have sacrificed their children and have mutilated their own bodies, they have tried ascetic fastings and saintly ritual, they have counted the beads and simulated frenzies of emotion! It is one of the glories of the Hebrew prophets that they taught the world the true nature of worship. They declared that God would not be satisfied with ritual if brotherhood were lacking. They put religion into the world of action and did not let it rest in passive virtues. Will our worship stand the test of Isaiah? Are there any aspects of our community life, any living or working conditions, that make our formal worship a mockery before God? Would a solemn act of social penitence for the actual conditions in our town help our church to do its full duty? Do the hymns and prayers in the service of worship in our church promote the actual realization of brotherhood? What effect would it have upon the spirituality of our church if the great community issues were openly discussed in Sunday school, in prayer meeting, or in a special open forum; if we were all required to report regularly concerning our contribution to community progress? THIRD DAY: First Things First Then spake Jesus to the multitudes and to his disciples, saying, The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses' seat: all things therefore whatsoever they bid you, these do and observe: but do not ye after their works; for they say, and do not. Yea, they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men's shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with their finger.-Matt. 23: 1-4. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye tithe mint and anise and cummin, and have left undone the weightier matters of the law, justice, One of the marvels of the history of religion is the way in which its course has been diverted into activities of secondary importance-theological discussion, forms and ceremonies, tithing, automatic church attendance. Into the protection and promotion of such things has gone much of the passion and power that might have been used to bring the world to Christ. What a waste of spiritual energies! Are there not still those among us who satisfy their religious instincts with the saying of prayers and formal church attendance, and yet oppose the great measures of humanitarian progress in our communities? Is your religious life occupied with secondary or primary interests? FOURTH DAY: Paradoxes of the Orthodox Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye build the sepulchres of the prophets, and garnish the tombs of the righteous, and say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we should not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets. Wherefore ye witness to yourselves, that ye are sons of them that slew the prophets. Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers. Ye serpents, ye offspring of vipers, how shall ye escape the judgment of hell? Therefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: some of them shall ye kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute from city to city: that upon you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of Abel the righteous unto the blood of Zachariah son of Barachiah, whom ye slew between the sanctuary and the altar.-Matt. 23: 29-35. a This is not ancient history. How tragically often have the churches proved traitor to Jesus! It is the great apostasy when any church turns aside from his teachings and perse cutes those who would call it back to him. Time and again the prophets are driven outside. Wycliffe was hunted and tried; Luther was excommunicated; Wesley was driven to preach on the gravestones and in the street; Roger Williams had to flee to another colony to secure liberty; William Booth was compelled to go outside to the streets and the big bass drum. Shall we, too, drive out the prophets of fearless speech? Who can explain this paradox of human nature? In the name of truth men deny the truth. In the attempt to establish righteousness, they violate righteousness. Is it the power of institutions over the human spirit? No group of men is exempt from this weakness. Science boasts of its openness of mind, and yet at times scientific men show a bigotry surpassing that of ignorance. Radicals boast of their liberty and yet develop their shibboleths until there is no orthodoxy so intolerant as the orthodoxy of radicalism. How can we make it evident that no institution, not even the Church, is good enough to hold the minds and consciences of men in bondage? FIFTH DAY: Democracy in Church My brethren, hold not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with respect of persons. For if there come into your synagogue a man with a gold ring, in fine clothing, and there come in also a poor man in vile clothing; and ye have regard to him that weareth the fine clothing, and say, Sit thou here in a good place; and ye say to the poor man, Stand thou there, or sit under my footstool; do ye not make distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts?-James 2: 1-4. A city minister gathered the people from the tenements and boarding houses into the Sunday evening service. They had to sit in the galleries because the pew holders paid for the seats below. At a meeting of the church officials someone said: "We don't want those people; they don't pay anything |