Brighten the Corner

Children’s Sermon: ABOUT FEEDING BEARS

I’ve done lots of camping in Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons, and I want to tell you a true story about the bears in Yellowstone that a park ranger told to me.

He said that every year, after tourist season is over and the cold winds and snow come, bears die by the dozens by the side of the roads, and the rangers have to come and carry them off and bury them.

Do you know why they die?

They are still waiting for the handouts from the tourists—the cookies, the candy, the bread—but the tourists have gone, and no more handouts. And they sit and wait by the road for the food that is not to come, and they die there.

For they have forgotten something, through the generations of bears that have been doing this. They have forgotten how to pre­pare for winter, and how to dig for themselves, and how to go into the woods and eat what they have to eat and do what they must do to survive the winter. They have become so used to being fed from the road—with all the free handouts.

This can happen to people, can’t it?

There are some things in life that can’t be borrowed, that can’t be given to us. No one can prepare your mind for you, or study for you. No one else can develop your talents for you, whatever your talents are. No one can do your praying for you, or develop your relationship with God for you. No one can do your daily work for you.

The most important things in life you must do for yourself—and dig, and prepare, and work.

And to sit idly by the side of the road and wait and wait and wait for your parents to give things to you, or your government, or your church—for someone to give to you things that can’t be given—is to die, even as the Yellowstone bears!

Adult Sermon: BRIGHTEN THE CORNER

The illustration from a recent magazine adequately sets our theme. The scene is the Board of Directors, meeting room of a large corporation. At the head of the table the president of the company is on his feet. All the Board mem­bers are looking benignly in his direction. The president is pound­ing the desk, ranting and raving, and he says this:

We have to serve the public, and give the public what it wants, even if we have to shame them into it.

Even if we have to beat them over the head. Even if we have to embarrass them. Even if we have to humiliate them, shame them, intimidate them. We’re going to serve them, even if it kills them. The history of mankind reeks with this kind of tyrannical serv­ice to mankind—coercion, tyr­anny—that goes under the pros­tituted name of service to man­kind.

One hundred years ago there was a Russian landowner named Petrashevsky, who said this:

Finding nothing worthy of my at­tachment either among women or men, I have vowed myself to the service of mankind. In other words, not being able to find any man or woman worthy of my friendship, I will now serve all mankind as a whole.

You can imagine what kind of serv­ice this man gave.

Some of the worst tyrannies of our day are pledged to the service of mankind, and function by pit­ting neighbor against neighbor. The communist service to mankind is to foster revolution. Czecho­slovakia is being served, no doubt. We’re going to serve mankind even if we have to kill them in the service. We’re going to save mankind. Service and saving often go together, you will notice, when you have doctrinaire despotism—or tyranny in the name of service. We have many groups that are going to save and serve mankind, even if it kills mankind. This is classed as "service to the lost," the lost always being those who view life differently from the one who is saved. The saved are always go­ing to serve the lost.

The "Chosen" Ones

The worst tyrannies of history have been committed under this motivation. Practically every age of history has always known what is called "a chosen group." The pride in being chosen can very easily make the transition to tyr­anny to convince those not chosen that the chosen are chosen. We will show you we’re chosen even if it kills you. The chosen always want to serve and save everyone else. There are always those around who claim to be chosen: a chosen nation, a chosen race, a chosen religion, a chosen church, a chosen party, and on and on into the night.

The attitude that one is a mem­ber of a chosen group fosters much of man’s inhumanity to man. Cromwell first said it: "I beg you, in the name of God, think that you may be mistaken." Our church fathers, John Calvin and Martin Luther, were not above serving and saving mankind through slic­ing off a few heads—literally, that is. As Jesus put it: "The hour will come, always, when whoever kills you will think he is serving God and man. They do this and only prove that they know neither God or man."

The hour will come when who­ever kills you, with bodily murder, mental murder, spiritual murder, national murder, emotional mur­der, murder of dignity, will say he is doing it in the name of God.

Martin Luther was going to save and serve mankind even if he had to kill to do it. Luther was going to save people and serve mankind, and so he lashed out at the people with words of un­matched ferocity. Luther said this to aristocrats, and I quote him directly: "Let there be no half measures; cut their throats, trans­fix them, leave no stone unturned; to kill a rebel is to destroy a mad dog." And then Luther told his aristocratic patrons: "A prince can enter heaven by shedding of blood more certainly than by means of prayer."

Marxism started out, too, as a movement to save the people, to serve the people. We have only to ask, "What is the real condition of the people being ‘saved’ and `served’ in those areas controlled by the Marxist movement?" The German philosopher, Nietzsche, feared that the people would turn history into a shallow swamp, and it has been said that Hitler was more influenced by Luther and Nietzsche than any other Germans until he, too, wanted to save and serve people by giving them a master race and killing all who stood in his way. In the book, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, William L. Schirer says that had Calvin and Luther had at their disposal the powers and instru­ments of coercion that Hitler pos­sessed, they would have used them.

The Many Faces of Despotism

Despotism can come individu­ally, nationally, racially, reli­giously, collectively. Despotism can come in all forms and all shapes and all sizes. There are various degrees of fanaticism and tyranny. Fanatics can always jus­tify hatred and cruelty as service to God and man, regardless of the perversity of the crime or offense. As our Biblical text says: "The hour will come when whoever kills you will think he is offering a serv­ice to God. They will do this be­cause they have not known God."

Does it not seem amazing to you how many saviours and servants of the world hate people—how many who hate people are going to serve them by killing them—in order to make the ideal society? The ideal always, of course, their ideal. Their ideal being a perfect German society, white society, Gentile society, American, Eng­lish, democrat, republican, social­istic, Lutheran, Church of Christ, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Roman Cath­olic. And on and on and on into the night, where blood runs deep, having been released by those who want to serve and save mankind—who want to save the lost, the lost always being those who hold different views of life. In Belfast today the Roman Catholics are going to save the people, and the Protestants are going to save the people, even though they totally destroy each other in the process.

It is easy to get discouraged with the concept of service to man. We read of the population explo­sion forecast where people are go­ing to run over the earth in the multibillions—just masses and masses of flesh. We lose perspec­tive, we lose the concept of service; we don’t see people, we see numbers, just gross numbers.

I think of millions of years of evolution, of cultures, magnificent cultures, now buried in dust and debris. I read about Aldous Hux­ley’s "brave new world" and cold society, with the machine society, with the mechanical man, the "Homo mechanicus." And I get discouraged and ask: "How, how in all this maze do you serve man?" I look around at wars and rumors of war, and I ask: "Where do we find meaning in our little three-score years and ten, and how can this concept of service mean anything when viewed over the long picture and against such a background of humanity in the mass?"

A Personal Experience

Well, there is a concept that means a great deal to me per­sonally—my personal philosophy of service and activity—and I will say it as clearly as I can for what­ever it may be worth to someone. I first started thinking about this when I was flying in Korea look­ing at the frozen and hungry chil­dren around me and wondering how "to brighten the corner" where I was, where I found my­self. And in those off-hours when not flying, working in those or­phanages right around me and with those children that I stum­bled over daily, brightening the corner there was not really too difficult—one of the most mean­ingful experiences of my life.

The world of plant and animal life often progresses to a higher plane of existence through what is known as a mutation. You re­member from your own biology lessons that a mutation is where an alteration or change in form or quality takes place in a plant or animal, either slight or abrupt. A mutation is where a little ge­netic change has taken place, which in turn, if propagated, can produce an entire new series or new species or new plant. Some of our most beautiful plants have come from mutation, and so, too, in animal life. The magnificent peppermint carnations that you get at the floral house come from a virus-inflicted mutation a num­ber of years back. Many of our most beautiful tulips are the re­sult of mutations. In other words, mutations play a vital part in the evolution, and often improvement, of our plant life.

It gives great meaning to me and for me to think that man evolves, that you and I go through changes and transformations and evolve and grow due to mutations that take place in every genera­tion, the moral mutation being the life of a man or a woman who has cast some light into the darkness, and beauty into the ugliness, and truth into the deceit. And when a human life does this, a mutation has taken place, life has been lifted, man has morally evolved a little higher, climbing one step further away from the mud of his conception toward the stars of his destiny.

Moral Mutations

The story of man’s history is the story of mutations. A muta­tion took place when fire was dis­covered, when the wheel was born; similarly, mutations took place at the birth of writing, art, weaving and pottery, building and trans­port, back in the dim beginnings of agriculture, of worship, of edu­cation, of poetry, of philosophy, of commerce, of music. The his­tory of mankind is a history of mutations, each good mutation has moved man one step higher up the ladder of moral and mental and cultural evolution. What I am say­ing is that each person whose life has been a mutation for good has served man in the highest manner in which man can be served.

Moral mutations take place in every village, in every state, in every nation, in every generation, through the lives of individuals—from the giant mutations of a Jesus Christ, a Gandhi, a Schweit­zer, to the thousands of smaller mu­tations by those whose names are not known fifty miles from home. In the long run, it is no doubt the moral mutations of those thou­sands whose names are not known that most lift man one step higher up the ladder of moral and ethical and cultural evolution.

What I am saying is that per­haps the greatest service we can give to our fellow man is to so grow ourselves—mentally, morally, ethically, spiritually—that we be­come a living mutation in our community, in our time, where we are, where we work, where we live, where we play, where we worship. By so becoming a mu­tation for good ourselves, we help to establish a climate wherein other men can grow into a slightly improved change of the species—man.

We Start with Ourselves

How do we become a mutative force? We start with ourselves. It is very difficult to serve and save the world until first you serve and save yourself. A man cannot possibly offer anything to man­kind if he has nothing to offer, either mentally, emotionally, or spiritually. We start with our­selves; for what you are, the world is; what you are, the church is; what you are, the community is; you’re it. We serve—we be­come a mutative force in society—by first developing ourselves, our talents, our potential, our minds, by doing our work well, where we are.

Can you imagine what a re­markable transformation would take place tomorrow only if every person performed his daily work with excellence, with competency, with honor, with integrity, ethi­cally? Can you imagine how oth­ers would benefit and be served from such a grace as one’s work well done? Nothing starts any­where if it does not start with you, on your block, in your home. What you are, the community is!

They asked Bernard Baruch on his 94th birthday—this friend and advisor to kings and presidents—they asked him this question: "Who do you consider the great­est man of this age?" And what a marvelous answer came back: "Who is the greatest man of this age? The man who is doing his own job well every day, the moth­er who gets up in the morning and cooks breakfast for her family."

The Distant Approach

Have you ever noticed how, with so many people, love, service, and concern always increase in direct proportion to the distance in­volved? It is so much easier to be showing concern for those in China than it is to show love and concern for those close to you have seen people who became so concerned about serving others’ problems that their entire family became delinquent. So what has been proven, what has been given to the world? Only that now there are two problems instead of one. As Dr. Charles Malik put it: "The most important thing in serving the needy is to make sure that you do not become needy yourself." And Paul Tillich asked: "How can we heal others if we can’t heal ourselves and our own?" Do you realize that Jesus practically never went out of his way to help peo­ple? But he helped those in his path, as he went about his busi­ness, doing his own "thing." The phrase is used over and over and over in the gospels. They came to him, they sought him out, he healed those in his path.

Just look around you at those people whom God has already put in your path—without even chang­ing your daily routine. Look at the human being whom you have been ignoring: the yardman, the man downtown at the parking lot, your business associates, the wait­ers, secretaries, bank teller, friends, all of the men and women that you stumble over daily in your rounds of activities. We stumble over the bodies of our family daily while looking out­ward and away trying to find someone else to love or to help.

We stumble over the bodies of those closest to us, in our daily paths, while trying to find some­one to love in some world-wide evangelistic program.

Let us brighten the corner where we are, and what a fan­tastic transformation will take place in this world, and more especially in your world and my world. How do you brighten the corner? By living by what you know to be true. Sure, we all can cry, "Oh, there is so much that I don’t understand, so much that is not clear." But let’s live, daily, where we are, by what we do know to be true and good.

You know that beauty is better than ugliness, truth is better than deceit, love is better than hate, trust is better than suspicion, hope is better than despair, en­lightenment and education is bet­ter than ignorance. There are so very many, many things that we do know to be true, and there is no doubt here; so let’s live by that, and the mutative effects will be massive. Finally, you see, our own healing becomes a part of the healing of the world; and when enough individuals become healed then the world is becoming healed. And what more magnificent serv­ice could we offer to mankind than to heal ourselves, so that our health might heal others.

This is my last word:

·                      In serving the needy, the most important thing is not to become needy yourself.

·                      In serving the sick, the most important thing is not to become sick yourself.

·                      In bringing light to darkness, the most important thing is not to become dark yourself.

·                      In imparting strength to weak­ness, the most important thing is not to become weak yourself.

·                      In leading, the most important thing is to make sure that you are not being led by powers of darkness.

·                      In passing on truth, the most important thing is to make sure that your sources of truth are never cut off.

·                      In witnessing to the grace and beauty and truth of God, the most important thing is to let Him through His spirit work through you.

This is service, that through your individual mutative influ­ence, through your light, through you, maybe just one person—but one person—will have found that next step up the evolutionary ladder.