SERMONS FROM THE HEIGHTS

Transcription

1 Deuteronomy 31:1-8; 1 Peter 5:6-11 SERMONS FROM THE HEIGHTS by Randy L. Hyde, D. Min. Senior Pastor Pulaski Heights Baptist Church Little Rock, AR rhyde@phbclr.com TUNE MY HEART: October 11, 2015 FOR THE LIVING OF THESE DAYS It is true that the most unforgettable lessons of life usually come through the most painful experiences. I would call for testimonies to that truth, but frankly, we don t have the time. But if you don t mind, I ll share one of mine. In the spring of 1975, I developed a blister on the palm of my hand. It came from using an axe without the benefit of wearing gloves. Not a very smart thing to do. The blister became infected and a couple of days later I discovered a red line running up my arm. That is not a positive thing. So, I made a hasty visit to the emergency room, being aware that this is a sure sign of a potentially serious blood infection that will go straight to the heart unless something is done to prevent it from doing so. The attending nurse was prepared to give me a tetanus shot, but not before asking, Do you remember when you last had one of these? Sure, I told her, it was April 3 rd of last year. Oh, really? When I ask that question of a patient, I don t usually get such a specific response. You remember those kinds of things, I said to her, when you ve been in a tornado. It was my last semester in seminary. If you recall my telling this story before, please bear with me; I ll do my best to give you the abridged version. April 3 rd, 1974 has been dubbed the Day of the Killer Tornadoes. It was, at the time, the largest tornado outbreak in history during a twenty-four-hour span, with thirty F4

2 and F5 tornadoes tearing through the heartland of the U.S. claiming 319 lives. Louisville, Kentucky was not spared. It was late Wednesday afternoon during rush hour. The tornado ripped through the city, skirted our neighborhood near Cherokee Park, headed straight for the seminary where Janet was working in the school clinic, jumped over the childcare center located on the edge of the campus, made a right turn on Grinstead Avenue behind the school, headed east and destroyed all the houses in its path. One of those houses belonged to a distant relative of Janet s, so after making sure she was okay and things cleared a bit, I joined a few others in helping her family members reclaim what was left of their possessions. In the process of doing that, I stepped on a nail. Hence the tetanus shot. The seminary, like most of the areas in that part of the city, was without electrical power for three weeks. Needless to say, we were unable to hold classes during that time. But before being dispersed we held a worship service in the seminary alumni chapel. The service was designed not only for inspiration, but for providing us instruction as to what we might expect in the days to come. So, it became something of a planning session as well. Of course, at that time, we had no idea how long it would be before we came back together, so a service of this nature was quite helpful to us. It was a strange, if not eerie, experience in a way. In our weekly chapel services, which usually filled the building, we were accustomed to the lusty sounds of the pipe organ accompanying our singing. This time it was only the softer sound of a piano. Generally, the chapel s white walls were illuminated by the usual lighting, but on this day there was none, so we sat in semi-darkness and shadows. We were still stunned by the prior day s experiences, grieving for those who lost life and property, and grateful that it wasn t any worse than it turned out to be. Like many of you, I had grown up in a church that largely sang the traditional gospel songs and hymns that spoke of Christ s atoning death on the cross. There were the blood songs, as they are sometimes called, the revivalistic hymns that called sinners to repentance, and the wayward back home... all based on the theology of what is called substitutionary atonement. Where I come from, we were

3 served a steady diet of those kinds of hymns. And yes, we managed to sing all the verses of Just As I Am over and over as we waited for people to walk the aisle. Because of that, I did not have a strong background in what I would now consider to be the more classic range of traditional Christian hymns. And for that reason, I had never before heard Harry Emerson Fosdick s hymn God of Grace and God of Glory. But then again, as such things go, it was still a relatively new hymn, being less than fifty years old. But we sang it that day in the seminary chapel, many of us through our tears, and in the dark. And it spoke to me as if God himself were singing with us, or at least whispering in my ear... Grant us wisdom, Grant us courage, I don t recall which of the professors planned the worship for the day, or who might have been responsible for choosing the hymns. But I can tell you this: he will never know what influence he has had on my life in the ensuing years. I still get goose bumps whenever we sing this hymn, regardless of the occasion, if for no other reason than it causes me to recall that momentous day, and gives me courage all over again whenever fears and doubts come my way. Grant us wisdom, Grant us courage, Fosdick wrote this hymn in 1930 on the occasion of the dedication of Riverside Church in the Morningside Heights section of Manhattan, in New York City. The purpose of the hymn is obvious in the first verse... God of grace and God of glory, On thy people pour thy pow r. Crown Thine ancient church s story, Bring her bud to glorious flow r. Grant us wisdom, Grant us courage, For the facing of this hour. It was an inspiration that came from his own personal, and quite painful, experience. Fosdick had lived through the first world war, while another loomed large on the horizon. He wrote this hymn in the midst of the Great Depression 3

4 when people were suffering from lack of work and food and sustenance not to mention self-worth and from his knowing first-hand the treachery of depression and despair. Grant us wisdom, Grant us courage, For the facing of this hour. Fosdick grew up in Buffalo, New York, the child of a devout middle-class family, whose Baptist roots went back several generations in England. So it was not a terribly surprising decision that he chose the ministry for his vocation. In fact, during an evening walk, when he was home one weekend from college, his father said to him, Harry, you know that you will never be satisfied outside the Christian ministry. 1 The way he went about it, however, was not exactly orthodox. But then again, nothing Fosdick ever did was considered to be orthodox or conservative. During his first year in seminary at Union Theological in New York City, he was also enrolled as a student at Columbia University. In addition to that, he worked in the bowery located in Hell s Kitchen, ministering to the homeless. After a few months of this rugged schedule, his personal troubles began. It was simply too heavy a load, and he wasn t strong enough for it. and beginning in November of that year he was finding it increasingly difficult to sleep. A nervous breakdown was the result. High-strung and sensitive, he says, I was built for one... He writes in his autobiography, Many times in later years I have faced people who started in to tell me the inner hell of their neurotic agony the waves of melancholia, the obsessive anxieties, the desire for suicide and all the rest and I have stopped them, saying: Don t you tell me, let me tell you how you feel. One typical man, with wide eyes, exclaimed when I was through: My God! how did you know that? He goes on to tell of other notable people of his era who had gone through the same suicidal tendencies... Leo Tolstoi, Mark Twain who at the age of thirty, put a loaded pistol to his head but lacked the courage to pull the trigger William James... One dreadful day, he writes, I reached the pit of utter despair, sure that all my hopes were vain and that I was finished. I have often wondered whether, if my father had not been there saying, Harry! Harry! I would really have cut my throat with that razor. 2 4

5 You have heard me say that the Bible was not written in the safe confines of a monastery, but in the midst of the blood and sweat and tears, and often persecution, of those who had a unique and powerful encounter with God. The same was true of Harry Emerson Fosdick s life and ministry. This hymn we have sung did not emerge simply from a warm and cozy office when he was doing his morning devotions over a cup of coffee. These powerful words came from a heart that knew despair and had come to an undeserved acceptance of God s redeeming and healing grace. For the first time in my life, he says, I faced, at my wit s end, a situation too much for me to handle. I went down into the depths where selfconfidence becomes ludicrous. 3 You do know, don t you, that this hymn is a prayer, a prayer of petition? Lo! the hosts of evil round us Scorn thy Christ, assail His ways! Fears and doubts too long have bound us, Free our hearts to work and praise. Grant us wisdom, Grant us courage, Essentially, what is being asked in this hymn is what is promised in our passage from Peter s first epistle. If you hadn t noticed already, let me draw your attention to it now. When Paul came on the scene, and established his itinerant ministry throughout the Mediterranean world, Peter kind of got lost in Paul s dust. Have you ever noticed that? For the first few chapters of Luke s Acts of the Apostles, Peter and John as well is featured pretty prominently. Peter preaches on Pentecost and three thousand souls are added to the church. Not long after, he and John are walking through Jerusalem and are confronted by a paralytic who begs of them. Are you familiar with Peter s response? Silver and gold have I none, but what I have I give to you. In the name of Jesus I say to you, get up and walk! (3:6). And the man does just that. The two are hauled before the magistrates and told not to preach Jesus any longer. Peter s response?... we cannot keep from speaking about what we have seen and heard (4:2). 5

6 But soon after, interestingly enough, we don t get very deep into the book before the focus shifts clearly in Paul s direction. Peter, it seems, gets left behind. But this is what tradition tells us... Peter continued to share Christ, to the point that he eventually was martyred in Rome. How did it happen? It is said that he was crucified upside down, telling the Roman authorities that he did not deserve to die as did his Master. And, we are told, the Romans first crucified Peter s wife while he was forced to watch. The Romans could indeed be most cruel. Yet, Peter s testimony is, And after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, support, strengthen, and establish you (1 Peter 5:10). I think we can be pretty confident that this would have also been his testimony as he died on a cross. My guess is that many, if not most, of you have at some point in life experienced difficulty, maybe even that which led to despair. What did you do, where did you turn? Is that true of what you are going through even now? Though my own despair did not seem to run quite as deep as that of Harry Emerson Fosdick, and certainly as that of Simon Peter, still I have known the fears and doubts to which Fosdick refers, that too long have bound us. It was when I was bound by fear and doubt that I discovered the promise found in Peter s epistle, and have clung to it ever since: And after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, support, strengthen, and establish you. You know what Peter is saying? The same as Harry Emerson Fosdick, that Fears and doubts too long have bound us, and we need, and have available to us, the grace of the One who can and will Free our hearts to work and praise. If there is one thing we cannot do for ourselves, it is of our own strength to put our lives back together in the face of loss and hardship. Frederick Buechner reminds us that...the one thing a clenched fist cannot do is accept. 4 If you have not offered this prayer before, open your hand, and your heart, and do it now. Grant us wisdom, Grant us courage, It is a prayer that will sustain you, no matter your difficulty. Thanks be to God. 6

7 Lord, walk with us in our struggles. Bless us in our difficulties. Strengthen us that we might always, and in all circumstances, praise your name. Through Christ our Lord we pray, Amen. Notes 1 Harry Emerson Fosdick, The Living of These Days (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1956), p Ibid., pp Ibid., pp Frederick Buechner, Listening to Your Life (San Francisco: Harper, 1992), p