Weekly Sermon, p. 5
Dublin Core
Title
Weekly Sermon, p. 5
Description
“SCRAP RUBBER AND RELIGION
Independence Day Sermon Delivered by Dr. G. Wayman Blakely, Greater Bethel A. M. E. Church Little Rock, Sunday, June 28.
Rev. 2:1-5 These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candle-sticks:
2 I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars:
3 And has borne, and hast patience, and for my name’s sake hast laboured, and hast not fainted.
4 Nevertheless… I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.
5 Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place except thou repent.
This Independence Sunday breaks America and finds us engaged in a most colossal and bitter struggle for our way of life. These are critical hours for the United Nations. This 4th of July will find us fighting a new war for freedom, more cast, devastating and bloody than any previous conflict.
One of the most important material elements needed in this struggle is rubber. The world of mankind, most of it to say the least, in civilian life and in warfare alike, moves upon wheels. Rubber is absolutely essential to prosecute the war effort abroad and to maintain a fair degree of normal living at home.
Because of this need, with our rubber supplies cut off elsewhere, our President has appealed to every citizen to search in every nook and cranny - basement, attic, closet, outhouse, in the alleys and in the streets to find all cast away rubber and to turn it in so that its value, which ordinarily would not even concern us, may be reclaimed and this “material stone” which the builders rejected, may become the head of the corner.
Is not this a true picture of what has been going on with our religion in America? Are there not some values that we have placed on the junk pile, left to rot in our attics and cellars - that we shall need to dig up and put back into use if we hope to have a nation strong and great?
Mankind has had a way, through the years, of discarding values and essentials on the least provocation. Our text related the story of the church at Ephesus that had discarded her most essential element of success and was attempting to fight battles of the Lord without the “rubber” of love. John, therefore advises her from the throne room that he had set up on lonely Patmos saying (Text). They had discarded the strong and ardent affection for God and sacred things which they had former days.
Remember, says he, the state of grace in which ye once stood; the happiness, love and joy, which you felt when ye received remission of sins; the zeal ye had for God’s glory, and the salvation of mankind; your willing obedient spirit, your cheerful self denial, your fervour in private prayer, your detachment from the world, and your heavenly mindedness. You have cast these aside. Go back, repent, humble yourselves before God. Go to your cellars and rubbish heaps and bring back your former zeal and patience; watch fast and pray; reprove sin, be faithful in attending the ordinances of God; do not rest till you have regained your lost ground and received again the witness of the spirit in your breasts.
This nation with its polyglot population, was founded upon the ideal of godliness and brotherly love. The Mayflower Compact was begun with the words, “In the name of God, Amen.” Daniel Webster called this the first clause of the American Constitution. Dr. J. W. Wilson gives us this illustration, “On the top of the rocky summit overlooking the bay where the good ship Mayflower first cast her anchor is a magnificent statue. On the four corners of the huge pedestal are seated four figures representing Law, Morality, Freedom, and Education, emblematic of the four square foundation that supports our whole national life. Rising high above these four figures is a glorious granite shaft on which stands a heroic-sized figure of Faith. In one hand she holds an open Bible, symbolizing the religious Magna Charta of American history, while the other hand is raised aloft, pointing to the great white throne of God in the heavens. As the religious figure of Faith arises above the foundation of figures of Law, Morality, Freedom and Education, so there rises the supreme above all other factors in our national life the religious element in American history. So long as that element remains in dominating influence and quickening power, so long will America remain “the land of the free’ and ‘the light of mankind.”
But, alas, we have been placing our religious values, like our rubber, on the scrap pile failing to recognize the value of fasting, praying, worship, private and public devotions and the love of God, supreme, and our neighbor as ourselves.
Turning back to our original comparison because we have not conserved our rubber our whole way of life is threatened. I wonder if this may not be said of the consequences of our neglect of religion with equal property? Because we have neglected God this curse is placed upon us?
In our text John not only gives a challenge but sounds a warning. “Except ye repent, and do the first works, I will come, and come quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place.”
Dr. Adam Clarke comments up on this verse thus:
“I will take away my ordinances, remover your ministers, and send you a famine of the word. As there is here an allusion to the candlestick in the tabernacle and temple, which could not be removed, without suspending the whole Levitical service, so the threatening here intimates, that if they did not repent, etc., he would unchulurch them, they should no longer have a pastor, no longer have the word and sacraments, and no longer have the presences of the Lord Jesus.”
Would this not be our situation today if the Axis power should triumph?
What is our hope? It is this above all human effort and material resources our hope is in God who has made the heavens and the earth. Who maketh wars to cease until the end of the earth: he breaketh the bow, and cutteth the spear in sunder, he burneth the chariot in the fire. IN him is life; and the life is the light of men. That light still shines today in our darkened world. Dr. Joseph Fort Newton relates this story:
“Last evening,” a London physician said, “my children were on the street when a blackout went into effect. At first they were terrified by the sudden falling darkness.
“Then they came into my office, trembling, not with fright, but with faces aglow with happiness, ‘Look, Father.” they exclaimed, ‘we can see the stars - stars right here in Longdon!”
“It gave my heart a lift. I had not been able to see anything but sorrow in the blackouts. My mind linked them with the despainting words years ago, “The lights of Europe are going out!”
“But now my heart tells me - taught by my children - that the lights of God are still shining. The very darkness makes them more visible, if we will but life our downcast eyes.””
Independence Day Sermon Delivered by Dr. G. Wayman Blakely, Greater Bethel A. M. E. Church Little Rock, Sunday, June 28.
Rev. 2:1-5 These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candle-sticks:
2 I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars:
3 And has borne, and hast patience, and for my name’s sake hast laboured, and hast not fainted.
4 Nevertheless… I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.
5 Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place except thou repent.
This Independence Sunday breaks America and finds us engaged in a most colossal and bitter struggle for our way of life. These are critical hours for the United Nations. This 4th of July will find us fighting a new war for freedom, more cast, devastating and bloody than any previous conflict.
One of the most important material elements needed in this struggle is rubber. The world of mankind, most of it to say the least, in civilian life and in warfare alike, moves upon wheels. Rubber is absolutely essential to prosecute the war effort abroad and to maintain a fair degree of normal living at home.
Because of this need, with our rubber supplies cut off elsewhere, our President has appealed to every citizen to search in every nook and cranny - basement, attic, closet, outhouse, in the alleys and in the streets to find all cast away rubber and to turn it in so that its value, which ordinarily would not even concern us, may be reclaimed and this “material stone” which the builders rejected, may become the head of the corner.
Is not this a true picture of what has been going on with our religion in America? Are there not some values that we have placed on the junk pile, left to rot in our attics and cellars - that we shall need to dig up and put back into use if we hope to have a nation strong and great?
Mankind has had a way, through the years, of discarding values and essentials on the least provocation. Our text related the story of the church at Ephesus that had discarded her most essential element of success and was attempting to fight battles of the Lord without the “rubber” of love. John, therefore advises her from the throne room that he had set up on lonely Patmos saying (Text). They had discarded the strong and ardent affection for God and sacred things which they had former days.
Remember, says he, the state of grace in which ye once stood; the happiness, love and joy, which you felt when ye received remission of sins; the zeal ye had for God’s glory, and the salvation of mankind; your willing obedient spirit, your cheerful self denial, your fervour in private prayer, your detachment from the world, and your heavenly mindedness. You have cast these aside. Go back, repent, humble yourselves before God. Go to your cellars and rubbish heaps and bring back your former zeal and patience; watch fast and pray; reprove sin, be faithful in attending the ordinances of God; do not rest till you have regained your lost ground and received again the witness of the spirit in your breasts.
This nation with its polyglot population, was founded upon the ideal of godliness and brotherly love. The Mayflower Compact was begun with the words, “In the name of God, Amen.” Daniel Webster called this the first clause of the American Constitution. Dr. J. W. Wilson gives us this illustration, “On the top of the rocky summit overlooking the bay where the good ship Mayflower first cast her anchor is a magnificent statue. On the four corners of the huge pedestal are seated four figures representing Law, Morality, Freedom, and Education, emblematic of the four square foundation that supports our whole national life. Rising high above these four figures is a glorious granite shaft on which stands a heroic-sized figure of Faith. In one hand she holds an open Bible, symbolizing the religious Magna Charta of American history, while the other hand is raised aloft, pointing to the great white throne of God in the heavens. As the religious figure of Faith arises above the foundation of figures of Law, Morality, Freedom and Education, so there rises the supreme above all other factors in our national life the religious element in American history. So long as that element remains in dominating influence and quickening power, so long will America remain “the land of the free’ and ‘the light of mankind.”
But, alas, we have been placing our religious values, like our rubber, on the scrap pile failing to recognize the value of fasting, praying, worship, private and public devotions and the love of God, supreme, and our neighbor as ourselves.
Turning back to our original comparison because we have not conserved our rubber our whole way of life is threatened. I wonder if this may not be said of the consequences of our neglect of religion with equal property? Because we have neglected God this curse is placed upon us?
In our text John not only gives a challenge but sounds a warning. “Except ye repent, and do the first works, I will come, and come quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place.”
Dr. Adam Clarke comments up on this verse thus:
“I will take away my ordinances, remover your ministers, and send you a famine of the word. As there is here an allusion to the candlestick in the tabernacle and temple, which could not be removed, without suspending the whole Levitical service, so the threatening here intimates, that if they did not repent, etc., he would unchulurch them, they should no longer have a pastor, no longer have the word and sacraments, and no longer have the presences of the Lord Jesus.”
Would this not be our situation today if the Axis power should triumph?
What is our hope? It is this above all human effort and material resources our hope is in God who has made the heavens and the earth. Who maketh wars to cease until the end of the earth: he breaketh the bow, and cutteth the spear in sunder, he burneth the chariot in the fire. IN him is life; and the life is the light of men. That light still shines today in our darkened world. Dr. Joseph Fort Newton relates this story:
“Last evening,” a London physician said, “my children were on the street when a blackout went into effect. At first they were terrified by the sudden falling darkness.
“Then they came into my office, trembling, not with fright, but with faces aglow with happiness, ‘Look, Father.” they exclaimed, ‘we can see the stars - stars right here in Longdon!”
“It gave my heart a lift. I had not been able to see anything but sorrow in the blackouts. My mind linked them with the despainting words years ago, “The lights of Europe are going out!”
“But now my heart tells me - taught by my children - that the lights of God are still shining. The very darkness makes them more visible, if we will but life our downcast eyes.””
Creator
N/A
Publisher
Arkansas State Press
Date
1942-7-3
Collection
Citation
N/A, “Weekly Sermon, p. 5,” African American Fourth of July, accessed May 5, 2024, https://africanamerican4th.omeka.net/items/show/20.