Howard C. Wilkinson - "A Strange Building Project" (January 17, 1965)
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Transcript
Transcripts may contain inaccuracies.
(gospel singing) | 0:06 | |
- | A little while ago | 0:32 |
as Rick Burtz was reading our morning scripture lesson, | 0:32 | |
it being a portion of the 23rd chapter of Matthew's gospel. | 0:36 | |
I wonder if you were marveling, | 0:42 | |
as I have been for some time. | 0:44 | |
At the way Jesus denounced the scribes | 0:48 | |
and Pharisees of his day without using profanities. | 0:51 | |
It is only because the words | 0:59 | |
of scripture are so familiar to us. | 1:01 | |
And because we tend to think of Jesus | 1:04 | |
as being the meek and mild Galalion, | 1:06 | |
that we are not shocked. | 1:11 | |
By the absolutely blistering language, | 1:14 | |
which the prince of peace used in addressing | 1:18 | |
the scribes and Pharisees. | 1:22 | |
To the woman caught | 1:26 | |
in defenseless sin and found in open shame. | 1:27 | |
Jesus spoke tenderly, | 1:32 | |
Assuring her that he did not condemn her. | 1:34 | |
And he bade her to go and sin no more. | 1:38 | |
To a dying robber who deserved the crucifixion | 1:42 | |
he was getting, Jesus took time out | 1:45 | |
from his own undeserved agony to speak a promise | 1:49 | |
of paradise to come. | 1:53 | |
He comforted an officer in the Roman army of occupation. | 1:57 | |
He wept at the tomb of a dead friend. | 2:02 | |
And he brought kindness in hope | 2:06 | |
to the heart of a despised tax collector | 2:09 | |
by a reckless act of public acceptance. | 2:12 | |
It therefore is so very arresting. | 2:17 | |
When in reading the record of the words and actions of Jesus | 2:21 | |
we come across his words to the public leaders | 2:25 | |
of morality and religion describes in Pharisees. | 2:29 | |
While we read no soothing words | 2:35 | |
of kindness to them at all. | 2:37 | |
Instead of the soft word. | 2:40 | |
He heaped linguistic fire and brimstone upon their heads. | 2:43 | |
Again and again, Jesus stormed at them, 'woe to you | 2:50 | |
scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites.' | 2:55 | |
Indeed, In the 23rd chapter of Matthew, | 3:01 | |
we find in the space of less than 20 verses, | 3:04 | |
that our Lord called them hypocrites five times. | 3:08 | |
He called them blind five times and then top these epithets | 3:12 | |
by calling them also fools, white wash tombs, Serpens | 3:17 | |
and a brute of Vipers. | 3:22 | |
When I suppose I were to stand up here today | 3:26 | |
in this honored pulpit and talk to you folks like that. | 3:29 | |
The very least that you would do | 3:35 | |
if I did this would be to demand an explanation | 3:36 | |
for all this bycuperation. | 3:40 | |
So let's ask the same of these words of Jesus. | 3:43 | |
What had the describes in Pharisees done | 3:48 | |
to deserve such an unrelenting tongue lashing | 3:50 | |
from the son of God? | 3:54 | |
Were they criminals, law breakers, wife, beaters, rapists? | 3:56 | |
No, they were not robbers, | 4:02 | |
like the man who were crucified beside Jesus. | 4:05 | |
They were not adulterers like the woman | 4:09 | |
who had been dragged to his feet. | 4:11 | |
They were not slave traders and they were not spies. | 4:14 | |
Well, what kind of people were they? | 4:18 | |
According to the biblical scholars | 4:22 | |
of every major religion today, | 4:24 | |
the Pharisees were in their time and in the terms | 4:28 | |
of the standards of public morality, | 4:32 | |
the best men of their day. | 4:34 | |
Consequently, it is indeed strange | 4:39 | |
that Jesus would have reserve for them | 4:42 | |
is most acid denunciations. | 4:45 | |
And it is still more strange when we notice what it | 4:49 | |
was that brought forth the severest of all his severe words. | 4:51 | |
When he pronounced the final woe | 4:58 | |
of seven in the 23rd chapter, he added the insult. | 5:00 | |
You serpents, you brod of Vipers. | 5:05 | |
And then he explained why he called them such ugly names. | 5:10 | |
What they were doing that so aroused | 5:15 | |
the wrath of Christ was building | 5:19 | |
the tombs of the prophets. | 5:23 | |
Here are the very words of Jesus, "woe to use scribes | 5:29 | |
"and Pharisees hypocrites. | 5:33 | |
"For you build the tombs | 5:36 | |
"of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous." | 5:37 | |
Hold up. | 5:43 | |
Now what, let us ask | 5:45 | |
in all fairness was, so iniquitous about that? | 5:47 | |
The prophets were men of God who courageously spoke out | 5:52 | |
for the right and they declared the will of God | 5:56 | |
in the open face of the sun, even when it was unpopular | 6:00 | |
to do so. | 6:04 | |
In some instances, they were honored while they lived. | 6:06 | |
But more often they died in disrepute, | 6:11 | |
if not in actual persecution. | 6:13 | |
Now the Pharisees proposed to honor these men of God, | 6:17 | |
they were busy building tombs for their bones to rest in | 6:24 | |
and giving them such belated praise as might be possible. | 6:28 | |
Whereas generations, before these Pharisees had been perhaps | 6:33 | |
unmindful of the injustices that had been perpetrated | 6:37 | |
upon the prophets and probably many of the contemporaries | 6:41 | |
of these Pharisees, likewise were heatless. | 6:45 | |
The Pharisees of Jesus day were mindful of history sins | 6:49 | |
and they wanted to correct them. | 6:56 | |
Well, I think we ought to pause long enough here to say | 7:00 | |
that these actions up to this point | 7:03 | |
have much to commend them. | 7:07 | |
There certainly is nothing wrong with correcting | 7:09 | |
the outrages of history per se. | 7:11 | |
And we cannot find fault with any sincere attempt | 7:15 | |
to honor the prophets and martyrs | 7:18 | |
who lived and died among people | 7:20 | |
who failed to appreciate them. | 7:22 | |
Indeed, one of the tragic facts of human existence | 7:25 | |
is that all too often, an unselfish person lives | 7:28 | |
and dies heroically | 7:33 | |
but nobody on earth ever any attention to his heroism. | 7:37 | |
Over and over, it happens that injustice crucifies justice | 7:43 | |
and on earth, the crime is not corrected. | 7:48 | |
And perhaps not even noticed. | 7:52 | |
I am perfectly certain | 7:56 | |
that Jesus did not intend to criticize the practice | 7:57 | |
of calling attention to the noble | 8:01 | |
and faithful witness of deceased great men | 8:03 | |
because he used this very tool himself to win acceptance | 8:07 | |
of his message when he was teaching and preaching. | 8:12 | |
Chapter 11 of the book of Hebrews recounts at length | 8:16 | |
the accomplishments of the prophets | 8:21 | |
and other great men of the past. | 8:23 | |
And then the author uses this recital | 8:25 | |
of their deeds to spur his readers | 8:28 | |
onto a life of faith and of high adventure for God. | 8:31 | |
So we have to conclude | 8:36 | |
that when our Lord castigate the Pharisees | 8:38 | |
for building the tombs to the prophets, he had in mind | 8:41 | |
their motives and their words | 8:44 | |
rather than the building project itself. | 8:47 | |
Now this brings us to take a close look | 8:51 | |
at their words and their motives. | 8:53 | |
The Pharisees were not content to build the tombs | 8:56 | |
of the prophets. | 8:59 | |
And to explain that the prophets were unjustly | 9:00 | |
killed by unjust men. | 9:02 | |
They were not willing to leave anything indeed | 9:05 | |
to the imagination | 9:07 | |
of the spectators who watched this building project. | 9:08 | |
The Pharisees told the people | 9:13 | |
exactly what they wanted them to conclude. | 9:14 | |
They said, "If we had lived | 9:18 | |
"in the days of our fathers, we would not have taken part | 9:21 | |
"with them in shedding the blood of the prophets. | 9:25 | |
That's what they wanted them to conclude. | 9:30 | |
Oh no, of course not. | 9:33 | |
They certainly wouldn't have done that. | 9:36 | |
They wouldn't have killed a mere prophet. | 9:39 | |
They were plotting to crucify the very son of God. | 9:43 | |
And so it becomes not only clear, but very understandable | 9:49 | |
that Jesus would have reserved for them, | 9:53 | |
His most stinging, chastisement | 9:57 | |
the scribes and Pharisees were in very truth, hypocrites. | 10:00 | |
They were evil men | 10:05 | |
with guilt written all over their black hearts. | 10:06 | |
They sought to soothe their consciences on the one hand | 10:10 | |
and make themselves appear outwardly righteous. | 10:14 | |
On the other hand, one | 10:16 | |
in the same time by building the tombs | 10:17 | |
of the prophets who were safely dead and by making it appear | 10:20 | |
that they themselves were in the tradition of the prophets | 10:24 | |
all the while laying schemes to kill that greatest | 10:27 | |
of all prophets Jesus Christ. | 10:31 | |
Well, if this were an isolated event in history | 10:36 | |
with no modern parallels | 10:39 | |
we would not be discussing it here this morning | 10:41 | |
in this university service of worship. | 10:43 | |
If those ancient Jewish leaders were the last men on earth | 10:46 | |
to be guilty of this type of subterfuge, | 10:50 | |
we could leave the incident to the department of history | 10:54 | |
or to the department of religion for academic study. | 10:57 | |
But it is not, so. | 11:01 | |
It is sad but true that this strange building project | 11:03 | |
is going forward in our time, | 11:08 | |
on many continents of the earth. | 11:11 | |
There are people today who are building tombs | 11:14 | |
for dead prophets as a cover-up for their persecution | 11:17 | |
of the living prophets. | 11:21 | |
And let me remind you of something here that happened | 11:24 | |
during the last World War to give point to this. | 11:27 | |
As Hitler spread his army and his agents across Germany | 11:32 | |
and all of Europe, he demand complete submission | 11:37 | |
to his tyranny in every country and in every area of life | 11:41 | |
he made it clear that the penalty for resistance | 11:46 | |
would be the concentration camp or death. | 11:49 | |
The only freedom he was willing to approve was the freedom | 11:54 | |
of every person to agree with him. | 11:57 | |
This was enforced in brutal fashion by the army | 12:00 | |
the SS guards, the agents of the Gestapo. | 12:05 | |
Who was supported | 12:11 | |
by a steady stream | 12:12 | |
of scientifically developed propaganda brainwashing. | 12:13 | |
In the United States, there was almost | 12:19 | |
unanimous denunciation of this Hitler tyranny, | 12:22 | |
by the leaders of education leaders of religion | 12:27 | |
the leaders of government and the government | 12:30 | |
of the United States are organized to combat this menace | 12:32 | |
in Europe, by a military enterprise | 12:35 | |
under the command of general Eisenhower. | 12:37 | |
While all of this was going on, | 12:42 | |
reports were filtering out of Europe | 12:45 | |
through the underground of great courage, | 12:47 | |
On the part of European church | 12:52 | |
who are willing to defy Hitler | 12:55 | |
at the risk of their lives. | 12:57 | |
Many of these people were killed. | 13:00 | |
One whose writings are very popular today | 13:02 | |
was Dietrich who was martyred. | 13:05 | |
Many hundreds more were crammed | 13:10 | |
into very inhuman concentration, | 13:12 | |
never knowing at what moment the executioner | 13:16 | |
might come for them. | 13:18 | |
One was pastor Martin Nee Muller | 13:21 | |
who was spared almost miraculously who preached | 13:24 | |
in this very pulpit a year and a half ago. | 13:27 | |
And who is now one | 13:31 | |
of the presidents of the world council of churches. | 13:32 | |
This great man was pastor of a church at Berlin | 13:36 | |
very early in the Hitler regime. | 13:40 | |
He outspokenly called for obedience | 13:42 | |
to God rather than to any man. | 13:44 | |
He was thrown into a concentration camp where he rotted | 13:47 | |
until the wars end. | 13:50 | |
In spite of the fact that he knew he would be released | 13:52 | |
if only he would support Adolf Hitler. | 13:57 | |
Incidentally, his associate pastor was the father | 14:01 | |
of Hans Hilabra, who is one of the professors now | 14:04 | |
in our divinity school. | 14:07 | |
Well Nee Muller and Bon Heffa of course were not | 14:10 | |
the only two outspoken voices, voices of protest in Europe. | 14:13 | |
There was count Vangalan, | 14:18 | |
the Bishop of Munster who steadfastly resisted, | 14:19 | |
Archbishop Graber of Freeberg issued a very | 14:23 | |
bold letter of protest. | 14:26 | |
Had it read in all the churches of his archdiocese. | 14:28 | |
Patriarch Gabrelo of the Serbian Orthodox church | 14:32 | |
in Yugoslavia was such an effective resistor | 14:35 | |
that he was imprisoned. | 14:40 | |
Then there was Cardinal van Roy and Belgium | 14:42 | |
who resisted the nausea tyranny to the very end. | 14:45 | |
He even issued in order to the effect | 14:49 | |
that no one who appeared at church wearing a Nazi uniform | 14:50 | |
could be admitted to the service. | 14:53 | |
Archbishop Dejong of Utract joined forces with Protestants | 14:57 | |
in Holland form a very effective Christian resistance. | 15:01 | |
He directed that any church member who cooperated | 15:07 | |
with the specifically pagan practices of the Nazi ideology | 15:11 | |
should have the sacraments refused to him. | 15:15 | |
What time would fail us to tell of others | 15:18 | |
of Lutheran Bishop Bargrove, who was called Quizling's thorn | 15:20 | |
in the flesh in Norway, | 15:24 | |
of Dr. Howcoke, professor of theology at the university | 15:26 | |
of Copenhagen, and many, many other saints. | 15:29 | |
And Martys who in our time stood firmly in Europe | 15:32 | |
against the darkness of NAZI tyranny. | 15:37 | |
Many of whom paid the Supreme sacrifice. | 15:40 | |
These Christians and others like them | 15:45 | |
gave the modern world a shining example | 15:49 | |
of courage to the death. | 15:51 | |
And they serve notice that the boldness | 15:53 | |
of the prophets is not entirely a virtue | 15:55 | |
of the ancient past. | 15:59 | |
This is all very good. | 16:02 | |
What troubled me at the time | 16:07 | |
all this was going on was the fact | 16:09 | |
that some churchmen in America, | 16:11 | |
were rejoicing so greatly | 16:15 | |
in the bravery of the church under Hitler | 16:17 | |
that they apparently didn't have time to notice | 16:19 | |
the evils in America, which needed their attention. | 16:22 | |
Some of them had time to write articles | 16:26 | |
and to preach sermons | 16:28 | |
about the Christians who were attacking evils in Europe | 16:29 | |
but they did not write articles | 16:33 | |
nor preach sermons against the movement in America | 16:34 | |
which sought to make all of us hate the Germans. | 16:38 | |
And they seemed unable to confess the sins of America | 16:41 | |
which made it possible for Hitler to overthrow democracy | 16:44 | |
in Germany and seize the reigns of power. | 16:48 | |
At that time | 16:52 | |
this would've been very unpopular to preach in America. | 16:53 | |
It was safer to build the tombs of the European prophets. | 16:57 | |
During the war, the doctrine | 17:03 | |
of military necessity was conceived and spread in America. | 17:04 | |
It went like this. | 17:08 | |
Winning the war is a necessity. | 17:10 | |
So that whatever appears to be a contribution | 17:13 | |
to winning must be allowed. | 17:16 | |
Morale is one of the ingredients of victory. | 17:19 | |
And so whatever promotes morale must be tolerated. | 17:22 | |
This was as closed a system | 17:27 | |
of moral tyranny as NAZIism was in Europe. | 17:30 | |
And by means of it, some Americans justified everything. | 17:37 | |
Hatred, revenge lies, adultery, prostitution. | 17:39 | |
You can name the list. | 17:43 | |
Where was the voice | 17:46 | |
and the influence of those American churchmen | 17:47 | |
when this doctrine was preached | 17:50 | |
and practiced in our own land? | 17:52 | |
Too often their voice and energy were preoccupied | 17:56 | |
with building tombs for overseas prophets. | 18:00 | |
Up until the second world war Albert Einstein had | 18:05 | |
expressed little regard for the Christian Church | 18:08 | |
but during the war, he issued some amazing statements | 18:13 | |
of admiration for the church. | 18:17 | |
At that time, he was living in America and it has to be said | 18:21 | |
to the eternal shame of the Christian Church | 18:25 | |
in this nation, that he had to make it clear | 18:27 | |
that it was not the American church, which converted him. | 18:32 | |
It was the church in Europe. | 18:36 | |
No, my friends, it is one thing to build the tombs | 18:40 | |
of the prophets and adorn the monuments | 18:43 | |
of the righteous at a safe distance. | 18:45 | |
But it is another thing to stand | 18:48 | |
with the courage was theirs against the evils, | 18:50 | |
which are ours. | 18:54 | |
It's hard on a man's soul to boast of the heroism | 18:56 | |
and martyrdom of those distant promise either | 19:00 | |
in history or in geography, | 19:03 | |
because it is very easy then to boast of their courage | 19:05 | |
and feel that we have thus paid our proper | 19:10 | |
for respects to bravery. | 19:12 | |
So what then, can we ask of those churchmen in Birmingham | 19:15 | |
and Montgomery, Alabama, And of Philadelphia, Mississippi | 19:20 | |
and of little rock in St. Augustine, | 19:25 | |
who currently are thanking God in public prayers | 19:28 | |
for the courage of the white me missionaries | 19:32 | |
who have recently become the butchered martyrs | 19:34 | |
in the Belgian Congo, or we need not ask them | 19:36 | |
if this heartless massacre took place, | 19:41 | |
or we know that it did. | 19:44 | |
We do not need to ask them about the devotion | 19:47 | |
of those faithful missionaries, or we already know | 19:49 | |
that they lovingly poured out the last full measure | 19:53 | |
of their devotion. | 19:56 | |
Someone needs to ask them about the reason | 19:59 | |
why these massacres took place. | 20:02 | |
The white missionaries had lived and worked | 20:07 | |
among the Congolese for many years. | 20:10 | |
Some of my own friends were a among them. | 20:13 | |
During all of this time, | 20:17 | |
there was no butchering of the white missionaries. | 20:19 | |
Then came the communists with their schemes, | 20:23 | |
and with true reports of little rock and Philadelphia | 20:27 | |
of bombed Negro churches in America, | 20:34 | |
and of discrimination | 20:39 | |
against black men by American white men. | 20:40 | |
Well, the communists, no doubt exaggerated. | 20:44 | |
Used these events | 20:47 | |
to whip up some of the Congolese into a fanatical | 20:48 | |
revolutionary force, which was willing to follow | 20:51 | |
the wicked schemes of the communists. | 20:55 | |
It was then that the butchering of the white missionaries | 20:58 | |
from America took place. | 21:02 | |
But there's little reason to suppose that the massacre | 21:05 | |
could have happened. | 21:09 | |
Had it not been possible for the communist | 21:11 | |
to recite so many sorry, incidents from American life. | 21:14 | |
Therefore when churchmen in this region, boast | 21:19 | |
of the heroic martyrdom of the missionaries in the Congo | 21:22 | |
someone must ask them, where was your voice? | 21:25 | |
When the police dogs tore at the flesh | 21:30 | |
of teenage American girls, whose only crime | 21:33 | |
was that they took the United States constitution | 21:36 | |
and the Christian religion, seriously. | 21:39 | |
Someone must ask Where was your Christian in influence, | 21:44 | |
when the bulldozers pushed dirt over the graves | 21:48 | |
of three young Americans who were murdered simply | 21:51 | |
because they were seeking to aid American citizens | 21:55 | |
to exercise the right to vote? | 21:57 | |
What were you doing while these and other dramas | 22:02 | |
of cruelty were being acted out, thus furnishing | 22:05 | |
the communist schemers with fuel for a great Congo bonfire? | 22:08 | |
Woe be unto the man who has to answer | 22:15 | |
that he gave the consent of silence while being too busy | 22:19 | |
in building the tomb of some profit safely dead | 22:23 | |
or safely distant. | 22:27 | |
In similar fashion, we see how some citizens | 22:31 | |
of our land may make a great fuss over the founding fathers, | 22:33 | |
and the leaders of the American revolution. | 22:38 | |
But apparently have no interest at all, | 22:41 | |
in applying the principles of our revolutionary forefathers | 22:44 | |
to the contemporary issues in this land of the free | 22:48 | |
and the home of the brave. | 22:52 | |
They want to enshrine the founding fathers | 22:54 | |
and create the impression | 22:57 | |
that they are their proper descendants. | 22:58 | |
They form groups to honor our revolutionary | 23:03 | |
and Aedence and to establish themselves | 23:05 | |
as their true sons and daughters. | 23:07 | |
They're not willing to allow history to judge | 23:11 | |
whether they are the true sons | 23:14 | |
and daughters of the founding fathers. | 23:15 | |
They want to lay verbal claim to the prize now. | 23:18 | |
Whatever historians may write later. | 23:22 | |
The judgment of Jesus and the judgment | 23:26 | |
of history is that the Pherases | 23:29 | |
these were not the sons of the prophets. | 23:30 | |
They were the sons of their fathers who killed the prophets. | 23:34 | |
There is an important difference between a true son | 23:39 | |
of the prophets and a false son of the prophets. | 23:42 | |
But the difference is subtle. | 23:46 | |
The all new way to be a true son | 23:49 | |
of the prophets is to be a prophet. | 23:50 | |
The late Dr. Albert Russell, who was Dean | 23:56 | |
of our divinity school once was invited | 23:58 | |
to Massachusetts to speak at the founding | 24:01 | |
of a society of Quaker descendants. | 24:03 | |
He wanted to know what it was | 24:05 | |
about their Quaker ancestors, which they admired. | 24:07 | |
He was told that they fed and clothed the poor | 24:11 | |
that they helped the underprivileged | 24:14 | |
that they were a powerful influence for peace | 24:17 | |
and brotherhood, and that they sought to establish justice | 24:19 | |
and honesty within a frame of love for all men. | 24:23 | |
That sounded pretty good to Dean Russell. | 24:29 | |
He replied that there was still a great need | 24:31 | |
for men like that now. | 24:33 | |
And while he would be happy to come | 24:36 | |
and help them to form a society of Quakers. | 24:37 | |
He wouldn't be interested | 24:41 | |
in helping them to establish a society | 24:42 | |
of quaker descendants. | 24:45 | |
Building the tombs of the prophets is a fine | 24:49 | |
and commendable enterprise, unless it becomes a substitute | 24:52 | |
for honest Christian living in the present. | 24:57 | |
But if it is a substitute | 25:02 | |
then it becomes a subterfuge and it falls under all the woes | 25:05 | |
which our Lord Jesus Christ pronounced upon it. | 25:09 | |
It becomes a very strange and hypocritical building project. | 25:13 | |
The life and the heroic death | 25:18 | |
of the prophets, the martyrs, the saints | 25:20 | |
and the founding fathers can be a powerful stimulus to us, | 25:22 | |
us to emulate their devotion. | 25:28 | |
This will happen if we honestly say, | 25:32 | |
with a great American that we hear highly resolved | 25:35 | |
that these dead shall not have died in vain. | 25:39 | |
Almighty God our heavenly father, who has called us | 25:50 | |
to great and heroic living, | 25:55 | |
we now offer unto thee our hearts and lives in dedication, | 25:59 | |
whatever the cost. | 26:04 | |
And we pray that we may have the thy spirit | 26:05 | |
and strength to meet the challenge of our day. | 26:08 | |
And now may the peace of God | 26:12 | |
which passes all understanding, | 26:14 | |
keep your hearts and minds in the knowledge | 26:16 | |
of God and in the love and service of Jesus Christ. | 26:19 |