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Just a fantasy, you say? Just an old-fashioned parable of a last
judgment? Do not be too sure, dear friend. History records many
judgments--judgments of men and nations. My own very deliberate
opinion is that wrapped within this saying of Jesus is history's
grim and solemn truth...
There is another Biblical saying which is also not to be despised:
"Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." A man or nation!
When the halls of government have become the sepulchre of a nation's
conscience, the smell of death is already in the air.
"Soul, thou hast much goods!...take thine ease, eat, drink and be
merry!" Yes. The candles burn brightly. The food is plentiful, the
wine abundant. But somewhere across the world an east wind is
rising. The wind that blows all candles out. And in the nighttime
comes a voice that the noise of abundance cannot drown, that no
merriment can silence. "This night is thy soul...thy soul...required
of thee." The soul of a nation. And the soul of this nation is being
betrayed.
Is it too late, then? Already too late? I do not think so. The time
is terribly short--and getting shorter--but it is not yet too late.
The people are beginning to understand--some of them--to understand
a little. The happiest thing that happened to me last week was that
I chanced to read in Time news magazine two items. One was a protest
of Senator Vandenberg's against the attempt to impose a free press
requirement on countries to which UNRRA takes assistance. "I am
unable to agree," he said, "that we should suddenly choose UNRRA, on
the threshold of winter, as the vehicle for [this requirement]. The
iron curtain [of censorship] is in the control of governments. It is
the people in these areas who die for want of bread....It is the
people--pitiful, suffering, starving millions of them facing what
will probably be the blackest, cruelest winter since the age of
plagues--from whom our aid would be withheld....You may say that the
blame would rest upon the government which denied our requirement.
But the dead would not know the difference." I have not usually
agreed with Senator Vandenberg in the past, and I do not know
whether or not I shall always do so in the future. But I give him my
humble thanks today for that saying. My thanks, and, if he cares to
have it, a simple preacher's heartfelt benediction. He spoke like a
statesman, an American, and, best of all, like a true man--a man
with a soul.
The other item I read was part of a letter from a soldier in France,
an American occupation soldier. He wrote it to the editor of Stars
and Stripes. These are his words: "I am getting too damned fat. With
a lot of women, children, grown men...in Europe on the verge of
starvation, why do they insist on fattening us up like pigs? Please
bring more for folks over here who need it and less for me."
When I read that, I felt again as I had in the airplane, that I
wanted to bow my head. But this time I could pray. "O God," I could
say, "We are stirring in our sleep at last. Stab us to wakefulness,
pierce us with the sharpest barbs of conscience until we are ready
to give up something--and send it to those who need it."
And that is precisely what I propose to you today. I do not in the
least intend that you shall go away from this Church, after telling
me that it was an acceptable sermon, or even an unacceptable sermon,
or any other kind of sermon, and then do nothing. I am not
interested in what you think of the sermon, of the preacher, of the
Church, or anything else. I am interested only in what you are going
to do.
The churches could take the lead. This Church could take the lead.
As an act of penitence that we did not do it sooner. As a
demonstration of sincerity that we mean the humanity we profess. As
church people, as Americans, and simply as human beings. Most of
all, because it is intolerable, unbearable, utterly wicked not to do
something--and begin right away.
What can anyone do? I will tell you. First, you can take the full
responsibility of a citizen. You can write or telegraph to the
Committee chairmen in Congress, or if you live outside the District,
also to your own Senators and Representatives. Do not write as
sharply as you have heard me speak this morning. I am a preacher,
and to speak as I have spoken is sometimes my inescapable duty.
Write simply, briefly and clearly that you want the UNRRA
appropriations made immediately and the subsequent ones without
delay. But do more than this. Almost every person in this Church has
friends and relatives in the States of the Union from which he or
she has come. Write to those friends and relatives. Beg them to
write--or telegraph-- their Senators and Representatives--right
away! Tell them why, and, if desirable, what to say. Ask them to get
things going along these lines in their own communities.
Do you say there is nothing you can do. You can do this. You can do
it today. You can begin to do it before you eat your next meal.
**Two missing pages.** I have a daughter. I would die a thousand
deaths before I would see her starve. How can I ask that any other
father bear that anguish? How can I let it happen--anywhere? If I
have said bitter things today out of the pain of my own conscience,
the frustration of my own soul, forgive me. And may God cleanse the
spirits of us all. But let us remember this, and keep remembering
it: that nothing will absolve us--nothing!--if we fail to act and
act with all out power.
Jesus said: A certain man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho
and he fell among robbers, which both stripped him and beat him and
departed, leaving him half dead by the road. And by chance a certain
priest was going that way, and when he saw him, he passed by on the
other side. And in like manner a Levite also, when he came to the
place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a certain
Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was, and when he saw him,
he was moved with compassion, and came to him, and bound up his
wounds....Which of these, asked Jesus, proved neighbor unto him that
fell among thieves? And he said, He that shewed mercy on him. And
Jesus said....Go and do thou likewise.
Jesus is still saying it. So is your conscience. And mine.
Let us pray: O God, we are ashamed. Deepen our shame, we beseech
thee, until we open the gates of conscience to the world's misery
and let it beat a pathway to our hearts. Amen.
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