It was an awesome ruin. A hulk of stone, a pile of rubble. Smoke stains clearly visible. Jagged edges its roofline. What once had been a magnificent building lay now exposed to the open air, useless, a scar on the horizon. What terrible thing had happened here to create this ugly defacing of the earth? What awful accident, what deep-seated malice, what searing hatred? What had happened here, and what was its meaning?
In the corner, over against the remains of one wall, I saw a slab of stone. And above that stone, something to see, nails they were, long, strong nails; and something to read. A witness of some kind. What had happened here, and what was its meaning?
There are too many signs of destruction and division these days. Too many things point to tragedies and heartaches of one kind or another. There are too many scars on the horizon, not all of them burned buildings. Some of them are the scars of scorched hearts. Not visible to the naked eye, but nonetheless real.
Trouble is, you and I know that too many divisive things have happened. Too many things are headed toward disunity, not unity. Too many people are caught up in conflict, not harmony. Too much is lived out in anger, division, injustice, destruction. Too much.
The psalmist who wrote our text today, however, spoke of earth yielding her increase. He spoke of God’s kingdom growing, not failing. He dared to see God’s blessings, not the curse of human sin. Was he naive? I suspect that he lived in a time just as tumultuous as ours. Did the Psalmist have his head stuck in the sand? He insisted that all the nations, all peoples, would praise the Lord. He insisted that earth had yielded its increase. How can this be?
Let’s take a brief inventory of the scars and ashes of our time. Let’s wander through the ruins of our world and see if we can figure out any way in which earth is yielding her increase and God is blessing us.
I
Begin with the international scene. A divisive time. Nation continues to rise against nation, terrorists strike at innocent targets, the winds of war blow fierce across the landscape. Where is the justice when a megalomaniac pounds the Kurdish people? Where is the hope when the opening of a tunnel in Jerusalem prompts some to throw rocks and others to become rigid and stubborn? Where is the sense of it when a poor little Balkan nation, already divided into six pieces, threatens to subdivide further still? Ours is a divisive time. Where is the hope in it all?
"Let all the peoples praise you, 0 God; the earth has yielded its increase."
As Margaret and I toured eastern Germany just a couple of weeks ago, we were taken to a great old church in Leipzig, the Nikolaikirche, St. Nicholas Church, and we were told its story. It seems that just a few years ago, four pastors in Leipzig began to hold prayer meetings in their homes, praying for the will of the Lord to be done in their Communist-dominated land. Four small Monday night prayer meetings, in four Christian congregations. But the numbers began to grow; praying for an end to the oppression of Communism became more and more popular, more and more powerful. Soon the four small prayer meetings became one large prayer meeting, held, week after week, in a prominent setting, the Nikolaikirche. Hundreds, then thousands, began to come. Of course this did not escape the notice of the authorities, and so on one Monday night, a thousand Communist Party members filled the main floor of the Nikolaikirche, intending to block access to all those who would come to pray. But word had gotten out about this tactic, and so, over against the thousand party members seated on the main floor, two thousand Christians flowed into the double balconies high above them, and the service went on. So far from Christians not being able to worship, what it meant was that a thousand Communists were exposed to the Gospel! The rest is history. The wall fell, just by people power. By prayer power.
God had blessed; earth was yielding increase. A unity, despite all the evidences of disunity.
II
But continue. Ours is a divisive time, not only on the international scene, but in our nation as well. We are one month away from national elections, and here we are, as usual, being treated to slander and lies and half-truths and sheer noise, all of it without anybody saying much of anything. My cynical side says that it won’t matter much whether we get Republicrats or Democans. That it won’t mean much whether we get Bill Dole or Bob Clinton. My cynical side doesn’t care which Warner they choose in Virginia or why there are some new loonies arising in Maryland to challenge the old loonies. My very cynical side cannot get at all excited about shadow senators for the District of Columbia. Something in me says that we are going to have scandals and corruption and incompetence and all the rest, whoever is elected.
But there is the Psalmist again! "Let all the peoples praise you, 0 God. The earth has yielded its increase. God has blessed us."
Then I remember how far we have come as a nation. Then I remember that once there was a time when we were pitted against one another, brother against brother, in a great Civil War. Then I remember that less than thirty years ago, on the very streets some of us travel each day, there was a pitched battle for the soul of the nation. Then I remember that the mills of justice do grind, so that even a President had to resign and scandalous senators have had to give up their seats. Then I remember that though we have often disagreed with one another, we have not lost our sense of being one nation under God. The Psalmist says that God will judge with equity and will guide the nations. And I see that, despite all the foolishness, God has blessed us, the earth is yielding its increase, and we may, with hope, pray, as the Psalmist did, that God will continue to bless us. Unity and not just sniping at each other; it can be.
III
Take it a step further. Ours is a divisive day, not only internationally, not only on the national scene, but ours is a day of division among races. Ours is a day in which it is still possible for suspicion to be nourished and hatred to be encouraged. In Germany, Margaret and I were taken one Saturday afternoon to Buchenwald. Buchenwald was one of the Nazi concentration camps. In that chilling setting, behind the iron gates and brick walls, guarded by watchtowers and bear pits, we saw what remains of the laboratories where experiments were conducted on live human beings; and the ovens, the terrifyingly efficient ovens, in which at least 67,000 human beings were reduced to ashes, their only crime that they were either Jewish, homosexual, Gypsy, or Jehovah’s Witnesses! I tell you, you cannot visit such a site and not be aware of the power of racism. So beautiful a site, so horrible its use.
And you and I know that the day of racism is not yet over. You and I know that there are many whose voices are not so garish as the voices of the Nazis, but who nonetheless deny the humanity of others, just because the others are different. Racism may not any longer wear brown shirts or even white sheets, but it does wear the mask of indifference. It does wear the insolent sneer of apathy. It’s real.
And yet, here is this persistent Psalmist, talking about the blessings we have. "Let all the peoples praise you, 0 God. The earth has yielded its increase." How can it be?
Ah, but have you seen the pictures on our own bulletin board? Did you hear the testimony offered by Lucius Morris last Sunday? Have you seen that out of the ashes of racist hatred our God is doing a new thing, allowing us to be involved in the rebuilding of church buildings and the restructuring of hope? Have you heard the voices of those Christians whose churches were destroyed? One pastor said, "In the face of all of this, I will preach only one thing, and that is forgiveness and hope, forgiveness and hope. I am simply too busy to hate!" Have you heard that, have you seen that? No, again I tell you, God has blessed us, the earth has yielded its increase, and there is reason to pray that God may continue to bless. The Psalmist is right! "All the ends of the earth will revere Him."
IV
A divisive world, a divisive nation, divisive racism. May I get close to home now? There are divisions even in the church. There are cracks and crevices within our own Christian fellowship. It has not been particularly pleasant to come back home and have to spend a good part of the week dealing with this one complaining about that one, another one accusing still another, and so on. If you wanted to, you could begin to wonder what our future will be, because there are these underlying suspicions among us. Let’s be honest about that. And let’s be honest about what that can do.
In other conversations this week I have learned about several nearby churches where there is an ongoing crisis mentality, churches where conflict has been allowed to run rampant, where suspicion has grown like a cancer, and where everything is now pointed toward surviving, just barely surviving. I listened to one pastor pour out the story about how his congregation was getting smaller and smaller, about how there were almost no youth and fewer children, about how maybe they would not make it if they did not merge with another church, I realized anew the danger to us. But I also gave thanks for the blessings we’ve had. Do you know that, despite whatever conflicts lie just beneath the surface, our participation is getting better and better? Do you know that, despite whatever differences may pull some of us apart from others, we are setting records with our offerings? Do you know that even though a number of us are scared of change, we have successfully established several new ministries in the last two years and we have more on the drawing board? Do you know that even though I myself was never sure that we would have even one group, we now have four groups of people meeting in a covenanted small group discipline called "Experiencing God"? Do you see what this means? It means that God has blessed us, the earth is yielding its increase, and that we have every right to pray that God will continue to bless us. The psalmist is right on target! All we have to do is let His way be known on earth, His saving power among us, and He will draw us together with His love.
God has blessed us, and the earth has yielded her increase!
V
The world, the nation, the races, the church. And closer still. What about your life and mine? Are our hearts so rent with conflict that we don’t know if we will ever be effective again? Are our minds so clouded with anger toward someone -- a husband, a wife, a son, a daughter, a parent, a boss, a co-worker -- are our minds so clouded with anger that we wonder if we can ever come out of it and be right again? Are our spirits so deeply enmeshed in sin and neglect and self-deception and ignorance that we wonder if we can be made whole, ever? Do we feel a spiritual sickness --we’ve never admitted it to anyone, we can hardly even admit it to ourselves -- but we know that down in the inner being of the heart there are the seeds of personal conflict that could absolutely destroy us? Do you feel that?
I see some of that in myself. Yes, I do. I see how on the one hand I tell myself I want to do the right thing, I want to be faithful, I want to proclaim the good news, I want to reach people for Christ. I tell myself all of that, and then turn right around and waste time on television, I get invested in busywork jobs that don’t amount to anything, I just drift off into laziness. In my heart there is a conflict and not a unity. In my heart there is a division that ought not to be. I cannot live a pure and uncluttered life! I suspect lots of you know what I am talking about. Who has a word for us?!
"Let all the peoples praise you, 0 God; the earth has yielded her increase, God has blessed us."
Oh, think of what God has been able to accomplish in us, flawed as we are! Just think of how God has been able to bless us, even when we refused His blessing! Just think how, despite our laziness, God has used some of us to reach others. Just think how, despite our ignorance, God has given us insights which we have been able to share with others. Despite all our efforts to sabotage the Kingdom, God has blessed us, the earth is yielding its increase, and we are brought together today, from all our differences and from all our sin, around the Table of His love. Earth is yielding its increase, still! And God is blessing.
Conclusion
It was an awesome ruin. A hulk of stone, a pile of rubble. Smoke stains clearly visible. Jagged edges its roofline. What once had been a magnificent building lay now exposed to the open air, useless, a scar on the horizon. What terrible thing had happened here to create this ugly defacing of the earth? What awful accident, what deep-seated malice, what searing hatred? What had happened here, and what was its meaning?
In the corner, over against the remains of one wall, I saw a slab of stone. And above that stone, something to see, nails they were, long, strong nails; and something to read. A witness of some kind. What had happened here, and what was its meaning?
The stone slab was an altar, the Table of the Lord. The nails, long and strong, were roof nails, made by hand scores of years ago when this church, Coventry Cathedral in England, had first been built. Now, having fallen from its roof, bombed by Nazi Germany, they were placed on the wall in the shape of a cross, the Savior’s cross. And the message? The sign of witness? Two simple words: "Father, forgive."
It too was an awesome ruin. A hulk of stone, a pile of rubble. Smoke stains clearly visible. Jagged edges its roofline. What once had been a magnificent building lay now exposed to the open air, useless, a scar on the horizon. What terrible thing had happened here to create this ugly defacing of the earth? What awful accident, what deep-seated malice, what searing hatred? What had happened here, and what was its meaning?
In the corner, over against the remains of one wall, I saw a slab of stone. And above that stone, something to see, nails they were, long, strong nails; and something to read. A witness of some kind. What had happened here, and what was its meaning?
The stone slab was an altar, the Table of the Lord. The nails, long and strong, were roof nails, made by hand scores of years ago when this German church, Kaiser Wilhelm Gedaechtniskirche, had first been built. Now, having fallen from its roof, bombed by the Allies in retaliation for Coventry, they were placed on the wall in the shape of a cross, the Savior’s cross. And the message? The sign of witness? Two simple words: "Vater, vergib."
It was an awesome ruin. A hulk of stone. Jagged edges its roofline. Now exposed to the open air, useless, a scar on the horizon. What terrible thing had happened here to create this ugly defacing of the earth? What awful accident, what deep-seated malice, what searing hatred? What had happened here, and what was its meaning?
The stone slab was a burial site, a tableau for the Lord. Nails, long and strong, had been in his hands and his side. Fallen He had been, slain by the power of Rome and the hatred of men. Earth had held Him fast in its grasp.
But above the Table a message, a witness. "He is not here. He is risen." He is risen. Earth has yielded her increase.
At the Table of the Lord, despite all that we have done to the contrary, God has blessed. The earth is yielding her increase. May God continue to bless us; let all the ends of the earth revere Him. Amen.
