the motions but the motive is gone. One of our magazines recently carried an article about the Israeli army. The author, an American brigadier-general, said that Israeli soldiers are unorthodox by many military standards, their appearance and equipment are not the best, but they can lick anything in sight because of their incom parable fighting spirit. Israel is perhaps the most patri otic nation on earth. Patriotism seems on its way out in America, thanks to subtle international influences. The Israeli army may not have a perfect set-up but what it lacks there it makes up in spirit. The general referred to Gideon’s band. That desperate three hundred had sub-standard equipment by all military rules, but they had the Spirit of the Lord and the sword of the Lord and that transformed them into an unbeatable spearhead of expendables. All Heads Do Not Count In the church today we have the biggest army ever if you count heads. We have the best barracks and the most up-to-date equipment. We never had more top brass in swivel chairs. We never had better maps and strategy. But while we sing, “Onward, Christian Sol diers,” most of us have to be conscripted to do any serv ice. If we followed Army rules, most of the Lord’s soldiers would be court-martialed or in the guard-house. Thousands are good only for a dress parade on Sunday morning and not too often at that. God’s people are “ an holy nation” but programs, per sonnel, paraphernalia and propaganda mean nothing if we have lost our heavenly patriotism. We have the set-up but we lack the spirit, not mere religious and sectarian enthusiasm which is. á whipped-up substitute, but the enduement from above which makes us “ fools for Christ’s sake.” This mechanical business of “playing church” is what our Lord called hypocrisy, play-acting. He used the word in describing the Pharisees who were the most religious people of His day. They read the Scrip tures, went to worship, prayed in public, lived separated lives, kept the sabbath, tithed, compassed land and sea to make one proselyte, yet he declared that publicans and harlots would get to heaven before them. It is possi ble to do all that they did and still be only a Pharisee and a hypocrite. With the Pharisees, religion was a per formance, not an experience. They were more interested in doing than in being and they were so busy doing everything that they had no time to be anything. Some of us are growing more and more uneasy be cause our massive church machinery today is turning out a lot of twentieth-century Pharisees whose religion is a performance instead of an experience, who go through all the motions without the motive, who have the form of godliness without the power. Remember that “a form of godliness” does not mean mere formalism. A church may be very informal and a beehive of activity but still be a farce instead of a force. In this day of seeming, men try to pose as Christians and want to feel like Christians without being Chris tians. Theodore Roosevelt as a young man was tremen dously impressed by some lines that ran thus: “All that the old knights were without knowing it, This knight fain would know without being it.” Substitute “ saints” for “knights” and you have our problem today: all that the old saints were without knowing it, like Moses who wist not that his face shone, we today would like to know without being it. So we have religious posers, play-actors, living up to drama tized versions of themselves. The hollow ring of unreality in such business led one cynic to write: “They’re praising God on Sunday; MAY, 1964
They’ll be all right on Monday . . . It’s just a little habit they’ve acquired.”
As another has put it, what began with a company of lay witnesses has become a professional pulpitism financed by lay spectators. What is cake for Sunday does not become bread for the week; it does not' get into our homes and shops and schools. It is a performance, not an experience. Some of us remember the jingle: “As Tommy Snooks and Bessie Brooks Were walking out one Sunday; Said Tommy Snooks to Bessie Brooks, ‘Tomorrow will be Monday.’ ” That is supposed to be a record low for inane con versation but I am not so sure. I have heard discussion for hours that said no more. Bridge clubs sit all after noon without making any more significant comment. But there is a real point in that little rhyme. It is a poor brand of Christianity that does not remember in church on Sunday morning that tomorrow will be Monday. The purpose of worship is to sanctify ourselves against tomorrow as the Bible puts it, to bring the vision from the sanctuary to the shop, from the clouds to the cobblestones, and apply the mystery to the misery of this humdrum world. God's Remnant But how are we going to change this unwieldy mixed multitude in church on Sunday morning from performance to experience? How are we going to bring them to wear shoes instead of merely singing and pray ing and talking about shoes? I have referred already to Gideon’s “ 300.” He began with 32,000 but God whittled it to 300 before Gideon had an effective fighting force. He got rid of 22,000 who were cowards and 9,700 who were careless and that left 300 who were competent. A similar process in our churches today would leave about the same proportion available for real service. But of course we are not interested in reducing our rolls nowadays. The average church promoter would raise Gideon’s original army to 50,000 by all means! However, it is not a matter of thinning out the crowd we have, so much as calling out from among them a Master’s minority who mean business, not a holier-than- thou clique of religious snobs but a dedicated band who have had a personal encounter with Jesus Christ and are out to know Him and to make Him known. Billy Graham said recently that if he were a pastor he would begin with a few men who would pay the price in time and effort. Our Lord at the door of the Laodicean church invites “ any man” to hear his voice and open the door. Dr. Torrey used to say that revival begins with a few church members getting thoroughly right with God, banding together in prayer, then going out to witness and work and win. When Mr. Moody was in Scotland’ the going was slow at first but he explained that you start a fire with a few pieces of little wood. We must begin today with a few who are willing to be God’s kindling wood and stir up the fire of God within them. Gideon’s band carried torches and we need some human fagots, burning and shining lights, aflame for God. I have seen somewhere this ad: “Wanted, wicks to bum out for God . . . oil and light supplied!” The price? Repentance, confession and forsaking of sin; reconciliation and restitution, getting right with people; separation from the world; total submission to the Lordship of Jesus Christ; the filling of the Spirit. Out of all this will come love for the Lord for the brethren, for the lost, as God’s love is shed abroad in our hearts. Then we shall serve Him because we want to and we shall move from performance to experience. n
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