Magyar Egyház, 1971 (50. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1971-04-01 / 4. szám
MAGYAR EGYHÁZ 13 transparent person such as St. Francis, you know that in him there is much which is worth preserving. But not only the great and well-known people are worth preserving, but also the large numbers of unknown and unrecognized souls who have left no memorials behind them, people who by their kindnesses and sacrifices and faithfulnesses have sustained and leavened all of life—when you think of such you know that they too are worth preserving. Yes, when you think of all such people, great and small alike, you cannot help but believe that they are still going on. What kind of a business do you think that God is in anyway? Do you think that He is something like that artist that I once saw over in London? On the banks of the Thames River there, I saw an artist drawing on the sidewalk in colored chalk the portraits of people. For a few shillings he made an excellent likeness of you and then during the night the tramping feet of pedestrians and the rain washed the pictures away. Well, do you think that that is the kind of business that God is in? Do you think that He brings human souls into being, gives them minds to think with, and hearts to love with, and hands to work with, and then lets the rains and the feet of time wash them away as if they had no value at all? That is incredible. Nothing gets lost. A great birthday awaits you. We die and “behold we live.” That is what the Disciples learned on that first Easter Day—-that nothing gets lost, that death’s a birthday into eternity. The realization of that great truth came to them after Good Friday. Who are these men walking along the street in Jerusalem with heads bowed? Oh yes, Peter and James and John. Why don’t they speak? Why are they so downcast? “Peter, what’s the matter?” “Jesus is dead.” “James, why so dejected?” “Jesus is dead.” “John, why are you so hopeless?” “Jesus is dead.” Right after Good Friday that is the answer that they gave and that is why they were so without hope and without purpose. “Peter, where are you going?” “I go afishing.” “James and John, where are you going?” “We are going back to mending nets.” You see, that is where they were going, back to their old jobs. That is what the Disciples had decided to do, leave Jerusalem and take up their old work. Their dream had burst. Their Master and friend had been put to death and they were all through. But you meet Peter and James and John three days after the crucifixion and what a change you see in them! “Peter, why are you so glad?” “Jesus lives.” “James, why are you so jubilant?” “Je8U6 lives.” “John, why have you not gone back to your old job?” “Jesus is alive.” You see, there was a complete change in the hearts and the minds of the Disciples. You may not he able to understand the stories of the empty tomb, but you simply cannot argue away or account for the change of mood in the Disciples without saying that in their experience they learned that Jesus was not dead but was alive! And there is the promise for you and me and for every child of God in this world in which nothing gets lost. “Because I live, ye shall live also.” Robert Morris: SCIENCE AND RELIGION Dr. Wemher von Braun, our great space leader, came through Fort Worth recently and said some provocative things. His statements that made newspaper headlines were his warnings that the United States “cannot afford to give up” its “cutting edge” lead in technological and scientific capability because the Soviet space program is funded at twice the rate of our program and is moving ahead like “a juggernaut.” He was generally quite emphatic in his utterances. For instance, he said, “This criticism of science and technology today is just plain baloney.” But it was his observation on the existence of a conflict between science and religion that gives me my thought for this column. He said, with a poet’s lilt, that he had never experienced a personal conflict between the two: “Science, in the last analysis, is an attempt to understand the Creation better. Religion is an attempt to understand better the Creator and his intents.” He elaborated on this by saying that the two “peacefully coexist” but he would like them to get together and open up a dialogue. What this really great scientist says is so true. Man has a mandate to learn. To learn everything he can about his own nature, the thoughts of other men,
