Magyar Egyház, 1976 (55. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1976-03-01 / 3. szám
6 MAGYAR EGYHÁZ cooperating with that will, not of bending the will of God down to us, hut of lifting the will of man to God and working together. What a difference such a point of view makes! The kind of faith in God and man which allies us with the permanent beyond transient darkness is expressed most clearly in the Cross of Christ. You see the Cross says that human tragedy and divine faith belong together. Jesus cried on the Cross, “My God, why hast Thou Forsaken Me”? And that is the cry of mankind today. But Jesus also prayed on that Cross, “Father forgive them”... “Father into Thy hands.” Alongside the fact of tragedy is the fact of faith. Faith does not mean blind superstition, it does not mean simply believing where you cannot prove. Faith means finding the eternal God through the tragedies of life, it means finding Him intimately in the things that make you uncertain. It means that the more insecure a man feels financially, physically and socially, the more he may become aware of that which economic security cannot provide or the lack of it take away. Thus the Christian faith, centering in the Cross, is not alone something you hold or do not hold. It is also something—and Someone—that holds you. It unites your life with the eternal and the permanent. Such faith means alliance with the eternal God. It means being added to God. Other relationships may give us breadth—this gives us height and permanence. What is the contribution of the Christian faith to the present hour? First, it qiust keep men aware of what is permanent in a shifting civilization. Second, it must provide the way for men to be allied with that which is permanent. Third, the Christian faith must do for men and women today what nothing else can do. This Christian faith is the custodian, the guardian, the liberator of life’s imperishable faiths and hopes. Something beyond military fighting is necessary to defend the things men hold dearest. The positive and constructive defense, for example, of our American way of life and of our liberties is ultimately in the hands not of armed might, but of our educational forces and the Christian faith. The Christian faith is the guardian of our liberties. It has been frequently asserted that America’s most distinctive gift to the science of government is the guarantee of religious liberty. Our form of government rests not upon race or economics, but upon character and intelligence. These are spiritual possessions which depend upon the practice of religious liberty for their existence. Therefore, all who trust in God must come to a new consecration of themselves and what they possess, so that the will of God may he enthroned in our national life. We must translate “In God We Trust” from coins to character. So shall our liberties he preserved. Finally, the Christian faith points to the ancient prayer of Jesus as the hope of the nations: “Thy kingdom come, Thy will he done on earth as it is in heaven.” The kingdom of God on earth is the only intelligible way I see for the future of the human race. I wish I had the power both of thought and of expression to make you see and feel deeply what Jesus and the kingdom of God could do for our broken and harassed world. Here is the greatest social conception that ever entered human history, by which the nations of the world may conserve their best traditions and cultures, hut find a way and a spirit to transcend all that now divides and alienates them. Here is the loyalty strong enough, intelligent enough, moral enough, great enough to overcome racial bitterness, national narrowness and economic jealousies. For only Christ can set men free And give them vision neiv; Grant us our fairest dreams to see, O land where dreams come true. Officers and Elders of the McKeesport Congregation.
