Magyar Egyház, 1976 (55. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1976-06-01 / 6-7. szám
8 MAGYAR EGYHÁZ MAGYAR CHURCH SUMMERTIME CHRISTIANITY? "Awake my soul! Awake, O harp and lyre! I will awake the dawn!” —Psalm 57:8 Summer is here. With all its sunshine, warm, hreezy days, long-expected pleasures of vacationing, swimming, hiking, and plain “spring-fevering” summer is a welcome season. Some of us give vent to our desires to release pressure collected through the winter months, others think of the next few weeks as a time to search for relaxation, recreation. Modern man buys loads of equipment to “rough it” the easiest way possible. Food, refreshments, equipment are purchased, and he is off into nature every available moment. The dawn is awakened by the noises of automobiles instead of the harp and lyre, and the soul awakens only at the tempting aroma of freshly brewed coffee. What a long way we have come from the days and the ways of the psalmist! But the change in equipment and attitude is not the only one transformed from the old into the new. Just read Psalm 57 and you will see that the purpose of the awakening is worship. In the days of the psalmist the chief reason of most actions was to praise the Lord. Let us be honest, the intensity and speed of life cause us often to forget the Lord, the author, and sustainer of summer pleasures, and everything good. Summer time pleasures and joys turn into temptation. Even the beauty of nature, good weather, the lazy relaxation of vacation time can easily mislead us, away from our pious aim. Come Sunday morning, when the moment of choosing comes, God and the church may come out second best... (or third, or fourth, or fifth?...) We even try to convince ourselves that when we go into nature, we enter a giant church, and actually we are worshipping God. But how many modern-day nature-lovers remember consciously this portion of their fun seeking summer activities ? The psalmist seeks the greatness, the majesty of the Lord reflected in the grandeur of nature. Modern man, in his attempt to imitate the psalmist, often replaces the awareness of the Lord’s majesty with the grandeur of nature. The end result is “summer Christianity” — a spiritual form of hibernation. The parks, recreational areas fill up, the number of church-going Christians go down. Summer becomes another reason, .mother excuse to stay away from the house of the Lord. W hen Elijah was searching for the Lord, to hear His command, he encountered nature’s great powers at the cave, and he discovered that the Lord was not in those phenomena, but in a still small voice. (I. kings 19:12) We, modern Christians should remember that nature's grandeur and beauty are only the reflections of God. If we seek Him, we must listen to the still small voice, perhaps the voice of our consciences. Clothes do not make a man, authority and power do not make God. The beauty and pleasures of summer, or good weather in general, were just some more reasons for the psalmist to worship the Lord. Even his psalms, describing this attitude were used to enhance the beauty of liturgy in worshipping. Let us, modem Christians follow his example, and use the beauty and the pleasures of summer to assist us in finding reasons and aids in worshipping God. If this attitude becomes a conscious part of our summer activities, the servants of the Lord will not have to "preach to lumberyards’" i.e. to empty churches, and we will find time for our pleasures, both in nature and in worship, our “summertime Christianity” will become a well-balanced spiritual affair. Perhaps, even our souls and the dawn will he again awakened by joyful noises to the Lord, instead of the mind-bending noises of a civilization too busy to remember Him, too sophisticated to care, too preoccupied with its own pleasures to recognize Him. Louis Illés
