Magyar Egyház, 1992 (71. évfolyam, 1-5. szám)
1992-03-01 / 3. szám
12. oldal MAGYAR EGYHÁZ THE LOST SECRET OF GREAT RELIGION (Continued from Page 7) peace of mind and spirit in his assurance. Luther, Wesley, and a whole host of others share in the great tradition of trust in God. (c) Yet this selfsame secret of trust in God comes close to being the lost secret of our generation. This better than anything else explains the spiritual tragedy that has overtaken us and our civilization. We have trusted everyone and everything but God. We have rejected the disciplines of prophetic religion only to discover to our immeasurable sorrow that the pleasures of paganism come terribly high. One would think that the tragic sacrifices which we have been forced to make in the name of these man-made and mancentered religions would label them once and for all as the charnal houses of destruction which they are and close them forever in the minds of thoughtful people. III. The writer of the 118th Psalm saw something like that happening in his day. Thereupon he drew a sharp line between his faith and that of his pagan contemporaries. To the humanist he said, “It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man.” To the totalitarian he said, “It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in princes.” There we have it: the eternal difference between man-made and man-centered religion and divinely inspired and divinely centered religion! Great religion does not begin with man and trust in man; it begins with God and trust in God. (a) This kind of trust in God deserves our undivided attention in this day of confusion. We are living at a time when high ideals are hard to maintain; when high hopes daily grow dimmer; when people once more are preparing to rebuild the altars of humanism and totalitarianism and put their whole confidence in man-made devices. Before we start once more on what has always been a one-way trip to disaster, it surely is the part of wisdom to investigate more carefully the survival and redemptive value of placing our whole trust in God. Trust in God is not divorced from ordinary living. Like all great religious declarations, it is rooted and grounded in daily living. You simply cannot live without trust. (b) What I am saying amounts to this: the only known way of redeeming a trust betrayed in human relationships begins with an affirmation of a vital trust in God. Among the many things that trust in God may mean, certain ones stand out: it means a forgiving spirit, an understanding spirit, a sacrificial spirit. When a breach occurs in human relations, the person who trusts God reaches out at once and seeks by every known way to span the gap. That is the spirit that eventually bridges chasms between and among people. When we are estranged from one another, there rests upon us an infinite obligation to take it seriously and seek to heal the misunderstanding. IV. Consider why it is important to increase trust among people. Psychologists tell us that there are two ways in general of viewing and approaching life: the contractive and the expansive. In the contractive view of life we take our stand at the center of self; we try steadily to draw in the horizons of our responsibility. In the expansive view we stand at the center of self — where obviously one must stand — and move outward, eager to meet and to understand other people, glad to work with them with a certain degree of trustfulness. We welcome new experiences. (a) The difference between these two kinds of living is enormous. It is all the difference between a cooperative and a combative type of life; all the difference between going through life with a chip on the shoulder, looking for trouble and always finding it; and going through life with the confident assurance that, by and large, one can count on other people at least as much as they can count upon you. (b) One of the most urgent tasks before us today is to rescue the home from the clutches of disintegration. Our divorce rate is overtaking our marriage rate. If a cure is to be effected, the healing must begin at the source of the infection. We must master the art of living together with trust and confidence in each other, not simply when things are going well with us, but more especially when it seems as if all the demons in hell have interposed themselves between us. Misunderstandings come between even the most devoted lovers, but need such misunderstandings grow into mistrust and solidify themselves in separations? They will, unless they are redeemed by the kind of trust in God with which we have been dealing here. And when two people work at a common misunderstanding with humility and sincerity, it will not long separate them. Of this we may be sure. (c) When we say we trust in God we are not saying that from here on out the job is his to do. Rather, we are saying that we do not have to do it all ourselves. We are saying that as we move or seek to move human life in the right direction, some of his strength and power comes flooding in and through us, and we become instruments of his holy will. We become “co-workers together with Christ.” This famous phrase touches off the real meaning of trust in God. For we can have him as ally or enemy in this matter of building a new world. Move in the direction of increasing mistrust, and he is our enemy. Move in the direction of increasing community goodwill and trust, and he is our ally. One thing is sure: God is not neutral. Where these breaches exist in human relationships, God is not just on one side pushing at somebody; he is on both sides trying to bring people together. His love and purpose for all people are our deepest guarantees that our efforts for world community will finally be successful. Trust — the kind we need — will give us both the power to let go of our fears and move ahead with our faith. Harold A. Bosley
