Magyar Egyház, 1969 (48. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1969-06-01 / 6-7. szám
MAGYAR EGYHÁZ 7 Tibor Dömötör: LIFE: BURDEN OR BLESSING? Baccalaureate Sermon Matthew 11:25-30 At that time Jesus spoke these words: “I thank thee, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for hiding these things from the learned and wise, and revealing them to the simple. Yes, Father, such was thy choice. Everything is entrusted to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son but the Father, an$l no one knows the Father, but the Son and those to whom the Son may choose to reveal Him. Come to me, all whose work is hard, whose load is heavy and I will give you relief. Bend your necks to my yoke, and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble-hearted: and your souls will find relief. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” My beloved brethren in Jesus Christ! It is a great honor and privilege to me to be here with you today on this remarkable occasion. Exactly 20 years ago I was a member of my graduating class in Budapest, Hungary. 1949 was a memorable year, not only for us, who graduated that year, but for everyone. During the year of 1949 the great Allies of the second world war became permanently divided, during the year of 1949 the Iron Curtain was built in the heart of Europe. 1949 was the turning point in the history of mankind, a turning point toward hate, toward slavery, toward war, toward atheism. 1969 can be — and I sincerely hope that it will be — a very remarkable year in history. In July — hopefully — the first man will reach the Moon and you will remember this until you live. You will proudly repeat again and again: “I graduated in 1969 when man reached the Moon.” But — I sincerely hope again — that something much bigger will happen during this year. I hope that the young people of our country and of the world will make a great change in the world. A great change toward the better, toward understanding, toward freedom, toward God! Today we are living in a very exciting world! Almost every hour brings some exciting news. Almost every day we can hear about new discoveries in the scientific world. Almost every week we learn something new about space. Almost every month we can see new buildings, new schools, new houses everywhere. We can hear many times a day: Go! Go! Go! But, did you ever ask yourself: where are we going? What is our goal? Why is this big rush? What is the real meaning of life? What am I doing here? If you will ask these questions from the world, the world will tell you: the real meaning of life is progress! The world will tell to you that we have bigger buildings than 100 years ago. We produce more food than 50 years ago. We make more cars than 30 years ago. The average person receives more education than anytime in history. We have more people on earth than ever before. These are all facts, and these are all true facts. But ask yourself very honestly: is progress the answer? Is progress bringing happiness for our nation, for our society, for the individual? Is your real goal during your lifetime to work for this progress? If only this is your goal your life will be very tiresome and very hopeless, our work will be very hard and your load will be very heavy. A great world historian said once: “Man at work can be happy and spiritually healthy only if he feels that he is working in God’s world for God’s glory through doing what is God’s will.” Work can be burden, work can be blessing! The scientist will tell you that the real meaning of life is to have knowledge. Knowledge is the mother of our future. We make new discoveries through knowledge. Your worth is greater if your knowledge is greater. And these are true answers again. But knowledge is not the final answer. Knowledge can give you many things, but will never give you peace and understanding. Knowledge can be a dead end street. An endless question mark. An unfinished task. You can finish the best schools, if you have enough money, enough will power and enough brain, but if you will not learn the truth about God, about Christ and about yourself, knowledge will not help you. You can enjoy the best television shows or the best movies or the best radio programs, but if you will not learn the real meaning of your earthly and heavenly life, you will have spent your time in vain! You can be the greatest football player, golf player or tennis player, but if you will not learn to glorify God through your talent, you did not accomplish anything! You must learn the great truth at first, that the worship of God is the beginning of wisdom and that righteousness alone makes a man great! Knowledge can be burden, knowledge can be blessing. The businessman will tell you, that the real meaning of life is to reach success! The famous slogan of our age is this: “If you are successful you have money, if you have money you have friends, if you have friends you have happiness, if you have happiness you have everything!” “I want to be successful” is the greatest driving force and the greatest temptation of our age. But what is success? Fame? Money? Education? Family? Love? Work? All these things together can not satisfy a man unless He will find God in whom he will find the real meaning of his life and the real happiness of his being. A man, named Augustine who lived a long, long time ago and who lived a very unchristian life for many years, said: “Our hearts are restless until they rest in God!” You are young and restless, you are searching for real values in life. You have two choices. To be or not to be. To sin or not to sin. To serve or not to serve. Your life can be a hopeless, terrible mess, an unbearable burden, a constant subject of suicide or other kind of self-destruction, a great lie, an open rebellion against everything, a worthless and wasted time on this earth or it can be a great blessing for yourself, for your family, for your loved ones, for your nation and for your God. Your life can be full with fear or full with nope. Your life can be full with worry or full with happiness. Your life can be an endless and terrible fight for earthly goods or a daily search for the eternal spiritual goods of the heavenly kingdom. Your life can be drunkeness, illusion, sin, or it can be cleanliness, realness and forgiveness! My beloved young brethren! Only the truth can satisfy your longing! Only the truth will give you worthy goals? Only the truth will help you to be victorious over every temptation! But what is the truth? The truth is that many many thousand years ago God revealed Himself through religious men, through leaders of nations, through chosen prophets. These people told the truth about God. The truth: that God is the creator of all life! The truth: that life lost its original taste and happiness following the first sin, which was an open rebellion against the will of God. The truth: that God is eternal, perfect, righteous, the Lord of the universe. The truth: that after the first sin life became a great burden, endless suffering and a very limited time on this earth. The truth: that Jesus Christ came to save us from the fearful results of our sins! Where can you hear this truth today? Only in the Christian Church! It may be you are not interested in the Christian
