Pastockwell's Blog

Today’s political environment is fraught with distrust of the opposition party. Republicans excoriate Democrats and hold hostage the economy of the United States. Democrats vacillate about how the country is going to become worse off because of the actions of the Republicans. We are building walls around ourselves to protect our puny beliefs about what is important instead of finding ways to cherish each other and support all people as Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindi, etc. My father wrote a sermon early in his career as a priest which comes from the Revelation of John. In the 21^st chapter John describes “the Holy City of God, the New Jerusalem, which is to be the city of the world when all things have come to the judgment seat at the last day.” The feature most prominent is the wall around this New Jerusalem.

We are failing ourselves, today, by building walls around our hearts which prevent us from being the humans God wants us to be. The wall around New Jerusalem acts to protect its citizens from the wicked and unclean of the outside world. But when we build walls we prevent the interaction with others which builds love, desire, and aspirations for the clean, safe, good, and righteous life which God wants for us. Claims are made by good people that the opposite polar political view is detrimental to our future. These people rant about the failure to understand anything they consider rational. We are divided into camps which will not budge from the petty nuances of our political views. We are more concerned with the power we have or do not have; we rage about the amount of money or lack of money accumulated by citizens; we decry the sense of justice or lack of justice in our lives. While it is important to maintain our economy and government, it is more important to protect our nation’s people. While we debate the next presidential election, we miss an opportunity to ameliorate the suffering of our citizenry. This country has benefited greatly by listening to different voices. It has not always been easy, and we have historically ignored some voices until the noise level was high enough that they could not be ignored.

Now we are more concerned about the selfishness of our political leaders who will not listen to the outcry from the people. Each claims to have an insider’s understanding of the will of the people, and yet, the real noise has nothing to do with the political concerns. The walls have been built because of distrust, hatred, dishonesty, and prejudice. They prevent listening, caring, love, and peace, and we will not know God until we stop ignoring the rap on the door and answer Jesus’ call to us. My father wrote this as a young man, newly out of seminary, newly married, and far away from the comfort of family and friends on the eastern side of the United States. A war was raging in Europe and Asia. People were dying and I guess his concern was about the lack of listening and concern which precipitated the World War.

Today my concern is about the future of our freedoms and our ability to solve domestic problems which have been snubbed in the name of popular opinion and excessive political rhetoric. We have to tear down these walls of deceit and hatred and build the walls which protect us from evil and sin. No one can claim their Christianity without first releasing their hearts and souls to Jesus Christ. May God have mercy on us for we are going to need it. Read my father’s sermon and determine for yourself whether walls have been constructed around our hearts or not.

In the 21^st chapter of that tremendous but somewhat bewildering apocalyptic book of Revelation is the description of that Holy City of God, the New Jerusalem, which is to be the city of the world when all things have come to the judgment seat at the last day.

One characteristic feature we see when we are brought face to face with this new city for God is the fact that it is “Surrounded by a wall great and High.” “… he carried me away in the spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me to Holy city of Jerusalem, surrounded by a wall great and high.” Throughout the entire chapter there is a vivid and exhausting description of this wall, which marks the security of its citizens and acts as a protection against the wicked and unclean of the outside world. The barrier is enclosing all that for which we love, desire, and aspire. It is blocking out all that which is detrimental to the clean, safe, good, and righteous life which is God’s desire for all men. It is with these walls of protection that we are primarily interested this morning.

The walls surrounding the City of God were most elaborate. The author of Revelation tells us that they measured “an hundred and forty and four cubits, according to the measure of man. — and the foundations of the wall of the city were garnished with all manner of precious stones.” — jasper, sapphires, emeralds, topaz, amethysts, and diamonds. Such splendor exceeds even the fondest of human imagination.

There are also walls in human life which exceed our imaginations, not because of the beauty or splendor but because of their very presence. Those walls built of stone and mortar surround cities, enclose beautiful gardens, are protection of valuable property, and act as barriers of one nation against another. If mankind would only let the love of God shine into his heart and body these walls of uncertainty, distrust, jealousy would be so unnecessary. We know that as the world is today, there will be wars, the dominance of evil, and that the age will head up in the masterpiece of Satan. We also know that this could be brought to an end by knowing the Lord, and His spreading Kingdom; that peace, righteousness, prosperity, would be world-wide, and that we would live with the Lord if only these walls of hatred, dishonesty, prejudice, and distrust were broken down.

However, before we can go about the destruction of any national or international barrier, we must first be concerned with those walls which one erects in the human heart; the walls of contentment, self-seclusion, hatred, anger, distrust and jealousy. The unhappiest individual in the world is he who has no friends to whom he can turn because he has sealed his heart from all outside intrusions, because he is skeptical about the love and concern of his fellow men, distrust their sincere advances, and is provoked by sympathetic gestures. This is why man reaches the stage of utter depression. Simply because he has set up these barriers around his heart and refuses to let anyone within boundaries.

Look at Judas, the disciple who betrayed Jesus Christ. He put up an eternal wall of separation between himself and the Master, between himself and his fellow Disciples, and what was his end? Judas, more than anyone else, felt that wall of exclusion which had erected, for he hanged himself in remorse. If only he had come to know the Lord, to instill His love and teachings in his heart, and followed His doctrines, there would have been no such thing in his own heart as hatred, exclusion, and loneliness.

St. Peter, the rock on which our church is built, had separated himself from Jesus by thrice denying Him. Consider how he must have stood off from the cross at that last dark hour weeping because of what he had done. He could not go and stand at the feet of the crucified Jesus s did St. Mary, St. John, and the others because of his name and send of unworthiness. Because hating himself, he had built a wall of distrust and infidelity around his heart when he needed most of all a great feeling of faith and love. At that great moment of trial in his life St. Peter learned that Christianity, the tremendous and overwhelming faith of the Master he had followed for two and a half years, was not sanctified selfishness. It meant fully and completely the giving of the entire self, not only to the Almighty and loving Father, but to all our neighbors and associates. It meant the full adherence to the Commandment of Jesus Christ to “Do Unto others as you have them do unto you.”

Man today has bamboozled himself for so long that he has actually started to believe in the philosophies of self-sufficiency, isolationism, and sanctified selfishness. There are altogether to many individuals in this world who wish to ride around in the revolving doors on the other fellows push. The one thing that we all have to learn is that “Man cannot live by bread alone.” It takes love, kindness, understanding, and tolerance to make life rich with the “Fullness of God.”

“Blesses are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.”

“Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.”

“Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.”

“Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.”

“Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.”

“Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called children of God.”

St. Paul, the greatest missionary and advocate of Christianity, learned this lesson. He restored himself. And it resulted in changing him from being inquisitor to the zealous servant of Jesus Christ. He tore down the wall of exclusion and self-righteousness in his heart by penitence and from then on became the greatest leader of Christianity the world has ever known.

Through St. Paul’s example we can see that there is always given to us an opportunity to tear down the walls we have built in our hearts. Yes, even Judas’ sin could have been amended had he fully striven to tear down his walls.

A person emulates the Good things of life only as he resolves to fulfill the Commandments of Jesus Christ. That means that instead of building the wall of sedition we will give our efforts to cooperation for enhancing the Kingdom of God. Instead of fortifying ourselves with hate we will bring all men together by love. Instead of erecting the wall of criticism and distrust, we will give ourselves to the helping, and understanding and sympathy of others.

Four hundred and fifty one years ago, Christopher Columbus set sail form Spain and discovered a new continent. Because he had not let the walls of discouragement, selfishness, and disillusionment bind his heart, he gave to the peoples of the world the opportunity to build the United States of America. Because of one man, freedom was given to thousands.

1900 years ago another man brought freedom to the whole world. Through the teachings of love and brotherhood of Jesus Christ the walls in men’s hearts crumbled as though made of sand and water and mankind knew the happiness, contentment, and the ecstasies of the Christian life.

“And the city had no need of sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.”

The city of God is the Heart of man, without need of light, because od has shown us the glory of the Devine livelihood which is adequate without the walls which we have so carefully and tediously built.

“O Jesus, thou art standing outside the fast-closed door,

In lowly patience waiting to pass the threshold o’er.

Shame on us, Christian brothers, His name and sign who bear:

O Shame, thrice shame upon us, to keep Him standing there.”

Reverend Norman Stockwell, given Oct 10, 1943 at Gooding, Jerome, and Shoshone, Idaho.

This message is the essential truth of 1 John, chapter 2, verse 11 which was the subject of my father’s sermon in 1943, during the horrific World War II. His premise stated that humans could not be absolved of hating the Germans and Italians for the war because Americans were sinful people, and hating them did not justify our actions. Yes, I believe that we needed to confront the Axis Powers and defeat them in that dreadful war. The world would have been in a horrible state had these enemies of our freedoms been successful in conquering Europe and much of Asia. Hating, however, creates another set of problems for the one who hates.

As a society Americans are ready to step out into the limelight and claim a preferential treatment because of who we are. We claim the right to as much of the world’s resources as we can garner. We claim the right to press our way of life on other peoples of the world whether they want it or not. We bully other leaders of nations into submitting to our will. And lately we have committed the most egregious sin of all; we have turned inward on ourselves.

We cannot survive as a nation when we attack our own citizens using falsehood, pressure, and pontification to manufacture puppets who will follow doctored truth and tenets of belief. Whether we are liberals or conservatives, independents or disillusioned, we have a moral and ethical obligation to be the best we can be. I am a devout Christian and believe that my salvation is through Jesus Christ, the Way and the Truth. But I will not condemn others who believe in Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, or Islam, or any other religious tenet. Atheists and Agnostics have their beliefs which I do not accept, but the main message from God through Jesus was to love one another as you would want to be loved. When are we willing to follow this simple and yet complex admonition?

I listen to news reports and political rhetoric about how we as a nation need to do this or that in order to survive as a nation. We hear about leaders who espouse a foundation of a doctrine and while committing unethical and sometimes criminal behavior in contrast to their words. We have people willing to commit murder in the name of stopping the “murder” of the unborn. We have people who berate our leaders when those leaders are on the wrong side of their political stance. Name-calling and vilifying people are hateful acts and do not uplift us to God.

In my father’s sermon he presents a problem which envelopes our world today. In 1943 he stated, “Christians who take part in the war are charged with forsaking Christ.” His premise was that men who fought against other men were taught to hate their enemies. He wanted his congregation to understand that fighting a war against “satanic faith” did not endanger our souls by our hating the enemy of our own beliefs. Today, we hear of people who hate abortionists and threaten their lives. We watch as our people are gunned down while speaking to constituents. We listen to inflammatory rhetoric which spews falsehood as a truth. We are guilty of walking in darkness and we know not where we are or where we go. I hope to shed light on the thesis of loving our neighbor as our self and forgoing the entanglement of hating others who are different from us in color, race, religion, sexual orientation, national origin, or any other of the myriad differences we can conjure up. We are all God’s children and I pray for each of us to remember this one simple doctrine: God loves us unconditionally. Let’s not put conditions on loving our fellow human being. What follows the the text of my father’s sermon.

“He that hates his brother is in darkness, and walks in darkness, and knows not whither he goes, because that darkness has blinded his eyes.” 1 John  2: 11

The war which the peoples of the world are now waging one with another, is a terrific burden for them to carry. But more still is it a heavy cross for Christians to bear. There is little that can be said for the war but much oh so much that can be said against it. One tremendous element in it that has bothered me immensely from the very beginning, it’s the doctrine of hate which is being propagated in our armed forces and the feeling of hate that it has aroused in those on the home front.

For a few minutes let us think of this great problem that is enveloping the world. Christians who take part in the war are charged with forsaking Christ. Our consciences answer, however, that we cannot forsake men, the children of God –to death. We have to fight side by side in the shedding of blood, to crush the evil forces and make the world a fit place for men again.

But as we fight we are in danger of being brutalized. Of necessity we must travel a rough road. It will coarsen us, make us callous, rob us of our fineness and respect for others if we do not guard our souls. But how, we ask, are we going to protect the most sacred thing that man possesses? How? First, by recalling why we fight. We are fighting to the death, not to slay men, but to overcome their armed satanic faith which would wreck the very ground of all right and peace. If this be so then we cannot and will not hate.  And for this reason we must keep alive, where it can live, in our hearts, our homes, our work and our nation every gentle, noble, peaceful thing that we know.

Second, we will direct our thinking into right channels by recalling, even while we fight, that we hate war and that God hates it also. War must be a bitter cross we carry in order to save our age. The logic of this is not simple, but that conviction of it is clear to our consciences and our souls.

Noted publicists are insisting that America will fight this war with all its vigor only when our people to hate. If the Christian religion is true, if it contains the fundamental elements for right living then these writers are mistaken. The conditional is really unnecessary in that sentence because we know that our faith does contain all the factors of truth. We know that hate will not only harm America but that it is very likely to lose the war for us.

We shall lose what we are fighting for if we hate, because the worst part of the spirit of the enemy will have conquered us. We are fighting against the very things that hate reveal. If we are not then we might just as well throw up our arms, and succumb to the forces of evil. We are fighting against a spirit which reveals itself in the hatred of Jews, Poles, and other subject peoples. We are fighting against a spirit which has corrupted and corroded the finer spirit of the German people. Is it reasonable that we should seek to foster in our own people the spirit against which we are fighting?

Let no one think that we can turn hatred on like a faucet and then turn it off easily when the war is ended. This is a moral universe in which nations reap what they sow. If hatred has corrupted the Germans, it will do exactly the same to us. People who are filled with hatred are not good citizens, for their vindictiveness can too readily be shifted from one group to another, to groups within our own country.

We shall lose what we are fighting for if we hate, because a vindictive spirit will cause us to write another unjust treaty. Hatred will cause us to do what in our saner moments we know we should never think of doing. Hatred is a dark evil alley where men stumble and fall.

The root of hatred is egotism. Whether directed at someone next door or at another nation, it says in effect, “They did this to me, and now I am going to get even.” “Nobody can do this to me.” Revenge, vindictiveness are rooted in a self-centered attitude.

When we look about us we see that those who hate are usually those who simply sit in the great amphitheater and watch the scene of war in the arena below. Those who have paid a price are the very ones who are maintaining and preaching the principles for which we are waging battle to the death. Our good friends the Rolls have given us an example by which to set our thought and lives. They have paid the supreme price. They have given the dearest thing they possessed and yet they still live and preach the doctrine of love and brotherhood. They are true Christians. Christians are people who are trying to do, not their own wills, but the will of God, — to rise above their own interests, to see God’s plan for all men. We believe that our proud and selfish wills must be converted, and that we must seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. We are asked to do away with the self-centered spirit, the soil in which vindictiveness grows. We must learn not to say, “They did this to me, I’ll get even.” That spirit held by men and nations is the source of endless and bitter conflict. It is the very source of the whole mess that we are in today. We must learn to say instead, “In this tragic hour of the world’s history what is the will of God for me and for His World?”

A hatred rooted in egotism will leave a dirty taste in the mouth of America. In the past she has fought for freedom and for the good of all men. She has fought battles for the Lord in the spirit of Washington, Lee, and Lincoln in our best tradition. We must do the same now.

Another reason why we must squelch the teachings of hatred and vindictiveness is because they flourish within the self-righteous. A common argument that one such person takes is: “Here I am a good, just, innocent person, and those evil men have done this to me. The conclusion follows that, since the attackers are evil and the person attacked is good, hatred is a reasonable attitude. We hear so many of our American people reasoning just this way. Such foolish talk.

Foolish, because anyone who knows any history at all knows that America must stand before the judgment seat of God for the many sinful acts we have committed as a nation. Oh, we have been and are far from being good. We have robbed the Indians, we have exploited the Negroes, and we have lived in a very selfish and careless manner. We bear a good deal of the responsibility for this war just because of the attitude that we took toward the foreign powers. We failed to do our international duty, we did not face the evil confronting us but rather we appeased it. We are far, far from being innocent.

We are not, we hope and feel, as evil as the Nazis and the Fascists but at the same time we are joined with all men in our common sin. Before God’s throne we too must stand and ask for forgiveness.

What a difference this attitude and knowledge can make in the spirit with which we view our enemies and set our war aims. We shall realize then that we are not Pharisees fighting outcasts; but that we are sinners fighting sinners.

From all this we see that only with love and forgiveness can we go out and complete the task at hand. Only then can we bring men to the realization that Christ is the truth, the way, and the life.

To forgive does not mean to condone: it does not mean treating lightly the terrible things that have been done by our enemies. That would be cheap and easy-going, and would not tally with the great truth that God hates sin.

St. Augustine said, “So ask that thou art asking, not that men may perish, but that these their enemies may perish. For if thou pray that the men may die, it is the prayer of one wicked man against another; and when thou dost say, slay the wicked one, God answers thee, which of you?”

For the very fact that we are all sinners, we cannot ask that the wicked one be slain. Rather we must love so that we can raise ourselves to God and help our enemies then to raise themselves also. Only with love can we know the way and only with love can we travel that way.

“He that hates his brother is in darkness and walks in darkness, and knows not whither he goes, because that darkness has blinded his eyes.”

The Reverend Norman Stockwell – Given on August 15, 1943 at Gooding, Jerome, and Shoshone, Idaho.

I came across a sermon my father preached in Longview, Washington on May 16, 1965 that detailed the conflicts with which we Americans were beset. He spoke of the wrath of man and how it worked not the righteousness of God. The Bible verse came from the Epistle of James. As I read through the sermon typing it into my computer, I was struck by the fact that what he spoke of in 1965 mirrors our lives today. Events were different, and actions were aimed at other causes and concerns, but the tenet for the text of the day, the Fourth Sunday after Easter, holds true today.

We are beset by attacks on our Christian beliefs by people who do not hold them but have a history which reflects the ideals. We Americans argue about what is right and wrong actions for us. My father defined wrath as an Old English word for anger, “the emotion of indignation and the deeds that are done under the spell of that emotion.” How true his definition is can be seen in how we treat each other. He preached a litany of deeds – a nation at war, an angry parent, a religious fanatic, a Ku Klux Klansman, a lynching party, and riots. Today we can substitute our own list – a nation fighting in two arenas, an angry parent, Muslim and Christian fanatics, the abortion debate, union busting and the gathering of people opposed to it, political polarization, climate change debate, and budget problems at the state and nation levels. We truly have a laundry list of concerns for this generation of Americans.

He spoke of the concerns about Communism in the 60’s. Today, it’s socialism. He related the problems between unions and industry, how employers used military and state police to break the unions, and the unions used bricks and pick handles and strikes against the employers. Today, some politicians use the law making privilege to usurp power from common citizens and the citizens rally in protest, occasionally with violence erupting. He told of attempting to find equality of all people regardless of color. Today, we battle economic opportunity for the masses while a few harbor their wealth in a manner which is detrimental to our society.

However, what really struck me was reading his sermon and his highlighting one of the recurring temptations of humankind which causes our failures, the recurring temptation of “a vision of what ought to be and what might be” just beyond our grasp. In wanting to it, our “anger at the stupidity of some men” denies us an ability to have it for all humankind. We so want to convince people of the wrongness of their choices that we “take up any weapon close at hand” and use it to save men’s souls. We justify attacking homosexual people verbally or physically. We believe that killing a doctor who treats women requesting an abortion is acceptable because we are saving the unborn child. We think that seceding from the country is better than figuring out a way to work within the myriad beliefs of the citizens across nation. We condemn lawmakers to death and shoot them when we are so righteously correct in our thinking.

We need not concern ourselves with the birth record of our president nor the inflammatory rhetoric spewing from the mouths of ignorance. We need not redress the grievances of the unfortunate souls who have little or nothing at the hands of the citizens who control most of the wealth. We should be urging our fellow Christians on this journey that the principle involved advances us when we are in the righteousness of God. The wrath of man does not advance us on our journey. As my father put it; “be wise as serpents and harmless as doves” if called to violence and the use of weapons.

He concludes with the a call for us to work for peace and righteousness, to work for understanding, mercy, and a change of heart in those who you believe are mistaken. God has called us to work for love among all of us. I truly pray for each of us to let go of the anger which fires our passions and instead have a passion for loving our fellow human being as we want them to love us. Please read what follows and I look forward to your comments.

“The way Christ Chose”

The text this morning is from the Fourth Sunday after Easter, used for the Epistle for this Sunday, and comes from the Epistle of James. “For the wrath of man work not the righteousness of God.”

James 1: 20

There was a time some three hundred years ago, when Protestant Christians and Roman Catholics Christians burned and beat and butchered each other with the complete conviction that what they were doing was not only pleasing to God, but essential to His purpose in the world. They did what they did in good faith, but they left a legacy of distrust and suspicion of Roman Catholics towards Protestant and Protestants toward Roman Catholics, which persist to this day.

There are moments in every family when the patience of parents wears thin and angry words are said and things are done with the honest intention of helping the child or even saving him from some great danger. These moments, if repeated often enough, can impair the love and destroy the respect of the child toward his family and change their relationships with each other forever.

Most of us of our age, have lived through a time when anger and fear have swept across the world like a fire in a pine forest, and have wrapped the peoples in the great flames or war. These flames have subsided, but the peace they were kindled to bring is not within us, even in this day. The nations are as far apart as ever, and in various places of the world, there are clouds of new war or actual war hanging in their horizon.

All this is said by way of introduction to out text. ‘The wrath of man works not the righteousness of God.”

The “wrath of man” is familiar to all of us, but what is the “righteousness of God?”

Wrath is an old English word for anger, and it means the emotion of indignation and the deeds that are done under the spell  of that emotion, — a nation at war, an angry parent, a religious fanatic, the Ku Klux Klansman in his hooded robe, the lynching party, the riots that go with racial and industrial strife. These are examples of the wrath of man. We are too familiar with them.

But the righteousness of God is less easily understood. Perhaps it suggests to us, God in His righteousness, enthroned on the seat of judgment, a heavenly characteristic. It ought to suggest rather, God’s purpose for the world and for mankind, for His children. The righteousness among men for which we pray when we say “Thy kingdom come, on earth as it is in heaven.” The righteousness of God would be the nations at peace. It would be the classes and groups of men seeking, not just their own advantage, but the welfare of all mankind. It would be an unfailing helpful family life, which would reflect in all its aspects, the love of God, “the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named.” The righteousness of God is the righteousness among men which Christians believe. It is God’s purpose and power to create.

That these two do not go together, that “the wrath of man works not the righteousness of God, that when idealistic men let their anger choose for them the means they  will use to accomplish the goodwill of the good God, they defeat and destroy that will. It needs only a candid, honest view if the world today to show.

The last World War that we went through was the wrath of man on a titanic scale. The present state of affairs has nothing to do with the righteousness of God, except to show how dreadfully we need to find Him. St. James was right, and all those who have said that the ends justify the means,” forgetting that the means always determines what the end shall be, have been wrong. “The wrath of man works not the righteousness of god.”

With this principle in mine, we turn to some of the troubled areas of our modern life today.

There is the problem of Communism in America. We are told that the Communists are a threat to American democracy if they are a simple political party, and a threat to American security if they are agents of a foreign power. We see no reason to doubt either statement, but especially the latter. Few of us would want to be Communists, or live under the realm of Communism. We think the whole system rests on tragic misreading of history and a misunderstanding of human nature.

But when we are told that Communists must be rooted out by all possible means, and that we must prepare ourselves to fight Russia; and all sorts of agencies spring up to destroy Communism. Some of them are preparing to use force. All of them would use other pressures short of force. This seems to some of us, to be an even greater threat to democracy than Communism itself actually is, and be turning our back on that peaceful way of living together, which is part “the righteousness of God.”

Some of us can remember, and some of us have read, about the Red scare of the early 1920’s, and the silly things that were said and done then. Some of us remember that Hitler and Mussolini rose to power in Germany and Italy on just such a wave of emotion and fear and anger as the one which is so prevalent in the world today. Some of us resent the loose way the term “Communist” can be used, and is being used by thoughtless and malicious people to condemn anybody or anything with which they do not agree, or about which they don’t want to think. It seems to some of us that the best way to combat real Communism and its evils, is all of us to be better Americans and to develop and extend the benefits of the American way of life to more and more people, not only at home but abroad. It seems to some of us that what is needed is not a negative program, but a positive one. “The wrath of man works not the righteousness of God” – no, not even in America.

There is a problem of adjusting the tensions among groups in our industrial society. We used to be told that the employer enjoyed an unfair advantage over the workers and treated them badly, and so they did, in many cases.  Now we are told that the unions have gained for the employees an unfair advantage over the employer, and they are making the most of it, and so, in many cases they are.

The employers used the militia and state police on the workers, and the workers used bricks and pick handles and the strike against the employers, and lately against the general public. Laws have been framed and re-framed making the advantage first to one side and then to the other.

The goal is industrial peace and the maximum advantages for all concerned in this industrial civilization. But the thing to remember is, that good goal must be sought by good and fir means. Bad and unfair means, whoever uses them, can only bring further strife and trouble, for here, too, “the wrath of man works not for the righteousness of God.”

One of the great problems we have in America is to find a position for equality of all men, regardless of their color. Certainly, the time has come after a hundred years, for the black man of America to find his place in our society and have available to him the same advantages for cultural advancement, education, and a place in human affairs that are the privileges of the white class. But, in order to accomplish these, what has happened in these past few months is nothing less than a waging of war among the whites and the blacks. We can understand what they are doing, and why, but few of us can see any hope in this direction, and I cannot support, personally, this kind of approach to solve a problem of relationship between God’s children. I’m sure answers will come out of this, but I am equally positive that we are storing up more trouble for years to come. You see, “the wrath of man works not the righteousness of God,” not even in places like Selma or the south.

One of the temptations of Christ was to make use of man’s wrath and indignation in order to bring in the Kingdom of God. “Bow down and worship me,” said Satan during those days in the wilderness, “and all these things will I give thee.” Satan showed Him the kingdom of the world and the glory of it. We must never forget the Lord’s reply, “Get thee hence, Satan, for it is written ‘thou shall worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve.’”

Here’s one of the recurring temptations for every man of high ideals in this material world of man. The righteousness of God, the vision of what ought to be and what might be, in the sense that it lies only just beyond our grasp, this is the wine which can turn the head of the idealist who drinks it. In his longing for it, in his anger at the stupidity of some men seeming to deny it to all men, he is tempted to take up any weapon which lies close at hand. So the church in one dark hour makes use of the rock and the flame to save men’s souls.

It is the temptation of the evil one, for when men take that course, the dream vanishes, the vision fades and nothing is left but ashes and blood and tears and bitter memories, and the righteousness of God is still further postponed.

The alternative is patience and labor, and the cross of disappointment and misunderstanding; but this is the way the Lord Jesus Christ chose. There is no other way for those who would hallow Him. Let me plead in these troubled days of ours that you strive for a clear understanding of the principle involved, as we try to travel from this world of men the righteousness of God. The wrath of man will not advance us on our journey. Let me urge you as Christian disciples, to be “wise as serpents and harmless as doves,” whenever the summons to violence comes and the weapons are pressed into your hands.

Rather, give yourselves to the work of peace and righteousness. Work for understanding among rivals, work for mercy for all who have suffered wrong, work for a change of heart in those you believe to be mistaken. Above all, work for the love of God among men, for He alone can “order the unruly wills and affections of sinful men.” For in your dream of a better world, remember, only the righteousness of men works the righteousness of God.

The Reverend Norman Stockwell — May 16, 1965 at St. Stephen’s in Longview, Washington

My father wrote a sermon in 1943 during the greatest conflict in world history, WWII. In it he professed that St. Paul’s letter to the Romans contained a verse that he called “possibly the greatest of all St. Paul’s epistles.” He expressed that it was a “summation of all the aspects of the Christian life.” Paul wrote: “If God be for us, who can be against us?”

These words ring true to me, even in today’s world, a place of war still but fraught with economic disaster and environmental challenges. What is happening to the human population in 2011 is as messy and perilous for endurance as any time in history. We live in a country currently battling politically as to what is best for our future. Our Congress is arguing about debt ceilings, bailouts, Social Security, Medical insurance, women’s rights of choice, and many other divisive issues. Some people have little or no money for necessities while others hoard cash and property holdings in opulent amounts. We fight wars in two countries and assist uprisings in several other arenas.

I am not going to take a political stand in this blog, today. But I am going to refer to a prediction I made about five years ago, a prediction I stated to my wife. I said that I thought our country has about 50 years left before huge changes come about. As a student of history, I have read about various civilizations and empires which grew and proffered for many decades and in some cases centuries before undergoing a critical melt down and return to a less glorious status. We in this country have enjoyed a rousing 200 plus years of growth to become the greatest nation in the history of humankind. We are for the most part, comfortable and reasonably secure in our lifestyles. True some have more than others, but that reality is not new in history. There have always been those who are capable of maximizing ability and those who are fraught with failure.

So how does what I am writing relate to the Paul’s message? Well, I am a firm believer in the idea we are better off having unflinching and undying faith in God’s love for us than we are by protecting ourselves with worldly goods and false hopes. Yes, we all need to be employed earning a living at something we find enjoyable and rewarding, financially as well as emotionally. We are after all in this world; we just aren’t of this world. I hold with the ideal of Romans 8: 31, “If God be for us, who can be against us?” which to me says God loves me in ways I cannot fathom and understand, in ways so powerful that no harm can come to my spirit. I can endure the cross as did Jesus. (Not that I wish to.) I can believe that Jesus died and rose again to save me from what this world will do to me.

Christians proclaim many things in the name of what is in the Bible and what they declare God wants. I am curious about some who make statements that I feel contradict Jesus’ teaching. This is not a political position, by the way, but a dogged understanding that Jesus was a Jew with darker skin tones than mine, a radical reformer whom the establishment wanted out of the way, and a man who believed in socialistic ideals before they had been defined. As my father wrote in 1943, during a nasty war which cost millions of lives, it takes stamina to live. Paul warned the Roman Christians that “to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.” I hope for each of us to be at peace with our own lives and the lives of our families, friends and neighbors. Really, who can be against us if we follow in Jesus teachings? I guess the answer is in an old cartoon strip called Pogo, who stated that “we have met the enemy, and he is us.” Walt Kelly may have written the strip in 1971 for the first Earth Day, but I think the tenet of the statement applies to more than our caring for the environment. I think it is applicable to most of what we are doing in our world today. Enjoy my father’s sermon from many years ago.

Romans 8: 31 “If God be for us, who then can be against us?”

This text, from possibly the greatest of all St. Paul epistles, might well be the summation of all the aspects of the Christian life.

At the time of writing his letter to the Romans, Paul had been a missionary in the church for twenty years and had but a few years left for his ministry. It was during these twenty years that Paul had acquainted himself with all the truths of the faith and the power that is of God for all men who will but accept it.

The great disciple of Jesus Christ had just completed the establishment of the church at Corinth and now wished to help that group of Christians whom he had never seen nor visited. The faithful followers at Rome were facing persecutions, trials, and tribulations and Paul wrote that He might give them the power of the gospel to help them in their hardships. “If God be with us, who can be against us?” Paul was assuring those faithful in Christ that although their bodies may be destroyed, no man, factor, or machine could destroy their spirits. “God spared not His own son but delivered Him up for us all.” And in the same way, all who choose to be the sons of God, although they give themselves up in body for us all, they shall sit on the right hand of God.

Paul went on a step further and warned the Christians at Rome that “to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.” This is so because the carnally minded are never subject to the law of God. Only those who are of one mind with Christ can come to the fullness of life because, “We know that all things work together for good to them that love God.”

This message of Paul, although almost two thousand years old, is most applicable for our time and age. It is a message that brings consolation and peace to many. “If God be for us, who can be against us?”

Although the church must and will be concerned with war and the pain that comes out of it, I think that we must be careful not to dwell on the subject too often. I, for one, do not like to think of all the misery, suffering, and pain that is in the world because men have not yet learned to love God and their fellow man, and yet I feel in my heart that we have to face it and give ourselves wholly and completely to the comforting of those who have personally felt misery and sorrow.

There are two aspects to the relationship between us and the world: one, what we do to the world; and the other, what the world does to us. In prosperous times our major emphasis is on the first: we go out happily to do things to the world and to reap all the reward that we can. But the times to is all when the situation is reversed: the world takes the initiative and does things to us. Trouble, antagonism, disaster confront us, and the major question in our lives is whether or not we can stand up and take it.

Pretty much everything that we care for in life most depends on stamina, fortitude, and morale. Hitler was right in this regard – the outcome of the war depended on which side cracked first. In America this issue may not confront us in so dramatic a fashion, but in this congregation now how much of our problem as individuals, as families, as citizens, as Christians, centers in the question of stamina? Can we stand up and take it?

Indeed, this experience is a permanent element in human life. No man escapes situations where all his chances of positive, creative living depend not alone on what he can do, but on what he can stand. Only so did Handel write his Messiah. Says his biographer: “His health and fortunes had reached the lowest ebb. His right side had become paralyzed, his money was all gone. His creditors seized him and threatened him with imprisonment. For a brief time he was tempted to give up the fight – but then he rebounded to compose the greatest of all his inspirations, the epic Messiah.” So, whether or not that “Hallelujah Chorus” was going to be written hung in the balance there, teetered on the thin edge of doubt, until, in what looked like a hopeless situation, the spirit entered into him and set him upon his feet. What he could do depended on what he could stand.

This morning we take it for granted that we would like a share in such stamina. Our instinctive admirations go out it to it. These are difficult days and we know we need it. What goes on in the life of the man who has it? What do those people have who are able to smile and be cheerful when their sons and daughters are on the front lines facing death every way that they turn? What do those individuals, like the Rolls, have when they are able to give power and strength to men and women everywhere when they themselves have paid the supreme price?

They have the power, the faith, the love and the courage which of almighty God. They have instilled in their heart the gospel of Jesus Christ and thereby gained the rewarding spirit without which man is hopeless. Don’t be fooled though. They know pain and suffering as few men know it. They know also that to receive such a reward there must be sorrow, sorrow of the bitterest kind.

There is a law as deep as God that glory or ultimate success can be reached only through suffering. Suffering and glory belong to the same context. However inexplicable, the mystery may be, human life, in order to progress, must have suffering, or suffering’s equivalent. It is for this reason that you have to fill your hearts and souls with the power of Jesus Christ. You have to know His love and His mercy and the good place that your loved ones will have rest in His loving arms. For, “If God be for us, who can be against us?” It is one of the splendid commonplaces of experiences that from the beneath the shadows of agony springs much of the spiritual heroism in which mankind exults, as characters mount with rapid strides on the rungs of the ladder of pain.

The peace for which we all seek when our lives are laden down with agony is the peace which comes when there is no cloud between us and God. And this peace, this mystic peace, is not thrust upon us. It is simply made available. Like the Kingdom of Heaven, it must be taken by force – a force which comes with our faith that God is love.

The peace of God is the sweetest mystic possession and the truest solace that the inner life can know. It is a conserver of strength, which makes and keeps frail strong and the timid brave. Like God Himself, it is beyond analysis and explanation – it passes all understanding, as it keeps its untiring guard over our hearts and thoughts in Jesus Christ.

This is what religion means to us. The basic reason why men and women lie down on life instead of standing up to it is that within themselves they do not have the power and the love and the peace of God. The ability to stand up and take it is a power question, and power is not something we get merely by blowing on our hands and willing it, but by opening ourselves inwardly to spiritual resources greater than our own, and approaching them. “The water that I shall give you,” said Jesus “shall be in you, a well of water springing up.” “Strengthened,” said Paul “by God’s Spirit in the inward man.”

Life is a difficult game. It is no place for a cry baby. To play it well and play it through, takes stamina. And it is inspiriting to look back on history and see how the ostentatious conquerors rise, fall, and are forgotten, how imperial policies that once seemed everything appear nothing now in retrospect, while like mountains, seeming to rise higher the further we recede from them, stand out the souls who had such inward resources that for mankind’s sake they played the game and played it through.

“If God be for us, who then can be against us?”

We would remember before God all those who died to keep us free. May our merciful God wash their souls in the blood of the lamb and give them joy in serving Him in the wonder and glory of His nearer presence. And we remember all the anxious, bereaved and sorrowing; and all who in this life will see their loved ones no more. In the name of Jesus Christ our Lord.

Reverend Norman Stockwell – Sermon given at Gooding, Jerome, and Shoshone, ID, October 31, 1943 and again in Gooding, ID, February 11, 1945.

I am a person who will question what people believe or don’t believe. I question the beliefs of people who question the existence of God. I question the intolerance of people who speak for God. I question anyone not wanting to know the mystery of Jesus life and death and rising again. The mystery of death is that we humans do not understand what happens to us when our flesh ceases working. Do we have a soul? Do we get to “see the light?” Is there a heaven in which to revel or a hell in which to languish? I hear people spout off about how they are in commune with God and know exactly what we should be doing with our lives, and then these self-proclaimed experts condemn anyone who does not think as they do.

My father wrote and preached a sermon which explained clearly to me about the evils in this world and how Good Friday and Easter fulfilled the salvation of our souls through the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the grave. This sermon was given in the middle of World War II when all of the peoples of earth were being affected by the evil of war. Millions were dying because of threats to allied countries and differing opinions about what was right and what was wrong. He did not preach about the enemies of the United States and her allies, but rather spoke to the disorder of war being a precedent to the peace of mind and body that followed. The mystery of Good Friday and Easter relate the same way. One cannot understand what a great gift we have been given in Easter without first knowing and experiencing the suffering and death of Jesus Christ. As we live our lives in this torturous world today, we are still fighting wars. We are still arguing about social issues, such as abortion, taxes, conservative vs. liberal, national and state budget priorities, and a myriad of other minutia which is needed in this life but not in the next.

The mystery of Easter is revealed in that Jesus, whether willingly or unwillingly, fully understood what we fail to comprehend; we cannot live our lives in comfort and ease without true sacrifice and be able to enjoy what we desire and expect after our time on earth is over. We can achieve heaven on earth for immediate gratification or we can sacrifice ourselves to loving each other unconditionally and be grateful for a loving God who opens Heaven to us through the resurrection of His only son. I, for one, will give of myself as God calls me to do. I am not perfect, but God has work for me which may be difficult to endure at times and I willingly or unwillingly must suffer through to the end.

I hope the words of my father have an inspiring effect on you as you read. I have no experience with the time period for which this sermon was directed, but the words still ring true to me in the world in which I currently live. We have much to offer each other and we give so little, such is our fear of failure. Can you imagine what our lives would be like, if Christ failed to hang on the cross that fateful day two thousand years ago?

We speak the wisdom of God in a mystery. I Corinthians 2:7

It is told of Sir Harry Lauder, the actor, that while he was in Melbourne, Australia, and had just sustained the loss of his son, who had fallen at the front, he related the following beautiful incident. “A man came to my dressing room in a New York theater,” he said, “and told of an incident that had recently befallen him. In American towns, any household that had given a son to the war was entitled to place a star on the window pane. Well, a few nights before he came to see me, this man was walking down a street in New York accompanied by a small boy. The lad became very interested in the lighted windows of the houses, and clapped his hands when he saw a star. As they passed house after house he would say, “Oh. Look, Daddy, there’s another house that has given a son to the war. And there’s another. There’s one with two stars. And look. There’s a house with no star at all.”

“At last they came to a break in the houses. Though the gap could be seen the evening star shining brightly in the sky. The little fellow caught his breath. Oh, look, Daddy,’ he cried, “God must have given His Son, for He has a star in His window.”

“He has indeed.” said Sir Harry Lauder, in repeating the story. But it took the clear eyes of a little child to discover that the very stars are repeating the glorious fact, that “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son – to die – that whosoever believeth in Him, should not perish but have everlasting life.”

Throughout this past week, if we have been faithful in the observance of it, we have watched Jesus, the Christ, the Beloved Son of our salvation, face the sufferings through which He was made perfect, and through which He achieved His final victory. For that victory He did not have to wait for Easter day. He won it on the first Good Friday when His love remained undiminished though evil did its worst against Him, and when through apparent failure and in face of imminent death, His trust in God never failed, and having cried out the Word of Victory – “It is finished.” – He yielded His soul in serene confidence – “Father into thy hands I commend my spirit.” And yet Good Friday could not be the end of the story for although the Victory was won for Christ it would have been lost for the rest of the world. For the world would never have been able to solve the mystery of the cross without the open tomb. The disciples went forth, not proclaiming a Christ crucified, but a Christ crucified and risen. The death and the Victory was the tone of their message. It was the victory over the cross, the conquering of death through the glorious resurrection that portrayed the true character and nature of God, the father who had seemingly allowed Hid beloved Son to go to an undeserved Death. St. Paul wrote, “Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea, rather, that is risen again, who is even at the f=right hand of God.” (Romans 8:34)

Where is that union of perfect power with the perfect goodness which men everywhere have learnt to designate by the name of god? There is power in the world, sure enough, but is it guided by goodness? There is Goodness in the world, sure enough, but is it endowed with power to be effective? These questions are flung in our face by the death of Christ on the cross. The evil of the world at all times and especially in this present day prompt these questions. Nowhere in all history is this problem of evil brought more a head than at the Cross. That seems so unfair, so unlike a loving father.

Yet it is out of the darkness of the Cross that the great light of Easter Sunday breaks forth. Here, god acted and made His action known to those whose hearts were attuned by discipleship. By the Resurrection of Jesus Christ God not only gave us the pledge of a future life, not only declared Jesus Himself to be the Son of God, but in that act He vindicated His Deity and true nature as a Loving and merciful Father.

Therein He gave us that unconquerable hope which should be the mark of every Christian. For there can be no darkness blacker than the darkness of Calvary; yet out of it shines the everlasting light. Here in this act of the Resurrection of Christ, the whole Gospel is certified for the world and for the rationalizing minds of modern men. The Gospel here faces the ugliest facts with complete and unflinching realism, and makes of them the material of its triumphant joy. The Cross was the Devil’s worst; but it is God’s best. By the way Christ bore its pain and by the setting upon His life and the death of the divine seal in the Resurrection, evil is not only overcome, but it is converted into the occasion of the victory of good.

So St. Paul faces the terrors of a hostile world with its persecution, famine, and sword, and declares that “in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.” So the Lord on the threshold of his passion, and looking forward to what was in store for His disciples, said: “In the world ye have tribulation,” there is no concealing this, no pretense that things are better than they are; “In the world ye have tribulation: but be of good cheer I have overcome the world.”

At no time has the trumpet call of Easter sounded with a clearer note than today. In the world ye have tribulation. Our country men, our friends, our brothers, husbands, sons, are struggling at many places scattered over the earth in conflict for a cause which we know to be in line with the purpose of God. They are fighting foes who are alert, skillful, brave, equipped, and often cruel. So we have to beat the news of heavy losses in territory and in lives often dearer than our own; and we cannot tell how long the period of bad tidings must last. Yet through it all the Christian has no ultimate anxiety. Through pain and sorrow, through failure and death, through loss and defeat, God can bring the good cause to victory for those who trust in Him.

But our share in His Victory always depends on our readiness to share His endurance. We are, as St. Paul says, “Joint heirs with Christ, if we suffer with Him that we may be also glorified together.” We aspire to know the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings. The assurance of the victory of good shall nerve us for the endurance of all that may be involved in the conflict. But we must not expect to have any part in the victory if we shirk our share of the cost.

And so our prayer at this time is not that we may be spared suffering but that we may be made ready to suffer whatever is needed that the cause may triumph. The call of Easter is not to easy assurance of enjoyment in a heaven of selfish happiness; it is to brave endurance in the fellowship of Christ that we may our place with Him in the heaven where love and self-giving are made perfect.

So we set ourselves to lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily besets us that we may run with endurance the race that is set before us – a hard race – looking away from all others to Jesus, the Captain and perfecter of faith, who for the joy that was set before Him, the joy of a world by Him redeemed from the misery of selfishness into the blessedness of love – endured  the cross in scorn of contempt and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. We here and now devote ourselves to the high calling of God; in token of our dedication and as a pledge of its completeness we pay our homage to Christ crucified and risen, to Jesus King triumphant.

Any peace can come on through struggle. Rest comes only out of work. “He that loseth his life shall find it.” Death is the gateway to life. Calvary precedes the resurrection. Good Friday is the introduction to Easter. These are the working principles of the Christian life. He goes before you and invites you to follow. Are we speaking the wisdom of God in mystery? No doubt we are. But it is good wisdom and a good mystery – for Easter has come again and Christ is risen.

‘O Risen Lord, who didst endure the pain of the cross as the price of the world’s deliverance from the power of evil, for whom God loosed the bands of death, unite us we beseech thee, with thy purpose and thy constancy, that we may both do what thou callest us to do and bear what thou callest us to bear, with sure confidence in thy love and power, who livest and reignest with the Father and the Holy Spirit, God for ever and ever.”

Reverend Norman Stockwell – Easter Day, April 9, 1943 at Shoshone, Jerome, and Gooding, Idaho.

We are a week past Easter and life goes on as usual. Or does it? Christians celebrated the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the tomb and new, glorious existence began. By His own words He said He came to fulfill the law. After studying what this meant, I have concluded that what I read in the Old Testament about the prophetic words of Biblical people really did have an impact on our lives. So Jesus came into the world to save sinners and open the gates of Heaven for everyone. We have an opportunity to change how we use this world and interact with each other.

This weekend our President announced the death of an enemy of the United States. Osama bin Laden remained combative to the end and Americans cheered at the announcement of his death. While I understand and support the effort to bring this man to justice, I wonder about our future of continuing to live without fully following our Lord. He died on a cross for all of us. Let us not fear our enemies. We should work to understand their ideas and claims of misfortune at the hands of other people. We can find a better way to solve problems without resorting to war and bloodshed.

Can we live with a cross nailed to our bodies, symbolically of course? Can we open our hearts to understanding other people who do not share a common thought with us? Can we forgive ourselves as well as forgiving those who hurt us? Are we to live in a small kingdom without being able to open the Gate of Everlasting Life? Read the sermon my father gave at Church of the Ascension in Twin Falls, Idaho.  He tells a parable about the history of the Hebrews as they looked to find the way to Heaven. I enjoyed the story and I hope you will as well.

I will continue a weekly blog of my father’s sermons, now that Lent has ended and my discipline had been completed. I used the Holy Week postings to tell a story of my own about a man who witnessed the events. This story has been submitted to Writer’s Digest for a contest. Wish me luck!

A Parable of Christianity

“Lift up you heads, O ye gates; and be ye lifted up ye everlasting doors; and the King of Glory shall come in. “ Psalm 24:7

On this Easter day when from every pulpit is being sounded forth the victory of our Lord Jesus Christ, I have sought to put my own message to you in the form of a parable or story, which I entitle, “The Gate of everlasting Life.” It is in reality a summary of man’s age-long search for immortality which climaxed in the Resurrection of our Lord which we celebrate today.

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Many years ago in a distant part of the earth, there was a little country known as the Kingdom of Three Score and Ten. The inhabitants of this kingdom were often sad because of the smallness of their country and the shortness of life.  Men seldom lived beyond the customary seventy-years, — thus the Kingdom got its name. Moreover, around this country there was a very high wall – beyond which on one had ever gone. The name of that wall was Death.

Although no citizen of that country had ever ventured beyond the wall of Death and returned, yet there was an old legend which declared that on the other side of it there was wonderful Kingdom of surpassing size, wealth, and beauty, called the Kingdom of Forever. Many people doubted the legend but there were always those who cherished the hope that it was true.

One day there was great excitement in the capital city. Workmen, cleaning out rubbish near the wall, discovered a great gate. The news of this discovery travelled fast and before long a crowd had gathered to see what it might be. As the workmen continued to clear away the vines and the rubbish, there appeared an inscription which was found to mean the Gate of Everlasting Life.

Some of those who looked on recalled the almost forgotten legend of the Kingdom of Forever. Belief grew that there might be some truth in the old legend after all; and that this might be the gate which led to the fabulous Kingdom; but such hopes were doomed to disappointment, for upon the gate was a great padlock, the name of which was Sin. And there was deep gloom throughout the City.

The ruler of the country soon issued a proclamation to every city in the kingdom offering rich rewards to whoever might open the Gate of everlasting Life. At first there was no response. Then one day there appeared a traveler of patriarchal appearance. Said he, “the reason that you cannot open the padlock of sin is because God is angry with you, and you must appease His wrath by offering a sacrifice.’ And so they gave the stranger leave to build an altar beside the gate and offer thereon a burnt offering after the custom of ancient times. A great crowd attracted by the ceremony looked on expectantly. But the gate did not open.

Sometime later, there appeared a man of stern countenance bearing two tablets of stone upon which ere inscribed the Ten Commandments. He said unto the people, “Obey the law and get rid of the Sin which locks the gate.” And all the people tried to obey the laws which he had brought them, but they found that they were powerless because of their human imperfections to do so.

Then, one day there appeared a venerable prophet. He declared that what the ruler of the Kingdom of Forever desired was that they do justly to their fellow men. He condemned them severely for their sins, and yet though they were much ashamed, they found but little power to amend their ways. And still the gate did not open.

Finally, after many years, there came strange and unbelievable tidings that the great king of the Kingdom of Forever had sent his only Son to be born of a virgin in one of the little villages of the Kingdom of Three Score and Ten. There were strange manifestations at His birth, and the hearts of the people were strangely stirred at the report that He was to be the one to open the Gate of everlasting Life.

For many years they forgot about the King’s Son. He grew to manhood full of grace and truth. Then one day, when He was about thirty years of age He began a tour of the Kingdom of Three Score and Ten, and the substance of His message was about the Kingdom of Forever, which His Father ruled. All men flocked to hear the strange news.

Tidings of all this came to the ruler of the little kingdom and he became alarmed. If this were really the Son of the Kingdom of Forever then perhaps His real aim was to seize the Kingdom of Three Score and Ten for Himself. And so He sent a band of soldiers to seize Prince Emmanuel (for that was His name, and it signified “God with us.”) He was arrested and after a hasty trial was< by false witnesses, condemned to death. They hustled Him out to a green hill named Calvary where they crucified Him between two thieves. At eventide they buried Him in a tomb which was sealed securely by a great stone, and guarded by many soldiers.

On the third day a strange thing happened. It is said that the great stone was rolled away from the tomb, and the valiant Prince Emmanuel, robed in shining garments appeared before the great gate in the presence of all the people. Those who had loved Him, and who even through the darkness had dared to hope, shouted for joy at His appearing. A mighty throng looked on expectantly as the words of the ancient legend were fulfilled before their wondering eyes. The Prince took from His bosom with His own pierced hands a great Key, the name of which was Love. Going to the Gate He began to open it and as it opened the people saw a sight surpassing human words to describe. Men beheld for the first time the loveliness of the great Kingdom of Forever which so closely encompassed the little Kingdom of Three Score and Ten, though until then, men had not known it.

Turning to the great throng the Prince addressed them with great affection:

“I am the resurrection and the life; he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live; for whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. I go to prepare a place for you. I will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am ye may be also.”

Having said this, the Prince walked through the Gate of Everlasting Life and He ascended and disappeared. After that, the Gate closed again and the people returned thoughtfully to their homes to mediate upon the things which they had seen. It was not thought right that the knowledge of Prince Emmanuel and the Kingdom of Forever should die out and so the people have built schools and chapels throughout the land in which they teach the story of how the ancient legend was so gloriously fulfilled. And many try to follow the teachings of Prince Emmanuel as contained in the Book of Life, and for this reason the Kingdom of Three Score and Ten has become a better place in which to live.

And once a year a great festival called the Festival of the Resurrection is held before the Gate of the everlasting Life. Great choirs sing songs of praise and thanksgiving for the great Prince Emmanuel who has taken away the power of Sin and the Fear of Death. They remember with gratitude on this occasion all those who have passed through the Gate of Everlasting Life during the past year. And they bring their offerings to present here to the end that no one should ever be without the knowledge of the noble Prince Emmanuel who opened the Gate of Everlasting Life that leads unto the Kingdom of Forever.

And the song that they sing is with us still:

“Lift up ye heads, O ye gates; and be ye lifted up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in.

“Who is this King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle.

“Lift up your heads, O ye gates; even lift them up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of glory shall come in.”

Reverend Norman Stockwell – Twin Falls, Idaho, June 2, 1957

Holy week – Easter Day, April 24

I’ve hardly slept since Friday’s execution of Jesus. I need to find shelter from the Romans and the Sanhedrin.  The darkness in my life has not waned with night coming to an end. I can only imagine what Mary will find at the tomb when she goes to tend to the body. But wait, she has returned and exclaimed that Jesus is not there. He has risen, and she has seen an angel of the Lord who announced it to her. He is raised from the dead. What can this mean? Oh, He is the temple. I think this has to do the rebuilding the temple in three days. He has come to show us the light and has prepared a way for each of us to follow. I can only imagine what this will mean for us. His kingdom is not of this planet but is in heaven. The Romans and the Jewish leadership are irrelevant. Halleluiah, the Lord has risen. He is raised from the dead. Death is defeated and everyone who believes in the Lord can be saved forever. No one needs fear death ever again. He died for my sins. I am forgiven. I can only imagine the ecstasy of my life following my risen Lord. I must tell everyone I meet about what has happened. Bless Thomas for doubting the truth and then discovering it for himself. If he can believe after seeing, it will be some much better for anyone who believes and yet has not seen. Easter is a glorious day, after all. He has risen from the dead and all is right with the world. I should never have doubted, but then I didn’t understand. I listened to His lessons and did not believe. I heard His words and forgot to heed them. I will doubt Him or disbelieve or not heed what He has done for me. I am forgiven. I can only imagine.

Holy Week April 23

Today is the bleakest day of my life. Jesus is gone; no hope for salvation remains. His disciples are hiding somewhere and I feel exposed as I have nowhere to hide. The darkness in my soul renders me useless to productive thinking. I can only imagine how soon the legal authorities are going to round up all of us who followed Jesus. They hated Him and they killed Him. We are next. I don’t want to be crucified; I can’t handle it. All that Jesus taught us seems to be for nothing. How can I love other people when they don’t love me? How can I believe in a God who allows His son to be crucified? I can only imagine. I have lost direction in my life. I feel like such a fool for being taken in by this man. He was an imposter; claiming to be the Messiah and not being able to save Himself or have God save Him. Now life is not worth anything. I can always follow Judas example, but I don’t want to die. I just wanted to have a savior who would rid us of the Romans and guide my life to eternal forgiveness. I can only imagine what that would have been like. It is now gone.

Holy Week April 22

Friday morning and Jesus is in the custody of the Jewish leadership. They are questioning Him regarding His teachings. I can only imagine what they are asking Him. When will He be released? When will the people demand His release? I can see Herod and Pilate talking on the balcony. Jesus is brought out for us to see. He looks terrible for they have beaten and tortured Him. This isn’t what was supposed to happen. What have we done? This is all wrong. Pilate is disavowing any responsibility for convicting Jesus of blasphemy. He washes his hands and claims he is not responsible. Herod demands death, but this day requires the Romans to release one prisoner to us. He asks who should be released. I can only imagine what the people want, but they are crying for Barabbas to be freed. Why not Jesus? He is the one who has come into the world to save us sinners. Why are the people turning against Him? This is not right at all. Forgive me, for I know not what I have done. They have taken Him away again. I can only imagine what will happen next. The crowds have called for His death. This is wrong. Do we have any way of saving Him for I believe He is to be crucified? I heard Judas Iscariot hung himself because of what he did last night. Wait! I see Jesus, but He has a large cross to bear and He is having trouble carrying it. They are heading for Golgotha. He has fallen and the soldiers have conscripted a man called Simon to help with the cross. The torture has been awful, but Jesus has not cried out against His tormentors. I don’t understand why no one will rise up and free Him from His trials and tribulations. The soldiers and Jesus have reached the mound. I can only imagine why the soldiers are driving nails though His flesh into the cross. They mock Him and scorn Him. He hangs on the cross when it is lifted into place. This is a terrible day. Before Jesus dies He cries out to God, “Why have you forsaken me?” He is dead. I can only imagine what will happen to those of us who have followed in His footsteps. We need to flee and hide from retribution. The earth is shaking and the sky is dark. Joseph of Arimathea has requested the body be turned over to him. The women prepared Jesus body for burial.  Jesus is buried in a newly hewn cave which acts as a tomb. It is covered with a large stone. I can only imagine what our future will be without Jesus to guide and care for us. We are condemned by our own sins.

Holy Week – April 21

Jesus is having dinner with His disciples. Decent of Him, but is this a planning session for an uprising against our oppressive leaders and the Romans?  Judas Iscariot is not pleased. I can only imagine. I heard a rumor he went to the Pharisees; maybe he’s planning on betraying Jesus to them. I’m so disappointed, but maybe people will be agitated by an arrest that something significant will happen. We can still have a revolution against oppression even if Jesus is arrested. I can only imagine what it will be like when Jesus is betrayed and arrested. I’m going to tag along and see what happens.  No one wants any violence, unless it rids us of oppressive rulers. After this Last Supper I know Jesus wants to go to the garden at Gethsemane. I heard He accused one of His disciples of betrayal. How would He know? I can only imagine. I’ll follow Him to the garden and see what comes to pass. Judas has betrayed Jesus, who is led away. Now maybe the people will rise up against those who are rich and powerful; who are oppressing us. I can only imagine.