Living Out of the World

April 19, 1959
Akron

The history of the human adventure frequently has exhibited a scandalous tendency to flee from the problems of earth in heedless, escapist entertainment or by theological fantasy. In our day, even science sometimes abets this weakness we all share, in hoping that if we forget a problem, or run away from it, it will somehow disappear. We sometimes overlook the homely reality that if we persistently try to "get away from it all," life's dearest values and achievements may all get away from us.

There is nothing more ancient, there is nothing more current, than the seductive temptation to run away from problems. There is no older truth and no newer discovery than recognizing that neither fantasy nor flight removes the dreaded evil.

Will you think with me, then, on both an old framework and a new structure which illustrates this human failure to face up to life by attempting to live out of the world?

In the New Testament there is a theological tract known as the Second Letter of Peter, which although Professor Enslin describes it as the book last "to be written and by all odds the least deserving to have gained that place or to hold it today," it is a stimulating beginning wherein to consider this matter of "living out of the world."

Not written before 150 a.d., this New Testament epistle obviously was not composed by Peter, the disciple of Jesus. Probably a devout Christian of the second century used the honored name of Peter in order to insure a wider hearing and greater consideration of his message. In those early times, this literary device known as the pseudonymous letter, was neither a literary crime nor religious sacrilege.

The unknown writer felt that many of the Christian congregations were threatened by problems not being faced realistically. As Christianity experienced in the second century both the impact of stronger organization and a weakening hope that Jesus would really come again and establish his kingdom, new problems had to be faced. The writer, who signed Peter's name, was concerned not only with bolstering the waning hope in the "second coming," but also with confronting some of the moral weaknesses which were in evidence.

The exhorter sternly warns the Christian that the "second coming" was an event still to be expected, (3 10 ff.) "But the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night, and then the heavens will pass away with a loud noise, and the elements will be dissolved with fire and the earth and the works upon it will be burned up." Thus he urged the Christians to be prepared for the sudden moment when they would be living out of the world. If this were all he said, we could ignore the letter without great loss. As Dr. Enslin comments in his standard work, CHRISTIAN BEGINNINGS, "the lapse of years and the appearance and growth of early Christianity caused the view (of the Second Coming) to lose its central place and to withdraw to the pleasant limbo accorded religious views in every generation which have lost their value but not their sanctity."

But unknown "Peter" challenged his readers on more realistic problems, too. As Christianity grew, there appeared in the various groups members who experienced religion ecstatically; they had strange visions; they were so frenzied with religious experience they "spoke with tongues;" they frothed at the mouth and rolled in fits. This was the presence of the "Holy Spirit!" Or so they believed. Because the enthusiast believed himself to be possessed by the "holy ghost," (and anyone who has witnessed revival excesses will testify that the experiences are really out of this world,), he felt himself freed from the rules and regulations of living. From the Jewish point of moral view, many Greco-Roman customs were immoral. Therefore for the converted Christian to feel license to indulge in any behavior because the Jewish law was replaced by the New Covenant "In Christ's blood," was alarming to some who still felt the stern tides of moral prophecy.

Salvation is moral as well as ecstatic, said unknown "Peter." "It is new heavens and earth that we expect, as he has promised, and in them dwells righteousness. So beloved as you are expecting this, be eager to be found unspotted and unblemished.... See that you are not carried away by the error of the lawless and so lose your proper footing." This unknown writer told them to live out of the world with their hopes, but live in the world with their behavior.

The so-called "second coming" has no meaning for us today, except to observe the phenomenon that apparently so many good people still seem to be living out of the world as far as literal interpretation of this ancient Messianic prophecy is concerned. But we face considerable peril in other ways of living out of the world.

Consider the fascinating news story about Project Mercury. We have been thrilled by the announcement of the modern Argonauts (Astronauts), one or more of whom will be the first persons, since the planet was formed, to escape the gravitational pull of Mother Earth. They will be living out of this world!

We have been told something of the rigors and severity of the tests which reduced the number of space candidates to these seven. Those who have survived the tests which eliminated the others are without doubt superior men. They possess great courage. Their physical and mental abilities are far above average and they must possess the emotional balance to best survive the psychological shock to be experienced when they find themselves whirling in a non-human orbit. The audacity of the adventure makes Columbus and Magellan seem like coastal skippers who never sailed beyond the sight of land.

The experience will be one to test even the superior person. We are told that when the vessels of this fantastic Odyssey blast off, there will be a deluge of hideous, raucous sounds. The adventurers will be dis-oriented by shakes and shocks as varying gravitational forces tumble them about as no fragile ship was ever pitched, even in the most violent storms at sea. Even though these volunteers will not be rocketed aloft until after non-volunteer monkeys and other animals have been drafted and blasted into space, in undoubtedly fatal experimentation, the men of Project Mercury will be risking their lives. The fears, dreads and suspense their families will experience will be terrifying and pathetic.

No great stretch of the imagination is required to grasp the possibility that these courageous pioneers will exemplify the ancient religious act of the burnt offering. In Old Testament days, we read in our scriptures, an allegiance between men and women was sealed by the sacrifice of a burnt offering. When Jacob and Laban (Genesis 31 44/54) agreed on boundaries, they built an altar and shared the burnt offering. Perhaps the men of Project Mercury will be the burnt sacrifice, not on the coals of a primitive altar, but in the astounding heat generated by solid fuel as a manned satellite keeps its date with destiny.

When the project succeeds (and it will succeed one day), think of the problems which may be solved by living out of this world.

First of all, in our world where Everest has been climbed and the Poles explored, there will be new frontiers for pioneering spirits. All the romantic adventures of the past will seem but prologue to the dangerous, glamorous conquest of space. Some of the great riddles of the ages will be answered. Are there other worlds like ours? Are there other families of humans on other planets? Have they found God? Do they believe in original sin and second comings? The most thrilling explorations of all time will be mapped through the paths of the moon and the stars. The psalmist sang to the beauty of the heavens. Now man will visit them.

Secondly, perhaps the most dangerous threat to mankind will be solved beyond the boundaries of earth. The world is rapidly becoming overpopulated. With modern medicine, improved agriculture, diet and sanitation, the mortality rate for infants is dropping. The average span of life is lengthening. For these benefits to humanity we may be grateful. But the population of the world may accumulate faster than the world's ability to provide food. We have no real assurance that there will be the acceptance, use and development of birth control methods to the end that children will be planned and welcomed into a world where provision will exist for their health and welfare.

Consequently, because we may not have the convictions and persuasive ability to install an intelligent, earthly solution to the problem of the world's being overwhelmed by its own fertility, perhaps there can be emigration to other planets. If there are enough planets, then facing the problem can be postponed indefinitely.

Then, too, the space age will provide opportunities to really get away from it all. If one takes delight in anticipating a roving journey in a cargo vessel over the seven seas, think how really relaxing it will be to take a tramp spaceship which will hurtle from one little-known planet to another.

The development of space travel will of course increase our potential threat to blast the Soviet Union. There is only small comfort in this, however, as the Soviet Union has demonstrated a most disconcerting ability to match us, or better us, in accomplishments in outer space. The first real man on the moon may prove to have been born in Odessa and educated in Moscow.

But, there's no doubt about it, we are quickly nearing the time when there will be people living out of this world. The combination of science, industry, and our taxes have placed iron basketballs in space. Project Mercury will put men into those stellar regions.

However, unknown "Peter's" second century warning has terrible significance for us. In all our investment of brains, materials, power and money in order to live out of this world, we have a much closer, more pressing need to live in this world. Living in the world will take brains, money, materials, too. Living in the world has other more vital needs -- compassion, understanding and righteousness -- the qualities of worthwhile religion.

There is a touching humanity and a deep significance in one of the incidental news notes among all the scientific superlatives released by the Project Mercury public relations boys. The seven spacemen do not begin their space training until May 1st. Why? They are all married and are being given this time to help find living quarters for their families. Is this not a symbolic touch? Living in this world should be first.

There are a number of problems that living out of the world will not solve. Whether one attempts to escape by way of space, day-dreams, narcotics or heedlessness, the problems will still be here, either ticking away the death-watch of mankind or sounding the hours of a world brighter with hope, and fairer with promise, than ever dreamed.

John Clare was a poet who lived most of his life in a mental hospital. During a period when he came to himself a bit, he penned these lines which express the tragic loneliness of the escapist, (From INVITATION TO POETRY):

"Into the nothing of scorn and noise
Into the living sea of waking dream
Where there is neither sense of life, nor joys,
But the huge shipwreck of my self-esteem
And all that's dear. Even those I love the best
Are strange; they are stranger than the rest.

"I long for scenes where man has never trod;
For scenes where woman never smiled or wept;
There to abide with my creator, God,
And sleep as in I in childhood sweetly slept,
Full of high thoughts, unborn. So let me lie
The grass below; above the vaulted sky."

But John Clare's sick comfort in a dream world cannot be the common destiny of the human spirit. Our task of living in this world is to face the necessities of our day and use our wealth, science and power for the happiness, comfort and security of man.

The achievement of orbit in life in this world depends not so much on chemical and electronic ingenuity as it does on the embracing of human values. E. Frederick Morrow, (NY Times, 4/14/59), a White House administrative officer, speaking to a Republican Women's Conference urged that this audience seriously search their soul on the achievement of justice in our land. Mr. Morrow said, "In this nation with our very existence threatened, there is no longer room for detached islands of segregation or discrimination within our country. How can we dare to preach the fatherhood of God in Africa and Asia when we cannot practice the brotherhood of man within our own borders?"

Living in this world depends increasingly on the nations facing the problem of accumulating danger from radiation poisoning due to bomb testing. The voices of warning are more and more insistent that we have been underestimating the danger. It has recently been proposed that fall-out and filtering to earth is twice as fast as estimated previously. Dr. Linus Pauling, Nobel prize-winning geneticist, warns that his earlier estimate that "15,000 seriously defective children will be born, and 15,000 die from leukemia "as a result of each 20 megaton test must be raised substantially." We must express to our legislators our concern that the official government agency may be dreadfully underestimating safety margins of radiation -- or we will not be living in this world.

The list could be lengthened of the ethical levels we must achieve to live in the world.

Our versatile moderator, Lloyd Manis, wrote this poem entitled, "Feedback":

Our prophets have declared

The stars to be God's handiwork.

And some have seen His hand still busy there

And I have cried to reach His ear

And waited for divine and comforting reply.

But faith had not the thrust

To put my prayer beyond the gravity

That keeps me crawling here.

Now when our satellites

Whirl among those

Stars, to ask for verities

On which we may depend,

The only words we get

Are those we send.

Is this not our task? Whether one admires the prospect of the burning heavens of old unknown "Peter", or thrills to the stellar voyages of the Project Mercury astronauts, living in this world or any other depends on what we project into this life -- that is what will feed back:

Brotherhood or bitterness

Maturity or Infantilism

Love or Hate

Life or Death

It was said (Theil, AND THERE WAS LIGHT) that the reason the Moslems pioneered in astronomy occurred because Mohammed had instructed the worshippers of Allah to prostrate themselves in prayer in the direction of the Black Stone in Mecca, no matter where the Moslem might find himself.

Precise direction-finding was not easy in the barren wastes of Iran, North Africa, and Mesopotamia. Therefore, astronomy as a directional science was developed by the Arab countries for a religious reason.

So it seems to me with our development of outer space and our integration of the turbulent emotions of our inner space. We must develop in keeping with the direction of religion. Or as unknown "Peter" said long ago, "It will be a new heaven and new earth when righteousness prevails."