Deep Roots and Green Twigs

October 27, 1963
Rochester

Sermon Series: The Free Church In The Changing World

III Education and Liberal Religion
7. Deep Roots and Green Twigs

In dealing with religious education in "Deep Roots and Green Twigs," I have not assumed that my only listeners will be parents or others who are concerned with immediate responsibility and relationship with children. I speak to everyone of you. The purpose of effort and investment of volunteers' time and members' money in religious education is to understand what religion is, what it means to the individual person —what he should be and what he should do — how religion has been expressed vertically in time; and geographically across the world-curve in the different religions. All persons, whether children or adults, are greatly deprived when there is failure to maintain living contact with religious experiences of knowledge, understanding, and obedience to the incentives for action which emerge from conviction. While education in the liberal church most frequently emphasizes how, what and when the child learns religion, nothing that applies to the child's growth in wisdom and stature is irrelevant to the adult. "We always have the opportunity to grow; we are never without the opportunity to become more mature in our insight of ourselves and our encounters with others. Anything that has to do with living has some direct connection with one's religion.

Our deep roots are the insights which have weathered the storms of history and remained as examples of how religion has helped man in his solitariness and man in society. Our deep roots are the life-source of civilities and conscience. By trial and error the ape in the psychologists' experimental laboratory learned to put together a jointed pole in order to knock down the high-hanging bananas, but could not pass on this skill to other apes. Man's deep roots of cultural transmission are the channels wherein we know the successful ways learned from trial and errors of ancestors, immediate and long-gone.

Some of you will recall that last year I dealt at length with our Judeo-Christian heritage. We reviewed its conflicts and victories, its weaknesses and strengths, its periods of low aims and discreditable actions as well as its ages of shining goals and superb efforts. These are our roots — the law and prophets of Israel, the wisdom and ethics of the Greeks, the order and practicality of the Romans, the family life and festivities of the Germanic tribes, and much more. We should be aware that some nations, small in area, the Greeks, Hebrews and English have made great contributions to the best of our culture — art, philosophy, religion, constitutional liberties.

When we look to specifics, we can review individual masterwork after masterwork: the Psalms of Israel, the poems of the prophets, the courage of Elijah, the anguish of Job, superbly expressed, the Sermon on the Mount, Paul's 13th chapter of his first letter to Corinth, the meditations of Marcus Aurelius, the confession of Augustine, Shakespeare, the incredibly acute observer and matchless recorder of human motives, John Stuart Mill, Jefferson, Lincoln — even the five-foot shelf can not adequately house the broad outlines of human effort, intelligence and growth. These are our deep roots. To cut ourselves off from them is no less fatal to our human hopes than the picking of the flower is to its life. Without constant contact with the roots, we die, even as the plant dies.

But deep roots are sources of culture, not the answers to life. Questions besiege us. Not only are we perplexed by the difficulties of answers to thorny problems, but also, we fail to properly understand the nature of the problems. We are anxious about many things. In our anxiety, we seek the concrete answer, the specific commandment, the particular injunction which will carry us through the difficulty. So there are those who say, let us return to religion, dig into our roots, find the answer that Moses found, Jesus found, or Paul found and put anxiety to rest. But green twigs grow in the air, not deep in the roots.

Our cultural roots are deep and productive, but we cannot draw the vital insights from them unless we understand that they are from time past, not time present. We cannot believe in the simple, earth-centered universe that so many believed long ago. We have known the experience of the astronomers who have observed and computed that not only is our earth not the center of our solar system, but also our solar system is but an infinitesimal speck in the mammoth sky of cosmological space. It was said of Jesus, and other ancient healers of the soul, that they cast out demons. The process of learning, insight, case study, no longer permits us to believe in demon possession when a person is exhibiting disturbing personality traits. We know now that the labyrinthine human personality does not lend itself to such naive, even though supernatural, beliefs. Learning has constantly been modified and revolutionized, as ideas and theory have been exposed to testing and discussion. Furthermore, social life has become increasingly complex. Tribal simplicities and behavioral certainties are not sufficiently sophisticated for urban, industrial, international societies.

Our deep roots could provide tranquilizer for anxieties but tranquilizers are not enough. Only the growth of green twigs in our day — that is, as we are mature enough to confront our difficulties with the knowledge and tools of our time, can we find an answer rather than an escape. Our deep roots are a life-source of values and principles; the green twigs are the new life in the atmosphere of the contemporary. When we believe that the green twigs of new growth depend altogether on the vitality flowing upwards from the roots, we are sometimes too greatly impressed with traditions which are the roots of our culture. Of course the deep roots of religious culture are of fundamental importance to the way we grow. But the environment is important, too, for infestations of living bugs can strip the tree of its new growth and as we well know in this autumn of 1963, that drought can wither the greenery, creating grave danger of conflagration.

Yes, our roots in culture are deep and strong — the primitive roots, the Egyptian, the Judaic, the Christian, the Greek, the Roman, the Germanic and Oriental cultures are entwined in a buried web which is not to be unraveled simply. But our attitudes, beliefs and actions are not wholly explained by these complex roots, for living experience is the great modifier of all that has been.

To balance properly old wisdom and new life, we need ways of understanding and methods of choice. For today's purposes let me suggest — time as dynamic, the person as perceptive and love as capacious.

Time is dynamic. Time is a way of stating that our life is an experience of continuous change. If 1 go to the banks of the Genesee and dip my hand in the flowing water, I can never repeat that action precisely. For the river is not static, but moving. The water in the moment of passing is not the water that has flowed in the past. The patterns of current change, even if only slightly. Furthermore, I have changed; I am never precisely the same when I dip my hand the next time. New experience, new thought and alteration in my physical body — tissue, blood, glands— have all occurred even in moments.

Time is dynamic; consequently religion cannot be static. Religion too must be understood in the process of change. Frequently the Old Testament prophet, Amos, is referred to as a prophet of courage who spoke to human conditions. What brought forth his eloquence and incisive criticisms was the scene that was contemporary for him. He was not motivated by what happened to Moses on Sinai, even though that great legend was part of his inspiration. Amos was moved to act because of what he met in his experience in Israel.

Jesus was applying this same dynamism of time when he said, (Matt 5/21 and passim), "You have heard that it was said to the men of old, You shall not kill; and whoever kills shall be liable to judgment. But I say to you that every one who is angry with his brother shall be liable to judgment...."

"You have heard that it was said, 'You shall not commit adultery,' But I say to you that every one who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart."

"Again you have heard that it was said to the men of old, 'You shall not swear falsely, ...But I say to you, Do not swear at all...."

Again and again in the history of religions, we observe it made plain that the present tense takes priority over the past. Religion at its best is always interpreted in the light of contemporary experience. The measure must be, not what is more Biblical, but what is more adequate for a faith now. Man is more made to participate in the present and seek goals, than he is to be a defender of antiquities.

So in our attempt to bring out best of religion in a child: We look backward, bring the heritage of the past, but of greatest concern is not what may have been true in the past, but what the child needs today.

In this affirmation of the dynamism of time, we recognize the present moment. Too often, we think of school, whether religious or public, as a means of preparation for a distant tomorrow — Preparatory school. But life for the child, for you, for me, is now. Preparation is not to be dismissed, but more important is participation, creatively in life today. One may attend a concert given by a great artist in order to participate then in an exhibition of great creative skill. One goes to participate in a great experience, not to prepare for a musical knowledge quiz some years hence.

Time is dynamic. We want persons, little ones and grown ones to experience life as great and worthwhile now, with their companions, achieving their own insights at their present level of capacity, finding the best moments of all the forces operating now in their lives.

The person is perceptive. There is that about human nature which enables each one of us to perceive himself in some fashion. The human personality can attempt to know itself and others. We have an ability to experience feelings about our individual placement in the whole space that defines our living.

The person is perceptive. To the best of knowledge, man is the only creature on this planet keenly aware that he is a self, a unique personality who is in relationship with other selves — persons. The idea that each of us is a person who thinks and feels is basic to humanity; the idea that each of us is a person who thinks and feels should be central in all our relationships — religious life for child and adult, particularly.

When we affirm the "supreme worth of every human personality," we are professing that we believe every child, every adult perceives himself and will feel self-respect because respect has been shown to him. We perceive ourselves as persons deserving of freedom and mutual respect because we are persons who accept the fact of unique personality as one of the highest values created in human societies. The old scripture of Deuteronomy has Yahveh saying, "Hear out your fellow men and decide justly between any man and a fellow Israelite or a stranger. You shall not be partial in judgment; hear out high and low alike,"

In the life of the Church, in the encounters between child and child, child and adult, adult and adult, we want these persons to experience firsthand, respect and self-respect, understanding of others, understanding of self. We will draw vitality from the roots of our culture as this source contributes to that achievement of self and selfhood.

We believe it of prime importance that every person shall feel good about himself, for we know that the worst things that can happen are usually caused by persons who have no self-esteem, and consequently, do not esteem others. When self-esteem and other-esteem is absent, then prejudices multiply, hate grows and all that is good is in jeopardy of corruption.

Max Lerner in his essay, "Education and a Radical Humanism," (p. 4) said it well, "Instead of the three R's, I suggest that the new imperatives of our time are the three Knows — to know your world and the forces that are shaping and reshaping it, to know your craft, whatever it may be, and to know it with precision and with passion, to know yourself, to make that journey into the interior which is the most difficult journey anyone is called upon to make."

The person is perceptive. To accept the implications of this is to confront persons, whatever their age may be with experiences or opportunities for experiences that will enable the child, the adult, every you and me, to know our world, to know our skill and to know ourselves by making that difficult journey to the center of self. The person is perceptive.

Love is capacious. We have no justification to assert that we advocate a religion fit for all persons unless we accept as a primary foundation the spirit of love which has the capacity to reach out and touch all areas that we meet.

Love is capacious because it has the power to receive, absorb and understand all conflicts that divide and all ignorance that touches off hostility. The mother loves the child and the child loves the mother, but this is not enough. Love must be capacious enough so that the mother in Brighton can understand and love as a person the mother on Baden St. Then when they come to live on the same street, the children will have experienced the capacious love of their parents and will have in their own experience the capacity for love of neighbor as well as love of family. In the story of Ruth, the Bible contains a great narrative that demonstrates that love need not be bound by clan but has the power to reach for deeper levels of personal fulfillment.

That this is the most difficult of tasks in an anxious and fragmented time is the very reason why the experience of many centers of human love are so vital to our children and ourselves. Love must penetrate the iron, the bamboo and silken curtains in the world and all the color curtains at home or we are in for disaster that will make Lord of the Flies seem like a fun-filled day at Coney Island, In that rewarding of stories, Jonah, the narrow-minded preacher discovers that God is no respecter of nations, either, that no culture or people has either a monopoly of truth or any claim for superiority unless that claim be demonstrated by righteousness, understanding and good will.

An educator once commented on the famous study, THE DAWN OF CONSCIENCE, by Professor James H. Breasted. THE DAWN OF CONSCIENCE was a scholarly effort to demonstrate that man first acquired conscience in the Egyptian civilization of about 5000 years ago. If conscience was born 5000 years ago, the human family has been operating under the weight of an enormous handicap, because 5000 years ago, man had then been making weapons for a million years.

We feel that head start of weaponry today. One thing we can do among ourselves, in our church, emphasize and set up experiences of many ways to know love:
Not only the love of parent for child,
Not only the love of wife and husband,
But also the love of friend for friend,
But also the love of stranger for stranger, when first experiences of good will and acceptance throw open the gate for larger and fuller times when strangers become friends.

Love is capacious. Into its great receptive strength, we may trust not only the problems of community, but of world. But capacious love is not passive love, it is activity to accomplish the goals of good will.

As I have stressed the inseparability of the dynamism of time, the perception of self and the capacity of love, there has been implicit what I wish to state explicitly: We want to do more than imprint our children and ourselves with the stamp of culture-past. We want to encourage our children and fortify ourselves to change that culture where it needs changing. In order to experience now the effects of a better world, we must point forward to a better world and in the efforts to achieve it, experience now a taste of that good time coming when "earth shall be fair and all her people one." Our first and continuing obligation is to train our children in ways of living that are cooperative, as well as individual, recognizing interdependence as well as freedom and to express that spirit in overt acts. And to walk that way ourselves.

There is no reason to have any lesser goal, any lesser means in the educational spirit of the liberal church. Only so may the deep roots continue to send strength to our time; only so may the green twigs maintain growth and beauty, and ever new growth.