A Gift For My Son

[Music] the story is that a stranger came to this place and said what kind of a town do you have here they answered 47% of our people own their own homes while 67.8% and the stranger interrupted and said your statistics will tell me nothing every town has industries stores and homes but tell me what kind of people you have and I will know your town they were on Main Street they said if you want to know what kind of people we have look at this man his name is John Edgar the stranger said why what does he do is he the mayor they answered no he's not the mayor and John Edgar probably doesn't even know what he does for all of us but if you'll watch we think you'll see he has his effect on his town his country and his world actually John Edgar's in a hurry he has a meeting but this man just want to be sure John would be at the town wide committee Monday night while she just wants to say how glad she was that John and his wife got to the school meeting and what are they going to do about the new wing on the hospital somebody's got to organize John agrees they need it but he sorry he's late can they talk about it later in the week tomorrow she'll call him tomorrow definitely he almost forgot the new fishing rod he promised today is Pete's birthday this is the one in the window tonight after the meeting he'll get through early and come back hello dear hi you're late I know hi there did you get the rod well I wanted to tell you isn't it a beaut you look tired dear why don't you sit down oh it's just what I want dad well I was gonna explain Pete I just didn't have time to stop didn't stop dad I wanted her for tomorrow I don't worry I'll get it huh you told him you would John I know but there was just so much to do Helen I don't worry I'll get it you always have so much to do I thought you'd keep your promise I will keep my promise Pete okay well he's disappointed John you did say you would I know I did and I intended but people have been asking me all day about the new hospital the town wide council on I don't know what else John I know how much people ask you to help but we do have to think of the children think of the children I mean we can't get so busy that we neglect them Helen I can't stay home all day there are obligations oh I know I take on a lot of things certainly wish I could say no well if the children feel they're being neglected maybe you're right maybe I'm wrong to get involved well you just think about it I'll go get dinner oh I'll get your fishing rod this evening people so well can we go down after dinner no I've got a budget meeting at church but I'll get there unless something happens okay if you say so now we've discussed that matter and I think we've reached a pretty good decision on that so we can go on to some more business low excuse me Roy is that all the business we have for this meeting well I was going to say I think the reports that we've heard show that the affairs of our church are in pretty good order of course we'd all like to do more so suppose now we take up the matter of how much we're going to give our Christian world mission Oh are we gonna take that up tonight and well John we've been asked make quite an increase this year maybe we'd better start thinking about it I think you Dave is our minister should say something about this no we've all been pretty well briefed by the letters we've been getting but George here's been at the state conference and I think he has some ideas well thank you Dave I just want to say that while I was at the conference I got a better idea of our Christian world mission we had a talk by dr. Alfred Carlton and I was very impressed now this only suggest some of his points and I'd like to quote some of the things I remember for instance dr. Carlton told us of the work of the American there was a time when it was felt that all that was needed for the mission of the church was a preacher and a Bible movement to go he was simply the geographic extension of the church that it is no longer important to go from here to there with the gospel rather we have nor are there any missions in the old divided sense it has become one mission to the world I'm sorry to interrupt I know all this is important work but I do think we have to consider our own situation yes our people have so many demands on them well I'm sure we all do there's always something to give to or something to support right here in our town or as a matter of fact right here in our church I was thinking the same thing Roy we've had a number of suggestions from our members to improve the church property and our services and we've agreed that most of these ideas are sensible and the thought has occurred to me that no matter what we might like to do our first obligation is to our own members to keep up our church all right I don't know how we can ask people to give more when they're already being asked to give I'm sorry Clyde and George but I have a family area to take care of anyway I don't see how we can do any better than to leave the apportionment as it's been in the past well is this going to be our recommendation to the council for giving to our Christian world mission I'm sorry Roy but I have to leave oh here John take these witty alright will you excuse me now where should we discuss this more now or would you rather leave it to the next meeting well entirely of you I think so why should I be the world John recognizes that voice it was peeps why do we need anybody else he's a stranger he just moved here somebody ought to at least invite him she was think he's good-looking I haven't even looked at him besides we haven't got room we don't even know if he'd be interested well the other ones to decide I don't want to tell you what to do but like I said we've got all this room for already I just thought we'd ought to consider how we feel I think we should but but let's think about this because oh this is a very old question how can we respect ourselves or love ourselves or enjoy ourselves if we don't share and there's even a little more to it than that because I don't mean that we should share only because it makes us feel good but because this is what we believe oh you're probably right but we don't even know if he'd be interested oh we can ask the only reason I suggested Peter your name was that well he lives up your way I haven't even talked to him well anyone else want to speak to him what's his name then not a field Malcolm Butterfield okay um alright now what else were we going to oh hello mr. Edgar hi dan come in no I haven't earned I'll see you later good night I don't know why you couldn't have talked to this guy he was right up near you got a date for lunch I could meet you gosh I don't remember why don't you call me at the office I'm going shopping oh what's Pete going to do what do you expect fishing of course I don't think he's ever got a present but please do more well he picked a fine run I'm certainly satisfied good I hear you're going fishing Pete I don't know whether I am or not why I've got to get this whole reel on snarl bud Stevens wanted to try it and I was dumb enough to let him you probably would have wanted to try his if he didn't gotten a new one that's the trouble he hasn't got one does not a handle it well probably his father can't afford one right now you know they've had some bad luck what going to do he is not from now on I'm not letting anybody touch this why does he have to be so selfish should it new Johnny's upset that's so sure it's as simple as all that I'm not sure either isn't just Pete it's all the young people you seem to have so much these days there are times when they seem completely self-centered oh we don't want our children to be I know a little well can they ever be happy apparently we haven't done the right thing well why not think of how hard we've worked to give them things well they're lucky that's what I say but the point is they haven't learned to share that must be our fault we've given them a decent home good school we've tried to give them a good town to live in you arguing with me or with yourself no it's just that we've given given them all these advantages and now I'm beginning to wonder we've given them the advantages but maybe there's something wrong with our example maybe that's it maybe we've been self-centered too well a minute ago you were telling me that I've been giving too much of myself and now hey what time is it boy I've got to get out of here if I don't see you for lunch will you be late for dinner I'll try not how do you decide what to do it's the dilemma of most parents you try to do your duty to your fellow man and the world but what profit will there be if the next generation doesn't understand doesn't benefit and this the literature George gave him last night should read it but maybe he'd be better to give up everything let the world go and concentrate on your own and yet the youngster has to have a school this is one of the things John's worked for for all the children what was it dr. Truman Douglas executive vice president of the board of home missions said at the last conference and there are other youngsters and youth and far-off salon in Alabama in the Philippines maybe even Ohio USA they do have parents who are concerned that their children shall grow up to the full stature of their promise do their work in the world with skill and competence live in the confidence and power of a faith and not only parents isn't it our Christian faith that the very God of the universe shares in and is in fact the source of all this human caring and holds us responsible for one another was it not the Christ who said whoso shall receive one of these receiveth me [Music] [Music] well the world has its problems and John has his after all there's the job of making a living maybe if he hurries maybe if the phone doesn't ring maybe this afternoon he and Pete can what is he going to say she says it's a crisis up at the hospital they they should have a meeting of the board naturally she's called John there may never be a plaque to say so but John is one of the citizens who created the hospital and as it turned out here is where they took Pete with his appendix so how much has he neglected his children in this instance he and Pete might have gone fishing more often but how much can the parents of this world build hospitals keep their children well if they don't give time/thought money themselves and John is very sure of this you can't have the security of health in a world that is half well and half sick wasn't this what George had said at the meeting in which he quoted dr. Carlton what word dr. Carlton's words it was thought at one time that the health of the world depended only on the verbal preaching of the gospel all that was needed was the Bible and a preacher to go here and there over the world and the work of the mission was done that was true whether it was to the Indian territory to the northwest territory or to India or to Japan the essence of the missionary movement 150 years ago was that of a geographic extension of the church from that their growth the whole movement of church extension in this country and the whole missionary movement abroad sitting at my desk as the executive vice president of the American Board however I can say that there have been very important changes coming over the missions movement of the church in the last 150 years the first one has been the broadening of the concept of the mission of the church it is no longer simply a verbal preaching of the gospel but it has come to include a whole range of activities and the employment of many kinds of specialists medicine healing clinics and hospitals the health of the body as well as the soul has become an important concern of the Christian Church and so both the boards of home missions and foreign missions have taken on large programs of Health and medical work in Puerto Rico in the western states in the Far Lands of the earth in the jungles and on the plains of Africa and Asia and in some cases of Latin America similarly social work has become an important part of the activities of the church it is necessary to understand the environment in which Christians and non-christians live and to understand the sense of community which binds them together so in the work of the board of Hog missions among the migrants of this country in areas of racial tension in the Harlem Protestant parish and other great city situations across this land and likewise under the American Board in Johannesburg and in Japan and in India and in the Philippines it has become an essential part of the Christian mission to work with people to help them to understand and to adjust to the new situations of modern life there has come up similarly the whole program of social action to extend the concern of Christian people for the welfare of the human race in the day in which we live relief and reconstruction have become important and the Congregational Christian Service Committee must carry on an important work of understanding of relief and of social welfare agriculture even has come into the concept of the responsibility of the church thus the mission has been broadened into all aspects where the welfare of men may be affected it is no longer a question of differences between one country and another for in the modern world we are all neighbors and share one another's problems there is no longer a sharp distinction of the home and the foreign mission rather there has come an understanding of the fact that the Christian Church wherever it may be in the world is part of a faith and a fellowship which shares the problems and the resources of the entire church and which must devote many of these resources to a continuing reach toward those people who are outside the church whether nominal Christians in this country or non-christians in other lands the world has become one and the Christian Church has learned to think in those terms that is the essence of the mission today the world is one and the people in it one family under God how can anyone deny that for a moment John was confused by his son's disappointment and this isn't the first time that has happened to a father but the child's desires and needs are real to the child real beyond reason where is the line can we be too conscientious this concern with strange people in strange places how much of his father must Pete lose for that strange people in strange places what about this our own people in our own land here they are in the shadow of our own church what did his wife say about their example what kind of an example can it be to our children if we're indifferent to this dr. Truman Douglas executive vice president of the board of home missions for it this way there is nothing else remotely like it there is nobody else to take it up if Christian people neglected or abandoned it it is the Christian mission what is this mission but very tersely it is simply this it is the planned endeavor of the whole Christian Fellowship to marshal all its powers and resources to do God's will in the real world in our time it is the deliberate ordering of all the skills and capacities and dedications of the Christian community for the service of God's purpose in our generation God's purpose as he has shown it to us in our Lord Jesus Christ now according to this understanding every local church is a mission every individual church member is a missionary those organizations that we call mission boards are only instruments though indispensable instruments of this whole mission which is the central business of every Christian and every Christian Church what all of us need to do is to see every fact of our time from the standpoint of this mission the service of God's purpose for his world for his creation here's a crowded neighborhood in a great city perhaps the outsider would call it a slum what is God's purpose here undoubtedly it includes better housing and less crowding and a chance for children to see green fields and woods and make contact with the elemental things of Earth but it's something more it is the purpose that every man shall know that his life has a meaning that it begins in God's plan and ends in the fulfillment of his plan and is held at every moment in his loving and fatherly concern God's purpose for the people of this neighborhood includes membership in a comradeship of mutual caring and mutual trust it includes that which can be found only in the church and here is a class of young men and women in one of our Negro colleges in the south today they are people under terrible pressure the pressures are there partly because you and I have helped them develop their gifts and talents and realize the promise of their capacity and in consequence an old order of life is now threatened and some of our fellow Americans do not like the threat do not like the change what is God's will here in all these trying circumstances surely it is that no son or daughter of his shall stop short of the fulfillment of his abilities surely it is that none shall be left standing alone that all shall know that beside them are comrades who care about truth and justice and freedom through the Christian mission you and I are able to do this day by day and above all it is God's purpose that all men everywhere should know him should be strengthened by his living word and glimpse his majesty and the majesty of his will for them in worship and receive the wonder of his victory over evil and despair and death that is his gift to them from the cross of Christ this is the Christian mission no one will carry it forward except the church that means no one but you not no one but you and I now John knows it would be indifference to his own children to be indifferent to these but why hasn't it happened why don't our own children understand as all the work been for nothing is this really Pete how about all the times he's acted generously decently it's hard to know if only Pete would the pastor talks the Bible is quoted but to the parent of a child who seems not to have heard or understood these are words words words and yet Pete is his father's son these words do have meaning for him it is indeed good to work for freedom help education and justice for it is God's will that man should have these things but he has made us for higher ends he has made us for himself that we might know and love him worship and serve Him nothing other than God can ever satisfy the heart of bear forgetting this man becomes his own enemy he seeks justice where he creates oppression he wants peace but he drifts toward war it is bans particulate he can opt of his own strength meet the needs of life but there is hope here where we stand Jesus Christ stood with us and with him a new life began he sent forth into the world a new community bound together by his holy spirit sharing his divine life and commissioned to make him known throughout the world it is not enough that Christians should seek good things for themselves they must seek good for all the great masses of people in many parts of the world are hungry for bread and are compelled to live in conditions which mark their work the Church of Christ is a worldwide Fellowship which affirms that we are all one family of God where any man can find a home and know that God loves him without limit therefore let us rejoice in hope then the spirit of Jesus Christ expect new power to break through every human barrier today this morning in this year of our Lord these words have had a special meaning for John Edgar he has heard and he understands what happened where's Pete I don't know but I don't think here to have the sermon why I don't know he just sat there looking around and thinking I thought it was a very good sermon Oh what it's talking to somebody who is that I don't know I mean meet right here in the social hall every Thursday night sounds swell can you come sure um this is my mother and dad this is Malcolm Butterfield he just moved here how do you do Malcolm well how are you welcome you know he's come to church Thursday night Oh wonderful he say do you like fishing sure my dad and I go fishing all the time can you come home to dinner well of course if you can't I'd like to show you my new fishing rod and you can try it great I'll ask my folks we'll wait okay dad okay you see I've changed my mind I don't need any more argument as to why our Christian world mission if we believe as we do our missions are inevitable it's as simple as saying we have to practice what we preach otherwise our Bible is gathering dust now I know I said at the last meeting that I thought we had to take care of our own church first but now I realize that our church doesn't even exist unless we extend our faith even beyond our sight I now believe it's not just our missions that are dependent on us but the very life and purpose of our church are dependent on our missions oh I guess I'd better explain part of the reason why I have this feeling don't we all try to give our children everything we can but what good is anything how much security have we offered them if we haven't given them faith in God and in the brotherhood of man and I know this that's the only real gift that we can give our children and the world and so John Edgar serves his town his country his world and his church and in knowing why he serves them he is able to serve them better you