Come, Holy Spirit

Sermons

Barth, Thurneysen

• Editorial: Wipf and Stock
• Año: 2010
• ISBN:
  9781498270717
• Categoría: Teologia e religione
• Categoría: Religione

These sermons were prepared from 1920 to 1924. Professor Barth preached some of them while he was minister of the Reformed congregation in Safenwil, Canton Aargau, Switzerland; others in the Reformed Church in Goettingen while he was professor of theology in the University. Pastor Thurneysen at that time preached to the congregation in Bruggen, near St. Gall, Switzerland. The sermons were written not for special occasions but for the regular Sunday morning service, and were addressed to such men and women as one will find in any village or city church--to men and women in the struggle for life, waiting and seeking for God. Pastor Thurneysen selected the sermons and arranged them according to a scheme that may be indicated by the words Promise, Christ, Christian Living. --from the Translator's Preface

BEHOLD, NOW!

And working together with God we entreat also that ye receive not the grace of God in vain; for he saith, At an acceptable time I hearkened unto thee, and in a day of salvation did I succor thee: behold, now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.—2 Corinthians 6:1–2.

“Behold, now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation!” What does it mean? Evidently it means that the present time is precious time. It has come to us like a ship with a valuable cargo in its hold. It is standing before us like a tree laden with luscious fruit. Fleeting moments, passing minutes, hours, and days are not empty vessels; they are full of grace, of life, and help, and salvation. They are not merely time; behind the veil of time they hide eternity. We cannot disinterestedly watch the clock strike off the passing hours. The possibilities, opportunities, and hopes which times and seasons hold for us ought to arouse in us an anxious restlessness lest we fail to lift their hidden treasures. It is not time to play, to dream, to drift; we have hard work to do and loads to lift. It is time to be awake, and to rise from our sleep. For our time is not like any other time; it is a special season. Yesterday was not today; and tomorrow will no longer be today. Behold, now! “And working together with God we entreat that ye receive not the grace of God in vain.” Thus Paul.

As we read and hear him say it, it becomes almost immediately a burning question with us, if Paul would and could speak also of our time like this. But where in the Bible is it written that the acceptable year of which Paul is speaking has come to an end; or that it will ever cease to be? How depressing that such times should only have occurred many centuries ago! Is not God the same in every succeeding century? Is not every time God’s time?—But let us not be too hasty with our answer. Our theology is quick to level everything. In our minds we readily propose to call and make our time God’s time. Behold, NOW! We may propose, but God will dispose. In actuality, times are unequal. They differ from each other. In the life of an individual, there may be long stretches of time which can only be called days of vanity, years of indifference, times of dreaming and sleeping. At such times, it cannot possibly be said, Behold, NOW! On the contrary, Behold, not now! And suddenly there may come a few short years, perhaps only a few hours, or even only a fleeting moment when it becomes true, Behold, now is the acceptable time. And when it comes to pass, it is a special season. Probably it does not need to be so; but so it is in actual life.

The larger history of humanity does not differ from the life of an individual in this respect. History shows long periods that have no distinctive color; they have no rhythm and no temper of their own. The nations are as in a deep sleep. Good fortune and ill fortune, even wars and revolutions come over them; but no uplift and no real uprising ensue; no “Forward, march!” is heard; nothing of the old order passes away to make room for a new humanity. People do not even divine that something real could happen. Behold, not now! is the only fitting superscription for such times. And now again, between such colorless times there may come a decade, perhaps only a year and even less, when history’s hour strikes, when doors are flung open that have long been barred; when questions and problems of staggering magnitude, tremendous demands and hopes become alive in many hearts. Century-old burdens are thrown off; solutions to age-old problems offer themselves as by magic; and promises of even larger dimensions become apparent. As in the twinkling of a moment, men become aware what the history of humanity really seeks to accomplish. At such times it may become true, Behold, now is the acceptable time!

It is a peculiar and extraordinary happening, when such times come over us. It does not really need to be so; but so it is in actual history. It is the Bible way of looking at times and seasons. The Bible knows that there is a difference in the times. God’s activity does not pass over the world like a huge steam roller reducing all times to the same level. From the Bible point of view, God is not the same God at all times; although in theory he is unchangeable. On the contrary, we read of times of ignorance when we can speak only of God’s longsuffering, and not of grace and salvation. The prophet Amos mentions a time when the Lord will send a famine of hearing the words of Jehovah, when men shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north to the east; and shall run to and fro to seek the work of Jehovah and shall not find it.

The depressing, and even desperate, thought that the day of grace and salvation has passed or is lying in a far away future is not at all foreign to the Bible. And when the Bible says that the acceptable year is at hand, it does not leave us in doubt about its tremendous implications. Immeasurably large and rare and glorious things will come to pass and serve as unmistakable signs that God’s Presence Now is not an everyday occurrence. If we could stand its strain for any length of time? The times are unequal in relation to God. Luther has rightly remarked to our text: “The preaching of the gospel is not an everlasting and abiding doctrine but is like a moving rainstorm. Where it strikes, it strikes; what it misses, it misses; it does not return again and it does not remain motionless, but the sun and heat will follow and lick it up.”

At any rate, it is not a self-evident fact that we are standing today in a day of grace and salvation. It may well be that we are passing through a different kind of a season, a season in which we can only wait for showers of blessings, and in which we can only heed God’s infinite patience with ourselves and the world. It is by no means a self-evident matter that exactly you, and you exactly now, should be given to find the turning point and the way out of your difficulties; and help and light for your life which you have long sought and of which you have stood in such bitter need. The kingdom of God is not ruled by our needs. It is not a self-evident matter that I, or any other preacher, should at this very moment be given the grace to speak the word of God and not the word of man. And it is not self-evident that you yourself should here and now hear the word of God and not the word of a man. The kingdom of God is not fixed by calendars and ecclesiastical ordinances. It is not at all self-evident that we are better qualified today to understand God, and the world, and ourselves, because the world has passed through wars and revolutions. The kingdom of God does not take the world’s history for its textbook.

All these things are not impossible, but they are not self-evident. The things of God are not stacked up in a stock-room, where we may go and help ourselves at will. Some one who knew God a little has truly said that we are not carrying God about in our vest-pockets to pull him out at will. The Spirit listeth where it will. If we were to heed the distinctions in the times, we would perhaps learn to value and treasure God’s times when they come to us. If we had the courage to see clearly that the superscription at times reads, Behold, not now!

It needs also to be said that times of grace and salvation cannot be manufactured or made to order. We may compel ourselves to think and say, Behold, now! In fact, the trials which are harassing our souls today have led many of our contemporaries to exercise themselves in saying, Behold, now! A friend of mine who, at least in his thinking, is living in a time of large fulfillment and of divine presence reproved me for merely speaking of Paul and for not becoming a Paul in our day!! Our age is seething with a feeling of high hope and with a spirit of new life; and in some finely tempered men these feelings are become so strong that they are really living under the impression that something real has now happened. Others again are busy otherwise; they write books, give lectures, found magazines and newspapers and societies. Some men have organized c...

Índice

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• The Translators’ Preface
• Contents
• The Sermons of Karl Barth (Joseph Fort Newton)
• Open Wide the Gate!
• The Great “But”
• The Name of the Lord
• The New Time
• The Small Moment
• The Eternal Light
• Repentance
• Make Me Pure of Heart
• Be Not Anxious!
• Jesus and Nicodemus
• Fire upon the Earth!
• Jesus and Judas
• Good Friday
• Jesus Is Victor
• He Himself
• Come, Creator Spirit!
• “Seek the Things that Are Above”
• Passing All Understanding
• A Narrow Way
• The Freedom of the Word of God
• Moses-Time and Christ-Time
• An Individual
• The Inward Man
• Confident Despair
• Behold, Now!