Southern Baptist Convention 1958
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Press Room - Southern Baptist Convention Release: 7:40 P.M. 1958 - Houston Coliseum Monday, May 19 Albert McClellan, Press Representative Theo Sommerkamp, Assistant mDMY SHEEP --by R. Paul Caudill Jesus had tried to prepare the disciples for His approaching death, but He had failed. They continued to loolr for a miraculous demonstration of His de- livering power, When the twelve decided to go with Him all the way, they knew what He could do. With His miraculous power He could feed an army; IIe could heal the sick; He could raise the dead, But His death, at the hands of His enemies, was too much for them. Consequently, at the time of the crucifixion, all of the disciples fled, and became as broken straws, slinking among the shadows. Obviously the kingdom would not be restored to Israel. Everything was gone! Only Peter had the courage to accompany Jesus to His mock trial, but even then he kept his distance and lied about knowing Him. Peter therefore dicided to return to his old fishing business. After all, what was there to do henceforth but fish? The other disciples dccided they would go, too. They would a11 begin where they had left off, and start life over again. After a night of fishing, they beheld Jeaus on the strand--the space on the beach where the waves break between the high and the low tide. Jesus called to them, "Hey, bays, have you any fish?" Not recognizing Him they replied, "No." At His direction, they let down their nets and brought to land a record catch, Then they recognized Him. After they had breakfasted together, Jesus said to Simon Peter, "Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?" "Feed my lambs." Idhat did Jesus man? Was Ile comparing Peter's love for Him with that of the other disciples, or with his love for the disciples or the old fishing gear? Was he reminding Peter that he was slipping, now that he, and the others, were returning to the old way of life that they had left to follow Him? Jesus apparently wanted one thing: He wanted to get back the same old loyalty, the same, but tempered, sword-drawing zeal that Peter had manifested in Gethsemane, He knew that if He got Feter, He could get the others. In the conversation that followed between Jesus and Peter, one comes to the very heart of the Christian task. Two thoughts stand out above all others, namely, the hungry flock and the test of love, - J ---- TIB HUNGRY F'LOCK The figure of the sheep, and of the shepherd, was a common one in Palestine in the days of our Lord. Every hillside had its flock, and every village its shepherd. Jesus frequently used the metaphor in regard to his followers. "I am the good shepherd:" He said, "the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep." And again, "Other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherdN (LO: 19-16). Calling his followers "lambs, " and "little sheep, " Jesus reminded Peter that his task as a shepherd was to feed them, and tend them, and provide them with nourishment. Speech of R. Paul Caudill -2- The heart of Jesus was ever concerned for the flock. bhtthew tells us that as He looked upon the multitudes, He was "moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd" (ktt. 9:36) In his first public address in the synagogue at Nazareth, Jesus spoke of his mission, saying, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lordf' (~uke4:18-19). And when he called the twelve, he gave them power "to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of diseaset1 (Matt. 10:l). He himself fed the five thousand, and the four thousand! Almost two thousand years have passed since the ministry of our Lord upon the earth, but the hungry and the distressed of the world are still with us. -- -- --__I-- -They hunger --for bread. We are now in the midst of what Dr. mank Laubach calls "the new stupendous , crisis, involving four-fifths of the world." Upwards of l,7OO,OOO,OOO of the more than 2,620,000,000 peoples of the world are in the throes of poverty and want, and are for the most part oppressed and exploited, Some of them are in the United States, particularly among the negroes and the migrant workers, but they are for the most part in other lands. The "new crisis" lies not in the staggering presence of mere poverty and want. The poor and the suffering have ever been with us. The crisis lies in the fact that these millions of hungry and distressed peoples now have on their face a new and grim determination to throw off the shackles of poverty and oppras- sion. They are no longer content to bow in dumb silence to the cruel hand of circumstance. Groping for deliverance from the dark drudgery and miserable pain of empty living, they shout, "I am coming up, and I will take the hand of anybody who helps me, and destroy any man who is in my way." It is no-t enough to say, as travelers sometimes do in Cairo, "The natives don't want anything better than they have. " They hunger -for medical -care. The Christian conscience cannot lightly disregard the fact that one out of every five children born in Teheran lives only to the age of six. Neither can we turn our own good-seeing eyes away from the sick eyes of little children blinded by trachoma on the hot streets of Bagdad, and Jerusalem. In Africa, the second largest continent in the world, a continent approxi- mtely four times the size of our own, and with a population of more than 211 million, there are hundreds of thousands of people who live from one to two hundred miles from the nearest physician. There one finds but one doctor for every 1/4 million people; one dentist for every 2-112 million people! They hunger for education and enlightenment. 7 - - In Nigeria alone, no fewer than 10 thousand teachers are needed, and be- cause of the good favor that Southern Baptists enjoy in that land, they could provide the teachers were they ready to do so. It is said that in Nigeria alone, in their endeavor to entgr the open door in full force, the Roman Catholics have flung a host of missionaries, almost as great in number as Southern Baptists have in a11 prts of the world. In northern Nigeria alone there are 2-1/2 million children, ages 7-14, who are not in school because of lack of opportunity. The gradual opening of the door of literacy has created a problem of staggering dimension, namely, the opportunity to furnish the millions of hungry minds with something worthwhile to read, Literally millions upon millions of people now stand with outstretched hands begging for books, something to tell them of the new age, of the new lolowledge. Speech of R. Paul Caudill -3- Chinese Communists, it is said, have two armies--one with guns, and one with pens. The writers are no less important than the soldiers. They break bread with the masses--with the peasants, with the laborers and the soldiers, and seek to convince them, through their writings, that Communism is the answer to their every need. Were Southern Baptists prepared to do so, they could place millions upon millions of New Testaments and Bibles and portions of the Scripture in eager hands that would devour them as readily as the hot, parched earth devours the cooling shower. It has been said that "literacy is building a bridge to ten million minds a year." Shall we cross the bridge, and place in the hands of the waiting millions the good news of our Lord, or will we leave their hunger to be satis- fied by the deceptive lure of Communism. Were I to live a thousand years I could not forget the plaintive words of the old tribal chieftain in Ghana tho pleaded for Bibles for his people, saying, "I want my people to know about Jesus. I want them to become Christians! I' -They hunger ---for homes and freedom. No one knows how many refugees there are in today's world--the hopeless, hapless, homeless multitudes who long for a haven of security. Some would say there are no fewer than 50 million of them--50 million of our fellow men who have been uprooted and driven from their homes by the ruthless hand of circumstance. I suppose that I have been in the midst of no fewer than 25 million of them in various areas around the world, I have c~alkedamong them in Europe, in Korea, in Hong Kong, in India, in Pakistan and in Jordan. How long must these unfortunates continue to look to us, in the wistful hope that they too may one day know the comforts and the security of a home that is all their own? Above and beneath and beyond the hunger for material things is the longing for the things of the Spirit.