Evening Republican, Volume 59, Number 81, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 April 1917 — FAITH’S PARADOX [ARTICLE]

FAITH’S PARADOX

Psalmist Voices It When He Cries, “Have Mercy Upon Me, 0 Lord, for I Am Weak.” The Paradox of Faith! It is this: Faith is both an avowal of weakness and an assertion of strength. As an avowal of weakness. Faith throws itself upon God. As an assertion of strength, Faith—reverently be it said ,—throws a challenge at God. As. an avowal of weakness. Faith confesses man’s need of God; as an assertion of strength, it professes God’s need of man. In one breath it voices the helplessness and the indispensableness of man. Underlying all invocations of God’s help is not merely the knowledge that feeble humans must have divine assistance, but also the consciousness that Almighty <God mhst have us and our work for accomplishment of his purposes. We matter to God —or else why pray to him? Why should he stand by us if he does not require our presence in the world, If our work is of no consequence to his creative plan?

God Not Indifferent. The stars move on, though we grow too weak to stir; the flowers bloom qn, though our frame withers. The heavens are never stained by the blackness of our despair. No bird has ever ceased to sing whqn tlw lullaby of the bereaved mother was-silenced at the tiny grave. ,We live in a world that appears indifferent to our aspirations and longings. And if God shares this cosmic indifference, why invoke him in time of-distress? But when Faith invokes God it is convinced that he cannot be indifferent to us, since he needs us. He needs the work our hands find to do, the feeling that pulse in our hearts, the thoughts that flash up in our mind. He needs our love and our goodness; he needs the poet’s song and the prophet’s vision; he needs the painter’s color dream, and the martyr’s matchless heroism; he needs the smile that beams in baby’s face and the hope that blooms in the maiden’s* bosom. He needs our tears and our laughter; he needs all the unspeakable" misery, the incomparable richness, the’thrilling exaltations of human souls. Be we weak or strong —he needs us such as we are. Faith Challenges God. Faith, therefore, reverently challenges God, saying: This indifferent universe is so much vaster anjl mightier than man, and it is against the forces of this incomprehensible universe that man’s puny strength is constantly pitted; but if the cosmic forces crush man who will do his work and what will take his place? Will the silent stars? Will the rushing breakers? Weak and frail-he is—yet powerful to do his appointed work! Thus with the psalmist we rightfully express the Paradox of Faith -when we petition our Maker in the words, “Have mercy upon me; for I am weak,’* founding at the same time our petition upon the daring claim: “For in death there Is no remembrance of thee; In the grave who shall give thee thanks?” That is to say, if the Song of Man be silenced, feeble though his voice, yet will it be missed from the harmony of the whole. The great wonder of life consists in the fact that alongside of the cosmic forces there is room for the human soul. The still greater wonder is that alongside of God there is room for man. If this spells a responsibility, it also spells a privilege. Hence —the Paradox of Faith. —-Rabbi Joel Blau, Congregation B’nai Jeshurun, New York.