By Ray Trygstad
A Sermon for April 13, 1997
Wesley United Methodist Church, Naperville, Illinois, USA
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in
thy sight, O Lord our strength and our Redeemer. Amen.
This is a tale of a Chicago businessman named Horatio Spafford. Horatio had
a successful law practice, had invested wisely in downtown Chicago real estate,
and was a prominent church leader. He was a friend of Dwight Moody (founder
of Moody Bible Institute), and a man who truly lived his faith. In the wake
of the great Chicago fire in 1871, despite the loss of great deal of his
own investments and the recent death of their son, Spafford and his
Norwegian-born wife, Anna, dedicated themselves to helping those who had
been impoverished by the devastation of their city. After years of laboring
in the Lord's vineyards, they were exhausted and decided to join Moody and
Ira Sankey in one of their campaigns in Great Britain and to take a well-earned
vacation in Europe.
The Spaffords and their four daughters booked passage on the steamship Ville
de Havre sailing from New York. Spafford was delayed in Chicago by business,
but told his wife and daughters to go ahead and planned to join them later.
For some reason that he was unable to explain, at the last moment he changed
their stateroom from amidships to near the bow of the vessel. Anna and the
girls sailed, and halfway to Europe an English sailing ship collided with
their ship amidships. Had they been in their original stateroom, all would
have been killed. As it was, Anna and the four little girls were cast into
the inky black sea. She frantically tried to save them but although she briefly
grasped the hem of the nightgown of one of them they all slipped away. Anna
was found floating unconscious on a piece of wreckage and was rescued. The
ship had sunk in minutes and of the hundreds aboard, only forty-seven were
rescued.
Back in Chicago, Spafford received a heart-rending telegram of only two words:
"Saved Alone". He immediately sailed for Europe. As he was enroute, the captain
of the ship he was sailing on called him to the bridge. Pointing to the chart,
the captain told him that they were just passing the spot where the Ville
de Havre had gone down. As Horatio walked the deck in his sorrow, his faith
was all that sustained him. It nearly moves me to tears each time I contemplate
the depth of his loss. But he was overtaken by a feeling of peacefulness
as he realized that he would see his daughters again in heaven. As he watched
the waves rolling on the ocean he recalled the words of Isaiah 66:12, "For
thus says the Lord, I will extend peace to her like a river..." and penned
the words that have come down to us as one of our most enduring hymns:
When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows, like sea-billows, roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say,
Chorus
It is well, it is well with my soul!
It is well with my soul,
It is well, it is well with my soul!
My sin, O the bliss of this glorious thought!
My sin, not in part, but the whole,
Is nailed to His Cross, and I bear it no more;
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!
How many of us could deal with our grief as Spafford did? He clearly expressed
the confidence of his salvation, and the peace and solace that this assurance
gave him. He had the ability to say that whatever his lot, it was well with
his soul. While I know that the Lord can offer us such an assurance, I also
know that despite my faith, I don't know that I would be able to have such
peace in my heart in the face of such tragedy.
Sure, I know I should. But faith is a difficult thing, it's a gut-level matter
for each of us between you and God. Our Gospel reading today, Luke 24:36b-48,
talks about faith or perhaps we should say lack of it. The disciples' faith
had been shaken to the core by the death of Jesus, and many refused to believe
his resurrection without "proof", so Jesus told them to look at his hands
and feet. We have no such bolster to rely on. We are asked to believe without
such proof, a belief that is only possible because of a measure of grace
that God grants each of us, allowing us to believe without touching His hands
and feet. Fortunately the core of our faith, the strength, the very essence,
is the same for each of us as that which Horatio Spafford felt. This power
to believe is drawn directly from God, if only we will surrender to His will
in our lives and allow His hand to touch us and fill us with the same faith
that calmed the raging seas of sorrow in Spafford's heart. He is there to
sustain us when it seems like the pain is too much to bear. His love for
us is such that we are called the Children of God; He cares for us just as
a parent cares for a child. You always want to shield your children from
pain and sorrow, but when that's not possible you want to be there to comfort
them and "restore their soul".
God grants this faith to each of us, if only we will take it and use it.
Horatio Spafford did. There's much, much more to his story. After their return
to Chicago and the birth of two more daughters, the events of the preceding
years led Anna and Horatio to reexamine the course of their lives. They decided
to move their family to Jerusalem to get closer to Jesus, and along with
several other families who accompanied them from Chicago, they moved into
a house in the Old Quarter, between Herod's Gate and the Damascus Gate, and
dedicated themselves to a life of helping the poor of Jerusalem. This settlement
became known as "the American Colony" and grew over the years. Several excellent
books chronicle the growth and faith of the Colony, including "Our Jerusalem"
by their daughter Bertha, and the Nobel Prize-winning historical novel
"Jerusalem" by Swedish author Selma Lagerlof, which chronicled the lives
of a group of her countrymen that joined the Spaffords and the American Colony
to do the Lord's work. Even today the original house in the Old Quarter of
Jerusalem is the Spafford Children's Center, still caring for the poor of
Jerusalem, and run by Anna Lind, a direct descendant of Horatio and Anna
Spafford.
Horatio Spafford's faith moved him not only to praise but to action. Ours
should to. Our actions may be as simple as a child's quarter in the offering
plate, or, just as the Spafford's efforts invited others to join them in
the Lord's work, we can invite the new neighbor down the street to come join
us in worship. (Did you know that the number one reason people try a new
church is because someone invited them?) Just as the American Colony in Jerusalem
helped the poor of that city, the United Methodist Church as a body does
a great deal to help both those who are poor in earthly goods and those who
are poor in spirit we all can help. The measure of faith that God grants
to each of us not only sustains us in our times of trial but moves us to
action to do the work of His kingdom on earth. It is my prayer today that
each of us can feel the faith that God grants to us in full measure, the
faith that truly can allows us to say "it is well with my soul", the faith
that allows us to echo the words of Horatio Spafford:
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!
It is well with my soul,
It is well, it is well with my soul!
Let's join together in singing Hymn 377, "It is Well With My Soul". As you
sing it, contemplate the faith God granted the man who could view his sorrow
and loss and still say "it is well with my soul", and remember that God grants
that same faith to each of us if only we will allow it to fill our lives.
Amen.
Copyright 1997 Raymond E. Trygstad; all rights reserved. May be copied
and distributed freely in its entirety if accompanied by this statement.
Copyright 1999 Ray Trygstad, Naperville, Illinois
Email: trygstad@trygstad.org
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