I first heard the name
“Harry Emerson Fosdick” some fifty years ago. The mother of a close
friend was recovering from surgery, and told me about a wonderful book she was
reading. I can’t remember which book it was, but I remember the author.
It was Fosdick.
Fosdick was born and raised in Buffalo, New York, and graduated from Colgate University in 1900. He went on to Union Theological Seminary in New York City, graduating from there four years later. His first call was to the First Baptist Church in Montclair, New Jersey, where he served for the next eleven years. He went on to volunteer as an Army chaplain in France during World War I, then became pastor of a Presbyterian church before being called to the Park Avenue Baptist Church in New York City. There he collaborated with John D. Rockefeller Jr., to create the massive, ecumenical Riverside Church next to Columbia University. Fosdick became its founding pastor. Martin Luther King, Jr., later called Fosdick the greatest preacher of the twentieth century.
When the doors of Riverside Church opened in October, 1930, Time magazine put Fosdick on its cover, and wrote that Fosdick: "...proposes to give this educated community a place of greatest beauty for worship. He also proposes to serve the social needs of the somewhat lonely metropolite. Hence on a vast scale he has built all the accessories of a community church—gymnasium, assembly room for theatricals, dining rooms, etc. … In ten stories of the 22-story belltower are classrooms for the religious and social training of the young…"
Fosdick was born and raised in Buffalo, New York, and graduated from Colgate University in 1900. He went on to Union Theological Seminary in New York City, graduating from there four years later. His first call was to the First Baptist Church in Montclair, New Jersey, where he served for the next eleven years. He went on to volunteer as an Army chaplain in France during World War I, then became pastor of a Presbyterian church before being called to the Park Avenue Baptist Church in New York City. There he collaborated with John D. Rockefeller Jr., to create the massive, ecumenical Riverside Church next to Columbia University. Fosdick became its founding pastor. Martin Luther King, Jr., later called Fosdick the greatest preacher of the twentieth century.
When the doors of Riverside Church opened in October, 1930, Time magazine put Fosdick on its cover, and wrote that Fosdick: "...proposes to give this educated community a place of greatest beauty for worship. He also proposes to serve the social needs of the somewhat lonely metropolite. Hence on a vast scale he has built all the accessories of a community church—gymnasium, assembly room for theatricals, dining rooms, etc. … In ten stories of the 22-story belltower are classrooms for the religious and social training of the young…"
One of the qualities that I have found most winsome in Fosdick was his willingness to share his own struggles. In the preface to his book, The Meaning of Prayer, he wrote, “This book was first published forty-seven years ago. I was then a young minister in my first parish, still bearing the scars of a nervous breakdown which I had suffered in seminary days. In fighting my way through that devastating experience prayer had become an indispensable resource.”
Born out of that crucible of suffering, Fosdick’s understanding of prayer is deep and meaningful. It is what he says about it later on that I want to share with you this morning:
"Prayer here is not a burden to be borne, an obligation to be fulfilled, something that is due to God and must be paid. Prayer is a privilege; like friendship and family love and laughter, great books, great music, and great art, it is one of life’s opportunities to be grasped thankfully and used gladly. The [person] who misses the deep meanings of prayer has not so much refused an obligation; he has robbed himself of life’s supreme privilege – friendship with God."
“O God, you are my God, I seek you, my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water… Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you… My soul is satisfied as with a rich feast, and my mouth praises you with joyful lips when I think of you on my bed, and meditate on you in the watches of the night; for you have been my help, and in the shadow of your wings I sing for joy. My soul clings to you; your right hand upholds me.” (Ps. 63:1,3,5-8).
- Pastor Chris
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