The Power Of Touch Series

One of the great stories of Greek Mythology is that of Antaeus and Hercules. Antaeus, like

Hercules, was of gigantic stature and marvelous strength. His parents were Neptune and

Terra-ocean and earth. When he and Hercules engaged in mortal combat, Hercules proved to be the

strongest, but every time he had Antaeus exhausted and point of defeat his flesh would touch Mother

Earth, and his strength was mysteriously renewed, and he resumed the conflict with fresh vigor.

Hercules finally slew the mighty Antaeus by performing the titanic feet of lifting him into the air

where he was out of touch with the earth. The Greeks were saying by this legend that there is great

power in touch. The earth was the source of life for Antaeus, and when he could not keep in touch

with his source of life he lost his power, and, therefore, lost his life.

Though it is a myth, the truth it teaches is a fact. Direct contact with the source of life, with the

palpitating heart of things, revitalizes you and rejuvenates the flow of energy. The people who are

really enthused and alive on any issue are those who are in touch with the heart of the issue. On the

other hand, if you are out of touch and have no contact, but are on the fringe of things, you are like a

branch cut off the vine, and you will wither and waste away.

All of nature is a witness to the power of touch. If the plant world is not kept in touch with

mother earth, no life can exist. It is the tree whose hungry mouth is pressed against the earth's sweet

flowing breast that cause the poet to say, "Poems are made by fools like me, but only God can make

a tree." God makes a tree and all the fruits of trees through the power of touch.

Jesus used this fact of nature to illustrate the necessity for contact in the Christian life. In John

15:4-5 he said, "Abide in me and I in you. As the branch cannot bare fruit of itself except it abide in

the vine; no more can you, except you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He that

abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringth forth much fruit, for without me you can do nothing."

Jesus is clearly saying, out of touch is out of power. The power of life is found only by maintaining

contact with the source of power. Get out of touch with Christ, and you are like Antaeus up in the

air cut off from mother earth; weak and helpless and doomed to defeat.

The truth we are dealing with here is not an isolated incidental fact of life. It is a universal truth

with infinite significance. The power of touch must be taken seriously in all realms of life. Science

is all based on the principle of the necessity of touch. How many times have you wondered why your

tape recorder, or some other electrical appliance, has stopped working, only to discover that the

problem was a loose connection somewhere? Something was not touching and there was no contact

being made, and all electric power depends upon contact. Break the current of contact and you lose

your power. It is just a fact of life in the realm of science as well as in nature. No touch means no

power.

History also bears witness to the power of touch. When the church began it was in constant

contact with the common people. The common people heard Jesus gladly, and when the Apostles

took over the leadership they were always among the masses. For several centuries the church was

active in the market place. It kept its finger on the heart beat of people's lives where they were

living, and the result of this keeping in touch with people was power and growth.

Then came the age of the monastery. The church withdrew from the world. It isolated itself

behind walls, and broke contact with the masses. The result was a thousand years of sitting in the

dark. It is called the dark ages because the power of the light house was gone. It was gone for the

same reason your house goes dark if you take your fuses out and pack them away in a box in the

attic. They must be put in contact with the flow of energy to bring light to your house. So the

church had to be in touch with the world if it was going to be the light of the world.

The circuit must be complete. Jesus could only reconcile God and man, and be the mediator

between God and man, because He was equally in touch with both God and man. The church