Paul A. Mickey - "Locating the Question Marks in Life" (July 31, 1983)

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	(tranquil harp music)	0:05
	♪ Praise ye the Lord of Hosts ♪	5:49
	♪ Sing his salvation ♪	5:54
	♪ Bless his name ♪	5:58
	♪ Show forth his praise in his holy mount ♪	6:00
	♪ Praise ye the Lord of Hosts ♪	6:08
	♪ Sing his salvation ♪	6:12
	♪ Bless his name ♪	6:16
	♪ Show forth his praise in his holy mount ♪	6:18
	♪ Earth shall be glad ♪	6:26
	♪ All ye clans now be joyful ♪	6:29
	♪ Christ bringeth peace to the earth ♪	6:34
	♪ All the earth shall sing ♪	6:37
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	6:40
	♪ Rejoice, the Lord is King ♪	7:20
	♪ Your Lord and King adore ♪	7:24
	♪ Rejoice, give thanks, and sing ♪	7:28
	♪ And triumph evermore ♪	7:31
	♪ Lift up your heart ♪	7:37
	♪ Lift up your voice ♪	7:41
	♪ Rejoice, again I say ♪	7:43
	♪ Rejoice ♪	7:47
	♪ Jesus, the Savior, reigns ♪	7:52
	♪ The God of truth and love ♪	7:56
	♪ When he had purged our stains ♪	8:01
	♪ He took his seat above ♪	8:04
	♪ Lift up your heart ♪	8:09
	♪ Lift up your voice ♪	8:14
	♪ Rejoice, again I say ♪	8:16
	♪ Rejoice ♪	8:20
	♪ His kingdom cannot fail ♪	8:25
	♪ He rules o'er earth and heav'n ♪	8:29
	♪ The keys of death and hell ♪	8:34
	♪ Are to our Jesus giv'n ♪	8:38
	♪ Lift up your heart ♪	8:43
	♪ Lift up your voice ♪	8:47
	♪ Rejoice, again I say ♪	8:50
	♪ Rejoice ♪	8:54
	♪ Rejoice in glorious hope ♪	9:44
	♪ Jesus the Judge shall come ♪	9:48
	♪ And take his servants up ♪	9:52
	♪ To their eternal home ♪	9:56
	♪ We soon shall hear th' ♪	10:01
	♪ Archangel's voice ♪	10:06
	♪ The trump of God shall sound ♪	10:08
	♪ Rejoice ♪	10:12
-	Grace, mercy, and peace be unto you	10:22
	from God, our Creator, and Jesus Christ,	10:25
	our Redeemer in the faith.	10:28
	Now, with a clear mind and open heart,	10:33
	let us in truth confess our sins before Almighty God.	10:36
	Let us pray.	10:42
	Most merciful God, we confess that we have sinned	10:54
	against you in thought, word, and deed,	10:57
	by what we have done and by what we have left undone.	11:01
	We have not loved you with our whole heart.	11:06
	We have not loved our neighbors as ourselves.	11:09
	We are truly sorry and we humbly repent.	11:12
	For the sake of your Son, Jesus Christ,	11:16
	have mercy on us and forgive us,	11:19
	that we may delight in your will	11:22
	and walk in your ways to the glory of your name.	11:24
	Amen.	11:28
	There is therefore no condemnation	11:56
	for those who are in Christ Jesus,	11:59
	who walk not according to the flesh,	12:02
	but according to the Spirit.	12:04
	In the name of Jesus Christ, our sins are forgiven.	12:07
	Amen.	12:11
	Let us then give thanks, for God is good,	12:13
	and God's love is everlasting.	12:16
	Thanks be to God, whose love creates us.	12:20
	Thanks be to God, whose mercy redeems us.	12:24
	Thanks be to God, whose grace leads us into the future.	12:27
	We welcome you this summer Sunday morning	12:33
	to worship here with us, in Duke University Chapel.	12:35
	Our sincere hope is that your spirits will be filled	12:40
	with the presence of God,	12:43
	and that your lives will show forth	12:45
	that commitment and discipleship	12:47
	to God's holy will for your life.	12:50
	We are pleased this morning to welcome many of you	12:54
	who are visitors here in Duke University Chapel.	12:57
	I am aware that participants of the Junior Olympics event,	13:01
	being hosted here on campus,	13:05
	are with us in the service this morning.	13:08
	We welcome you, we're glad that you've chosen to come,	13:11
	even before some of your events are scheduled	13:14
	for later this morning and afternoon.	13:17
	You will note, in your bulletin this morning,	13:22
	the insert which brings to your attention	13:25
	an historic event in the life of our nation.	13:29
	On August the 27th of this year,	13:33
	there will be the 20th anniversary	13:37
	of the historic 1963 march on Washington DC,	13:39
	at that time led by Martin Luther King, Jr.	13:45
	We are cooperating with other churches and synagogues	13:49
	and religious groups here in the Durham area,	13:53
	and we want to urge your prayerful consideration	13:57
	and participation in this community event.	14:00
	There will be buses of groups going	14:04
	from the triangle area, leaving here from Durham,	14:06
	that information is available to you in the insert.	14:10
	And I would urge that you would consider your own form	14:15
	of support for this event,	14:18
	in case you are not able to go yourselves.	14:20
	Please fill out the marked envelope for your convenience,	14:24
	and return by mail to the St. Joseph's AME Church.	14:29
	Thank you for your participation.	14:33
	Our guest preacher today is one	14:38
	of Duke Divinity School's professors,	14:40
	who is not new to the chapel.	14:43
	We are delighted to have back preaching for us,	14:45
	the Reverend Dr. Paul Mickey.	14:49
	Dr. Mickey is currently Associate Professor	14:52
	of Pastoral Theology, here in the Divinity School.	14:55
	He is a native of Ohio, a graduate of Harvard University,	15:00
	and did he BD and PhD work	15:04
	from Princeton Theological Seminary.	15:07
	He has been a writer of articles and books over the years.	15:11
	And his latest book of publication is entitled,	15:15
	Essentials of Wesleyan Theology, A Contemporary Affirmation.	15:19
	He continues to serve on the Executive Committee	15:26
	of Good News, and holds memberships	15:29
	in other professional organizations.	15:32
	Dr. Mickey is a member of the	15:36
	North Carolina Conference of the United Methodist Church.	15:39
	He is considered a friend to students,	15:43
	a pastor in their midst, as well as one who teaches	15:46
	and gives to us the experiences of pastoral ministry.	15:50
	We are very pleased to welcome Dr. Mickey here today,	15:55
	and we look forward to the word that he will bring.	15:59
	His sermon title is Locating the Questions Marks in Life.	16:02
-	Let us pray.	16:17
	Omnipotent Father, whose word is quick and powerful,	16:20
	sharper than any two-edged sword,	16:25
	grant us grace to receive your truth in faith and in love,	16:28
	that by it we may be taught and guided,	16:33
	upheld and comforted, and prepared unto	16:37
	every good word and work,	16:40
	through Jesus Christ our Lord.	16:43
	Amen.	16:45
	The Old Testament lesson is from Psalm 121,	16:48
	verses one and two.	16:52
	I lift up my eyes to the hills,	16:55
	from whence does my help come?	16:59
	My help comes from the Lord,	17:02
	who made heaven and earth.	17:05
	Here ends the reading from the Old Testament.	17:07
	Amen.	17:10
	♪ Be thou my vision ♪	18:04
	♪ O Lord of my heart ♪	18:08
	♪ Naught be all else to me ♪	18:13
	♪ Save that thou art ♪	18:18
	♪ Thou my best thought ♪	18:23
	♪ By day or by night ♪	18:27
	♪ Waking or sleeping ♪	18:33
	♪ Thy presence my light ♪	18:37
	♪ Be thou my wisdom ♪	18:55
	♪ And thou my true word ♪	18:59
	♪ I ever with thee ♪	19:04
	♪ And thou with me, Lord ♪	19:08
	♪ Thou my great Father ♪	19:14
	♪ I thy true son ♪	19:19
	♪ Thou in me dwelling ♪	19:24
	♪ And I with thee one ♪	19:29
	♪ Riches I heed not ♪	19:37
	♪ Nor man's empty praise ♪	19:41
	♪ Thou mine inheritance ♪	19:47
	♪ Now and always ♪	19:51
	♪ Thou and thou only ♪	19:56
	♪ First in my heart ♪	20:01
	♪ High King of Heaven ♪	20:06
	♪ My treasure thou art ♪	20:10
	♪ High King of Heaven ♪	20:25
	♪ My victory won ♪	20:29
	♪ May I reach heaven's joys ♪	20:34
	♪ O bright heaven's sun ♪	20:38
	♪ Heart of my own heart ♪	20:44
	♪ Whatever befall ♪	20:47
	♪ Still be my vision ♪	20:53
	♪ O Ruler of all ♪	20:57
-	Will the congregation please stand	21:19
	for the reading of the Gospel lesson, please?	21:21
	Our reading this morning is	21:26
	from the Gospel According to Saint Luke, chapter 12,	21:28
	verses 16 through 21,	21:32
	in which we hear the very familiar parable of the rich fool.	21:35
	And he told them a parable, saying,	21:40
	the land of a rich man brought forth plentifully.	21:43
	And he thought to himself, what shall I do?	21:47
	For I have nowhere to store my crops.	21:51
	And he said, "I will do this.	21:55
	"I will pull down my barns and build larger ones.	21:57
	"And there I will store all my grain and my goods.	22:02
	"And I will say to my soul:	22:07
	"soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years.	22:09
	"Take your ease,	22:15
	"eat, drink, be merry."	22:16
	But things you have prepared,	22:22
	whose will they be?	22:25
	For this night, God said to him,	22:27
	"Fool, this night your soul is required of you."	22:29
	So, who is he who lays up treasure for himself,	22:35
	and is not rich toward God?	22:39
	Here ends the reading from the Gospel lesson.	22:42
	May God add his richest blessing,	22:44
	to this, the reading from his holy Word.	22:46
	Amen.	22:48
	♪ Glory be ♪	22:57
	♪ To our Creator ♪	23:00
	♪ Praise to ♪	23:03
	♪ Our Redeemer Lord ♪	23:05
	♪ Glory be ♪	23:10
	♪ To our Sustainer ♪	23:13
	♪ Ever three ♪	23:17
	♪ And ever one ♪	23:19
	♪ As it was ♪	23:23
	♪ In the beginning ♪	23:26
	♪ Now and evermore ♪	23:30
	♪ Amen ♪	23:35
-	Our Old Testament, the lesson,	23:51
	this morning is brief but it is profound.	23:52
	The psalmist says, "I lift my eyes to the hills.	23:57
	"From whence does my help come?	24:01
	"My help comes from the Lord,	24:04
	"who made heaven and earth."	24:07
	For a long time, I misread that passage of Scripture.	24:10
	I read it without a question mark.	24:14
	I thought in all my innocence that the psalmist was saying,	24:17
	"I lift mine eyes to the hills,	24:21
	"from whence does my help come."	24:23
	Period.	24:25
	But I was wrong, and this morning I want to look	24:28
	at the profundity of the psalmist confession	24:31
	about where the question marks in life are to be.	24:35
	The first thing that I want us to consider is that	24:40
	our highest human inspiration is only	24:43
	but a partial vision of reality.	24:47
	First, we have the sense of the strength of nature.	24:51
	For all of us, there are the high, holy places.	24:56
	For King David, they were the hills and mountains,	25:01
	the place where David in a very real and profound sense	25:04
	experienced the presence of God.	25:08
	And the hills and the mountains are	25:11
	where we feel God's strength and the majesty of nature,	25:13
	the source of our water,	25:18
	the place where the thunderstorms brew.	25:21
	They afford a place of security for the embattled soldier,	25:25
	and of course they are the place	25:30
	where the ten commandments were given in the Old Testament.	25:31
	Mountains indeed are the places of God's victory:	25:35
	Sinai,	25:39
	Ararat,	25:41
	Bethel,	25:43
	Carmel,	25:45
	Mount of Olives.	25:47
	And churches bear the names of these significant mountains	25:49
	in their witness: Bethel,	25:54
	Zion,	25:57
	Olive, Sinai, Tabor,	25:59
	Carmel, and so on.	26:03
	These are places of God's blessings,	26:05
	the places where the deep spiritual connections occur.	26:08
	And it's no wonder that King David	26:12
	lifts his eyes to the mountains.	26:14
	But there's also another kind of mountian	26:17
	to which we might turn our eyes,	26:19
	and these are the strengths of our human experience	26:21
	and victory, what we call our mountaintop experiences.	26:24
	They may be our conversion experience.	26:29
	They may be the anniversaries of our life.	26:32
	They may be the time and the place	26:36
	that we celebrate relief over illness,	26:38
	or perhaps the occasion of a deep, moral victory.	26:42
	These mountaintop experiences, as we call them,	26:46
	are the experiences in our lives	26:50
	that we look to to inspire us in tough times,	26:52
	but whether we look to the mountains	26:57
	where God's presence has been made known	26:59
	or to the mountaintops of our own experience,	27:02
	truly, the psalmist says that these are	27:05
	not to be confused with God.	27:08
	God's grammar tells us that we need	27:12
	to put a question mark after these high, holy places	27:13
	and these inspirational events,	27:17
	because in the final analysis they are	27:21
	only a partial vision of what life is about,	27:23
	and what God wants for us.	27:27
	The second observation I make about this passage	27:33
	of Scripture is that we want hills	27:35
	and experiences in our lives without question marks.	27:37
	I believe that David was tempted	27:42
	when he penned this verse, or had been tempted:	27:45
	I will lift mine eyes unto the hills,	27:48
	from whence comes my help.	27:50
	Period, no question mark.	27:52
	But he had learned the grammar of God,	27:55
	although the temptation was there.	27:57
	In our New Testament lesson,	28:00
	the arrogant farmer, in Luke 12,	28:02
	went all the way to remove all the question marks.	28:05
	He truly believed that he was the center of the universe,	28:10
	and in his coming and going,	28:14
	in his barns and in his crops and in his motivation,	28:16
	there were no question marks.	28:19
	"Eat, drink, and be merry," said he.	28:22
	"Wrong," said God.	28:25
	Some of us this morning have high,	28:29
	holy hills in our own lives,	28:31
	where the question marks are not permitted.	28:33
	Those hills may be money,	28:37
	where in the depths of our being,	28:39
	we really believe that cashflow equals all.	28:41
	Or they may be the comfortable retirement plans,	28:46
	in which we are captive to the IRA or Keogh accounts,	28:50
	because they rule our lives.	28:54
	Or it may be the high hills of our own self-fulfillment	28:58
	that I am out to make me feel good in life.	29:01
	Or it may be that ever elusive track record,	29:07
	that we lose the friendships that I can't spend time	29:11
	with people, 'cause I must train.	29:14
	I must go after the high, holy hill	29:17
	of that final accomplishment.	29:20
	Or the hills that do not permit question marks	29:23
	may be our grade or our GRE.	29:26
	I don't have the time to spend with other people.	29:30
	I don't have the time to relax.	29:33
	I must study, I must prepare.	29:35
	Well, the challenge of our two texts this morning then	29:39
	is that we are not to put our final faith	29:43
	in what we see and feel,	29:46
	in what we do and think.	29:49
	We are not to put our final faith in the things	29:52
	that we think that we can control.	29:56
	The challenge then is can we put the question marks	30:00
	in our lives in the right places?	30:04
	Can we look to those things that inspire us,	30:08
	those goals toward which we achieve?	30:11
	And while those seem so important to us,	30:13
	can we join the psalmist in putting a question mark,	30:16
	when we look to those goals	30:19
	for the inspiration of our life?	30:21
	I lift mine eyes to the high, holy hills	30:23
	of my own goals?	30:26
	Question mark.	30:27
	From whence does my help come?	30:29
	And the psalmist says that my help comes from the Lord,	30:32
	who made heaven and earth.	30:35
	So, first of all, the question marks of life,	30:39
	we tend to take them away in our mountaintop experiences	30:44
	or those places of inspiration for us,	30:47
	because it is easier on the surface	30:52
	to live life without question marks,	30:55
	because we can make ourselves the center of the universe.	30:57
	But the third thing I want you to join me	31:03
	in doing this morning is to begin	31:05
	to look at locating those question marks in our lives.	31:06
	Author James Fallows spent two years	31:15
	as a speech writer for President Carter.	31:18
	And in 1981, he published a book by Random House entitled,	31:21
	very simply, National Defense.	31:25
	It provided a critique of our military defense strategies,	31:29
	not that we have it, but what our strategies are.	31:34
	It was a critique of the philosophical assumptions	31:37
	of how we in planning and anticipating	31:41
	what we as a nation should do,	31:44
	how we make the question marks	31:47
	of our national defense disappear.	31:49
	Now, his concern is mine,	31:54
	not because I'm a military strategist.	31:55
	I'm a theologian.	31:58
	But his concern is mine in terms of	32:00
	how we make the question marks disappear,	32:02
	and the need to locate those question marks,	32:05
	whether they're in national defense,	32:08
	or whether they're in our personal lives.	32:10
	The reason why I think the Fallow's study is illuminating	32:15
	is that our military leaders,	32:18
	and our legislative leaders in congress,	32:21
	act and believe as they do,	32:23
	because they reflect what we as a people want.	32:26
	We are a government of the people,	32:30
	and by the people, and for the people.	32:32
	The question then for us from the Fallow's study	32:35
	is how do we put together the inspiration of our lives?	32:39
	And national defense, I believe, is a mirror	32:44
	of our cultural values and transitions.	32:46
	The strategies that we have devised,	32:50
	the values that they reveal,	32:53
	illuminate our deep, spiritual values,	32:56
	where we put the periods	33:01
	and where we put the question marks in lives.	33:02
	Where do we locate the question marks?	33:06
	Well, according to Fallows,	33:10
	we've pretty well covered them up.	33:11
	And that's what I wanna look at this morning, so	33:14
	let's look at where we might begin	33:17
	to find those buried question marks in our experience.	33:19
	The first burial ground, Fallows calls	33:25
	the Great Plan Syndrome.	33:28
	He claims that the strategists announced their great plans	33:32
	from computer-generated war games,	33:35
	and in those war games everything is fine-tuned	33:39
	so that there are no question marks.	33:42
	You see, there's no friction,	33:45
	we've computed all that in.	33:47
	There's no anticipation of the unknown,	33:50
	because we can always rerun the program	33:53
	and calculate in the unknown.	33:56
	And what they do is generate a simple equation	34:00
	between plan and reality.	34:03
	But there is always a loose wire.	34:07
	Or as war games this summer illustrates,	34:11
	there's always a loose kid who breaks into whopper.	34:13
	I remember two, maybe three, years ago now,	34:19
	the air force was conducting training exercises	34:23
	out in Arizona,	34:26
	and they were trying to demonstrate the power	34:28
	and the finesse of the F-15 fighter,	34:31
	and they had the slower, heavier F-5s dressed up	34:34
	like Soviet MiGs.	34:38
	The F-15s had all the latest	34:40
	high technology detection equipment,	34:44
	but the F-5s were not permitted	34:46
	to have this kind of equipment,	34:48
	because after all the Russians were behind us.	34:49
	Well, the exercises went on for a while,	34:53
	and the F-5s truly lost.	34:55
	Until, one loose-screw pilot thought	34:58
	of taking the Fuzzbuster off of his Corvette,	35:01
	and putting it in the cockpit of his F-5.	35:05
	And that little hundred dollar Fuzzbuster busted up	35:08
	the whole exercise.	35:11
	You see, there was always going to be a loose wire,	35:14
	or a loose screw, or a loose person,	35:17
	that will enter into the unknown	35:21
	so that the great plan does not translate	35:23
	directly into reality.	35:26
	Our plans fall into the trap of no allowance	35:30
	for question marks.	35:33
	When we marry, we take the vows in sickness and in health,	35:36
	but how often do we really anticipate and plan,	35:41
	and how well will we respond	35:44
	to those occasions when illness comes.	35:46
	When we take the new job,	35:50
	we don't fully anticipate and cannot	35:53
	humanly anticipate the day when	35:55
	there will not be a demand for that job.	35:57
	Or when we make the absolute, certain blue chip investments,	36:01
	there is no way that we can calculate	36:07
	what we euphemistically refer to as the act of God.	36:09
	When we calculate our time or distance	36:16
	in track and field events,	36:19
	there's no way that we can calculate the turned ankle	36:21
	or the pulled muscle.	36:25
	So, that whatever our plans are,	36:27
	however refined they might be,	36:29
	there's always going to be something that we can't plan,	36:32
	and there lies one of our problems	36:36
	in what Fallows and what I call the Great Plan Syndrome.	36:39
	You see, the question marks are buried in the great plans.	36:45
	We cannot plan everything out	36:49
	and act as if there are no question marks,	36:51
	because in fact they come.	36:54
	Our plans and our victories must be placed	36:57
	in a context in which we are able to ask	37:00
	for ourselves and others the deepest questions of life:	37:04
	from whence does my help come?	37:10
	From whence does my help come?	37:13
	And we are challenged to answer with the psalmist,	37:17
	my help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.	37:20
	You see, our best plans are only a partial vision	37:24
	of what life is like.	37:28
	Another problem that Fallows points out is	37:34
	the numbers game versus human inspiration.	37:37
	A lot of our defense strategy	37:43
	and a lot of computer programming are based upon	37:45
	what we call Rational Management.	37:48
	The goal is to quantify everything.	37:51
	It makes it easier to manage.	37:53
	The goal in industry is to move variable cost to fixed cost,	37:56
	so that we can anticipate and program out	38:01
	everything so that we can manage them.	38:04
	But neither life nor war strategy come	38:08
	in fixed cost entities.	38:12
	The numbers may be against us,	38:15
	but inspiration can transcend that.	38:17
	And Fallows uses the illustration	38:20
	of a Korean War ace named John Boyd,	38:22
	who flew the American-made F-86	38:26
	against the superior aircraft by the numbers,	38:29
	the MiG-15.	38:34
	The numbers said, and rational management said	38:36
	that the F-86 did not stand a chance	38:40
	against the MiG-15,	38:43
	but he found strength in what he called his theory	38:46
	or pattern of maneuverability.	38:50
	And I won't go into that, but it was taking	38:54
	what was perceived to be a weakness,	38:57
	and turning into a strength.	39:01
	The one thing that the F-86 could do	39:02
	that the MiG-15 could not do was it was more maneuverable,	39:05
	and so he learned to use maneuverability	39:09
	to achieve the goals, but that was not planned	39:14
	and that was not programmed,	39:18
	so that the inspiration of life we cannot manage	39:21
	and control everything.	39:25
	One of the things of life that moves	39:27
	beyond the burial of the question marks	39:30
	is can we be inspired by those things	39:33
	which appear on the surface not to be strengths,	39:35
	but indeed very much are strengths?	39:40
	And you see, our pilot friend John Boyd was able	39:44
	to raise a lot of very disquieting question marks,	39:48
	for those who flew the MiG-15s 'cause they could	39:53
	not figure out how come	39:55
	this inferior plane by the numbers was superior in combat.	39:58
	The second major area	40:07
	the first one was the Great Plan Syndrome.	40:09
	The second major area that Fallows points to,	40:11
	which reveals the values of our culture	40:14
	is what we call the magician.	40:18
	The magician is the person or the strategy	40:21
	that make complex things appear simple.	40:24
	You see, the magician takes away the question marks.	40:28
	The question marks are buried in complexity.	40:32
	And three very brief illustrations,	40:36
	which again illuminate the values of our culture,	40:38
	not so much because they are translated	40:42
	into military strategy, but because	40:44
	they reflect the way we believe.	40:46
	And the psalmist calls into question	40:50
	how we use the magic of our own means in our own complexity.	40:53
	First thing that Fallows talks about under the magician	41:00
	is the magic of power, and he uses a very brief analysis	41:05
	of the fuel control system of two jet aircraft engine.	41:09
	I'm sure you're interested in that on Sunday morning,	41:13
	but the interesting thing is that the older engine	41:16
	with the J-79, which was used on the F-4 Fighter,	41:19
	was a much simpler engine, fewer moving parts,	41:24
	fewer hours of usage between breakdown,	41:29
	and less time to repair.	41:32
	The more complex super-do, powerful engine,	41:35
	the F100 used in our F-15s and 16s	41:40
	was many time	41:44
	had many times more moving parts,	41:44
	frequency with breakdown was more frequent,	41:47
	and took many more hours to repair.	41:51
	The net result was that the	41:54
	more powerful complex engine	41:56
	broke down eight times as often,	41:59
	and took six times greater to repair,	42:02
	which means of course that it was 48	42:05
	or is 48 times less effective in its use.	42:07
	Now, the message for that is	42:13
	that we can make life too complex	42:14
	to where we stumble over our own complexity,	42:18
	where we cannot get things done,	42:20
	because life has become too complex for us.	42:23
	And I suspect that's one of the real reasons	42:26
	why we've had a real turning toward	42:29
	and a renewal of what we call spiritual formation	42:32
	or meditation so that we can find in the midst	42:35
	of all that complexity, where the question marks are buried,	42:38
	the simple facts of life, the simple realities of life	42:43
	that are able to put the question marks where they belong.	42:48
	The second act of the great magician is that of speed.	42:52
	I'm originally from Ohio, and anybody who's ever lived there	42:58
	or come through there knows that Ohio is the place of speed.	43:01
	When I commuted from college back to home,	43:06
	it was interesting to cross from the Pennsylvania	43:09
	into the Ohio border, because it seemed	43:12
	that the turnpike speeds would	43:15
	automatically pick up 10, 15, 20 miles an hour.	43:17
	And I love speed.	43:21
	In fact, one of the more immature	43:23
	but thrilling things of my life,	43:25
	not as long ago as I'd like for it to be was getting	43:28
	my mother into a souped-up Chevrolet	43:31
	with a three-speed shift on the column,	43:34
	and in a quarter of a mile we were making 95 in second gear.	43:37
	And I thought that was great, so I love speed.	43:41
	Well, in our national defense strategy,	43:45
	we've put a premium on going faster.	43:47
	And we've gauged the effectiveness of planes	43:51
	by their Mach number.	43:53
	And Fallows reports that in Vietnam	43:57
	100,000 sorties were flown.	43:59
	And we had planes that we bragged about could fly 2.2	44:02
	or a greater Mach, but the reality	44:06
	of the actual heavy maneuvering time	44:08
	most all of that occurred below 1.2 Mach.	44:13
	What does that mean?	44:18
	That means, you see, we're tempted	44:19
	to bury the question marks	44:21
	that faster is better.	44:23
	We're tempted to think we go straight ahead	44:26
	and never look back,	44:28
	but it is precisely this misadventure	44:32
	that the psalmist advice comes home.	44:36
	Those question marks exist.	44:40
	We're not to look to the high hills of our high speed,	44:42
	from whence does our help come.	44:46
	We're to look to the high speed, and say,	44:48
	"From whence does my help come?"	44:52
	And to say that my help comes from the Lord,	44:55
	who made heaven and earth.	44:57
	The third and final aspect of the magician show is	44:59
	what Fallows calls Threat Inflation.	45:02
	I call it keeping up with the Joneses.	45:05
	Fallows reports that the newly developed MiG-25 was used	45:09
	as a Threat Inflation to justify the cost	45:13
	of developing our F-15 and our F-16.	45:17
	The MiG-25 was supposed to go at 3.2 Mach	45:22
	and have a 2,000 kilometer combat range,	45:25
	but then reality struck home and the magician show was over.	45:29
	A Soviet pilot, Viktor Belenko defected	45:33
	with one of these machines,	45:36
	and said that 2.5 Mach was the fastest	45:38
	that plane dare go, and they were not permitted	45:41
	to fly over 2.2 ever,	45:43
	that its effective combat range was 300 kilometers.	45:46
	And when the American interrogators looked	45:51
	at him in disbelief, he challenged them	45:53
	to go out and look at the fuel in his tanks.	45:55
	And this man had left with 14 tons of fuel,	45:58
	had landed some 500 miles away	46:01
	with 350 pounds of fuel.	46:04
	95 to 97% of his fuel to go one-third of the declared range.	46:08
	Well, you see, we can rationalize anything.	46:13
	We want the perfect marriage.	46:17
	We want the ideal job.	46:21
	We want the four-point average.	46:24
	We want good health.	46:28
	We want the record in our track events.	46:31
	But in looking after those and seeking after those,	46:35
	if those are the only things we seek after,	46:38
	we bury the question marks of life,	46:41
	that the psalmist says we are called to seek.	46:45
	Ah yes, we believe too much in the magic resources	46:49
	of human life, and you see that's exactly the problem	46:54
	of the farmer who was the fool.	46:57
	We believe that our resources, what we do, what we control,	47:01
	control everything.	47:06
	So then my final point is that we need to look	47:10
	at where those question marks are buried in our lives.	47:14
	I don't where they may be buried in your life,	47:17
	but I'm using James Fallows to suggest	47:20
	where they might be buried,	47:22
	that we only work by the numbers,	47:25
	that we're intrigued by complexity,	47:28
	that we think that if we can only go faster	47:33
	or have more of whatever it is.	47:36
	And we think that we must keep up	47:40
	with what someone else has,	47:41
	so that we always put off the commitments.	47:43
	I need more education, I need a better car,	47:46
	I need a better-looking mate,	47:49
	whatever those may be.	47:52
	You see, we can put off and rationalize everything,	47:55
	and bury the question marks so deeply,	47:58
	that we never recognize them unless we hear what the...	48:01

-	Says to us this morning	0:03
	that the challenge the Psalmist	0:05
	is to put the question marks back in your life.	0:07
	Now King David located that question mark.	0:10
	And the long record of history	0:14
	is that he was humble and faithful.	0:16
	In Luke 12, the farmer didn't.	0:19
	He thought he was a magician but he wasn't.	0:22
	So, I want to leave you with this challenge.	0:29
	Where are the question marks in your lives?	0:30
	Are they in the right places?	0:35
	And truly, we all want the great plan for our life	0:39
	or we all want to be a part of and a beneficiary	0:43
	of the magic show	0:47
	and however we may have chased the great plan	0:50
	or been seduced by the magic show,	0:53
	the question marks according to God's grammar	0:56
	and God's word are still present	1:00
	on our mountaintop experiences	1:02
	and only in Christ are the question marks properly located.	1:05
	So the challenge this morning is don't hide,	1:12
	don't play games,	1:17
	don't chase after the Jones' or threat inflation.	1:19
	Truly the challenge of both our readings,	1:25
	Old and New Testament this morning	1:27
	are to put the question mark where it belongs.	1:29
	If we do that,	1:34
	then we may find the right answer to life	1:36
	and that is through Jesus Christ in God.	1:39
	And at the end of the day, at the end of the show,	1:44
	at the end of the plan	1:47
	that we may join the Psalmist in saying	1:49
	my help comes from the Lord	1:52
	who made heaven and Earth.	1:55
	Let us pray.	1:57
	Lord, you know our needs,	2:01
	our plans, where the question marks are buried	2:04
	and only you know that.	2:07
	And so, in these brief moments,	2:11
	we lift up the question marks of our lives	2:12
	that are buried and hidden	2:15
	that through your Holy Spirit	2:19
	they may surface that Christ may come	2:21
	and redeem and renew and restore	2:24
	and give us the confidence where it belongs	2:27
	in your strength.	2:31
	Lord, we're thankful for the mountains,	2:33
	the mountaintop experiences,	2:35
	for the strengths that we have	2:36
	but Lord, we'd ask you to put	2:40
	the question marks back in our lives	2:41
	so that our partial vision of our life	2:45
	might be caught up in the fuller vision	2:47
	that's offered to us through Jesus Christ, our Lord.	2:49
	Amen.	2:55
	(tranquil organ music)	2:59
	(congregation sings)	3:30
-	As the people of God, let us affirm	5:03
	what we believe.	5:05
-	We believe in God	5:07
	who has created and is creating,	5:09
	who has come in the truly human Jesus	5:12
	to reconcile and make new,	5:15
	who works in us and others by the Spirit.	5:18
	We trust God who calls us to be the church,	5:21
	to celebrate life and its fullness,	5:25
	to love and serve others, to seek justice	5:28
	and resist evil,	5:32
	to proclaim Jesus crucified and risen,	5:34
	our judge and our hope.	5:38
	In life, in death, in life beyond death,	5:40
	God is with us, we are not alone.	5:44
	Thanks be to God.	5:48
	The Lord be with you.	5:50
	(congregation mumbles)	5:52
-	Let us pray.	5:53
	In this holy season of Pentecost,	6:07
	let us now in peace and faith come	6:10
	and offer our prayers to the Lord our God	6:14
	for the world in need of reconciliation and peace	6:18
	that a spirit of hope may grow among nations and peoples,	6:23
	we pray to you this day, oh Lord.	6:27
	For the church of Jesus Christ	6:31
	that it may be filled with truth and love	6:34
	and may be eager to serve as Christ's ambassadors.	6:37
	We pray to you, oh Lord.	6:41
	For the mission of the church	6:45
	that in faithful witness	6:47
	it may preach the gospel to the very ends	6:49
	of the Earth,	6:52
	we pray to you, oh Lord.	6:53
	For those who do not yet believe	6:57
	and for those who have lost their faith	6:59
	that they may receive the light of the gospel,	7:03
	we pray to you, oh Lord.	7:06
	For the poor, the persecuted,	7:09
	the sick and all who are suffering,	7:12
	for refugees, prisoners and all who are in danger,	7:16
	that they may be relieved and protected,	7:20
	we pray to you, oh Lord.	7:23
	For all those who have been in our hearts	7:26
	and in our private prayers,	7:29
	for our families, friends and neighbors,	7:32
	that they may live in joy, peace and health,	7:36
	we pray to you, oh Lord.	7:40
	For ourselves, for the forgiveness of sins	7:43
	and for the grace of your Holy Spirit	7:47
	to amend our lives, we pray to you, oh Lord.	7:50
	We thank you, Lord our God	7:55
	for all the blessings of this life	7:58
	that you so richly bestow.	8:01
	We will exalt you, oh God our king	8:03
	and praise your name forever and forever	8:07
	through Jesus Christ our Lord	8:10
	who taught us to pray saying.	8:13
-	Our Father, who art in heaven,	8:16
	hallowed be thy name,	8:19
	thy kingdom, thy will be done	8:21
	on Earth as it is in heaven.	8:24
	Give us this day our daily bread	8:26
	and forgive us our trespasses	8:29
	as we forgive those who trespass against us	8:31
	and lead us not into temptation	8:35
	but deliver us from evil	8:37
	for thine is the kingdom and the power	8:39
	and the glory forever.	8:42
	Amen.	8:45
	(tranquil organ music)	8:49
	(inspirational organ music)	11:15
	♪ Oh the glory of the blessing ♪	11:20
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	11:24
	♪ Come to God, receive his blessing ♪	11:29
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	11:34
	♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah ♪	11:39
	♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah ♪	11:44
	♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah ♪	11:49
	♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah ♪	11:54
	♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah ♪	11:59
	♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah ♪	12:04
	♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah ♪	12:10
	♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah ♪	12:20
	♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah ♪	12:25
	♪ You're the King of kings, hallelujah ♪	12:30
	(choir sings)	12:35
	♪ Singing praises unto you, hallelujah ♪	12:41
	♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah ♪	12:46
	♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah ♪	12:55
	♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah ♪	12:59
	♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah ♪	13:04
	♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah ♪	13:09
	♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah ♪	13:15
	♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah ♪	13:20
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	13:25
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	13:28
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	13:32
	♪ Amen ♪	13:35
	(tranquil organ music)	13:47
	(congregation sings)	14:55
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	15:06
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	15:09
	(congregation sings)	15:13
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	15:26
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	15:28
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	15:31
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	15:35
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	15:38
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	15:46
-	Help us to render unto you	16:04
	all that we have and all that we are	16:06
	that we may praise you with our whole lives.	16:08
	Amen.	16:12
	(lively organ music)	16:14
	(congregation sings)	16:51
	♪ Songs of praises ♪	18:30
	♪ Songs of praises ♪	18:32
	(congregation sings)	18:36
-	And now may the peace of God	18:54
	which passes all understanding	18:56
	keep your hearts and minds in the knowledge and love of God	18:59
	and of the Son Jesus Christ our Lord	19:04
	and the blessings of God Almighty,	19:07
	creator, redeemer, sustainer	19:11
	be among you and remain with you always.	19:14
	♪ Amen ♪	19:21
	♪ Amen ♪	19:29
	♪ Amen ♪	19:35
	♪ Amen ♪	19:44
	(lively organ music)	20:16

Item Info

Title:

Paul A. Mickey - "Locating the Question Marks in Life" (July 31, 1983)

Description:

The preacher challenges the congregation not to attempt to erase all uncertainty in their lives in order to try and maintain control but, rather, to "properly locate the question marks" of life, and look to God for their help. (Abstract created by Duke Divinity School staff.)
Sermon start time: (Part 1) 23:51. Sermon end time: (Part 2) 1:58.
Key quotation: “We are not to put our final faith in what we see and feel, in what we do and think. We are not to put our final faith in the things we think we can control.”

Permalink:

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r48s4k37r

Date:

July 31, 1983

Speaker:

Mickey, Paul A.

Liturgical Calendar:

Ordinary Time

Biblical Book:

Chapter and Verse:

Subject:

Contributor:

Duke University. Chapel

Identifier:

UA.17.01.0003 CS-0162
ref7847_yrb
uachapelsermaud
duke:320708
dcrau001153
ark:/87924/r48s4k37r
4daba727-76bf-43aa-9453-e9380617a7a3

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Duke Chapel Recordings

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English

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United States
North Carolina
Durham (N.C.)

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Provenance:

The Duke University Chapel Recordings were transferred to the Duke University Archives beginning in 1970.

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Limited Re-Use

CC BY-NC 4.0

Rights Note:

This recording may contain 3rd party materials, such as music or readings that are therefore not covered by the Creative Commons license indicated here. For more information see https://library.duke.edu/rubenstein/research/citations-and-permissions.

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Paul A. Mickey - "Locating the Question Marks in Life" (July 31, 1983)

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