Creighton Lacy - "Fear Not, Only Believe" (February 2, 1958)
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| - | Modern problems of Broadway actors, | 0:02 |
| against a bare rehearsal stage. | 0:06 | |
| When the moment of decision arrives, | 0:10 | |
| Anderson has Saint Joan explain her choice, | 0:12 | |
| in this way: | 0:16 | |
| "You choose to keep your faith" | 0:19 | |
| "as I choose to keep mine." | 0:22 | |
| "And if I give my life for that choice," | 0:26 | |
| "I know this too, now," | 0:29 | |
| "every man gives his life for what he believes." | 0:32 | |
| Every woman gives her life for what she believes. | 0:37 | |
| Sometimes people believe in little or nothing. | 0:42 | |
| Nevertheless they give up their lives | 0:45 | |
| to that little or nothing. | 0:48 | |
| One life is all we have, | 0:51 | |
| and we live it as we believe in living it, | 0:54 | |
| and then it's gone. | 0:57 | |
| But to surrender what you are, | 1:00 | |
| to live without belief, | 1:03 | |
| that's more terrible than dying, | 1:06 | |
| more terrible than dying young. | 1:09 | |
| There is a great deal of talk these days | 1:16 | |
| about freedom of belief. | 1:18 | |
| Ten days ago I sat in the United Nations building | 1:21 | |
| in New York while a subcommission on human rights | 1:24 | |
| debated problems of religious discrimination. | 1:29 | |
| There, as so often in our campus discussions, | 1:33 | |
| concern for freedom of belief | 1:38 | |
| seemed to imply no belief at all. | 1:40 | |
| We say we believe in democracy. | 1:45 | |
| Do we live by it? | 1:47 | |
| Do our daily attitudes, our treatment of other people, | 1:50 | |
| reflect any real faith in the brotherhood of man, | 1:54 | |
| or the sacredness of individuals? | 1:58 | |
| We say we believe in Christianity. | 2:02 | |
| Do our devotional habits, | 2:06 | |
| our examination ethics, | 2:09 | |
| our language, or our values demonstrate | 2:12 | |
| any fundamental faith in Christ? | 2:16 | |
| Our country has recently been alarmed | 2:21 | |
| at the scientific and technological rivalry | 2:23 | |
| of the Soviet Union, | 2:26 | |
| in addition to its political and military threat. | 2:28 | |
| But most interpreters fail to realize | 2:32 | |
| how much of Russia's success is due directly | 2:34 | |
| to a fanatical belief in the cause. | 2:39 | |
| Whittaker Chambers put this sharply | 2:44 | |
| in his controversial Witness. | 2:46 | |
| Their power, whose nature baffles the rest of the world | 2:49 | |
| because, in a large measure, | 2:53 | |
| the rest of the world has lost that power, | 2:55 | |
| is the power to hold convictions | 2:59 | |
| and to act upon them. | 3:02 | |
| Communists, as Whittaker who was one himself, | 3:05 | |
| are that part of mankind which has | 3:09 | |
| recovered the power to live or die, | 3:11 | |
| to bear witness for its faith. | 3:15 | |
| The cause may be faults and misguided | 3:21 | |
| in its principles and in its promises. | 3:23 | |
| It may suffer from grave inherent weaknesses | 3:26 | |
| as the penetrating best-seller, | 3:30 | |
| The New Class, reveals. | 3:31 | |
| But its followers believe in it, | 3:34 | |
| and the power of their belief shows results. | 3:37 | |
| As the actors in Anderson's play | 3:42 | |
| discuss this faith of Saint Joan, | 3:44 | |
| one of them voices the question for many of us, | 3:46 | |
| why can't a fellow just live by common sense, | 3:50 | |
| without faith, dreams, or religion? | 3:53 | |
| Strangely enough, it is the hard-boiled director | 3:58 | |
| who supplies the immediate answer. | 4:01 | |
| A man may keep to the right-hand side of the street | 4:04 | |
| out of common sense, but common sense | 4:06 | |
| has nothing to do with where he's going. | 4:09 | |
| You'd never do anything living by common sense. | 4:13 | |
| For after all, every action is a choice of some kind, | 4:18 | |
| and is undergirded by some sort of faith. | 4:22 | |
| Couldn't man live by science, | 4:27 | |
| another actor inquires. | 4:28 | |
| It is a question which millions of people | 4:32 | |
| are asking today, perhaps more acutely | 4:34 | |
| than ever before. | 4:37 | |
| Thoughtful people are gravely concerned | 4:40 | |
| that even America's answer may be in the affirmative. | 4:42 | |
| But again the realist speaks | 4:47 | |
| on the bare stage of Anderson's drama, | 4:49 | |
| in these terms. | 4:52 | |
| If you live, you have to be going somewhere. | 4:54 | |
| You have to choose a direction, | 4:57 | |
| and science is completely impartial. | 5:00 | |
| It doesn't care which way you go. | 5:03 | |
| It can invent the atom bomb, | 5:06 | |
| but it can't tell you whether to use it or not. | 5:08 | |
| No wonder that, in the 12 years since | 5:12 | |
| those words were written, | 5:14 | |
| scientists have fought and talked and written | 5:16 | |
| about their ethical risk taking. | 5:20 | |
| But one of the young actors injects | 5:24 | |
| into the conversation the glib and proud assertion | 5:26 | |
| of many would-be moderns., | 5:28 | |
| I don't have any faith. | 5:30 | |
| Oh, yes you do, the director retorts. | 5:34 | |
| And you live by it. | 5:37 | |
| Everybody has a notion of what the world's like, | 5:39 | |
| and what he's like in it. | 5:42 | |
| What you think about the world is your faith, | 5:45 | |
| and if you begin to doubt it | 5:48 | |
| you have to put something in its place quick, | 5:50 | |
| or you'll fall apart. | 5:53 | |
| A man has to have a faith. | 5:55 | |
| There is something poignantly tragic | 5:59 | |
| and spiritually significant | 6:02 | |
| about the spate of books by disillusioned Communists, | 6:04 | |
| with titles like, The God that Failed. | 6:08 | |
| I Believed. | 6:13 | |
| And now, The Naked God. | 6:15 | |
| Three thousand years ago, the psalmist | 6:19 | |
| understood this need. | 6:21 | |
| I had fainted unless I had believed | 6:23 | |
| to see the goodness of the Lord | 6:26 | |
| in the land of the living. | 6:28 | |
| For this faith is no mere intellectual assent | 6:31 | |
| to a creed, or to an historical fact. | 6:34 | |
| It is the power by which we live. | 6:38 | |
| Not only does faith lift us up, | 6:42 | |
| give us courage, enable us to act creatively, | 6:44 | |
| but also our faith makes it possible | 6:49 | |
| for God to act. | 6:52 | |
| And conversely, our lack of faith | 6:54 | |
| hinders the achievement of His will. | 6:57 | |
| Faith is our response to the divine revelation. | 7:01 | |
| Jesus spoke often about belief, | 7:07 | |
| and how many times in connection | 7:10 | |
| with his dynamic ministry of healing. | 7:12 | |
| To Jairus, the ruler of the synagogue | 7:15 | |
| whose daughter was ill. | 7:17 | |
| Do not fear, only believe. | 7:20 | |
| To the man who brought his son | 7:24 | |
| afflicted with convulsive spells. | 7:25 | |
| All things are possible to him who believes. | 7:29 | |
| To the two blind men following at a distance | 7:34 | |
| and pleading for mercy. | 7:36 | |
| Do you believe that I am able to do this? | 7:39 | |
| According to your faith, be it done to you. | 7:42 | |
| To the Centurion, beseeching Christ's power | 7:47 | |
| for his servant. | 7:50 | |
| Be it done for you as you have believed. | 7:52 | |
| And to the disciples, still marveling | 7:57 | |
| at his miracles. | 7:59 | |
| Have faith in God. | 8:01 | |
| Whatsoever you ask in prayer, | 8:04 | |
| believe that you receive it and you will, | 8:06 | |
| in ways beyond the understanding of man. | 8:10 | |
| So the Lord's table in this chapel | 8:16 | |
| is not restricted to those who belong | 8:18 | |
| to a particular church or race or creed. | 8:21 | |
| It is open to any and all who believe in God | 8:26 | |
| and who believe that in His son, Jesus Christ, | 8:29 | |
| is power for this life and eternal salvation | 8:33 | |
| for the life to come. | 8:37 | |
| Every man gives his life for what he believes. | 8:40 | |
| Every woman gives her life for what she believes. | 8:44 | |
| As we come to Christ's holy table, | 8:49 | |
| we proclaim our faith in Him and our determination | 8:52 | |
| to live according to that faith. | 8:55 | |
| More than that, in this holy sacrament, | 8:59 | |
| we draw strength to practice our belief | 9:03 | |
| in our weekday, workday world. | 9:05 | |
| In the midst of sorrow, insecurity, | 9:09 | |
| temptation, discouragement, | 9:13 | |
| in the midst of social and international tension, | 9:16 | |
| Christ bids us, fear not, only believe. | 9:20 | |
| All things are possible to him who believes. | 9:26 | |
| As you receive this holy Communion, | 9:31 | |
| will you not pledge your lives anew | 9:35 | |
| to the highest, holiest faith | 9:37 | |
| mankind has ever found? | 9:40 | |
| For God so loved the world that he gave | 9:43 | |
| his only begotten son, | 9:47 | |
| that whosoever believeth on Him | 9:49 | |
| should not perish, but should have | 9:52 | |
| everlasting life. | 9:55 | |
| Amen. | 9:59 | |
| (Pipe organ playing) | 10:05 |