Benjamin E. Mays - "In But Not of the World" (November 8, 1964)
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Transcript
Transcripts may contain inaccuracies.
- | The subject, a vocation | 0:02 |
of a Christian | 0:07 | |
in but not of the world | 0:10 | |
strongly implies | 0:15 | |
that there is a vast difference | 0:20 | |
between the vocation | 0:25 | |
of a Christian | 0:29 | |
and that of a non-Christian. | 0:32 | |
Between the vocation | 0:40 | |
of a Christian | 0:45 | |
and that of a communist | 0:48 | |
or fascist or a Nazi | 0:51 | |
or that of a humanist. | 0:57 | |
It must be said, however, | 1:02 | |
that I'm not wise enough to draw a short line | 1:07 | |
of distinction between a Christian | 1:12 | |
professing to be a Christian | 1:20 | |
and one not professing | 1:25 | |
because many professing Christians are not Christians, | 1:29 | |
and many non-professing Christians | 1:35 | |
may be Christians. | 1:41 | |
But if the invocation in the subject is true, | 1:46 | |
the difference lies | 1:52 | |
mainly in two specific areas. | 1:56 | |
In one's attitude toward God | 2:04 | |
as revealed in Jesus Christ, | 2:10 | |
and one's attitude toward man. | 2:16 | |
I made bold to assert | 2:24 | |
that every man, | 2:30 | |
whether Christian, communist, fascist, | 2:33 | |
nationalist, or humanist, | 2:37 | |
must have a God. | 2:44 | |
So it isn't a question as to whether a man | 2:50 | |
believes in God, | 2:55 | |
but rather it's what kind of a God | 2:59 | |
shall one believe in. | 3:05 | |
In order | 3:11 | |
to be a fairly well organized, | 3:14 | |
well-adjusted, | 3:19 | |
and fairly well integrated personality, | 3:22 | |
one must have an object other than himself | 3:29 | |
to which he can give | 3:36 | |
ultimate allegiance and loyalty. | 3:38 | |
An object which he can give all. | 3:44 | |
Which he can idolize, | 3:51 | |
bow down before, and praise. | 3:54 | |
To the communist, | 4:03 | |
this object of devotion and worship maybe | 4:07 | |
a classless society or the communist party. | 4:11 | |
To the fascist, it maybe the state. | 4:18 | |
To the Nazis in Germany, it was German blood and soil. | 4:23 | |
In essence, it was Adolf Hitler. | 4:29 | |
To the humanist who believes that man is good enough | 4:35 | |
and wise enough to lift himself | 4:40 | |
by his own bootstraps | 4:45 | |
the object of devotion may be | 4:48 | |
a glorified humanity. | 4:52 | |
To some people, it may be money. | 4:59 | |
To others, it may be the worship of power. | 5:03 | |
To the alcoholic, the object of devotion may be the bottle. | 5:07 | |
But every man needs to give his allegiance | 5:14 | |
to something beyond | 5:17 | |
and bigger than himself. | 5:21 | |
This is the reason why | 5:27 | |
Jesus said to the young man, | 5:30 | |
thou can love the lord thy God with all thy heart, | 5:34 | |
with all thy soul, with all thy mind, | 5:38 | |
and with all thy strength. | 5:43 | |
This is the first and great commandment, | 5:46 | |
and the second is right under it. | 5:49 | |
Thou shall love thy neighbor as thy self. | 5:53 | |
On these two commandments | 5:58 | |
hang all the law and the prophet. | 6:02 | |
And whatever that thing is, | 6:11 | |
whatever the thing is that he worship and idolize, | 6:15 | |
that's our God. | 6:21 | |
To the Christian, the object worshiped by the communist, | 6:27 | |
idolized by the fascist, | 6:31 | |
glorified by the Nazi | 6:35 | |
and revered by the humanist, is inadequate. | 6:37 | |
It's too small, it's not big enough. | 6:45 | |
The God of the Christian is the God of Abraham and Isaac, | 6:53 | |
Amos and Hosea, | 6:58 | |
Jeremiah and Isaiah, Jesus and Paul. | 7:01 | |
In other words, the God of the true Christian | 7:08 | |
is supra- nations, supra- class, | 7:12 | |
supra- cast, | 7:17 | |
and supra- race. | 7:20 | |
This is what Paul meant when he said | 7:27 | |
there is either Jew nor Greek, | 7:29 | |
there is neither slave nor free, | 7:33 | |
there is neither male nor female, | 7:37 | |
for you are all one in Christ Jesus. | 7:41 | |
This is what Peter meant when he said, truly I perceive | 7:46 | |
that God shows no partiality, but in every nation | 7:52 | |
anyone who fears him and does what is right | 7:58 | |
is acceptable to him. | 8:03 | |
This is also what Paul meant when he had claimed | 8:07 | |
God has made of one blood | 8:13 | |
all nations of men for to dwell | 8:17 | |
on all the face of the earth. | 8:21 | |
To Christians, | 8:28 | |
it is vocation. | 8:30 | |
This is also for the non-Christian in his conception of man. | 8:36 | |
A Christian believes | 8:43 | |
in contrary distinction to accommodate | 8:46 | |
that man is somebody | 8:51 | |
that he is unique, | 8:55 | |
that he has status. | 8:58 | |
Not because it was conferred upon him by the state, | 9:02 | |
not because it was given to him by | 9:09 | |
a particular ethnic group | 9:11 | |
but man is unique. | 9:16 | |
Man is somebody because God | 9:19 | |
gave uniqueness to him. | 9:25 | |
As proof of this, | 9:31 | |
it is, it tells us, | 9:36 | |
that when God reached man | 9:38 | |
in the creative parapet, | 9:42 | |
he did for man what he did not do | 9:46 | |
for any other creature that he made. | 9:50 | |
God breathes into man's nostrils the breath of God | 9:58 | |
and man became a living soul. | 10:04 | |
God did not do this for the beasts of the field. | 10:10 | |
He did not do this for the fowl of the air. | 10:15 | |
He did not do it for the fish of the sea. | 10:19 | |
But only man. | 10:26 | |
Founding fathers recognized this when they wrote, | 10:31 | |
we hold these truths to be self-evident | 10:36 | |
that all men are created equal. | 10:41 | |
That they are endowed by their creator | 10:45 | |
with certain, inalienable rights, | 10:49 | |
and among these are life, | 10:54 | |
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. | 10:56 | |
The Christian in his vocation recognizes | 11:03 | |
the uniqueness of man. | 11:07 | |
The Christian believes more. | 11:12 | |
The Christian believes that the life of every person | 11:15 | |
is significant. | 11:19 | |
Is of intrinsic worth and value. | 11:22 | |
Is a pearl of great price, | 11:27 | |
even the homeless. | 11:33 | |
The individual person is so significant | 11:37 | |
that to do injury to the least worthy | 11:41 | |
is to do injury to God. | 11:43 | |
This point is eloquently | 11:48 | |
and dramatically set forth | 11:52 | |
in the judgment scene of the sermon on the mount. | 11:56 | |
There, | 12:01 | |
one's entrance into the kingdom | 12:04 | |
is based on one thing. | 12:08 | |
How did you treat the man farthest down? | 12:12 | |
He said to him on the right hand side, you may come in. | 12:18 | |
For I was hungry, and you gave me bread. | 12:25 | |
Thirsty, and you gave me drink. | 12:30 | |
Naked, and you put clothes on my back. | 12:34 | |
In prison, you came to see me. | 12:39 | |
Sick, and you ministered to my needs. | 12:44 | |
No no, they replied, | 12:49 | |
you've never been sick. | 12:54 | |
You could speak the word and diseases would flee. | 12:58 | |
You never been hungry. | 13:03 | |
You could speak the word and stones would turn to bread. | 13:07 | |
The reply was eloquent and eternal. | 13:15 | |
In as much as ye did it on the least of these, | 13:19 | |
ye did it unto me. | 13:24 | |
The Christian believes that the person is so valuable | 13:29 | |
in God's eyes | 13:32 | |
and God cares so much for men | 13:35 | |
that the strands of hair | 13:39 | |
on his head all numbered. | 13:42 | |
Man is so precious | 13:46 | |
that God sent his son into the world | 13:49 | |
to bring salvation to man. | 13:53 | |
The Christian believes on this point | 13:59 | |
that no distinction can be draw between men. | 14:04 | |
If the life of a rich man | 14:12 | |
is sacred and precious, | 14:15 | |
the life of a sharecropper in Mississippi | 14:20 | |
is also precious. | 14:23 | |
If the life of the learned man is important, | 14:30 | |
the life of the illiterate man | 14:38 | |
is equally important. | 14:43 | |
If the life of the Queen of England | 14:48 | |
is of intrinsic worth and value, | 14:52 | |
then it must follow as the night the day, | 14:57 | |
the life of a coal miner in Wales | 15:02 | |
is of equal worth and value. | 15:09 | |
And if the President of the United States, | 15:14 | |
if his life is precious, | 15:16 | |
then the life of a mill hand in one of the Carolinas | 15:20 | |
is also valuable. | 15:25 | |
These are all or none. | 15:29 | |
So it is this interested | 15:38 | |
on the value of a person | 15:42 | |
that sets the peculiar Christian religion off | 15:46 | |
from most of the world religions. | 15:51 | |
It is this interest that makes democracy, | 15:56 | |
as I see it, superior to fascism or communism. | 16:00 | |
If you a man, and if you a God, | 16:07 | |
give their spirituality to the vocation of a Christian, | 16:13 | |
that is not inherent in the vocation | 16:19 | |
of a non-Christian communist or fascist. | 16:23 | |
The Christian in his vocation has a mandate from God. | 16:29 | |
Not from man, | 16:36 | |
but from God, to deal justly, | 16:40 | |
sympathetically, helpfully, and lovingly | 16:45 | |
with his fellow. | 16:50 | |
He's called upon not only to make a living, | 16:52 | |
but to make a life. | 16:58 | |
Not only to make a living for himself and family | 17:01 | |
to be physically and economically secure, | 17:05 | |
but he is called upon to make a life | 17:10 | |
by using his talent and skills to the end | 17:14 | |
that no man may go without adequate food and shelter. | 17:19 | |
None without adequate education. | 17:26 | |
None without an opportunity to develop strong bodies. | 17:29 | |
And none without an opportunity to develop to the fullest | 17:35 | |
the talents given to him by God. | 17:40 | |
To the Christian, his vocation must be | 17:47 | |
beneficial to himself | 17:52 | |
and beneficial to mankind. | 17:55 | |
To the Christian, his vocation is more than a profession, | 18:00 | |
more than skills. | 18:04 | |
It is a calling. | 18:06 | |
He does his job, | 18:12 | |
not so much because he wants to do it | 18:15 | |
but he does it because he must do it. | 18:19 | |
There is a kind of an inner | 18:24 | |
urge that drives him on. | 18:29 | |
Whether physician or lawyer, teacher or minister, | 18:35 | |
architect or businessman, engineer or artist, | 18:39 | |
he does his job like the prophet prophesies | 18:45 | |
and the poet writes poetry. | 18:49 | |
There is an inner urge, there is a compulsion. | 18:54 | |
There is a must. | 19:00 | |
Whether deacon or lawyer, teacher or minister, | 19:04 | |
architect or businessman, | 19:08 | |
likened to Paul. | 19:13 | |
For it was Paul who said I'm ruined if I preach not | 19:16 | |
the gospel. | 19:19 | |
Jesus who said the spirit of the lord is upon thee. | 19:21 | |
It was Amos who said when the eternal God speaks | 19:26 | |
who can but prophesy? | 19:30 | |
It was Jeremiah who said that I feel that there is a fire | 19:33 | |
shut up in my bones. | 19:37 | |
The Christian does his job | 19:41 | |
like John Bunion | 19:46 | |
who said I have to set aside the writing of sermons | 19:49 | |
and other serious tracks | 19:53 | |
in order to write Pilgrims Progress. | 19:55 | |
Or like Horace, who said I could not sleep at night | 19:57 | |
because of the pressure of unwritten poetry. | 20:01 | |
Or like Herman, who said I must lay awake | 20:07 | |
in order to keep a contract with my soul. | 20:12 | |
The Christian man, in his vocation, | 20:21 | |
whatever that vocation may be, | 20:28 | |
the Christian man in his vocation may gain great wealth. | 20:32 | |
He may achieve things. | 20:38 | |
He may occupy positions of prestige and power. | 20:40 | |
But his greatest joy, his greatest satisfaction | 20:46 | |
comes not in holding and keeping, | 20:52 | |
but in giving and sharing. | 20:58 | |
The physician who has saved hundreds of lives | 21:04 | |
through his skill and surgery, | 21:10 | |
must find great satisfaction. | 21:14 | |
The teacher who has inspired thousands of students | 21:19 | |
to aspire for higher things must find joy. | 21:23 | |
The rich man who would use his wealth to benefit mankind | 21:31 | |
must find peace in his soul. | 21:38 | |
He who will find cure for cancer | 21:44 | |
can die a happy man | 21:49 | |
or a happy woman. | 21:53 | |
Finally, | 21:58 | |
the Christian in his vocation is in the world | 22:02 | |
but not fully of it. | 22:06 | |
He conforms but he is not a slave to conformity. | 22:10 | |
The Christian in his vocation, whatever it is, | 22:18 | |
is sensitive to and responsive to | 22:23 | |
God's call. | 22:29 | |
He knows that he must be in the world | 22:33 | |
but not wholly of it. | 22:37 | |
That the time may come when in response to God's call, | 22:40 | |
whatever his vocation may be, | 22:47 | |
he must rise above customs, | 22:51 | |
traditions, morals, | 22:54 | |
and respond to the call of God. | 22:57 | |
He's conscious also of the fact | 23:06 | |
that this call | 23:12 | |
usually comes not to the multitude, | 23:15 | |
but to the individual. | 23:19 | |
And he is open and responsive | 23:23 | |
to the call | 23:28 | |
because he knows that it might come to him. | 23:30 | |
You see God did not call | 23:38 | |
a thousand men to leave their country | 23:43 | |
and to come to father a great people, he called Abraham. | 23:47 | |
God did not call on 100 men to lead the children of Israel | 23:54 | |
out of Egypt, he called Moses. | 23:59 | |
He did not call the Jews to be the son of God, | 24:04 | |
but he called Jesus. | 24:09 | |
He did not call 100 men | 24:14 | |
to break the bonds and universalize | 24:18 | |
the Christian religion, he called Paul. | 24:22 | |
When the Roman empire was tottering and had fallen, | 24:31 | |
he did not call 1,000 men to give | 24:37 | |
a Christian interpretation of history, | 24:40 | |
he called St. Augustine. | 24:43 | |
When the church needed cleansing | 24:48 | |
he didn't call 1,000 people | 24:52 | |
but Martin Luther and some others. | 24:56 | |
When the time came to free science from the domination | 25:00 | |
of religion, Galileo, Robert, Bacon, Copernicus, | 25:04 | |
Darwin, and others were called. | 25:08 | |
When what we needed crusades | 25:14 | |
for the freedom of women, it was Susan B. Anthony. | 25:20 | |
When it were necessary for one to lift up his voice | 25:26 | |
against untouchability in India, he called Mahatma Gandhi. | 25:29 | |
When it was necessary to call someone | 25:37 | |
to demonstrate | 25:43 | |
the suffering of nonviolent and crusading for civil rights, | 25:45 | |
it was Martin Luther King Jr. | 25:52 | |
The Christian man, whether in business, | 25:56 | |
or in medicine or in teaching, | 26:02 | |
he knows that he is in the world but not fully of it. | 26:07 | |
No man can live in the world without conforming to it, | 26:12 | |
but the world moves forward on the work of those | 26:18 | |
who are in the world but not wholly of it. | 26:22 | |
The Christian must live in the world, | 26:27 | |
in two worlds, | 26:33 | |
but always in a state of tension | 26:36 | |
between the world that is | 26:41 | |
and the world that ought to be. | 26:45 | |
Let us pray. | 26:53 | |
Dear God, we pray, | 27:04 | |
tithe, benedictions | 27:10 | |
upon all mankind, everywhere. | 27:16 | |
Upon the secure and the insecure. | 27:23 | |
Upon the sick and the well. | 27:30 | |
Upon those in prison | 27:35 | |
and those in slavery. | 27:40 | |
Upon the saints and upon this earth. | 27:44 | |
For all we need thee | 27:52 | |
and we all stand in the need of prayer. | 27:55 | |
Go with us to our further activities | 28:01 | |
of the years, | 28:07 | |
for the work of continuing here. | 28:10 | |
Now may the strong arms | 28:12 | |
of the eternal God, | 28:17 | |
the love of Jesus Christ, | 28:20 | |
the fellowship of the holy spirit | 28:25 | |
guide, sustain and keep this people, | 28:28 | |
now and forever more. | 28:34 |