James T. Cleland - "Jack Coombs' Sermon" (May 26, 1957)
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Transcript
Transcripts may contain inaccuracies.
(choir singing) | 0:03 | |
Announcer | Sunday, May 26, 1957. | 0:06 |
Preacher, the Reverend Professor James T. McLellan, | 0:11 | |
dean of the chapel. | 0:14 | |
(choir singing) | 0:17 | |
Dean | Let us offer unto God | 3:43 |
our unison prayer of confession. | 3:45 | |
Let us pray. | 3:48 | |
Eternal God, in whom we live, | 3:50 | |
and move, and have our being, | 3:53 | |
whose face is hidden from us by our sins, | 3:55 | |
and whose mercy we forget in the blindness of our hearts, | 3:59 | |
cleanse us, we beseech thee, | 4:03 | |
from all our offenses, | 4:05 | |
and deliver us from proud thoughts and vain desires, | 4:07 | |
that with lowliness and meekness, | 4:12 | |
we may draw near to thee, | 4:14 | |
and confessing out faults, confiding in Thy grace, | 4:16 | |
and finding in Thee our refuge and our strength. | 4:21 | |
Through Jesus Christ, Thy son, amen, | 4:25 | |
and now as our savior Christ hath taught us, we pray. | 4:29 | |
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed by the name. | 4:33 | |
Thy kingdom come, they will be done, | 4:38 | |
on Earth as it is in heaven. | 4:41 | |
Give us this day our daily bread, | 4:44 | |
and forgive us our trespasses, | 4:47 | |
as we forgive those trespass against us, | 4:49 | |
and lead us not into temptation, | 4:53 | |
but deliver us from evil, | 4:55 | |
for Thine is the kingdom, | 4:57 | |
and the power, and the glory forever. | 4:59 | |
Amen. | 5:03 | |
(pipe organ playing) | 5:06 | |
(choir singing) | 6:04 | |
Reverend | Let us hear of the wealth of God | 10:23 |
as is contained first in | 10:26 | |
the scriptures of the Old Testament, | 10:28 | |
in the book of Exodus, the third chapter. | 10:31 | |
"Now Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law, | 10:36 | |
"Jethro, the priest of Midian, | 10:40 | |
"and he led his flock to the west side of the wilderness, | 10:44 | |
"and came to Horeb, the mountain of God, | 10:49 | |
"and the angel of the Lord appeared to him | 10:53 | |
"in a flame of fire, out of the midst of a bush, | 10:55 | |
"and he looked, and lo the bush was burning, | 11:01 | |
"yet it was not consumed, | 11:05 | |
"and Moses said, I will turn aside and see this great sight, | 11:08 | |
"why the bush is not burnt. | 11:15 | |
"When the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, | 11:19 | |
"God called to him, Moses, | 11:23 | |
"Moses, and he said, here am I. | 11:27 | |
"Then God said, do not come near. | 11:34 | |
"Put off your shoes from you feet, | 11:39 | |
"for the place on which you are standing is holy ground. | 11:43 | |
"I am the God of your father, | 11:50 | |
"the God of Abraham, the God of Issac, | 11:53 | |
"and the God of Jacob, | 11:58 | |
"and Moses hid his face, | 12:01 | |
"for he was afraid to look at God," | 12:06 | |
and in the scriptures of the New Testament, | 12:10 | |
from the gospel according to Saint Luke, | 12:13 | |
the 13th chapter, at verse 22. | 12:16 | |
"Jesus went on his way through towns and villages, | 12:31 | |
"teaching and journeying toward Jerusalem, | 12:34 | |
"and someone said to him, | 12:39 | |
"Lord, will those who are saved be few? | 12:41 | |
"And Jesus said to them, | 12:49 | |
"strive to enter by the narrow door. | 12:51 | |
"for many I tell you will seek to enter, | 12:56 | |
"and will not be able. | 12:59 | |
"When once the household has risen up and shut the door, | 13:02 | |
"you will begin to stand outside, | 13:06 | |
"and to knock at the door, saying, | 13:08 | |
"Lord, open to us. | 13:11 | |
"He will answer you, I do not know where you come from. | 13:15 | |
"Then you will begin to say, | 13:20 | |
"we ate and drank in your presence | 13:22 | |
"and you taught in our streets, | 13:24 | |
"and he will say, I tell you, | 13:28 | |
"I don't not know where you've come from. | 13:32 | |
"Depart from me all ye workers of inequity. | 13:35 | |
"There you will weep and gnash your teeth | 13:40 | |
"when you see Abraham, and Isaac, | 13:45 | |
"and Jacob, and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, | 13:49 | |
"and you yourselves thrust out, | 13:58 | |
"and men will come from east and west, | 14:03 | |
"and from north and south, | 14:05 | |
"and sit at table in the kingdom of God. | 14:06 | |
"For behold some are last who will be first, | 14:12 | |
"and some are first who will be last." | 14:20 | |
Amen, may God bless unto us the reading of His holy word. | 14:26 | |
(pipe organ playing) | 14:37 | |
(choir singing) | 15:11 | |
Dean | Let us pray. | 17:19 |
Most gracious Father, | 17:29 | |
whose gifts to Thy children are limited only | 17:32 | |
by the narrowness of our desires, | 17:36 | |
and our unwillingness to receive, | 17:38 | |
as we come to the end of the academic year, | 17:42 | |
we offer thee our humble and hearty thanks | 17:46 | |
for all the blessings which Thou has bestowed upon us. | 17:49 | |
We bless Thee for all who have made | 17:55 | |
this year of study possible, and profitable, | 17:58 | |
for sacrificing parents, | 18:02 | |
whose unselfishness and love have sustained us, | 18:05 | |
for wise professors, who have challenged our minds | 18:09 | |
with penetrating insights, | 18:14 | |
for sympathetic administrators, | 18:17 | |
and loyal alumni, who's work behind the scenes | 18:20 | |
makes our life at college possible and pleasant, | 18:24 | |
and for understanding friends, | 18:29 | |
whose comradeship and counsel help us keep our perspective. | 18:32 | |
We bless Thee for the variety of buildings | 18:38 | |
which have been provided for our different needs, | 18:42 | |
for the libraries, and the wealth of knowledge stored there, | 18:46 | |
for the classrooms, and the understanding gained there, | 18:51 | |
for the gymnasiums, and athletic fields, | 18:56 | |
and the exercise and fun enjoyed there, | 19:00 | |
for the dormitories, and the opportunities of friendship | 19:03 | |
which come from dormitory life, for the dining halls, | 19:08 | |
and the joy which comes from eating together, | 19:12 | |
for the chapel, and the opportunity of worshiping | 19:17 | |
as a university community, | 19:21 | |
and for the solid ministry of the chapel, | 19:23 | |
as it towers over our campus, | 19:26 | |
and for all the other buildings which serve our needs. | 19:29 | |
We bless Thee for the order and beauty | 19:35 | |
of all that Thou hast made, | 19:39 | |
for the wonder of the world about us, | 19:42 | |
for the day and night, for summer and winter, | 19:45 | |
for sun and rain, for seed time and harvest, | 19:49 | |
and for Thy bountiful supply of all our needs. | 19:54 | |
We bless Thee most of all for sending | 19:59 | |
Thy son to be our savior, | 20:02 | |
for his taking of our nature, for his life on Earth, | 20:05 | |
for his sufferings and death upon the cross, | 20:10 | |
for his resurrection and reign, | 20:14 | |
and for his gift of the Holy Spirit. | 20:17 | |
Grant, oh God, that our hearts may grow | 20:21 | |
in thankfulness for Thy mercies, | 20:24 | |
and enable us by Thy grace to give all that we have | 20:27 | |
and are for Thy service to the glory of Thy name. | 20:32 | |
Almighty and everlasting God, | 20:38 | |
who hatest nothing that Thou hast made, | 20:43 | |
and dost forgive the sins of all them that are penitent, | 20:45 | |
we grieve and lament that we are still so prone to sin | 20:50 | |
and so little inclined to obedience, | 20:56 | |
so much attached to the pleasures of sense, | 20:59 | |
no negligent of things spiritual, | 21:03 | |
so prompt to gratify our bodies, | 21:07 | |
so slow to nourish our souls, | 21:10 | |
so greedy for present delight, | 21:14 | |
so indifferent to lasting blessedness, | 21:18 | |
so fond of idleness, so indisposed for labor, | 21:22 | |
so soon at play, so late at prayer, | 21:27 | |
so brisk in the service of self, | 21:32 | |
so slack in the service of others, | 21:35 | |
so eager to get, so reluctant to give, | 21:39 | |
so lofty in our professions, | 21:44 | |
so backward to fulfill them, | 21:48 | |
so severe with our neighbors, | 21:51 | |
so indulgent with ourselves, so eager to find fault, | 21:54 | |
so resentful at being found fault with, | 22:01 | |
so little able for great tasks, | 22:05 | |
so discontented with small ones, so weak in adversity, | 22:09 | |
so swollen and self satisfied in prosperity, | 22:15 | |
so helpless apart from Thee, | 22:20 | |
and yet so little willing to be bound to Thee. | 22:23 | |
Oh merciful God, grant us yet again Thy forgiveness. | 22:28 | |
Give us faith so to lay hold of Thine own holiness, | 22:35 | |
and so to rejoice in the righteousness of Christ, | 22:39 | |
our savior, the resting on his merits, | 22:42 | |
rather than our own, | 22:46 | |
we may more become conformed to his likeness, | 22:48 | |
and our wills become one with his in obedience to Thine. | 22:52 | |
In His name we pray, amen. | 22:58 | |
(pipe organ playing) | 23:06 | |
(choir singing) | 26:36 | |
Almighty God, who didst give Thy beloved son | 33:02 | |
for the life of mankind, | 33:06 | |
and hast give us all things richly to enjoy, | 33:08 | |
help us in offering our gifts with thanksgiving, | 33:12 | |
to present ourselves wholly for Thy service, | 33:16 | |
though Jesus Christ our Lord, amen. | 33:19 | |
(pipe organ playing) | 33:24 | |
Reverend | Sir J. M. Barry, | 34:20 |
when he was lord rector of St. Andrews University, | 34:24 | |
said this, | 34:29 | |
"while a person might be better employed | 34:33 | |
"than in going to college, | 34:38 | |
"it is his own fault if he does not find someone there | 34:41 | |
"who sets his life off in a new direction." | 34:48 | |
Now we may disagree with the first half of the sentence, | 34:54 | |
though I'm not sure if we do at this exam time, | 34:58 | |
about being better employed than in going to college, | 35:00 | |
but it is true that we ought to find someone | 35:05 | |
in those four years, someone in a book, | 35:11 | |
someone alive, | 35:15 | |
who sets life off in a new direction. | 35:18 | |
We've had men like that on the Duke campus. | 35:25 | |
We still have them. | 35:28 | |
Not only men, women, | 35:30 | |
but the one that I want to remember this morning | 35:34 | |
is Jack Coombs, baseball coach for 24 years, | 35:39 | |
who died in April, aged 74. | 35:45 | |
Strange man, | 35:50 | |
with strange and yet a wholesome influence. | 35:53 | |
I'm not going to go into his record very fully. | 35:59 | |
I'd like to say this about him though, | 36:02 | |
he graduated from Colby College in Maine, | 36:03 | |
when the Bachelor of Arts degree still required Latin, | 36:08 | |
Greek, and mathematics, | 36:13 | |
and the following week pitched his first game | 36:17 | |
for the Athletics and won it. | 36:20 | |
He won the longest game ever pitched | 36:25 | |
by one pitcher in the American League, 24 innings. | 36:28 | |
He won three games in the World Series in 1910. | 36:36 | |
He pitched 13 shutouts in 1910, | 36:41 | |
coached at Williams and at Princeton before he came here. | 36:46 | |
Now the stories about him are legion, legion at Duke. | 36:50 | |
In the dugout, behind the practice cage, | 36:54 | |
on the campus, in the kitchens, | 36:58 | |
in the hospital, he knew everybody, | 37:01 | |
and addressed anybody. | 37:04 | |
His language was often theological, | 37:07 | |
but had no doctrinal import half of the time, | 37:09 | |
and yet he and his wife, Miss Mary, | 37:19 | |
were powers for righteousness on this campus. | 37:22 | |
They made that kind of a dent. | 37:28 | |
Never came to chapel, to my knowledge, | 37:32 | |
took his wife down for mass, | 37:34 | |
and then he listened in on the radio, | 37:37 | |
and if I were preaching on Sunday, | 37:42 | |
he waylaid me on Monday to tell me exactly | 37:44 | |
what he thought of the sermon. | 37:48 | |
I remember one criticism. | 37:51 | |
He started off, (grunting). | 37:53 | |
I said, "all right, what was wrong? | 37:57 | |
"What was wrong?" | 37:58 | |
He said, "you won the game, all right, | 38:01 | |
"but you didn't start hitting until | 38:03 | |
"there were two out in the eighth." | 38:04 | |
You know that kind of a sermon | 38:07 | |
where nothing happens until the very end, and then boom? | 38:08 | |
I said, "well, you're a pretty poor coach." | 38:11 | |
He said, "what do you mean?" | 38:12 | |
I said, "I wasn't hitting, I was pitching. | 38:13 | |
"You need know the difference." | 38:16 | |
Another day he said, | 38:18 | |
"well, I left after the first five minutes." | 38:19 | |
I said, "didn't you come back?" | 38:22 | |
He said, "yes, with a dictionary." | 38:24 | |
(audience laughs) | 38:27 | |
But there was one sermon he liked, one. | 38:33 | |
Sermon on Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. | 38:39 | |
He pretended he couldn't remember the names. | 38:44 | |
He called it that Tom, Dick, and Harry sermon. | 38:46 | |
(audience laughs) | 38:49 | |
And therefore to the glory of God, | 38:53 | |
and in the memory of a good friend, | 38:56 | |
and a good man, Jack Coombs, | 38:57 | |
and I hope for your edification, | 39:01 | |
I shall preach Jack Coombs' sermon again. | 39:04 | |
The sermon began about two thirds back in the chapel, | 39:10 | |
on that side, in summer. | 39:14 | |
For nine Sundays, I had the unusual experience | 39:18 | |
of being in the pew instead of in the pulpit. | 39:22 | |
Instead of a bird's eye view of the congregation | 39:27 | |
I had an worm's eye view of the congregation, | 39:30 | |
and I was amazed at the attitudes of some people, | 39:35 | |
surprised at the behavior of others. | 39:38 | |
There are some people who were just not church broken, | 39:42 | |
don't know quite how to behave in church, | 39:46 | |
and for some then unknown reason, | 39:51 | |
they kept running through my mind, those words, | 39:55 | |
"I am the God of Abraham, | 39:58 | |
"the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." | 40:01 | |
Now why should persons in the pews | 40:06 | |
around me in the Duke Chapel, | 40:08 | |
and Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob have joined hands | 40:12 | |
in the stream of my consciousness, | 40:16 | |
in an association of ideas? | 40:19 | |
Well I decided to find out, | 40:22 | |
and that is how this sermon came into being. | 40:24 | |
First, who are, | 40:28 | |
or who were Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. | 40:30 | |
They lived before the dawn of reputable history, | 40:35 | |
pre-ancestors of the Jews, in the fertile crescent, | 40:40 | |
that inhabitable section of land | 40:45 | |
that swings from the Persian Gulf, | 40:48 | |
up the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, | 40:51 | |
across the south side of the mountains of Armenia, | 40:54 | |
and then drops down through Syria and Palestine, | 40:57 | |
across the desert of Sinai into Egypt. | 41:00 | |
They're a father, a son, | 41:05 | |
and a grandson | 41:09 | |
whom history made claim as genuine, | 41:12 | |
but whom legend has taken possession of, | 41:15 | |
and because legend has taken possession of them, | 41:19 | |
they are alive today as no historian could make them alive. | 41:23 | |
Let's look at thumbnail sketches of them. | 41:28 | |
Abraham, pioneer. | 41:31 | |
He broke trails for others to follow. | 41:37 | |
A man of itching feet, | 41:42 | |
never hungered for a fight, | 41:46 | |
but he did do battle and that right well on occasion. | 41:48 | |
Some words from The Odyssey that describe him, | 41:54 | |
what he greatly thought, he nobly dared. | 41:58 | |
He was the soul of generosity, a big hearted man. | 42:04 | |
Nothing mean about Abraham, | 42:08 | |
you could see that in his dealings with his nephew, Lot. | 42:09 | |
They decided to divide the land, and Abraham, | 42:12 | |
who by age and position had the right to the first choice, | 42:16 | |
granted the first choice to Lot, | 42:23 | |
and he did what you and I would have done. | 42:26 | |
He chose the best land, | 42:28 | |
and Abraham never protested. | 42:30 | |
He was devoutly religious. | 42:34 | |
God was at the very center of his life, | 42:37 | |
everything else was peripheral. | 42:40 | |
He's known as the friend of God in the Bible. | 42:43 | |
Now you'd think that would be a common phrase in the Bible. | 42:49 | |
Only occurs once. | 42:52 | |
Once, and is said of Abraham. | 42:54 | |
He was the friend of God. | 42:57 | |
So you remember how the author | 43:01 | |
of the epistle to the Hebrews described him? | 43:02 | |
"By faith Abraham, when he was called | 43:06 | |
"to go out into a place which he should after receive | 43:08 | |
"for inheritance obeyed, | 43:10 | |
"and he went out not knowing whither he went. | 43:13 | |
"By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, | 43:17 | |
"as in a strange country, | 43:21 | |
"living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, | 43:24 | |
"heirs with him of the same promise, | 43:26 | |
"but he looked for a city which has foundations, | 43:29 | |
"whose builder and maker is God." | 43:33 | |
There he is, then, | 43:36 | |
pioneer, soul of generosity, devoutly religious. | 43:37 | |
"I am the God of Abraham." | 43:43 | |
And then Isaac, son of Abraham, | 43:45 | |
and a very different person, a stay at home. | 43:48 | |
He only had two real adventures in his life, | 43:52 | |
one when he found his wife, | 43:55 | |
and one when he almost lost her, | 43:58 | |
and that was enough for him. | 44:00 | |
He came home and he stayed put. | 44:02 | |
He'd an infinite capacity for sitting still. | 44:05 | |
He's a gentle soul, the first pacifist in the Bible, | 44:11 | |
you see that from the incident of the wells. | 44:14 | |
He dug a well, and when it was complete, | 44:16 | |
other tribesmen moved in and said this is our well, | 44:19 | |
and he said okay, and he dug another one. | 44:21 | |
Other tribesmen moved in and said this is our well, | 44:24 | |
he said fine, have it, and dug a third one. | 44:26 | |
Nobody move in there, so he called it Rehoboth, room. | 44:29 | |
Good word, room. | 44:33 | |
Expand, you see. | 44:34 | |
Quiet, dominated by everybody, | 44:36 | |
his father over shadowed him, | 44:38 | |
his wife henpecked him, and his younger son cheated him, | 44:40 | |
and it never upset him at all. | 44:43 | |
He had the mildest manners, and the gentlest heart. | 44:47 | |
Well religiously you can guess he was conservative. | 44:50 | |
He did nothing exciting for God. | 44:55 | |
He was content to worship his father's God. | 44:59 | |
If you were good enough for Abraham, | 45:01 | |
you certainly were good enough for Isaac. | 45:03 | |
After all, he'd been brought up that way. | 45:05 | |
He was obedient and passive, | 45:07 | |
stay at home, a gentle soul, | 45:10 | |
a religious conservative. | 45:12 | |
"I am the God of Isaac." | 45:14 | |
Jacob, son of Isaac, | 45:18 | |
very different person from his father. | 45:22 | |
He was what the egg department call an entrepreneur, | 45:27 | |
which is a polite fringe word for a businessman. | 45:32 | |
Jacob is the horse trader of the Bible, | 45:38 | |
the David harem of the Old Testament. | 45:43 | |
He even tried to get God into a partnership | 45:48 | |
by offering God 10% of the gross receipts | 45:51 | |
if God did all the work. | 45:55 | |
Now that's good going, if you can make it. | 45:57 | |
I'm always surprised that that is the basis of the tithe. | 46:01 | |
You'd think you'd find a better one than that somehow. | 46:04 | |
"If you will bring me to my uncle's house, | 46:08 | |
"make me successful, and bring me back to my father's house, | 46:13 | |
"then Thou shalt be my God, | 46:17 | |
"and I shalt give you one tithe of all that I get." | 46:18 | |
Boy, I would too. | 46:22 | |
(audience laughs) | 46:24 | |
Scheming, ambitious, self seeking, | 46:28 | |
yet steady, consistent, he got what he wanted. | 46:31 | |
He was a rascal. | 46:37 | |
This is a different point from businessman. | 46:39 | |
He was a businessman, and also a rascal. | 46:41 | |
He cheated his father, | 46:47 | |
he defrauded his brother, he tricked his uncle, | 46:49 | |
and got 90% out of a transaction with God. | 46:54 | |
His motto was if the world will be gulled, | 46:59 | |
let it be gulled, and I'll help, | 47:03 | |
but if I had to meet Jacob, | 47:07 | |
I would leave my pocketbook and my watch at home. | 47:11 | |
If I didn't, I wouldn't have them when I returned home. | 47:16 | |
I don't know how he would get them, | 47:21 | |
but he'd get them. | 47:24 | |
That is a tribute from a Scot to a Jew. | 47:27 | |
(audience laughs) | 47:31 | |
He was man of religious sensitivity. | 47:37 | |
Two of the most beautiful visions | 47:44 | |
of the contact of heaven and earth | 47:47 | |
are told of Jacob. | 47:52 | |
Jacob's ladder? | 47:54 | |
I think better Jacob's staircase. | 47:55 | |
I never understood the ladder, | 47:58 | |
how you could ascend and descend on the one ladder. | 47:59 | |
Of course, unless they use their wings | 48:03 | |
to get around each other. | 48:04 | |
It's quite a picture, if you want to draw it. | 48:06 | |
A staircase is better. | 48:07 | |
Bethel, the house of God, | 48:10 | |
and a tremendous one of wrestling | 48:11 | |
with the demon of the ford, | 48:13 | |
and wrestling so successfully the demon said let me go, | 48:16 | |
and Jacob said no. | 48:20 | |
I will not let you go unless you bless me, | 48:22 | |
and the demon said all right, | 48:25 | |
if I bless you, I lame you, | 48:26 | |
and Jacob said all right, lame me, but bless me, | 48:27 | |
and the demon changed his name from Jacob to Israel, | 48:31 | |
and lamed him so that Jacob walked hobble | 48:35 | |
the rest of his life. | 48:38 | |
A businessman, a rascal, | 48:40 | |
and a man of religious sensitivity. | 48:42 | |
"I am the God of Jacob." | 48:44 | |
Three very different men, a pioneer, | 48:46 | |
a pacifist, and a businessman. | 48:50 | |
If you were to paint them, what colors would you use? | 48:54 | |
Abraham, well I used to say red, | 48:57 | |
but it's a bad color now, so let's say crimson. | 48:59 | |
Not Harvard crimson, just crimson crimson. | 49:04 | |
Isaac, oh that's easy, neutral gray. | 49:08 | |
Neutral gray so that when you get far | 49:13 | |
enough away from him, he disappears. | 49:14 | |
He just fades into them. | 49:15 | |
Jacob, black and white, alternately. | 49:18 | |
(audience laughs) | 49:22 | |
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, | 49:25 | |
three different kinds of people, | 49:27 | |
but not the important thing. | 49:29 | |
That isn't the important thing, | 49:30 | |
what is important is the same God. | 49:31 | |
The same God. | 49:34 | |
They were all religious, Abraham devoutly so, | 49:38 | |
Isaac conventionally so, | 49:41 | |
Jacob sensitively so on occasion, | 49:44 | |
but all worshiping the same God. | 49:49 | |
I who am the God of Abraham the adventurer, | 49:52 | |
am also the God of Isaac the gentle man, | 49:56 | |
and believe it or not, of Jacob, | 50:02 | |
that lovable old rascal. | 50:06 | |
Do you grasp now why that text kept haunting me | 50:09 | |
as I sat in the Duke Chapel for nine Sundays that summer? | 50:14 | |
Abraham, there he was in front of me, | 50:21 | |
Isaac, sure off to one side, | 50:27 | |
Jacob, all over the chapel, all over it. | 50:32 | |
I wasn't really thinking | 50:38 | |
of three prehistoric figures embalmed | 50:39 | |
in the early pages of Genesis. | 50:43 | |
I was thinking of the types of men, | 50:46 | |
yes, and the women, | 50:48 | |
worshiping around me in Durham, North Carolina. | 50:49 | |
The 20th century Abraham male and female, | 50:53 | |
20th century Isaac male and female, | 50:56 | |
and 20th century Jacob male and female. | 50:59 | |
I was thinking of you, and me, | 51:02 | |
and your brother, and his wife, | 51:06 | |
and the cousins, and the uncles, and the aunts, | 51:09 | |
all worshiping the one God. | 51:12 | |
He is still the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. | 51:14 | |
There will always be a need for Abrahams in the world, | 51:20 | |
spiritual pioneers, men and women | 51:24 | |
who will run interference for God, | 51:28 | |
who build roads between heaven and earth, | 51:31 | |
who challenge legislatures in the name of God, | 51:34 | |
who interpret spiritual truths for men's welfares. | 51:37 | |
Oh, you can name them Paul, | 51:42 | |
and Luther, and Wesley, and Temple, | 51:44 | |
and George McCloud of Scotland | 51:48 | |
who preached here two years, | 51:52 | |
but let me tell you something interesting about him, | 51:53 | |
he ought to be the moderator of the general assembly, | 51:56 | |
he's so great, but I talked to one of the leaders | 51:59 | |
of the church last year, and I said, | 52:02 | |
"he'll never get it, never. | 52:04 | |
"His brethren hate him too much," | 52:07 | |
and this month, he is the moderator. | 52:10 | |
You know why? | 52:13 | |
The Queen made him one of her chapelins, | 52:15 | |
so the Church gave in. | 52:17 | |
Something to be said for Erastianism, now and again. | 52:20 | |
Now and again, and yet all the Abraham's are not clergy. | 52:23 | |
They're the laymen around us who, | 52:29 | |
when religion is stale, reform it. | 52:30 | |
When it's dull, revive it. | 52:33 | |
When it's torn, they unite it. | 52:36 | |
Men and women who carry their religious principles | 52:39 | |
into their homes, into businesses, | 52:43 | |
into schools, into colleges. | 52:45 | |
They don't long for a fight, | 52:47 | |
they don't want to particularly, | 52:50 | |
but oh when they do fight, | 52:51 | |
how they fight for a city which hath Godlike foundations, | 52:53 | |
and then there are Isaacs in our midst, | 53:00 | |
and there always will be. | 53:01 | |
Good followers, the men and women in the ranks. | 53:02 | |
They're not very distinguished, | 53:05 | |
but boy, they are the ranks, | 53:07 | |
and we couldn't get on without them. | 53:10 | |
They used to sing in the Duke choir, | 53:13 | |
I wouldn't say it now, they used to sing in the Duke choir, | 53:14 | |
if the person next to them had a really good voice | 53:17 | |
and could carry them. | 53:19 | |
I wouldn't risk that now though, Isaac, or Miss Isaac. | 53:22 | |
Not anymore. | 53:25 | |
They're ushers, they're stewards, | 53:27 | |
they carry chairs, they wait on table, | 53:30 | |
they're never in the limelight, | 53:34 | |
but oh my, they work behind the scenes. | 53:36 | |
Dependable, quiet, gentle, | 53:39 | |
and religiously usually high bound by tradition. | 53:42 | |
They never receive justice. | 53:47 | |
Abraham needs them. | 53:51 | |
You know why Abraham needs them? | 53:53 | |
To consolidate the gains that Abraham makes. | 53:56 | |
Abraham's so busy away making more gains, | 54:01 | |
that somebody's got to come in, | 54:03 | |
and fill in there, and that's where Isaac comes. | 54:05 | |
Still the God of Isaac. | 54:09 | |
Jacob, oh yes, brethren, you know him. | 54:11 | |
Jack Coombs knew he was a Jacob, sure he did. | 54:14 | |
We all are, if we're honest, except the Isaacs. | 54:18 | |
We're spiritual mixtures, calculating and generous, | 54:23 | |
rascally and religious, cheating and kind. | 54:28 | |
You know what we are? | 54:32 | |
God's beloved scamps, most of us. | 54:33 | |
That's why the prayer of confession | 54:37 | |
is so important at every service, | 54:39 | |
and the church has always made use of them. | 54:42 | |
Think Augustine, | 54:44 | |
father of an illegitimate child, and a saint. | 54:45 | |
Now he wasn't the one because he was the other, | 54:48 | |
but he was both, both. | 54:51 | |
Take Newton. | 54:56 | |
Newton left England. | 54:58 | |
Do you know why he left England? | 55:00 | |
He left because there wasn't enough room in England | 55:01 | |
for him to sin as much as he wanted to sin. | 55:05 | |
He needed room to sin, so off he went to Africa, | 55:10 | |
became an officer on a slave ship, | 55:14 | |
became a slave in this country, | 55:17 | |
became the personal servant of a Negro female slave, | 55:20 | |
and then he was converted, | 55:25 | |
that means turned around, direction was changed. | 55:27 | |
Do you know what happened? | 55:31 | |
He became the second founder of the Church of England. | 55:33 | |
We sang one of his hymns this morning, | 55:39 | |
Glorious Things of Thee are Spoken, | 55:41 | |
Zion, City of Our God, | 55:44 | |
but he's better known for another one, | 55:47 | |
How Sweet the Name of Jesus Sounds | 55:50 | |
in a Believer's Ear. | 55:54 | |
How God has used the Jacobs. | 55:56 | |
Do you know why he uses them? | 56:00 | |
Because God needs heads as well as hearts. | 56:01 | |
Oh Dwight Moody used to complain that more | 56:08 | |
than half his converts weren't saved above their collars, | 56:10 | |
that when they put off the old man, | 56:16 | |
they don't put on the new man, | 56:17 | |
they put on the old woman. | 56:19 | |
God needs Jacob, on one condition, | 56:22 | |
that Jacob will take this brilliance, | 56:26 | |
this shrewd ability, and offer it to Him, | 56:29 | |
and use it in the implementation of love. | 56:33 | |
You notice that interesting passage | 56:37 | |
that was read from the New Testament? | 56:39 | |
"You will weep and gnash your teeth | 56:41 | |
"when you see Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob | 56:43 | |
"in the kingdom of God, and you out," | 56:47 | |
and then to make it worse, he says, | 56:52 | |
"and many shall come from the eat and the west, | 56:53 | |
"and the north and the south, | 56:55 | |
"and sit down in the kingdom | 56:56 | |
"with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob." | 56:59 | |
You see, brethren, to be am Abraham, | 57:01 | |
Isaac, and Jacob isn't a matter of physical descent. | 57:04 | |
It isn't pedigree, it's act, | 57:07 | |
point of view, possession of a quality of spirit | 57:12 | |
that's a continuing thing, world without end. | 57:18 | |
What does all this say to us? | 57:22 | |
It's really very simple. | 57:23 | |
It says, brethren, find out what you are, | 57:25 | |
and stick to it. | 57:29 | |
Are you Abraham, and God wants you up front for Him, | 57:32 | |
be you male or female, are you Isaac, | 57:38 | |
reserved, peaceful, conservative? | 57:42 | |
God wants you to consolidate these gains that Abraham makes. | 57:44 | |
Are you Jacob? | 57:50 | |
Shrewd, resourceful, | 57:52 | |
and yet with a sensitivity to spiritual things? | 57:57 | |
God wants you. | 58:01 | |
He can use your head, | 58:03 | |
but he'll first put your head under the direction of love. | 58:07 | |
Find which you are, and let him grow in you. | 58:11 | |
Be honest with yourself, and then having found out, | 58:16 | |
appreciate and cooperate with the others. | 58:20 | |
They supplement you, they complement you. | 58:24 | |
Religion is not a song sung in unison, not at its best. | 58:26 | |
It's a song sung in harmony, | 58:33 | |
which is more difficult, but is richer. | 58:36 | |
The harmony of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, | 58:40 | |
under the baton of God. | 58:45 | |
The same God. | 58:49 | |
The God of all three. | 58:52 | |
The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, | 58:53 | |
and thank God, | 58:57 | |
even the God of Jacob. | 59:00 | |
Let us pray. | 59:06 | |
Oh Thou who were the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, | 59:14 | |
we bless Thy holy name in great thankfulness | 59:20 | |
that Thou art still the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, | 59:25 | |
and may the blessing of the Lord come upon you abundantly. | 59:33 | |
May it keep you strong and tranquil | 59:38 | |
in the truth of His promises through Jesus Christ our Lord. | 59:42 | |
(choir singing) | 59:56 |