James F. Peter - "Troublers of the Nations" (October 24, 1954)

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	(organ music begins)	0:05
	(choir singing)	0:15
	(choir singing continues)	1:13
	(choir singing continues)	2:06
	(choir singing continues)	2:40
	(choir singing continues)	3:02
	(choir singing continues)	4:05
	(organ music continues)	4:28
	(choir singing continues)	5:04
	(choir singing ends)	5:46
	(organ music ends)	5:46
-	Accept O' Lord these offerings thy people make under thee	5:50
	and grant that the cost of which they are dedicated	5:55
	may prosper under thy guidance	5:58
	to the glory of thy Holy Name	6:01
	through Jesus Christ Our Lord, Amen.	6:04
	In the name of the Father,	6:43
	and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.	6:44
	The text is in the first Book of Kings the 18th chapter	6:51
	and the 17th verse.	6:55
	"Is that you, you troubler of Israel?"	6:59
	"Is that you, you troubler of Israel?"	7:04
	Elijah was the troubler of Israel.	7:10
	He was the man whom his king charged	7:15
	with being a troubler of the nation,	7:17
	and the way in which he troubled his nation was simply this	7:21
	that he dared to speak his mind,	7:26
	whenever he saw that the policies and the personal behavior	7:30
	of those in authority were due to be called into question.	7:33
	The responding attitude as represented by King Ahab	7:41
	is one which Christian people	7:45
	in similar circumstances frequently meet.	7:47
	Why don't you church people	7:54
	keep out of things that don't concern you?	7:56
	One often hears this sort of question.	8:00
	If in your district, someone proposes	8:04
	to do something that affects	8:06
	the social behavior of many people.	8:09
	A lot of them don't come to church.	8:11
	If we choose to construct an immigration policy	8:15
	that rigidly excludes all Asiatics from our borders.	8:18
	If we desire to extend the facilities for gambling.	8:23
	Why do you church people want to stir up trouble?	8:27
	Why don't you stick to your job of preparing men's souls	8:31
	for heaven and leave other people to look after	8:35
	the kind of life and the kind of conditions	8:39
	that they have to live in while they're here on the earth?	8:42
	As a general opinion, opinion concerning the appointed work	8:47
	of the church in the world today, this is a common one.	8:51
	And more often than enough, church people,	8:56
	perhaps because of the commodity, but more often	9:00
	simply because they've never thought	9:03
	the thing through thoroughly,	9:05
	exceed in such an estimate	9:08
	of what is the church's task in the world.	9:10
	More often than enough, they're prepared to accept this	9:14
	as the part, which they ought to be playing	9:19
	in the world, rather than caught the unwelcome criticism	9:21
	that they are troublers of the nations.	9:26
	What I want to declare this morning,	9:31
	on this day that is set apart as United Nations Day,	9:35
	and therefore one upon which it is specially appropriate	9:40
	that we consider what should be our attitude	9:44
	towards the nations of the world today.	9:46
	Is that any attitude of silence	9:50
	or inactivity on the part of church people,	9:52
	in regard to national or international affairs	9:56
	must be unacceptable.	9:59
	In contemporary affairs, local, national, and global.	10:03
	There does exist for Christian people	10:09
	the responsibility to think, to speak, and to act.	10:11
	And they do exist on occasion,	10:16
	circumstances which are bound to result in their action	10:20
	being criticized as an unwarranted troubling of the nations.	10:23
	Now, there are several reasons why the attitude	10:31
	that I am propounding must be assumed by Christians.	10:34
	There is for one thing, the example of the past.	10:40
	If you're incline to think that to be religious	10:45
	means to withdraw yourself from the world	10:48
	and acquiesce at any situation,	10:51
	rather than become involved in it,	10:54
	and counter criticism of being a troubler of nations,	10:56
	then you should reflect for a moment	11:02
	upon the type of activity, which has characterized	11:04
	those in the individuals in the past,	11:07
	whose place in the history of religion	11:10
	we have learned to hold in highest regard.	11:13
	The foremost figure in the story here	11:18
	is one example of what I mean.	11:20
	There is no doubt	11:24
	that in the history of religion, generally,	11:25
	and in the prophetic movement, particularly,	11:28
	the place occupied by this man Elijah	11:31
	is one of tremendous significance,	11:35
	and no one can deny	11:39
	that Elijah was a troubler of the nation.	11:40
	Whatever you may be thinking about the miracles	11:46
	that are attributed to him,	11:48
	you can't escape the fact that his dominant personality	11:51
	did intrude itself into the politics of his day,	11:55
	that his influence was felt in fears different from that	12:00
	to which we commonly reserve the description religious.	12:04
	And in that respect, Elijah is by no means unique	12:10
	in goodly fellowship of the prophets.	12:13
	Amos, the herdsman and gather of sycamore fruit.	12:17
	When he dared to condemn national sin	12:23
	even when he stood in the King's own chapel.	12:26
	Isaiah the courtier,	12:31
	when he sounded the warning against the foreign policy	12:34
	upon which his nation embarking.	12:37
	Jeremiah, when he appeared in public	12:41
	with a plow yoke about his neck	12:43
	to give added emphasis to his warning	12:46
	that a yoke of Babylon would rest upon his people's neck,	12:49
	if they continued in the policies	12:53
	which the authorities were approving.	12:55
	All these were troublers of the nations,	12:58
	and the ground upon which they intruded themselves	13:02
	into national policy was none other than a religious ground,	13:05
	because they were convinced that the God whom they worshiped	13:10
	and in whose name they preached,	13:14
	and whose character they sought in their own	13:17
	circumstances to exemplify,	13:19
	was a God who demanded a concern for all people,	13:22
	was a God who demanded that if the occasion arose,	13:27
	a man should not fear to be a troubler of nation.	13:31
	On religious grounds, they proposed to intrude	13:36
	into the policy and communal life of their day,	13:40
	or you can consider as of course the Supreme example,	13:46
	which the past has given to us, the life of Jesus our Lord.	13:51
	Was he solely concerned with curing people's souls?	13:58
	Was he solely concerned	14:05
	with making Mary mortal spirit fit for heaven?	14:07
	Of course, it's true that there stands	14:13
	at the very center of Christ's teaching,	14:15
	an assertion that in the long run,	14:19
	it isn't any man's external environment	14:21
	that finally shapes him.	14:23
	And that it is possible for a man gloriously to triumph	14:26
	over the most difficult circumstances.	14:30
	And yet Jesus was a healer of men's bodies.	14:35
	He was the outspoken critic of the authorities of his day,	14:40
	who felt that observance of the minutia of the law	14:45
	and of traditional practices was more important	14:48
	than individual persons.	14:52
	And it wasn't because Jesus went through the countryside	14:55
	after in pious platitudes,	14:58
	that the civic authorities put him on a cross.	15:01
	It was because his conception of the service of God	15:05
	led him into actions that were in interpreted	15:09
	as troubling the nation.	15:13
	And this fact, so clearly pointed	15:17
	to him the example of Jesus.	15:20
	This truth that religion extends	15:23
	into all the conditions of human life	15:25
	is supported also in what he had to say in his teaching.	15:29
	Have you ever reflected that in all the parables of Jesus,	15:35
	the only specially religious figures that he drew	15:40
	from that specially religious period	15:43
	are the Pharisee praying with himself in the temple	15:46
	and the priest and the Levite,	15:52
	who passed by on the other side,	15:54
	leaving the man whom the robbers	15:58
	had left half dead on the road to Jericho.	16:00
	None of them you'll agree	16:05
	a picture drawn in a especially attractive light.	16:07
	And yet on the other hand,	16:12
	what a procession of bailiffs, and debtors,	16:14
	and farmers, and fisher folk,	16:18
	and housewives, and children,	16:21
	passes across the stage of the stories, which Jesus told.	16:24
	All of them occupied with everyday activities	16:29
	and yet as Jesus presents them,	16:33
	they're occupied with God,	16:36
	with everything hinging upon whether	16:38
	in their everyday activities	16:41
	they are rightly or wrongly occupied.	16:43
	You can add to the example of teaching given by Jesus	16:48
	the example of his own life.	16:53
	And you can add the example of all who have been greatest	16:56
	as the Bible presents religion.	17:00
	And you find that the example of the past	17:02
	is a clear pointer to the truth that it's no crime	17:05
	rather is it on occasion or positive duty	17:09
	for religious people to become troublers of nation.	17:13
	We shall see this more clearly if we reflect	17:22
	for a moment upon what is basic to our Christian faith,	17:24
	because basic to all Christian thought	17:29
	and worship and behavior	17:32
	is the truth that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.	17:35
	The truth that at a time in our history	17:41
	and at a place that you can mark in the map	17:46
	of our material world,	17:49
	in a particular person	17:51
	the Almighty God revealed Himself supremely.	17:54
	All right, as Christians, we believe that	17:59
	but do you see what it means?	18:02
	It means that everything in this world of ours,	18:06
	it's homes, and it's carpenter shops,	18:09
	and it's village streets, and it's city market places,	18:13
	And it's places of council and decision.	18:18
	All these things have been taken up by God	18:22
	and used by Him when he wanted to make known	18:25
	to men supremely what kind of a God he is.	18:28
	And since God became man and dwelt among us,	18:36
	experiencing our pleasures, feeling our wariness,	18:41
	knowing our temptations.	18:47
	There is not a single thing about any man's life	18:50
	or any nation's activity from which the church	18:54
	can stand back and say, that's worldly.	18:59
	That's not our business.	19:02
	Everything is the concern of God's people	19:05
	precisely because they are God's people	19:09
	and everything has been shown	19:12
	to be the concern of God himself.	19:14
	Not only is it silly, but I dare to use the word	19:18
	and say that it's blasphemous,	19:21
	to preach a Gospel of the Word made flesh,	19:24
	and preach it as though it were only concerned	19:28
	with strumming harps on a cloud in heaven.	19:30
	And as though it had nothing	19:33
	whatever to do with this material life of sweat	19:35
	and blood, and toil,	19:38
	in which men and women live out their earthly days.	19:40
	And to the example of the past,	19:46
	and to the basic emphasis of the Christian gospel	19:48
	you can add what is probably an adventitious argument,	19:52
	that it is always through the scene,	19:56
	that people come to know the unseen.	19:59
	And I sometimes feel	20:06
	that where there is indifference towards the church,	20:07
	it is only because people have not realized	20:11
	how deeply involved in every day activity	20:14
	the Christian gospel really is.	20:18
	And I must add that a great deal of the ignorance	20:22
	on the part of people outside the church	20:24
	is due to the inactivity of people who are inside it.	20:28
	Wilfred Grenfell was far from being an enemy of the church	20:34
	but he had this to say, and I think he said truth.	20:38
	He said, if Christianity cannot be attractively	20:45
	presented to the world by its apologist in action,	20:49
	if its preachers cannot be leaders in deeds	20:55
	as well as in words,	20:58
	if our presentation of Christianity has nothing	21:01
	to offer except its philosophy,	21:04
	if it fails to deliver the goods	21:07
	which developing reason and enriched faith in God	21:10
	teach men that being a Christian calls for,	21:13
	then mankind has a right	21:17
	to demand that some new religion come on the scene,	21:20
	which can adapt itself to our ever advancing world	21:23
	and the example of the past and the basis of our faith	21:29
	and the need of the present,	21:33
	all cry out that the church must have a concern	21:35
	with what is going on in the secular world,	21:39
	even if it does mean Christians being characterized	21:43
	as troublers of the nation.	21:47
	I imagine that it hardly needs to be pointed out	21:54
	that any thought along such lines as these	21:57
	must have some outcome in action.	22:00
	If the Christian gospel has these implications	22:06
	for the society about us, then we as individuals	22:09
	must take the trouble to inform ourselves adequately	22:15
	about the conditions of society.	22:19
	Karl Barth has remarked and remarked it in truth	22:22
	that a Christian has no more right	22:26
	to fall asleep over his newspaper,	22:28
	than he has to fall asleep over his Bible.	22:31
	And Maurice's record also remarks in truth,	22:35
	that Christians have no right to complain	22:38
	of their difficulties in fulfilling their duty	22:40
	in the political sphere,	22:43
	until they have put themselves to a good deal,	22:45
	more trouble than most of them have so far done	22:48
	to qualify themselves for performing it.	22:51
	We must, as individuals inform ourselves	22:55
	and having informed ourselves,	23:00
	we must make our viewpoint known,	23:02
	make it known in discussion, make it known in letters	23:05
	to the press, make it known in approaches to those	23:08
	who represent us in councils and parliament,	23:11
	and make it known by a prayerful use	23:15
	of that hard one privilege, which is yours	23:19
	and mine in our respective countries,	23:22
	and yet which before God, we must hold as a responsibility	23:24
	as well as a privilege,	23:28
	the unrestricted access to the secret bank.	23:31
	As individuals we must know,	23:36
	and we must make known what we know,	23:39
	and then think of that vast potential	23:45
	for influencing public opinion that rests	23:47
	in the Christian congregations planted	23:51
	here and there across the world.	23:54
	How in every city and every suburb,	23:57
	there is a group of people bound together	24:01
	by a common allegiance	24:03
	Think of these things, and then think if you will,	24:06
	how the communists would use these planted cells	24:11
	as a means for indoctrinating and converting the people.	24:16
	Could it be that the communists are more serious	24:22
	about their faith than we are about ours?	24:26
	Or again on the national plane and in the widest sphere	24:33
	of global policy and international diplomacy.	24:37
	If we would be true to the implications of our fate,	24:43
	we who are the church must see	24:47
	that those who are in authority	24:50
	are made to know what ought to be done	24:52
	in the light of the gospel declared to mankind	24:55
	in Jesus, our Lord.	24:58
	So that if wrong things are being said or done,	25:01
	no matter how highly placed the offender,	25:06
	nor how dangerous the intervention might be,	25:09
	the church should speak the words of truth	25:13
	and should act in whatever way lies	25:17
	within its power.	25:19
	Troubler of the nation,	25:23
	that was the scornful title flung at Elijah,	25:27
	and the assumption accompanying it	25:32
	was that anyone who troubled his nation,	25:34
	must be a wrongdoer.	25:38
	Troublers of the nations,	25:41
	this is the title that will be flung at you and at me,	25:44
	if we act along the lines that I have suggested,	25:48
	and yet that if we would be true to our faith	25:54
	is precisely what we must be.	26:00
	Then grant us Lord in all things thee to own,	26:06
	to dwell within the shadow of thy throne,	26:11
	to speak and work, to think and live and move,	26:14
	reflecting thy known nature which is love,	26:19
	that so by Christ redeemed from sin and shame	26:24
	and hallowed by thy Spirit Cleansing Flame.	26:29
	Ourselves, our work and all our powers	26:33
	may be a sacrifice acceptable to thee.	26:38
	And now to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit,	26:52
	three persons, and one God be ascribed by us	26:56
	and by the whole church as is due,	27:00
	the kingdom, the power, and the glory forever,	27:04
	the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God	27:09
	and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.	27:13
	(choir singing)	27:23
	(choir singing continues)	28:02
	(choir singing continues)	28:55
	(choir singing ends)	29:19

Item Info

Title:

James F. Peter - "Troublers of the Nations" (October 24, 1954)

Description:

Hearing, and then responding to God's call on our lives will require us to participate in the troubling of nations. (Abstract created by Duke Divinity School staff.)
Key quotation: they were convinced that the God who they worshiped, and in whose name they preached, and whose character they sought in their own cirucmstances to exemplify, was a God who demanded a concern for all people. It was a God who demanded that if they occasion arose, a man should not fear to be a troubler of nations.

Permalink:

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r4697401t

Date:

October 24, 1954

Speaker:

Peter, James F.

Liturgical Calendar:

Ordinary Time

Biblical Book:

1 Kings

Chapter and Verse:

1 Kings 18:17-35

Subject:

Contributor:

Duke University. Chapel

Identifier:

UA.17.01.0003 RR-0002
ref5227_qm8
uachapelsermaud
duke:628367
dcrau002058
ark:/87924/r4697401t
b4898647-7faa-49fc-a597-01fd1d274d9e

Digital Collection:

Duke Chapel Recordings

Source Collection:

Duke University Chapel recordings

Language:

English

Location:

United States
North Carolina
Durham (N.C.)

Format:

Provenance:

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

Rights:

No Re-Use

In Copyright

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