Colin W. Williams - "The Lion, The Eagle, and The Vine" (June 19, 1955)
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| - | (Preacher) Justice. | 0:03 |
| (woman sings softly) | 0:05 | |
| (singing grows louder) | 0:13 | |
| (man singing) | 0:53 | |
| (organ music swells) | 1:01 | |
| (chorus singing) | 1:08 | |
| (woman soloist singing) | 1:48 | |
| (chorus crescendos) | 2:17 | |
| (singing fades out) | 4:00 | |
| (organ music) | 4:07 | |
| (chorus singing) | 4:33 | |
| Preacher | Almighty and eternal God, | 5:17 |
| Thou giver of all good, | 5:21 | |
| Accept these our gift | 5:25 | |
| as the earnest of our consecration unto thee | 5:28 | |
| and grant that our gratitude to thee | 5:34 | |
| may always be as great | 5:38 | |
| as our need of thy mercy | 5:41 | |
| through Jesus Christ our Lord. | 5:44 | |
| Amen. | 5:48 | |
| (organ plays softly) | 5:56 | |
| Preacher | In the ancient world, | 6:21 |
| as in the world today, | 6:23 | |
| nations chose their emblems, | 6:25 | |
| symbols expressing the belief of the nation | 6:28 | |
| as to its own nature and destiny. | 6:31 | |
| The Romans took as their emblem the eagle, | 6:34 | |
| the proud lord of the air, | 6:38 | |
| so expressing their belief that they were destined to be | 6:41 | |
| the lord of the nations. | 6:44 | |
| In our modern world, | 6:47 | |
| we have attempted to match this proud vision of ourselves. | 6:48 | |
| Britain took her as her emblem the lion, | 6:53 | |
| the proud lord of the forest, | 6:56 | |
| so expressing her confidence that she was destined | 6:59 | |
| to rule a far flung empire, | 7:02 | |
| and your country has taken over the Roman emblem, | 7:05 | |
| the eagle. | 7:09 | |
| The nation of Israel had no official emblem, | 7:12 | |
| but one of the favorite symbols used by | 7:16 | |
| prophet and psalmist alike | 7:19 | |
| to describe the nation was the vine. | 7:20 | |
| And so when the psalmist, | 7:25 | |
| which wished to describe God's great act | 7:26 | |
| in bringing the nation out of slavery in Egypt | 7:29 | |
| and giving to it the promised land of Canaan, | 7:32 | |
| he wrote these words. | 7:35 | |
| Thou didst bring a vine out of Egypt | 7:38 | |
| Thou didst drive out the nations and didst plant it. | 7:41 | |
| This symbol of the vine is as you can see | 7:47 | |
| a very different type of emblem from that of our nations. | 7:49 | |
| The eagle and the lion | 7:54 | |
| express our attitude of proud independence | 7:56 | |
| and a confidence that our nations have a natural genius, | 8:00 | |
| which fits them for a destiny of leadership. | 8:04 | |
| But the vine is the symbol of human dependence. | 8:08 | |
| Israel could attain her destiny | 8:13 | |
| only if she recognized that she was planted in the soil | 8:16 | |
| of the divine law | 8:19 | |
| and that she grew only when she received | 8:22 | |
| the rain of divine favor. | 8:25 | |
| She was the vine and her place in the family of the nations | 8:28 | |
| was due not to natural ability at all | 8:33 | |
| and not to an innate destiny, but to a divine gift, | 8:35 | |
| which could be taken away unless used | 8:40 | |
| according to God's plan. | 8:42 | |
| And so the story of the Old Testament | 8:45 | |
| is the story of how the vine failed to produce fruit, | 8:47 | |
| of how the nation lost its destiny. | 8:52 | |
| Through the prophet Jeremiah, | 8:55 | |
| God says to Israel, | 8:58 | |
| I planted a noble vine, a healthy seed. | 8:59 | |
| Why then have you turned into a degenerate plant, | 9:04 | |
| a strange vine that I do not know. | 9:08 | |
| But though the prophets warned Israel | 9:12 | |
| that she was losing her destiny, | 9:14 | |
| in the popular mind, of course, this was ridiculed. | 9:16 | |
| How could the nation lose its destiny? | 9:21 | |
| How could a nation planted by God | 9:24 | |
| fail to be the nation of God? | 9:27 | |
| And so they began to feel that by nature, | 9:29 | |
| they were great and that their destiny was assured. | 9:32 | |
| And not long before the time of Jesus, | 9:35 | |
| the coin of the realm bore on its face | 9:38 | |
| the figure of the vine. | 9:40 | |
| In the popular mind, | 9:43 | |
| the nation still was thought of as fulfilling its destiny | 9:44 | |
| and bound for future greatness. | 9:49 | |
| It is against this background that we must understand | 9:53 | |
| the words of Jesus. | 9:57 | |
| I am the vine. | 9:59 | |
| You are the branches. | 10:02 | |
| Without me, you can do nothing. | 10:05 | |
| For with these words, Christ declared that of itself, | 10:09 | |
| the nation is nothing. | 10:13 | |
| With these words, | 10:16 | |
| he declared the true constitution of Israel. | 10:17 | |
| It is a constitution rooted, not in a Magna Carta, | 10:22 | |
| a document declaring our natural freedom. | 10:26 | |
| The freedom of this new Israel | 10:31 | |
| flows only from complete submission to Christ, | 10:33 | |
| who is himself, the vine. | 10:36 | |
| If you abide in me and my words abide in you, | 10:39 | |
| ye shall ask what ye will and it will be done unto you. | 10:44 | |
| It is a constitution based not on | 10:50 | |
| a declaration of independence. | 10:52 | |
| For this new Israel is completely dependent | 10:54 | |
| upon Christ. | 10:57 | |
| Without me, you can do nothing. | 10:59 | |
| I am the vine. | 11:04 | |
| You are the branches. | 11:06 | |
| Without me, you can do nothing. | 11:09 | |
| It is here, is it not, | 11:13 | |
| that our main resistance to the Christian faith arises. | 11:14 | |
| This blank accusation that apart from faith in Christ, | 11:18 | |
| our lives are fruitless, | 11:22 | |
| that unless we surrender completely to him, | 11:25 | |
| we are unprofitable servants. | 11:28 | |
| We're prepared to admit that we have our failings, | 11:32 | |
| but surely it's obvious that we have considerable | 11:36 | |
| human innate ability. | 11:38 | |
| Surely it's obvious that we do have some moral strength | 11:41 | |
| and to insist that we must all, like Joseph, | 11:45 | |
| be cast down into the pit before we can be lifted up, | 11:49 | |
| to insist that we must surrender completely | 11:53 | |
| and be reborn before we can bear real fruit, | 11:55 | |
| this seems to us an unnecessary attack | 12:00 | |
| upon our human dignity. | 12:03 | |
| Surely the Christian faith would be much more realistic. | 12:05 | |
| If it said to us, you have abilities and gifts. | 12:10 | |
| You have natural dignity, but you are like a rough diamond. | 12:14 | |
| You need to be cut and polished | 12:19 | |
| so that the poorer parts will be removed | 12:21 | |
| and the natural goodness will shine. | 12:24 | |
| But Christ refuses to be cast | 12:28 | |
| into the role of a diamond cutter. | 12:31 | |
| He insists upon being accepted as a savior. | 12:35 | |
| Apart from me, he says, you can do nothing. | 12:40 | |
| It is true that this saying by Christ | 12:46 | |
| cuts right across our normal estimate of ourselves, | 12:48 | |
| an estimate expressed in these symbols | 12:52 | |
| which we have chosen for our nations, | 12:55 | |
| the symbols of the lion and the eagle. | 12:57 | |
| But is it true that Christ is wrong? | 13:01 | |
| Is it true that our national destinies | 13:05 | |
| are those of the eagle and the lion? | 13:07 | |
| Is it true that we do have innate qualities | 13:10 | |
| which guarantee for us these proud destinies? | 13:13 | |
| Or is it true that our destiny will only be realized | 13:17 | |
| when we learn that Christ is the vine, | 13:22 | |
| and that it is only by dependence upon him | 13:26 | |
| that we can bring forth fruit and abide? | 13:29 | |
| Perhaps we are beginning to learn | 13:33 | |
| that there has been something wrong | 13:35 | |
| with our estimate of ourselves. | 13:37 | |
| In a way, Britain became what she believed herself to be. | 13:40 | |
| Like the lion of the forest, | 13:46 | |
| Britain lorded it over many nations. | 13:48 | |
| But the tragedy was that the lion could never lie down | 13:52 | |
| with the lamb. | 13:56 | |
| And Britain could never accept the equal place | 13:59 | |
| of her far-flung dependencies. | 14:02 | |
| And so by a natural reflex action, | 14:05 | |
| the dependencies, first here in the United States, | 14:08 | |
| and to now in Asia and Africa, | 14:12 | |
| these dependencies have turned upon their conqueror | 14:15 | |
| and have almost succeeded in turning the lion into a lamb. | 14:19 | |
| And so to you in America have almost realized the vision | 14:25 | |
| of your national symbol, | 14:31 | |
| the eagle, a proud lord of the air. | 14:33 | |
| But the fruits of these visions are always contrary visions. | 14:39 | |
| The British lion believing in its destiny to dominate, | 14:46 | |
| always finds itself, set against, say, a French lily, | 14:49 | |
| which believed that by its surpassing purity, | 14:55 | |
| it had the natural right to rule. | 14:57 | |
| An American eagle, assuming its natural right to dominate, | 15:02 | |
| always finds itself set against, say, a Russian bear, | 15:07 | |
| certain that its natural destiny is to clear | 15:12 | |
| the world's forests of these eagle usurpers. | 15:15 | |
| And now we are beginning to glimpse the truth. | 15:20 | |
| Well, the truth is that none of us | 15:24 | |
| has the natural right to rule. | 15:26 | |
| All of us are meant to belong to the vine. | 15:29 | |
| All of us are meant to live under | 15:33 | |
| the common rulership of God. | 15:35 | |
| And so long as the separate nations, | 15:38 | |
| we are all concerned about our own destiny | 15:41 | |
| and all are concerned at all costs to pursue it | 15:44 | |
| so long as we aspire to be lions and eagles, | 15:48 | |
| then by the natural law of the jungle, | 15:53 | |
| we shall continue to destroy each other. | 15:56 | |
| I am the vine. | 16:01 | |
| You are the branches. | 16:04 | |
| These words of Christ apply to nations | 16:07 | |
| as well as persons. | 16:10 | |
| But of course it does apply on the personal level | 16:13 | |
| and it is here that we resist it. | 16:17 | |
| It is here that the pride is born, | 16:20 | |
| which grows into national pride. | 16:22 | |
| Seneca, the great stoic philosopher | 16:26 | |
| built his thought around the belief | 16:29 | |
| that there is within each one of us, | 16:31 | |
| the spark of the divine, | 16:33 | |
| a native ability to follow the gleam, | 16:36 | |
| an innate power to fulfill our visions. | 16:39 | |
| And that is the fond thought that | 16:43 | |
| we all have of ourselves. | 16:45 | |
| It is that which leads us to resist | 16:47 | |
| these words of our Lord. | 16:49 | |
| Apart from me, you can do nothing. | 16:51 | |
| But in one of his letters, Seneca expressed another truth, | 16:56 | |
| a truth known to every one of us. | 17:01 | |
| I have been trying to crawl out of the pit | 17:05 | |
| of my own moral weakness, said Seneca, | 17:08 | |
| and I never can, | 17:13 | |
| and I never will | 17:15 | |
| unless a hand is let down to draw me up. | 17:17 | |
| That was Seneca's deeper insight. | 17:22 | |
| And when Christ says to us, | 17:25 | |
| apart from me, you can do nothing. | 17:27 | |
| When he says to us, you must be born again. | 17:30 | |
| He is not trying to force us down into the pit. | 17:35 | |
| Christ rather is seeking to bring us to the awareness | 17:39 | |
| that already we are in the pit. | 17:42 | |
| I have been trying to crawl out of the pit | 17:46 | |
| of my own moral weakness. | 17:48 | |
| And I never can and never will | 17:51 | |
| unless a hand is let down to draw me up. | 17:54 | |
| Christ is that hand. | 18:00 | |
| There's an old Australian saying | 18:04 | |
| and I'm sure it must also be an American one. | 18:05 | |
| The saying is, it's not what you know, | 18:09 | |
| it's who you know that counts. | 18:10 | |
| Now on its obvious level, this saying is an indication | 18:14 | |
| of the corruption of our national life, | 18:18 | |
| but on a deeper level, | 18:22 | |
| this saying points to an all-important human need. | 18:24 | |
| It's not what you know. | 18:28 | |
| Never have we been in possession of so much knowledge, | 18:32 | |
| and never have we been closer to hell. | 18:37 | |
| It's not what you know, it's who you know that counts. | 18:41 | |
| We all need the help of a personal, a personal God, | 18:46 | |
| one who will give us the wisdom to use our knowledge | 18:50 | |
| and one above all who will give us the grace | 18:55 | |
| to overcome our moral weakness. | 18:59 | |
| It's not what you know, it's who you know, | 19:02 | |
| and Christ is the only person | 19:06 | |
| who is able to meet our needs. | 19:09 | |
| I am the vine, said our Lord. | 19:12 | |
| And you are the branches. | 19:16 | |
| One last thought, | 19:20 | |
| the emblems of the lion and the eagle | 19:23 | |
| express destinies in conflict with other destinies. | 19:27 | |
| Lion set against eagle, | 19:32 | |
| eagle set against bear, | 19:36 | |
| nations locked against each other in deadly combat, | 19:38 | |
| and still on the national level, | 19:42 | |
| that is the picture of our world. | 19:45 | |
| And on that level, we can see little hope. | 19:47 | |
| But these words of Christ are on this United Nations day, | 19:52 | |
| words of promise. | 19:57 | |
| In the Old Testament, | 20:00 | |
| Israel was the vine, | 20:02 | |
| a nation called by God to be dependent upon him | 20:04 | |
| and to be God's agent in spreading his reign | 20:08 | |
| throughout the earth, | 20:11 | |
| but Israel as a nation was unable to remain | 20:13 | |
| dependent upon God. | 20:17 | |
| Human pride, when it is multiplied | 20:20 | |
| and becomes national pride, | 20:23 | |
| makes it impossible for any nation | 20:25 | |
| to continue in dependence upon God, | 20:27 | |
| impossible for any nation to confess | 20:31 | |
| that it is not naturally destined for true greatness. | 20:35 | |
| Yes, Israel failed to be the vine. | 20:39 | |
| And yet these words of Christ are words of great promise. | 20:44 | |
| I am the vine, said Christ. | 20:51 | |
| And to it, he added, | 20:53 | |
| you are the branches. | 20:55 | |
| And what the nation of Israel failed to be | 20:58 | |
| that the church is. | 21:01 | |
| The church, which has now spread out its branches | 21:05 | |
| across the walls of division and conflict. | 21:08 | |
| The church, which is now spread into | 21:11 | |
| all four corners of the earth. | 21:13 | |
| And yet here we face a terrible temptation, | 21:17 | |
| for the church too can be disloyal to her constitution. | 21:22 | |
| And there is a danger today | 21:28 | |
| that the church is being turned into an eagle substitute. | 21:31 | |
| There is a danger that many are turning to the church, | 21:36 | |
| not as those who see the falsity of our proud pretenses, | 21:41 | |
| not as those who are seeking to be | 21:46 | |
| humbly dependent upon Christ, the vine. | 21:48 | |
| There is a danger that many are turning to the church | 21:53 | |
| to seek in her the way to make the nations strong. | 21:56 | |
| There is a danger that many are turning to the church | 22:01 | |
| as a way to make us strong enough | 22:05 | |
| to resist the ravages of the bear. | 22:07 | |
| But we have not so learned Christ. | 22:11 | |
| It is not our place to rule apart. | 22:17 | |
| It is not our place to rule the air. | 22:20 | |
| I am the vine, said Christ. | 22:25 | |
| You are the branches. | 22:28 | |
| Without me, you can do nothing. | 22:31 | |
| But now there is no need for us | 22:35 | |
| to aspire to the role of lions. | 22:39 | |
| There is no need for us to rely upon the power of the eagle. | 22:42 | |
| I am the vine, said Christ. | 22:47 | |
| And he that abideth in me, and I in him, | 22:50 | |
| the same bringeth forth much fruit. | 22:54 | |
| And these words of Christ call us now to a higher loyalty. | 22:58 | |
| They call us to forsake our loyalty | 23:04 | |
| to the power of the eagle or to the strength of the lion | 23:07 | |
| and instead to trust in the humble power | 23:10 | |
| of the spirit of Christ. | 23:14 | |
| I am the vine. | 23:18 | |
| You are the branches. | 23:21 | |
| And the church which is now the vine of Christ | 23:24 | |
| is spreading out across the earth. | 23:27 | |
| And these words offer us call of loyalty. | 23:30 | |
| Today is the United Nations day. | 23:34 | |
| And we see in this text, the way of our Christian loyalty, | 23:37 | |
| that the world may be one in the church that is one | 23:41 | |
| in dependence upon Christ. | 23:47 | |
| I am the vine. | 23:51 | |
| You are the branches. | 23:53 | |
| He that abideth in me and I in him, | 23:55 | |
| the same bringeth forth much fruit. | 23:59 | |
| Herein is my father glorified | 24:03 | |
| that ye bear much fruit. | 24:08 | |
| So shall ye be my disciples. | 24:11 | |
| Let us pray. | 24:16 | |
| Oh thou, Christ, who art the vine in whom alone we can live, | 24:28 | |
| help us to submit our lives to thee, | 24:36 | |
| that they may bear fruit for thee. | 24:41 | |
| And help us to see our true loyalty | 24:45 | |
| as the loyalty to thy church. | 24:48 | |
| For thy branches, oh Christ, | 24:51 | |
| are spread out across our divisions | 24:54 | |
| and now are planted in all four corners of the earth. | 24:57 | |
| Help us, oh Christ, to trust thee, to depend upon thee, | 25:01 | |
| and to grow in thee, that we may bear fruit. | 25:08 | |
| And that our fruit may be for the healing of the nations, | 25:14 | |
| for we ask it in thy name. | 25:19 | |
| And the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, | 25:22 | |
| the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit | 25:26 | |
| be with us all. | 25:30 | |
| Preacher | Run fast to the drugstore event, | 25:36 |
| now dash away, dash away, | 25:39 | |
| buy all that you want. | 25:40 | |
| Well, that's enough to give you the flavor. | 25:41 | |
| (laughter) | 25:44 | |
| It's symbolized in the department store display in New York, | 25:49 | |
| of a Christmas wreath | 25:55 | |
| advertising a bottle of perfume labeled "my sin." | 25:57 | |
| This was to be a gift | 26:06 | |
| on the birthday of him | 26:10 | |
| who according to Matthew, was called Jesus. | 26:13 | |
| For he will save his people from their sin. | 26:19 | |
| Now that's a commercial blender of the first water. | 26:26 | |
| Even enlightened self-interest should prevent | 26:32 | |
| such an advertising faux pas. | 26:36 | |
| Christmas has been naturalized in the world | 26:40 | |
| and yet if that were the kind of Yuletide we wanted, | 26:44 | |
| we wouldn't be here today. | 26:48 | |
| So let's try again. | 26:50 | |
| What does the Massacre of the Innocents | 26:52 | |
| mean for us at this Christmas? | 26:53 | |
| It means something if we acknowledge | 26:57 | |
| the cultural place of Christianity in our society. | 26:59 | |
| We know Herod was wrong, | 27:03 | |
| ethically wrong, religiously wrong. | 27:05 | |
| Because why? | 27:08 | |
| No country is ultimately happy under a government | 27:10 | |
| which forgets it is responsible to and for the government. | 27:15 | |
| More than that, | 27:21 | |
| no country is ultimately happy | 27:23 | |
| where the government is unaware of a higher government. | 27:28 | |
| Therefore, we are glad that there's a huge Christmas tree | 27:34 | |
| in Rockefeller Center | 27:38 | |
| and in all cities and towns and villages. | 27:40 | |
| And more than that, | 27:43 | |
| that carols will be sung around these trees. | 27:44 | |
| We're glad there be generous parties for the underprivileged | 27:50 | |
| at Duke and at Harvard and at Smith. | 27:55 | |
| We are glad that we may hear Dickens' Christmas Carol | 28:00 | |
| over the air, | 28:03 | |
| and we're not ashamed of tears in the eyes | 28:05 | |
| and a lump in the throat. | 28:08 | |
| Is that all? | 28:11 | |
| No, there's another meaning to the | 28:13 | |
| Massacre of the Innocents. | 28:16 | |
| It means the truth of Christmas. | 28:19 | |
| If we remember the theological thing | 28:24 | |
| that the revelation of God | 28:29 | |
| is not good news to all people. | 28:33 | |
| God revealed himself. | 28:40 | |
| That's the nub of the Christmas story. | 28:42 | |
| The intention and the character of God | 28:45 | |
| was shown to us in the incarnation. | 28:49 | |
| And what was the response? | 28:52 | |
| The angels sang as our choir sang in Excelsis Gloria. | 28:55 | |
| The wise men fell down and worshiped. | 29:03 | |
| The shepherds praised God. | 29:06 | |
| Simeon said, mine eyes have seen thy salvation. | 29:10 | |
| And Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked | 29:17 | |
| by the wise men | 29:22 | |
| was in a furious rage and killed. | 29:24 | |
| When we really understand | 29:33 | |
| what the coming of the Christ child means, | 29:35 | |
| we cannot be indifferent to him. | 29:39 | |
| We worship or we kill. | 29:41 | |
| And if we would worship, there are three places | 29:48 | |
| where we should be able to do it | 29:51 | |
| with honesty, with simplicity, and with blessedness. | 29:53 | |
| In church. | 29:58 | |
| Go to one extra service this Christmas, | 30:00 | |
| an unusual one, at midnight or early in the morning, | 30:04 | |
| or go to a union service with Christians | 30:10 | |
| of other denominations. | 30:12 | |
| Or again, at home. | 30:15 | |
| Our Lord came into our family circle | 30:17 | |
| in a genuine Christian home. | 30:20 | |
| His breath, it will be remembered with prayers | 30:23 | |
| and with hymns and with special acts of love. | 30:25 | |
| Or in your own room. | 30:31 | |
| If your church is uninspiring | 30:34 | |
| and your family is amusedly indifferent, | 30:38 | |
| then go to your own room | 30:42 | |
| and close the door | 30:44 | |
| and pray to your father in secret. | 30:47 | |
| Don't allow ecclesiastical tediousness or family apathy | 30:52 | |
| to embitter you. | 30:56 | |
| Remember the infants in Bethlehem and heaven. | 30:58 | |
| And adore the Christ and pray for them. | 31:04 | |
| Here we are then, a group of American Christians, | 31:10 | |
| glad we're American, glad we're Christian. | 31:14 | |
| We love our Lord and we enjoy the American festival. | 31:19 | |
| The vacation period will be both Yuletide and Christmas, | 31:23 | |
| but we come of it. | 31:29 | |
| We shall be watchful and wary | 31:34 | |
| just because in our good land, there is a happy truth, | 31:40 | |
| even a friendly alliance between church and state, | 31:46 | |
| we'll remember December 26 and 28. | 31:51 | |
| We shall be Christians on the alert | 31:57 | |
| and we shall continue the prayer of hope | 32:02 | |
| that one day, | 32:07 | |
| one day, | 32:10 | |
| the kingdoms of this world | 32:13 | |
| will be the kingdom of our God | 32:17 | |
| and of his Christ. | 32:22 | |
| Amen. | 32:26 | |
| Let us pray. | 32:28 | |
| Grant, oh Lord, that the words | 32:35 | |
| we have heard with our ears, | 32:37 | |
| we may believe in our hearts and practice in our lives. | 32:40 |