Harold Bosley - "Found by God" (December 2, 1956); James T. Cleland - Sermon Untitled (December 2, 1956; January 6, 1957)
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Transcript
Transcripts may contain inaccuracies.
- | Sunday morning, December the 9th, 1956. | 0:05 |
Preacher, the Reverend professor, James T. Cleland, | 0:10 | |
Dean of the chapel. | 0:13 | |
(choir sings) | 0:16 | |
♪ Gloria in excelsis Deo ♪ | 0:18 | |
♪ In excelsis Deo ♪ | 0:23 | |
♪ Gloria gloria gloria ♪ | 0:39 | |
♪ Gloria in excelsis Deo ♪ | 0:42 | |
(organist plays) | 1:34 | |
♪ Angels from the realms of glory ♪ | 1:50 | |
♪ Wing your flight over all the earth ♪ | 1:55 | |
♪ Ye who sang creations story ♪ | 2:00 | |
♪ Now proclaim Messiah's birth ♪ | 2:05 | |
♪ Come and worship ♪ | 2:10 | |
♪ Come and worship ♪ | 2:12 | |
♪ Worship Christ the newborn King ♪ | 2:14 | |
♪ Shepherds in the fields abiding ♪ | 2:21 | |
♪ Watching over your flocks by night ♪ | 2:26 | |
♪ God with man is now residing ♪ | 2:31 | |
♪ Under shines the infant light ♪ | 2:36 | |
♪ Come and worship ♪ | 2:41 | |
♪ Come and worship ♪ | 2:44 | |
♪ Worship Christ the newborn King ♪ | 2:47 | |
♪ Sages, leave your contemplations ♪ | 2:54 | |
♪ Brighter visions beam afar ♪ | 2:59 | |
♪ Seek the great desire of nations ♪ | 3:04 | |
♪ Ye have seen His natal star ♪ | 3:09 | |
♪ Come and worship ♪ | 3:14 | |
♪ Come and worship ♪ | 3:17 | |
♪ Worship Christ the newborn King ♪ | 3:19 | |
♪ Saints before the altar bending ♪ | 3:26 | |
♪ Watching long in hope and fear ♪ | 3:31 | |
♪ Suddenly the Lord descending ♪ | 3:36 | |
♪ In His temple shall appear ♪ | 3:41 | |
♪ Come and worship ♪ | 3:46 | |
♪ Come and worship ♪ | 3:49 | |
♪ Worship Christ the newborn King ♪ | 3:51 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 4:00 | |
- | Let us author unto God our unison prayer of confession. | 4:18 |
Let us pray. | 4:23 | |
Almighty God, our heavenly father, | 4:26 | |
who didst cause light to shine out of darkness | 4:29 | |
in the advent of our Lord Jesus Christ, | 4:33 | |
to take away the sins of the world. | 4:36 | |
We humbly confess our confessions | 4:39 | |
and implore Thou forgiveness. | 4:42 | |
We are ashamed of that within us | 4:45 | |
which make it neither for good will to others. | 4:48 | |
Nor for growth in goodness in our own lives. | 4:51 | |
We beseech Thee that the Spirit of Christ | 4:55 | |
may be born anew within us, | 4:58 | |
and that we may glorify His nativity | 5:01 | |
with hearts of compassion, deeds of kindly service, | 5:04 | |
and the spirit of goodwill toward all mankind | 5:09 | |
through Jesus Christ, our Lord. | 5:13 | |
Amen. | 5:17 | |
And now as our Savior Christ has taught us, | 5:18 | |
we all bow to pray our Father who art in heaven, | 5:21 | |
hallowed be Thy name. | 5:26 | |
Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done | 5:28 | |
on earth as it is in heaven. | 5:32 | |
Give us this day our daily bread, | 5:35 | |
and forgive us our trespasses | 5:38 | |
as we forgive those who trespass against us. | 5:40 | |
And lead us not into temptation, | 5:44 | |
but deliver us from evil. | 5:47 | |
For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory | 5:49 | |
forever and ever. | 5:54 | |
Amen. | 5:55 | |
(organist plays) | 6:02 | |
(organ gospel music) | 6:48 | |
♪ Lift up your heads ♪ | 6:53 | |
♪ Oh ye gates ♪ | 6:56 | |
♪ And be ye lift up ♪ | 6:59 | |
♪ Ye everlasting doors ♪ | 7:02 | |
♪ And the King of Glory shall come in ♪ | 7:05 | |
♪ Who is the King of Glory ♪ | 7:11 | |
♪ Oh King of Glory ♪ | 7:18 | |
♪ Who is the King of Glory ♪ | 7:21 | |
♪ Who is the King of Glory ♪ | 7:24 | |
♪ The Lord strong and mighty ♪ | 7:28 | |
♪ The Lord strong and mighty ♪ | 7:31 | |
♪ Lift up your heads ♪ | 7:38 | |
♪ Oh ye gates ♪ | 7:41 | |
♪ And be ye lift up ♪ | 7:44 | |
♪ Ye everlasting doors ♪ | 7:47 | |
♪ And the King of Glory shall come in ♪ | 7:50 | |
♪ And the King of Glory shall come in ♪ | 7:56 | |
♪ Who is the King of Glory ♪ | 8:03 | |
♪ Who is the King of Glory ♪ | 8:06 | |
♪ Who is the King of Glory ♪ | 8:09 | |
♪ The Lord of Hosts ♪ | 8:13 | |
♪ The Lord of Hosts ♪ | 8:19 | |
♪ He is the King of Glory ♪ | 8:26 | |
♪ He is the King of Glory ♪ | 8:29 | |
♪ He is the King of Glory ♪ | 8:32 | |
♪ He is the King of Glory ♪ | 8:36 | |
♪ He is the King of Glory ♪ | 8:39 | |
♪ He is the King of Glory ♪ | 8:42 | |
♪ The Lord of Hosts ♪ | 8:43 | |
♪ He is the King of Glory ♪ | 8:45 | |
♪ Oh Lord of Hosts ♪ | 9:09 | |
♪ He is the King of Glory ♪ | 9:10 | |
♪ He is the King of Glory ♪ | 9:13 | |
♪ He is the King of Glory ♪ | 9:16 | |
♪ He is the King of Glory ♪ | 9:28 | |
♪ He is the King of Glory ♪ | 9:31 | |
♪ Our Lord of Hosts ♪ | 9:36 | |
♪ Our Lord of Hosts ♪ | 9:39 | |
♪ Our Lord of Hosts ♪ | 9:42 | |
♪ Our Lord of Hosts ♪ | 9:46 | |
♪ He is the King of Glory ♪ | 9:49 | |
♪ He is the King of Glory ♪ | 9:52 | |
♪ He is the King of Glory ♪ | 10:02 | |
♪ He is the King of Glory ♪ | 10:05 | |
♪ The Lord of Hosts ♪ | 10:09 | |
♪ The Lord of Hosts ♪ | 10:12 | |
♪ The Lord of Hosts ♪ | 10:16 | |
♪ He is the King of Glory ♪ | 10:19 | |
♪ He is the King of Glory ♪ | 10:30 | |
♪ He is the King of Glory ♪ | 10:35 | |
♪ He is the King of Glory ♪ | 10:38 | |
♪ Of Glory ♪ | 10:44 | |
Let us hear the Word of God, | 11:19 | |
as it is contained in the scriptures of the New Testament, | 11:22 | |
in the Gospel according to Saint Luke. | 11:27 | |
Selected versus from the first chapter. | 11:31 | |
"And Mary arose in those days | 11:37 | |
"and went into the hill country with haste, | 11:40 | |
"into a city of Judah. | 11:44 | |
"And entered into the house of Zacharias, | 11:47 | |
"and saluted Elizabeth. | 11:51 | |
"And Mary said, my soul doth magnify the Lord, | 11:55 | |
"and my spirit hath rejoiced in God, my savior. | 12:01 | |
"For He hath regarded the low estate of His handmaiden. | 12:06 | |
"For behold, from henceforth all generations | 12:11 | |
"shall call me blessed. | 12:16 | |
"For He that is mighty | 12:20 | |
"hath done to me great things. | 12:22 | |
"And holy is His name. | 12:27 | |
"And His mercy is on them | 12:32 | |
"that fear Him from generation to generation. | 12:34 | |
"He hath showed strength with His arm. | 12:40 | |
"He hath scattered the proud in the imagination | 12:44 | |
"of their hearts. | 12:48 | |
"He hath put down the mighty from their seats, | 12:51 | |
"and exalted them of low degree. | 12:56 | |
"He hath filled the hungry with good things. | 13:02 | |
"And the rich, | 13:09 | |
"He hath sent empty away. | 13:13 | |
"He hath hope in His servant Israel | 13:19 | |
"in remembrance of His mercy. | 13:22 | |
"As He spake to our fathers, | 13:25 | |
"to Abraham and to his seed forever. | 13:27 | |
"And Mary abode with Elizabeth | 13:34 | |
"about three months and then returned | 13:37 | |
to her own house." | 13:43 | |
Amen, may God bless onto us | 13:46 | |
the reading of His holy Word. | 13:50 | |
(organist plays) | 13:58 | |
♪ Joy to the world ♪ | 14:28 | |
♪ The Lord is come ♪ | 14:31 | |
♪ Let earth receive her King ♪ | 14:34 | |
♪ Let every heart ♪ | 14:40 | |
♪ Prepare Him room ♪ | 14:43 | |
♪ And heaven and nature sing ♪ | 14:47 | |
♪ And heaven and nature sing ♪ | 14:50 | |
♪ And heaven ♪ | 14:53 | |
♪ And heaven and nature sing ♪ | 14:55 | |
♪ Joy to the earth ♪ | 15:02 | |
♪ The Savior reigns ♪ | 15:05 | |
♪ Let men their songs employ ♪ | 15:09 | |
♪ While fields and floods ♪ | 15:14 | |
♪ Rocks hills and plains ♪ | 15:18 | |
♪ Repeat the sounding joy ♪ | 15:21 | |
♪ Repeat the sounding joy ♪ | 15:24 | |
♪ Repeat repeat the sounding joy ♪ | 15:28 | |
♪ No more let sins ♪ | 15:37 | |
♪ And sorrows grow ♪ | 15:40 | |
♪ Nor thorns infest the ground ♪ | 15:43 | |
♪ He comes to make ♪ | 15:49 | |
♪ His blessings flow ♪ | 15:52 | |
♪ Far as the curse is found ♪ | 15:56 | |
♪ Far as the curse is found ♪ | 15:59 | |
♪ Far as far as ♪ | 16:03 | |
♪ The curse is found ♪ | 16:06 | |
♪ He rules the world ♪ | 16:11 | |
♪ With truth and grace ♪ | 16:14 | |
♪ And makes the nations prove ♪ | 16:18 | |
♪ The glories of ♪ | 16:23 | |
♪ His righteousness ♪ | 16:27 | |
♪ And wonders of His love ♪ | 16:31 | |
♪ And wonders of His love ♪ | 16:34 | |
♪ And wonders ♪ | 16:38 | |
♪ Wonders of His love ♪ | 16:40 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 16:47 | |
The Lord be with you and with us. | 16:55 | |
Let us pray. | 16:58 | |
All praise and thanks be unto Thee, | 17:08 | |
almighty God, merciful Father. | 17:10 | |
In all places and at all times. | 17:14 | |
Yet with the yearly remembrance of the advent | 17:17 | |
of Thy Son, our savior, | 17:20 | |
may the mystery of divine condescension | 17:23 | |
fill us with such holy awe, | 17:27 | |
such unearthly joy and peace | 17:30 | |
as may quicken our worship and open wide | 17:33 | |
our hearts unto Thee. | 17:38 | |
As the year draws near to its close, | 17:41 | |
help us, our Father, to recall Thy good Providences to us. | 17:44 | |
For all Thy gifts in days past | 17:50 | |
we praise Thee, oh Lord. | 17:53 | |
For our birth and home training, | 17:56 | |
for loving parents and other dear family ties. | 17:58 | |
For patient teachers and counselors. | 18:03 | |
For all who have profited us by their conversations, | 18:07 | |
writings, and example. | 18:11 | |
For our civil liberties and social privileges. | 18:14 | |
For the benefactions of all institutions, | 18:19 | |
especially now for this university | 18:22 | |
and for Thy church in the world. | 18:26 | |
We give Thee our thanks | 18:29 | |
for all of those means of Thy grace | 18:31 | |
whereby our disappointments and losses | 18:34 | |
have been compensated. | 18:37 | |
The joys of Thy salvation restored, | 18:39 | |
our complacencies shattered, | 18:43 | |
our moral failures overcome. | 18:46 | |
For these blessings, and for all we have received | 18:50 | |
and forgotten, willingly or against our will, | 18:54 | |
we would now be truly thankful. | 18:59 | |
Help us, our Father, to commit our lives more fully | 19:03 | |
unto Thy will. | 19:07 | |
We praise Thee that another day is added to our lives, | 19:10 | |
and that life seems to open before us | 19:15 | |
with even greater privileges and larger responsibilities. | 19:17 | |
Let our days be lived for Thy glory, | 19:23 | |
and for the good of others, | 19:27 | |
as well as for our benefit and growth. | 19:29 | |
Whether in leisure or at work, | 19:33 | |
give us grace to seek Thy presence and guidance. | 19:36 | |
Keep us sensitive to the weaknesses and corruptions | 19:41 | |
of our natures, | 19:44 | |
to the many temptations we daily meet with. | 19:46 | |
That in turning to Thee, | 19:50 | |
we may be restrained from sin and strengthened | 19:52 | |
to do the right thing from the right motives | 19:57 | |
and in the right spirit. | 20:00 | |
In the day of small things, | 20:04 | |
help us to do small things faithfully, cheerfully, | 20:06 | |
and unselfishly with such a grateful sense | 20:10 | |
of Thy never failing goodness | 20:13 | |
as may incline us to seek Thy pleasure. | 20:16 | |
If Thou should summon us to any great labor, go with us, | 20:20 | |
that we may not fail. | 20:25 | |
Defend us, we pray Thee, | 20:28 | |
from all dangers and adversities. | 20:30 | |
Or should we be called to endure them, | 20:33 | |
take us and all who are dear to us under Thy fatherly | 20:36 | |
care and protection until such experiences are passed. | 20:40 | |
These things and whatever else, | 20:46 | |
Thou shalt see to be necessary for us, | 20:49 | |
we humbly beg through the merits and mediation | 20:52 | |
of Jesus Christ. | 20:56 | |
Help us, our Father, to remember in compassion | 20:58 | |
the sufferers in every land this day. | 21:03 | |
Oh God, to whom the cry of the oppressed | 21:08 | |
has gone up in every age, | 21:11 | |
we would remember before Thee | 21:14 | |
the multitude of people who suffer, | 21:16 | |
especially today in Hungary and in the middle east. | 21:19 | |
For all prisoners of war, | 21:24 | |
sufferers for conscience sake. | 21:27 | |
Victims of race, hatred, and national strife, | 21:30 | |
innocent hostages. | 21:35 | |
For all members of families who are separated | 21:37 | |
or on beds of pain, | 21:40 | |
or mourning the loss of their loved ones. | 21:43 | |
Especially the little children and the aged. | 21:46 | |
Companion their solitude, heal their wounds, | 21:51 | |
preserve their sanity. | 21:56 | |
Give fit employment for mind and hand. | 21:59 | |
Soften the hearts of their keepers, | 22:03 | |
give strength and skill to their doctors, nurses, | 22:06 | |
and others who minister in mercy. | 22:10 | |
May the spirit of peace and goodwill at Christmas | 22:15 | |
be for these who suffer a promise | 22:19 | |
and sign of their deliverance. | 22:21 | |
And may the memory of our Lord's blessed passion | 22:24 | |
and resurrection sustain their faith and hope | 22:28 | |
in moments of weariness pain or bereavement. | 22:33 | |
Oh Thou who didst send Thy holy child | 22:38 | |
to be the savior of all peoples, | 22:42 | |
to become the conqueror of evil and death. | 22:45 | |
The Prince of Peace. | 22:48 | |
Help us and all men to learn His way, His truth. | 22:51 | |
And to believe that in the midst of all life, | 22:57 | |
Thou dost continue to work through Him | 23:01 | |
for the reconciliation of the nations. | 23:05 | |
By the power of Thy spirit, | 23:09 | |
enable us now to receive the Christ into our hearts | 23:12 | |
and our homes. | 23:16 | |
That as in His first advent, | 23:19 | |
our Savior may come again, | 23:22 | |
shedding light upon all who walk in darkness | 23:25 | |
and the shadow of death. | 23:28 | |
Bringing joy and peace to all who pay Him homage. | 23:30 | |
Even so, come Lord Jesus. | 23:36 | |
Amen. | 23:41 | |
(organist plays) | 23:47 | |
(organ gospel music) | 24:20 | |
(organ gospel music) | 25:11 | |
(choir sings) | 26:10 | |
(choir sings) | 26:35 | |
(choir sings) | 26:45 | |
(choir sings) | 27:16 | |
(organ gospel music) | 28:05 | |
(organist plays) | 28:42 | |
(upbeat organ music) | 28:54 | |
♪ Praise God from Whom all blessings flow ♪ | 29:07 | |
♪ Praise Him all creatures here below ♪ | 29:14 | |
♪ Praise Him above ye heavenly host ♪ | 29:21 | |
♪ Praise Father Son ♪ | 29:27 | |
♪ And Holy Ghost ♪ | 29:30 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 29:36 | |
Holy Father, who with every one of Thy gifts to us, | 29:45 | |
Thou dost offer Thyself, the greatest of all gifts. | 29:49 | |
Receive these our offerings as representing | 29:54 | |
the gift of our unworthy lives in the service of Christ. | 29:58 | |
Amen. | 30:03 | |
(soft organ music) | 30:09 | |
- | Let us pray. | 30:40 |
Let the words of my mouth | 30:45 | |
and the meditations of our hearts | 30:48 | |
be acceptable in Thy sight, | 30:51 | |
oh Lord our strength and our redeemer. | 30:54 | |
Amen. | 31:00 | |
There were two facts in constant juxtaposition in my mind | 31:08 | |
as this sermon was written. | 31:16 | |
The first is the world in which we live | 31:20 | |
as citizens of the United States of America | 31:24 | |
in a college community. | 31:28 | |
Political power is ours | 31:33 | |
of unimagined extent and unrealized possibility. | 31:37 | |
An embarrassing fact too often, | 31:45 | |
but nevertheless, a fact to be recognized | 31:48 | |
and taken into account. | 31:52 | |
We are people of political power. | 31:56 | |
Intellectual mastery is ours. | 32:03 | |
But almost taggers the imagination, | 32:08 | |
our heritage as a university from the scholarly succession | 32:12 | |
of learning which cross the Atlantic | 32:17 | |
from the old world to the new, | 32:21 | |
and has been reinterpreted and extended here. | 32:25 | |
It is given to us to ask great questions, | 32:30 | |
even to formulate great answers. | 32:34 | |
We are people of intellectual mastery. | 32:39 | |
And social prestige is ours. | 32:46 | |
Even in a society which is not favorable to everyone. | 32:50 | |
We are the fortunate heirs of a not altogether just system. | 32:56 | |
We expect society to appreciate our social standing. | 33:04 | |
When we say we are college men, college women, | 33:11 | |
we declare it with pride and expect the listener | 33:17 | |
to be duly impressed. | 33:22 | |
We are people of social prestige. | 33:26 | |
Political power, intellectual mastery, social prestige, | 33:30 | |
these are ours as Americans in a college community. | 33:36 | |
That was the first fact. | 33:42 | |
The second fact in juxtaposition to the first | 33:46 | |
is the advent season of the Christian year. | 33:51 | |
Advent is the period in the church year | 33:56 | |
which covers the four Sundays before Christmas day. | 33:59 | |
And is the season of expectancy | 34:05 | |
looking toward December 25th. | 34:07 | |
It marks the opening of the church year, | 34:11 | |
the first half of which seeks to understand | 34:15 | |
and to appreciate the fact that God | 34:18 | |
is speaking to man through revelation. | 34:22 | |
First half of the Christian year is the disclosure | 34:28 | |
of the character and the will of God | 34:32 | |
in the man, Christ Jesus. | 34:36 | |
Now Advent, as part of that revelation, | 34:40 | |
specifically points to the birth of the Christ child | 34:43 | |
in a stable in Bethlehem. | 34:48 | |
As a particular symbol of the revealed | 34:52 | |
goodwill of God toward man, | 34:56 | |
poet and artist, prophet and musician | 34:59 | |
have fastened upon this fact. | 35:03 | |
And even the most skeptical of us | 35:08 | |
are forced once a year | 35:11 | |
to realize the faith that God | 35:16 | |
is uniquely known to man because of a child, | 35:20 | |
born 2000 years ago | 35:27 | |
in the near east. | 35:31 | |
Now the juxtaposition of these two facts. | 35:35 | |
Our status as Americans students in the 20th century, | 35:39 | |
and the birth of a baby in Palestine in the first century | 35:46 | |
should give us pause. | 35:52 | |
Because there's a great gulf fixed between them. | 35:55 | |
And yet the very fact that we have come | 36:00 | |
as a college community to worship this morning | 36:05 | |
proves that we seek to bridge the gulf. | 36:10 | |
That's why we are here. | 36:15 | |
Now, let me try to sketch our situation in the United States | 36:18 | |
in the light of that first Christmas. | 36:23 | |
Let me warn you that the picture about to be drawn, | 36:28 | |
may be overdrawn. | 36:32 | |
Maybe a cartoon. | 36:36 | |
And yet the virtue of a cartoon is that though | 36:39 | |
there may be overemphasis, | 36:42 | |
it's an understandable and appreciated overemphasis. | 36:44 | |
I want to etch on our memories as Christians | 36:50 | |
something that should haunt us | 36:53 | |
through the Christmas season, | 36:56 | |
and I want to do so by asking and answering one question. | 36:58 | |
What was it | 37:06 | |
that God in preparing to reveal | 37:09 | |
His character and will rejected | 37:12 | |
at the first Christmas? | 37:19 | |
What was it that God in preparing to reveal His character | 37:22 | |
and will rejected at the first Christmas? | 37:26 | |
All right, first. | 37:31 | |
God rejected political power. | 37:33 | |
Rome, after a bloody period of civil and imperial war, | 37:40 | |
had imposed its will on almost all | 37:46 | |
the then known world. | 37:49 | |
The Mediterranean sea was a Roman lake. | 37:51 | |
Mare Nostrum, our sea. | 37:55 | |
The Pax Romana was maintained by the legions on the roads, | 37:59 | |
and by the governors in the capitals | 38:04 | |
of the conquered countries. | 38:07 | |
Politically, it was Rome first. | 38:10 | |
The rest, nowhere. | 38:13 | |
The one world, and there was one world, | 38:17 | |
was easier to go from the north of France, | 38:21 | |
to the south of Palestine in the first century | 38:24 | |
than it is today. | 38:26 | |
No visas, no change of currency. | 38:29 | |
There was one world, one good world. | 38:33 | |
As good a world as ever there has been, | 38:37 | |
and a better world than today's, politically. | 38:40 | |
And it was Rome's world. | 38:45 | |
Oh, if you want to taste the flavor of that period, | 38:48 | |
and you should taste it, in fact. | 38:51 | |
You ought to drink it deep. | 38:53 | |
Read John Buchan's "Augustus". | 38:55 | |
Now, John Buchan not only knew Latin, | 38:57 | |
but he was also governor general of Canada, | 39:00 | |
so he knew something about politics. | 39:02 | |
And he wrote a "Augustus", | 39:05 | |
the story of that patrician who set out to become | 39:07 | |
first man in the world at that the age of 19, | 39:12 | |
and made it when he was 33. | 39:15 | |
And read, or dare I say, reread Virgil, | 39:18 | |
who in the near traces the rise of Rome, | 39:26 | |
ascribing its success to the will of God | 39:30 | |
and the virtue of the descendants of Romulus and Remus. | 39:32 | |
Or go back to that strange poem of Virgil's, | 39:37 | |
the fourth eclogue. | 39:41 | |
When he hailed the birth of a Savior, | 39:44 | |
who was to rule the world at peace. | 39:48 | |
And you remember the date of this, | 39:52 | |
around the end of the period BC. | 39:55 | |
Do you remember the lines, | 39:59 | |
"once more the hallowed maid appears. | 40:01 | |
"Once more kind Saturn reigns and from high heaven | 40:04 | |
"descends the first born child of promise. | 40:08 | |
"The age of iron in His time shall cease, | 40:12 | |
"and golden generations fill the world." | 40:18 | |
Unfortunately for the poet prophet, | 40:24 | |
the longed for child turned out to be a girl | 40:28 | |
instead of a boy. | 40:32 | |
He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh. | 40:35 | |
The Lord shall hold them in derision. | 40:39 | |
That text is so desperately true, | 40:44 | |
I've never tried to preach on it. | 40:46 | |
Scares me. | 40:48 | |
But in His preparation for the nativity, | 40:51 | |
God ignored Rome. | 40:54 | |
God rejected political power. | 40:58 | |
He turned to a little state whipped, | 41:00 | |
defeated, almost despairing. | 41:04 | |
To a little state which saw cold | 41:07 | |
with the helplessness of it's luck. | 41:10 | |
That 10 years after the birth of Jesus Christ, | 41:13 | |
it voluntarily surrendered what political power | 41:17 | |
it had left to Rome. | 41:21 | |
And the first governor of Judea was appointed in AD 6. | 41:24 | |
And it was in that state | 41:30 | |
that a carpenter's wife gave birth to a child | 41:34 | |
whom the centuries have acclaimed as the Son of God. | 41:38 | |
That's the first fact to give us pause. | 41:42 | |
That's something for us to remember as a nation. | 41:47 | |
One of the big four, oh no. | 41:49 | |
One of the big three? | 41:52 | |
(indistinct) | 41:56 | |
One of the big two, that's terrible thought. | 41:58 | |
One of the big two, | 42:02 | |
half of the world looking to us for a Pax Americana. | 42:04 | |
We are proud of our destiny. | 42:10 | |
Our local Virgils sing of our divinely guided state. | 42:13 | |
And God may reject us | 42:18 | |
as He rejected Rome. | 42:21 | |
It's unbelievable that He dare to do it. | 42:25 | |
But you know, He might. | 42:29 | |
He might. | 42:32 | |
No wonder that St. Paul, | 42:35 | |
looking back over the disclosure of God's purpose, | 42:36 | |
wrote more than once "for who has known the mind of God, | 42:39 | |
"so as to instruct Him?" | 42:45 | |
Secondly, God rejected intellectual mastery. | 42:52 | |
If God had sought to reveal Himself to the man of intellect, | 42:58 | |
to the people of the mind, | 43:02 | |
He would have chosen Greece. | 43:05 | |
Because old Greece was politically defeated by Rome, | 43:08 | |
the prestige of her thinking fascinated the Romans | 43:12 | |
and made Plato and Aristotle and their | 43:17 | |
intellectual descendants names of honor in the great empire. | 43:19 | |
It's intellectually true as a Latin poet pointed out, | 43:25 | |
that Greece conquered, | 43:30 | |
took her conqueror captive. | 43:34 | |
That Greece conquered, took her conqueror captive. | 43:38 | |
Rome copied Greece, imitated her, | 43:43 | |
modeled her after her thought on Athens. | 43:47 | |
Culturally Rome was dependent on Greece. | 43:50 | |
And the interesting thing is it's just as true | 43:54 | |
at the other end of the Mediterranean. | 43:56 | |
When Philo, that magnificent Jew, | 43:59 | |
decided that the only way he could establish | 44:02 | |
the law of Moses, was to do it in terms of Greek thought. | 44:05 | |
He swung to Greece, | 44:09 | |
and through Greek thought began to establish again Judaism. | 44:12 | |
And when Saint Paul quotes the Old Testament in his letters, | 44:17 | |
he does not quote from the Hebrew. | 44:21 | |
He quotes from the Greek translation | 44:25 | |
of the Old Testament made in Egypt. | 44:27 | |
At the time of the first advent season, | 44:33 | |
Greece was mistress of the mind | 44:37 | |
and God ignored Greece. | 44:40 | |
He turned to a little state, | 44:46 | |
which was both too practical and to picturesque | 44:48 | |
in its thinking to know what to do with abstract thought. | 44:52 | |
Where Greece was wise, Israel was shrewd. | 44:56 | |
Where Greece stressed the head, Israel stressed the will, | 45:00 | |
and to Israel God gave His unique revelation | 45:05 | |
to two people of our lowly and obedient mind. | 45:10 | |
That's the second fact to give us pause. | 45:17 | |
That's something for us to remember as members | 45:22 | |
of a college community, who, some of us anyway, | 45:24 | |
pride ourselves on the intellectual life. | 45:28 | |
Who may be arrogant and overbearing. | 45:33 | |
You know the quip, you can always tell a Harvard man, | 45:36 | |
but you can't tell him much. | 45:41 | |
That goes for Yale and Princeton, | 45:45 | |
and for Amherst and Williams and Wesley. | 45:48 | |
And then it's even true at Wellesley and Vassar. | 45:50 | |
And it's true at Duke, even in the classroom | 45:56 | |
you sometimes can't tell him what's. | 45:59 | |
And God may ignore us as He ignored Greece. | 46:07 | |
For it is written, "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, | 46:13 | |
"and will bring to nothing the understanding | 46:16 | |
"of the prudent." | 46:19 | |
"Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men." | 46:21 | |
That was Paul's summary of the situation. | 46:25 | |
There's no guarantee that the American colleges | 46:29 | |
and universities will save the world | 46:32 | |
by intellectual mastery. | 46:35 | |
The example of the German universities under Hitler | 46:38 | |
should make us less sure of ourselves. | 46:43 | |
And the place of the student as complacent, | 46:51 | |
compared with the place of the worker in Hungary | 46:53 | |
shouldn't give us a warning also. | 46:58 | |
God may have other plans, | 47:02 | |
"for who hath known the mind of the Lord, | 47:04 | |
"so as to instruct Him?" | 47:07 | |
And then thirdly, God rejected social prestige. | 47:14 | |
In the legend of the wise men, | 47:22 | |
they sought the new revelation in the palace of a king, | 47:26 | |
Herod the Great, in Jerusalem. | 47:32 | |
But it was not there. | 47:37 | |
The Sadducees dominated the cultural life of Jerusalem | 47:41 | |
and controlled the temple. | 47:46 | |
And God passed them by. | 47:50 | |
The Pharisees were the spiritual leaders of the synagogue. | 47:54 | |
They claimed the seats of honor at banquets, | 47:59 | |
and expected generous recognition of their prestige. | 48:03 | |
And God avoided them in His advent plans. | 48:09 | |
He came to the people of the land, | 48:16 | |
the Am ha'aretz. | 48:21 | |
Brethren, I'd like to translate that proletariat, | 48:25 | |
if proletariat weren't such an emotional word. | 48:29 | |
God came to the class represented by tradesmen, | 48:35 | |
fishermen, tailors, and shepherds. | 48:39 | |
Is it any wonder that we find those words | 48:44 | |
in the Magnificat. | 48:47 | |
"He hath put down the mighty from their seats, | 48:49 | |
"and exalted them of low degree. | 48:54 | |
"He hath filled the hungry with good things, | 48:57 | |
"and the rich, He hath sent empty away." | 49:02 | |
That is worse than socialism. | 49:07 | |
We've never sung that in the Duke Chapel, and we're right. | 49:11 | |
At least there's an honesty about not singing it. | 49:14 | |
And where they do sing it, they sing it in Latin. | 49:18 | |
(congregation laughs) | 49:22 | |
But there's a sporting chance that God, | 49:24 | |
being omniscient, knows Latin. | 49:27 | |
And then what does He think of a church that sings that? | 49:32 | |
It obviously doesn't mean it. | 49:35 | |
Do you recall Mary Coleridge's poetic commentary | 49:40 | |
on the Magnificat? | 49:43 | |
"Mother of God, | 49:46 | |
"no lady thou. | 49:49 | |
"Common woman of common earth. | 49:53 | |
"Our lady, ladies call thee now. | 49:59 | |
"But Christ was never of gentle birth. | 50:05 | |
"A common man of common earth. | 50:10 | |
"And still for a man to come she sings, | 50:15 | |
"nor shall her singing pass away. | 50:19 | |
"He has filled the hungry with good things. | 50:21 | |
"Oh listen, lords and ladies gay. | 50:24 | |
"And the rich, | 50:28 | |
"He hath sent empty away." | 50:31 | |
The revelation of God, | 50:37 | |
the son of God came to a carpenter and his wife. | 50:40 | |
He was brought up in a city of so strange a reputation, | 50:46 | |
that one who became a disciple on first hearing | 50:52 | |
of his native city ejaculated, | 50:56 | |
"can any good thing come out of Nazareth?". | 50:59 | |
It's like saying Jersey City. | 51:05 | |
(congregation laughs) | 51:07 | |
I mean brethren, from our point of view, | 51:14 | |
God is all wrong. | 51:16 | |
The awful thing is He has the power and we don't. | 51:21 | |
He moves in a mysterious way. | 51:27 | |
His wonders to perform. | 51:31 | |
That's the third fact to give us pause. | 51:34 | |
Something for us to remember who pride ourselves | 51:38 | |
on the prestige that comes to us as college men and women. | 51:41 | |
Oh, I know that many of us come from the Am ha'aretz. | 51:45 | |
The proletariat. | 51:52 | |
But we hope before we finish to be higher | 51:54 | |
in the social scale. | 51:58 | |
Doctors, lawyers, ministers, | 52:00 | |
professors, politicians, big business executives, | 52:04 | |
or the wives there of. | 52:10 | |
It's good for us as a preferred group to remember | 52:17 | |
that strange Word of God, | 52:21 | |
"for who has known the mind of the Lord, | 52:23 | |
"so as to instruct Him?" | 52:27 | |
Therefore, this advent season brings to us | 52:31 | |
who have political power, intellectual mastery | 52:34 | |
and social prestige, a warning. | 52:40 | |
It is of course a season of joy looking towards Christmas. | 52:45 | |
Therefore the joy of Handel's Messiah this afternoon, | 52:51 | |
and the happy folksiness of the pageant next Sunday night. | 52:56 | |
But thus early in the advent season, | 53:03 | |
let us be reminded that it's also a warning. | 53:07 | |
God does not necessarily work as we expect Him to work. | 53:13 | |
Of course, it's more than a warning. | 53:21 | |
It's an encouragement to consecration. | 53:24 | |
If God could make such use of a few humble folk | 53:28 | |
in tired, defeated, impoverished Palestine, | 53:32 | |
what could He do with us? | 53:38 | |
If we would but consecrate our power, | 53:41 | |
our intelligence, and our prestige to Him. | 53:45 | |
And yet brethren, thus early in the advent season, | 53:49 | |
that is not the emphasis in this sermon. | 53:52 | |
The emphasis is, do not forget the warning. | 53:56 | |
If we do not consecrate ourselves, | 54:03 | |
God can find another way | 54:07 | |
through other people. | 54:13 | |
People not as gifted as we are, | 54:16 | |
because His ways are not necessarily our ways. | 54:21 | |
Just as His thoughts are not necessarily our thoughts. | 54:28 | |
Saint Paul spoke a wise word when he said, | 54:36 | |
"for who has known the mind of the Lord, | 54:39 | |
"so as to instruct Him?" | 54:44 | |
It behooves us | 54:51 | |
to walk through this advent season | 54:55 | |
into Christmas tide with caution. | 54:59 | |
With great caution. | 55:06 | |
Let us pray. | 55:13 | |
All mighty God, who in Thy providence has made | 55:22 | |
all ages a preparation for the kingdom of Thy Son. | 55:26 | |
We beseech Thee so to humble us by the memory | 55:33 | |
of the first Christmas. | 55:36 | |
That in meekness we may make ready our hearts | 55:39 | |
for the brightness of Thy glory | 55:44 | |
and the fullness of Thy blessing in Jesus Christ, our Lord. | 55:46 | |
And may the blessing of the Lord | 55:53 | |
come upon you abundantly. | 55:56 | |
May it keep you strong and tranquil | 55:59 | |
in the truth of His promises, | 56:03 | |
through Jesus Christ, our Lord. | 56:06 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 56:17 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 56:24 | |
(church bell rings) | 56:40 |
- | Sunday morning, December the 2nd, 1956. | 0:06 |
Preaching, Dr. Harold A. Bosley, | 0:11 | |
Pastor, First Methodist Church, Evanston, Illinois. | 0:14 | |
♪ Israel ♪ | 0:19 | |
♪ That mourns in lonely exile here ♪ | 0:23 | |
♪ Until the Son of God appear ♪ | 0:32 | |
♪ Rejoice, rejoice ♪ | 0:41 | |
♪ Emmanuel ♪ | 0:48 | |
♪ Shall come to thee, O Israel ♪ | 0:54 | |
♪ O come, thou wisdom from on high ♪ | 1:05 | |
♪ And order all things far and nigh ♪ | 1:14 | |
♪ To us the path of knowledge show ♪ | 1:23 | |
♪ And cause us in her ways to go ♪ | 1:32 | |
♪ Rejoice, rejoice ♪ | 1:42 | |
♪ Emmanuel ♪ | 1:48 | |
♪ Shall come to thee, O Israel ♪ | 1:54 | |
♪ O come, desire of nations, bind ♪ | 2:07 | |
♪ All peoples in one heart and mind ♪ | 2:16 | |
♪ Bid envy, strife, and quarrels cease ♪ | 2:25 | |
♪ Fill the whole world with heaven's peace ♪ | 2:34 | |
♪ Rejoice, rejoice ♪ | 2:43 | |
♪ Emmanuel ♪ | 2:49 | |
♪ Shall come to thee, O Israel ♪ | 2:55 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 3:08 | |
- | Let us offer unto God our unison prayer of confession. | 3:29 |
Let us pray. | 3:34 | |
Almighty God, our heavenly Father, | 3:36 | |
who didst cause light to shine out of darkness | 3:40 | |
in the advent of our Lord Jesus Christ | 3:43 | |
to take away the sins of the world, | 3:47 | |
we humbly confess our transgressions | 3:50 | |
and implore thy forgiveness. | 3:53 | |
We are ashamed of that within us | 3:56 | |
which maketh neither for goodwill to others | 3:58 | |
nor for growth in goodness in our own lives. | 4:02 | |
We beseech thee that the Spirit of Christ | 4:06 | |
may be born in you within us | 4:10 | |
and that we may glorify his nativity | 4:12 | |
with hearts of compassion, | 4:15 | |
deeds of kindly service, | 4:18 | |
and the spirit of goodwill taught all mankind. | 4:20 | |
Through Jesus Christ our Lord. | 4:24 | |
Amen. | 4:27 | |
And now as our Savior Christ hath taught us, | 4:29 | |
we humbly pray. | 4:32 | |
Our Father, who art in heaven, | 4:34 | |
hallowed be thy name. | 4:37 | |
Thy kingdom come. | 4:40 | |
Thy will be done on earth | 4:42 | |
as it is in heaven. | 4:44 | |
Give us this day our daily bread, | 4:46 | |
and forgive us our trespasses | 4:49 | |
as we forgive those who trespass against us. | 4:51 | |
And lead us not into temptation, | 4:56 | |
but deliver us from evil. | 4:58 | |
For thine is the kingdom and the power | 5:01 | |
and the glory forever. | 5:04 | |
Amen. | 5:07 | |
(melancholy organ music) | 5:10 | |
♪ In the bleak midwinter ♪ | 5:47 | |
♪ Frosty wind made moan ♪ | 5:56 | |
♪ Earth stood hard as iron ♪ | 6:06 | |
♪ Water like a stone ♪ | 6:15 | |
♪ Snow had fallen ♪ | 6:25 | |
♪ Snow on snow ♪ | 6:29 | |
♪ Snow on snow ♪ | 6:34 | |
♪ In the bleak midwinter ♪ | 6:44 | |
♪ Long, long ago ♪ | 6:54 | |
♪ Our God, heaven cannot hold him ♪ | 7:06 | |
♪ Nor Earth sustain ♪ | 7:16 | |
♪ Heaven and Earth shall flee away ♪ | 7:25 | |
♪ When he comes to reign ♪ | 7:33 | |
♪ In the bleak midwinter ♪ | 7:42 | |
♪ A stable place sufficed ♪ | 7:50 | |
♪ The Lord God Almighty ♪ | 7:58 | |
♪ Jesus Christ ♪ | 8:09 | |
♪ Angels and archangels ♪ | 8:20 | |
♪ May have gathered there ♪ | 8:30 | |
♪ Cherubim and seraphim ♪ | 8:40 | |
♪ Thronged the air ♪ | 8:50 | |
♪ But his mother only ♪ | 9:00 | |
♪ In her maiden bliss ♪ | 9:10 | |
♪ Worshiped the Beloved ♪ | 9:21 | |
♪ With a kiss ♪ | 9:31 | |
♪ What can I give him ♪ | 9:43 | |
♪ Poor as I am ♪ | 9:52 | |
♪ If I were a shepherd ♪ | 10:01 | |
♪ I would bring a lamb ♪ | 10:10 | |
♪ If I were a wise man ♪ | 10:19 | |
♪ I would do my part ♪ | 10:29 | |
♪ Yet what I can, I give him ♪ | 10:37 | |
♪ Give my heart ♪ | 10:50 | |
- | "O Lord, thou hast searched me and known me. | 11:30 |
Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising. | 11:34 | |
Thou understandest my thought afar off. | 11:38 | |
Thou compassest my path and my lying down | 11:42 | |
and art acquainted with all my ways. | 11:46 | |
For there is not a word in my tongue, | 11:48 | |
but, lo, O Lord, thou knowest it altogether. | 11:50 | |
Thou hast beset me behind and before, | 11:55 | |
laid thine hand upon me. | 11:58 | |
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me. | 12:01 | |
It is high, I cannot attain unto it. | 12:03 | |
Whither shall I go from thy Spirit, | 12:07 | |
or whither shall I flee from thy presence? | 12:10 | |
If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there. | 12:14 | |
If I make my bed in hell, | 12:17 | |
behold, thou art there. | 12:19 | |
If I take the wings of the morning | 12:22 | |
and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, | 12:24 | |
even there shall thy hand lead me, | 12:27 | |
and thy right hand shall hold me. | 12:30 | |
If I say, surely the darkness shall cover me, | 12:33 | |
even the night shall be light about me. | 12:37 | |
Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee, | 12:40 | |
but the night shineth as the day. | 12:44 | |
The darkness and the light are both alike to thee. | 12:47 | |
For thou hast possessed my reins. | 12:51 | |
Thou hast covered me in my mother's womb. | 12:55 | |
I will praise thee, | 12:58 | |
for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. | 13:00 | |
Marvelous are thy works, | 13:03 | |
and that my soul knoweth right well. | 13:05 | |
My substance was not hid from thee | 13:09 | |
when I was made in secret | 13:12 | |
and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. | 13:15 | |
Thine eyes did see my substance, | 13:19 | |
yet being unperfect. | 13:22 | |
And in thy book, all my members were written, | 13:24 | |
which in continuance were fashioned, | 13:28 | |
when as yet there was none of them. | 13:31 | |
How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God. | 13:35 | |
How great is the sum of them. | 13:39 | |
If I should count them, | 13:41 | |
they are more in number than the sand. | 13:43 | |
When I awake, I am still with thee. | 13:46 | |
Search me, O God, and know my heart. | 13:49 | |
Try me, and know my thoughts. | 13:52 | |
And see if there be any wicked way in me, | 13:55 | |
and lead me in the way everlasting." | 13:58 | |
Here endeth the reading from his Holy Word. | 14:01 | |
May his blessing rest upon it. | 14:04 | |
(regal organ music) | 14:10 | |
♪ Hail to the Lord's anointed ♪ | 14:52 | |
♪ Great David's greater Son ♪ | 14:58 | |
♪ Hail in the time appointed ♪ | 15:03 | |
♪ His reign on Earth begun ♪ | 15:09 | |
♪ He comes to break oppression ♪ | 15:14 | |
♪ To set the captive free ♪ | 15:20 | |
♪ To take away transgression ♪ | 15:25 | |
♪ And rule in equity ♪ | 15:31 | |
♪ He comes in succor speedy ♪ | 15:37 | |
♪ To those who suffer wrong ♪ | 15:43 | |
♪ To help the poor and needy ♪ | 15:48 | |
♪ And bid the weak be strong ♪ | 15:54 | |
♪ To give them songs for sighing ♪ | 15:59 | |
♪ Their darkness turn to light ♪ | 16:04 | |
♪ Whose souls condemned and dying ♪ | 16:10 | |
♪ Are precious in his sight ♪ | 16:15 | |
♪ He shall come down like showers ♪ | 16:23 | |
♪ Upon the fruitful Earth ♪ | 16:28 | |
♪ Love, joy, and hope like flowers ♪ | 16:34 | |
♪ Spring in his path to birth ♪ | 16:39 | |
♪ Before him on the mountains ♪ | 16:45 | |
♪ Shall peace the herald go ♪ | 16:51 | |
♪ And righteousness in fountains ♪ | 16:56 | |
♪ From hill to valley flow ♪ | 17:02 | |
♪ To him shall prayer unceasing ♪ | 17:09 | |
♪ And daily vows ascend ♪ | 17:15 | |
♪ His kingdom still increasing ♪ | 17:20 | |
♪ A kingdom without end ♪ | 17:26 | |
♪ The tide of time shall never ♪ | 17:32 | |
♪ His covenant remove ♪ | 17:37 | |
♪ His name shall stand forever ♪ | 17:43 | |
♪ The name to us is love ♪ | 17:49 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 17:56 | |
- | The Lord be with you. | 18:04 |
- | And with thy spirit. | 18:06 |
- | Let us pray. | 18:08 |
All merciful God, | 18:19 | |
who didst come in Jesus Christ | 18:22 | |
with saving power | 18:25 | |
to a world that walked in darkness | 18:27 | |
and in the shadow of death, | 18:30 | |
we praise and bless thee | 18:33 | |
for all those thy servants | 18:36 | |
who helped prepare the way for his appearing | 18:39 | |
and for those who received him | 18:43 | |
and gave to him the homage of their hearts and lives, | 18:47 | |
for prophets, | 18:53 | |
who in the face of tyranny | 18:55 | |
declared thy truth and thy righteousness, | 18:57 | |
for psalmists, | 19:02 | |
who in days of gloom | 19:04 | |
still believed in thy great goodness | 19:06 | |
and sang praises unto thy name, | 19:09 | |
and for innumerable simple folk | 19:13 | |
who waited in patience and unfailing hope | 19:17 | |
for the manifestation of thy glory. | 19:21 | |
We raise to thee our grateful praise. | 19:25 | |
God of truth and love, | 19:30 | |
we acknowledge before thee | 19:33 | |
our deep need of a new birth | 19:36 | |
of Christ's Spirit in our midst. | 19:39 | |
We confess our own share in the selfishness | 19:43 | |
which rules our human life, | 19:48 | |
in the prejudices and suspicions which divide men, | 19:51 | |
in the love of unworthy things which cheapens life, | 19:57 | |
in the timidity which holds back good causes, | 20:03 | |
and in the indifference which suffers evil to go unchecked. | 20:08 | |
We confess our broken vows of loyalty to Christ, | 20:15 | |
our obedience to the powers of evil, which he hates, | 20:21 | |
our want of faith in the way of love along which he leads. | 20:26 | |
By thy mighty power, | 20:32 | |
free us from our sins. | 20:34 | |
By thy providence, | 20:38 | |
guide us toward paths of usefulness | 20:41 | |
and lead us in thy way. | 20:44 | |
By the quickening of thy Spirit, | 20:47 | |
lift our thoughts towards things true and lovely | 20:50 | |
and of good report, | 20:55 | |
and grant us visions | 20:57 | |
of thy kingdom of goodwill upon the Earth. | 20:58 | |
And by the gracious face of Jesus, | 21:02 | |
teach us the beauty of holiness, | 21:06 | |
and satisfy us | 21:09 | |
with the life which is life indeed. | 21:11 | |
We pray in the name of thy Son, the Babe of Bethlehem, | 21:16 | |
who did stand our earthly life to save us from ourselves | 21:21 | |
and to lead us to thee. | 21:26 | |
Amen. | 21:29 | |
(solemn organ music) | 21:33 | |
♪ Teach me, O Lord ♪ | 24:07 | |
♪ The way of thy statutes ♪ | 24:11 | |
♪ Teach me ♪ | 24:17 | |
♪ Teach me ♪ | ||
♪ Teach me ♪ | 24:20 | |
♪ Teach me ♪ | ||
♪ The way ♪ | 24:23 | |
♪ The way of thy statutes ♪ | 24:25 | |
♪ And I shall keep it ♪ | 24:29 | |
♪ And I shall keep it ♪ | 24:36 | |
♪ Unto the end ♪ | 24:43 | |
♪ And I shall keep it ♪ | 24:49 | |
♪ And I shall keep it ♪ | 24:55 | |
♪ And I shall keep it ♪ | 25:01 | |
♪ Unto the end ♪ | 25:07 | |
♪ And I shall keep it ♪ | 25:15 | |
♪ Unto the end ♪ | 25:21 | |
♪ Teach me, O Lord ♪ | 25:31 | |
♪ Teach me, O Lord ♪ | 25:34 | |
♪ Teach me, O Lord ♪ | 25:37 | |
♪ The way of thy statutes ♪ | 25:41 | |
♪ And I shall keep it ♪ | 25:47 | |
♪ And I shall keep it ♪ | 25:52 | |
♪ And I shall keep it ♪ | 25:58 | |
♪ Unto the end ♪ | 26:04 | |
♪ And I shall keep it ♪ | 26:11 | |
♪ Unto the end ♪ | 26:17 | |
♪ Unto the end ♪ | 26:28 | |
(solemn organ music) | 26:42 | |
(majestic organ music) | 27:22 | |
♪ Praise God from whom all blessings flow ♪ | 27:47 | |
♪ Praise him, all creatures here below ♪ | 27:53 | |
♪ Praise him above, ye heavenly host ♪ | 28:00 | |
♪ Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost ♪ | 28:06 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 28:15 | |
- | O God of whose bounty we have all received, | 28:25 |
accept this offering of thy people, | 28:31 | |
and so follow it with thy blessing | 28:34 | |
that it may promote peace and goodwill among men | 28:37 | |
and advance the kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. | 28:42 | |
Amen. | 28:48 | |
(solemn organ music) | 28:50 | |
- | I cannot honestly say that it renews one's youth | 29:27 |
to revisit a campus where one has been | 29:31 | |
for a period of time, | 29:36 | |
but I can say with all candor | 29:38 | |
that it arrests the speed with which it slips away | 29:41 | |
to watch the championship fight | 29:45 | |
with the freshmen in their lounge | 29:48 | |
at a television set that works only intermittently. | 29:52 | |
You're never quite the same after that experience. | 29:56 | |
I'm glad to have a chance to be here | 30:00 | |
to talk with you about a phenomenon | 30:03 | |
that is attracting a great deal of attention these days | 30:06 | |
and to raise some serious questions about it. | 30:09 | |
The phenomenon being the fabled return to religion. | 30:12 | |
This has been more widely publicized | 30:18 | |
than carefully examined. | 30:20 | |
I know there is a definite upsurge of interest | 30:23 | |
in religious books, articles, and events. | 30:26 | |
I'm certain there is a marked upswing | 30:29 | |
in the proportion of church membership | 30:31 | |
relative to total population. | 30:33 | |
This is all to the good, | 30:36 | |
providing it is coupled with a new seriousness | 30:39 | |
about the things that are fundamental in religion. | 30:43 | |
We must do much better | 30:47 | |
than the sophisticated version | 30:49 | |
of hellfire and damnation theology of Billy Graham. | 30:51 | |
We must do much better | 30:56 | |
than the positive thinking panaceas of Norman Vincent Peale | 30:57 | |
if the upswing of interest in religion is to result | 31:02 | |
in a greater measure of religious power | 31:06 | |
in individual and collective life and witness. | 31:09 | |
And that's the big if, | 31:12 | |
since, by and large, the massive evidence at hand to date | 31:14 | |
indicates that we are witnessing | 31:19 | |
a wind ripple on the surface, | 31:21 | |
rather than a deep tidal swell in human affairs. | 31:24 | |
It's something like the fabled Pecos River, | 31:28 | |
a mile wide and a foot deep. | 31:32 | |
Now, no one hopes more than I | 31:36 | |
that a vastly different kind of witness may soon be coming, | 31:39 | |
evidence that this new interest is willing to come to grips | 31:44 | |
with the fundamentals of our faith. | 31:49 | |
Let us in the time we have at our disposal this morning | 31:52 | |
confront as squarely as we can one such fundamental, | 31:57 | |
the experience of the power of God, | 32:04 | |
the claim of God on our life. | 32:08 | |
And as we look at that, | 32:14 | |
we will want to carry on the margins of our mind | 32:16 | |
Emerson's warning, | 32:19 | |
"What is so odious as polite bows to God?" | 32:21 | |
Elton Trueblood has called this fundamental | 32:26 | |
the primary datum of religion. | 32:30 | |
He has stated it this way in general terms. | 32:33 | |
"Millions of men and women | 32:36 | |
throughout several thousand years, | 32:38 | |
representing various races and nations | 32:40 | |
and including all levels | 32:44 | |
of educational or cultural opportunity, | 32:45 | |
have reported an experience of God | 32:49 | |
as the spiritual companion of their souls. | 32:51 | |
In prayer and worship, | 32:55 | |
whether at stated times or in the midst of everyday duties, | 32:58 | |
they have been acutely conscious of another | 33:02 | |
who has sustained them in life's darkest | 33:06 | |
as well as life's brightest moments." | 33:10 | |
Now this will do as a general description | 33:14 | |
of this almost universal fact, | 33:16 | |
but every religious tradition has its own peculiar way | 33:19 | |
of describing it in more detailed terms. | 33:23 | |
Most of us here have been brought up | 33:27 | |
in the Hebrew-Christian heritage, | 33:29 | |
which means that we have been confronted with a book, | 33:33 | |
a strange book, | 33:38 | |
yet a familiar one, | 33:40 | |
the Bible. | 33:42 | |
And as we become acquainted with this book, | 33:43 | |
which is the central book in our heritage, | 33:46 | |
we discover that one word overtops all others. | 33:49 | |
That word is God. | 33:54 | |
All that lies between the opening lines of Genesis, | 33:56 | |
"In the beginning, God created," | 34:00 | |
and the closing words of the book of Revelation, | 34:03 | |
"The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all," | 34:06 | |
I say, all that stretches between those two words | 34:10 | |
is little more than a dropping of explanatory footnotes | 34:15 | |
to the meaning of God and his will for our life. | 34:20 | |
The Bible that stands like the strayed ghost | 34:26 | |
of an earlier age of belief | 34:29 | |
on the shelves of all too many of our libraries | 34:32 | |
exalts God as no other book does. | 34:35 | |
Yet as we look at it, | 34:40 | |
we do not discover some one idea of God. | 34:41 | |
There are many ideas of God presented in this book, | 34:45 | |
which is struck up and out of the experience | 34:49 | |
of thousands of years. | 34:52 | |
But the faith in God is there and it is constant. | 34:55 | |
Faith in God is unbroken, firm, powerful | 35:00 | |
from beginning to end. | 35:04 | |
The ideas of God are many, | 35:06 | |
and they vary as you would expect | 35:09 | |
with the changing experiences | 35:12 | |
of the most spiritually alert people we've any record of. | 35:14 | |
When the Hebrews come over the horizon of history | 35:20 | |
clad in the trappings of barbarism, | 35:23 | |
they had an idea of God | 35:27 | |
that is about as limited an idea as you'll ever find, | 35:29 | |
a tribal war god living in awful aloneness on a mountain. | 35:34 | |
But under the prodding and the pummeling | 35:40 | |
of their experience, | 35:42 | |
they did not long keep to this single idea. | 35:43 | |
Their faith continued unbroken, | 35:46 | |
but their idea changed with their experience, | 35:49 | |
grew greater, nobler, more inclusive, | 35:51 | |
until finally in the New Testament, | 35:56 | |
we have the richest of all conceptions of God. | 36:00 | |
"God so loved the world | 36:04 | |
that he gave his only begotten Son | 36:06 | |
that whosoever believeth in him should not perish | 36:09 | |
but have everlasting life." | 36:12 | |
The ideas have gone a long way | 36:16 | |
from that first one, haven't they? | 36:18 | |
They should have gone a long way. | 36:22 | |
Nearly 2,000 years of human experience | 36:25 | |
have been the anvil on which these ideas | 36:29 | |
have been hammered out. | 36:31 | |
We find ourselves face to face with the simple fact | 36:34 | |
that the biblical idea of God grew up, | 36:37 | |
ethically speaking, in this long range of experience. | 36:40 | |
Grew up from an idea of a God of wrath and vengeance | 36:45 | |
to one of love and forgiveness. | 36:49 | |
From one who dwelt alone on a mountain | 36:52 | |
to one in whom all men live and move and have their being. | 36:54 | |
Yet these ideas join together | 37:00 | |
in one unbroken faith in God. | 37:03 | |
But the God we meet in the Bible is not | 37:07 | |
is not a word to be banded about, an idea to be discussed, | 37:10 | |
as so many of us take it. | 37:15 | |
God is one to be obeyed. | 37:18 | |
As simple | 37:23 | |
and as terrifying as that. | 37:26 | |
The Bible resounds with the deeds of God. | 37:30 | |
It begins with God the creator | 37:34 | |
and ends with God the re-creator. | 37:36 | |
It begins with the creation of the world | 37:39 | |
and ends with the redemption of the world | 37:41 | |
in the new Jerusalem, | 37:44 | |
where God will wipe away all tears. | 37:45 | |
And in between the recital | 37:49 | |
of these mighty acts of creation and redemption, | 37:51 | |
the Bible dwells on the themes of God's search for man | 37:55 | |
and man's response to that search. | 38:00 | |
A few sensitive religious spirits | 38:06 | |
had some notion of what was up. | 38:09 | |
They are the spiritual landmarks in our heritage. | 38:12 | |
But by and large, | 38:16 | |
mankind continued, or so they thought, | 38:18 | |
to elude the hound of heaven. | 38:20 | |
One thing is clear as we look at this whole heritage. | 38:25 | |
This Bible that we cherish is a book about God, | 38:30 | |
a book that takes God seriously, | 38:34 | |
a book that stands or falls | 38:37 | |
with faith in the God whom it exalts. | 38:39 | |
It is great literature, | 38:43 | |
but it will not survive the generation | 38:44 | |
if it's just great literature. | 38:47 | |
It is the only reliable book of history we have | 38:51 | |
about the lifestream of a great people, | 38:55 | |
but as that, it will not last very long, | 38:58 | |
unless we see in it something that transcends | 39:01 | |
the experience of that people, | 39:04 | |
It is a great pity when people confuse some one idea of God | 39:07 | |
as we find it in the Bible | 39:12 | |
with this faith in God. | 39:14 | |
The faith is fundamental. | 39:17 | |
The ideas will differ. | 39:20 | |
But it's a book about God. | 39:23 | |
And the New Testament, of course, | 39:28 | |
never once falters in this faith in God. | 39:29 | |
It reinterprets it in the person of Jesus Christ, | 39:32 | |
whose advent we are beginning to celebrate | 39:35 | |
in the liturgies of the churches these days. | 39:38 | |
In him, we say we have a full revelation | 39:41 | |
of what God is trying to do. | 39:44 | |
In his life and teachings, | 39:47 | |
we find out something new about God. | 39:49 | |
He is a God of love. | 39:53 | |
Justice, yes, forgiveness, yes, | 39:55 | |
but in addition, | 39:57 | |
love that becomes his name. | 39:59 | |
He seeks us as the good shepherd seeks the lost sheep. | 40:03 | |
He yearns for us as a father yearns | 40:07 | |
for the return of the prodigal. | 40:09 | |
Nowhere do we find this more powerfully portrayed | 40:12 | |
than in Paul's word. | 40:15 | |
"For God was in Christ, | 40:17 | |
reconciling the world unto himself | 40:18 | |
and hath committed unto us the ministry of reconciliation." | 40:21 | |
Always God the doer, God who's searching man out, | 40:25 | |
God who's finding man, | 40:29 | |
running him to earth, if you please, | 40:32 | |
and discovering man to himself | 40:36 | |
for what he is. | 40:40 | |
Now, unfortunately, this record, | 40:42 | |
and it is a long and rich record, | 40:44 | |
comes to us in terms of experiences | 40:48 | |
that seem to have little relevance | 40:51 | |
to the day in which we live, | 40:53 | |
embalmed upon occasion in vocabularies | 40:56 | |
that seem utterly strange to us. | 40:59 | |
Yet the experiences and the vocabularies must be translated. | 41:03 | |
We ought at least to have the ingenuity of a 10-year-old boy | 41:09 | |
who came home from Sunday School one day | 41:13 | |
and was asked by his mother what the lesson was about. | 41:17 | |
He said, "Well, it was about the way | 41:22 | |
the children of Israel got away from the Egyptians." | 41:24 | |
He was willing to let it go at that, but his mother was not. | 41:27 | |
As mothers will, she pried further, | 41:30 | |
wanted to know what all he had learned. | 41:33 | |
He said, "Well, mom, it was like this." | 41:37 | |
He said, "The children of Israel were about to get away | 41:38 | |
when Pharaoh spied them, | 41:43 | |
and he sent his panzer divisions out after them. | 41:46 | |
And they were closing in on them | 41:49 | |
when Moses saw that he wasn't gonna make it. | 41:51 | |
So he got his walkie-talkie. | 41:54 | |
He called for the bombers, | 41:56 | |
and they came in and made mincemeat of the panzers, | 41:57 | |
and they got away." | 42:00 | |
The mother was startled, | 42:01 | |
and she said, "Is that what the teacher told you?" | 42:02 | |
He hesitated, he said, | 42:06 | |
"No, that wasn't quite the way she put it. | 42:06 | |
But mom," he said, "if I gave it to you | 42:08 | |
the way she gave it to us, you'd never believe it." | 42:10 | |
(congregation laughing) | 42:12 | |
Time and time again, we find ourselves stopped | 42:19 | |
by a vocabulary that's strange to us, | 42:22 | |
confused by an incident, | 42:26 | |
the relevance of which we find it difficult | 42:27 | |
to relate to the day in which we live. | 42:30 | |
And it is the part of steadfast and unfaltering maturity | 42:33 | |
to settle down to the task of translation | 42:38 | |
until a basic idea has been placed | 42:42 | |
in manageable, understandable terms, | 42:44 | |
the terms of the day in which we must live. | 42:48 | |
A moment ago, I read to you | 42:52 | |
what Trueblood said was the primary datum of religion. | 42:55 | |
Not let me translate that, if I may, | 42:58 | |
into what is the primary datum of the Christian religion. | 43:00 | |
Millions of men and women over nearly 2,000 years, | 43:05 | |
representing various races and nations | 43:08 | |
and including all levels | 43:11 | |
of educational or cultural opportunity, | 43:12 | |
have reported an experience | 43:15 | |
of the love of God in Jesus Christ, | 43:17 | |
which broke their enslavement to the power of sin and death | 43:20 | |
and gave them new life. | 43:23 | |
And no one knows better than I | 43:27 | |
how guilty we in churches have been | 43:28 | |
of letting our yammering over sectarian differences | 43:30 | |
drown out our united and steady witness to this great fact. | 43:34 | |
Such unity as we have in our separate churches, | 43:39 | |
and it is more than we are willing to admit usually, | 43:42 | |
grows out of the unity we find in him. | 43:45 | |
The summer of 1954, | 43:49 | |
the second assembly of the World Council of Churches | 43:51 | |
met in Evanston, | 43:53 | |
and the services of worship for that assembly | 43:55 | |
were held in our church. | 43:57 | |
And there before the altar | 44:00 | |
high above which looms the figure of the risen Lord, | 44:01 | |
I heard the Christian benediction | 44:05 | |
pronounced in seven different languages | 44:07 | |
by men from as many different traditions. | 44:10 | |
But under him, those differences fell into perspective, | 44:14 | |
and his spirit made us one. | 44:17 | |
We had a feeling that he had overtaken us, | 44:21 | |
had run our sectarian rivalries and differences to earth, | 44:25 | |
had brought us face to face with God, | 44:29 | |
the God of all in the presence of whose holiness, | 44:32 | |
none dared to lift his eyes, | 44:35 | |
let alone protest his righteousness. | 44:39 | |
Now this experience of being found by God, | 44:43 | |
run to earth by him, overcome by his power, | 44:45 | |
forced to give an account of yourself in his presence | 44:49 | |
isn't confined to clergymen alone, | 44:51 | |
though let us hope it will continue to be found there. | 44:54 | |
Francis Thompson in his "Hound of Heaven" | 44:59 | |
made it plain to an earlier generation | 45:01 | |
that the God in whom we believe is a power, | 45:04 | |
an inescapable fact and factor | 45:08 | |
that you must reckon with sooner or later. | 45:10 | |
He will speak and you must answer. | 45:13 | |
He will make a claim and you must say yes or no. | 45:16 | |
And there's no escaping the responsibility of response. | 45:20 | |
The poets alone haven't said it. | 45:25 | |
Henri Bergson, who will rank as one of the great thinkers | 45:29 | |
of the modern world, | 45:32 | |
reported a very striking experience | 45:34 | |
in somewhat similar language. | 45:36 | |
During the latter years of his life, | 45:39 | |
he became a member of a church | 45:41 | |
and spent more and more of his time on religious matters. | 45:43 | |
Asked by a friend, "How did you find God?" | 45:47 | |
Bergson thought a moment and then said in a troubled voice, | 45:50 | |
"Perhaps it was how God found me." | 45:54 | |
Bergson centered his study upon the church, the mystics, | 45:58 | |
history, the Sermon on the Mount, | 46:01 | |
always asking, what does this mean to me? | 46:03 | |
And then suddenly | 46:06 | |
God confronted him, | 46:09 | |
and he responded. | 46:11 | |
Easily the most searching and detailed description | 46:14 | |
of this sort of experience | 46:16 | |
is contained in C. S. Lewis' last book | 46:18 | |
that many of you, I'm sure, have read or read about, | 46:21 | |
"Surprised by Joy." | 46:24 | |
This is an autobiographical record | 46:28 | |
of the author's pilgrimage to faith. | 46:30 | |
He said it so beautifully in his own words | 46:33 | |
that I'd like to let him tell the story. | 46:36 | |
"I'd always wanted above all things | 46:39 | |
not to be interfered with," he said. | 46:41 | |
"I had wanted to call my soul my own. | 46:44 | |
I had been far more anxious to avoid suffering | 46:47 | |
than to achieve delight. | 46:50 | |
I had always aimed at limited liabilities | 46:52 | |
in this business of living. | 46:56 | |
You must picture me alone in that room | 46:58 | |
at the university night after night, | 47:01 | |
feeling whenever my mind lifted | 47:04 | |
even for a second from my work | 47:06 | |
the steady unrelenting approach of him | 47:08 | |
whom I most earnestly desired not to meet. | 47:11 | |
That which I greatly feared at last came upon me. | 47:16 | |
And in the Trinity term of 1929, I gave in | 47:21 | |
and admitted that God was God and knelt and prayed, | 47:25 | |
perhaps that night the most dejected | 47:29 | |
and reluctant convert in all England. | 47:31 | |
I did not then see | 47:34 | |
what is now the most shining and obvious thing, | 47:35 | |
the divine humility which will accept a convert | 47:39 | |
on such terms. | 47:42 | |
The prodigal son at least walked home on his own feet, | 47:44 | |
but who can duly adore that love | 47:48 | |
which will open the high gates to a prodigal | 47:50 | |
who is brought in kicking, struggling, resentful, | 47:53 | |
and darting his eyes in every direction | 47:56 | |
for a chance to escape? | 47:58 | |
The word compel him to come in | 48:01 | |
has been so abused by wicked men that we shudder at them, | 48:03 | |
but properly understood, | 48:06 | |
it plumbs the depths of the divine mercy. | 48:07 | |
The hardness of God is kinder than the softness of men, | 48:11 | |
and his compulsion is our liberation." | 48:17 | |
For the benefit of all of us | 48:21 | |
who have not known that experience | 48:23 | |
or at least with that intensity, | 48:24 | |
he says he discovered four things | 48:27 | |
when God had run him to earth | 48:29 | |
and forced him to face himself and God. | 48:32 | |
He discovered that God must be obeyed | 48:36 | |
simply because he's God. | 48:38 | |
And he discovered, "For the first time," he said, | 48:43 | |
"I examined myself with a serious practical purpose, | 48:47 | |
and there I found what appalled me, | 48:51 | |
a zoo of lusts, | 48:54 | |
a bedlam of ambitions, | 48:56 | |
a nursery of fears, | 48:58 | |
a harem of fondled hatreds. | 49:00 | |
My name was legion." | 49:03 | |
He discovered that total surrender, | 49:06 | |
the absolute leap in the dark | 49:10 | |
were demanded. | 49:13 | |
The demand was not all or nothing; it was all. | 49:17 | |
And then, to repeat, he discovered | 49:22 | |
that the hardness of God is kinder than the softness of men, | 49:23 | |
and his compulsion is our liberation. | 49:28 | |
Now it adds up to this, | 49:31 | |
and I confess I am as reluctant to face it | 49:33 | |
as you could possibly be. | 49:35 | |
Only one who is willing to be found by God | 49:38 | |
can hope to find God. | 49:42 | |
What we, | 49:44 | |
in either our carelessness or our conceit, | 49:46 | |
speak of as the discovery of God | 49:51 | |
is in reality the discovery of us by God. | 49:54 | |
From the psalmist's experience to that of C. S. Lewis, | 50:00 | |
there is an unbroken chain of witnesses to this fact. | 50:04 | |
Our relationship with God is an encounter, | 50:09 | |
a desperate ultimate encounter. | 50:13 | |
It is a meeting, | 50:18 | |
a clash, | 50:20 | |
and sometimes a communion of mind and spirit and life | 50:21 | |
of beings who are both identifiably different, | 50:26 | |
yet inseparably related. | 50:29 | |
When God finds us, | 50:32 | |
it is as the prophets of old saw day of judgment, | 50:34 | |
an experience of being weighed in the balances | 50:38 | |
and found wanting. | 50:41 | |
In his presence, we have not the right to parade | 50:43 | |
even such virtues | 50:46 | |
as we may think we have. | 50:48 | |
And you never feel your need more than when he finds you. | 50:51 | |
Just a year ago, I was in Japan. | 50:59 | |
And when I went there | 51:03 | |
to speak at the seminaries and the schools, | 51:04 | |
I confess I hoped they would not send me | 51:06 | |
to Hiroshima or Nagasaki. | 51:09 | |
I thought the Americans had been there | 51:12 | |
one too many times already. | 51:13 | |
But my schedule was in their hands, | 51:16 | |
and when I got to Tokyo, | 51:18 | |
I discovered I was to be in Hiroshima for three days. | 51:19 | |
I didn't want to go, but I had to go, | 51:27 | |
and when I got there, I never felt my need, | 51:29 | |
and I never felt the need of this land that I love | 51:31 | |
more desperately than when I stood among a people | 51:35 | |
where we thought we had demonstrated | 51:38 | |
our power and our ability. | 51:40 | |
I did not see or feel their need. | 51:44 | |
I felt our own need. | 51:47 | |
For the judgment of the Most High God had been spoken | 51:51 | |
on us all. | 51:56 | |
We had been weighed in the balances, | 51:59 | |
and we had been found wanting. | 52:01 | |
And if there is a more poignant parable | 52:04 | |
of the world in which we live than that, | 52:07 | |
I have not encountered it in my experience. | 52:11 | |
When God finds us, it is a day of judgment. | 52:16 | |
But more, it is a kind of resurrection morn, | 52:19 | |
a stepping forth with new life, new purpose, new power. | 52:24 | |
The old is passed away and all has become new. | 52:28 | |
And a new man will never be satisfied | 52:32 | |
with the old life of the old world, | 52:35 | |
and he will give himself to the Most High God | 52:38 | |
as the instrument through whom he can work. | 52:43 | |
I keep coming back, as much for myself as for anyone else, | 52:46 | |
to the simple, puzzling, inescapable fact | 52:50 | |
that if I'm going to take religion seriously, | 52:55 | |
I have to look at this. | 52:57 | |
Only the man who is willing to be found by God | 53:00 | |
can hope to find God. | 53:03 | |
Willing to be found by God, aye, there's the rub. | 53:06 | |
But willing means just what it says, | 53:10 | |
that we are alert to the deep movements of reality | 53:12 | |
in our own life and time. | 53:15 | |
That we are not content to live on the surface of things. | 53:18 | |
To enjoy this day and that | 53:22 | |
and to amuse ourselves here, there, and yonder, | 53:24 | |
but that we will take seriously | 53:27 | |
the full moral responsibility | 53:29 | |
of every opportunity in every relationship we have | 53:31 | |
and discharge them as a trust from Almighty God. | 53:34 | |
This goes beyond simple open-mindedness to fact, | 53:39 | |
important as that is. | 53:42 | |
It calls for openness of life and spirit | 53:44 | |
to the power and the love of God. | 53:48 | |
I give it to you for what men have found it, | 53:50 | |
to be the most important experience in life, | 53:52 | |
one that's guaranteed to be | 53:56 | |
the point on which all life divides, | 53:58 | |
this experience of being found by God | 54:01 | |
and being willing to serve him. | 54:04 | |
Gamaliel Bradford, surveying the lost faith of his boyhood, | 54:08 | |
burst out in the despairing cry, | 54:13 | |
"The whole world crumbles without God." | 54:16 | |
That, of course, is true. | 54:20 | |
But we must not let it blind us | 54:22 | |
to an even more important truth. | 54:24 | |
The whole world crumbles with God. | 54:28 | |
Life as it is, | 54:32 | |
the world as it is | 54:35 | |
come under judgment. | 54:37 | |
None enter into that presence | 54:41 | |
with clean hands and a pure heart. | 54:42 | |
It's always and only, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. | 54:47 | |
This means a new life, | 54:53 | |
a new way of thinking, a new way of praying, | 54:55 | |
a new way of planning, a new way of acting. | 54:57 | |
And when people say there's a return to religion, | 55:02 | |
I can only say, | 55:07 | |
praise God that it will be so. | 55:10 | |
But it cuts to the very heart of life | 55:16 | |
if you return to the heart of religion. | 55:18 | |
For that means not a new vocabulary. | 55:23 | |
It means a new life. | 55:29 | |
It means being found by God and being willing to serve him | 55:32 | |
all your days. | 55:38 | |
That's not so much a return, | 55:41 | |
as a renaissance, | 55:44 | |
a new beginning, | 55:46 | |
a new life. | 55:49 | |
Shall we pray? | 55:52 | |
O thou who has blessed us in Jesus Christ | 55:59 | |
with one who will never let us rest | 56:02 | |
and never take the easy way, | 56:06 | |
may thy blessing rest upon us as we are here assembled. | 56:10 | |
Touch us with the divine hand of thy power and thy love. | 56:15 | |
Awaken us to ourselves. | 56:18 | |
And in that awakening, | 56:22 | |
may we discover thee | 56:24 | |
as the creator, sustainer, and redeemer of life, | 56:27 | |
and in that life-transcending discovery, | 56:32 | |
discover new life | 56:35 | |
and be willing to live it. | 56:37 | |
Enfold us now with thy blessing and thy benediction. | 56:40 | |
May the peace that passeth all understanding | 56:43 | |
and the love that will not let us go | 56:46 | |
enter into our lives and make them radiant. | 56:49 | |
For Christ's sake. | 56:53 | |
Amen. | 56:55 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 57:02 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 57:09 | |
(bell tolling) | 57:22 |