Bishop Nolan B. Harmon - "No Wagons" (April 27, 1958); James H. Phillips - "His Only Son, Our Lord" (May 18, 1958) / Duke Chapel Recordings / Duke Digital Repository

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To begin our message this morning,

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I'm going to tell a story

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from an old book of the Old Testament.

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It is in the nature of a parable,

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but unlike the parables, it seems to have behind it

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a degree of historic truth.

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If we turn to the book of Numbers,

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you find there is sudden distribution

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of wagons made by Moses.

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And then these lines in the ninth verse

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of the seventh chapter of Numbers.

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"But unto the sons of Kohath gave he none,

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for their service was that

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they should bear it up on their shoulders."

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This needs some explaining.

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It all happened a long time ago

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when the people of Israel were making

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their long march to the Promised Land.

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They seem to have camped for years in certain places,

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then after a time, resumed their march,

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waiting more than marching as they made their way,

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living in tents, surrounded by their flocks and herds,

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but from time to time, moving on.

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Now the center of their camp

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was always the tabernacle of God,

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and in charge of that tabernacle,

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there were the Levites or the sons of Levi,

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one of the 12 sons of Jacob.

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And upon the Levites devolved all

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the priesthood of the ancient past.

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Their business was to take care of the tabernacle,

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to look after its worship, to look after its paraphernalia.

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And then when time came to strike,

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camp, and move, the Levites would move on

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and set up again all that had to do with this sacred place.

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And after a time, Moses, who was a leader and the law-giver,

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obtained from the princess of the people,

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a number of wagons to help the Levites

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in carrying forward their particular weight.

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There were three tribes of Levites, three sons of Levi.

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One was called Gershon and the Gershonites,

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one was called Merari and the Merarites,

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and one was called Kohath and the Kohathites.

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And the writing said that Moses gave unto Gershon

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the two wagons and four oxen to help them make their move.

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He gave to Merari four wagons and eight oxen to help him.

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And we understand that Gershon

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had to take the curtains and the coverings,

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that Merari had to take the posts and the benches

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and the pillars and the heavy paraphernalia.

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And then we come to this remarkable sentence,

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"But unto the sons of Kohath, he gave no wagons,

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for their service was to bear upon their own shoulders."

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And that if we ask, well,

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why were the sons of Kohath discriminated against,

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why did they get no wagons, were they marked down?

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If you look into it,

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you'll find that exactly the contrary was the case.

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This particular group had in charge

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the sacred vessels of the house of God.

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It was their business to carry these,

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the glorious Ark of the Testimony, as it was called,

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with its covering blue veil,

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the table of showbread with its dishes and its spoons

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and its cover to cover with all.

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The Ark of the Covenant and the candlestick of the light,

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these were to be carried by the sons of Kohath.

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And the reason they've got no wagons

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was that they were to take such utter care,

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that they felt it best to carry

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these things upon their own shoulders.

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They wrapped them carefully.

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And while the line of procession filed on its way,

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as one of the lines of beauty

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which I struck once told about saw the long procession file

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and heard the Hebrew timbrules play

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the music of the Lord of the Nile.

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While this long procession marched,

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the mythic creaking of the wagons, the sons of Kohath,

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carried upon their own and shoulder,

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these vessels from the holy place,

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from the Holy of Holies strolled on their way.

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And we understand that they sang as they marched.

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Not having paraphernalia, no wagons,

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but the highest type of personal service.

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And that, I say, is a parable

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of life as life is to be lived.

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We belong to an age in which we have machinery

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to do all sorts of things, and we depend upon it.

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The wonders of communication are known to all of us.

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The work of an IBM machine tossing

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out formulae and wrapping it,

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and taking the place of many minds makes us stayed in awe

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as just the work of an electronic brain doing its work.

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But with all that and all that we have learned,

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there are some things that must

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be done by ourselves as personally,

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some things must be done carefully using to the fullest,

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all of these powers which we have.

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And for some things, some very glorious things,

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some very wonderful things, we get, may I say, no wagons.

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Take this matter of learning for instance,

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this vast field of knowledge

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for which this university has been founded,

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we do avail ourselves here of all sorts

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of modern means and methods.

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The scholar knows how to microfilm and to take in that way,

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the result of the past ages and bring them back,

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copying them rapidly wherein,

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whereas it took years, long ago, to do these things.

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And we avail ourselves of all these means.

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For with it all, the brow of this scholar

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has yet to be furrowed with his own thought.

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If he shall win through and in person find the truth

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which he is so anxious to have.

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Sometimes economical people tell us that we make a mistake

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to start our children out in the kindergarten.

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For they say that in kindergarten,

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they are taught to play and they are rather taught

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to think that play and learning can be the same thing.

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Whereas they say that learning always begins

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on the breakdown of pray or rather this transcending it,

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the surpassing it, and that it takes labor to open books

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and peruse them and put from them their contents

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into the human mind and so become a learner

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of man's wisdom after him.

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I say, if you let me speak personally,

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as the book editor of our church for quite a few years,

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I came in contact with these distinguished scholars

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over this country and Britain for that matter.

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And upon one occasion, we were talking, certain of us,

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in our little group as to why it is

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that the educated Englishman seems

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to be able to write prose with a clarity

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and a distinctness which is unique and strong.

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And somebody said,

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"Well, you know what I think it is?

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I think they were taught in boyhood

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to turn Latin sentences into English

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and English sentences into Latin

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again and again and again until through

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the long discipline of putting thought across that barrier,

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they learned how to place the emphatic word

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where the emphatic word ought to be.

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They learned how to arrange this sweet, flowing prose,

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this congruent combination of ideas and of words,

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which is as they like to claim

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the mark of the educated Englishman."

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When I was a young minister, I noted that my father had,

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my father was a minister

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and he had upon his shelves a set of commentaries

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which were called,

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with a rather assertive title name, "The 30,000 Thoughts".

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And when I started out as a minister,

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he said he would give me three of these volumes.

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And so I said that I can begin my ministry

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with at least 15,000 thoughts to start with.

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But you know and I know that possession

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of the book does not mean possession

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of that which is within the book.

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That something further is needed.

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And for that further thing we call hard study,

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there are no wagons.

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Dick Quincy once said that the true scholar

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is not one who depends upon an infinite memory,

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but also upon an infinite and electrical combination,

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bringing from the four whims

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like the angel of resurrection.

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What else were dead men's bones

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and putting them together in a living, breathing unity.

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This last week, "The Saturday Evening Post",

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which is the last publication I should look

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into for profundity of thought,

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gave us an article in which one said

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very wisely something along this same line.

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Said he, "In this age of technology,

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when man claims that he has conquered nature,

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there's one thing which is more

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than ever clear to the anthropologist,

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and that is that man has not yet conquered nature

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because he's not conquered himself.

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It is man himself, man the wise,

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homo sapiens, as he likes to call himself,

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who is his own nightmare.

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And the length and shadow of man falls

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across the sleep of man.

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And that it is which dogs

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his footprints and follows noiselessly

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the pacing feet of statesman."

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These things are true.

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And we have learned that in this field

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of obtaining and using for life, the wisdom of the past,

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there must be the utilization

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of something which is personal

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and something which is intense

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and something which is immediate

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as we fail to get, as we should get.

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We do well to use these mechanical processes.

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We appreciate the fact the scholar

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can bring back his microfilm,

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but he's got to sit over what he's brought home,

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that he has no mechanical aids to help him in that.

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And our physicist can watch his bombardment of atoms

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and see it leave its telltale marks upon whatever substance

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he chooses to put in the end of his gigantic reactor.

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For when he gets those marks down,

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his own mind must interpret them.

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Knowledge is wonderful, knowledge is true,

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knowledge must be obtained, but it's not easy.

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Why take this field of building character

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and character must be built

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in every one of us and for every one of us.

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We do not live long before we find,

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as all the sages of the past have told us,

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that there are warring within us two tremendous forces.

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One for one of some battle time

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we see is pulling us downward

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and the other lifting us upward,

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ourselves always the battleground of these,

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of this eternal, unrelenting strife.

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And sometimes we see as the apostle Paul had it,

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the good I do, I would do that I do not.

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And the evil I would not do, that I do.

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For as the common prayer has it,

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we have left undone those things we ought to have done,

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and we've done those things

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we ought not to have done, all life speaks like that.

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And when we've set ourselves up on this moral climb,

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sometimes we win our victories.

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And when we do,

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we feel that spiritual muscle is strengthened.

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And while we do not,

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we know we have mocked and pushed back

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that much further the other way.

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Or take the training of a child.

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How ceaseless that must be.

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Not simply a matter of little precepts,

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not as Tennyson once expressed it in his,

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in "Locksley Hall" while making sport

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of the woman who had discarded

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him for another and had her own daughter to teach.

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And for the little hoard up maxims preaching

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down a daughter's heart, it takes example,

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it takes life, it takes years moving on

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to inculcate these particular lessons.

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I've often thought of a story

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which a lady told me along this line,

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how she was taught in early life by a very careful mother

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the meaning of right and wrong,

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the meaning of private property.

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Yes, the tremendous August law, thou shalt not steal.

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She says that she was six years old.

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Her little cousin was a boy of seven.

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It was a little town in Maryland.

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And they were sent to the corner store

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for some sort of errand.

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And when they came back, they were eating something

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and the mother saw they were eating something.

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And she said, "And what are you eating?"

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They said, "Some dried peaches."

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And she said, "It was nice for Mr. Ladan

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to give you the dried peaches."

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And they said, "Well, he didn't.

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He didn't exactly give them to us."

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And she said, "What do you mean?

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You did not have any money."

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And then the boy cut in and said,

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"Well, they were just an open tray of them there

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and we just took a few, it's all right.

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They're just old, dried peaches."

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And this wise mother said,

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"But to whom do those peaches belong?"

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And they said, "Mr. Ladan, I suppose."

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"We're going to take them back to him," she said.

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She took those two children by the hand.

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And as they tell it now, they were very much frightened.

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They did not know what might happen.

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And she marched them down to that corner grocery store.

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And she said,

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"Mr. Ladan, these two children took some peaches.

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I don't think they meant to do wrong.

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They want to bring them back and ask your pardon."

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And he saw the part he was expected to play,

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and he played up to it.

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Waiting, as they say, almost an eternity

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before he ever answered and said, "Well, it's all right."

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And then as they slipped out at great relieved,

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he put an apple in each little hand and they went their way.

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And the incident was closed, or was it?

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The years have gone by,

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but that particular lesson taught

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by that mother has remained with these two.

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The man is now the head of a credit bureau

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in one of our great cities.

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And under his fingers pass the ratings

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and the credit of all the people

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of that city and how well they pay

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their bills and keep their property

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and refrain from other people's properties.

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And the lady, well, the lady is my old wife

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who's told me that story many times,

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and I've often thought about it.

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Moral character is not induced so easily or so quickly.

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It comes by example. It comes by preset.

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It comes by teaching.

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And the years, the years roll on.

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In my young days,

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I knew that whimsical character, Mr. Thomas Marshall,

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who was the vice president of the United States.

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I say I knew him. I met him a few times, heard him speak.

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I was introduced to him once.

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And an older minister took me in,

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he presented me, and he gave me his card and said,

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"I want you to sit in my old family seat

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in the Senate gallery this day when we open at noon."

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And he gave me his card and how proud

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I was to take that card and feel like now I really arrived

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when an usher can take me

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and put me in vice president's seat.

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But I heard the man say two or three things,

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which I have remembered.

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And one was, he said,

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"You know, I believe that God almighty made

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this world about as it ought to be.

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But he did one thing," he said,

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which I sometimes wonder about.

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Iniquity of the fathers

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upon the children to the third and fourth generation.

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Had said, Mr. Marshall, he does.

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But he figured if he could only have turned it around

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and visited the sins of the fathers

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of the children back on the fathers

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to a third and fourth generation,

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"I think," said he, "We'd have a better world."

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And I heard him once reproving

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the Protestants and saying that,

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"You Protestants fuss about the way

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the Jewish children are taught

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and the way our Roman Catholic friends teach their children.

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If you put 1/4 of your time on your children," said he,

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"That these put on theirs,

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you'd find in life itself was much more clear for them."

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And when I read the stories of these lads who've gone wrong,

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I wonder if anyone taught

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them the difference between right and wrong.

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Indeed, a woman judge in New York the other day said,

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"With all of these cases brought

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before me somehow under the apparent hardness,

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they are frightened children.

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And they claim to each other in their gangs simply

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because no one has taught them

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the meaning of right, the meaning of wrong.

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No one's read stories to them.

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No one's lifted up ideas before them.

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And they find in these gangs

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that which they ought to find in their own home."

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It's not easy to build character

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and that I would not be a Christian minister

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if I did not turn to the one who came to this world

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to bring us life and light and immortality,

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Jesus Christ, our Lord.

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And whatever he did, you can say this about it,

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whatever he did, it was not easy.

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Sometimes I'll think to write right people

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as I've had them send in to me papers on, what is salvation?

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What do I mean by salvation?

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We can debate it over here at the theological school.

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I think we all know.

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I think the scholars know. I think we know.

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But we find out, when we push on far enough,

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that salvation is something exceeding the pressures

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and that the apostle had it right when he said,

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"You're bought with a price."

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Some of us have completed reading a book

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by a distinguished scholar who has spoken from this pulpit,

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happens to be a friend of mine, Dr. John Knox,

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whom we all love and respect, upon the death of Christ.

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And even with a skill for mind of his,

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pierces on and examines all the different theories

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which the past has given us and shows how,

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that looked at rationally,

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there is always something to be attacked

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in each one of these theories.

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The theologians spend an amazing amount

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of time in brushing aside each other's theories.

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And that may be just as well.

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But this can be said when you bring

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to bear all the writings of the past,

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when you see what Augustine wrote and Anselm wrote

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and Abelard and St. Thomas Aquinas

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and Calvin and Barth and Martinson

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and Wesley and all the rest.

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When you see all that, one fact stands out clear,

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that whatever Christ came to do, it was a costly thing.

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Ever since the morning, the resurrection morning,

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there has been in the world, whatever be your theory,

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there has been light and life

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from one who came, gave us a gospel

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which was literally for the healing of the nations.

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A gospel before there were written gospels if you please,

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a gospel before there was a church if you please,

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a gospel, which went, as a gospel ought to go,

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from person to person, blessing and healing life,

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and making life be what it ought to be.

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A strong-minded minister once

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who had a picturesque way of expressing himself

22:13

was asking one of the women

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of his church who wants to do something

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which was a moment for the church.

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And she brushed him aside at a time or two,

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and then he said, "Well, why can't you do it?"

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And she said, "Well, the truth is,

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the truth is it's just inconvenient for me to do it."

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And then this minister turned to her and said,

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"My dear sister, there lived one a long time ago.

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He trod an inconvenient pathway

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and he died on an inconvenient cross.

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But if he nail any one thing down

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and the thorn in circle tracks which he left behind him,

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it was that who so shall follow me must take

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up his cross daily and come after me."

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It is a law of life.

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And so we do live in this time of times.

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We have got our gadgets and our planes

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and our bombs and our automation

23:12

and our Sputniks and our Vanguards

23:15

and our big money for foreign aid,

23:17

but somehow we suspect that after all,

23:20

the world wants persons and not things,

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it wants our love and our affection.

23:26

And one ambassador who can ride a bicycle

23:29

through crowded Indian streets somehow makes

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more goodwill than all your millions which you toss overseas

23:34

in some casual bill passed by the Congress

23:39

and given to foreign lands.

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The world looks at us to live a life after Christ

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and to live a life after Christ

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is not the easiest thing in this present time.

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So march, we all, each one having his own burden,

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each one finding that there are some things he must do

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for which he can get no help,

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either mechanically or from others.

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There are tasks to be performed by you.

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There are tasks to be performed by me.

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Each one of us to do our duty where we live,

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marching across this waste of time.

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Bearing our own burdens upon our shoulders,

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our precious burdens, our most precious burdens.

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And may it be that as we do, like the sons of Kohath,

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we can sing as we march for the earth

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is the Lord's and the fullness of it,

24:38

and all things that he has made therein

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and will his to live for him and to serve

24:45

him where we are and as we shall live.

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And to him shall be the power,

24:55

the kingdom, and the glory forever and ever.

24:58

And now, will you stand?

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And now unto him who is able to keep us from falling,

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and to present us faultless

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before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy,

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to the only wise God, our savior,

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to be dominion and power, knowledge and glory,

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now and ever more, amen.

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Each Sunday as we worship,

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we make more use of the name Lord or Jesus than any other,

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Most of our affairs in with through Jesus Christ our Lord.

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And in our hymns and anthems, the name, Lord, is dominant

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as in those we sang today.

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The reading of scripture and in preaching,

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the same is often true,

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and many of us in our various home churches repeat

26:16

in every service, the Apostle's Creed

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where we confess, I believe in Jesus Christ,

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his only son, our Lord.

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The book of Acts which tells the story

26:30

of Christian beginnings testifies

26:31

that Jesus is Lord was the earliest creed of the church.

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Confession of it was the single requirement

26:38

for baptism and influence into church.

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As time went on, the church became more wordy

26:45

and its effort to provide a definitive statement

26:47

of Jesus' nature and mission,

26:51

but it never really succeeded

26:54

in improving upon the original confession, Jesus is lord.

26:57

That single, simple creed was power-laden.

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Moving men to a conquest that is unparalleled in history

27:07

and laying for us foundations of the church

27:12

that are our heritage to this very day.

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But what did it mean?

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What did those first Christians confess

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when they acknowledged Jesus is Lord?

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What do we mean when we use it repeatedly in worship?

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When we confess, I believe in Jesus Christ,

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his only son, our Lord.

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Is it merely a word in our worship vocabulary

27:38

that we repeat by pious or perhaps faultless roped,

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but on which we would be embarrassed

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if we were asked to indicate its meaning?

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If it should become more

27:54

than a mechanical expression in worship,

27:55

if it should become a truly personal confession,

27:58

Jesus is my Lord, what would this do to your life?

28:02

What would it do to mine?

28:07

We could begin to answer these questions

28:11

by referring to a number of places in the new Testament,

28:13

but I believe that we could do no better

28:17

than to begin with Paul and see

28:18

what Jesus is Lord meant to him.

28:20

If you would hastily scan his letters,

28:25

you would find that Lord was Paul's favorite

28:27

and almost constant theme or name for Jesus.

28:31

Why?

28:36

The answer is much more extensive

28:38

than we could possibly make clear

28:40

and meaning in this sermon.

28:41

But I would like to present three reasons

28:43

which I believe were primary,

28:46

reasons which I believe must be

28:48

in our acknowledgement of Jesus as Lord

28:50

if our confession is to be significant.

28:54

First and foremost reason was this.

29:00

Jesus was Lord to Paul because he was Lord, Paul's savior.

29:03

Paul makes it clear that it was the Damascus road experience

29:11

that never to be forgotten first encounter

29:15

with his Lord that changed his life.

29:18

I wish that time would allow us to make

29:22

a searching analysis of this experience

29:24

and the background that preceded it

29:26

for I believe that it would be highly rewarding,

29:28

but we can suggest but one conclusion

29:31

that such an analysis would reveal.

29:34

Paul's conversion was not the kind

29:37

that we ordinarily think of,

29:40

that of a dramatic transformation

29:43

from a bad life to a good life.

29:46

This was no drunkard, no philanderer,

29:48

no crook who hit the sawdust trail.

29:50

In fact, it was his moral sensitivity

29:55

that created this problem.

29:57

And soon, the moral law of Judaism captured Paul,

30:03

and with that law came moral consciousness.

30:06

And the result, an involvement in a mortal struggle

30:10

and inner civil war between an enlightened conscience

30:15

and natural impulse with no power

30:19

to win the victory for the higher side.

30:22

Listen as I read a short portion

30:26

of the seventh chapter of Romans,

30:28

which many scholars hold is an autobiographical reflection

30:29

on his desperate state of mind

30:33

before his transforming experience.

30:35

"And I come up against the law, I want to do good.

30:40

My conscious mind whole heartedly endorses the law

30:43

yet I observe an entirely different principle

30:47

at work in my nature.

30:50

This is in continual conflict with my conscious attitude

30:52

and makes me an unwilling prisoner

30:55

to the law of sin and death.

30:57

In my mind, I am God's willing servant,

31:00

but in my own nature, I am bound fast

31:03

as I say to the law of sin and death.

31:06

It is an agonizing situation.

31:09

And who on earth can set me free

31:12

from the clutches of my own sinful nature?

31:15

I thank God there is a way out

31:18

through Jesus Christ our Lord."

31:21

What Paul is saying here will be puzzling to many,

31:26

but to everyone who has been morally sensitive to failure

31:30

who has experienced a great forgiveness,

31:33

everyone to whom an experience surprised

31:37

has spelled the difference between victory and defeat,

31:40

between radiant hope and happiness

31:42

as over against despair, these will understand.

31:46

Christ was Paul's Lord because Christ

31:51

has brought an assurance and hope

31:54

where before there had been doubt and despair,

31:56

had brought peace where there had been inner civil war,

31:59

had brought strength and accomplishment

32:02

where before there had been weakness and futility.

32:05

Now why have I spent this much time with Paul's experience?

32:09

Because I believe that it is an historical parable

32:15

on a recurring condition on man's condition,

32:18

on your condition, and my condition,

32:23

I believe that Christians should find illuminating

32:28

the lesson of church history,

32:31

that whenever Christianity became weak,

32:34

whenever the church conformed to this world

32:38

rather than transforming it,

32:41

it was due to a shift of center

32:44

from Christ to some other center,

32:48

to credal dogmatism, to institutionalism,

32:52

to political aspirations, or to downright worldliness.

32:56

But whenever it became a power that transformed the world,

33:02

it was because Christians went

33:08

through some kind of soul shaking, soul stirring,

33:09

and soul transforming experience themselves like Paul,

33:13

and Christ became the center

33:20

of their devotion and their loyalty.

33:22

He was Lord of their lives

33:24

when he was enthroned on a basis

33:27

of personal experience as their savior.

33:29

I've come to an increasing appreciation of this lesson.

33:36

When I was in divinity school,

33:41

it was a popular thing to discredit revivalism

33:43

and the conversion experience.

33:47

In fact, it was prophesied that such religious phenomena

33:50

were of the past and would not be

33:53

in the religion of the future.

33:56

That this view was a product of that liberal development

33:58

in religion that said in part that a child nurtured

34:02

in a Christian home could be brought

34:05

up not ever knowing that he was anything but a Christian.

34:07

And this theory verified me no end

34:11

because it fitted my personal life perfectly.

34:12

I was brought up in a Christian home

34:18

and I regarded myself as a Christian,

34:19

although I've never gone through

34:22

any transforming experience.

34:24

And I went out teaching this theory

34:27

of Christian education with the fervor of an evangelist.

34:29

But to my dying day,

34:35

I shall not forget the reaction of a woman

34:36

to this kind of exhortation when on one occasion,

34:39

I was before a group of Sunday school teachers.

34:43

And when I was making it plain and convincing,

34:47

I thought that children could and should grow up smoothly

34:51

and without upsetting conflicts into the Christian faith,

34:57

I noticed that this woman

35:01

on the front row displayed increasing dissatisfaction

35:04

with what I was saying until suddenly,

35:07

she interrupted me while I was in the very middle

35:11

of a sentence by standing up

35:13

and shaking a finger in my face.

35:15

And I want to testify it was

35:17

the longest finger I've ever seen in my life, and exploding.

35:18

"It is a terrible thing for the Christian faith

35:23

that you are loose in the world."

35:27

(audience chuckling)

35:31

At the time, I accepted her reproach

35:35

with what I'm sure was an air

35:37

of calm and self-righteous tolerance.

35:39

But in these latter years,

35:42

I think I have come to see the point.

35:44

Purveyors of a Christian faith

35:48

who claim that a person can grow up

35:50

as a Christian without conflict within his own nature

35:51

and without conflict with the kind of world

35:55

that we are living in can be accused

35:57

of harboring a monstrous illusion of man's goodness,

36:00

which the facts of life simply do not support.

36:04

Indeed, man's predicament today

36:09

has brought realistic appraisals from strange places.

36:12

Listen to this appraisal.

36:16

"We're all headed for hell in a hand bearer.

36:19

If ever the people of the world stood

36:23

in the need of spiritual revival, it is now.

36:24

We're beginning to poison

36:29

the face of the earth with our miserable presence.

36:30

The brakes are off.

36:33

The car to the world slides down the way,

36:35

greased with greed, hatred, ambition, lies,

36:38

self-seeking anabris toward the pit."

36:42

Billy Graham? No.

36:47

No other than a sophisticated writer

36:50

in that sophisticated magazine, "Esquire".

36:54

And I am not quoting it simply to present the unexpected.

37:00

Although I would admit that source presents

37:04

a strange bedfellow for the Bible.

37:06

I do so because some persons admittedly

37:09

outside of the church are being more typical

37:14

in their assessment of man's situation

37:18

than large numbers of Christians within the church.

37:21

I find this true with many of my students.

37:26

Each year at the beginning of the course

37:30

in introductory religion, or the course in the Bible,

37:31

I ask my class the meaning

37:36

of the expression, the grace of God.

37:37

And each year, it's the same, silence and puzzled stares.

37:40

One student did venture,

37:47

"It's the prayer that's said before meal."

37:48

And I find that the book of Romans

37:53

with its theme of man's continual rebellion

37:54

and God's act of reconciliation,

37:57

of dying to the old man and becoming

38:00

a new man in Christ is both

38:02

the academic high hurdle of the year's course

38:04

and the point where student interest hits a new low.

38:07

Now why?

38:12

Well, the analysis may be faulty,

38:14

but my guess is that the theological side

38:16

of Romans makes no point of vital contact

38:19

with the average student's experience.

38:24

He was in a biblical foreign language course

38:27

for the first time in his life.

38:30

He finds Paul dismally pessimistic about man's nature.

38:32

This is the product of that ease

38:39

the men smoothly without conflict theory

38:42

of religious education I was speaking of earlier

38:44

where the process of becoming a Christian is

38:47

so smooth that the subject is not much aware

38:50

of what it is that he is easing into.

38:52

And if there is sensitivity to a world of conflict,

38:58

it is something that lies outside of himself

39:01

as in democracy versus communism

39:04

or segregation versus integration.

39:07

Please understand me. I'm not being critical.

39:11

How can I be?

39:16

These are my theological chickens come home to roost.

39:19

Believe me, I'm doing daily penance for earlier teaching.

39:25

I'm not suggesting that every Christian

39:34

before he becomes genuinely Christian must go

39:37

through a calendar conversion experience

39:40

that can be dated to the minute

39:42

and to which he refers, "That was when I was saying."

39:44

Nor do I believe that every Christian must have

39:50

a dramatic experience that completely changes his life.

39:53

But of this, I am increasingly convinced all of us,

40:01

and I'm talking about Christians now.

40:05

If we are sensitive Christians at all,

40:09

do go through experiences, not once but often,

40:13

that shaped our foundations.

40:17

And why?

40:20

We're trying to live in two cities,

40:22

the city of God and the city of this world.

40:26

We're surrounded by people,

40:29

even on a Christian college campus,

40:31

whom we can describe only as pagans.

40:34

Although open, happy pagans, as Dr. Beach aptly admits.

40:38

They improvise their standard to suit their own advantage.

40:45

Life is lived as conscience dictates and opportunity allows.

40:49

After all, a fellow must look out for number one.

40:53

No one else will.

40:56

It's perfectly natural. Everybody's doing it.

40:58

And these paintings cut a wide path

41:02

through traditional Christian morality

41:06

and the Christian looks all,

41:08

first with amazement, then perhaps with admiration and envy.

41:10

After all, these pagans seem to be getting

41:16

a whale of a lot of fun out of life.

41:18

They don't seem to need religion.

41:21

They make no reference to its standards

41:23

and claim they're perfectly satisfied with the results.

41:25

And when that happens to a Christian,

41:28

he either joins their camp or he demonstrates

41:30

what Paul describes as a walking civil war.

41:34

I delight in the law of God but I see in my members

41:38

another law at war with the law of my mind

41:41

and making me captive to the law of sin.

41:44

But I submit that there is no Christian worthy

41:48

of the name who escapes this inner struggle in some form.

41:52

Pagan world sees to that prayer.

41:59

And I am also saying that until

42:03

we experience by their own one Damascus road

42:04

or through a number of lesser radical occasions

42:08

an increasing resolution of this personal civil warfare

42:11

through the transforming power of Jesus Christ,

42:16

until we can claim what Paul joyously claimed when he said,

42:19

"I thank God there is a way out."

42:23

Through Jesus Christ our Lord we have no basis

42:26

for really understanding the Lordship of Christ.

42:30

We acknowledge him as Lord when we know him first as savior.

42:34

there were preeminently two results of Paul's experience

42:42

of Christ, his savior, that I believe

42:45

we Christians have special need of today.

42:46

The first result is vividly conveyed

42:50

in Paul's frequent reference

42:52

to himself as a slave of Christ.

42:54

The only way to begin to fathom

42:59

the depth of Paul's love and loyalty for his Lord

43:01

is to get a feel of Paul's deep sense

43:06

of gratitude for what his Lord had done for him.

43:09

This is why Paul makes frequent use

43:13

of the master-slave relationship.

43:15

His Lord owned him and paid a price

43:17

for something Paul could not buy.

43:21

Hence Paul was gloriously in debt to his Lord

43:23

and thy is supreme joy to him was

43:26

to toil unceasingly for the one who had saved him.

43:29

And with glad heart,

43:33

Paul acknowledged his allegiance to his master.

43:36

How are we need of fresh outburst

43:43

of that sense of allegiance?

43:45

Listen, again, to that writer from "Esquire".

43:48

"Out of this despair over the current human situation,

43:52

he sees one hope.

43:55

The voice for which my heavy spirit

43:59

is yearning must reach all

44:01

for if it is not heard, we are lost.

44:02

Something there must be that we love other than ourselves.

44:06

Some goal beyond our material enrichment

44:10

and the lust for power and position.

44:13

Some rewards founded upon goodwill, selflessness,

44:16

and the innate dignity of the human spirit.

44:19

Honor, humility, decency, courage."

44:22

Now whether the writer knew it or not,

44:28

this is the language of Christianity.

44:31

Something that must be that we love other than ourselves.

44:34

Only Christianity identifies

44:39

the object of that love as the Christ, the Lord,

44:42

because he is the very love of God incarnate,

44:47

therefore beloved if God so loved us,

44:50

we also ought to love one another.

44:55

And I'm saying to you that in this world

45:00

where the word love has been jaded by romance,

45:03

weakened by skepticism, frozen by prejudice and fear,

45:08

we need a fresh outburst of genuine love

45:14

that comes from the sense of allegiance

45:17

to the Christ, the Lord of our lives.

45:19

And men and women who really capture our hearts

45:23

are those who were themselves captured

45:26

by this kind of love and then lived it.

45:29

By summers, I've walked over

45:35

a considerable portion of England.

45:36

I frequently felt that I was on sacred soil

45:39

because here and there had worked and lived

45:42

and died noble persons to whom in many ways I am a debtor.

45:45

But when I was in Westminster Abbey,

45:53

and unexpectedly came upon the slab in the floor

45:55

that marked the burial place of David Livingston,

46:00

I felt the impulse to take off my shoes,

46:03

for I was standing on holy ground.

46:07

As early as I can remember,

46:10

I heard the name of David Livingston spoken

46:12

with reverence in my home because

46:14

his story had captured the hearts of my parents.

46:17

Physician, linguist, explorer,

46:21

geographer, crusader against slavery, naturalist.

46:24

But above all, a missionary to Africa

46:28

of God's love for Africa.

46:32

Let me read to you two short paragraphs

46:37

from a recent biography concerning a visit

46:39

to Cambridge with that university sought to do him honor.

46:41

The first is a description written later

46:45

by the registrar of the university.

46:47

"Livingstone appeared in the company

46:51

of distinguished persons.

46:52

In more contrast to them he saw a,

46:54

we saw a man of moderate height,

46:57

very plainly dressed, his face tan to a deep brown

46:59

by long exposure to sun and wind

47:02

and buried by deep lines that spoke

47:05

of hardship and disease endured and overcome.

47:07

I think I never saw any man whose appearance told

47:11

its own tale as Livingston's did."

47:15

Then this excerpt from Livingston's address

47:20

to the student body at Cambridge.

47:22

"I have never ceased to rejoice

47:26

that God has appointed me to such an office.

47:28

People talk of the sacrifices I've made.

47:31

Can that be called a sacrifice,

47:35

which simply paid back is a small part of a great debt,

47:36

which brings its own blessed reward and helpful activity,

47:40

the consciousness of doing good, peace of mind,

47:45

and a bright hope of a glorious destiny hereafter?

47:48

It is emphatically no sacrifice.

47:52

Of this, we ought not to talk."

47:56

This was the measure of the man.

48:01

Little wonder that such a life given

48:04

in love captured the heart of Africa.

48:05

And little wonder that when he died,

48:08

the natives took his heart and buried

48:10

it beneath the soil of Africa.

48:14

And there, as his biographer ends the story,

48:18

"Dust to dust, it mingles with the mold

48:21

of the land he loved and gave his life for."

48:25

Today, thank God we are not

48:31

without similar witnesses to Christ's love.

48:33

Albert Schweitzer, Frank Laubach, and others,

48:36

But we all cannot be Livingstons

48:41

and Schweitzers and Laubachs.

48:43

Though I pray that this university will one day produce one.

48:46

But we all can be witnesses to Christ's love.

48:51

There are many about us who are.

48:56

When thinking of an alumnus

49:01

of this university whose love for youth inspired

49:03

him to work tirelessly for the YMCA of this city,

49:05

until at last, a magnificent youth plant offers

49:09

to derms youth wholesome activities

49:14

for the building of character.

49:16

I'm thinking of a wife of one of our retired professors

49:20

who, for 20 years, has worked literally day and night

49:25

without salary compensation most of the time

49:30

to direct a nursery school for children

49:34

of needy families whose mothers must work.

49:37

I'm thinking of two professors

49:43

who will retire at the June commencement,

49:44

and who together have given a total of 60 years

49:47

of devoted service to this university

49:51

because they have loved students and led.

49:54

And I'm thinking of students who give

49:59

their time and talent to Edgemont Community Center

50:01

who writes refuge and a dozen other places

50:05

who are concerned about the problems and needs

50:09

of those less fortunate than themselves.

50:11

And I'm thinking of a Negro maid who day in and day out,

50:16

year in and year out has dusted,

50:22

mopped, and polished in this chapel

50:26

because, as she once told me,

50:31

she loves her Lord and gets pleasure

50:34

out of keeping His house clean and lovely

50:38

so that others might worship Him in it.

50:45

I am convinced that the greatest single need

50:51

of this world is a great outpouring

50:55

of this Christ-like love and devotion

51:00

in terms of simple kindness

51:03

and thoughtfulness and generosity,

51:05

a deep concern for the rights and wellbeing

51:08

of others that will not be stopped

51:11

by walls of class and race and nationality.

51:14

It is this kind of love that our Lord wants

51:18

to inspire and nourish in us.

51:22

And when we truly acknowledge him

51:26

as the Lord to whom we owe wholehearted allegiance, he does.

51:28

But Jesus as Lord not only captures

51:42

the heart and fills it with love,

51:44

he fills it with courage, cosmic courage, if you will.

51:47

That is a reason why I read that portion

51:54

of Paul's letter to the Colossians.

51:55

Here we have described for us,

51:58

Paul's ultimates for Christ as Lord.

52:01

He is the image of the invisible God for in him,

52:03

all things were created in heaven and on earth

52:07

and in him, all things hold together

52:09

for in him, the fullness of God was pleased to dwell.

52:12

Here is the revelation that

52:17

when a man finds in Christ the savior,

52:19

when he declares his full allegiance to him,

52:22

then he has come into a vital relationship with the creator,

52:26

the designer, and the power of all of light.

52:30

In Him, all the lines of the universe converge

52:35

and through him and his resurrection was proclaimed

52:40

the eventual doom of all hostile forces.

52:43

He is God's alpha and omega.

52:47

And how we need the courage that comes from that.

52:51

Because daily, we are becoming more cosmic-bonded.

52:57

But the paradox is that as the boundaries

53:01

of our knowledge of the universe expand,

53:04

we become increasingly pitiful.

53:06

Will this very cosmic mindedness destroy us?

53:11

This would be a terrifying question

53:15

if we did not have Christ as our Lord.

53:18

Paul is saying to us that in Christ,

53:21

as Lord of the universe, there is a power.

53:23

There is a power to make us fearless before hostile forces.

53:27

And he is declaring that the world

53:33

is not moving on to extinction, but on to Christ,

53:34

that it is God's plan in the fullness of time

53:40

to reconcile all things to himself

53:44

through his only son, Christ our Lord.

53:49

Things in heaven, things on earth,

53:52

that kind of faith gives courage,

53:56

cosmic courage to face with hope and confidence

54:00

the questions of a cosmic age.

54:03

What do you mean when you confess,

54:09

I believe in Jesus Christ, his only son, our Lord?

54:10

Is he your savior who transformed you by his love?

54:15

Is he your master who commands

54:20

your willing and joyful allegiance?

54:23

Is he, for you, the Lord of the universe

54:27

who gives you courage that is born of an imperishable hope?

54:30

If this is what you confess,

54:37

then truly, yours is a matchless, priceless faith.

54:40

Let us stand for the benediction.

54:48

God be gracious unto you and give you all in heart

54:56

to serve you and to do his will

54:58

with a good courage and a willing mind.

55:00

And open your hearts and his love

55:03

and commandments and send you peace

55:05

and hear your prayers and never forsake you

55:08

in time of trouble through Jesus Christ our lord.

55:12

Bishop Nolan B. Harmon - "No Wagons" (April 27, 1958); James H. Phillips - "His Only Son, Our Lord" (May 18, 1958)

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