Stuart C. Henry - "Beyond Damascus" (February 28, 1960)
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| (keyboard music) | 0:03 | |
| - | Near to exhaustion yet determined to reach Damascus | 0:31 |
| saw with venom in his heart | 0:38 | |
| trudged along the rough terrain, | 0:41 | |
| a consuming passion had driven him | 0:45 | |
| to undertake this journey. | 0:48 | |
| Somewhat earlier, he had come | 0:51 | |
| to the holy city of Jerusalem | 0:53 | |
| to complete his study of the law. | 0:54 | |
| And there, he had been alarmed | 0:58 | |
| by the heresy of a group of followers, | 1:00 | |
| diluted man, who went after one Jesus | 1:04 | |
| and called him Lord. | 1:08 | |
| With growing apprehension, | 1:11 | |
| he had seen their numbers mount | 1:13 | |
| and then the members of the Sanhedrin | 1:16 | |
| that council that guarded Israel's religious life | 1:19 | |
| began relentlessly to hunt the brethren down | 1:24 | |
| and to flag the blasphemy out of them. | 1:27 | |
| So remorseless a campaign did they wage | 1:31 | |
| that many went into hiding | 1:34 | |
| and some fled the city | 1:37 | |
| and there for a while the man arrested, | 1:39 | |
| at least with the priests not so with Soul. | 1:42 | |
| He went into one house after another | 1:48 | |
| dragging out men and women | 1:51 | |
| and casting them into prison | 1:52 | |
| and breathing out murderous threats, | 1:55 | |
| he pursued them even to the cities | 1:58 | |
| where they had taken refuge, | 2:00 | |
| that he might search them out | 2:02 | |
| and destroy them there. | 2:04 | |
| Armed with letters from the high priest, | 2:07 | |
| he took it upon himself to go even toward Damascus | 2:10 | |
| and when he was almost within sight | 2:15 | |
| of his destination, it happened. | 2:18 | |
| A light dazzling and blinding shone about him. | 2:22 | |
| He fell to his feet. | 2:27 | |
| A voice cried out from heaven, | 2:30 | |
| "Soul, Soul, why do you persecute me?" | 2:33 | |
| "Who are you?" | 2:39 | |
| "I am Jesus." | 2:42 | |
| And so they met. | 2:46 | |
| Jesus, the Christ and the Jew of Tarsus. | 2:48 | |
| Reconciliation and redemption followed swiftly | 2:54 | |
| on this encounter, | 2:57 | |
| healed of his blindness and received as a brother | 2:59 | |
| by the followers of Christ at Damascus | 3:04 | |
| Paul strove no more against the Christ. | 3:07 | |
| Henceforth, he might struggle with the flesh, | 3:11 | |
| he might wrestle with principalities and powers | 3:14 | |
| but the content between him and the Christ was ended. | 3:17 | |
| He had met the Christ | 3:22 | |
| and Christ was victor. | 3:24 | |
| But the Damascus episode is neither the conclusion | 3:28 | |
| or the climax to Paul's story. | 3:32 | |
| His significant lies | 3:37 | |
| not in the meeting itself | 3:39 | |
| but in what happened in the years beyond Damascus. | 3:42 | |
| A changed man, he was | 3:47 | |
| and a different person. | 3:49 | |
| And in the years that followed | 3:51 | |
| he went far, far beyond Damascus. | 3:55 | |
| Pisidian Antioch, Ephesus, current Rome | 3:59 | |
| for more than a decade | 4:05 | |
| he moved around in the Mediterranean world | 4:08 | |
| and he drove himself with a burning passion | 4:11 | |
| never relaxing his effort | 4:15 | |
| to convert men to the gospel. | 4:17 | |
| Going along the rocky roads | 4:20 | |
| and through the thorny defiles of Cypress | 4:22 | |
| and the Asia Minor and Greece. | 4:25 | |
| But it was after the encounter | 4:28 | |
| that he fought this good fight. | 4:31 | |
| It was following the meeting with Christ | 4:33 | |
| that he knew the very essence of his life | 4:37 | |
| transformed by a shattering and remaking power | 4:40 | |
| of the presence of the risen one. | 4:44 | |
| It was in the years beyond Damascus | 4:47 | |
| that this dynamic messenger | 4:50 | |
| became the representative of Christianity | 4:52 | |
| to the Western world. | 4:55 | |
| Now, the sermon from this familiar story of Paul's life | 5:00 | |
| is an obvious one. | 5:04 | |
| It comes to us in letters | 5:07 | |
| so large that as Emily Dickinson says, | 5:09 | |
| "He who runs may read it without his glasses | 5:14 | |
| written upon revelations wall." | 5:17 | |
| The important thing, | 5:21 | |
| was not meeting the Christ | 5:22 | |
| but the response to that meeting, | 5:25 | |
| it is not enough simply to be moved with wonder | 5:28 | |
| and with praise. | 5:31 | |
| Do you not remember how on occasion, | 5:33 | |
| Jesus took Peter, James and John with him | 5:36 | |
| up into an high mountain | 5:40 | |
| and there for an instant | 5:42 | |
| the veil of flesh could not hide the essence of his being | 5:44 | |
| and deity shown through | 5:48 | |
| with the radiance whiter than all of Herman snows. | 5:50 | |
| They stood so close to eternity | 5:54 | |
| that when they came down from the mountain | 5:57 | |
| their very faces were shining with full reflected glory. | 6:00 | |
| Yet they were still unwilling | 6:05 | |
| to walk toward the cross | 6:08 | |
| already reaching out | 6:10 | |
| with God wooden arms to gather them | 6:12 | |
| into our lethal embrace. | 6:15 | |
| It's not enough to be moved with amazement | 6:18 | |
| to fall upon our faces. | 6:21 | |
| More was required of that than them and of us. | 6:24 | |
| As nearly as a man can understand such an encounter, | 6:31 | |
| Paul understood it. | 6:36 | |
| Here was more than a meeting and a knowledge of the truth. | 6:39 | |
| Here was a recognition of the truth | 6:44 | |
| and an acceptance of the plain obligation | 6:48 | |
| that this truth laid upon life. | 6:51 | |
| Here was not the knowledge but acknowledgement | 6:54 | |
| has spontaneously the words rise to the lips of Paul. | 6:59 | |
| What would thou have me do? | 7:03 | |
| There must be something to do in response. | 7:06 | |
| Long afterwards, preaching in chains before King Agrippa, | 7:10 | |
| Paul recall this experience, | 7:15 | |
| and do you know what he said? | 7:18 | |
| "I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision | 7:20 | |
| for to obey the evasion | 7:25 | |
| means to accept the responsibility, | 7:28 | |
| to assume the obligation. | 7:31 | |
| So then this sermon is plain for us. | 7:35 | |
| We must respond to the heavenly vision. | 7:39 | |
| And Paul is an archetype for us | 7:43 | |
| not because he had a vision, | 7:45 | |
| but because he obeyed it. | 7:49 | |
| And if we claim saintenous for him, | 7:50 | |
| we must do so on the basis | 7:54 | |
| of that incandescent flame | 7:57 | |
| that continued to burn within him | 7:59 | |
| and shine through his deeds | 8:02 | |
| and illuminate the way beyond Damascus | 8:05 | |
| as he went about performing the deeds | 8:08 | |
| worthy of repentance. | 8:12 | |
| So then the question is still upon the human heart, | 8:15 | |
| how do I respond to a heavenly vision? | 8:18 | |
| Yes, you ask. | 8:22 | |
| How do I respond? | 8:24 | |
| Particularly you inquire when you are not certain | 8:27 | |
| that the voice will speak to you | 8:30 | |
| or the heavens open or the light shine about you. | 8:32 | |
| Do you go along the road to Damascus? | 8:36 | |
| Will you meet eternity face to face? | 8:40 | |
| If even in an instant of time | 8:43 | |
| shall you have the heavenly vision? | 8:46 | |
| The answer is, yes. | 8:50 | |
| For Christ comes to all, | 8:54 | |
| look about you. | 8:57 | |
| Here are the signs and the symbols | 8:57 | |
| the dates on the calendar, | 9:01 | |
| the spars against the sky | 9:03 | |
| the bells on the morning hour, | 9:05 | |
| the message from the pulpit | 9:07 | |
| the words from the book, | 9:09 | |
| the bread and the wine. | 9:10 | |
| He speaks in all these sign and symbols | 9:12 | |
| and may come to us in any of them, | 9:15 | |
| but they have grown trite and familiar. | 9:17 | |
| And too often we find him not in them | 9:21 | |
| but this does not mean | 9:24 | |
| because he does not come to you or me | 9:27 | |
| in so clear and plain a fashion | 9:29 | |
| that the heart knows the answer | 9:32 | |
| before the ears hear him say, "I am Jesus." | 9:34 | |
| This does not mean because he comes | 9:38 | |
| in no clear fashion | 9:40 | |
| that you shall not meet him. | 9:42 | |
| Finally, the meeting on the Damascus road | 9:46 | |
| was no more for Paul than a meeting with the truth, | 9:50 | |
| for Christ is truth. | 9:54 | |
| And truth is a visitor who wears many faces. | 9:58 | |
| Flee him as you will, | 10:02 | |
| you may not escape truth. | 10:04 | |
| He will pursue you down the labyrinth | 10:06 | |
| of your doubts and days. | 10:09 | |
| And he will find you out | 10:11 | |
| for he speaks all languages. | 10:13 | |
| Truth will search you | 10:16 | |
| and truth will come to you. | 10:18 | |
| How then? Rather how not and where not? | 10:21 | |
| You are students for the most part. | 10:27 | |
| What more natural than that | 10:29 | |
| truth should speak to you through the pages of your books. | 10:31 | |
| You are reading the assignment | 10:35 | |
| and it is that first no more than lines to be memorized. | 10:37 | |
| Something to be outlined, | 10:42 | |
| a date to be committed to memory. | 10:45 | |
| You read the sorry tale | 10:47 | |
| of Thomas Wolsey, Cardinal of York | 10:49 | |
| in the days of Henry VII. | 10:53 | |
| Here is the glory of a greedy, worldly pellet | 10:56 | |
| of a churchman who betrayed his trust | 11:00 | |
| and who finally was trapped | 11:04 | |
| by his own duplicity and greed. | 11:06 | |
| And all at once, | 11:09 | |
| the words are no longer words. | 11:11 | |
| They are the very I mantle of truth | 11:14 | |
| for here is more than the confession of a man | 11:17 | |
| who is stripped of his offices | 11:21 | |
| and bereft of his wealth. | 11:23 | |
| Here is truth speaking to you as he speaks. | 11:26 | |
| Had I but served my God | 11:30 | |
| with half the zeal I served by king, | 11:33 | |
| he would not in mine age | 11:37 | |
| have left me naked to mine enemies. | 11:39 | |
| Here is the solemn warning | 11:44 | |
| of the awful folly of placing our trust | 11:47 | |
| in earthly treasures that time can destroy | 11:50 | |
| or that thieves can despoil. | 11:54 | |
| Here is the grand reminder | 11:57 | |
| that your chief end and your only joy | 11:59 | |
| is in the love and the service of God. | 12:02 | |
| Do you not see what has happened? | 12:06 | |
| Truth has met you | 12:09 | |
| as you studied your lesson. | 12:10 | |
| And it is not only in philosophy or in literature | 12:13 | |
| that this can happen. | 12:16 | |
| God can speak to you | 12:18 | |
| in the bare beauty of the laboratory | 12:20 | |
| or in the balanced rhythm of an equation he does. | 12:23 | |
| Or again, you are listening to the newscast, | 12:28 | |
| who consider the details of the missile race | 12:32 | |
| or the possibility of woos war than coal | 12:37 | |
| without trembling for the coming terror. | 12:40 | |
| Yet, as the newscast continues | 12:44 | |
| somehow these facts that are no more | 12:47 | |
| than articles from the paper | 12:49 | |
| or later to be read, | 12:52 | |
| become for you a window into an understanding | 12:54 | |
| of man's condition, | 12:58 | |
| so clear that you can never forget it again. | 13:00 | |
| There is never going to be a better world | 13:05 | |
| until there are better men in it. | 13:09 | |
| This is why we are in the mess we know, | 13:12 | |
| the cold war is nothing more no less | 13:15 | |
| than the highest pinnacle | 13:18 | |
| upon a whole continent of wrongdoing. | 13:20 | |
| We have gone on building machines, | 13:24 | |
| bigger and grander but we have lacked the soul | 13:27 | |
| and the mind to direct and control them. | 13:31 | |
| How ironical that we have discovered atomic fission | 13:34 | |
| which should have enriched and battered life. | 13:38 | |
| And yet it has become a threat to its very existence | 13:42 | |
| and the progress is all away from the things of the spirit. | 13:46 | |
| The television is an eye that sees further, | 13:50 | |
| the radio a keener ear, | 13:54 | |
| the H bomb, a stronger arm | 13:55 | |
| and our progress is impressive but materialistic | 13:58 | |
| and overcoming with this sickening realization | 14:02 | |
| of the difference between what you are | 14:05 | |
| and what I am and what we are meant to be. | 14:08 | |
| And of sorry mess that we have made of this world. | 14:10 | |
| There is no reaction accepting deep humility to cry out, | 14:14 | |
| "Oh, woe is me, for I am a man of unclean lips | 14:18 | |
| and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips." | 14:23 | |
| But this is truth having spoken to us. | 14:27 | |
| From the newscast or the pages of the paper | 14:31 | |
| and it is more than an Axiom that comes with it. | 14:35 | |
| The question is, "Well, who will go for us?" | 14:39 | |
| And instinctively if you have seen, | 14:43 | |
| there is no escape except to say, | 14:46 | |
| "Send me, send me." | 14:48 | |
| The truth, mind you is not always grim. | 14:53 | |
| Sometimes it is joyfully reassuring. | 14:56 | |
| Particularly, when we see it exhibited in the lives | 15:00 | |
| of folk about us, | 15:02 | |
| who does not know that grand and wonderful person | 15:05 | |
| in whose presence it is impossible | 15:08 | |
| for us to be little or mean or ugly. | 15:10 | |
| This one who bids us, | 15:14 | |
| be more than we are | 15:15 | |
| or more than we dare be. | 15:17 | |
| Or if it comes to that, | 15:21 | |
| what have the parent who asks nothing, | 15:23 | |
| nothing at all, | 15:25 | |
| except the opportunity to sacrifice for a child? | 15:27 | |
| Are not some of you here this day | 15:32 | |
| because a parent has willingly, eagerly sacrificed | 15:35 | |
| that you might come to college? | 15:40 | |
| And what of the friend | 15:44 | |
| who smiles and stands steadfastly by | 15:45 | |
| when others smile and turn away? | 15:49 | |
| Or this individual who lives under tension | 15:52 | |
| without whimpering or who suffers tragedy | 15:56 | |
| without the loss of faith? | 16:00 | |
| It does happen indeed | 16:03 | |
| and send not to inquire who these be | 16:05 | |
| who exhibit these characteristics | 16:08 | |
| of what these values mean. | 16:10 | |
| I can tell you, this is the voice of truth. | 16:13 | |
| Speaking to you and me and saying, | 16:16 | |
| "Go and do thou likewise." | 16:19 | |
| Oh yes. Every man travels the road to Damascus. | 16:23 | |
| Every man had his appointment with infinity. | 16:28 | |
| Each man shall be found by the truth. | 16:32 | |
| The obligation is laid upon us. | 16:35 | |
| The question is, how do we respond? | 16:37 | |
| Now, there are, it seems free courses | 16:42 | |
| open to those who have seen the truth. | 16:45 | |
| It is possible to run away from it, | 16:50 | |
| to ignore it, to shut the eyes to the vision, | 16:54 | |
| to stop the ears, to stifle the voice | 16:58 | |
| until the soul is scribbled | 17:03 | |
| and the conscience is dead. | 17:04 | |
| In the days of his flesh, | 17:07 | |
| there were those who did not stop or stay to listen. | 17:09 | |
| There were those who laughed at him, | 17:13 | |
| there were those who ran away, | 17:16 | |
| but in the end, | 17:19 | |
| the common lot of those who would not | 17:21 | |
| and did not listen to him was the same. | 17:24 | |
| You may run away from the truth | 17:28 | |
| and this is nothing more nor less | 17:30 | |
| than the common place reaction | 17:32 | |
| of being unwilling to do our duty | 17:35 | |
| to God, to fellow man, to our generation. | 17:38 | |
| Yes, when truth seeks you out, | 17:43 | |
| you may run away from it, | 17:45 | |
| or you may fight it. | 17:48 | |
| This was the sin of the Pharisees. | 17:50 | |
| This is the most virulent form of pride. | 17:53 | |
| This is seeing the truth and saying it is not true. | 17:57 | |
| And offering the ignoble, | 18:01 | |
| the toddly substitute. | 18:03 | |
| The words of the gospel leap out | 18:05 | |
| plainly before our eyes. | 18:07 | |
| And we cannot question what they mean | 18:09 | |
| but we say it does not mean this. | 18:11 | |
| We will not have it. | 18:15 | |
| That the publicans and the harlots | 18:16 | |
| have a place in the kingdom | 18:18 | |
| much less that they proceed us. | 18:20 | |
| We are respectable, they are not. | 18:23 | |
| It doesn't mean this. | 18:26 | |
| And we offer our substitute | 18:28 | |
| or political chicanery is revealed | 18:31 | |
| in high places of government. | 18:34 | |
| And instead of taking this opportunity | 18:36 | |
| to remake and to reform, | 18:38 | |
| we use the chaos as an attempt | 18:41 | |
| as an opportunity to jockey ourselves | 18:43 | |
| in the better position. | 18:46 | |
| We do not seek to stabilize the economy, | 18:48 | |
| we do not seek to show trust in the man | 18:51 | |
| who acts on principle rather than out of selfish interest. | 18:54 | |
| No, we use it for our advantage | 18:58 | |
| or we see an individual of true innocence and goodness | 19:01 | |
| and do we accept this as genuine? | 19:06 | |
| We do not. What is he really like? | 19:09 | |
| We inquire of a close friend. | 19:12 | |
| Assuming that if we but knew | 19:14 | |
| surely he cannot be so good as he seems | 19:16 | |
| we do not believe or even want the truth. | 19:20 | |
| We deny many times a day by our observation. | 19:23 | |
| It's too good to be true. | 19:27 | |
| But we will, will not have it | 19:30 | |
| that the truth is good. | 19:31 | |
| Now, when we offer these substitute values | 19:33 | |
| when we try to put our way, | 19:36 | |
| rather than God's way, | 19:39 | |
| we are guilty of what theologians have called hubris. | 19:40 | |
| This is what it is. | 19:44 | |
| It's seeking to invent values | 19:46 | |
| rather than to discover them. | 19:48 | |
| Instead of searching out what the will of God may be, | 19:51 | |
| we say, we know the truth | 19:54 | |
| and we offer the philosophy | 19:56 | |
| and we give the teaching. | 19:58 | |
| We meet the truth and it offends our pride | 20:00 | |
| and we fight it. | 20:03 | |
| Oh yes, we may run away from the truth, | 20:05 | |
| or we may rise up and fight against it, or we may, | 20:10 | |
| we may submit to it. | 20:16 | |
| And this is what Paul did. | 20:20 | |
| And submission to the truth is not this savor | 20:22 | |
| slavish defeated resignation that says, | 20:26 | |
| "I will take this way, | 20:31 | |
| and if I perish, I perish. | 20:34 | |
| The grim stoic determination | 20:38 | |
| that grits the teeth and sets the face." | 20:41 | |
| This is not submission to truth. | 20:45 | |
| Submission to truth, sees it with clear eyed honesty | 20:49 | |
| and says, "Lo, I come to do thy will." | 20:52 | |
| This is the acceptance of truth. | 20:59 | |
| And this is what Paul knew. | 21:02 | |
| And what does it mean for you or for me? | 21:04 | |
| It means of course, | 21:07 | |
| that if we are called upon to go in chains to Rome | 21:09 | |
| and be arraigned before Caesars bar, | 21:13 | |
| then we must be. | 21:15 | |
| But this is not the way in which it happens. | 21:17 | |
| It is not so grand or so dramatic as this. | 21:20 | |
| What happens to us is, | 21:24 | |
| that we see a little bit of the truth | 21:26 | |
| and it illuminates a dark corner of our lives. | 21:29 | |
| And here becomes the opportunity | 21:32 | |
| in this little remote corner of life | 21:34 | |
| or existence to build integrity. | 21:37 | |
| Here is the opportunity for us | 21:40 | |
| to bridge one single gap | 21:42 | |
| of misunderstanding with love. | 21:44 | |
| Here is the fellow whom we meet in the way | 21:47 | |
| and at least for him for a while, | 21:49 | |
| we may bear his burden. | 21:53 | |
| Here is the joyful secret of the heart | 21:55 | |
| that knows the truth | 21:58 | |
| and cannot keep it within himself. | 22:00 | |
| This is what the gospel is. | 22:02 | |
| This is the news that must be announced. | 22:04 | |
| This is the love that must be shared. | 22:07 | |
| One of Shaw's character says, | 22:11 | |
| "So long as I conceive something better than myself, | 22:14 | |
| I cannot rest, except I try to bring it into existence | 22:18 | |
| or clear the way for it." | 22:22 | |
| This is what submission to the truth means. | 22:25 | |
| And this is what you do and what I do | 22:28 | |
| when you submit to the truth. | 22:31 | |
| It is a lonely thing | 22:34 | |
| but there is a certain singularity of soul | 22:36 | |
| that for all the community goes | 22:39 | |
| with the Christian way. | 22:41 | |
| Do you see of all the men who have ever lived | 22:44 | |
| you only came to life at the instant of your birth. | 22:49 | |
| There is that essential part of you | 22:53 | |
| that is like no other one. | 22:56 | |
| It is known only to God. | 22:58 | |
| And it is this part of you that he addresses, | 23:01 | |
| this part of you, that he seeks out. | 23:04 | |
| You know, when Jesus spoke to man | 23:08 | |
| thus strongs heard him | 23:11 | |
| but he called the apostles, one by one. | 23:14 | |
| And when he said, "Come, follow me." | 23:19 | |
| He spoke to multitudes | 23:22 | |
| but they followed him in single file. | 23:24 | |
| And so in aloneness, and as an individual, | 23:27 | |
| the truth will find you | 23:32 | |
| and give the vision to you | 23:34 | |
| and lay the obligation | 23:37 | |
| that truth implies upon your soul. | 23:39 | |
| And when truth does, | 23:43 | |
| you may run away from it, | 23:46 | |
| you may fight it, | 23:50 | |
| or you may submit to it. | 23:53 | |
| And so God bless and pity you | 23:58 | |
| in the Damascus of your own soul | 24:03 | |
| you meet with Christ | 24:06 | |
| and you do submit to him. | 24:09 | |
| And his will lead you far beyond the place of meeting | 24:12 | |
| and you go groping, airing, | 24:17 | |
| stumbling, failing, falling to be sure, | 24:22 | |
| albeit creating, giving, blessing, | 24:28 | |
| showing compassion, feeling pity, knowing joy. | 24:34 | |
| I tell you, except there be compassion and pity | 24:41 | |
| and honor and sacrifice | 24:44 | |
| in the lives of Christian man and in his name, | 24:47 | |
| there shall be none, in this generation. | 24:51 | |
| And so you go, | 24:54 | |
| and so you show | 24:57 | |
| in the way that lies beyond Damascus. | 24:58 | |
| Go now, for you have the voices | 25:02 | |
| of the past to guide you. | 25:05 | |
| And do you have the memories of old mistakes to warn you | 25:08 | |
| and the need of this generation | 25:13 | |
| that beckons you. | 25:16 | |
| And beyond you, the road that lands | 25:19 | |
| out of Damascus and into the future | 25:23 | |
| of your life in love. | 25:28 | |
| Almighty God, lighten our eyes | 25:41 | |
| by the understanding of thy truth, | 25:48 | |
| that we may see eternity | 25:53 | |
| and make firm our wills | 25:56 | |
| that we may follow after | 25:59 | |
| and make strong our faith, | 26:03 | |
| that we may not doubt the goodness of it. | 26:06 | |
| The Lord bless you and keep you. | 26:11 | |
| The Lord make his face to shine upon you | 26:13 | |
| and be gracious under you. | 26:15 | |
| The Lord lift up his countenance upon you | 26:17 | |
| and give you peace. | 26:20 | |
| Both now and in the life of a lasting. | 26:21 | |
| (keyboard music) | 26:25 |