W. Arthur Kale - "Summons to Sainthood" (April 29, 1962)

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-	Of all the subjects discussed on a college campus,	0:22
	perhaps the topic, sainthood	0:28
	belongs at the bottom of the list.	0:33
	Who cares about saints?	0:37
	Who wants to talk about saints	0:42
	at any time, but especially on a Sunday	0:45
	following your college celebrations?	0:51
	Back in the 1930s, however, tourists who came to this chapel	0:56
	wanted to talk about at least one saint.	1:02
	In the very first year	1:08
	after the completion of this edifice,	1:09
	tourists who came who were impressed with the dignity	1:14
	and beauty of all our buildings	1:18
	went away talking chiefly about a very special saint	1:21
	whose likeness Duke University had placed	1:29
	in the great church in the center of its campus.	1:34
	The name of the saint was Garlic.	1:39
	That's right, spelled G-A-R-L-I-C, Saint Garlic.	1:45
	This might have become quite a legend	1:52
	except for one skeptical visitor	1:54
	who interrupted an attendant who was lecturing	1:58
	about the holy man with the unholy name and asked,	2:01
	"Who told you that that is Saint Garlic?"	2:06
	"Why," said the attendant, "Dr. William Preston Few,	2:13
	the President of Duke University told me, he's the one."	2:17
	This, of course, necessitated a visit	2:22
	to the President's Office	2:25
	and brought the President out of his inner cubicle	2:28
	with a characteristic grin on his face	2:32
	as he greeted the visiting inquirer and said,	2:35
	"I have been slightly misunderstood	2:40
	and definitely misquoted.	2:43
	I did not say that is Saint Garlic.	2:47
	I said that is symbolic."	2:53
	One realizes that he must enunciate quite carefully	2:58
	as he talks about saints.	3:05
	I have had trouble all week	3:09
	with the sermon subject for today.	3:10
	I sent it over to Chaplain Wilkinson earlier	3:14
	and a few days later,	3:20
	instead of finding "Summons to Sainthood"	3:21
	on various placards around the campus,	3:25
	I saw the title, "Sermons to Sainthood."	3:28
	And I sent over a mild protest and said,	3:34
	"That's not what I'm gonna to talk about.	3:38
	That doesn't make much sense to me."	3:39
	The Chaplain sent back saying, "Why do you bother?	3:43
	If it were Dean Cleland,	3:49
	the two words sermons and summons would not be the same,	3:52
	but you, a good American and a Southerner	3:59
	with something of a drawl,	4:02
	why don't you leave the word S-E-R-M-O-N-S	4:04
	and just pronounce it summons and go ahead?	4:07
	(audience laughing)	4:11
	I did very well and adjusted to that	4:16
	until I picked up last night's paper	4:18
	and read that the topic in the chapel on Sunday morning	4:21
	would be summons to fainthood spelled with an F.	4:24
	(audience laughing)	4:29
	Thus, somewhat faintheartedly,	4:33
	I launched myself upon the task of talking about summons	4:36
	or the call to sainthood.	4:43
	It is not my purpose to ask if one of the saints	4:48
	in a chapel window come down	4:52
	that I may extol his beatified nature.	4:55
	Rather, I come to do a more difficult	5:02
	and perhaps somewhat surprising task.	5:04
	Namely, to make a simple declaration	5:09
	and to talk about it for these few minutes.	5:13
	The declaration is a very brief one.	5:17
	Eight words, eight monosyllables of a sentence.	5:22
	We could use more saints in our time.	5:29
	Now, very quickly let me say	5:39
	that I am not espousing sanctimoniousness.	5:42
	I do not ask for a multiplication of,	5:47
	but rather deliverance from the pseudo-apostle	5:50
	with his spurious piety	5:56
	and such manifestations as his holy tone	5:59
	or the sanctimonious air	6:05
	or the vain repetitions of religious cliches	6:08
	and pedantic utterances.	6:13
	Just as quickly I wish to dismiss	6:16
	certain familiar concepts of sainthood,	6:19
	especially those that suggest that the life of the saint	6:24
	is not for the average man.	6:29
	We sometimes ascribe to biblical personalities	6:33
	some very unreal characteristics,	6:38
	as, for example, we speak of the patience of Job	6:44
	when more correctly we should note the impatience of Job	6:49
	as displayed in the great Old Testament drama.	6:54
	Or again, we look at the windows of our cathedral	6:59
	and the saints who appear there seem most unreal,	7:04
	having grotesque physical appearances	7:10
	with eyes that glare down upon you	7:14
	and toes on a left foot three times larger than normal	7:19
	standing piously, yet awkwardly,	7:25
	with hair and beard in tangles, wearing archaic clothing,	7:29
	and carrying a symbol appropriate to a name or a message.	7:37
	Somewhat unreal, we think.	7:44
	Still another concept must be laid aside.	7:50
	The one that requires a saint always to be a dead person.	7:54
	In this view, he is a famous personality,	7:59
	but always of the past eras, most likely someone associated	8:03
	with significant causes or events.	8:08
	Perhaps someone who has suffered greatly	8:13
	or who may have been martyred.	8:16
	Likely he's been canonized by some ecclesiastical body	8:19
	and declared eligible to the title saint.	8:24
	Nevertheless, he's dead.	8:29
	Perhaps the simplest meaning of the word	8:33
	and the one held by most Protestants	8:37
	is that a saint is an extraordinary Christian.	8:39
	A very devout and holy man exalted far above the average	8:47
	with his superior insight into God's ways	8:56
	and his unparalleled devotion to religious exercises.	9:01
	Now, all these familiar interpretations	9:08
	and points of view cannot be completely ignored.	9:12
	I know, nevertheless, they are misleading.	9:17
	They suggest that the saint is a very rare person,	9:23
	one in a million, one in a generation,	9:30
	two or three in a century.	9:35
	In contrast to that view, the New Testament,	9:39
	particularly the Church of the New Testament	9:44
	indicates that all members are called to be saints.	9:49
	In his letters to the Christians across the world,	9:57
	St. Paul was fond of addressing his readers with this term.	10:01
	Writing now to the saints at Colossae,	10:09
	still again to the saints at Philippi,	10:14
	and again at Corinth or Rome and so on.	10:18
	Other writers in the New Testament provide us with evidence	10:24
	that all members were called by this term.	10:28
	And it has been the responsibility of the Church	10:34
	in the intervening centuries	10:38
	to summon all people to the saintly light.	10:42
	Perhaps I should this morning address you	10:51
	as my fellow saints, but that would cause me to blush	10:58
	and perhaps prompt you to smile scornfully.	11:05
	I know I am not a saint,	11:09
	yet I am positive I am called to be one.	11:13
	Furthermore, I am persuaded	11:19
	that a more acceptable and a more Christian meaning	11:24
	to the term must be reintroduced	11:30
	into both conversation and public utterance.	11:35
	We can ill afford to deny that the capacity	11:42
	for spiritual genius and for spiritual insight belongs,	11:47
	at least in some measure,	11:53
	to all intelligent thinking persons.	11:56
	In this time when we frequently refer to the fact	12:03
	that we're on the threshold of a space era,	12:08
	we dare not place limitations on the abilities of man	12:12
	to respond to eternal calls	12:21
	or to calls from the eternal being whom we call God.	12:25
	It was Dr. Harold Bosley who declared from this pulpit	12:35
	some 10 or a dozen years ago when he was amongst us	12:40
	that ours will be the best generation in all history	12:45
	or it will be the last.	12:53
	It was that thought that started me	12:59
	upon the pursuit of further knowledge of sainthood	13:04
	and aroused my own first serious interest in this subject.	13:10
	What, then, do we really mean by the saintly life	13:19
	if we do not accept these familiar	13:25
	and popular interpretations?	13:28
	To what type of life is man called	13:32
	both by the exigencies of the times	13:37
	and by the very essence and purpose	13:41
	of the Christian Church or the Church of God?	13:45
	I have three simple answers, very briefly stated.	13:49
	First, sainthood has always meant	13:53
	and may continue to mean resistance to evil.	13:57
	Saints are people who are able to take punishment	14:05
	with a measure of poise and with a greater measure of faith	14:10
	and with a demonstration of high courage	14:16
	and of devotion to a principle beyond themselves.	14:21
	All forms of evil have provided tests	14:30
	for the saints in every century.	14:34
	Physical suffering is one. Ignorance is another.	14:36
	The very fact that we are mortal	14:42
	and inevitably must come to the hour of death	14:45
	is also considered by many an evil	14:48
	and the great fact of sin is still another.	14:51
	Well, whatever one's definition	14:55
	or one's favorite explication of the term may be,	14:57
	it remains consistently true that spiritually-minded persons	15:03
	possess a strange power to endure hardship,	15:12
	to overcome handicaps, and to offer stubborn resistance	15:18
	to all forms of evil.	15:26
	Likely you recall and are able to say often,	15:32
	as has been said for generations that Christians outthink	15:36
	and outlive and outdie non-Christians.	15:43
	Note that the letter from which we've chosen	15:54
	our Scripture passage for the morning,	15:57
	the letter called Ephesians is addressed	16:00
	to the residents of a great city.	16:03
	Like the citizens of other cities of the time, Corinth,	16:07
	Rome, others, and like the residents of cities	16:13
	in all other times, these Ephesians lived under pressures.	16:16
	This is true of man in every urbanized culture.	16:24
	City life beats upon us, our bodies,	16:29
	and our spirit ceaselessly every hour, day after day.	16:34
	The Ephesians likely knew the meaning of pressure.	16:44
	There were pressures threatening the solidarity	16:50
	of their family life.	16:53
	There were pressures then against moral restraints	16:56
	and in favor of moral irresponsibility.	17:00
	There were pressures to get ahead economically.	17:05
	There were pressures to keep abreast	17:09
	or perhaps to surpass the neighbors.	17:12
	There were pressures in the direction	17:15
	of social homogenization to dress in conformity with others,	17:18
	to travel to the same resorts	17:27
	to indulge in the same forms of recreation,	17:29
	to read the same types of literature, to think alike,	17:31
	to conform to stereotypes and conventions.	17:35
	And the pressures to interpret man's successful exploits	17:41
	as mechanic, as technician, as organizer,	17:47
	as manifestations of God's favor.	17:52
	Those Ephesians knew even as we know	17:58
	what city life can do to man.	18:03
	This is one reason why F.R. Barry some time ago	18:10
	said that the Book of Ephesians is at once the most modern	18:13
	of all the books of the New Testament and at the same time	18:19
	the richest record of Christian experience.	18:23
	Certainly this writer must have been familiar with the fact	18:28
	that man must be redeemed from fatigue, from hysteria,	18:32
	from insomnia, and chiefly from the meaningless existence	18:39
	that was their lot amidst the noisy clamor	18:48
	and impersonal atmosphere	18:55
	of their metropolitan transactions, fashions, and postures.	18:58
	Hence, the call to sainthood.	19:08
	Saints can and do withstand the pressures	19:15
	of urbanization and of homogenization.	19:20
	We've had a familiar example	19:27
	in our own American Protestant Christianity in our time	19:31
	in the person of Dr. Ralph Sockman,	19:37
	who recently retired from a long and distinguished ministry	19:40
	to a great church in New York City.	19:45
	Something like a dozen years ago "Time" magazine	19:49
	ran a feature article on Dr. Sockman,	19:53
	the final sentence of which was about as follows.	19:56
	"Dr. Sockman moves with relaxed urbanity,	20:02
	with a pace that would exhaust	20:10
	or at a pace that would exhaust	20:16
	the average business executive."	20:19
	No doubt Dr. Sockman would say,	20:24
	as I say, as you say, "I am no saint."	20:26
	Nevertheless, he has maintained through these 40	20:31
	and more years of a busy, exacting career	20:36
	in this great metropolis an inner poise and power	20:40
	that has shielded him and sustained him and directed him	20:50
	in the midst of the pressures of city life.	20:57
	It is about that inner power	21:04
	that the Ephesian letter is written.	21:08
	I bow my knees to the Father that He may grant you	21:13
	to be strengthened with might in the inner man.	21:18
	It is this inner power that men must achieve.	21:24
	It must not be limited to the Ralph Sockmans	21:28
	or to some Albert Schweitzer or to a Frank Laubach.	21:32
	We could use more persons with inner poise and power today.	21:38
	I wish I could delineate it more completely	21:49
	and more clearly, but I must press on to say another thing	21:52
	about the life of the saint.	21:57
	He is one who resists all forms of evil,	22:00
	and you can count on that.	22:04
	In the next instance, however, he is a person	22:08
	who with grace and with graciousness denies himself.	22:11
	He's remarkable in that sense.	22:22
	Perhaps you remember an old Latin motto	22:25
	which in English is, it is true art to conceal art.	22:28
	No saint needs a publicity bureau.	22:36
	Sainthood is perhaps the byproduct	22:42
	of the life of contemplation and prayer,	22:46
	the byproduct of commitment to a cause beyond yourself,	22:51
	the byproduct of obedience to the will of God.	22:56
	Some of you have read the great biography	23:02
	of St. Francis by Sabatier.	23:04
	And you may recall a very arresting sentence.	23:07
	Sabatier said of the great saint,	23:12
	"He possessed a rare combination of all the virtues,	23:15
	including the willingness to remain unknown."	23:21
	Sainthood involves denying self.	23:26
	In our own time, Douglas Steere has defined a saint	23:32
	not as a genius, but just a normal human being	23:36
	released from the love of self.	23:42
	Now in the final moment, the summary or the summarization	23:46
	and perhaps the climacteric thought related to it all	23:52
	is that a saint is just an ordinary person	23:56
	who has responded so completely to God's call	24:02
	that he becomes God's slave.	24:07
	He is the slave of God's love.	24:12
	Let us look once again	24:16
	at the Book of Ephesians for this final thought.	24:17
	This prayer passage which is the special study for today	24:21
	includes the petition that the Ephesians be rooted	24:25
	and grounded in God's love.	24:30
	Or again, the prayer is that they may know	24:34
	the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge.	24:36
	Here the writer is exalting the central doctrine	24:42
	of Christianity, namely that God has loved man inordinately,	24:47
	supremely, and has manifested that love in Jesus Christ.	24:53
	And this, this is the key	24:58
	to the very purpose of man's life on the planet Earth.	25:02
	To believe this requires response to God's love,	25:06
	which leads of course to that relationship	25:11
	which may be described as enslavement to God's love.	25:15
	Now, just because I have preached a sermon about sainthood,	25:23
	I know I shall not become a saint.	25:30
	And just because you have listened	25:33
	with some measure of interest and patience,	25:35
	I do not think you will become a saint.	25:39
	I am sure of but one simple fact	25:43
	stated now in two sentences.	25:48
	First, a repetition of the earlier one.	25:50
	We could use more saints in our time.	25:54
	But stated in the parallel sentence, all of us,	25:58
	and I'm sure of this, all of us are called to be saints.	26:03
	We may never achieve that high destiny.	26:10
	Likely we shall settle for the fulfillment	26:13
	of personal ambition and the attainment	26:16
	of some earthly distinction.	26:19
	But if this be so, we shall miss our true calling	26:22
	and fail to accomplish the purpose for which we were born	26:29
	and the destiny to which the Creator God	26:33
	and the Redeemer God has summoned all people.	26:36
	Let us pray.	26:46
	O Thou, who has called us to be saints	26:54
	and to whose call we have responded negatively	26:59
	or cautiously or partially,	27:03
	accept our prayer of confession and penitence now.	27:10
	And grant, O God, that Thy call may continue	27:17
	sounding in our presence until in some high moment	27:23
	we yield ourselves into Thy holy will.	27:32
	And now the Lord bless you and keep you.	27:40
	The Lord make His face to shine upon you	27:44
	and be gracious unto you.	27:47
	The Lord lift up the light of His countenance upon you	27:49
	and give you peace now and forever.	27:54

Item Info

Title:

W. Arthur Kale - "Summons to Sainthood" (April 29, 1962)

Permalink:

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r4pk0c35f

Date:

April 29, 1962

Speaker:

Kale, W. Arthur

Contributor:

Duke University. Chapel

Identifier:

UA.17.01.0003 RR-0181
ref5566_kyd
uachapelsermaud
duke:628634
dcrau002194
ark:/87924/r4pk0c35f
92ccb356-cd2f-4059-b886-ace209a563d8

Digital Collection:

Duke Chapel Recordings

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Duke University Chapel recordings

Language:

English

Location:

United States
North Carolina
Durham (N.C.)

Format:

Provenance:

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

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In Copyright

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