Bishop Thomas A. Fraser - "Commitment" (June 23, 1963)
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Transcript
Transcripts may contain inaccuracies.
- | The reception which we always receive on this campus. | 0:11 |
The owner of a large business | 0:22 | |
who had been generous in making loans to his employees | 0:27 | |
decided the time had come | 0:32 | |
when he must collect his rightful debts. | 0:34 | |
He had loaned $10,000 to one of his close associates | 0:39 | |
who had foolishly invested it | 0:44 | |
and was unable to pay his debt. | 0:46 | |
The owner was upset by this and threatened to sue him, | 0:51 | |
but his associate had a sad story. | 0:55 | |
There had been sickness in the family. | 0:59 | |
There was a mortgage on his house, | 1:03 | |
and he had children in school. | 1:05 | |
"Be patient with me," he said, "and I will pay you." | 1:08 | |
The heart of the owner of the business | 1:14 | |
was softened by this sad story, | 1:15 | |
and he told his associate to forget the debt. | 1:17 | |
The associate, however, was shaken by this experience | 1:22 | |
and on his way home met a friend | 1:25 | |
to whom he had loaned a hundred dollars. | 1:27 | |
He immediately asked for his money, | 1:32 | |
but his friend had lost the money gambling | 1:36 | |
and was unable to pay. | 1:38 | |
He, too, had a sad story. | 1:41 | |
Be patient with me and I will pay you. | 1:44 | |
This further excited the associate, | 1:49 | |
and he immediately brought charges against his friend. | 1:51 | |
Now, people who knew both of these men | 1:57 | |
were horrified by what had taken place, | 1:59 | |
and went to the owner of the business and told him. | 2:02 | |
In indignation, the owner sent for his associate, | 2:07 | |
and after exercising his wrath on him | 2:11 | |
demanded that he meet his debt in full. | 2:14 | |
The point of this story, | 2:21 | |
which is recorded by St. Matthew, is perfectly clear. | 2:22 | |
We will hold others responsible for their behavior, | 2:28 | |
but do not hold ourselves equally responsible. | 2:33 | |
St. Paul in his Epistle to the Philippians | 2:40 | |
spoke strongly to this point when he said | 2:42 | |
"you must work out your salvation in fear and trembling." | 2:45 | |
Paul had been living with the people in Philippi, | 2:51 | |
helping them to develop a Christian way of life. | 2:54 | |
He was now ready to leave them | 3:00 | |
and was encouraging them to stand on their two feet | 3:02 | |
and to work out their salvation in fear and trembling. | 3:04 | |
One of the characteristics of our age | 3:10 | |
is a lack of responsibility for what we do. | 3:12 | |
The students of human behavior tell us | 3:17 | |
that this is attributed to the fact | 3:20 | |
that we have developed a pattern of dependence | 3:22 | |
on parents, friends, government, | 3:26 | |
and the generosity of others. | 3:29 | |
Therefore, we do not feel responsible for what we do | 3:32 | |
because we can always blame it on our heredity, | 3:35 | |
our environment, our teachers, | 3:38 | |
or even the lack of good schools. | 3:41 | |
This pattern of dependence in time deteriorates | 3:45 | |
into the irresponsible use of freedom. | 3:49 | |
We insist upon our freedom, but we are not equally insistent | 3:53 | |
upon assuming the responsibility for our choices. | 3:57 | |
It was not long ago that a national magazine | 4:03 | |
made one of its religious surveys. | 4:05 | |
The answers to the questionnaire were submitted | 4:10 | |
to three scholarly representatives | 4:12 | |
of the Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish faiths, | 4:14 | |
but furnished the following analysis. | 4:17 | |
95% of the people who answered the survey | 4:21 | |
said that they believed in some kind of God, | 4:24 | |
but only 26% thought that God had any personal relation | 4:28 | |
to their daily behavior. | 4:32 | |
91% said that they were trying to lead a good life, | 4:36 | |
but 82% admitted that the struggle | 4:41 | |
seldom interfered with what they wanted to do. | 4:44 | |
90% believed that the problems of human society | 4:50 | |
would be solved by following the law of love, | 4:53 | |
and 80% felt they were attaining a high average | 4:57 | |
in following that law, which certainly sounds optimistic. | 5:00 | |
And since the problems of society are more acute than ever, | 5:07 | |
it appears that 80% of the population | 5:10 | |
are blaming somebody else for the failure. | 5:12 | |
In other words, the people who answered this survey | 5:17 | |
do not really feel responsible for their behavior. | 5:19 | |
This all indicates a lack of commitment | 5:26 | |
because only people who are committed feel responsible, | 5:30 | |
and only responsible people are able to choose, | 5:37 | |
and only people who are willing and able to choose | 5:42 | |
will ever be free. | 5:46 | |
If I may repeat... | 5:51 | |
Only people who are committed feel responsible, | 5:54 | |
only responsible people are able to choose, | 5:58 | |
and only people who are willing and able to choose | 6:02 | |
will ever be free. | 6:05 | |
An American Bishop of the Episcopal Church | 6:10 | |
tells a story about a trip to Russia not too long ago. | 6:12 | |
He had a young lady, a college graduate, | 6:16 | |
as his guide and interpreter, | 6:18 | |
and she took him to all of the things worth seeing. | 6:20 | |
The tombs, the marketplaces, | 6:22 | |
the newly constructed apartment houses. | 6:24 | |
On Saturday evening, | 6:28 | |
he asked her if she would return on Sunday | 6:29 | |
and take him to church, and the young lady refused. | 6:31 | |
She was a Marxist, she had never been to church, | 6:34 | |
she never had any intentions of going to church, | 6:36 | |
much less serving as a guide | 6:39 | |
and an interpreter for a Bishop. | 6:41 | |
The Bishop bargained with her, | 6:45 | |
and finally, when the price was right, she consented. | 6:46 | |
They went to the cathedral on Sunday, | 6:50 | |
members of the clergy recognized the visitor as a Bishop, | 6:52 | |
and invited him to remain after the service | 6:56 | |
to discuss church affairs. | 6:58 | |
When the young lady returned on Monday morning | 7:02 | |
to continue her guided tour, | 7:04 | |
she took some pains to explain | 7:06 | |
that her mother was pleased to know | 7:08 | |
that she had been to a service of Christian worship. | 7:11 | |
The experience evidently had gotten next to the young lady | 7:15 | |
because she was filled with questions. | 7:18 | |
She asked the Bishop, she said | 7:20 | |
"Please tell me, is it true that people in America | 7:22 | |
"spend millions of dollars in constructing churches?" | 7:24 | |
The Bishop very quickly said, "Yes, it is, | 7:28 | |
"we probably spend more money on constructing churches | 7:30 | |
"than any other kind of construction in a given year." | 7:32 | |
Then she asked, "Is it true | 7:37 | |
"that people in America pray to someone they call God?" | 7:38 | |
The Bishop said "Yes." | 7:42 | |
"Is it true that people in America | 7:44 | |
"read a book which they call the Bible?" | 7:46 | |
The Bishop stalled a little bit, | 7:49 | |
he said, "Yes, many people in America | 7:52 | |
"read a book which they call a Bible." | 7:54 | |
And then she asked, "Is it true that America | 7:57 | |
"considers itself a Christian nation?" | 7:59 | |
This raised some doubts in the Bishop's mind, | 8:04 | |
but he said, "Yes, I think it is fair to say | 8:06 | |
"that America does consider itself a Christian nation." | 8:09 | |
And then came the final question. | 8:14 | |
She said, "Now, Bishop, please tell me | 8:15 | |
"if the people in America | 8:17 | |
"spend all of this money building churches | 8:18 | |
"and saying their prayers | 8:20 | |
"and reading a book which they call a Bible | 8:21 | |
"and consider themselves Christian, | 8:23 | |
"please tell me what difference does it make?" | 8:26 | |
The truth is that it doesn't make any difference. | 8:34 | |
Unless the people who are free to build the churches, | 8:39 | |
free to say their prayers, free to read the Bible, | 8:41 | |
and who call themselves Christians | 8:45 | |
are responsible in their behavior | 8:47 | |
and are committed to something | 8:50 | |
which is worth being committed to. | 8:52 | |
The Bible tells a very fascinating story about commitment. | 8:58 | |
It is the very familiar story of Abraham and Isaac. | 9:03 | |
I must admit that this story | 9:06 | |
sounds very primitive to modern ears | 9:08 | |
and a strange thing for God to ask of a man, | 9:11 | |
but in the days that was told, | 9:15 | |
men took it for granted that devotion to God | 9:16 | |
was shown by sacrificing upon the altar | 9:19 | |
that which one valued the most. | 9:22 | |
God tempted Abraham to sacrifice the son he loved best. | 9:27 | |
Here was a man in the grip of an absolute obligation | 9:33 | |
to give up everything to who withhold nothing. | 9:36 | |
He was like Luther saying, "Here I stand, | 9:39 | |
"I cannot do otherwise." | 9:42 | |
He rose up early in the morning to escape from the house | 9:44 | |
before his wife could ask him any questions. | 9:47 | |
He saddled a donkey, took two servants and his son, | 9:51 | |
gathered up a supply of wood | 9:53 | |
and stored up some live calls and a pot | 9:55 | |
and equipped himself with a knife. | 9:58 | |
And that knife must have been the last straw. | 10:01 | |
Abraham must have had many misgivings, | 10:05 | |
for it took three whole days by foot | 10:07 | |
to come to the land of Mariah. | 10:09 | |
And when he saw the mountain, | 10:11 | |
he left the two young men and the donkey | 10:12 | |
while he and Isaac proceeded up along to the mountain top. | 10:14 | |
Naturally, young Isaac was curious enough | 10:19 | |
to have been asking himself questions | 10:22 | |
about these mysterious proceedings. | 10:24 | |
There was the wood, the fire, the knife, | 10:27 | |
but where was the lamb for the burnt offering? | 10:28 | |
"God will provide" was all he could learn | 10:32 | |
from his silent father. | 10:35 | |
Finally, they reached the place, | 10:38 | |
and Abraham built stones into an altar. | 10:39 | |
Every stone must have been a heartache. | 10:43 | |
He laid on the wood, | 10:47 | |
he bound his beloved son on the pile, | 10:48 | |
and lifted up the knife. | 10:51 | |
And in that up raised hand was expressed | 10:54 | |
the last limit of commitment. | 10:57 | |
And just at that moment, a voice said, | 11:01 | |
"Lay not thine hand upon the lad, | 11:04 | |
"for now I know that though fearest God | 11:06 | |
"seeing that thou has not withheld thy son." | 11:09 | |
You know the rest of the story. | 11:16 | |
Nearby, he saw a ram caught by his horns in the thicket, | 11:18 | |
an unforeseen substitute for his son. | 11:22 | |
This ancient story from the Bible is without equal, | 11:27 | |
however, in dramatizing, even to modern man, | 11:30 | |
a man's sense of commitment. | 11:35 | |
We have about us in our day and age | 11:41 | |
many examples of commitment. | 11:43 | |
People who are willing to sacrifice | 11:46 | |
that which they love best, | 11:48 | |
even their own lives for a cause | 11:50 | |
which they hold to be dear and to be true. | 11:52 | |
We might not like some of these illustrations of commitment. | 11:57 | |
As a matter of fact, | 12:01 | |
some of them are commitments to principles we oppose. | 12:02 | |
But they are real, they are historic, | 12:07 | |
and they are of our time. | 12:09 | |
Japanese students demonstrated their dislike of America | 12:12 | |
not too long ago and the American president | 12:15 | |
to such an extent, | 12:17 | |
that they forced the government of Japan | 12:19 | |
to cancel an important visit by the commander in chief | 12:21 | |
of the strongest nation in the world. | 12:24 | |
The students of Hungary were so committed to freedom | 12:27 | |
in their demonstrations against Russian communism | 12:29 | |
that strong Russia was forced to send thousands of troops | 12:33 | |
and armed tanks across her borders | 12:36 | |
to quiet the passion of commitment | 12:38 | |
of this small band of students. | 12:40 | |
A handful of American Negro students | 12:43 | |
just a short distance from where you and I sit | 12:46 | |
on the campus of A&T College in Greensboro | 12:49 | |
were so committed to a cause of freedom that they forced | 12:53 | |
and are still forcing cafeterias and restaurants | 12:57 | |
throughout the United States to change their policies | 13:01 | |
about who may be served and who may sit and be served. | 13:05 | |
Today, young Germans have become so indignant | 13:10 | |
about the wall that separates east and west Berlin | 13:13 | |
that they are willing to risk their lives | 13:17 | |
when they plant dynamite and blow holes in that wall | 13:20 | |
that separates one part of the city from another. | 13:24 | |
Recently, I was on the campus of the University of Panama, | 13:28 | |
where just about six students | 13:31 | |
so aroused the whole student body | 13:34 | |
that it brought the government of that country to its knees | 13:36 | |
and to exceed to their demands. | 13:41 | |
And listen to what a young Russian student | 13:44 | |
says to a traveler from the free and democratic west. | 13:46 | |
"We have found reality. | 13:51 | |
"It is the reality of things we do ourselves. | 13:54 | |
"It is not the abstract reality of your Christian teachings. | 13:59 | |
"It is the concrete physical hereness of our reality. | 14:05 | |
"We know that we can do all things. | 14:10 | |
"We know what we can do, no can take that from us, | 14:13 | |
"because we will not permit it. | 14:17 | |
"We will defend our reality to the death. | 14:20 | |
"It is ourselves." | 14:25 | |
We may not like all of these illustrations of commitment, | 14:31 | |
but they prove that people of commitment | 14:36 | |
are those people who are determining the course of history. | 14:39 | |
And it is not without significance | 14:45 | |
that they are all students, young people, youth, | 14:47 | |
challenging us in this complex, confused, | 14:50 | |
and frightening period of history. | 14:54 | |
By their philosophy, their passion and their plan of action, | 14:57 | |
these people are not victims of patterns of dependence. | 15:03 | |
They are not blaming their failure on others. | 15:09 | |
These are people who are demonstrating responsible action | 15:13 | |
which is based on the commitment of one's life to a cause, | 15:17 | |
even unto death. | 15:21 | |
I submit to you | 15:25 | |
that it is only people with this depth of commitment | 15:28 | |
who will change the course of human events | 15:33 | |
and who will determine the earthly destiny of mankind. | 15:37 | |
I commend to you for serious thought, | 15:42 | |
commitment to Jesus Christ | 15:46 | |
and obedience to God and His church, | 15:48 | |
if necessary, even unto death. | 15:52 | |
Let us pray. | 16:00 | |
(siren wailing) | 16:06 | |
Teach us, good Lord to serve thee as thou deservest. | 16:12 | |
To give and not to count the cost. | 16:16 | |
To fight and not to heed the wounds. | 16:20 | |
To toil and not to seek for rest. | 16:24 | |
To labor and not to ask for any reward, | 16:28 | |
save that of knowing that we do thy will | 16:32 | |
through Jesus Christ, our Lord, | 16:37 | |
and the blessing of God Almighty, | 16:41 | |
the Father, the Son, and his Holy Spirit be amongst you | 16:43 | |
and all those whom you love both this day and forevermore. | 16:49 | |
(choir vocalizing) | 17:01 | |
(bell ringing) | 18:01 | |
(somber music) | 18:14 | |
(choir vocalizing) | 18:40 |