Creighton Lacy - "Horizons Unlimited (Incorporated)" (August 18, 1963)
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| (religious music) | 0:04 | |
| - | Now, let us offer under the heavenly Father, | 0:22 |
| our unison, prayer of confession, let us pray. | 0:25 | |
| "Oh God who willis not the death of any sinner, | 0:29 | |
| "forgive the sins of us who turned to thee | 0:33 | |
| "in repentance with all our hearts. | 0:36 | |
| "We have not loved and served thee as we are, | 0:39 | |
| "but have loved things hateful to thee, | 0:42 | |
| "and have beguiled our hearts. | 0:45 | |
| "We have been unprofitable to thee, unstable and afraid, | 0:47 | |
| "hiding the light that is in us. | 0:53 | |
| "For thou has commanded us to let our light shine | 0:55 | |
| "for these and all other sins of which we are guilty, | 0:59 | |
| "oh Lord, we ask thy pardon | 1:02 | |
| "through Jesus Christ, our Lord, amen." | 1:05 | |
| Beloved, let us hear the comforting words | 1:11 | |
| that come to us from the Holy Scriptures, | 1:13 | |
| that are addressed to those | 1:15 | |
| who are concerned about their sins. | 1:17 | |
| "This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation | 1:20 | |
| "that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. | 1:25 | |
| "There is therefore now no condemnation | 1:29 | |
| "to those who are in Christ Jesus, | 1:32 | |
| "who walked not after the flesh, but after the spirit." | 1:34 | |
| Let us now joined together in praying | 1:41 | |
| the prayer which our Lord Jesus Christ | 1:43 | |
| has taught his disciples to pray saying, | 1:45 | |
| "Our Father who art in heaven, | 1:48 | |
| "hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, | 1:51 | |
| "thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. | 1:55 | |
| "Give us this day our daily bread, | 1:59 | |
| "and forgive us our trespasses | 2:02 | |
| "as we forgive those who trespass against us | 2:04 | |
| "and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, | 2:07 | |
| "for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory | 2:12 | |
| "forever, amen." | 2:16 | |
| (instrumental religious music) | 2:21 | |
| Let us now hear the reading of the Word of God, | 5:12 | |
| as selected from the Old Testament. | 5:15 | |
| The book of Psalms chapter 19. | 5:19 | |
| "The heavens are telling the glory of God | 5:23 | |
| "and the firmament proclaims his handiwork. | 5:26 | |
| "Day to day pours forth speech | 5:30 | |
| "and night tonight declares knowledge. | 5:33 | |
| "There is no speech nor are their words. | 5:36 | |
| "Their voice is not heard, | 5:40 | |
| "yet their voice goes out through all the earth | 5:42 | |
| "and their words to the end of the world. | 5:45 | |
| "In them he has set a tent for the sun, | 5:49 | |
| "which comes forth like a bridegroom leaving his chamber, | 5:52 | |
| "and like a strong runs its course with joy. | 5:56 | |
| "It's rising is from the end of the heaven | 6:01 | |
| "and its circuit to the end of them, | 6:03 | |
| "and there is nothing hidden from its heat. | 6:06 | |
| "The law of the Lord is perfect, | 6:10 | |
| "reviving the soul, the testimony of the Lord is sure, | 6:13 | |
| "making wise the simple. | 6:18 | |
| "The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. | 6:21 | |
| "The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. | 6:26 | |
| "The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever. | 6:32 | |
| "The ordinances of the Lord are true | 6:37 | |
| "and righteous altogether. | 6:39 | |
| "More to be desired are they then go, even much fine gold. | 6:42 | |
| "Sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb. | 6:47 | |
| "Moreover by them is thy servant the warned, | 6:53 | |
| "in keeping them there is great reward. | 6:56 | |
| "But who can discern his errors? | 6:59 | |
| "Clear thou me from the hidden faults, | 7:03 | |
| "keep backside servant also from presumptuous sins. | 7:07 | |
| "Let them not have dominion over me. | 7:11 | |
| "Then I shall be blameless | 7:14 | |
| "and innocent as the great transgression. | 7:16 | |
| "Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart, | 7:20 | |
| "be acceptable in thy sight, | 7:25 | |
| "oh Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer, amen." | 7:28 | |
| (instrumental religious music) | 7:38 | |
| The Lord be with you. | 10:02 | |
| (congregation replying in the background) | 10:04 | |
| Let us pray. | 10:06 | |
| "Our heavenly Father, we pause now at this sacred time | 10:09 | |
| "to call thy holy name in prayer. | 10:14 | |
| "Although we are not worthy to speak thy name, | 10:18 | |
| "we do so in response to thy own bidding. | 10:21 | |
| "Imperfect children that we are, | 10:25 | |
| "our hearts cry out unto thee. | 10:28 | |
| "Our Father in praise and an adoration of thy glory. | 10:30 | |
| "We marvel at the beauty of that creation | 10:34 | |
| "and we rejoice in the seasonal renewal of it | 10:38 | |
| "from year to year, from moment to moment. | 10:41 | |
| "When we consider thy steadfast love, | 10:46 | |
| "our hearts are humbled and warmed within us. | 10:49 | |
| "We praise thee for loving us before we love thee | 10:53 | |
| "and for continuing thy perfect love | 10:58 | |
| "even though our own response has certainly been imperfect. | 11:00 | |
| "We thank thee oh God for the gift of thy Son, Jesus Christ, | 11:06 | |
| "who lived a human life in Palestine long ago, | 11:10 | |
| "but who yet lives and seeks to live in us in our time. | 11:15 | |
| "We thank Lee for the truth he taught, | 11:20 | |
| "the example he set for us, | 11:23 | |
| "the redemption he offered to all | 11:26 | |
| "who will choose to accept it. | 11:28 | |
| "We thank thee that he was willing to die on a cross | 11:31 | |
| "rather than to compromise with evil. | 11:34 | |
| "We blessed thee oh God, for all those who follow | 11:38 | |
| "however, haltingly in his way. | 11:42 | |
| "We ourselves have been blessed by those | 11:46 | |
| "who placed service above self, | 11:49 | |
| "who have dedicated to honesty and justice, | 11:52 | |
| "who have loved their enemies and have worked for peace. | 11:56 | |
| "We express our gratitude to thee for the body of Christ, | 12:01 | |
| "which through the centuries has witnessed | 12:05 | |
| "to the power of the cross and the resurrection. | 12:07 | |
| "We thank thee for the present season of examination | 12:12 | |
| "into which we are now entering. | 12:15 | |
| "And during which we may test the measure of our efforts | 12:17 | |
| "during this summer. | 12:21 | |
| "We offer onto thee oh God our prayers, | 12:25 | |
| "for those who labor under all kinds of handicaps. | 12:27 | |
| "For those doctors who toil long hours, | 12:31 | |
| "giving of the best of their energy and reserves. | 12:34 | |
| "We pray for our nurses who by their cheerful efficiency | 12:39 | |
| "seek to bridge the gap between illness and health. | 12:42 | |
| "We pray for the patients in homes and hospitals, | 12:47 | |
| "who hour after hour experience | 12:51 | |
| "a strange feeling of helplessness and loneliness, | 12:53 | |
| "wandering how long their illness flew last. | 12:58 | |
| "Be thou their confidence, be thou their great physician. | 13:01 | |
| "We pray for students who have tasted defeat, | 13:08 | |
| "who have tried and failed, who have tried again, | 13:12 | |
| "but who's goal yet alludes them. | 13:16 | |
| "Grant onto them wisdom to evaluate their goals correctly, | 13:20 | |
| "give them grace to pursue and to achieve worthy objectives. | 13:25 | |
| "Oh God, we intercede for those who are the victims | 13:31 | |
| "of slander and of malicious gossip, | 13:34 | |
| "whose enemies have spread on truth behind their backs. | 13:37 | |
| "Give them patience to endure this injustice. | 13:41 | |
| "Oh God, we now pray for those who practice this | 13:47 | |
| "and other kinds of unfairness, | 13:50 | |
| "may the Holy Spirit impress upon their hearts, | 13:53 | |
| "the evil of their attitudes | 13:56 | |
| "and bring them to repentance and to righteousness, | 13:58 | |
| "so that they may be redeemed. | 14:01 | |
| "Oh God, thou has taught us to love our neighbors | 14:06 | |
| "as ourselves, but we're not certain of how to love | 14:09 | |
| "even ourselves, teach us how to know what is good for us. | 14:12 | |
| "We pray for wisdom to know the difference | 14:19 | |
| "between food and chaff, | 14:21 | |
| "between the abiding and the temporary, | 14:24 | |
| "between love and lust, between wisdom and mere cleverness. | 14:27 | |
| "We pray thee to enable us to cast out | 14:35 | |
| "the large obstructions in our own spiritual lives, | 14:37 | |
| "so that we may see clearly to remove | 14:41 | |
| "the smaller imperfections in the vision of our brothers. | 14:43 | |
| "We offer our petition for the safety of all students, | 14:48 | |
| "who should be going home at the end of this summer term, | 14:52 | |
| "may no one fall victim to tragedy | 14:57 | |
| "and may no one give offense to another. | 15:00 | |
| "Give us some grace to be witnesses for Christ | 15:03 | |
| "at all times and in all places. | 15:06 | |
| "And now oh Lord, we pray thee to deliver us | 15:11 | |
| "from offering onto thee, a mere part of our money | 15:14 | |
| "without giving thee all of our hearts. | 15:19 | |
| "Save us from seeking to do things for thee | 15:22 | |
| "without allowing thee to transform our affections | 15:26 | |
| "by the Holy Spirit. | 15:29 | |
| "We pray for grace to be honestly dedicated | 15:32 | |
| "to the purposes for which Jesus Christ went to the cross. | 15:35 | |
| "We pray in his name, amen." | 15:40 | |
| (instrumental religious music) | 15:48 | |
| (instrumental religious music) | 17:49 | |
| (congregation singing in the background) | 18:39 | |
| (instrumental religious music) | 25:57 | |
| (instrumental religious music) | 26:05 | |
| "All things come up thee oh Lord, | 27:08 | |
| "and as thy known, have we given thee in Jesus name, amen." | 27:11 | |
| (instrumental religious music) | 27:19 | |
| The heavens are telling the glory of God | 27:48 | |
| and the firmament proclaims his handiwork. | 27:52 | |
| It has been my privilege this summer | 27:57 | |
| to drive some 9,000 miles across this great country of ours, | 27:59 | |
| up the West Coast and back, | 28:03 | |
| camping in some of the loveliest of our national parks. | 28:05 | |
| It is awesome to travel and entire day in continual sight | 28:10 | |
| of the snow-covered peak of Mount Shasta. | 28:14 | |
| It is thrilling to romp in the snow fields of Yosemite | 28:17 | |
| via Crater Lake in the morning, | 28:21 | |
| and that same afternoon to sit on the rocks | 28:22 | |
| and watch the seagulls catch the hapless fish | 28:25 | |
| thrown up by the Pacific wave. | 28:29 | |
| In the majesty of Glacier Park | 28:33 | |
| or the matchless grandeur of the Tetons, | 28:36 | |
| one appreciates the fresh, the tremendous expanse | 28:38 | |
| and variety of this fabulous land. | 28:42 | |
| You realize there's a new world so, | 28:46 | |
| the marvels of God's creation, | 28:49 | |
| of rugged mountains and Sapphire Lake, | 28:52 | |
| and the distant horizons beyond. | 28:55 | |
| Truly the heavens declare the glory of God, | 28:59 | |
| and the firmament shows his handiwork. | 29:03 | |
| Sometime ago on the skyline of Cleveland, Ohio, | 29:07 | |
| I spotted a small, but striking neon sign, | 29:11 | |
| that made all the frantic appeals for black finish slip. | 29:15 | |
| It says simply, "Horizons Incorporated." | 29:19 | |
| The name, I assume, referred to some company | 29:25 | |
| engaged in industrial research. | 29:27 | |
| But today I wanted to apply it to the broader field | 29:29 | |
| of Christian concern. | 29:32 | |
| Horizons incorporated, | 29:35 | |
| a contradiction in term, | 29:39 | |
| some of you will say, for that was my first reaction. | 29:41 | |
| Horizon have a set of stereotype adjective, | 29:44 | |
| boundless, illimitable, viable, sweeping, infinite, | 29:49 | |
| never before incorporated. | 29:57 | |
| But the more I thought about those two words, | 30:01 | |
| the more convinced I became that they represent | 30:03 | |
| profound and divine paradox. | 30:06 | |
| Let us look first of all, at horizon. | 30:11 | |
| The Bible hasn't much to say about horizon, not as such, | 30:16 | |
| perhaps, because the boy, Thomas and the herdsmen of Tacoa, | 30:21 | |
| and the shepherds of Bethlehem, | 30:27 | |
| and the carpenter of Galilee, | 30:28 | |
| all lived with horizons as their intimate friends. | 30:30 | |
| They knew the seasons in both nature and religion | 30:34 | |
| because they knew the heaven and the good earth. | 30:38 | |
| They did not need to go | 30:42 | |
| on a carefully contrived camping trip | 30:43 | |
| in order to see the horizon or the stars. | 30:46 | |
| This urbanized and mechanized generation | 30:51 | |
| looks up at the sky, only when a jet zooms by, | 30:53 | |
| or a Sputnik is reported to be visible. | 30:57 | |
| Our horizons are so punctuated with television antenna | 31:00 | |
| that we hardly see the sunset. | 31:03 | |
| Glibly we recite in church, | 31:07 | |
| I will lift up mine eyes under the hill, | 31:10 | |
| at how seldom do we practice it. | 31:14 | |
| Those of you who have crossed an ocean, | 31:18 | |
| know something of the awe, the sense of helplessness, | 31:20 | |
| but also the serenity that come from gazing | 31:25 | |
| across the immensity of sea, to the boundlessness of sky. | 31:27 | |
| No wonder a little child staring into the apparent emptiness | 31:33 | |
| wanted to know what and where was the horizon | 31:38 | |
| she heard people talking about. | 31:41 | |
| And wise the parent who pointed to the thin line | 31:43 | |
| of unimaginable code and told her that the horizon | 31:47 | |
| was square earth and heaven meet. | 31:51 | |
| So it is also with our spiritual horizon. | 31:57 | |
| How infrequently we sound upon the hill tops of life | 32:02 | |
| and stretch our vision. | 32:05 | |
| Even here in this great university, | 32:09 | |
| where one of the most commonly avowed aims | 32:10 | |
| is to broaden our horizon. | 32:13 | |
| We rarely lift our eyes from our books or our microscopes, | 32:16 | |
| long enough to see a shimmering wing past our window, | 32:20 | |
| a blueberry or a Cardinal or an angel. | 32:25 | |
| Thoreau once said our horizon is never quite at our elbows, | 32:32 | |
| but for all too many of it is not much farther away. | 32:37 | |
| Most of us have come to do, for to this service of worship | 32:44 | |
| with less than 2020 vision in our soul. | 32:48 | |
| It is not only that we are bound | 32:53 | |
| by the physical surroundings of our childhood, | 32:55 | |
| the village store or the city block, | 32:59 | |
| we come with limited thought patterns, | 33:02 | |
| limited understanding, limited interests. | 33:05 | |
| Many of us have built a Berlin Wall of prejudice | 33:11 | |
| within ourselves. | 33:15 | |
| The bounds of our concern are marked by academic credits, | 33:17 | |
| so on the fall football schedule | 33:22 | |
| or a frantic weekend at the beach. | 33:24 | |
| We bemoan the heat in the classroom | 33:27 | |
| and the rain on the golf course, | 33:29 | |
| oblivious to disastrous typhoons in Korea | 33:32 | |
| and avalanches and Nepal. | 33:36 | |
| Even my 10 year-old daughter remarked how consistently | 33:40 | |
| news commentators seem to be preoccupied | 33:43 | |
| in reporting the recent Yugoslavian earthquake | 33:46 | |
| or overseas air crashes, | 33:50 | |
| with whether and the Americans were involved. | 33:54 | |
| We based our domestic policies on the reader's digest | 33:58 | |
| and our view of international relations on Time Magazine. | 34:02 | |
| We suspect that labor unions are alien and subversive, | 34:06 | |
| dominated by some sinister combination of, | 34:10 | |
| Roman Catholicism and Russian communism. | 34:13 | |
| And we have believed the senator who tells us | 34:17 | |
| that all the racial agitation around us, | 34:20 | |
| is commanded by Moscow. | 34:23 | |
| Even the unity and the universality of our Christian faith | 34:27 | |
| somehow failed to widen our horizon. | 34:31 | |
| We are beset by narrow patterns of prayer. | 34:36 | |
| We are bored in a quicker service, | 34:41 | |
| because we have never learned | 34:44 | |
| the deep and powerful discipline of silence, | 34:45 | |
| or we are repelled by the pumps and formality | 34:51 | |
| of high liturgy because we have never seen | 34:53 | |
| the beauty of order or the dignity of tradition. | 34:56 | |
| Not only in your religion classes, | 35:03 | |
| but in your laboratories and in your history lessons, | 35:05 | |
| the Bible should acquire infinitely deeper meaning | 35:08 | |
| and wider significance, by the time you leave here, | 35:12 | |
| than the volume you brought with you. | 35:16 | |
| If this school is in any sense, | 35:19 | |
| fulfilling is declared objective, "Eruditio et Religio," | 35:21 | |
| even the God you worship, | 35:27 | |
| should grow in your own understanding | 35:30 | |
| from a local, denominational creedal deity, | 35:32 | |
| into what Carmen has aptly called, | 35:37 | |
| the Lord of the far horizon. | 35:40 | |
| Kohler it spoke with tragic accuracy when he said, | 35:46 | |
| "The first range of hills the encircles | 35:50 | |
| "the scanny veil of human life. | 35:52 | |
| "is the horizon for the majority of its inhabitants. | 35:55 | |
| "On its ridges, the common son is born and depart. | 35:59 | |
| "From them the stars rise and touching them they vanish." | 36:04 | |
| For the majority, that is true. | 36:11 | |
| But it need not be so, | 36:13 | |
| and for those who would live as Christians | 36:16 | |
| it must not be so. | 36:18 | |
| We were called to follow into witness to an infinite God, | 36:20 | |
| let's push our horizon far beyond the limits of sight, | 36:25 | |
| out into the emptiness of social, | 36:29 | |
| as well as geographical and cosmic space. | 36:32 | |
| Famous become in sharpest reality, | 36:36 | |
| the place where earth and heaven meet. | 36:40 | |
| As the heavens are high above the earth, | 36:46 | |
| so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him. | 36:48 | |
| As far as the east is from the west, | 36:54 | |
| so far does he remove our transgressions from us. | 36:56 | |
| And speaking of this passage from the beloved 113 storm, | 37:02 | |
| the Abingdon Bible commentary remarks | 37:06 | |
| that the very limits of the horizon | 37:09 | |
| meant more to the man of the Psalmist day than today. | 37:11 | |
| Yet in some respects the vast outreach | 37:17 | |
| of God's steadfast love, should have even deeper meaning | 37:19 | |
| for us of the 20th century. | 37:23 | |
| Today the space age is so familiar that we cease the marvel, | 37:27 | |
| but it was an incredible miracle 10 years ago | 37:31 | |
| when a friend of mine in the air force | 37:34 | |
| scooted from South Carolina to New England | 37:37 | |
| in an hour and 1/2 by jet plane. | 37:39 | |
| But what impressed me more than the speed | 37:43 | |
| was his account of flying so high, | 37:45 | |
| that he could see both New York and Washington | 37:48 | |
| at the same time. | 37:52 | |
| To our astronauts, that is a common experience today. | 37:55 | |
| Yet as Christians, we are very far from achieving | 38:00 | |
| that kind of vision. | 38:03 | |
| Can we know in our worship and our fellowship, | 38:06 | |
| our work and our play, so far enough above the selfishness | 38:11 | |
| and prejudice of human life, to look out on God's world | 38:16 | |
| with perspective like that. | 38:21 | |
| As followers of the Prince of Peace, | 38:25 | |
| should we not be able to compass in the same view, | 38:27 | |
| Johannesburg and Door, New York and New Delhi, | 38:31 | |
| Chicago and Pekin, | 38:37 | |
| or the hills so near and yet so far apart, | 38:40 | |
| of Bethlehem and Calvary. | 38:45 | |
| Another boy, who a friend of mine who became an aviator, | 38:51 | |
| wrote a poem called, "High Flight," | 38:55 | |
| which some of you may know. | 38:58 | |
| As a student, he had broken away | 39:00 | |
| from his missionary heritage and become a fleet, | 39:02 | |
| the cynical agnostic. | 39:05 | |
| But before he was killed in the Second World War, | 39:08 | |
| he wrote these lines. | 39:11 | |
| "Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth, | 39:14 | |
| "and danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings; | 39:17 | |
| "sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth | 39:22 | |
| "of sun-split clouds, and done a hundred things | 39:24 | |
| "You have not dreamed of, | 39:27 | |
| "wheeled and soared and swung high in the sunlit silence. | 39:30 | |
| "Hov'ring there, I've chased the shouting wind along, | 39:36 | |
| "and flung my eager craft through footless halls of air. | 39:38 | |
| "Up, up the long delirious heights with easy grace | 39:42 | |
| "Where never lark, or ever eagle flew. | 39:46 | |
| "And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod the high | 39:51 | |
| "untrespassed sanctity of space. | 39:56 | |
| "Put out my hand, and touched the face of God." | 39:59 | |
| That is one answer through the Russian cosmonaut, | 40:07 | |
| who said he could not see God up there. | 40:10 | |
| Unless through prayer and service, | 40:15 | |
| we too can travel the high untrespassed sanctity of space. | 40:18 | |
| Our lives will be narrow earth-bound, | 40:24 | |
| but to the degree that we can establish intimate contact | 40:27 | |
| with God, the Father of all mankind, | 40:31 | |
| we shall see through his eyes, | 40:34 | |
| the height and depth and breadth of his world, | 40:37 | |
| and we shall discover our own horizon unlimited. | 40:42 | |
| If there is nothing really contradictory | 40:50 | |
| about having horizons incorporated, | 40:52 | |
| some of us suspect that incorporation implies narrowing, | 40:55 | |
| restricting, circumscribing action. | 40:59 | |
| Lawyers and businessman | 41:03 | |
| would indignantly deny that assumption. | 41:05 | |
| A firm incorporates itself because thereby it acquires | 41:08 | |
| a legal personality, which entitles it to certain freedom, | 41:12 | |
| immunities and rights, it would not otherwise posses. | 41:16 | |
| A city becomes incorporated because within that framework | 41:21 | |
| of organization and legal procedure, | 41:26 | |
| it can exercise its duties with greater efficiency, | 41:28 | |
| and responsibility. | 41:32 | |
| So let it be with our horizon. | 41:36 | |
| There are pantheists to be sure who recognize | 41:39 | |
| only two types of horizon, | 41:42 | |
| the natural beauty of a palm tree against the sunset sky | 41:45 | |
| or of a big hazy foggy blur in the distance. | 41:50 | |
| God sees many other kinds. | 41:57 | |
| Some of you are familiar with a painting by Paul Flandrin, | 42:01 | |
| titled, "Christ mourns over the city." | 42:04 | |
| In it Jesus looks sorrowfully across the roof of paret, | 42:08 | |
| where narrow crowded tenements, | 42:12 | |
| looms dark and clear in the foreground, | 42:14 | |
| but Notre Dame and the Napoleonic Dome | 42:18 | |
| and the Arc de Triomphe are almost law | 42:21 | |
| in a pole smoke and soot and sand. | 42:24 | |
| Over 50 years have passed, | 42:30 | |
| since Flandrin painted that picture, | 42:32 | |
| 50 of the most eventful years in all history. | 42:34 | |
| Yet, as I stood by the Church of the Sacred Heart, | 42:39 | |
| which now dominates the Hilltop, | 42:41 | |
| I could recognize the scene and simply. | 42:44 | |
| The same river, the same slums, the same twisting streets, | 42:47 | |
| the same cathedral, the same sand. | 42:53 | |
| And in my soul vision, the same price is gaze-fixed, | 42:59 | |
| not on the remote countryside beyond, | 43:03 | |
| but on the greed and misery and selfishness | 43:06 | |
| that is very big. | 43:09 | |
| For God's horizons are not limited to Jerusalem, | 43:12 | |
| resplendent in cinema scope. | 43:15 | |
| They are incorporated in Paris and New York | 43:19 | |
| and Durham and Raleigh. | 43:25 | |
| In light manner I often look from the office window, | 43:29 | |
| on the third floor or in this university | 43:33 | |
| and wished that I could amputate to unsightly chimneys | 43:35 | |
| so that my immediate horizon | 43:39 | |
| would consist exclusively of pine trees and gothic rooms. | 43:40 | |
| But then I remind myself that the power plant | 43:46 | |
| is probably more vital to this institution | 43:49 | |
| and to my own comfort as well, | 43:52 | |
| than either pine trees or gothic rooms, | 43:55 | |
| no matter how ugly and smoky the chimneys may be. | 43:58 | |
| The horizons of God always have room | 44:04 | |
| for smokestacks and skyscrapers, | 44:08 | |
| and we should give thanks when they represent | 44:11 | |
| power plants or bridges, | 44:13 | |
| instead of tenements or munitions factories. | 44:16 | |
| I mentioned earlier the inquisitive little child | 44:22 | |
| who was told that the horizon | 44:25 | |
| is where earth and heaven meet. | 44:27 | |
| Like most children, | 44:31 | |
| she had another question immediately, forthcoming. | 44:31 | |
| "When are we going to get there?" | 44:34 | |
| Ah, yes, my Christian friends, | 44:38 | |
| when are we going to get there? | 44:40 | |
| Jacob almost got there at the foot of the ladder, | 44:44 | |
| near enough at least to hear God's promise | 44:48 | |
| that his purpose would be fulfilled. | 44:50 | |
| And Jacob was afraid. | 44:54 | |
| Ezekiel almost got there with his bewildering vision, | 44:58 | |
| near enough to hear God's assurances | 45:01 | |
| that his dreams would not perish, that the days are at hand | 45:04 | |
| and the fulfillment of every vision. | 45:08 | |
| Peter and James and John, | 45:13 | |
| got almost there on the mountain top, | 45:15 | |
| as they saw the glory of the Christ, | 45:17 | |
| but they too were afraid of such dazzling splendor. | 45:20 | |
| And they too had to come down | 45:24 | |
| from the Mount of Transfiguration, | 45:27 | |
| to the plane of sickness and controversy | 45:29 | |
| and hatred and selfishness. | 45:33 | |
| No, it is not easy to dwell where earth and heaven meet, | 45:37 | |
| principally because God himself is there, | 45:42 | |
| and his presence makes sinful mortals awfully uncomfortable. | 45:45 | |
| The ancient Hindus were pretty smart after all, | 45:52 | |
| they set up three levels of deities, | 45:55 | |
| the gods of the heaven and the gods of earth | 45:58 | |
| and the gods of the middle atmosphere in between. | 46:03 | |
| They weren't going to take any chances | 46:06 | |
| about letting heaven get too close to earth. | 46:08 | |
| But as a result, they missed the priceless privilege | 46:12 | |
| of bringing earth to the threshold of heaven. | 46:15 | |
| And incidentally, one of the corollaries | 46:20 | |
| of this Hindu polytheism, was the vicious caste system, | 46:22 | |
| which has been the curse and the shame of India | 46:26 | |
| for some 3000 years. | 46:30 | |
| Have we to defended prejudice and injustice | 46:34 | |
| by erecting a barrier between the Lord of heaven | 46:38 | |
| and the god of our social and individual life? | 46:41 | |
| In truth, He dwells where earth and heaven meet. | 46:46 | |
| If our horizons are vague, blurs in the distance, | 46:56 | |
| so we'll be our concept of Almighty God. | 47:00 | |
| If instead, our horizons are sharp outlines of human life | 47:04 | |
| against the divine backdrop of heaven, | 47:08 | |
| then Christ himself will be incorporated | 47:11 | |
| into our daily acts of love and service. | 47:14 | |
| Albert Schweitzer has seen beyond the depth | 47:20 | |
| on the brush of African jungle, | 47:22 | |
| to the day when black men will sound beside by | 47:25 | |
| an equal dignity and opportunity, | 47:29 | |
| Frank Laubach has seen beyond the night of ignorance | 47:34 | |
| and illiteracy, the first rays of hope and freedom | 47:37 | |
| and self-respect. | 47:42 | |
| Ralph Bunche has seen beyond the limitations | 47:45 | |
| and frustrations of his own racial experience | 47:48 | |
| toward a world of truly united nations, | 47:52 | |
| a world of genuine brotherhood. | 47:55 | |
| In the words of that little poem so popular in youth groups, | 48:00 | |
| dreams are they, but they are God's dream. | 48:04 | |
| And what does God do with his dreams? | 48:11 | |
| He incorporates them. | 48:15 | |
| For by now you have all recognized | 48:17 | |
| to where there's almost synonymous, | 48:19 | |
| incorporation and incarnation. | 48:22 | |
| The dictionary definition, | 48:27 | |
| give at least one word in common, embodiment. | 48:28 | |
| You have heard thus far very little mention | 48:34 | |
| of the center of our Christian faith, | 48:37 | |
| and there was a deliberate reason for that. | 48:41 | |
| Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, Moses and David and Jonah, | 48:44 | |
| Isaiah, Amos and Micah, | 48:50 | |
| all follow the Lord of the far horizon, | 48:53 | |
| and never quite arrived. | 48:56 | |
| So God incorporated his love in Jesus Christ | 49:00 | |
| and the world has been transformed | 49:06 | |
| and challenged to infinitely greater transformation. | 49:09 | |
| Heaven and earth map up the cross, | 49:14 | |
| and it's dark silhouette pointed to the infinite horizon | 49:18 | |
| of Easter morning. | 49:21 | |
| This university fails in if the purpose, | 49:26 | |
| if it does not open our eyes to vast, boundless, | 49:29 | |
| illimitable horizons, spiritual and intellectual, | 49:33 | |
| historical and contemporary, social and personal. | 49:38 | |
| But we ourselves fail even more miserably, | 49:45 | |
| if we do not incorporate those horizons | 49:49 | |
| in our campus programs, our denominational program, | 49:52 | |
| our personal schedule. | 49:57 | |
| Through responsible participation in community affairs, | 50:01 | |
| through simple but sincere friendliness | 50:05 | |
| toward overseas students in our amidst, | 50:08 | |
| through the setting of higher moral standards | 50:11 | |
| in the dormitories and the classroom, | 50:13 | |
| you can turn the image of your faith | 50:16 | |
| into meaningful substance. | 50:20 | |
| Through the short term missionary program of the church | 50:24 | |
| or through the peace corps, | 50:27 | |
| you can embody the ideals of world brotherhood, | 50:29 | |
| which you have formed in Summertown or in this very chapel. | 50:33 | |
| With the Robert Oppenheimer who said, | 50:39 | |
| "The best way to deliver an idea | 50:40 | |
| "is to wrap it up in a person." | 50:43 | |
| To incorporate our horizon may mean for some | 50:49 | |
| to walk a picket line. | 50:53 | |
| For others it may help persuade our senators | 50:56 | |
| to ratify the Test Ban Treaty, | 50:58 | |
| let our so-called Christian nation | 51:01 | |
| appear in the eyes of the world as the real warmonger. | 51:04 | |
| To still others, it may mean the gift of time and energy | 51:09 | |
| in some boys club, at Edgemont Center, | 51:12 | |
| at the VA hospital, or the county jail. | 51:16 | |
| Whatever gives substance to our faith, | 51:20 | |
| we are called upon to do because God did it first. | 51:23 | |
| The magnificent prophecies of Isaiah would be empty rhetoric | 51:30 | |
| without the incarnation. | 51:35 | |
| The journey of the wisemen | 51:38 | |
| would have been foolish stargazing, | 51:40 | |
| had it not led to a stable in Bethlehem. | 51:42 | |
| As the 19th Psalm reminds us, | 51:47 | |
| "In the horizons of God there is no speech, | 51:50 | |
| "nor are there words, | 51:53 | |
| "and yet their voice has gone out through all the earth | 51:55 | |
| "and their words to the end of the world, | 51:59 | |
| "when they are expressed in the lives of the disciple. | 52:02 | |
| "The gospel would never have circle the globe | 52:08 | |
| "had it not been embodied in the preaching, teaching, | 52:10 | |
| "healing and serving ministry of millions of believers. | 52:15 | |
| "And our own deepest spiritual vision will be futile dreams | 52:21 | |
| "unless our horizons unlimited, | 52:27 | |
| "become horizon incorporated." | 52:31 | |
| Let us pray. | 52:36 | |
| "Lord of the far horizon, grant us the vision, | 52:44 | |
| "we beseech the to recognize the unlimited possibilities | 52:48 | |
| "of service and brotherhood, which thou does offer to us. | 52:51 | |
| "Grant us the courage and commitment | 52:57 | |
| "to incorporate those dreams in daily acts of love. | 52:59 | |
| "We pray in the name of him who embodied thy love, | 53:04 | |
| "and thy truth for all mankind." | 53:08 | |
| (congregation mumbling) | 53:12 | |
| Now may the love of God, the Father, bless you. | 53:14 | |
| The grace of his Son, Jesus Christ uphold you, | 53:18 | |
| and the power of his Holy Spirit direct you, | 53:22 | |
| this day and evermore, amen. | 53:26 | |
| (bell banging) | 53:31 |