Daniel M. Schores - "Saints in the Shadows" (June 12, 1966)
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Transcript
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- | Entitled, "I Played Their Accompaniment." | 0:04 |
She was an accompanist to many of the great opera stars. | 0:08 | |
And in this book, she told of her personal satisfaction | 0:12 | |
and how she found meaning in life | 0:16 | |
by being able to make others great. | 0:19 | |
This is a little different approach to success. | 0:23 | |
And I wondered how many possible | 0:27 | |
or potential stars never achieve greatness | 0:30 | |
because of a poor accompanist. | 0:34 | |
In a real sense, it takes a saint to be willing | 0:38 | |
to stay in the shadows of another's honors. | 0:41 | |
When I use the phrase 'saints in the shadows', | 0:47 | |
I'm thinking of unknown or little known persons | 0:51 | |
who have contributed much to life behind the scenes, | 0:56 | |
the second fiddlers, so to speak. | 1:00 | |
Those who are willing to stay in the shadows | 1:05 | |
and yet who contribute so much that is necessary in life. | 1:09 | |
Society couldn't exist without them. | 1:13 | |
And yet very often, tribute has never been paid to them. | 1:16 | |
I guess, in a sense, my sermon is kind of a reaction | 1:22 | |
to the baccalaureate sermons of the last several weeks | 1:25 | |
that have been echoing through churches | 1:28 | |
and college campuses. | 1:30 | |
For in these baccalaureate addresses, | 1:33 | |
usually, the speaker is encouraging the graduates | 1:36 | |
to aim for the stars, to be the tops in their fields. | 1:39 | |
The truth of the matter is, many those who graduated, | 1:44 | |
many of the rest of us will never be | 1:47 | |
the top person in our field. | 1:49 | |
Where do we find meaning to life? | 1:52 | |
Where do we find the sense of achievement, | 1:55 | |
the sense of happiness? | 1:57 | |
For us, the goal is a little more earthly. | 2:00 | |
Now I'm not recommending that we settle for second best, | 2:04 | |
but rather that when we find ourselves | 2:08 | |
in second place roles, we do our best, | 2:10 | |
for these other the places | 2:14 | |
where we're going to spend most of our life. | 2:16 | |
We find these saints in the shadows in all walks of life. | 2:21 | |
In the theater, it's usually the supporting actor or actress | 2:27 | |
that helps make the play. | 2:30 | |
The wife who puts her husband through college, | 2:34 | |
never gets the degree, but deserves much of the credit. | 2:37 | |
Each author recognizes the fact that many contributed | 2:42 | |
to his work by recognizing them | 2:45 | |
in the dedication of the book | 2:48 | |
or on one of the pages in the preface. | 2:51 | |
And think of many others who stand behind the scenes | 2:57 | |
whom we never know, | 2:59 | |
and yet have helped to make others great. | 3:00 | |
The ghostwriter for the politician, | 3:02 | |
the economic advisor to a great | 3:06 | |
business corporation executive, | 3:07 | |
the maintenance staff here at the university | 3:11 | |
who make possible the services, | 3:13 | |
the daily housekeeping chores, | 3:18 | |
providing and taking care of buildings. | 3:22 | |
Think in the local church of the volunteers | 3:28 | |
who teach Sunday school or serve in official positions. | 3:29 | |
Without them, the organization cannot run. | 3:33 | |
They must get their glory not from being | 3:36 | |
in the public spotlight but because they know | 3:39 | |
that service is needed in whatever role | 3:42 | |
we're called upon to play. | 3:45 | |
Have you ever thought about Mrs. Albert Schweitzer? | 3:48 | |
She too left the luxury of Europe for a jungle career. | 3:52 | |
And yet her name was not the name | 3:58 | |
known by millions around the world. | 4:00 | |
She didn't receive the honors. | 4:03 | |
Her happiness, her sense of meaning | 4:06 | |
had to come from sharing in the service | 4:09 | |
her husband rendered. | 4:13 | |
Back in 1952, when I was a student here at Duke, | 4:16 | |
Miss Umeko Kagawa, daughter of the great Japanese Christian | 4:21 | |
Toyohiko Kagawa, was here at Duke for a few weeks | 4:25 | |
in an orientation program. | 4:30 | |
I had the good fortune to become acquainted with her. | 4:33 | |
And later, she was a guest in our home on couple occasions. | 4:36 | |
One of the things she confessed to me was that | 4:40 | |
the hardest thing for her was to overcome | 4:45 | |
the stigma that her father was great. | 4:48 | |
She knew this, and yet she wanted to excel | 4:51 | |
in her own right. | 4:54 | |
It was a sense of pride. | 4:57 | |
And she said, "Until I realized that I could be myself, | 4:59 | |
do things on my own right, I was never quite happy." | 5:04 | |
To her credit, she did gain this self-confidence | 5:10 | |
and had a good life of service. | 5:14 | |
The Bible records many examples of the near-great. | 5:19 | |
In fact, most of the characters of the Bible | 5:24 | |
in their own day were not the ones | 5:26 | |
who would receive nationwide publicity. | 5:29 | |
There are people who stood behind the scenes, | 5:34 | |
serving, assisting others, doing their part. | 5:37 | |
We could give many examples, | 5:45 | |
but let me refer back to the two | 5:46 | |
in the scripture lessons of this morning. | 5:49 | |
Naaman was a great general of the Syrians. | 5:54 | |
He'd conquered foreign armies. | 5:59 | |
He was great in the eyes of his people. | 6:03 | |
And yet he was miserable because he was a leper. | 6:05 | |
He had tried all the medical cures | 6:10 | |
offered in his own land without success. | 6:11 | |
Then one of these little saints in the shadows | 6:16 | |
appeared on the scene. | 6:19 | |
The Israelite maid of his wife, | 6:22 | |
a young girl captured in battle and serving his wife. | 6:25 | |
It was her suggestion that he'd go to the nation of Israel | 6:30 | |
and be treated by the prophet. | 6:33 | |
He took her advice. | 6:38 | |
Apparently, her own faith and conviction | 6:41 | |
was quite convincing. | 6:43 | |
Not only was he cured, | 6:46 | |
but he was also converted in this visit to Israel. | 6:48 | |
This little maid, we don't even know her name, | 6:55 | |
is one of these saints in the shadows | 6:59 | |
who changed the course of history of her day. | 7:01 | |
The second example was that of Barnabas | 7:06 | |
in the New Testament. | 7:08 | |
Barnabas is continually overshadowed by the figure of Paul. | 7:11 | |
Most of us aren't even aware of who he was. | 7:15 | |
But all of us recognize the name of Paul. | 7:19 | |
And yet it was Barnabas who went to seek out Paul | 7:23 | |
and convinced him to go on these missionary journeys. | 7:28 | |
Very likely, it was Barnabas whose wealth | 7:32 | |
provided the means by which he could travel. | 7:34 | |
It was Barnabas who opened the way in the Island of Cyprus | 7:39 | |
that Paul might receive a hearing. | 7:41 | |
A saint in the shadows, | 7:46 | |
in the background of another great man, | 7:48 | |
and yet how important it is to our own religious background | 7:51 | |
that there was such a man named Barnabas. | 7:56 | |
All we know about him is that he was a businessman, | 8:00 | |
a prophet, and a teacher. | 8:03 | |
And you know there are a few Methodist churches named | 8:07 | |
after St. Barnabas, but a lot named after St. Paul. | 8:09 | |
The New Testament is full of many similar instances. | 8:13 | |
Time and time again, it's the little people | 8:18 | |
in the background that play important roles in history. | 8:20 | |
Those who made life worth living | 8:27 | |
were not all the first line apostles, | 8:28 | |
the high priests or government officials. | 8:32 | |
Jesus never promised that we would be famous | 8:40 | |
if we were to be of service. | 8:46 | |
If we would be great in the eyes of men, | 8:49 | |
when we are striving to be great in the eyes of God. | 8:53 | |
In fact, his standards of success | 8:58 | |
are rather strange to our ears. | 8:59 | |
He tells us that to be great, we need to serve others, | 9:02 | |
for the greatest among you shall be the servant of all. | 9:07 | |
And one of the sharpest reprimands he had for his disciples, | 9:13 | |
where when James and John wanted to sit | 9:16 | |
on the right and left hand of him in the kingdom, | 9:18 | |
before he felt that there was no room for pride, | 9:22 | |
for a place of honor to those who sought after it, | 9:27 | |
Christ again and again, as we recall, | 9:33 | |
sought out the common people, the forgotten men, | 9:36 | |
the person of his day who were neglected | 9:42 | |
with whom he recognized had tremendous potential | 9:45 | |
for making life worth living. | 9:49 | |
The problem that most of us face is this very thing | 9:55 | |
that we will not be the great persons of our day. | 9:58 | |
I hope some of you will be. | 10:02 | |
We don't know who will among us. | 10:05 | |
But to be realistic, most of us are going to always play | 10:09 | |
on the second string. | 10:14 | |
Most of us are going to have to face the fact | 10:17 | |
that in life, we are not going to receive the top honors. | 10:22 | |
And yet we still want a meaningful, purposeful life. | 10:27 | |
This doesn't mean that we who are playing in the shadows | 10:32 | |
lack ambition, nor does it always mean you lack ability. | 10:37 | |
There are just so many places at the top. | 10:42 | |
Without the saints in the shadows, | 10:48 | |
without those who play the second roles, | 10:51 | |
there'd be no clerks in our stores, | 10:54 | |
no vice presidents or vice anythings, | 10:57 | |
no assistant executives. | 11:00 | |
It'd be very difficult for a football team | 11:04 | |
or a basketball team to win | 11:06 | |
because there'd be no one left on the bench to substitute. | 11:07 | |
There'd be no advisors. | 11:12 | |
And if everyone sought after the top place, | 11:15 | |
the world would be a selfish chaos. | 11:18 | |
This is seen quite clearly in one of the novels | 11:21 | |
by Leo Tolstoy, "Anna Karenina". | 11:24 | |
Anna, the main character, is the type | 11:30 | |
that is always seeking first place. | 11:34 | |
And yet, she's the one in this story who ends unhappy. | 11:37 | |
She runs off with a Count whom she's fascinated | 11:41 | |
because she wants the thrill. | 11:45 | |
She wants the attention. | 11:48 | |
Only to find that he's interested in another woman, | 11:51 | |
and she ends her life in suicide. | 11:55 | |
In this particular novel, the saint in the shadow is Levin, | 11:58 | |
her brother-in-law by marriage, | 12:02 | |
a quiet, unassuming man. | 12:05 | |
A farm manager who tries to live as a Christian farmer. | 12:10 | |
And he finds satisfaction in his family, | 12:14 | |
in his work, in his faith. | 12:16 | |
One reason why this novel has endured time | 12:20 | |
is because it's so true to life. | 12:24 | |
And if we were to look at these characters | 12:29 | |
over the long range, it's the saint in the shadow | 12:33 | |
who finds a life worth living. | 12:38 | |
Well, what then is needed to make our life meaningful? | 12:42 | |
If it's not fame or success, with quotation marks around it, | 12:47 | |
what is worth living? | 12:53 | |
This part of my message is pretty much | 12:57 | |
of a personal testimony. | 13:00 | |
And yet, I could find a number of persons | 13:01 | |
who would support it, much older and wiser than I. | 13:05 | |
Now I lift up three ingredients. | 13:10 | |
One, if we want a life worth living, | 13:13 | |
we need to be needed by someone. | 13:17 | |
There is a sense in which our lives | 13:21 | |
are not quite complete until we play | 13:23 | |
a somewhat indispensable role for someone else. | 13:27 | |
That might be a family, a loved one, our neighbors. | 13:32 | |
Social psychologists have long recognized | 13:37 | |
that affection and response or recognition | 13:39 | |
are basic ingredients in life | 13:43 | |
that are sought after by all men. | 13:45 | |
Someone must find it hard to get along without you, | 13:49 | |
and you'll feel worthwhile. | 13:53 | |
We need to serve so as to be needed by others. | 13:56 | |
I think of a grandmother who raised two young girls. | 14:00 | |
After the age in which many people have felt useless | 14:05 | |
as though their life was no longer worth living, | 14:09 | |
she had meaning and purpose because she was driving | 14:12 | |
to see these girls raised properly and on through college. | 14:15 | |
She was needed, and it gave meaning to her life. | 14:19 | |
I honestly believe that this is part of the appeal | 14:25 | |
of the Peace Corps. | 14:27 | |
Persons who ant serve in such a way | 14:30 | |
that someplace, someone will need their services. | 14:34 | |
Work, to many, gives meaning to life. | 14:41 | |
It's one source of satisfaction, yet no doubt, | 14:46 | |
not the only way. | 14:49 | |
But when our job becomes a vocation, | 14:51 | |
a calling by God you serve, | 14:53 | |
then whatever we do takes on new meaning | 14:56 | |
and our daily tasks become important | 14:59 | |
in the place where we're serving. | 15:01 | |
Some have jokingly said that community service | 15:06 | |
is kind of make work to keep people, | 15:08 | |
particularly housewife with nothing else to do | 15:10 | |
out of mischief. | 15:13 | |
I don't believe this is true. | 15:14 | |
It's often the time and the ability to serve | 15:17 | |
in places of need as a hospital volunteer, | 15:21 | |
in a local Red Cross chapter, in church groups, | 15:26 | |
league of women voters, that gives a housewife meaning | 15:31 | |
and a sense of satisfaction that we all need. | 15:36 | |
To be needed is the first ingredient I lift up for you. | 15:41 | |
The second is to set worthy but attainable goals. | 15:45 | |
Now, there are many ambitious graduates who, | 15:52 | |
upon getting their degree, leave the school | 15:54 | |
thinking they're going to change the world. | 15:56 | |
One layman that I know said, | 15:59 | |
he knew a lot went out to set the world on fire | 16:02 | |
but came back to school in a few years to find more matches. | 16:05 | |
They found that the top places were not always available. | 16:10 | |
Their talents were not quite as great | 16:13 | |
as they were led to believe they were. | 16:15 | |
What I'm concerned about is what happens emotionally | 16:20 | |
and psychologically to these persons | 16:22 | |
who fall just slightly short of their ambitious goals. | 16:24 | |
Most perfectionists are unhappy people | 16:29 | |
and I think are very difficult to live with. | 16:32 | |
And yet I don't want to suggest | 16:36 | |
that we set goals that are too low | 16:38 | |
that they're no longer a challenge. | 16:41 | |
They need to be worthy to those of us | 16:44 | |
who feel called by God to be good stewards | 16:45 | |
of our time and talents. | 16:48 | |
So I guess I'm speaking those of us | 16:53 | |
who do not graduate summa cum laude, | 16:57 | |
the housewife whose windows still need cleaning | 17:01 | |
or the businessman who finds | 17:04 | |
at the end of the week, work still left undone, | 17:05 | |
'cause you've just not been able to squeeze it in. | 17:09 | |
And saying that you're not alone. | 17:12 | |
One of the signs of maturity in life | 17:17 | |
is to be able to set goals that are challenging | 17:19 | |
and yet are capable of attainment. | 17:22 | |
It takes courage sometimes to accept the place where you are | 17:28 | |
and then give it your best. | 17:32 | |
The third ingredient that I would suggest | 17:36 | |
is needed for life is to be loved. | 17:37 | |
Human love, of course, can spur us on | 17:43 | |
to greater achievement. | 17:45 | |
You can document this by many examples around you. | 17:47 | |
In fact, we must love in order to be human. | 17:52 | |
One of the distinguishing marks of mankind. | 17:57 | |
Again and again, through literature, through scripture, | 18:04 | |
through contemporary example, we can illustrate the ways | 18:08 | |
in which through love, men have been regenerated, | 18:12 | |
been given new encouragement. | 18:17 | |
Let me give one example from Dostoevsky's novel, | 18:20 | |
"Crime and Punishment". | 18:23 | |
In the story, we have a good illustration | 18:26 | |
of the love of others pulling a man back | 18:31 | |
into the human fellowship | 18:35 | |
when he has felt cut off from life. | 18:36 | |
Raskolnikov, a student, has committed a murder. | 18:41 | |
Two murders, in fact, a pawnbroker and her sister. | 18:46 | |
At first, he planned this as a perfect crime. | 18:53 | |
And yet he realized that his conscience, | 18:56 | |
his actions all made him feel and look guilty. | 18:59 | |
In fact, the police suspected him | 19:03 | |
but had no definite proof. | 19:05 | |
Time and time again, he was on the verge | 19:08 | |
of confessing his crime, knowing where he had done wrong, | 19:10 | |
wanting to find punishment, perhaps? | 19:14 | |
Forgiveness? | 19:18 | |
We aren't real sure. | 19:19 | |
But he's afraid that no one cares enough | 19:22 | |
to really understand why he did it. | 19:24 | |
To have sympathy with him. | 19:27 | |
He feels cut off from the rest of the world. | 19:29 | |
It's only through the faith in him and in God | 19:33 | |
and the love of an ex prostitute named Sonia | 19:38 | |
and the assurance that his mother and his sister | 19:42 | |
love him and care for him that he gains courage | 19:44 | |
to go to the police and confess his crime. | 19:47 | |
Though he is imprisoned, he begins to reconstruct | 19:51 | |
a new and socially acceptable life | 19:56 | |
with the regeneration of him | 19:59 | |
starting from the love of others. | 20:00 | |
If the love of men can do this to us, | 20:05 | |
how much more can the love of God | 20:08 | |
call us back to start over again, to find new strength, | 20:10 | |
to find the ability to serve in the places of second best? | 20:15 | |
And how much we need this type of encouragement. | 20:21 | |
Therefore, as we look at life, we find ourselves concerned | 20:28 | |
over the fact that we may not be in top places of honor, | 20:33 | |
success or greatness, and yet still realizing | 20:38 | |
that God has called us and put us here | 20:42 | |
to have a life of meaning and purpose. | 20:44 | |
I suggest to you, to find this meaning, | 20:49 | |
we want to be needed, we want to be loved, | 20:53 | |
and we need to have worthy but attainable goals. | 20:59 | |
Only then can we really find happiness | 21:05 | |
in living in the shadow. | 21:09 | |
Many others have. | 21:13 | |
These are the ones this morning | 21:14 | |
whom I pay tribute as saints in the shadows. | 21:16 | |
Thank God for these saints. | 21:20 | |
Can we stand? | 21:24 | |
Let us pray. | 21:28 | |
Oh, blessed Lord, we sought out the common man, | 21:31 | |
ate at his table, walked with him along dusty roads, | 21:36 | |
visited with him beside the well and in the marketplace. | 21:41 | |
Let us (indistinct) strengthening presence | 21:46 | |
when we are prone to feel | 21:48 | |
that ours is not an important place of service. | 21:49 | |
Fill our hearts with the knowledge of thy love. | 21:53 | |
Teach us through success and through failure | 21:57 | |
to be thankful yet humble. | 22:00 | |
Grant meaning to our daily task that we might know | 22:03 | |
that whatever is done in thy name is worthy of our time. | 22:06 | |
Lift up our spirits, oh God, | 22:12 | |
and fill our lives with thy holy presence. | 22:14 | |
Amen. | 22:17 | |
And now with the grace of our Lord and savior Jesus Christ, | 22:20 | |
the love of God and the fellowship of his holy spirit | 22:24 | |
abide with you and keep you now and ever more. | 22:28 | |
Amen. | 22:32 | |
(bell ringing) | 22:34 | |
(liturgical piano music playing) | 22:53 | |
(loud footsteps) | 25:32 | |
(people murmuring) | 25:58 | |
(loud footsteps) | 26:03 | |
(upbeat music) | 26:13 | |
(commenter speaking in background) | 26:44 | |
(upbeat music) | 26:52 | |
(commenter speaking in background) | 27:50 | |
(upbeat music) | 28:16 | |
(commenter speaking in background) | 30:20 | |
(upbeat music) | 30:46 | |
(commenter speaking in background) | 31:29 | |
(upbeat music) | 31:41 |