Stuart C. Henry - "Prisoner of Grace" (April 30, 1967)
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Transcript
Transcripts may contain inaccuracies.
(soft gentle music) | 0:07 | |
- | In the name of the Father | 0:30 |
and the Son | 0:32 | |
and the Holy Spirit. | 0:33 | |
Amen. | 0:36 | |
The sight of another's defeat | 0:47 | |
affects us far more | 0:51 | |
deeply than any thought of his success. | 0:53 | |
Moment by moment, | 0:58 | |
each one of us stands upon the razor's edge | 1:00 | |
of possible destruction. | 1:03 | |
We are never quite certain that it may not happen to us. | 1:06 | |
Never assured | 1:11 | |
that that awful, fearful, unnameable thing | 1:12 | |
someday, | 1:17 | |
this day, | 1:19 | |
any day | 1:20 | |
may not overtake us. | 1:22 | |
Nor have we confidence that death's bright angel | 1:24 | |
will stay his beckoning summons to us long enough. | 1:27 | |
And so we walk softly. | 1:31 | |
Or if it comes to that, | 1:34 | |
who can be sure ever that he will not someday, | 1:36 | |
for all his effort and brass and banter, | 1:38 | |
say | 1:42 | |
or do | 1:43 | |
or be the thing | 1:44 | |
that will bring his private world crashing about his head. | 1:46 | |
We are moved with pity | 1:51 | |
and then with terror | 1:53 | |
when we look at the defeat of another. | 1:55 | |
But we may not allow ourselves the luxury of tranquility, | 1:58 | |
because it might, | 2:03 | |
it just might happen to us. | 2:05 | |
And far more deeply than any greedy ambition | 2:09 | |
which stirs the heart as we look at the victor's march | 2:12 | |
is the fear that we ourselves might fail. | 2:16 | |
And failure is for us so often symbolized | 2:21 | |
by the notion of the prisoner himself, | 2:25 | |
who has been defeated | 2:28 | |
and has been so acknowledged | 2:30 | |
and designated. | 2:32 | |
But for that matter, we are never quite able to | 2:35 | |
resist the attempt to discover why the prisoner | 2:38 | |
and the symbol of this fettered man | 2:41 | |
arrest our attention | 2:44 | |
and makes captive of our heart. | 2:46 | |
When Joan of Arc led a hesitant dauphin | 2:50 | |
to the very order of the cathedral of Reims | 2:54 | |
all the bells of France went mad for joy. | 2:57 | |
In splendid armor, she rode through the streets | 3:01 | |
of the religious capital of the land. | 3:04 | |
And when the awesome ceremonies | 3:07 | |
of the coronation were finished, | 3:09 | |
men shouted for the maid until they were hoarse | 3:11 | |
and all the people knelt. | 3:15 | |
But this is not the Joan we think of | 3:18 | |
nor the morning we remember. | 3:21 | |
Rather it is a later, | 3:23 | |
another day. | 3:25 | |
On a fair spring morning such as this, | 3:27 | |
when the woods were green | 3:30 | |
but the tide of the battle had turned against her. | 3:32 | |
The last to retreat | 3:36 | |
from an unfortunate sally against the English. | 3:38 | |
Joan was the last to come | 3:41 | |
and too late to enter the place of refuge. | 3:44 | |
The gates of the city were shut and locked against her. | 3:47 | |
She was dragged from her horse | 3:51 | |
and imprisoned. | 3:53 | |
First in a tower, and then in a dungeon. | 3:55 | |
Bound to a beam and the ceiling | 3:59 | |
by a chain about her waist. | 4:01 | |
Shackled to the floor, fetters upon her feet. | 4:04 | |
And here she is, | 4:08 | |
and it is this Joan that we remember and think of. | 4:09 | |
And that which alarms our breath | 4:13 | |
is not that she suffered so mean of fate. | 4:16 | |
If it could happen to this pious, gentle creature | 4:21 | |
it could happen to me at any time. | 4:25 | |
No, this is not that which disturbs our hearts. | 4:27 | |
Rather it is the undeniable knowledge | 4:31 | |
that in a situation which well might be our own | 4:36 | |
she was free as the air they denied her. | 4:40 | |
And kept neither by war nor wife. | 4:44 | |
What was it that she knew? | 4:48 | |
The figure of the prisoner attracts and disturbs us | 4:51 | |
partially because of its familiarity. | 4:55 | |
The second world war is not so distant. | 4:59 | |
Nor the present conflict so self-contained. | 5:02 | |
That we can afford to relax | 5:06 | |
in the confidence of our own security. | 5:08 | |
I can still remember the looks on the faces of men | 5:11 | |
who came from behind the wired walls of concentration camps. | 5:15 | |
I can. | 5:19 | |
And so can you. | 5:20 | |
Not many days pass | 5:22 | |
without some reporter spilling into the press the details | 5:24 | |
or part of them. | 5:28 | |
Even in this good year of grace | 5:29 | |
of how a man is wakened in the night | 5:31 | |
or manacled in the daylight. | 5:34 | |
It happens. | 5:37 | |
Spring has come 'round again this year | 5:39 | |
but the weary old earth has turned ourself | 5:42 | |
with bombs bursting over the rice paddies of Asia. | 5:45 | |
And threatening again the olive orchards of Greece. | 5:49 | |
Do not ever, ever forget | 5:53 | |
that the conflict could expand | 5:55 | |
even to your place of dwelling and mine. | 5:58 | |
It could happen here. | 6:02 | |
And so the figure of the prisoner | 6:04 | |
alarms and disturbs us. | 6:06 | |
And yet we think of Joan and we see her | 6:09 | |
remembering the captive who was once the victor. | 6:13 | |
Seeing the simple maid | 6:18 | |
playing please God | 6:21 | |
that she might return to tend her sheep. | 6:24 | |
Not knowing already that the shadow of the stake | 6:27 | |
had fallen long upon her. | 6:31 | |
But can you not see her, this picture that we have | 6:34 | |
when badgered by her jailers and weakened in illness | 6:38 | |
just for a moment for an instant she falters. | 6:43 | |
And recanting denies her voices | 6:47 | |
but almost at once is again the Joan of light and legend. | 6:50 | |
Rushing to the desk she cries out, | 6:55 | |
Give me that writing! | 6:58 | |
And as she tears the paper to fragments | 7:00 | |
she says in calm solemnity, | 7:03 | |
light your fire. | 7:06 | |
This is the indication that she knew something. | 7:09 | |
This is the Joan that we do not understand. | 7:13 | |
This is the Joan to whom we would like to relate and cannot | 7:16 | |
because the outward seeming of the prisoner | 7:20 | |
who is thrust into the cell | 7:23 | |
is moving to us. | 7:26 | |
For it is finally but the externalization | 7:28 | |
of that sickness of the heart. | 7:32 | |
Because at core, all of us know ourselves | 7:34 | |
to be imprisoned by a power colder than any steel. | 7:38 | |
We are, God forgive us, all of us prisoners. | 7:43 | |
Prisoners to ourselves. | 7:48 | |
To our times. | 7:50 | |
Hopelessly bound in the now and powerless to be elsewhere. | 7:52 | |
We are prisoners to our fellows, | 7:57 | |
to our communities, | 8:00 | |
to our weaknesses. | 8:02 | |
But most of all we are prisoners | 8:04 | |
to our own sorry, sinful selves. | 8:06 | |
Is there no word for us? | 8:11 | |
Aye, there is a word | 8:13 | |
spoken by another in another age | 8:17 | |
who understood the meaning of freedom. | 8:19 | |
But when I speak of prison now | 8:23 | |
I do not think of a place where felons are kept. | 8:26 | |
I think of the denial of freedom. | 8:30 | |
Though he knew much about the frustration of the human state | 8:33 | |
this one who was free. | 8:39 | |
The good that I want to do, he said, I never seem to do. | 8:41 | |
And that which I do not want to do, | 8:46 | |
this is exactly that of which I am guilty. | 8:48 | |
I am such a wretched man. | 8:51 | |
And at once we know that he understands. | 8:54 | |
For we too are wretched creatures | 8:58 | |
torn by the civil war of our inward strife. | 9:00 | |
Oh, it is not that we are heartless | 9:04 | |
or brutal, | 9:07 | |
or mean. | 9:08 | |
But it's just that life is short and the light is dear. | 9:09 | |
And just this once, | 9:14 | |
or before spring, | 9:15 | |
or before we die. | 9:17 | |
No, we are not really unkind or brutal. | 9:19 | |
We are simply weak | 9:22 | |
and harassed | 9:24 | |
and pressured | 9:25 | |
and human | 9:27 | |
and sinful. | 9:28 | |
For if it comes to that, | 9:30 | |
we are almost sentimental about the misery that we can see. | 9:32 | |
Eager to make a summer Christmas for a dying child. | 9:36 | |
Childishly delighted by a beggar woman | 9:40 | |
who is crowned queen for a day. | 9:43 | |
No, we are not ugly or evil. | 9:45 | |
Indeed, we often assure others | 9:48 | |
and ourselves | 9:51 | |
that we aren't like other people. | 9:53 | |
We are different, but we aren't. | 9:55 | |
Weak and human, all of us. | 9:58 | |
And our best aspirations are never written into our history. | 10:00 | |
And our sorry tale of failure is repeated | 10:04 | |
time and time and time again. | 10:07 | |
The good that we do, we do not do. | 10:10 | |
And so, we are encouraged by Paul's confession. | 10:13 | |
And we are emboldened to hear him out. | 10:17 | |
Yes, he knew about being captive to human failure. | 10:20 | |
And he knew too something of being thrown | 10:24 | |
literally into jail. | 10:26 | |
For Paul spent due time in the slimy, vermin-ridden, | 10:29 | |
dank cells of Roman prisons. | 10:34 | |
He knew something of the agony of flesh | 10:37 | |
eaten in two by the shackle. | 10:40 | |
And he was human enough to become lonely | 10:42 | |
and to complain of it. | 10:45 | |
And yet never for long did he forget | 10:47 | |
that the jailer of the spirit | 10:50 | |
is more sinister than any, any centurion, | 10:52 | |
I and more powerful too. | 10:56 | |
Do you remember the time when he, | 10:59 | |
along with Silas his traveling companion, | 11:01 | |
was thrown into a prison cell? | 11:04 | |
An odd couple that. | 11:07 | |
Here they sit unjustly in stocks | 11:09 | |
singing joyfully far into the night. | 11:12 | |
Little wonder folk thought them mad. | 11:15 | |
But about midnight, as Paul and Silas | 11:19 | |
were singing hymns and praying to God, | 11:23 | |
and all the prisoners were listening, | 11:26 | |
a captive audience surely, | 11:28 | |
there was a mighty earthquake | 11:31 | |
and the very foundations of the prison were shaken. | 11:33 | |
And all the doors were open. | 11:36 | |
And everyone's fetters were burst apart. | 11:38 | |
Just at this time, the jailer rushed in | 11:42 | |
knowing himself to be undone, | 11:46 | |
had asked Paul the question that lets us understand | 11:49 | |
Paul's knowledge which shines through | 11:53 | |
the circumstance of his own time. | 11:55 | |
Because in the often brutal | 11:58 | |
but usually effective justice of Rome | 12:01 | |
the machine always had its culprit for its crime. | 12:04 | |
A man was charged with the safety of his captives | 12:09 | |
even to the point of his own life. | 12:14 | |
And if a man's captive escaped, | 12:17 | |
if the jailer lost his prisoner, | 12:20 | |
Rome took his life. | 12:22 | |
It was as simple as that. | 12:24 | |
Rome did not lose many prisoners. | 12:26 | |
And the jailer, knowing the future that was before him, | 12:29 | |
and fearing even a worse fate, | 12:33 | |
drew his sword and would've killed himself immediately. | 12:35 | |
But Paul said, do yourself no harm. | 12:38 | |
We are all here. | 12:41 | |
And so they were. | 12:42 | |
And so they stayed and the jailer asked the question, | 12:44 | |
what must I do Paul, to be like you? | 12:48 | |
What is it that you know? | 12:52 | |
You are imprisoned Paul, even literally | 12:54 | |
and I am caught in circumstance, but we are not alike. | 12:57 | |
You know something Paul that I do not know. | 13:00 | |
What is it that you know? | 13:03 | |
Tell me, what must I do or say or be? | 13:05 | |
What can I do or say or be? | 13:09 | |
To save myself, to become free again. | 13:11 | |
For you, Paul are so free that | 13:15 | |
you do not even have to try to escape. | 13:17 | |
Tell me what you know. | 13:20 | |
More than once, Paul referred to himself | 13:22 | |
as a prisoner of the Lord. | 13:26 | |
Oh I know some of the references are suspect | 13:27 | |
as to their Pauline authorship. | 13:31 | |
And yet they do stand in the camp | 13:33 | |
as a testimony and a witness | 13:36 | |
to what the Christian community has thought | 13:39 | |
was part of the essence of being a Christian. | 13:41 | |
This is one of the hallmarks | 13:45 | |
that one becomes a prisoner of Christ. | 13:47 | |
And if it comes to that, | 13:51 | |
some of the expressions are Paul's. | 13:52 | |
Even in the opinion of the leanest critics. | 13:56 | |
I am a prisoner of Christ, he says. | 13:59 | |
What does he mean by this? | 14:03 | |
Well now, beyond all question he meant in part | 14:05 | |
that he had been for the gospel's sake, | 14:09 | |
thrown into jail. | 14:11 | |
But such an understanding | 14:13 | |
does not exhaust the meaning of the words. | 14:15 | |
For Paul meant two. | 14:18 | |
That the power of Christ had as it were, | 14:20 | |
arrested him and thrown him into a cell | 14:23 | |
and kept him there. | 14:26 | |
Kept him there because only Christ had the key. | 14:28 | |
It is not enough that we mention this figure. | 14:32 | |
It is not enough that we remind ourselves | 14:35 | |
that the traditions of Peter and Paul, | 14:39 | |
so different in many ways | 14:42 | |
as the new testament has preserved them for us. | 14:44 | |
The traditions of Peter and Paul are one | 14:48 | |
at least at this point. | 14:51 | |
Where there is the memory of a jail deliverance | 14:53 | |
which simply freed man from a cell. | 14:57 | |
That he might be more safely kept in bondage to grace | 15:00 | |
to become a prisoner of grace. | 15:06 | |
And here finally is the phrase toward which we move. | 15:09 | |
For this is exactly what Paul was. | 15:13 | |
And herein is the indication of his freedom. | 15:16 | |
Here is the echo of Christ who said to his chiefest friend | 15:20 | |
that the time would come | 15:25 | |
when in his old age he should be bound. | 15:27 | |
And another should command him saying, | 15:32 | |
go this place for that. | 15:33 | |
Here is the oblique reflection | 15:36 | |
of the goodness of those | 15:39 | |
who identified themselves with prisoners. | 15:41 | |
And so in the end, could hear the lord of history | 15:44 | |
saying unto them, I was in prison and you visited me. | 15:48 | |
What does it mean to be a prisoner of grace? | 15:54 | |
Let me tell you | 15:58 | |
again and again and again. | 15:59 | |
Jesus endeavored to get this lesson across | 16:02 | |
to the man who heard him speak. | 16:06 | |
That a man was as powerless to deliver himself | 16:09 | |
as he was helpless to extend his own height. | 16:13 | |
This is that which a man could not do. | 16:17 | |
Those who rest on their own accomplishments | 16:20 | |
or their piety, or their wit, | 16:23 | |
they have no place in the kingdom of God | 16:26 | |
and no access to it. | 16:29 | |
This is why he could say and say quite frankly | 16:31 | |
that the publicans and the harlots | 16:35 | |
would go before the scribes and the pharisees | 16:37 | |
into the kingdom. | 16:40 | |
For the outcasts knew | 16:42 | |
that they had forfeited all right for a place with him. | 16:44 | |
If they were ever, ever to enjoy this | 16:49 | |
it must be because it was given to them as a gracious gift. | 16:52 | |
They could not ever say or do or be | 16:57 | |
anything good enough to merit salvation. | 17:01 | |
They could find no place in the kingdom of heaven | 17:04 | |
because of themselves, it must be given them. | 17:07 | |
But this is exactly what happens, says Christ. | 17:11 | |
We talk so much about self-acceptance | 17:16 | |
but we have forgotten that in Christ, | 17:19 | |
God has shown us man acceptance. | 17:22 | |
And it takes a deal of doing. | 17:26 | |
If this offends us, and if that knowledge scandalizes us, | 17:28 | |
then it is fair. | 17:33 | |
But if it reaches the heart, | 17:35 | |
then by this we know. | 17:37 | |
That man does receive grace | 17:39 | |
and so becomes a prisoner bound to Christ. | 17:42 | |
For he understands in this way | 17:46 | |
that there is thereafter no light save in him. | 17:48 | |
This is Joan waiting for the flame. | 17:53 | |
This is Paul waiting for the headsman's ax. | 17:57 | |
In the knowledge that one may accept | 18:01 | |
himself and his universe | 18:04 | |
because the universe and its creator have accepted him. | 18:07 | |
Or shall you say it this way? | 18:12 | |
There is a prisoner who is defeated. | 18:15 | |
And there is a prisoner who is free. | 18:18 | |
The prisoner who is free is that prisoner of grace | 18:21 | |
who knows something. | 18:25 | |
We are all of us in prison by our times, | 18:27 | |
our weaknesses, | 18:31 | |
our failures, our ambitions. | 18:32 | |
But some men there be who become prisoners of grace | 18:35 | |
and so escape. | 18:39 | |
They know that the body is more than raiment | 18:41 | |
and that life is more than food. | 18:46 | |
If you see, | 18:50 | |
the fool knows the truth because he is an outcast. | 18:52 | |
And the man who stands outside the game | 18:57 | |
always sees more than the one who plays it. | 19:00 | |
And the saint knows the truth | 19:04 | |
because he has no special ax to grind. | 19:07 | |
And so he is free to accept it | 19:10 | |
wherever he discovers it. | 19:13 | |
The prisoner of grace knows the truth | 19:15 | |
because he has understood in himself | 19:19 | |
this power that transcends the world and the flesh. | 19:22 | |
If you be a prisoner of grace, | 19:27 | |
you may well be called a fool. | 19:29 | |
You will less likely be called a saint | 19:34 | |
for it takes a saint to discover one. | 19:37 | |
But you, God bless and pity you, | 19:41 | |
will be free if you be a prisoner of grace. | 19:44 | |
And history has said it. | 19:48 | |
Here is the Christ. | 19:51 | |
They bring him as a prisoner in Caesar's court. | 19:53 | |
And they nail him to the tree | 19:57 | |
but he outlives | 19:59 | |
and he outlasts Caesar. | 20:01 | |
And ironically his vitality | 20:03 | |
is attested by the very effort to deny it. | 20:06 | |
No one dares to cry or bothers to say the death of Caesar. | 20:09 | |
It is too manifestly a fact. | 20:15 | |
But Christ, well, | 20:18 | |
rather let Paul have the last word | 20:20 | |
for the prisoners of grace who endure as conquerors | 20:24 | |
and as more than conquerors. | 20:28 | |
Triumphant over life and death | 20:30 | |
and principalities and powers. | 20:33 | |
And things present and things to come. | 20:35 | |
Hear Paul's final word | 20:38 | |
for he speaks it and we endorse it. | 20:41 | |
Not in weatherness, | 20:44 | |
but in the knowledge that this way alone lies peace. | 20:46 | |
Paul, | 20:51 | |
I, a prisoner of Christ. | 20:52 | |
Paul, I, a prisoner of grace, | 20:56 | |
appeal to you. | 21:00 | |
Almighty God, | 21:15 | |
bind us by thy love. | 21:18 | |
Forgive us in thy compassion. | 21:22 | |
Support us in thy grace. | 21:26 | |
And enfold us in thy providence. | 21:31 | |
Through Christ, our Lord. | 21:35 | |
The Lord bless you and keep you. | 21:38 | |
The Lord make his space to shine upon you | 21:41 | |
and be gracious unto you. | 21:43 | |
The Lord lift up his confidence upon you | 21:46 | |
and give you peace. | 21:48 | |
Both now and in the life | 21:50 | |
everlasting. | 21:52 | |
(choir sings) | 22:00 |