Creighton Lacy - "No Strings?" (November 16, 1969)

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	(hymnal singing overshadowed by instruments)	0:03
-	Let us offer unto God our unison prayer of confession	5:16
	and for pardon, let us pray.	5:23
	Almighty God, we humbly acknowledge before thee,	5:30
	that we have sinned in thought, word and deed	5:36
	by our fault, our own fault,	5:43
	our own most grievous fault.	5:48
	Merciful Lord, we confess our sins,	5:52
	have mercy upon us and help us.	5:58
	Blot out our many sins and offenses, pardon and deliver us	6:03
	and give grace of amendment to us	6:12
	and to all thy faithful people.	6:15
	Make us worthy to offer unto thee glory and thanksgiving.	6:20
	Wash away oh, Lord God, the foul pollution	6:28
	of our souls and cleanse us with the water of life	6:33
	that in all purity and holiness	6:39
	we may be accounted worthy to enter thy presence,	6:43
	through Jesus Christ, our Lord.	6:49
	Amen.	6:53
	And hear these words of assurance of the forgiveness	6:56
	of sins as recorded in the New Testament.	7:01
	If we confess our sins, God is faithful and just	7:09
	and we'll forgive our sins and cleanse us	7:18
	from all unrighteousness.	7:24
	Jesus said, him who comes to me	7:27
	I will not cast out.	7:34
	This saying is sure and worthy of full acceptance	7:39
	that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.	7:46
	Therefore be of good courage.	7:56
	(hymnal singing)	8:06
	♪ Amen, amen, amen ♪	8:59
	♪ Amen, amen, amen ♪	9:37
	♪ Amen, amen, amen ♪	10:00
	♪ Amen, amen ♪	10:25
	(opera hymnal singing)	10:53
-	Today's lesson is taken from the Luke 9.	11:57
	Now about eight days after these sayings,	12:02
	he took with him Peter and James and John	12:05
	and went up on the mounting to pray and as he was praying	12:10
	his appearance of his countenance was altered	12:16
	and his reignment became dazzling white	12:21
	and behold two men talked with him, Moses and Elijah	12:24
	who appeared in holy and spoke of his departure	12:31
	which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem.	12:36
	Now, Peter, and those who were	12:41
	with him were heavy with sleep, but kept awake.	12:43
	And they saw his glory and the two men who stood	12:48
	with him and as the men were partying from him	12:52
	Peter said to Jesus, Master, it is well that we are here.	12:58
	Let us make three booths,	13:05
	one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah,	13:07
	not knowing what he said.	13:13
	As he said this, a cloud came and overshadowed them	13:16
	and they were afraid as they entered the cloud.	13:22
	And a voice came out of the cloud saying,	13:27
	this is my son, my chosen, listen to him.	13:32
	And when the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone	13:38
	and they kept silence and told no one in those days	13:43
	anything of what they had seen.	13:49
	On the next day when they had come down	13:53
	from the mountain, a great crowd met him and behold	13:56
	a man from the crowd cried,	14:02
	teacher, I beg you to look upon my son	14:05
	for he is my only child and behold a spirit seizes him	14:10
	and he suddenly cries out, it convulses him till he falls	14:17
	and shatters him and will hardly leave him.	14:25
	And I begged your disciples to cast it out,	14:30
	but they could not.	14:35
	Jesus answered, oh faithless and perverse generation.	14:38
	How long am I to be with you and bear with you?	14:44
	Bring your son here, while he was coming	14:50
	the demon tore him and convulsed him,	14:56
	but Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit	15:00
	and healed the boy and gave him back to his father	15:05
	and all were astonished at the majesty of God.	15:11
	May God bless to us the reading of his own word.	15:17
	♪ Glory be to the Father ♪	15:33
	♪ And to the Son and to the Holy Ghost ♪	15:38
	♪ As it was in the beginning ♪	15:49
	♪ Is now and ever shall be ♪	15:55
	♪ World without end, amen, amen ♪	16:01
	The Lord be with you.	16:15
-	And with your spirit.	16:18
-	Let us pray.	16:20
	Let us offer first to prayer of Thanksgiving.	16:31
	We do praise and thank thee oh God,	16:37
	for all great and simple joys,	16:41
	for the gift of wonder and the joy of discovery.	16:47
	For the everlasting freshness of experience.	16:54
	For all that comes to us through sympathy and through sorrow	17:01
	and for the joy of work attempted and achieved.	17:10
	For musicians, poets and craftsmen	17:17
	and for all who work in form and color	17:23
	to increase the beauty of life.	17:28
	For the likeness of Jesus in ordinary people,	17:34
	their forbearance, courage and kindness	17:41
	and for all obscure and humble lives of service.	17:50
	For all these great and simple joys,	17:57
	we give thee humble and hearty thanks.	18:03
	And let us offer two prayers of intercession.	18:11
	One for the astronauts and the other	18:17
	for the world in trouble.	18:23
	All mighty God, creator and sustainer	18:29
	who knows the paths of the air.	18:36
	We commend to thee the three astronauts, courageous, skilled	18:42
	confident, keep them in the hollow of thy hand,	18:52
	be it in life or in death.	19:00
	Thou Father of us all.	19:05
	Oh God, the Father who has made of one blood,	19:11
	all the nations of the earth.	19:15
	We pray that strength and courage abundant	19:20
	be given to all who work for a world of reason	19:23
	and understanding.	19:29
	We pray that the good which lies in every man's heart	19:33
	may day by day, be magnified.	19:38
	We pray that men will come to see more clearly	19:43
	not that which divides them, but that which unites them.	19:48
	We pray that each hour may bring us closer	19:57
	to a final victory, not of nation over nation,	20:01
	but of man over his own evils and weakness.	20:11
	And all this we pray for Jesus Christ sake.	20:18
	And let us offer a prayer of supplication.	20:26
	Oh, God, who hast made the church a Royal priesthood,	20:32
	hear us as we pray for the gifts of gaiety and freedom	20:39
	and simplicity, for laughter, kindness, generosity	20:46
	gentleness, honor, courtesy and self control.	20:57
	For the consecration of the discontent of the young.	21:09
	For wisdom in the conservatism of the middle aged.	21:17
	For resiliency in the obstinacy of the aged,	21:26
	help us both to know and to acknowledge that the standard	21:35
	for man's life has been shown us in Jesus Christ, Our Lord.	21:42
	And now as our savior Christ has taught us	21:55
	we humbly pray together saying.	21:59
	Our father who art in heaven.	22:03
	Hallowed to thy name, thy kingdom come.	22:08
	Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.	22:14
	Give us this day, our daily bread	22:20
	and forgive us our trespasses	22:25
	as we forgive those who trespass against us.	22:28
	And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us	22:33
	from evil for thine is the kingdom	22:38
	and the power and the glory forever.	22:42
	Amen.	22:49
-	This past summer the Christian Science Monitor	23:18
	printed a bit of free verse that captured my fancy	23:22
	as I hope it will capture yours.	23:26
	For what you do with it is far more important	23:29
	than what I try to with it this morning.	23:33
	It is entitled "Inkling by Inkling", by Doris Peel.	23:37
	There are I think two kinds of people on this our earth,	23:46
	those for whom paradise presents itself	23:52
	as a point of arrival, a perfection of stillness,	23:56
	an ineffable cessation of all the sound.	24:01
	And those for whom always the ultimate delight must lie	24:06
	in what perpetually glimmers ahead,	24:10
	the mystery and the miracle of the undisclosed	24:14
	of the path curved frontally through the secret wood	24:18
	or swung out bolded precocious height.	24:23
	Neither prepduction it would seem has anything,	24:28
	whatever to do with race or nationality	24:32
	or class or sex or with age either if it comes to that,	24:37
	for I asked yesterday a little girl I know,	24:44
	what do you think heaven is like?	24:48
	And she said gazing rapidly at where we sat	24:52
	in a Psalm of a valley full of flowers,	24:56
	oh, like this only all the time.	25:00
	When I asked a little boy flying a kite	25:07
	not quite the same thing,	25:09
	but what if he could, he would always do.	25:12
	He said looking up, be like a kite	25:17
	and added as if tugging from his own two shoes,	25:22
	but without any strings	25:27
	Most of us find ourselves at one time or another	25:33
	with these conflicting impulses, these contrasting natures.	25:38
	There are times when we yearn	25:44
	for the stillness of wooded hills	25:45
	and other times when we need	25:48
	the turbulence of the sea shore.	25:50
	But even then our temperaments steer us on different quests.	25:53
	One may choose the mountains to gaze	25:58
	at Tramco vistas or to test his vigor against rugged peaks	26:01
	which must be scaled because they are there.	26:07
	One may exalt in the challenge of the surf,	26:11
	the wind and the spray and the ceaseless tides	26:14
	or one may prefer the beach for a quiet snooze	26:19
	on sun baked sand with the waves no more than a lullaby.	26:23
	So let us assume that the poet is right	26:29
	that their are two kinds of people on this our earth	26:31
	and try to identify ourselves and our priorities.	26:37
	The designations of active and passive are far too simple	26:44
	but there are people for whom paradise presents itself	26:49
	as a point of arrival, a perfection of stillness	26:54
	an end to striving, a haven of detachment.	26:59
	Some of us in this mood have stood this past fortnight	27:05
	awed by the splendor of an autumn maple	27:09
	and cried with Edna St. Vincent Malay,	27:13
	Lord, I do fear thou made the world too beautiful this year.	27:17
	My soul is old but out of me, let fall no burning leave.	27:23
	Privy let no bird call.	27:28
	There are some students and faculty	27:34
	for whom the academic life is indeed an ivory tower,	27:38
	a sanctuary and an escape	27:43
	from what we glibly term involvement.	27:46
	This is not to deny the importance of scholarship	27:50
	of abstract as well as applied research.	27:54
	On the contrary most of us spend far too little of our time	27:58
	of our education, as well as our total life	28:03
	in meditation, in evaluation, in contemplation of the deeper	28:07
	broader implications of what we read or do.	28:13
	But all of us are aware of the temptation	28:20
	to accept an ineffable cessation of all effort	28:23
	to regard college as a point of arrival instead	28:27
	of a point of departure.	28:30
	Outwardly free of any responsibility	28:33
	more taxing than term papers or girls in dormitory rooms	28:36
	in this carefree interlude while daddy or big daddy Duke	28:42
	is paying the bills, it is not difficult	28:48
	even in the midst of fashionable objections	28:51
	to act as if heaven is all like this,	28:55
	only all the time.	29:00
	Charles Morgan in a sensitive description	29:05
	of liberal education says of teachers,	29:08
	he whom we love and remember will pull the curtain away	29:12
	from the classroom window and let us see	29:16
	our own heaven with our own eyes.	29:20
	But he goes on to add, this enables mind of mankind.	29:25
	I take to be the function of true education	29:30
	for the very word means a leading out and to lead	29:33
	out the spirit of man through the wise liberating	29:39
	self discipline of learning and wonder	29:43
	has been the glory of great teachers	29:48
	and great universities since civilization began to flower.	29:50
	Surely today, as never before that leading out	29:58
	pulls us away from the blissful window toward heaven	30:02
	into the dark alley of slums,	30:07
	into peace Corps projects in Nigeria and Nepal.	30:11
	Into death marches on behalf of life.	30:16
	For others the church remains a sum of a valley	30:23
	full of flowers.	30:27
	When traditional values are in flux,	30:29
	when one stable institutions are under attack	30:32
	a faithful few, still run to the church as a hiding place,	30:35
	a shelter from the storms of life.	30:40
	When, as in the moral debates	30:45
	which surrounded air raid shelters, a few panicky years ago	30:47
	Christians still barricade the doors	30:52
	against those of the wrong color or creed,	30:55
	the heresy grows more blasphemous.	30:59
	The most moving and perhaps most ironic moment	31:04
	in two years in India came for me when	31:07
	a spectacular, colorful republic day festivities	31:11
	in the capital are closed with an old British custom	31:15
	of beating the retreat.	31:20
	Amid military pomp and circumstance	31:23
	and haunting Indian melodies,	31:26
	the Bugle Corps plays a version of "Abide With Me",	31:30
	echoing and re-echoing from the balconies	31:36
	of the imposing sandstone secretariat.	31:40
	Change and decay in all around I see,	31:44
	oh thou who changes not, abide with me.	31:51
	But so often we Christians mistake the eternal God	31:59
	who changes not for his very human institution, the church,	32:04
	and pray for it to preserve and protect us	32:09
	instead of for him to abide vital and active in our lives.	32:14
	But the world does change whether	32:23
	we regard it as decay or progress.	32:25
	The structures of empire pass into other hands.	32:30
	The valley rose cold.	32:35
	The leaf does fall, paradise as a perfection	32:38
	of stillness becomes deafening and deadening.	32:44
	Even for this quiet ascent temperament human restlessness	32:50
	rebels at anything which goes on all the time.	32:54
	One of our international students brought to me this week	33:01
	a moving poem, eloquent in thought and in feeling	33:04
	and especially in the use of a foreign language.	33:09
	In it he likened his new insights, his expanded intellectual	33:13
	and theological horizons to Niagara falls,	33:19
	which he saw for the first time last summer.	33:24
	A tremendous outpouring of energy	33:28
	from the racing stream at the top to the tempestuous	33:31
	and terrifying whirlpools at the bottom.	33:35
	Yet he was profoundly conscious of the continuity	33:39
	of water and of motion and of power.	33:44
	And that suggests quite naturally the alternative kind	33:52
	of people on this, our earth, those for whom the ultimate	33:56
	delight must lie in what perpetually glimmers ahead,	34:01
	the mystery and the miracle of the undisclosed.	34:06
	Expert participant or envious spectator	34:11
	thrills to the excitement of a crouching figure	34:14
	riding the crest of a snow bank or a gigantic breaker.	34:18
	For centuries, man has looked up into space	34:23
	and yearned to be like a kite.	34:27
	Compare for example the number of people who will be gazing	34:31
	at the moon through electronic eyes this week	34:35
	with a number who even know or care	34:40
	what went on in Washington yesterday	34:44
	or in Helsinki, Finland tomorrow.	34:48
	When the human spirit no longer soars in music and art,	34:54
	in the scientific laboratory,	34:59
	in outer space and in the inner depths of man, it will die.	35:02
	That is why CP Snow sounded a sober warning	35:10
	after the first moon landing, but limitations of time	35:14
	and space may make the moon or Mars a final barrier	35:19
	to man's distant exploration rather than an open door.	35:25
	It surely it must be our Christian hope that even	35:31
	before we come to the outer limits of our cosmic dreams	35:36
	we may turn in to find a challenge, a joy,	35:41
	a thrill in exploring and enabling the interpersonal	35:47
	and the inner personal relationships of this little globe.	35:54
	What the boy with the kite failed to realize	36:02
	like so many of us is the importance of that string.	36:06
	Art or science, casual exaltation, or earnest effort,	36:12
	flying kites depends directly	36:17
	on the tug of the wind against that string	36:20
	on the tension between unpredictable air and guiding hand.	36:24
	There are many situations where that restraining rope	36:32
	comes in handy.	36:35
	All you water skiers know what happens when	36:38
	your toe line breaks or gets entangled.	36:41
	A few weeks ago, I saw a movie shot about sky divers	36:45
	jumping from their planes, clasping hands	36:50
	and performing incredible ballets in space.	36:53
	With the carefree ease and grace	36:58
	mankind has always envied birds,	37:00
	but sooner or later generally sooner,	37:05
	the pool of gravity went out and the sky dancers	37:09
	had to jerk the cord which released	37:13
	a billowing parachute above them	37:15
	and even supported by dozens of strings,	37:19
	some of them suffered ignominiously, bumpy landings	37:23
	as a price for their dalliance on the wind.	37:27
	Some of you come to college eager to make	37:34
	like a kite carefree and blowing in the wind,	37:37
	but without any string.	37:41
	Some of you want your religious	37:44
	or even your moral lives to float unrestrained	37:46
	in a dazzling sky only to end in a tangled mess.	37:49
	Freedom without responsibility.	37:57
	Self expression without service.	38:00
	Kites without strings.	38:05
	The ninth chapter of Luke's Gospel is full of incidents	38:13
	involving this tension between freedom and responsibility.	38:17
	Mrs. Cash read only a small portion of it.	38:22
	The chapter begins with Jesus sending out	38:26
	the 12 disciples on a somewhat random journey.	38:29
	They were to be foot loose gypsies	38:34
	or should I say bearded hippies with long hair	38:37
	and sandals taking with them, no bag or bread or money	38:40
	not even a second shirt to wear	38:45
	while they waited in the laundromat	38:47
	Their route was vague, their accomodation questionable,	38:51
	but they had been given a mission,	38:57
	specific power and authority	39:00
	and they accomplished their task of preaching	39:04
	the good news of the kingdom of God	39:07
	and healing people everywhere.	39:10
	Jesus was not going to allow them to sit any longer rapidly	39:15
	in a Psalm of a valley only all the time	39:19
	nor did he encourage as he sent them forth to soar	39:23
	in his kingdom, that their journey could be	39:27
	without purpose without any strings.	39:30
	We are told that Herod the Tetrarch was perplexed,	39:36
	he thought he was in control of that region.	39:40
	He thought he'd taken care of unauthorized agitation	39:42
	by having John the Baptist beheaded.	39:46
	Yet here were more itinerants wandering around his territory	39:50
	performing a mission of physical	39:55
	and spiritual reconciliation under the authority	39:57
	of a Galilee carpenter.	40:02
	So Herod wanted to see this young prophet who was hailed	40:04
	as a reincarnate John or Elijah	40:09
	When the disciples returned, they needed rest and meditation	40:14
	and quiet conversation, but crowds followed them	40:19
	and Jesus welcomed the opportunity to preach and to heal.	40:23
	And then comes that too familiar story	40:29
	of the loaves and the fishes.	40:32
	We usually focus on the miracle itself	40:35
	and on the astonishing party of food left	40:38
	over 12 baskets of broken pieces.	40:41
	But you will remember	40:46
	that the disciples tried to duck responsibility	40:47
	for the crowd, send them away into the villages	40:51
	and country roundabout to lodge and get provisions,	40:55
	they advised Jesus.	40:59
	For we are here in a lonely place.	41:01
	In one of the sharpest commands recorded in the Gospels,	41:06
	Jesus retorted, you give them something to eat.	41:10
	Sure, we didn't invite them here on the mountain	41:18
	and we haven't got enough money to call	41:20
	out the caterer's truck.	41:23
	But those who join the company of Jesus,	41:26
	who venture out into the mystery	41:29
	and the miracle of the undisclosed,	41:32
	cannot do so without responsibility without strings.	41:35
	Then came the embarrassing inquiry about who people	41:43
	thought Jesus really was John, the Baptist,	41:46
	Elijah, one of the old prophets arisen,	41:50
	the same answers that had been given to Herod.	41:54
	But when Peter blurted out his conviction	41:57
	that this was the Christ of God,	42:01
	swung out bold at precipice height, as our poet put it	42:04
	his pride and joy were quickly sobered.	42:09
	Peter and the others may have felt that in this revelation	42:14
	they could soar with their master	42:17
	into the kingdom of heaven, politically and spiritually	42:19
	liberated from the mundane world.	42:23
	But again, Jesus rebuked them admonishing	42:27
	not only secrecy, but suffering.	42:31
	Warning them not only of his own rejection and death,	42:35
	but of the cross that they too would have to carry.	42:40
	If any man would come after me, let him deny himself,	42:45
	take up his cross daily, lose his life for my sake.	42:51
	As if fearing that the import of these episodes	43:01
	might still be overlooked,	43:04
	Luke picks up yet another incident eight days later,	43:06
	the account of the transfiguration	43:11
	in this morning's lesson.	43:13
	Drowsily while Jesus himself had been praying,	43:17
	Peter and James and John saw a dazzling vision	43:21
	and overheard Moses and Elijah	43:25
	speaking about the Messiah's destiny in Jerusalem.	43:28
	How tempting to make three booths, to build three shrines,	43:33
	to celebrate a spectacular event.	43:41
	Paradise had presented itself to them	43:45
	as a point of arrival, a sensation of all climbing.	43:48
	According to Luke's narrative,	43:54
	Moses and Elijah had been doing the talking	43:56
	yet, God's voice from the cloud was unequivocal.	44:00
	This is my son, my chosen listen to him.	44:05
	At least Stevenson in, "Called To Greatness"	44:15
	wrote, I sometimes think that what Americans need more	44:19
	than anything else is a hearing aid.	44:23
	This applies not only to hearing	44:29
	and heeding the voice of other people's whose destinies	44:31
	we so often manipulate with guns or dollars,	44:35
	but also to listening to God's son.	44:41
	Jesus frequently needed a retreat for prayer	44:47
	and meditation for the renewal of strength and direction,	44:51
	but he made it repeatedly clear that paradise was more	44:55
	than a perfection of stillness.	44:59
	That his mission must lie	45:02
	in what perpetually glimmers ahead.	45:05
	Jesus own road to Jerusalem was no path curved firmly	45:10
	through the secret wood.	45:15
	It moved directly in the Lunik account	45:17
	from the Mount of Transfiguration	45:19
	to the plain of confrontation and agony.	45:22
	The next day in the midst of a great crowd	45:27
	a man called out on behalf of his tormented child.	45:30
	And while he was coming to Jesus, the demon tore him	45:35
	and convulsed him.	45:40
	A not uncommon experience for the space	45:45
	which separates us from Christ is seldom smooth and gentle.	45:48
	The very effort to move toward him, to throw ourselves	45:54
	on his mercy and healing may be a traumatic struggle	45:57
	with all sorts of devils, including ourselves.	46:02
	At the moment when his voice bidding us come seems clearest,	46:08
	our human resistance may be strongest	46:14
	for he threatens our pet prejudices and preconceptions,	46:17
	overturns our lesser loyalties and values.	46:22
	Everyone knows the conversion through which	46:29
	St. Paul came to the feet of Jesus.	46:33
	Those of us who are Methodists quote,	46:37
	so incessantly the single clause,	46:39
	I felt my heart strangely warmed,	46:43
	but we assumed John Wesley's	46:46
	"Supreme Religious Moment"	46:48
	was a quiet sedate transfiguration.	46:50
	Yet in addition to all the struggles which preceded it,	46:55
	Wesley says in his journal only a few sentences later.	46:59
	"After I returned home,	47:06
	I was much buffeted with temptations,	47:07
	but cried out and they fled away.	47:11
	They returned again and again.	47:14
	Here in I found the difference	47:17
	between this and my former state chiefly consisted.	47:19
	I was striving striving, fighting with all my might	47:24
	under the law as well as under grace.	47:28
	But then I was sometimes if not often conquered.	47:33
	Now, I was always conqueror."	47:38
	That while he was coming to Jesus	47:45
	the demon tore him and convulsed him.	47:49
	So often our attempts to soar like a kite	47:54
	or anchor to earth by our own two shoes,	47:58
	but when the commitment is made,	48:02
	when we respond with unhesitating trust	48:05
	we discover anew that kites fly	48:09
	by tugging against both wind and strings intention.	48:12
	And we are astonished at the majesty of God.	48:18
	What about the disciples?	48:26
	Despite their affirmation of faith	48:28
	in the Christ God, despite their exhilarating vision	48:31
	they had been unable to cure the epileptic boy.	48:35
	Jesus despair and disappointment over the faithless	48:40
	and perverse generation swept the wide circle	48:44
	of disciples farther and crowd.	48:49
	Yet he did not withhold his healing grace.	48:54
	Some of you have returned from a mountaintop experience	49:01
	in Washington yesterday.	49:05
	Thrilling to the sense of participation in a so movement	49:08
	of vast proportions.	49:12
	Amid the clamor of many voices	49:15
	prophets and protestors, enthusiasts, and hecklers,	49:19
	it is often hard to tune in the one voice	49:24
	that we are admonished to hear.	49:28
	And it is even more difficult to realize	49:31
	that the making of peace, the task of reconciliation	49:34
	and healing is a convulsive long range, struggle	49:38
	demanding wisdom and sacrifice and love.	49:45
	The ninth chapter of Luke goes on with still more examples	49:56
	of the human urge to achieve freedom, success, authority,	50:00
	without responsibility.	50:06
	Jesus warned that he would be delivered	50:09
	into the hands of men and they didn't understand him.	50:12
	The disciples argued over which was the greatest	50:17
	and he rebuked them with the presence of a child.	50:21
	John rejected a man who was healing in Jesus name,	50:26
	but the master insisted on counting him in.	50:32
	On the road to Jerusalem the Samaritans refused	50:37
	to provide accommodations for Jesus party	50:40
	and the disciples wanted to destroy them with fire.	50:43
	And the Christ would have none of such vengeance.	50:48
	Finally, the Lord demanded that those who would truly	50:53
	follow him should cut loose from selfish,	50:57
	personal ties, shelter, ritual duties, family,	51:00
	but the alternative was not escape from all strengths.	51:09
	It was commitment to a single, higher, more direct loyalty	51:14
	which Christ defined as the kingdom of God.	51:20
	You will suspect that I made a drastic break	51:28
	in the middle of this sermon from the simple verse	51:32
	about a girl among the flowers and the boy	51:35
	with a kite to the discussion of a complex chapter	51:38
	in St. Luke's gospel.	51:42
	Not so, even the geographic ethical setting is the same.	51:46
	For I did not read the last four lines	51:54
	of Doris Peels poem.	51:57
	Here they are.	52:01
	This was in Galilee, where both you might say,	52:04
	were once being reconciled, proved true.	52:11
	Said the little girl in the valley,	52:20
	heaven is like this only all the time.	52:24
	Said the disciples, it is well that we are here	52:31
	let us make three booths.	52:35
	Said the boy, let me be like a kite,	52:40
	but without any string.	52:45
	Said Jesus, if any man would come after me,	52:50
	let him deny himself and take up his cross daily	52:55
	and follow me.	53:02
	This was in Galilee where both you might say,	53:06
	were once being reconciled, proved true.	53:11
	Let us pray.	53:22
	Grant us soul Lord, never to sleep	53:28
	through the vision on the mountain top.	53:31
	Never to be content with remaining there.	53:36
	Never to cease our efforts to soar like a kite.	53:41
	Never to shun the pain and struggle	53:47
	of responsible service in this, our earth and yours.	53:50
	Amen.	54:02
	(hymnal singing overshadowed by instruments)	54:05

Item Info

Title:

Creighton Lacy - "No Strings?" (November 16, 1969)

Permalink:

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r4f18xg3c

Date:

November 16, 1969

Speaker:

Lacy, Creighton

Contributor:

Duke University. Chapel

Identifier:

UA.17.01.0003 RR-0498
ref6201_3f8
uachapelsermaud
duke:628075
dcrau002489
ark:/87924/r4f18xg3c
05e38814-bf7f-438b-80b1-fdf99ede7c11

Digital Collection:

Duke Chapel Recordings

Source Collection:

Duke University Chapel recordings

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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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Creighton Lacy - "No Strings?" (November 16, 1969)

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Duke University Archives