Valdo Galland - "God Helps" (April 19, 1970)

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	(instrumental music)	0:03
	(choir singing)	4:22
-	Beloved, let us pray together	7:15
	our prayer of confession, let us pray.	7:17
	O righteous father, before who's holiness our hearts	7:22
	tremble, we humbly confess the many sins	7:27
	with which we have dishonored thy name.	7:30
	Our shortcomings in faith, obedience, and love.	7:34
	We confess that we have failed to love our enemies	7:38
	and to do good to those who hate us.	7:42
	We often have behaved as badly as those who are not	7:45
	of the household of faith.	7:49
	We pray thee to forgive us our sins and to enable us	7:51
	to make a gracious witness for Christ in the world.	7:56
	We pray in his name, amen.	8:00
	We are comforted as we are honest with about our sins	8:06
	before God, by the words of scripture,	8:11
	that as far as the East is from the West, so far,	8:15
	hath he put our transgressions from us.	8:20
	And therefore it is possible for us now	8:24
	to feel that we are accepted by God	8:29
	who has offered us this forgiveness and who along with it	8:32
	has offered us grace to amend our ways	8:38
	and to live Christ-like lives.	8:42
	(instrumental music)	8:47
	(choir singing)	9:16
-	The reading this morning is from the 16th chapter of Luke,	13:53
	the 19th through the 31st verses.	13:57
	"There was a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine	14:02
	"linen, and who feasted sumptuously every day.	14:05
	"And at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus,	14:08
	"full of sores, who desired to be fed	14:13
	"with what fell from the rich man's table.	14:16
	"Moreover, the dogs came and licked his sores.	14:19
	"The poor man died and was carried by the angels	14:23
	"to Abraham's bosom.	14:26
	"The rich man also died and was buried.	14:28
	"And in Hades being in torment,	14:31
	"he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off	14:34
	"and Lazarus in his bosom.	14:37
	"And he called out, 'Father Abraham, have mercy upon me	14:40
	" 'and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water	14:45
	" 'and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame.'	14:49
	"But Abraham said, 'Son, remember that you in your lifetime	14:55
	" 'received your good things	15:00
	" 'and Lazarus in a like manner, evil things.	15:02
	" 'But now he is comforted here and you are in anguish.	15:08
	" 'And besides all this between us and you,	15:12
	" 'a great chasm has been fixed in order	15:16
	" 'that those who would pass from here to you	15:18
	" 'may not be able and none may cross from there to us.'	15:20
	"And he said, "Then I beg you father to send him	15:25
	" 'to my father's house for I have five brothers	15:28
	" 'so that he may warn them lest they also	15:30
	" 'come into this place of torment.'	15:33
	" But Abraham said, 'They have Moses and the prophets.	15:36
	" 'Let them hear them.'	15:41
	" And he said, 'No father Abraham.	15:43
	" 'But if someone goes to them from the dead,	15:45
	" 'they will repent.'	15:47
	"He said to him, 'If they do not hear Moses	15:49
	" 'and the prophets, neither will they be convinced	15:52
	" 'if someone should rise from the dead."	15:57
	(instrumental music)	16:02
	(choir singing)	16:09
-	The Lord be with you.	16:43
-	And with your spirit.	16:45
-	Let us pray.	16:47
	All mighty God, our father,	16:58
	the father of all men everywhere.	17:03
	As we are quiet here in this chapel or worshiping by radio,	17:07
	help us to be mindful that we are only a part,	17:15
	but we are a part of a community	17:19
	that encompasses the entire earth.	17:24
	Of a fellowship of people who like ourselves find	17:30
	their center of meaning and their redemption	17:35
	in Jesus of Nazareth, thy son, our Lord,	17:40
	and who like us, or more perfectly than we do, worship him,	17:47
	seek to understand him, pray to follow him.	17:55
	We are mindful of the places on the face of the earth,	18:02
	from which our own Duke students come.	18:05
	The small towns in this state,	18:11
	the large cities in this state, the crossroads,	18:13
	the distant places of the earth.	18:18
	Of the people, the islands of the Pacific,	18:23
	of the people in Africa, Asia, Europe, the Orient,	18:28
	this continent, South America.	18:35
	We are all thy children O God	18:42
	and we stand in need of thy grace.	18:45
	We stand in need of each other.	18:48
	We need each other desperately, urgently,	18:52
	in finding thee, help us to find one another	18:58
	and to find our peace.	19:04
	We pray for our nation and our civilization at a time	19:08
	when we have just received a sobering reminder	19:14
	of the frailty of our technology.	19:17
	And I've learned once again,	19:21
	how much we depend upon one person caring	19:23
	about another person even to sustain life itself.	19:27
	O God, give us enough insight to understand	19:34
	the basic stupidity of denying even the right to pray	19:37
	when all goes well.	19:43
	But then of being willing to pray very pitifully	19:45
	when we get in a jam and want thee	19:50
	to save the lives of thee men.	19:52
	Deliver us O Lord from this and other inconsistencies	19:56
	in our national life.	20:02
	We pray thee to give us a clean world, God,	20:07
	we pray for clean bodies, for clean streets, clean air.	20:13
	We pray for a clean moral environment.	20:20
	Grant unto thy people such self-control and concern	20:26
	for thee and for their fellow man,	20:31
	that they will remove the symbols of violence.	20:35
	The symbols of hate, the symbols of lust and lasciviousness.	20:40
	The symbols selfishness, of the unequal distribution	20:46
	of the basic necessities of life.	20:53
	Grant unto us outer cleanliness and inner cleanliness,	20:58
	clean hands and a pure heart.	21:04
	Almighty God, we offer our intersessions on behalf	21:10
	of the bereaved family of our colleague, Walter L. Thomas,	21:13
	whose death followed a long career	21:19
	of service to our medical school.	21:20
	May they find in thee that measure of comfort and assurance,	21:24
	which is provided for all who understand life and death,	21:29
	as Jesus revealed it.	21:32
	May they experience the living presence of the Holy Spirit	21:35
	as they make adjustments to the death of their loved one.	21:39
	And now we pray thee to use this service of worship	21:46
	as an instrument in thy hands	21:49
	to lead us to the place where we can see Christ	21:53
	and his will for our lives.	21:58
	To the place where we can understand	22:01
	and be open to accept the help which thou does want	22:04
	to give us even more than we want to receive it.	22:09
	And now may our hearts be open to an understanding	22:16
	of the words which Christ has taught all his disciples	22:20
	to use in prayer saying, "Our father who art in heaven,	22:24
	"hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come,	22:29
	"thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.	22:33
	"Give us this day our daily bread	22:37
	"and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive	22:40
	"those who trespass against us and lead us	22:44
	"not into temptation, but deliver us from evil	22:47
	"for thine is the kingdom and the power	22:51
	"and the glory forever, amen."	22:54
-	Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart	23:27
	be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord,	23:35
	my strength and my redeemer.	23:42
	I would like to invite you this morning to meditate	23:52
	the parable of the rich man and Lazarus	24:01
	that we have heard a while ago.	24:06
	This page of the gospel speaks of the relationship	24:14
	between the poor and the rich.	24:22
	It deals with the current and prevailing issue of our times.	24:28
	A problem which exists both at the international	24:39
	and the national levels.	24:46
	All those concerned with the affairs of the world	24:51
	are today preoccupied with the increasing gap	24:58
	between the rich nations, the developed one,	25:07
	and the poor nations and unless solutions are found,	25:14
	we may be heading on already to the Third World War.	25:24
	But we know, and we have learned it especially	25:35
	during the last 12 months in this country,	25:40
	that the problem exists too in every nation	25:46
	and even in the developed ones.	25:55
	And we know since the Black Manifesto,	26:02
	that is a problem because of the gap	26:07
	between the rich and the poor in this country.	26:14
	And we know that there are many minorities,	26:20
	whether black or Puerto Ricans or Chicanos,	26:24
	or Indians or the poor whites.	26:30
	We know that we could even reach the point	26:35
	when the sum of the minorities would make up a majority.	26:39
	We might be therefore tempted to try to find	26:49
	in the parable of the rich and the poor, Lazarus,	26:56
	a direct answer to our problems.	27:03
	Let us resist this temptation and let us try to consider	27:08
	the parable for what it says and maybe the word of God	27:13
	will then address us in our own situation.	27:24
	We have here not just the parapet,	27:35
	but the use which Jesus is making	27:46
	of the popular legend of his dying.	27:53
	A legend which was repeated again and again,	28:02
	to assert the conviction that there is a divine justice,	28:07
	which will ultimately take place after death in heaven.	28:16
	And that popular legend was using the concepts	28:27
	of that time concerning life after death.	28:32
	And the idea was that the dead were in the Hades	28:41
	in Greek or Sheol in Hebrew.	28:49
	And according to a more elaborate concept	28:56
	that Hades, the place of the dead was on the third	29:02
	layer of the seven layers of heaven.	29:08
	And in the South, I remember that in the Northern	29:17
	hemisphere, the South is always the good side,	29:22
	the one exposed to the sun.	29:28
	And in the South, you have the faithful	29:32
	congregated around Abraham	29:37
	who was presiding over the banquet,	29:42
	waiting for the coming of the Messiah.	29:46
	And every newcomer would have the privilege	29:51
	of sitting at his right and leaning on his bosom	29:56
	while the condemned one, the bad ones were in the North,	30:05
	and in between, the chasm, making impossible,	30:13
	for communication between the two groups.	30:17
	And the meaning of that popular legend was clear,	30:23
	unjust things happen on earth.	30:29
	Rich people abuse of their wealth.	30:34
	Poor people are suffering.	30:39
	There will be a justice beyond death	30:42
	and that justice would be fire.	30:48
	There will be no way of passing from one side to the other.	30:51
	Jesus makes use of that legend in order to transform it,	31:03
	and in transform is adding versus 27	31:13
	to the end of the chapter.	31:20
	So that now he is dealing with a problem	31:27
	of injustice on earth in a different way.	31:34
	Now the parable contrary to the legend,	31:41
	is no longer addressed to the poor but to the rich one,	31:48
	and it is a warning to the rich,	31:59
	that the justice, eternal justice will depend	32:05
	on how we behave on earth.	32:09
	The parable now no longer ends with a conversation	32:17
	between the rich and Abraham in heaven.	32:24
	But it is about a conversation concerning	32:33
	the five brothers on earth.	32:36
	With that kind of transformation,	32:45
	Jesus is precisely refusing that opium of the people	32:47
	which has been denounced by karma.	32:56
	It is not in heaven that justice	33:03
	is going to be determined, but it is on earth.	33:08
	I would like to stress three aspects	33:19
	of that parable by Jesus.	33:24
	And the first one is that with the transformation he makes	33:32
	of the legend, he is emphasizing	33:38
	the primary responsibility of the rich.	33:47
	When he accepts the first part of the legend,	33:55
	the first verses which describe	34:01
	the kind of unbearable situation.	34:05
	The rich man clothed in purple and fine linen,	34:10
	and who feasts sumptuously every day.	34:15
	This is a caricature of course	34:20
	and we don't need to elaborate this who can feast.	34:21
	Some just sleep every day.	34:26
	And then the contrast with the poor man, Lazarus,	34:31
	full of sores, desiring to be fed with what fall	34:38
	from the rich man's table and the dogs coming	34:44
	and leaking his sores.	34:48
	We may have difficulties in defining what social justice is,	34:55
	but there are blatant situations of injustice	35:05
	that cannot be ignored.	35:10
	And in those situations, the burden of responsibility	35:15
	falls upon the shoulders of the rich ones.	35:22
	They have more responsibilities	35:28
	because they have more possibilities,	35:32
	including the terrible possibility of ignoring	35:37
	the need of human relationships.	35:41
	In the parable, the rich man discovers that need	35:48
	when it is too late.	35:52
	He would like to have Lazarus come in few drops of water	35:55
	when there is that chasm	36:01
	making human relationships impossible.	36:04
	He had ignored human relationships in his time life	36:07
	and that is a terrible temptation of those who are rich.	36:15
	We might even wonder whether that description	36:22
	of the Hades is not already a description	36:26
	of human life on earth.	36:32
	Whether hell is not already on earth	36:39
	with all sorts of impossible human relationships	36:43
	between nations, between races, between members	36:49
	of different generations within the family.	36:55
	We might wonder whether the French existentialist Wright,	37:00
	Jean-Paul Sartre is not right in his theater play,	37:06
	"No Exit," when he says hell is the others.	37:14
	But the main point here is that the burden of responsibility	37:24
	is on the shoulder of the rich one.	37:31
	The second point concerns the name of the poor	37:39
	and here we might have an interesting discussion	37:50
	of interpretation of our texts.	37:54
	Was Lazarus and Lazarus comes from Eleazar	37:59
	which means God sees, God helps.	38:09
	Was Lazarus the name of the poor already in the popular	38:16
	legend, or is it part of the transformation	38:22
	of the legend into a parable by Jesus himself?	38:28
	Personally, I would prefer the latter in spite of the fact	38:33
	that that will be the only parable told by Jesus	38:40
	in which one of the characters would have a name.	38:44
	But we don't need to solve this small problem	38:51
	of interpretation.	38:57
	What is important is that in changing the meaning	38:59
	of the popular legend making a parable,	39:05
	Jesus is also changing the direction of that meaning.	39:11
	You see now Lazarus is no longer that remainder	39:17
	that God helps addressed to the poor.	39:22
	And therefore meaning, well, don't worry,	39:27
	you are poor now but be patient	39:29
	and you will be rewarded in heaven.	39:33
	No, now it is God helps addressed to the rich one.	39:38
	Now it is a reminder to the rich one,	39:48
	like Lazarus at the door of the rich being a daily reminder.	39:51
	Now it is your reminder so that the rich may put his trust	39:58
	in God and not in his possession.	40:05
	So that the rich may be saved from his possession,	40:11
	so that he may depend entirely on the God who helps,	40:18
	and no longer depend on his properties and his money.	40:26
	In a way there is nothing new in what Jesus is saying.	40:36
	This is the proclamation of the whole Old Testament	40:42
	and that is why Jesus makes a mention of Moses	40:47
	and the prophets, the Old Testament,	40:52
	the scriptures of his time, that if they are listened to,	40:57
	will convey that message that God helps.	41:04
	And you know the real christian motivation	41:13
	for becoming concerned about the problem of social justice,	41:19
	the relationship between the poor and the rich	41:28
	is not the fear that we might be punished	41:32
	in the coming life, but it is the joyful recognition	41:38
	that God helps.	41:46
	That He helps so much that we do not depend	41:49
	on our possessions, that we can give them up,	41:56
	that we can share them with others	42:02
	who are in greater need than ourselves	42:07
	so that by our own attitude,	42:12
	other people may too experience the reality of the gospel,	42:17
	the fact that God helps indeed.	42:25
	And the third and last remark,	42:35
	and in all of the parables, Jesus speaks of himself.	42:43
	He was the sower who went out to sow.	42:55
	He was the son of the household who had planted the vine.	43:02
	He was a grain of wheat that falls into the earth and dies.	43:10
	He was the vine, he was a good shepherd	43:19
	In this parable, in this transformation	43:28
	of a popular legend, Jesus speaks of himself in two ways.	43:32
	First, when he speaks of Lazarus, he speaks of himself.	43:43
	After all the names Lazarus and Jesus mean the same thing.	43:54
	God saves, God helps.	44:04
	Jesus in himself identifies himself with Lazarus.	44:11
	He is the one who lives out to the end,	44:19
	the conviction that God helps so much	44:27
	so that something happens even in Hades.	44:31
	His identification with the poor is so complete,	44:41
	so final, that something happens beyond death.	44:44
	And this is where there is the second reference	44:54
	of Jesus to himself.	45:01
	The reference to someone who rises from the dead.	45:07
	You remember the last part of the conversation	45:18
	when the rich says, "No father, they are not going	45:22
	"to accept Moses and the prophets.	45:26
	"But if someone goes to them from the dead."	45:29
	And Abraham answers, "If they do not hear Moses	45:34
	"and the prophets, if they do not accept the fact	45:39
	"that God helps, they will not be convinced	45:44
	"even if someone should rise from the dead."	45:53
	The resurrection of Jesus cannot be a theme	46:00
	of debate and argument between the Lazarus of the world	46:05
	who live by faith in the God who helps	46:11
	and the rich ones who want to be saved by their possession.	46:15
	Proclamation of Easter Sunday is never a triumphalist one.	46:22
	Rather, it is the calm and sure assertion	46:31
	that there is one Lazarus who has achieved the revolution	46:40
	in the Hades so much so in fact that there is no longer	46:49
	any human situation where true relationships are impossible.	46:59
	The resurrection of Jesus is confirming to all	47:11
	those who have an open heart to the fact that God helps	47:17
	in every situation that we can be liberated	47:25
	from the bondage of our goods and our possessions,	47:33
	however big or small they are.	47:39
	Assurance that we can really help all the people,	47:46
	that we can be demonstrators of the fact that God helps.	47:52
	All this is possible not because we are afraid	48:00
	of punishment in the future life or in the present one.	48:04
	No because we think we have some superiority,	48:12
	including the superiority of generosity,	48:21
	no simply, because we have some vague feeling	48:27
	of humanitarianism but because we live out with joy,	48:30
	with conviction, with certainty that God helps.	48:44
	The gospel today tells us that because God helps,	48:54
	because Jesus has been the Lazarus	49:04
	breaking through the Hades, we too we can in our daily life,	49:06
	in the life of the nation, in the life of the world,	49:13
	we too we can be Lazarus.	49:17
	In the name of the father, the son, and the Holy Spirit,	49:25
	amen, let us pray.	49:28
	We thank thee O God for the privilege	49:42
	granted to us once more to listen to thy word.	49:51
	We bless thy holy name because once more	50:02
	thy has let the gospel proclaim the good news of thy love.	50:10
	Grant us to be like Jesus, a Lazarus,	50:25
	a poor at the gate of the kingdom of heaven.	50:35
	With stretched hands to receive the bread of life	50:44
	in Jesus name, amen.	50:54
	(instrumental music)	51:03
	(choir singing)	51:41
	(instrumental music)	53:58
	(choir harmonizing)	55:53
	(piano instrumental music)	58:31
	(slow instrumental music)	58:36
	(choir singing)	59:33
	♪ Hallelujah hallelujah ♪	59:43
	♪ Praise Him upon Him praise the Lord ♪	59:50
	♪ Praise God eternal glory God ♪	59:56
	♪ Hallelujah hallelujah ♪	1:00:01
	♪ Hallelujah hallelujah ♪	1:00:06
	♪ Hallelujah ♪	1:00:13
	♪ Amen ♪	1:00:21
-	All things come up thee O Lord	1:00:30
	and of thy known have we given thee in Jesus' name.	1:00:34
	Now may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with us all.	1:00:44
	♪ Amen ♪	1:00:51
	♪ Amen ♪	1:00:56
	♪ Amen ♪	1:01:01
	♪ Amen ♪	1:01:05
	♪ Amen ♪	1:01:16
	♪ Amen ♪	1:01:26

Item Info

Title:

Valdo Galland - "God Helps" (April 19, 1970)

Permalink:

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r4kw5ck49

Date:

April 19, 1970

Speaker:

Galland, Valdo

Contributor:

Duke University. Chapel

Identifier:

UA.17.01.0003 RR-0518
ref6241_vgh
uachapelsermaud
duke:628056
dcrau002508
ark:/87924/r4kw5ck49
ae75244e-0500-46d9-9f5b-12c0a54d3586

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Duke Chapel Recordings

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Duke University Chapel recordings

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English

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United States
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Durham (N.C.)

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The Duke University Chapel Recordings were transferred to the Duke University Archives beginning in 1970.

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