Valdo Galland - "God Helps" (April 19, 1970)
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Transcript
Transcripts may contain inaccuracies.
(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 |