W. Arthur Kale - "Peacemakers Are Lonely People" (May 24, 1970)
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| (liturgical music) | 0:04 | |
| - | Grace be to you and peace from God, our Father, | 5:50 |
| and from the Lord, Jesus Christ. | 5:53 | |
| We come together in the presence of all mighty God | 5:57 | |
| and of the whole company of heaven | 5:59 | |
| to make confession of our sins, | 6:02 | |
| to set forth his praise, | 6:05 | |
| to hear his word, | 6:08 | |
| to declare our common faith | 6:10 | |
| and to ask for ourselves and for all men, | 6:13 | |
| those things necessary for the body | 6:17 | |
| and for the soul. | 6:20 | |
| Therefore, let us continue his worship | 6:22 | |
| as we acknowledge and confess our sins and failures. | 6:25 | |
| Let us offer unto God, our prayer of confession. | 6:30 | |
| Let us pray. | 6:34 | |
| Remembering the words of Jesus when he said, | 6:41 | |
| I have not come to call the righteous, | 6:43 | |
| but sinners to repentance, | 6:46 | |
| we turn unto thee, oh God, our Father, | 6:49 | |
| almighty and forgiving God, | 6:54 | |
| we turn to thee in this act of worship, | 6:56 | |
| realizing that we have no claim upon thee | 7:00 | |
| until we are real with ourselves. | 7:05 | |
| All mighty God who's son Jesus Christ | 7:11 | |
| has revealed the nature of our failures | 7:13 | |
| by his perfect love, | 7:16 | |
| we gather today under the judgment of his words, | 7:19 | |
| we are lost sheep | 7:24 | |
| we confess, oh God, | 7:26 | |
| lost coins, lost sons. | 7:28 | |
| We are salt without savor, | 7:32 | |
| life hidden under a bushel, | 7:35 | |
| 11 out of touch with the lump. | 7:38 | |
| We are forgiven debtors who are reluctant | 7:41 | |
| to show forgiveness. | 7:44 | |
| We are children who will not play | 7:46 | |
| unless we can call the tune. | 7:48 | |
| We have built our houses upon the sand | 7:51 | |
| and we have answered, yes, | 7:54 | |
| and we have acted, no. | 7:57 | |
| Hear us oh, God. | 8:00 | |
| Forgive us. | 8:02 | |
| Have mercy upon us | 8:03 | |
| and restore us again to the joy of thy salvation, we ask. | 8:05 | |
| Heavenly father who has given us the word made flesh, | 8:11 | |
| we stand today under the judgment of his cross. | 8:15 | |
| We have lived without a baptism | 8:20 | |
| into all sorts and conditions of men. | 8:22 | |
| We have run away from the hour of testing in the wilderness. | 8:26 | |
| We have avoided the cries of hungry men, | 8:31 | |
| and we have shut the responsibilities | 8:35 | |
| of responsible teaching and responsible learning. | 8:37 | |
| We have evaded, oh God, the necessity of sacrifice. | 8:42 | |
| We have sought to bypass the cross | 8:46 | |
| and we have taken up the sword in our confusion. | 8:50 | |
| Oh God, most merciful and holy, | 8:56 | |
| forgive us for the sin of blindness, | 9:00 | |
| which sees so superficially that it sees no sin. | 9:03 | |
| More deeply still our Father, | 9:08 | |
| forgive the sins which make us blind, | 9:10 | |
| our furious hates, | 9:14 | |
| our weary indifference, | 9:16 | |
| our hearts sophistication, | 9:19 | |
| our evasive restlessness, | 9:21 | |
| our covered guilt, | 9:24 | |
| and our love of comfort. | 9:26 | |
| Forgive us and save us | 9:29 | |
| from that sin of all sins | 9:31 | |
| of denying thee and thy loves power. | 9:34 | |
| Forgive us for that denial which refuses to face thee, | 9:38 | |
| even more for confessing thy name, | 9:43 | |
| but avoiding thy presence. | 9:45 | |
| Most of all, for coming into thy presence | 9:47 | |
| too well protected by self-satisfaction | 9:51 | |
| to be humbled thy glory | 9:54 | |
| or meekened by thy grace. | 9:56 | |
| Have mercy upon us, oh God, | 9:59 | |
| and restore us again to the joy of thy salvation. | 10:02 | |
| But more than all these we ask, oh God, | 10:08 | |
| to be given an understanding of the conditions among us | 10:12 | |
| and within us, | 10:16 | |
| that are an offense unto thee, | 10:18 | |
| that are contrary to thy spirit of love and compassion, | 10:21 | |
| that we may learn of thee | 10:25 | |
| and become living expressions of thy love, | 10:27 | |
| through Jesus Christ, our Lord. | 10:31 | |
| Amen. | 10:35 | |
| Let us hear and take joy in these words of assurance | 10:40 | |
| from holy scriptures | 10:44 | |
| in the book of Isaiah, | 10:46 | |
| the words of the Lord. | 10:48 | |
| Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord, | 10:50 | |
| though your sins are like Scarlet, | 10:55 | |
| they shall be as white as snow. | 10:58 | |
| Though they are red like Crimson, | 11:01 | |
| they shall be come like wool. | 11:04 | |
| Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, the holy one of Israel. | 11:07 | |
| I, I am he who blocks out your transgressions | 11:13 | |
| for my own sake | 11:18 | |
| and I will not remember your sins. | 11:20 | |
| And also the words of our Lord when he said, | 11:24 | |
| "Go, your sins are forgiven, | 11:27 | |
| "sin no more | 11:31 | |
| "and forgive those who sin against you." | 11:34 | |
| Amen. | 11:38 | |
| Maybe we continue our service or worship | 12:07 | |
| as we unite in the unison prayer of Thanksgiving, | 12:09 | |
| let us pray together. | 12:13 | |
| We called to you Lord out of our distress | 12:17 | |
| and you answered us. | 12:20 | |
| You heard our voices. | 12:22 | |
| We said, we are cast out from your presence. | 12:25 | |
| How shall we look again upon your holy temple? | 12:29 | |
| The waters closed in over us. | 12:33 | |
| The deep was round about us | 12:35 | |
| yet you brought up our life from the pit, oh Lord, our God. | 12:38 | |
| When our souls fainted within us, | 12:44 | |
| we remembered the Lord | 12:46 | |
| and our prayers came to you | 12:48 | |
| into your holy temple. | 12:51 | |
| With the voice of Thanksgiving, we will sacrifice to you. | 12:53 | |
| Deliverance belongs to the Lord. | 12:58 | |
| Amen. | 13:01 | |
| (liturgical music) | 13:03 | |
| - | I do not read you my own words | 17:34 |
| nor the words of any living man. | 17:37 | |
| Instead, I read you the words of Isaiah | 17:40 | |
| found in the second chapter | 17:43 | |
| of the book which bears his name. | 17:45 | |
| Jesus of Nazareth, when he was on earth, | 17:47 | |
| regarded these words as scripture. | 17:50 | |
| The Christian Church, | 17:52 | |
| meeting in the fourth century, | 17:54 | |
| declared that this is the word of God, | 17:58 | |
| let us hear it. | 18:02 | |
| It shall come to pass in the latter days | 18:05 | |
| that the mountain of the house of the Lord | 18:07 | |
| shall be established as the highest of the mountains | 18:10 | |
| and shall be raised above the hills | 18:14 | |
| and all nations shall flow to it | 18:18 | |
| and many people shall come and say, | 18:21 | |
| "Come let us go up to the mountain of the Lord | 18:25 | |
| "and to the house of the God of Jacob, | 18:28 | |
| "that he may teach us his ways | 18:32 | |
| "and that we may walk in his path | 18:35 | |
| "for out of Zion shall go forth the law | 18:39 | |
| "and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. | 18:42 | |
| "He shall judge between the nations | 18:46 | |
| "and shall decide for many peoples | 18:49 | |
| "and they shall beat their swords into plowshares | 18:53 | |
| "and their spears into pruning hooks. | 18:58 | |
| "Nations shall not lift up sword against nation | 19:03 | |
| "neither shall they learn war anymore. | 19:07 | |
| "All house of Jacob, come, | 19:14 | |
| "let us walk in the light of the Lord." | 19:18 | |
| So more to be. | 19:25 | |
| (liturgical music) | 19:28 | |
| - | The Lord be with you. | 20:09 |
| - | And with your spirit. | 20:10 |
| - | Let us pray. | 20:12 |
| Let us offer unto God, our partitions for our neighbors, | 20:22 | |
| the world and its needs | 20:27 | |
| and for ourselves. | 20:29 | |
| Almighty God who has committed to thy people | 20:34 | |
| the ministry of intercession, | 20:38 | |
| hear us now, as we pray for others | 20:41 | |
| and grant that our hearts may be so filled | 20:44 | |
| with peace and charity, | 20:47 | |
| that we may be fit instrument of thy will | 20:50 | |
| for our neighbors need. | 20:53 | |
| Let us remember our brothers | 20:58 | |
| who are a part of the Universal Church throughout the world | 21:00 | |
| and let us pray for the whole church of God. | 21:05 | |
| Most gracious Father, we humbly beseech thee | 21:09 | |
| for thy church Universal, | 21:11 | |
| fill it we ask with all truth | 21:14 | |
| and in all truth with all peace. | 21:18 | |
| Where there is an error, reform it, | 21:22 | |
| where it is in want, furnish it, | 21:26 | |
| where it is right, strengthened and confirm it, | 21:30 | |
| and where it is rendered asunder, | 21:34 | |
| heal though its divisions. | 21:37 | |
| Lord, unite thy people in thy church, | 21:41 | |
| point her to the issues facing mankind, | 21:45 | |
| raise her eyes, | 21:50 | |
| wet her lips, | 21:53 | |
| stir her imagination, | 21:55 | |
| raise her temper, we ask, | 21:58 | |
| make her children glad, | 22:01 | |
| make her youth zealous, | 22:04 | |
| make her men brave, | 22:07 | |
| make her women free, | 22:10 | |
| make her ministers makers for thy sake. | 22:12 | |
| Be in thy church in these troubled times, we asked oh Lord, | 22:18 | |
| make her willing to risk her life | 22:23 | |
| that she may live again. | 22:26 | |
| Even as Christ laid down his life freely | 22:29 | |
| and rose to new life. | 22:33 | |
| Oh God, our heavenly Father, | 22:39 | |
| the author of peace and concord, | 22:40 | |
| we pray thee for peace | 22:44 | |
| on an earth at war. | 22:48 | |
| We pray not because we have been men of goodwill, | 22:51 | |
| but because we have come at last in our bewilderment | 22:56 | |
| to long for thee, that we might be become men of goodwill. | 23:00 | |
| Today, we pray for little children, | 23:07 | |
| hungry and helpless | 23:11 | |
| and longing for life. | 23:14 | |
| We pray for those in every land | 23:18 | |
| who hide amid the rooms of their hopes | 23:21 | |
| and suffer from the cruelties of war, | 23:25 | |
| in Vietnam, in the Middle East, | 23:29 | |
| and throughout all the world. | 23:33 | |
| Oh, God of peace, | 23:36 | |
| give peace to all troubled parts, | 23:39 | |
| deliver the tempted, | 23:42 | |
| comfort the mourning, | 23:45 | |
| heal those who are lying worn with sickness | 23:47 | |
| and receive, oh God, our comforting Father, | 23:52 | |
| the souls of all who died this day. | 23:56 | |
| Eternal and heavenly Father, | 24:02 | |
| there is no one word to use for all of us. | 24:06 | |
| We bow together our hearts before thee, | 24:10 | |
| each a little world in himself, | 24:15 | |
| each with heavy regrets and high hopes of his own, | 24:18 | |
| each with a prayer no other will ever utter, | 24:23 | |
| each with praise no one else can offer. | 24:28 | |
| Minister to our individual needs, | 24:34 | |
| we ask, oh God. | 24:37 | |
| If we are weary, strengthen us. | 24:39 | |
| If we are proud, humble us. | 24:44 | |
| If we are perplexed, enlighten us, | 24:48 | |
| if we are torn by inner strife, heal us, we ask, | 24:51 | |
| if we are lost in meaningless activities, | 24:57 | |
| guard our wills with thy purpose. | 25:01 | |
| If we are discouraged by our failures, | 25:05 | |
| pardon us by thy merciful compassion. | 25:08 | |
| If we have sinned, oh God, | 25:12 | |
| teach us how to repent again. | 25:14 | |
| If we have been sinned against, | 25:18 | |
| teach us how to forgive again, | 25:21 | |
| if we are selfish, | 25:24 | |
| deepen our love of thee and of all men | 25:27 | |
| that we might cast away our self-concern. | 25:30 | |
| If we are censorious, | 25:34 | |
| silence our tongues until our hearts | 25:37 | |
| learn how to understand. | 25:39 | |
| If we have tried in vain to pray, | 25:41 | |
| grant us patience to wait in silence | 25:46 | |
| for thy voice. | 25:49 | |
| Whatever our individual wilderness may be, | 25:52 | |
| lead us we ask by some Sinai to the promised land. | 25:57 | |
| Whatever Gethsemane may be our Lord, | 26:02 | |
| disclose to us thy will, | 26:06 | |
| that we may act in faith with deliberate courage. | 26:10 | |
| Whatever heavenly vision though has granted to us | 26:14 | |
| to fulfill in earthly labor, | 26:18 | |
| endow us, we ask, with untiring strength and endurance | 26:21 | |
| that we may complete the task of which thou has called us | 26:26 | |
| with integrity of soul | 26:30 | |
| and steadfastness of task to which thou has given. | 26:33 | |
| These we ask and all things | 26:39 | |
| to thy glory and in then the purpose | 26:42 | |
| of the redemption of mankind | 26:45 | |
| through Jesus Christ, | 26:47 | |
| thy son and our savior, | 26:49 | |
| taught us that when we assembled to worship, | 26:52 | |
| we might pray together, | 26:55 | |
| our father, which art in heaven, | 26:57 | |
| hallowed be thy name, | 27:00 | |
| thy kingdom come, | 27:02 | |
| thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. | 27:04 | |
| Give us this day, our daily bread, | 27:10 | |
| and forgive us our trespasses | 27:12 | |
| as we forgive those who trespass against us, | 27:15 | |
| and lead us not into temptation, | 27:20 | |
| but deliver us from evil | 27:22 | |
| for thine is the kingdom | 27:25 | |
| and the power and the glory forever. | 27:27 | |
| Amen. | 27:32 | |
| - | Let me ask you to think soberly with me, | 27:56 |
| regarding today's demand | 28:04 | |
| for a new type | 28:08 | |
| or breed | 28:11 | |
| of peacemakers. | 28:13 | |
| As a scriptural preface | 28:17 | |
| to the comments I wish to make. | 28:21 | |
| I read briefly from the gospel | 28:24 | |
| according to St. Luke, | 28:26 | |
| versus recorded in chapter 12, | 28:29 | |
| beginning at verse 49. | 28:33 | |
| These statements are a part of a set of instructions | 28:38 | |
| given by Jesus | 28:44 | |
| to ambassadors or disciples or representatives | 28:48 | |
| who are commissioned to speak in his behalf to others. | 28:53 | |
| They may surprise some of you. | 29:00 | |
| They may shock a few of you | 29:04 | |
| because they apparently contrast | 29:08 | |
| with the lesson from the book of Isaiah, | 29:14 | |
| read to us a while ago | 29:18 | |
| by our chaplain. | 29:21 | |
| These are the words as translated and given to us now | 29:26 | |
| in the New English Bible. | 29:30 | |
| And Jesus is speaking. | 29:34 | |
| I have come to set fire on the earth | 29:37 | |
| and how I wish it were already kindled. | 29:42 | |
| Do you suppose I came to establish peace on earth? | 29:49 | |
| No, indeed. | 29:57 | |
| I have come to bring division | 29:59 | |
| for from now on | 30:03 | |
| five members of the family | 30:06 | |
| will be divided | 30:09 | |
| three against two | 30:12 | |
| and two against three. | 30:15 | |
| Father against son and son against father, | 30:18 | |
| mother against daughter | 30:23 | |
| and daughter against mother. | 30:26 | |
| Mother against son's wife | 30:30 | |
| and son's wife | 30:33 | |
| against her mother-in-law. | 30:35 | |
| Let me ask you to think soberly | 30:41 | |
| regarding today's demand for | 30:46 | |
| a new and surprising breed of peacemakers. | 30:50 | |
| Just a decade ago | 30:57 | |
| in his state of the nation | 30:59 | |
| or state of the union message | 31:02 | |
| delivered to congress on January 7th, 1960, | 31:05 | |
| the late president Dwight Eisenhower's | 31:10 | |
| spoke of one fact | 31:13 | |
| that looms over every other facts of our time. | 31:16 | |
| He said, | 31:24 | |
| "With both sides of this divided world | 31:27 | |
| "in possession of unbelievably destructive weapons, | 31:31 | |
| "mankind approaches a state | 31:37 | |
| "where mutual annihilation | 31:40 | |
| "becomes a possibility." | 31:45 | |
| No other fact of today's world equals this | 31:48 | |
| in importance. | 31:56 | |
| It colors everything we say, | 31:58 | |
| plan and do. | 32:02 | |
| Now, after 10 years, | 32:07 | |
| the risks of mutual annihilation are still with us | 32:10 | |
| and the dangers are likely to increase | 32:16 | |
| as additional nations, | 32:18 | |
| beyond those who possessed these weapons in 1960 | 32:21 | |
| announce their capacity and their intention | 32:27 | |
| to acquire such weapons. | 32:32 | |
| Despite mankind's awareness | 32:36 | |
| that the annihilation of millions of people | 32:39 | |
| is a real possibility, | 32:43 | |
| nations continue to engage | 32:46 | |
| in the hazardous game of warfare. | 32:49 | |
| Since 1960, the world has experienced | 32:54 | |
| a succession of conflict | 32:57 | |
| that by all past criteria | 33:00 | |
| could be called major wars. | 33:03 | |
| The human race has been confronted, | 33:08 | |
| confronted with a succession of crises | 33:11 | |
| that rank among the most perilous | 33:15 | |
| in human history. | 33:19 | |
| Nations, both large and small, | 33:22 | |
| have participated in a perilous form of | 33:26 | |
| international Russian roulette, | 33:30 | |
| at times on a global scale. | 33:34 | |
| Have we escaped a nuclear holocaust | 33:39 | |
| merely by sheer good fortune or luck, | 33:47 | |
| or can we thank the leaders of our own country | 33:52 | |
| and those of the Soviet Union | 33:55 | |
| that while they threaten and block each other, | 33:59 | |
| they keep their bold maneuvers within bounds | 34:03 | |
| and the Holocaust has not happened yet. | 34:08 | |
| Whatever may be your private judgment or mine | 34:13 | |
| regarding our good fortune | 34:17 | |
| in escaping nuclear warfare, | 34:20 | |
| one fact stands up before the attention | 34:23 | |
| of the whole world this morning, | 34:27 | |
| namely, | 34:30 | |
| the fighting in Indochina | 34:32 | |
| and the Middle East | 34:36 | |
| appears to be getting increasingly | 34:38 | |
| serious and dangerous. | 34:44 | |
| Time magazine for May 11th this year, | 34:50 | |
| carry it in red ink on the outside cover, | 34:55 | |
| the theme of the lead article. | 34:58 | |
| The new war. | 35:02 | |
| The reference, as you are aware, | 35:06 | |
| was to the president Nixon's decision | 35:08 | |
| to move with American military might in the Cambodia. | 35:11 | |
| The war which previously had been described countless times | 35:17 | |
| as the Vietnamese war | 35:22 | |
| and which was about nine years old, | 35:26 | |
| advanced into a new war, immediately labeled as | 35:31 | |
| the war in Indochina, | 35:36 | |
| a wider geographical spread. | 35:40 | |
| On the inside of that same issue of Time | 35:46 | |
| was an article with the caption, | 35:49 | |
| also printed in red ink, | 35:51 | |
| "Raising the stakes in Indochina." | 35:54 | |
| Competing with these stories in Time | 36:00 | |
| and in other reputable journals, | 36:02 | |
| in this and other lands | 36:08 | |
| is the continuing and increasingly intensified | 36:10 | |
| conflict in the Middle East | 36:17 | |
| where both sides of the Arab Israeli confrontation | 36:20 | |
| appear to be as stubbornly intense as ever. | 36:26 | |
| We may be lucky that no atomic bomb | 36:32 | |
| has been dropped in Southeast Asia | 36:35 | |
| or in Israel or Egypt or Lebanon, | 36:39 | |
| but our tension and anxiety continue to mount | 36:45 | |
| because | 36:51 | |
| the event that everybody would welcome, | 36:54 | |
| namely, the termination of conflict in Indochina | 36:59 | |
| and the Middle East | 37:03 | |
| has not occurred | 37:05 | |
| and is not expected soon. | 37:07 | |
| We sadly conclude | 37:12 | |
| that it is too much to hope | 37:15 | |
| that the year 1970 | 37:17 | |
| marks the beginning of a peaceful decade. | 37:21 | |
| Now, let me speak more directly | 37:28 | |
| to the proposition with which I began. | 37:30 | |
| Today's international situation, | 37:35 | |
| today's political situation, | 37:41 | |
| today's human situation, | 37:45 | |
| demand a new breed of peacemakers. | 37:50 | |
| My first statement about them is one | 37:56 | |
| that must be made about all persons | 37:59 | |
| who work for peace. | 38:02 | |
| In their hearts, | 38:06 | |
| there is a paradox. | 38:07 | |
| It is the paradox of wretchedness | 38:10 | |
| and blessedness. | 38:14 | |
| Peace makers were promised by our Lord himself, | 38:19 | |
| that they would be happy people | 38:24 | |
| as you of course know in the Beatitudes | 38:27 | |
| that are part of the Sermon on the Mount | 38:31 | |
| there is the clear and the loud statement, | 38:32 | |
| "Blessed are the peacemakers." | 38:35 | |
| Our Lord added, "they shall be called sons of God." | 38:38 | |
| Peacemakers, find blessedness | 38:43 | |
| in the knowledge that they are working | 38:46 | |
| to save mankind from self destruction. | 38:48 | |
| Theirs is not the blessedness | 38:53 | |
| of a visionary and impractical | 38:56 | |
| kind of shortcut to reconciliation. | 38:59 | |
| Theirs is the blessedness of conquests, | 39:03 | |
| of deliberate, intentional, authentic revoke | 39:06 | |
| against the inhumanity | 39:12 | |
| and the anti humanity of warfare. | 39:15 | |
| Theirs is the blessedness of persistence. | 39:20 | |
| This illusion, though they sometimes are, | 39:24 | |
| the agents of peace are not free to cease their labor. | 39:29 | |
| They cannot quit. | 39:35 | |
| Theirs is an enduring commitment | 39:37 | |
| and so blessed are peacemakers, | 39:42 | |
| What the paradox would have me at | 39:48 | |
| peacemakers are also | 39:53 | |
| unhappy. | 39:57 | |
| Wretched are peacemakers. | 39:59 | |
| Wretched are peacemakers because | 40:04 | |
| the abolition of warfare | 40:06 | |
| seemed only a tantalizing dream, | 40:08 | |
| something far, which men long and pray, but never achieve. | 40:12 | |
| They are unhappy | 40:19 | |
| because consistently their efforts are proved to be | 40:20 | |
| ill timed and inept. | 40:24 | |
| They suffer because in the name of peace, | 40:27 | |
| they often promote stripe. | 40:30 | |
| They suffer because they hold up false hopes | 40:33 | |
| to families and communities and nation. | 40:37 | |
| But we are called to provide | 40:44 | |
| a more realistic approach to peacemaking | 40:47 | |
| than our fathers knew | 40:53 | |
| because we are the spawning, | 40:57 | |
| conscious of new slogans | 41:00 | |
| here on our own campus, | 41:02 | |
| crusade for peace, | 41:06 | |
| give peace a chance | 41:10 | |
| and because with us, | 41:14 | |
| there is across our country and in other lands, | 41:16 | |
| the demand for new concepts of peace making, | 41:20 | |
| I'm prepared to say that we are in the mood | 41:26 | |
| to respond to the statements of Jesus | 41:29 | |
| in the verses from St. Luke's gospel, | 41:33 | |
| which I read as I began | 41:35 | |
| some minutes ago. | 41:38 | |
| Jesus' statement is a forthright | 41:40 | |
| pronouncement of a realist. | 41:44 | |
| What he said in the form of a question and an answer | 41:48 | |
| has been frequently misconstrued. | 41:53 | |
| Jesus asked, | 41:58 | |
| "Do you suppose I came to establish peace on earth?" | 42:00 | |
| And he immediately replied, "No, indeed. | 42:04 | |
| "I came to bring division." | 42:08 | |
| In St. Matthew's gospel, | 42:13 | |
| as this same set of instructions is reported, | 42:14 | |
| Jesus said, "I came not to bring peace, but a sword." | 42:19 | |
| And some people have poked in this statement in claiming | 42:23 | |
| that Jesus gave moral approval to warfare, | 42:28 | |
| but any careful reading of the passage in its context | 42:34 | |
| makes plain the absurdity of such an interpretation. | 42:38 | |
| Jesus was not discussing war. | 42:43 | |
| To take his words out of their context | 42:46 | |
| is not only absurd, it is wicked. | 42:48 | |
| The absurdity is obvious because | 42:52 | |
| no defense of war was under consideration. | 42:55 | |
| The wickedness of such a misinterpretation is apparent | 42:59 | |
| because the meaning of the words of Jesus are changed | 43:03 | |
| and the spirit of such a change is indeed blasphemous. | 43:09 | |
| The intention of such a change | 43:13 | |
| often is to fulfill a very specific, | 43:15 | |
| and in my judgment, a diabolical purpose. | 43:19 | |
| What was Jesus saying? | 43:24 | |
| Instead of calling men to war, | 43:29 | |
| Jesus was calling men to take seriously their faith, | 43:33 | |
| that a new era in human experience was dawning. | 43:39 | |
| Indeed such an era was already at hand, | 43:46 | |
| he was asking them to commit themselves totally | 43:50 | |
| to such an era | 43:54 | |
| and he was reminding them | 43:56 | |
| of the price that they might expect to pay | 43:58 | |
| if such total commitment should capture their lives. | 44:02 | |
| Families would be divided, | 44:08 | |
| son against father and father against son. | 44:10 | |
| In a family of five, | 44:14 | |
| three against two | 44:16 | |
| and two against three. | 44:17 | |
| Thus, I am persuaded | 44:22 | |
| that Jesus was calling in his own time | 44:25 | |
| for the appearance of tough minded peacemakers. | 44:30 | |
| The disciples were to be prototypes | 44:38 | |
| of the brand or breed of agents of peace | 44:41 | |
| that would be needed centuries later | 44:45 | |
| in a society well known to us, | 44:49 | |
| beloved by us, | 44:53 | |
| and now threatened | 44:55 | |
| seriously by the conditions of this very hour. | 44:57 | |
| May I suggest a few salient characteristics | 45:03 | |
| or (indistinct) | 45:07 | |
| of persons who would qualify | 45:09 | |
| as tough minded peacemakers today? | 45:11 | |
| First, a very brief listing of qualities, | 45:17 | |
| attitudes, and practices that are not desired. | 45:20 | |
| The old style appeaser | 45:27 | |
| who confined himself to the construction | 45:31 | |
| of carefully phrased | 45:34 | |
| and acceptable and publishable state on soft compromise. | 45:36 | |
| Such a peace maker in our day | 45:43 | |
| is not needed. | 45:46 | |
| Next, the person who cries peace at any price | 45:50 | |
| is of course | 45:55 | |
| an absurdity and unthinkable person | 45:58 | |
| in the condition of today. | 46:03 | |
| Next, the proposal of some, | 46:06 | |
| "Generalized policies," | 46:10 | |
| where the specifics left to negotiators that "lower levels." | 46:13 | |
| This kind of proposal is no longer an effective approach | 46:19 | |
| as it perhaps once appeared to be. | 46:24 | |
| We need a new strategy as well as a new peace maker. | 46:28 | |
| The primary virtue of such a person I suggest | 46:37 | |
| is his aggressiveness. | 46:44 | |
| The emphasis must be on peace making. | 46:47 | |
| This means planning a strategy. | 46:52 | |
| This means deliberate, | 46:56 | |
| authentic, artful movement | 46:58 | |
| to outwit and out maneuver the war makers, | 47:02 | |
| Some years ago, Bruce Barton, | 47:09 | |
| an executive in the advertising business, | 47:12 | |
| as well as a popular writer | 47:14 | |
| of philosophical and theological statements, | 47:17 | |
| made a good suggestion that was never fully exploited. | 47:23 | |
| He proposed that war be publicized | 47:28 | |
| from the point of view of its horror and its insanity. | 47:31 | |
| Well, why not? | 47:38 | |
| Why not tell it as it is? | 47:40 | |
| War is nonsensical. | 47:43 | |
| Have you grown a little impatient | 47:49 | |
| and more than a little bewildered | 47:52 | |
| and definitely sick at heart, | 47:54 | |
| as you have listened to the news reporters on TV | 47:58 | |
| and through other media | 48:01 | |
| announce almost daily | 48:03 | |
| and I quote, "American casualties light." | 48:05 | |
| This ambiguous kind of reporting | 48:13 | |
| is well nigh insulting. | 48:16 | |
| Every thoughtful listener knows | 48:19 | |
| that the full account is restrained. | 48:21 | |
| What does the term life mean? | 48:26 | |
| What does it mean to the mother | 48:30 | |
| or the wife of a dead 18 or 20 year old | 48:32 | |
| American airman or soldier? | 48:37 | |
| Something a little closer to the truth appears infrequently | 48:41 | |
| in the summarizations we get, | 48:46 | |
| as for example, | 48:48 | |
| the recent report that came out just a few days ago, | 48:50 | |
| that since our entry into the Vietnam war, | 48:54 | |
| the United States has suffered | 48:58 | |
| something more than parted 2000 men killed. | 49:00 | |
| Is this in all | 49:09 | |
| realistic and honorable thinking | 49:11 | |
| and in inconsequential figure? | 49:16 | |
| Why not tell it as it is? | 49:20 | |
| President Nixon, in a TV news conference | 49:23 | |
| on December 8th, 1969, | 49:26 | |
| gave us a good example. | 49:29 | |
| He referred to an event | 49:32 | |
| that occurred in the village of Son Mai | 49:34 | |
| when 567 | 49:38 | |
| old | 49:43 | |
| men, women and children | 49:44 | |
| were murdered on March 16th, 1968 | 49:49 | |
| and the president said, | 49:54 | |
| "This was certainly a massacre | 49:58 | |
| "and under no circumstances justified." | 50:02 | |
| Why not tell it as it is? | 50:07 | |
| Since 1965, | 50:09 | |
| 1 million civilians in Vietnam | 50:12 | |
| have been wounded | 50:15 | |
| and approximately one fourth of them | 50:17 | |
| have died from their wounds. | 50:21 | |
| Why not tell it as it is? | 50:25 | |
| In our affluenced, industrialized society, | 50:29 | |
| no one of us has escaped. | 50:36 | |
| We have been conditioned for warfare. | 50:41 | |
| It is not far from realism to say | 50:47 | |
| we have all been militarized. | 50:49 | |
| This morning I will echo the sentiment of a pluckered | 50:54 | |
| that hangs on our campus | 50:57 | |
| why can't we give peace a chance? | 50:59 | |
| Listen to the news. | 51:06 | |
| The average news announcement about fighting, | 51:07 | |
| about brutality, about poisoning, | 51:13 | |
| about defoliation in Vietnam and elsewhere, | 51:16 | |
| about mass slaughter, | 51:20 | |
| these items are mingled with and integrated | 51:23 | |
| with the news of football games, | 51:27 | |
| of the pranks of youngsters, | 51:31 | |
| of the stock markets fall, | 51:33 | |
| and if it ever does, it's rise, | 51:36 | |
| of weather prognostication. | 51:39 | |
| Now, this is no classical heroizing | 51:42 | |
| of the war | 51:47 | |
| and of murder, | 51:48 | |
| but it is a reduction of the whole gory business | 51:50 | |
| to the level of so-called natural events. | 51:56 | |
| It is time for action by peacemakers. | 52:03 | |
| The world is looking for such a breed of citizens. | 52:10 | |
| No longer can we, in our society, | 52:14 | |
| assume that citizens must always be | 52:17 | |
| the solid supporters of the status quo | 52:21 | |
| or the respectable props of policies as they are. | 52:25 | |
| Peace makers, agents of peace | 52:31 | |
| are needed. | 52:36 | |
| Such persons are willing to challenge the policies | 52:38 | |
| that reduce our chances as a government | 52:41 | |
| to provide moral leadership to other parts of the world. | 52:44 | |
| Such persons will not content themselves | 52:49 | |
| with passing resolutions, | 52:53 | |
| they will be found where action is, | 52:56 | |
| cultivating sentiment for peace, | 52:59 | |
| talking peace in homes and on the streets, | 53:02 | |
| talking peace through the press, | 53:06 | |
| on the campus, | 53:10 | |
| wherever men will listen. | 53:11 | |
| They will set aside normal duties and interests temporarily | 53:14 | |
| to deal responsibly and directly | 53:18 | |
| with this major issue. | 53:22 | |
| They will be throwing their bodies | 53:24 | |
| as well as their minds | 53:26 | |
| into the struggle for justice and sanity | 53:28 | |
| in international relations. | 53:32 | |
| Now, as I conclude, | 53:35 | |
| let me say, | 53:39 | |
| I do not think this is a | 53:41 | |
| totally gloomy time | 53:45 | |
| for responsible peacemakers. | 53:48 | |
| Peace makers are not at the end of their opportunities. | 53:53 | |
| The only real trouble with peacemakers is | 53:59 | |
| they are lonely people. | 54:05 | |
| Their ranks are too thin. | 54:11 | |
| We need crowds of peace makers. | 54:14 | |
| We need masses of peace makers. | 54:17 | |
| When masses say, | 54:22 | |
| "War is no longer tolerable," | 54:25 | |
| a way to abolish war | 54:29 | |
| will be found. | 54:33 | |
| Let us pray. | 54:37 | |
| Oh thou God of all humanity | 54:41 | |
| who has led us to this hour | 54:45 | |
| and who has spared us to live for a moment longer, | 54:47 | |
| create in each of us | 54:55 | |
| new desire to become | 54:58 | |
| an agent of peace, | 55:02 | |
| thy peace, | 55:07 | |
| and grant us the readiness | 55:09 | |
| each and all | 55:13 | |
| to pay what ever price is required | 55:16 | |
| to find | 55:22 | |
| through thy leadership | 55:25 | |
| peace | 55:28 | |
| on earth. | 55:30 | |
| Amen. | 55:33 | |
| (liturgical music) | 55:36 | |
| - | All things we are and- | 1:05:07 |
