J. Lem Stokes II - "An Educated Odyssey"; Robert T. Young - "A Church Truly Catholic" (June 28, 1970)
Loading the media player...
Transcript
Transcripts may contain inaccuracies.
- | The following is the service of Sunday, July 5th, 1970. | 0:06 |
♪ Come like a strong wind ♪ | 0:31 | |
♪ Crushing each walls ♪ | 0:34 | |
♪ I will shake the earth ♪ | 0:36 | |
♪ To rejoice for our Majesty ♪ | 0:40 | |
♪ On all the earth is great ♪ | 0:45 | |
(organ music) | 0:52 | |
(choir singing indistinctly) | 1:28 | |
(organ music) | ||
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 1:46 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 1:49 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 1:52 | |
♪ To the Lord most high ♪ | 1:55 | |
(choir singing indistinctly) | 1:59 | |
(organ music) | ||
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 2:21 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 2:24 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 2:27 | |
♪ To the Lord most high ♪ | 2:29 | |
(choir singing indistinctly) | 2:34 | |
(organ music) | ||
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 2:56 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 2:59 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 3:02 | |
♪ To the Lord most high ♪ | 3:04 | |
(choir singing indistinctly) | 3:09 | |
(organ music) | ||
♪ To the Lord most high ♪ | 3:28 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 3:32 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 3:35 | |
♪ Hallelujah ♪ | 3:38 | |
♪ To the Lord most high ♪ | 3:40 | |
(organ music) | 3:46 | |
- | Seek ye the Lord while He may be found, | 4:04 |
call you upon Him, while He is near. | 4:08 | |
Let the wicked forsake his way, | 4:14 | |
and the unrighteous man his thoughts, | 4:19 | |
and let him return unto the Lord. | 4:23 | |
And He will have mercy upon him | 4:27 | |
and to our God for He will abundantly pardon. | 4:32 | |
Therefore, let us offer unto God, a prayer of confession. | 4:40 | |
Almighty and eternal God. | 4:48 | |
Thou searcher of the hearts of men, | 4:52 | |
with sorrow, we acknowledge before thee | 4:56 | |
the faults and failures, which haunt our memories. | 4:59 | |
We acknowledge our failure to be true, | 5:04 | |
even to our own accepted standards. | 5:08 | |
Our self deception in the face of temptation, | 5:13 | |
our choosing of the worse, | 5:19 | |
when we know the better. | 5:22 | |
We acknowledge our failure to apply to ourselves | 5:26 | |
the standards of conduct we demand of others. | 5:30 | |
Our complacent toward wrongs that do not touch our own case | 5:36 | |
and our over sensitiveness to those that do, | 5:43 | |
our hardness of heart toward our neighbor's faults | 5:49 | |
and our readiness to make allowance for our own. | 5:55 | |
In thy holy presence, | 6:03 | |
we confess our faults and our failures, | 6:05 | |
knowing that they are our sins. | 6:10 | |
Forgive us, Lord. | 6:17 | |
And now hear what comfortable words the scripture says | 6:25 | |
to those that truly turn to God. | 6:29 | |
God so loved the world That he gave only begotten son, | 6:33 | |
that whoever believes in Him should not perish, | 6:41 | |
but have eternal life. | 6:46 | |
If we confess our sins, He is faithful | 6:49 | |
and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us | 6:54 | |
from all unrighteousness. | 7:01 | |
Therefore be of good courage. | 7:04 | |
And now let us offer unto God, | 7:10 | |
our unison prayer of Thanksgiving. | 7:13 | |
We give the thank our father, that thou has guided us safely | 7:19 | |
over land and ocean, that in the kindly providence, | 7:24 | |
thou has permitted our lot to be cast | 7:29 | |
in this pleasant place | 7:32 | |
that we are privileged to live in a land founded under God. | 7:34 | |
We give thanks that this land was settled by men and women | 7:40 | |
who came here as we did, | 7:44 | |
in order that they might live in the light of freedom | 7:47 | |
in order that they might worship thee | 7:51 | |
according to the dictates of their consciences. | 7:54 | |
Help us never to forget our father, | 7:58 | |
that all the rights and privileges we enjoy here | 8:01 | |
have blood on them. | 8:06 | |
That every good gift was bought and paid for | 8:08 | |
in human sacrifice. | 8:12 | |
This goodly heritage is ours by choice and by adoption, | 8:15 | |
may we never likely regard it. | 8:21 | |
May we ever be grateful to those who in years past, | 8:24 | |
have labored and loved in order that we might have something | 8:28 | |
to inherit, this we pray in humbleness and Thanksgiving, | 8:33 | |
amen. | 8:40 | |
(organ playing) | 8:46 | |
♪ And Jesus the Christ is born ♪ | 9:38 | |
♪ Give thanks now, every one ♪ | 9:44 | |
♪ Rejoice, ye great ones and ye small ♪ | 9:49 | |
♪ God's will, hit has been done ♪ | 9:55 | |
♪ Ye mighty kings of earth ♪ | 9:59 | |
♪ Before the manger bed ♪ | 10:04 | |
♪ Cast down, cast down your golden crown ♪ | 10:10 | |
♪ When Jesus Christ was born in Judea ♪ | 10:15 | |
♪ When Jesus Christ was born in Judea ♪ | 10:24 | |
♪ When Jesus Christ was born in Judea ♪ | 10:32 | |
♪ When Jesus Christ was born in Judea ♪ | 10:42 | |
♪ When Jesus Christ was born in Judea ♪ | 10:51 | |
♪ When Jesus Christ was born in Judea ♪ | 11:00 | |
♪ When Jesus Christ was born in Judea ♪ | 11:08 | |
♪ When Jesus Christ was born in Judea ♪ | 11:18 | |
♪ When Jesus Christ was born in Judea ♪ | 11:27 | |
♪ When Jesus Christ was born in Judea ♪ | 11:36 | |
It is unusual for us to introduce the | 12:12 | |
preacher of the morning, | 12:17 | |
that is done the Sunday before in the bulletin, | 12:19 | |
but I wish to make an exception in this case. | 12:22 | |
Our preacher has come to the Divinity school | 12:29 | |
as Assistant Dean of Admissions and Student Affairs. | 12:31 | |
He's a graduate of the University of North Carolina | 12:37 | |
in Chapel hill. | 12:39 | |
Where he was president of student government. | 12:42 | |
His wife is a graduate of the University of North Carolina | 12:48 | |
in Chapel hill, | 12:50 | |
where she was secretary of student government. | 12:52 | |
Came to the Divinity school | 12:57 | |
and became President of student government. | 12:59 | |
Then he went to Scotland for a year. | 13:04 | |
Unusually, but wisely chose Glasgow rather than Edinburgh | 13:08 | |
and studied there for a year. | 13:13 | |
Came back to the Western conference. | 13:14 | |
His most recent parish was in Boon. | 13:16 | |
He's one of my OS students, and therefore I welcome him. | 13:20 | |
As I know you do to the pulpit at this service. | 13:23 | |
And now let us hear the Word of God | 13:30 | |
as it is recorded first in the gospel, | 13:32 | |
according to St. John, the 17th chapter at the 20 verse. | 13:36 | |
This is the end of the high priestly prayer of our Lord, | 13:44 | |
Where he has been praying for the 12 who have been given Him | 13:51 | |
by God Praying for them just before the betrayal | 13:55 | |
in the garden of Gethsemane. | 14:01 | |
"I do not pray for these only, | 14:06 | |
"but also for those who are to believe in me | 14:10 | |
"through their word, that they may all be one, | 14:13 | |
"even as thou father art in me and I in thee, | 14:19 | |
"that they also may be in us | 14:26 | |
"so that the world may believe that thou has sent me. | 14:30 | |
"The glory, which thou has given me, | 14:36 | |
"I have given to them that they may be one, | 14:40 | |
"even as we are one. | 14:46 | |
"I in them and thou in me, that they may become | 14:50 | |
"perfectly one so that the world may know | 14:56 | |
"that thou has sent me and has loved them | 15:01 | |
"even as thou has loved me. | 15:06 | |
"Father, I desire that they also, | 15:10 | |
"whom now has given me maybe with me, | 15:14 | |
"where I am to behold my glory, | 15:16 | |
"which now has given me in thy love for me | 15:20 | |
"before the foundation of the world. | 15:24 | |
"Oh, righteous father, the world has not known thee, | 15:27 | |
"but I have known thee, | 15:34 | |
"and these know that thou hast sent me. | 15:38 | |
"I made known to them thy name, | 15:43 | |
"and I will make it known | 15:48 | |
"that the love with which thou hast loved me, | 15:51 | |
"maybe in them and I in them." | 15:55 | |
And in the epistle to the Ephesians, | 16:02 | |
the fourth chapter versus one to six, | 16:07 | |
where the same idea is picked up | 16:11 | |
by the writer of this letter, | 16:14 | |
be it Paul or be it someone else. | 16:17 | |
"I therefore a prisoner for the Lord, | 16:22 | |
"beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling, | 16:26 | |
"to which you have been called | 16:30 | |
"with all loneliness and meekness, | 16:33 | |
"with patience for bearing one another in love | 16:36 | |
"eager to maintain the unity of the spirit | 16:41 | |
"in the bond of peace. | 16:45 | |
"There is one body and one spirit, | 16:48 | |
"just as you were called to the one hope | 16:53 | |
"that belongs to your call. | 16:56 | |
"One Lord, one faith, one baptism, | 16:58 | |
"one God and father of us all, | 17:04 | |
"who is above all and through all | 17:08 | |
"and in all." | 17:13 | |
And may God bless unto us the reading of His word. | 17:17 | |
(organ playing) | 17:24 | |
(choir singing indistinctly) | ||
Lord, be with you. | 18:05 | |
- | And also with you. | 18:08 |
- | Let us pray. | 18:09 |
Let us offer unto God a prayer of intercession | 18:18 | |
for our country. | 18:21 | |
Grant us oh God, a vision our land, | 18:24 | |
fair as she might be, a land of justice, | 18:27 | |
where nun shall pray on others. | 18:31 | |
A land of plenty who are bison, poverty shall cease fester. | 18:35 | |
A land of brotherhood where success shall be founded | 18:42 | |
on service and honor be given to worth alone. | 18:46 | |
A land of peace where order need no longer rest and force, | 18:54 | |
but on the love of all for their country. | 19:01 | |
And grant us God to pledge our time and strength | 19:06 | |
and thought to hasten the day | 19:10 | |
of our beauty and righteousness. | 19:13 | |
Let us offer a prayer of intercession for the homes, | 19:19 | |
from which we come. | 19:23 | |
Oh God, our father, creator, sustainer. | 19:26 | |
We thank thee for the home into which each one of us came | 19:32 | |
when we entered this world, where duty was made sacred | 19:36 | |
and love nurtured, | 19:43 | |
and where we learned to call thee, father. | 19:46 | |
Hello, we pray the all homes with thy presence, | 19:51 | |
to bless, to judge, to forgive. | 19:56 | |
And be with all who are homeless, | 20:03 | |
and may each find a place in the larger household | 20:09 | |
where is our true home, now and evermore. | 20:15 | |
And let us offer a prayer of intercession for our hospitals, | 20:23 | |
almighty God whose blessed son went about doing good, | 20:29 | |
healing all manner of sickness and disease among the people. | 20:34 | |
Continue His gracious work among us, | 20:39 | |
comfort and heal all sufferers. | 20:44 | |
Grant to physicians and surgeons, wisdom and skill. | 20:48 | |
To nurses, sympathy and patients | 20:55 | |
To hospital, administrators, diligence and foresight. | 21:01 | |
Prosper their work oh, God | 21:08 | |
and send down thy blessing | 21:10 | |
on all who give up their substance or their service | 21:12 | |
for its maintenance. | 21:18 | |
And let us offer a prayer of supplication | 21:22 | |
for the assurance of God's presence. | 21:26 | |
Eternal God in whom is our health and our peace. | 21:32 | |
How may we utter our need of thee. | 21:37 | |
Our minds need thee to give them points. | 21:42 | |
Our will need thee to give them strength. | 21:48 | |
Our hearts need thee to give them quiet. | 21:55 | |
We need thee as we worry about a better world, | 22:03 | |
very urgent is our need of thee | 22:09 | |
if we are to face persistent evil | 22:12 | |
with hopeful determination, | 22:15 | |
And with thou who understands us better than we do ourselves | 22:20 | |
grant unto us a healing heartening consciousness | 22:26 | |
of thy presence. | 22:30 | |
As revealed in Jesus Christ, our Lord. | 22:32 | |
And now let us offer a prayer of supplication for ourselves | 22:39 | |
for the rest of this day. | 22:43 | |
Help us this day of God to serve thee devoutly | 22:48 | |
and the world visibly. | 22:52 | |
Maybe do our work wisely. | 22:55 | |
Give sucker secretly, go to our meat appetite. | 22:58 | |
Sit there at discreetly, arise temperately. | 23:06 | |
Please our friend dearly, | 23:13 | |
go to our bed narrowly and sleep surely. | 23:17 | |
For the joy of our Lord, Jesus Christ. | 23:22 | |
And now as our savior, Christ has taught us. | 23:29 | |
We humbly pray together saying, | 23:32 | |
- | Our father who art in heaven, | 23:36 |
hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, | 23:40 | |
thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven. | 23:44 | |
Give us this day, our daily bread | 23:49 | |
and forgive us our trespass | 23:52 | |
as we forgive those who trespass against us. | 23:55 | |
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. | 23:59 | |
For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, | 24:04 | |
forever, amen. | 24:09 | |
- | And I would be remiss if I failed to acknowledge that | 24:26 |
warm and cordial welcome to my wife and me. | 24:32 | |
In spite of the fact that I am an old Carolina man, | 24:38 | |
do not feel completely estranged in these surroundings. | 24:44 | |
We are indeed delighted to be back in this area, | 24:50 | |
and look forward to many meaningful experiences of worship | 24:54 | |
and of service in this community. | 24:57 | |
Bishop James K. Matthews of the Boston area | 25:04 | |
of the United Methodist Church, | 25:06 | |
writes in a new book which he has just recently written | 25:09 | |
entitled, "A Church Truly Catholic." | 25:13 | |
There is a kind of eschatological dimension to our times. | 25:19 | |
Some things cannot wait. | 25:25 | |
Translated it seems to me that that means | 25:29 | |
that there is an air of the end of things around us. | 25:31 | |
An atmosphere of finality, | 25:36 | |
a feeling that we are indeed in the midst of perilous times | 25:37 | |
and that some things can't wait. | 25:41 | |
One of the things that cannot wait, | 25:45 | |
is uniting of the body of our Lord and savior Jesus Christ. | 25:48 | |
That is the union of the church of Jesus Christ. | 25:53 | |
We can't wait any longer to move directly and speedily | 25:58 | |
toward a church, truly Catholic. | 26:03 | |
The time is now indeed. | 26:07 | |
The time was yesterday, | 26:10 | |
not tomorrow, as the late William Temple said | 26:12 | |
when in 1937, he was the Archbishop of Canterbury. | 26:16 | |
We are obliged to express the amount of unity | 26:22 | |
we can express at this time. | 26:25 | |
And in 1970, it seems to me that | 26:28 | |
we are more obliged to express the unity | 26:31 | |
that we can now, | 26:34 | |
the most unity we can express at any given time and moment. | 26:36 | |
Surely Bishop Matthews was correct as he wrote, | 26:41 | |
"There is only one direction for us to move, forward." | 26:44 | |
But then I think we may legitimately ask the question is, | 26:50 | |
why is church union imperative | 26:54 | |
and why is it a must for our day? | 26:59 | |
Because the late Arch Bishop William Temple says so? | 27:01 | |
Because Bishop James K. Matthews tells us | 27:05 | |
that there is only one way for us to go? | 27:08 | |
Because Eugene Carson Blake, | 27:11 | |
who is now the President of the World Council of Churches | 27:13 | |
preached a sermon in 1960 on the call | 27:16 | |
to protestants in this country to unite? | 27:19 | |
Or because the general conference | 27:22 | |
of the United Methodist church meeting recently | 27:24 | |
in St. Louis considered a report on church union | 27:26 | |
and recommended that all United Methodists study it by 1972? | 27:30 | |
Or because some of you probably, feel it, | 27:35 | |
or even because I feel it as necessary and desirable today? | 27:39 | |
Not at all. | 27:43 | |
None of these is sufficient reason for saying that | 27:46 | |
a church truly Catholic cannot wait. | 27:48 | |
But God's word gives us our ground | 27:53 | |
and our hope. | 27:57 | |
The book of Ephesians you heard, | 28:00 | |
there is one body and one spirit, | 28:02 | |
just as you were called to the one hope | 28:06 | |
that belongs to your call, one Lord, one, faith, | 28:08 | |
one baptism, one God and father of us all, | 28:12 | |
who is above all and in all and through all. | 28:15 | |
Then our Lord prayed in the gospel of John. | 28:21 | |
"I do not pray for these only, | 28:24 | |
"but also for those who believe even me through their word, | 28:26 | |
"that they may all be one." | 28:29 | |
And then Paul writes in 1st Corinthians 1:12-13. | 28:34 | |
What I mean is that each one of you says, | 28:38 | |
I belong to Paul or I belong to Apollo, | 28:41 | |
or I belong to Cesar, or I belong to Christ. | 28:44 | |
Is Christ divided? | 28:47 | |
He writes. | 28:48 | |
And the very clear expectation is that a resounding, | 28:51 | |
no, Christ is not divided, | 28:55 | |
will be heard in reply to this question. | 28:58 | |
There are some negative reasons I think, | 29:02 | |
for feeling that church union is a must. | 29:04 | |
First of all, our dividedness is expensive. | 29:10 | |
We divide our dollars and our cents here and abroad. | 29:14 | |
There are many places and many of them close at hand | 29:19 | |
where the simple cost of paid ministers | 29:21 | |
for a multitude of churches is burdening indeed. | 29:24 | |
Right here in this one county, | 29:29 | |
there are probably are a hundred or more paid ministers, | 29:31 | |
I would imagine serving probably 150 or more | 29:35 | |
different Christian churches. | 29:39 | |
Division is costly. | 29:42 | |
So we ask, why not unite? | 29:46 | |
Why not unite our publishing interests, | 29:49 | |
our boards of missions, our educational institutions, | 29:52 | |
our children's homes, our homes for the aging? | 29:56 | |
Why not come combine our finances | 30:00 | |
and coordinate our efforts? | 30:01 | |
It is indeed expensive the way we now operate | 30:03 | |
our splinter churches and denominations. | 30:07 | |
The second place, from a negative point of view, | 30:11 | |
we have a divided confusing witness. | 30:14 | |
One example will be sufficient. | 30:19 | |
In South Africa, a country that so I'm told, | 30:23 | |
has a population of only 12 million persons, | 30:26 | |
also has 1500 different Christian denominations. | 30:32 | |
As Bishop Matthews says, | 30:38 | |
"No under the thundered body of Christ | 30:41 | |
"is considered by him to be the sixth wound." | 30:44 | |
Our division not only brings confusion in other nations, | 30:51 | |
it also brings undesirable competition in our own land. | 30:54 | |
Why should there be a church on every corner, in any city? | 30:58 | |
Why not cooperative, supported, complimentary, | 31:04 | |
redemptive fellowships of all Christians | 31:08 | |
in any given community? | 31:11 | |
Why not? | 31:13 | |
Well, a third negative impulse I think, | 31:15 | |
comes when we realize that we Christians | 31:19 | |
are diminishing in number and also in percentage | 31:21 | |
in our countries and in the world's population. | 31:25 | |
From a negative point of view it seems to me | 31:28 | |
that we had better be renewed inwardly and outwardly, | 31:31 | |
into one strong body rather than be splintered | 31:34 | |
weakly into some 3,500 or so parts. | 31:38 | |
Our world is physically smaller today. | 31:42 | |
We are being forced to be neighbors and brothers, | 31:45 | |
the man in Peru or Nigeria or Cambodia | 31:49 | |
or Russia or China or Sweden or Turkey. | 31:54 | |
What happens to one man is known and is of significance | 31:58 | |
to us all. | 32:01 | |
We are no longer just (indistinct) or north Carolinians | 32:03 | |
or Americans or even Christians. | 32:07 | |
We are global persons, residents indeed of the world. | 32:09 | |
And ours is a world that is two thirds, non Caucasian, | 32:16 | |
and 70% non Christian. | 32:23 | |
We had better get together as Christians | 32:29 | |
from a sheer survival point of view. | 32:32 | |
Then also I think, people in | 32:38 | |
the Christian churches today are less concerned | 32:42 | |
over the minutia that ones concerned our church leaders | 32:46 | |
and that still bug many of our institutional leaders. | 32:51 | |
In England, as many of you probably know, | 32:55 | |
the Anglicans and the Methodist have been talking | 32:57 | |
about church union for several years. | 33:00 | |
And they've been discussing a number of these minutia. | 33:03 | |
To show you how little this trivia | 33:09 | |
does mean to some of the leaders of the church today, | 33:12 | |
let me share with you a few words from Cole Morris's book. | 33:17 | |
Cole Morris is President of the United Church of Zambia. | 33:21 | |
Share with you a few words that Morris has as he reacts, | 33:26 | |
over some of the trivia that trouble the folks | 33:30 | |
in great Britain, and the Methodist and Anglican churches. | 33:33 | |
Trouble such as what are we going to do | 33:38 | |
with the leftover bread and wine, after communion, | 33:40 | |
where in the order of worship, | 33:44 | |
will the words of absolution be put? | 33:46 | |
If the Methodist ministers are to be reordained, | 33:49 | |
will they be reordained, kneeling, sitting or standing? | 33:53 | |
These are the sort of things that have been concerning | 33:57 | |
the deliberations for church union. | 34:02 | |
And Morris writes in a little paperback book | 34:04 | |
entitled "Include Me Out." | 34:06 | |
"I don't really care whether I end up in a union church | 34:09 | |
"or as a residual Methodist. | 34:12 | |
"I don't really care whether I am ordained, reordained | 34:15 | |
"reconciled or commissioned by bishops, presidents, priests, | 34:18 | |
"or presbyters. | 34:22 | |
"I don't care where they put the words of absolution, | 34:24 | |
"so long as there is some point in the sacrament | 34:27 | |
"where I can unload my conscience. | 34:30 | |
"I don't even care in what sense holy communion | 34:33 | |
"is to be regarded as a sacrifice | 34:35 | |
"for its all a play on words." | 34:37 | |
And he says, | 34:40 | |
"I'm willing to go through that service of reconciliation, | 34:41 | |
"kneeling, standing, sitting, or lying flat on my face | 34:44 | |
"if it will make some dear souls happy. | 34:48 | |
"If that rigamarole can add anything by way of authority, | 34:51 | |
"to what God has already given me, | 34:54 | |
"I shall be humbly grateful, or as sure as fate, | 34:56 | |
"it can't take anything away." | 35:00 | |
And then he concludes, | 35:03 | |
"Is it not time we distinguish between what is genuine | 35:04 | |
"and what is useless in our present concerns? | 35:08 | |
"If I am not humanely useful to the life of the world, | 35:12 | |
"then the laying on of hands of every Bishop in Christendom | 35:16 | |
"will not validate my ministry. | 35:20 | |
"And so if the church is not humanely useful | 35:24 | |
"to the life of the world in sharing God's love and concern, | 35:28 | |
"then all the church unions in the world, will add nothing." | 35:33 | |
Amen. | 35:37 | |
And then one other negative factor I think is with us. | 35:40 | |
And it's rather strong negative force that is behind us. | 35:50 | |
'Cause I think that the rest of the world outside the church | 35:57 | |
is standing aside and saying to us, | 36:00 | |
"We really couldn't care less." | 36:03 | |
What difference do you make all ye Christians who pass us by | 36:08 | |
what are your differences, | 36:14 | |
your divisions and your deliberations? | 36:15 | |
We really don't care. | 36:18 | |
And until we move beyond our divisions and our differences | 36:23 | |
and our deliberations, | 36:28 | |
the rest of the world is going to stand there | 36:29 | |
and continue to say, "We really don't care." | 36:33 | |
And then I think we have the right to ask the question, | 36:40 | |
what is the alternative to church union? | 36:44 | |
Further confusion, more competitiveness, more costliness. | 36:49 | |
And I think less obedience to the truth of scriptures. | 36:55 | |
My friends, this sermon this morning has not just happened. | 37:02 | |
I'm bold enough to say that God's spirit is | 37:07 | |
right in the midst of some of these words today, | 37:10 | |
because rarely am I moved in preparing a sermon, | 37:13 | |
but as I prepared this sermon, I was move intellectually, | 37:17 | |
physically and spiritually as I wrote, moved by a power, | 37:20 | |
not of me, moved by a power that caused me to feel inside | 37:24 | |
praise God from whom all blessings flow. | 37:28 | |
That caused me to recall that the church of Christ is one. | 37:32 | |
It is we, who are divided. | 37:35 | |
That caused me to remember that church is not a plural word. | 37:39 | |
It has no plural. | 37:43 | |
That caused me to recall | 37:47 | |
there is an eschatological dimension to our times, | 37:48 | |
some things cannot wait. | 37:51 | |
One Lord, one faith, one baptism, | 37:54 | |
one God and father of us all, | 37:57 | |
these are the words of the scripture. | 38:00 | |
And there have been this week and recently some experiences | 38:02 | |
and events that have led me to believe | 38:06 | |
that God is alive today, is alive very much in His church. | 38:09 | |
I told the confirmation class, for example, | 38:15 | |
just the other day, that until the year 1054, | 38:18 | |
the church was in essence, one. | 38:24 | |
And then the first great split came. | 38:29 | |
In other words, we lived for over half | 38:36 | |
of our 2000 years history as one church. | 38:38 | |
And then in less than one half of our years, | 38:43 | |
we have become broken into tiny fragments of groups. | 38:46 | |
One church however, that claims in its history | 38:51 | |
St. Augustin, St. Francis, St. Thomas, | 38:55 | |
as well as Martin Luther, John Calvin, | 38:58 | |
St. Jones, John Wesley, | 39:01 | |
Pope John, the 23rd, Martin Luther King, | 39:04 | |
and you and me, one Church. | 39:07 | |
I was lifted not too long ago, | 39:16 | |
by the words in the presence of a man by the name | 39:18 | |
of Dr. George Schweitzer, who has three earned doctorates. | 39:20 | |
Professor of Chemistry at the University of Tennessee, | 39:23 | |
who gave a series of lectures | 39:27 | |
rather than a preaching mission | 39:28 | |
to Boone United Methodist church not too long ago, | 39:30 | |
he came to Boone teaching us the gospel of God's love. | 39:33 | |
And this my friends is a Southern Baptist | 39:38 | |
of Episcopalian background, | 39:41 | |
lecturing in a United Methodist church, | 39:44 | |
where all kinds of folk, from all kinds of religious | 39:46 | |
persuasions came and heard him enthusiastically. | 39:50 | |
I was also moved recently by the church | 39:54 | |
in our midst at Boone, a few Sundays ago, | 39:56 | |
when 50 young people from Burlington, | 39:59 | |
some of you may know this group, | 40:01 | |
sponsored by the Burlington YMCA, | 40:04 | |
a group of young people called The New Directions. | 40:06 | |
Black and white, rich and poor, | 40:08 | |
from many different church groups | 40:12 | |
as they sang and witnessed to their one Lord, one faith, | 40:14 | |
one baptism, and one God. | 40:18 | |
Recently in our church at Boone, | 40:23 | |
we discussed a topic of timely concern to all of us. | 40:26 | |
Birth control and abortion laws. | 40:32 | |
And do you know who the panelists were? | 40:36 | |
An Episcopalian psychiatrist, a United Methodist lawyer, | 40:40 | |
and a Roman Catholic priest. | 40:46 | |
In April, the general conference | 40:49 | |
of the United Methodist church received a report | 40:51 | |
from its delegates to Coco. | 40:53 | |
That is to the consultation on church union. | 40:55 | |
This report proposes a plan of union for nine denominations | 40:59 | |
in the United States with a total membership | 41:02 | |
of almost 28 million persons. | 41:05 | |
The United Methodist church, thank God, is one of these nine | 41:07 | |
one that has been in on the discussion for church union | 41:11 | |
since its very beginning in 1960. | 41:13 | |
This is a plan of union of some 30,000 words, | 41:17 | |
a plan in which every member of every church, | 41:20 | |
in every denomination involved is invited | 41:23 | |
to study and react to, between now and 1972. | 41:25 | |
And the hope is that by 1976, | 41:29 | |
these nine denominations will be ready to vote on the plan. | 41:33 | |
The nine denominations, | 41:37 | |
over half of them are of Methodist heritage. | 41:39 | |
Three of them are predominantly black. | 41:43 | |
The nine are the African Methodist Episcopal church, | 41:45 | |
the African Methodist Episcopal Zion church, | 41:48 | |
the Christian Church, | 41:51 | |
the Christian Methodist Episcopal church, | 41:53 | |
the Episcopal church, the Presbyterian church in the U.S, | 41:55 | |
the United Church of Christ, | 41:59 | |
the United Presbyterian church in the USA, | 42:01 | |
and the United Methodist church. | 42:04 | |
The proposed name of the new church, | 42:06 | |
the Church of Christ Uniting. | 42:08 | |
So it is indeed a joyful time, I think, | 42:15 | |
when we can see many movements | 42:20 | |
toward a church truly Catholic. | 42:24 | |
Some positive thrusts, I think. | 42:28 | |
The first place, I believe that God's spirit | 42:32 | |
is leading us in this direction. | 42:40 | |
As one of our adult Sunday school lesson materials says, | 42:45 | |
a strange wind is moving over my world. | 42:49 | |
I believe that. | 42:56 | |
And I believe that that strange wind is drawing us together | 42:58 | |
and it's blowing from many different directions in 1966, | 43:04 | |
at Union Theological Seminary in Richmond, | 43:09 | |
I heard a Presbyterian theologian speak about it. | 43:12 | |
At Lake Juka a Methodist assembly in 1968, | 43:17 | |
I heard a Roman Catholic priest from Chapel Hill | 43:23 | |
preach about it. | 43:25 | |
And I just read recently a report of the | 43:28 | |
world council of churches that said, | 43:30 | |
the member churches of the world council | 43:32 | |
have pledged themselves and listen, | 43:35 | |
to follow the lead of the Holy Spirit. | 43:38 | |
Strange that they would have to spell it out, isn't it? | 43:42 | |
But to follow the lead of the Holy Spirit in this matter | 43:46 | |
of a church truly Catholic, | 43:50 | |
I believe that the Holy Spirit is calling us to deemphasize | 43:53 | |
those things which divide us | 43:56 | |
and to concentrate on those things which unite us. | 43:58 | |
As the late Archbishop Jeffrey Fisher once put it, | 44:03 | |
we may not like each other, but we are strangely alike. | 44:08 | |
And then a second positive thrust remind us, | 44:16 | |
that a church truly Catholic, would witness as one. | 44:19 | |
We could eliminate much confusion, | 44:27 | |
competitiveness and wasted effort. | 44:30 | |
A third positive thrust says quite simply, | 44:36 | |
that we need unity, | 44:42 | |
but we neither need nor desire uniformity. | 44:43 | |
We do not have to worship the same way, | 44:48 | |
or believe the same way or behave the same way | 44:51 | |
or even read and interpret scriptures in the same way, | 44:55 | |
but we can belong to one another and can all belong to God | 44:58 | |
through Christ, as East Stanley Jones, | 45:02 | |
is opposed to have said on one occasion, | 45:05 | |
"Every person belongs to every person, | 45:08 | |
"who belongs to Christ." | 45:12 | |
And then a fourth positive thrust is plainly, God's Word. | 45:17 | |
You heard it, Ephesians four says, | 45:23 | |
"There is one body and one spirit." | 45:26 | |
Paul raised the question, is Christ divided? | 45:32 | |
Jesus Himself, our Lord prayed, | 45:39 | |
that they may all be one. | 45:44 | |
And a bit positive thrust at think is saying, | 45:50 | |
let's get the structure and the organization, | 45:54 | |
the machinery and the mass institutional work behind | 45:58 | |
so that we can get on with the task, | 46:03 | |
which God is calling us to live out. | 46:05 | |
That is as active living, loving, serving, | 46:07 | |
sharing, helping, redeeming persons in the world, today. | 46:13 | |
There is an eschatological dimension to our times. | 46:21 | |
Some things cannot wait. | 46:25 | |
A church truly catholic, cannot wait. | 46:29 | |
I'm no scientist and don't pretend to be. | 46:35 | |
But I understand that there is a real lesson for the church | 46:42 | |
to learn from science today, | 46:45 | |
because I'm told that power is generated by nuclear fishing. | 46:48 | |
That a certain amount of power is generated | 46:55 | |
by the splitting of atoms. | 47:00 | |
But I am also told that far greater power | 47:03 | |
is generated by nuclear fusion. | 47:07 | |
That is by the coming together. | 47:11 | |
Arch Bishop Temple said, | 47:17 | |
"I believe in one holy Catholic church, | 47:19 | |
"And I wish that it were so." | 47:25 | |
In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. | 47:32 | |
Amen. | 47:39 | |
(organ music) | 47:42 | |
(choir singing indistinctly) | 48:13 | |
(organ music) | ||
- | All things come of thee oh, God, | 56:47 |
our silver and our gold. | 56:51 | |
And our (indistinct) do we give thee, | 56:56 | |
as the symbol of ourselves. | 56:59 | |
In the name of Jesus, the Christ, our Lord. | 57:03 | |
May the blessing, God Almighty, | 57:13 | |
come upon you and God be with you. | 57:17 | |
May He show us (indistinct). | 57:21 | |
Through Jesus Christ, our Lord. | 57:28 | |
♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪ | 57:37 | |
♪ Hallelujah, praise the Lord ♪ | 57:41 | |
♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪ | 57:44 | |
♪ Hallelujah, praise the Lord ♪ | 57:48 | |
♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪ | 57:52 | |
♪ Hallelujah, praise the Lord ♪ | 57:55 | |
♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪ | 57:58 | |
♪ Hallelujah, praise the Lord ♪ | 58:01 | |
(church bells ringing) | 58:09 | |
(organ music) | 58:21 | |
(choir singing indistinctly) | ||
(indistinct chatter) | 59:14 |
(silence) | 0:00 | |
(hymnal singing) | 0:07 | |
- | If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves | 4:11 |
and the truth is not in us. | 4:18 | |
Therefore, let us offer unto God a prayer of confession. | 4:22 | |
Let us pray. | 4:27 | |
Almighty God, we come before thee as a disobedient church. | 4:30 | |
Our loyalty to the has sometimes been lost | 4:38 | |
in the conflict of human loyalties. | 4:42 | |
Our own self-interests has at times made us insensitive | 4:47 | |
to thy commands. | 4:53 | |
Our past is precious to us and we have allowed it | 4:57 | |
to set limits upon the future. | 5:03 | |
Our worship and our service have often been feeble. | 5:09 | |
We have not responded in love to the nor to the needs | 5:16 | |
of thy church, | 5:20 | |
Break our apathy and any arrogance | 5:23 | |
with the judgment of thy love. | 5:30 | |
And then in thy mercy heal with the Holy Spirit | 5:36 | |
causing us as a community to be born and new | 5:42 | |
in Jesus Christ our Lord. | 5:48 | |
And hear those words of assurance of forgiveness | 5:55 | |
from the first epistle of John. | 5:58 | |
Our sins are forgiven For Jesus' sake, | 6:03 | |
therefore be of good courage and let us offer unto God, | 6:12 | |
our unison prayer of Thanksgiving. | 6:18 | |
Almighty God, our heavenly Father, | 6:24 | |
we bless and magnify thy holy name for the gift | 6:28 | |
of thy most dearly beloved Son Jesus Christ our Redeemer | 6:31 | |
and for all his apostles, prophets, martys evangelists, | 6:38 | |
teachers and pastors whom he had sent abroad into the world | 6:44 | |
for thy holy church universal, | 6:50 | |
the ministry of the latey and the ministry | 6:53 | |
of the ordained. | 6:56 | |
We do give the hearty thanks for the privilege, | 6:58 | |
which each one of us has a bearing witness to the saving | 7:02 | |
grace of our Lord. | 7:06 | |
We express our gratitude. | 7:08 | |
We thank thee for life for a measure of health, for friends, | 7:10 | |
for food, for clothing, | 7:16 | |
and for all the purposes os Christ | 7:19 | |
which give meaning to these greatly goods. | 7:21 | |
We make our prayer of thanks in Jesus name. | 7:25 | |
Amen. | 7:30 | |
(silence) | 7:31 | |
(faint hymnal singing) | 8:29 | |
Let us hear the word of God as it is contained in the | 12:27 | |
scriptures of the New Testament. | 12:31 | |
In the book of the Acts of the Apostles 6:8-15. | 12:35 | |
Dr. Lamb Stokes, whom we welcome to our pulpit | 12:47 | |
this morning has asked me to read this passage | 12:51 | |
from the New English Bible. | 12:54 | |
Stephen, who was full of grace and power | 13:00 | |
began to work great miracles and signs among the people. | 13:06 | |
But some members of the synagogue | 13:13 | |
called the "Synagogue of Freed Men". | 13:15 | |
Comprising Cyrene and Alexandrians | 13:20 | |
and people from Cilicia and Asia | 13:23 | |
came forward and argued with Stephen. | 13:28 | |
But could not hold their own against the inspired wisdom | 13:32 | |
with which he spoke. | 13:38 | |
They then put up men who alleged that they had | 13:42 | |
heard Stephen make blasphemous statements against Moses | 13:45 | |
and against God. | 13:51 | |
They stirred up the people and the elders and doctors | 13:54 | |
of the law set upon him and seized him | 13:59 | |
and brought him before the council. | 14:05 | |
They produced false witnesses is who said, | 14:10 | |
this man is forever saying things against this holy place | 14:15 | |
and against the law for we have heard him say | 14:23 | |
that Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place | 14:30 | |
and alter the customs handed down to us by Moses. | 14:36 | |
And all who were sitting in the council, | 14:46 | |
fixed their eyes on Stephen | 14:48 | |
and his face appeared to them Like the face | 14:53 | |
of an angel. | 15:01 | |
Amen. | 15:04 | |
Here end the morning lesson. | 15:06 | |
(hymnal singing) | 15:10 | |
♪ Amen, amen. ♪ | 15:43 | |
The Lord be with you, let us pray. | 15:51 | |
Let us offer first three prayers of intercession, | 16:06 | |
one for the church, one for all who labor | 16:11 | |
for peace and one for the United Nations. | 16:16 | |
Oh God, our shepherd give to the church, | 16:22 | |
a new vision and a new charity, | 16:27 | |
new wisdom and fresh understanding. | 16:31 | |
The revival of her brightness and the renewal of her unity. | 16:36 | |
That the eternal message of thy son | 16:43 | |
undefiled by the traditions of men may be hailed | 16:48 | |
as the good news of the new age, | 16:53 | |
through him who make it all things new. | 16:57 | |
Even Jesus Christ our Lord. | 17:02 | |
Our almighty and merciful God | 17:08 | |
who would just have the kingdoms of this world | 17:12 | |
become the kingdoms of thy Son, | 17:15 | |
bestow thy blessing upon all who labor | 17:18 | |
for peace and for righteousness among the people | 17:21 | |
that the day may be hastened when war shall be no more. | 17:28 | |
And thy holy will shall govern the nations upon earth | 17:34 | |
through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. | 17:40 | |
Our heavenly Father we thank thee | 17:46 | |
for those who out of the bitter memories of strife and loss | 17:48 | |
conceived a more excellent way for the nations of the earth | 17:55 | |
whereby justice and order may be maintained | 18:01 | |
and the differences of people may be resolved in equity | 18:08 | |
We pray thee to help men of goodwill to establish | 18:15 | |
their purpose on sure foundations, | 18:20 | |
prosper their labors, | 18:25 | |
that they will may be done in love, | 18:29 | |
in peace and in the Spirit of Jesus Christ our Lord. | 18:34 | |
And let us offer unto God a prayer of supplication | 18:47 | |
for a realization of God, deepen and quicken | 18:49 | |
within us oh God the sense of thy presence | 18:55 | |
and refresh us with thy power, | 18:59 | |
quiet our understanding and give ease to our hearts | 19:03 | |
by bringing us close to things infinite and eternal. | 19:08 | |
Grant us dignity in our own eyes | 19:13 | |
by taking us into thy service. | 19:14 | |
Humble us by laying bare before us, | 19:22 | |
our littleness and our sin, | 19:26 | |
and then exalt us by revealing thyself to us | 19:30 | |
as our counselor, our father, and our friend | 19:34 | |
through Jesus Christ our Lord. | 19:37 | |
And let us offer a prayer of supplication that God | 19:44 | |
will grant us a sense of joy, | 19:47 | |
grant to us oh Lord, the royalty of inward happiness | 19:53 | |
and the serenity which comes from living close to thee. | 19:58 | |
Daily renewal in us the sense of joy and let thy eternal | 20:03 | |
Spirit dwell in our souls and bodies | 20:08 | |
filling us with light and grace. | 20:13 | |
So that bearing about with us, | 20:17 | |
the infection of a good courage | 20:20 | |
we may be diffusers of life and may meet all ills | 20:23 | |
and cross all accidents With gallant | 20:30 | |
and high hearted happiness giving thee thanks | 20:34 | |
for all things. | 20:40 | |
And now as our savior Christ taught us, | 20:43 | |
we humbly pray together saying, | 20:47 | |
our Father who art in heaven, | 20:51 | |
hallowed be thy name by kingdom come, | 20:55 | |
they will be done on earth as it is in heaven. | 21:00 | |
Give us this day, our daily bread and forgive | 21:04 | |
us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass | 21:08 | |
against us and lead us not into temptation, | 21:12 | |
but deliver us from evil. | 21:17 | |
For thine is the kingdom and the power | 21:19 | |
and the glory forever. | 21:23 | |
Amen. | 21:25 | |
(silence) | 21:27 | |
- | Whenever I visit in Pittsburgh, | 21:52 |
I try to make it a point to stop by the first | 21:57 | |
Presbyterian church, where for many years | 22:00 | |
Dr. Clarence McCartney was the distinguished minister. | 22:05 | |
One incident from his pan above all others | 22:12 | |
always stands out in my mind when I leave the church | 22:17 | |
and cross the river that winds through | 22:23 | |
the heart of the city. | 22:26 | |
Dr. McCartney says that he paused one day | 22:29 | |
in the middle of the bridge that spans the Allegheny | 22:32 | |
and was leaning over the parapet watching | 22:37 | |
the scene below and before him, | 22:40 | |
the sun setting beyond the steep Hills, | 22:45 | |
the smoke rising from engines and factories, | 22:49 | |
the steamboats pushing their barges up and down the river. | 22:54 | |
The houseboats clustering along the banks and the river | 22:59 | |
itself flowing rapidly away like the river of a man's life. | 23:05 | |
Suddenly his fascination with the scene below and before him | 23:11 | |
was interrupted by the words of a passer by on the bridge. | 23:17 | |
Just the beginning of a sentence. | 23:24 | |
If I had my life to live over again, | 23:28 | |
the remainder of the sentence was lost in the rumble | 23:32 | |
of traffic and in the din of confusion on the bridge, | 23:35 | |
leaving him only to conjecture how the stranger | 23:41 | |
might have completed his thought. | 23:45 | |
It would be intriguing to know just how those lost words | 23:49 | |
were put together and what their significance might have | 23:52 | |
been for a man whose name and place | 23:57 | |
will remain forever anonymous, | 24:01 | |
but more are important to us is the fact that these words | 24:06 | |
lose their anonymity when they repeat thoughts | 24:11 | |
that often recur to us. | 24:15 | |
When I was a student at Yale more years ago | 24:18 | |
than I like to admit now, | 24:21 | |
I spent a considerable amount of time deciphering Greek | 24:24 | |
papyri fragments, which the university | 24:28 | |
possessed in rather large quantities. | 24:32 | |
Again and again, I found myself tantalized | 24:36 | |
by the realization that the missing pieces | 24:40 | |
contained information about the writers, | 24:44 | |
which might have completed some important | 24:47 | |
story of their lives. | 24:50 | |
It was like an unfinished sentence, | 24:54 | |
an interrupted conversation, | 24:56 | |
a profound observation lost in the cacophony of sounds | 25:00 | |
on a busy city bridge. | 25:06 | |
We need no scientist philosopher or psychologist or religion | 25:10 | |
for that matter to tell us that life | 25:14 | |
cannot be lived over again, | 25:18 | |
but we defy these or any others to tell us | 25:21 | |
that we cannot at any juncture of our lives | 25:25 | |
make a fresh start a beginning again in the long days, | 25:27 | |
journey new adventure in our educational odyssey. | 25:32 | |
Surely if anywhere, the university | 25:38 | |
is a setting made for this. | 25:41 | |
All of us have come to junctures in life | 25:45 | |
when our resolves our aspirations for glowing achievements, | 25:49 | |
like pretty bubbles blown into the sky | 25:54 | |
have seemed only a momentary reality. | 25:58 | |
We have felt the need for something less transitory, | 26:02 | |
more enduring in the midst of the confusion of sounds | 26:06 | |
on the modern university campus. | 26:10 | |
Is there any possibility that this enduring note | 26:14 | |
can be heard an older theologian in a textbook | 26:19 | |
written for a previous generation, | 26:25 | |
including it in his table of contents | 26:28 | |
two interesting entries. | 26:31 | |
Chapter one, hell, chapter two, hell continued. | 26:34 | |
We do not need to subscribe to this older theology to see | 26:43 | |
something significant in the wording | 26:47 | |
for nothing could be more tragic as far as | 26:51 | |
our lives are concerned than for chapter two, | 26:53 | |
a new chapter in our educational Odyssey to be merely | 26:58 | |
a repetition of some of the disappointing experiences | 27:02 | |
that have gone before. | 27:07 | |
So then let us agree at the outset that the university must | 27:09 | |
provide a beginning again, in the lofty realms of the mind. | 27:14 | |
We should forever give a lie to the assertion | 27:20 | |
of Mumford Jones of Harvard University, | 27:23 | |
that ours is an age that is proud of its machines | 27:26 | |
that think and suspicious of its people who try to. | 27:30 | |
To be sure we must have our machines, | 27:37 | |
our electronic devices, | 27:40 | |
our computers that speed the processes of education, | 27:42 | |
but we must not forget that it is the mind behind | 27:48 | |
the machine that makes it work. | 27:51 | |
Bernardo Overstreet in the book, | 27:57 | |
"Brave Enough For Life" has a striking chapter entitled, | 28:00 | |
choosing one's ancestors. | 28:05 | |
Now there's a new wrinkle for you, | 28:08 | |
choosing one's ancestors indeed it is all we can do | 28:12 | |
to cover up for them. | 28:15 | |
They are as irrevocable as history born, | 28:17 | |
lived, died forever a part of the record like | 28:20 | |
the big ATS of the Bible, | 28:25 | |
but let us not miss the point of this chapter | 28:28 | |
for their is a real sense in which ancestors can be chosen. | 28:32 | |
And in the choosing, we expand our intellectual horizons | 28:37 | |
through the pages of history we March with Jenkis Khan, | 28:42 | |
with Caesar and Charemien, with the crusaders and the Yanks. | 28:46 | |
Through the laboratory we work beside Pastor Kuli, | 28:52 | |
Van Bush and the long list of distinguished names | 28:56 | |
in today's scientific world. | 29:00 | |
We lift our souls into realms of beauty | 29:04 | |
as we make friends with B and Beethoven | 29:07 | |
with Scher and Chopan with Chaka. | 29:11 | |
We learn of lines and colors from such masters | 29:16 | |
of their craft as Michael Angelo and Rembrandt, | 29:17 | |
Leonard DaVinci and Rubens, Whistler, and Picasso. | 29:25 | |
We seek the answer to some of life's profoundest questions, | 29:30 | |
with Plato and chop with Nigel and Lieber | 29:35 | |
with Hum and James and Jesus. | 29:40 | |
We break into flights of song and inspiration with Homer | 29:44 | |
and Dante with GTI and Shakespeare, | 29:49 | |
with long fellow and Kipling with Whitman and frost | 29:53 | |
and with all of the newer breed. | 29:57 | |
We follow the intricate patterns of the mind created | 30:00 | |
by McCauley and Scott, by Dickens and do GSKi, | 30:04 | |
by Hugo and Tall Story by Stevenson and Conrad | 30:08 | |
by O'Neil and Wolf and all the rest. | 30:12 | |
But the university must not stop here, | 30:17 | |
if our education odyssey is to be complete, | 30:20 | |
it must be willing to scrutinize its entire | 30:24 | |
reason for being. | 30:28 | |
If I do not miss my guess here is where the next campus | 30:30 | |
revolution will center. | 30:35 | |
Such student activism may not be as exciting as some | 30:39 | |
that have been popular on campuses around | 30:43 | |
the nation of late, | 30:47 | |
but it will strike it issues that are a vital concern | 30:48 | |
to every segment of the institution. | 30:53 | |
There is something quite irritating about what Gus Tyler | 30:57 | |
of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union | 31:01 | |
says about our colleges and universities. | 31:05 | |
"They are less a Collegium than a crazy collage of trade | 31:09 | |
turfs for the campus alone seems to retain its campus, | 31:14 | |
its classic favor of battleground. | 31:21 | |
The university has gone multi and the community | 31:25 | |
of scholars has become a disunity of disciplines. | 31:29 | |
It increasingly resembles Andrea Noyo groups | 31:35 | |
of individuals held together by mutual animosity | 31:41 | |
who could not survive had they no friends to hate. | 31:45 | |
Confronted with unwanted chaos, | 31:51 | |
the survivalist does not know whether to cry, laugh, | 31:54 | |
or pass a resolution oversimplified perhaps, | 31:59 | |
but words to give us pause for thought, | 32:05 | |
pause to cease wondering why the next campus revolution | 32:09 | |
might just be directed against the crimes, | 32:13 | |
we insist upon perpetrating in the name of scholarship. | 32:19 | |
I wish I had time to document them all. | 32:23 | |
I give you only one small sample as an appetizer. | 32:27 | |
The other day I chanced to sit at lunch | 32:32 | |
with an honor graduate of one of our colleges | 32:34 | |
who was headed for graduate school this fall. | 32:38 | |
But first she must return to her Alma mater to complete | 32:42 | |
a sophomore level course, which owing | 32:47 | |
to a schedule conflict she had not been able | 32:50 | |
to get in, but get this. | 32:53 | |
Her college had permitted her in instead to enroll | 32:57 | |
in a senior level course in the same discipline. | 33:01 | |
and she had made an A in it, but all because on page 51, | 33:05 | |
of the graduate catalog, | 33:10 | |
the sophomore course was listed as a prerequisite an honor | 33:13 | |
student was spending precious time and money that might much | 33:18 | |
more profitably have been spent upon her graduate career. | 33:22 | |
Such stupidity, such colossal disregard for common sense, | 33:27 | |
such inflexibility perpetrated by supposedly educated | 33:33 | |
people can be documented all over the place | 33:38 | |
and I assure you that in my present job, | 33:42 | |
I am finding more than I can enumerate almost every day | 33:45 | |
in my visitations of the universities of this state. | 33:50 | |
And I am solidly with the students in insisting that this | 33:54 | |
antiquated adherence to outdated practices has got to go. | 33:58 | |
But there is another area of beginning again | 34:07 | |
in the education odyssey, | 34:10 | |
I am thinking of the area of human relationships | 34:13 | |
in the broadest sense it is the breakdown | 34:17 | |
of these relationships that has time after time | 34:19 | |
brought our world for the brink of disaster. | 34:24 | |
The inability or unwillingness of people to get along with | 34:28 | |
each other has caused and is continuing to cause us | 34:31 | |
to write much of our history deep red hues of blood. | 34:37 | |
One has only to refer to troubled campuses across the land | 34:43 | |
to point out that needing to get along with one another | 34:48 | |
is not just a problem for the nations, | 34:52 | |
it is a problem for administrators, | 34:55 | |
for faculty and for students sharing dormitories | 34:58 | |
and showers, classrooms and chapel pews, | 35:02 | |
cafeteria lines and campus walks, library | 35:07 | |
and stadia is only a part of the story for here | 35:11 | |
there is a constant clash of ideas and polarization | 35:16 | |
and things getting out of control. | 35:21 | |
It is not always easy to make peace with deans and with | 35:25 | |
classmates and girlfriends perhaps in the end, | 35:29 | |
the answer to be is to be found in one man's prescription | 35:33 | |
of a happy home said he having a happy home is not so much | 35:37 | |
finding the right person as in being the right person. | 35:43 | |
Jesus put it another way, | 35:48 | |
when he commanded love thy neighbor, | 35:50 | |
as I saw all the book learning in the world can mean little | 35:54 | |
if along with it, one does not learn to live with people. | 36:00 | |
I recall the story of the railway conductor who retired | 36:05 | |
after some 40 years of service | 36:09 | |
at the ceremonial in his honor, | 36:13 | |
a newspaper reporter asked him what was the most difficult | 36:15 | |
part of his job. | 36:19 | |
Without hesitation the conductor replied in just one word. | 36:21 | |
People. | 36:26 | |
I understand that this year's graduates are finding it more | 36:28 | |
difficult to secure jobs than has been the case with past | 36:32 | |
generations of graduates. | 36:36 | |
Most of the difficulty is attributable | 36:39 | |
to economic factors to be sure. | 36:41 | |
The rise in an unemployment, inflation, | 36:45 | |
the loss of purchasing power. | 36:48 | |
But in some instances it is due to a history of hard | 36:50 | |
to get along with traits. | 36:55 | |
My attention was called the other day to a large national | 36:57 | |
firm employing several thousand persons that turned down | 37:00 | |
applicants applications from honor graduates | 37:06 | |
in favor of students with lower academic attainments, | 37:10 | |
because the latter gave better promise of getting | 37:15 | |
along with people. | 37:18 | |
There is a good word in the American vocabulary. | 37:20 | |
It is the word cooperate. | 37:24 | |
This does not mean passivity simply means learning | 37:27 | |
how to work with others for the common good, | 37:32 | |
the word calls to mind an incident that happened many years | 37:36 | |
ago before the days of rural electrification in a little | 37:39 | |
country church where a new pipe organ had been installed. | 37:44 | |
On the Sunday set aside for the dedication. | 37:48 | |
A distinguished organist was secured for a special concert | 37:51 | |
behind the scenes, a strong, | 37:56 | |
able bodied local citizen was put on the manual pumping | 37:58 | |
device all went well during the first half of the program, | 38:03 | |
the organist and the organ functioned perfectly. | 38:09 | |
But at the intermission, | 38:12 | |
the guest artist slipped from the bench at the console | 38:14 | |
and retired to the rear for a breath of fresh air | 38:17 | |
and smoked. | 38:20 | |
As he reached the anti room, | 38:22 | |
the man on the pump dripping with perspiration, | 38:24 | |
smilingly stepped up to greet the musician. | 38:28 | |
We certainly have been giving them a good concert. | 38:32 | |
The man explained half facet. | 38:35 | |
Well, the organist did not share either | 38:39 | |
the humor or the idea that the two of them | 38:41 | |
were engaged in some kind of joint enterprise. | 38:45 | |
So he replied a bit stiffly, sir, | 38:49 | |
I would have you to know that I am giving them | 38:52 | |
a good concert. | 38:55 | |
Needless to say that stopped the conversation. | 38:57 | |
When the intermission was over the performer | 39:01 | |
returned to his console. | 39:03 | |
and as the whispering subsided in the sanctuary began | 39:05 | |
arranging his stops for the first number | 39:10 | |
to make the story more dramatic, | 39:13 | |
I should say that this was a full organ composition | 39:15 | |
depicting the thunder, | 39:18 | |
depicting the thunder and lightning of a storm to the hush | 39:20 | |
of the audience he came down sharply on the keys, | 39:25 | |
but there wasn't a sound. | 39:29 | |
He fumbled with the stops, | 39:31 | |
a moment adjusted himself again on the seat and came, | 39:33 | |
came down forcefully upon the keys, | 39:36 | |
but it was no use the organ that had produced | 39:39 | |
such beautiful music a short while before | 39:43 | |
as now silent as dead as a last year's romance. | 39:46 | |
But the organist was not what he had first seemed | 39:52 | |
to be amidst the tittering audience, | 39:55 | |
he slid off the bench and made his way to the rear. | 39:59 | |
Sure enough there was the big fellow | 40:03 | |
perspiration gone sitting in the cross current of a breeze, | 40:06 | |
calmly smoking his pipe as though nothing in all the world | 40:11 | |
was bothering him. | 40:15 | |
Sir, said to musician holding out his hand, | 40:17 | |
you were quite right a while ago, | 40:21 | |
we were giving them a good concert. | 40:23 | |
And if you will return to the pump, | 40:26 | |
we will give them an even better one | 40:29 | |
during the second half, | 40:31 | |
the reporter concluded his story by saying | 40:34 | |
together they did. | 40:38 | |
So must it be on these college and university | 40:41 | |
campuses across the land. | 40:44 | |
We have the intelligence and the means | 40:47 | |
for getting the job done, please God, | 40:49 | |
this we will do together altogether to Tarly. | 40:52 | |
I come to a third and final observation. | 40:58 | |
In this educational odyssey the university | 41:02 | |
must insist that there be a beginning | 41:07 | |
again, in the realm of the spirit, | 41:11 | |
in the familiar story of the prodigal son, | 41:14 | |
Jesus paints an ugly picture of a young man who had left | 41:18 | |
home for the first time, the place to which he journeyed | 41:22 | |
might for all we know have been as beautiful | 41:26 | |
as a university campus or your own hometown. | 41:29 | |
There might have been some prospects for good training | 41:33 | |
in a respected vocation, but something happened. | 41:36 | |
He got in with the wrong crowd, | 41:40 | |
let's say egged on by his new freedom | 41:42 | |
he decided to live it up, spending lavishly, | 41:45 | |
drinking with dangerous abandon. | 41:49 | |
He soon found himself a delinquent deliric | 41:52 | |
cast out by the society that had | 41:55 | |
befriended him only so long as he had something to spend. | 41:58 | |
Words are scarcely adequate to describe the depths | 42:04 | |
to which he had fallen. | 42:07 | |
And in which a stubborn pride seem determined to keep him | 42:09 | |
rather than admit his error and call back home, | 42:14 | |
he lived the life of a tramp. | 42:17 | |
Then one day in his extremity, he came to himself. | 42:21 | |
Thoughts about the good things of home flashed inevitably | 42:25 | |
across his mind. | 42:30 | |
What a beautiful picture in contrast is the return | 42:31 | |
of the prodigal, | 42:36 | |
a father watching the road, rushing out to meet him, | 42:37 | |
the happy tearful reunion and it last the transformed man, | 42:42 | |
freshly groomed and clothed. | 42:48 | |
No wonder the father proudly declared as he called | 42:51 | |
for a celebration, my son was dead and is alive again. | 42:54 | |
He was lost and is found. | 43:01 | |
I know it is easy for us in this 20th century | 43:04 | |
to dismiss the picture. | 43:08 | |
None of us you see could stoop so low, could be so degraded. | 43:11 | |
So utterly lost or it might have put to a few hippies | 43:16 | |
here and there to some drug addicts perhaps, | 43:20 | |
or to a few runaway bumps, | 43:24 | |
but not to us white color and typos, never. | 43:27 | |
And yet let me say it gently, | 43:32 | |
character can be rumpled in so many ways. | 43:35 | |
No one has to be a puritan to know when the heart is soiled, | 43:39 | |
when ideals get canceled out by situation ethics, | 43:43 | |
when it was said of Jesus that he took issue | 43:48 | |
with the customs of the day, | 43:51 | |
that he attempted to alter them in the hearing | 43:52 | |
of our scripture today, | 43:57 | |
it is not difficult for the free man of day's university | 43:59 | |
world to get the picture. | 44:03 | |
He was not content, nor are we | 44:06 | |
to mouth ancient to go through the motions | 44:09 | |
of religious exercise. | 44:14 | |
Ye have heard that it had been said, | 44:16 | |
but I say unto you was his constant reminder. | 44:19 | |
In applauding Jesus criticism of the establishment | 44:24 | |
of the day let us not derive comfort however, | 44:27 | |
in our own critical outbursts against some of the empty | 44:32 | |
religious practices of our time for behind his criticism, | 44:36 | |
as there must be behind ours is the clear mandate to do away | 44:41 | |
with all sham and hypocrisy to make the religious experience | 44:47 | |
a very personal relationship between ourselves and our God. | 44:52 | |
I like the story that comes from | 44:59 | |
a little Kentucky mining community. | 45:00 | |
One evening at the local elementary school, | 45:04 | |
a program of music was being presented by the children | 45:07 | |
for the benefit of their parents and friends. | 45:10 | |
In one song entitled, "I want to be an angel", | 45:14 | |
which possessed some rather doubtful religious connotations, | 45:18 | |
but which was set to lively music, | 45:22 | |
a little fellow at the end of the chorus line, | 45:25 | |
sang with such gusto and enthusiasm that he attracted | 45:28 | |
the entire audience. | 45:33 | |
When the performance was over the minister in the audience, | 45:35 | |
sought the youngster out, | 45:38 | |
slapped him good naturedly on the back and inquired. | 45:40 | |
So you want to be an angel, do your son? | 45:43 | |
To which without change of expression, | 45:47 | |
the little fellow replied shocks Mr, | 45:49 | |
I don't wanna be no angel, I just wanna be somebody. | 45:53 | |
I doubt that any of us is quite ready for wings and a heart, | 45:59 | |
but I'm sure that all of us can echo the sentiments behind | 46:04 | |
such a moving desire. | 46:08 | |
The modern campus counterpart is perhaps found in some lines | 46:10 | |
panned recently in the latest issue of "Change" magazine | 46:15 | |
by Kate Hara, an honor student at Michigan state university. | 46:20 | |
Said she, I am sitting here at the typewriter. | 46:26 | |
It's really a rotten system because you have to spend | 46:30 | |
all your time working on the papers. | 46:34 | |
The profs assign for the end of the term. | 46:37 | |
There is never enough time just to relax. | 46:41 | |
I want time to be me. | 46:45 | |
A lot of crafts still have the great whole notion | 46:49 | |
that education is only books and that one should | 46:53 | |
spend all one's time developing one's mind. | 46:56 | |
Today's university is not geared for the total person. | 47:01 | |
You take neatly compartmentalized courses | 47:06 | |
in neat departments. | 47:10 | |
You live in a made by Nabisco dorm. | 47:12 | |
You do certain things at certain times, for instance, | 47:16 | |
you can't take a, a class at 3:00 AM | 47:19 | |
when I'm wide awake and all those nice old | 47:22 | |
deans and profs wonder why students are upset. | 47:26 | |
I want to be me. | 47:31 | |
I want the right to be a total person. | 47:34 | |
Jesus in subscribing to the same sentiment said, | 47:39 | |
what is a man profiteth if he gained the whole world | 47:44 | |
and lose his own soul in the implications of this question, | 47:48 | |
has a happy ending of a perfect educational odyssey. | 47:55 | |
- | Let us pray. | 48:04 |
Almighty eternal God, for the promptings | 48:09 | |
of the spirit that have brought us here | 48:14 | |
together to fellowship one with another | 48:16 | |
to express again our loyalty to thee, | 48:22 | |
to seek afresh thy forgiveness we be bless thee. | 48:26 | |
Go with us now upon our several ways and to a trying | 48:31 | |
difficult world in the realization | 48:38 | |
that we walk life's way not alone, but when we will it so. | 48:41 | |
With the companionship of him who in the longer ago said | 48:47 | |
and says, I will not leave thee nor forsake thee | 48:50 | |
through Jesus Christ our Lord. | 48:58 | |
Amen. | 49:01 | |
(organ music) | 49:04 | |
(hymnal singing) | 49:28 | |
Oh God, Father of all mercies receive this offering, | 58:01 | |
which we present to thee as part of our worship, | 58:06 | |
may these gifts with a symbol of our consecration | 58:11 | |
unto thee and to thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord. | 58:15 | |
Amen. | 58:23 | |
May the blessing of God be upon you now. | 58:28 | |
May he keep you strong | 58:36 | |
through Jesus Christ. | 58:43 | |
Amen | 58:46 | |
♪ Amen, amen, amen ♪ | 58:52 | |
♪ Amen, amen, amen ♪ | 59:09 | |
♪ Amen, amen, amen ♪ | 59:28 |