James T. Cleland - "Three Arrow Prayers" (November 1, 1970)
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Transcript
Transcripts may contain inaccuracies.
(vocal music) | 0:05 | |
- | God has commended us to pray. | 6:10 |
He has said that we should confess our sins | 6:16 | |
that we should acknowledge our faults before him. | 6:20 | |
And that if we do, he will be merciful. | 6:25 | |
Let us therefore unite our hearts | 6:29 | |
and our voices in our prayer of confession and for part. | 6:32 | |
Let us pray. | 6:36 | |
Oh Lord, Most Holy God, most mighty, | 6:38 | |
who has found us wanting and yet has not forsaken us. | 6:43 | |
We confess that we have often witnessed | 6:48 | |
to our pride and vanity instead of witnessing to thy grace. | 6:50 | |
The peace and joy thou didst offer us. | 6:55 | |
We sold for power and prestige. | 6:58 | |
We have trusted too much in the work | 7:02 | |
of our hands and in the fruit of our laboratories, | 7:05 | |
we have made the clean earth dirty, | 7:08 | |
and we have behaved as though we were the last generation, | 7:11 | |
which would need to live on this planet. | 7:15 | |
We have not remembered our total need of thy wisdom. | 7:18 | |
Save us from all sin. | 7:22 | |
We humbly pray through Jesus Christ, our Lord, amen. | 7:24 | |
The scriptures quote, our heavenly father is saying, | 7:32 | |
I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, | 7:36 | |
but that he should turn again. | 7:40 | |
God is not willing that any should perish | 7:44 | |
but that all should come to repentance, says the scriptures. | 7:47 | |
We have been assured from Genesis | 7:52 | |
to revelation that this is the attitude | 7:55 | |
of our heavenly father who scorns evil, | 7:58 | |
but who loves the sinner | 8:02 | |
and welcomes the repentance sinner back into the fold again. | 8:05 | |
So be it. | 8:11 | |
(vocal music) | 8:19 | |
Our scripture for this morning is Luke chapter 18 | 13:40 | |
versus nine through 14 and chapter 22 versus 39 through 44. | 13:46 | |
He also told this parable to some who trusted | 13:55 | |
in themselves that they were righteous and despised others. | 13:59 | |
Two men went up into the temple to pray, | 14:05 | |
one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. | 14:09 | |
The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself. | 14:14 | |
God, I thank thee that I am not like other men, | 14:19 | |
extortionists, unjust, adulterers | 14:23 | |
or even like this tax collector. | 14:28 | |
I fast twice a week. | 14:31 | |
I give tithes of all that I get. | 14:34 | |
But the tax collector standing far off would not even lift | 14:37 | |
up his eyes to heaven, | 14:43 | |
but beat his breasts saying, | 14:45 | |
God be merciful to me a sinner. | 14:48 | |
I tell you this man went down to his house justified | 14:53 | |
rather than the other. | 14:58 | |
For everyone who exhausts himself will be humbled, | 15:01 | |
but he who humbles himself will be exhausted. | 15:06 | |
And he came out and went as was his custom | 15:14 | |
to the Mount of Olives and the disciples followed him. | 15:19 | |
And when he came to the place, he said to them, | 15:23 | |
pray that you may not enter into temptation, | 15:28 | |
and he withdrew from them | 15:32 | |
about a stone's throw and knelt down and prayed, | 15:34 | |
Father, if thou aren't willing, | 15:39 | |
remove this cup from me. | 15:42 | |
Nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done. | 15:45 | |
And there appeared to him and angel from heaven, | 15:50 | |
strengthening him and being in agony, | 15:54 | |
he prayed more earnestly and his sweat became | 15:57 | |
like great drops of blood falling down upon the ground. | 16:01 | |
Here end the reading. | 16:06 | |
(vocal music) | 16:09 | |
- | The Lord be with you. | 16:47 |
Crowd | And also with you. | 16:49 |
- | Let us pray. | 16:50 |
Almighty God, our heavenly father, | 17:00 | |
in the quietness and holiness of this good time. | 17:03 | |
We left our hearts in thanks to thee, | 17:08 | |
for the blessings of which we are mindful as we come | 17:12 | |
to the middle of this semester. | 17:15 | |
Without any design, | 17:19 | |
we simply offer our thanks for teachers. | 17:20 | |
Some of whom have been our professors. | 17:24 | |
Some of whom have been our roommates. | 17:28 | |
Some have been secretaries on the campus. | 17:31 | |
Some have been our enemies. | 17:35 | |
We've had many teachers. | 17:38 | |
We thank thee for all of them. | 17:40 | |
For everyone and for every experience | 17:44 | |
through which we have learned, | 17:47 | |
through which we have come to know what reality is. | 17:50 | |
Some of these experiences, oh, God have been painful. | 17:54 | |
Some of our teachers have been stern. | 17:59 | |
But now in perspective and on reflection, | 18:03 | |
we give the thanks. | 18:07 | |
Oh God, we are grateful for books through the printed page, | 18:10 | |
many people whom we have never seen have taught us. | 18:15 | |
We are grateful heavenly father | 18:21 | |
for people who have been friends to us at times | 18:23 | |
especially when we have needed friends. | 18:26 | |
And unexpectedly, | 18:30 | |
some of our stern teachers have become our best friends. | 18:31 | |
Oh God, of every good thing, | 18:39 | |
we are grateful for the simple things, clean air, | 18:41 | |
a night's rest, a good meal, the changing seasons. | 18:46 | |
We thank thee for the chapel. | 18:55 | |
For the opportunity it continually provides | 18:58 | |
for us to come together in common worship. | 19:01 | |
Without denominational hangups, | 19:05 | |
we thank thee for those who have come | 19:09 | |
from abroad to preach to us, | 19:10 | |
for those in our own community who know us | 19:13 | |
and who preach to us, students and faculty, ministers. | 19:17 | |
And so we thank thee oh God | 19:24 | |
for everyone who has contributed to the enrichment | 19:25 | |
of our worship of thee. | 19:29 | |
Choir members, communion assistance, ushers, collectors, | 19:32 | |
the one in the Pew next to us. | 19:38 | |
So many people have done so very much | 19:42 | |
for all of us, oh God, | 19:45 | |
That we are grateful to each other, | 19:49 | |
but supremely grateful to thee. | 19:50 | |
And now our father, thou who art our eternal father, | 19:55 | |
strong to save, | 20:01 | |
hear us as we pray for our fellow man. | 20:03 | |
We pray for the seniors who are in their final year. | 20:08 | |
And may their final weeks and months here at Duke, | 20:16 | |
be times when the tangled and fragmentary meanings | 20:21 | |
of education may come to have a central | 20:24 | |
and controlling purpose. | 20:28 | |
May the Lord Jesus Christ be lifted up and chosen | 20:31 | |
as master of life. | 20:35 | |
Grant, oh God, that students may look | 20:40 | |
on professors as teachers rather than as grade givers. | 20:43 | |
And that professors may look | 20:48 | |
on students as opportunities to mold the future, | 20:51 | |
rather than as necessary evils in academic life. | 20:54 | |
We pray that men may see women as persons | 20:59 | |
more than as sex targets. | 21:03 | |
That women may view men as sons of God, | 21:06 | |
more than as sources of money and status. | 21:09 | |
Heavenly father help us all, | 21:15 | |
employers and employees, parents and children, | 21:17 | |
merchants and customers to treat each other | 21:20 | |
as people who are precious in thy sight. | 21:23 | |
And now Lord, who are the source | 21:29 | |
of charity and the fountain of sanity, | 21:31 | |
deliver thy children in these days of political fervor | 21:34 | |
from the sins of lying and slander. | 21:38 | |
Save us from excessive and abusive language | 21:41 | |
in the name of patriotism. | 21:44 | |
Grant us grace to avoid name calling, | 21:47 | |
deliver us from angry rhetoric | 21:51 | |
that fans discontent into hatred. | 21:53 | |
Save us from bombastic words that posture | 21:56 | |
instead of persuading. | 22:00 | |
Give us above everything to know | 22:04 | |
and to follow the mind of Christ. | 22:06 | |
Or we ask it in his name, | 22:10 | |
as we remember the words he has taught us to use | 22:13 | |
when we pray saying, | 22:16 | |
Our Father who art in heaven, | 22:18 | |
Hallowed thy name, thy kingdom come, | 22:21 | |
thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. | 22:24 | |
Give us this day our daily bread, | 22:29 | |
and forgive us our trespasses | 22:32 | |
as we forgive those who trespass against us. | 22:34 | |
And lead us not into temptation, | 22:37 | |
but deliver us from evil | 22:40 | |
for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory | 22:42 | |
forever, amen. | 22:46 | |
- | The grace of God be with us all. | 23:08 |
The last time I preached to a homecoming congregation, | 23:15 | |
was during alumni weekend in June of this year. | 23:20 | |
I spoke about the urgent need for a renovation of the chapel | 23:27 | |
and of the appurtenances their on. | 23:34 | |
The title of the sermon was the Duke Chapel Blues. | 23:39 | |
For some reason or other, it did not go down easily | 23:45 | |
or well with certain officials in the alumni office. | 23:49 | |
I'm no longer entirely persona grata in what was once | 23:56 | |
and probably should still be the president's house. | 24:01 | |
Therefore I decided some time ago to be administratively | 24:06 | |
innocuous this morning. | 24:11 | |
I've chosen a non alumni other than homecoming subject, | 24:15 | |
namely prayer. | 24:23 | |
Now in preparation, I turned to an unusual anthology, | 24:26 | |
a dictionary of military and Naval quotations, | 24:32 | |
by Robert Debs Heinel. | 24:37 | |
Colonel Heinel was to the Marines for Admiral rickover | 24:42 | |
is to the Navy. | 24:47 | |
Able, independent, well or red pertinent and pungent. | 24:49 | |
Let me share with you three of the quotations subsumed | 25:01 | |
under the heading prayer before action. | 25:06 | |
The first is said to have been prayed back in 1917 | 25:13 | |
by the commander-in-chief of the British Army | 25:17 | |
in World War One. | 25:22 | |
So Douglas Haig, | 25:24 | |
please God, | 25:27 | |
let there be victory before the Americans arrived. | 25:29 | |
The answer was not in accord with the intrigue. | 25:38 | |
The second was the petition of a young Highlander, | 25:43 | |
a member of the clan Fraser on the eve | 25:47 | |
of the Battle of Cloden 1746, | 25:51 | |
when the Stuart cause was happily forever lost. | 25:56 | |
Dear Lord, on the morrow, | 26:03 | |
pray do not let me kill anyone. | 26:07 | |
And dear Lord pray do not let anyone kill me. | 26:12 | |
One wonders we lived perhaps so maybe that's why we know | 26:19 | |
the prayer. | 26:23 | |
The third was offered by Sir Jacob Astley, | 26:26 | |
a cavalier officer before the Battle of Edgehill | 26:31 | |
against crumbles around heads in 1642. | 26:35 | |
Oh, Lord thou knowest how busy I must be this day, | 26:41 | |
if I forget thee, do not thou forget me. | 26:49 | |
It's a good prayer for a busy person | 26:58 | |
but one shouldn't be that busy every day. | 27:03 | |
Now these petitions give us one insight into the fact | 27:08 | |
and the meaning of prayer. | 27:12 | |
Prayer is based on the postulate that there is a God | 27:15 | |
with whom we make contact, | 27:19 | |
a God who hears and answers prayer, | 27:24 | |
though not always nor necessarily in accordance | 27:29 | |
with our desires. | 27:34 | |
It assumes that the spirit | 27:37 | |
of man is akin to the spirit of the universe. | 27:39 | |
And that a human being seeks to augment his finite energy | 27:44 | |
from the infinite source of all energy. | 27:51 | |
Now in the light of that postulate, | 27:57 | |
let us think of three arrow prayers, | 27:59 | |
cold arrow because they are short. | 28:04 | |
Aimed and speeding in flight. | 28:09 | |
They may well be at the very heart of our own prayer life | 28:15 | |
for ourselves as individuals and as a gathered congregation. | 28:21 | |
The first was prayed by Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, | 28:29 | |
on the night before he was crucified, | 28:35 | |
not my will but thy will be done. | 28:38 | |
It was not an easy thing for Jesus to say, | 28:45 | |
immediately before he had prayed, | 28:51 | |
father, if thy are willing, remove this cup from me. | 28:54 | |
What cup? | 29:04 | |
The cup of death. | 29:06 | |
At the age of 33. | 29:08 | |
what Jesus had to pray not my will, but thy be done. | 29:13 | |
Why? Because it is the second petition of the prayer | 29:20 | |
which he taught his disciples, | 29:25 | |
which we prayed together this morning. | 29:29 | |
Thy will be on earth as it is in heaven. | 29:32 | |
There was a consistency between our Lord's teaching, | 29:39 | |
and his behavior. | 29:44 | |
His behavior in the Garden of Gethsemane was identical | 29:47 | |
with his attitude on the Mount of the Sermon. | 29:53 | |
God was primary. | 29:58 | |
God's will was first. | 30:00 | |
God's will was Jesus will so help him God, | 30:04 | |
But as you heard in the lesson this morning, | 30:11 | |
he sweated blood to say it. | 30:15 | |
His was like clots of blood falling to the ground, | 30:20 | |
is how the new English Bible translates the verse. | 30:27 | |
What do we think of such a prayer? | 30:32 | |
One commentator write if mankind were granted | 30:37 | |
but one prayer, | 30:41 | |
what other could we choose? | 30:43 | |
But another commentator says, | 30:47 | |
I think it is the most fearful prayer to pray in the world. | 30:50 | |
It recalls the awesome final question put to a young | 30:58 | |
divinity graduate at the end of a two hours grueling | 31:01 | |
grilling before a committee | 31:08 | |
in an examination for ordination. | 31:11 | |
The ancient inevitable final question was, | 31:14 | |
are you willing to be damned for the glory of God? | 31:20 | |
Are you willing to be damned for the glory of God? | 31:26 | |
The candidate responded correctly? | 31:33 | |
I am. | 31:37 | |
Then he added, I am also willing that the committee | 31:41 | |
be damned for the glory of God. | 31:46 | |
And no one dare gain say the addition, | 31:53 | |
but the committee did find him guilty | 31:58 | |
of a lack of Christian charity. | 32:01 | |
And to my knowledge that question was never asked again | 32:06 | |
in that Presbytery. | 32:11 | |
Not my will but thine be done, | 32:16 | |
points out that prayer is not an attempt | 32:20 | |
to change God's will | 32:23 | |
but to discover it to go along with it even if it means | 32:26 | |
altering our own wills. | 32:33 | |
Thomas Carlyle, | 32:36 | |
the philosophical Scottish historian as said, | 32:38 | |
it was the only prayer that a Christian should pray. | 32:43 | |
Someone commented, | 32:49 | |
that there was one other which Carlyle should add. | 32:52 | |
What do you think the prayer was? | 32:57 | |
Which was suggested as an addition | 33:00 | |
to Carlyle's choice of not my will but thine be done. | 33:04 | |
It's found in that jarring parable | 33:09 | |
of the Pharisee and the publican, | 33:13 | |
which was the other part of our morning lesson, | 33:16 | |
the strict and upright Israelite | 33:20 | |
in contrast with the Jewish tax collector who worked | 33:23 | |
for the Roman army of occupation. | 33:29 | |
The Pharisee had understandably enough | 33:33 | |
a good conceit of himself. | 33:36 | |
He played either with himself or by himself | 33:40 | |
that he was conscious of freedom from the vices | 33:45 | |
which affected other men, especially tax collectors. | 33:48 | |
And then he reminded God | 33:54 | |
of two specific instances of his own piety. | 33:56 | |
He fasted twice a week. | 34:01 | |
He gave away 10% of his income. | 34:05 | |
Boy, that's the kind of alumnus duke would like to have | 34:10 | |
with regard to the loyalty fund. | 34:13 | |
And the chapel could use some of it too right now | 34:17 | |
According to the standards of legal righteousness | 34:22 | |
this fallacy was exhibit A. | 34:25 | |
The tax gatherer stood in a distant corner, | 34:30 | |
kept his distance would not even raise his eyes to heaven. | 34:35 | |
All he murmured beating his breast. | 34:42 | |
A gesture of despair was God be merciful to me, | 34:45 | |
miserable me, | 34:53 | |
a sinner. | 34:55 | |
And Jesus said that one of these two men | 34:58 | |
went home justified. | 35:01 | |
That is acquitted every sins, right with God. | 35:05 | |
And it wasn't the Pharisee, | 35:12 | |
though unworthy the public harness was accepted of heaven. | 35:16 | |
This suggests that the church should not be a museum | 35:22 | |
for saints but a hospital for sinners | 35:27 | |
who know they are sinners, | 35:34 | |
who are sorry about it and who are on their way to health, | 35:37 | |
which is what salvation means. | 35:45 | |
What makes a person realize he is a sinner? | 35:50 | |
May well be the moment when he actually sees himself set | 35:54 | |
against the holy love of God | 36:00 | |
as it was incarnated in the man Jesus. | 36:04 | |
Then even a law abiding, church going, Bible reading, | 36:10 | |
homecoming Christian Pharisee, | 36:17 | |
may be converted to the humility | 36:21 | |
which recognizes that he is a sinner | 36:23 | |
but accept such a man may then be able to pray and to mean, | 36:28 | |
not my sinful will, | 36:37 | |
but thy holy will be done in me. | 36:42 | |
A third arrow prayer alluded me as I worked on this sermon. | 36:52 | |
Then one day quite it recently, | 36:59 | |
driving with a young Episcopal Rector | 37:02 | |
to a Diocesan Conference where at the Bishop's request, | 37:05 | |
I was supposed to teach his clergy how to preach | 37:11 | |
like Presbyterians in four lectures. | 37:15 | |
I was given the third prayer. | 37:19 | |
I told the director about this sermon | 37:24 | |
and he responded instantly, | 37:27 | |
I know the third selection, | 37:30 | |
Lord I believe help thou my unbelief. | 37:35 | |
And at once I realized that he was right. | 37:45 | |
I recall the setting of the petition. | 37:51 | |
So do some of you. | 37:54 | |
A distracted father had brought his epileptic son | 37:56 | |
to the disciples to be cured. | 38:02 | |
They were unable to make him well in the language | 38:06 | |
of the time to cast out the demon, which possessed the boy. | 38:09 | |
Then Jesus appeared in the scene. | 38:16 | |
He listened to the story | 38:19 | |
of suffering and failure and he responded. | 38:21 | |
Everything is possible to the one who has faith | 38:27 | |
and the father burst out. | 38:36 | |
I have faith, help me where my faith fall short. | 38:38 | |
The same rector drove me back to my plane from the diocese | 38:49 | |
and conference, | 38:53 | |
three days after our first meeting. | 38:55 | |
He then told me why Lord, I believe, | 38:58 | |
helped thou my unbelief was the prayer ever uppermost | 39:03 | |
in his mind. | 39:07 | |
His wife had undergone open heart surgery. | 39:10 | |
When the operation was over, the surgeon said to him, | 39:16 | |
the outlook is not promising. | 39:20 | |
I have stood on my feet | 39:26 | |
for 10 hours struggling to guarantee your wife's life. | 39:28 | |
Now you go and spend two hours on your knees. | 39:36 | |
The rector confessed that he had little real acquaintance | 39:45 | |
with such a prayer of supplication, | 39:49 | |
but he did us commanded for two hours. | 39:53 | |
Then he return to the hospital to his wife's room. | 39:58 | |
Senior resident met him, talked with him. | 40:03 | |
We did not believe that she could live, | 40:08 | |
but in the last two hours, something amazing has happened. | 40:12 | |
The blood pressure is up. | 40:19 | |
The temperature is down. | 40:22 | |
I think she's gonna make it. | 40:25 | |
She's alive today. | 40:29 | |
She has given birth to a son. | 40:31 | |
She lives life fully. | 40:35 | |
Her husband is still amazed at, | 40:39 | |
puzzled over the miracle of healing. | 40:43 | |
He walks on tiptoe in this area of his faith. | 40:47 | |
His constant prayers is, | 40:54 | |
Lord, I believe help thou my unbelief. | 40:57 | |
He's in good company was none other than St. Paul who wrote, | 41:05 | |
now we see through a glass darkly | 41:11 | |
or now we see only the puzzling reflections in a mirror. | 41:16 | |
And remember that in the first century, | 41:23 | |
mirrors were not made of clear glasses today. | 41:26 | |
Now we see through a glass darkly, but then face to face. | 41:32 | |
Now I know in part, the time will come | 41:37 | |
when I shall understand fully. | 41:43 | |
On this earth, | 41:46 | |
there is a tentativeness to our faith, a gentle agnosticism | 41:47 | |
but it is still faith. | 41:56 | |
A confidence in the God revealed to us in and by Jesus, | 42:00 | |
the Lord of our faith. | 42:06 | |
That's why Lord, I believe help thou my unbelief | 42:08 | |
is the valid prayer Of most of us | 42:12 | |
where we are mixtures of belief and unbelief of trust | 42:18 | |
and doubt of confidence in the heart and hesitation | 42:22 | |
in the head. | 42:29 | |
There then are three arrow prayers. | 42:32 | |
All from the New Testament and all still valid | 42:36 | |
after 19th centuries. | 42:42 | |
This is not all there is to prayer. | 42:45 | |
Nothing has been said about two major elements, | 42:48 | |
Thanksgiving and intercession. | 42:52 | |
But if we began our private devotions | 42:56 | |
with these three prayer. | 43:00 | |
And if we offered them to God | 43:04 | |
before every service of corporate worship, | 43:07 | |
and really meant what we said, | 43:11 | |
our whole prayer life would have a different emphasis. | 43:16 | |
God would be primary. | 43:22 | |
We would be his grown up, mature children. | 43:25 | |
We would be open-minded to him and to his purpose for us. | 43:31 | |
So let it be and let us pray. | 43:41 | |
Not our will, but thine oh God, be done. | 43:51 | |
God be merciful to us sinners. | 44:00 | |
Lord, we believe help thou our unbelief, amen. | 44:09 | |
(vocal music) | 44:24 | |
(crowd applauds) | 59:03 |