Thomas A. Langford - "Way to Go" (November 8, 1970)
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Transcript
Transcripts may contain inaccuracies.
(choir singing hymnal music) | 0:06 | |
(organ music playing) | 0:50 | |
(choir singing hymnal music) | 1:27 | |
(organ music playing) | 1:51 | |
(choir singing hymnal music) | 1:59 | |
(choir singing hymnal music) | 2:46 | |
(organ music playing) | 2:55 | |
(choir singing hymnal music) | 4:04 | |
- | Grace be to you and peace from God our Father | 5:01 |
and from the Lord, Jesus Christ. | 5:05 | |
Christians are a people who believe | 5:09 | |
that life comes as a gift from God. | 5:11 | |
A gift that is to be accepted | 5:15 | |
and shared joyfully and freely. | 5:17 | |
We as a people affirm we have been given life by God, | 5:22 | |
but most of us have not truly lived. | 5:26 | |
We have used our lives with reckless unconcern | 5:30 | |
as though they belong to us and to us alone. | 5:34 | |
By our own fall, | 5:39 | |
we have abandoned the fountain of waters | 5:41 | |
and have built broken systems, which hold no water. | 5:45 | |
We speak well of love | 5:49 | |
and we curse our enemies. | 5:52 | |
We take pride in our freedom | 5:54 | |
and we slide into new slaveries. | 5:57 | |
We cry out against exploitation | 6:00 | |
and we exploit ourselves and our neighbor. | 6:04 | |
And so once again at this time, | 6:09 | |
and that this special place, | 6:13 | |
we assemble to worship God, | 6:15 | |
to halt our haste, | 6:18 | |
to attempt together to open ourselves | 6:20 | |
to the possibility of the call of God | 6:24 | |
to come back again, | 6:27 | |
to the father's healing love. | 6:30 | |
Therefore confident that if we truly | 6:33 | |
and honestly confess the state | 6:36 | |
of our lives before that love, | 6:38 | |
they will be forgiven, | 6:41 | |
restored and returned to us with new meaning | 6:43 | |
and with hope, | 6:48 | |
I invite you to offer with me | 6:50 | |
our unison prayer of confession and for pardon. | 6:53 | |
Let us pray together. | 6:58 | |
Our heavenly father, | 7:01 | |
who by thy love has made us, | 7:03 | |
and through thy love has kept us, | 7:05 | |
in thy love which make us perfect. | 7:09 | |
We humbly confess that we have not loved thee | 7:12 | |
with all our heart and soul and mind and strength. | 7:15 | |
And that we have not loved one another | 7:20 | |
as Christ has loved us. | 7:22 | |
Thy life is within our souls, | 7:25 | |
but our selfishness hath hindered thee. | 7:27 | |
We have not lived by faith, | 7:30 | |
we have resisted thy spirit, | 7:33 | |
we have neglected thine inspirations. | 7:36 | |
Forgive what we have been, | 7:39 | |
help us to amend what we are, | 7:42 | |
and in thy spirit direct what we shall be, | 7:45 | |
that thou, may us come into the full glory of thy creation, | 7:48 | |
and us and in all men, | 7:53 | |
through Jesus Christ, our Lord. | 7:55 | |
Amen. | 7:58 | |
Let us hear and receive these words of assurance. | 8:03 | |
Jesus said to a confessing sinner, | 8:09 | |
"Be of good cheer, | 8:12 | |
"your sins are forgiven. | 8:14 | |
"Go and sin no more." | 8:17 | |
And I say to you knowing that we are received by God, | 8:22 | |
let us choose his acceptance. | 8:26 | |
Accept the fact that you are accepted | 8:30 | |
by God's amazing grace. | 8:33 | |
If anyone is in Jesus the Christ, he is a new being. | 8:37 | |
The old has passed away and the new has come. | 8:43 | |
The door of our freedom is open | 8:49 | |
and we may walk forward and hope. | 8:52 | |
And these words from St. Paul | 8:56 | |
for freedom, Christ has set us free. | 8:58 | |
Stand fast therefore, | 9:03 | |
and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery, | 9:04 | |
for you were called to freedom brothers. | 9:09 | |
Only do not use your freedom | 9:12 | |
as an opportunity for the flesh. | 9:14 | |
But through love, be servants of one another. | 9:17 | |
For the whole law is fulfilled in one word, | 9:21 | |
you shall love your neighbor as yourself. | 9:26 | |
If we live by the spirit, let us also walk by the spirit. | 9:31 | |
Amen. | 9:39 | |
(faint organ music playing) | 9:42 | |
(choir singing hymnal music) | 10:39 | |
(choir singing hymnal music) | 12:04 | |
(choir singing hymnal music) | 14:16 | |
Today's lesson is taken | 15:35 | |
from the third and fourth chapters of 2 Corinthians. | 15:37 | |
Such is the confidence | 15:41 | |
that we have through Christ to our God. | 15:43 | |
Not that we are sufficient of ourselves | 15:46 | |
to claim anything is coming from us, | 15:48 | |
our sufficiency is from God, | 15:51 | |
who has qualified us to be ministers of a new covenant. | 15:53 | |
Not in a written code, but in the spirit. | 15:57 | |
For the written code kills | 16:00 | |
but the spirit gives life. | 16:02 | |
Therefore, having this ministry by the mercy of God, | 16:06 | |
we do not lose heart. | 16:09 | |
We have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. | 16:11 | |
We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God's word. | 16:15 | |
But by the open statement of the truth, | 16:19 | |
we would commend ourselves to every man's conscience | 16:22 | |
in the sight of God. | 16:25 | |
And even if our gospel is veiled, | 16:27 | |
it is veiled only to those who are perishing. | 16:29 | |
And their case, | 16:32 | |
the God of this world has blinded the minds | 16:33 | |
of the unbelievers | 16:36 | |
to keep them from seeing the light | 16:38 | |
of the gospel of the glory of Christ, | 16:40 | |
who is the likeness of God. | 16:42 | |
For what we preach is not ourselves, | 16:45 | |
but Jesus Christ as Lord, | 16:47 | |
with ourselves as your servants for Jesus's sake. | 16:50 | |
For it is the God who said, | 16:54 | |
let light shine out of darkness. | 16:56 | |
Who is shown in our hearts | 16:58 | |
to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God | 17:00 | |
in the face of Christ. | 17:03 | |
(organ music playing) | 17:07 | |
(choir singing hymnal music) | 17:16 | |
The Lord be with you. | 17:49 | |
- | And with your spirit. | 17:50 |
- | Let us pray. | 17:52 |
Let us offer unto God, our prayers of thanksgiving. | 18:04 | |
O God, invisible and eternal. | 18:14 | |
Thou of a thousand names, | 18:18 | |
but ever the same in mercy, and in love. | 18:21 | |
Whose wisdom and power had prepared the paths of beauty | 18:25 | |
by which the trees of autumn show forth their great glory. | 18:30 | |
Our hearts are lifted to thee and praise of thy glory. | 18:35 | |
Seen by these mortal eyes | 18:39 | |
and shared in the communion of our understanding | 18:42 | |
with one another. | 18:45 | |
Almighty God and Father of us all, | 18:48 | |
thou has made of one blood all the nations of mankind, | 18:52 | |
and thou all has placed us upon this earth for our home. | 18:57 | |
Thine is the providence by which age after age, | 19:03 | |
the families of mankind have been fed. | 19:07 | |
Thine is the abundance | 19:11 | |
that blesses those who have plenty and to spare. | 19:12 | |
Thine is the justice, | 19:17 | |
which amidst the turmoil of history | 19:18 | |
has given it a course and a direction. | 19:20 | |
Thine is the mercy by which man has reached out to man | 19:25 | |
with healing that binds up the broken heart, | 19:29 | |
the torn body, and the disturbed mind. | 19:33 | |
Thine O Lord, is the love. | 19:39 | |
The love that brings light to every day of our lives, | 19:42 | |
and close friendships and associations | 19:46 | |
where openness and trust enable to speak comfortably | 19:49 | |
to one another. | 19:54 | |
And especially in our homes and in our families, | 19:56 | |
where love protects us against all our foes | 20:01 | |
as with each other we share that love, | 20:05 | |
which thou alone durst impart. | 20:09 | |
O God, whom we call our Father, | 20:13 | |
we bless thy name for every gift of life. | 20:16 | |
From humble things to holy grace, | 20:20 | |
for earth itself, the bodies we wear, | 20:23 | |
the universe in which we live, | 20:27 | |
and for all that sustains and supports us, | 20:29 | |
we give thee our thanks. | 20:32 | |
For the spirit by which all material things | 20:35 | |
are enlivened and fulfilled, | 20:38 | |
for the beauty of holiness | 20:41 | |
and for the hope of wholeness. | 20:43 | |
For the heart and the mind of man. | 20:46 | |
For the miracles and the mysteries of each day. | 20:49 | |
For the companionship of love | 20:53 | |
and all the weathers of the world, | 20:56 | |
we give thee thanks. | 20:58 | |
Increase in us we ask, | 21:01 | |
the spirit of our Lord Christ, | 21:03 | |
that we may share our joy and always extend thy praise. | 21:06 | |
O God, whose son has taught us | 21:14 | |
that we are members of one body, | 21:18 | |
we take our place in the human family | 21:21 | |
by offering our intercessions | 21:23 | |
for our brothers and sisters needs. | 21:27 | |
Each of us brings before thee, | 21:32 | |
in holy remembrance, our Heavenly Father, | 21:34 | |
loved ones and friends, | 21:37 | |
our brother whose face and name we know, | 21:41 | |
and our brother whom we know not. | 21:44 | |
Some are in far lands, | 21:48 | |
some are flying through the air, | 21:51 | |
some in barren places enduring loneliness, | 21:54 | |
hardship and peril, | 21:59 | |
some face pain and death this day, | 22:02 | |
some confronted by perplexities | 22:07 | |
or wearied by monotonous duties. | 22:10 | |
All of them bearing the burdens of the world, | 22:13 | |
struggle and striving everywhere to live | 22:16 | |
and to be found worthy by their fellow men. | 22:21 | |
On those who stand | 22:26 | |
in the circle of our hearts concern, O God, | 22:27 | |
we pray thy most merciful benediction | 22:30 | |
and the outpouring of thy life giving spirit, | 22:34 | |
that these our brothers and sisters | 22:38 | |
may be strong in whatsoever life demands of them. | 22:40 | |
Strong of heart to dream, | 22:44 | |
strong of will to dare, | 22:47 | |
strong of hope to endure | 22:51 | |
and strong of faith to keep their souls. | 22:54 | |
May thy love penetrate their condition | 22:59 | |
and quench their hunger | 23:03 | |
and bring them peace. | 23:05 | |
Almighty God, | 23:12 | |
here we ask our prayers | 23:13 | |
for the human needs gathered in this by sanctuary | 23:16 | |
and minister to each of us according to thy will. | 23:21 | |
O Lord, help us here gathered | 23:28 | |
to learn to come to terms with our humanness | 23:34 | |
and all its glories and all its frustrations. | 23:38 | |
For it seems as if we are always trying | 23:43 | |
either to take thy place | 23:45 | |
or to forget about thee and do just as we please. | 23:48 | |
O Lord, we feel frustrated by our animal needs. | 23:54 | |
And we implore thy help and transforming them. | 23:59 | |
To see food as a daily assurance of thy care, | 24:03 | |
to accept sleep as a well earned benediction | 24:09 | |
and not merely an interruption to our activities, | 24:12 | |
to know love is not self gratification, but self-giving. | 24:16 | |
O Lord, we feel frustrated by the tyranny of time. | 24:24 | |
Eight hour days and 40 hour weeks, | 24:30 | |
and threescore years and 10. | 24:32 | |
Help us, we ask to accept the endless details | 24:35 | |
that chew up our days, | 24:39 | |
without which nothing would ever get done. | 24:41 | |
Help us to come to terms with our own laziness, | 24:45 | |
that lets us think we are working | 24:49 | |
when we were only moaning about lack of time. | 24:51 | |
Above all, O Lord, we feel frustrated | 24:56 | |
by our limited minds and spirits. | 24:59 | |
And we pray for a reach that exceeds our grasp. | 25:03 | |
Help us to see beyond the trivia | 25:08 | |
that threatened to clutter up our minds, | 25:10 | |
that we may see the grand design of thy truth. | 25:13 | |
Help us to be open to every experience, | 25:18 | |
to tolerate new thoughts that seem threatening. | 25:21 | |
And help us to give our spirits a free reign, | 25:26 | |
that we may see thee and find thee and know thee | 25:30 | |
who speakest to us, in Jesus of Nazareth, | 25:36 | |
and in our neighbor. | 25:41 | |
Especially, O Lord, on this parent's weekend, | 25:44 | |
we would ask that thou teach us a new, O God, | 25:48 | |
the meaning of fatherhood and of sonship | 25:52 | |
in our own families. | 25:56 | |
Sanctify to all mothers and fathers, | 25:59 | |
daughters, and sons, | 26:02 | |
the joys and the cares | 26:04 | |
that are the gift of their special relationship. | 26:07 | |
Knit together we ask, | 26:11 | |
the zeal of youth and the strength of maturity, | 26:13 | |
that each may learn to serve support and love the other. | 26:17 | |
Teach us all, O Lord, | 26:24 | |
to be free and human men and women, | 26:26 | |
to embrace lived values, diverse styles, | 26:29 | |
and loving conflicts. | 26:34 | |
Teach us to sing again, the song of the Pilgrim community. | 26:37 | |
a song filled with question, | 26:42 | |
but also filled with joy. | 26:45 | |
Through Jesus thy son, our brother and Lord | 26:49 | |
who taught us to pray together as Christians saying, | 26:54 | |
Our Father, who art in heaven, | 26:59 | |
hallowed be thy name, | 27:02 | |
thy kingdom come, | 27:04 | |
thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. | 27:06 | |
Give us this day our daily bread | 27:10 | |
and forgive us our trespasses | 27:14 | |
as we forgive those who trespass against us. | 27:16 | |
And lead us not into temptation, | 27:20 | |
but deliver us from evil. | 27:22 | |
For thine is the kingdom, and the power, | 27:25 | |
and the glory, forever. | 27:28 | |
Amen. | 27:31 | |
- | One day last week, | 27:51 |
after hearing a long succession | 27:55 | |
of students discuss their problems, | 27:56 | |
some of which were profoundly disturbing, | 28:00 | |
I turned on the radio as I rode home. | 28:04 | |
The song being played | 28:09 | |
was one of the contemporary, | 28:11 | |
popular religious songs, | 28:13 | |
titled Healing River. | 28:17 | |
And some of the words were, if I remember them correctly, | 28:23 | |
O, healing river, pour down your waters, | 28:28 | |
pour down your waters upon this land. | 28:34 | |
This land is purged. | 28:38 | |
This land is thirsty. | 28:41 | |
O, healing river, pour down your water. | 28:45 | |
Pour down your water upon this land. | 28:50 | |
These words were for me at that moment a relief | 28:55 | |
and indeed a prayer. | 28:59 | |
I relaxed. | 29:02 | |
And then I thought, | 29:05 | |
what would be healing for these students? | 29:09 | |
Just what would a healing river really be? | 29:15 | |
So many of the persons I had spoken with, | 29:22 | |
were caught in a radical self searching. | 29:26 | |
And what I've almost come to feel | 29:31 | |
as a kind of demonic obsession with introspection | 29:32 | |
and self investigation. | 29:37 | |
Many more sensitive, | 29:41 | |
but they were caught in the various fact | 29:44 | |
of their looking inward. | 29:47 | |
How can one speak of healing to this kind of person? | 29:53 | |
Certainly one of the basic needs | 30:02 | |
is to escape the cell. | 30:04 | |
And Christian faith should provide that. | 30:07 | |
A friend told me just this weekend | 30:14 | |
of an experience in Raleigh recently, | 30:16 | |
what a person discussing mental health, | 30:19 | |
said to the group who was present. | 30:22 | |
Some great person whom I don't remember | 30:26 | |
is reported to have said, | 30:28 | |
that he who would find his life, must lose it. | 30:31 | |
I've tried inquiring from anyone | 30:36 | |
who can remember the speaker of these words. | 30:37 | |
They are still true words, | 30:41 | |
and Jesus did happen to utter them. | 30:45 | |
But how can one speak of Jesus | 30:51 | |
to people who are caught in themselves? | 30:54 | |
What were the confersionship of Lord mean, | 30:59 | |
when it's referred to Jesus for such a person? | 31:04 | |
I want to suggest this morning, | 31:12 | |
that perhaps one helpful interpretation | 31:15 | |
of the Lordship of Jesus | 31:17 | |
is to understand it as leadership. | 31:20 | |
To say, Jesus is Lord, | 31:25 | |
is at least in one of its basic dimensions | 31:28 | |
to say Jesus is leader. | 31:32 | |
Perhaps the most common in traditional Protestant preaching | 31:38 | |
and theological discussion, | 31:42 | |
to base the primary emphasis upon salvation | 31:45 | |
as release from a solved or a stained or inauthentic past. | 31:48 | |
Man is freed from his previous sinful condition. | 31:55 | |
From alienation or from estrangement. | 31:58 | |
Now redemption does in some sense mean release. | 32:03 | |
And it does mean being free from an evil | 32:08 | |
or dispirited or malformed past life. | 32:10 | |
But this should not be the primary focus of attention. | 32:15 | |
The basic concentration | 32:19 | |
should be upon the new found freedom. | 32:21 | |
Not that from which one has been freed. | 32:23 | |
The focal awareness are that to which we attend | 32:28 | |
is freedom for a new way of living. | 32:31 | |
Some theological positions, | 32:36 | |
such as St. Augustine have stressed the character | 32:38 | |
of Christian manhood as that of the freed man. | 32:42 | |
And this is significant. | 32:48 | |
The more significant characterization, | 32:51 | |
however, is man as free. | 32:52 | |
Man as free for and in a new life. | 32:57 | |
Let us take a step back | 33:04 | |
to see how one can develop this notion of Jesus leadership | 33:05 | |
and its concomitants to the believers discipleship, | 33:10 | |
which is issues in freedom. | 33:13 | |
Abraham Joshua Heschel from a Jewish point of view, | 33:18 | |
has described the image of God as man in the Old Testament, | 33:24 | |
as an analogy of doing rather than as an analogy of being. | 33:29 | |
He writes, man is called to act in the likeness of God | 33:38 | |
as he is merciful, be thy merciful. | 33:44 | |
Biblical piety may be expressed in the form | 33:49 | |
of a supreme imperative. | 33:52 | |
Treat yourself as a symbol of God. | 33:55 | |
In the light of this imperative, | 34:00 | |
we can understand the meaning of that astounding command, | 34:02 | |
you shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy. | 34:06 | |
Now in this context, the relation of God to man, | 34:14 | |
the meaning of leadership or of Lordship becomes central. | 34:19 | |
And so it continues into the New Testament. | 34:24 | |
The call of Jesus to his disciples was precisely that. | 34:28 | |
A call to discipleship. | 34:32 | |
To disciplined effort. | 34:35 | |
The call of Jesus is a call to a task. | 34:38 | |
To an activity. | 34:41 | |
To a vocation. | 34:43 | |
Remember those words of Albert Schweitzer | 34:47 | |
in the epilogue to his famous book, | 34:49 | |
The Quest of Historical Jesus, | 34:51 | |
where he sums up his statement, | 34:54 | |
"He comes to us as one unknown, without a name. | 34:57 | |
"As of old, by the lakeside, | 35:02 | |
"he came to those men who knew him not. | 35:04 | |
"He speaks to us the same words, | 35:07 | |
"follow thou me. | 35:10 | |
"And sets us to the task | 35:13 | |
"which he has to fulfill in our time. | 35:15 | |
"He commands. | 35:19 | |
"And to those who obey him, | 35:22 | |
"whether they be wise or simple, | 35:24 | |
"he will reveal himself in the tall, | 35:27 | |
"the conflicts, the sufferings, | 35:31 | |
"which they shall pass through in his fellowship. | 35:34 | |
"And has an ineffable mystery, | 35:38 | |
"they shall learn in their own experience, | 35:40 | |
"who he is." | 35:44 | |
The first name by which the early Christians were called, | 35:48 | |
according to the book of Acts, | 35:51 | |
was people of the way. | 35:54 | |
And the gospel of John also makes something | 35:58 | |
of this same point. | 36:01 | |
When he says, Jesus is the way. | 36:03 | |
And that he has called his disciples to follow that way. | 36:07 | |
Now let me make a primary emphasis. | 36:16 | |
Jesus is Lord because he presents himself | 36:20 | |
in a way which claims our discipleship. | 36:23 | |
The title Lord or leader | 36:27 | |
is not one we simply conjure up | 36:30 | |
or take the initiative in bestowing on Jesus. | 36:32 | |
True leadership, | 36:37 | |
authentic leadership come to us with a claim. | 36:39 | |
There is a reaching for us and a grasping of us. | 36:43 | |
To use the designation Lord, is a response to that. | 36:48 | |
It's an answering to a claim laid upon us. | 36:54 | |
Since Jesus is the Lord leader, | 36:58 | |
because he comes to us and evokes our loyalty. | 37:01 | |
Such an encounter in the New Testament | 37:07 | |
is always an act of grace. | 37:09 | |
Jesus confronts us in love | 37:12 | |
and establishes a new possibility for freedom. | 37:14 | |
The claim of Jesus as Lord is not a limiting | 37:18 | |
or enslaving challenge, | 37:21 | |
rather it is understood as an opportunity for service, | 37:23 | |
which becomes freedom. | 37:27 | |
To initiate this, Jesus approaches us. | 37:31 | |
He comes with the gracious possibility | 37:37 | |
that we can respond with thanksgiving and determination. | 37:40 | |
Epistle 1 John puts it plainly, | 37:47 | |
we love him because he first loved us. | 37:50 | |
And we might say we follow him | 37:54 | |
because he first invited us. | 37:57 | |
Furthermore, to affirm Jesus is Lord | 38:02 | |
is to affirm his singularity. | 38:05 | |
It is to affirm his supremacy over all other claimants | 38:08 | |
to such a position of leadership. | 38:11 | |
Perhaps it's no the point is a critical character | 38:14 | |
of the Lordship of Jesus so evident, | 38:17 | |
as when we are challenged | 38:19 | |
to acknowledge other leaders as having central values. | 38:20 | |
Today, there are many leaders | 38:24 | |
who would take the chief place. | 38:26 | |
We hear leaders, | 38:29 | |
national leaders calling for a idolatry of country. | 38:31 | |
We hear a person's exalting race to an ultimate position. | 38:36 | |
These I think, are the most insistent present challenges | 38:41 | |
to the central claim of Jesus as Lord leader. | 38:46 | |
It is a tragedy in the current situation | 38:50 | |
that religious leaders also have great difficulty | 38:54 | |
in keeping the primary claim of Jesus clear. | 38:57 | |
And among them some of our best known. | 39:01 | |
There is a confusion of leaders. | 39:04 | |
There is a confluence of the claims of leadership. | 39:07 | |
But it is necessary, and at this time even urgent, | 39:11 | |
that we be clear about the uniqueness of Jesus call. | 39:15 | |
And the fact that this put every other claim | 39:19 | |
for loyalty in a secondary position. | 39:22 | |
The nation is important but it is not ultimate. | 39:26 | |
Only the Lordship of Jesus deserves that position. | 39:30 | |
And from following him, | 39:35 | |
one can criticize all rivals challenging him. | 39:37 | |
Racism and attitude and an institutions claim allegiance, | 39:42 | |
but the Lordship of Jesus refuses | 39:48 | |
to allow such an apotheosis to stand. | 39:50 | |
Jesus is Lord leader. | 39:53 | |
He makes a claim for primary loyalty. | 39:55 | |
He sets below him every other leadership plan. | 39:58 | |
Sturridge Kennedy has put the importance | 40:06 | |
of this kind of decision in a moving fashion. | 40:08 | |
And I want to quote a part of the poem of his. | 40:11 | |
"I bet my life up on one side | 40:17 | |
"in life's great war, I'm not. | 40:20 | |
"I can't stand out. | 40:24 | |
"I must take sides. | 40:27 | |
"The man who is neutral in this fight is not a man, | 40:30 | |
"he's bulk and body without breath. | 40:33 | |
"He makes me sick. | 40:37 | |
"I want to live. | 40:39 | |
"Live out, not wobble through my life somehow | 40:41 | |
"and then into the dark. | 40:44 | |
"Well, God my leader, | 40:47 | |
"and I hold that he's good and strong enough | 40:51 | |
"to work his plan and purpose out to support it in. | 40:54 | |
"I see what God has done. | 40:58 | |
"What life in this world is. | 41:01 | |
"I see what you see. | 41:05 | |
"Their is eternal struggle in the dark. | 41:08 | |
"I see the foul this orders with filth of mind and soul | 41:11 | |
"in which men wallowing like swine, | 41:15 | |
"stamp on their brothers till they drown. | 41:18 | |
"I have to choose. | 41:22 | |
"I can't stand shivering on the bank. | 41:24 | |
"I plunge headfirst. | 41:27 | |
"I bet my life on beauty, truth and love. | 41:30 | |
"Not abstract but incarnate truth. | 41:35 | |
"Not beauties passing shadow, but itself, | 41:38 | |
"it's very self-made flesh, love realize. | 41:41 | |
"I bet my life on Christ, | 41:47 | |
"Christ crucified." | 41:50 | |
That invitation of Jesus | 41:56 | |
is precisely the invitation to follow. | 41:57 | |
It is a call to a task, | 42:01 | |
to responsibility, to an activity. | 42:03 | |
One does not sit around, simply look at himself. | 42:06 | |
One looks at the job which is to be done. | 42:10 | |
One looks at the leader who goes before. | 42:14 | |
This is why the call of Jesus is challenging and difficult. | 42:18 | |
It is so sheerly concrete. | 42:22 | |
It stands out almost as frightening clarity, like Isaiah. | 42:25 | |
The disciples hear a voice saying, | 42:30 | |
"This is the way, walk in it." | 42:32 | |
Discipleship was a concrete following | 42:37 | |
for those first followers of Jesus. | 42:40 | |
An engagement with history, | 42:43 | |
a threat to Jerusalem, | 42:45 | |
the facing of a cross. | 42:48 | |
It involves feeding the hungry | 42:50 | |
and clothing the naked, | 42:52 | |
and visiting the sick and releasing the captives, | 42:54 | |
and bonding the wounded. | 42:57 | |
The invitation of Jesus | 43:00 | |
was an invitation to a manner of living | 43:01 | |
to a style of life, to a way of doing. | 43:03 | |
Discipleship as a going forth to meet one's providence. | 43:07 | |
It's a moving out to encounter one destiny in the world. | 43:11 | |
Theologically, it is the incarnation | 43:17 | |
which enhances the meaning of discipleship. | 43:20 | |
In the assumption of flesh, | 43:23 | |
real flesh and real blood, | 43:25 | |
God engages in and solicits the flesh and blood activity | 43:28 | |
of every man. | 43:32 | |
To fail to take the incarnation seriously, | 43:34 | |
results in the failure | 43:38 | |
to take man's human condition seriously. | 43:39 | |
And it's a failure | 43:43 | |
to take Jesus Lordship leadership seriously. | 43:44 | |
The discipleship means following a real Lord. | 43:48 | |
It means an everyday following of a concrete path | 43:52 | |
through the concrete joys and pains and decisions of life. | 43:56 | |
But now to turn to a practical and important problem, | 44:03 | |
what does it mean to follow Christ? | 44:08 | |
Is this imitatio Christy an imitation of Christ? | 44:12 | |
And if so, isn't this medievalism? | 44:15 | |
Or is it about Liberal Charles Sheldon walking | 44:18 | |
in Jesus' steps? | 44:22 | |
And if so, isn't that also outdated? | 44:23 | |
What is meant by the leadership of Jesus? | 44:28 | |
How do we know what it means to follow him? | 44:32 | |
How can one discern the way? | 44:36 | |
Practically speaking, | 44:40 | |
how does one make concrete decisions? | 44:42 | |
The disciple of whom I'm speaking | 44:48 | |
may be described as a connoisseur. | 44:50 | |
I'm speaking seriously and directly. | 44:54 | |
That is, he is one who has been sensitized | 44:58 | |
by the spirit of Christ. | 45:00 | |
and who knows more about what it means to follow, | 45:03 | |
than he can put into words. | 45:05 | |
In many areas, | 45:09 | |
and most obviously in gaining skills and wisdom, | 45:10 | |
we do know more than what we do say. | 45:14 | |
His connoisseurship can be communicated | 45:17 | |
in the final analysis only by example, | 45:19 | |
not by preset. | 45:24 | |
To be able to differentiate, | 45:27 | |
as perhaps an expert wine taster or cheese taster might do, | 45:30 | |
to be trained as a medical doctor in a station, | 45:35 | |
to know how to pose the right problem, | 45:39 | |
or when to look for clues or how to recognize clues | 45:42 | |
when they appear. | 45:45 | |
All of these are achievements of connoisseurship. | 45:46 | |
They're gained primarily by apprenticeship to a master. | 45:50 | |
They cannot be conveyed by full articulation | 45:55 | |
or explicit historical reference. | 45:58 | |
What is sought is a skill, | 46:01 | |
a sensitive taste, | 46:03 | |
a refined ear, | 46:05 | |
a perceptive eye, | 46:07 | |
a discerning mind. | 46:09 | |
All of which are rooted in tacit | 46:11 | |
and in articulable comprehension. | 46:13 | |
And these are gained through practice. | 46:16 | |
And most often through God's practice. | 46:19 | |
Now, to this point, | 46:24 | |
in the effort to explicate the nature of discipleship, | 46:24 | |
that the tradition and the community become important. | 46:28 | |
As a follower of Christ, | 46:32 | |
one must be viable to the spirit of Christ. | 46:35 | |
But one must also go to the school of the same | 46:39 | |
and become an apprentice. | 46:42 | |
There is no shot cut in the hearing the words of direction. | 46:45 | |
One learn by through hearing, | 46:51 | |
by practicing to be attempting. | 46:53 | |
It is this sense, that I have a profound agreement | 46:58 | |
with Schweitzer statement, | 47:01 | |
that it is not, | 47:02 | |
although I would say it is not simply or not only, | 47:04 | |
but it is not Jesus as historically known, | 47:07 | |
but Jesus as spiritually risen within men, | 47:10 | |
who is significant for our time. | 47:14 | |
It is an apprenticeship to the spirit of Christ. | 47:18 | |
And in the company of sensitive fellow pilgrims, | 47:21 | |
that we become aware of innovative possibilities | 47:25 | |
and find courage to act upon our conviction. | 47:28 | |
But let us now for a moment return to the master, to Jesus, | 47:39 | |
and to the New Testament portrait | 47:44 | |
which characterizes his life. | 47:46 | |
Here we turn to an historical instance | 47:51 | |
which swipes through what was not fully shared. | 47:52 | |
And the question I want to raise is, | 47:56 | |
how does the spirit of Jesus become a God for new life? | 47:57 | |
The character of this style of living, | 48:02 | |
maybe variously described. | 48:04 | |
But dominantly, it is the role of a suffering servant, | 48:06 | |
The challenge of Jesus, to those would follow him, | 48:14 | |
that they take up their cross, was very concrete challenge. | 48:19 | |
We've spiritualized the cross. | 48:26 | |
We've identified it with our own hardships. | 48:29 | |
We have seen it from the perspective | 48:32 | |
of what it means for us. | 48:33 | |
But the cross must be understood | 48:36 | |
as the projection of life into the life of the nation. | 48:39 | |
It was a gimmick plunged into the soul of our earth. | 48:44 | |
The crucifixion was a challenge | 48:49 | |
to the powers of those evil which control the world. | 48:50 | |
And those who become crossed | 48:54 | |
or rather those who accept the task of servanthood | 48:55 | |
had to express the cross they love, of Jesus. | 48:59 | |
Here is a true secularization of the gospel. | 49:03 | |
The way of Christ leads directly into the world. | 49:07 | |
It is a path which moves through every deity. | 49:11 | |
It is a purposefulness | 49:14 | |
about social political, economic, and cultural life. | 49:15 | |
Jesus was not a servant in an abstract sense. | 49:19 | |
He was a servant in the most realistic and practical manner. | 49:22 | |
He healed the sick, he challenged evil authority, | 49:26 | |
he identified with the outcast and the oppressed, | 49:29 | |
he suffered death. | 49:33 | |
How much more concrete can servanthood be? | 49:34 | |
And he calls his disciples to a similar role. | 49:39 | |
The Lordship of Jesus is the leadership of Jesus. | 49:43 | |
He is leader. | 49:47 | |
He calls us. | 49:49 | |
He goes before us into the world | 49:51 | |
where life is lived and where redemption is found. | 49:55 | |
Well, we must also say one other thing | 50:02 | |
about this discipleship. | 50:04 | |
And that is, the discipleship is also an expression of joy. | 50:07 | |
Indeed is an acclamation of life | 50:12 | |
and a celebration of living. | 50:14 | |
We live in a world of rapid change, | 50:18 | |
and we are confronted with a few possibilities | 50:20 | |
which sometimes hassle us, | 50:22 | |
sometimes frighten us | 50:24 | |
and often lead us to a feeling of impotence or despair. | 50:26 | |
But to follow Jesus is to be released | 50:32 | |
from obsessive self concern. | 50:34 | |
It is to be released from carrying the weight of the world | 50:36 | |
upon our shoulders. | 50:40 | |
More important to follow Jesus | 50:42 | |
is to learn to embrace and love the world. | 50:44 | |
It is an acclamation of meaning and the presence, | 50:48 | |
and acceptance of hope for the future. | 50:51 | |
To be a disciple is to be led into the celebration of life. | 50:56 | |
Such celebration is not simply a sense of happiness | 51:01 | |
because things are going well for you. | 51:04 | |
It is to know joy. | 51:08 | |
This is much more profound than the surface happiness, | 51:10 | |
which we so often pride. | 51:13 | |
Jesus spoke of is coming to bring joy. | 51:16 | |
And we find this because of the fellowship along the way, | 51:20 | |
because the relationship with the leader, | 51:24 | |
because of the value of the task in which one is engaged. | 51:27 | |
Joy comes in large part because we have stopped looking | 51:31 | |
at ourselves and for ourselves | 51:36 | |
and have set our eyes upon the goal ahead | 51:40 | |
and the one who leads us along the way. | 51:43 | |
To be a follower in this way, | 51:50 | |
is to know what it means to be forgiven, | 51:52 | |
to be given fresh opportunity. | 51:55 | |
It is to know that alienation has been overcome | 51:58 | |
and a new community established. | 52:00 | |
It is to know that one is free, | 52:03 | |
free for the present and three for the future. | 52:06 | |
Jesus stands before us, | 52:12 | |
as the Lord and leader. | 52:15 | |
In John's gospel, Jesus says, | 52:19 | |
"I am the way the truth and the life." | 52:22 | |
The author of The Imitation of Christ, | 52:29 | |
comments upon this by saying, | 52:30 | |
"Without that way, there is no God. | 52:33 | |
"Without that truth, there is no knowledge, | 52:38 | |
"without that life, there is no living." | 52:42 | |
So hear Jesus as he says to follow him. | 52:48 | |
"Follow me." | 52:53 | |
Our Father in thy love, thy has called us, | 52:59 | |
may we in love, respond and follow. | 53:02 | |
Amen. | 53:09 | |
(organ music playing) | 53:11 | |
(choir singing hymnal music) | 53:43 | |
(choir singing hymnal music) | 54:43 | |
(faint organ music playing) | 56:19 | |
(faint organ music playing) | 57:31 | |
(tenor soloist singing) | 57:58 | |
(choir singing hymnal music) | 58:49 | |
(tenor soloist singing) | 59:48 | |
(choir singing hymnal music) | 1:01:15 | |
(choir singing hymnal music) | 1:01:27 | |
(choir singing hymnal music) | 1:02:34 | |
(bright organ music playing) | 1:04:20 |