Thomas A. Langford - "Way to Go" (November 8, 1970) / Duke Chapel Recordings / Duke Digital Repository

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Grace be to you and peace from God our Father

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and from the Lord, Jesus Christ.

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Christians are a people who believe

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that life comes as a gift from God.

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A gift that is to be accepted

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and shared joyfully and freely.

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We as a people affirm we have been given life by God,

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but most of us have not truly lived.

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We have used our lives with reckless unconcern

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as though they belong to us and to us alone.

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By our own fall,

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we have abandoned the fountain of waters

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and have built broken systems, which hold no water.

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We speak well of love

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and we curse our enemies.

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We take pride in our freedom

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and we slide into new slaveries.

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We cry out against exploitation

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and we exploit ourselves and our neighbor.

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And so once again at this time,

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and that this special place,

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we assemble to worship God,

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to halt our haste,

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to attempt together to open ourselves

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to the possibility of the call of God

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to come back again,

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to the father's healing love.

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Therefore confident that if we truly

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and honestly confess the state

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of our lives before that love,

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they will be forgiven,

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restored and returned to us with new meaning

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and with hope,

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I invite you to offer with me

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our unison prayer of confession and for pardon.

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Let us pray together.

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Our heavenly father,

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who by thy love has made us,

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and through thy love has kept us,

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in thy love which make us perfect.

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We humbly confess that we have not loved thee

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with all our heart and soul and mind and strength.

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And that we have not loved one another

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as Christ has loved us.

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Thy life is within our souls,

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but our selfishness hath hindered thee.

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We have not lived by faith,

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we have resisted thy spirit,

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we have neglected thine inspirations.

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Forgive what we have been,

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help us to amend what we are,

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and in thy spirit direct what we shall be,

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that thou, may us come into the full glory of thy creation,

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and us and in all men,

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through Jesus Christ, our Lord.

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Amen.

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Let us hear and receive these words of assurance.

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Jesus said to a confessing sinner,

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"Be of good cheer,

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"your sins are forgiven.

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"Go and sin no more."

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And I say to you knowing that we are received by God,

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let us choose his acceptance.

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Accept the fact that you are accepted

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by God's amazing grace.

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If anyone is in Jesus the Christ, he is a new being.

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The old has passed away and the new has come.

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The door of our freedom is open

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and we may walk forward and hope.

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And these words from St. Paul

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for freedom, Christ has set us free.

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Stand fast therefore,

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and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery,

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for you were called to freedom brothers.

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Only do not use your freedom

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as an opportunity for the flesh.

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But through love, be servants of one another.

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For the whole law is fulfilled in one word,

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you shall love your neighbor as yourself.

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If we live by the spirit, let us also walk by the spirit.

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Amen.

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Today's lesson is taken

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from the third and fourth chapters of 2 Corinthians.

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Such is the confidence

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that we have through Christ to our God.

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Not that we are sufficient of ourselves

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to claim anything is coming from us,

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our sufficiency is from God,

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who has qualified us to be ministers of a new covenant.

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Not in a written code, but in the spirit.

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For the written code kills

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but the spirit gives life.

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Therefore, having this ministry by the mercy of God,

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we do not lose heart.

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We have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways.

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We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God's word.

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But by the open statement of the truth,

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we would commend ourselves to every man's conscience

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in the sight of God.

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And even if our gospel is veiled,

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it is veiled only to those who are perishing.

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And their case,

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the God of this world has blinded the minds

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of the unbelievers

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to keep them from seeing the light

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of the gospel of the glory of Christ,

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who is the likeness of God.

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For what we preach is not ourselves,

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but Jesus Christ as Lord,

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with ourselves as your servants for Jesus's sake.

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For it is the God who said,

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let light shine out of darkness.

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Who is shown in our hearts

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to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God

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in the face of Christ.

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The Lord be with you.

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And with your spirit.

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Let us pray.

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Let us offer unto God, our prayers of thanksgiving.

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O God, invisible and eternal.

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Thou of a thousand names,

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but ever the same in mercy, and in love.

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Whose wisdom and power had prepared the paths of beauty

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by which the trees of autumn show forth their great glory.

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Our hearts are lifted to thee and praise of thy glory.

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Seen by these mortal eyes

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and shared in the communion of our understanding

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with one another.

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Almighty God and Father of us all,

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thou has made of one blood all the nations of mankind,

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and thou all has placed us upon this earth for our home.

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Thine is the providence by which age after age,

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the families of mankind have been fed.

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Thine is the abundance

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that blesses those who have plenty and to spare.

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Thine is the justice,

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which amidst the turmoil of history

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has given it a course and a direction.

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Thine is the mercy by which man has reached out to man

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with healing that binds up the broken heart,

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the torn body, and the disturbed mind.

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Thine O Lord, is the love.

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The love that brings light to every day of our lives,

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and close friendships and associations

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where openness and trust enable to speak comfortably

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to one another.

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And especially in our homes and in our families,

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where love protects us against all our foes

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as with each other we share that love,

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which thou alone durst impart.

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O God, whom we call our Father,

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we bless thy name for every gift of life.

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From humble things to holy grace,

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for earth itself, the bodies we wear,

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the universe in which we live,

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and for all that sustains and supports us,

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we give thee our thanks.

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For the spirit by which all material things

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are enlivened and fulfilled,

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for the beauty of holiness

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and for the hope of wholeness.

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For the heart and the mind of man.

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For the miracles and the mysteries of each day.

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For the companionship of love

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and all the weathers of the world,

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we give thee thanks.

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Increase in us we ask,

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the spirit of our Lord Christ,

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that we may share our joy and always extend thy praise.

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O God, whose son has taught us

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that we are members of one body,

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we take our place in the human family

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by offering our intercessions

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for our brothers and sisters needs.

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Each of us brings before thee,

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in holy remembrance, our Heavenly Father,

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loved ones and friends,

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our brother whose face and name we know,

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and our brother whom we know not.

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Some are in far lands,

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some are flying through the air,

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some in barren places enduring loneliness,

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hardship and peril,

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some face pain and death this day,

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some confronted by perplexities

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or wearied by monotonous duties.

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All of them bearing the burdens of the world,

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struggle and striving everywhere to live

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and to be found worthy by their fellow men.

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On those who stand

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in the circle of our hearts concern, O God,

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we pray thy most merciful benediction

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and the outpouring of thy life giving spirit,

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that these our brothers and sisters

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may be strong in whatsoever life demands of them.

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Strong of heart to dream,

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strong of will to dare,

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strong of hope to endure

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and strong of faith to keep their souls.

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May thy love penetrate their condition

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and quench their hunger

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and bring them peace.

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Almighty God,

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here we ask our prayers

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for the human needs gathered in this by sanctuary

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and minister to each of us according to thy will.

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O Lord, help us here gathered

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to learn to come to terms with our humanness

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and all its glories and all its frustrations.

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For it seems as if we are always trying

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either to take thy place

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or to forget about thee and do just as we please.

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O Lord, we feel frustrated by our animal needs.

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And we implore thy help and transforming them.

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To see food as a daily assurance of thy care,

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to accept sleep as a well earned benediction

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and not merely an interruption to our activities,

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to know love is not self gratification, but self-giving.

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O Lord, we feel frustrated by the tyranny of time.

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Eight hour days and 40 hour weeks,

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and threescore years and 10.

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Help us, we ask to accept the endless details

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that chew up our days,

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without which nothing would ever get done.

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Help us to come to terms with our own laziness,

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that lets us think we are working

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when we were only moaning about lack of time.

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Above all, O Lord, we feel frustrated

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by our limited minds and spirits.

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And we pray for a reach that exceeds our grasp.

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Help us to see beyond the trivia

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that threatened to clutter up our minds,

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that we may see the grand design of thy truth.

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Help us to be open to every experience,

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to tolerate new thoughts that seem threatening.

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And help us to give our spirits a free reign,

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that we may see thee and find thee and know thee

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who speakest to us, in Jesus of Nazareth,

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and in our neighbor.

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Especially, O Lord, on this parent's weekend,

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we would ask that thou teach us a new, O God,

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the meaning of fatherhood and of sonship

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in our own families.

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Sanctify to all mothers and fathers,

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daughters, and sons,

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the joys and the cares

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that are the gift of their special relationship.

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Knit together we ask,

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the zeal of youth and the strength of maturity,

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that each may learn to serve support and love the other.

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Teach us all, O Lord,

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to be free and human men and women,

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to embrace lived values, diverse styles,

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and loving conflicts.

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Teach us to sing again, the song of the Pilgrim community.

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a song filled with question,

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but also filled with joy.

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Through Jesus thy son, our brother and Lord

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who taught us to pray together as Christians saying,

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Our Father, who art in heaven,

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hallowed be thy name,

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thy kingdom come,

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thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

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Give us this day our daily bread

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and forgive us our trespasses

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as we forgive those who trespass against us.

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And lead us not into temptation,

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but deliver us from evil.

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For thine is the kingdom, and the power,

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and the glory, forever.

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Amen.

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One day last week,

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after hearing a long succession

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of students discuss their problems,

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some of which were profoundly disturbing,

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I turned on the radio as I rode home.

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The song being played

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was one of the contemporary,

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popular religious songs,

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titled Healing River.

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And some of the words were, if I remember them correctly,

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O, healing river, pour down your waters,

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pour down your waters upon this land.

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This land is purged.

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This land is thirsty.

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O, healing river, pour down your water.

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Pour down your water upon this land.

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These words were for me at that moment a relief

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and indeed a prayer.

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I relaxed.

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And then I thought,

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what would be healing for these students?

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Just what would a healing river really be?

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So many of the persons I had spoken with,

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were caught in a radical self searching.

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And what I've almost come to feel

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as a kind of demonic obsession with introspection

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and self investigation.

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Many more sensitive,

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but they were caught in the various fact

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of their looking inward.

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How can one speak of healing to this kind of person?

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Certainly one of the basic needs

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is to escape the cell.

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And Christian faith should provide that.

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A friend told me just this weekend

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of an experience in Raleigh recently,

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what a person discussing mental health,

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said to the group who was present.

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Some great person whom I don't remember

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is reported to have said,

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that he who would find his life, must lose it.

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I've tried inquiring from anyone

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who can remember the speaker of these words.

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They are still true words,

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and Jesus did happen to utter them.

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But how can one speak of Jesus

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to people who are caught in themselves?

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What were the confersionship of Lord mean,

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when it's referred to Jesus for such a person?

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I want to suggest this morning,

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that perhaps one helpful interpretation

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of the Lordship of Jesus

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is to understand it as leadership.

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To say, Jesus is Lord,

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is at least in one of its basic dimensions

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to say Jesus is leader.

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Perhaps the most common in traditional Protestant preaching

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and theological discussion,

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to base the primary emphasis upon salvation

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as release from a solved or a stained or inauthentic past.

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Man is freed from his previous sinful condition.

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From alienation or from estrangement.

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Now redemption does in some sense mean release.

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And it does mean being free from an evil

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or dispirited or malformed past life.

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But this should not be the primary focus of attention.

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The basic concentration

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should be upon the new found freedom.

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Not that from which one has been freed.

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The focal awareness are that to which we attend

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is freedom for a new way of living.

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Some theological positions,

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such as St. Augustine have stressed the character

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of Christian manhood as that of the freed man.

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And this is significant.

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The more significant characterization,

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however, is man as free.

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Man as free for and in a new life.

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Let us take a step back

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to see how one can develop this notion of Jesus leadership

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and its concomitants to the believers discipleship,

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which is issues in freedom.

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Abraham Joshua Heschel from a Jewish point of view,

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has described the image of God as man in the Old Testament,

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as an analogy of doing rather than as an analogy of being.

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He writes, man is called to act in the likeness of God

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as he is merciful, be thy merciful.

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Biblical piety may be expressed in the form

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of a supreme imperative.

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Treat yourself as a symbol of God.

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In the light of this imperative,

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we can understand the meaning of that astounding command,

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you shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.

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Now in this context, the relation of God to man,

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the meaning of leadership or of Lordship becomes central.

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And so it continues into the New Testament.

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The call of Jesus to his disciples was precisely that.

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A call to discipleship.

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To disciplined effort.

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The call of Jesus is a call to a task.

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To an activity.

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To a vocation.

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Remember those words of Albert Schweitzer

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in the epilogue to his famous book,

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The Quest of Historical Jesus,

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where he sums up his statement,

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"He comes to us as one unknown, without a name.

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"As of old, by the lakeside,

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"he came to those men who knew him not.

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"He speaks to us the same words,

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"follow thou me.

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"And sets us to the task

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"which he has to fulfill in our time.

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"He commands.

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"And to those who obey him,

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"whether they be wise or simple,

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"he will reveal himself in the tall,

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"the conflicts, the sufferings,

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"which they shall pass through in his fellowship.

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"And has an ineffable mystery,

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"they shall learn in their own experience,

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"who he is."

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The first name by which the early Christians were called,

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according to the book of Acts,

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was people of the way.

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And the gospel of John also makes something

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of this same point.

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When he says, Jesus is the way.

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And that he has called his disciples to follow that way.

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Now let me make a primary emphasis.

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Jesus is Lord because he presents himself

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in a way which claims our discipleship.

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The title Lord or leader

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is not one we simply conjure up

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or take the initiative in bestowing on Jesus.

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True leadership,

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authentic leadership come to us with a claim.

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There is a reaching for us and a grasping of us.

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To use the designation Lord, is a response to that.

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It's an answering to a claim laid upon us.

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Since Jesus is the Lord leader,

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because he comes to us and evokes our loyalty.

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Such an encounter in the New Testament

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is always an act of grace.

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Jesus confronts us in love

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and establishes a new possibility for freedom.

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The claim of Jesus as Lord is not a limiting

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or enslaving challenge,

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rather it is understood as an opportunity for service,

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which becomes freedom.

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To initiate this, Jesus approaches us.

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He comes with the gracious possibility

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that we can respond with thanksgiving and determination.

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Epistle 1 John puts it plainly,

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we love him because he first loved us.

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And we might say we follow him

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because he first invited us.

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Furthermore, to affirm Jesus is Lord

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is to affirm his singularity.

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It is to affirm his supremacy over all other claimants

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to such a position of leadership.

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Perhaps it's no the point is a critical character

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of the Lordship of Jesus so evident,

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as when we are challenged

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to acknowledge other leaders as having central values.

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Today, there are many leaders

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who would take the chief place.

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We hear leaders,

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national leaders calling for a idolatry of country.

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We hear a person's exalting race to an ultimate position.

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These I think, are the most insistent present challenges

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to the central claim of Jesus as Lord leader.

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It is a tragedy in the current situation

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that religious leaders also have great difficulty

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in keeping the primary claim of Jesus clear.

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And among them some of our best known.

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There is a confusion of leaders.

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There is a confluence of the claims of leadership.

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But it is necessary, and at this time even urgent,

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that we be clear about the uniqueness of Jesus call.

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And the fact that this put every other claim

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for loyalty in a secondary position.

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The nation is important but it is not ultimate.

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Only the Lordship of Jesus deserves that position.

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And from following him,

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one can criticize all rivals challenging him.

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Racism and attitude and an institutions claim allegiance,

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but the Lordship of Jesus refuses

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to allow such an apotheosis to stand.

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Jesus is Lord leader.

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He makes a claim for primary loyalty.

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He sets below him every other leadership plan.

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Sturridge Kennedy has put the importance

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of this kind of decision in a moving fashion.

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And I want to quote a part of the poem of his.

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"I bet my life up on one side

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"in life's great war, I'm not.

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"I can't stand out.

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"I must take sides.

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"The man who is neutral in this fight is not a man,

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"he's bulk and body without breath.

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"He makes me sick.

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"I want to live.

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"Live out, not wobble through my life somehow

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"and then into the dark.

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"Well, God my leader,

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"and I hold that he's good and strong enough

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"to work his plan and purpose out to support it in.

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"I see what God has done.

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"What life in this world is.

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"I see what you see.

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"Their is eternal struggle in the dark.

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"I see the foul this orders with filth of mind and soul

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"in which men wallowing like swine,

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"stamp on their brothers till they drown.

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"I have to choose.

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"I can't stand shivering on the bank.

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"I plunge headfirst.

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"I bet my life on beauty, truth and love.

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"Not abstract but incarnate truth.

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"Not beauties passing shadow, but itself,

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"it's very self-made flesh, love realize.

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"I bet my life on Christ,

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"Christ crucified."

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That invitation of Jesus

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is precisely the invitation to follow.

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It is a call to a task,

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to responsibility, to an activity.

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One does not sit around, simply look at himself.

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One looks at the job which is to be done.

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One looks at the leader who goes before.

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This is why the call of Jesus is challenging and difficult.

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It is so sheerly concrete.

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It stands out almost as frightening clarity, like Isaiah.

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The disciples hear a voice saying,

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"This is the way, walk in it."

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Discipleship was a concrete following

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for those first followers of Jesus.

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An engagement with history,

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a threat to Jerusalem,

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the facing of a cross.

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It involves feeding the hungry

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and clothing the naked,

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and visiting the sick and releasing the captives,

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and bonding the wounded.

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The invitation of Jesus

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was an invitation to a manner of living

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to a style of life, to a way of doing.

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Discipleship as a going forth to meet one's providence.

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It's a moving out to encounter one destiny in the world.

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Theologically, it is the incarnation

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which enhances the meaning of discipleship.

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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

Thomas A. Langford - "Way to Go" (November 8, 1970)

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1. Thomas A. Langford - "Way to Go" (November 8, 1970)

Duke University Archives

Thomas A. Langford - "Way to Go" (November 8, 1970)

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Duke University Archives