Howard C. Wilkinson - "Freedom: The Kite and the String" (May 7, 1972)
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| - | Of all men. | 0:07 |
| We acknowledge and beware of our manifold sins | 0:09 | |
| and wickedness, which we from time to time | 0:12 | |
| most grievously have committed by thought, | 0:16 | |
| word and deed against Thy Divine Majesty. | 0:20 | |
| We do earnestly repent and are heartily sorry | 0:25 | |
| for these our misdoings, the remembrance of them | 0:30 | |
| is grievous unto us, have mercy upon us. | 0:34 | |
| Have mercy upon us, Most Merciful Father, | 0:39 | |
| for Thy Son, our Lord Jesus Christ's sake, | 0:43 | |
| forgive us all that is passed | 0:47 | |
| and grant that we may ever hereafter serve and please thee | 0:50 | |
| in newness of life to the honor and glory of thy name, | 0:55 | |
| through Jesus Christ our Lord. | 1:00 | |
| Amen. | 1:03 | |
| Hear these words of assurance of the forgiveness of sin, | 1:06 | |
| the righteous shall live by faith. | 1:13 | |
| The tax collector beat his breast saying, | 1:21 | |
| God, be merciful to me a sinner. | 1:25 | |
| And Jesus said, I tell you, | 1:32 | |
| this man went down to his house justified. | 1:36 | |
| Blessed are thee whose iniquities are forgiven | 1:43 | |
| and whose sins are covered. | 1:48 | |
| Be of good cheer. | 1:52 | |
| (gentle piano music) | 1:58 | |
| - | Dr. and Mrs. Andrea Stack will now present | 3:16 |
| their infant son for the sacrament of baptism. | 3:20 | |
| Dr. Stack is a physician in residency at Duke Hospital. | 3:24 | |
| He and his wife are from Switzerland | 3:30 | |
| and are members of the Reformed Church of Switzerland | 3:32 | |
| and want their son to be baptized in the land of his birth. | 3:36 | |
| The maternal grandmother, Mrs. Hofstetter, | 3:40 | |
| has flown over to represent the family. | 3:44 | |
| And they now come to present their son Michael Thomas | 3:48 | |
| for the sacrament. | 3:50 | |
| Hear the words of our Lord Jesus Christ. | 4:04 | |
| All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. | 4:08 | |
| Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, | 4:12 | |
| baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, | 4:15 | |
| and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe | 4:18 | |
| all that I have commanded you. | 4:22 | |
| And lo, I am with you always to the close of the age. | 4:24 | |
| Obeying the Word of our Lord Jesus Christ | 4:29 | |
| and assured of his presence with us, | 4:31 | |
| we baptize those who he has called to be his own. | 4:34 | |
| In Jesus Christ, God has promised to forgive our sins | 4:38 | |
| and has joined us together in the family of faith, | 4:43 | |
| which is his church. | 4:45 | |
| He has delivered us from the dominion of darkness and death | 4:47 | |
| and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son. | 4:52 | |
| In Jesus Christ, God has promised to be our father | 4:56 | |
| and to keep us in His steadfast love. | 5:00 | |
| The promises of God are for you. | 5:05 | |
| By baptism God's puts his seal upon you | 5:08 | |
| and gives you His Spirit as a guarantee. | 5:11 | |
| And now in presenting your son for the sacrament, | 5:15 | |
| I ask you to answer the following question. | 5:17 | |
| Do you believe in Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior, do you? | 5:20 | |
| - | I do. | 5:24 |
| - | I do. | |
| - | Do you wish your child to be baptized in His name? | 5:26 |
| - | I do. | 5:30 |
| - | I do. | |
| - | The congregation will please stand. | 5:31 |
| I call upon this congregation now | 5:37 | |
| as representatives of the holy universal church | 5:40 | |
| to act in the capacity of whatever congregation | 5:45 | |
| this child may find himself in the future | 5:49 | |
| and ask you to give answer to this question. | 5:52 | |
| Our Lord Jesus has commanded us to teach those | 5:55 | |
| who are baptized in His name. | 5:58 | |
| Do you promise to declare the word of God to this child, | 6:01 | |
| to love Him and to pray for him that by God's grace | 6:05 | |
| he may be a faithful follower of Jesus Christ our Lord, | 6:08 | |
| your answers in the affirmative say we do. | 6:12 | |
| - | I do. | 6:14 |
| - | Let us pray. | 6:17 |
| Almighty God, we thank thee for thy redeeming love | 6:20 | |
| promised in this sacrament and for the hope we have in thee. | 6:23 | |
| As we baptize with water, baptize us with thy Holy Spirit | 6:28 | |
| that what we do may be thy work | 6:33 | |
| and what we say may be thy word, that we may be made one | 6:36 | |
| with Christ in faith and live by His grace alone. | 6:40 | |
| Oh God who has called us from death to life, | 6:45 | |
| we offer ourselves to thee and with thy church | 6:49 | |
| through all ages, we thank and praise thee | 6:51 | |
| for thy redeeming love in Christ Jesus our Lord. | 6:54 | |
| Amen. | 6:58 | |
| Child's Christian name is Michael Thomas. | 7:00 | |
| Michael Thomas, child of a covenant, | 7:05 | |
| I baptize you in the name of the Father | 7:07 | |
| and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. | 7:09 | |
| Amen. | 7:12 | |
| This child is now received into the Holy Catholic Church. | 7:14 | |
| See what love the Father has given us, | 7:19 | |
| that we should be called the children of God. | 7:22 | |
| And so we are. | 7:25 | |
| And now let us pray. | 7:28 | |
| Three prayers, one for the child, one for his parents, | 7:29 | |
| and one for us all. | 7:33 | |
| Let us pray. | 7:34 | |
| Merciful Father, giver of life, | 7:37 | |
| who has called us to be thine own, | 7:40 | |
| we pray for that child, Michael Thomas. | 7:43 | |
| Watch over him and guide him and grant him faith | 7:46 | |
| that he may grow in grace and in the knowledge | 7:50 | |
| of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and glory, amen. | 7:53 | |
| Gracious God, whose will is our peace, | 7:59 | |
| we pray for thy servants Barbara and Andreas, | 8:03 | |
| to whom thou has given this child. | 8:06 | |
| Enable them so to know thee that they may love with thy love | 8:10 | |
| and teach thy truth and guide their child | 8:14 | |
| in the way of Jesus Christ our Lord. | 8:18 | |
| Amen. | 8:21 | |
| Holy God, father of us all, remind us of thy promises | 8:23 | |
| given on our own baptism and renew our trust in thee. | 8:27 | |
| Make us strong to obey thy will and bind us to thy word, | 8:32 | |
| that we may faithfully serve thee | 8:38 | |
| for the sake of Jesus Christ our Lord. | 8:40 | |
| Amen. | 8:43 | |
| The congregation may be seated. | 8:46 | |
| (gentle piano music) | 8:59 | |
| (vocal choir music) | 9:47 | |
| (vocal choir music continues) | 10:23 | |
| (vocal choir music continues) | 10:49 | |
| (vocal choir music continues) | 11:20 | |
| (vocal choir music) | 12:40 | |
| (vocal choir music continues) | 12:53 | |
| - | The Scripture lesson this morning | 13:24 |
| is from the Gospel according to John, | 13:26 | |
| chapter eight, verses 25 through 32. | 13:29 | |
| "Then they said unto Jesus, who are you? | 13:35 | |
| "And Jesus said unto them, | 13:39 | |
| "why ask exactly what I have been telling you? | 13:41 | |
| "I have still many things to say and many judgments | 13:45 | |
| "that I could pass on you, but He who sent me is faithful | 13:49 | |
| "and I speak to the world those things | 13:53 | |
| "which I have heard of him. | 13:56 | |
| "They understood not that he spoke to them of the father. | 13:59 | |
| "Then said Jesus unto them, when you have lifted up | 14:03 | |
| "the Son of Man, then you will recognize | 14:07 | |
| "that it is myself you look for and I do nothing | 14:11 | |
| "on my own authority but in all that I say, | 14:15 | |
| "I have been taught by my father, | 14:19 | |
| "And he that sent me is with me. | 14:22 | |
| "The father has not left me alone, because at all times | 14:25 | |
| "I do the things which are pleasing to Him. | 14:29 | |
| "As he spoke these words, many believed on him. | 14:33 | |
| "Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, | 14:37 | |
| "if you are faithful to what I have said, | 14:41 | |
| "you are really disciples of mine | 14:44 | |
| "and you will have knowledge of what is true | 14:46 | |
| "and that very truth will make you free." | 14:49 | |
| (gentle piano music) | 14:55 | |
| (vocal choir music) | 15:05 | |
| - | The Lord be with you. | 15:43 |
| - | And with your spirit. | 15:45 |
| - | Let us pray. | 15:47 |
| Let us offer first a prayer of thanksgiving | 15:55 | |
| for our Christian heritage. | 16:00 | |
| Blessed and eternal God, from whom we come, | 16:04 | |
| by whom we are sustained and to whom we shall return, | 16:10 | |
| we thank thee for the good things | 16:18 | |
| bequeathed to us by the journeying generations, | 16:20 | |
| others labored and we have entered | 16:25 | |
| into the profits of their labors. | 16:29 | |
| Churches we did not build | 16:33 | |
| are centers for our worship and inspiration. | 16:36 | |
| Liberties we did not earn are our birthright, | 16:41 | |
| truths we did not discover are a lamp to our feet | 16:47 | |
| and a light upon our path. | 16:53 | |
| As we have freely received, so may we freely serve. | 16:57 | |
| Make us wise in the arts of stewardship | 17:03 | |
| and grant that we may so live and work | 17:07 | |
| that those who come after us shall rejoice | 17:12 | |
| that we passed this way through Jesus Christ, our Lord. | 17:17 | |
| And let us offer a prayer of intercession | 17:27 | |
| for the servants of the chapel. | 17:31 | |
| Almighty God whose house this is, | 17:35 | |
| we ask thy special blessing on many people | 17:39 | |
| as another academic year draws to its close. | 17:44 | |
| On those who have led the ministry of the word | 17:50 | |
| and of prayer, at the lectern and in the pulpit, | 17:53 | |
| on those who have made up the ministry of music, | 17:59 | |
| choir directors, organists, chord linear, choristers, | 18:03 | |
| who rising early in the morning, lead our praise, | 18:11 | |
| voice out songs, make a joyful and harmonious noise | 18:16 | |
| unto thee on our behalf. | 18:22 | |
| On those who have often unexpectedly | 18:27 | |
| made up the ministry of service, the chapel monitor, | 18:29 | |
| with the twinkle in his eye and confidence in his asking, | 18:36 | |
| who persuades enough worshipers, young and younger, | 18:42 | |
| male and female, to gather our offerings, | 18:46 | |
| to bring them to thy son's table, | 18:51 | |
| making of it an altar of thanksgiving. | 18:54 | |
| And with them, we remember the chapel hostesses, | 18:59 | |
| the secretary, the maid, the janitor, the PA electrician | 19:04 | |
| and the mechanical wizard who manages somehow | 19:12 | |
| to keep the organ alive from Lord's day to Lord's day. | 19:17 | |
| We ask thy special blessing on the ministry of the pew, | 19:24 | |
| on all who made our worship corporate by their presence | 19:29 | |
| and their praying and their praising and their listening. | 19:35 | |
| Bless them all, oh Lord. | 19:42 | |
| Bless them everyone. | 19:45 | |
| And let us offer a prayer of supplication for our students | 19:49 | |
| at a time of examinations. | 19:54 | |
| Oh God of wisdom and of love, | 19:58 | |
| be with those who are now in the midst of examination. | 20:02 | |
| Help them to face their tasks with calmness, | 20:08 | |
| courage and confidence, with knowledge, | 20:11 | |
| faithfulness and honesty, that they may do justice, | 20:16 | |
| both to themselves and to their teachers. | 20:22 | |
| Through Jesus Christ who was called Rabbi, Teacher, | 20:27 | |
| and now as He has taught us, let us pray together, saying, | 20:36 | |
| Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, | 20:42 | |
| thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth | 20:48 | |
| as it is in heaven. | 20:53 | |
| Give us this day our daily bread | 20:55 | |
| and forgive us our trespasses, | 20:58 | |
| as we forgive those who trespass against us. | 21:01 | |
| And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, | 21:05 | |
| for thine is the kingdom and the power | 21:10 | |
| and the glory forever. | 21:14 | |
| Amen. | 21:17 | |
| - | There is a paragraph in your bulletin today | 21:44 |
| in which, on behalf of the congregation, | 21:49 | |
| I express gratitude to many people | 21:51 | |
| who have contributed to the effectiveness | 21:55 | |
| of the university service of worship during this year. | 22:00 | |
| I hope that you will take this paragraph home | 22:06 | |
| and read it very carefully because the service | 22:09 | |
| that has been given to God and to this congregation | 22:13 | |
| by a large number of people this year, | 22:16 | |
| is significant and is important in every way. | 22:21 | |
| If there is any way to do so, | 22:27 | |
| I would like especially to single out | 22:29 | |
| the members of our chapel choir | 22:33 | |
| who have disciplined themselves | 22:38 | |
| to the point that they have been really free | 22:41 | |
| as musicians this year. | 22:45 | |
| And speaking personally, this is without a doubt | 22:48 | |
| the greatest choir that I have ever been associated with, | 22:51 | |
| the one that we have had this year. | 22:56 | |
| I can't find words adequately to express | 22:59 | |
| my own personal appreciation to them | 23:03 | |
| and I am sure that you join me | 23:06 | |
| in the sentiments of gratitude. | 23:08 | |
| In the summer of 1878, | 23:14 | |
| Johannes Brahms was in southern Austria | 23:18 | |
| composing his famous violin concerto in D major. | 23:22 | |
| Among the notes, which he made on this occasion | 23:28 | |
| was the observation that the very air | 23:32 | |
| was so alive with melodies and here I use his own words, | 23:35 | |
| "One had to be careful not to tread upon them." | 23:40 | |
| Well, as I was thinking of the sermon for this morning, | 23:47 | |
| it occurred to me that expressions of the desire for freedom | 23:51 | |
| are in the air today, very much as the melodies were | 23:56 | |
| in the air in southern Austria that summer of 1878. | 24:01 | |
| We have to walk very carefully, | 24:07 | |
| lest we tread upon the feelings, the expressions, | 24:09 | |
| the aspirations for liberty which are abroad | 24:13 | |
| in the earth today. | 24:16 | |
| Everyone wishes to be free. | 24:20 | |
| Freedom is the hallmark of the 20th century. | 24:24 | |
| There are a great many new nations | 24:30 | |
| in the continent of Africa today | 24:33 | |
| which are gaining their independence from colonial powers. | 24:34 | |
| And for the first time, they're standing on their own feet, | 24:39 | |
| not only in the atmosphere of freedom, | 24:42 | |
| but with the political reality of independence. | 24:44 | |
| Even the nations of the earth, which have not yet gained | 24:48 | |
| their liberty from the colonial powers are itching for it, | 24:52 | |
| crying out for it, demanding it. | 24:57 | |
| In our own United States, we are spending vast sums of money | 25:01 | |
| in programs to gain freedom from poverty | 25:06 | |
| for a third of our citizens. | 25:09 | |
| Poverty has been correctly called a form of slavery | 25:13 | |
| and we are appropriating billions of dollars | 25:18 | |
| in an attempt to free these citizens from this bondage. | 25:20 | |
| 1000s of people have risked stormy seas | 25:26 | |
| or crowded onto over loaded planes | 25:30 | |
| to gain their freedom from Castro's Cuba. | 25:33 | |
| Other 1000s have risked machine gun fire | 25:36 | |
| to escape the freedom through the Berlin Wall. | 25:40 | |
| On college campuses in the world today, | 25:46 | |
| 1000s of students are demanding freedom from every rule, | 25:49 | |
| regulation or law that has been devised | 25:54 | |
| by the mind of an adult in the history of the world. | 25:56 | |
| Students are saying we want to be able to do | 26:01 | |
| what we want to do at any time we want to do it | 26:05 | |
| and in whatever fashion we want to do it. | 26:09 | |
| We want to be absolutely free to evaluate | 26:14 | |
| the worth of professors to set our courses, | 26:17 | |
| to fix our curricula, to establish our living conditions | 26:20 | |
| or anything else that crosses our minds. | 26:25 | |
| Make no mistake about it, these voices are being heard | 26:30 | |
| throughout the earth. | 26:35 | |
| There is a great cry for liberty | 26:37 | |
| from every form of regulation or rule | 26:39 | |
| so that we are indeed reminded of what Brahms said | 26:42 | |
| about the melodies of southern Austria, | 26:46 | |
| when we hear the shouts of freedom | 26:49 | |
| that come from every side. | 26:52 | |
| Now at this point, there's something that's very interesting | 26:56 | |
| for us to note. | 26:58 | |
| When you and I call for freedom, | 27:01 | |
| we are calling for something which Almighty God | 27:04 | |
| wants us to have. | 27:07 | |
| We're not asking for something, as is sometimes the case, | 27:15 | |
| which God has revealed would be bad for us | 27:18 | |
| and which we ought not to have. | 27:21 | |
| We are requesting a commodity which God says | 27:25 | |
| He is the author of and which He has gone | 27:27 | |
| to considerable trouble to help us to have. | 27:31 | |
| Indeed, Almighty God has long stirred up | 27:34 | |
| freedom in the earth and wherever His gospel | 27:37 | |
| has been preached, the fires of liberty have been lighted. | 27:40 | |
| For example, the Board of Directors | 27:46 | |
| of the British East India Company met in special session | 27:48 | |
| when the independence movement first began | 27:53 | |
| in India some years ago. | 27:56 | |
| They noted that the Christian missionaries | 28:00 | |
| had come into India and had stirred up the people | 28:02 | |
| to want independence. | 28:04 | |
| They declared that when Carey was sent to India | 28:08 | |
| as the first Christian missionary, and here I use the words | 28:10 | |
| of the Board of Directors inscribed in their minutes, | 28:14 | |
| "It was the wildest and maddest scheme | 28:19 | |
| "that a moonstruck fanatic ever invented." | 28:22 | |
| Why? | 28:29 | |
| Well, they went on to explain, "Because it brought | 28:30 | |
| "the safety of their possessions in India into peril." | 28:34 | |
| They were right, it did. | 28:41 | |
| Those people in India who had been willing to be subject, | 28:46 | |
| willing to be in slavery to the British for all those years | 28:50 | |
| heard the gospel. | 28:55 | |
| The preaching of the Fatherhood of God | 28:57 | |
| and the brotherhood of man and they said, | 29:00 | |
| we want to be free. | 29:03 | |
| God wants us to be free. | 29:05 | |
| In the 1920s when Japan was ruling Korea, | 29:10 | |
| the Korean independence movement came | 29:15 | |
| and caused great trouble to the Japanese army of occupation. | 29:17 | |
| And the officer who was in charge of the Japanese occupation | 29:22 | |
| reported to his government that the curse of Korea, | 29:26 | |
| the curse of Korea was the Christian population. | 29:30 | |
| Here are his words, "If it were not | 29:36 | |
| "for the Christian population, | 29:38 | |
| "there would be no independence movement in Korea." | 29:39 | |
| Now in case that makes you and me | 29:44 | |
| feel very self-righteous as Americans, | 29:47 | |
| I should cite the report of the United States Army officer | 29:51 | |
| who was in charge of the occupation | 29:56 | |
| of the Philippines islands before they got | 29:59 | |
| their full independence from us. | 30:01 | |
| He said words that were almost exactly like the words | 30:04 | |
| of the Japanese army officer who occupied Korea. | 30:08 | |
| Here are his words. | 30:13 | |
| "The Curse of the Philippine Islands | 30:14 | |
| "is the Christian population, | 30:16 | |
| "because if it were not for them, | 30:18 | |
| "there would be no Philippine independence." | 30:21 | |
| Bishop Richard Raines several years ago | 30:26 | |
| was asked what he thought about the reports that were coming | 30:29 | |
| out of Angola concerning the Portuguese governments | 30:32 | |
| sending the Christian missionaries out of Angola. | 30:36 | |
| Bishop Raines replied that it made perfect sense. | 30:41 | |
| He said, "Anybody who honestly preaches | 30:45 | |
| "the doctrine of the Fatherhood of God | 30:49 | |
| "and the brotherhood of man in Angola | 30:51 | |
| "is going to be considered subversive | 30:54 | |
| "by the Portuguese government." | 30:56 | |
| So let there be no doubt, God wants all of us to be free. | 31:00 | |
| The only question which we have before us | 31:06 | |
| therefore as Christians is the question of how we get it. | 31:09 | |
| And that's a big question. | 31:15 | |
| Because not all of the roads which have signs on them | 31:19 | |
| advertising to freedom go to freedom. | 31:22 | |
| So unless we are going to be stupid and simply travel down | 31:29 | |
| every road we see that has a freedom sign on it, | 31:33 | |
| we shall need to study the map to see which roads | 31:36 | |
| do in fact take us to freedom. | 31:40 | |
| Let's take a look at three roads | 31:44 | |
| which have freedom signs on them, see what we can learn. | 31:46 | |
| The one which I suppose has the most signs | 31:53 | |
| saying to freedom on it is the road of license. | 31:57 | |
| It's a reasonable sounding thing because the road to license | 32:04 | |
| promises that if you get on this road, | 32:08 | |
| you can do what you want to do whenever you want to do it. | 32:10 | |
| And to the untrained ear, the inexperienced life, | 32:16 | |
| that sounds a great deal like freedom. | 32:20 | |
| Many people get on the road license | 32:25 | |
| and they think they're going to arrive at freedom | 32:27 | |
| by the route of doing whatever they want to do | 32:29 | |
| whenever they want to do it. | 32:32 | |
| But let's take a closer look at that. | 32:35 | |
| Suppose for a little bit we were to think | 32:40 | |
| of ourselves individually, not just as an integrated person | 32:42 | |
| in our fleshly body, but as a Congress. | 32:47 | |
| And now you're a Congress for a moment | 32:52 | |
| and your stomach introduces a bill saying, I want to eat. | 32:56 | |
| Now remember, you're on the road to license | 33:03 | |
| and you do whatever your whim wants you to do | 33:05 | |
| whenever the whim says to do it. | 33:09 | |
| So you pass that bill and it becomes a law. | 33:12 | |
| So you get something to eat right now. | 33:15 | |
| Then you feel a wee bit tired and your muscles | 33:20 | |
| introduce a bill, let's go to sleep. | 33:23 | |
| Now, it's entirely possible that some student | 33:28 | |
| who's been studying late for exams | 33:30 | |
| has already made that bill into law here this morning. | 33:32 | |
| But let's say that next you introduced into this Congress | 33:37 | |
| a bill to increase the expenditure, | 33:41 | |
| you pass that immediately. | 33:44 | |
| Close on the heels of that, | 33:47 | |
| you introduce a bill to lower taxes. | 33:48 | |
| You pass that because it seems like a good thing to do too. | 33:52 | |
| Now, interestingly enough, this was attempted | 33:57 | |
| in the legislature in my home state of Texas | 34:00 | |
| when W. Lee O'Daniel was first elected governor | 34:03 | |
| of that state. | 34:06 | |
| He ran on a platform that had two planks, | 34:08 | |
| one of which was to increase expenditures dramatically | 34:12 | |
| and the second one was to lower taxes dramatically. | 34:16 | |
| Well, obviously, both could not be done. | 34:21 | |
| To his surprise, he was elected and then he blamed it | 34:24 | |
| on the legislature that he couldn't get either one | 34:28 | |
| of these two planks put into effect. | 34:30 | |
| Cause you see, you could do one, but you could not do both. | 34:33 | |
| So in a congress or a legislative body of any kind | 34:38 | |
| or within the person, we're now thinking of ourselves | 34:42 | |
| temporarily as a congress, it soon is found to be impossible | 34:45 | |
| to pass all the bills that are introduced | 34:50 | |
| and something more than unbridled license | 34:53 | |
| has to be adopted as the modus operandi | 34:56 | |
| if there is to be freedom. | 35:00 | |
| Because license leads only to the kind of chaos | 35:03 | |
| that results at a traffic intersection | 35:07 | |
| when you blindly allow every car | 35:09 | |
| to go through the intersection | 35:11 | |
| whenever its driver wants to go. | 35:14 | |
| This produces no meaningful freedom, | 35:17 | |
| it only produces wrecks and pillocks. | 35:19 | |
| The chief of police in Boston | 35:24 | |
| is reported to have made a very interesting observation | 35:26 | |
| which illuminates the matter before us at this moment. | 35:29 | |
| Some years ago, there was a very disastrous fire | 35:34 | |
| in one of the nightclubs in Boston. | 35:36 | |
| There was a large number of patrons in the nightclub | 35:40 | |
| at the time it caught on fire. | 35:43 | |
| The blaze raced quickly through the nightclub | 35:46 | |
| and the patrons tried to escape through the sole exit. | 35:49 | |
| Only a few managed to get out. | 35:55 | |
| The fire chief later examining, this great holocaust, | 36:00 | |
| made the observation that if they had organized, | 36:03 | |
| everyone would have had time to get free | 36:07 | |
| from the burning building. | 36:11 | |
| But as it happened, almost no one escaped to freedom | 36:14 | |
| and he said that, as he saw how the bodies | 36:18 | |
| were packed right around this one exit, | 36:21 | |
| at the reason almost nobody got his freedom | 36:24 | |
| was that everybody was interested in freeing only himself. | 36:28 | |
| That's the picture of license. | 36:35 | |
| I want to do what I want to do when I want to do it | 36:38 | |
| does not result in freedom. | 36:45 | |
| Let's think of it this way for just a minute. | 36:51 | |
| Suppose you decided this afternoon | 36:54 | |
| that you would like to drive to Raleigh. | 36:57 | |
| You might go out to the bypass on the north side of Durham, | 37:00 | |
| looking for the road to Raleigh. | 37:06 | |
| And suppose you have two or three riders | 37:08 | |
| with you in your car, you see a sign on highway 501 North | 37:11 | |
| which points to Raleigh. | 37:19 | |
| That would be exactly what you were looking for, | 37:22 | |
| that is to say a road that goes to Raleigh. | 37:25 | |
| So you might turn off the bypass on the highway 501 North | 37:29 | |
| and start to travel that road. | 37:33 | |
| Your backseat driver would immediately get nervous | 37:36 | |
| and say now, look, don't be stupid. | 37:39 | |
| This is the wrong road for you to take. | 37:41 | |
| You ought not to go on US 501 North | 37:45 | |
| because you're not old enough to drive on US 501 North. | 37:48 | |
| Now your backseat driver would be clearly off base | 37:56 | |
| if he said that because whether you're old enough | 37:59 | |
| to go on 501 North has nothing whatever to do with it. | 38:03 | |
| Then your backseat driver, getting more nervous, | 38:10 | |
| might say now look here, it goes against all your upbringing | 38:12 | |
| for you to go on this road. | 38:16 | |
| That too would be beside the point. | 38:19 | |
| Then your backseat driver getting more nervous says, | 38:23 | |
| your great grandmother will turn over in her grave | 38:25 | |
| if you go on US 501 North. | 38:29 | |
| Scientifically speaking, I doubt that she would. | 38:34 | |
| Well, what is the trouble if you take US 501 North? | 38:41 | |
| Just one thing, just one thing: none of that scare talk | 38:48 | |
| from your backseat driver has any relevance at all. | 38:54 | |
| The only thing that has relevance | 39:00 | |
| is that as a matter of fact, if what you want to do | 39:02 | |
| is go to Raleigh, US 501 North will not take you there. | 39:04 | |
| You will have to get on another road. | 39:12 | |
| Now that's the situation which often develops | 39:16 | |
| with people who want freedom but who get on a road, | 39:18 | |
| the license road, which has freedom signs on it. | 39:23 | |
| It just doesn't go to freedom. | 39:27 | |
| Now, it may sound as though what we're saying | 39:31 | |
| is that we need to move in the direction of some kind | 39:34 | |
| of regulation of license. | 39:37 | |
| Down what road does that take us? | 39:41 | |
| The road of law? | 39:44 | |
| Well, I risk some unpopularity here by saying | 39:47 | |
| that the road of legalistic law | 39:50 | |
| does not lead to freedom anymore than license. | 39:54 | |
| A certain amount of law in certain restricted areas | 40:01 | |
| and in a temporary sense is a necessary detour | 40:06 | |
| to get to the true road of freedom. | 40:10 | |
| Rules and regulations are necessary for the very immature. | 40:14 | |
| Laws are essential as St. Paul said, | 40:19 | |
| to serve as a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. | 40:22 | |
| But the trouble with law as a road to freedom | 40:27 | |
| is that if we depend upon law to guarantee our freedom, | 40:29 | |
| there is every day a new situation | 40:34 | |
| which is not covered by the laws that we passed yesterday. | 40:38 | |
| We have to enact other laws to cover those situations | 40:44 | |
| and finally we find ourselves in the plight | 40:47 | |
| of the ancient Pharisees who had so many laws | 40:50 | |
| that they didn't even know how many laws they had | 40:54 | |
| and couldn't keep up with the application | 40:57 | |
| of the ones on the books. | 40:59 | |
| One law conflicted with another and instead | 41:02 | |
| of this legalism, producing people who were free, | 41:04 | |
| it produced people who were in shackles. | 41:08 | |
| For the immature and in certain civil areas | 41:14 | |
| where we must crystallize our agreements into law, | 41:17 | |
| law is essential. | 41:21 | |
| But the finest use of law is to make itself unnecessary. | 41:23 | |
| If we were to rest upon law | 41:31 | |
| as our chief guarantee of freedom, | 41:33 | |
| we would then all have to be police to see that the law | 41:34 | |
| was carried out and then who would police the police? | 41:38 | |
| They too, being human, would have to be under | 41:41 | |
| some sort of law that would have to be policed | 41:43 | |
| and then the police of police to police | 41:46 | |
| would have to be policed, and so on and infinitum. | 41:48 | |
| We cannot depend upon law as being the road to freedom. | 41:52 | |
| If there is not something better | 42:01 | |
| than exterior restraints upon us, | 42:02 | |
| then we are not a people headed toward freedom. | 42:04 | |
| We may as well face it. | 42:09 | |
| At least one road, this highway does lead to freedom | 42:12 | |
| and it is the road toward which all of us should travel. | 42:17 | |
| If we cannot get on that road immediately, | 42:23 | |
| we should choose the shortest detour possible | 42:26 | |
| which really leads to it. | 42:29 | |
| That is the road of absolute slavery to inner discipline. | 42:32 | |
| Do not be deceived, there is no freedom, | 42:45 | |
| anywhere at any time in this world without discipline. | 42:49 | |
| The late Harry Emerson Fosdick said that human life | 42:57 | |
| is divided between inner discipline and outer control, | 43:00 | |
| the way the surface of the Earth | 43:03 | |
| is divided between the sea and the land. | 43:06 | |
| Each square foot is covered by one or the other. | 43:11 | |
| Whenever there is the less of the one, | 43:17 | |
| there is the more of the other. | 43:19 | |
| Wherever there is more of the one, | 43:22 | |
| there's the less of the other. | 43:23 | |
| As the land comes up, the sea recedes | 43:26 | |
| and as the land goes down, the sea comes in. | 43:30 | |
| Said Fosdick, the whole of human life is divided | 43:34 | |
| between inner compulsion and outer control like that. | 43:37 | |
| If we will not provide the inner compulsion, he said, | 43:43 | |
| outer control will come sweeping in | 43:48 | |
| like an inexorable tidal wave. | 43:50 | |
| And if we do not like the sea of outer control, | 43:54 | |
| then we must build up the land of inner discipline. | 43:57 | |
| There has to be order in the world | 44:03 | |
| for any kind of meaningful freedom to exist. | 44:05 | |
| There has to be discipline | 44:09 | |
| for there to be this order and this freedom. | 44:11 | |
| If you and I do not provide the inner discipline | 44:14 | |
| which is necessary, then it will be provided from without | 44:17 | |
| in ways which may or may not lead to creative freedom, | 44:21 | |
| probably will not. | 44:25 | |
| This means then that discipline is to freedom | 44:28 | |
| what a string is to a kite. | 44:33 | |
| Now, the kite analogy, I would like to warn you | 44:36 | |
| ahead of time is not perfect but it does offer some insight. | 44:39 | |
| It is absolutely impossible for a kite | 44:45 | |
| to stay afloat in the wind, unless it has a string | 44:48 | |
| holding it to something firm. | 44:52 | |
| If the kite should say I'm tired of being held down | 44:56 | |
| by this string, I'm going to cut the string, | 44:59 | |
| you know, of course, what would immediately happen: | 45:03 | |
| it would go into a tailspin and finally crash | 45:06 | |
| into a tree top or crash to the ground. | 45:08 | |
| And yet, if this kite is going to rise higher and higher | 45:13 | |
| into the greater freedom of the skies, | 45:16 | |
| it must keep tugging at the string | 45:18 | |
| and the string must slowly yield. | 45:20 | |
| That seems to me that this is the picture of the process | 45:24 | |
| of the maturation of the individual. | 45:28 | |
| He begins with trial and error attempts | 45:32 | |
| to get off the ground and finally he passes the treetops, | 45:34 | |
| and he goes out into the wild blue yonder | 45:38 | |
| as he keeps tugging at the string. | 45:40 | |
| Now, here's where the analogy does not follow. | 45:43 | |
| The process of maturation is one of changing over | 45:46 | |
| as regards the person holding the string. | 45:50 | |
| The time never comes when the kite can stay | 45:55 | |
| in the wild blue yonder without the discipline of a string. | 45:58 | |
| The only question is, | 46:03 | |
| who finally is going to hold that string? | 46:05 | |
| Early in life, our parents, teachers, | 46:09 | |
| or whomever hold the string. | 46:12 | |
| But every one of us to become mature | 46:15 | |
| must achieve the mastery over the string. | 46:19 | |
| See, it's not that some day freedom will exist in my life | 46:24 | |
| or in yours or in society without discipline, | 46:28 | |
| they absolutely cannot exist without discipline. | 46:31 | |
| And any adult who thinks it can is an unmitigated fool. | 46:36 | |
| The only question is, will the discipline be inner or outer? | 46:41 | |
| Will we have less land and more of the sea | 46:46 | |
| or more of the land and less of the sea. | 46:48 | |
| One of the really sad things in our existence | 46:54 | |
| is to see a fine young person who is loaded with talent, | 46:56 | |
| whose future appears bright, but who begins to demand | 47:00 | |
| that what he mistakenly calls his freedom, | 47:04 | |
| but which really is license. | 47:07 | |
| He cuts the string of ethical discipline. | 47:09 | |
| Soon we see his life going into the giddy spins, | 47:13 | |
| so typical of a kite which has broken it's string. | 47:16 | |
| And at last we see him not free but in slavery | 47:20 | |
| to some kind of addiction, or we see him impaled | 47:25 | |
| on a meaningless existence. | 47:28 | |
| Long ago Epictetus said, "No man can be free | 47:33 | |
| "who is not the master of himself." | 47:36 | |
| That being the case, it follows that the person | 47:39 | |
| who is demanding that somebody else give him his freedom, | 47:42 | |
| but who has not rigidly disciplined himself, | 47:47 | |
| is asking for a commodity | 47:50 | |
| which cannot be conferred from without. | 47:52 | |
| Did you ever go into a store and try to buy | 47:58 | |
| a set of well developed muscles? | 48:00 | |
| True freedom has to be developed from within, | 48:06 | |
| the same way our muscles have to be developed. | 48:10 | |
| Who is the free athlete? | 48:15 | |
| Who is the free musician? | 48:17 | |
| Who is the free artist? | 48:20 | |
| Which student this week has been the most free to respond | 48:23 | |
| to the challenge of final exams? | 48:27 | |
| The one who disciplined himself during the semester | 48:30 | |
| or the one who did not? | 48:34 | |
| Yes, God wants us to be free. | 48:38 | |
| Individually, He wants us to be free. | 48:42 | |
| But He has made it perfectly clear | 48:46 | |
| that there is a kind of discipline that goes with it. | 48:47 | |
| What is that discipline? | 48:52 | |
| Jesus said, as Cleave Evans read a while ago, | 48:55 | |
| if, my what a big gift that is, | 49:00 | |
| "If you abide by what I teach, | 49:03 | |
| "you are really disciples of mine." | 49:08 | |
| Now, let's not rush on to the rest of it. | 49:11 | |
| Stop a moment and taste that if. | 49:14 | |
| If you abide, live by, really appropriate what I teach, | 49:19 | |
| you are really disciples of mine, | 49:26 | |
| same root word as discipline. | 49:31 | |
| You are disciples of mine. | 49:35 | |
| And, here's the result, you will know the truth | 49:38 | |
| and that truth will make you free. | 49:44 | |
| You know, I have been impressed | 49:48 | |
| with the large number of academic institutions | 49:50 | |
| of higher learning and the United States | 49:53 | |
| which have had part of those words inscribed | 49:56 | |
| over their doors. | 50:00 | |
| What they have inscribed is, you shall know the truth | 50:02 | |
| and the truth will make you free. | 50:05 | |
| But that isn't what Jesus said. | 50:07 | |
| There's a kind of discipline that precedes this. | 50:12 | |
| It is the variety of discipline that makes sense | 50:16 | |
| to the chemistry professor who comes from a meeting | 50:19 | |
| in which he has called for academic freedom. | 50:22 | |
| He goes to his laboratory and shows, in part, | 50:27 | |
| what he considers academic freedom to mean. | 50:30 | |
| What does he do with his academic freedom? | 50:35 | |
| Take a test tube, pour this into that in haphazard fashion | 50:37 | |
| just to see what happens? | 50:41 | |
| What he does in his laboratory, | 50:47 | |
| he calls by the word discipline. | 50:49 | |
| This is my discipline. | 50:53 | |
| He's a slave to the knowledge | 50:58 | |
| and the procedures of his laboratory. | 51:01 | |
| This is to him a representative part | 51:05 | |
| of what he calls academic freedom. | 51:08 | |
| The apostle Paul wrote, Stand fast therefore | 51:13 | |
| in the liberty where with Christ has made us free. | 51:18 | |
| And if we do that, we will not need to trample on any | 51:24 | |
| of the expressions of the desire for freedom | 51:28 | |
| that are abroad in the earth today. | 51:31 | |
| We will achieve that freedom by the grace of God | 51:34 | |
| through inner discipline, | 51:39 | |
| discipleship to the truth of Christ. | 51:41 | |
| Almighty God, help us to appropriate | 51:46 | |
| the insights of your Word and to gain the freedom | 51:49 | |
| which comes from those who are slaves of Christ. | 51:53 | |
| In His name, amen. | 51:58 | |
| (gentle piano music) | 52:04 | |
| (vocal choir music) | 52:46 | |
| (vocal choir music continues) | 53:32 | |
| (vocal choir music continues) | 54:43 | |
| (vocal choir music continues) | 55:08 | |
| (gentle piano music) | 56:08 | |
| (organ music) | 56:34 | |
| (organ music continues) | 58:15 | |
| (organ music continues) | 59:07 | |
| (vocal choir music) | 59:35 | |
| (vocal choir music continues) | 1:00:14 | |
| (vocal choir music continues) | 1:00:42 | |
| (vocal choir music continues) | 1:01:25 | |
| (gentle piano music) | 1:01:45 | |
| (vocal choir music) | 1:02:22 | |
| ♪ Alleluia, alleluia ♪ | 1:02:33 | |
| (vocal choir music) | 1:02:41 | |
| ♪ Alleluia, alleluia ♪ | 1:02:54 | |
| ♪ Alleluia, alleluia ♪ | 1:03:01 | |
| ♪ Alleluia ♪ | 1:03:09 | |
| ♪ Amen ♪ | 1:03:18 | |
| - | Here we offer and present unto thee, oh Lord, | 1:03:29 |
| the symbol of ourselves to be a reasonable, | 1:03:33 | |
| holy and lively sacrifice unto thee. | 1:03:39 | |
| May the blessing of God come upon you abundantly | 1:03:49 | |
| through Jesus Christ, our Lord. | 1:03:54 | |
| ♪ Amen ♪ | 1:04:00 | |
| ♪ Amen ♪ | 1:04:05 | |
| ♪ Amen ♪ | 1:04:10 |
