Anwar Barkat - "Religion without Religiosity" (July 2, 1972)
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| Officiant | He cleanses us | 0:06 |
| when we open our hearts for cleansing. | 0:08 | |
| He forgives us when we make that forgiveness possible | 0:10 | |
| by our repentance. | 0:15 | |
| So may we now offer unto God | 0:17 | |
| our prayers of confession and for forgiveness. | 0:19 | |
| Our heavenly Father, | 0:27 | |
| we are guilty people. | 0:30 | |
| We have complained that we are too busy, | 0:33 | |
| but we have been impatient | 0:37 | |
| when others have not given us perfect service. | 0:38 | |
| We have emphasized exterior beauty | 0:44 | |
| when you called for interior beauty. | 0:48 | |
| We have acted as though we could repeal your ethical laws | 0:52 | |
| by our own vote. | 0:56 | |
| We have tried to act as though we are God, | 1:00 | |
| even when we have been conscious that you are God, | 1:06 | |
| and have acknowledged this, | 1:11 | |
| we have tended to reserve to ourselves little precincts, | 1:13 | |
| little pockets of time. | 1:17 | |
| We have failed to love the sinner | 1:22 | |
| in our goal to eradicate the sin. | 1:25 | |
| We have failed to hate sin | 1:29 | |
| in our emphasis upon loving the sinner. | 1:31 | |
| Many times we have been guilty of thinking | 1:36 | |
| that knowledge and wisdom consist of holding degrees, | 1:39 | |
| having grade marks on a card, | 1:43 | |
| rather than appropriating the insight | 1:47 | |
| which came to us through Jesus. | 1:50 | |
| We have behaved like the lepers who were cleansed, | 1:54 | |
| but failed to return and give thanks. | 1:58 | |
| We have behaved like the Pharisees, | 2:02 | |
| who built the tombs of the prophets, | 2:04 | |
| who were safely dead, while all the time planning | 2:07 | |
| to crucify the Lord of life. | 2:11 | |
| We have sometimes been quick to accept and profit | 2:16 | |
| by the fruits of Christian institutions in the past. | 2:19 | |
| Meanwhile, making a very weak and timid and half-hearted | 2:24 | |
| and uncertain witness, today. | 2:27 | |
| We have attempted to find plausible excuses | 2:34 | |
| for not doing what we know to be right. | 2:37 | |
| We pray you to forgive us these sins and many others | 2:42 | |
| of which they are representative, | 2:46 | |
| and give us grace not to continue in them, | 2:50 | |
| but to make a substantial improvement. | 2:54 | |
| Through our Lord, Jesus Christ, we make our prayer. | 2:58 | |
| Amen. | 3:03 | |
| I am sure that today would be a good time for us | 3:10 | |
| to look at that scripture, | 3:13 | |
| which recognizes the great distance | 3:18 | |
| that separates the east from the west. | 3:20 | |
| Because our preacher today comes from the east | 3:24 | |
| and has traveled many thousands of miles to be here. | 3:26 | |
| Scripture says, as far as the east is from the west, | 3:31 | |
| so far has he removed our transgressions from us. | 3:35 | |
| I am sure that our speaker today can realize | 3:41 | |
| the significance of that analogy. | 3:46 | |
| God has, indeed, put far away from us, our sins. | 3:49 | |
| When we ask Him to do it. | 3:55 | |
| This provokes, in the heart of any sincere person, | 3:58 | |
| genuine gratitude for the goodness of God, | 4:01 | |
| for His grace, His kindness, His forbearance, | 4:06 | |
| and His many other blessings. | 4:10 | |
| May we now, together, express our gratitude to God | 4:13 | |
| by praying responsively from the Psalter, number 599, | 4:19 | |
| the prayer which comes from the scripture, Psalm 138, | 4:25 | |
| is entitled in our Psalter, "The Glory of the Lord." | 4:31 | |
| Let us make this our prayer of thanksgiving. | 4:37 | |
| I give thee thanks, oh Lord, with my whole heart. | 4:42 | |
| (congregation responds) | 4:47 | |
| I bow down toward thy holy temple, | 4:50 | |
| and give thanks to thy name | 4:53 | |
| for thy steadfast love and thy faithfulness. | 4:55 | |
| All | For thou hast exalted | 4:59 |
| above everything, thine name and thy word. | 5:00 | |
| Officiant | On the day I called, | 5:04 |
| thou didst answer me. | 5:06 | |
| All | My strength of soul thou didst increase. | 5:09 |
| Officiant | All the kings of the earth | 5:13 |
| shall praise thee, oh Lord. | 5:14 | |
| All | For they have heard the words of thy mouth. | 5:17 |
| Officiant | And they shall sing of the ways of the Lord. | 5:21 |
| All | For great is the glory of the Lord. | 5:24 |
| Officiant | For though the Lord is high, | 5:28 |
| he regards the lowly. | 5:29 | |
| All | But the haughty, he knows from afar. | 5:31 |
| Officiant | Though I walk in the midst of trouble, | 5:36 |
| thou dost preserve my life. | 5:38 | |
| All | Thou dost stretch out thy hand | 5:41 |
| against the wrath of my enemies, | 5:43 | |
| and thy right hand delivers me. | 5:45 | |
| Officiant | The Lord will fulfill his purpose for me. | 5:48 |
| All | Thy steadfast love, oh Lord, endures forever. | 5:52 |
| Officiant | Amen. | 5:57 |
| (grand organ music) | 5:59 | |
| ♪ Oh, sing unto the Lord ♪ | 6:42 | |
| ♪ Sing a new song ♪ | 6:45 | |
| ♪ Oh, sing unto the Lord ♪ | 6:50 | |
| ♪ Holy, holy ♪ | 6:54 | |
| ♪ Oh, sing unto the Lord ♪ | 7:01 | |
| ♪ Oh sing ♪ | 7:05 | |
| ♪ Unto the Lord ♪ | 7:09 | |
| ♪ Oh sing unto the Lord ♪ | 7:13 | |
| ♪ Blessed His holy name ♪ | 7:16 | |
| ♪ Oh, sing unto the Lord ♪ | 7:22 | |
| ♪ Bless His holy name ♪ | 7:25 | |
| ♪ Declare His glory ♪ | 7:30 | |
| ♪ Declare His glory ♪ | 7:32 | |
| ♪ In every nation ♪ | 7:34 | |
| ♪ Show forth His salvation ♪ | 7:38 | |
| ♪ His salvation ♪ | 7:43 | |
| ♪ Declare His glory ♪ | 7:50 | |
| ♪ Declare His glory ♪ | 7:52 | |
| ♪ Declare His glory ♪ | 7:54 | |
| ♪ To the nation ♪ | 7:57 | |
| ♪ And to all people ♪ | 8:00 | |
| ♪ Declare to all people ♪ | 8:05 | |
| (choir harmonizing) | 8:10 | |
| ♪ Glory ♪ | 8:13 | |
| ♪ Glory to God ♪ | 8:24 | |
| ♪ Glory ♪ | 8:29 | |
| (choir singing softly) | 8:53 | |
| Officiant | In the book of Amos, chapter five, | 9:32 |
| beginning at verse 18, we find these words: | 9:35 | |
| "woe to you who desire the day of the Lord. | 9:41 | |
| Why would you have the day of the Lord? | 9:46 | |
| It is darkness, not light. | 9:49 | |
| As if a man fled from a lion and a bear met him, | 9:53 | |
| or went into the house and leaned | 9:58 | |
| with his hand against the wall and a serpent bit him. | 10:00 | |
| Is not the day of the Lord darkness, and not light? | 10:05 | |
| And gloom with no brightness in it? | 10:10 | |
| I hate, I despise your feasts, | 10:14 | |
| and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies. | 10:16 | |
| Even though you offer me your burnt offerings | 10:20 | |
| and cereal offerings, I will not accept them. | 10:23 | |
| And the peace offerings of your fatted beasts, | 10:28 | |
| I will not look upon. | 10:31 | |
| Take away from me the noise of your songs | 10:34 | |
| to the melody of your harps. | 10:37 | |
| I will not listen. | 10:39 | |
| But let justice roll down like waters, | 10:42 | |
| and righteousness, like an ever lasting stream." | 10:47 | |
| Amen. | 10:53 | |
| (grand organ music) | 10:56 | |
| (choir singing softly) | 11:06 | |
| The Lord be with you. | 11:42 | |
| (congregation responds) | 11:44 | |
| Let us pray. | 11:46 | |
| God of our fathers and of our forefathers, | 11:54 | |
| we have come to you in worship | 11:58 | |
| to ask for the fulfillment of our needs, | 12:00 | |
| the needs of ourselves, and the needs of our fellows. | 12:04 | |
| Be to us, what our fathers have said that you were to them. | 12:09 | |
| We too, and our generation, | 12:15 | |
| are tossed about by storms and uncertainties of life, | 12:17 | |
| and we need a basic security. | 12:22 | |
| We long for justice, for righteousness, | 12:25 | |
| to roll down as an everlasting stream. | 12:29 | |
| For brotherhood, for peace. | 12:33 | |
| We need the strength to endure. | 12:36 | |
| Our forefathers have said that you were, to them, | 12:41 | |
| a pillar of cloud by day, and of fire by night, | 12:44 | |
| that you did lead them. | 12:47 | |
| That your word was a lamp under their feet | 12:49 | |
| and a light under their path. | 12:51 | |
| Be that to us, we too are pilgrims and pioneers, | 12:55 | |
| not able to predict the end of our journey, | 13:02 | |
| not knowing what we shall encounter along the way. | 13:04 | |
| Oh God of the pilgrims and the pioneers, | 13:09 | |
| lead us in paths of righteousness for your name's sake, | 13:13 | |
| lead us in the paths of progress, | 13:18 | |
| of sane order, of dynamic peace. | 13:20 | |
| Our fathers have called you King. | 13:27 | |
| And that is a strange word in our ears, | 13:31 | |
| but we pray that you will translate the meaning of that | 13:36 | |
| for us, for we too need a king. | 13:41 | |
| Your kind of king. | 13:46 | |
| And we pray that in the loud clamor of voices | 13:49 | |
| in the political conventions and in the back rooms | 13:52 | |
| where decisions are made, | 13:57 | |
| that your kingship may be made known, and made real. | 14:00 | |
| And then when we go into the voting booth, | 14:08 | |
| may we know that we are subjects in your kingdom. | 14:13 | |
| That you are the king, and that we are voting for your way | 14:17 | |
| and your righteousness and your justice and your peace. | 14:23 | |
| Oh God, our fathers have said that you were their friend, | 14:31 | |
| their unseen companion in life's journey, | 14:36 | |
| in whom they could confide. | 14:38 | |
| Be that to us, for we, too, need friendship. | 14:42 | |
| Oh God, while we bless your name for earthly friends | 14:47 | |
| who, by their care, add beauty to our lives, | 14:50 | |
| we still find a need to know a friendship | 14:55 | |
| beyond the earthly, | 14:58 | |
| to feel the everlasting arms beneath us, | 15:00 | |
| and even to speak unto you as a man speaks with a friend. | 15:04 | |
| Today, as we think of our sick, of our confused, | 15:10 | |
| the poor, the lonely, the dispossessed, the orphans, | 15:15 | |
| all the needy people of the world. | 15:22 | |
| We remember the testimony of our fathers, | 15:25 | |
| that you were, to them, a great physician, a savior, | 15:27 | |
| a friend, a heavenly Father, be that to us. | 15:34 | |
| We make our prayer in the name of your Son, Jesus, | 15:44 | |
| who has taught us when we pray together to say, | 15:46 | |
| our Father who art in heaven, | 15:51 | |
| hallowed be thy name, | 15:53 | |
| thy kingdom come, | 15:56 | |
| thy will be done, | 15:57 | |
| on earth as it is in heaven. | 15:59 | |
| Give us this day, | 16:02 | |
| our daily bread, | 16:03 | |
| and forgive us our trespasses, | 16:05 | |
| as we forgive those who trespass against us | 16:07 | |
| and lead us not into temptation, | 16:11 | |
| but deliver us from evil. | 16:13 | |
| For thine is the kingdom | 16:15 | |
| and the power and the glory, forever. | 16:17 | |
| Amen. | 16:21 | |
| Preacher | Last night, | 16:47 |
| Dr. Wilkinson was discussing with me | 16:49 | |
| the changes that have taken place in Duke University | 16:54 | |
| and also in this beautiful chapel and its congregation. | 16:59 | |
| And when I heard all that, | 17:06 | |
| I was reminded of a story from my own country. | 17:07 | |
| The story is told of two friends, | 17:18 | |
| both of whom were priests, and one friend was going away. | 17:20 | |
| So he asked the other one | 17:27 | |
| if he would come and, for the next three weeks, | 17:28 | |
| take services at his church. | 17:33 | |
| This friend agreed to do that, | 17:40 | |
| but did not have enough courage | 17:43 | |
| to speak to that congregation. | 17:46 | |
| So he came to that congregation on the first Friday, | 17:50 | |
| because that is when most of the Muslims worship. | 17:55 | |
| And he said, "do you all know what I'm going to say?" | 18:00 | |
| And of course the congregation said, "no, | 18:06 | |
| we do not know what you are going to say." | 18:10 | |
| So he said, "what's the use of telling you then?" | 18:12 | |
| And he closed the service and went home. | 18:16 | |
| Of course, they knew that he was supposed to come | 18:21 | |
| for two other services, so they will trap him. | 18:23 | |
| So, the second time, he came and he asked the same question, | 18:28 | |
| do you know what I'm going to say? | 18:33 | |
| And the congregation said, "yes, | 18:36 | |
| we know what you are going to say." | 18:39 | |
| So he said, "what's the use of my repeating it?" | 18:41 | |
| So the congregation said, | 18:46 | |
| "now, this man is not going to get us that easily." | 18:47 | |
| So when he came the third time, | 18:53 | |
| they had made up their mind to do certain things, | 18:56 | |
| which will force this man to say something from the pulpit. | 18:58 | |
| So he came and asked the same question. | 19:04 | |
| "Do you know what I'm going to say?" | 19:06 | |
| And half of the congregation said, "yes, | 19:09 | |
| we know what you are going to say." | 19:11 | |
| And half of the congregation said, "no, | 19:13 | |
| we do not know what you're going to say." | 19:14 | |
| So we thought for a moment, and he said, | 19:18 | |
| "those who know what I'm going to say | 19:19 | |
| should tell those who do not know what I'm going to say." | 19:22 | |
| (congregation laughs) | 19:25 | |
| And thereby he went home | 19:25 | |
| and did not have to expose himself to that congregation. | 19:27 | |
| Of course, I cannot embarrass my friend | 19:31 | |
| in doing the same thing to this congregation, | 19:35 | |
| because I am very grateful for this opportunity | 19:38 | |
| to come and worship in this beautiful chapel, | 19:42 | |
| where I used to worship as a graduate student, | 19:46 | |
| because the friendships and the love and respect | 19:51 | |
| that I developed for my colleagues here, | 19:55 | |
| and also some of my teachers, have reduced that distance | 19:58 | |
| which separates the east from the west. | 20:03 | |
| And I'm sure this has happened for a lot of other graduates | 20:07 | |
| of Duke University who are spread around the world. | 20:10 | |
| Duke contributed considerably to our development, | 20:15 | |
| and therefore it has not been easy for us | 20:19 | |
| to forget that contribution. | 20:21 | |
| As a matter of fact, | 20:24 | |
| whenever I get an opportunity to come to the United States, | 20:25 | |
| the first thing I can think about | 20:29 | |
| is, when will I go to Duke? | 20:31 | |
| Just last week when I was making plans to come here, | 20:35 | |
| incidentally, I am at the Duke of the east. | 20:38 | |
| They call it Harvard University, for the summer. | 20:43 | |
| So I was telling them how much love and respect | 20:46 | |
| we have for our own institution. | 20:49 | |
| And it is a great opportunity to come | 20:53 | |
| and worship this morning. | 20:56 | |
| And I'm very grateful to Dr. Wilkinson | 20:57 | |
| for having invited me to come here. | 21:01 | |
| As you probably know that the last year, | 21:05 | |
| and especially the last few months, | 21:09 | |
| have been, especially, very trying for Pakistan. | 21:12 | |
| Pakistan has passed through the experience | 21:17 | |
| of a civil strife, in which thousands of people | 21:20 | |
| lost their lives. | 21:25 | |
| She has suffered through a war | 21:28 | |
| in which the country is split into two, | 21:30 | |
| creating a independent state of Bangladesh. | 21:36 | |
| Its economy is shattered due to the war | 21:41 | |
| and the events of the last year. | 21:45 | |
| But the reason why I'm mentioning these things | 21:49 | |
| is to point out that here was a society, | 21:53 | |
| a political community, | 21:58 | |
| a nation. | 22:01 | |
| Which was brought forth | 22:03 | |
| due to very strong ties of religion, | 22:05 | |
| with tremendous idealism with regard to the role of religion | 22:11 | |
| in human society. | 22:15 | |
| The country came into being on a self-conscious | 22:19 | |
| ideological basis, having as its foundations, | 22:22 | |
| the teachings of the holy Koran | 22:28 | |
| and the great tradition of the Muslim religion. | 22:30 | |
| It was the largest Muslim nation, | 22:34 | |
| whose energies were to be devoted and directed | 22:37 | |
| towards the actualization of Islam in everyday life. | 22:42 | |
| The country was created with a mission, | 22:46 | |
| and the mission was to make religious ideology | 22:49 | |
| into a reality for the actual affairs | 22:55 | |
| of the running of the state. | 22:58 | |
| Religion was supposed to become the basis of the statehood, | 23:01 | |
| its social and economic life, and also its jurisprudence. | 23:07 | |
| Every sincere Muslim, for the last 23 to 25 years, | 23:15 | |
| had been struggling with the question | 23:22 | |
| as to how the basic principles of religion | 23:25 | |
| are to become the basis of statehood. | 23:30 | |
| How is it to provide for the creation | 23:34 | |
| of a just and humane society? | 23:37 | |
| How is religion to become, actually, | 23:41 | |
| a force for creating peace, justice, | 23:43 | |
| and community in that nation? | 23:47 | |
| All of you know that Islam, like Christianity, | 23:52 | |
| also believes that religion has great deal of relevance | 23:56 | |
| for man's social existence. | 24:00 | |
| That man's actual life as he lives in community | 24:04 | |
| can be organized according to those principles. | 24:07 | |
| Man stands before God and His majesty, | 24:12 | |
| in all the fullness of His life in its entirety, | 24:15 | |
| in His full integrity and wholeness. | 24:20 | |
| And no area of life, according to Islam, | 24:23 | |
| can be taken away before the presence of God. | 24:26 | |
| So Islam, in its true essence, provided for social | 24:33 | |
| and political organization of society. | 24:37 | |
| And this was the basis of the creation of Pakistan. | 24:41 | |
| But today, this idealism stands shattered. | 24:48 | |
| There is tremendous amount of disillusionment | 24:53 | |
| in our country, which has raised the fundamental question | 24:57 | |
| as to what is the role of religion in human affairs? | 25:03 | |
| Several things have happened in that society, | 25:09 | |
| which have created this disillusionment. | 25:11 | |
| Religion created a state, but could not hold it together. | 25:16 | |
| Religion, which was supposed to be a source of unity, | 25:24 | |
| actually became a source of disunity. | 25:28 | |
| Instead of creating a responsible society, | 25:33 | |
| it helped to create a society | 25:38 | |
| which evaded moral responsibility. | 25:40 | |
| Instead of becoming a source of social justice | 25:45 | |
| and economic equality and development of man, | 25:47 | |
| it became a justification for inequality in society. | 25:53 | |
| That inequalities and injustices finally divided the nation, | 25:58 | |
| created polarities and violence in the nation. | 26:04 | |
| And the religion kept paying lip service | 26:09 | |
| to the oneness of faith, oneness of religion, | 26:12 | |
| and oneness of belief. | 26:15 | |
| It mainly provided a justification for status quo | 26:20 | |
| and preservation of privilege. | 26:26 | |
| And this state of affairs created a tremendous division | 26:30 | |
| within the nation of Pakistan. | 26:35 | |
| It created a society of privilege. | 26:38 | |
| There were those who had privileges | 26:42 | |
| and those who did not have. | 26:44 | |
| There were those who had power | 26:45 | |
| and those who became subject to power. | 26:47 | |
| There were those who enjoyed the economic prosperity | 26:49 | |
| as it was moving forward, and those who were exploited | 26:53 | |
| in the name of unity and Islam. | 26:57 | |
| I made these preliminary remarks | 27:01 | |
| with regard to my own society, | 27:03 | |
| not to indicate the failure of a great religious tradition | 27:06 | |
| like the Muslim faith, | 27:11 | |
| but rather to show that mere lip service, | 27:13 | |
| our formal acceptance of religious beliefs, | 27:18 | |
| are not enough to provide for basic and fundamental problems | 27:22 | |
| of human life. | 27:26 | |
| This is true of Islam, it's true of Christianity, | 27:29 | |
| it's true of all religion. | 27:32 | |
| Religion only becomes real | 27:34 | |
| when it becomes operative religion in its contents. | 27:37 | |
| The real role of religion is to be on the side of the poor, | 27:43 | |
| the exploited and the excluded. | 27:48 | |
| And it can only do that when it becomes the basis | 27:52 | |
| for a social and economic justice. | 27:55 | |
| It was precisely this message | 28:00 | |
| that prophet Amos wanted to convey to his audience. | 28:04 | |
| To those who emphasize the formalistic aspects of religion | 28:10 | |
| and ignored its fundamental contents. | 28:16 | |
| Amos found Israel as a prosperous nation. | 28:21 | |
| The kingdom of Israel was never so prosperous | 28:27 | |
| than in the times of Jeroboam the second. | 28:30 | |
| Its commerce and its agriculture had expanded enormously. | 28:34 | |
| There was a new social and economic and political elite | 28:44 | |
| who exhibited new confidence and new pride. | 28:49 | |
| Social and economic changes in that kingdom | 28:55 | |
| were far reaching. | 28:57 | |
| New rich class had emerged. | 28:58 | |
| Great wealth was being made, | 29:01 | |
| which was often used in exhibitionist | 29:04 | |
| and conspicuous consumption. | 29:06 | |
| The main aim of this new class was to make money, | 29:10 | |
| even if the methods were often ruthless. | 29:14 | |
| The net result of this new prosperity | 29:18 | |
| was that a tremendous gulf was being created | 29:20 | |
| within the society. | 29:23 | |
| The rich were becoming very rich, | 29:25 | |
| and the poor were becoming very poor. | 29:28 | |
| The cry for justice and economic opportunity of the poor | 29:31 | |
| was often drowned by the merrymaking | 29:35 | |
| and the entertainment of the rich. | 29:37 | |
| The discontent of the poor and the exploited | 29:41 | |
| was often ignored. | 29:44 | |
| This explosive situation was there, | 29:47 | |
| but the confidence of the nation was still high. | 29:52 | |
| It did nothing to shake the confidence of the rich | 30:00 | |
| and the religious elite. | 30:03 | |
| But along with this commercial prosperity | 30:07 | |
| and the rise of new riches, | 30:13 | |
| went the prosperity in religion. | 30:19 | |
| Religion prospers along with commerce and agriculture. | 30:23 | |
| Religion flourished greatly in the land. | 30:28 | |
| It built new and magnificent shrines and temples. | 30:33 | |
| To practice religion. | 30:39 | |
| To make sacrifices and offer them regularly. | 30:41 | |
| The rich paid for the glamor in religion, | 30:45 | |
| regularly and proudly. | 30:47 | |
| There was a happy relationship | 30:50 | |
| between religion and commerce, | 30:51 | |
| between the king and the chief priest, | 30:54 | |
| between the citadels of social and economic power, | 30:57 | |
| and the guardians of religious practices. | 31:01 | |
| They mutually supported each other. | 31:05 | |
| The tragedy of this situation was | 31:08 | |
| that a society was being built | 31:11 | |
| on incredible oppression and injustice. | 31:14 | |
| And it was the same society that was the biggest supporter | 31:18 | |
| of religious establishment, and vice versa. | 31:21 | |
| One has to know the catalogs of social sins | 31:25 | |
| that the prophet condemned, | 31:29 | |
| in order to understand the hideousness of this alliance | 31:33 | |
| between religion and society. | 31:38 | |
| Amos charged, "they sell righteousness for silver, | 31:42 | |
| and the needy for a pair of shoes. | 31:46 | |
| They trample the head of the poor in dust, | 31:51 | |
| and turn aside the way of the afflicted. | 31:54 | |
| They build palaces on the ashes of the huts of the poor, | 31:59 | |
| they swallow up the needy and the poor. | 32:05 | |
| They take pride to deny the right and justice to the poor." | 32:08 | |
| These were just few of the incredible injustices | 32:14 | |
| and signs of exploitation, which was carried on in the land. | 32:18 | |
| Religion, instead of condemning it, | 32:24 | |
| had become a supporter and a justifier | 32:27 | |
| of this state of things. | 32:31 | |
| Religion began to satisfy people | 32:34 | |
| through more ritualism and formalism | 32:37 | |
| so that they would suffer through injustices | 32:40 | |
| without raising a cry. | 32:43 | |
| People were advised to wait for the day of the Lord, | 32:46 | |
| which was pictured as a day of rejoicing | 32:49 | |
| and triumph for everybody. | 32:52 | |
| Instead of asking the people | 32:55 | |
| to challenge the society built on exploitation of the poor | 32:57 | |
| and the exploitative advised them to wait for justice, | 33:01 | |
| in the day of the Lord. | 33:05 | |
| It was in this situation that God created a prophet. | 33:09 | |
| God sent a prophet. | 33:13 | |
| Amos appeared as a non-professional, | 33:15 | |
| without any credentials, | 33:19 | |
| but with a tremendous sense of urgency | 33:22 | |
| that destruction, desolation, violence, and bloodshed | 33:24 | |
| was at hand, | 33:30 | |
| if this state of injustice was not removed. | 33:31 | |
| He challenged the alliance | 33:39 | |
| between religion and commercial exploitation. | 33:40 | |
| He challenged the religious hierarchy | 33:45 | |
| to do something about this state of affairs. | 33:52 | |
| He was no professional. | 33:57 | |
| He was an ordinary layman. | 33:58 | |
| Ordinary man, ordinary man, | 34:01 | |
| simply, with a sense of understanding | 34:03 | |
| of God's action in history. | 34:05 | |
| He did not come from a prophetic class. | 34:08 | |
| He was no priest. | 34:11 | |
| When he is asked to give reason, | 34:14 | |
| he simply says, "I was no prophet, | 34:16 | |
| neither was I a prophet's son. | 34:19 | |
| I was an herdsman and a gatherer | 34:23 | |
| of the sycamore tree fruits." | 34:25 | |
| These are his credentials. | 34:28 | |
| He is strictly an outsider | 34:31 | |
| attacking the formalism of religion and social life. | 34:34 | |
| He's a prototype of modern outside agitators | 34:39 | |
| who go from places to places to condemn established order | 34:42 | |
| for its cruelty, injustice and callousness. | 34:47 | |
| Amos is close to a modern religious radical, | 34:51 | |
| speaking against the formalism, rigidity, and shallowness | 34:55 | |
| of the established religion. | 34:59 | |
| Therefore, Amos is terribly contemporary prophet | 35:02 | |
| for our age. | 35:05 | |
| He shakes the confidence of the religious | 35:08 | |
| and the political hierarchy | 35:09 | |
| by speaking the word of God, forthright. | 35:12 | |
| He must hold the religious hierarchy, | 35:16 | |
| that the day of the Lord | 35:19 | |
| is not going to be the day of rejoicing and merrymaking, | 35:20 | |
| but day of judgment and sorrow. | 35:25 | |
| Judgment upon those who have exploited the poor | 35:30 | |
| and the needy. | 35:33 | |
| Because the day of the Lord, he said, | 35:35 | |
| would be a day of justice and righteousness. | 35:37 | |
| It is on this basis that he condemned | 35:41 | |
| the formalism of religion, and its heartless cruelty, | 35:42 | |
| which took great pleasure in outward observances | 35:48 | |
| of religious practices, | 35:53 | |
| while ignoring judgemental aspects of religion, | 35:55 | |
| which condemn exploitation and injustice. | 35:59 | |
| He insisted that in the face of widespread injustice | 36:04 | |
| and oppression, and exploitation of the poor, | 36:09 | |
| there can be no practice of real religion. | 36:13 | |
| No man, no group, no society can meet with and worship God | 36:17 | |
| when his hands are soiled with the blood of the innocent, | 36:24 | |
| and its bank rolls go up | 36:27 | |
| because of the commercial exploitation of the poor. | 36:29 | |
| Amos also condemned the false confidence | 36:34 | |
| of the prosperous religion. | 36:36 | |
| People considered their prosperity | 36:41 | |
| as a special favor from God. | 36:44 | |
| But Amos saw in this prosperity, | 36:48 | |
| oppression and exploitation. | 36:50 | |
| He said that prosperity | 36:54 | |
| is not because of the practice of religion, | 36:57 | |
| but exploitation of the poor. | 37:00 | |
| Therefore, no formal worship and religious ritualism | 37:04 | |
| can save Israel from the judgment of God. | 37:09 | |
| He declares in the word of God, | 37:15 | |
| I hate, I despise your feasts. | 37:17 | |
| I take no delight. | 37:21 | |
| I loathe the smell of your solemn assemblies. | 37:22 | |
| Worship of God, prophet knew, was a genuine encounter, | 37:28 | |
| is a genuine encounter with God, | 37:33 | |
| and such an encounter can only take place | 37:36 | |
| through genuine repentance. | 37:39 | |
| What is acceptable to God is not a new form of worship, | 37:42 | |
| or even a new ritualism, but a new relationship. | 37:48 | |
| New relationship between God and man, and man and man. | 37:55 | |
| What God requires are just deeds, | 38:00 | |
| commensurate with the practice of religion. | 38:04 | |
| What he requires is a new order | 38:09 | |
| based on social and economic justice. | 38:12 | |
| What he requires is end of exploitation | 38:16 | |
| of the poor and the needy, | 38:18 | |
| because that is the essence of true religion. | 38:21 | |
| I think the book of Amos and the message of the prophet | 38:26 | |
| is a parable for our day. | 38:32 | |
| We, too, live in a world, a society, | 38:36 | |
| a political arrangement, very much similar | 38:40 | |
| to what the prophet condemned. | 38:43 | |
| Our world and its social order | 38:47 | |
| is based on fundamental inequalities. | 38:50 | |
| Two third of the world lives in dehumanizing poverty, | 38:54 | |
| while one third of the world lives in luxury | 39:00 | |
| and planned waste. | 39:02 | |
| These glaring inequalities and polarities | 39:05 | |
| are also evident on the national, | 39:09 | |
| as well as international scale. | 39:13 | |
| There are vast number of peoples in the world, even today, | 39:17 | |
| who live their lives under the conditions | 39:21 | |
| of worst exploitation. | 39:25 | |
| They live under the forces of imperialism, | 39:28 | |
| racism, and exploitation, | 39:31 | |
| which tend to deny their basic humanity. | 39:35 | |
| There are still forces of organized manipulation | 39:40 | |
| and exploitation, which rob societies and communities | 39:43 | |
| of all self-confidence and self-respect. | 39:47 | |
| Such a situation creates political imbalance, | 39:52 | |
| social dislocation, and maldistribution of resources, | 39:57 | |
| and opens up the life of the poor and the exploited | 40:02 | |
| to manipulation and domination, | 40:05 | |
| especially by the rich and the powerful. | 40:09 | |
| It simply concentrates social, economic, and political power | 40:13 | |
| in the hands of a tiny minority, | 40:17 | |
| which undertakes to use it for its own private ends. | 40:20 | |
| Net result of this is that people are prevented | 40:24 | |
| from being their own masters, | 40:28 | |
| prevented from making their own decisions, | 40:31 | |
| prevented to take responsibility for their own actions. | 40:34 | |
| Instead they've become subjects of worst exploitation, | 40:38 | |
| which destroys domestic and international peace. | 40:43 | |
| Can the church, Christian church, | 40:49 | |
| play a prophetic role in such a situation? | 40:52 | |
| Before we become too certain of the church's role | 40:56 | |
| in our time, we must not forget | 41:00 | |
| that vast majority of mankind | 41:04 | |
| has not experienced the Christian faith | 41:07 | |
| and the Christian church | 41:09 | |
| as a liberating and humanizing force, | 41:12 | |
| but as an ally of the forces of reaction, of imperialism, | 41:18 | |
| of exploitation, and of racism. | 41:23 | |
| Even now, these forces are operative | 41:27 | |
| in the life of the churches and around the world. | 41:29 | |
| Therefore, the first precondition | 41:35 | |
| for the church to be relevant to the needs of the poor, | 41:38 | |
| the exploited, and the excluded, | 41:41 | |
| is to clean her own life, | 41:47 | |
| and be liberated from these forces. | 41:49 | |
| What is required is a radical repentance | 41:53 | |
| on the part of the church, | 41:56 | |
| it must break the alliance with the forces of racism, | 41:59 | |
| exploitation, and domination. | 42:02 | |
| It must again become the faith, | 42:04 | |
| not simply of the respectable, | 42:07 | |
| the fashionable, and the exploiting classes, | 42:09 | |
| but must truly become the faith of the rejected, | 42:14 | |
| the exploited, and the persecuted. | 42:18 | |
| Then, only, will the church recover her credibility | 42:22 | |
| as the representative of He who died on the cross | 42:26 | |
| as a poor, rejected, and tried criminal, | 42:31 | |
| who stood on the side of the weak, | 42:36 | |
| who brought the excluded back to respectability, | 42:39 | |
| who ultimately gave His life | 42:44 | |
| to preserve the fundamental humanity of man. | 42:46 | |
| It is to such a prophetic task, that church is called. | 42:51 | |
| It cannot be content with the beauty of our own worship, | 42:57 | |
| the depth of our theology, | 43:02 | |
| the magnificence of our church structures. | 43:04 | |
| But church must, again, recover her credibility | 43:08 | |
| with the poor and the exploited. | 43:11 | |
| That will only happen through her deeds, | 43:14 | |
| and her commitment in the service | 43:18 | |
| of the poor and the exploited. | 43:20 | |
| Then, only, will the church be able to perform | 43:23 | |
| the prophetic task of bringing God's judgment | 43:26 | |
| upon those who dehumanize man in our world. | 43:30 | |
| Let us pray. | 43:35 | |
| Oh God, our Father, | 43:42 | |
| help us to face the realities of our life, | 43:45 | |
| and of our own degradation. | 43:50 | |
| Give us courage to face thy judgment on us | 43:53 | |
| and upon those who have made alliance with exploitation. | 43:56 | |
| Save all of us, | 44:03 | |
| that thy mercy and judgment and righteousness | 44:05 | |
| be upon all of us. | 44:08 | |
| May we be judged by thy mercy, and by thy righteousness. | 44:10 | |
| In thy holy name, we pray. | 44:14 | |
| Amen. | 44:16 | |
| (grand organ music) | 44:20 | |
| (choir singing) | 45:01 | |
| (gentle organ music) | 48:07 | |
| (choir singing acapella) | 49:45 | |
| (grand organ music) | 53:52 | |
| (choir singing) | 54:33 | |
| ♪ Alleluia, Alleluia ♪ | 54:43 | |
| Officiant | Almighty God, we are here at this altar, | 55:31 |
| the symbol of your presence in our midst, | 55:35 | |
| to make this dedication of self and money. | 55:38 | |
| Praying that the offering of ourselves and of our goods | 55:42 | |
| may contribute not to the building up | 55:48 | |
| of meaningless religious assemblies, | 55:50 | |
| but of meaningful religious righteousness | 55:53 | |
| throughout the earth. | 55:57 | |
| Through Jesus Christ, our Lord. | 55:59 | |
| Now may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with us all. | 56:07 | |
| ♪ Amen, Amen ♪ | 56:17 | |
| ♪ Amen, Amen ♪ | 56:24 | |
| ♪ Amen ♪ | 56:37 | |
| ♪ Amen ♪ | 56:45 | |
| ♪ Amen ♪ | 56:58 | |
| (bell ringing) | 57:09 | |
| (grand organ music) | 57:28 |