Robert L. Johnson - "Faith as Vision" (April 29, 1973)
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Transcript
Transcripts may contain inaccuracies.
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- | Grace be to you and peace from God, our Father, | 3:28 |
and from the Lord, Jesus Christ. | 3:32 | |
Christians are a people who believe | 3:35 | |
that life is a gift from God. | 3:37 | |
A gift to be accepted joyfully and shared freely. | 3:40 | |
We affirm here that we have been given life, | 3:44 | |
but most of us have not truly lived. | 3:48 | |
We have used our lives with reckless unconcern | 3:51 | |
as though they belong to us and to us alone. | 3:54 | |
By our own fault, we have abandoned the fountain of waters | 3:59 | |
and we have built broken reservoirs which hold no water. | 4:04 | |
We speak well of love and we curse our enemies. | 4:08 | |
We take pride in freedom | 4:13 | |
even as we slide into new slaveries. | 4:15 | |
We cry out against exploitation | 4:18 | |
as we exploit our selves and our neighbor. | 4:20 | |
Therefore, we assemble before God to halt our haste | 4:25 | |
and to attempt together to open ourselves | 4:30 | |
to the possibilities of the call of God | 4:33 | |
to come back again to the Father's healing love. | 4:35 | |
And therefore, confident, that if we truly | 4:40 | |
and earnestly confess the state of our lives | 4:43 | |
before that love, they will be forgiven, restored, | 4:46 | |
and returned to us with new meaning and with hope. | 4:51 | |
Let us unite in our unison prayer of confession. | 4:55 | |
Let us confess our sins together before God. | 5:06 | |
Oh God of grace and love, we unburden ourselves before you, | 5:11 | |
out of a need of great mercy for we have sinned | 5:17 | |
and done much evil in your sight. | 5:20 | |
We have lied to ourselves and worn mask | 5:23 | |
and not trusted in love. | 5:27 | |
We have been unfaithful to the goodness in others. | 5:30 | |
We have dealt as misers with hope. | 5:33 | |
We have been seeking the pleasures that give us no joy, | 5:37 | |
seeking the securities that give us no peace, | 5:41 | |
seeking the community that gives us no love. | 5:44 | |
Without you, we are but broken pieces of persons. | 5:48 | |
In your mercy, forgive us, mend us | 5:52 | |
and give us over to the uses of love, | 5:56 | |
through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. | 5:59 | |
Let us hear these assuring words daily and hourly. | 6:05 | |
And in this moment of God's good and forgiving grace, | 6:11 | |
we are forgiven. | 6:16 | |
God the father gives it. Jesus Christ reveals it. | 6:18 | |
The holy spirit bears it to us and to all men. | 6:23 | |
Grace is in us. | 6:27 | |
Angels may dance in our blood. | 6:30 | |
The lame walk. The sick be healed. The mountains rejoice. | 6:33 | |
This is the acceptable time of the Lord. | 6:38 | |
Now is the day of the Lord's favor. | 6:42 | |
Your prayers are heard. Your sins are forgiven. | 6:46 | |
Your life is open. You are free to be a servant of love. | 6:50 | |
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, | 6:56 | |
and to the Holy Spirit. Amen. | 6:59 | |
Let us offer unto God the prayer of all Christians, | 7:03 | |
that our Lord taught us to pray together saying, | 7:07 | |
Our Father, Who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. | 7:10 | |
Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done | 7:15 | |
on earth as it is in heaven. | 7:18 | |
Give us this day our daily bread, | 7:21 | |
and forgive us our trespasses | 7:24 | |
as we forgive those who trespass against us. | 7:26 | |
And lead us not into temptation, | 7:30 | |
but deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom, | 7:32 | |
and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen. | 7:37 | |
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♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪ | 8:35 | |
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♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪ | 9:33 | |
♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪ | 9:36 | |
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♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪ | 9:51 | |
♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪ | 9:56 | |
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♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪ | 12:10 | |
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♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪ | 12:23 | |
♪ Hallelujah, hallelujah ♪ | 12:39 | |
The Lord be with you. | 13:27 | |
Let us pray. | 13:31 | |
Let us offer unto God our unison collect for the church. | 13:33 | |
Oh, gracious Father, we humbly beseech you | 13:40 | |
for your Holy Church Universal, | 13:43 | |
that you would be pleased to fill it | 13:46 | |
with all truth and all peace. | 13:47 | |
Where it is corrupt, purify it. | 13:51 | |
Where it is an error, direct it. | 13:54 | |
Where in anything it is a miss, reform it. | 13:57 | |
Where it is right, establish it. | 14:01 | |
Where it is in want, provide for it. | 14:04 | |
Where it is divided, reunite it. | 14:07 | |
For the sake of Him who died and rose again, | 14:10 | |
Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. | 14:14 | |
- | The old Testament lesson is found in Habakkuk 2:1-4. | 14:25 |
"I will take my stand to watch | 14:33 | |
and station myself on the tower | 14:35 | |
and look forward to see what he will say to me | 14:37 | |
and what I will answer concerning my complaint. | 14:41 | |
And the Lord answered me, | 14:45 | |
'Write the vision, make it plain upon tablets. | 14:47 | |
So he may run who reads it. | 14:51 | |
For still the vision awaits its time. | 14:54 | |
It hastens to the end. | 14:57 | |
It will not lie, for if it seems slow, wait for it. | 14:59 | |
It will surely come, it will not delay. | 15:05 | |
Behold, he whose soul is upright in him shall fail. | 15:09 | |
But the righteous shall live by his faith.'" | 15:14 | |
Reading from the Gospel of Matthew 13:10-17, | 15:20 | |
"Then the disciples came and said to him, | 15:28 | |
'Why do you speak to them in parables?' | 15:31 | |
And he answered them, 'To you, it has been given | 15:34 | |
to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, | 15:38 | |
but to them, it has not been given. | 15:41 | |
For to him who has, will more be given, | 15:44 | |
and he will have abundance. | 15:48 | |
But from him who has not, | 15:50 | |
even what he has will be taken away. | 15:52 | |
This is why I speak to them in parables. | 15:56 | |
Because seeing they do not see | 15:59 | |
and hearing they do not hear nor do they understand.' | 16:01 | |
With them indeed has fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah | 16:07 | |
which says, 'You shall indeed hear but never understand. | 16:10 | |
And you shall indeed see, but never perceive.' | 16:16 | |
For this people's heart has grown dull | 16:20 | |
and their ears are heavy of hearing | 16:23 | |
and their eyes they have closed. | 16:26 | |
Lest they should perceive with their eyes, | 16:28 | |
and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, | 16:31 | |
and turn for me to heal them. | 16:36 | |
But blessed are your eyes for they see, | 16:40 | |
and your ears for they hear. | 16:44 | |
Truly, I say to you, many prophets and righteous men long | 16:47 | |
to see what you see and did not see it. | 16:52 | |
And to hear what you hear and did not hear it.'" | 16:56 | |
Here ends the reading of this morning's lesson. | 17:00 | |
(orchestra music) | 17:04 | |
(orchestra music drowns choir) | 17:13 | |
- | Let us affirm our faith. | 17:46 |
We believe in God who has created and is creating, | 17:48 | |
who has come in the true man, Jesus, | 17:53 | |
to reconcile and make new. | 17:56 | |
Who works in us and others by his spirit. | 17:59 | |
We trust him. He calls us to be in his church, | 18:02 | |
to celebrate his presence, to love and serve others, | 18:06 | |
to seek justice and resist evil, | 18:11 | |
to proclaim Jesus crucified and risen, | 18:14 | |
our judge and our hope, in life, in death, | 18:18 | |
in life beyond death, God is with us. | 18:22 | |
We are not alone. Thanks be to God. | 18:26 | |
Let us offer unto God our prayers of thanksgiving, | 18:39 | |
intercession and petition. | 18:42 | |
O glorious God, | 18:49 | |
You who art the giver of every good and perfect gift. | 18:52 | |
We give Thee thanks for this green time and the sun. | 18:59 | |
For the walks of love, for small children, | 19:04 | |
for shelter from the storm, and for the blessings of sleep. | 19:09 | |
Our five and urgent senses praise you, oh God. | 19:15 | |
For the large and growing summer sites, | 19:20 | |
for sweet airs to smell, for sounds within sounds, | 19:23 | |
and for gifts within gifts. | 19:29 | |
We praise you oh Lord for all the times and the places | 19:33 | |
where men have set compassion before hate | 19:37 | |
and have accepted for the sake of us all, | 19:40 | |
more than their share of the wounds | 19:43 | |
and the sorrow of the world. | 19:46 | |
Our hearts praise You for suffering transformed, | 19:49 | |
for sorrow comforted, and for joy extravagantly given. | 19:53 | |
Our minds praise you for the disciplines of learning, | 19:59 | |
for the conversations of wisdom, | 20:03 | |
and for the parables of truth that have been given to us. | 20:06 | |
And our souls, oh Lord, praise you | 20:12 | |
for your love endlessly persuading us out of our darkness | 20:15 | |
and into Your marvelous light. | 20:20 | |
We've glorify You, our Father, | 20:23 | |
that undergirding all of Earth's seeming life, | 20:25 | |
all chaos and all calm, | 20:29 | |
all clamor and silence is your peace. | 20:32 | |
Awesome, amazing and eternal for us. | 20:36 | |
Oh Lord, in whom the twisted things are straightened, | 20:44 | |
the crippled are enliven and made whole, blind men see, | 20:49 | |
and the slain arise in resurrection. | 20:54 | |
We lift our prayers for our brothers | 20:58 | |
and our sisters across your world. | 21:01 | |
We remember before you, oh God, those who are old, | 21:05 | |
whose silver thread shine now with honor | 21:10 | |
and whose golden anniversaries sing with joy. | 21:13 | |
Those who have enough health and money, | 21:17 | |
who have found wisdom and learned patience | 21:20 | |
and journeyed in faith, may your love be in their lives | 21:22 | |
and bless their condition. | 21:27 | |
Oh God of all ages, who would not forget the old | 21:31 | |
whose health fails, whose children fail, | 21:35 | |
and whose courage fail. | 21:38 | |
Those who must worry to their dying day about bills. | 21:41 | |
Those who feel unwanted and unneeded | 21:45 | |
and who have not found faith. | 21:49 | |
May your love break through their condition | 21:52 | |
and quench their hunger and bring peace. | 21:55 | |
Oh God of the strong, | 22:00 | |
we remember those who are in the prime of life. | 22:02 | |
Those whose work prospers, whose families are happy, | 22:06 | |
who eat the fruit of competence and achievement, | 22:10 | |
who are glad to be who they are, | 22:13 | |
who look back with satisfaction and ahead with anticipation. | 22:16 | |
May your power bless their condition | 22:20 | |
and sustain them in hope and in joy. | 22:23 | |
Oh God, we would not forget before you | 22:28 | |
those whose work is frustrating. | 22:30 | |
Those who discover in themselves a wound | 22:33 | |
which will never heal. | 22:36 | |
Whose marriage hurts or breaks. | 22:38 | |
Those whose friends move away or fade away. | 22:42 | |
Those who wish they were somebody else. | 22:46 | |
May your love, our Father, break through their condition | 22:50 | |
and quench their need and bring peace. | 22:53 | |
We remember before you, our Father, | 22:58 | |
the children of the world. | 23:00 | |
Those who slurp their milk | 23:02 | |
and crawl on the cool, summer grass. | 23:04 | |
Who stagger with their first hilarious steps. | 23:07 | |
The eager children who play ball | 23:10 | |
and climb trees and ride bikes. | 23:12 | |
Who get in fights and play games. | 23:15 | |
The laughing, crying children whose hugs and kisses | 23:17 | |
and tears are food and drink to so many of us. | 23:21 | |
May your grace hallow their growth. | 23:26 | |
We would not forget, oh God, our Father, | 23:30 | |
the children who have no milk to drink. | 23:32 | |
Who run from the whine of jet engines | 23:35 | |
and scream at the whistle of bombs. | 23:38 | |
Those who crawl on hot streets where there are no trees. | 23:41 | |
Those whose bodies and spirits slowly starve | 23:45 | |
in migrant shacks and in tenant farms. | 23:48 | |
May your love, through our actions, | 23:53 | |
break through their condition, | 23:55 | |
quench their hunger and bring peace. | 23:58 | |
Oh Lord of our lives, we ask your presence | 24:04 | |
and your power for ourselves and our needs. | 24:07 | |
We pray for those of us who are so burdened | 24:11 | |
with the sins of mediocrity or guilt | 24:13 | |
that we cannot let go of supposed securities | 24:16 | |
for fear that justice would strip us naked. | 24:20 | |
Ever loving Father, give us other ground to stand on. | 24:24 | |
Show us that to renounce complicity to our lower selves | 24:28 | |
is the beginning of true security | 24:32 | |
in the community of Christ. | 24:35 | |
Lord, we pray for strength in our own troubles. | 24:38 | |
Oh, judge of history, | 24:42 | |
you have let trouble surround us and enter into us. | 24:43 | |
Some of us are tired. Some of us are in pain. | 24:47 | |
Some of us are sometimes near despair. | 24:51 | |
Send your spirit to each one of us | 24:54 | |
and underneath our flagging faith, | 24:57 | |
put an energy from outside us, we pray. | 24:59 | |
Hold us fast in the love of the community, | 25:03 | |
remembering that everything we suffer and endure | 25:06 | |
has already been suffered and survived by Christ, | 25:10 | |
who is our Lord. | 25:13 | |
We would remember Jesus before you, Oh God, our Father. | 25:16 | |
We remember the simplicity of his life. | 25:21 | |
Oh God, without self punishment, | 25:25 | |
he reduced his needs to a minimum. | 25:28 | |
His message was short. | 25:31 | |
He did not travel far nor live long. | 25:33 | |
Give us, we ask, oh God, his disciples, | 25:37 | |
a share of his simplicity and truthfulness | 25:41 | |
so that our success may be of the same kind as His success. | 25:45 | |
And our failure may be measured by His failure. | 25:50 | |
In His name, we ask these and all things. Amen. | 25:55 | |
We welcome to the University Service of Worship | 26:08 | |
and to the University pulpit, | 26:12 | |
the Reverend Robert L. Johnson, | 26:14 | |
the director of the Wesley Foundation | 26:17 | |
at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. | 26:19 | |
- | For most of us, as Protestants, | 26:35 |
faith is a matter of hearing, as Martin Luther put it, | 26:38 | |
faith is an acoustical affair. | 26:44 | |
We are nurtured through preaching, | 26:50 | |
through reading the Bible, | 26:53 | |
through the study of the catechism, through theology. | 26:56 | |
For Protestants, religion has been a verbal, propositional, | 27:01 | |
sometimes noisy affair. | 27:07 | |
The believer had to hear in order to be saved, | 27:11 | |
but that is not the whole story | 27:18 | |
of the human encounter with the divine. | 27:22 | |
The ear is not the only channel of grace, | 27:27 | |
else we would not have Giottos Frescoes at Assisi | 27:33 | |
or the Cathedral at Char, | 27:39 | |
or the great vaulted space of this chapel. | 27:42 | |
Cathedrals were built for people who did not read or write, | 27:48 | |
who were yet unaddicted to words. | 27:54 | |
While we continue to be dominated too often, | 28:00 | |
by the notion that faith | 28:04 | |
is a matter of hearing and believing, | 28:06 | |
of ear and mind. | 28:10 | |
We cannot escape the fact that biblical faith | 28:14 | |
from beginning to end is about seeing and caring. | 28:18 | |
About heart and about eyes. | 28:26 | |
Unfortunately, our worship too often betrays | 28:32 | |
this larger range of faithful experience. | 28:35 | |
We are overly bound to words. | 28:41 | |
The pulpit, and the book, and the sermon dominate | 28:45 | |
both our architecture and our liturgy. | 28:52 | |
But we cannot forget a rich history of celebration | 28:59 | |
in which one worships through dramatic gesture, | 29:06 | |
through touch, through taste, | 29:11 | |
through smell, through silence. | 29:15 | |
Most especially at the Eucharist, | 29:20 | |
the words of the Psalmist come alive, | 29:25 | |
oh taste and see that the Lord is good. | 29:29 | |
And in our church tradition, we have given the task | 29:37 | |
of interpreting, of communicating, | 29:41 | |
and clarifying the faith to a discipline called theology. | 29:44 | |
Theologos. | 29:49 | |
But why not a discipline of theographica | 29:52 | |
that takes the visual image | 29:59 | |
as seriously as the written word. | 30:02 | |
The eye as seriously as the ear. | 30:06 | |
Matthew's lesson this morning suggests | 30:12 | |
that Jesus' use of parables | 30:17 | |
recognize this fact of our deadend and limited perceptions. | 30:21 | |
You shall indeed hear, but not understand. | 30:29 | |
You shall indeed see, but not perceive. | 30:35 | |
Your hearts have grown dull and your ears heavy of hearing. | 30:39 | |
Lest you should perceive with your eyes | 30:44 | |
and hear with your ears. | 30:48 | |
The experience of salvation as proclaimed by Jesus, | 30:53 | |
salvare, meaning to be healed, to be in good health. | 30:58 | |
This experience Jesus taught is a way | 31:04 | |
to a totally fresh perception of our world. | 31:09 | |
It means new birth, second sight, a third ear, | 31:15 | |
a vision that penetrates the ordinariness of the world | 31:23 | |
to the core and substance of life. | 31:28 | |
It is the difference Carlos Castaneda notes | 31:33 | |
between mirror looking and seeing. | 31:38 | |
All of this is hard for us to take in | 31:46 | |
because our perceptions are skewed. | 31:50 | |
We have put the accent on hearing and believing | 31:55 | |
on words, on priests, on systems, | 32:01 | |
rather than on passion, insight, vision. | 32:06 | |
And Jesus ask of us not what do you believe | 32:14 | |
or what do you say, | 32:17 | |
but what do you see? What do you care for? | 32:21 | |
Faith begins less as an act of the mind or the will | 32:28 | |
than an act of the imagination. | 32:37 | |
A faithful person lives on another level, | 32:42 | |
aesthetically, rationally, morally, spiritually. | 32:48 | |
And we are called in our faith, | 32:55 | |
as in the letter to Ephesians, | 32:59 | |
"Awake, O sleeper from the dead, | 33:02 | |
the call that echoes through Bach's great Cantata, | 33:08 | |
Wachet Auf. | 33:13 | |
To be saved, to be healed, is to see afresh. | 33:17 | |
And so it was with Jesus. | 33:26 | |
He saw something new on the horizon of history. | 33:30 | |
He named it the kingdom of God. | 33:35 | |
The rule of forgiving law. | 33:38 | |
He saw it like a great underground current, | 33:42 | |
like an invisible structure, | 33:45 | |
like a seed bed of new consciousness. | 33:48 | |
And while some would gladly see it | 33:53 | |
and give themselves to it, | 33:56 | |
others would fail to sense the claim of the kingdom. | 33:59 | |
Some seeds would fall on rocky ground. | 34:05 | |
Some would be devoured by the birds. | 34:09 | |
Some would be scorched by the sun or choked out by weeds. | 34:13 | |
A few would send down roots | 34:18 | |
and become trees of insight sustained by grace. | 34:23 | |
But why did it have to be this way? | 34:30 | |
Why could not everyone see? | 34:35 | |
Why could not Jesus simply have laid out | 34:40 | |
a four full plan of salvation? | 34:43 | |
Could it be that He was less interested | 34:48 | |
in telling people what to believe | 34:52 | |
than in equipping them to see for themselves? | 34:56 | |
Can you not read, He set the signs of the times? | 35:03 | |
How ironic it is that religion, especially in the south, | 35:10 | |
has come to mean for many a set of blinders, | 35:18 | |
restricting vision rather than enlarging. | 35:23 | |
But the gospel Christ lived was not a set of blinders, | 35:28 | |
but a lens to greater vision. | 35:36 | |
And we can never forget that first preaching | 35:42 | |
to the home folk in Nazareth. | 35:45 | |
When Jesus identified his mission | 35:49 | |
as a mission of release to the captives. | 35:52 | |
Sight to the blind. Liberty to the oppressed. | 35:57 | |
The claim of the Christian community through the ages | 36:06 | |
is a qualitative difference in conversion. | 36:10 | |
The scales have been removed. | 36:16 | |
I once was blind, but now I see. | 36:20 | |
But what is seen, what is the range of Christian vision? | 36:27 | |
I take as my clue to answering this question, | 36:35 | |
the way in which Jesus pointed to the love commandment | 36:40 | |
as the sum and substance of the law and the prophets, | 36:45 | |
and the beginning point of faith | 36:50 | |
in which it is said that faith is more than asset | 36:54 | |
to doctrine or the response of will to law. | 36:57 | |
It is the reach of heart, and mind, and soul, and body. | 37:02 | |
It is the passionate encounter of the whole person | 37:09 | |
in what Paul Tillich called | 37:14 | |
A state of being ultimately concerned. | 37:16 | |
It is described by Luther | 37:20 | |
as those things the heart clings to. | 37:22 | |
It is suggested in the German root of the word belief, | 37:27 | |
(speaking German) | 37:32 | |
The act of holding deep. | 37:34 | |
Through such an act, in such a state we are given, | 37:39 | |
as William Blake says, "Eyes of flesh, eyes of fire, | 37:44 | |
in which we burn through the ordinariness of the world | 37:51 | |
and see wonders and terrors, | 37:55 | |
miracles and fresh moral possibilities. | 37:57 | |
Indeed, the lamp, the eye is the lamp of the soul." | 38:03 | |
Consider then the full range of such faithful vision. | 38:15 | |
There is surely a rational dimension to the vision | 38:23 | |
in which our minds love the creator | 38:28 | |
through exploring the manifold dimensions of the creation, | 38:31 | |
probing, discerning order and process, | 38:37 | |
change and continuity, | 38:42 | |
such vision being the discipline of the scientist, | 38:47 | |
questing ever for new meanings beyond established patterns. | 38:52 | |
It governed Copernicus in exploring an expanded universe. | 39:00 | |
It spurred Columbus daring venture into roundness. | 39:07 | |
It was the sustaining power of the old Galileo | 39:14 | |
as he was hold before the fathers of the inquisition | 39:20 | |
in a dark, old church in Rome | 39:23 | |
and asked to recant his teachings on the geometry of motion. | 39:27 | |
69-year-old Galileo recant, | 39:34 | |
but an observer on the scene noted that as he shuffled off | 39:40 | |
from the witness stand, he was heard to mumble, | 39:44 | |
"It still moves. It still moves." | 39:51 | |
He had seen something the fathers of the inquisition | 39:57 | |
could not see. | 40:02 | |
There is as well, a creative, | 40:06 | |
aesthetic dimension to our vision, | 40:11 | |
that special sight given to artists, | 40:15 | |
the capacity to see beauty in ever new forms, | 40:19 | |
the sight that is exhibited in the remarkable drawings | 40:24 | |
of da Vinci or in Michelangelo's vision | 40:30 | |
of a David lurking beneath that piece of defective marble | 40:36 | |
in the courtyard of the cathedral at Florence. | 40:42 | |
It is the power ever to see reality | 40:47 | |
from a fresh angle in new perspective. | 40:50 | |
For the artist can never say, a tree is a tree is a tree. | 40:53 | |
You've seen one tree. You've seen them all. | 41:01 | |
Because Grandma Moses' tree is not van Gogh's tree. | 41:05 | |
Picasso's man is not Rembrandt's man. | 41:12 | |
Zorba the Greek had just this kind of creative vision. | 41:18 | |
And Kazantzakis cherished Zorba as a friend and companion | 41:27 | |
because he constantly delivered him | 41:35 | |
from academics sterility. | 41:37 | |
He had wrote Kazantzakis' | 41:41 | |
"Just what a pen pusher needs for deliverance." | 41:44 | |
The primordial glance which seizes | 41:49 | |
its nourishment arrow-like from on high. | 41:53 | |
The creative artlessness renewed each morning | 41:58 | |
which enabled him to see all things constantly | 42:03 | |
as for the first time | 42:07 | |
and to bequeath virginity to the eternal elements | 42:10 | |
of air, fire, ocean, water, woman, bread. | 42:16 | |
How desperate academic life needs to be delivered | 42:29 | |
from such staleness | 42:35 | |
by the gifts of the artists and the poets. | 42:38 | |
Beyond the rational and aesthetic angles of vision, | 42:46 | |
there is the moral dimension. | 42:51 | |
The sight given to Moses with his people in bondage, | 42:55 | |
the sight that was generated in anger | 43:01 | |
as he saw a Hebrew slave struck by an Egyptian master. | 43:06 | |
And as the anger grew, the bush burn, | 43:13 | |
and Moses saw a way out. Exodus. | 43:18 | |
The same experience of the young Illinois lawyer | 43:24 | |
who made the trip to New Orleans, | 43:30 | |
and for the first time, experienced a slave market, | 43:31 | |
in which families were separated on the block | 43:37 | |
and a mother went to a Mississippi plantation, | 43:40 | |
and a daughter to Alabama. | 43:44 | |
And Abraham Lincoln found the same anger growing | 43:47 | |
and resaw someday to strike. | 43:53 | |
And he saw a way out in emancipation. | 43:57 | |
It was the vision of Gandhi in India | 44:04 | |
to see beyond British rule. | 44:06 | |
It was the sight of Martin King, | 44:10 | |
who on the eve of his death in Memphis said, | 44:13 | |
"I may not be able to make it with you, | 44:19 | |
but I have seen the promise land | 44:24 | |
and you as a people will make it." | 44:30 | |
Why is it given only to a few to see what Moses, | 44:37 | |
and Gandhi, and King saw? | 44:45 | |
John Oman, a late British theologian once said | 44:51 | |
that a Christian is one for whom to see is to do. | 44:58 | |
For whom the impulse of compassion is translated | 45:06 | |
into the deeds of justice. | 45:11 | |
It is the capacity to see ourselves in the binds, | 45:15 | |
in the hurts of others. | 45:20 | |
And yet we are accursed with what Gunnar Myrdal called | 45:25 | |
The blindness of convenience. | 45:31 | |
That phrase appearing in an American dilemma | 45:35 | |
about the racial situation in America. | 45:39 | |
We are cursed with the blindness of convenience. | 45:43 | |
And so a courageous Southern governor, | 45:49 | |
now Senator, Hollings, confessed that his determination | 45:52 | |
to bring industry into South Carolina | 45:58 | |
blinded him to the fact | 46:01 | |
of abject hunger and malnutrition | 46:07 | |
in the people of Buford County. | 46:12 | |
It is so difficult for us to see ourselves | 46:17 | |
in relation to neighbor. | 46:22 | |
Are we not there, very much there | 46:25 | |
in the parable of the good Samaritan? | 46:28 | |
Following the best and the brightest of our culture | 46:32 | |
along the other side, | 46:37 | |
blind to the American Indian, | 46:41 | |
blind to the unseen Cambodians 25,000 miles | 46:45 | |
below our bombers. | 46:50 | |
And does not something in us resonate | 46:54 | |
with the defensive response of those charged | 46:58 | |
in the parable of final judgment? | 47:02 | |
Lord, when did we see the naked, or hungry, or in prison? | 47:05 | |
Not in our neighborhood. | 47:16 | |
It is worth remembering the remarkable strategy employed | 47:20 | |
by the prophet Nathan, as he trapped King David into seeing | 47:26 | |
what he had done in taking Bathsheba from her husband Uriah. | 47:33 | |
And sending Uriah into the battle lines to be killed. | 47:40 | |
The prophet did not directly accused David, | 47:46 | |
but employed a certain guy in telling the king | 47:50 | |
of a story of a rich man and a poor man. | 47:55 | |
And the poor man had a single ewe lamb | 48:00 | |
which he loved very much. | 48:03 | |
And the rich man came along | 48:06 | |
and took the lamb to entertain a guest. | 48:08 | |
In hearing the story, David was in rage. | 48:13 | |
Surely this man shall die. | 48:16 | |
And all that was left was for the prophet Nathan | 48:20 | |
to stick in the stiletto of judgment and say, | 48:23 | |
"You are the man. | 48:28 | |
Judgment and moral sight come to most of us that way, | 48:34 | |
obliquely and indirectly, as our imaginations are caught up | 48:41 | |
in the hurts of others. | 48:46 | |
The range of vision is not yet complete. | 48:52 | |
The unrational and aesthetic and moral sight, | 48:57 | |
there is yet another dimension that is difficult, | 49:02 | |
if not impossible to describe. | 49:07 | |
Whatever you call it, mystic sight or spiritual sight, | 49:11 | |
it involves a sense of transcendence or otherness | 49:19 | |
that transforms our relationship to ourselves, | 49:27 | |
to our brothers and sisters, to the whole life process. | 49:32 | |
The Greek root of the word mystic, | 49:38 | |
suggests a closing of the eyes. | 49:43 | |
A shutting out of external reality | 49:48 | |
to be aware of another inward reality. | 49:51 | |
We find ourselves, the great Venerable Bede said, | 49:58 | |
"Like birds flying into a lighted room out of the dark | 50:02 | |
for a moment in the light and then again into the dark." | 50:09 | |
But for that moment, something is seen, | 50:16 | |
the light shines, there is inward clarity. | 50:21 | |
Paul falls off that horse on the road to Damascus. | 50:26 | |
Blind, but now knowing who he is and what he is about. | 50:31 | |
John Wesley at Aldersgate knew something | 50:41 | |
then he did not know with the Indians in Georgia | 50:44 | |
or with the Moravians in the storm at sea. | 50:49 | |
Call it grace, call it insight, call it ultimate acceptance. | 50:55 | |
It remains the turning point in perception. | 51:02 | |
It struck Augustine as he held up before himself | 51:09 | |
the mirror of an indulgent life. | 51:14 | |
It struck Pascal as he hung for a breathless moment | 51:20 | |
out the door of a speeding horse carriage | 51:26 | |
over a bridge in Paris | 51:30 | |
and the prospect of death was before him. | 51:31 | |
Such moments are moments of revelation. | 51:37 | |
And because of them, we see our way more clearly. | 51:42 | |
Such vision may come to us in ways | 51:50 | |
and circumstances we cannot predict nor control. | 51:54 | |
It may be in a moment of solitude. | 52:00 | |
It may be in the crash of a great crowd. | 52:02 | |
It may be when we hear a word of comfort | 52:06 | |
or it may be in the midst of a grave | 52:09 | |
and terrible disappointment. | 52:12 | |
Or it may come not in words, but in pregnant silences | 52:15 | |
such as, it came to Joe, and St. Francis, | 52:22 | |
and Dag Hamarskjold. | 52:30 | |
But however, and whenever such vision comes, | 52:33 | |
count yourselves blessed, that in the great mystery of life, | 52:39 | |
you have been given eyes to see and ears to hear. | 52:46 | |
And know that you are in the glorious company of Paul, | 52:54 | |
who knew how little we see, | 53:00 | |
who knew the partial range of our knowing, | 53:04 | |
who knew the fragmentary character of our speech, | 53:08 | |
and yet, who knew that while we see through it last darkly, | 53:13 | |
one day, we shall see face to face. | 53:21 | |
And then beyond all inadequacy of words, | 53:28 | |
we will identify with the cry of Joe. | 53:34 | |
I have heard of him by the hearing of the ear, | 53:38 | |
but now, my eye see a thing. Amen. | 53:44 | |
Let us pray. | 53:52 | |
Lord, now let us vow Thy servants depart in peace | 54:00 | |
according to Thy word. | 54:07 | |
For our eyes have seen Thy salvation, | 54:10 | |
which Thou has prepared in the presence of all peoples. | 54:14 | |
A light for revelation to the Gentiles | 54:19 | |
and for glory to thy people of Israel. Amen. | 54:24 | |
(orchestra music) | 54:33 | |
♪ Amazing grace ♪ | 55:07 | |
♪ How sweet the sound ♪ | 55:11 | |
♪ That saved a wretch like me ♪ | 55:15 | |
♪ I once was lost, but now I'm found ♪ | 55:24 | |
♪ Was blind, but now I see ♪ | 55:32 | |
♪ 'Twas grace that taught my heart to fear ♪ | 55:42 | |
♪ And grace my fears relieved ♪ | 55:50 | |
♪ How precious did that grace appear ♪ | 55:58 | |
♪ The hour I first believed ♪ | 56:07 | |
♪ Yea, when this flesh and heart shall fail ♪ | 56:16 | |
♪ And mortal life shall cease ♪ | 56:25 | |
♪ I shall possess, within the veil ♪ | 56:33 | |
♪ A life of joy and peace ♪ | 56:42 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 56:52 | |
(orchestra music) | 57:06 | |
(indistinct) | 58:47 | |
♪ And praise ye the Lord ♪ | 58:55 | |
(choir members drowns out other members) | 59:01 | |
♪ And praise ye the Lord ♪ | 59:06 | |
(choir members drowns out other members) | 59:12 | |
♪ And praise ye the Lord ♪ | 59:17 | |
(choir members drowns out other members) | 59:23 | |
♪ And praise ye the Lord ♪ | 59:28 | |
(choir members drowns out other members) | 59:31 | |
♪ Alleluia, Alleluia ♪ | 59:38 | |
♪ Alleluia, Alleluia ♪ | 59:44 | |
♪ Alleluia, Alleluia ♪ | 59:49 | |
♪ Alleluia, Alleluia ♪ | 59:54 | |
♪ Alleluia, Alleluia ♪ | 1:00:00 | |
♪ Alleluia, Alleluia ♪ | 1:00:06 | |
♪ Alleluia, Alleluia ♪ | 1:00:11 | |
♪ Alleluia, Alleluia ♪ | 1:00:17 | |
♪ Alleluia, Alleluia ♪ | 1:00:24 | |
♪ Alleluia, Alleluia ♪ | 1:00:30 | |
(choir members drowns out other members) | 1:00:34 | |
♪ Alleluia, Alleluia ♪ | 1:01:16 | |
(orchestra music) | 1:01:26 | |
♪ Praise God, from whom all blessings flow ♪ | 1:01:36 | |
♪ Praise Him, all creatures here below ♪ | 1:01:42 | |
♪ Alleluia, Alleluia ♪ | 1:01:48 | |
♪ Praise Him above, ye heavenly host ♪ | 1:01:55 | |
♪ Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost ♪ | 1:02:01 | |
♪ Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia ♪ | 1:02:06 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 1:02:27 | |
- | Oh Lord, our God, send upon us your Holy Spirit, | 1:02:36 |
we ask to hallow our gifts, | 1:02:41 | |
to cleanse and make perfect our wills, | 1:02:45 | |
and to empower our ministry in the world. | 1:02:49 | |
Grant us courage, Oh Lord, without coldness, | 1:02:52 | |
compassion without confusion, and vision without narrowness. | 1:02:56 | |
Send us forth, as your people, | 1:03:03 | |
may we have peace with the restlessness of God. | 1:03:05 | |
Grace that paradox of discipline and freedom. | 1:03:10 | |
And always joy to fill all of life with celebration. | 1:03:15 | |
In the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. | 1:03:22 | |
(orchestra music) | 1:03:28 | |
♪ Be Thou my vision, O Lord of my heart ♪ | 1:04:03 | |
♪ Naught be all else to me, save that Thou art ♪ | 1:04:11 | |
♪ Thou my best thought, by day or by night ♪ | 1:04:19 | |
(orchestra music drowns out choir) | 1:04:28 |