Raimundo A. Valenzuela - "God's New Order" (July 15, 1973)
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| - | Testing one, two, three, four. | 0:05 |
| Testing, testing one, two, three, four. | 0:07 | |
| (faint orchestral music) | 0:10 | |
| - | Let us offer the unity and collect | 6:39 |
| for openness and for wisdom. | 6:42 | |
| Let us pray. | 6:44 | |
| Grant we beseech you Almighty God | 6:48 | |
| that the words which we hear this day with our outward ears | 6:52 | |
| may through your grace be so grafted inwardly in our hearts | 6:56 | |
| that we may bring forth in us the fruit of good living, | 7:02 | |
| to the honor, and praise of your name | 7:06 | |
| through Jesus Christ our Lord, amen. | 7:09 | |
| The lesson from holy scripture for this day | 7:17 | |
| is taken from the second letter | 7:19 | |
| to Corinthians chapter five, verse 14 | 7:22 | |
| to the sixth chapter verse two. | 7:27 | |
| Let's hear the word of the Lord. | 7:30 | |
| "For the love of Christ controls us, | 7:36 | |
| because we were convinced that one has died for all, | 7:40 | |
| therefore all have died. | 7:45 | |
| And he died for all | 7:48 | |
| that those who live might live no longer for themselves, | 7:50 | |
| but for Him who for their sake died and was raised. | 7:55 | |
| From now on therefore we regard no one | 8:01 | |
| from a human point of view. | 8:04 | |
| Even though we once regarded Christ | 8:07 | |
| from a human point of view, we regard Him thus no longer. | 8:10 | |
| Therefore, if anyone is in Christ he is a new creation, | 8:16 | |
| the old has passed away, behold the new has come. | 8:22 | |
| All this is from God who through Christ | 8:29 | |
| reconciled us to Himself | 8:33 | |
| and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. | 8:35 | |
| That is, God was in Christ, | 8:40 | |
| reconciling the world to Himself, | 8:43 | |
| not counting their trespasses against Him | 8:47 | |
| and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. | 8:50 | |
| So we are ambassadors for Christ, | 8:56 | |
| God making his appeal through us. | 9:00 | |
| We beseech you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God | 9:05 | |
| who for our sake, | 9:11 | |
| He made Him to the sin who knew no sin | 9:13 | |
| so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. | 9:16 | |
| Working together with Him then, | 9:24 | |
| we intrigue you not to accept the grace of God in vain, | 9:27 | |
| for He says at the acceptable time, | 9:34 | |
| I listened to you and helped you on the day of salvation, | 9:38 | |
| behold now is the acceptable time, | 9:44 | |
| behold now is the day of salvation." | 9:49 | |
| Here ends the reading of the lesson for this day. | 9:54 | |
| (faint orchestral music) | 9:59 | |
| Let us affirm our faith together. | 10:41 | |
| We believe in God who has created and is creating, | 10:45 | |
| who has come in a true man Jesus to reconcile and make new. | 10:50 | |
| Who works in us and others by his spirit, we trust Him | 10:56 | |
| He calls us to be in His church, to celebrate His presence, | 11:02 | |
| to love and serve others, to seek justice and resist evil, | 11:07 | |
| to proclaim Jesus crucified and risen, | 11:13 | |
| our judge and our hope in life and death, | 11:17 | |
| in life beyond death God is with us, we are not alone. | 11:22 | |
| Thanks be to God. | 11:28 | |
| The Lord be with you. | 11:31 | |
| Let us pray. | 11:34 | |
| With this offering to God, | 11:42 | |
| the unison prayer of Thanksgiving. | 11:44 | |
| All mighty God, father of all mercies, | 11:48 | |
| we your unworthy servants to give you most humble | 11:52 | |
| and hearty thanks for all your goodness | 11:56 | |
| and loving kindness to us and to all men. | 11:59 | |
| We bless you for our creation, preservation | 12:04 | |
| and all the blessings of this life. | 12:08 | |
| But above all for you were inestimable love | 12:11 | |
| in the redemption of the world by our Lord Jesus Christ, | 12:15 | |
| for the means of grace and for the hope of glory. | 12:20 | |
| And we beseech you give us | 12:24 | |
| that due sense of all your mercies, | 12:27 | |
| that our hearts may be unfailingly thankful, | 12:30 | |
| and that we may show forth your praise | 12:34 | |
| not only with our lips, but in our lives, | 12:37 | |
| by giving up ourselves to your service, | 12:41 | |
| and by walking before you | 12:45 | |
| in holiness and righteousness all our day | 12:47 | |
| through Jesus Christ, our Lord, | 12:52 | |
| to whom with you and the Holy Spirit, | 12:54 | |
| the all honor and glory, world without end, amen. | 12:58 | |
| God of mercy and of love who has commanded us to care | 13:06 | |
| for one another as you do care for us, | 13:11 | |
| hear our prayers of intercessions for our world, | 13:16 | |
| our brothers and our sisters, we ask. | 13:20 | |
| In you, oh great and mysterious God, | 13:25 | |
| the twisted things are straightened, | 13:29 | |
| the crippled are enlivened and made whole, blind men see, | 13:33 | |
| and the slain arise in resurrection. | 13:40 | |
| In you the tired one shall run, | 13:43 | |
| the angered ones speak peace, | 13:47 | |
| and those tangled in darkness shall declare the light. | 13:51 | |
| In you oh Lord shall every person | 13:56 | |
| know the time of their salvation | 13:59 | |
| and the time of their rejoice. | 14:03 | |
| To you be our praise, our cries of gladness, | 14:06 | |
| and our cries of health this day. | 14:11 | |
| God we placed before you such prayers out of our silence | 14:17 | |
| and shape the hearts of all persons every time. | 14:22 | |
| We cry for peace when there is no peace, | 14:28 | |
| we praise you oh God for the beginnings of peace | 14:34 | |
| wherever it is present, | 14:37 | |
| before the end of whatever of our warring | 14:40 | |
| that we have ceased. | 14:44 | |
| We praise you for hands honestly at work, | 14:47 | |
| love in the eyes of friends, | 14:51 | |
| forgiveness in the words of enemies | 14:54 | |
| and for a heart that listens. | 14:58 | |
| We intercede oh Lord for all to bring tithes of peace, | 15:02 | |
| the singer, the teacher, the carpenter and farmer, | 15:07 | |
| the dreamer, the priests and politician | 15:14 | |
| who in trust build up the waste places | 15:19 | |
| and turn the ashes of mourning into a garland of joy. | 15:23 | |
| We beseech you oh Lord for the hungry who are not death, | 15:30 | |
| for the naked who are not clothed, | 15:35 | |
| and for the prisoners who are not set free. | 15:37 | |
| We ask our father for justice where we have refused it, | 15:41 | |
| though the words come hard and painful | 15:46 | |
| we pray that our enemies both personal and political | 15:48 | |
| may receive overwhelmingly your love and your care. | 15:53 | |
| We ask that you would find in our prayer | 16:00 | |
| something more than the hypocrisy, | 16:02 | |
| that him, those and who we call enemies. | 16:04 | |
| Oh God our father, we live not so much in light or dark | 16:13 | |
| as in the grain middle, the meeger, the half felt, | 16:18 | |
| the half known and the half delighted in. | 16:24 | |
| We lift to you our prayers of partition | 16:28 | |
| for our own needs and concerns. | 16:30 | |
| As persons we have not wanted joy, | 16:35 | |
| but we have been unprepared for sorrow. | 16:39 | |
| Not accepting sorrow we are also unprepared for joy. | 16:43 | |
| Afraid of roots and depths, | 16:49 | |
| we have no tree and no hype in our life. | 16:51 | |
| Oh God our father shake down | 16:57 | |
| the paper houses that we hide in | 16:58 | |
| and spill us out onto the ground of your strength | 17:02 | |
| and your love. | 17:06 | |
| Unfastened us we asked from fear | 17:08 | |
| and set us free to trust in you and in our neighbors. | 17:12 | |
| Undwarf our souls that we may yet come alive | 17:18 | |
| and grow within your giant love. | 17:23 | |
| Through Jesus Christ our Lord we ask, amen. | 17:28 | |
| We are pleased to welcome | 17:44 | |
| to the university service of worship | 17:45 | |
| and to the chapel pulpit, | 17:48 | |
| the Reverend Dr. Raimundo Valenzuela | 17:50 | |
| former Bishop of the autonomous Methodist Church of Chile. | 17:54 | |
| - | I consider the very great privilege | 18:16 |
| to be with you again. | 18:19 | |
| I was here last year on Easter Sunday. | 18:23 | |
| Of course it was a very great day, | 18:31 | |
| perhaps the most glorious church service | 18:36 | |
| I have ever participated in. | 18:40 | |
| But this is a hot July summer. | 18:47 | |
| Most of the academic community is gone, | 18:54 | |
| and I think it's very wonderful, very commendable | 18:58 | |
| that this service is kept through the summer. | 19:08 | |
| And I feel just as privileged to be here today | 19:15 | |
| as I was on Easter Sunday a year ago. | 19:20 | |
| The scriptural passage for our meditation this morning | 19:28 | |
| is one of the best known passages in the Bible. | 19:34 | |
| I really wanted to bring you something | 19:40 | |
| which would seem entirely new. | 19:43 | |
| But I find these words of Paul | 19:48 | |
| so relevant to our present situation. | 19:54 | |
| So expressive of what God is trying to tell us today | 20:01 | |
| that I have been unable to focus my mind | 20:08 | |
| on any other passage. | 20:13 | |
| I am under its compulsion, Martin Luther would've said. | 20:17 | |
| In particularly verse 15. | 20:23 | |
| "And He died for all that those who live | 20:30 | |
| shall live no longer for themselves but for Him | 20:38 | |
| who for their sake died and was raised." | 20:46 | |
| You can see in this verse that Paul was under no illusions | 20:56 | |
| regarding the nature of man. | 21:03 | |
| And in Romans three he quotes from the Psalms, | 21:08 | |
| "None is righteous, no, not one." | 21:13 | |
| The theme runs through the entire Bible. | 21:21 | |
| Or we like sheep that's gone astray. | 21:26 | |
| We have turned every one of His own way, that's Isiah, | 21:31 | |
| to break courses of Messiah. | 21:42 | |
| Mans great problem is fatal flaw, | 21:49 | |
| is his predominant tendency to seek his own interest, | 21:58 | |
| the satisfaction of his own needs and desires, | 22:03 | |
| in indifference to or violation of the rights | 22:08 | |
| and needs of others. | 22:14 | |
| To want to do his or her thing | 22:19 | |
| regardless of what it does to others. | 22:24 | |
| Verse four expresses it in our text to live for himself. | 22:30 | |
| Notice not that the Bible denies our rightful needs. | 22:39 | |
| Ours is not the gospel of repression. | 22:47 | |
| Indeed, the Bible is full of assurance | 22:52 | |
| regarding God's deep and abiding concern | 22:57 | |
| for the wellbeing of all His children. | 23:02 | |
| I am calm but you might have life | 23:08 | |
| and have it more abundantly. | 23:15 | |
| Is Jesus word regarding the reason for His coming? | 23:20 | |
| God wants these strange two legged creatures He has formed | 23:27 | |
| to enjoy the fullness of human existence. | 23:33 | |
| Each human being has a right to it solely by a virtue | 23:39 | |
| of being a human being, of being a person. | 23:46 | |
| "God does not expect His children | 23:52 | |
| to go against the normal and legitimate needs and interests, | 23:53 | |
| but this pursuit of self-interest | 24:00 | |
| must always be counterbalanced | 24:04 | |
| by due consideration for the needs and rights of others | 24:08 | |
| that each of you look not only to his own interest, | 24:14 | |
| but also to the interests of others," | 24:20 | |
| says Paul in Philippians 2:4. | 24:24 | |
| But this is to go against the most natural human tendencies. | 24:30 | |
| "They all look after their own interests, | 24:36 | |
| not those of Jesus Christ," | 24:40 | |
| laments Paul in verse 21 of the same chapter of Philippians. | 24:44 | |
| Let's stop for a moment to reflect | 24:50 | |
| on the parallelism of those verses in the same chapter. | 24:53 | |
| In verse four the interest | 24:58 | |
| to be weighed equally with our own | 24:59 | |
| is the interest of others. | 25:00 | |
| In verse 21, it is Christ. | 25:05 | |
| Is this contradiction or lack of consistency? | 25:10 | |
| Not at all. | 25:14 | |
| For in relation to us regard for the interest of others, | 25:16 | |
| and in regard for the interest of Christ | 25:23 | |
| is one and the same thing. | 25:27 | |
| This is a characteristic of the Bible of the last judgment | 25:30 | |
| in Matthew 25 which we know so well. | 25:32 | |
| And this regard so consistently. | 25:37 | |
| "As you did it to one of the least of these my brethren | 25:42 | |
| you did it to me. | 25:50 | |
| As you did it not to one of the least of these, | 25:55 | |
| you did not to me." | 26:02 | |
| The words of the Lord, | 26:06 | |
| which under the judgment, by our sin of omission, | 26:08 | |
| the action of kindness or of justice | 26:14 | |
| we should have done and did not do | 26:17 | |
| even though it was not necessarily | 26:21 | |
| our specific responsibility | 26:23 | |
| just as surely as by what we actually do. | 26:26 | |
| Let's return to Paul. | 26:34 | |
| "They all look after their own interests, | 26:37 | |
| not those of Jesus Christ." | 26:40 | |
| It is as if somehow we were all imprisoned | 26:45 | |
| in chains of self-centeredness, | 26:48 | |
| but this is precisely why Jesus came to earth, | 26:53 | |
| gave His life for us and was raised from the dead. | 26:58 | |
| He came to break these chains to free us from ourselves. | 27:03 | |
| And He died for all | 27:11 | |
| of those who live shall live no longer for themselves, | 27:15 | |
| but for Him, which is to say for others, | 27:17 | |
| and especially for the least. | 27:23 | |
| Those in direst need, the powerless, the oppressed, | 27:26 | |
| He came to make us new transformed persons. | 27:33 | |
| If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation, | 27:38 | |
| the old has passed away behold, the new has come. | 27:44 | |
| In Christ we enter in a new dimension of existence. | 27:51 | |
| Or as the New English Bible puts it, | 28:02 | |
| "The old order is gone, a new order has already begun." | 28:07 | |
| God's new order. | 28:17 | |
| The old order of selfishness disappears, | 28:23 | |
| a new order in which love for God | 28:26 | |
| and for our neighbor as oneself prevails | 28:29 | |
| and becomes a dominant lifestyle, | 28:33 | |
| it becomes a pattern or all our relationships. | 28:38 | |
| This is the base, the primary freedom deliberations | 28:44 | |
| to which we are called in Christ. | 28:50 | |
| And this is also eternal life. | 28:54 | |
| Well, for God and man without limits of any kind | 28:58 | |
| precise with the meaning of life eternal. | 29:06 | |
| Check the story in Luke 10 beginning with verse 25, | 29:10 | |
| where the lawyer comes asking Jesus, | 29:13 | |
| "Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?" | 29:15 | |
| To see how much it has to do with life here and now | 29:22 | |
| not (indistinct) | 29:28 | |
| And I find this tremendously inspiring, | 29:32 | |
| but also profoundly disturbing. | 29:37 | |
| If I use this understanding of what it means | 29:41 | |
| to be a Christian, and I become aware of how I fall short, | 29:44 | |
| how much I need God's mercy. | 29:51 | |
| If we don't inquire more deeply | 29:56 | |
| into the New Testament meaning of belief... | 29:58 | |
| Acts 16:31, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ | 30:02 | |
| and you will be saved." | 30:07 | |
| Or John 3:16 seems so much less demanding. | 30:09 | |
| If you were to ask me, "Do you believe in Christ?" | 30:16 | |
| I might quite easily answer, "Yes I do." | 30:23 | |
| If you ask me, "Have you ceased to live for yourself? | 30:29 | |
| Are you living for Christ | 30:38 | |
| or are you as mindful and responsive | 30:42 | |
| to the needs of others as you are of your own?" | 30:49 | |
| I couldn't answer so confidently. | 30:55 | |
| Could you? | 30:59 | |
| There is in us this coexistence | 31:03 | |
| of what Paul calls the old Adam, | 31:05 | |
| even after we have decided for Christ. | 31:08 | |
| How I can guard myself so complacently | 31:13 | |
| when there are millions dying of hunger | 31:18 | |
| in the drought regions of Africa at this moment. | 31:20 | |
| (indistinct) | 31:26 | |
| A saying we have in Chile. | 31:31 | |
| (indistinct) | 31:33 | |
| How we must transcend that. | 31:38 | |
| (indistinct) fundamental, | 31:41 | |
| the need to seek perfection in love, | 31:42 | |
| but he never claimed it | 31:44 | |
| or that it could be a thing in his fullness | 31:47 | |
| say perhaps in one's dying breath. | 31:48 | |
| But never must we seize to strive for it. | 31:53 | |
| But for that it's only the beginning of our dilemma. | 32:00 | |
| We have been thinking so far primarily | 32:03 | |
| about personal attitudes and relationships. | 32:05 | |
| Christian experience tells us that it's possible | 32:09 | |
| to grow in grace and reach a relatively high fulfillment | 32:12 | |
| of the ethic love in the immediate personal dimension. | 32:17 | |
| That mean forgiving in personal reference. | 32:27 | |
| I do not remember my mother, | 32:31 | |
| a single malicious or unloving action. | 32:38 | |
| She was very close to saying what Paul could say, | 32:46 | |
| "It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me." | 32:54 | |
| Perhaps we can speak as | 32:59 | |
| the expression (indistinct) of moral men. | 33:03 | |
| But our mind for relationships extend beyond | 33:09 | |
| the circle of immediate personal context. | 33:11 | |
| We live in widening circles of relationships, | 33:15 | |
| beyond it human person is the clan, the tribe, the nation. | 33:21 | |
| These are needed structures of our life in the society. | 33:27 | |
| Yeah, most legitimate we could not do without them. | 33:31 | |
| But as these structures become dedicated to safeguard | 33:36 | |
| and advance the interest of the in-group | 33:41 | |
| to the detriment of other persons and groups, | 33:43 | |
| they can and do become tremendous forces of injustice. | 33:47 | |
| And in recent years, | 33:53 | |
| we have created new circles of relationships, | 33:54 | |
| new organizations and structures | 33:57 | |
| for the advancement of our interests. | 33:58 | |
| The political party, the trade union | 34:03 | |
| or the employer association, the business corporation. | 34:05 | |
| These are voluntary associations of persons | 34:12 | |
| who joined together to promote common names, | 34:14 | |
| economic or theological interests. | 34:19 | |
| Perhaps there was nothing wrong | 34:24 | |
| with any of these structures, per se. | 34:25 | |
| They can be highly positive factors in society, | 34:29 | |
| permitting economic activities, which serve the common good, | 34:32 | |
| which could never be realized by individuals acting alone | 34:37 | |
| as in the case of corporation | 34:42 | |
| or serving to curb abuse of an advanced justice | 34:45 | |
| and the general welfare | 34:48 | |
| as this proclaim the purpose of the nation state. | 34:49 | |
| To be sure there are structures, invisible and visible, | 34:55 | |
| like the patterns of agencies of race discrimination, | 35:01 | |
| and then force segregation | 35:04 | |
| designed to ensure supremacy not equality. | 35:07 | |
| And these can in no way be justified. | 35:13 | |
| But perhaps our most subtle problem | 35:17 | |
| is the perversion of useful structures. | 35:20 | |
| When these go beyond the legitimate protection | 35:23 | |
| of the interest of those associated in them | 35:25 | |
| and seek to promote the interest of those belong to it, | 35:30 | |
| regardless of what happens to other persons and groups. | 35:35 | |
| There is an almost an endless pressure in that direction. | 35:41 | |
| When we begin to consider that the more these structures | 35:45 | |
| advance the exclusive interest of their participants, | 35:48 | |
| the more successful they and their managers | 35:54 | |
| are considered to be. | 35:58 | |
| When the pressure of the competitive struggle | 36:01 | |
| with rival groups it creates the rationale | 36:03 | |
| for disregarding all ethical considerations. | 36:07 | |
| When the organizational structure | 36:12 | |
| permits individual ethical responsibility to receive | 36:13 | |
| of what is manifested is wrong to be condoned, | 36:20 | |
| since it presumably | 36:23 | |
| serves the common good of those associated, | 36:24 | |
| these structures can become monstrous forces of evil. | 36:28 | |
| What's the United States has done in Vietnam, | 36:34 | |
| supposedly defending freedom, | 36:38 | |
| more truly acting in the interest | 36:39 | |
| of it's own national security has no name. | 36:43 | |
| The clash of conflicting interests of tribes | 36:49 | |
| and national groups and even religious groups turn political | 36:51 | |
| as the story of the most cruel violence, | 36:55 | |
| hatred and destruction with untold suffering | 36:58 | |
| to millions upon millions in our own day. | 37:02 | |
| We think on behalf of Bangladesh or Ireland, | 37:05 | |
| perils of the near East. | 37:09 | |
| But there's one structure of self-interest in our day, | 37:14 | |
| which needs attention as perhaps never before. | 37:19 | |
| I refer to the transnational corporation | 37:22 | |
| not the corporate society. | 37:27 | |
| In Spanish would call it (indistinct) anonymous desire. | 37:30 | |
| An excellent name which indicates | 37:37 | |
| the dilution of individual responsibility. | 37:38 | |
| It's consciously organized for one purpose, | 37:42 | |
| to produce profits, the more the better. | 37:46 | |
| We have learned to regulate them somewhat. | 37:51 | |
| Within the United States we learn to trust | 37:53 | |
| the labor relations laws, strong labor union, | 37:56 | |
| corporate income taxes, et cetera. | 38:00 | |
| Their capacity to exploit people, | 38:04 | |
| or not necessarily to exploit the land | 38:09 | |
| has pretty well been curved by now. | 38:13 | |
| But they have gone abroad aided by the government, | 38:16 | |
| and corporations of other developing nation | 38:22 | |
| as the bricks bearing gifts to less developed nations, | 38:26 | |
| which have not had protective laws | 38:32 | |
| or have not known the dangers, | 38:34 | |
| or they have been filed for unscrupulous enough | 38:37 | |
| to subvert the processes which might have regulated them. | 38:40 | |
| They have bought up natural resources for so long | 38:46 | |
| what all the government officials who might've objected, | 38:50 | |
| unfortunately by their size and power | 38:57 | |
| the range of the operations. | 39:01 | |
| Certain American corporations have become the most linked. | 39:04 | |
| Not all, perhaps even fewer number | 39:12 | |
| have been deliberately exploited a bit. | 39:16 | |
| But in their aggregate operation, | 39:21 | |
| they have become in alliance | 39:25 | |
| with dominant political and economic groups | 39:27 | |
| within the countries of their operation, | 39:30 | |
| and benefiting from the unequal distribution | 39:35 | |
| of wealth within. | 39:39 | |
| A major force holding back justice and liberation | 39:42 | |
| for the undeveloped nations and within these nations. | 39:47 | |
| Some corporations have not felt any need | 39:54 | |
| for restraint whatsoever | 39:57 | |
| as they have sought to ensure their profits. | 39:59 | |
| Perhaps the most blaring documented for example, | 40:03 | |
| has been the procedure | 40:05 | |
| followed by the International Telegraph | 40:07 | |
| and Telephone Corporation in my own country. | 40:10 | |
| Fearful that it might be nationalized | 40:14 | |
| if the elected president were elected. | 40:16 | |
| ITT tried its best to prevent this election | 40:19 | |
| and then his access to power | 40:22 | |
| even after he had received the part of majority | 40:25 | |
| and before and after he had been confirmed by Congress, | 40:29 | |
| which had to decide between the first two | 40:34 | |
| of the three candidates. | 40:38 | |
| And they'd attempted to involve United States government | 40:41 | |
| in this effort. | 40:45 | |
| Let me quote from a March in New York Times report | 40:48 | |
| on testimony given before the Senate subcommittee | 40:50 | |
| headed by Senator Frank Church | 40:53 | |
| investigating the multinational corporations. | 40:56 | |
| "The Vice-President of the ITT said today | 41:01 | |
| that a top official of the CIA had agreed | 41:04 | |
| with the recommendations the corporation made, | 41:07 | |
| to try to prevent the election of Salvador Allende | 41:11 | |
| as President of Chile. | 41:13 | |
| The recommendations report that included steps | 41:16 | |
| to maneuver the departing president back into power | 41:18 | |
| to commend violence that might bring about | 41:22 | |
| a military takeover of the country. | 41:25 | |
| The testimony also revealed consultations | 41:29 | |
| in the toppling Allende's administration." | 41:32 | |
| According to the same New York Times report, | 41:36 | |
| both the ouster plans centered on ideas | 41:40 | |
| to bring about economic collapse in Chile. | 41:44 | |
| The World Division of the Board of Global Ministries | 41:50 | |
| of the United Methodist Church | 41:52 | |
| made it possible for me to attend | 41:55 | |
| the Annual Meeting of the ITT Stakeholders | 41:57 | |
| in Kansas city on May, | 42:00 | |
| and the Disciples Church extended the proxy. | 42:04 | |
| They had the shares of stock, not our board, | 42:08 | |
| which made it possible for me to speak up in protest | 42:12 | |
| for this action as a citizen of Chile. | 42:16 | |
| After reading the statement I have just shared with you, | 42:20 | |
| I asked the meeting, | 42:23 | |
| "Do you not realize that the military uprising | 42:25 | |
| against the constitutionally elected government, | 42:28 | |
| especially once supported by the workers, | 42:34 | |
| would most likely have led to the loss of countless lives | 42:37 | |
| through civil war? | 42:41 | |
| Or that economic collapse can not take place | 42:44 | |
| without inflicting misery on great numbers of people? | 42:47 | |
| Is this example of the length management | 42:52 | |
| is willing to go for the sake of profits? | 42:54 | |
| I'm sure ladies and gentlemen, | 42:58 | |
| that you will be appalled if your corporation | 42:59 | |
| wanted to enter the drug traffic, | 43:02 | |
| given its blatantly unethical and illegal character. | 43:03 | |
| But is it legal and ethical to throw a nation into chaos | 43:09 | |
| in order to preserve a profitable venture?" | 43:15 | |
| Fortunately, the United States government | 43:23 | |
| did not accept the proposals | 43:26 | |
| of the high CIA official and ITT to create violence. | 43:28 | |
| We're not so sure in Chile, | 43:36 | |
| that the measures designed to bring about economic collapse | 43:39 | |
| are not being carried out. | 43:44 | |
| In any event the reaction of the chairman | 43:47 | |
| or the board of ITT to my statement was shocking to me. | 43:49 | |
| Instead of admitting a mistake had been made | 43:55 | |
| he brazenly told the stockholders, | 43:57 | |
| "Cool for verbatim, I am only sorry that we were not able | 44:01 | |
| to persuade our government | 44:06 | |
| to take a stronger stand in Chile." | 44:08 | |
| He justified the action saying, | 44:13 | |
| "I was only trying to protect | 44:17 | |
| the interest of the stockholders." | 44:19 | |
| And status part of all to me | 44:23 | |
| was that only the voice of both of us | 44:26 | |
| who were there representing the church, two Methodist | 44:28 | |
| and a representative from the National Council of Churches | 44:33 | |
| was raised in protest. | 44:37 | |
| Several stockholders congratulated Harold Geneen. | 44:40 | |
| Why? | 44:46 | |
| Because last year ITT made up $475 million profit. | 44:47 | |
| Now the success of these multinational corporations | 44:54 | |
| and the goods and the profits, | 44:57 | |
| which have been brought to the United States | 45:00 | |
| since the second World War | 45:01 | |
| is perhaps a or the leading factor | 45:02 | |
| in this increased prosperity of the United States | 45:05 | |
| in recent years. | 45:09 | |
| I'm not an economist, | 45:12 | |
| I do know that their success on pattern of operations | 45:15 | |
| has created the net flow of capital to the United States | 45:18 | |
| from Latin America in excess of $2 billion a year. | 45:20 | |
| That the gap between United States | 45:26 | |
| and the nations of Latin America | 45:29 | |
| has grown the last 10 years, | 45:32 | |
| from an increase of $50 per capita | 45:36 | |
| nullified by inflation in Latin America | 45:39 | |
| for more than $800 more | 45:43 | |
| in income per capita than 10 years ago. | 45:48 | |
| And this gap, this characteristic of the whole world | 45:55 | |
| where young developed nations | 46:02 | |
| are being locked in the structures of poverty. | 46:09 | |
| And we wonder why there's a growing tide of socialism? | 46:14 | |
| But dear brethren, | 46:22 | |
| what does it mean to live no longer for ourselves, | 46:24 | |
| but for Him who for our sake died and was raised? | 46:28 | |
| Does it not mean that we must extend our sensitivity | 46:33 | |
| to include our responsibility | 46:36 | |
| for sharing in structures of injustice and oppression? | 46:39 | |
| It's not the reality of our Christian love being tested | 46:43 | |
| just as much in our political and economic action | 46:47 | |
| and perhaps more so | 46:49 | |
| than in the respectability of our conduct | 46:52 | |
| in our immediate personal relationships. | 46:56 | |
| Wednesday night this past week and (indistinct) | 47:00 | |
| annual conference and missions had an incredible story | 47:03 | |
| of the race of the Appalachia region, | 47:07 | |
| another poverty and hopelessness of millions there. | 47:11 | |
| 3 million people with family incomes of less than $3,000. | 47:15 | |
| Two thirds of the whole area | 47:22 | |
| with incomes of less than $6. | 47:25 | |
| God holds us responsible | 47:29 | |
| for what happens to the distressed and the oppressed. | 47:30 | |
| He calls us to establish justice in the land, | 47:33 | |
| not only to individual acts of charity. | 47:37 | |
| The third world nations have far more at stake | 47:41 | |
| in the church subcommittee investigating | 47:44 | |
| the multinational corporations | 47:47 | |
| than in the water getting inquiries. | 47:48 | |
| Except in so far as the urban committee | 47:51 | |
| may uncover the corrupting influence | 47:54 | |
| of corporate self-interest on the processes of government | 47:56 | |
| and may help revive | 48:01 | |
| a much eroded national ethical sensitivity | 48:03 | |
| as the indispensable ingredient of our common life. | 48:08 | |
| It also helped us to rediscover the claims of justice | 48:13 | |
| and compassion as indispensable elements of our puppet life. | 48:18 | |
| To live no longer for ourselves, | 48:24 | |
| but for Him who for our sake died and was raised | 48:26 | |
| means to make the rule of our risen Lord Jesus, | 48:29 | |
| the rule of justice and love regnant | 48:34 | |
| over all the areas of life all over the world. | 48:37 | |
| It means not wanting to be nothing | 48:42 | |
| in our person relationships, | 48:43 | |
| but to work ceaselessly | 48:44 | |
| to change the societal structures of self-interest | 48:45 | |
| so that they will not operate | 48:49 | |
| to the benefit of someone to the detriment | 48:52 | |
| or destruction of other fellow human beings, | 48:54 | |
| or the struckers of exclusive self interest. | 48:59 | |
| And under God's powerful judgment | 49:02 | |
| included the unlimited sovereign nation state, | 49:05 | |
| and we cannot excuse ourselves | 49:08 | |
| for our own complicity in the corporate guilt. | 49:11 | |
| What we need is a greater love and the passion for justice, | 49:16 | |
| that will make us a vanguard force for a new world | 49:19 | |
| where all men can live together as brothers | 49:23 | |
| and no child need be hungry or afraid. | 49:27 | |
| We have the technology | 49:32 | |
| now that can manage hunger and poverty. | 49:34 | |
| Perhaps there has been a great deal of ignorance | 49:38 | |
| regarding the structural inequalities and injustices | 49:41 | |
| that prevent our doing so. | 49:45 | |
| We believe in myth of development day, | 49:47 | |
| then don't know that the net flow of capital | 49:49 | |
| from the third world to the developed nations | 49:52 | |
| is running at the rate of over 7 billion | 49:53 | |
| from the poor nations or the rich nations. | 49:57 | |
| Who is helping who? | 49:59 | |
| We've more than knowledge | 50:03 | |
| and certainly the academic community | 50:07 | |
| cannot be guilty of ignorance. | 50:10 | |
| We need the will, the readiness to profit | 50:13 | |
| and have less that others may have more. | 50:16 | |
| Until we are willing to let Christ | 50:20 | |
| have His way in our hearts | 50:22 | |
| so that we are willing to live no longer for ourselves, | 50:24 | |
| but for Him, through loving service and justice | 50:27 | |
| to our fellow man, | 50:30 | |
| we cannot really call ourselves Christians | 50:31 | |
| no matter what we say we believe. | 50:35 | |
| Many who do not claim to be such, | 50:39 | |
| but who live for others may be closer to Christ than we are. | 50:40 | |
| If we are blind to the claims of the oppressed, | 50:46 | |
| but Christ wants to be the transforming power in our lives | 50:50 | |
| to fill us with His love. | 50:57 | |
| God grant us that we may let Him have His way in us | 51:01 | |
| so that we may be His agents for justice and peace. | 51:08 | |
| Let us pray. | 51:15 | |
| Grant our father, | 51:18 | |
| that we may die to selfishness and greed, | 51:21 | |
| and be born anew to care and to love | 51:26 | |
| through the power of thy Jesus in our lives. | 51:30 | |
| For in His name we ask, amen. | 51:34 | |
| (faint orchestral music) | 51:45 | |
| (faint orchestral music) | 55:11 | |
| - | Almighty God, our heavenly father, | 1:01:56 |
| maker of all things, giver of all good gifts, | 1:02:00 | |
| receive and use these our gifts, | 1:02:05 | |
| the fruits of our labor and ourselves, | 1:02:09 | |
| our souls and bodies to be a reasonable, | 1:02:13 | |
| holy and living sacrifice unto you. | 1:02:16 | |
| Send this forth in peace from this place | 1:02:20 | |
| as servants of the gospel. | 1:02:23 | |
| You grant us grace that paradox of discipline and freedom, | 1:02:27 | |
| courage for all the struggles that lie ahead and always joy | 1:02:32 | |
| to fill the cup of all our celebration, amen. | 1:02:39 | |
| (faint orchestral music) | 1:02:47 |