Carlyle Marney - "Not to Condemn" (April 17, 1977)
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Transcript
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- | Duke University Chapel Service of Worship: | 0:04 |
First Sunday after Easter, April 17th, 1977, 11 o'clock. | 0:07 | |
(gentle organ music) | 0:25 | |
(upbeat organ music) | 6:38 | |
♪ Beautiful Savior ♪ | 12:04 | |
♪ Lord of the nations ♪ | 12:12 | |
♪ Son of God and Son of Man ♪ | 12:20 | |
♪ Glory and honor ♪ | 12:35 | |
♪ Praise, adoration ♪ | 12:43 | |
♪ Now and forevermore be Thine ♪ | 12:49 | |
♪ Now and forever ♪ | 13:01 | |
♪ Now and forevermore be Thine ♪ | 13:05 | |
(upbeat organ music) | 13:26 | |
(singing drowned out by organ) | 14:05 | |
(upbeat organ continues) | ||
- | Dear people of God, because of our certainty | 18:00 |
of God's ever present love and mercy, | 18:05 | |
we are enabled to confront those deceits and disguises | 18:10 | |
by which we try to deceive ourselves | 18:15 | |
and our brothers and sisters. | 18:19 | |
And so we can make our corporate confession of sin. | 18:22 | |
Let us pray. | 18:27 | |
In your presence, God, | 18:30 | |
our hearts are moved to all in gratitude, | 18:32 | |
but also touched by a deep disquiet. | 18:37 | |
All things are open before you | 18:41 | |
and no secrets are hid from your eyes. | 18:44 | |
As we feel your eye upon us, | 18:48 | |
our own eyes are clarified and we behold what we truly are. | 18:51 | |
Forgive us for being so deeply involved in deceit | 18:58 | |
and the secret betrayal of your love. | 19:03 | |
The will indeed is present with us, | 19:07 | |
but how to perform that which is good we know not. | 19:10 | |
Break, oh Lord, the chains of our self-love. | 19:15 | |
I know about your mercy. | 19:19 | |
All the hurt we have done others by our pride, | 19:21 | |
envy, and deceit. | 19:26 | |
In your power and wisdom, redeem this our generation, | 19:29 | |
your children, and bring us out of the tumult | 19:34 | |
and misery of this day. | 19:37 | |
Above all, give us that peace which passes understanding | 19:40 | |
which the world cannot give or take away. | 19:46 | |
Hear these, our personal confessions, oh loving God. | 20:06 | |
Here are the biblical words of assurance: | 20:12 | |
"Far as the heavens are high above this earth, | 20:16 | |
so great is God's steadfast love toward us. | 20:20 | |
As far as the east is from the west, | 20:24 | |
so far does God remove our transgressions from us." | 20:27 | |
Live now as forgiven people, the new creation of God. Amen. | 20:33 | |
(upbeat organ music) | 20:43 | |
♪ Sing hallelujah ♪ | 21:28 | |
(indistinct singing) | 21:33 | |
♪ Sing hallelujah ♪ | 21:36 | |
(indistinct singing) | 21:39 | |
- | From the prophet Jeremiah, 3:12-18: | 27:02 |
The Lord instructs Jeremiah, | 27:09 | |
"Go and proclaim these words to the north, saying, | 27:11 | |
'Return faithless Israel,' says the Lord. | 27:15 | |
'I will not look upon you with anger for I am merciful. | 27:19 | |
I will not be angry forever. | 27:23 | |
Only acknowledge your guilt, | 27:26 | |
that you have rebelled against the Lord, your God, | 27:28 | |
and scattered your favors among strangers everywhere | 27:31 | |
and that you have not obeyed my voice,' says the Lord. | 27:35 | |
'Return, oh faithless children, for I am your master. | 27:39 | |
I will take you, one from a city and two from a family, | 27:44 | |
and I will bring you to Zion | 27:48 | |
and I will give you shepherds after my own heart, | 27:51 | |
who will feed you with knowledge and understanding | 27:54 | |
and, when you have multiplied and increased in the land | 27:58 | |
in those future days,' says the Lord, | 28:01 | |
'they shall no more say the Ark of the covenant of the Lord. | 28:04 | |
It shall not come to mind nor be remembered or missed. | 28:08 | |
It shall not be made again. | 28:13 | |
At that time, Jerusalem shall | 28:16 | |
be called the throne of the Lord | 28:18 | |
and all nations shall gather to it, | 28:21 | |
to the presence of the Lord in Jerusalem, | 28:23 | |
and they shall no more | 28:26 | |
stubbornly follow their own evil hearts. | 28:27 | |
In those days, the house of Judah | 28:30 | |
shall join the house of Israel and together they shall come | 28:33 | |
from the land of the north to the land | 28:36 | |
that I gave your fathers for a heritage.'" | 28:39 | |
Will the congregation please rise | 28:43 | |
for the reading of the gospel? | 28:44 | |
From the Gospel According to John, 3:16-17: | 28:53 | |
"For God so loved the world that he gave his only son | 29:00 | |
that whoever believes in him should not perish, | 29:04 | |
but have eternal life. | 29:06 | |
For God sent his son into the world not | 29:09 | |
to condemn the world, | 29:11 | |
but that the world might be saved through him." | 29:13 | |
May God add blessing upon the proclamation | 29:17 | |
of his most holy word. | 29:19 | |
(upbeat organ music) | 29:21 | |
(singing drowned out by organ) | 29:30 | |
- | Let us affirm what we believe. | 30:07 |
We believe in God who has created and is creating, | 30:11 | |
who has come in the truly human Jesus to reconcile | 30:17 | |
and make new, who works in us and others by the Spirit. | 30:21 | |
We trust God who calls us to be the church, | 30:28 | |
to celebrate life and its fullness, | 30:33 | |
to love and serve others, to seek justice and resist evil, | 30:36 | |
to proclaim Jesus, crucified and risen, | 30:43 | |
our judge and our hope. | 30:47 | |
In life and death and life beyond death, God is with us. | 30:50 | |
We are not alone. Thanks be to God. | 30:58 | |
The Lord be with you. | 31:03 | |
- | And with your Spirit. | 31:05 |
- | Let us pray. | 31:06 |
Oh, holy God, we thank you for life and love | 31:15 | |
and the mystery of all existence, | 31:23 | |
for the simple joys which are ours, | 31:27 | |
and for the beauty of this world which surrounds us, | 31:31 | |
for good friends who love us and accept us with all | 31:37 | |
of our sharp edges and short tempers and impatience, | 31:42 | |
for all the common and uncommon responsibilities | 31:49 | |
which enlarge our souls. | 31:54 | |
Hear us now, oh God, as we pray for others, | 31:58 | |
for those who toil on farm and in factory, | 32:05 | |
in the house and buildings and under the grion, | 32:10 | |
that may enjoy the fruits of their work | 32:14 | |
and may not be defrauded of their rightful due. | 32:19 | |
And we pray that we may never cease to be mindful | 32:23 | |
of our debt to them, remembering always | 32:27 | |
that our comfortable life is made possible by the labor | 32:32 | |
of many of your children. | 32:37 | |
We pray, oh God, for all who have authority | 32:41 | |
over their brothers and sisters, | 32:43 | |
that they may never use it selfishly for themselves, | 32:46 | |
but so live in obedience to you that they may be guided | 32:51 | |
to do justice and to love mercy and to walk humbly | 32:56 | |
and so serve all of your children. | 33:03 | |
We pray for all for whom life looks bleak and hopeless, | 33:09 | |
whether because of the inhumanity of others, | 33:15 | |
their own limitations, or because of those hazards of life | 33:20 | |
which beset us all. | 33:25 | |
We pray that they may contend against injustice | 33:29 | |
without bitterness, overcome their own weakness | 33:32 | |
with diligence, and accept with patience | 33:37 | |
that which cannot be changed. | 33:41 | |
And now, oh loving God, we lift to your care those people | 33:45 | |
who are dear to us for whom our hearts are heavy this day. | 33:49 | |
Hear us as we silently lift these names to you. | 33:56 | |
Heal those who need healing. Feed those who are hungry. | 34:14 | |
Care for those who are lonely and enable us to respond | 34:21 | |
to those who need our love and care. | 34:25 | |
Oh God, give to those who are facing the end | 34:30 | |
of a semester calmness and serenity and grant | 34:35 | |
that we may worship you with minds | 34:40 | |
which have been renewed by your love. | 34:43 | |
Grant us honesty when confronted with doubts and perplexity. | 34:49 | |
Help us to collaborate and cooperate | 34:55 | |
with others in seeking truth. | 34:58 | |
Protect us from being distracted by regard for popularity | 35:03 | |
or riches or prestige and, may we not be content | 35:08 | |
with contemplating the truth, but be dedicated to live it. | 35:14 | |
And hear us now | 35:23 | |
as we pray the prayer our Lord has taught us. | 35:25 | |
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name; | 35:30 | |
thy kingdom come, thy will be done | 35:37 | |
on earth as it is in heaven. | 35:41 | |
Give us this day our daily bread, | 35:44 | |
and forgive us our trespasses, | 35:47 | |
as we forgive those who trespass against us; | 35:50 | |
and lead us not into temptation, | 35:54 | |
but deliver us from evil. | 35:57 | |
For thine is the kingdom, and the power, | 36:00 | |
and the glory, forever, amen. | 36:03 | |
It has been almost a year since Reggie Howard, | 36:10 | |
our ASDU president, was tragically killed | 36:13 | |
in an automobile accident when returning to a meeting | 36:16 | |
of the Duke Board of Trustees. | 36:19 | |
Reggie was dedicated to this university | 36:23 | |
and his fellow students. | 36:25 | |
He was committed to the church. | 36:27 | |
He was concerned for the youth of this city | 36:29 | |
and he found time to stay involved | 36:33 | |
in his home church and community. | 36:36 | |
Among Reggie's many activities was ushering | 36:39 | |
in this chapel on Sunday morning. | 36:43 | |
We still mourn our loss and all of the offering | 36:46 | |
which is received on this day will go | 36:50 | |
to the Reggie Howard Scholarship Fund, | 36:53 | |
which has been established by this university | 36:56 | |
to provide scholarships for minority students, | 36:59 | |
beginning this coming fall. | 37:03 | |
We encourage you to share in this important memorial | 37:06 | |
to an outstanding Christian student. | 37:12 | |
We are glad to have you back in this pulpit Dr. Marney. | 37:16 | |
You are an important person in the life of this chapel, | 37:21 | |
especially because you have helped guide many of us | 37:25 | |
in our Christian pilgrimage and we wait | 37:28 | |
with eager anticipation and open hearts and minds | 37:31 | |
to hear the word you preach to us today. | 37:35 | |
- | There's a text for what I am about to try to do to you. | 37:47 |
And I confess to some pleasure, always, | 37:52 | |
in setting out to do to, for, or with you, here. | 37:55 | |
But how does one ever think to do it from here | 38:01 | |
or from there, for that matter? | 38:05 | |
Years ago, I sat on the last row in my old place | 38:09 | |
to hear my successor and suddenly I realized | 38:13 | |
I had never seen the backs of their necks in church. | 38:17 | |
They seemed somehow to stiffen in church. | 38:22 | |
How did I think to do anything to them | 38:27 | |
with those stiff necks in just 10 years? | 38:31 | |
And it's sheer presumption here, for that matter. | 38:36 | |
For we all have ways | 38:41 | |
of defending ourselves against the gospel, | 38:43 | |
even if it's preached. | 38:47 | |
But, I do bring a text to my presumption. | 38:51 | |
I've never used it before, not in decades of doing sermons. | 38:55 | |
Nor have I found or heard or read a sermon on it. | 39:02 | |
Everyone jumps over my clause to get to the clincher. | 39:07 | |
And it's really so that we have never believed this text. | 39:12 | |
Neither we Protestants, nor us Catholics, have believed it. | 39:18 | |
Only flower children really believe it, | 39:23 | |
for we were not reared to believe in grace | 39:28 | |
and, because we simply can't accept grace, | 39:33 | |
we really forego believing that God did not send his son | 39:38 | |
into the world to condemn the world. | 39:45 | |
Now, how shall I clear these lovely words | 39:51 | |
of their obvious masculinity? | 39:54 | |
Why can I not clear it as the church has done for centuries | 39:59 | |
with a hail Mary full of grace, The Lord is with thee, | 40:04 | |
blessed art thou amongst women | 40:10 | |
and blessed is the fruit of thy womb Jesus? | 40:13 | |
And so we can read it: | 40:18 | |
"God sent not the fruit of Mary's womb | 40:20 | |
into the world to condemn the world." | 40:24 | |
Jesus or no, fruit of Mary's womb notwithstanding, | 40:29 | |
there's plenty condemnation around. | 40:36 | |
Condemnation oozes up through the floor cracks | 40:40 | |
in all our hovels. | 40:43 | |
We float on a sea of condemnation not from Jesus. | 40:47 | |
My mail this month, the newscasters from 5:30 AM | 40:53 | |
to 11:30 at night who speak of little else | 40:59 | |
but krine, judgment, condemnation. | 41:02 | |
From Utah to the Virginia Board of Fisheries | 41:08 | |
to the US of A Bureau of Health, columnists, | 41:10 | |
scenario writers, poets, pop artists, | 41:15 | |
singers of domestic infidelity, all accuse us. | 41:20 | |
I accuse us. | 41:24 | |
While business, government, medicine, law, politics, | 41:27 | |
domestic relations courts, religionists, educators | 41:32 | |
accuse and counter accuse and confess. | 41:36 | |
The very air we breathe is laden with condemnation. | 41:40 | |
But, back to the mail and the telephone | 41:47 | |
and the casual shopping center meetings. | 41:51 | |
Lovely letter, lovely girl years ago at Queens, | 41:56 | |
now well-placed indeed, and happy except | 42:01 | |
for that between the lines, nearly every line: | 42:05 | |
"I'm not worthy." | 42:11 | |
Three terribly mistyped pages from an East Carolina pastor: | 42:14 | |
"If only I could be born again. | 42:21 | |
I am my wife's makeshift son. | 42:24 | |
The mice are running me over. | 42:29 | |
Guts I lack. I lack, I am." | 42:33 | |
And at the other extreme, | 42:41 | |
a dear and effective neighbor pastor, | 42:43 | |
terminally ill with leukemia, still working, | 42:47 | |
accuses himself to me of not dying well. | 42:52 | |
A psychiatrist in Michigan: "Can you give us information | 42:58 | |
about so-and-so and your appraisal of the base | 43:02 | |
of his self accusation and hyper-activism?" | 43:05 | |
Another psychiatrist in Maine: | 43:11 | |
"Please give us your evaluation | 43:14 | |
of why does this frontline varsity type so despise himself?" | 43:16 | |
A young woman in state hospital, I've never seen her, | 43:24 | |
so frustrated she creates her own pregnancy | 43:29 | |
and had bought a layette before her parents discovered | 43:33 | |
she is physically barren. | 43:37 | |
But, so guilty in her own mind, writes how she hates me | 43:40 | |
for what she thought I had done to her father until she read | 43:47 | |
in an old book of mine what I had done for Judas | 43:52 | |
and now she loves me. | 43:57 | |
Her father, a mountain, beautifully simple suffering man | 44:00 | |
who had written me, quote: | 44:06 | |
"God is the worst thing that ever came into my life." | 44:08 | |
My special, very special, six year old correspondent, | 44:14 | |
reared in all but perfect permissiveness, | 44:19 | |
Peter already intensely aware of his spelling imperfections. | 44:23 | |
Add on all your stuff, dragged into | 44:30 | |
and out of some sanctuary as this for years. | 44:35 | |
And then, repeat after me, | 44:42 | |
"God sent not the fruit of Mary's womb into the world | 44:44 | |
to condemn the world." | 44:47 | |
Rather say it with me, | 44:50 | |
"God sent not the fruit of Mary's womb into the world | 44:52 | |
to condemn the world." | 44:57 | |
Believe it, if you can. | 45:01 | |
And then you must ask: | 45:03 | |
"Then who laid all this guilt on me then?" | 45:06 | |
There's plenty of condemnation around, but not from Christ. | 45:11 | |
Who laid all this condemning in our laps? | 45:17 | |
If not Christ, then who? | 45:21 | |
If God sent not the fruit of Mary's womb | 45:24 | |
into the world to condemn us, | 45:27 | |
if St Paul's "There is therefore now no condemnation | 45:30 | |
to them that are in Christo," if this is believable at all, | 45:34 | |
who laid it on us? | 45:42 | |
Answer: a version of Christianity laid it | 45:45 | |
on us all over Western Christendom, a bad version. | 45:48 | |
By the sixth century Christian era, | 45:55 | |
nearly all the great conciliar groupings | 45:57 | |
into the meaning of the personhood of God | 46:01 | |
and us had been blunted by the understanding | 46:04 | |
of man as sinner. | 46:08 | |
It came early. | 46:12 | |
By the early fourth century, if in mid-sermon, | 46:13 | |
Augustine said "Confiteor" in any context | 46:18 | |
of joy or grief or need, | 46:24 | |
the rumble of the congregation beating its breast | 46:27 | |
would actually interrupt the sermon to his great anger. | 46:31 | |
But, in the west, | 46:37 | |
we passed over the incredible particularity | 46:39 | |
and singularity of human personhood, which is Jewish genius. | 46:43 | |
Socrates never arrived at it. | 46:50 | |
His individual is universal man. | 46:52 | |
Jesus arrives at the unique flavor of individuality. | 46:56 | |
This the fruit of Mary's womb demonstrated. | 47:01 | |
But, Western Christendom reduced the question | 47:05 | |
"What is man, that thou art mindful of him?" | 47:09 | |
To the question, "What is man as sinner?" | 47:13 | |
So, for at least 14 of the 20 centuries | 47:18 | |
in which we have been de-Judaizing ourselves, | 47:23 | |
so-called Christian anthropology has focused | 47:28 | |
on the human as sinner. | 47:32 | |
And our greatest impoverishment is our limited notion | 47:37 | |
of the human and, its corollary, | 47:41 | |
our limited idea of redemption. | 47:46 | |
So, in short, we get our condemnation, not from the Christ, | 47:52 | |
but from a culture shaped by a limited Christianity. | 47:57 | |
To sum it: We got our self-condemnatory stance in part | 48:01 | |
from the blessed saints. | 48:06 | |
Not even Saint Augustan escaped. | 48:10 | |
10 days of dying, | 48:12 | |
his eyes glued to the penitential psalms nailed to the wall | 48:15 | |
of the little cell in which he dies. | 48:20 | |
We learned our condemnation, too, from the blessed Anselm, | 48:24 | |
whose 11th century meditations were still being printed | 48:28 | |
in English 600 years later for little Christian girls | 48:32 | |
in England to spend their Sunday afternoons reading aloud. | 48:37 | |
Indeed, in an English version from 1704, | 48:43 | |
given to us for Christmas by Lib Dowd and inscribed: | 48:48 | |
"Elizabeth Ray, her book, 1709," | 48:54 | |
I find her markings where Anselm says, | 49:00 | |
"I can't look upon my past life without horror. | 49:04 | |
When examined it shows me nothing but sin or barrenness. | 49:08 | |
I am the scorn and scandal of my species; | 49:12 | |
more vile than the beasts that perish; | 49:16 | |
more filthy and noisome than a carcass already putrefied; | 49:19 | |
and Jesus, the blessed Jesus. | 49:25 | |
This is He, the judge at whom I tremble." Oh my God. | 49:27 | |
And in the same old leathern volume, from Bernard, | 49:34 | |
"Jesus, The Very Thought of Thee" Bernard, we read, quote: | 49:38 | |
"The ghastliness and deformity that I discover | 49:44 | |
in me make me a perfect monster and a terror to myself | 49:47 | |
since every corner of my heart is a cage of unclean birds." | 49:53 | |
And so it goes for 200 pages. | 50:01 | |
If God sent not the fruit of Mary's womb to condemn us, | 50:05 | |
where did we learn to be so guilty? | 50:09 | |
Well, we learned it from the saints | 50:15 | |
and the bloomin' theologians and stupid pastors | 50:18 | |
and the opportunistic, manipulative evangelists | 50:25 | |
under which most of us got baptized in one way or another. | 50:28 | |
We learned it from our first teachers and our neighbors | 50:33 | |
and our playmates and all our companions | 50:38 | |
of the long drawn out confusion. | 50:41 | |
Everybody lays it on us. | 50:45 | |
From our culture of expectations and the poverty | 50:48 | |
of our Anglo-Saxon and Mediterranean forebears, | 50:52 | |
from Madison Avenue and the media | 50:56 | |
and courts and law and mores. | 50:59 | |
And, just this winter, I was made to feel both guilty | 51:02 | |
and shamed, if not stupid, | 51:06 | |
because I had already had my swine flu shots. | 51:09 | |
(audience laughs) | 51:14 | |
Now, if the Christ does not condemn us, | 51:17 | |
but we keep laying it on us, the question comes immediately: | 51:20 | |
What do we get out of being so guilty? | 51:26 | |
What is this colossal indulgence? | 51:31 | |
The net profit for us in this culture-wide acceptance | 51:35 | |
of our condemnation for mere sin is the great evasion. | 51:39 | |
First and blatantly, sin really is so much less | 51:47 | |
than the evil and we can't escape responsibility | 51:51 | |
for colossal evil only by admitting to petty sins. | 51:57 | |
So, we list concupiscence and envy and greed | 52:04 | |
and all our legal, penal, educational, religious, | 52:09 | |
governmental, and commercial systems are geared | 52:13 | |
to deal with our sinfulness, | 52:17 | |
but none is really set up to deal with evil. | 52:21 | |
Hence it is that war, famine, pestilence, premature death | 52:27 | |
ride all but unimpeded. | 52:36 | |
What could happen if we Christians | 52:41 | |
became responsibly guilty? | 52:43 | |
Guilty of earth's real crimes: War; famine; pestilence; | 52:48 | |
death; mass crimes; mass guilt; | 52:56 | |
structural, institutional, systematic guilt. | 53:01 | |
What could happen if we quit using | 53:08 | |
our childhood gardens sins | 53:10 | |
to escape our responsibility for colossal evil? | 53:14 | |
Swiftly now, might this not thrust upon us | 53:21 | |
the broader notion of humankind and maturity | 53:26 | |
and our mobility toward possibility for a fairer earth | 53:32 | |
than that we fled centuries ago when we learned | 53:39 | |
to give total allegiance to property? | 53:44 | |
What if we should now be forced to face the real enemy? | 53:51 | |
What if we discovered within us a new capacity | 53:56 | |
for wishing, willing, deciding? | 54:01 | |
What if we took seriously those 19th century thinkers | 54:06 | |
of ours in America who began to try | 54:10 | |
to show us a new locus for evil? | 54:13 | |
Not just, as Jim McCord put it last summer in Princeton, | 54:18 | |
evil not just in our human hearts, | 54:23 | |
but evil in the very structures of our society. | 54:27 | |
They tried to tell us that all through the late 1800s. | 54:33 | |
Dear Rosebush even claimed a dairy | 54:38 | |
or a newspaper could be converted, given a proper witness. | 54:41 | |
Could we not, with elan and encouragement, | 54:47 | |
let these foolish structures all go | 54:50 | |
before a new recognition of humanity as our goal? | 54:54 | |
A humanity beyond war, famine, pestilence, death. | 54:59 | |
This is a gerundively-modified theology, | 55:05 | |
not an adjectivally-modified one, | 55:10 | |
like white or black or Christian or German or Southern. | 55:14 | |
This is liberation theology! This is wholeness. | 55:18 | |
This is Imago Christi. | 55:25 | |
We are viators, being made able | 55:28 | |
to stand against the real enemy. | 55:35 | |
And it rests on the reality of grace, community, relation, | 55:39 | |
responsible guilt, expectation. | 55:46 | |
And what a penny cost it could be if we realized | 55:50 | |
and accepted the implications of the "God sent not the fruit | 55:55 | |
of Mary's womb to condemn the world." | 56:01 | |
This would mean that we would quit saying | 56:06 | |
that our petty misdemeanors crucified Jesus. | 56:10 | |
We would rather see and say with, | 56:15 | |
William Stringfellow and host of the rest of us, | 56:19 | |
that, in crucifixion, we saw and see the triumph | 56:24 | |
of the structures of society that have found war, | 56:29 | |
famine, pestilence, and death to be useful and still do. | 56:35 | |
We would begin to see, in resurrection, | 56:43 | |
the triumph of our species in standing above war, famine, | 56:47 | |
pestilence, and premature death. | 56:53 | |
And we would begin to feel, in Pentecost, | 56:56 | |
that we are empowered to participate in that full humanity, | 57:01 | |
which has, as its proper place in creation, | 57:09 | |
the calling to stand over against the true evil and triumph | 57:13 | |
and we could recover our place in creation. | 57:20 | |
In the notion of dear Kazantzakis, | 57:25 | |
we would be resurrecting Christ. | 57:28 | |
Once, years ago, two dear 13 year old women, | 57:35 | |
now they're grown, asked me outside the study door, | 57:43 | |
why the Christ did not come again? | 57:49 | |
As always, I took such theologians seriously and tried | 57:54 | |
to answer them in a sermon. | 57:58 | |
I said, "Because we have not yet caught on | 58:00 | |
to that first coming." | 58:04 | |
But, I now add, "But, he did not come to condemn us." | 58:08 | |
Sometimes I have to turn to some great pagan | 58:16 | |
to help me understand and realize | 58:21 | |
what such a triumph over petty guilt would mean. | 58:25 | |
Last September, my last visit to my great friend, | 58:32 | |
Kuykendall, pagan, rancher, | 58:37 | |
eight gold polo handicap in his youth, | 58:42 | |
hunter of everything he could use, | 58:48 | |
from the coon who killed his quail | 58:51 | |
to the 12 foot cat I've seen him drag out of a pickup, | 58:54 | |
which had been carrying off his calves in Mexico | 58:58 | |
and Bill didn't like that. | 59:02 | |
Pagan, I say, master sinner, Mexican cook. | 59:04 | |
150 years he sat, on the same spread, dying now, | 59:11 | |
cancer-ridden spleen, liver, and stomach, | 59:17 | |
great hulk shrunken, nothing on his stomach for three weeks, | 59:21 | |
waving off all artificial life support, | 59:27 | |
while I'm sitting by, and he calls to Maria, his 84 year old | 59:32 | |
and still barefooted Yaki cook, "Bring me chili." | 59:37 | |
He believed he could hold it down and did. | 59:45 | |
Alice, striking wife of 46 years sitting on the bed foot | 59:51 | |
and dying, Bill talks. | 59:56 | |
Of what? His sins, many, and the neighbors said, gross. | 1:00:00 | |
Though, as Bill always said, "I was never indicted." | 1:00:08 | |
Why no, no, no. | 1:00:13 | |
He talks with Alice and me about his mother, | 1:00:18 | |
dead nearly 80 years. | 1:00:24 | |
"What a person," he said of her. | 1:00:27 | |
Widowed in his infancy, she had taught him | 1:00:31 | |
everything a woman knows to do in a home | 1:00:36 | |
and all anybody knows to do on a horse or a ranch. | 1:00:40 | |
How he had adored her | 1:00:46 | |
and had turned a South Texas wilderness | 1:00:49 | |
into an English park because he loved his mother | 1:00:52 | |
and creation and knew himself to be part of mother | 1:00:57 | |
and creation and nature, too, and his time had come. | 1:01:03 | |
To salute this ego maturity with tears, | 1:01:11 | |
a day or so later, I had to recall what Armand Nicholi | 1:01:19 | |
at Harvard had used to describe inner peace. | 1:01:23 | |
He had said that if you can love across a long span, | 1:01:29 | |
if you have a clear concept of real right and wrong | 1:01:37 | |
and are able to stand to being wrong. | 1:01:44 | |
If you have a growing sense of your eye with responsibility | 1:01:50 | |
for finishing creation and if you accept the reality terms | 1:01:57 | |
of your own death, then you, like Kuykendall, | 1:02:05 | |
are approaching true humanhood. | 1:02:12 | |
What a model we have for this. | 1:02:17 | |
Don't let the innocence of Mary's baby, put you off on this. | 1:02:22 | |
Nothing incites us more than the refusal | 1:02:30 | |
of innocence to condemn us. | 1:02:33 | |
Nothing upsets us more | 1:02:37 | |
than when innocence will not condemn us. | 1:02:40 | |
This is one reason why so many of the innocent, | 1:02:43 | |
both babies and the aging, are battered. | 1:02:48 | |
We just can't bear innocence. | 1:02:54 | |
We can hardly bear the innocent that lays no guilt on us. | 1:02:58 | |
But, what a lead. | 1:03:05 | |
What a lead toward mature guilt | 1:03:08 | |
that sees the real issue we have in Jesus. | 1:03:11 | |
Let us even now go to Golgotha and see. | 1:03:19 | |
(upbeat organ music) | 1:03:35 | |
(choir drowned out by organ) | 1:04:00 | |
(gentle organ) | 1:06:44 | |
♪ Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia ♪ | 1:08:19 | |
♪ Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia ♪ | 1:08:28 | |
♪ Alleluia, alleluia ♪ | 1:08:34 | |
♪ Alleluia, alleluia ♪ | 1:08:40 | |
♪ Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia ♪ | 1:08:44 | |
♪ Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia ♪ | 1:08:47 | |
♪ Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia ♪ | 1:08:52 | |
♪ Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia ♪ | 1:08:57 | |
♪ Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia ♪ | 1:09:02 | |
♪ Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia ♪ | 1:09:07 | |
♪ Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia ♪ | 1:09:12 | |
♪ Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia ♪ | 1:09:17 | |
♪ Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia ♪ | 1:09:22 | |
♪ Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia ♪ | 1:09:27 | |
♪ Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia ♪ | 1:09:32 | |
♪ Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia ♪ | 1:09:37 | |
♪ Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia ♪ | 1:09:42 | |
♪ Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia ♪ | 1:09:47 | |
♪ Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia ♪ | 1:09:57 | |
♪ Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia ♪ | 1:10:02 | |
♪ Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia ♪ | 1:10:07 | |
♪ Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia ♪ | 1:10:12 | |
♪ Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia ♪ | 1:10:17 | |
♪ Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia ♪ | 1:10:22 | |
♪ Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia ♪ | 1:10:27 | |
♪ Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia ♪ | 1:10:32 | |
♪ Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia ♪ | 1:10:37 | |
♪ Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia ♪ | 1:10:42 | |
♪ Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia ♪ | 1:10:47 | |
♪ Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia ♪ | 1:10:52 | |
♪ Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia ♪ | 1:10:58 | |
♪ Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia ♪ | 1:11:03 | |
♪ Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia ♪ | 1:11:08 | |
♪ Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia ♪ | 1:11:13 | |
♪ Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia ♪ | 1:11:18 | |
♪ Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia ♪ | 1:11:23 | |
♪ Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia ♪ | 1:11:28 | |
♪ Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia ♪ | 1:11:33 | |
♪ Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia ♪ | 1:11:38 | |
♪ Alleluia ♪ | 1:11:46 | |
♪ Alleluia ♪ | 1:11:57 | |
♪ Alleluia ♪ | 1:12:08 | |
♪ Alleluia ♪ | 1:12:23 | |
♪ Alleluia ♪ | 1:12:34 | |
(gentle organ music) | 1:12:53 | |
(organ drowns out sings) | 1:13:21 | |
♪ Alleluia, alleluia ♪ | 1:13:33 | |
(organ drowns out singers) | 1:13:41 | |
♪ Alleluia, alleluia ♪ | 1:13:53 | |
♪ Alleluia, alleluia ♪ | 1:13:59 | |
♪ Alleluia ♪ | 1:14:05 | |
♪ Alleluia ♪ | 1:14:13 | |
- | Oh, holy God, we offer these gifts for your glory | 1:14:25 |
and in memory of one who was obedient to you. | 1:14:33 | |
Our prayers are that these monies will enable others to grow | 1:14:39 | |
in grace and knowledge and truth | 1:14:44 | |
and become better equipped to serve you. | 1:14:48 | |
We offer these prayers in the spirit of the risen Lord. | 1:14:53 | |
Amen. | 1:14:58 | |
(upbeat organ music) | 1:15:03 | |
(choir singing drowned out by organ) | 1:15:42 | |
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God | 1:18:38 | |
and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you | 1:18:45 | |
this day and forever more. | 1:18:50 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 1:18:54 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 1:18:58 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 1:19:03 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 1:19:10 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 1:19:15 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 1:19:22 | |
♪ Amen ♪ | 1:19:34 | |
(upbeat organ music) | 1:19:53 |