Harry B. Partin - "Christian Solidarity" (July 23, 1967)
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Transcript
Transcripts may contain inaccuracies.
(liturgical music begins) | 0:03 | |
- | Carl Sandburg wrote a prayer poem, | 0:39 |
entitled "Prayers Of Steel" in which he prayed. | 0:43 | |
"Lay me on an anvil, O God. | 0:49 | |
Beat me and hammer me into a crowbar." | 0:52 | |
These words of Sandberg who died yesterday | 0:58 | |
suggest something of the hard discipline, | 1:02 | |
which is needed to make our spirits, | 1:05 | |
the kind of tools which God can use | 1:08 | |
for the rebuilding of a new world. | 1:12 | |
The first part, and perhaps the most painful of all | 1:15 | |
of this beating and hammering | 1:19 | |
is the acknowledgement that we are sinners. | 1:22 | |
Let us now therefore beloved together, confess our sins. | 1:26 | |
Let us pray. | 1:32 | |
O Lord, most holy | 1:34 | |
God, most mighty. | 1:36 | |
Who hast found us wanting and yet has not forsaken us. | 1:38 | |
We confess that we have often witnessed to our pride | 1:43 | |
and vanity instead of witnessing to thy grace. | 1:47 | |
The peace and joy thou did offer us. | 1:51 | |
We sold for power and prestige. | 1:54 | |
We have trusted too much in the work of our hands | 1:58 | |
and in the fruit of our laboratories. | 2:02 | |
We have not remembered our total need of thy wisdom. | 2:04 | |
Save us from all sin. | 2:08 | |
We humbly pray through Jesus Christ, our Lord. | 2:11 | |
Amen. | 2:15 | |
And now beloved, let us hear the comforting words | 2:17 | |
of the holy scriptures, | 2:20 | |
which were given for folks such as you and me. | 2:22 | |
"Who is like unto God, | 2:27 | |
who pardons iniquity, passes over transgressions. | 2:30 | |
He does not retain his anger forever | 2:35 | |
because he delights in steadfast love. | 2:38 | |
He will again have compassion upon us. | 2:42 | |
He will tread our iniquities underfoot. | 2:46 | |
He will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea." | 2:50 | |
These words from Micah are comforting | 2:55 | |
to those who need forgiveness of their sins. | 2:59 | |
And now as Christians have done through 19 centuries, | 3:04 | |
may we again, meaningfully today | 3:08 | |
make our own the prayer of which Christ | 3:11 | |
has taught his disciples to pray. | 3:13 | |
Saying, "Our father who art in heaven, | 3:15 | |
hallowed be thy name. | 3:19 | |
Thy kingdom come. | 3:21 | |
Thy will be done | 3:23 | |
on earth as it is in heaven. | 3:24 | |
Give us this day our daily bread, | 3:27 | |
and forgive us our trespasses, | 3:30 | |
as we forgive those who trespass against us, | 3:32 | |
and lead us not into temptation, | 3:36 | |
but deliver us from evil. | 3:38 | |
For thine is the kingdom, | 3:40 | |
and the power, and the glory, | 3:42 | |
for ever." | 3:44 | |
Amen. | 3:45 | |
(liturgical music) | 3:49 | |
The Lord be with you. | 7:02 | |
Let us pray. | 7:06 | |
Oh God, who dust | 7:10 | |
give us a new day and a new opportunity. | 7:12 | |
We come now to offer our thanks for giving us | 7:16 | |
a chance to ennoble our lives by worshiping thee. | 7:19 | |
We thank thee for all the open doors, | 7:24 | |
which thou does set before us | 7:27 | |
and which no man may shut. | 7:29 | |
If our health is less than perfect. | 7:33 | |
We thank thee that there are doctors and nurses | 7:36 | |
and medicines and hospitals. | 7:40 | |
If our spiritual health is at a low ebb, | 7:44 | |
we thank thee that we have thy loving invitation. | 7:49 | |
Whosoever will, may come. | 7:54 | |
And that thou has provided us with the scriptures, | 7:57 | |
the church, teachers, preachers, counselors, friends. | 8:01 | |
If we have failed to establish righteousness | 8:11 | |
and order in our world. | 8:13 | |
We thank thee for a new day, | 8:16 | |
new resources and a new chance to try. | 8:19 | |
God of our fathers. | 8:26 | |
We come to thee in worship today. | 8:28 | |
To intercede and to make supplication for | 8:32 | |
the fulfillment of the needs of | 8:35 | |
our brothers and of ourselves. | 8:37 | |
Be thou to us what our fathers have said, | 8:41 | |
thou word to them. | 8:44 | |
We too are tossed about by the storms | 8:47 | |
and uncertainties of life. | 8:49 | |
We too need a basic security as they did. | 8:52 | |
We long for justice, for order, brotherhood, peace. | 8:57 | |
We need the strength to endure. | 9:05 | |
Our fathers have testified that thou work to them, | 9:09 | |
a pillar of cloud by day and a fire by night. | 9:12 | |
That thou did lead them. | 9:16 | |
That thy word was a lamp under their feet | 9:19 | |
and a light under their path. | 9:22 | |
Be that to us. | 9:26 | |
We too are pilgrims and pioneers, | 9:29 | |
not able to predict the end of our journey, | 9:31 | |
not knowing what we shall encounter along the way. | 9:33 | |
O, God of the pilgrims and pioneers | 9:38 | |
lead us in paths of righteousness for thy name's sake. | 9:41 | |
Lead us in the paths of progress | 9:46 | |
of saint order and of peace. | 9:49 | |
Our fathers have said that thou word their friend, | 9:54 | |
their unseen companion in the journey | 9:57 | |
in whom they could confide. | 10:00 | |
Be that to us. | 10:03 | |
We too need friendship. | 10:06 | |
While we blessed thy name for earthly friends | 10:09 | |
who buy their care at beauty to our lives. | 10:12 | |
Yet O God, we find a need to know a friendship | 10:17 | |
beyond the earthly. | 10:20 | |
To feel the everlasting arms beneath us | 10:22 | |
and even to speak onto thy as a man speaks with a friend. | 10:26 | |
O Lord, | 10:33 | |
As we think of our university, of our city, | 10:34 | |
our nation, our world, | 10:38 | |
we're driven to ask for the graces, | 10:41 | |
which Christian faith offers. | 10:44 | |
We need light, forgiveness, love, fairness. | 10:47 | |
As we ponder the unrest and riots in our own land, | 10:54 | |
we pray for forgiveness for | 10:59 | |
those who incite riots by their hot words. | 11:01 | |
And for those who incite riots by their cold attitudes. | 11:06 | |
For those who incite riots by inflamed speech. | 11:11 | |
For those who incite riots by their | 11:16 | |
greedy unconcerned for the poor. | 11:18 | |
Forgive them and forgive us, O Lord. | 11:22 | |
As we think of our sick, our confused, | 11:28 | |
our poor, our lonely, our orphans. | 11:32 | |
We remember the testimony of our fathers | 11:38 | |
that thou work to them, a friend, a savior, | 11:40 | |
the great physician, their heavenly father. | 11:44 | |
Be that to us. | 11:50 | |
And we shall thee the praise and glory | 11:52 | |
through Jesus Christ, Our Lord for ever. | 11:55 | |
Amen. | 12:00 | |
Let us hear now the reading of the holy scripture, | 12:08 | |
our lesson for today is composed of two passages. | 12:13 | |
One from the old Testament and one from the new, | 12:18 | |
which are very similar. | 12:21 | |
Which have to do with the relationship | 12:24 | |
of brother to brother. | 12:26 | |
The first one, | 12:29 | |
and this is taken from the Genesis 45. | 12:30 | |
And it breaks in, | 12:34 | |
in the middle of a story. | 12:36 | |
With which I think most of you are familiar. | 12:38 | |
The story of the reunification of Joseph with his brothers. | 12:41 | |
We begin at the first verse of the 45th chapter. | 12:46 | |
"Then Joseph could not control himself before | 12:52 | |
all those who stood by him. | 12:55 | |
And he cried, 'Make everyone go out from me.' | 12:57 | |
So no one stayed with him when Joseph made himself | 13:02 | |
known to his brothers. | 13:04 | |
"And he wept aloud, so that the Egyptians heard it, | 13:07 | |
and the household of Pharaoh heard it. | 13:10 | |
"Joseph said to his brothers, | 13:13 | |
'I am Joseph! Is my father still alive?' | 13:16 | |
But his brothers could not answer him | 13:21 | |
for they were dismayed at his presence. | 13:24 | |
"So Joseph said to his brothers, | 13:28 | |
'Come near to me, I pray you.' | 13:30 | |
They came near. | 13:32 | |
He said, 'I am your brother, Joseph, | 13:34 | |
whom you sold into Egypt. | 13:36 | |
"And now do not be distressed or angry with yourselves | 13:39 | |
because you sold me here, | 13:43 | |
for God sent me before you to preserve life. | 13:45 | |
"For the famine has been in the land these two years, | 13:50 | |
and there are yet five years in which there | 13:53 | |
will be neither plowing nor harvest. | 13:57 | |
And God sent me before you to preserve for you | 14:00 | |
a remnant on earth, and to keep alive | 14:04 | |
for you many survivors. | 14:08 | |
"So it was not you who sent me here, but God. | 14:11 | |
And he has made me a father to Pharaoh, | 14:14 | |
and Lord of all his house | 14:18 | |
and ruler over all the land of Egypt." | 14:20 | |
"Make haste and go up to my father and say to him, | 14:23 | |
'Thus says your son, Joseph, | 14:27 | |
God has made me Lord of all Egypt. | 14:29 | |
Come down to me, and do not tarry.' | 14:32 | |
"You shall dwell in the land of Goshen, | 14:36 | |
and you shall be near me, | 14:39 | |
you and your children and your children's children, | 14:41 | |
and your flocks, your herds, and all that you have. | 14:44 | |
"And there I will provide for you, | 14:49 | |
for there are yet five years of famine to come, | 14:51 | |
lest you and your household, and all that you have, | 14:55 | |
come to poverty. | 14:58 | |
"Now your eyes see, and the eyes of | 15:00 | |
my brother Benjamin see, | 15:03 | |
that it is my mouth that speaks to you. | 15:05 | |
You must tell my father of all my splendor in Egypt, | 15:09 | |
and of all that you have seen. | 15:14 | |
Make haste and bring my father down here. | 15:16 | |
Then he fell upon his brother Benjamin's neck and wept, | 15:20 | |
and Benjamin wept upon his neck. | 15:24 | |
And he kissed all his brothers and wept upon them. | 15:27 | |
And after that his brothers talked with him." | 15:31 | |
And now we turn to the other story of the brothers. | 15:37 | |
This one was told by our Lord, Jesus. | 15:44 | |
Jesus said, "There was a man who had two sons. | 15:48 | |
The younger of them said to his father, | 15:51 | |
'Father give me the share of property that falls to me.' | 15:54 | |
And he divided his living between them. | 15:58 | |
"Not many days later, the younger son | 16:01 | |
gathered all that he had, | 16:03 | |
and took his journey into a far country | 16:04 | |
there he squandered his property in loose living. | 16:07 | |
And when he had spent everything, | 16:12 | |
a great famine arose in that country | 16:15 | |
and he began to be in one. | 16:17 | |
So he went and joined himself to one | 16:19 | |
of the citizens of that country who sent him | 16:21 | |
into these fields to feed swine. | 16:24 | |
He would gladly it fed on the pods that the swine ate. | 16:28 | |
No one gave him anything. | 16:32 | |
But when he came to himself, he said, | 16:35 | |
'How many of my father's hired servants | 16:37 | |
have bread enough and to spare. | 16:39 | |
But I perish here with hunger. | 16:42 | |
I will arise and go to my father. | 16:45 | |
I will say to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven. | 16:47 | |
And before you, I am no longer worthy | 16:50 | |
to be called your son, | 16:53 | |
treat me as one of your hired servants.' | 16:55 | |
He arose and came to his father. | 16:59 | |
"But while he was yet at a distance, | 17:02 | |
his father saw him and had compassion | 17:05 | |
and ran and embraced him and kissed him. | 17:09 | |
"And the son said to him, | 17:11 | |
'Father I've sinned against heaven. | 17:13 | |
And before you, I am no longer worthy | 17:15 | |
to be called your son.' | 17:17 | |
But the father said to his servants, | 17:19 | |
'Bring quickly the best robe | 17:21 | |
and put it on him and put a ring on his hand | 17:22 | |
and shoes on his feet, bring the fatted calf and kill it. | 17:24 | |
Let us eat and make merry for this | 17:28 | |
My son was dead and is alive again.' | 17:32 | |
He was lost and is found, | 17:37 | |
and they began to make merry. | 17:40 | |
"Now his elder son was in the field. | 17:44 | |
As he came and drew near the house, | 17:47 | |
he heard music and dancing. | 17:49 | |
He called one of his servants and asked what this meant. | 17:52 | |
Servant said to him, | 17:56 | |
'Your brother has come and your father has killed | 17:57 | |
the fatted calf because he has received him safe and sound.' | 18:00 | |
"But he was angry, refused to go in. | 18:07 | |
His father came out and had treated him, | 18:12 | |
but he answered his father, | 18:14 | |
'low these many years, I have served you | 18:15 | |
and I never disobeyed your command. | 18:18 | |
Yet you never gave me a kid | 18:20 | |
that I might make merry with my friends. | 18:22 | |
But when the son of yours came, | 18:26 | |
who has devoured your living with harlots, | 18:28 | |
you killed for him, the fatted calf!' | 18:31 | |
"And he said to him, 'Son, you are always with me. | 18:34 | |
And all that is mine is yours. | 18:40 | |
It was fitting to make merry and be glad for this year, | 18:44 | |
brother was dead and is alive, | 18:48 | |
He was lost and is found.'" | 18:52 | |
Let us pray. | 19:47 | |
May the words of our mouth | 19:52 | |
and the meditations of our hearts | 19:56 | |
be acceptable in thy sight. | 19:59 | |
O Lord, Our strength and our Redeemer. | 20:02 | |
Amen. | 20:08 | |
The parable of the prodigal stock is among other things, | 20:14 | |
a study in contrast. | 20:20 | |
Most notably, the contrast between human prodigality | 20:26 | |
and divine forgiveness. | 20:32 | |
But there are other contrasts as well. | 20:37 | |
Towards the end of the parable, | 20:43 | |
there is a conversation between | 20:45 | |
the father and his stay at home elder son | 20:48 | |
who refuses to go into the house | 20:56 | |
where the returned prodigal is being feasted and fitted. | 20:59 | |
Father and son are speaking about the prodigal. | 21:08 | |
In this context occurred two phrases, | 21:13 | |
which express one of the sharpest | 21:19 | |
of the parables several studied contrast. | 21:23 | |
The elder son refers to his brother | 21:30 | |
as this thy son. | 21:37 | |
In the revised standard version. | 21:41 | |
This son of yours. | 21:44 | |
He refuses to accept the father's description | 21:49 | |
of the other son as thy brother. | 21:54 | |
And we'll only refer to him as thy son. | 22:00 | |
It is you see a calculated repudiation of relationship. | 22:07 | |
He will not call him brother. | 22:16 | |
The father refuses to acquiesce in this repudiation | 22:21 | |
as he patiently reiterates this thy brother. | 22:30 | |
He seeks in the elder son, | 22:39 | |
the same loving and forgiving | 22:43 | |
uninterruptedness in relationship. | 22:46 | |
Which he somehow had been able to maintain. | 22:52 | |
The parable ends on this note, as you heard. | 22:58 | |
It was fitting to make merry and be glad. | 23:04 | |
For this thy brother was dead | 23:09 | |
and is alive. | 23:14 | |
He was lost and is found. | 23:16 | |
If we look for ourselves in this parable, | 23:22 | |
we find ourselves easily. | 23:26 | |
Yes, we are the prodigal son | 23:32 | |
that we occasionally acknowledge, | 23:38 | |
but we are also the elder son. | 23:45 | |
Prodigal? | 23:51 | |
Yes. | 23:51 | |
But also proud, obstinate, unforgiving. | 23:53 | |
We are ready to let God | 24:01 | |
go on loving his creatures. | 24:07 | |
While we refuse our common familiness with them. | 24:11 | |
They may be sons of God, | 24:20 | |
but that does not mean they are our brothers. | 24:23 | |
If we look for God in the parable, | 24:29 | |
we find him in the father, the wild, | 24:33 | |
the prodigal was yet at a distance, | 24:37 | |
saw him and had compassion | 24:40 | |
and ran and embraced him and kissed him | 24:43 | |
Here as in the incarnation itself is the gospel. | 24:49 | |
The good news about God. | 24:56 | |
God sublimity is not aloofness, | 25:02 | |
nor is his glory remote. | 25:09 | |
His majesty is in his out reaching toward us | 25:14 | |
in the self-giving of redemption. | 25:20 | |
God's purposes are not finally achieved | 25:25 | |
by delegation, by command, by remote control. | 25:30 | |
They are undertaken by a love that refuses merely to sin, | 25:39 | |
but insist to cop. | 25:46 | |
God is with us, | 25:50 | |
with us, not merely in terms of a heavenly benignity, | 25:55 | |
but of an earthly incarnation. | 26:02 | |
The gospel is not simply that God's in his heaven, | 26:08 | |
but that he's come from it into our world. | 26:17 | |
It is you see this divine involvement, | 26:26 | |
which is the ground | 26:31 | |
and pattern | 26:34 | |
and inspiration | 26:37 | |
of our involvement with our fellows. | 26:38 | |
By it, by this divine involvement, | 26:44 | |
we are both taught and enabled to do likewise. | 26:50 | |
Christians are or ought to be involved in mankind. | 26:58 | |
And that's not in some abstract way, but concretely. | 27:08 | |
Concretely, we have to translate to specify, | 27:14 | |
to give flesh to what may readily be only an abstraction | 27:19 | |
or a remote ideal. | 27:26 | |
Here I suspect we are as much limited | 27:29 | |
by our imagination as by our reluctance to get involved. | 27:34 | |
I was recalling yesterday the last sermon | 27:44 | |
I preached from this pulpit | 27:49 | |
and realized that it to had to do with involvement | 27:52 | |
and solidarity. | 27:57 | |
Where it was based on the account, | 27:59 | |
which we find in the first chapter of the gospel, | 28:00 | |
according to mark of Jesus healing of a leper. | 28:03 | |
That account, that remarkable account | 28:08 | |
in which Mark tells us that Jesus | 28:12 | |
stretched out his hand and touched the leper. | 28:17 | |
Of the intimacy of that relationship. | 28:23 | |
Of the physical, | 28:28 | |
as well as the spiritual involvement with Jesus | 28:29 | |
with the leper. | 28:33 | |
I want this morning to talk of solidarity among Christians, | 28:36 | |
but I find that I cannot do that | 28:44 | |
without first acknowledging | 28:48 | |
and celebrating the human solidarity. | 28:50 | |
The human solidarity, | 28:56 | |
to which the incarnation itself is clear witness | 28:59 | |
and which we are called to realize ever more fully. | 29:02 | |
Nothing must be said or presumed about the church, | 29:08 | |
which obscures this truth and this demand. | 29:14 | |
The gospel addresses me as one of a human whole | 29:21 | |
before it makes me one of a Christian whole. | 29:30 | |
The church is set within the human whole | 29:36 | |
and not somehow over against it | 29:40 | |
or against a part of it. | 29:42 | |
Jesus was a man for others, | 29:47 | |
in the language of some of our contemporaries. | 29:51 | |
So must his church, that church, | 29:56 | |
which gives his body as the scriptures speak of it. | 29:59 | |
That church, which is his body, be a church for others. | 30:04 | |
At the same time, the gospel of God's will | 30:12 | |
to fellowship with man creates a community | 30:15 | |
of responsive inner coherence and mutuality. | 30:21 | |
The church. | 30:28 | |
It would be strange I think if it were not otherwise. | 30:30 | |
The God who calls us into fellowship | 30:35 | |
with himself through forgiveness and reconciliation | 30:38 | |
creates at the same time, | 30:43 | |
a community of the forgiven and forgiving. | 30:45 | |
And overruled all the sources of otherness | 30:50 | |
by the magnitude of his love. | 30:55 | |
The Apostle Paul writes of this community, | 31:00 | |
when it is true to its own nature, as God's creation. | 31:04 | |
"There is neither Jew nor Greek, | 31:09 | |
there is neither slave nor free, | 31:14 | |
there is neither male nor female, | 31:18 | |
for all you are one in Christ, Jesus." | 31:22 | |
In the New Testament, we find this unity in Christ | 31:29 | |
breaking down and riding over | 31:35 | |
the most stubborn, othernesses of the Roman world. | 31:41 | |
The fellowship with God, | 31:48 | |
to which the gospel invites generates | 31:52 | |
a consequent fellowship among its wondering | 31:56 | |
and forgiven heroes. | 32:00 | |
That you may have fellowship with us. | 32:04 | |
Whose fellowship is with the father | 32:10 | |
and with his son Jesus Christ. | 32:12 | |
These words from John 1 express | 32:17 | |
the constant desire of the church vis-a-vis the world. | 32:21 | |
Fellowship with him | 32:26 | |
and fellowship with one another, these belong together. | 32:28 | |
As Christians, we are first of all, involved with all. | 32:34 | |
And that I think by the nature of what makes us Christians. | 32:44 | |
But we are also and richly involved in one another. | 32:48 | |
This solidarity among Christians | 32:57 | |
and within the church is something we need to understand | 33:01 | |
and reverently to acknowledge. | 33:06 | |
How often it seems to be thought by Christians | 33:13 | |
that unity in Christ is something revocable at will. | 33:15 | |
We seem to treat the fellowship as something we are free | 33:24 | |
to sunder at our own behest. | 33:29 | |
Sometimes on the flimsiest grounds, | 33:33 | |
we dissociate | 33:37 | |
and disintegrate, | 33:42 | |
repudiate relationship. | 33:44 | |
But the fellowship which we treat | 33:49 | |
as if it belong to us | 33:53 | |
and were indeed our creation, | 33:57 | |
is something to which we belong. | 34:01 | |
Nowhere in the New Testament, | 34:06 | |
I think is there any ground for thinking | 34:07 | |
that fellowship is sundurable at our will. | 34:11 | |
If others, in the Christian whole think and act so. | 34:16 | |
Ours it is as far as in us lies | 34:24 | |
to repudiate the isolation | 34:30 | |
and to maintain the fellowship. | 34:34 | |
The Christian Church is not an agreement to associate. | 34:40 | |
It is not like some club or society | 34:50 | |
which men put together for as long as they want it, | 34:56 | |
and then put apart. | 35:00 | |
On the contrary, all the metaphors, | 35:03 | |
which the New Testament uses in speaking | 35:07 | |
of this Christian society, the church, | 35:09 | |
all these metaphors. | 35:13 | |
Our corporate and organic. | 35:16 | |
We find many of these corporate and organic metaphors | 35:22 | |
in Ephesians. | 35:27 | |
There the church is likened unto a building, | 35:29 | |
a brotherhood, a body and a bride. | 35:35 | |
A building, a brotherhood, | 35:43 | |
a body and a bride. | 35:45 | |
None of these entities is properly, | 35:49 | |
some of them even conceivably, | 35:53 | |
self disbanded. | 35:55 | |
A structure, a family, | 35:58 | |
a body, a marriage. | 36:03 | |
These are integral unities. | 36:06 | |
Architecture, laud, physical light, | 36:10 | |
matrimony, | 36:16 | |
these deal in inorganic harmonies. | 36:19 | |
Columns and lentils, brothers and sisters, | 36:25 | |
limbs and faculties, husband and wife. | 36:31 | |
These belong together, inextricably. | 36:36 | |
They cannot be likened to the bandit | 36:44 | |
and disbanded occupants of a ferry boat. | 36:48 | |
Whose passengers board land and disperse. | 36:52 | |
This truth of the organic unity of the Christian fellowship | 37:01 | |
should not be obscured by the fact | 37:09 | |
that it does appear to be gathered. | 37:12 | |
There is I think deep and indispensable | 37:17 | |
meaning in the congregational principle | 37:19 | |
that the church is gathered into its local expression. | 37:23 | |
My own church tradition is strongly congregational. | 37:29 | |
And I appreciate the value of this tradition | 37:32 | |
as a witness to a truth about the Christian community. | 37:35 | |
The Lord added to the church reports the Book of Acts, | 37:43 | |
the number of the disciples was multiplied. | 37:49 | |
It tells us again. | 37:55 | |
Added, | 37:58 | |
multiplied. | 38:01 | |
These are arithmetical terms. | 38:03 | |
But not everything that can be added or multiplied | 38:07 | |
can rightly be divided. | 38:13 | |
A growing Cathedral, increases in number of stones. | 38:17 | |
Stone is added to stone. | 38:26 | |
But at the same time that Cathedral | 38:30 | |
increases in coherence and unity. | 38:32 | |
What a thing is, | 38:39 | |
is not the same as how it comes to be. | 38:42 | |
Men are invited in to fellowship | 38:47 | |
and they come into it one by one. | 38:50 | |
But what they are invited into is not something | 38:54 | |
they have thereby agreed to constitute. | 38:58 | |
Something they have themselves created. | 39:03 | |
A serious part of our being apprehended | 39:09 | |
to use the language of the New Testament | 39:12 | |
is just this truth of our Christian solidarity. | 39:16 | |
We have great need of accepting that we are parts of a whole | 39:21 | |
or better partners in a whole | 39:26 | |
of accepting that the whole is not ourselves. | 39:30 | |
That refusal of wholeness is treachery | 39:36 | |
to our own allegiance. | 39:39 | |
That the true part is in open, | 39:42 | |
humble patient seeking of the whole. | 39:46 | |
Do we not need to renounce our chronic instinct | 39:52 | |
to aloofness, and to ask ourselves | 39:57 | |
whether what we believe we have distinctively entrust | 40:02 | |
is not better served by involvement than by installation. | 40:08 | |
Do we need to see eye to eye | 40:17 | |
before we beat heart to heart? | 40:23 | |
And shall we ever see eye to eye in so far as we should, | 40:25 | |
until we have begun to beat heart to heart. | 40:31 | |
In his first letter to the Corinthians, | 40:36 | |
the Apostle Paul addresses himself | 40:39 | |
to the dissensions and divisions | 40:42 | |
within the church at Corinth. | 40:44 | |
Passionately he pleads for unity in Christ, | 40:47 | |
but as harken to Paul's please | 40:51 | |
for undividedness within the body of Christ. | 40:54 | |
How vehemently Paul castigates all the familiar | 40:58 | |
and mistaken pleas for partisanship. | 41:02 | |
In his sure instinct | 41:09 | |
for the prerogatives of the holy spirit. | 41:11 | |
Paul calls for the subordination | 41:15 | |
of ministry and the ministers to truth. | 41:17 | |
For the sovereignty of God's wisdom | 41:21 | |
For the authority of the mind of Christ | 41:24 | |
and the centrality of the cross. | 41:27 | |
The most arrogant of all the partisans | 41:32 | |
of whom first Corinthians tells us | 41:36 | |
were those who irrigated Christ to themselves, | 41:40 | |
suggesting a monopoly of all part and lot in him. | 41:46 | |
Such a Christ, | 41:51 | |
And I would put the name in quotes in this context. | 41:53 | |
Such a "Christ" is one of our own imagination, | 41:56 | |
not after the image of him. | 42:03 | |
Who died with arms outstretched upon a cross. | 42:05 | |
One wonders. | 42:12 | |
One wonders in the light of this call for unity | 42:14 | |
in Corinthians 1, | 42:17 | |
how the New Testament might express itself. | 42:20 | |
If it had followed rather than preceded by centuries, | 42:24 | |
our divided fellowship. | 42:31 | |
It would surely have a word directly for us. | 42:35 | |
As it is the pattern of reproach to us | 42:41 | |
is clear enough and ought to hasten us | 42:45 | |
in our holding efforts to realize | 42:49 | |
and express the unity which God has given us. | 42:53 | |
Are we managing the Christian Church, | 42:59 | |
taking it under our own authority and aegis. | 43:04 | |
Taking it under our own authority and aegis. | 43:12 | |
Taking that which properly understood. | 43:17 | |
we are ourselves creatures and surface. | 43:22 | |
Or is its majesty dominating | 43:28 | |
and controlling us in the discipline of his wholeness. | 43:32 | |
And the self forgetfulness of its own gospel. | 43:38 | |
Let us pray. | 43:44 | |
Pardon O Lord, a fellowship. | 43:51 | |
Our insulated churchmanship | 43:56 | |
Our self regarding isolation from our fellows, | 44:02 | |
Our unimaginative membership | 44:08 | |
In the body that is the whole. | 44:13 | |
Save us from the partiality of our self sufficiency | 44:17 | |
and open our hearts and minds to the fullness | 44:23 | |
of our unity in thy son. | 44:27 | |
That so our witness of him in the world | 44:31 | |
may no longer be impaired. | 44:34 | |
In his name who took our common nature | 44:38 | |
and bore the cross, which is the salvation of us all. | 44:44 | |
Even Jesus Christ, our savior. | 44:51 | |
Amen. | 44:55 | |
(liturgical music) | 44:59 | |
All mighty God, our heavenly father. | 54:39 | |
We pray that you to accept these gifts of thy sons. | 54:42 | |
Asking that they may be used | 54:46 | |
to create solidarity with thy other sons | 54:49 | |
our brothers around the earth, | 54:54 | |
through Jesus Christ. | 54:57 | |
Our Lord. | 54:59 | |
Now may the peace of God, | 55:02 | |
which passes on the same, | 55:04 | |
keep your heart in the night and love of God. | 55:06 | |
And in his son Jesus Christ, Our Lord. | 55:12 | |
And the blessing of God almighty the father, | 55:15 | |
the son, and the holy spirit. | 55:18 | |
Rest upon you and abide with you, now and evermore. | 55:20 | |
(liturgical music) | 55:25 |
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