Harry M. Philpott - "Construction Fanaticism" (October 18, 1959)
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Transcript
Transcripts may contain inaccuracies.
Preacher | One of the greatest privileges | 0:19 |
that I know a man can have, | 0:20 | |
is the joy of teaching Old Testament | 0:22 | |
in a college or a university. | 0:26 | |
But like every one of life's great experiences, | 0:29 | |
it also carries with it, | 0:32 | |
those moments of torment and tribulation. | 0:34 | |
From my former experience in teaching Old Testament | 0:39 | |
The moment that I most dreaded, | 0:42 | |
came when we were face to face | 0:45 | |
with the necessity of interpreting | 0:47 | |
and studying the book of Ecclesiastes. | 0:50 | |
Because, while in the prophets | 0:55 | |
and in the Psalms, | 0:57 | |
you had ideas which rang with glorious implications | 1:00 | |
of high spiritual principles. | 1:06 | |
When you came to the book of Ecclesiastes, | 1:08 | |
you faced something quite different. | 1:11 | |
'Vanity of vanity it started out.' | 1:14 | |
'All is vanity.' | 1:17 | |
It apparently was written by an early Hebrew | 1:20 | |
or honor of the modern beatniks because | 1:23 | |
it saw nothing in life that had any meaning, | 1:27 | |
any purpose, any rhyme, any reason. | 1:30 | |
They author was way out and far gone | 1:34 | |
in terms of our modern problems. | 1:38 | |
And yet he wrestled with some great ideas. | 1:41 | |
He found nothing but futility in life itself. | 1:47 | |
He wondered as to why people should continue to live, | 1:52 | |
but he concluded that a living dog | 1:56 | |
was better than a dead lion, | 1:58 | |
so existence might as well go ahead. | 2:00 | |
He saw that for everything, | 2:05 | |
there was a time and a season, | 2:07 | |
a kind of a cyclical repetition about life itself, | 2:09 | |
but all of it without meaning and without purpose. | 2:14 | |
And then you came to that final chapter | 2:19 | |
and you found your students taking great delight | 2:21 | |
in that summary verse, where it says, | 2:24 | |
'that of the making of many books, there is no end | 2:26 | |
and much study as a weariness unto the flesh. | 2:30 | |
And at least they found one passage over | 2:35 | |
which there could be great rejoicing | 2:37 | |
and you're anonymous concurs. | 2:39 | |
In the seventh chapter of the book of Ecclesiastes, | 2:43 | |
the author is wrestling with the problem of goodness | 2:48 | |
and evil and having seen no meaning in anything else, | 2:52 | |
he sees little meaning in this. | 2:56 | |
He finds that there are good people | 2:59 | |
who do not succeed according | 3:02 | |
to all of the measures of success. | 3:04 | |
And he finds that there are evil people | 3:07 | |
who apparently are very happy in life. | 3:09 | |
And he wonders if it makes any difference. | 3:13 | |
So he comes out with the bit of counsel, | 3:16 | |
be not over good, be not over wise, | 3:19 | |
why expose yourself to trouble? | 3:25 | |
But on the other hand, be not over evil either, | 3:28 | |
do not play the fool. | 3:33 | |
Why should you die before your time? | 3:35 | |
The best way is to take the one line | 3:38 | |
and yet not avoid the other, | 3:41 | |
for he who stands in of God, shall avoid both extremes. | 3:44 | |
Why should you try to be too good? | 3:53 | |
Why should you try to be too intelligent? | 3:56 | |
You're just going to get yourself in trouble. | 3:59 | |
But on the other hand, let's play this thing safe. | 4:03 | |
Let's not be too evil because | 4:06 | |
you'll get in difficulty that way. | 4:09 | |
And let's not be playing the fool | 4:11 | |
because here again, there is nothing | 4:14 | |
but tribulation awaiting you. | 4:17 | |
And so we can interpret this in terms | 4:20 | |
of our present situation in college, | 4:22 | |
don't be a brain, shun this. | 4:26 | |
Why do you want to stand out in this fashion, | 4:31 | |
yet on the other hand, don't go around | 4:34 | |
on probation all of the time, | 4:37 | |
and don't be flocking out, | 4:39 | |
because this is not very intelligent either. | 4:41 | |
Let's shun these extremes, | 4:45 | |
let's hit them at the medium, | 4:47 | |
and let's all be C students | 4:50 | |
because this is the most comfortable place, | 4:53 | |
according to this particular interpretation | 4:56 | |
that we can occupy. | 5:00 | |
There isn't a certain intriguing character to this advice. | 5:03 | |
It relates in some measure to the man | 5:07 | |
who might've been a contemporary | 5:11 | |
of the author of Ecclesiastes namely Aristotle | 5:13 | |
and his golden means there is a great deal | 5:17 | |
of value and worth in the concept of the golden mean | 5:21 | |
as set forth by Aristotle. | 5:25 | |
We should not be shameless, | 5:28 | |
and yet we should not be bashful. | 5:30 | |
We should try to find this middle ground of true modesty. | 5:33 | |
We should not be overly ambitious, | 5:38 | |
and yet we should not be lacking | 5:41 | |
completely on ambition. | 5:43 | |
We should search for this meet middle ground | 5:45 | |
of right ambition. | 5:48 | |
We should not be stingy and try | 5:51 | |
to retain all of the possessions that we have. | 5:54 | |
But on the other hand, we should not be wasteful | 5:57 | |
and fiddle way that which is ours. | 6:00 | |
But we should try to find the middle ground of liberality. | 6:03 | |
So it is that you and I in the world today | 6:08 | |
find a certain inclination towards this kind | 6:13 | |
of interpretation of how to live. | 6:16 | |
There are real values and real truth | 6:19 | |
in the middle ground. | 6:22 | |
There are real values to be found | 6:25 | |
in avoiding the extremes of life itself. | 6:28 | |
But somehow I have a feeling that today | 6:32 | |
we have a tendency to overdo the middle ground. | 6:35 | |
We are much too content with trying | 6:39 | |
to be like everybody else, | 6:42 | |
with trying to settle down into an average routine, | 6:45 | |
we find this more comfortable, | 6:50 | |
we find our adjustment as it were, | 6:53 | |
more easily made within this context of life itself. | 6:57 | |
There is a great deal of praise | 7:02 | |
for the so-called balanced mind today. | 7:04 | |
And we hear such things as harmonious development | 7:08 | |
so that we become as it were, | 7:12 | |
attuned to the happy medium, | 7:16 | |
we trim life down to an average, | 7:19 | |
and we find our contentment | 7:22 | |
and our satisfaction in this. | 7:24 | |
And yet it is obviously true that life | 7:28 | |
can be so harmonious and so oriented | 7:31 | |
that it canceled back to zero. | 7:35 | |
That it becomes a life without meaning | 7:37 | |
and without purpose. | 7:42 | |
One of the tragedies of our day | 7:45 | |
is that so many people are lacking in any kind | 7:48 | |
of convictions whatsoever. | 7:51 | |
They find it much easier to take a middle ground | 7:55 | |
to say neither yay, nor nay, | 7:58 | |
When asked about an opinion on a matter. | 8:02 | |
To reframe from trying to make up their minds | 8:05 | |
on any of the important issues of life, | 8:10 | |
to be individuals lacking in convictions, | 8:14 | |
lacking in faith. | 8:19 | |
And they find sometimes that this is a much easier way | 8:21 | |
to get along in life. | 8:25 | |
I have no political ambitions, | 8:28 | |
but I have a lot of friends who are politicians. | 8:31 | |
And they tell me that the most exasperating thing | 8:34 | |
about running for office today is the difficulty | 8:37 | |
of getting commitments from people, | 8:41 | |
that they go to a voter and say, | 8:44 | |
"Will you support me?" | 8:46 | |
And they get neither a yes or a no, | 8:49 | |
they get a maybe, I'll think about it | 8:52 | |
or I don't know, I haven't made up my mind yet. | 8:55 | |
Take a look at any of the polls | 8:59 | |
that are taken on the issues of importance | 9:01 | |
in the world today and see the large number of people | 9:05 | |
who respond, 'I don't know.' | 9:08 | |
A political friend of mine says | 9:12 | |
that he'd rather have 10 people tell him | 9:14 | |
they disliked him and they would never vote for him | 9:16 | |
than to have one person say, | 9:20 | |
well, maybe I'm giving it consideration. | 9:21 | |
He likes to know where he stands. | 9:24 | |
But in this world it's difficult today | 9:27 | |
to know where a lot of people stand | 9:30 | |
on a lot of important things. | 9:32 | |
And this is certainly true in the realm of religion. | 9:35 | |
When it comes to the matter of religious convictions, | 9:39 | |
there are many of us who feel where, | 9:43 | |
we don't want to appear to be atheistic or agnostic. | 9:45 | |
On the other hand, we don't want | 9:50 | |
to appear to be fanatical about our religion. | 9:51 | |
We want to be just religious enough | 9:55 | |
to be like other people, | 9:57 | |
so they won't talk about us. | 9:58 | |
And yet we don't want to be so religious | 10:01 | |
that they're going to comment about our queer side. | 10:04 | |
And so we find a situation which has been true | 10:10 | |
throughout the history of the Christian Church. | 10:14 | |
There is nothing new about this. | 10:18 | |
There are a few people who stand on the forefront | 10:20 | |
of Christianity, who leads the advance | 10:25 | |
of the Christian faith today, the large majority drifting | 10:28 | |
as it were hearing they're on the safe middle ground. | 10:34 | |
Comprise the bulk of the Christian Church | 10:39 | |
and the Psalms we read in the 119 Psalms, | 10:45 | |
where the author speaking for God, | 10:49 | |
says, "I hate men of a double mind," | 10:53 | |
or I hate men who are half and half. | 10:58 | |
Those who appear this way today | 11:02 | |
and that way tomorrow, | 11:03 | |
those whose allegiance is halfway | 11:06 | |
and Jesus talked about a house divided | 11:11 | |
against itself, cannot stand. | 11:14 | |
There has to be a full fledged commitment. | 11:17 | |
There has to be a full fledged adoption | 11:22 | |
if Christianity is to be meaningful | 11:26 | |
in the life of the individual. | 11:28 | |
And so for many of us, the kind of condemnation, | 11:31 | |
which is addressed to the churches | 11:35 | |
that lay Odyssey in the book of revelation | 11:37 | |
is appropriate because thou art neither hot nor cold, | 11:40 | |
but lukewarm. | 11:47 | |
I will spew thee out of my mouth. | 11:49 | |
Because we have a measure of enthusiasm, | 11:53 | |
but not enough, | 11:57 | |
because we have a leaning towards conviction, | 11:59 | |
but not a basic and a real and a motivating conviction. | 12:02 | |
We are lukewarm in our faith. | 12:08 | |
We've mentioned Aristotle a moment ago. | 12:13 | |
Plato has something to say about people in this circumstance | 12:16 | |
in this situation. | 12:21 | |
In the dialogue with Phaedrus, | 12:23 | |
he says that most of us seek out people | 12:26 | |
who have very little to offer, | 12:29 | |
who are well balanced, | 12:32 | |
but that counsels us against viewing life | 12:34 | |
as a good thing when it is an even balance. | 12:39 | |
And he suggests that a bit of madness | 12:43 | |
in every one of us would be a very good thing. | 12:46 | |
Let no man frighten or flutter us | 12:51 | |
by saying that the temperate friend | 12:54 | |
is to be chosen rather than the inspired one. | 12:57 | |
Many noble deeds have sprung from inspired madness. | 13:01 | |
There are those situations and those circumstances, | 13:08 | |
which demand a bit of madness in us | 13:12 | |
rather than an even balance, than an even temper. | 13:16 | |
Plato mentioned three. | 13:20 | |
The first of these is prophecy. | 13:23 | |
This is not the ability to foretell the events | 13:26 | |
for the immediate future, | 13:30 | |
but rather prophecy in the sense | 13:32 | |
that the old Testament prophets represented it. | 13:34 | |
The ability to read the signs of the times | 13:38 | |
and to know the directions in which actions would tend | 13:42 | |
to take us, to know the consequences of evil. | 13:46 | |
And to know that our ultimate salvation | 13:51 | |
lies in dependence upon God. | 13:53 | |
There is a need in our day and our age | 13:57 | |
for this kind of prophetic voice. | 14:00 | |
For this kind of incisive vision, | 14:03 | |
which can analyze the social situation | 14:05 | |
as it exists today. | 14:09 | |
And could point out clearly, | 14:11 | |
and in all conscience the difficulties | 14:13 | |
and the dangers that lie in certain practices | 14:17 | |
that we follow. | 14:20 | |
And which can point us toward a way of justice | 14:22 | |
and the way of peace. | 14:26 | |
In addition to prophecy, which spring says Plato | 14:30 | |
from madness, | 14:33 | |
we have our deliverance from guilt, | 14:35 | |
dependent upon a certain madness. | 14:40 | |
The man whose life is perfectly balanced, | 14:43 | |
cannot feel a sense of guilt | 14:46 | |
in wrong doing in the things that he is doing. | 14:50 | |
But rather the man who feels a great sense of discontent | 14:54 | |
with himself, with his life around him | 15:02 | |
and with the world itself, | 15:07 | |
is the person who realizes that he is a sinner, | 15:09 | |
that he is in need of redemption, | 15:14 | |
that he is one who is in need of correction. | 15:18 | |
And so to know our shortcomings and our failures | 15:22 | |
to know the ways in which we can truly improve ourselves | 15:27 | |
call for a certain madness, | 15:32 | |
which will help us to realize that | 15:34 | |
this needs correction in our own lives. | 15:37 | |
And Plato says finally, | 15:43 | |
that love itself comes out of madness | 15:44 | |
and not out of an even balance in life. | 15:49 | |
Sometimes those of us who have | 15:54 | |
perhaps passed the stages of college age, | 15:57 | |
realize that a young person in love | 16:03 | |
displays a certain madness. | 16:06 | |
And we recall that a certain kind of madness | 16:09 | |
was characteristic of our own love affairs. | 16:12 | |
And it is true that in a world such as we have, | 16:17 | |
love which is real and love which is genuine, | 16:21 | |
must spring out of a certain kind of madness. | 16:25 | |
The madness which first of all, | 16:30 | |
helps us to deny ourselves, | 16:33 | |
the madness, which places the wellbeing | 16:35 | |
of the object of our love | 16:38 | |
above the personal wellbeing itself, | 16:42 | |
a kind of madness which enables a man in love | 16:46 | |
to devote himself to great service | 16:50 | |
on behalf of humanity. | 16:53 | |
And on behalf of his God. | 16:55 | |
It is not the person who is balanced, | 16:59 | |
but the person who has the kind | 17:02 | |
of divinely inspired madness in him, | 17:04 | |
who makes this kind of contribution. | 17:08 | |
The topic that I've chosen today comes from a line | 17:14 | |
and an essay by Heywood Broun. | 17:17 | |
In it he says this, | 17:20 | |
it is better, I believe on occasion to be wrong, | 17:23 | |
then to be forever and inquiring neutral. | 17:28 | |
There can be such a thing as constructive fanaticism. | 17:33 | |
It is better, I believe to be wrong on occasion | 17:39 | |
than to be forever an inquiring neutral. | 17:44 | |
There can be such a thing as constructive fanaticism. | 17:48 | |
The term fanatic is generally applied | 17:55 | |
to a person that you and I would avoid | 17:57 | |
with the same order as though this individual | 17:59 | |
had some deadly disease or the plague. | 18:03 | |
We don't like fanatics. | 18:06 | |
We don't like them for a variety of reasons. | 18:08 | |
And yet in contrast to the mood | 18:13 | |
of inquiring neutrality, | 18:16 | |
which is all too prevalent today, | 18:19 | |
at least one author underscored by the speaker | 18:22 | |
believes that there is a great need | 18:28 | |
for people who are constructively fanatical | 18:30 | |
in the world today. | 18:34 | |
And this need is more apparent in the religious life | 18:36 | |
than it is in any other realm perhaps. | 18:40 | |
It's needed though, in a university situation | 18:42 | |
in terms of the intellectual enterprise | 18:45 | |
and the realm of the mind, | 18:49 | |
we have all too many people who truly fit | 18:52 | |
the word scatterbrains. | 18:55 | |
They're going here and there and everywhere | 18:58 | |
without any kind of sense of being fanatical | 19:01 | |
about something which is of tremendous importance in life. | 19:05 | |
Overstreet points out that any student who would get | 19:10 | |
to the truth of an object must surrender himself | 19:13 | |
to that object. | 19:17 | |
There must be a loss of the self | 19:19 | |
in the endeavor, | 19:22 | |
there must be a kind of commitment of the self, | 19:24 | |
which truly becomes fanatical. | 19:28 | |
If the intellectual enterprise, so far | 19:31 | |
as the individual is concerned, will move forward. | 19:34 | |
This doesn't mean that we are biased | 19:38 | |
or bigoted in the sense that we usually describe fanatics. | 19:41 | |
It doesn't mean that we close our minds | 19:47 | |
to truth and that we're unwilling | 19:49 | |
to examine our beliefs from time to time. | 19:52 | |
But it represents a kind of commitment | 19:55 | |
and the kind of enthusiasm which sends you | 19:59 | |
constantly searching for that which has possessed you | 20:02 | |
and claimed you. | 20:07 | |
In the words of Pascoe, | 20:09 | |
it is a good thing that a man deny well, | 20:11 | |
that he doubt well and that he believe well. | 20:15 | |
All of these things are of importance. | 20:20 | |
We have cultivated the ability to deny, | 20:24 | |
and we are pretty good at doubting, | 20:28 | |
but we have not correspondingly | 20:31 | |
become as adept at believing well. | 20:34 | |
Our religious faith demands a kind of commitment, | 20:41 | |
which makes this faith the most important thing | 20:47 | |
in all of our lives. | 20:51 | |
Jesus, in talking about those who would follow him, | 20:53 | |
said that if a man would come after me, | 20:58 | |
let him deny himself and take up his cross | 21:00 | |
and follow me. | 21:05 | |
If he is truly to seek out my way of life, | 21:07 | |
it must have a primacy. | 21:11 | |
It must have a first place. | 21:14 | |
It must be the most important aspect of life itself. | 21:17 | |
And this is why Christianity, | 21:23 | |
as it is lived, most effectively | 21:26 | |
demands a kind of fanatical conviction | 21:30 | |
and a fanatical commitment. | 21:35 | |
And the person who is lukewarm, | 21:39 | |
who blows neither hot nor cold, | 21:42 | |
in the faith makes practically no contribution | 21:45 | |
to the ongoing of the Christian enterprise. | 21:49 | |
When we consider those individuals | 21:54 | |
who are described as religious fanatics, | 21:56 | |
they are persons often that we despise | 22:00 | |
because they have missed something, | 22:03 | |
which is truly essential in the faith itself. | 22:06 | |
And that is the undergirding of love. | 22:10 | |
Those people who hold firm to their convictions | 22:15 | |
must in all love, give the same freedom | 22:20 | |
of conviction to other persons. | 22:24 | |
And yet the need today is not so much | 22:27 | |
for this type of tolerance, I'm convinced, | 22:31 | |
as it is a willingness on the part of individuals | 22:35 | |
to own up to the convictions that they have. | 22:39 | |
Dr. Harry Emerson Fosdick once, preached a sermon | 22:43 | |
with the wonderful title | 22:47 | |
'on seeming, as Christian as we are.' | 22:49 | |
In which he pointed out | 22:54 | |
that the tragic thing about Christianity | 22:55 | |
is that many of us deep down believe more | 22:58 | |
than we express either by word or by deed. | 23:02 | |
That in truth, our innermost feeling is more favorable | 23:08 | |
than our outer expression. | 23:13 | |
We need more constructive fanatics | 23:17 | |
who are concerned with the social application | 23:20 | |
of our Christian faith. | 23:23 | |
Who are not afraid to bear the Christian witness | 23:26 | |
and the Christian ethics on those problems, | 23:32 | |
which plague us as a civilization | 23:35 | |
and as a nation. | 23:38 | |
We find that sometimes think on the campus today, | 23:42 | |
a certain shyness and timidity about expressing a conviction | 23:46 | |
with regard to some of the social problems that we have. | 23:52 | |
And certainly there is an even greater shyness | 23:56 | |
in expressing our conviction which may spring out | 23:59 | |
of the essential of the Christian faith | 24:02 | |
and saying that this has an important relevance | 24:05 | |
to the solution of the problem that we have. | 24:08 | |
Constructive fanatics, who are willing | 24:13 | |
to take a stand, grounded on a great faith | 24:17 | |
and on great principle are a tremendous need in our world. | 24:22 | |
And finally, our commitment in terms | 24:31 | |
of our group expression of the Christian faith | 24:33 | |
is often lukewarm. | 24:36 | |
The individual who goes to church | 24:40 | |
more than once a week, | 24:41 | |
might well be termed a fanatic, | 24:44 | |
or perhaps once a month in some communities | 24:47 | |
might better fit the situation | 24:51 | |
and the circumstances around us. | 24:54 | |
But again, the Christian faith demands our participation | 24:57 | |
and the fellowship of sharing and of mutual sustenance, | 25:01 | |
a fellowship of like believers, | 25:06 | |
who give to one another, | 25:09 | |
the kind of encouragement and help | 25:12 | |
that leads them forward in Christian living. | 25:15 | |
It is better, I believe on occasion | 25:21 | |
to be wrong religiously | 25:25 | |
than to be forever and inquiring neutral. | 25:29 | |
The task of the Christian Church | 25:36 | |
and the ongoing of the Christian mission, | 25:41 | |
are dependent today on our largest supply | 25:44 | |
of constructive fanatics. | 25:49 | |
Let us pray. | 25:53 | |
Almighty and eternal God, our heavenly father, | 26:11 | |
in the stillness of this moment, | 26:16 | |
help us we pray thee, | 26:19 | |
to re-examine the strength of our commitment, | 26:22 | |
Help us to understand the centrality | 26:30 | |
of that which we profess as Christians | 26:37 | |
and grant that we may move forward from this place, | 26:41 | |
determined in thought, in word, | 26:47 | |
and in deed. | 26:52 | |
To show forth the presence of Christ in our lives, | 26:54 | |
in our heart dedication to his cause. | 27:00 | |
And now may the Lord bless you and keep you. | 27:04 | |
The Lord, make his face to shine upon you | 27:08 | |
and be gracious unto you. | 27:10 | |
The Lord, lift up the light of his countenance upon you | 27:13 | |
and give you peace. | 27:17 | |
(Soft music) | 27:20 |
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