James T. Cleland - "Somewhere There Is Who Doesn't Love a Wall" (April 16, 1967)

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	(organ music playing)	0:04
-	Let the words of my mouth and the meditations	0:34
	of our hearts be acceptable in thy sight.	0:38
	Oh, Lord, our strength and our redeemer.	0:44
	Amen.	0:49
	We who worship in chapel at this service	0:59
	are almost frighteningly aware	1:04
	that we live in a divided world.	1:08
	The division is symbolized	1:12
	for us by the substantial battling wall	1:14
	and by the metaphorical iron and bamboo curtains.	1:19
	These barriers actually are figurative	1:26
	were erected in self-defense, in fear, in scold.	1:29
	And yet as Robert Frost has reminded us	1:39
	in his poem, Mending Walls.	1:42
	Something there is that doesn't love a wall	1:46
	and our new Testament lesson this morning proclaim	1:54
	that someone there is who didn't love one wall.	1:58
	Now let's look at that wall that was not loved	2:06
	and discover if there's any good news in it for us today.	2:10
	The author of the epistle to the Ephesians	2:18
	is surprised with joy at an amazing situation in the church.	2:21
	A condition of affairs which was essentially	2:29
	a new thing namely,	2:32
	that Jews and Gentiles were at one	2:37
	as members of the household of God.	2:42
	Is it any wonder that he was surprised with joy?	2:48
	He recognized that before the ministry of Jesus,	2:53
	national racial loyalty was the thing.	2:58
	A Jew was proud of his Jewishness	3:05
	because he believed that he and he alone belong	3:09
	to God's chosen people.	3:14
	He was a child of the covenant.	3:17
	It's in the book.	3:21
	What we now call the old Testament.	3:23
	However, the Gentiles though they were alienated	3:26
	from the Commonwealth of Israel and strangers	3:29
	to the covenants of promise	3:33
	they could be proud too.	3:36
	A Greek could point to the fact that his culture	3:40
	was almost universally accepted.	3:44
	A Roman, if he bothered could point	3:48
	to the incontestable fact of political supremacy.	3:52
	Now, this separation, this alienation was dramatized	3:59
	in a wall.	4:06
	In the temple wall at Jerusalem,	4:09
	which separated the court of the Gentiles	4:13
	from the courts of the Jews.	4:17
	There were signs on the Gentile side of the wall	4:20
	and these were the words engraved for all to see.	4:24
	No stranger that is non Jew,	4:29
	no stranger is to enter within the barrier	4:34
	and the fence around the sanctuary.	4:38
	Whoever is caught, will be answerable for his death	4:42
	which will ensue.	4:47
	One of these signs was...	4:53
	That got placed here in Jerusalem	4:55
	it's now the national museum in Istanbul.	4:58
	St. Paul discovered to his discomfiture	5:04
	that, that warning was real.	5:06
	He had taken a Gentile convert from Ephesus to Jerusalem.	5:09
	Some Jews thought that Paul had taken him within the wall	5:15
	they seized Paul and would have killed him	5:21
	if some soldiers of the Roman Army of occupation	5:25
	had not come to Paul's rescue.	5:28
	You can read this news item in Acts 21.	5:31
	This temple wall was real.	5:36
	It effectively separated Gentiles from Jews.	5:39
	But after a severe internal struggle,	5:47
	the early church finally decided	5:51
	that Gentiles could become Christians	5:55
	without first becoming Jews.	5:59
	Gentiles could become Christians	6:05
	without first becoming Jews.	6:07
	That the synagogue was not a porch	6:12
	into the Christian Church.	6:15
	This radical conclusion was not reached easily	6:19
	and it was certainly not reached unanimously,	6:22
	but it was arrived at primarily	6:25
	to the influence of three men.	6:27
	Paul, Peter, and James the brother of Jesus.	6:30
	There's no time to discuss	6:36
	with you the fly of this decision.	6:38
	You can read it in Acts and especially	6:40
	in Paul's letter to the Galatians.	6:43
	The Jerusalem church was finally persuaded	6:48
	that this course of action was the good purpose	6:51
	of God as revealed in Jesus Christ.	6:54
	Now, the only way that the author of the epistle	6:57
	to the Ephesians could describe this drastic religious	7:01
	and cultural change was to say that the wall	7:06
	in the temple had been demolished.	7:10
	As interestingly enough,	7:15
	it had because the Romans captured Jerusalem in AD 70	7:18
	and laid that temple low.	7:25
	Here are his words, "For He, Jesus Christ is our peace	7:29
	who has made us both one and has broken down	7:35
	the dividing wall of hostility.	7:40
	Someone there was who didn't love that wall."	7:44
	Hallelujah.	7:50
	And then he goes on with the purpose	7:52
	and the result of this wall smashing	7:54
	that he might create in himself one new man	7:57
	in place of the two so making peace.	8:00
	One new man in place of the two,	8:04
	the church member was no longer a Jew or a Greek or a Roman.	8:09
	He was not even a Jewish Christian	8:16
	or a Greek Christian or a Roman Christian.	8:19
	Each was just a Christian.	8:23
	Glory be to God.	8:28
	The Jew was not victorious over the Gentile,	8:30
	the Gentile did not force a religious compromise on the Jew.	8:34
	This is God's peace.	8:38
	He effected it through Jesus	8:41
	with no human victory for either side.	8:43
	Each is a new man, essentially the same new man,	8:47
	one new man.	8:53
	They worship in peace.	8:56
	The God who has shown that their new oneness is his will	8:57
	and vastly preferable to their old separation and hostility.	9:03
	Now let us be honest.	9:10
	In the wattle, the old distinctions might stand.	9:12
	They did, but not in the church.	9:18
	Let us be more honest.	9:26
	In the church their old distinctions did stand	9:30
	for the old Adam is a cap of many lives.	9:36
	And yet the principles stood too in loving judgment	9:43
	to be dodged, to be modified, to be ignored,	9:49
	and yet it still stood one new wall less man.	9:54
	This is God's will and those who believed it found	10:03
	that it was good news.	10:06
	Now, when on rare occasions out of service of worship,	10:14
	at least at a service of worship here,	10:18
	we recite the Apostle's creed.	10:21
	One of the articles, which we affirm	10:24
	is I believe in the Holy Catholic Church.	10:26
	Now that creed can be traced back to the sixth century.	10:33
	It's an ancient affirmation.	10:38
	Generations of Christians have been asserting	10:41
	this as normative of the kind of society,	10:45
	which the church is supposed to be.	10:48
	Now, what do we mean when we affirm	10:52
	that the church is Catholic?	10:54
	Well, the word simply means universal no more than that	10:58
	but no less than that.	11:05
	We may have heard a congregation say	11:10
	when using the Apostle's Creed,	11:12
	"I believe in the holy universal church."	11:14
	Well, that lets you know he's thinking	11:20
	not only is a tool of the Roman Catholic Church.	11:22
	The current protestant synonym for Catholic is ecumenical,	11:30
	which is an awkward mouthful.	11:35
	I'd take Catholic any date willingly.	11:39
	Universal suggests existing all over the world,	11:45
	all over the place if you're like.	11:50
	It excludes just one thing, exclusiveness.	11:52
	So far is the lack of comprehensiveness	11:58
	is due to the standards of the world,	12:01
	nationalism, racism, cast, status, privilege.	12:03
	The church is the great society established	12:10
	by God to bring all men and women.	12:12
	Any man, any woman on earth	12:16
	into right relationships with himself and with one another.	12:19
	God bless it.	12:24
	Now you may laugh quietly and say under your breath,	12:26
	"What a hope?"	12:29
	And you're right.	12:32
	Both in your silent smile	12:34
	and in your unexpectedly true ejaculation.	12:38
	When we think of what a shattered, divided, squabbling,	12:43
	angry, separated collection of churches,	12:48
	the universal church has become	12:51
	then a sad laughter is almost an inevitable reaction.	12:54
	We've got to remember the separation	13:00
	of the Eastern and Western branches of the Catholic church,	13:02
	the divided protestant bodies, the plethora upsets.	13:06
	But the, "What I hope?"	13:12
	Is also true.	13:15
	The hope of reunion, the hope of inter denominationalism,	13:17
	the hope of ecumenicity with our separated Roman brethren.	13:22
	Walls are being breached.	13:26
	I was in the Philippine Islands about two months ago,	13:34
	and I went with the daughter of my cousin	13:39
	to mass one morning.	13:42
	And to the end of the service,	13:47
	she introduced me to the priest who came from Dublin.	13:49
	And he said to me, "Glory be to God, Dr. Cleland.	13:54
	If I had known you were here I'd have asked you to preach."	13:56
	I said, "Well, glory be to God to you.	14:00
	If you had asked me I would have	14:03
	and which one of us would have been in more trouble?"	14:04
	(congregation laughing)	14:06
	Walls are being breached, if not toppled.	14:13
	God bulldozers out at work.	14:18
	Let me look at two case studies in the area one,	14:22
	in the area of culture and race	14:24
	and the other in the area of denominationalism.	14:26
	First comes from the second century as far back as that.	14:29
	An elderly father of the church was converted	14:35
	not because of anything he read or heard.	14:38
	In fact, after reading and hearing he said	14:42
	there wasn't a single good argument for Christianity	14:46
	and then he became a Christian	14:51
	because of something he saw.	14:54
	The behavior of a group of slaves	14:58
	in a Roman marketplace.	15:02
	Unlike most of their fellow slaves,	15:04
	they conducted themselves with dignity,	15:06
	with quiet patience, with mutual helpfulness.	15:09
	He asked the officer in charge	15:13
	what part of the empire these slaves came from.	15:15
	He was told they came from all over the empire.	15:18
	It seemed impossible to the questioner	15:22
	that such similar trays of character	15:25
	could be found in random localities.	15:28
	The centurion sensed his bewilderment.	15:31
	Their likeness does not spring	15:35
	from common race or common place,	15:37
	they have it because they are Christians.	15:41
	Their likeness does not spring	15:47
	from common race or commonplace	15:48
	they have it because they are Christians.	15:50
	And the behavior of these new men	15:53
	and new women made him a new man.	15:56
	Their Christian constancy unrelated	16:01
	to race or status converted him.	16:04
	He became the defender of a faith, which smashed walls.	16:08
	Although, sad to tell he built some walls of his own.	16:14
	The second study is from the 18th century.	16:21
	John Wesley once identified for his followers	16:24
	and for his enemies the characteristics and qualities	16:28
	which distinguish Methodists from all other men,	16:32
	sectarian and pagans alike.	16:37
	Now having made his point with clarity and persuasiveness	16:41
	and at great length, he concluded in a surprising way.	16:47
	Listen to him, by these marks,	16:54
	by these fruits of our living faith do we labor	16:57
	to distinguish ourselves from the unbelieving world.	17:01
	From all those whose minds	17:06
	or lives are not according to the gospel of Christ,	17:07
	but from early Christians of whatsoever denomination	17:11
	they be we earnestly desire not to be distinguished at all.	17:18
	Is thy heart right as my heart is within	17:25
	I asked no further question.	17:30
	If it be, give me the hand.	17:32
	Does they love and serve God.	17:35
	It is enough.	17:39
	I give thee the right hand of fellowship.	17:41
	Now that is a wall toppling statement	17:46
	in an age of religious bickering, spiritual myopia,	17:50
	and ecclesiastical snobbery.	17:55
	That's probably why a Presbyterian	17:59
	can be in this pulpit right now.	18:01
	Yes, I believe in the Church Catholic existing all over	18:05
	the world.	18:08
	The great society established by one who does not love all	18:09
	the walls that even sincere churchmen build.	18:16
	Now, how does this apply to us today here?	18:25
	Well, it says be of good cheer.	18:32
	All is not lost and be of good courage wield at crowbar	18:37
	in love for the God.	18:46
	There are pluses as well as minuses in our situation.	18:50
	The pluses are something which tired young idealists	18:54
	and weary older realists do not always see.	18:58
	Let me encourage you.	19:02
	Here is a quotation from a personal message penned	19:05
	on a Christmas card from one of	19:08
	the first feminine BD students at Duke	19:10
	who married her classmate.	19:14
	She was the best preacher in the class.	19:18
	He was the second best.	19:21
	He showed great wisdom.	19:23
	(congregation laughing)	19:25
	Together they carry on	19:29
	an exciting troubled blessed ministry.	19:31
	And here's what she pins.	19:39
	Another thing you said, which both shocked me	19:41
	and impressed me deeply being from Georgia as I am,	19:45
	maybe one should feel closer to a Negro who is a Christian	19:52
	than to a white man who is not.	19:58
	And I remember your story of going home one day	20:04
	to find the colored maid vacuuming	20:08
	the living room while your wife	20:11
	was on her hands and knees waxing the kitchen floor.	20:14
	These two incidents have colored my whole concept	20:20
	of how a Christian should feel toward Negros,	20:23
	a concept which has kept my husband and me	20:27
	in hot water since our first appointment,	20:30
	but we wouldn't have it any other way.	20:34
	Now that ratio wall of hostility has not come tumbling down,	20:40
	but some stones have been knocked out of it.	20:46
	Here's another wall being breached,	20:51
	being assaulted from both sides.	20:52
	An English soldier during world war two sat down and wrote	20:56
	this letter to a German mother.	21:00
	As a member of a party of commanders raiding	21:04
	a village in France, it became my duty to kill your son.	21:07
	I honestly ask your forgiveness for I'm a Christian.	21:14
	I hope I may someday after the war is over talk	21:19
	with you face to face.	21:23
	The German mother received the note several months later	21:27
	and she wrote the English soldier in turn.	21:31
	I find it in my heart to forgive you	21:35
	even you who killed my son, but I too I'm a Christian.	21:39
	If we are living after the war is over,	21:46
	I hope you will come to Germany to visit me	21:50
	that you may take the place in my home	21:54
	if only for a time of my son whom you killed.	21:58
	I wonder if they ever met.	22:06
	If they did, I wonder what they talked about.	22:10
	I wonder if they went to church together.	22:13
	Do some of you remember that occasion	22:20
	about two or three years ago,	22:22
	first Sunday in October worldwide communion Sunday?	22:24
	When I a Presbyterian as the celebrant having consecrated	22:30
	the bread and the wine with the Methodist ritual,	22:34
	gave it first to a Bishop	22:39
	of the Protestant Episcopal Church.	22:43
	Now is that ecumenicity or is it carelessness?	22:48
	I asked him after the service for I know him well.	22:58
	He was then executive officer	23:01
	to the Archbishop of Canterbury in London.	23:03
	I said, what's the Archbishop of Canterbury gonna say	23:06
	to you when you tell him this.	23:08
	He said, "Jim, there's only one thing he can say.	23:12
	This act was well pleasing unto all mighty God	23:15
	and must never happen again."	23:19
	(congregation laughing)	23:20
	I said, "Will it happen again?"	23:26
	And he said, "Sure, next time I'm at Duke."	23:28
	But notice this ain't even the Archbishop	23:32
	this act was well pleasing unto almighty God	23:34
	because he's a God who smashes walls	23:38
	even if the hierarchy doesn't enjoy it.	23:45
	Of course, it will happen again.	23:50
	It's happening all the time.	23:51
	Brethren there are pluses in this situation.	23:58
	Pluses.	24:03
	Be encouraged.	24:05
	The church on earth is I mixed lot as Jesus foresaw	24:08
	and Paul discovered and Wesley and you and I know,	24:13
	but the good is there as well as the bad.	24:19
	And sometimes the good is worth hearing	24:24
	and remembering and implementing.	24:28
	I command to you the God who does not love all walls	24:33
	and I command you to him who is still breaking down	24:41
	the dividing walls of hostility	24:47
	so that the church may be his one household.	24:51
	Amen.	24:59
	Let us pray	25:00
	Almighty God our father who disturbs	25:08
	our peace to make peace.	25:13
	Use us as thy wrecks to the end	25:19
	that thy church maybe one universal household	25:24
	through Jesus Christ, our Lord.	25:29
	And may the blessing of God come upon you abundantly,	25:33
	may it keep you strong and tranquil	25:39
	in the truth of his promises through Jesus Christ our Lord.	25:43
	(organ music playing over singers)	25:51

Item Info

Title:

James T. Cleland - "Somewhere There Is Who Doesn't Love a Wall" (April 16, 1967)

Permalink:

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r4513zx37

Date:

April 16, 1967

Speaker:

Cleland, James T. (James Tough), 1903-1974

Contributor:

Duke University. Chapel

Identifier:

UA.17.01.0003 RR-0379
ref5961_sju
uachapelsermaud
duke:628298
dcrau002374
ark:/87924/r4513zx37
63a46d68-8581-4eb0-9338-aa0806a4c9ce

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Duke Chapel Recordings

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Duke University Chapel recordings, 1954-2005

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North Carolina
Durham (N.C.)

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The Duke University Chapel Recordings were transferred to the Duke University Archives beginning in 1970.

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James T. Cleland - "Somewhere There Is Who Doesn't Love a Wall" (April 16, 1967)

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1. James T. Cleland - "Someone There Is Who Doesn't Love a Wall" (April 16, 1967)

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James T. Cleland - "Somewhere There Is Who Doesn't Love a Wall" (April 16, 1967)

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