Thomas A. Langford - "Way to Go" (November 8, 1970) / Duke Chapel Recordings / Duke Digital Repository

(choir singing hymnal music)

0:06

(organ music playing)

0:50

(choir singing hymnal music)

1:27

(organ music playing)

1:51

(choir singing hymnal music)

1:59

(choir singing hymnal music)

2:46

(organ music playing)

2:55

(choir singing hymnal music)

4:04

-

Grace be to you and peace from God our Father

5:01

and from the Lord, Jesus Christ.

5:05

Christians are a people who believe

5:09

that life comes as a gift from God.

5:11

A gift that is to be accepted

5:15

and shared joyfully and freely.

5:17

We as a people affirm we have been given life by God,

5:22

but most of us have not truly lived.

5:26

We have used our lives with reckless unconcern

5:30

as though they belong to us and to us alone.

5:34

By our own fall,

5:39

we have abandoned the fountain of waters

5:41

and have built broken systems, which hold no water.

5:45

We speak well of love

5:49

and we curse our enemies.

5:52

We take pride in our freedom

5:54

and we slide into new slaveries.

5:57

We cry out against exploitation

6:00

and we exploit ourselves and our neighbor.

6:04

And so once again at this time,

6:09

and that this special place,

6:13

we assemble to worship God,

6:15

to halt our haste,

6:18

to attempt together to open ourselves

6:20

to the possibility of the call of God

6:24

to come back again,

6:27

to the father's healing love.

6:30

Therefore confident that if we truly

6:33

and honestly confess the state

6:36

of our lives before that love,

6:38

they will be forgiven,

6:41

restored and returned to us with new meaning

6:43

and with hope,

6:48

I invite you to offer with me

6:50

our unison prayer of confession and for pardon.

6:53

Let us pray together.

6:58

Our heavenly father,

7:01

who by thy love has made us,

7:03

and through thy love has kept us,

7:05

in thy love which make us perfect.

7:09

We humbly confess that we have not loved thee

7:12

with all our heart and soul and mind and strength.

7:15

And that we have not loved one another

7:20

as Christ has loved us.

7:22

Thy life is within our souls,

7:25

but our selfishness hath hindered thee.

7:27

We have not lived by faith,

7:30

we have resisted thy spirit,

7:33

we have neglected thine inspirations.

7:36

Forgive what we have been,

7:39

help us to amend what we are,

7:42

and in thy spirit direct what we shall be,

7:45

that thou, may us come into the full glory of thy creation,

7:48

and us and in all men,

7:53

through Jesus Christ, our Lord.

7:55

Amen.

7:58

Let us hear and receive these words of assurance.

8:03

Jesus said to a confessing sinner,

8:09

"Be of good cheer,

8:12

"your sins are forgiven.

8:14

"Go and sin no more."

8:17

And I say to you knowing that we are received by God,

8:22

let us choose his acceptance.

8:26

Accept the fact that you are accepted

8:30

by God's amazing grace.

8:33

If anyone is in Jesus the Christ, he is a new being.

8:37

The old has passed away and the new has come.

8:43

The door of our freedom is open

8:49

and we may walk forward and hope.

8:52

And these words from St. Paul

8:56

for freedom, Christ has set us free.

8:58

Stand fast therefore,

9:03

and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery,

9:04

for you were called to freedom brothers.

9:09

Only do not use your freedom

9:12

as an opportunity for the flesh.

9:14

But through love, be servants of one another.

9:17

For the whole law is fulfilled in one word,

9:21

you shall love your neighbor as yourself.

9:26

If we live by the spirit, let us also walk by the spirit.

9:31

Amen.

9:39

(faint organ music playing)

9:42

(choir singing hymnal music)

10:39

(choir singing hymnal music)

12:04

(choir singing hymnal music)

14:16

Today's lesson is taken

15:35

from the third and fourth chapters of 2 Corinthians.

15:37

Such is the confidence

15:41

that we have through Christ to our God.

15:43

Not that we are sufficient of ourselves

15:46

to claim anything is coming from us,

15:48

our sufficiency is from God,

15:51

who has qualified us to be ministers of a new covenant.

15:53

Not in a written code, but in the spirit.

15:57

For the written code kills

16:00

but the spirit gives life.

16:02

Therefore, having this ministry by the mercy of God,

16:06

we do not lose heart.

16:09

We have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways.

16:11

We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God's word.

16:15

But by the open statement of the truth,

16:19

we would commend ourselves to every man's conscience

16:22

in the sight of God.

16:25

And even if our gospel is veiled,

16:27

it is veiled only to those who are perishing.

16:29

And their case,

16:32

the God of this world has blinded the minds

16:33

of the unbelievers

16:36

to keep them from seeing the light

16:38

of the gospel of the glory of Christ,

16:40

who is the likeness of God.

16:42

For what we preach is not ourselves,

16:45

but Jesus Christ as Lord,

16:47

with ourselves as your servants for Jesus's sake.

16:50

For it is the God who said,

16:54

let light shine out of darkness.

16:56

Who is shown in our hearts

16:58

to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God

17:00

in the face of Christ.

17:03

(organ music playing)

17:07

(choir singing hymnal music)

17:16

The Lord be with you.

17:49

-

And with your spirit.

17:50

-

Let us pray.

17:52

Let us offer unto God, our prayers of thanksgiving.

18:04

O God, invisible and eternal.

18:14

Thou of a thousand names,

18:18

but ever the same in mercy, and in love.

18:21

Whose wisdom and power had prepared the paths of beauty

18:25

by which the trees of autumn show forth their great glory.

18:30

Our hearts are lifted to thee and praise of thy glory.

18:35

Seen by these mortal eyes

18:39

and shared in the communion of our understanding

18:42

with one another.

18:45

Almighty God and Father of us all,

18:48

thou has made of one blood all the nations of mankind,

18:52

and thou all has placed us upon this earth for our home.

18:57

Thine is the providence by which age after age,

19:03

the families of mankind have been fed.

19:07

Thine is the abundance

19:11

that blesses those who have plenty and to spare.

19:12

Thine is the justice,

19:17

which amidst the turmoil of history

19:18

has given it a course and a direction.

19:20

Thine is the mercy by which man has reached out to man

19:25

with healing that binds up the broken heart,

19:29

the torn body, and the disturbed mind.

19:33

Thine O Lord, is the love.

19:39

The love that brings light to every day of our lives,

19:42

and close friendships and associations

19:46

where openness and trust enable to speak comfortably

19:49

to one another.

19:54

And especially in our homes and in our families,

19:56

where love protects us against all our foes

20:01

as with each other we share that love,

20:05

which thou alone durst impart.

20:09

O God, whom we call our Father,

20:13

we bless thy name for every gift of life.

20:16

From humble things to holy grace,

20:20

for earth itself, the bodies we wear,

20:23

the universe in which we live,

20:27

and for all that sustains and supports us,

20:29

we give thee our thanks.

20:32

For the spirit by which all material things

20:35

are enlivened and fulfilled,

20:38

for the beauty of holiness

20:41

and for the hope of wholeness.

20:43

For the heart and the mind of man.

20:46

For the miracles and the mysteries of each day.

20:49

For the companionship of love

20:53

and all the weathers of the world,

20:56

we give thee thanks.

20:58

Increase in us we ask,

21:01

the spirit of our Lord Christ,

21:03

that we may share our joy and always extend thy praise.

21:06

O God, whose son has taught us

21:14

that we are members of one body,

21:18

we take our place in the human family

21:21

by offering our intercessions

21:23

for our brothers and sisters needs.

21:27

Each of us brings before thee,

21:32

in holy remembrance, our Heavenly Father,

21:34

loved ones and friends,

21:37

our brother whose face and name we know,

21:41

and our brother whom we know not.

21:44

Some are in far lands,

21:48

some are flying through the air,

21:51

some in barren places enduring loneliness,

21:54

hardship and peril,

21:59

some face pain and death this day,

22:02

some confronted by perplexities

22:07

or wearied by monotonous duties.

22:10

All of them bearing the burdens of the world,

22:13

struggle and striving everywhere to live

22:16

and to be found worthy by their fellow men.

22:21

On those who stand

22:26

in the circle of our hearts concern, O God,

22:27

we pray thy most merciful benediction

22:30

and the outpouring of thy life giving spirit,

22:34

that these our brothers and sisters

22:38

may be strong in whatsoever life demands of them.

22:40

Strong of heart to dream,

22:44

strong of will to dare,

22:47

strong of hope to endure

22:51

and strong of faith to keep their souls.

22:54

May thy love penetrate their condition

22:59

and quench their hunger

23:03

and bring them peace.

23:05

Almighty God,

23:12

here we ask our prayers

23:13

for the human needs gathered in this by sanctuary

23:16

and minister to each of us according to thy will.

23:21

O Lord, help us here gathered

23:28

to learn to come to terms with our humanness

23:34

and all its glories and all its frustrations.

23:38

For it seems as if we are always trying

23:43

either to take thy place

23:45

or to forget about thee and do just as we please.

23:48

O Lord, we feel frustrated by our animal needs.

23:54

And we implore thy help and transforming them.

23:59

To see food as a daily assurance of thy care,

24:03

to accept sleep as a well earned benediction

24:09

and not merely an interruption to our activities,

24:12

to know love is not self gratification, but self-giving.

24:16

O Lord, we feel frustrated by the tyranny of time.

24:24

Eight hour days and 40 hour weeks,

24:30

and threescore years and 10.

24:32

Help us, we ask to accept the endless details

24:35

that chew up our days,

24:39

without which nothing would ever get done.

24:41

Help us to come to terms with our own laziness,

24:45

that lets us think we are working

24:49

when we were only moaning about lack of time.

24:51

Above all, O Lord, we feel frustrated

24:56

by our limited minds and spirits.

24:59

And we pray for a reach that exceeds our grasp.

25:03

Help us to see beyond the trivia

25:08

that threatened to clutter up our minds,

25:10

that we may see the grand design of thy truth.

25:13

Help us to be open to every experience,

25:18

to tolerate new thoughts that seem threatening.

25:21

And help us to give our spirits a free reign,

25:26

that we may see thee and find thee and know thee

25:30

who speakest to us, in Jesus of Nazareth,

25:36

and in our neighbor.

25:41

Especially, O Lord, on this parent's weekend,

25:44

we would ask that thou teach us a new, O God,

25:48

the meaning of fatherhood and of sonship

25:52

in our own families.

25:56

Sanctify to all mothers and fathers,

25:59

daughters, and sons,

26:02

the joys and the cares

26:04

that are the gift of their special relationship.

26:07

Knit together we ask,

26:11

the zeal of youth and the strength of maturity,

26:13

that each may learn to serve support and love the other.

26:17

Teach us all, O Lord,

26:24

to be free and human men and women,

26:26

to embrace lived values, diverse styles,

26:29

and loving conflicts.

26:34

Teach us to sing again, the song of the Pilgrim community.

26:37

a song filled with question,

26:42

but also filled with joy.

26:45

Through Jesus thy son, our brother and Lord

26:49

who taught us to pray together as Christians saying,

26:54

Our Father, who art in heaven,

26:59

hallowed be thy name,

27:02

thy kingdom come,

27:04

thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

27:06

Give us this day our daily bread

27:10

and forgive us our trespasses

27:14

as we forgive those who trespass against us.

27:16

And lead us not into temptation,

27:20

but deliver us from evil.

27:22

For thine is the kingdom, and the power,

27:25

and the glory, forever.

27:28

Amen.

27:31

-

One day last week,

27:51

after hearing a long succession

27:55

of students discuss their problems,

27:56

some of which were profoundly disturbing,

28:00

I turned on the radio as I rode home.

28:04

The song being played

28:09

was one of the contemporary,

28:11

popular religious songs,

28:13

titled Healing River.

28:17

And some of the words were, if I remember them correctly,

28:23

O, healing river, pour down your waters,

28:28

pour down your waters upon this land.

28:34

This land is purged.

28:38

This land is thirsty.

28:41

O, healing river, pour down your water.

28:45

Pour down your water upon this land.

28:50

These words were for me at that moment a relief

28:55

and indeed a prayer.

28:59

I relaxed.

29:02

And then I thought,

29:05

what would be healing for these students?

29:09

Just what would a healing river really be?

29:15

So many of the persons I had spoken with,

29:22

were caught in a radical self searching.

29:26

And what I've almost come to feel

29:31

as a kind of demonic obsession with introspection

29:32

and self investigation.

29:37

Many more sensitive,

29:41

but they were caught in the various fact

29:44

of their looking inward.

29:47

How can one speak of healing to this kind of person?

29:53

Certainly one of the basic needs

30:02

is to escape the cell.

30:04

And Christian faith should provide that.

30:07

A friend told me just this weekend

30:14

of an experience in Raleigh recently,

30:16

what a person discussing mental health,

30:19

said to the group who was present.

30:22

Some great person whom I don't remember

30:26

is reported to have said,

30:28

that he who would find his life, must lose it.

30:31

I've tried inquiring from anyone

30:36

who can remember the speaker of these words.

30:37

They are still true words,

30:41

and Jesus did happen to utter them.

30:45

But how can one speak of Jesus

30:51

to people who are caught in themselves?

30:54

What were the confersionship of Lord mean,

30:59

when it's referred to Jesus for such a person?

31:04

I want to suggest this morning,

31:12

that perhaps one helpful interpretation

31:15

of the Lordship of Jesus

31:17

is to understand it as leadership.

31:20

To say, Jesus is Lord,

31:25

is at least in one of its basic dimensions

31:28

to say Jesus is leader.

31:32

Perhaps the most common in traditional Protestant preaching

31:38

and theological discussion,

31:42

to base the primary emphasis upon salvation

31:45

as release from a solved or a stained or inauthentic past.

31:48

Man is freed from his previous sinful condition.

31:55

From alienation or from estrangement.

31:58

Now redemption does in some sense mean release.

32:03

And it does mean being free from an evil

32:08

or dispirited or malformed past life.

32:10

But this should not be the primary focus of attention.

32:15

The basic concentration

32:19

should be upon the new found freedom.

32:21

Not that from which one has been freed.

32:23

The focal awareness are that to which we attend

32:28

is freedom for a new way of living.

32:31

Some theological positions,

32:36

such as St. Augustine have stressed the character

32:38

of Christian manhood as that of the freed man.

32:42

And this is significant.

32:48

The more significant characterization,

32:51

however, is man as free.

32:52

Man as free for and in a new life.

32:57

Let us take a step back

33:04

to see how one can develop this notion of Jesus leadership

33:05

and its concomitants to the believers discipleship,

33:10

which is issues in freedom.

33:13

Abraham Joshua Heschel from a Jewish point of view,

33:18

has described the image of God as man in the Old Testament,

33:24

as an analogy of doing rather than as an analogy of being.

33:29

He writes, man is called to act in the likeness of God

33:38

as he is merciful, be thy merciful.

33:44

Biblical piety may be expressed in the form

33:49

of a supreme imperative.

33:52

Treat yourself as a symbol of God.

33:55

In the light of this imperative,

34:00

we can understand the meaning of that astounding command,

34:02

you shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.

34:06

Now in this context, the relation of God to man,

34:14

the meaning of leadership or of Lordship becomes central.

34:19

And so it continues into the New Testament.

34:24

The call of Jesus to his disciples was precisely that.

34:28

A call to discipleship.

34:32

To disciplined effort.

34:35

The call of Jesus is a call to a task.

34:38

To an activity.

34:41

To a vocation.

34:43

Remember those words of Albert Schweitzer

34:47

in the epilogue to his famous book,

34:49

The Quest of Historical Jesus,

34:51

where he sums up his statement,

34:54

"He comes to us as one unknown, without a name.

34:57

"As of old, by the lakeside,

35:02

"he came to those men who knew him not.

35:04

"He speaks to us the same words,

35:07

"follow thou me.

35:10

"And sets us to the task

35:13

"which he has to fulfill in our time.

35:15

"He commands.

35:19

"And to those who obey him,

35:22

"whether they be wise or simple,

35:24

"he will reveal himself in the tall,

35:27

"the conflicts, the sufferings,

35:31

"which they shall pass through in his fellowship.

35:34

"And has an ineffable mystery,

35:38

"they shall learn in their own experience,

35:40

"who he is."

35:44

The first name by which the early Christians were called,

35:48

according to the book of Acts,

35:51

was people of the way.

35:54

And the gospel of John also makes something

35:58

of this same point.

36:01

When he says, Jesus is the way.

36:03

And that he has called his disciples to follow that way.

36:07

Now let me make a primary emphasis.

36:16

Jesus is Lord because he presents himself

36:20

in a way which claims our discipleship.

36:23

The title Lord or leader

36:27

is not one we simply conjure up

36:30

or take the initiative in bestowing on Jesus.

36:32

True leadership,

36:37

authentic leadership come to us with a claim.

36:39

There is a reaching for us and a grasping of us.

36:43

To use the designation Lord, is a response to that.

36:48

It's an answering to a claim laid upon us.

36:54

Since Jesus is the Lord leader,

36:58

because he comes to us and evokes our loyalty.

37:01

Such an encounter in the New Testament

37:07

is always an act of grace.

37:09

Jesus confronts us in love

37:12

and establishes a new possibility for freedom.

37:14

The claim of Jesus as Lord is not a limiting

37:18

or enslaving challenge,

37:21

rather it is understood as an opportunity for service,

37:23

which becomes freedom.

37:27

To initiate this, Jesus approaches us.

37:31

He comes with the gracious possibility

37:37

that we can respond with thanksgiving and determination.

37:40

Epistle 1 John puts it plainly,

37:47

we love him because he first loved us.

37:50

And we might say we follow him

37:54

because he first invited us.

37:57

Furthermore, to affirm Jesus is Lord

38:02

is to affirm his singularity.

38:05

It is to affirm his supremacy over all other claimants

38:08

to such a position of leadership.

38:11

Perhaps it's no the point is a critical character

38:14

of the Lordship of Jesus so evident,

38:17

as when we are challenged

38:19

to acknowledge other leaders as having central values.

38:20

Today, there are many leaders

38:24

who would take the chief place.

38:26

We hear leaders,

38:29

national leaders calling for a idolatry of country.

38:31

We hear a person's exalting race to an ultimate position.

38:36

These I think, are the most insistent present challenges

38:41

to the central claim of Jesus as Lord leader.

38:46

It is a tragedy in the current situation

38:50

that religious leaders also have great difficulty

38:54

in keeping the primary claim of Jesus clear.

38:57

And among them some of our best known.

39:01

There is a confusion of leaders.

39:04

There is a confluence of the claims of leadership.

39:07

But it is necessary, and at this time even urgent,

39:11

that we be clear about the uniqueness of Jesus call.

39:15

And the fact that this put every other claim

39:19

for loyalty in a secondary position.

39:22

The nation is important but it is not ultimate.

39:26

Only the Lordship of Jesus deserves that position.

39:30

And from following him,

39:35

one can criticize all rivals challenging him.

39:37

Racism and attitude and an institutions claim allegiance,

39:42

but the Lordship of Jesus refuses

39:48

to allow such an apotheosis to stand.

39:50

Jesus is Lord leader.

39:53

He makes a claim for primary loyalty.

39:55

He sets below him every other leadership plan.

39:58

Sturridge Kennedy has put the importance

40:06

of this kind of decision in a moving fashion.

40:08

And I want to quote a part of the poem of his.

40:11

"I bet my life up on one side

40:17

"in life's great war, I'm not.

40:20

"I can't stand out.

40:24

"I must take sides.

40:27

"The man who is neutral in this fight is not a man,

40:30

"he's bulk and body without breath.

40:33

"He makes me sick.

40:37

"I want to live.

40:39

"Live out, not wobble through my life somehow

40:41

"and then into the dark.

40:44

"Well, God my leader,

40:47

"and I hold that he's good and strong enough

40:51

"to work his plan and purpose out to support it in.

40:54

"I see what God has done.

40:58

"What life in this world is.

41:01

"I see what you see.

41:05

"Their is eternal struggle in the dark.

41:08

"I see the foul this orders with filth of mind and soul

41:11

"in which men wallowing like swine,

41:15

"stamp on their brothers till they drown.

41:18

"I have to choose.

41:22

"I can't stand shivering on the bank.

41:24

"I plunge headfirst.

41:27

"I bet my life on beauty, truth and love.

41:30

"Not abstract but incarnate truth.

41:35

"Not beauties passing shadow, but itself,

41:38

"it's very self-made flesh, love realize.

41:41

"I bet my life on Christ,

41:47

"Christ crucified."

41:50

That invitation of Jesus

41:56

is precisely the invitation to follow.

41:57

It is a call to a task,

42:01

to responsibility, to an activity.

42:03

One does not sit around, simply look at himself.

42:06

One looks at the job which is to be done.

42:10

One looks at the leader who goes before.

42:14

This is why the call of Jesus is challenging and difficult.

42:18

It is so sheerly concrete.

42:22

It stands out almost as frightening clarity, like Isaiah.

42:25

The disciples hear a voice saying,

42:30

"This is the way, walk in it."

42:32

Discipleship was a concrete following

42:37

for those first followers of Jesus.

42:40

An engagement with history,

42:43

a threat to Jerusalem,

42:45

the facing of a cross.

42:48

It involves feeding the hungry

42:50

and clothing the naked,

42:52

and visiting the sick and releasing the captives,

42:54

and bonding the wounded.

42:57

The invitation of Jesus

43:00

was an invitation to a manner of living

43:01

to a style of life, to a way of doing.

43:03

Discipleship as a going forth to meet one's providence.

43:07

It's a moving out to encounter one destiny in the world.

43:11

Theologically, it is the incarnation

43:17

which enhances the meaning of discipleship.

43:20

In the assumption of flesh,

43:23

real flesh and real blood,

43:25

God engages in and solicits the flesh and blood activity

43:28

of every man.

43:32

To fail to take the incarnation seriously,

43:34

results in the failure

43:38

to take man's human condition seriously.

43:39

And it's a failure

43:43

to take Jesus Lordship leadership seriously.

43:44

The discipleship means following a real Lord.

43:48

It means an everyday following of a concrete path

43:52

through the concrete joys and pains and decisions of life.

43:56

But now to turn to a practical and important problem,

44:03

what does it mean to follow Christ?

44:08

Is this imitatio Christy an imitation of Christ?

44:12

And if so, isn't this medievalism?

44:15

Or is it about Liberal Charles Sheldon walking

44:18

in Jesus' steps?

44:22

And if so, isn't that also outdated?

44:23

What is meant by the leadership of Jesus?

44:28

How do we know what it means to follow him?

44:32

How can one discern the way?

44:36

Practically speaking,

44:40

how does one make concrete decisions?

44:42

The disciple of whom I'm speaking

44:48

may be described as a connoisseur.

44:50

I'm speaking seriously and directly.

44:54

That is, he is one who has been sensitized

44:58

by the spirit of Christ.

45:00

and who knows more about what it means to follow,

45:03

than he can put into words.

45:05

In many areas,

45:09

and most obviously in gaining skills and wisdom,

45:10

we do know more than what we do say.

45:14

His connoisseurship can be communicated

45:17

in the final analysis only by example,

45:19

not by preset.

45:24

To be able to differentiate,

45:27

as perhaps an expert wine taster or cheese taster might do,

45:30

to be trained as a medical doctor in a station,

45:35

to know how to pose the right problem,

45:39

or when to look for clues or how to recognize clues

45:42

when they appear.

45:45

All of these are achievements of connoisseurship.

45:46

They're gained primarily by apprenticeship to a master.

45:50

They cannot be conveyed by full articulation

45:55

or explicit historical reference.

45:58

What is sought is a skill,

46:01

a sensitive taste,

46:03

a refined ear,

46:05

a perceptive eye,

46:07

a discerning mind.

46:09

All of which are rooted in tacit

46:11

and in articulable comprehension.

46:13

And these are gained through practice.

46:16

And most often through God's practice.

46:19

Now, to this point,

46:24

in the effort to explicate the nature of discipleship,

46:24

that the tradition and the community become important.

46:28

As a follower of Christ,

46:32

one must be viable to the spirit of Christ.

46:35

But one must also go to the school of the same

46:39

and become an apprentice.

46:42

There is no shot cut in the hearing the words of direction.

46:45

One learn by through hearing,

46:51

by practicing to be attempting.

46:53

It is this sense, that I have a profound agreement

46:58

with Schweitzer statement,

47:01

that it is not,

47:02

although I would say it is not simply or not only,

47:04

but it is not Jesus as historically known,

47:07

but Jesus as spiritually risen within men,

47:10

who is significant for our time.

47:14

It is an apprenticeship to the spirit of Christ.

47:18

And in the company of sensitive fellow pilgrims,

47:21

that we become aware of innovative possibilities

47:25

and find courage to act upon our conviction.

47:28

But let us now for a moment return to the master, to Jesus,

47:39

and to the New Testament portrait

47:44

which characterizes his life.

47:46

Here we turn to an historical instance

47:51

which swipes through what was not fully shared.

47:52

And the question I want to raise is,

47:56

how does the spirit of Jesus become a God for new life?

47:57

The character of this style of living,

48:02

maybe variously described.

48:04

But dominantly, it is the role of a suffering servant,

48:06

The challenge of Jesus, to those would follow him,

48:14

that they take up their cross, was very concrete challenge.

48:19

We've spiritualized the cross.

48:26

We've identified it with our own hardships.

48:29

We have seen it from the perspective

48:32

of what it means for us.

48:33

But the cross must be understood

48:36

as the projection of life into the life of the nation.

48:39

It was a gimmick plunged into the soul of our earth.

48:44

The crucifixion was a challenge

48:49

to the powers of those evil which control the world.

48:50

And those who become crossed

48:54

or rather those who accept the task of servanthood

48:55

had to express the cross they love, of Jesus.

48:59

Here is a true secularization of the gospel.

49:03

The way of Christ leads directly into the world.

49:07

It is a path which moves through every deity.

49:11

It is a purposefulness

49:14

about social political, economic, and cultural life.

49:15

Jesus was not a servant in an abstract sense.

49:19

He was a servant in the most realistic and practical manner.

49:22

He healed the sick, he challenged evil authority,

49:26

he identified with the outcast and the oppressed,

49:29

he suffered death.

49:33

How much more concrete can servanthood be?

49:34

And he calls his disciples to a similar role.

49:39

The Lordship of Jesus is the leadership of Jesus.

49:43

He is leader.

49:47

He calls us.

49:49

He goes before us into the world

49:51

where life is lived and where redemption is found.

49:55

Well, we must also say one other thing

50:02

about this discipleship.

50:04

And that is, the discipleship is also an expression of joy.

50:07

Indeed is an acclamation of life

50:12

and a celebration of living.

50:14

We live in a world of rapid change,

50:18

and we are confronted with a few possibilities

50:20

which sometimes hassle us,

50:22

sometimes frighten us

50:24

and often lead us to a feeling of impotence or despair.

50:26

But to follow Jesus is to be released

50:32

from obsessive self concern.

50:34

It is to be released from carrying the weight of the world

50:36

upon our shoulders.

50:40

More important to follow Jesus

50:42

is to learn to embrace and love the world.

50:44

It is an acclamation of meaning and the presence,

50:48

and acceptance of hope for the future.

50:51

To be a disciple is to be led into the celebration of life.

50:56

Such celebration is not simply a sense of happiness

51:01

because things are going well for you.

51:04

It is to know joy.

51:08

This is much more profound than the surface happiness,

51:10

which we so often pride.

51:13

Jesus spoke of is coming to bring joy.

51:16

And we find this because of the fellowship along the way,

51:20

because the relationship with the leader,

51:24

because of the value of the task in which one is engaged.

51:27

Joy comes in large part because we have stopped looking

51:31

at ourselves and for ourselves

51:36

and have set our eyes upon the goal ahead

51:40

and the one who leads us along the way.

51:43

To be a follower in this way,

51:50

is to know what it means to be forgiven,

51:52

to be given fresh opportunity.

51:55

It is to know that alienation has been overcome

51:58

and a new community established.

52:00

It is to know that one is free,

52:03

free for the present and three for the future.

52:06

Jesus stands before us,

52:12

as the Lord and leader.

52:15

In John's gospel, Jesus says,

52:19

"I am the way the truth and the life."

52:22

The author of The Imitation of Christ,

52:29

comments upon this by saying,

52:30

"Without that way, there is no God.

52:33

"Without that truth, there is no knowledge,

52:38

"without that life, there is no living."

52:42

So hear Jesus as he says to follow him.

52:48

"Follow me."

52:53

Our Father in thy love, thy has called us,

52:59

may we in love, respond and follow.

53:02

Amen.

53:09

(organ music playing)

53:11

(choir singing hymnal music)

53:43

(choir singing hymnal music)

54:43

(faint organ music playing)

56:19

(faint organ music playing)

57:31

(tenor soloist singing)

57:58

(choir singing hymnal music)

58:49

(tenor soloist singing)

59:48

(choir singing hymnal music)

1:01:15

(choir singing hymnal music)

1:01:27

(choir singing hymnal music)

1:02:34

(bright organ music playing)

1:04:20

Thomas A. Langford - "Way to Go" (November 8, 1970)

Transcript

Item Info

1. Thomas A. Langford - "Way to Go" (November 8, 1970)

Duke University Archives

More Info & Options

Thomas A. Langford - "Way to Go" (November 8, 1970)

Transcript

Item Info

Related Item

Duke University Archives

More Info & Options