George P. Hedley - "Suffering Wrongfully" (May 5, 1957); Robert E. Cushman - "Divine Improvidence" (May 26, 1957)

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-	Sunday May 12th, 1957.	0:05
	Preacher, the Reverend Professor, Robert E. Cushman	0:11
	from the Divinity School.	0:14
	(choir sings harmoniously)	0:16
	(upbeat instrumental music)	0:51
	(choir sings harmoniously)	1:36
-	Let us offer unto God, our unison prayer of confession,	4:10
	let us pray.	4:14
	Eternal God, in whom we live and move and have our being,	4:17
	whose face is hidden from us by our sins,	4:22
	and whose mercy we forget in the blindness of our hearts,	4:26
	cleanse us we beseech thee from all our offenses	4:30
	and deliver us from proud thoughts and vain desires	4:35
	that with lowliness and meekness, we may draw near to thee.	4:39
	Confessing our faults, confiding in thy grace,	4:44
	and finding in thee our refuge and our strength	4:49
	through Jesus Christ, thy son, amen.	4:53
	And as our savior Christ hath taught us, we humbly pray.	4:57
	Our father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name,	5:02
	thy kingdom come,	5:07
	thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.	5:09
	Give us this day our daily bread	5:13
	and forgive us our trespasses	5:16
	as we forgive those who trespass against us.	5:18
	And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil	5:22
	for thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory	5:27
	forever, amen.	5:31
	(choir sings harmoniously)	6:11
-	The scripture lesson this morning	8:56
	is taken from Mark 14 three through nine,	8:58
	and Matthew 13:45.	9:02
	And while he was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper,	9:09
	as he sat at table,	9:13
	a woman came with an alabaster jar of ointment	9:15
	of pure nard, very costly.	9:18
	And she broke the jar and poured it over his head.	9:20
	But there were some who said to themselves indignantly,	9:24
	"Why was the ornament thus wasted?	9:28
	For this ointment might have been sold	9:30
	for more than 300 denarii and given to the poor."	9:32
	And they reproached her, but Jesus said,	9:37
	"Let her alone, why do you trouble her?	9:40
	She has done a beautiful thing to me	9:43
	for you will always have the poor with you,	9:46
	and whenever you will, you can do good to them,	9:48
	but you will not always have me.	9:52
	She has done what she could,	9:54
	she has anointed my body beforehand for burial.	9:57
	And truly I say to you,	10:00
	whenever the gospel is preached in the whole world,	10:03
	what she has done will be told in memory of her.	10:06
	Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant	10:12
	in search of fine pearls	10:16
	who on finding one pearl of great value,	10:18
	went and sold all that he had and bought it."	10:21
	May God add his blessing to this reading of his holy word.	10:25
	(upbeat instrumental music)	10:33
	(choir sings harmoniously)	11:11
-	The Lord be with you.	14:28
-	And with thy spirit.	14:31
-	Let us pray.	14:32
	Oh God, before whose eyes all of human hearts lie	14:42
	bare and open,	14:46
	and whose tender mercies are over all thy works,	14:48
	humbly and sorrowfully, we ask thy forgiveness for our sins.	14:53
	For every weakening and defiling thought	15:00
	to which our minds have given harbor,	15:03
	for ever words spoken in hastiness or passion,	15:06
	for every failure of self-control.	15:11
	For every stumbling block which by deed or example	15:14
	we have set in another's way.	15:18
	For every opportunity to lost,	15:22
	for every blessing thanklessly received.	15:25
	And for our loitering feet,	15:29
	and the procrastinating will, forgive us oh Lord,	15:31
	and grant that as the days go by,	15:36
	thy spirit may more and more rule in our hearts,	15:40
	giving us victory over these and all other sinful ways.	15:43
	Our heavenly father,	15:50
	from whom cometh every good and perfect gift,	15:52
	we call to remembrance thy loving kindness	15:56
	and tender mercies,	16:00
	and lift up to thee the voice of our thanksgiving.	16:02
	We praise thee for all true knowledge of thee,	16:07
	for the gift of thy son, Jesus Christ,	16:12
	and for all the help and hope	16:15
	which are ours as his disciples,	16:17
	for the presence and inspiration of thy holy spirit,	16:21
	and for prophets and apostles	16:24
	and all learning seekers after truth.	16:27
	We praise thee for all the gifts that thy has to bestowed	16:31
	upon us and our human race,	16:35
	for the life thou has given us	16:38
	and the world in which we live,	16:40
	for the work we're enabled to do,	16:43
	and the truth we are permitted to learn.	16:46
	And for whatever of good there has been in our past lives	16:49
	and all the hopes and aspirations	16:54
	which lead us on toward better things.	16:57
	We praise thee for our homes and our home blessings,	17:01
	for our friends and the joy of their friendship,	17:06
	for the love, the sympathy and the goodwill of men,	17:10
	and for the desire and power to help others.	17:14
	We praise thee, for the love that will not let us go,	17:19
	for the weariness and unrest we experience	17:24
	when we forget thee,	17:27
	and for our low desires and the selfish passions.	17:29
	For the sorrows which have brought us into closer sympathy	17:33
	with our suffering brethren,	17:37
	and for the troubles which have drawn us	17:39
	into deeper fellowship with Jesus Christ	17:41
	and lifted us near to thee.	17:45
	Almighty God, who set us to solitary and families,	17:48
	we come in to thy continual care	17:53
	the homes in which thy people dwell.	17:57
	Put far from them we beseech thee every root of bitterness,	18:00
	the desire of vain glory and the pride of life.	18:06
	Fill them with faith, virtue, knowledge, temperance,	18:10
	patience and godliness,	18:17
	knit together in constant affection	18:19
	those who in holy wedlock have been made one.	18:22
	Turn the hearts of parents to the children	18:26
	and the hearts of children to the parents,	18:29
	and so channel charity among us all	18:33
	that we may be ever more kindly affection	18:36
	with brotherly love.	18:39
	And now may the grace of Jesus Christ our Lord	18:42
	be with us all, amen.	18:46
	(soft piano plays)	18:52
	(choir sings harmoniously)	23:03
-	Gracious God, giver of all good things,	28:00
	who has taught us that it is more blessed to give	28:05
	than to receive,	28:07
	we dedicate these our offerings to the service	28:10
	of thy church,	28:12
	humbly beseeching thee, that all our gifts and energies,	28:14
	maybe consecrated to the service of lacking them on earth	28:19
	through Jesus Christ, our Lord, amen.	28:23
-	Let us pray.	28:59
	Now unto the king eternal, immortal,	29:02
	invisible the only wise God,	29:07
	be honor and glory forever and ever, amen.	29:11
	I'm afraid I need to preface my remarks this morning	29:21
	by a confession which I have never had to make	29:24
	in the 12 years that it has been my privilege	29:27
	to speak in this pulpit from time to time.	29:31
	I am repeating,	29:35
	and I say this because I have a bad conscience	29:38
	and I have a right to have a bad conscience	29:41
	because Professor Rogers and his wife is always here.	29:43
	In Jesus' day, the anointing of guests before meat	29:52
	was a familiar practice of graceful hospitality	29:58
	among the wealthy.	30:01
	Those therefore who raised objection to the practice	30:06
	in this instance,	30:11
	did not really raise objection to what was done	30:14
	as a custom or a convention.	30:18
	They took exception to the extravagance	30:22
	of this particular act of the woman with the cruise,	30:25
	the alabaster cruise of precious nard.	30:30
	The woman had emptied the whole of it	30:35
	when a little might have sufficed.	30:39
	And so they say they complained to what purpose	30:43
	had this waste of ointment been made?	30:46
	And then embarrassed by their outspoken advancements,	30:50
	they make a scrambling effort to justify their objection.	30:56
	It was proposed that the ointment might have been sold	31:02
	at the current market value	31:07
	and the proceeds distributed to the poor.	31:10
	This is quite plausible, we think,	31:15
	indeed all together more rational	31:18
	because we think morally justifiable.	31:20
	The woman's action was plainly wasteful,	31:25
	waste is improvident, and improvidence is immoral,	31:29
	and therefore the action was censurable.	31:35
	The claims of utility hardly ever fail	31:39
	to find an answering response in the minds of most of us.	31:42
	And one of the old, old pleas in defense of utility	31:48
	is that it usually seems to have sound moral justification.	31:52
	It helped somebody in some way or other.	31:58
	The proceeds of the ointment would have helped the poor	32:03
	and we see this clearly, perhaps all too clearly.	32:07
	And so had we been there,	32:11
	we would have probably stood in the shoes	32:12
	of those who censured the woman's lavish	32:15
	and apparently senseless extravagance.	32:18
	Those of us who have often worshiped in this place	32:23
	may no longer entertain the thought, but look about us.	32:28
	What is the sense of this 200-foot-long name	32:32
	or the lordly tower that inspires heavenward outside?	32:38
	Why are these sorting arches closing an unfilled	32:44
	and totally uninhabitable space?	32:48
	Why this noble choir up here,	32:52
	only a fraction of which admits a useful human occupancy?	32:55
	To what purpose have this ways been made?	33:01
	We could rightly say.	33:05
	Many of us who know either from books or from travel abroad	33:08
	that this is only one of the smaller cathedrals of the world	33:13
	may not be as amazed and befuddled as a simple visitor	33:17
	of whom Professor Phillips told me one time some years ago.	33:21
	The visitor was encountered on the steps of the east porch	33:27
	out there in front,	33:31
	visibly perturbed and earnestly shaking his head,	33:33
	he was heard to complain or mutter to himself,	33:37
	"There ain't no such place, there ain't no such place."	33:40
	Now, obviously, since he was seen emerging	33:47
	from the narthex door he had just come	33:49
	from beholding the glory of the many colored lights	33:52
	under the far reaching ball.	33:55
	Astonished and staggered	33:59
	as the architects at intended he should be,	34:01
	the man was severely taxed in his imagination	34:05
	quite unprepared to accredit this improvidence	34:09
	of glass and stone which you see all about us.	34:12
	It was foreign to his worth a day world	34:17
	of incompossible magnitudes.	34:20
	Now the glorious bewilderment of the visitor	34:24
	seems to underscore the point that neither he nor we	34:27
	could justify this delicately poised	34:33
	but enormous penetrated pile of masonry	34:36
	by any standard of utility,	34:40
	neither could we justify the glorious cascade	34:43
	of lordly sounds issuing from the Oregon pipes	34:47
	that is by way of their suitability for calling hawks,	34:51
	or mellowing a Roadhouse crowd or even sounding rabidly.	34:55
	And after all, it is quite possible to reflect	35:04
	with arguable cogency that the wealth	35:08
	which has been expended here	35:11
	might have better been given to the poor	35:13
	and that the donors would have been more truly religious	35:15
	in doing so.	35:18
	Now this I want to deny,	35:23
	and I deny it on the ground that religion is far more	35:27
	than visiting the orphans and the widows,	35:31
	though we often understand it that way.	35:34
	And that religion cannot ever be reduced to morality,	35:38
	religion embraces morality as the greater embraces the less,	35:43
	or religion embraces morality as vision and commitment	35:49
	embrace their consequences in action.	35:54
	Religious insight and worship are the fount	35:59
	from which morality normally issues as a living stream	36:03
	and for one to which the stream as experience shows dries up	36:09
	lost in the sands of the encroaching desert	36:13
	of human greediness and utilitarian concern.	36:17
	The morality which our Lord both defined in word	36:24
	and defined in his life.	36:28
	Issues I am sure, from an unbounded	36:32
	and seemingly extravagant love of God.	36:37
	An extravagance which shows itself	36:42
	in the kind of improvidence we see about us	36:44
	in this vast expanse of iridescent light.	36:47
	If in this majestic house of God	36:54
	in which we sit this morning,	36:56
	man can occupy by the fraction of the space,	37:00
	that I think is symbolic of faith's eagerness	37:03
	to give God room.	37:08
	The unfilled ball bespeaks the devout man's	37:11
	recognition of the overarching presence of the infinite	37:15
	and is his invitation to the almighty	37:20
	to make his habitation with us men here.	37:24
	The space we cannot fill is God's place	37:29
	and signifies our creatureliness and our profanity	37:34
	as contrasted with God's holiness and sanctity.	37:39
	So it is, what we see about us is a visible testimony	37:44
	to the extravagance of Christian devotion and insight.	37:52
	It is a divine improvidence of man answering in kind	37:58
	to the improvidence of God	38:02
	in his creation and redemption of man.	38:04
	It is to some such conclusion as this,	38:09
	that Wordsworth must've come in writing his sonnet	38:13
	on the magnificent balding	38:17
	in Kings College Chapel in Cambridge, England.	38:18
	"Tax not the royal saint with vain expense,	38:25
	with ill-matched aims," he said.	38:28
	"The architects who planned	38:31
	albeit laboring for a scanty band	38:33
	of white-robed scholars only,	38:35
	this immense and glorious work of fine intelligence.	38:38
	Give all thou canst,	38:43
	high heaven rejects the lore of nicely-calculated	38:46
	less or more."	38:50
	Now, did the woman spend all the costly ointment	38:53
	on the head of her Lord?	38:58
	Should she have done less?	39:01
	How fitting would have been the nicely calculated	39:04
	less or more?	39:08
	Jesus had already put his stamp of approval	39:10
	on such unrestricted outgoing when earlier he had likened	39:13
	the child of the kingdom to a searcher	39:19
	who having found the one pearl of great price,	39:24
	went and so all that he had to obtain it.	39:28
	Here was the glorious unreserved of total conviction.	39:34
	This is the divine improvidence,	39:44
	and perhaps a secular version of it	39:48
	is found in Sara Teasdale's admonition.	39:50
	"Give all thou canst for loveliness,	39:55
	buy it and never count the cost.	39:57
	For one short singing out of peace,	40:00
	count many a year of strife well lost,	40:03
	and for a breath of ecstasy, give all thou art	40:06
	or hopst to be."	40:11
	The bonafide religious life	40:15
	through Christian devotion as I understand it	40:19
	is not made of such stuff as Wordsworth called	40:23
	the lore of nicely-calculated less or more.	40:26
	Real religious devotion tends to be all or none.	40:31
	Just so, this gracious and noble sanctuary	40:39
	in which we worship is a standing yay,	40:47
	a visible affirmation in glass and stone	40:51
	of the words of the catechism,	40:54
	the end of man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever.	40:57
	In the majestic Minster Cathedral in York, England,	41:06
	I think my favorite cathedral,	41:13
	I stood a few years ago before a stone screen,	41:17
	choir screen dividing the chancel from the nave.	41:24
	Its midges were filled with the chiseled figures	41:32
	of saints and ancient kings of England.	41:36
	And according to the legend that the place,	41:41
	one man at labored over 30 years	41:43
	to achieve this masterpiece.	41:45
	It was not to memorialize men that he labored,	41:50
	he was prompted by the greater glory of God.	41:55
	He spent all he had for the loveliness of God.	41:59
	So then when we reflect again upon this unknown woman	42:06
	who anointed the head of Jesus,	42:11
	her seemingly profited waste at the costly nard,	42:14
	if we judge her deed after the manner of Jesus,	42:18
	by the measure of his unerring discrimination	42:22
	of verity and authenticity in human actions,	42:26
	we see through the apparent wastefulness to the reality,	42:31
	we discern only the extravagance of total devotion.	42:36
	We see an improvidence	42:41
	which rightly belongs to a child of the kingdom,	42:43
	one who sells all that he has	42:46
	to claim the pearl of great price.	42:49
	Now let's admit it.	42:54
	This is improvidence, and it is a kind of foolishness.	42:57
	It is the single eye that is careless of other concerns	43:04
	from which most of us can scarcely	43:11
	if ever extricate ourselves.	43:13
	Jesus himself called it foolishness and so did Saint Paul,	43:16
	the foolishness of babes which is hidden from the wise	43:20
	and the prudent.	43:25
	Jesus said to the prudent, "Let her alone,	43:29
	she hath brought a good work on me."	43:33
	For our Lord honored a deed which for him	43:38
	was expressive of uncareful and uncalculating response	43:42
	of love to the kingdom of God	43:48
	as it was represented in his ministry and person.	43:51
	In the face of relentless forces	43:56
	set against this message of the kingdom,	43:58
	stubborn refusal to receive it,	44:02
	hostile forces hurrying a man to the cross,	44:05
	Jesus justly declared,	44:09
	"She at least hath done what she could."	44:12
	But still this does not bring us I think,	44:19
	to the heart of the matter,	44:21
	for Jesus perceived something more than unsparing	44:25
	and impulsive devotion contrasting with the enmity	44:29
	of his adversaries.	44:34
	There was something in the woman's heedless extravagance,	44:37
	unmindful of the cost which reminded our Lord	44:41
	of the improvidence of God itself.	44:45
	We are accustomed to speak of the providence of God,	44:51
	and those who have eyes to see	44:56
	testify to its mysterious leadership.	44:58
	Now urging on, now presenting,	45:03
	wonderfully inter fusing itself into the warp and root	45:08
	of human destiny.	45:12
	But to speak only of providence	45:15
	is hardly to probe deeply enough,	45:17
	for in the word and work of Jesus, the providence of God	45:21
	is embraced within something even greater.	45:26
	(man coughs)	45:30
	In Jesus' understanding, this greater thing	45:31
	is the improvidence of God,	45:35
	the unconditional super abundance of the divine goodness,	45:38
	which is everywhere scattered abroad.	45:44
	Jesus refers to it frequently	45:47
	especially in all his cautious admonitions against anxiety.	45:49
	To his hearers he says, "If you being evil,	45:58
	know how to give good gifts to your children,	46:01
	how much more will your heavenly father give good gifts?	46:04
	Where our Lord points to the birds of the heaven,	46:08
	which neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns,	46:12
	but are fed,	46:15
	so also the grass of the field is clothed	46:17
	from no effort of its own,	46:21
	and so likewise, the lilies of the field	46:24
	that neither toil nor spin,	46:26
	these are garbed in Raymond exceeding Solomon splendor."	46:30
	In all of this Jesus refers to the illimitable larges	46:35
	and overflowing bounty of God the father.	46:41
	As for man, Jesus says God's improvidence is seen in this,	46:47
	that the sun shines on the evil and the good alike,	46:53
	the rain revives alike, the just and the unjust.	46:59
	And in this parable, the laborers receive a like recompense	47:05
	whether they work a day or an hour in God's vineyard.	47:10
	This is not the procedure or policy of the labor movement.	47:17
	The divine improvidence is seen him the unstinting	47:27
	and even-handed bounty of God,	47:32
	that's what Jesus is trying to say toward all.	47:34
	With no cautious calculation of desert or merit,	47:38
	man's very existence is not something he merits or deserves	47:44
	but receives quite before he can ask.	47:49
	As Jesus saw at the improvidence of God	47:55
	is the sheer outgoing gratuity of God's love.	47:57
	And it hasn't any rational justification.	48:03
	In anything that men can do or leave undone,	48:07
	it is the overflowing abundant communication	48:14
	of being in life and nothing is required of men in return,	48:17
	except openness to the gift and grateful reception of it.	48:24
	I was reading last night on the train	48:31
	Dostoevsky's definition of man	48:33
	in "Notes from the Underground"	48:36
	when he said that the definition of man	48:39
	is that of a two-legged creature who is ungrateful.	48:43
	Nothing is required of men in return	48:50
	except openness to the gift and grateful reception of it,	48:53
	that's what Jesus is saying.	48:57
	With Jesus there is no justifying God's love	48:59
	except by receiving it in gratitude.	49:02
	There is no justifying a mother's love	49:06
	except by receiving it in gratitude.	49:08
	Only one course lies open then,	49:12
	that open hearted acceptance.	49:15
	This is the divine improvidence.	49:21
	And in the woman's extravagant and heedless	49:24
	outburst of devotion Jesus perceived the spirit of man	49:27
	open and answering without caution or reserve	49:31
	to the spirit of God.	49:35
	I do not know any distinctively mother's day text	49:39
	in the New Testament.	49:43
	There are doubtless a number which have been forced to do	49:46
	on willing service.	49:49
	Plenty of mothers are mentioned in the Bible	49:54
	and not a few in the New Testament.	49:57
	I do not know that Jesus singled out motherhood	50:01
	or fatherhood for any particular mention.	50:04
	The biological fact was in itself	50:08
	of no special consequence to him,	50:10
	but I am clear on one point and it is this	50:14
	that the spirit of essential motherhood has much in common	50:19
	with that of the woman with the alabaster cruise	50:23
	of pure nard.	50:26
	It is the same spirit of uncalculating devotion,	50:29
	of improvident and heedless outgoing,	50:33
	far from counting the cost it scorns to do so.	50:38
	Most certainly the real spirit of motherhood is repelled	50:42
	by what Wordsworth called	50:46
	the lore of nicely calculated less or more.	50:48
	Makes of all necessity or virtue,	50:53
	of unremitting tasks, a glad self-giving.	50:56
	It regularly issues in the bounty of unsparing devotion.	51:01
	Now don't bother to telling me that it isn't always so,	51:08
	who doesn't know that?	51:12
	Nothing ever is actually what it is essentially,	51:15
	that is the pathos that attaches itself to our humanity.	51:20
	Nevertheless, motherhood does participate in some measure	51:25
	in the spirit of the divine improvidence.	51:29
	And so today we rightly honor it	51:33
	as a manifestation of the divine witness,	51:36
	an undoubted ministration of God in our midst	51:40
	to sucker our days.	51:44
	For most mothers it may be said as Jesus said	51:48
	to the woman with the alabaster cruise of pure nard,	51:51
	"She hath done what she could."	51:55
	And on mother's day, we shall be worthy of it	51:59
	if like our Lord, we will receive the ministrations	52:02
	of this maternal improvidence with gratitude, amen.	52:07
	Let us pray.	52:15
	Oh God, make us not to go limping through life	52:25
	unreflective and insensible	52:31
	to the improvidence of thy goodness	52:34
	manifested in the world about us,	52:37
	but make us open and grateful for all of thy ministrations.	52:41
	And now may the peace of God,	52:47
	which passes all understanding,	52:49
	keep your hearts and minds in the knowledge and love of God	52:52
	and of his son, Jesus Christ, our Lord,	52:57
	and the blessing of God almighty,	53:00
	the father, the son, and the holy spirit	53:03
	be amongst you and remain with you always, amen.	53:07
	♪ Amen ♪	53:20
	♪ Amen ♪	53:30
	♪ Amen ♪	53:39

Announcer	Sunday morning, May 5th, 1957.	0:06
	The preacher is Reverend Professor George P. Headley,	0:11
	chaplain of Mills College, Oakland, California.	0:14
	(church choir singing)	0:18
	("O, for a Thousand Tongues to Sing" by C.G. Glaser)	1:00
	♪ O for a thousand tongues to sing ♪	1:19
	♪ My great Redeemer's praise ♪	1:24
	♪ The glories of my God and King ♪	1:29
	♪ The triumphs of His grace ♪	1:33
	♪ My gracious Master and my God ♪	1:40
	♪ Assist me to proclaim ♪	1:44
	♪ To spread through all the earth abroad ♪	1:49
	♪ The honors of Thy name ♪	1:54
	♪ Jesus! The name that charms our fears ♪	2:00
	♪ That bids our sorrows cease ♪	2:05
	♪ 'Tis music in the sinner's ears ♪	2:09
	♪ 'Tis life, and health, and peace ♪	2:14
	♪ He breaks the power of canceled sin ♪	2:20
	♪ He sets the prisoner free ♪	2:25
	♪ His blood can make the foulest clean ♪	2:30
	♪ His blood availed for me ♪	2:35
	♪ Amen ♪	2:42
Pastor 1	Let us offer unto God	3:02
	our unison prayer of confession.	3:04
	Let us pray.	3:07
	Eternal God, in whom we live and move and have our being,	3:11
	whose face is hidden from us by our sins,	3:18
	and whose mercy we forget in the blindness of our hearts,	3:22
	cleanse us, we beseech Thee, from all our offenses	3:27
	and deliver us from proud thoughts and vain desires,	3:32
	that with lowliness and meekness,	3:37
	we may draw near to Thee,	3:40
	confessing our faults, confiding in Thy grace,	3:43
	and finding in Thee our refuge and our strength	3:48
	through Jesus Christ, Thy Son.	3:53
	Amen.	3:56
	And now as our savior, Christ, hath taught us,	3:58
	we humbly pray.	4:01
	Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name.	4:04
	Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done	4:10
	on earth as it is in heaven.	4:14
	Give us this day our daily bread	4:17
	and forgive us our trespasses	4:20
	as we forgive those who trespass against us,	4:23
	and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.	4:27
	For Thine is the kingdom and the power	4:32
	and the glory forever.	4:36
	Amen.	4:39
	("Blessed are the men who fear Him" by Mendelssohn)	5:07
Pastor 2	Here begin at the 15th verse	8:40
	of the 15th chapter of the book of the prophet Jeremiah.	8:41
	"O, Lord, Thou knowest: remember me and visit me,	8:47
	and take vengeance for me on my persecutors.	8:52
	In Thy forbearance, take me not away.	8:56
	Know that for Thy sake, I bear reproach.	8:59
	Thy words were found and I ate them,	9:03
	and Thy words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart	9:06
	for I am called by Thy name, O Lord God of hosts.	9:10
	I did not sit in the company of merry-makers,	9:15
	nor did I rejoice.	9:17
	I sat alone because Thy hand was upon me,	9:19
	for Thou hast filled me with indignation.	9:23
	Why is my pain unceasing, my wound incurable,	9:26
	refusing to be healed?	9:30
	Wilt Thou to be to me like a deceitful brook,	9:33
	like waters that fail?	9:36
	Therefore thus saith the Lord,	9:40
	'If you return, I will restore you	9:43
	and you shall stand before me.	9:45
	If you utter what is precious and not what is worthless,	9:48
	you shall be as my mouth.	9:51
	They shall turn to you, but you shall not turn to them,	9:54
	and I will make you to this people	9:59
	a fortified wall of bronze.	10:01
	They will fight against you,	10:04
	but they shall not prevail over you,	10:05
	for I am with you to save you and deliver you',	10:08
	says the Lord.	10:11
	'I will deliver you out of the hand of the wicked,	10:13
	and redeem you from the grasp of the ruthless.'"	10:16
	Here begin at the 19th verse of the 2nd chapter	10:28
	of the epistle of St. Peter.	10:31
	"One is approved if, mindful of God, he endures pain	10:36
	while suffering unjustly.	10:41
	For what credit is it, if what you do wrong	10:44
	and are beaten for it, you take it patiently?	10:46
	But if when you do right and suffer for it	10:49
	you take it patiently, you have God's approval.	10:52
	For to this you have been called,	10:57
	because Christ also suffered for you,	10:59
	leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps.	11:02
	He committed no sin, no guile was found on his lips.	11:06
	When he was reviled, he did not revile in turn.	11:11
	When he suffered, he did not threaten,	11:15
	but he trusted to him who judges justly.	11:19
	He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree,	11:23
	that we might die to sin and live to righteousness.	11:28
	By his wounds you have been healed.	11:32
	For you were straying like sheep,	11:36
	but have now returned to the Shepherd	11:39
	and Guardian of your souls."	11:42
	Your end of the lesson.	11:45
	("Father in heaven, who lovest all" by Rudyard Kipling)	11:51
	♪ Father in heaven, who lovest all ♪	12:17
	♪ O help thy children when they call ♪	12:23
	♪ That they may build from age to age ♪	12:29
	♪ An undefiled heritage ♪	12:35
	♪ Teach us to bear the yoke in youth ♪	12:44
	♪ With steadfastness and careful truth ♪	12:49
	♪ That, in our time, thy grace may give ♪	12:56
	♪ The truth whereby the nations live ♪	13:02
	♪ Teach us to rule ourselves alway' ♪	13:10
	♪ Controlled and cleanly night and day ♪	13:16
	♪ That we may bring, if need arise ♪	13:22
	♪ No maimed or worthless sacrifice ♪	13:28
	♪ Amen ♪	13:37
Pastor 1	The Lord be with you.	13:44
Congregation	And with thy spirit.	13:47
Pastor 1	Let us pray.	13:48
	Almighty and most merciful Father,	13:56
	from whom cometh every good and perfect gift,	14:00
	we give Thee praise and hearty thanks for all Thy mercies,	14:05
	for Thy goodness that hath created us,	14:11
	Thy bounty that hath sustained us,	14:16
	Thy fatherly discipline	14:20
	that hath chastened and corrected us,	14:21
	Thy patience that hath borne with us,	14:26
	and Thy love that hath redeemed us	14:32
	through Jesus Christ, our Lord.	14:36
	Let us offer unto God our prayer of intercession	14:42
	for the world.	14:46
	Eternal God, in whose perfect kingdom,	14:49
	no sword is drawn but the sword of righteousness,	14:55
	and no strength known but the strength of love,	15:00
	so guide and inspire, we pray Thee,	15:05
	the work of all who seek Thy kingdom	15:09
	at home and abroad,	15:12
	that all peoples may seek and find their security	15:14
	not in force of arms, but in the perfect love	15:20
	that casteth out fear,	15:25
	and in the fellowship revealed to us	15:28
	by Thy Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord.	15:32
	Let us offer unto God our prayer of intercession	15:39
	for our country.	15:42
	Grant us, O God, a vision of our land, fair as she might be,	15:45
	a land of justice where none shall prey on others,	15:52
	a land of plenty where vice and poverty	15:58
	shall cease to fester,	16:02
	a land of brotherhood where all success	16:05
	shall be founded on service,	16:10
	and honor shall be given to nobleness alone.	16:13
	A land of peace where order shall not rest on force,	16:18
	but on the love of all for their country.	16:24
	And grant us strength to pledge our time and thought	16:29
	to speed the day of her beauty and Thy righteousness,	16:33
	through Jesus Christ, our Lord.	16:39
	Let us offer unto God our prayer of supplication	16:44
	for our university.	16:48
	O God, who art the fountain of all wisdom	16:53
	and source of all grace,	16:55
	be present always, we beseech Thee,	16:58
	with this university to direct and bless it.	17:01
	Established in faith in Thee	17:06
	and endowed for the service of truth,	17:08
	may it ever rest under Thy gracious benediction.	17:12
	We pray Thee to use the university for the glory of Christ	17:17
	and to make it a pure fountain of sound knowledge,	17:24
	holy principles and Godly learning.	17:28
	We beseech Thee to give those who administer and teach here	17:33
	wisdom, patience, discretion, and zeal for Thee	17:38
	and for truth.	17:46
	And to those who are taught, give aptness to learn.	17:48
	Make us studious, truthful, pure and temperate in all things	17:54
	so that by Thy grace, the same mind may be in us	18:01
	which is in Christ,	18:04
	that our character may be formed in his holy likeness.	18:07
	Prosper Thou, O Lord, our labors,	18:13
	and may the good name and influence of this university	18:17
	be handed down from generation to generation,	18:21
	for the comfort of this nation and for Thy glory.	18:25
	And let us offer unto God	18:33
	our prayer of supplication for ourselves.	18:34
	Lord, make us channels of Thy peace,	18:39
	that where there is hatred, we may bring love.	18:46
	That where there is wrong,	18:51
	we may bring the spirit of forgiveness.	18:53
	That where is discord, we may bring harmony.	18:57
	That where there is error, we may bring truth.	19:01
	That where there is doubt, we may bring faith.	19:07
	That where there is despair, we may bring hope.	19:09
	That where there are shadows, we may bring light.	19:15
	That where there is sadness, we may bring joy.	19:20
	Lord, grant that we may seek rather to comfort	19:26
	than to be comforted, to understand than to be understood,	19:31
	to love than to be loved.	19:39
	For Thou hast taught us	19:43
	that it is by giving that one receives,	19:45
	it is by self-forgetting that one finds,	19:49
	it is by forgiving that one is forgiven,	19:55
	it is by dying that one awakens to eternal life,	20:01
	and the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ	20:09
	be with us all evermore.	20:13
	Amen.	20:19
	(church organ playing)	20:24
	("And then shall your light break forth" by Mendelssohn)	24:05
	("Doxology" by Rev. Thomas Ken)	27:52
	♪ Praise God, from whom all blessings flow ♪	28:15
	♪ Praise Him, all creatures here below ♪	28:21
	♪ Praise Him above, ye heav'nly host ♪	28:27
	♪ Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost ♪	28:33
	♪ Amen ♪	28:41
Pastor 1	Almighty God,	28:49
	Thou giver of every good and perfect gift,	28:52
	here we offer and present unto Thee	28:57
	these symbols of ourselves, our souls and bodies,	29:00
	to be a reasonable, holy, and living sacrifice unto Thee,	29:07
	in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord.	29:14
	Amen.	29:20
	(church organ playing)	29:22
Pastor 2	In the name of the Father,	29:47
	and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.	29:48
	Amen.	29:51
	The first epistle of St. Peter,	29:55
	on the 2nd chapter of the 19th verse,	29:56
	"This is thank-worthy if a man put conscience toward God	30:00
	and your grief, suffering wrongfully."	30:05
	And in the book of Job, the 13th chapter, the 15th verse,	30:11
	"Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him,	30:15
	but I will maintain mine own ways before him."	30:19
	The author of what we know	30:25
	as the first epistle of St. Peter,	30:26
	a Christian writing to his fellow Christians in Asia Minor,	30:29
	just before the beginning of the 2nd century A.D.,	30:33
	were discussing some practical problems	30:36
	which faced him and his friends under persecution by Rome.	30:39
	He was dealing also with some basic aspects	30:44
	of the universal and everlasting problem of evil.	30:46
	For many centuries, the church has read	30:50
	this section of his little book,	30:52
	which we heard this morning,	30:54
	on this second Sunday after Easter.	30:56
	Today, I suggest that we use it as a charter	30:59
	for our own thinking.	31:02
	And for our thinking, likewise,	31:04
	about both the immediate and the ultimate.	31:06
	To begin with, let's recognize that the problem of evil	31:11
	is one which we shall not and cannot solve	31:15
	with any finality.	31:18
	Not ever, let alone today.	31:21
	Nevertheless, it is a problem we have to deal with	31:24
	always in this life of ours.	31:28
	Perhaps we can identify some of its elements,	31:31
	marked off with a degree of precision	31:35
	from what it's actual limits are.	31:36
	Beyond that, I hope to suggest	31:40
	a way of going past the problem itself,	31:41
	to a point of view and an attitude	31:44
	which may make it possible for us to endure evil,	31:46
	to survive it, to triumph over it	31:50
	even though we may never pretend	31:54
	to have understood it fully.	31:55
	We must notice that the outset that there are some aspects	31:59
	of evil in our world, which constitute no problem at all.	32:02
	The author of first St. Peter	32:07
	speaks of suffering wrongfully.	32:08
	He's quite aware though,	32:11
	that there is such a thing as suffering rightfully.	32:12
	"What glory is it", he asks,	32:16
	"if when ye be buffeted for your faults,	32:18
	ye shall take it patiently?"	32:21
	You put your finger into the fire and it's burned.	32:23
	You were asking for trouble and you got it.	32:27
	A nation sets out on a campaign of aggression	32:31
	and ends up smashed.	32:33
	It was asking for trouble too,	32:36
	and it got exactly what was to be expected.	32:38
	There's no problem here.	32:42
	Nothing to perplex us, and so, nothing to discuss.	32:44
	So often can cause and effect thus be seen in operation,	32:49
	that man has been tempted to regard the principle	32:54
	as an unbreakable law of nature.	32:56
	"Do wrong", says this view, "and you will suffer.	32:59
	Do right and you will prosper",	33:03
	thus thought the writers of the Old Testament,	33:06
	book of Proverbs,	33:08
	setting up a tit for tat morality,	33:10
	which can be summarized in such later sayings	33:13
	as "honesty is the best policy."	33:15
	Thus also believed many of the authors of the Psalms,	33:20
	such as the one who declared,	33:23
	"I have been young, and now I am old,	33:25
	and never have I seen the righteous forsaken	33:28
	nor his seed begging bread."	33:30
	Thus argued Job's conventionally minded friends.	33:34
	Urging that Job's (inaudible) were prima facie evidence	33:38
	that he committed grievous sin,	33:40
	thus the radio and the TV solemnly assure us	33:43
	night after night, that crime does not pay.	33:47
	At this point of view indeed is worthy of notice.	33:52
	In fact, this always is the first question we should raise	33:55
	when we find that suffering and evil have come upon us.	33:59
	Did you wake up this morning with a splitting head?	34:04
	The right explanation may be the simple and obvious one,	34:08
	that you're paying for last night's party.	34:11
	Did you flunk a midterm?	34:16
	The first thing to ask is whether you cut class	34:18
	a few times too often, read too little earlier in semester,	34:21
	crammed too furiously in the last hours.	34:26
	Are you unpopular with some of your fellows?	34:30
	Maybe you've earned your unpopularity	34:34
	by your own selfishness, your arrogance, your whining,	34:36
	your thoughtlessness, your undependability.	34:41
	The precinct and the hospitals are full of people	34:45
	who put themselves there,	34:48
	and whose suffering, therefore, creates no abstruse problem	34:50
	either for a reason of for faith.	34:54
	You are to consider in total view of life makes it plain,	34:59
	that this first inquiry doesn't always lead straight	35:03
	to the right answer.	35:06
	Sometimes you have a headache	35:09
	when you haven't been drinking	35:10
	and when you've got to bed	35:12
	as early as dormitory life will allow.	35:13
	Sometimes you fail an exam when you've prepared faithfully	35:17
	and in reasonable relaxation.	35:21
	Sometimes a person of absolute sincerity	35:25
	and genuine and goodwill runs afoul	35:28
	of popular sentiment,	35:31
	and so is subjected to popular score.	35:33
	Sometimes a holy innocent citizen is sent to prison	35:37
	because of railroading or by sheer administrative stupidity.	35:41
	Sometimes illness, even death,	35:46
	strikes down a young man or young woman of exemplary life.	35:49
	Undeserved suffering thus creates problems	35:55
	of a far greater intensity	35:58
	and demanding a much more careful examination.	36:01
	Here again, however, we need to divide our field.	36:05
	There is some undeserved suffering	36:10
	which in our world as it is	36:13
	we can account for fairly readily.	36:15
	It's of this sort of thing	36:19
	that the epistle of St. Peter speaks.	36:20
	A selfish social order is intolerant	36:22
	of him who insists on selflessness.	36:26
	A reckless social circle	36:30
	penalizes those who want to look ahead beyond the moment.	36:32
	A tyranny crushes those who dare to speak for freedom.	36:36
	A hero may lose his life in the fire or the flood	36:41
	from which he's trying to rescue someone else.	36:45
	"If you end your grief for conscience toward God,"	36:48
	says our author, "this is thank-worthy."	36:52
	It may not make false sense in a world order,	36:56
	holy moral, and intelligent,	36:58
	but in an order which often is amoral and stupid,	37:01
	as we have found ours to be.	37:05
	We know that this is the way things are.	37:07
	Realizing this, we find we must set aside	37:11
	the easy commercial moralizing,	37:15
	which is so common in the Proverbs and the Psalms.	37:17
	It simply isn't true that the righteous always prospered,	37:21
	that the wicked always suffered.	37:24
	Sometimes the wicked prospered	37:27
	and demonstrably because of their very wickedness.	37:30
	On occasion, crime does pay and very well indeed.	37:34
	There is a measure of truth	37:40
	at the American economic history cliche,	37:41
	that if you stole a loaf of bread, you went to jail.	37:45
	But that if you stole a railroad,	37:48
	you went to the United States Senate.	37:49
	There have been nations that bear the sword in aggression	37:54
	and came out victors rather than vanquished.	37:58
	There have been frauds in our society	38:02
	who were smooth enough to gain and to retain social prestige	38:05
	and to die in peace bequeathing their listings	38:10
	in the social register to their children.	38:13
	Conversely, we are fully aware also	38:18
	of those who have suffered tragically for conscience's sake.	38:21
	There is the noble army of martyrs throughout the ages,	38:26
	in religion and in politics and in economics,	38:30
	who would've got along very well	38:33
	if only they hadn't been so encouragably	38:35
	and so inconveniently honest.	38:38
	There was the young priest, Jeremiah,	38:41
	well set in a hereditary job,	38:44
	who endured a lifetime of public hatred	38:48
	'cause he didn't choose to join in exploiting his felons.	38:51
	There was John P. Altgeld, a great governor of Illinois	38:56
	who was driven into the political wilderness	38:59
	because he was brave enough to pardon some innocent men,	39:02
	themselves suffering the penalty of their own moral coach.	39:06
	There was a Galilean teacher	39:11
	who might have been a popular rabbi of the Pharisees	39:14
	or a well paid servant of the dominant Sadducees	39:19
	if he had been willing to accept things as they were	39:23
	instead of contending for things as they ought to be.	39:27
	When we think of the life of Jesus,	39:32
	we must give a lie direct to the Psalmist,	39:34
	for here, even if nowhere else in history,	39:38
	is born righteous man who was forsaken	39:42
	and forsaken for his very righteousness.	39:46
	And this sort of experience our text insists	39:51
	is thank-worthy.	39:54
	Why?	39:56
	There is an ultimate answer in terms of personal integrity	39:58
	to which we'll return in a few minutes.	40:01
	There's also an immediate one,	40:03
	in the simpler terms of visible result.	40:06
	But at this point we should notice,	40:08
	it's the principle which the theologians describe	40:11
	as vicarious suffering.	40:13
	Suffering on behalf of others.	40:16
	Suffering as a means to the welfare of others.	40:20
	Jeremiah was imprisoned, beaten, set in the stocks,	40:25
	finally lynched,	40:30
	but his idealism survived him and his nation	40:32
	and has advanced the cause of decency and justice	40:36
	in many a nation since.	40:39
	Governor Altgeld lost his office	40:42
	and his bright political future,	40:44
	but directly, he set the Haymarket victims free	40:46
	and indirectly, he inspired many a later public official	40:50
	to fulfill his oath in honesty and courage.	40:54
	Jesus died on the cross.	40:59
	And in him, the Christian world has found its hope	41:03
	of being saved from its sins.	41:06
	To be willing to suffer for others' wellbeing	41:10
	is for us, the specific mark of Christian loyalty.	41:13
	And we may give thanks that such suffering	41:18
	often indeed has rendered such service.	41:21
	Just here, however, we need a paragraph or two	41:26
	of special footnote.	41:28
	It's crucially important that we shall discriminate	41:30
	between the true and the false	41:34
	in this matter of suffering for conscience's sake.	41:37
	It's all too easy to confuse the issue	41:40
	by rationalizing or by romanticizing.	41:43
	And of course those two often are the same thing.	41:47
	He who sets out consciously to become a martyr	41:51
	may suffer indeed yet to no good end.	41:55
	I've known a number of alleged martyrs of academic freedom	41:59
	who should have been fired by their universities	42:03
	long before they were,	42:05
	not for their radicalism,	42:08
	but for their professional incompetence	42:10
	as shown in their wooden-headedness	42:13
	and their cantankerous spirit.	42:15
	I have known students	42:19
	who took a beating academically from their teachers	42:20
	or socially, from their fellows.	42:24
	Not really because they were idealists,	42:26
	but because they took a stubborn pride	42:29
	in their inability to adjust to a campus culture pattern.	42:31
	Hitler himself still is called a martyr	42:36
	by some who continue to hold Hitlerism,	42:39
	and you and I maintain our right to disagree.	42:42
	The martyr spirit as such has been a good deal of a nuisance	42:46
	in the history of mankind.	42:50
	It's not (inaudible)	42:52
	It's not quite honest to want to suffer	42:54
	for suffering's mere sake.	42:57
	If suffering be a corollary to personal integrity,	42:59
	if it be a means throughout a wider usefulness	43:03
	is to be accepted without cavity.	43:07
	Accepted, but even so, not necessarily welcomed.	43:09
	And if suffering eventuates from individual arrogance,	43:15
	if it serves to give the sufferer	43:20
	a kind of masochistic satisfaction,	43:22
	it is not useful and it is not to be excused.	43:25
	Thus far, we've be taking for granted	43:32
	some recognizable factors of cause and effect.	43:33
	Wrongdoing often brings deserved suffering,	43:37
	and stupidity brings consequences	43:41
	and inconveniences equally deserved.	43:44
	Doing right may bring suffering too,	43:48
	so long as the autocrats or tyrannical popular majorities	43:51
	penalize those who challenge,	43:55
	dare to challenge things as they are.	43:57
	Such relationships we readily can see	44:00
	and therefore reasonably can handle.	44:02
	When we know we've suffered for doing wrong,	44:05
	most of us can take the external suffering	44:08
	with more composure.	44:10
	Then we can take the inner awareness of our own guilt.	44:12
	When we know we've suffered for doing right,	44:17
	we can endure the external suffering with equanimity,	44:21
	for we're buoyed up by the inner consciousness	44:25
	of having been true to the best we know.	44:27
	We can even tolerate the success of those	44:30
	who succeed by fraud or violence,	44:33
	because we say that is still the way of the world.	44:35
	And so there's no insoluble problem yet.	44:39
	The real difficulty, intellectual and moral,	44:43
	arises when the causal relationship breaks down.	44:47
	The true problem of evil in the world	44:52
	is that of irrational evil,	44:55
	of evil that operates outside the lines	44:58
	of visible cause and effect.	45:01
	This was the problem that Job faced.	45:04
	If he had sinned, his sorrows could be explained	45:07
	as his friends tried to explain them.	45:11
	If he'd lost his property because he refused	45:14
	to join in a crooked scheme,	45:16
	or his sons because he had sent them out	45:19
	to fight in a noble cause,	45:22
	he could have understood that too.	45:24
	But as it was, his suffering was meaningless	45:27
	because it had neither visible reason in his own life	45:31
	nor visible usefulness for the lives of others.	45:35
	It had happened without causation	45:41
	and it had eventuated without result.	45:43
	It was all together purposeless, insane.	45:46
	And so it argued a world that was sad and purposeless too.	45:50
	Small wonder that Job's wife threw in her hand	45:56
	and said to him, "Curse God and die."	45:59
	The authors of the symposium,	46:05
	which is the heart of the book of Job, chapters three to 31,	46:06
	were concerned precisely	46:12
	with this irrational aspect of suffering.	46:13
	They rejected the old folk tale,	46:17
	which was their point of departure,	46:19
	and which made the whole thing a rather childish dispute	46:21
	between God (inaudible)	46:24
	These thinkers rejected also	46:27
	and set out very consciously to refute	46:29
	the conventional moralizing of Job's three friends,	46:31
	nor may we assign to them either	46:35
	for somewhat trivial suggestions	46:37
	offered by the young man Elihu,	46:39
	or the majestic nature poetry	46:42
	of the Voice from the Whirlwind.	46:43
	The philosophers are content to stand	46:46
	on Job's own integrity.	46:49
	And so they leave him still on the ashen,	46:52
	still suffering, and still morally triumphant.	46:56
	Finally, you and I can carry the argument	47:03
	no further than they did.	47:05
	We cannot account for, we cannot justify every phenomenon	47:08
	of suffering that we experience and observe.	47:14
	What we can do, what alone we can do	47:18
	is to stand for the right as we see it,	47:22
	ignoring the vile, not only what happens to us	47:26
	as a consequence of our doing right,	47:30
	but also whatever may happen to us quite inconsequentially.	47:33
	This means, in the last analysis,	47:38
	that all that happens to us and of whatever kind	47:42
	is for us inconsequential,	47:46
	that of what may happen to us is irrelevant	47:50
	to choice, to decision, and to loyalty.	47:54
	It may have been almost at the same point in history,	48:02
	something over 2000 years ago,	48:05
	that the Jewish had the Hindu thinkers	48:08
	came out independently at the same point.	48:10
	"Though he slay me Christ, Job, yet will I trust in him	48:15
	but I will maintain mine own ways before him",	48:20
	urges the Bhagavad Gita,	48:24
	the great Hindu classic of devotion.	48:26
	Thy business is with deeds alone,	48:28
	not with the fruits, the deeds may yield.	48:32
	Never more than in these days	48:36
	of our childish worship of efficiency,	48:39
	never more than in this,	48:43
	our land of unreflecting pragmatism,	48:44
	has it been necessary for man to realize	48:48
	this ultimate irrelevancy of result.	48:51
	The so-called practical man	48:55
	says, "It's good because it works."	48:57
	And thereby he robs goodness of all moral value	49:02
	because he attaches it automatically to visible success.	49:06
	This is the philosophy the robber bears	49:11
	whether in the feudal warfare of the Middle Ages	49:14
	or in the railway building of the 1860s.	49:16
	It is not reasonable.	49:21
	It is not Christian.	49:23
	It is not true.	49:26
	Causation carries us only a part of the way.	49:29
	Demonstrable result is only a fragment	49:34
	of the pattern of life.	49:37
	It follows that causation may not be our certain guide	49:39
	nor result our cherished goal.	49:44
	We cannot afford pragmatism	49:48
	because pragmatism dodges the existing facts.	49:50
	We can afford nothing less	49:55
	than faith in the right for its own sake,	49:58
	unsupported by infallible logic,	50:01
	and unadorned by gleaming hopes.	50:04
	Of a chosen value of ours,	50:09
	we must say not its good because it works,	50:11
	but it's good in itself.	50:16
	And whether it works or not	50:18
	has nothing to do with its goodness.	50:20
	This is where we move beyond the realm of knowledge	50:24
	into that of faith.	50:28
	And it is precisely faith beyond knowledge	50:31
	that is the area of religious living.	50:35
	Said a small boy, perhaps fictional, but long notorious,	50:40
	"Faith is believing things that ain't so."	50:44
	That isn't quite it.	50:48
	But faith indeed is believing things	50:51
	that don't seem to be so.	50:54
	Believing what is obvious is not believing, but knowing,	50:57
	And one doesn't need religion to manage that.	51:03
	As Bishop McConnell put in some years ago,	51:06
	faith is trusting God when the appearances are against Him.	51:09
	Often the appearances are against God,	51:15
	against truth, against conscience.	51:19
	They were thus for Job.	51:23
	They were thus for Jesus.	51:26
	Ever and again, they are thus for you and for me.	51:29
	Under those conditions,	51:34
	there is only one way to personal integrity.	51:36
	Only one to inward peace.	51:40
	We need first the faith to hold to our ideals,	51:43
	even though we suffer for them, and this is thank-worthy,	51:48
	It is still more important,	51:53
	as it is unquestionably more difficult,	51:55
	that we shall hold to our ideals	51:58
	even though we suffer without reference to them.	52:01
	The world is not demonstrably coherent.	52:06
	Goodness is not demonstrably worthwhile.	52:10
	Fidelity, to the right, as we have seen the right,	52:14
	is no assurance that we shall be useful,	52:17
	let alone that we shall gain personal reward.	52:20
	Dare we yet live as if the world made sense.	52:25
	Dare we yet serve the good, the beautiful, and the true,	52:32
	whose goodness, beauty and truth we never can prove.	52:38
	Dare we yet say, though he slay me yet will I trust in him,	52:43
	but I will maintain mine own ways before him.	52:48
	It is this faith of Job that is his greatness,	52:54
	needing no buttress of argument.	52:57
	It is man's business with deeds,	53:00
	not with the fruits they may or may not yield,	53:03
	which calls for fat courage by which alone we can survive	53:06
	in an insane universe.	53:10
	It is the brushing aside of grief as irrelevant,	53:14
	just as irrelevant as gladness, that is thank-worthy.	53:17
	You and I can live if life is pleasant.	53:22
	We can live through a good deal of unpleasantness,	53:27
	even a bitter pain if life makes sense.	53:29
	Can we yet live?	53:34
	Can we yet be true to our best	53:36
	amid madness and horror that to us, make no sense at all?	53:40
	That is what faith demands,	53:45
	and that is what true faith will provide.	53:49
	Let us pray.	53:56
	O God, by whom the meek are guided in judgment	54:07
	and light rises up in darkness for the Godly,	54:11
	grant us in all our doubts and uncertainties	54:15
	the grace to know what Thou wouldst have us to do.	54:19
	That the spirit of wisdom may save us	54:24
	from all false choices.	54:27
	That in the high light, we may see light,	54:30
	and in Thy true path, we may not stumble.	54:33
	Through Jesus Christ, Our Lord.	54:37
	Amen.	54:40
	Under God's gracious mercy and protection, we commit you.	54:42
	The Lord bless you and keep you.	54:45
	The Lord make his face to shine upon you	54:48
	and be gracious unto you.	54:51
	The Lord lift up his countenance upon you	54:53
	and give you peace both now and ever more.	54:56
	("Amen")	55:07
	(church bell ringing)	55:47

Item Info

Title:

George P. Hedley - "Suffering Wrongfully" (May 5, 1957); Robert E. Cushman - "Divine Improvidence" (May 26, 1957)

Permalink:

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r49023h2j

Date:

May 5, 1957
May 26, 1957

Speaker:

Hedley, George P.

Contributor:

Duke University. Chapel

Identifier:

UA.17.01.0003 RR-0035
ref5291_lbb
uachapelsermaud
duke:628105
dcrau002085
ark:/87924/r49023h2j
cdd79d8c-5c42-46ac-b8b1-252da7ef0674

Digital Collection:

Duke Chapel Recordings

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Duke University Chapel recordings, 1954-2005

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English

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United States
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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George P. Hedley - "Suffering Wrongfully" (May 5, 1957); Robert E. Cushman - "Divine Improvidence" (May 26, 1957)

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