Waldo Beach - "On Christian Consumption" (May 17, 1959) / Duke Chapel Recordings / Duke Digital Repository

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Today is the anniversary

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of the triumpho entry

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of our Lord Jesus Christ

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into the city of Jerusalem

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on Palm Sunday.

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Because of the fact that people broke branches

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from Palm trees and spread them before Jesus,

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as he rode into Jerusalem.

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And in other ways gave evidence

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of their desire to claim him king.

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This has been called Palm Sunday.

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The reference there is not mainly to the palms,

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but particularly to the symbolism,

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which they are the desire of people

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to claim Jesus Christ as king.

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The accounts of this are carried in all four of the gospels.

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This happens to be one of the incidents

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in the life of our savior,

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which was considered worthy of reporting

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by each of the four evangelists.

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Indeed, each one gives some bit of information,

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which is omitted by all the other three.

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For example,

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Matthew is the only one who tells us

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that there were two beasts involved.

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Mark is the only one who mentions that the disciples,

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when they went to get the beast,

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made a promise that they would

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return the animal after it had been used.

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Luke is the only one who, who mentions that Jesus,

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when he came to the brow of the hill

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overlooking Jerusalem,

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wept.

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We are indebted to John for the report that while the

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procession was going on, the Pharisees who were in it

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said to themselves that they must recognize

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that their plans to thwart Jesus

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had been temporarily frustrated because as they put it,

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the whole world is going after this man.

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So you see this must have been an important incident

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in the life of the savior,

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because all of the reporters report it.

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And each one seems to have had some unique bit of

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information about it.

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It would be interesting for us to form

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from these strains of information,

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one composite picture of what happened that day.

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We might arrive at this composite picture

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by asking some questions about the event.

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The first one would be what happened?

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The answer is that Jesus had on this occasion,

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the greatest public success of his ministry.

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When, as it were, the whole world,

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went out after him to claim him as Lord.

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He rode from the Mount of Olives,

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into the city of Jerusalem,

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surrounded by a great throng of admirers and worshipers.

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The next question is why was Jerusalem the city

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into which he rode?

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And the answer is that it was the capital of the land

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in two ways, politically, it was the capital

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and religiously it was the capital.

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But beyond this,

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the common people expected that the Messiah, when he came,

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would ride into Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives.

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In other words,

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here was the fulfillment of their expectations.

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Now on what did he ride?

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When he came into the Capitol city?

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He rode on a coat of a donkey.

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Now this is significant because the military conquerors of

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that day, when they went into a city to be in charge of it,

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rode on a horse.

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Which was the symbol of conquering might.

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Jesus Christ, When he rode into Jerusalem,

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rode on the coat of a donkey,

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which was the symbol of lowly service.

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This is particularly significant because of the fact that

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Jesus elected this means of transportation himself

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and made plans for it.

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He deliberately wished to set the tone of his conquering

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kingship by the means of his transportation.

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Let's look for a moment at what we would expect Jesus to do

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if this were the original Palm Sunday

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and he were riding into Washington

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instead of into Jerusalem.

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Let us suppose that we have a tremendous motorcade going

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into the capital with police escort

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and with the Cadillacs in the front.

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Now Jesus very likely would not be up front

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with the Cadillacs because he does not

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subscribe to that superficial American philosophy,

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which says it's what's up front that counts.

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Jesus would very likely be back about the middle of the

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motorcade hitchhiking a ride with some friend

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who had a Nash Rambler or an Austin Healey.

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Jesus would leave the impression that he did not want to be

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a king in the worldly sense of that term,

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that he was a king of the heart,

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that he was a king of service that he believed that those

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who would be first in his kingdom should be last.

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They should be the servants of all.

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And he set the tone of this himself.

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All right. Then we ask another question.

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Who are the people who greeted him?

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Well, it seems the answer to that is

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that about everyone greeted him,

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almost everyone shouted the songs and shouts of praise.

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That is with the exception of a few,

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the political leaders of Jerusalem were not among

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those who came out to greet him.

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The religious leaders were not among those

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who came out to greet him.

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It was mainly the common people,

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though many of the elite and the aristocratic we can believe

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were in the number two.

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What did they say? When they came out to greet Jesus,

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They said a Hebrew word,

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which is a shout of prayer addressed to God.

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It is an invocation of blessing.

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The word was hosanna.

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Which means save now.

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This is not a pious kind of prayer that says, Lord,

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sometime in the future, will you let something

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important happen for us please?

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But it is a thrilling expectant cry

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in which the worshiper almost demands

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of God that salvation be now and here,

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and that blessing be upon those present.

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So that by means of this, they were saying,

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we believe that God's salvation is coming now

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in this person, Jesus.

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And upon us who are in this parade.

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What did Jesus say?

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The answer to that question is that he said almost nothing

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so far as the record goes.

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This very likely is what happened.

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Because if he had said very much,

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one of the four gospel writers would have picked it up.

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The only thing which is recorded is that when he came to the

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brow of the hill, overlooking Jerusalem, wept over the city,

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he explained his tears by saying that Jerusalem should have

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known what were the things that made for peace.

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But that she did not know that the things which made

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for peace were hidden from her eyes.

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And then he went on into the city

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and began the events of Holy Week.

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All right, there we have Palm Sunday

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in brief outline laid before us.

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Why is it that we are considering this matter today?

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Well, one good answer would be

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that this happens to be the anniversary of the event.

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And there seems to be some didactic value in celebrating

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anniversaries on the day of the anniversary,

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the day of the event.

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It is worthwhile remembering,

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however that we do not always do this.

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For example, we never celebrate the birthday

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of Jesus on the day he was born.

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It is also worthwhile remembering that some of the

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formalities and formalisms which religious groups put on,

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on special days in holy seasons,

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deserve a healthy skepticism.

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Because actually, they have about as little relevance

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to the true purpose of Jesus Christ

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as the Campus Greek Week has to the true purpose of Plato,

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which is practically nil.

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This is not true of all formalities or formalisms,

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but it is true of some.

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Having said this,

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it remains true that whether we consider

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this matter of Palm Sunday in the context of Holy Week

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now, or in August, we absolutely must come to grips

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with what is involved in a

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puzzling situation that is presented.

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We cannot avoid this as Christians.

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We have to come to grips with it.

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The puzzle arises out of the updraft and down draft

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spiritually speaking that is presented by the fact that Palm

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Sunday comes only five days before Good Friday.

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The day on which our Lord received

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the greatest public acclaim of his career,

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was only five days before the day of his

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total rejection by the public.

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This is a puzzling situation, but it is a historical fact.

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The crowd that was able to shout Hosanna

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on Sunday was able to shout crucify him on Friday.

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Now, as we look at this situation a little bit,

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we are aware that there was a small minority

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of very few people who were

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on hand when the event of Mount Olives took place,

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who were not in sympathy with that.

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And that there was a very small group of people who were not

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in sympathy with what took place on Calvary.

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But it is also significant to know that neither minority was

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able to prevent what happened.

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The Pharisees who were grumbling on Palm Sunday knew that

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they were so badly outnumbered that they

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could not stop this procession.

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And the handful of people who sympathized with Jesus

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on Good Friday made no attempt to stop the crucifixion.

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Now this drives us to the conclusion, doesn't it?

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That actually the people who determined what happened on

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Palm Sunday and what happened on Good Friday

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were the largest number of people, the mob, the crowd,

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the general public folk, like you and me.

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People like us were able to say on Palm Sunday,

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Hosanna, and were able to say within that same week,

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give us Barabbas .

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On the outskirts of Jerusalem they praised Christ

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and the same week on the outskirts of Jerusalem,

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they crucified him.

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How striking this is,

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can be seen as we reflect on the fact that in order to lift

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up the dominant moods of only one historic week,

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we need to sing in one university service of worship,

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the strangely paradoxical hymns, all glory,

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Lord and honor to the Redeemer king And O sacred head.

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Now wounded, claiming Christ king,

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as it were one minute crucifying him as it were in the next,

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This is a situation that confronts us and we may as well

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deal with it on Palm Sunday during holy week,

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as to postpone it until August.

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Is this then A paradox or a contradiction?

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This human behavior that we see on Palm Sunday and this

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human behavior that we see on Good Friday,

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the one claiming as Christ,

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the other crucifying the same Christ.

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Is this a paradox that is only a seeming contradiction

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or is it a real contradiction?

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Do these two types of human behavior stand in only

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apparent fundamental conflict?

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Or are they in real fundamental conflict?

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Well, those who say that we are dealing here

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only with the paradox, can point to some things

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in the life and teachings the death and

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resurrection of Christ, which undoubtedly are paradoxical.

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Indeed, the whole earthly ministry of Jesus are,

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is studded with the sparkling paradoxes.

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Let us consider just a few of them.

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Jesus said on one occasion that religion might be defined

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as simply giving a cup of cold water

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in his name to someone who was thirsty.

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And yet this same Jesus criticized the activist,

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Martha for making preparation to do this very thing.

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And he complimented the passive Mary

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who we can believe hadn't even given her Lord a cup

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of cold water, but simply sat down to hear him speak.

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And then this same Jesus told us that we should be so pure

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that a man would not look at a woman with lust in his eyes.

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But who on the other hand, was a friend

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of Magdalene and of other prostitutes.

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This Jesus was so paradoxical that he could say

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he that will save his life will lose it.

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And he who will lose his life, or my sake will save it.

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Find it, lose it, lose it, find it.

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Many, many other paradoxes might be cited.

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Which when we examine them closely are seen not to be

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contradictions, but only apparent contradictions.

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So that these two things which stand in contrast to each

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other are seen to be in high harmonious agreement with the

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basic purposes of Jesus Christ.

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Now where we do not wish to make a mistake,

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is to conclude from these paradoxical situations

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in the life and teaching of Jesus.

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That human nature, as it relates itself

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to Jesus on Palm Sunday and on Good Friday

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present only a seeming contradiction.

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We are dealing. It seems to me, not with a paradox,

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but with a contradiction.

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And we see how human beings related themselves to the savior

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on Sunday, claiming him king and Lord and Christ.

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We do not see the same thing that happened,

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when on Good Friday, they said,

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give us Barabbas, give us the criminals,

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give us the crooks, give us anybody but Jesus,

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and let's crucify him.

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The mood of the two situations is totally different

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and it is impossible to reconcile them.

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We are here dealing with something that is so fundamental

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that the salvation of our souls is at stake.

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What we are dealing with here is as crucial to the matter of

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basic Christianity as the current Berlin crisis

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is crucial to world peace.

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There is no way to make it anything else,

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except a contradiction with which we must deal.

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Now, as we look at the crucifixion syndrome,

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we see that every element in it is low and base

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and selfish and earthbound.

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But as we look at the mood,

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which makes for claiming a lowly teacher

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and prophet who rides on a donkey, king.

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We find everything that is high,

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and unselfish and holy and mature.

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The one is sick. The other is healthy.

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The one is God centered and others centered.

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The other is self-centered.

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Now that leads us inescapably then doesn't it

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to the necessity of making a choice between the two.

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We have to make up our minds,

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whether we will be in one mood in our life

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or in the other mood.

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It is impossible for that crowd or for any individual in it

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or for any individual in this congregation this morning to

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go on through life week after week,

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year after year waving palm branches on Sunday morning

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and crucifying on Friday or on Saturday night.

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To attempt to continue doing this indefinitely

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is to build up a schizoid religion.

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If not to develop actual schizophrenia,

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Jesus did not say very few men can serve two masters.

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He said, no man can serve two masters.

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And therefore you and I must realize that somewhere,

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and the sooner, the better we must make a choice.

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Either to follow Christ, to make him our king

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or to yield to the lower and baser passions of life.

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That ultimately lead to crucifying everything

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for which Christ stands.

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Now, if we make the choice

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to be that of Christ being for him, with him,

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then we are on the road to a life of abundant service

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with him here and of sharing with him

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in the life to come the fruits of the resurrection.

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It is a glorious choice that we have made.

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There are however, two expectations

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against which we should guard when we make this choice.

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The first expectation is that merely by making the choice,

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we are assured instantly and permanently that all of the

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baser elements, which are within us

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will be immediately eradicated and that

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we will then usher in an era of personal perfection.

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The other expectation against which we should guard with

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equal vitality is the expectation that since we find these

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crucifixion motives within us, that all during our lives,

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we can expect a continual tug of war

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between the high and the low within us making no progress,

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even with the help of the grace of God in becoming like

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Christ in putting down the base and the low and in lifting

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up and giving dominance to that which is holy

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and unselfish and ethical.

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To expect this second thing is to deny the whole meaning

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of the biblical doctrine of grace.

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By which we are assured divine help in choosing Christ

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and in living Christ like lives.

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Some years ago, when I was pastor in the city of Charlotte,

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I was very much interested in the use

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which was made of the Charlotte city auditorium,

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the armory auditorium.

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It was used by all groups within the city to put on

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whatever program they had in mind.

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The backstage dressing rooms of the platform were the part

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of the building, the use of which interested me the most.

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Those backstage dressing rooms were used at different times

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as a dressing room for visiting opera stars,

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as a headquarters for organizations which met there,

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as a dressing room for prize fighters and wrestlers,

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as a place to house chickens during a poultry show.

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And on one particular day in the year, 1946,

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the same dressing room was used as a headquarters for the

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teacher's association convention and as a stable

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for Emperor Hirohito's white horse.

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Now, as the officials of Charlotte came to see

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even a building can't be used in such contradictory ways.

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And so they made some rules, which excluded certain

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things from the dressing rooms of the armory auditorium.

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It is absolutely necessary for you and me to use that much

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judgment and good sense in ordering our hearts and lives.

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We cannot hold on to a Palm branch with one hand

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and with the other drive the nails in the hands of Christ.

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We have to choose, no man can serve two masters.

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And while historically it is true that perhaps the same

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crowd on Palm Sunday claimed him king,

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which on Good Friday, crucified him,

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even that crowd saw when they were pricked in heart later,

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that you could not go on doing both.

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You have to decide and you have to make your life

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go in one direction or the other.

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You have to choose.

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Heavenly father, in this moment of dedication.

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We are sorry for our involvement in the crucifixion

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of what Christ has stood for in our day.

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And being sorry, we wish to be delivered

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from the guilt of our past sins.

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And we pray that by thy help, we may not repeat these.

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Give us hearts that will truly claim Christ

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as our king today and evermore.

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And now may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ,

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the love of God, the communion

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and fellowship of the holy spirit,

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rest upon you and abide with you now and evermore.

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Let us pray.

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Let the words of my mouth and the meditations

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of our hearts be acceptable in thy sight.

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Oh Lord, our strength and our redeemer.

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Amen.

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Have you ever noticed in your desultory reading,

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how by no conscious design at all,

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a single thought or idea,

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or fact will keep repeating itself,

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will keep bobbing up.

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Unbidden perhaps even undesired.

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Recently, the word bridge

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and the ideas that lies subsumed in the word bridge

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have come into my kin.

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There was a book by John Prebble, Disaster at Dundee.

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Which told of the wreck of the great railroad bridge,

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which spanned the first of Tay one wintry night.

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About Christmas time at the end of the last century.

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That bridge was considered by the British

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as the eighth wonder of the world.

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And it went down in a storm

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and took a train load of people with it.

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And then there was a class assignment reread

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with renewed and deepened wonder.

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Thornton Wilders The Bridge of San Louis Ray,

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the finest bridge in all Peru.

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Which broke on July 20th, 1714,

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and precipitated five travelers into the Gorge below

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by accident or by intention.

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And then there was a short story in a volume called

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The Changeling by Donn Byrne.

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And I do hope, you know, the short stories of Donn Byrne.

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This one is called The Keeper of the Bridge.

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In this case, the bridge did not fall.

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It stood firm, fixed.

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Thanks to the voluntary self-sacrifice

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of the loveliest person in the story.

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Now it was in that last story of Donn Byrnes,

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that historical fact was brought to my attention

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and promptly proceeded to fascinate me.

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There was during the 12th and 13th centuries,

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a religious community

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of a semiofficial nature.

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Founded for the purpose of caring for pilgrims.

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They constructed hospices to house the pilgrims.

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They operated ferry boats to assist them across rivers.

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And finally they built bridges.

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Some of them of great fame.

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The (inaudible) over the river Roan

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is claimed as one of theirs, great bridge made of stone.

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Now this is back in the 12th century,

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a thousand meters long with 24 great arches.

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They became known as the Fratres Pontifices.

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(Inaudible)

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The (inaudible) brothers.

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The brotherhood of bridge builders.

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And is that brotherhood even more than the bridges,

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which they built that intrigues me.

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I've always been partial to the practical men of God.

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God's plumbers.

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The sons and daughters of Martha.

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Brother Laurens in the kitchen,

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probably because I can't boil an egg

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without burning the water.

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And so I want to play with this idea this morning

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of the Pontest brothers honestly

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and unashamedly using it as an analogy.

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Where is there today, a demand for bridge building?

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Everywhere?

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Anywhere?

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Where rivers of anxiety and suspicions

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separate man from man.

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Where canyons divide great need from possible succor.

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Where bridges have always been required

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sometimes attempted in vain.

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Occasionally built, but now outmoded.

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You know the areas.

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The most obvious of all is to bridge the gap between

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persons so that I may come to know you as you really are.

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And you may come to know me, Scott's accent,

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reckless tongue and all.

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And then together, we may come to know them.

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Them who live on both the other sides of the tracks.

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That is what school and college

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are supposed to help us to do.

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But we are so busy with curricular and extracurricular

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and sub curricular and anti curricular activities.

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That we do not always succeed in personifying persons.

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That man is the instructor who teaches me German at 10:30,

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but I don't know his name.

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Now that's happened, three weeks in the class,

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and they start said, you know my name?

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He said, no, sir.

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I said, how do you identify me?

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A man who teaches German at 10:30?

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Well, the instructor sent him home

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and there was nothing else to do.

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I mean, this is just, just abyss you fall into.

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Oh that nice girl?

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She's well, she's president of the judicial board,

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but I dunno anything about her.

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Perhaps we're supposed to come to know one another in

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committee meetings. Hmm.

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The mayor's committee on human relations.

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The executive committee of that annual orgy known as the

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Sentra society replete with bagpipes.

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The regional sorority council of iota, iota, iota.

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Do we really come to know one another

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on such occasions, I wonder.

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My own idea of hell is a succession of committee meetings.

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(laughter)

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Presided over by junior devils from Satan's hierarchy.

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I have not yet decided,

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I'm still working on this doctrine of hell.

34:28

Whether Satan lets you carry out what you decide

34:32

or whether he vetoes it.

34:35

I don't know what would be more hellish yet. (laughter)

34:36

I'll let you know in a later sermon

34:39

just what revelation I receive.

34:41

And yet the strange thing is that here and there,

34:46

now and again, when we least expect it, we make contact.

34:50

And something true and beautiful and good

34:58

comes to life and stays alive for us.

35:03

Let me give you one very personal illustration.

35:09

We've had the same negro maid

35:15

since we came to Durham in 1945.

35:17

Now I regularly failed in human contacts.

35:23

But she once said something to me, which I shall remember

35:29

when all earthly official honors, earned and unearned

35:35

are forgotten or casually accepted.

35:42

I asked her one day, how shall I refer to you

35:46

and to people of your race, as colored or as negro?

35:52

I want to know.

35:59

And she looked me straight in the eyes and answered

36:02

immediately, simply and graciously.

36:06

It doesn't matter which term you use.

36:13

Now that was as satisfactory

36:21

as an honorary degree and much more humbling.

36:24

We built a bridge and we'd met on it

36:29

and we still meet on it.

36:33

And talk about all kinds of things about her daughter at

36:34

whose wedding I assisted about her boys in college,

36:38

about how much starch to put in my clerical colors,

36:43

about her church, about anything which folk

36:49

who trust and love each other discuss.

36:53

Then of course outside the personal realm,

36:59

there is the realm of contact between nations.

37:01

Most of us can do so little to influence national policy,

37:05

but other that let's remember that,

37:10

let's not bluff ourselves about it.

37:12

We can do practically nothing to influence national policy.

37:15

Oh, an occasional vote in an occasional election.

37:21

We may regret the fact that all foreigners don't speak

37:25

English with a Southern or a Scottish or a Boston accent,

37:28

but we can explain ourselves to individual aliens

37:35

and allow them to make themselves known to us

37:39

so that they cease to be aliens, horrible word

37:43

with psychiatric undertones.

37:47

One thinks of what Dwight Morrow did for the United States

37:52

in Mexico, and of what Chester Bose

37:55

of Connecticut did for the United States in India.

37:58

One begins to understand why the great YMCA building

38:03

in Jerusalem stood undamaged

38:06

through all the Jewish Arab British hostility.

38:10

I can think of my own confused distress and happiness.

38:16

When someone in Glasgow said of my wife,

38:22

she's a nice person;

38:26

one would never guess she's an American.

38:28

(laughter)

38:33

Well, that fantastic story,

38:35

which I threatened to tell just before I resigned from Duke,

38:37

but which I'll tell now when disappear on.

38:40

(laughter)

38:43

Of the Aberdeen farmer who,

38:45

had a Negro battalion stationed on his farm

38:49

for three years during the war.

38:53

And when they left,

38:58

someone asked him how he liked the Americans.

38:59

He said, oh, I liked the Americans,

39:04

but I didn't like these white men they brought with them.

39:06

(laughter)

39:10

Do you see what I mean about

39:14

this relationship between nations?

39:15

What's gotta be understood?

39:18

I call professor Bowman of Princeton and Glasgow.

39:23

After he came back to Glasgow,

39:26

Princeton University sent him a blank check and said,

39:28

write your own salary in it. We want you back.

39:31

Anything you want.

39:34

He was captured in the First World War.

39:36

German officer who received him cursed and swore at him

39:40

in German, and Bowman replied

39:44

very politely in the same language.

39:48

The officer says, why do you know German?

39:51

Said I'm a Heidelberg graduate.

39:53

When were you there?

39:54

Discovered they'd been there together.

39:56

And in the middle of the battle,

39:58

they began chatting, with shells going around them,

39:59

and people being captured and bayoneted,

40:02

and finally the German officer said, oh, excuse me.

40:05

He said, you are my prisoner.

40:07

There's a war on, go away.

40:09

(laughter) You see, just contact you make with,

40:10

with aliens foreigners are different, so what?

40:14

They're queer sure, just as queer as we are.

40:18

They've got as much right to be queer as we have.

40:23

But they are a first class opportunity

40:26

for us to learn the spiritual difference between

40:30

unison and harmony.

40:34

Which is richer, fuller?

40:40

The more to be desired,

40:45

unison or harmony?

40:48

Need I go on?

40:53

Have I set our minds and hearts worrying together about the

40:56

person down the hall?

40:59

The divinity student from Scandinavia or the Philippines,

41:01

the medical intern from Latin America,

41:05

the Commonwealth fellow who speaks English,

41:08

but doesn't understand American.

41:10

Do we grant the need for bridge building in all kinds of

41:14

personal and racial and national areas?

41:18

Well, if so, let's move on.

41:22

Granted the need.

41:26

What's the motivation,

41:29

which will set us to crossing the chasms,

41:30

to constructing the bridges,

41:34

to joining the pragmatic brotherhood of bridge builders?

41:36

There are at least three motivations.

41:41

The first I'll just mention and move away from fast.

41:44

And that is self interest.

41:47

Self survival.

41:50

Don't despise it.

41:52

We're supposed to love our neighbor

41:54

as much as we love ourselves.

41:56

Jesus accepted the fact of self survival.

41:58

It's a given and an important given.

42:05

Self love in the form of self survival drives us to know,

42:10

to understand, to appreciate others,

42:14

unexpected others.

42:19

If one is sick and to surgery in the Duke hospital.

42:21

Your surgeon may be an Anglosaxon with a Louisiana drawl,

42:28

but your anesthetist is likely to be a Venezuelan,

42:33

and your private nurse will be a negro lassie

42:36

who comes from anywhere.

42:39

Someday we'll have Russian doctors,

42:41

and Chinese radiologists, and Indian economists,

42:43

and African professors of English;

42:47

just as we have Roman Catholic pediatricians,

42:50

and Jewish biochemists, and all kinds of agnostics

42:53

here, there, and everywhere.

42:57

Because when self survival is uppermost,

43:00

then racism and nationalism and religious divergence

43:03

take a backseat.

43:08

If they're not driven completely out the room.

43:09

But there's a second motivation.

43:14

That is intelligence.

43:18

One has watched the necessary

43:22

building of bridges between subjects.

43:25

I was so happy when I came to union seminar in the twenties

43:28

to major with a man who spent his entire life,

43:31

trying to pull together ethics and economics.

43:34

It was an artificial separation. After all Adam Smith,

43:40

who wrote The Wealth of Nations

43:43

was a professor of model philosophy.

43:44

And this man again,

43:48

was trying to see, what is the interrelation?

43:49

I can remember advising a student at Amherst in the thirties

43:52

who was excited about American studies and discovered to his

43:56

sheer joy that in his senior year, his five subjects,

43:59

because he only took five subjects a year,

44:03

they lasted all year.

44:05

His five subjects were American literature,

44:07

American history, American philosophy, American economics,

44:11

and then one others just for fun.

44:16

Now this compared to the cafeteria, what we do here,

44:19

two of this and three of that, and one of that,

44:23

and down the line we go. (laughter)

44:25

This is intelligence at work.

44:29

You see they've done it in medicine so long,

44:32

not biology in physics, biophysics, biochemistry,

44:34

psychosomatic myths.

44:39

But there's a third encouragement to our joining

44:47

Le Frères Pontifes.

44:51

And that is religious in its drive.

44:53

Interestingly enough,

44:57

the word bridge is never mentioned in the Bible.

44:58

So I can't give you a text. (chuckles)

45:02

That'll cheer those of you up

45:08

who have to take home the text,

45:09

as I used to have to take it home to tell there was no text,

45:10

the word wasn't in the Bible.

45:13

But the idea of bridge building

45:16

and the logically used is prominent.

45:20

In fact, holy scripture is centered

45:23

on the fact of bridge building.

45:27

Let me try to explain the bridge builder is God.

45:30

That's the central thought in Judaism and in Christianity,

45:36

God of his own free will seeks constantly to cross the gulf

45:41

between himself and man, and to make it possible for man

45:48

to come back across that gulf.

45:53

That's the idea behind the giving of the law.

45:56

You know, we make a great mistake when we

45:59

teach people the 10 commandments.

46:01

Just as the 10 commandments part altogether from putting bad

46:05

ideas into their heads. As somebody said.

46:09

The important, the thing of the two verses

46:12

before the 10 commandments, what are they?

46:15

I am the God who brought you out of the land of Egypt,

46:19

out of the house of bondage.

46:24

That is why you'll have no other gods before me.

46:26

That's why you'll make no grave, an image and so on.

46:30

I am the God who came across to you delivered you,

46:33

brought you out successfully.

46:37

And that is what the Jew never forgot.

46:39

And that is why any good Jew will tell you that the law

46:42

is a sign of grace.

46:46

The law is given in grace by a God

46:50

who acted in grace and deliver.

46:54

And that thought reappears in Christianity,

46:57

the doctrine of the incarnation,

47:00

think of it in terms of the Virgin birth or the Lagos

47:02

doctor, anything you like, it's God coming cross,

47:04

man doesn't go to him.

47:07

God comes to man,

47:09

man is passed over to,

47:13

and God opens a way to him that spans

47:17

the gulf of sin and guilt.

47:21

And I think worse than that, homelessness,

47:24

the sheer feeling that we don't belong.

47:29

This is what God does in the incarnation.

47:35

God made, and God keeps the bridge open.

47:39

Jesus so appreciated that,

47:44

that he decided he'd go ahead and build bridges too.

47:46

Between himself and the, the publicans.

47:50

The income tax collectors.

47:57

Then which there was nothing worse worth remembering

48:00

at this time of the year, April 15th,

48:05

that Jesus was friends with income tax collectors

48:08

you can be friends with anybody,

48:10

we're friends with an income tax collector

48:13

and other sinners.

48:15

But here's a Samaritan woman now the Jew

48:19

loathed this American, partly because she belonged

48:21

to the family and there's no hatred like the hatred

48:26

of a mother-in-law or a daughter-in-law.

48:29

Now the Samaritans were like the Jews,

48:32

but they loathed each other and Jesus surrounds

48:35

that person with his understanding

48:37

and even with his affection.

48:41

So the very disciples of surprise and the highest words of

48:43

praise he ever gave anybody

48:47

was given to an officer in the Roman army of occupation.

48:50

Now imagine a Jew saying that about an officer crossing

48:55

bridges and on the cross, as he died, he studied a thief

48:59

and then even asked God to forgive those people

49:05

who were breaking down all bridges,

49:09

except those which Judaism sanction.

49:12

Is it any wonder that his holiness,

49:16

the Pope claims as one of his highest titles,

49:19

Pontifects, Maximus bridge builder supreme.

49:25

Now, granted we see the need.

49:35

Granted, we understand the motivation.

49:37

What's the task that awaits us?

49:40

Two full tasks.

49:43

The first is the cultivation of personal sensitivity.

49:46

How can you do it?

49:52

Well,

49:56

Read and meditate reread and re meditate

49:59

about people who have built bridges.

50:04

Read the story of Ralph Punch.

50:08

His final arrival in the United Nations read about the small

50:12

woman who made her way from England across Siberia to China,

50:18

just because she heard there was a need to help.

50:24

And who has now been given the

50:29

dubious immortality of a Hollywood production?

50:30

The in of the sixth happiness.

50:35

Read about Howard Thurman's travels

50:38

from Dean at Howard University.

50:42

Out to the church of all nations in San Francisco.

50:45

And back to that special department in Iowa

50:50

and now Dean of the chapel at Boston university

50:54

Read about anyone who built bridges,

51:00

Florence Nightingale, Albert Schweitzer,

51:02

Mahatma Gandhi, Father Hiddleston.

51:04

Read about the flesh becoming words until the

51:07

words in tongue become pulsating resolute flesh in us.

51:11

Then we'll begin to understand the truth of the statement in

51:19

first John four and seven.

51:22

Which threatens to become my favorite verse

51:26

in holy scripture.

51:30

Beloved,

51:32

let us love one another for love is of God.

51:36

And he, that loves is born of God.

51:44

That's treatment, whether he knows he's father or not.

51:48

If he loves,

51:53

he's born of God,

51:56

and know it, God.

51:59

And yet, let me be honest.

52:01

There's one more thing we must do love is not enough.

52:02

At least it's not usually enough.

52:06

There must be added to personal sensitivity,

52:09

vocational training, the kind of thing that a college

52:12

or certainly a good university can do.

52:15

Do we want to teach and remember the Docere,

52:23

the Latin verb to teach governs two accusatives:

52:28

the subject taught and the person taught.

52:34

Now we forgot that in Scotland,

52:39

we thought it just govern the subject taught.

52:41

And we forgotten in America, we think it just governs

52:45

the person taught.

52:47

The verb to teach is to teach a subject to a person which

52:50

demands goodwill and technical skill.

52:55

They want to find our place in medicine, the USA,

53:00

great scientific ability and God be praised for the research

53:03

buildings attached to our great medical schools.

53:07

And yet I have a hunch,

53:10

But what patients are looking

53:13

for are intelligent family doctors,

53:14

wise, general practitioners,

53:21

and skilled bedside nurses.

53:25

Sometimes think we have too many chiefs and not enough

53:30

Indians in the medical profession.

53:32

Do you wanna find your place in science?

53:39

I wish there were more people like Professor Sears of Mass

53:41

State College in Amherst room.

53:44

None of you ever heard about,

53:46

but he made Labrador livable.

53:51

He went up there and taught them

53:55

how to grow green vegetables.

53:56

Every summer, he went up for 20 years

53:59

till he had abolished scurvy.

54:02

Do we wanna find our place in religion?

54:06

Oh, there's such a need for people to who understand the

54:09

thoughts in religion to transmit them.

54:13

The great genius Harry Fosdick had of taking the ideas

54:17

of the experts and making them understandable.

54:22

It's what somebody has got to do down here with Tillich.

54:25

Somebody's said that the thought of,

54:32

Tillich it reminded him of the peace of God,

54:34

because it passed all understanding.

54:37

(laughter)

54:39

And yet here is important thinking

54:43

which needs rethinking and sharing.

54:47

This is the twofold endowment of bridge builder,

54:51

personal sensitivity and vocational training,

54:55

where we meet the needs of others.

55:00

There's an old, old proverb, which says,

55:03

praise the bridge that carried you over,

55:07

praise the bridge that carried you over.

55:13

And you know, when the Highlanders of Scotland

55:16

in the old days came to a bridge,

55:18

they said that proverb as a prayer of thanksgiving,

55:22

while they removed their bonnets in reverence.

55:27

Ain't that wonderful?

55:33

Praise the bridge that carried you over with the head bear.

55:35

It could be said in gratitude of us,

55:42

if we became members of the company

55:45

known as Le Frères Pontifes,

55:47

the brotherhood and the sisterhood of bridge builders.

55:53

Let us pray.

56:02

Oh God, who of thine own free will span the chasm

56:08

between earth and heaven.

56:12

Grant us to be coworkers with the.

56:15

The gulfs of our day may be bridged by us,

56:20

in the spirit of thy son, Jesus Christ, our Lord,

56:25

and may the blessing of the Lord come upon you abundantly.

56:29

May it keep you strong and tranquil in the truth

56:35

of his promises through Jesus Christ our Lord.

56:38

Waldo Beach - "On Christian Consumption" (May 17, 1959)

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