James L. Price, Jr. - "On Being a Christian in Today's World" (April 24, 1966)

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	(silence)	0:00
-	In the name of the Father, the Son	0:33
	and the Holy Ghost, one God above all.	0:35
	One evening this week,	0:43
	I tuned in the television program on Channel 4.	0:44
	Representatives of the secondary schools	0:49
	in the United States and Great Britain	0:52
	were comparing problems within their school systems.	0:54
	There were one phrase, the crisis in values,	1:00
	was used by speakers from both sides of the Atlantic.	1:05
	An English educator spoke of the importance	1:10
	that the schools transmit	1:16
	and defend the traditional values.	1:17
	A chief spokesman for American schools responded that	1:22
	in this country educators are no longer sure	1:26
	what these values are.	1:31
	The dialogue was concluded with a statement by the America.	1:34
	"The difference," he said, "Is essentially this,	1:40
	British educators work with the ideal	1:44
	of an ordered society.	1:47
	American educators, with the ideal of an open society."	1:50
	The growing edge of this open society in America	1:58
	seems to be located in the managed strip cities	2:02
	and suburbs, which our culture has spawned	2:05
	from coast to coast,	2:09
	with the ever evolving pluralistic value systems.	2:12
	From one perspective, this secular city	2:18
	has brought into being an era	2:22
	of which some would call post-Christian.	2:23
	One suspects that our time is not	2:29
	as radically different incurred as some would think.	2:32
	It is certainly not new that Christians	2:37
	shouldn't make common cause with secularists	2:40
	for the amelioration of social injustices,	2:43
	by mass protests and political action	2:47
	although some of the causes are new ones.	2:52
	Now, is it novel that some Christians	2:56
	should work alongside unbelievers	2:58
	for this establishment of religions in public education?	3:01
	It is certainly not new the non-Christian exponents	3:07
	of a secularized auto should challenge	3:12
	our Lord's sovereignty over men in their society	3:16
	and pronounced the Denise of quote,	3:21
	"Christian civilization close growth."	3:24
	What is new perhaps, is the intense interest on the part	3:29
	of so many Christian to embrace this open society	3:34
	and contemporary modes of life and thought	3:40
	as well as to obliterate many of the traditional lines	3:44
	which have distinguished the church from the world.	3:49
	For example, a recent study of theological education	3:54
	advocates a positive secularization of the clergy	3:58
	and welcomes the rapid disillusion in America	4:05
	of its church bound subcultures.	4:08
	The most striking evidence of this passion	4:13
	to embrace the modern world is the attention	4:16
	now being given to the new radical theology.	4:20
	Writes one of its exponents,	4:25
	"Surely it is not possible for any responsible person	4:28
	to think that we can any longer know	4:32
	or experience God in nature, in history,	4:35
	in the economic and political arenas,	4:40
	in the laboratory or in anything	4:43
	that is genuinely modern,	4:47
	whether in thought or experience.	4:49
	Wherever we turn modern man experiences,	4:53
	the eclipse or the solars of God."	4:56
	The so-called death of God theologians,	5:03
	writes John Bennett in this week's look magazine,	5:04
	have blurted out ideas that are widely held,	5:10
	but seldom spoken.	5:15
	The web of technological culture seems to narrow	5:18
	the possible area of any distinctively divine action.	5:22
	To some people this area seems to have vanished altogether.	5:28
	I do not intend this morning to examine	5:35
	the so-called death of God theology.	5:37
	At least some one thoughtful sermon on the subject	5:40
	has been given in this chapel recently.	5:43
	I mentioned it here only as evidence	5:47
	of the spreading melees within the churches.	5:49
	Not only the secularists who reject Christianity,	5:53
	but believers themselves are finding it increasingly	5:57
	difficult to reconcile the traditional claims	6:02
	concerning God and Christ	6:06
	with modern thought and experience.	6:08
	One practical consequence of this theological confusion	6:13
	is the paralyzing perplexity of the Christian countries.	6:17
	How indeed shall a Christian bear witness	6:23
	to his faith in today's world.	6:26
	In a course this semester on the gospel	6:33
	according to John, I have become increasingly aware	6:35
	that this gospel speaks to our present situation	6:39
	in many remarkable ways.	6:43
	Consider first how the book was written.	6:47
	At a time when the traditions concerning Jesus	6:51
	historic ministry, not only seem to tell a things	6:54
	in the long ago and far away,	6:58
	but the lasting significance of his teaching	7:02
	and action was being seriously questioned.	7:04
	Because of the impact of certain cultural influences,	7:09
	Christians were becoming uncertain	7:13
	of the implications of Jesus' gospel	7:15
	for their own lives and the lives of others.	7:18
	John's primary purpose was to help these Christians	7:23
	to understand a fresh the God who is revealed	7:27
	in Jesus Christ.	7:31
	That beholding His Glory, they might joyfully	7:33
	receive the eternal life He offered them	7:37
	not only in some imponderable future day	7:41
	or unknown Rel but especially in the here and the now.	7:44
	To achieve his purpose, John adopted the vocabulary,	7:53
	the modes of thought and even some of the presuppositions	7:56
	of a view of the world,	8:01
	which according to some Christians at least	8:03
	seem to threaten if not to destroy their faith.	8:06
	So in after its publication,	8:11
	John's gospel was acclaimed by a radical group	8:13
	within the church as a statement	8:16
	of the new theology	8:18
	With the passage of time,	8:21
	it became evident that John had composed an original	8:23
	and powerful proclamation of the old Christian message.	8:27
	He had brought the Gospel up-to-date	8:32
	by reinterpreting its archaic language	8:35
	while preserving its essential content.	8:38
	His work in fact had provided second century Christians	8:42
	with an understanding of the gospel,	8:46
	which was genuinely relevant to their needs	8:48
	and to their world.	8:52
	It's not easy for us to recover man's view of his world	8:57
	and John's day yet some of its assumptions	8:59
	seem to resemble those of our own time.	9:03
	Apparently the existence of God	9:08
	had become highly problematical.	9:10
	All if God's existence were allowed as a supposition.	9:12
	There was serious doubts that men could know Him	9:17
	under any ordinary conditions.	9:21
	From the cultural perspectives of John's world,	9:24
	The realm of the so-called spirit seemed unreal	9:27
	or if real, then inaccessible to human thought.	9:32
	John accepted this description of the world	9:38
	as partially true.	9:42
	" No man has ever seen God," he says flatly,	9:44
	not once, but several times.	9:49
	To readers of this gospel, Jesus declares	9:52
	God's voice you have never heard,	9:55
	His form you have never seen.	9:57
	Furthermore, the popular religious notion	10:01
	of some of John's contemporaries that men	10:03
	or at least some man had a spark of divinity within	10:07
	is Summerlin dismissed.	10:12
	"You do not have God's word abiding in you," Jesus declares.	10:15
	All in more emphatic terms,	10:20
	that which is born of the flesh is Flesh.	10:23
	For all that man could see or experience	10:29
	this world of darkness seemed to eclipse	10:32
	the traditional ideas of God and of immortality.	10:37
	Even more remarkable than John's acceptance	10:43
	of these assumptions, is his conviction	10:46
	that Israel has the true people of God	10:49
	will little better off.	10:52
	Of course, he affirms that God had revealed Himself	10:55
	through Moses and the prophets in ancient times.	10:59
	He also held a peculiar notion that these men	11:03
	had visions in their own days of the cross	11:07
	and resurrection of Christ.	11:10
	Yet John describes the Jews in aggregate	11:13
	as truly representative of man in his world.	11:19
	Nothing in man's history, in his religious heritage,	11:26
	in his peculiar cultural milieu really prepared	11:30
	individuals for God's approach, for His gifts	11:35
	and promises in Christ.	11:40
	The law was given through Moses indeed.	11:43
	But with knowledge of that law	11:48
	men repudiated Jesus of Nazareth.	11:50
	This man is not from God ,the authorities decided	11:53
	for He does not keep the Sabbath.	11:56
	Like Jews and early Christians,	12:00
	John believed that the prophets had foretold	12:02
	the coming of God's anointed one.	12:05
	The popular views of the Messiah	12:09
	closed eyes and ears to the presence in history	12:11
	of this man sent from God	12:15
	to whom John declares the spirit was given	12:18
	without measure.	12:21
	Is not this Jesus the son of Joseph,	12:24
	whose mother and father we well know some objective?	12:27
	We know where this man comes from	12:32
	search and you will see that no prophet	12:35
	is derived from Galilee.	12:37
	Can anything good come out of Nazareth?	12:39
	When Jesus spoke of his emminent death and departure,	12:44
	John reports with fine irony	12:48
	the protests of the people, "We have heard from our law	12:51
	that the Christ remains forever."	12:56
	"Do we spell a countryman?" Jesus declares.	13:00
	"You do not know once I come, nor of whether I go.	13:03
	You know neither me nor my Father."	13:08
	The unreadiness of Jesus' own disciples to believe,	13:14
	the in capacity to understand Him	13:18
	is another mocked feature of this gospel.	13:21
	I wish to return to this point in a few minutes	13:24
	but I noted now only to illustrate how all inclusive	13:28
	John's belief in the inability of men	13:32
	from the perspectives of their own cultures to perceive	13:37
	the truth of God how to recognize his revelation.	13:42
	This is starkly summarized in the gospels prologue.	13:47
	The world knew Him not.	13:51
	He came to His own home	13:55
	and his own people received him not.	13:58
	It is not by accident that those men who confront Jesus	14:02
	in John's gospel are they incurable paralytics	14:06
	who are as good as dead and men born blind.	14:10
	Yet into this dark world, John proclaims,	14:17
	light had appeared within this world	14:21
	of modern flesh and ignorance	14:24
	and incomparable life had been lived	14:27
	under these common skies.	14:29
	And these words, John's declares the mystery	14:32
	and God's word became flesh and dwelt among us.	14:37
	And we beheld His Glory,	14:43
	glory as of the only begotten of the Father,	14:45
	full of grace and truth.	14:47
	God so loved the world that he gave	14:52
	His only son that whoever believes in Him	14:55
	should not perish, but have eternal life.	14:58
	For God sent his son into the world,	15:03
	not to condemn the world,	15:06
	but that the world might be saved through Him.	15:08
	It is clear from these statements and others like them	15:13
	that John thought of the world as something more	15:16
	than the sum total of man's cultural life,	15:20
	his beliefs, his values, his institutions.	15:24
	This world which did not know God or acknowledge Him,	15:28
	this world in reality owed its existence to Him.	15:33
	this world was loved by Him	15:39
	beyond all comprehension of the mind of man,	15:42
	the sons of darkness whose own world eclipses	15:47
	the reality of God and silence as his voice,	15:51
	turn and turn again.	15:54
	A Holy unable to quench this divine light,	15:57
	not to destroy God word made flesh.	16:01
	No man has ever seen God,	16:05
	indeed this is so John held.	16:08
	But God's only son who is nearest to the heart of God,	16:11
	He has made Him known he was in the world,	16:17
	The world was made through Him	16:22
	yet the world knew Him not.	16:25
	Yet to all who received Him, He gave power	16:28
	to become children of God who were born	16:31
	not of the will of the flesh,	16:34
	not of the will of man but of God.	16:37
	It's all too easy for us who are familiar	16:42
	with this state lip rolls to overlook its cultural context	16:44
	in the perspective of John's world, as well as of ours	16:50
	the area of a distinctively divine action,	16:55
	was perceived to be very, very narrow.	17:00
	The angle of vision was almost closed	17:04
	for many persons in his age as in ours,	17:08
	this area seemed to have vanished altogether,	17:12
	but to such an incredulous world,	17:18
	John presented the Christian gospel	17:21
	not by logical arguments,	17:24
	not by a massing proof texts from classical books	17:26
	but by the means of a narrative of a single man's life.	17:30
	Once again John told how this man had lived,	17:36
	how he had met the needs of individuals	17:40
	and satisfied that perennial hungers and their thirst,	17:42
	how he offered them life in the very presence of death,	17:48
	laying down His own life for their sakes.	17:52
	How Christ spit a humiliation upon a cross	17:55
	could be understood as the moment of His glory	17:58
	as affording the surest clue to the whole meaning	18:03
	of his history, how witnesses had told of His resurrection.	18:08
	This is the portrait of Christ in John's Gospel.	18:15
	And it has held a peculiar fascination	18:18
	for men in all ages in all cultures,	18:21
	when God has been felt to be very near	18:25
	and in the midst of life,	18:28
	absent and hidden from men's vision.	18:30
	John truly wrote that this man because of his life,	18:34
	but more especially as the result of His death	18:38
	and exaltation would draw all sorts	18:41
	and conditions of men unto Himself.	18:45
	Even the death of God theologians find optimism	18:50
	for man in our world.	18:53
	And the ideal of obedience to the man Jesus	18:55
	yet it is not to this man alone,	19:01
	that I would direct your attention in the closing moments	19:04
	but rather to his disciples.	19:08
	John knew well the stories of the 12	19:11
	and his interests sent us on them	19:14
	as in other gospel.	19:16
	Surely one reason for this interest was that	19:19
	John was acutely aware of the difficulty Christians	19:23
	were having in his own time in understanding Jesus,	19:27
	in understanding his gospel	19:32
	and what it meant for their way of life.	19:34
	It was certainly not evident the questions in John's day,	19:38
	couldn't maintain that discipleship in their world	19:41
	and witness to his gospel among men.	19:44
	Those who had first been confronted with Jesus	19:48
	and His claims had by no means had an easy time of it.	19:50
	He had invited them to come and see,	19:55
	and they had followed incredulous, perplexed,	19:56
	vacillating, fearful, protesting wavering.	20:00
	John repeatedly reminds his readers	20:05
	that neither Jesus actions,	20:08
	nor his words had been understood by Jesus' own men.	20:09
	Jesus had talked to them about knowing God	20:15
	as a real presence and on the very Eve of His death,	20:18
	Phillip had said, "Blind to this revelation,	20:21
	show us the Father that we may be satisfied."	20:25
	Recall the pathos in Jesus reply,	20:29
	"Have I been with you so long Philip	20:32
	and you do not know me?"	20:35
	No more than the authorities of each of Israel	20:38
	had the disciples understood Jesus.	20:41
	Obviously His disciples were not able bear	20:45
	much that he had said and wished to say to them.	20:47
	And for all that protests of loyalty, Jesus knew well,	20:51
	that not one of them would stand with Him	20:56
	when time came for Him to be taken.	20:59
	The witness to the resurrection did not	21:02
	shatter all doubts and fears	21:05
	or make all things plain.	21:07
	The doubt of Thomas was given special prominence.	21:10
	Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails	21:13
	I will not believe.	21:16
	It's not without significance that John never uses	21:19
	the nouns, faith and knowledge.	21:22
	This may seem strange since he insist to anyone	21:25
	who has perceived the glory of God in Christ has everything	21:28
	yet secure faith and perfect knowledge,	21:33
	Jesus' disciples never had.	21:37
	To enforce this truth John always uses active verbs.	21:42
	Man's faith, man's belief must grow,	21:47
	must occur and reoccur,	21:52
	meeting challenge after challenge after challenge.	21:55
	"I am the light of the world," declares Jesus,	21:59
	"But only he who follows me shall have the light of life.	22:02
	Only those who continue in my word shall know the truth	22:08
	and the truth will make them free.	22:14
	He who has my commandments and keeps them,	22:17
	he it is who loves me and to whom I will manifest myself.	22:21
	If any man wills to do God's will,	22:26
	then he shall know whether my teaching is from God	22:30
	or whether I'm speaking simply on my own authority."	22:34
	In a world that experience the clips or the silence of God,	22:40
	John challenged Christian men	22:45
	to an active life of discipleship.	22:47
	The experience of the absence of Christ	22:50
	to the contrary not withstanding.	22:53
	It was both realistic and reassuring	22:56
	that John should make it plain.	22:58
	that this was no certain,	23:02
	no easy way that there would always be	23:03
	lack of understanding, always doubts, always fears,	23:06
	always disappointments and chances for falling away.	23:10
	Yeah, it was two men who experienced this insecurity,	23:15
	this not infrequent desolation of spirit,	23:21
	but the following words are addressed.	23:25
	"Let not your hearts be troubled.	23:31
	Believe in God.	23:34
	Believe also in me,	23:37
	I am the way the truth and the life.	23:39
	I will not leave you desolate.	23:44
	I will come to you.	23:48
	The counsel of the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send,	23:50
	He will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance	23:54
	all that I have said to you.	23:59
	Peace I leave with you.	24:01
	My peace I give unto you,	24:04
	not as the world gives do I give to you,	24:08
	let not your hearts be afraid."	24:12
	On the night of his betrayal by one of his own,	24:17
	Jesus prayed, "Oh righteous Father,	24:20
	the world has not known thee, but I have known thee.	24:25
	And these men know that thou has sent me.	24:31
	I made known to them thy name	24:36
	and I will continue to make it known	24:40
	that the love with which thou has loved me maybe in them	24:44
	and I in them."	24:50
	Let us pray.	24:54
	Oh God of love whose voice we have never heard,	25:01
	whose form we have never seen,	25:04
	we thank thee that thou has to reveal thyself to us	25:08
	through Jesus Christ, full of grace and truth.	25:12
	Enlightened our darkness, we beseech thee oh Lord,	25:18
	and enable us to be not faithless but ever believing.	25:22
	The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ,	25:29
	the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit,	25:32
	the faithful counselor be with us all.	25:36
	(humming)	25:46

Item Info

Title:

James L. Price, Jr. - "On Being a Christian in Today's World" (April 24, 1966)

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https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r4gh9gb3q

Date:

April 24, 1966

Speaker:

Price, James L., Jr.

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Duke University. Chapel

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UA.17.01.0003 RR-0335
ref5875_ekv
uachapelsermaud
duke:628289
dcrau002332
ark:/87924/r4gh9gb3q
a550795a-c72d-403e-adea-d01f6652bf3a

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

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James L. Price, Jr. - "On Being a Christian in Today's World" (April 24, 1966)

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1. James L. Price, Jr. - "On Being a Christian in Today's World" (April 24, 1966)

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James L. Price, Jr. - "On Being a Christian in Today's World" (April 24, 1966)

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